The Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Vol. 1 Metagame 

Ok so I am the one of your 16000 subscribers that can read Japanese, and I looked up the "Official Rules" ("公式ルール") from the OCG. Here is a summary from the Yugioh japanese wiki: No tribute summoning. You can normal summon any monster regardless of level. You may only play one spell and one trap card per turn. This actually includes setting *and* activating, the wiki specifies that if you set a spell card you can't play activate another spell card from hand that turn. Fusion materials have to come from the field, they can't come from the hand like on Polymerization. Instead of losing instantly for drawing from an empty deck, whenever either player runs out of cards in their deck, the player with the higher LP wins. No hand size limit. First player doesn't get to draw on their first turn. If you draw 2 games in a single match, the entire match is considered a draw. After activating a trap card, it just stays on the field unless it specifies that it's destroyed after activation. Bouncing a fusion monster returns it to the "fusion deck" (doesn't say "extra deck"). You can't activate hand effects (Kuribo is essentially useless until second master rule...lol) This was apparently sourced from something called "ザ・ヴァリュアブル・ブック", literally "the valuable book" which was a starter book included with volume 1 (?). You can actually buy a copy here for 25 bucks: www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%81%8A%E3%83%BB%E6%88%AF%E3%83%BB%E7%8E%8B-%E3%82%AA%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0-%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B0-%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A5%E3%82%A2%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%96%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF-%E6%84%9B%E8%94%B5%E7%89%88%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9/dp/408782764X

The only way Yugioh was played in my school was seeing how many cards you could steal from your friends, but this stuff seems interesting too.

I am SHOCKED that they had the balls to launch the OCG without including the undeniable raw sex appeal of Skull Servant.

First OCG formats monsters be like: Tenmaoh: Lord of never ending death - Absolute lord of underworld and hell, Has never been defeated in battle, he can destroy the world only by breathing Atk 800 / def 700

Reverend cleaning up the early Metas, can't wait until he covers the pre-15th century Chess meta where ... Queens CAN ONLY move ONE SPACE?? WOW, that's the Only Ghost Type Move is Lick of pre-15th century Chess, what a time that was!

I know this is an April fools joke but please continue with this. I can see this format catching on but ironically if that makes sense

Censoring M**** card but sprinkling in as much MtG terms as possible is such a good bit.

"reading flavor text and taking it at face value" has to be my favorite bit on the channel

The best thing about this format is that if you are traveling or dont have your copy of Firegrass at hand you can improvise and play it with like a bunch of rocks and sticks you found on the ground instead

It is simple, there were no rules like in the tv series. Just summon Silver Fang against Gaia and destroy it for 100 damage because the field power bonus of the full moon doubling the attack of a wolf. To prevent that, your opponent needs to attack the moon before you summon Silver Fang.

I'm putting this on the big screen at etsucon and making everyone watch

I love this meta game because it’s like “I bought exactly 40 cards and that’s my deck”

As an average Jimmy/Bimmy, I can confirm that I just walk around the city telling strangers that Hitotsu Me-Giant was the strongest Level 4 monster in OCG Volume One.

yugioh cards taste almost as good as they look so its cool to see that they have another use too

I would literally perform a blood sacrifice to get more videos of you covering weird metas like this. Idc if it's yugioh, pokemon, or fuckin competitive Mario party. This shit slaps harder than my dad after I struck out in little league.

It's incredible that hitotsu-me giant's Japanese card name is just "cyclops"

You forgot to mention the most important part of AlphaGo vs Sedol: Sedol (the best human player in the world) resigned from professional play after losing to it, stating that he believed that the age of human development of the game was over as AI had now surpassed human capability for Go strategy.

Reverend is the only person im willing to let explain to me what missing the timing is.

i love your video style and seeing ygo videos from you is always a treat because you treat the game as it should be treated: as a game for insane people

The bombshell of NO TRIBUTE SUMMONS caught me off guard even as someone who was already aware. Great vid

Looking at the original OCG is pretty neat. You get to see how they slowly introduced the different elements and strategies. When they brought it over to the USA we got like 12 sets all jammed packed into one release.

Wow I can't believe that you exposed and thoroughly destroyed The Duel Logs with FACTS and LOGIC. I can't believe they would be so wrong when they claimed that Hitotsu-Me Giant was the strongest (level 4 or lower) in the format. Thank you sir Reverend for bringing this really IMPORTANT truth to light.

fun fact you could argue that Kagemusha of the Blue Flame is the first Six Sam card from a purely lore-centric perspective, as the "blue flame" is Shien

You’re the only person that makes videos. Thanks for that

Really, the Game Boy game was the first form of what would become the card game. Nearly all the early monsters are derived from there, as are most of the rules. It's crazy to think about, but the card game probably started life as an adaptation of the Game Boy game.

I've always loved how the grander the flavor text, the more underwhelming the card.

3:06 i can tell you poured your heart into this intro. It’s very powerful and inspiring, but still retains that slight dry delivery you’ve coined. And then it just HARD cuts to HMG vs Dark Gray

"I even have doubles" That small insert made me lose it. Season 3 is coming boys

The YGO Junior rules use one spell/one trap per turn and also no tribute summoning. Perhaps that's what people consider the "first rules"?

Yet another amazing video. Loved transition from the complex intricacies of Go to “too long didn’t read” monster card game.

I expected more Yugioh. I didn't expect a deep dive into the realest form of Yugioh

As someone who loves the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG enough to become a judge this is one of my favorite videos on the subject because it starts with arguably more interesting topic then immediately throws it away to talk about a children's card game.

9:45 pretty sure the "ruler of blue flame" here is great shogun shien, which is a wild connection

Have you realized the heart of the cards yet? Oh and hitotsu-me giant is the strongest level 4 monster, in fact he is the only level 4 monster, TheDuelLogs had you set up from the very beginning, you got baited!

Another banger format to cover would be OCG original exodia format. It's almost equally degenerate and substantially less fun than even this. This is a phenomenal video btw

Having binged your RBY meta stuff this feels like a natural extension of your videos lmfao. Just absolutely miserable but fascinating. I love it. No one ever talks about the early OCG, especially with how sets were localized initially by getting chopped up and rearranged. The whole 800 ATK thing stands out. ....Not sure it's gonna catch on like Goat or Edison though. Or maybe you'll be at the helm of this new movement.

How can one man make so many highly edited bangers

I wanna know the process of creation behind these cards. Why such a uhh diverse line-up of really weird monsters with designs ranging from regular animal to cartoon background character.

The funniest thing to me is that... Dark Magician's "ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense" is completely accurate. Also, I've seen many people claim that tribute summoning was _always_ a thing in the official card game, just not the manga. Interesting to see that that's a myth, and tribute summoning really wasn't a thing on the initial release.

as a yugioh fan honestly didnt even realize this was an april fools video. this absolutely tracks with what i watch already. anyway with regards to the rules only being released with the decks: Yeah! that tracks. they did the same in the US where they released the official rulebook in a starter deck AFTER the first set had been our for months :)

There's something about the creatures in early yu gi oh and pokemon, they were just making monsters in a lab. Nothing like the guys they made then

Glad to see even in the first set the card art was wildly inconsistent as the rest of the pre-GX era.

4 minutes in and the editing combined with the delivery has already made me laugh several times. Your comedic timing is on point and the deadpan delivery makes it even better. Also I love that you censored [REDACTED] in a different way every time. Keep it up man, this is great.

I will always remember when i was at someone's house and saw a waterpaint drawn Fissure artwork as a painting on their wall and didn't realize it was from Yu-gi-oh until i got a stack of cards from a fleemarket a month later.

Please make more Yu-Gi-Oh! videos. This video kicks ass.

After rewatching this video for like the 20th time, I still find myself awestruck at how good this is especially considering it's an "April 1st" vid. Just incredible stuff. As a huge retro card game nerd, I love when old niche shit gets a deep dive like this

best bits 3:04 - intro goes hard 4:00 - that guy from law of the normal 8:50 - mammoth graveyard 10:00 - nemuriko 10:42 - nemuriko again 13:31 - fuckin uhh no? 15:53 - the game plan 16:24 - [citation needed] 17:07 - HHTurtle 18:50 - Hitodenchak

I know that this is probably just an April Fools' Day post, but I'd love to see you cover more Yu-Gi-Oh stuff like this. It was really entertaining and your brand of humor made it really enjoyable.

Completely forgot this was a yugioh video and the hatsu mi giant gave me whiplash

I've never played Yu-Gi-Oh! in my life but this video has forever altered how I imagine Hitotsu-Me Giant sounding

The funniest thing about this format is how the rules specify you can't play more than one Spell or Trap regardless of whether you Set or activated the card... Which isn't at all enforceable since nowhere in the rules does it state that the type of card you Set has to be revealed, so in a real life scenario even if you knew for a fact your opponent did this on an earlier turn and then activated the offending card later a judge call would literally do nothing since the judge has no way of knowing if the player actually did cheat unless they admit to it. This is also assuming you perfectly keep track of your opponent's resource allocation on every turn throughout the entire Duel and use that as a reference every single time your opponent activates a card that they Set on an earlier turn at the same time they Set or activated another card. There's also absolutely zero backrow removal in this format and no rule that you have to reveal your Set cards at the end of the game so there's literally nothing stopping you from just Setting a useless monster and using it to bluff a Trap Hole. It's essentially a fully legal cheat.

This is probably the RU-vid video that I come back to the most. It scratches such a strange itch, everything just works. From the deadpan delivery to the fun editing to the vibin’ song selection. I know this was an April fools joke but I really hope you keep up the “review x shitty niche format of x game” I’d watch whatever, be it pokemon, yugioh or fuckin’ fossil fighters, this is some quality content

11:05 Kurama: Winged Beast/Effect (Wind) *3 ATK: 800/DEF: 800: Flip: This card's name becomes "The Furious Sea King", also its DEF becomes 700, its attribute becomes Water and change its Type to Aqua. At the end of the damage step, if this defense position monster was attacked; inflict 100 damage to your opponent. This card must be face-up to activate and resolve this effect.

The combination of deep knowledge and absolute contempt for Yu-Gi-Oh has got to make for some of the most enjoyable content on RU-vid. We need more because otherwise I'm going to have the lines in your skull servant deck video memorised by June.

"Let's go! 2121 is not worth livibg in, scientists got fucked by Nirvana High Paladin"

Hitodenchak melted our hearts so you know it's top tier

When you showed LaLa Li-Oon, my fucking jaw dropped. Did you know that its acid rain makes it very dangerous?

Finally, a yugioh history video that is actually informative and funny to watch at the same time.

Oh shit oh fuck, this is my first new reverend video since I found the channel and binged literally all of it.

I believe the "if you don't play a card on your turn you lose the duel" rule is a commonly assumed rule of Duelist Kingdom from the anime to explain why they sometimes play a card on their turn that seems to not really do much for their overall strategy, and I guess the idea was less "i guess that's just how they wrote the duel" and more "oh clearly if they didn't do that they'd immediately lose". It's equally odd because I don't remember that ever being said in the show at any point.

I understand this is an April fools thing but this was really entertaining and I hope the idea of going through hypothetical yugioh formats is revisited

Thank you for using some Duelists of the Roses music in this, I am absolutely grooving

Press F to all the goofs who got distracted into thinking this is not a YGO channel

Holy fuck my 30th favourite Yugiboomer RU-vidr posted

Oh god the duelist of the roses soundtrack at 14:45 hit me like A TRUCK, haven't heard it in so many years

That set up around 3:00 is great. Fantastic videos so far Also your voice reminds me of the bearded guy from Mission Hill.

i'm being completely genuine and unironic when i say this video is going down as my #1 moment of 2023 so far. i'll bet my switch oled that it'll still rank top 5 by the end of the year. i don't know if i just like yugioh more than pokemon or if you just went super saiyan god on production but it's so fucking good. i really hope it takes off in the algorithm like your rby ubers vid did.

If Reverend and Rata did a colab, my head would explode from joy.

Reverend, I need you to know that this is my favorite video ever

your line delivery and timing is on point

That intro goes hard pat yourself on the back for that king 👑

Damn I was legit excited for more Rev Yugioh. I guess this kind of counts?

18:22 (for the record it's effect destruction damage which is half of the destroyed monsters' points, the manga mentions this a few times)

Vol 1 was a wild & uncivilized time - before we got access to Celtic Guardian aka The Boy

This is the best YuGiOh video I've seen in a long while. I love videos about the older sets with wacky nonsense monsters.

that switch from intro to main topic is so good

I appreciate your support of skull servant kind

Your RBY Ubers video was amazing, but you just took it to another level. This video is a work of art.

I am hoping with every fiber of my being that this becomes a genuine channel mainstay. I really enjoy the commentary style of this entire channel but I’m much more of a competitive yugioh player than a Pokémon frog. Nonetheless this type of content would find a niche in the yugitubing community

Ima keep it real, I saw a bunch of your RBY videos and decided to binge pretty much everything. I have no idea how the fuck Yugioh is played, and I understand even less after this video. 10/10 would watch again.

I'm afraid that phrase just said "Official Rules" in Japanese. You told Google you wanted to see what it had for "Official Rules," just, like, in general.

I need more of this to continue living. I don't want to put you out or anything. But it's really important.

My friend, that intro is beyond golden, it glistens in different colors portraying the genius behind it!

Finally, the Reverend x DuelLogs collab we've been waiting for!

10:43 Shadow Wizard Money Gang jumpscare

I don't even play Yu GI Oh and I still enjoy your videos, I can see the effort you put in and they always make me smile!

11:11 nice one sir, it took me like 10 rewatchings to realize you didn't set kurama

I never really got into Yu-Gi-Oh, but this video has me enthralled fr. You’re such a good writer

I've literally never played a single game of yugioh in my life, nor do I know a single thing about its rules, but I still watched the whole video because I like the funny man on the internet

The description isn't entirely inaccurate but man how much I would love to have 2 people putting out the level of quality content of Rata. This was a fucking hilarious video.

I don't know that much about Yugioh but it's really funny to see how low all these numbers are in contrast to some more recent decks I've seen that can do like 5 billion damage per turn

YT recommended this to me, and I clicked expecting a serious retrospective. I instead received genuinely one of the funniest videos I've seen in a months. Your deadpan delivery of these monsters' menacing-sounding descriptions while the card says 'ATK 800' fucking sent me

So deckbuilding in this format would be weird, right? Every player wants to max out on DM, Gaia, Silver Fang, The Giant, Mammoth Graveyard, and the three Holes for removal. That's 24 cards in the deck locked down, and only sixteen cards left to build your own deck with. Or Five playsets plus a fun-of. That just becomes a matter of the balance you strike between 800 Attackers and equip cards. To maximize synergy you'd want to pick five from the three equip cards you could use on high level monsters (Beast Fang, Book of Secret Arts, Legendary Sword) to act as removal, and the three 800 attackers compatible with those cards (Dark Grey, Kagemusha of the Blue Flame, Nemuriko). The only other option you have is to run four or even all five of the 800 attackers, giving you one last 40th spot for a Legendary Sword, or four spots for some tiny combination of equips.

*_"Damnit reverend, what did you put in my mooyan curry!?"_*

The reason I love your videos is because they mimmick the way my brain thinks very well. Going from games created 2600 bce to Yu-Gi-Oh OCG Vol. 1 is a jump in thoughts, which I would probably make if you let me sit alone for long enough.

I'm pretty sure the GameBoy game had tribute summoning though. EDIT: Wait, I downloaded it and monsters don't even have levels... HOW HAS THIS MUCH AMOUNT OF MISINFORMATION GONE ACCEPTED????

oh boy new reverend vid; maybe now i can finally piece together how yugioh works without looking up the rules

I just realized something: Dark Magician and Gaia the Fierce Knight are pretty much the Mewtwo and Mew of the Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 1 OCG.

Idk why, but this the most informative video I've ever seen on RU-vid that wasn't tech related.

Reverend is slowly drip feeding me yugioh knowledge and in 20 years I will master the heart of the cards