How YuGiOh used to be like in early 2000s

[Vanythe]

Here's how old yugioh used to be like, the way I remember, back in early 2000s. I may not remember everything correctly but I do remember some of the stuff below being common in non-official competitions/tournaments which did claim to follow the official rules so feel free to quote me and correct me if I wrote something that's not true.

- Any monster could be revived from the GY, including rituals and fusion monsters that haven't been ritual/fusion summoned first.

- Cards could be removed from play without any way to get them back into the duel.

- Only 1 card that could fusion summon - Polymerization. That was it, nothing else.

- Obvious pack-filler cards that you had to include if you wanted to build a themed deck (those would be Lv1-4 normal monsters like Flying Fish, Dissolverock, Misairuzame etc.

- With the exception of only a handful of Lv4 cards, most of the monsters with more than 1500 ATK/DEF were Lv5 or above, requiring a tribute.

- 2000 DEF Duel-stall cards. If you or your opponent played such a card, the rest of the duel would devolve into End-Phase-Draw-End-Phase until someone got a 2050 ATK or higher monster or an Equip spell/Normal spell card.

- If a trap card was to be destroyed by the likes of Harpie's Feather duster or MST, you could not activate it before it's destroyed, that was only reserved for one single card which was Fake Trap.

- Your 1200 ATK Lv4 monster was considered good, 1400 ATK was decent, anything above that was OP and required those +300 ATK Equip cards to deal with.

- Effect monsters were rare, only a handful in the entire pack/structure deck.

- Spell cards used to be called Magic cards.

- Banishing did not exist, instead, cards would be removed from play.

- 60 card decks weren't uncommon.

- Early Effect monsters had confusing card text which caused incorrect rulings at non-official tournaments, especially with cards like Patrician of Darkness. Internet wasn't common back then, and when it was available, it was usually a 56K or an ISDN connection which was charged by the minute, so googling how a card ruling worked required some actual research and money.

- Special Summoning was very rare and unheard of.

- Fusion Summon was it's own thing, as well as Ritual Summon, it wasn't treated as Special Summon.

- Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc.

- Quick-play spell cards didn't exist.

- Dark Hole basically had no counter until later.

- Cards like Barox that tested your math skills mid-duel, or completely broke them if the right combo of cards was played.

- There simply wasn't enough cards to build any themed deck with Aqua, Fish, Sea Serpent, Reptile, Machine, Dinosaur, Zombie, Rock, Fairy, Plant, and Thunder types.

- Aqua, Fish and Sea Serpent often shared trap and spell cards which was annoying if your opponent was also playing one of these types.

- Initially, only Warriors, Spellcasters, Dragons and Rock had a normal Lv7+ monster card.

- Blue Eyes White Dragon was the only normal Lv8 card with 3000 ATK for a long time.

- Archetypes didn't exist.

- Cards like De-Spell being completely useless as nobody was setting spell-cards back then. It was only useful for removing field spells and equip spell cards.

- Only one Field Spell can be activated. If you activate a field spell first, your opponent can destroy it by activating their field spell.

- A duel could be stalled with One-Eyed Shield Dragon and Beaver Warrior for a couple of turns.

Aside from completely OP cards and Archetype-only cards, modern yugioh IMHO offers more gameplay and strategy than how it was when the first packs and decks came out. I do miss the ability to use MR on any monster in the GY regardless of how it got there.

[Aldain]

inb4somebodylinksthatmagicalscientistotkvideoforthehundrethtime

[MancakeBR]

"Any monster could be revived from the GY, including rituals and fusion monsters that haven't been ritual/fusion summoned first."
Incorrect.

"Cards could be removed from play without any way to get them back into the duel."
Return from a Different Dimension: Am I a joke to you?

"Obvious pack-filler cards that you had to include if you wanted to build a themed deck (those would be Lv1-4 normal monsters like Flying Fish, Dissolverock, Misairuzame etc."
Only bad players did that.

"With the exception of only a handful of Lv4 cards, most of the monsters with more than 1500 ATK/DEF were Lv5 or above, requiring a tribute."
Only because of Legend of Blue-Eyes it changed after that.

"If a trap card was to be destroyed by the likes of Harpie's Feather duster or MST, you could not activate it before it's destroyed, that was only reserved for one single card which was Fake Trap."
Yes and no, the trap still had to meet it's activation requirement, but you can still use the trap if it did.

"Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc."
Magic Jammer: Am I a joke to you?

"Early Effect monsters had confusing card text which caused incorrect rulings at non-official tournaments, especially with cards like Patrician of Darkness. Internet wasn't common back then, and when it was available, it was usually a 56K or an ISDN connection which was charged by the minute, so googling how a card ruling worked required some actual research and money."
How are you going to bring up Patrician of Darkness, yet act like Magic Jammer didn't exist...

"Effect monsters were rare, only a handful in the entire pack/structure deck."
Again, only in LOB days.

"Your 1200 ATK Lv4 monster was considered good, 1400 ATK was decent, anything above that was OP and required those +300 ATK Equip cards to deal with."
How are you going to say 1200 ATK Lv4 monster is good then say 1400 was "decent"????

"Banishing did not exist, instead, cards would be removed from play."
You do realize that banishing and removed from play are the same thing right? It was a change Konami made to save space on card text.

"60 card decks weren't uncommon."
There was no card limit and everyone running more than 40 cards were considered "bad".

"Special Summoning was very rare and unheard of."
Rare? Sure. Unheard of? Nope

"Fusion Summon was it's own thing, as well as Ritual Summon, it wasn't treated as Special Summon."
They were always a Special Summon

"Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc."
Again you're talking about LOB days. Early yugioh still had Counter Traps.

"Quick-play spell cards didn't exist."
How are you going to say they don't exist, yet previously you bring up MST?

"Archetypes didn't exist."
Wrong, Harpie Lady was an archetype that existed, and even Summoned Skull was part of the Archfiend archetype which funnily enough included Axe of Despair.

"Cards like De-Spell being completely useless as nobody was setting spell-cards back then. It was only useful for removing field spells and equip spell cards."
People did set spells. They did it to bluff the opponent, which worked. Also how are you saying it was "completely useless" then proceed to show it had a use?

Final thoughts: Go home, you're drunk.

[EXO]

"Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc."
Bro, Solemn Judgement was literally in the second set (Metal Raiders) which came out the same year as LoB

Edit: Crazy how you say traps that negated other traps and list Anti Raigeki... I guess Raigeki was a trap all along.

[【𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙠】🧉]

Originally posted by Vanythe:

- Cards could be removed from play without any way to get them back into the duel.

- Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc.

- Only a few months between Gravedigger's Ghoul and Miracle Dig

- SOLEMN JUDGEMENT

Do your homework please

[Vanythe]

Originally posted by 【Ｓｐｅｋ】🧉:

Originally posted by Vanythe:

- Cards could be removed from play without any way to get them back into the duel.

- Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc.

- Only a few months between Gravedigger's Ghoul and Miracle Dig

- SOLEMN JUDGEMENT

Do your homework please

Solemn judgement was a set 2 card afaik, wasn't there in the early days like I said.

[Vanythe]

Originally posted by MancakeBR:

"Any monster could be revived from the GY, including rituals and fusion monsters that haven't been ritual/fusion summoned first."
Incorrect.

"Cards could be removed from play without any way to get them back into the duel."
Return from a Different Dimension: Am I a joke to you?


"Obvious pack-filler cards that you had to include if you wanted to build a themed deck (those would be Lv1-4 normal monsters like Flying Fish, Dissolverock, Misairuzame etc."
Only bad players did that.


"With the exception of only a handful of Lv4 cards, most of the monsters with more than 1500 ATK/DEF were Lv5 or above, requiring a tribute."
Only because of Legend of Blue-Eyes it changed after that.

"If a trap card was to be destroyed by the likes of Harpie's Feather duster or MST, you could not activate it before it's destroyed, that was only reserved for one single card which was Fake Trap."
Yes and no, the trap still had to meet it's activation requirement, but you can still use the trap if it did.

"Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc."
Magic Jammer: Am I a joke to you?

"Early Effect monsters had confusing card text which caused incorrect rulings at non-official tournaments, especially with cards like Patrician of Darkness. Internet wasn't common back then, and when it was available, it was usually a 56K or an ISDN connection which was charged by the minute, so googling how a card ruling worked required some actual research and money."
How are you going to bring up Patrician of Darkness, yet act like Magic Jammer didn't exist...

"Effect monsters were rare, only a handful in the entire pack/structure deck."
Again, only in LOB days.

"Your 1200 ATK Lv4 monster was considered good, 1400 ATK was decent, anything above that was OP and required those +300 ATK Equip cards to deal with."
How are you going to say 1200 ATK Lv4 monster is good then say 1400 was "decent"????

"Banishing did not exist, instead, cards would be removed from play."
You do realize that banishing and removed from play are the same thing right? It was a change Konami made to save space on card text.

"60 card decks weren't uncommon."
There was no card limit and everyone running more than 40 cards were considered "bad".

"Special Summoning was very rare and unheard of."
Rare? Sure. Unheard of? Nope

"Fusion Summon was it's own thing, as well as Ritual Summon, it wasn't treated as Special Summon."
They were always a Special Summon

"Counter Traps didn't exist, instead, you had traps that negated other traps such as Fake Trap, Anti Raigeki etc."
Again you're talking about LOB days. Early yugioh still had Counter Traps.

"Quick-play spell cards didn't exist."
How are you going to say they don't exist, yet previously you bring up MST?

"Archetypes didn't exist."
Wrong, Harpie Lady was an archetype that existed, and even Summoned Skull was part of the Archfiend archetype which funnily enough included Axe of Despair.

"Cards like De-Spell being completely useless as nobody was setting spell-cards back then. It was only useful for removing field spells and equip spell cards."
People did set spells. They did it to bluff the opponent, which worked. Also how are you saying it was "completely useless" then proceed to show it had a use?

Final thoughts: Go home, you're drunk.

1. RFDD came only later, wasn't there in 2002, thats why I said Early 2000s (2000-2002)
2. I said if you wanted a THEMED deck, not a good one.
3. Depends on who was ruling the duel.
4. Same as 1.
5. Same as 1.
6. Thats what I said.
7. Yes. And there weren't any cards to bring those cards back into the duel until much later, like you said in 1.
8. There was no internet/limited access to it back then, nobody knew how to build proper decks. 60 card decks were common.
9. Same as 1.
10. Same as 1. Gah, MST came way later.
11. Wrong.
12. There were better cards to put in the deck than de-spell.

Keep in mind that most of the rules are from the local hobbyist tournaments, hosted by local libraries and hobby shops. Rulings used to depend on the shop but followed official "rules" as to how the game was played, again, unless things got heated and some specific cards (Patrician of Darkness) had to be checked on the internet on the various forums etc.

[Merilirem]

As someone who played yugioh from the start, atleast as long as its been in english, your list was regional.

Now maybe its just because you guys didn't have internet. We had internet. Everyone played by the rules and the day something changed EVERYONE knew about it. Thats actually part of why i dropped the game when the first banlist knocked out my Chaos deck beyond repair. The day it happened literally everyone updated to that format even for casual play. In fact the only place people were playing without that list was the local tournaments which were still using traditional formats.

My playground Yugioh was literally the same thing as modern Yugioh. We all looked at the rules online and played by them. This is probably why coming back after many years didn't actually bother me as much compared to the other people who never played by the actual rules.

[EXO]

Originally posted by Vanythe:

Originally posted by 【Ｓｐｅｋ】🧉:

- Only a few months between Gravedigger's Ghoul and Miracle Dig

- SOLEMN JUDGEMENT

Do your homework please

Solemn judgement was a set 2 card afaik, wasn't there in the early days like I said.

LEGEND OF BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON ( Release Date : 03/08/2002 )
METAL RAIDERS ( Release Date : 06/26/2002 ) (Here is Solemn Judgment)
3 months and 3 weeks apart.... i guess the early days was only 3 months.

[C.C. 折オリ枝 の 夫]

Originally posted by EXO:

Originally posted by Vanythe:

Solemn judgement was a set 2 card afaik, wasn't there in the early days like I said.

LEGEND OF BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON ( Release Date : 03/08/2002 )
METAL RAIDERS ( Release Date : 06/26/2002 ) (Here is Solemn Judgment)
3 months and 2 weeks apart.... i guess the early days was only 3 months.

3 months and a half kek

Jokes aside, isn't that how it always is? The "early days" or "oldschool" is whatever fits the narrative.

[Silamon]

Yeah I was around back then too... Pretty much every one of your points are either incorrect or you were not playing by the real rules back then.

[Angel]

they think MST negates lol

[Knud den Store 🧙‍♂]

B word you be tripping.
It was broken as all hell, a mess with no direction and quickly became a joke once Invasion of Darkness released.

Your choice of CED or anti-meta, those were your decks. The rest was janky, barely playable burn / stall decks.
The game in itself did not get better until the Synchro era starting with Blackwings as the the template for every future archetype.

[GNS | Yuya]

you forgot the part where it was much better than the sh*t we have nowadays

[Silamon]

Originally posted by el topo:

you forgot the part where it was much better than the sh*t we have nowadays

Not really.... Everyone playing the same deck was pretty boring.

[Aldain]

Originally posted by Silamon:

Originally posted by el topo:

you forgot the part where it was much better than the sh*t we have nowadays

Not really.... Everyone playing the same deck was pretty boring.

I mean it still is pretty boring.

The more things change the more they stay the same and all that.

Before people list all the archetypes you do see these days, how many of them are running on one of the handful of generic engines and boss monsters with the same 15ish handtrap-related cards? Personally I'd almost rather see the exact same deck than a bunch of decks only different in how they vomit out the same extra deck cards.