LV Monsters - Failed Cards and Mechanics in YuGiOh 

I remember trying something like this in Duel Links where I tried to use Level Up! on Armed Dragon LV 7 to special summon LV 10 from the deck, and then it just reverts to LV 5

@@polocatfan It actually did appear in the anime, it just appeared later on after Lv7 was already introduced so as a result they weren't able to make it a proper level up target since Lv7 had already been printed into a real card.

@@GravityFaiz happened to me on the DS game a bunch of times. " Can only special summon by offering lv7 as tribute" is a bitch.

@@309kaz this is why I think Konami is wasting opportunity addressing the digital cards as if they were printed on foil. Updating that card text say in Duel Links or later in Master Duel could be a way to update/correct deck interaction or make more sense of some gameplay, since it’s all digital anyway in those spaces.

@@GravityFaiz level 10 isn't even that good inmo and too damn hard to get out on DL hahaha

Fuck, I JUST wanted to comment the exact same thing... 😅

That and the fact that Silent Magician defeated Atem the Pharoh in the Final Episode of the Duel Monsters Anime. So yeah of course they will be really popular for nostalgia and that generates a LOT of Support. Just watch Blue Eyes and Dark Magician support.

@@swarrior67 Erm...... That's EXACTLY what Phred meant with "Yugi's endgame cards"! Didn't you get that? What did you think you would add with your comment?

@@chanceneck8072 Ohhhh Sorry. My bad.

@@swarrior67 It's okay. You don't need to apologize. I just thought that with "Yugi's endgame cards" it was kind of obvious, that he meant the final duel against Atem. And then you came along and claimed "That and......" which was both confusing and annoying...... As if you hadn't even read the original comment.......

Well to be fair a Horus deck can’t beat a deck centered around plot armor

Don't forget that the guy using Horus also had Royal Decree.

I liked the way Jaden used Contact Fusion to get around those lockdown effects, slightly better dueling than his one off equips.

@@alfredgomez3128 dudes misplay was he didn’t destroy cross porter and that cost him the game. Jaden would’ve been fucked without it

Rule of thumb is, if it works on the anime prior to 5Ds, it sucks in real life. The only remote exception is Cyber Dragon, wich was a staple for completely different reasons, HERO decks after the manga cards debuted, and to a lesser extent Crystal Beasts, because those fuckers have gotten quite a few tops after Crystal Beasts because of the newer support and because those things are basically pendulum monsters, and you can't make such an inherently broken mechanic suck no matter how hard you try.

Makes me wander what's stopping Konami from retraining the LVL/Gemini?

I feel like sometimes they are only intriguing because they did have 1+ good cards among them (like Horus). Would we care if they were 100% failures and every card sucked with no redeeming qualities? Or do we only care because there was 1-2 cards that showed us their potential?

Gemini monster were broken a couple years ago... I feel like they are a lot more usable... I've seen a couple of decks recently...

@@shino4242 I think its because at the end of the day the idea WAS fun. Its a precurser to the current extra deck stuff. They were just figuring it all out. I just wish the effects of these cards warranted all that messing about and that the extra rules they added to make it extra hard were streamlined. I mean Horus worked so much better because it could just kill and level.

@@goni2493 because the idea is already here in its modern form with xyz monsters ranking up from each other, and link climbing

Honestly horus is the type of card that would really benefit from just "Horus the black flame dragon" whos the level 4 version that can negate 1 spell and if it does floats into 8. I think stuff like ultimate insect would need a side version thats similar to armed dragon thunder. Like Ultimate Insect Earth or something like that. That can optionally go into a new level 7 or an old one. Like maybe Ultimate Insect Earth level 7 only lowers attack but it lowers it by 1400 and if there is an "ultimate insect" in the graveyard and the UIE7 would be destroyed it could remove an ultimate insect from the graveyard to keep itself alive or something

I've won many battles with the Horus and Jinzo / Royal Decree combo. I disagree with this entry. Plenty of meta decks still use plenty of spells. Horus is still good board control.

Silent swordsman is pretty good.

@@derekclawson5707 Horus is still amazin i also used the horus jinzo combo. Hes definitely not bad for sure. Sometimes just horus alone is enough to shut down almost entire decks as long asu can protect him

I agree that almost all level monsters are bad but Horus and Armed Dragon are the best.

I like that one

Yeaaaa

Idk

Not a bad idea.

@@alexrazmus1798 idk

That sounds like a JRPG.

It is just slow to wait nowadays, need more active

Smt..

@marsella527 Only for the P2W players (A.K.A the meta nowadays) To show up and just ruin your day.

I think they should receive the same treatment as Armed Dragon Thunder

@@eiilos98 at the very least

I wish the next spinoff will do just that. Where they fix LV monsters, invent a new summoning method for LV monsters and give a new mechanic for LV Summon.

+Larry Davis I cannot see them getting both Extra Deck members and strong Effects, for strong Effects seemed justified by being main deck. @@BlossomPathOnStage15 Like have "/LV" next to their Type? Sounds unnecessary tbh. Not to mention that they were too varied for that.

@@Bezaliel13 Like I said new method and mechanic for them. Maybe it's finally time to make a new colour the red frame card for LV.

Man that brings back memories. I wish I had my 2006 save file but it died (cart memory or something with the GBA itself?) I had jank stuff like Spirits with Level Conversion Lab, busted Fusion Gate E Heroes, Fifth Gadget and Monarchs. The LV deck I had was jank too. I miss that game, got me through some dark times.

In that game I used mystic swordsman to lock the CPU by returning their face down monster to the deck and they summon face down again XD. Meanwhile I gain lots of LP from other cards so I can beat survival mode.

@@ShadowBaofu Not entiely sure what you mean but if you still have the game cartridge it might just be something as simple as changing the battery. Your save files are most likely gone since i assume it's been a while but might be worth a shot if you want to relive it C: Other than that you can download emulators nowadays and play it on your computer. If you have a DS you can also just "hack" it to use custom firmware and play roms that way (you'd need a DSI or newer thou). I myself am currently playing through and trying to 99% the 2010 game witch is a blast U:

@@ShadowBaofu i have the YGO GX game for DS and my favorite deck there was a somewhat janky somewhat effective Lv deck, where it just did everything possible to get horus on the field ASAP with royal decree. i even ran level modulation because it's one thing to deal with a horus, but dealing with 2, 3 or even 4 usually proved too much.

My brother still has his yugioh 5ds stardust accelerator ds game and his LV deck got him through at least the first portion of the story

You simp 😂

Based

Them hips don’t lie

It sees a ton of play in Warrior decks in Goat and some will run up to 3 Main Deck

Way back in the day it did see some Side deck options. Setting facedowns wasnt fully gone yet, but it wasnt really necessary considering you could just special Cyber Dragon to remove 99% of facedowns

@@redmangc spirit reaper. apprentice magician. legendary jujitsu master. magician of faith. no you couldnt just special summon cyber dragon to do the same thing.

all of these cards have seen play i think duel logs is just too new. horus saw play in dream clown since its unaffected by stumbling. dark mimic level 1 was a great metamorphosis target into thousand eyes restrict if you didnt mind giving up the stats vs dekoichi the battlechanted locomotive. mystic swordsman had a ton of targets with tsukuyomi running around everywhere encouraging flip effects. before cyber stein and return from the different dimension it was very rare to win by just saccing your field and vomiting a board into play. Giant Trunade legitimately sucked. It was just a -1. You won by accumulating +1s, which were difficult to come by.

And regular 1-of in modern maindecks. Gravekeeper spy is just that obnoxious to deal with otherwhise, while denying magician of faith, set spirit reaper and the jars is as useful of an effect. It's just a free +1 on set.

Man I remember the DS games when I was a kid, thinking those Horus cards were so cool They definetly hold a special place in my heart

In like, early 2010's I was running a Horus + Jinzo deck that my friends HATED. Once level 8 and Jinzo were out, the game was basically over since about half their deck was useless. (This was before hand traps were super popular)

Jinzo and Quickplay.

How about "Failed Mechanics. The splitting of the OCG & TCG"

Birds have a good trap, Tri-Brigade revolved around their signature trap, DLink had a good trap, WW had 2 great traps, Eldlich is trap-based deck, Dogmatika has a great trap, 2 if you count Shism, Orcust had great trap, Salamangreat revolved around traps, True Draco go without saying. That's last five years of continuous usage

@@nnnp634 I think the point being that trap cards as a whole mechanically make less sense the more the game evolves. Yugioh is a turn 0 type game name; IE you have to be able to respond to what your opponent is doing before you even take your first turn. The end result is what we have now where quick play spells, "hand trap" effect monsters, and traps which have the "activatable from hand" clause are really the only ones that see consistent play (exception of course being things like Skill Drain which are game warping).

@@feelingveryattackedrn5750 Which is super sad since trap cards are one of the most unique and iconic parts of Yugioh. Not being able to use them is not a good thing.

Thanks to a little card called Nobleman of Crossout, and virtually anyway you can keep monsters from flipping like Drillroid? Flip monsters were rendered obsolete from the start.

Not really. Bagooska is still pretty damn good in the modern meta (Usually paired with links so you can combo and attack unhindered).

The 2nd one he kinda already covered with the Mother spider video

@@robinlinh True. I guess I want him to go into more detail with these kinds of cards.

I wish forcing the change of position of a link monster with a card effect would destroy it, like any card that can’t change battle position without being destroyed.

show us the horus deck!

I also used to play Horus way back when in duel links. Man I sucked lmao

@Serenity @SeekingtoRestore I don't remember the list itself, but it was just a bunch of staples and some stuff that let me get Horus lv6 on the field easier, so I could go into Horus lv8. I started using the deck mainly because it was one of the first "boss" monsters I got in the game aside from the characters base decks, and it was fun. It worked alright when most of the stuff I was playing against were lvl 4 beatsticks, but definitely nothing crazy 😅

Me too It was a 100% dragon support, all monsters were dragon monsters, and when synchro came i put the dragon tuners to help synchro summoning dragon synchros

Sameeeee. I love Horus.

yea bro chaos emperor dragon and black luster soldier envoy of the beginning were really hard to summon 😂

@@user-vs8nu8id5q why did you think they were banned all those years?

@@renzyification there were other strong monsters that were easy to summon back the dark armed dragon dark magican of chaos

@@user-vs8nu8id5q DAD was further down the line, when boss monsters started to become easy to summon, and even at that point it got Limited

I don't know who at Konami started this change into turbo boss monster, but i hope they stub their toe on a coffee table because this dynamic is annoying.

Putting higher-LV monsters into the Extra Deck as an entirely new red-backgrounded Monster Type would fix EVERYTHING wrong with these monsters.

i mean silent swords man lv7 works against dark ruler no more, while horus lv8 does not ;)

Also I think Naturia beast already outclasses Horus level 8 because it does the same thing and it’s easier to bring out but it’s weaker in atk power.

@@JasonGodwin69 many things can be fixed by that, because it jumps up consistency so much. 1 glaring issue: Ritual. FFS who tf thinks that it must exist in decks!? It has different color, different summoning condition, different tribute. It supposed to be an extra deck monster from the start!! Its not, just because back then we dont have extra deck yet. Heck, even fusion just jump out immediately without preparation except poly (remember the PS 2 or 1, i forgot, games who let you bullshit fusion summoning any random cards to make another random card). Other glaring issue: those "cannot be normal summoned cards" if it cannot be normal summoned, then why it exist in the main deck!? Just to be a garnet when you draw them!? Put them in extra deck FFS!! Its only function is as a 'other' summoning mechanic by card efect....its exactly what fusion cards are to poly!! If fusion has their own cards, mechanic, place in extra deck, why those cards cant!?!? Just call it 'Evolve' cards or something and slap random color at them! They even need to make NEX cards in Neos as fusion monster even if they only use 1 material and 1 spell just to be able to place them outside the main deck, and its still fail to rise their competitiveness!! Mask change cards Hero monster as a fusion!? They dont even fuse! Just change their costume using a spell card and you put them as fusion monster just to put them in extra deck to help their consistency!? While ignoring a ton of cards that need that too!? While you can just make a new mechanic and errata them.... Those bullshit Dark Magician Granpa! Those Metalmorph monsters! Neos Wiseman! LV monster! THEY.BELONG.IN.EXTRA.DECK

@A Cool YooToobist Man, its already years since the last time i play YGO for real (except in NDS emulator, i still play it everyday lately. I even make LV monster deck after watching this video, one with Horus & Armed Dragon) so i dont know exactly how far powercreep goes in modern games. All my rants about LV monster & fusion mechanic is the rants i used to have back then and still exist untill nowadays (because they seems like never fix it) plus by following the development of the game by watching YT videos. So just take my opinion with a grain of salt. From what i read: you clearly has good understanding about the effect of LV monsters. Your cards have a basic idea, you follow it throughout the LV increase, and give option in the end. Just like Horus's spell negate effect. LV 6 negate every spell to that monster, and LV 8 can have freedom to negate or not. Adding destruction & pierce is like a little too much, but hey, there's more broken cards out there get printed, so there's no reason this card cant realistically get printed too. Like this video said, LV monster is slow but as long as you can protect it and fulfill it LV up condition it can get better and better. Maybe give more protection like the one that Command Knight has? (As long as theres other monster in your field, this card cant get attacked). Command Knight has it while at the same time has increase attack to every warrior type too, so its not like the effect+protection is unprecedented or too much. Sure it will be too much if you add the pierce and destruction too, but you can just trim it a little. Right now your cards will mostly powercreeped, but you got the spirit & understanding of the mechanic. Keep going at it, mate. (Man, if your cards is printed for real, i really want it for my warriors deck. That plus command knight for even bigger atk increase, Marauding captain for SS, The A. Force spell for even more bigger increase...i can smack those Sacred Beasts with Don Zaloog and destroy their hand)

Her effect is great tho, but she's slow. Although these days your opponent will draw way enough cards to get your LV4 to a stupidly broken amount of ATK lol.

About time other LV monsters get Armed Dragon Thunder treatment.

@@SethJV Loved doing that in Duel Links. There was a card that added spell counters every turn (forgot the name unfortunately) which also helped turn even LV 4 into a beatstick if you so pleased

Interesting

Interesting

So cost bypasses inmunity... Interesting Reminds me of Kaijus

@@ianr.navahuber2195 what's with kaijus?

@@LeoGuitarize that You can tribute Monsters inmune to other Cards effects to summon the kaijus

They could even make it an Xyz Evolution style of gameplay.

Looks like it would still negates their effs

So... basically Dragoon?

Hmm

Yeah branching evolutions esp. Your reward for "waiting" should be that you have more information on what the card should lvl up into, and the lvling up then not only makes your card stronger but tailors it to whatever situation you're in. To me the extra decks have gotten too consistent in how they impact gameplay: The extra deck should be special case use only, not a whole extra hand for you to pull whatever you want from with little effort (like the Knightmare link monsters).

He also used THE WARRIOR RETURNING ALIVE (Or as he called it in the dub The Warrior Returneth Alive)

The part about it having to be properly summoned first isn't correct atleast regarding the ocg. It was always intended to do just that. Ignore the summoning condition. However the tcg thought it would be to op. That's why you're opponent gets to draw 2 cards and the monster you summon cant attack or use its effect. Just like how the winged dragon of ra cant be special summoned. But sphere mode allows you to special summon ra ignoring the summoning conditions even though ra wasn't brought out properly in the first place.

Did you just call level monsters fast?

@@Otzkar They were fast for me and others I played against

Also to get an extra attack during the battle phase.

yup, especialy, since LV monsters are already an example of fixing a prior game mechanic. silent insects are based on weevils moth-series, while armed dragons are retrains of joeys baby dragon.

Yeah, I heard "Excavate" became a thing with Sylvans.

@@nunyabiznes33 which most likely is accompanied by a 3 paragraph description

Horus MIGHT have a chance as it was played in GX by some filler character.

Id just be happy with better support to get it out easier. Something like Melody of dragons but for horus lv 6.

@A Cool YooToobist its a warrior and a dark so good search potential. I think the attack gain isnt really bad. But it could be a better effect. Maybe have the lv 8s attack gain and piercing effect can be on the lv 6 and have the lv 8 not be targeted or immunity to certain effects on top of a minor attack boost or a OPT destruction effect. That said they all destroy a monster. Mostly by attacking. Not sure i really like the battle dependent clauses on them. They should have effects on their own but gain something huge if leveled up. At least the last stage boss monster. Its a good start though. And trust me im no expert. Personally i think there should be a monster that summons a lv monster upon destruction or sent to the Gy. And summon it from anywhere ignoring its summoning condition. Considering how slow they really are. And really have no recovery after being dealt with.

"Rank up-syncro doesn't exist, it can't hurt you." Rank up-syncro:

At least the Thunder variant is playable and fun. Most of LV decks need full retrains to be playable.

@@randomprofile5853 yeah true, I’m constantly trying to make the deck work, but we’ll see. Maybe they’ll get more support in future

They are also my favorite archetype have you tried using them more? I just have fun on dueling nexus making a deck for them.

@@scrubthegod780 I actually have a really good deck. Made it myself and got to 2700 rank on nexus with it. I can send it to you if you want, I use everything when it comes to social media so whichever one you’re most comfortable with, u can give me.

i would make it search level up on activation, and then you can send 1 LV Monster from your hand back to your deck in order ro seach a LV monster that shares its name. and during the end phase you can add 1 level up from your graveyard to the top of your deck (or hand, it depends)

I suppose Surprise Gift would see use if SHS become tier 1 LOL

Mystic swordsman seems like it had a pretty good effect for the time. Too bad the chaos decks were so absurdly broken (wasn't that the first time tier-0 decks started showing up?)

Yes the chaos deck was the first tier 0 deck in the game. Even after Chaos Emperor Dragon and BLS were banned, Chaos was still a top tier deck thanks to a playset of Chaos Sorcerer. Mystic Swordman's effect at time was quite powerful and it's lv 2 monster was used a lot in sideboards and in decks with a warrior toolbox featuring Reinforcements of the Army. It was used to stop the monsters like Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, and Apprentice Magician from triggering their 'destroyed by battle' effects and to stop Magician of Faith from using its effect

Nor Silent Burning, which is the spell for Magician that came out together with Silent Sword Slash

i was surprised when he didn't mention them.

Just note, I did know of Dark Horus, I just didn't talk about it because it never saw competitive play lol

Dark Horus was pretty bad, honestly. You had to get your opponent to resolve a spell card effect, and it only let you special summon level 4 dark monsters exclusively, so it could've easily had plenty more viable targets if they didn't limit them to just a certain level