Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)/Awesome but Impractical

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


During its 20+ years of card games, it's no surprise that Yu-Gi-Oh! would have its fair share of ideas that sound awesome in theory, but simply don't work well (if at all) on the field. Take note that as time passes, some of these might've gotten supports that made them at least more playable (although, most of the time, still not necessarily "good").

  • Generally speaking, most of the alternate win strategies are either these, or degenerate Game Breakers that ended up finding themselves in the depths of the Forbidden & Limited list.
  • Almost all of the early Fusion and Ritual Monsters fall into this due to the fact that the sheer amount of cards needed to bring them don't justify the weak monsters you're getting on the field. Special mention goes to Rare Fish, a weak non-Effect Fusion Monster that requires Fusionist, another weak non-Effect Fusion Monster, as one of its materials.
  • One of the most infamous examples would be Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth. It has 3500 ATK, which is admittedly quite high. However, the requirements to Summon it was so ridiculous that pretty much nobody bothered to use it, with a number of Yu-Gi-Oh! video games actually treat the very accomplishment of Summoning one as an in-game achievement. In order to bring the moth out, you have to keep a pathetically weak monster (Petit Moth) equipped with Cocoon of Evolution for six whole turns. Take note that the latter card simply made Petit Moth's DEF 2000, which does basically nothing to defend it against an onslaught of card effects and more-accessible stronger monsters for a turn, let alone six. And if you somehow got past all that, all you get is a 3500 ATK beater with no effect or self-protection whatsoever, which means it would die if your opponent so much as breathe at it with a destruction effect.
  • Gate Guardian is another classic example. While each of its body parts Sanga of the Thunder, Kazejin and Suijin has excellent stats and effects for their time, Gate Guardian requires you to Tribute all three of them (take note that all three are Level 7 monsters, which normally already require some setup to bring out) for a monster without effect whose total stats don't even justify the cost of removing your own perfectly-competent trio of 2-Tributes monsters.
  • Both Metalzoa and Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon fell victim to this. The former requires you to sarifice a Zoa equipped with the Trap Card Metalmorph, while the latter demands the same but with Red-Eyes Black Dragon. In short, you're trading a 2-Tributes monster equipped with a Trap that grants it a nifty effect for a beater that simply has slightly more ATK than their base form and no effect.
  • In the same vein, Dragon Master Knight and Five-Headed Dragon are both high-Level Fusion Monster that require extensive effort to just bring them on the field, with the former requiring 5 Dragon monsters while the latter requiring Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (a Fusion Monster that requires 3 monsters) and Black Luster Soldier (a Level 8 Ritual Monster) as materials. Both also have effects that aren't worth it for the hoops you have to jump through to get there.
  • Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon requires you to first Summon the aforementioned Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, then send it to the Graveyard to Summon it from your hand.
  • Machina Force requires you to gather three specific "Machina" monsters and then using the effect of Commander Covington to Special Summon it from the hand. For a monster that needs you to pay 1000 LP just to attack. While it temporarily gain some use in tournaments as discard fodder for Machina Fortress, later, more and more "Machina" monsters that are compatible with Fortress while also actually contributing to the Deck would be released, pushing Machina Force down the well again.
  • The three Egyptian Gods were released to the game with a set of Nerfs that caused them to be much more difficult to play, as well as reducing the power level of their Nigh Invulnerability. While Slifer and Obelisk were at least "okay" with the right Deck, Ra wasn't as fortunate. First of all, its passive effect to gain the total ATK of its 3 Tributes was completely removed, which means that outside of Point-to-Point Transfer, Ra would have 0 ATK. Meanwhile, its famous Point-to-Point Transfer effect was turned into an on-Summon Trigger Effect, which means that if you choose not to use it the moment Ra is Tribute Summoned, you'd have a Ra that permanently sits at a paltry 0 ATK on the field. And finally, since Ra couldn't be Special Summoned at all, its Immortal Phoenix effect was replaced with a simple "pay 1000 LP to pop 1 target monster" effect that can barely do a difference in a field full of strong monsters. And since Point-to-Point Transfer requires you to pay LP until you have only 100 left, you'd have to choose between missing out on the destruction effect until you managed to gain 1000 LP in one way or another, or having a Ra that sits at 0 ATK. There have since been multiple attempts at making Ra more playable by releasing its other effects as additional monsters that work with it, as well as having multiple cards that support the Egyptian Gods or Marik's strategy in general, so while Ra is still ridiculously hard to play, at least it's not as pathetic as it was on arrival.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_(Tabletop_Game)/Awesome_but_Impractical?oldid=1918301"