Jirai Gumo has no downside if you believe in the heart of the cards.

We need more Bistro Butcher because we need to make the Hungry Burger Archetype

People used to creature swap Bistro Butcher to their opponent and run into it with recruiters like mystic tomato. Not the most practical interaction but it was an interesting interaction.

Dezeff: I can't pronounce this card. Also Dezeff: *Pronounces it perfectly*

Ahh I remember when “Spell Ruler” was called “Magic Ruler” 😂

The worst part of Unfriendly Amazon? That "effect" is a maintenance cost, so Skill Drain, which is useful for many of the other cards on this list, doesn't negate the effect, because it's a cost.

I loved that manga chapter where a kid was cosplaying as Zombyra to be a hero.

Fun fact, Goddess of whim's effect is kinda interesting because it doubles it's current attack, not it's original attack. I think the duel logs did a video on it.

Most of these monsters: Hey, look at how much ATK I have! There's a cost, though. Gene-Warped Warwolf: Imagine having a cost lmao. Couldn't be me.

If only Doug released this before Cimo and MBT faced off in their recent duel... :3

So many of the cards in this video gave me flashbacks to my childhood, when I'd get all excited after seeing 4 stars, high atk on the card... then read the effect...

I actually used boar soldier in my first deck that I brought to locals. I used it to normal summon, it destroys itself, and then it triggers the effect of one of my meklord emperors in my hand. Definitely one of the smartest plays 9-year-old me ever did.

One thing to consider is some of the first sets for the TCG it was mixed from 2 or more OCG sets. I believe if I am correct Bistro Butcher came out while lv 4 or lower monsters max attack was around 1550.

Title: "These Weren't Balanced At All" Thumbnail: Dark Elf Dark Elf in the video: "This is probably one of the most balanced of all of these cards in today's video"

Wow Doug you're going to look really foolish when Flash Assailant Infernities sweep Worlds next year

"I can't pronounce Jirai Gumo" "ZOMBRAYA THE DARK"

8:10 Karate Man had a niche use that didn't really come up often in that it can run over wall of illusion, gets bounced by the wall and thus not get destroyed. So if you wanted an out specifically against wall of illusion, this card fit the bill.

Speaking of Dark Elf... GAME 3 LOL

Many of these cards are what I would call "placeholder cards": ards you do not want to play, but have to play, because you don't have anything better, you really need to fill in these last spots in your deck, you already spent your week's allowance on boosters, and you have to duel the king of the playground in 10 minutes.

Give me a monster called "Darker Elf" that has 2000 attack but gives your opponent 1000LP as a cost to attack. Then let me Bad Reaction to Simochi and equip something that gives me extra attacks to OTK

Slate Warrior and Spear Dragon: true OGs

I believe people were willing to take the downside for a 2000 atk monster because overall it took longer to get big monsters on the board making early game damage more essential Edit: also if you kept beating over your opponents monsters early game they could find it hard to get a good monster out since most high attack cards required a tribute so unless they had removal they could be caught in a bind

Rare Metal Dragon was one of those cards that were meant to work with another. In this case, Familiar Knight that when it is destroyed both players can summon a level 4 monster from their hand. You were meant to crash Familiar Knight into something and then summon RMD.

Ah, Chainsaw insect... Bring back memories of my Ultimate Insect Princess Deck.

I'm a little sad that tardy Orc didn't make the list, but we know he missed the bus.

I remember one time I saw some kids using zombira the dark,they were convinced that the word "decrease" means "increase" so they kept increasing his attack. they didn't believe me when I told them the truth.(This happened in greece by the way, the cards are not dubbed at greek).

Dzeef: "You'd have to play without cards in your hand for this card to be competitive" Kalin: *Laughs in Infernity Inferno*

You know as well as I do that Gate Guardian was the perfect beatstick in oldschool YuGiOh.

The main takeaway for me from this series so far is how much more i like the aesthetic of the older artwork from the first decade of the game. It's not as polished but it just looks better to me, I can't really explain why though.

Back in the day, some of my friends were really into just running tons of Goblin Attack Forces, Giant Orcs, and Karate Mans. We were a straightforward bunch

There's no such thing as a "too long video" from you. I always enjoy listening to your analysis on cards and your videos are perfect to watch while doing work that doesn't require much attention. You're saving my days from boredom!

Great video. Just to add to the discussion, I have to say that: 1. Jirai Gummo might not have been played much, but players who go back to the Metal Raiders (Critter) or Magic Ruler format use this card and have certain success with it, in decks that play 3 Solemn Judgements. Because if you play 3 Solemn Judgements, you are playing a game where Life Points don't matter. And Jirai Gummo can run over any Normal Summoned/Set monster. And not only is the drawback a 50%, but paying half LPs is more important than just paying 1000 LPs as with Dark Elf, if you play 3 Solemn Judgements. But this kind of deck that pays a lot of LPs is the reason why people are playing Cannon Soldier in Critter or MRL format (at least in side). 2. Flash Assailant saw competitive play on Duel Links with skills like pre-nerfed Balance (very early Duel Links formats). Also it has a neat combo with Reverse Trap (boosts ATK instead of decreasing ATK). 3. Chainsaw Insect had a different errata. When it was released, the drawback of drawing one card only triggered when battling a monster. But if it attacked directly, there was no drawback.

I used Bistro Butcher in my Mill deck in one of the the GX era DS games. Good times

Oh man this brings me back. Like 6 of these cards I used to run in my yugioh deck in middle school. It was warrior tribal and the goal with the deck was to kill enough of my opponents monsters to where I could cheat out a blue eyes to finish them.

7:00 AH YES THE INFERNITY TECH THAT WILL BRING THEM BACK TO TIER 0

Jirai Gumo is legit terrifying in Duelists of the Roses. They also made Panther Warrior and Bistro Butcher useable.

7:29 As far as I could see, this card came out arround the time another card called Reverse Trap was there. It basically makes every effect that substracts/adds attack/defense do the opposite until the end of the turn, meaning that, with Megamorph, 5 cards in your hand and activating that, you can get the monster to 6k attack, wich is nothing to laugh at. And yes, I know, the combo is really specific and not really consistant enough to depend on that, but it'd be funny if your opponent is about to win and you summon that monster and do that combo and just attack with a 6k beatstick lmao

I recall there being a somewhat interesting type of deck back in the day that featured Dark Elf, Jirai Gumo, Megamorph, and Solemn Judgment (alongside a lot of the usual staples and semi-staples). It was called suicide beatdown, and Megamorph was the glue that held it together. Since Dark Elf, Jirai Gumo, and Solemn Judgment all reduced your own LP, it was relatively easy to manipulate which mode Megamorph would be in, allowing you to get in some really big single hits. I have no idea whether it saw any kind of competitive success, and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't, but by the standards of the time, it was a pretty interesting deck idea.

When I started watching the video I thought, he can't end this series without talking about boar soldier I got it in my first yugioh set ever, it and a similar card called "nuvia the wicked" once I understood what the effects ment I thought it was a card ment to wait in your hand to be used for ritual summons, it being a 4 star and all, great video man

People like panther warrior because it was used in the manga. However, in the manga, panther warrior was just a 2000 atk vanilla with no drawbacks, so....

Ah, Jirai Gumo. I actually thought this thing was insane back in that day in age. To be fair, when you're running a high-damage beat-down that's aggressive enough, I found losing 4k life to hit with a 2200 beatstick was actually worth it at that point. The tempo advantage was pretty strong, and I'd often win within a turn or two because of having a solid amount of attack points on the field for no effort, and it's effect didn't nerf it as it went, like the goblin's bending over to take another one, or Zombyra lowering itself down to no longer killing the standard 2k walls. He was a good card. ... At recess. >>; But still. I shall defend this beefy bungas for nostalgia's sake. Probably one of the better over-nerfed big-bois of the set.

As a kid I felt ripped off when Nuvia the Wicked was in my rare slot.

I remember playing chainsaw insect and wondering why I lost all the time lol

"I know it was a little bit longer, I apologise for that" (Looks at the Reading Every Normal Monster Video)

Where is Giant Kozaky ? He is literally the level 4 monster with biggest attack points... and a funny drawback.

I don't mind longer videos Doug, so no apology necessary!

Spear dragon was one of my favorites for these kind of cards. 1900 attack and piercing damage but it went to defense mode after attacking and had zero defense. It was fun to use in like 2004

Karate Man saw play when he came out. Yeah, there was some good removal, but in equipment decks, you could boost his base ATK to something much better, making him a clear threat and the ability was a nice bonus when the beatdown needed to finish the job.

Old Yugioh: You gotta pay the price for power. . Modern Yugioh: LMAO Lemme just summon a super powerful monster in one turn that is invunerable to most spells.

5:43 I used to play with this card when I was a kid. The text was in English and I didn't know how to speak or translate English that time, so, used to just normal summon him without applying any effect.

Hi, old school player here. Started when the only set was Legend of Blue Eyes and the Yugi/Kaiba starter decks. My first official tournament was the Metal Raiders release, and I stopped not long playing after the great ban hammer of 2003, so old school yugioh is all I've ever really known. Goblin Attack Force was my absolute jam when it came out. It's power was just too high to deal with for most single cards, so it was actually a good wall in addition to a great monster breaker. When the Envoys introduced the chaos deck, I switched to Giant Orcs, so I'd sacrifice 100 Atk for the sake of using its dark type to fuel the special summon on the envoys. It was very comoetitive for its time, and even earned me a spot in regionals. Unfortunately, my parents weren't supportive, so they wouldn't let me travel to compete in the big tournaments, but I definitely could've done well. Oh well

The Bistro Butcher that draws your opponent 2 cards with 1800 ATK vs the Chainsaw Insect that draws your opponent 1 card with 2400 ATK.

I thought Dzeeff would talk about the only Level 4 with the highest ATK: Giant Kozaky

Heh both assailant and karate man were meta in duel links at the start 😆

I had a crush on dark elf when I was like 11.

I actually had Boar Soldier in a deck when i was a kid. I managed to fake out pretending that i put down a 2000 defense face down monster a whopping total of once, and never again. And when i successfully flip summoned it, it still sucked. Jirai Gumo however was funnily kind of a weird, pseudo defense tool where i used it as a 2200 wall and never attacked with it, making it a surprisingly good defensive tribute fodder in the old days.

penguin knight has the best psct of all time dzeeff do you know the db grinder?

Does anyone remember arsenal bug? I used to play that when I first started lol

Fun Fact: Bistro Butcher was actually the first monster card I ever owned.

Flash Assailant was one of the best cards in early Duel Links days. It beat over Jerry Beans man and was just as hard to get over in DEF, since Enemy Controller changing positions was one of the best ways to out high ATK monsters.

And then there was Giant Orc, the playground budget version of Goblin Attack Force.

I wish kiddy me had a big brain on Dark Elf and Big-Spider

I remember running a Rare Metal Dragon/Marauding Captain combo back on the playground days. Not really practical in the grand scheme but man it always felt so great to pull off.

I remember Dark Elf from when I was a kid. She is so beautiful. I don’t know much about the game, but I loved the art of that card so much.

The bistro butcher might be tbe best legal "pot of" card lmao

goddess of whim does not say original attack so if you equip axe of despair or megamorph, her attack can be almost 4000, not a good card but better than said in the video

I found a binder of Yu-Gi-Oh cards from high school while looking through my old things while visiting my mom today and it turns out several of the cards featured in this video were in this binder. Kinda a fun coincidence.

Bistro Butcher was one of my favorites! Forcing opponent to draw cards, then using cards like Gravekeeper's Servant was brutal! Then making opponent discard cards before they could use the card. I use to drain a player's deck pretty quick with Bistro Butcher!

So basically every monster that went into the Skill Drain deck

In Duelists of the Roses, you lose 50 LP every time your Dark Elf battles. 1/80th of your starting life points!

I remember Bistro Butcher giving me trouble in a Yu-Gi-Oh! videogame, strangely enough. I think it was a GBA title. They enemy A.I. would attack me with Bistro Butcher and my hand would get filled rather quickly, forcing me to discard cards rather oftenly... Hey, I didn't day I was good at playing Yu-Gi-Oh! back when I played that game.

As long as you are trying to be OG... MAGIC Ruler, please. ;)

Unfriendly Amazon was one of my card crushes when I started the game at 11. I never used it, but it was one of my favourite artworks. And just to make things more cringe, I shipped her with my Harpie's Brother card.

I think I got a Bistro Butcher in my first ever pack, and even back then the effect baffled me. I seem to recall people actually using Jirai Gumo though, since its attack was so much higher than any other level 4's and you are technically always able to pay half your lifepoints no matter what.

Bistro Blucher can be used in an Exodia deck by giving it to your opponent.

There's also Armor Exe, which was also pretty unplayable.

I too have been watching Cimo's history of yugioh series

There is one interesting thing that no one really mentioned in the comment section: look at almost every monster's Attribute. Many of them are EARTH monsters. This had the potential to be used in not just Skill Drain strategies, but also EARTH-related synergies where Gaia Power and other cards have been used to boost attacks even further. This worked both well for the "wall-like" creatures BUT also the reason why Goddess of Whim and Zombyra-like cards were not released in this Attribute: they buff'd the ATK to the point their gimmicks benefitted too much from it. 2005 while CyDra was super dominant already, Gaia + Terraforming was already available ways to set up your own monsters, and with the likes of Rota and Beast/BW support you could utilize some proto-engine within the deck too. The best part? This could be used ALONGSIDE of some vanilla creatures too + Skill Drain. Gemini Elf was a key card here, but so was Gigantes which worked well with or even without Skill Drain being drawn. Far from being the best deck, but aside from maybe Gemini Elf, it was super cheap, super accessible, and still was a very fun way to play the game. 90% of the deck can even be run in GOAT format too.

The Unfriendly Amazon card by the way can also be useful in some decks with chain link effects, just make sure the Unfriendly Amazons effect is chained to an effect chain that is meaningful. edit: Also, just like Panther Warrior, Tokens count as tribute so it's just as useful in such decks that require such mechanics. It's not that bad if you know what you're doing with it. Also also, just an FYI for anyone reading. Monster cards do exist that have effects that trigger with their own destruction so just keep that in mind, "If this card is targeted & destroyed by the effect of blah blah, then blah blah", so yeah you get my point.

17:32 how did one of Entoma's weapons get a Yu-Gi-Oh card?

Jirai Gumo is decent at stalling until you use it as tribute fodder. Also it's decent later in the game when you have lower life points and paying half isnt as much of a cost

At its first printing Goddess of Whim was not once per turn. That was added after some players would declare that they were using the effect constantly until either its ATK was high enough to one-shot the opponent or time ran out

Bistro Butcher in my experience was used in early stall/burn strat with the trap card Greed that does 500 for every card drawn and there was another trap that made you mill your hand and redraw all cards. It was definitely a bricky deck but it could almost-FTK even very early in the game despite what was on the board once they got the right cards. A guy at my school played it alongside stuff like Gravekeepers Servant and Macro Cosmos, gravity bind, etc. If it actually got setup annoying to deal with and it could burn down surprisingly fast. Definitely not competitive cause like harpies feather duster, heavy storm and trunade but it was still an annoying deck to play against.

Gumo still seems good. It’s a stall card and even tribute fodder.

Jesus, I had most of those cards when I was a kid xD

I loved playing Exodia on YGO:Worldwide Edition and having opponents attack me with Bistro Butcher 😂 it was beautiful!

The thing with some of these odd effect monsters, or at least dark elf, jurai gumo, flash assailant you played them as a budget option to tournament pack options, or just to survive till the following turn to tribute for summon skull.

Do you have a playlist for these videos? I couldn’t find it

Flash Assailant was a viable rogue deck in the earlier days of Duel Links.

I remember back in 2005, I entered a locals with a deck full of cards like these. Bistro Butcher, Dark Elf, Jirai Gumo, Zombyra...and I ran 'em with Mystic Plasma Zone, Rush Recklessly, and other ATK boost cards and removal spells/traps. Ended up winning the tourney. It was fun for me cuz I wouldn't leave them any cards to work with and unless they drew into an out, I almost always had monsters while they didn't. The costs mean nothing if they're consistently out-muscling everything they're up against and hitting directly, lol.

I used Jirai Gumo, along with Dark Elf, in a deck back in the days of the GBA games. I was skeptical at first, but it was surprisingly quite effective most of the time. The only times it didn't feel good were when you were above 4k and called it wrong. The deck also used full sets of Gemini Elf, Vorse Raider, and Summoned Skull, and I think 2 Blue Eyes topped off the beaters. Most of the other cards in the deck are banned now.

Poor Rhyhorn, can't even be set

@Dzeeff - You pronounced Jirai Gumo correctly :)

Jirai Gumos downside is his advantage if you play Megamorph. I also loved it to play Reverse Trap with Flash Assailant.

Hey I ran Roblin Bistro Goblin it worked real well actually. Issue with early hand destruction was that the opponent wouldn't keep cards in their hands. It can also turn on Needles too

I remember Flash Assailant and Dark Elf, Flash Assailant wasn't that great, unless you wanted to use Infernity's Phantom Hand

love it when he leaves the bloopers in xD

Oh no, you just brought back memories of me trying to figure out what the heck the 7th color is! Is it the yellow/green fins? The gray tusks? Lol I used to to examine this card like a forensics expert

3:58 Yes, life points don't matter, you could be at zero and still win the duel, surely!

Yu-Gi-Oh is the most unbalanced game ever and anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you an extremely OP card