Equip Spell Cards - Failed Cards and Mechanics in YuGiOh 

Remember how the first wave of equip spells was "increase creature type's attack and defense by 300" and that's all they did? Good times.

I always see "Black Pendant" as a good example of how an equip spell should be made. It has an effect to do burn damage to your opponent when it is sent to GY. A lot of equip spells should have GY effects to make them a little bit more effective on game...

I don't think equip cards failed the game, the game failed the equip spells. The game just evolved too quickly and left them behind. They were fine back in the day but the power creep and newer metas just leave them behind. They need to start making equip spells better to let them evolve with the game rather than just leave them behind.

A real shame. Equip Spells are IMO the easiest cards to understand for complete beginners who spam vanilla monsters. Source: I was one myself.

You forgot to mention Saqlifice, Konami put that card into the limited list because it was so strong for qliports back in the day, nowadays isn't that amazing(mainly because pendulums are nerfed beyond recognition) but back then it was the total package: searcher, battle immunity, tribute fodder, Konami should make more cards following Saqlifice steps, equip cards that punish your opponent for even attempting to remove them in any shape or form from the field while at the same time giving you an option to removing them yourself by furthering your plays and netting advantage by doing so.

I agree that equip spells are kinda failed in terms of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, especially nowadays. People are saying that there are some cards that are so good they're banned, but I imagine that's like, 1% of equip cards. With all of that said, United We Stand use to tear up duels with my family.

This video has convinced me that if it wasn't for the manga/show Yugioh would never of taken off. This game seems so broken and unbalanced it would never do well if it came out as a brand new game.

Magic actually has a one-to-one analog to Equip spells in the form of Enchantment Auras. They are a type of Enchantment spell that has to be attached to a specific permanent when being cast and are destroyed if said permanent is destroyed. I'm not a competitive player, so I couldn't really tell you how common Auras are competitively, but only white and green have regular access to enchantment destruction while blue can bounce anything.

Megamorph is still one of my fav equip cards to this day, mainly for its meme potential with cyberstein.

13:44 You know Yu-Gi-Oh! has a mechanic that failed so hard when the person brings up a mechanic from Magic: the Gathering to show why the latter did things better. Granted, Auras are more analogous to the Equip spell cards, but even they have several advantages. Namely, the Bogles deck.

Konami recently introduced the new Mikanko Archetype that's heavily centered around Equip Spell cards. It may become a solid rouge deck in TCG.

The Weather’s continuous spells and traps basically function like equip spells that stay on the field, granting abilities to archetype monsters placed directly above or beside them.

Failed Cards definetly: Flip Monsters. There are Flip Monsters with straight up broken effects but because they are Flip Monsters they can get these strong effects because Flip Monsters have to be set first and then your opponent has to attack it or can get rid of it before attacking it resulting in the flip monster not getting its effect

to be fair, i run 2 grid rods in my marincess deck because im confident that as long as i draw into a single marincess monster, i have no problem going up to great bubble reef and adding another layer of protection with grid rod is no problem to me

Can we get a failed mechanics video on the battle phase in modern yugioh?

To make them function like MTG they could just add in a line that says "Once per turn If this card (name/hard OPT) would be destroyed because the monster it was targeting is no longer on the field, you can Set this card face-down instead.". That way spell removal would actually act as a proper counter while other forms would just temporarily turn it off. Equip version of Scrap-Iron Scarecrow basically.

I mean the biggest problem is that Magic had to come up with that fix on it's own, because Equip artifacts are relatively new. By the time Yu-Gi-Oh was made. They saw their equip spells as analogous to Magic's Auras. Which is why they follow a lot of those same rules.

I wish that equip spells had either floating effects as the standard add-on to them, or a degree of immunity to effects like "cant be targeted, or can only be affected by non-targetted effect"

When I first started playing YGO, I originally was under the false impression that Equip Spells did not occupy your back row, and you could put as many of them on the board as you liked (I stacked them under the monsters they were equipped to like how XYZ materials are attached). I also didn't know face-down monsters couldn't be equipped at all, or that the equipment went to the GY when the equipped monster left the field. I figured they worked like Crystal Beasts and became Continuous spells until you reequipped them to something.

I still think Toon Monsters and Flip Monsters would be great for this, even though Toons have a few good monsters, now, and Flip monsters were some of the best cards in the game back in the day. Now, Flip Monsters are like battle traps but worse.

The only main problem is the cards didn't keep enough time in the field to do something, unlike the magic the gatering equip cards than stay in the field

This feels very much like a "Why Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is Falling Apart" type video...

I agree with everything in this video. Also, Moon Mirror Shield's effect paying 500 LP is not optional. If it is sent from the field to grave you have to pay 500 LP, the only exception is if you have less than 500 LP.

Actually in MTG they do have cards exactly like equip spell cards called Auras which are a form of enchantment. The reason they work is because some cards can return enchantments from the grave and by rule an aura would then attach to any creature you choose ignoring even untargetable effects of creatures.

While you looked at how equip cards work in Magic, they could also go the way of tool cards in Pokemon, and have them stack under the card to take them out of the spell/trap zone, sort of like how xyz materials work. This could potentially make it sort of part of the monster, and be removed only if the monster was destroyed.

Rush Duels fix like half the problems in Yu-Gi-Oh and reset the game to a point where it's reasonable to draw 5 cards a turn. I really hope that it becomes a modern standard one day. Because you can draw up to 5 cards a turn if you draw an equip spell that's essentially a +1 if you play it. The more fluid your deck plays the better it does in Rush Duels. It even makes "Bounce" effects more powerful because it is a -1 in card advantage for your opponent if you bounce a card to their hand.

Mtg's Auras are moreso "Equip cards" than Equipment, and they have the same problems. There are only three ways they can be successful: -They target an opponent's creature as a form of removal -They are played onto a creature with self-protection (hexproof mostly) in a one or two-turn kill all-in combo. -They are so over the top good that they are kinda worth the risk of getting 2-for-1'd. These include ones that recur themselves or get you card advantage, because even those get cancelled if the creature is removed in response.

That new waifu bait archetype with ritual mechanic and equip spell mechanic revealed, your video totally gives good insight of why that archetype is just another Konami's failure on experimenting equip spells.....

The whole time I was watching this video, I was thinking about "I:P Masquerena" in that she gives an effect to a link monster when she is used as a material for said link monster, IE, a floating effect. If we made equip spells act in that way, I think they would see a lot more play, but how much more would depend on the mechanics of the cards themselves and how ruling changes would work if a card is flipped or removed temporarily.

"You may equip this card to a monster ignoring card effects. If this card leaves the field, the monster it is equiped to is banished face down." Equip it to an opponents boss monster, and suddenly it becomes real scary to wipe backrow.

I feel like adding a field spell that either shuffles equip cards into the deck or adds them back to your hand would improve them a lot.

Holy shit, the people saying that equip cards aren't a failed mechanic clearly didn't watch the video. In a card game with infinite mana/energy/memory/resources, 2-for-possibly-1s with twice the vulnerability, equip spells are definitely a failed mechanic. And no, giving them OP effects doesn't solve the issue because that just puts them on the banlist.

Even if you removed their flaws, Equip cards would still just be another victim of the modern fast paced meta, unless they really went out of the box with the abilities. If you're a card that doesn't help fill the field with extra deck monsters and/or lock down your opponent, you're just not needed. We are far past the point of just powering up one single monster. No. You want to summon 3 super powerful effect monsters in one turn instead. I don't like that fact but that's how the game has been played for a decade plus.

giving them graveyard effects like tailwind of gusto could be good too if tailwind is in the graveyard it can banish itself and discard a gusto monster to search for another tailwind or any other gusto spell or trap card

I wanna see you talk about the history of field spells. They are another type of cards you talk about how bad they are/used to be. Talk about how they used to only boost attack/defense of a type/attribute to now some being so good they are banned.

Not about a "failed" mechanic, but with the recent support for D/D/D and release of Dinomorphia for Master Duels I would like a video on cards or archetypes that have a "risk vs. reward" effect, like putting you into a very vulnerable state (such as very low LP) in return for powerful effects.

The Adventure engine kind of feels like they went from MTG auras to MTG Equipment without the Equip cost 🙃

Frankly, I could see cards with effects comparable to Jersey becoming good if we were to get a card with a GY effect that allows you to equip them directly from the deck and/or swap them between monsters during the damage step. Honest and it's brethren saw play for a long time and still occasionally get used, and this would be no different.

I used Grid Rod with the Marincess archetype and I tell you what! This card made that deck damn near top tier, with the speed you can achieve with Marincess on turn one and because they're all cyberse monsters, Grid Rod makes a great turn one defense to make sure your monsters stick around if they ever got wiped out.

I agree, equip spells are one of the BASED cards on the game

Resolving evenly with an adventurer token on the field would mean your opponent has to banish everything but the token, so that's not really a good thing and doesn't help equips but it's really funny

Thats what i hate about competetive yugioh. I hate that its just a race to see who can make an unbreakable board and prevent your oponent from playing the game. Like i dont mind losing if its a good match. I want my cards destroyed if it means i can come up with a good counter. I want to strategize and come up with a good combo. Not a game breaking combo, but just a good one. I like the back and forth power struggle. And i like to see cards that arent commonly used. I lost to a guy with a hungry burger ritual deck and i had a blast, even if i lost. It sucks playing randoms on master duels or dueling nexus cause all they play is meta decks to prevent me from even playing the game. Not everything has to be min maxed and meta. I get people wanna win, but let other people enjoy the game too

Still a cool concept, it's just too bad that 95% of all cards in the game are useless now. If you can't draw, special summon, or lock your opponent out from playing, it's a bad card. Yep, Modern yugioh sure is fun and diverse /s

As soon as you explained modern yugioh with needing hand traps, board wipes, and one or two card combo pieces just to play the game at a fairly competitive level I made the decision to never try to pick this game up again. That just doesn't sound very fun at all. Lol. Id much rather play united we stand on my maha vailo and just beat stick.

I was building a gimmick deck a few weeks ago that required an Equip Spell in its combo, and that's when I realized that despite there being a ton of searchers for Equip Spells, they're actually pretty bad. Hidden Armory uses your normal summon, which is a huge problem for some decks. Armory Call is a Trap, so it's too slow to use in combos, or even to make a monster big enough for an OTK. Gearbreed is even slower than Armory Call, and uses up your normal draw. Tool Box is actually pretty okay, but isn't out in the TCG yet. Power Tool Dragon is probably the best option in the TCG, but requires you to go into a level 7 Synchro, which isn't awful, but is a lot to ask for a simple search. And there are definitely better level 7 Synchros to go into. And so on

Interestingly, an archetype that tackles equip spells in its own way that gets around some of the issues here is Magistus. Rather than actual equip spell cards, Magistus focuses on equpping its archetypal Extra Deck monsters to its regular deck and boss Synchro monster to provide both bonus effects(like extra Atk/Def, protection from Spell/Trap destruction, and multiple attacks on monsters) and personal activated effects while they are Equip Spell cards(such as searching, Spell/Trap removal, and effect negation). Furthermore, the win condition of the deck, the boss monster Magistus Calamity, locks your opponent out of Extra Deck monster effects based on which of the Magistus ED monsters you have as equip spells. Rounding this out, the archetypal reborn card(which can be searched) has a GY effect to protect your backrow by banishing itself, which can completely counteract a Duster or Lightning Storm. Its by no means a particularly strong deck, probably not even rogue, but I find it a really cool take on the matter.

Easy to Fix equip spells: give them a secundary hand trap or graveyard effect that is good , to mitigate death hands and board wipes.

Nah the real problem with equip spells is that the opponent can very easily destroy the equip spell and dodge all its effects

I don't know man, my Leotron Grid Rod beatdown deck goes pretty hard

Ironic how go rush just announced them. However, in go rush, you can understand the point of them. Best one, sevens lance, while it can only be equipped to 1 certain monster, and can only control 1 of it, it's already said to be REALLY good, as it gives 400 per attribute and trap immunity

I remember in my youth when yugioh first came out finding equip cards way to detrimental and thus trying to come up with a way they could be improved. The way I settled on in my youth (again this was the early days of yugioh) was to make a rule that once per turn, when an equip spell card you control would be destroyed as a result of no longer having a valid target (equipped monster destroyed, bounced, face down, etc.) you can "Retrieve" (add to hand) that equip spell card instead, and then my thought was that if konami implemented this future equip cards could have things like "you must pay X to retrieve this equip" or "you may not retrieve this card" as ways of balancing out more powerful equip cards they wanted to make. Looking back now, I'm honestly not sure it would have been enough, one thing this video didn't really spend much time noting is that ANOTHER issue with all equip cards beyond their vulnerability, is that they on their own do absolutely nothing, they always require a target, so an opening hand full of equips is a dead hand, and top decking an equip late is almost always a death knell unless it targets an opponents monster or monsters in the grave yard. I don't know what modern yugioh is like, but back in the day it was very common for matches to end in a situation where both players controlled nothing and were top decking for their life, so the more cards you had which couldn't do anything on their own, the more likely you were to lose in top decking situations. As an aside, back in the early days I always felt like one of the rites of passage for new players was learning that equips were garbage, there were generally three tiers in tournaments, tier three was players who didn't have most or all of the staples that every deck needed to even be competitive (pot of greed, raigeki, etc.), they never made top 8, tier two was people who had the staples but still ran equips and or non-jinzo sacrifice monster, they often made top 8 but never won it all, and then tier one were people who had all the staples and had come to recognize equips and level 5 or higher monsters were inherently flawed game designs and thus had to have game breaking effects like snatch steal or jinzo to be worth using, and these were the people who actually won tournaments.

Adventure's main issue is that, when using all your cards' effects, your ENTIRE backrow is filled. You have the two traps, searchable from the level 4. 3 equip spells, which are searchable by the continuous spell. The aformentioned continuous spell. And the field SPELLS, which search eachother and are searched by the water enchantress. Now they're adding Arametir, which is ANOTHER continuous spell! This deck is also being made pure due in part to GRYPHON RIDER being too good so now all Adventure support says "You can only special summon monsters with that mention 'Adventure Token'." ... I just hate that this deck, which has such a fun theme, is going to be killed because konami fucked up by giving the deck an omninegate from 1 card.

As an Evil Eyed player, I'm surprised the archetype wasn't mentioned I think Evil Eyed solves a lot of the mentioned problems with Equips as well: self-recursion, game changing effects, and innate combo engines. It's not the strongest archetype, but it's, imo, a great example at how a modern equip-centric deck should work, and overall an archetype that has a lot of potential.

Noble knights was the only fun equip oriented deck I ever played and it was pretty damn strong at the time.

So basically, modern yugioh is very simpler than older days where most important thing is just negate, interruption and ways to go through it. Anything else that doesn’t help it is just garbage. Right?

“Like raidraptor ultimate falcon” ultimate falcon go to example for every thing

good video but u miss phoniex blade one of the good equips lol.

And this is why Yu-Gi-Oh is such a mess of a game. So many of it's card types are utterly useless. Equip cards? Useless. Trap Cards? Replaced by hand trap monster cards. Ritual cards? Mostly unplayable. And so on and so on.

I think that equip cards also often just don't get the good effects other types of spell cards get to have. One card that would surely see competetive play if it's archetype was any good is "saqlifice" but you just don't get omni searches or cool GY effects on equip spell cards for obvious reasons. The thing is that there are things that we look for in Monsters that would be worth playing a potential brick for. like omni negates or just generally good quick effects that can serve as disruption and also perhaps more importantly could immediatly be chained to whatever disruption might try to get at them by destroying the monster they are equipped to or them. I also feel like you should have touched on isolde since that card is seemingly responsible for 90% of equip spell use outside of the adventure engine nowadays.

We can see a lot of anime character use equip spell because of the attack boost, or for the protection But in reality, a lot of deck dont even need equip spell, they can just use the effect and attack The fact that they still make some characters use equip spell is just weird because how bad they are in real life

Equip spells as a mechanic are so bad, and the modern meta has become so fast, that I’d honestly wager you could make an equip spell that literally just says “if the equipped monster deals direct battle damage to your opponent, you win the game.” And it still probably would be too weak and wouldn’t see play.

............ Modern Yugioh is "If you don't have enough Money, or your best Cards get on the Banlist, you'll LOSE". A.k.a. non-Meta-Decks = No worth. PAINFUL truth......

How about a “Sword Hunter” retrain that works with equip spells? _Relinquished Sword Hunter_ (EARTH) Rank 7 Pendulum Scale 0 Pendulum effect: _When a monster you control would be targeted for battle or card effects by your opponent, you can equip an Equip Spell Card or union monster from your hand or deck to that monster targeted. Once per turn, during either players turn, you can add 1 equip spell card or union monster from your deck or GY to your hand OR add 1 “Relinquished” and one ritual spell card to your hand from your deck. You can XYZ summon this card from your pendulum zone by using 2+ level 7 monsters OR 2+ monsters you control equipped with other cards._ Warrior/XYZ/Pendulum/Effect 2+ level 7 monsters _You can also XYZ summon this card by using monsters you control equipped with other cards as materials, and if you do equip those cards to this card. This card gains 200 ATK/DEF for every card equipped to this card and every XYZ material attached to this card. When this card destroys a monster by battle, this card can attack again in a row. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card destroyed a monster(s) by battle this Battle Phase: attach all those monsters to this card. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls or in your hand; equip that target to this card (max. 1). This card gains ATK/DEF equal to that equipped monster's. If this card would be destroyed by battle or card effect, destroy that equipped monster instead. You can detach 1 material from this card, to choose one of the following effects (you can only use each effect once per turn);_ ⚫️Special summon 1 “Sword Hunter” from your hand, deck or GY. ⚫️Add 1 equip spell card or union monster to your hand from your deck. ⚫️Add 1 “Relinquished” and 1 ritual spell card to your hand form your deck. _After this effect resolves you can place this card in your pendulum zone._ ATK/2950 DEF/2200

Is this a fix for equip cards. They can be played without being equipped, sitting there like a continuous spell. Their 'equip' text "E.G Equip only to a "U.A." monster" is activated as a spell speed 1 effect. If the monster it is equipped to is destroyed or flipped face down, it is unequipped, but not destroyed and can activate it's equip effect again at any legal point (typically controller's MP1/2). They would be better by this ruling change, although still not great I think. Still too slow and still bricks if you have nothing to equip it to.

I'm not a competitive player nor anything of the sort, so what I'm going to say might come out as silly: I've only understood how equip spell cards work very recently, that's because my knowledge of this cards was based on Playstation One Yu-Gi-Oh games, were you would select a monster card in your hand, then a equip spell card, press x, and the equip card "fuses" to the monster: giving the monster it's effects without the card ever existing on the field, and thus being immune to any kind of removal. But I think if they do that, it might end up being kinda broken, but IDK. (For the ones that might have played that kind of games: I know the game didn't make sense, based on how you could fusion summon, but I just wanted to comment on that)

It's ridiculous now how modern cards basically took all the functionality of union and equip cards as a monster effects like Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. Power of the guardian, (infer)noble arms cards, and united we stand are like the only equip cards I ever see used nowadays. Everything good spell card now is either a continuous or quickplay.

I hate modern yugioh. I miss the old days. And for Pete’s sake I’m not even that old! I’ve only played since GX/5d’s and never bothered with competition because A: I have no shop that does yugioh stuff nearby, and B: it was always so boring people playing the same stuff.

Are you telling me I have been using psychic blade all this time to beat beatsticks when I could have been using Moon Mirror Shield?? I guess that's what happens when a card game has over 15yrs and over 10,000 cards.

Why Equips are bad in a nutshell. Unless they revive, steal stuff, or have busted effects they will not see play as they are very fragile. Banned equip cards are cause they can be looped or be used for other plays. Those that are going to justify equips in old school YGO. Even back then we had so much removal that equips where still bad. Those that did see play like Megamorph were only played in very specific otk decks. Cards like United we Stand is the definition of a win more card. And with so much support for equips. Konami still over balances equips. Just shows how fragile the cards are.

Equip Cards, and by extension nearly all Battle Phase-focused effects, are inherently weaker because the Battle Phase is largely a formality nowadays. You don't go into battle to try and clear monsters anymore; nuking your opponent's field (or never even letting them get established if going first) and then hitting face for game is far more efficient thanbattling their monsters & giving your opponent a chance to come back.

"equalisers"? Don't we call them "board breakers"? Also snatch steal (not banned anymore) + book of moon = lol

kinda dumb that equip spells are destroyed when monsters are flipped over, i think that rule could easily be removed

I really don't think it's logical to project Magic's workings onto Yugioh. If Equip Spells worked like that they'd be overpowered.

Equip cards will never be viable pretty much due to how the game currently works. It's either you run 10 + hand traps and negates or you just don't play the game. You simply don't have the space to run them or anything you actually want for that matter. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I think the biggest reason why equip cards are a failed mechanic in current yugioh is how exponentially faster the game got over time. Back in the day there were several decks that did rely on equips pumping up one monster in goat format but of course outside of a stun strategy "weapon" equips barely see any play with my favorite example of this being the Mathmech equip.

How many mechanics have there been that were considered a "failure" because no one ever used them in a competitive enviroment, but then Konami made rule amendments or released new cards and suddenly those mechanics were finally viable for competitive play? I guess Ritual and Fusion monsters would enter that list, although in both cases it seems the solution Konami arrived at was "make absolutely busted overpowered cards that justify the massive resource investment (and clunky summon mechanics in the case of Rituals) to summon them".

And to think Mage Power was brutal then, the hardcore community has really affected yugioh badly for it to turn into slow real time fast game time, 20 minutes 1 turn is kinda sad :(

Another reaspn equip cards don't see play is you actually need to summon the monster you want to equip the card to first e.g. Grid Rod. First I need to summon my boss monster successfully, then I can equip Grid Rod to it. If at any point my opponent stops me from getting to said boss monster then Grid Rod becomes a dead card in my hand.

Maybe just maybe the whole unbreakable board mentality , negate everything is the problem and not so much equip cards? But yes I get it modern YuGiOh

am I so bad that I loved Vylon decks?? that way to use equip cards was so damn good for me (lose a lot tbh, but I loved the way that they could be so damn annoying).

Hand traps floodgates and board wipes and how common they are now is precisely why gave up the game. It's just no fun anymore.

I dont play the recent game at all. Yugioh today just sounds arrogant and boring. I dont play anything past Pendulum and I barely play that far

Imagine how broken your game is that most of the type cards lost against the staples cards

I know it and the archetype it is a part of don't see use any more but having seen use in the past why didn't you bring up Evil Eye of Selene?

Top 10 worst tarp cards

Basically everything that doesn't help you summon 5 Monsters a turn is a failed mechanic at this point.

MTG has equip spell cards that are similar to the way YGO equip spell cards work.. Auras.

I mean of course they failed every extra deck monster comes built in with a card destruction now days.

Oh yes tokens are immune to evenly matched so your equip cards are safe...oh wait.

i hate how almost half of the game mechanics and one-third of its cards are weak.. the biggest problem i think is making boss monsters way too generic

As a long time M:tG player, I'm finding the comparisons between M:tG and Yu-Gi-Oh very interesting.

Everyone disagreeing commented before watching the video and probably doesn't play modern tcg

Tbh for casual play they are fantastic but everyone just cares about the sweaty stuff :)

I think maybe if Equip Spells were able to be quickly removed from the Monster they're equipped to or only stay on the field temporarily. Ex: you start the battle phase and you can equip any of the Equip cards you have immediately, use them for battle, and they comeback to hand once the battle phases is finished. Like drawing weapons and putting them back once the battle is concluded. This applies to both players so your opponent can use their equips as well.

I hate the whole "if it doesn't see competitive play it's garbage" idea smh

Maha Vailo, United We Stand & Mage Power was pretty tough to beat over.

Me a (Infer)Noble Knights player: And I took that personally.

what do you mean? i always use my good old equip spell draco back

Equip Spell are one of my fav type of cards ever, and for sure they have seen less and less use over time due to power creep. Anyways, Im pretty sure Konami will release an archtype that uses Equip Spells with competitive effects and re-use mechanics, anytime. Oh, they just revealed an archtype that uses Equip Spells and make the monsters indestructible and also have Snatch Steal-like effects :p

I think is sad that we need to have specific cards ON THE OPPENING HAND, to even have a chance to play the game. I mean you can not control what you draw, and the fact that you need answer or tenho cards to even play your archtype and win conditions, show that modern yugioh is about a No You more them anything. I know this maybe be obvious but for me, a returning player after years. Its a wow