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Yu – Gi – Oh! : The Era of Links and How they Play.

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hayate
, April 25th, 2018 at 04:01 AM (4904 Views)
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There are many archetypes that passed me by during the time I was gone from this game. Elemental Heroes, Level Archetype, Blackwings and Odd Eyes are some of those archetypes.

Gameplay styles also evolved, from synchros to pendulum summons.

The meta game changed too drastically for me that I didn’t even know where to begin until I played it and changed my gameplay radically just to keep up with the new archetypes.

And to make things even more confusing for me is that there is a new card type that puts a stop to constant special summoning of 5 – 8 monsters from the extra deck per turn just as I am about to get in on pendulums.

Before I get to that new card type, here is the definition of pendulum cards.

Pendulum cards are cards that have the monster’s color on the upper half and spell card’s color on the bottom half One effect has the monster’s effect (or none if it’s a normal monster), the other has the pendulum effect.

The effects will correspond to which zone they are placed. They also have scales to each side to specify which levels they can do a pendulum summon on, and is counted as one summon.

That’s it from the viewpoint of the one who encountered pendulums.

Back to the main event, the new card types are called link cards.

As I have explained on my earlier blog, link cards are monsters with link arrows to let you or your opponent summon another monster from the extra deck or use it to summon a monster related to it. It could be a synchro, an xyz or a fellow link monster. Those cards have the characteristic of only having an attack stat but no defense stat.

Even the boards changed to suit and support the link format. Formerly, pendulum cards have a separate zone to put the scales in. While they are there, they are treated as spell cards. Now, the pendulum cards share the same zone as the spell and trap card zone to accommodate the new rules.

Now, how did links changed the format?

As an old time player of this game, I can say that not much has changed for me, fortunately.

Except for those who wanted their archetypes to be famous again in the tournament play, it’s just another one of their special summon mechanics disguised in a new card type.

Let me explain why before the audience jumps in conclusions that links are the new hotness or that links killed the extra deck (which I myself made a mistake of in my earlier blog).

For starters, the link monsters are designed to swarm in a different manner.

You may say that it can’t swarm synchros and xyz, but in this case, it can be possible to swarm only if you know the fact that link monsters are designed to swarm with links. I’ve seen people swarm 6 link monsters in one turn.

Second, link monsters only require monsters. They may specify some monster names or types, but the difference is that there is no level requirement.

You will not wrack your head trying to figure out which level of monsters you have to combine to summon synchros or xyz. In a way, it sounds more like you’re just tributing monsters like a normal tribute summon at this point.

Lastly, these link monsters are designed to support the main deck. Remember Aromaseraphy Jasmine and Madolche Fresh Sistart? They are actually designed to support the plant deck and the Madolche deck respectively in this new field and new era of gameplay. Think of them as a support card disguised as a monster.

Or, for lack of a better word, think of these cards as the card versions of Waver, 10/10/10 Helena or Merlin from Fate/Grand Order.

If it will make your day any better, synchro and xyz monsters that are special summoned from the grave can be summoned in one of the zones to your liking as opposed to complying to the link zones if you summon from the main deck, hence, the unbanning of Monster Reborn.

Which brings me to a contention point. Why Konami made the game easier to play?

Is this because of last time that they did a deck archetype, the community roared aloud at the sheer imbalance of that deck and so they try to compensate by making these types?

Or is it because they wanted to generate the profits with this game as compensation for saying words that they can never take back?

I may have some opinions about it, but I will withhold it for later blogs.
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Comments

  1. Laserman's Avatar
    Yesterday, I was trying to figure out Link Monsters worked actually. I guess they wanted the game to be fresh and limit some decks ability to swarm with Fusion, XYZ, Synchro, and Pendulum Monsters. I usually just watch the anime to figure out the new mechanics and I still haven't watched Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V yet.
  2. Spartacus's Avatar
    Everything is ruined since the ruling guy make difference with every single wording. Seriously, I bet they never care to differentiate "Destroy 1 card on the field" with "You can destroy 1 card on the field" before, it just different intern guy forgot about consistency in their wording. Then, every single tourney duelist scream "that's not how this work" saltyly toward each other and treat card games like an English dictionary.
  3. hayate's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laserman
    Yesterday, I was trying to figure out Link Monsters worked actually. I guess they wanted the game to be fresh and limit some decks ability to swarm with Fusion, XYZ, Synchro, and Pendulum Monsters. I usually just watch the anime to figure out the new mechanics and I still haven't watched Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V yet.
    For starters, Link Monsters function as effect monsters, but the only difference is that they have no levels and can only be summoned in attack position.

    As I have explained earlier, their summoning is as simple as tribute or ritual summoning, with it leaning on the former since you don't require levels to summon it.

    Once I figured out how they are summoned, it opened a way for me to do even more unlikely but effective strategies in game plays.

    For one, I use the effects of links on monsters from the main deck.

    Quote Originally Posted by Spartacus
    Everything is ruined since the ruling guy make difference with every single wording. Seriously, I bet they never care to differentiate "Destroy 1 card on the field" with "You can destroy 1 card on the field" before, it just different intern guy forgot about consistency in their wording. Then, every single tourney duelist scream "that's not how this work" saltyly toward each other and treat card games like an English dictionary.
    I think this is why we must have a neutral expert on rules (at least 3 of them) regarding the resolution of effects of cards so that they'll not scream profanities of the player being unfair. Chess players have one and I don't see an excuse as of why they can't put up one with these games too.

    If I remember correctly, in tournaments like these, Magic also had arbiters of the game whenever these cases come up.
  4. Rhoia's Avatar
    I am by no means a competitive player, in fact, I've never played irl and never will, but you can understand how a card works if you read its text correctly... most of the time. But I do understand it's hard for some people to remember all those rules (mandatory effects, optional effects, effects that target, effects that don't), specially if they're new to the game.

    If you like to play fusion, synchro, xyz or pendulum based deck, you're now forced to play link in order to get more zones to summon extra deck monsters. MR4 shits on pendulum decks the most since if they go to the extra deck, you can no longer go +5 if there's no available zone. Funny how one of the best decks right now is a pendulum one uh

    I think Master rule 4 (Link format) was designed to slow down the game and make unbreakable boards harder to pull off but I guess they didn't realise how powerful Links can be. Generic link monsters are both a blessing and a problem. They are decent in their respective archetype but are easily abusable in more powerful decks (needlefiber being the best example). Also the fact that we can use tokens as link materials make cards like scapegoat way more powerful that they were before.
    Updated April 27th, 2018 at 12:44 PM by Rhoia
  5. Spartacus's Avatar
    At the surface, then yes, you probably understood what the cards do. But once you involve Chaining, which is the most pivotal part on timing to activates your effects, every single word become a problem. The most apparent of crazy complicated effects are the difference in "When" and "if", there is difference in how the card resolve between "when your opponent activate a spell card" and "if your opponent activate a spell card", which at the surface, sounds like the same thing, but it actually doesn't.

    A lot of Yugioh complicated stuff can be found in this articles:
    http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Missing_the_timing
    https://yugiohworlds.wordpress.com/2...u-miss-timing/
  6. hayate's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spartacus
    At the surface, then yes, you probably understood what the cards do. But once you involve Chaining, which is the most pivotal part on timing to activates your effects, every single word become a problem. The most apparent of crazy complicated effects are the difference in "When" and "if", there is difference in how the card resolve between "when your opponent activate a spell card" and "if your opponent activate a spell card", which at the surface, sounds like the same thing, but it actually doesn't.

    A lot of Yugioh complicated stuff can be found in this articles:
    http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Missing_the_timing
    https://yugiohworlds.wordpress.com/2...u-miss-timing/
    Wow, these rules though.

    So "if" is an effect that can happen while in a chain while "when" is an effect that will be resolved last in the chain.

    I miss Dandylion now more than ever. Welp.