The Ishizu Cards - Failed Cards, Archetypes, Mechanics & Designs in Yu-Gi-Oh 

It is canonically confirmed in the manga that Ishizu, with the power of her Millenium Necklace, could see 5 cards into the future and predicted that the Tearalaments would be created. That was why she used her Earth Fairy deck against Kaiba, to plant the idea of an Egyptian-themed GY manipulation archetype into his head, thus making sure that 2 decades later, KaibaCorp's descendant, now named Kaiba's Online Network Archive of Maiden (with Eyes of Blue) Illustrations, also known as K.O.N.A.M.I, would retrain her shitty deck to support the newly born GY Queens. Such a power move from 1 queen to several others. All hail Ishizu.

I guess you could say her cards were dragging her down... into the grave

The ishizu cards were a mistake not because they were bad but because they were too broken

4:20 '1850 is the threshold for decently stat monster' So glad the Mechanicalchaser meta hasnt been forgotten.

I mean, when a group of card/engine or whatever ended up to be far too strong that it forced all of them to be either ban or limited, this is also a kind of failed card design

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!!!

Ah shit. _They got Agido_

I hate when I forget what date is today.

This is a proper critique of design failure honestly, not just an April fool's joke like people are saying

It's baffling to think no one at Konami looked at the Ishizu retrains, the environment they were to be released in and their effects and thought "are these too good?" Someone had to have known they would break the game to some degree. Surely. Right?

It's very cute how Mudora wields the Cestus of Dagla

Seeing the monsters side by side has taught me a few things. I was confused as to why Mudora wielded gauntlets instead of the sword he had before. The gauntlets represents Cestus of Dagla which Ishizu equipped him with. Super cool detail!! I also noticed that the retrains all wear white just like Ishizu. The originals did not. Thanks for this video! 👍👍

It's a failed archetype because they all got BANNED!

The reason why kaiba used a normal spell on Ishizu's turn is because of the Battle City ruling where if you set a spell card, it becomes a quick play spell after its been set for one turn. Not many people know about that.

Okay so... April Fools aside I think you could argue that the Ishizus were a bit of a failure if you're trying to play them wholly legit along with their intended support.

16:42 "they didn't even need to use pot of greed" it just feels strange hearing that as a tcg player.

To answer the weird activation of Soul Exchange, Battle City Rules state that normal spells can be played like trap cards (there's a little bit more to it, since im pretty sure the idea of quick-play spells didn't exist yet, but that's all there is to it really)

Honestly, the Ishizu cards are a perfect example of circumstantial power, if it were JUST the Ishizus, it wouldn't be that good, it'd still have a solid gameplan and a way to execute that gameplan, but, it wouldn't be that good on it's own But with the undeniable fact that there's a metric tonne of GY synergy, and suddenly you have an engine that makes all of those otherwise hard to ditch cards absurdly accessible and highly consistent. Though it surprisingly does keep with the anime's Exchange of the Spirit, she had all of her best cards sent to the grave, and that's what let her nearly win. And then, there's Tearlaments, Tier 0, the deck. If they didn't exist, the Ishizu cards would still be powerhouses, but with them? They're playing 4D chess with Interdimensional Time Travel, and you're still playing Checkers. They just have every advantage, and it's frankly absurd, even some graveyard lockdown isn't always enough to stop them either, since they usually have ways, from hand, to interact with stuff, like Kelbek, or some rank 4 backrow removal. I honestly REALLY like the Ishizu cards, I think they're cool, and I love the lore behind them, like Gravekeeper's Trap is such a cool card. But the main cast, along with Tear, is one of the most toxic strategies with some of the strongest synergies. Honestly, since Zoodiac, the game has had a power creep spiral that has just de-railed the whole game. And they tried to reign in power and make the game more fun with Duel Links and Rush Duels, but Duel Links has quickly fallen to power creep itself, and Rush Duels just aren't as fun. They need some kind of official format that's hand curated, not something like GOAT, but something where they pick a power level, and ban/limit any decks over that power level, to slow the game down, let decks play how they want to play, but not encourage play like the modern day, where you either dismantle the opponent's board during their turn, or you just negate everything so nothing gets to the board. Let there be Links, let there be modern decks, but make it so there's never enough or any of the cards that makes decks broken. I love playing this game with people, but, half the time, I'm not PLAYING it WITH anyone, because I either play it, and my opponent doesn't get to play, or they play it, and I don't get to play. And overall, it's a net loss for everybody.

Failed Cards is my favorite type of video on your channel. I think this series is a good single cross section of what u do well with all your other videos combined.

Milling cards makes you deck out faster.

I like how them being a failed archtype isn’t completely wrong. They are failed in a completely different context, they are failed because they are TOO good.

You could make a 'Failed Card Design' video on SPYRAL - A deck that immediately shifted from garbage to broken with just 1 card of a new card type. Or one about hand trap monster effects throughout history.

That rant at the end is glorious

I have been suggesting for a while that way too good/broken cards could count for this series since they fail in the complete opposite way. Not sure if taht had any sway, or if you were also thinking the same fora while, either way, really happy to see it finally show up.

small correction: mudora's effect to place the gravekeeper's trap face up is optional, while keldo's effect to add a card that is or mentions exchange of the spirit from deck to hand is mandatory. not the other way around which is important, especially with current ishizu hits, as it basically means mudora discard keldo is the only play now to special summon one of the bodies in effectively any deck running these cards. as having all the targets used for keldo either be limited, banned, or simply not worth playing means keldo's hand effect is pretty much just always unactivatable

The retrains were released a month early in master duel before Tearlaments dropped, and it fully showed how they were 10000% the bigger problem of that tier 0 deck. Tearlaments are good, borderline busted on their own, but you add these cards that are completely busted on their own and you get the best deck in the game lol. During that month these cards were everywhere, making busted mill decks and graveyard decks.

Best cards to ever be printed. I love ishizu in the anime and being released along side with tearlaments made me love Yu-Gi-Oh again. Take me back to the glorious tear 0 with 10 mills each turn with 6 shufflers

The modern Ishizu cards are basically the equivalent of MTG's Dredge mechanic, cards so wrongly designed that the ban might last until they repeat that mistake again... (which let's be real they will do it again)

I was wondering what you’d do today and you did not disappoint 😂

When I saw the title of this video I had to believe it was April Fools as Ishizu Tearlaments was the best deck ever, I also didn’t even know about the old versions of the cards she played. Loved this video btw, Ishizu vs. Kaiba is one of my favourite duels in the anime!

Despite this being a clear April fools joke they fail simply because they made them too good

I still hold a sentiment to Ishizu retrains. I basically began my DB, and by extension my true YuGiOh journey, by playing them *pure*. No Tear shenanigans. And it was awesome.

It's scary to imagine what kind of crazy cards will be printed to power crept the ishizu cards before they can be released from banlist

Was about to say how did these fail and than I saw the date. Well played

As a massive Tearlaments fan, i am telling you the Ishizu cards were so broken i dont even want them back from the ban list (even tho it was so hype to mill upto 15 cards for free) Reading their effects for the first time blew my mind on how can anyone look at these cards and think "yea thats gonna be good for the game!" At least Tear 0 was fun and complex though it did choke out every other deck from seeing play Also Merli did nothing wrong!

"thats right, I'll sacrifice GOD!"

Exchange of the Sprit's legacy is nuts. So broken it needed an errata to come off the banlist, and then the support cards created to make the nerfed version playable accidentally became some of the most powerful cards in the game without it

That was one of your best videos of late. Keep up the good work man!

wonderful evolution of this series of videos!

I really like the idea of putting broken kards into fail ones, pls continue with more videos like this

I think it's neat that Master Duel got some time to make use of the Ishizu cards in decks outside of Tearlaments, I honestly had more fun with THAT format than the one that actually included the Tearlaments monsters. And it also proves these retrains were the big issue all along.

I like the idea they were trying to do of supporting the retrained Exchange of Spirit. Fill up both graves with the millers, activate Exchange of Spirit, chain the shufflers to return your opponents cards back to the deck before Exchange of Spirit resolves. Konami must have just forgot that self-milling and graveyard disruption are some of the most potent effects in the game, and that it is possible to use cards outside of their intended strategy.

Imagine the odds of an anime archetype completely forgotten monsters getting the most busted retrains ever made that then proceeded to warp the meta and make a tier 0 format.

Actually during the duel they were playing battle city rules,in the anime during the tournament, normal spell cards set face down could be used as quick play spells on the opponents turn

Literally one of my favorite formats

Can you imagine pre-errata Exchange of The Spirit plus Transaction Rollback in Tearlaments? Pretty much guaranteed win by deck out if you go first. Not mention how broken and competent Ishizu Tear is as a deck, the bonus effects you'd get from the ishizu cards because you're paying Exchange of the Spirit, and how easy it is to get 15 cards in the grave in that deck. Damn.

I wish you mentioned hwo well they work with Egyptian Gods especially Obelisk. And funny fact is that Ishizu was the first owner, who gained Obelisk. With the Ishizu cards you could easly have 3 bodies on the field, milling Obelisks trap to activate and summon Obelisk. Also his spell banish cards from the GY and deals burn damage to the number of banished cards.

honestly for the time they were around, i had fun with the engine in my labrynth deck

It's nice that you can pull a prank like this while still providing useful information.

It took me way too long to realize this was an April fools joke

Easily one of yout best videos

Man, I completely lost it at the thumbnail, I've already been defeated 😂😂

Errata all miller to.... . "If this card is sent from the hand or Deck to the GY: You can activate this effect; each player sends the top 5 cards of their Deck to the GY (or their entire Deck, if less than 5), then, if "Exchange of the Spirit" is in your GY, you can send 5 more cards from the top of either player's Deck to the GY, *but for the rest of this turn, neither player can activate cards that were sent to the GY by this effect, except cards that mention "Exchange of the Spirit"* ."

When you mentioned dragon rulers I was like that sounds nightmare-ish fun.

I like the addition of designs into this series. That opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.

23:50 It's not hard to imagine a power crept yugioh from here at all. Kaijus from the extra deck, new master rule that says every effect is a hard once per turn, mulligan master rule, hand traps that let you activate traps during your opponent's turn, more cards activated from the deck, changing of master rule to let links have 0 def and can be put in def position by your opponent's card effects, reprinting all banned cards so they have different effects, etc.

The old Mudora actually has good synergy with the new Kelbek and Agido, which can put a lot of Fairy monsters into the GY, making Mudora a lot bigger.

Okay I agree with you on this saying that Isuzu cards was a failed archetype but it was nothing a failure as an engine because when they retrain them Man they created the most insane tier zero deck of all tearlaments when it was at full power. So much milling and so many chain links.

11:54 In Battle City (and Duelist Kingdom), you could activate spell cards that were set as if they were trap cards. Basically all spell cards were quick-play spell cards, during that era of the anime.

I never heard of Transaction Rollback until like yesterday. My opponent used it in a Labrynth deck. So... that was fun.

I think it was mentioned somewhere in the manga that one of the rules of the Battle City tournament was that all Spell Cards would be treated as quick-play cards.

I thought you were being serious for a second and then I remembered

I was like 'huh' until I remember what day it is(for like the 4th time today). Nice one kekw,happy April fools day everyone.

This was one of my fave duels in the series. I remember rooting for Ishizu to win!

I don’t even see this as a troll video. Personally, I agree that they did fail. They were designed to be their own archetype revolving around Exchange of the Spirit and being a controlling/milling deck. They failed because their own dedicated archetype isn’t that good, but the cards themselves are absolutely broken in other strategies. Not sure who let them cook with these cards. I’m sure printing a bunch of cards that mill baseline with some bonuses if you play them in the correct archetype won’t be absolutely BROKEN HAHAHA wait oops. It’d be like Red Eyes Dark Dragon being printed with its normal effect and then also being like, “You can send a card that lists ‘Dark Magician’ or ‘Red-Eyes Black Dragon’ from your hand or deck to the graveyard in order to gain 300 life points.” SEE GUYS ITS AN ARCHETYPAL CARD YOU GOTTA PLAY DARK MAGICIAN AND RED EYES CARDS TO USE THE SECOND BONUS EFFECT :)

Technically, the Ishizu Cards failed at being used in their intended purpose.

Ngl doing this series but with archetypes that are too powerful would be cool, maybe dragon rulers next

The only cards I truly know of that Ishizu uses is GraveKeepers in DL

This might be an april fools video but its like also just a really good video overall. Like seriously its crazy.

Man I love Ishizu she is one of my favorite female character designs in all female characters in series and she has deck support cards she rightfully deserves sadly her support cards ended up either limited or forbidden list which is really shame since her deck got much needed support for so long since their debuts in anime and manga

Just wanna shout out one of Kiba biggest gangster moment "I tribute a GOD!" 😂

Looking at what cards we were talking about today, and immidiately thought to myself: Is it April fools already?

Another point of comparison I think should be made is That Grass Looks Greener, which is a card that lets you mill 20 but forces you to play a super inconsistent deck and is an unsearchable normal spell, which is banned for how broken it is. These cards can easily let you build your own Grass over a couple turns and are much easier to get out on top of not forcing you to play a 60 card deck.

Those old Ishizu monsters are dgood in speed duel format. Especialy Mudora :D

Bet these cards are like a Dragon Ruler. Insanely busted at the time of its release, then 10 years later, they will be unlimited and barely playable. Only time will tell. Maybe in the future even Pot of Greed will be unlimited due to massive powercreep where at least every archetype has their own +5 at least. Rather than playing draw 2 random cards or mill random 5 cards, you should play the new busted handtrap or starter.

You can make a different case of failed card design with Pre-Errata Firewall Dragon.

Bro, needlebug nest is one of my favorite cards, I remember playing it on my combo shiranui deck in DL, that format was so cool to play, it was what yugioh is supposed to be, very back and forth duels. I still remember my 14+ turns duel against crystron. And witchcrafter was a nice control deck to face too The only stinkers were stun shira and karakuri, basically negates.dek (what has become the problem with modern ygo)

3:37 I wanna make retrains of each of these cards that boost their original effects, while adding complimentary new ones: _Mudora, Warrior of the Gravekeepers_ (EARTH) Level 4 Fairy/Effect _While face-up on the field or in the GY, this card’s name becomes “Mudora”, and also, Fairy monsters you control gain 200 ATK/DEF for every card in the GY. Once per turn, you can discard 1 EARTH Fairy monster (Quick Effect): Apply 1 of the following effects;_ _⚪️Draw 1 card._ _⚪️Increase your LP, and this cards ATK/DEF, by 200X the number of cards in the GY._ ATK/1800 DEF/1800 _Keldo, Protector of the Gravekeepers_ (EARTH) Level 4 Fairy/Effect _While face-up on the field or in the GY, this card’s name becomes “Keldo”, and also, if a Fairy monster you control destroyed by battle or an opponent’s effect, and sent to the GY: Shuffle 2 cards from your opponent’s,GY into their deck. Once per turn, you can discard 1 EARTH Fairy monster (Quick Effect): Apply 1 of the following effects;_ _⚪️Draw 1 card._ _⚪️For the rest of the turn, your opponent cannot target Fiary monsters from your field or GY for battle or card effects, except “Keldo” monsters._ ATK/1600 DEF/1600 _Agido, Sentinel of the Gravekeepers_ (EARTH) Level 4 Fairy/Effect _While face-up on the field or in the GY, this card’s name becomes “Agido”, and also, if a Fairy monster you control is destroyed by battle or an opponent’s effect, and sent to the GY: Roll 1 or 2 Six-Sided Die, then increase your LP and/or Increase or decrease the ATK/DEF of a monster on the field or in the GY by 500X the number rolled. Once per turn, you can discard 1 EARTH Fairy monster (Quick Effect): Apply 1 of the following effects;_ _⚪️Draw 1 card._ _⚪️Roll 1 Six-Sided Die: Special Summon 1 Fairy monster from your hand or GY who’s level is equal to or less than the number rolled ((If the result is 6, you can Special Summon a Level 6 or higher monster)._ ATK/1600 DEF/1600 And I’ll come back for the others later… Busy day and all that. While waiting on my ride, I’ll try and squeeze in the others: _Zolga, Prophet of the Gravekeepers_ (EARTH) Level 4 Fairy/Effect _While face-up on the field or in the GY, this card’s name becomes “Zolga”, and also, You gain 2000 LP for each Fairy monster that is used as tribute or material for your Summon/Set of a monster. Once per turn, you can discard 1 EARTH Fairy monster (Quick Effect): Apply 1 of the following effects;_ _⚪️Draw 1 card._ _⚪️For the rest of the turn, Fairy monsters you control can be treated as 2 tributes for your summon/set of a monster, and also, You can conduct 1 additional Normal Summon/Set this turn._ ATK/1800 DEF/1800 _Kelbek, Vanguard of the Gravekeepers_ (EARTH) Level 4 Fairy/Effect _While face-up on the field or in the GY, this card’s name becomes “Kelbek”, and also, If a Fairy monster you control is attacked, after damage calculation: Return either that Fairy monster OR the monster that attacked it to the hand. Once per turn, you can discard 1 EARTH Fairy monster (Quick Effect): Apply 1 of the following effects;_ _⚪️Draw 1 card._ _⚪️For the rest of the turn, Fairy monsters you control cannot be destroyed, until after they battle for the first time this turn._ ATK/1700 DEF/1700

Could you do a video covering anime cards and how they would play in the tcg and ocg anime cards like take over 5 and Subspace battle in particular

I was wondering why the Ishizu cards were on here, since Ishizu-Tear being UNGODLY BUSTED. Then you clarified they're a failure in a DESIGN sense for being CANCER to the game as a whole. Almost seems fitting for an April Fools video except the terror of Ishizu-Tear was no joke and an oversight on card design. No wonder Tearlaments got nerfed into the ground just to ATTEMPT to reminder this issue.

The reason Kaiba set and uses normal spells as if they were quick play spells is because in the battle city tournament arc the rules allow it. This is why many characters do it, they are not technically cheating since that tournament allows it. I think it’s because the anime was still transitioning to an actual game with rules from season 1’s anything goes as long as you can convince your opponent that what you are doing “makes sense”.

HUH? _checks date_ oh.

I was kind of hoping this would be like that Cloudian video where he made up reasons for why they were actually terrible and only played because everyone loved the anime. Maybe something like "they milled cards, but it was for both players and the condition was really hard to pull off" or "first you had to get it into the grave, then its effect didn't even give you any card advantage since it only affected the grave, not the field"

I fully believe Ishizu Tear was all apart of Konami’s business model. Create a group of cards so OP that it forces the game into a tier 0 format, ban the cards into oblivion once their sets are out of circulation so they’re worthless, do it again with another deck. After Tear Ishizu they did it with Kashtira, and now after Kashtira we’re dealing with Snake Eye Fire King.

I think you could actually make an argument for the new Ishizu cards being a failure of an archetype since the archetype itself,by itself was bad. The whole setup around the Exchange of the spirit cards, especially since the errata on the original, was just not worth it. now as an engine in other decks that want to mill....thats where you get degenerate.

Yoooooo he did itttt!!!

Perfect

(Sees the title, sees the date) I wonder if DuelLogs is gonna spend the entire video talking in a sarcastic tone. Or if the video is about "how can You fail Even when You succeed" After all, the Ishizu / "Exchange of the Spirit" Support cards saw extensive meta relevance.... But as part of other decks, Especially as part of Tearlaments But as a standalone Deck on their own, they could be considered a failure that was SO good, it was BANNED out of existence so they can't Even do their supposed gameplan or win Condition (like what happened to Mecha Phantom Beast) 16:46 Again. I thought they had their "Failed Archetype" video, because how, they utterly fail at actually supporting the "exchange of spirit" gameplay, while ironically being supremely splashable and broken in other strategies

To be fair the Ishizu cards were failures. Just failures in a very different way.

All of the ones that matter are either banned or at 1 Bad because theyre too good

Note to self: Ishizu is banned from my Failed Archetype Tournament. Thanks for the heads up

I use mudora and kelbek in a fairy deck in goat format and it's always funny when modern players hear mudora seeing their reaction. Mudora can get big with a Venus engine and kelbek is good because it's basically a wall of illusion

Welcome to explaining banned cards, in today’s episode we’re going to discuss Agido The Ancient Sentinel and Kelbek The Ancient Vanguard

1:07 This is a little obscure, I know, but I figured a YuGiOh historian like you should be made aware. In the rules of the Battle City Tournament, if you set a spell card, you can use it during your opponent's turn like a quick-play spell card.

Of the original 5 monsters, Kelbek is probably the strongest as it sends a monster back to the hand... If you could somehow protect it from destruction, keep a Staunch Defender trap, or something like it, on the field while getting your opponent to attack, that could do fun things.

"Soul Crossing" was the Anime effect! That card came out when they announced back In 2021 Kaiba store online from Konami was releasing Anime cards with the effects I guess cards like "Kaiser Glider golden burst and "Soul Crossing are replaced with the original cards that dont do those effects in the anime with newer ones.

Way back I used to use Agido to summon darklords from the graveyard. A gamble but I did pull some good ones.

Exchange of the spirit, i remember it from watching kitten duel tzeentch in Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker that one time. Good times

What made it so difficult to make all the effects can only be activated with the exchange trap on field or gy, and/or reduce the number of mills?

Thank you Tiarament stromgest!