I think that’s a form of apology for not releasing the archetype in time for them to use it in the anime. Marik and Ishizu Ishtar used it in their (non-canon) scripted duels after all.
When I got back into Yu-Gi-Oh and saw the grave keeper cards in duel links, they immediately became my favorite. I know there are more powerful decks but it's always fun to play against someone using them as well.
They worked well in most metas (although tech and premium box cards were needed), but with the commandant and the trap they got the most consistent search for necrovalley (because the low deck size).
The Reference of Spiritualist is that She fuse herself with Commandant (Marik's Father) to make a new Gravekeeper's monster (Marik) and then she goes to the Graveyard the same way that Marik's mother Gave Birth to him with Marik's Father and after that she died And other references: In Stele's art we can see how Descendant Learned the Power of the Egyptian Gods, the same power that he will use to defeat his father and take his throne, then in Inscription's art we can see how Oracle (Descendant) is putting the secret of the Egyptian Gods in the Stone Table that Nobleman haves in his art, and Nobleman is a child version of Heretic so my theory is that Nobleman is the son of Oracle, so when he grew up he use the power of The Egyptian Gods and the Powers of his Grandmother (Spiritualist) to become Supernaturalist and challenge his father
One of my favorite archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh. I have so much fun playing it in master duel. Nothing like having your opponent quit because they can't bring back monsters from the graveyard.
I love the lore TCG comes with up for the cards, even weaving the anime story into the lore honestly I look forward more to the lore than the card breakdowns
I remember in college (like 2009) i told my friends that the card tell a story about warrior dai grepher and laid out my evidence. They all said i was reaching. I shouldve made a youtube channel 😅😭
Man, I forgot how short and almost quaint card effects used to be. Nowadays, you need to have like 6 paragraphs of text to even be competitive, and with Gravekeepers, you just get "this card does piercing damage" or "if this card is flipped up from being set, send one monster back to the hand."
I’m guessing Commandant is Earth as he hasn’t discovered Necrovalley yet and is the first Gravekeeper. He discovers Necrovalley and from then on it is full of darkness.
With Odion and Ishizu , basically, getting their own archetypes I really hope GraveKeepers get some love in the near future. They're not my favorite, but their connection to the Ishtars and Thief King Bakura makes them really cool as far as nostalgia is concerned, plus completely locking away your opponent's GY and then watching them scoop is kind of hillarious.
Let's fucking GOOOOOOOOO that's my archetype! First archetype of the game, strongly rooted on the beginnings of the game and anime, and always a dark horse in competitive gaming. Love it!
Something disturbing just occured to me. If the Ishtar's were the last of the gravekeepers, and marik was to be cut off from the outside world, then how would he be expected to continue the line with only his adoptive brother and sist ...... Oh, oh no
Love this archetype and the support they got (i remember being a handful of cards, leaving the game for a while and coming back to an actual pure deck)
Duelist 1 - “I activate Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer’s effect . When destroyed , I can bring it back from the Graveyard” Duellist 2 - “Necrovalley won’t let you “ I love the Gravekeeper archetype 😃😃
Unless I'm mistaken or they updated the rulings, Necrovalley let's a monster special summon itself from the Graveyard. Quoting the rulebook from Structure Deck Marik: "Think of Necrovalley as locking all monsters in their tomb from the inside. Nothing can force open the door, but those within the tomb can unlock it themselves."
@@KillaG3590 That I understand, I was around for YK2002 format, but I also remember a time when GK Dark World was a thing and GK using Royal Tribute against Dark World was an insta-loss for the GK player (Hence they made GK Shaman as a counter). Heck, I didn't even know that they made it so you can't change Type/Attribute with Necrovalley, so I fully acknowledge that things have changed. It makes me happy that Necrovalley can stop more things, but I wish GK was as viable as when Recruiter was released.
@@AnnihilatorKaigai Thanks for the update, but good lord GK needs several of their cards errat'd or new members (please don't say 'Well if you're so smart what do you suggest' or I will post my Godforsaken essay on what I would do to fix the Gravekeeper's archetype.)
GK's became one of my favorites ever since I was gifted the Marik structure deck. Sadly, their swarm game leaves much to be desired. An ideal end-board lock would be Necrovalley, Hidden Temples, Spiritualist + Shaman in hand = Supernaturalist, Throne for an extra Normal Summon to Tribute Summon Chief to cheat back Shaman from the GY, and Imperial Tombs for a negate. But that requires not only having a 7-card nut to set up turn 1 (because everything dies to a negate), you'd also need to get an extra monster on the field in order to have tribute for Chief. It also hurts that a lot of the cards just don't work with how the game is played anymore. Watcher is at best sideboard tech for Empty Jar now that it's not in a meta with legal Graceful Charity, Curse's burn is asking to find a way to be looped but is horribly weak, Flip monsters without archetype support is too slow, Nobleman needing to be destroyed by battle makes its effect completely invalidated by any other removal, Visionary is just a beatstick, Vassal is literally a meme card, Oracle is the epitome of a power-crept going-second card, the formerly-powerful Descendant + Recruiter combo fizzles to so many things it's ridiculous, and the closest thing to meta is Heretic being the world's smallest Towers at 1800 that can't even protect Necrovalley. Even Supernaturalist, the current boss monster, is only destruction immunity, which means that any (non-)targeting bounce, send, banish, or negate completely dismantles the board's protection. Also, its deck search is only during the End Phase, and doesn't even search Gravekeeper's Spell/Traps or legacy cards like Charm of Shabti, Rite of Spirit, Royal Tribute, etc., so of the limited options you have, the only way you'll be able to use it before your next turn is if you add Watcher for what, not negating a Scheiren/Reinoheart Special Summon because it's an effect that "sends to GY from hand" instead of "discard?" Honestly, I wish they had some sort of Quick-Play Spell called "Necrovalley Tablets" or something that just... until your next Standby Phase, gives you Runick Fountain for DARK Flip monsters/cards that mention Necrovalley, except you reveal the card in your hand to apply the effect, so all of your non-Necrovalley backrow or Flip monsters aren't sitting out on board waiting to explode to the one Feather Duster in your opponent's opening six cards. Has to be searchable by Supernaturalist and usable in the End Phase, so it really just has to be that cracked of a Quick-Play BASELINE to not bite too hard into needing infinity cards to get an endboard that can barely survive a single Evenly Matched. TL;DR: I love GK's and they're primed to be absurd, the issue is that there is zero gas due to all of the support either being too old to be searched, or so slow/weak that they literally need "no GY" and "stronger Vanity's Emptiness" to even be considered a rogue control deck.
My first archetype and I still utilize it to this day. It’s funny, I stopped playing for so many years and just picked it back up early last year after finding my deck and after making some small adjustments, (such as removing banned cards, ordering a few new gravekeepers, etc) I was still able to take on and beat modern decks, admittedly I had no idea what my opponents were doing, but it was still cool to see the deck I used so many years ago can still hold up and even defeat modern player’s decks. Thank you for this! Great video!
I mean... If you want to reach and consider it "Canon", in the real world when Konami had two Yu-Gi-Oh scripted Live Duels, one was with Ishizu against Joey Wheeler who used a Gravekeeper's deck, and another one was Marik vs Pegasus, who also used a Gravekeeper's deck, too.
My first love - gravekeeper's, i play them from beginnings of yugioh era, and if i would play meta now i would probably play gravekeeper's as well (i have them in goat format, because i just play goat format and don't like novadays meta), i stoped with them as meta few months before supernaturalist would appear in booster, in that time i turned back to meta and return to old dusty goat format, where keeper's were more slower, few years after that i played them in duel links i think, and actually used some of later keeper cards like (ambusher or nobleman) shame they didn't exist earlier, but i never knew that oracle is card that referencess God cards themselfs, new info tho. Anyway i have them in original form in goat format, i play them from time to time on tournaments, they weren't much of a thing in goat format, since they required a lot of negacions to protect necrovalley, i even have 3 copies of og necrovalley with magic card in their name, but for me it was always fun playing with them, they are literally first ever kind of meta deck to me.
I was in Vancouver and found a Donair place called "Ishtar Donair" in which my brother and I made the joke a joke in Reference to the end of the Avengers post credit scene lol. Just a fun memory.
My favorite archetype! Literally my go-to in Duel Links, and I have an upgraded/turbo form of this archetype in Master Duel. Should bust it out and see how many deck listers ragequit. XD
I'm surprised you didn't make this list earlier, I mean i have been fan of the Gravekeepers archetype since Yu-gi-oh GX and I finally Made it, good job!
It is worth noting that Gravekeeper's Heiratic/Spititualist, Gravekeeper's Ambusher, and arguably Gravekeepers Assailant (the only look at her hair is in royal tribute where most of the color is distorted by the surrounding magical energy but there do appear to be white strnads pikeing through); are the only Gravekeepers who have white hair that is not a result of age. This would make sense if they are all representations of the theif King Bakura and Cul Elna people he considered his murdered family. It seperates them from the rest of the gravekeepers. Further, it is important to note why the thief king Bakura would be included in this archtype and possibly why the ishtat family fell into eventual corruption agaisnt the Pharoah..it does appear that their home was built under the ruins of Cul Elna. We know the Pharoah's tomb is somewhat nearby, but separate, in the valley of Kings. The city of Cul Elna was in the desert beyond the main kindom and also near the vally of the kings, which is why Shimon Muran (Grandpa's ancient egyptian priest coutnerpart) was tasked with making elaborate protective traps for the tombs. Thief King Bakura's act to announce himself was to first loot the prior Pharoah's tomb and charge into royal court; dragging the mummy and adorned in the treasures. The Ishtar family would instead use the close proximity to help watch over the tomb. The underground Lair of the Ishtar family also contains the Millenium Tablet. This was the mold used in the Millenium Ritual. This artifact could have been moved byt since the ritual was performed at Cul Elna in the first place, and the slab left there at least T.K. Barkura rattled things up. This feels unlikly to me. The slab was still needed to help free the spirit of the pharoah in the final duel so it makes more sense it would still need to be there the initial ritual was conducted and the protectors just moved everything underground to protect it. The logic of hiding underground makes perfect sense since the city of Cul Elna was not safe from being decimated, so the protectors needed something further to ensure their goal. Something interesting is that we know from the millenium world "flashback" that the T.K. Bakura can call upon the spirits of the Cul Elna ghosts to assist whime at the remains of the City. We also know that the madness of the Istars started with the father around the time Merik was a young boy. We also know the spirit of the ring (the puece of Zorc's soul that tainted T.K. Bakura) could inadvertantly grow more freed and have automous affects when it comes into contact with other objects or places of significance to its origins. It was when it was united with Bakura, a decendent, that it become consious again and when it got close to the puzzle that it could take over Bakuras body. In Dark Side of Dimentions, we see Bakura went to the Protectors hideout to kill Shadi right after he got the ring. Even though he did not make contact with the Ishtars, I do not feel this lining up so close to the tine that the Istar family would start straying, is coincidence. The Ishtar family and protectors lived in the lair for generations without incident, despite Maxemillion Pegasus recognizing a feeling of a strong malevolant magic presence during his visits. Its only after this would have occured, when Merik was aroudn the same age Bakura was during his visit, that the dark forces would suddenly be able to overwhelm the Ishtars. My thoughts are that the Cul Elna Spirits were empowered when Bakura used the ring and murdered Shadi in the lair that would have been right under the old thief town. The grave protectors were taking residence in place of the Cul Elnans, underneath their ruins and thus still on their cursed ground. They replaced the Cul Elnans. Another fun thing to consider is that Bakura was NOT technically the only survivor in the manga reality, which is where Dark Side of Dimentions takes place. In the GX manga, some loose story threads get elaborated on. We learned in Millenium World that Mahado was NOT the first priest to wield the ring and that the first one was overwhelmed by it. In GX we learn this was Tragoedea. He was a gifted atrologist from Cul Enla and welcomed by the prior Pharoah into his pcurt for his unique service. This was a sort of diplomatic presidence between the city of theives and the royal city. He was extremly grateful/faithful to the pharoah and he was an example of the good potential Cul Enla had to the main city. He was the only priest not aware of the ritual that made the items but the ring helped him discover the truth and influenced his emotions to be hightened. When he leanred the truth, he incorrectly assumed Pharoah also knew when permission was given and that he had been betrayed. He went to confront the Pharoah but was intercepted by the other priests who wanted to both protect the Pahorah and keep the dark truth from their king. Tragoedea was thus the first victim of the Millenium Items to be banished to the realm from with Zorc escaped. The millenium of entrapment there altered him to become the demonic entitity he was in GX. In both Millenium World and GX it is priven that Cul Elna, despite being a cuty og thieves, was not evil. They stole only what they needed to survive in the desert and were more outcasts by ignroance/predjudice but still loyal enough to the Pharoah until the betrayment on them.
My favorite deck! They should add more fusion monsters. Maybe something(s) that mills (kind of the trend as of late) or a monster that can negate so you don’t have to rely on back row, to make the deck pure Gravekeeper set.
Gravekeeper is such an op deck, I don’t know how many times I’ve used it against modern decks that utilize the grave and banished zones only to be negated by Necrovalley.
Dude! I played these cards in my deck years ago when I was still playing. I didn't have them all, but I didn't care. Such a fun archetype for the game.
I play grave keepers on md so this was cool. My end board i aim for is Necrovalley, GK Supernaturalist and hidden temples of necrovalley,and moon mirror shield if i get lucky. When it works it works good super good lol
Is how their family is named after Ishtar the goddess of love and war which makes some sense since war leads to death but I don't know about love though cause that family Na
Wow! I've learned quite a few new things today watching this video. With Gravekeeper's being a top 3 favorite deck for myself, I greatly appreciated and watching this video. Thank you 🙌
I feel like an older version of Gravekeeper’s Spiritualist would tribute itself to bust out a new extra deck monster,maybe a better Gravekeeper’s Oracle
Here's a new Duel Analysis you should do TGS. "Should Arkana have won against Yugi?" [Master of Magicians] A Duel between two duelists who uses the Dark Magician was so intense.
Quick Question; Would the monster known as The End of Anubis count as an unofficial Gravekeeper monster? Or at the very least treated as a Support Monster? I ask this because I've played a Yu-Gi-Oh video game that had the Gravekeeper Archetype in the game, and one of the opponents was The End of Anubis that used a Gravekeeper Deck. Of which his ace monster, wasn't any of the Gravekeepers, but The End of Anubis himself.
Recently, I've started to use a deck that focuses on the Gravekeeper Archetype, and I've got to say that it might be one of my favorite archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh. I'm not kidding, this archetype can be outright broken when used correctly. And I found out by using the cards Necrovalley, Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist, and Secret Temple of Necrovalley, you've essentially lockdown your opponent's deck as they can't summon any powerful monsters via Special Summon. Those monsters in your opponent's Extra Deck are rendered useless as they can't be summoned, and most monsters that can be Tribute Summoned are generally not strong enough to take on Gravekeeper's Supernaturalist. That Graveyard Zone that doubles as a secondary and can be used to mske summoning monsters easier? Forget it, the Graveyard can't be used while Nercrovalley is active. Combine that with a monster like Gravekeeper's Descendants, of which you can combo his effect with Gravekeeper's Recruiter, and you have a scary deck if used correctly.
Awesome and interesting vid! I love how the cards look similar to the characters, and learning more about Tombkeepers+Ancient Egypt.♡♡ Gravekeeper's Heretic always reminded me of Yami Bakura/Thief King Bakura, finally I hear someone else mention it.😃 Also, Gravekeeper's Stele (if that's Gravekeeper's Descendant on the card), reminds me of how Yami Marik has ways to get Monster Reborn from his graveyard to resurrect/use to get The Winged Dragon of Ra. 😃💙💜♡♡
I've noticed that the artist for the gravekeepers archetype is also the one responsible for the Warrock, Subterror, Ancient Warriors, Tenyi, maybe even Dual Avatars? My favorite artist in the Yu-Gi-Oh Franchise.
