Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)/Tropes O-Z

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Due to the large amount of examples in the main page, it was split into subpages.

This page contains examples from Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, tropes O to Z.

  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: The game lacks a "HP" stat for monsters, which means that unless stated on their effects, they all die in a single attack.
  • Our Angels Are Different: In fact, some of them are Synthetic.
  • Our Dragons Are Different:
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: Oh, yeah...
  • Orochi:
  • Oxymoronic Being:
    • Behold, the Anteatereatingant! The German name of the card - "Anteating Anteater" - is even worse.
    • The Fire Kraken, a FIRE Aqua-Type monster. To be fair, fire breathing squids seems to be a recurring theme in Japanese media.
    • Chemicritter Carbo Crab is similar to Fire Kraken above, in that that its Type/Attribute combination seem to be contradictory to each other.
  • Pet Owl: The game has a couple of examples:
  • Petting Zoo People: Beast-Warrior monsters in general. Some examples include the Gladiator Beasts and the Fur Hires.
  • Physical God: Most of the godlike monsters such as the Egyptian Gods or the Aesir monsters. And they're still subject to being destroyed or have their effects negated, just like all the other monsters.
  • The Plague: The game has a handful of "virus" cards, most famously the Crush Card Virus.
  • Plague of Locusts:
    • "Swarm of Locusts" is an Effect Monster that can destroy a Spell or Trap Card when Flip Summoned, and can flip itself face-down once per turn (which lets you activate the effect more reliably).
    • "Desert Locusts" is a Synchro Tuner Monster that is a group of much larger locusts, and has an that effect can facilitate "swarm" strategies with a quick Synchro Summon.
  • Poison Mushroom:
    • Parasite Paracide is a card that gets inserted into the opponent's deck face-up. When they draw it, it gets Summoned to their field and they take damage. It also causes all monsters they control to count as Insects.
    • Mushroom Man #2 damages its controller at the start of the turn, but can be shifted to the controller's opponent at the cost of some Life Points. This card becomes an exercise in playing "hot potato" with the opponent, but is not particularly popular, since they could just Tribute it or use it for a Special Summon material.
    • Lava Golem and Volcanic Queen both have high ATK, but you Summon them to the opponent's field. The trick is that they burn their controller each turn (and you get to Tribute opposing monsters to Summon them, thus getting rid of some of their cards), so if you're playing a stall deck, they're stuck with something they need to get rid of, otherwise they risk getting burned to death.
  • Power At a Price: Certain monsters come with a powerful effect, but basically no stats. The inverse is also true, with certain monsters that possess great ATK/DEF for their Levels, but also comes with a plethora of negative effects.
  • Power Equals Rarity: Just like most collectible games, with the occasional Junk Rares.
  • Power Limiter: Part of the backstory behind Gearfried the Iron Knight. When it gets released, look out.
  • Precision F-Strike: Oh F!sh!, indeed!
  • Real Robot Genre: A good number of Machine monsters are these, alongside Super Robots.
  • Regenerating Health: As long as you have Darklord Marie in your Graveyard, you gain 200 LP each Standby Phase. A lot of other cards can heal similarly as well, but they have to be on the field, where they are wide open to attacks or effects.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Venom, Alien, Worm and Reptilianne archetypes, among others. In fact, it's because of this trope that the Aliens and Worms (which are Starfish Aliens) are classified as "Reptiles," because they're just so wrong.
  • Reset Button: Fiber Jar resets pretty much everything in the duel except for Life Points and banished cards. Due to its potential to be used to draw out duels and make them even longer, so it was banned.
  • Retcon: When a new archetype is released in the OCG, if there are cards that share a name with the archetype but weren't named to match, they were renamed to fit in. For example, "Amazon Archer" became Amazoness Archer and "Oscillo Hero #2" became Wattkid. Some of the more "iconic" cards get to keep their names however, and were simply given a note that they were treated as a member of said archetype. For example, Summoned Skull.
  • Retired Badass: For example, the first generation Six Samurai monsters.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: In the OCG, Barrel Dragon is known as Revolver Dragon. One look at the original OCG artwork shows why.
  • Riddling Sphinx: Ordeal of a Traveler forces your opponent's monsters to win a guessing game if they want to attack you; the art depicts a traveler being questioned by a sphinx.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Many low-Level monsters (as well as some high-Level ones) count. Specific examples:
  • Samurai:
  • Scenery Gorn: A lot of cards have this, including a few (non-Field) Spells and Traps.
  • Scenery Porn: Some Field Spells are just gorgeous, and if not, the designs are at least very intricate and detailed.
  • Schizo-Tech: Everything from stone clubs to Steampunk ancient robots to the Perfect Machine King.
  • Schmuck Bait: The illustration of Reckless Greed shows a greedy man reaching for a treasure chest that is clearly over a trapdoor.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Seeing the destruction the war was causing, the Ice Barrier tribe decided to unseal Trishula, the strongest of the Ice Barrier Dragons. It did not end well.
  • Series Mascot:
    • The Kuriboh have been this for years, with there being at least 1 Kuriboh representation for each generation of the game.
      • Duel Monsters has, of course, the original Kuriboh and related cards that aren't technically part of the archetype, such as Kuribandit and Kuribabylon.
      • GX has the Winged Kuriboh and its evolutions.
      • 5D's has Kuribon, although was used by Luna and not Yusei, and doesn't doesn't count as a member by name. The 5D's manga however, has Junkuriboh, which does count as a member and is used by Yusei.
      • Zexal has Rainbow Kuriboh and Kurivolt, the latter being similar to Kuribon in that it doesn't count for the archetype gameplay-wise.
      • Similar to 5D's, the ARC-V anime doesn't feature a Kuriboh, but the manga has Yuya use Performapal Kuribohble, which count as both a "Kuriboh" card and a "Performapal" one.
      • VRAINS has Yusaku use Linkuriboh, which served as the first Extra Deck member of the archetype. Later, an evil counterpart of it was introduced, Linguriboh. Due to its name, Linguriboh doesn't technically count as a "Kuriboh" monster.
      • SEVENS has Kuribott, which is also one of the rare occasions a character is confirmed to use 3 copies of a card, with Yuga using 3 Kuribotts, all with different artworks.
    • The base forms of each protagonist's ace monsters also served as the "cool mascots" of their respective eras.
  • Set Bonus: Most archetypes work like this, with each cards supporting each other internally.
  • Shock and Awe: Thunder monsters. Additionally, a lot of cards that deal with destroying monsters happen to be named after or themed after electricity, like the Raiza the Thunder Monarch, Raigeki, Elemental HERO Thunder Giant, and so on.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: White Magician Pikeru and Ebon Magician Curran.
  • Sigil Spam
    • The Koa'ki Meiru monsters all feature their emblem somewhere on their person.
    • Gusto monsters all carry a metal amulet with a triangular design on it.
    • Most of the cards that use the Spell Counter mechanic carry the sigil for that theme.
    • The emblem for the Six Samurai appears in the background of every card in the theme. Noticeably, the only member to actually wear the emblem is their leader, the Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.
    • All the X-Saber archetype have the emblem of an X somewhere on their person. Even more so, the XX-Saber all wear red capes as well has having the emblem.
      • Every post-Trishula Duel Terminal Archetype features a logo of some sort.
  • Spider Tank: Launcher Spider takes this trope literally.
  • Starfish Aliens:
    • The Alien archetype. Some of the bigger ones border on Eldritch Abomination. One of them is even a Cosmic Horror by name! Also, they are the true masters of turnabout. Zeta Reticulant and Greed Quasar are not of the Alien archetype, but are still in the same visual class.
    • The Worms of the Duel Terminal storyline are even more Starfishy, ranging from hideous blobs to rampaging chitinous monstrosities. The only common feature they have is a toothy, vertical mouth.
  • Steampunk: The Ancient Gear archetype, also bordering on Clock Punk.
  • Superhero: The Elemental HEROs and their extended splinter group the Neo-Spacians. Their counterparts include the Masked HEROs, the Destiny HEROs/Vision HEROs and the Evil HEROs.
  • Super Mode:
    • The /Assault Mode upgrade for certain Synchro Monsters.
    • Certain monsters have "powered-up" versions that can only be Special Summoned by using their base form, such as Vampire Lord's upgrade Vampire Genesis.
    • Cards used by the protagonists and rivals of the anime series tend to have this as well.
  • Super Robot Genre: A good amount of Machine monsters, alongside Real Robots.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Whenever a card is declared Forbidden for being too powerful, Konami tends to release a watered down version of it. A couple of straight examples would be Rescue Rabbit for Rescue Cat, and Tradetoad for Substitoad.
  • Take Me Instead!: There are a few monsters that let you send them to the GY or banishes them to protect your other cards from being destroyed, Stardust Dragon being a famous example.
  • Taking the Bullet:
  • Taking You with Me:
    • Several ways. Activating Self-Destruct Button is one. Playing Ring of Destruction on a monster whose attack is more than both player's Life Points is another. Flipping a Morphing Jar when both players have less than 5 cards in their deck? Indeed.
    • Attacking a face-down monster with a Flip Effect causes its effect to activate, even if it would be destroyed. Man-Eater Bug is an iconic example.
  • Tarot Motifs: The Arcana Force monsters are based on tarot cards, including names and numbers, though not all 22 made the cut. There were also a couple of minor arcana thrown in: Ace of Cups, which randomly may let you or your opponent draw extra cards, and the anime-only Ten of Swords.
  • That Cloud Looks Like...: A bunch of monsters!
  • Theme Naming:
    • Archetypes work this way, with their support cards explicitly calling upon their written archetype name, which is required to present in each member's names (or if not, as part of a special note in their text box). This is also their main difference and what separates them from "series", which are usually formed with cards that simply have thematic connections, but no card that explicitly called for their themed name.
    • Some non-mechanic-related examples: Dark World monsters have a warped version of a color for a name (e.g. Green, Silver, Brown). The Worms have names beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, from "A" for "Worm Apocalypse" to "Z" for "Worm Zero".
  • The Scapegoat: Scapegoat and their Zombie counterpart Scapeghost.
  • The Virus: Ekibyo Drakmord returns to its owners hand (so long as it's not destroyed or the equipped monster is removed from the field), allowing it to spread to other monsters.
    • "DNA Surgery" can be seen as this, too, as its effect changes all monsters on the field to a single type (chosen by the cards activator). "DNA Transplant" does the same thing, but with Attribute in place of type.
    • This little bugger as well.
    • Tribe-Infecting Virus
    • The Alien Archetype is based largely on using this to weaken monsters.
    • The Verz Archetype is entirely composed of previous monsters from the Duel Terminal world corrupted by some kind of virus, leaving the infected as mindless beasts of destruction.
  • Time Bomb: Blast Sphere, Adhesive Explosive, and Jigen Bakudan, though going by its rulings, the latter's effect is instantaneous.
  • Time Machine: As seen here.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: The basis of the Gemini monsters, who must be normal summoned after already being on the field to gain their effects. There are cards to bypass this limitation, however, which may overlap with Eleventh-Hour Superpower.
  • Toon: The Toon Monsters.
  • Transforming Mecha: The Morphtronics archetype.
  • Trap Master: He destroys traps rather than setting them, though.
  • Trickster Archetype / Troll: The Jars. The majority of them have game-breaking effects that can turn entire strategies upside-down...and the artwork indicates that they do it all with a huge, goofy smile on their face.
  • True Companions: The Six Samurai, who can sacrifice each other if another one would be destroyed.
  • Ultimate Universe: The Duel Terminal verse, with a cohesive storyline, (akin to Magic: The Gathering or Duel Masters) streamlined rules, and even an Ultimatum analogue.
  • Underwear of Power: The Ojamas. All of them.
  • Unskilled but Strong: A well-built deck that resolves around normal monsters are rather powerful at the cost of having no effects. It should also be noted that they are immune to cards that affect Effect Monsters.
  • Up to Eleven: Monsters that are Level 8 are usually the strongest monsters you're likely to see in a deck, and they usually don't have an ATK of over 3000. Any effect monster with 3000 or higher ATK or a Level of 9 or higher usually has much stricter summoning conditions or an Achilles' Heel, but they make up for it by being really powerful.
  • Villainous Rescue: When your opponent attacks one of your Fiend-type monsters, you can send that Fiend to the graveyard, as well as one in your hand, to bring out Darkness Neosphere, a monster with 4000 attack and defense that can't be destroyed in battle!
  • Wave Motion Cannon
  • Weak but Skilled: In general, there are a lot of cards with low attack and defense points that have powerful effects. There's even a few archetypes based around Weak but Skilled cards, like the Frogs, the Watt monsters, Ojamas, and so on.
  • Weapon of Choice: The common theme for the Equip Spell Card-based Guardian archetype.
  • Wind Up Key: This spell card and the Archetype it supports
  • Winged Humanoid: The Harpie Lady archetype, Elemental HERO Avian, quite a few of the Blackwings, some of the monsters that look like angels and Yubel, or at least before she goes One-Winged Angel...
  • Winged Unicorn: Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus
  • Wolf Man: Lycanthrope, and any with "Warwolf" in the name.
  • The Worf Effect: The Millennium Shield's flavor text states that it is rumored to be able to block any kind of attack. Despite this, all of the other cards that depict the shield show it in the process of shattering
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Invoked by the Xyz monsters. The original Japanese literally didn't correspond to any actual word known, aside from a term from a completely unrelated ATLUS game, and that term literally spawned a response of "it couldn't POSSIBLY BE THAT" out of the fanlators. That situation, combined with how Konami has made text errors in its printings before (re: the Zombie-Type's OCG name being "Undeat" rather than Undead thanks to such a mistake), made folks think of "Exceed" as a term that not only fit thematically but suffered from a hearty amount of Ascended Fanon. Cue the TCG release in which the very Konami article on the first ZeXal structure Deck included the name and the following line, "It's pronounced ik-seez". Apparently the name is a reference to spatial coordinates, which would fit the backstory in which the Xyz monsters came through a black hole, originating from a dimension of reverse-time.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: Chaos monsters, which are generally Game Breakers. To summon them, you merely have to remove from play one Light and one Dark monster out of your graveyard. A nerfed version of them, the Sky Scourges, require a much heftier and more specific version of the same cost (three dark fiends and one light fairy, or three fairies and one fiend).
    • Later, there were also other monsters also released with the word "Chaos" in their name; most of them involve some sort of combination of a Light and Dark monster. Chaos Goddess and Elemental HERO Chaos Neos are a couple of them.
    • There's also "Light and Darkness Dragon," which counts as both a light and dark monster; its main deal is that it blocks ALL card effects from happening, but becomes weaker each time it does; when it inevitably gets destroyed, you can choose any other monster in your graveyard to resurrect (and then blow up all OTHER cards you control). So it's protection, destruction, sacrifice and rebirth all at once--perfect for a creature of both light and darkness.
    • "Elemental HERO Darkbright," a fusion between a light and dark Elemental HERO monster. It has a powerful piercing attack, but makes itself vulnerable immediately afterwards by shifting to defense position. If it gets killed, though, you get to destroy an opposing card, too.
  • Yin-Yang Clash: Many examples, but one of the biggest is the ongoing and escalating Duel Terminal battle originally between the Steelswarm and the Vylon, which has now become a battle between the corrupted Verz and the Sacred.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: And red...and green...and some purple...
    • The Dark Magician in particular is notable for having a different hair color in each of his five separate artworks.
    • The Charmers' hair corresponds to their attributes.
  • You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: Some cards have variable ATK and DEF, represented with a "?" instead of numbers. If they get hit with something that negates their effect, their ATK and DEF become zero. So they are literally nothing without their powers.
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