Heroics - Failed Cards, Archetypes, and Sometimes Mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh 

I always love these videos when its like "this archetype was awful except for this one card that is on the banlist now"

You know something's up when the failed mechanic showed its OP boss monster. Yeah, what's up with weak archetypes having OP, generic boss monsters sometimes?

This series kinda just turned into Legacy of the Worthless 2 lol

I love that you say the Xyz monsters have no protection (even bringing up Mirror Force) when you just went over the Rank 1, which protects all your monsters from destruction

In defense of Heroic Gift, that was a card made exclusively for the anime. It was used by Nistro during the Duel Coster Duel, which was a battle royal style duel where LP carried over between duels running into spells and traps could affect your LP outside of duels. Being someone who likes a good duel, Nistro used this card to help Yuma, who sustained a lot of damage from previous duels and his own bad luck with coster traps, so they could have a proper duel. Nistro even covered up the fact he helped Yuma, who he was supposed to be aiming to eliminate from the tournament, by telling his boss he just wanted the card advantage.

The later Heroic cards wanting you to have 500 life points is probably a reference to how in the anime, you needed to be below a certain life point threshold to activate Excalibur's effect, and I'm pretty sure that threshold was 500 or less. Excalibur was also one of the only Xyz monsters that wasn't part of the Hope/Utopia archetype that Yuma used more than once.

The level 1 cards were for making Number 54: Lion Heart, which was used by the guy that ran Heroics in Zexal. Makes sense to include them in the Number Hunters set when that was their sole purpose.

I remember running the heroic xyz in my battlin boxer deck. They were one offs, cause i was using Utopias and Battlin Boxers boss xyzs. They were useful when they were needed. Excalibur was great for beefy monsters that could only be destroyed by battle, and obviously Kusanagi shut down traps nicely. But that was back when Gagaga Cowboy was my emergency finisher.

This deck left a deep impression on me because when master duel was promoting its new support, I grabbed the rent deck and proudly made a 5 material number 86 against my opponent only to discover that I spent my entire hand and had no further follow-up, so my opponent just set 1 monster every turn and stalled 86 out. I am now known as the person who made a 5 material 86 yet somehow still lost.

These videos have become the diss tracks of Yugioh and I am here for it

The funniest part about Heroic Gift for me is that it's once per turn. Imagine using that and then somehow meeting the activation requirements a second time, then giving the life points back a second time to draw 2 more cards

I feel like the true way to make a Battle Phase-oriented archetype would be to give the monsters protection during all phases _except_ the Battle Phase. That would force the opponnent to use their effects during the battle phase, bringing back the good old days of Honest meta relevance

I always run a copy of Claivesolish in my HERO deck. You can't believe how many times it saves me from dying by being a giant beatstick (5k on itself, 10k on Trinity, even stronger if the opponent has a beatstick also) and is made by pretty generic material (Shadow Mist, Vyon, Stratos, Blazeman, Liquid Soldier)

Konami: This archetype sucks! lets give it a good card! Proceeds to create the most broken card in the game that lets you create a combo that prevents your opponent from playing....

"DuelLogs made a new video about an awful archetype, time to make it playable with new support" someone at Konami probably

and this was archetype used in the zexal anime by gauche, a very important card during the first season of the anime.

I remember running Goblindberg and Doggy Diver in this deck because I don't know what to do with these archetype😂

I wish rhongo was not generic and instead required heroic monsters it wouldn’t nearly be as good but at least it would actually make heroics decent by themselves

I think Ninjas would be interesting to look at next. They were legitimately pretty good as a rank 4/5 toolbox a number of years ago but unlike Heroics they had actually good spells/traps, notably Rust Mist which pretty much single-handedly shut down decks like Blue-eyes by halving their attack or dropping it even further if you got multiple copies. Plus you had stuff like Super Transformation with WDN and Safe Zone which was super easy due to cards like Hanzo, RotA, etc not to mention all the generic level/rank 4 support with monsters like Tin Goldfish, and the like.

Koaki Meiru next please. That archetype was so interesting and disappointing at the same time.

"Flopped harder than Lebron" Damn

Yeah, he did my idea. I am happy Also, the whole 500 or less life point gimmick comes from the anime. For those of you who don't know, in the anime, Excalibur had a very stupid restriction that said it can't attack if you more than 500 lp

Every comments section in this series: 'I can't believe DuelLogs is saying my pet deck, with which I once got top 64 in my locals, is a failed archetype! Why does this channel about the competitive TCG not take my specific experiences into account?'

Gonna love the "how can that archetype failed when it has a -too generic and broken- great card in the archetype?" topics

14:52 One time in Master Duel during an Xyz related event, my opponent decided to OTK my Utopia with Claivesolish... Except I had an Honest in hand 😂

I thought about making the archetype a battle control focus by giving it effects that allowed it to summon tokens on your opponents side of the field that had battle effects which would benefit the Heroic player while also not being able to be used as tributes or materials for summons and effects. Effects such as "Taking double battle damage" "reducing the attack of adjacent monsters by X" or even something like "preventing opponents from setting/ negating the effects of already active cards in the magic/trap zone adjacent to the destroyed monster" for something super niche. Adding "If destroyed by a Heroic Monster" as a requirement is probably a good idea after what happened with the previous version, but I think with that it would be an interesting form of control. The monsters themselves would probably be statted based on their ability's, with stronger effects being given higher stats, making some risk being involved as you don't want to give your opponent anything too big without knowing you have the odds to destroy it, and giving your opponent the ability to protect those monsters either to use as a beat stick, or delaying their effect until they can handle it.

Love how when he explains the combo for Rhongo, it repeatedly shows the wrong card to represent Extra Sword. Like, did the editor forget about it and thought "extra sword" was a metaphor?

These videos are just making me wish Rata did videos more regularly because his coverage of archetypes is so much better, funny and gets information across just better.

The best takeaway from this video is the phrase, "Cold, Evil World of the TCG." Lmao!

I've been working on a generic EARTH Warrior deck. I figured I enjoyed EARTH Machines so much that I wanted to try the same concept to smashing engines together. The War Rocks work well with them. But it's still one hell of a work in progress.

Yo these guys where the support for my six sams in the extra deck for so long, I always felt like Gandiva was slept on at the time. trying to make turbo Rhon lock downs with Sams was always fun.

I remember a Rank 4 warrior deck I had pre Links. Had stuff like Goblindberg, Extra Sword, Photon Thrasher etc. Also Rescue Rabbit. Was pretty fun, but wasnt consistent at all.

Maybe it was just in my locals back in the day, but i am sure Gandiva was used quite a bunch for a while.

I know you said it multiple times in many videos, but is there a checklist video of what an archetype must achieve to be successful? Between searching and negating and more, I would like a record of what must be accomplished to be successful.

When I walk into a restaurant. Waiter: What will you be having sir? Me: "Beef beef and more beef."

Lebron caught a stray in a video about a children's card game 😂😂😂

Idea for future video: Cards from the TCG that would ruin Duel Links (be it because of incompatibility with the format's rules, power levels too high for current Duel Links ceiling, incompatibility with other aspects of the format etc)

11:00 Snap of a hat lol

You forgot to talk about the rank 1 monster that required 3 level 1 monsters to make and had an effect of detach one card from it and if you do, it's not destroyed by battle and any battle damage you would take is inflicted to your opponent instead.

somehow the outro music sounds like it's saying "GAARNEEET GARNEEET"

No. 86 is now banned in both formats. Duel Logs:

I know Logs doesn't even write his own scripts anymore, but it's like this series really wants to be something more like an "archetype archive" than to actually talk about "failed cards".

The next archetype should be either Cloudians or Vechiroids

Battle Traps could possibly make for a video, even though they could mostly be summed up with, "were good back in the day, but back row removal got way better". Also, a petition for Archfiends, Mekklords, and Earthbound Gods.

I was not ready for the lebron slander lmao

What happened to Life Point and Life Point gain don't matter? But in all seriousness, Heroic Gift sucks cuz of the activation condition, your opponent needs to be sub 2000 Life Point. If it just straight up gave 8000 Life Points to draw 2 cards, some decks would definitely use it.

Hey don't trash on Heroic Gift, it had it's one limelight in Early Masterduel to torture SelfTKers :)

I mean, I can think of some archetypes that failed harder. Just of the top of my head: Melodious Solfachord Weather Painters Junk (the Yusei archetype) The entire Gogogo/gagaga/zubababa mess that Yuma played in Zexal Naturia (untill they gotten their broken support which basically just ended up being played by itself) Laval Super Heavy Samurai (untill it suddenly became broken) Red-Eyes (Konami can't figure out what they want this deck to do) Unchained (until it suddenly became broken) Archfiends Aquactresses Valkeries The Egyptian Gods The Sacred Beasts

Flop harder than Lebron got me 😂

Why do I watch these and then say "that sounds like fun, I should make that deck"... like I didn''t just listen to why it doesn't work

My favorite diet plan keto kaiba

What about a "failed" archetype that failed because they were too broken and had to have their entire archetype annihilated by the banlist? That's still a failure of card design.

It is absurd that if we continue like this every deck is bad if it never become competitive and for example: Adventurer token would fall into a failed cards despite being an engine and no one use the other equip spells, fields or traps.

I tried them, thinking HERO support would work on them. I was very young, when doing this 😂.

Another deck that fell into the “cards that’s better in other decks than it’s own archetype” curse.

Heroics might not be good, but they're not THAT bad. They have one game plan (OTK), but they can do said game plan pretty consistently, and they are still playable at Rogue level. Save that tag for stuff like War Rocks. That being said, Worst Classic cards - Ancient Sanctuary or Worst Warriors type monsters when?

It's funny that Heroic Champion Excalibur is a grade a example of a card that got a massive upgrade from the anime. There it could only attack while you had 500 life points or less. For context. I persobally use Heroic Champion Excalibur in my Duel Links Six Samurai Auto duel deck. If it still had that restriction. Said archetype would only be able to use it as a last resort card summoned by first reviving 2 level 4s with Backs to the Wall.

My Nephew actually made Heroic Champion Excalibur, he even has the original card print.

Heroic gift gets funnier the more you see it like if you're in a place where you can activate it then you could probably just win the game without it at that point

9:53 - 10:07 DL says "extra swords" but the carda on screen are assult halberg and thiusand blades editing mistake?

I would say do “roids” but that may be beating a dead horse. Would be interested in a video on counters, either in general or specifically putting counters on opponent’s cards.

Rhongo is literally the most broken towers card ever printed.

You can't even use Heroic Gift with Simochi or Nurse because the card text states ''Make your opponents life points 8000'' instead of ''Your opponent gains life points equal to the difference of their current life points and 8000''.

With how easy it is One turn kill I remember there was is one Dino arch that valued itself on having lower life points. And I will use that card all the time

Okay, the archetype itself is definitely a glass cannon. BUT with the new support, they can OTK very hard, and the new spells and monsters make for a pretty good extender package in rank 4 warrior decks. I think it's a little unfair to hate on them this bad when their strategy is literally the exact same as some other decks, like Utopia (albeit less interruptions - they have 1-2 now?) And Gren Maju (that card showed up at tournaments A LOT in the last few years). It has its strategy and while too simple for modern TCG, its not unplayable like War Rocks or Ally of Justice. The deck functions pure. And a lot of those older cards that definitely arent used anymore are products of an older time. That's like complaining how bad Satellarknight Rigel is without considering its historical context and significance (support given to Tellars for them to beat over Winda with a normal summon). I liked this series at first but now it's just crapping on decent decks that don't top, but are perfectly fine or average casual or rogue contenders.

Konami making a bad/not so good archetype with op generic monster It not the only time tho 🗿

Can't believe they made Jarngreiper but not Mjolnir. Jarngreiper should've had the ability to equip itself to another heroic challenger and Mjolnir should've been this stupid strong monster with a lot of drawbacks unless it was equipped with Jarngreiper. Like the perfect flavor and mechanic win just sitting right there easy as hell to implement and they just passed it up.

Why Bron catch a stray like that 😭

It's a shame that Heroic challenger and Infernoble/Noble knights never got together as war hammer could have fed the effects that need to destroy a face up equip cards to trigger a powerful interruption effect. If when your opponent's monster equipped by Warhammer returns to the gy the opponent activates a gy effect of said monster you could just d.d crow or called by the grave it meaning they'd get nothing. So there's a good combo, plus level 4 Infernoble and Noble knights could make extra bulk Xyz material for Heroic challenger Xyz monsters as well as their own archetype synchro/Xyz plays.

Can’t just casually violate LeBron like that

My suggestions: Battlin’ Boxer, gimmick puppet, dragunity

What Heroics need for Going Second is their own Misc at this point.

I feel like someday soon there'll be one of these videos for the Battle Phase.

Excalibur is fantastic in Arcana Knights decks Special summon the 3 Knights, XYZ Into Excalibur to get 4000 beatstick. It's a sin that such sexy artwork has such terrible effects/arctype.

Are these coming out at a quicker pace? Like dang, can't keep up. Column mechanics, War Rock, Preda Plant, Heroic. Ursartic and Flamvell were shorter ones, yea

Used to run Igknight/Rhongo turbo in 2017. Super cheap and fun deck at the time.

It still baffles me we didn’t get the entire Performage archetype, only like what? 6 cards? When they had an entire myriad of cards in the anime

i wonder when harpies will show up in one of these failed archetype video... i main harpies, but i cant help but to notice that harpies have a lot in common with most of these failed archetype....

Also... war rock work well with heroic warriors You dont war rock gactos helps extra sword.

Man, that hurt deep. Back during HAT format I played Heroics at locals and I had so much fun. Won a lot of locals too (although my locals used to be pretty casual since most people there went to big events, so they met at this local once a week just to have fun). The strategy was a simple rank 4 warrior, running Double Lance, Extra Sword, Swordshield, 1 Spartan for more names. Also ran Ambush soldiers with Reinforcing Truth to give more setup in my turn. Heroics are terrible and i know it, but the deck still has a soft spot in my heart

I always liked this battle oriented archetypes, it reminds me a lot to the animes and because you win by force instead of depending on negates

Nistro from Zexal did not deserve this disrespect he was a very good character in the series

Make one on the seal of orichalcos/orichalcos arc cards!

I played yugioh during the first 5 sets or so. When I came back, Heroics were my first deck because big number was the best thing I knew. Didn’t do well.

A subpar Archetype that had a super powerful card that gets abusrd by other decks so much that it gets banned. Where have i heard that before? *brilliant fusion * I remember trying to get gem knights and heroics to work, with not much payout.

Another round of wondering why Konami doesn't release something like a 'Last Hope Booster' consisting of nothing but non interactable archetype locked custom card level single cards or small engine packages with encyclopedias in their text box to boost the corresponding dead archetypes immediately to Rogue status. As long as they don't also sell the rest of the archetype it would be a huge boost to the secondary market values too. Everyone wins!

Duel logs nailed it...but the fact its weakness can totally be covered. I know, I did it. Granted my deck was less heroic monsters, but the extenders helped for other plays really well.

2:58 Insert War Rock joke

I still run Claive in Warrior archetype decks sometimes. Dude's good if you can't go into anything ale.

that lebron line gave me whiplash

Yu-Gi-Oh has so many great archtype designs visually. Functionality? Well, they look great, so that's enough, right??

Once in MD, a heroic player attacking me with 42000 attack but unfortunately my monster was a avramax 😂

These Duel logs content is my bed time stories every night.

ah yes, Number 86 Samurai: Rhongonymiad, my favourite boss monster the best target for Sales ban and Number eveil.

You know Heroic Gift is bad when it's only real Niche is ruining the End goal of P.U.N.Ks (that is, making an unkillable Psychic End Punisher).

5:52 leflop references

One of my favorite archetypes Love Spartans But could be Stonger

Honestly, it’s funny that War Rock makes good support for Heroics since both are battle reliant, giving Gactos as well as a boost to the power of the non light Heroics.

At this point, you could make an entire video of "top 10 archetypes / decks that had At least 1format-warping card, but weren't good solo as their own deck" Predaplant (most of their extra deck monsters and the orphis scorpio / darlincobra duo), Heroic (Thousand Blades as part of the Brilliant Fusion engine), Neo-Spacian / Neos (Rainbow Neos (thanks to Verte Anaconda), and Grand Mole), Flamvell (Rekindling), and Ice Barrier Pre-2021 (most of their extra deck monsters) could be good candidates

Now OCG soon to be released new Bestowed Dragon/Brightfleet archetype almost the same concept, hopefully they don't fail it again