I kind of love the idea of the brand saying "We'd like you to do an ad for our company" and Alex pitching them this idea and them having no idea what a Dragon Ruler is but trusting him that the audience would find it funny
I am unbelievably excited for this period of History. So much to say about it. This was when Yugitubing and Yugioh articles really hit their stride. Legendary players came to the forefront during this year. So many cool decks and variants cropped up with each player trying to out metagame the other metagamers. But the funniest thing of all is how many games ended without a single life point lost. People would stare at a board, do some mental math and concede like 30% of games.
@@metalmario1231 We're almost a full decade past dragon rulers now. Considering how much the game has changed since 2013, it's crazy that the same resignations happening now happened back then
I feel like this mirror is special because it’s basically like a pistol duel; you are literally a split second away from lethal at every point in the game. Making a move too soon into a handtrap gets you killed. Going Big Eye and leaving it there to steal gets you killed. One of the most intense mirrors of all time.
Yeah it is certainly high-stakes, kinda like HAT and Infernity in some ways too. I wish I had someone like you to play this format with maybe Evilswarms vs. DRulers
It's was super fun to me because it really came down purely to card advantage when the decks are so capable of generating it that it is very easy to incorrectly sequence stuff, which ends up getting you killed, a smart timing of a card or pitching the optimal cards for effects ends up making the difference because the decks really were forced to just throw the same boards at each other because that's what they did
Things I wanna see on history: Spellbook mirror Dragon Rulers vs Spellbook Rogue decks vs both Dragon Ruler variants, I heard even Obelisk was viable during this time
@@karensmith8956 Despite how it sounds, it was actually pretty solid because Obelisk was an untargetable 4k beatstick, and pretty much every prevalent monster in the format (notably Big Eye & Dracossack) specifically targeted, making him immune & hard to beat over. Obelisk was frequently run - mostly for the mirror match but he also made the odd wave in the other general matchups - because Dragon Rulers' ability to churn out tribute fodder without using their normal summon was unrivalled in the format & it straight up insta-won against some decks that couldn't out it (such as Dragon Rulers' not running Obelisk lmao).
I straight up cannot fathom cards being $300-350 a copy, why were they so much more expensive back then compared to any competitive staple nowadays? The most expensive cards I've seen cap out at about $130 with Aluber and Pot of Prosperity at their height, even Forbidden Droplet was never that crazy.
Nekroz format was worse. If I recall correctly Brionac was the same price for a main deck card you needed 3 of to play the deck in a true tier 0 format unlike the rulers. With some of the extra deck staples you could get away with 1 or 2.
The Rulers are so interesting to me from a design stand point, because clearly they were meant to be strong support cards for Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water attributes after years of complaints that the only attributes that got strong support were Dark and Light. But somewhere along the design line they made them work too well with each other and one of the strongest decks of all time was born. When the limits started coming in you could tell that they still wanted them to fulfill that role, doing everything in their power to avoid out right banning the Rulers, with the hope that maybe they'd just get used in their intended way. A Blaster in Fire Fist, a Tidal in Mermail, a Redox in Geargia, and a Tempest in Mecha Phantom Beast. But while you did see that, Dragons as a whole just were too strong of a Typing to ever stop Dragon Rulers as a coherent deck from existing as at least a generic engine.
thats not even including the power level they would have as a deck if they could use lights and darks. one way to make dragon ruler successors is to add an additional resriction where dragon rulers of the different attribute can't be summoned so as a deck its clunky
Simply changing them to not remove dragons for their effects could have fixed it. If they were isolated by attribute they wouldn’t function together, and at 8 cards total the archetype barely deserves to be called an archetype
@@Dmaulinator locking out ruler like cards of the same attribute would be a better way since it gives more options for effects and summoning conditions while making a deck of them too clunky to not be back row pass
@@adambartholomew6575 not necessarily,yugioh still had a moment of hope in the coming formats when the dragon rulers get neutered. every format past druler in 2014 was super fun,diverse,interactive,high ceiling but low power(although a bit sacky once soul charge gets released)
@@adambartholomew6575 I have to agree, the new mechanics were always great, but most formats were annoying due to the card design, some were great though.
@@UnuUO post September ban list Rulers became tier 0 I believe... could be wrong though I guess that is somewhat dependant on whether you call Dragunity Rulers a Dragunity deck more than a Dragon Ruler deck or not. Either way Dragon Plants and Dragunity Ruler definitely ended up dominating the rest of the meta after Spellbook of Judgment was banned.
@@randomprotag9329 Honestly, that should have happened. LIGHT and DARK Dragon Rulers would be the most game-breaking things to ever exist in a card game 😎
I started playing Yugioh during the end of the pendulum era, so I've only ever heard of Dragonrulers from people talking about tier 0 formats, and how it was the strongest deck ever ect ect. Never actually seen how they were played, which is why I love this series!
So you missed pepe, the worst format in yugioh history in my opinion. Atleast dragon rulers fought against spellbooks, pepe had no competition whatsoever. It was so depressing trying to play against them
Not sure if it was wide-spread - but at my locals around this time players would keep this token-card with them with all the pictures of the dragon-rulers in a matrix so you could put counters on it and keep track of which one used which effect Also, cant believe he wasn't playing return from the different dimension - card is insane
People didn't immediately picked up that return is broken in that deck. It got banned later during d ruler lifespan and people had been using it, it's why it got banned to begin with if I remember correctly
Fun fact: super rejuvenation came from the same set as Yata-Garasu. I’ve been trying to understand why Konami printed a card with that effect when there was no synergy for discarding or tributing dragons. If anyone knows, please help me solve this mystery.
tyrant dragon was in that set as well. gray wing was a Dragon that could attack twice if you discarded during main phase 1. spirit ryu let you discard a Dragon to gain 1000 ATK and it was not once per turn. plenty of synergy in that set that people forget about cause it wasn't that good I suppose
It came out in Japanese set Struggle of Chaos that had 3 themes, fiends,warriors and dragons. Burst Breath and Tyrant Dragon (one of the flagship Ultras) both tribute dragons on your field (tyrant when you want to special summon it back, Burst Breath for cost). Plus you can use it when you tribute summon Tyrant Dragon to get resources back. These cards also came out in Legacy of Darkness but because Legacy of Darkness is a mix between two OCG set the sub theme of Dragon is diluted between the card pool.
I’m happy to see this episode finally be here. Tachyon Galaxy was the last set I really experienced before quitting and going fully into others card games. I was one of the people who got price’d out sadly due to card prices as a broke college freshmen, but it’s always interesting seeing this era of the game again.
I really appreciate Cimo so thoroughly explaining the decks in a simple yet very effective way. Helps me a lot as I never really experienced this format.
I'll admit, one thing I miss about the Dragon Rulers being legal is that they added extra fun and consistency (sort of) to any deck their in. Gage showed that off in Prog Season 1.
Ive come out of my deep cryo-sleep to simply show my absolute appreciation for this series, but most importantly this deck. I know the Yugioh history videos would reach this point one day. Arguably one of the defining times of Yugiohs entire history!
Book was so much more than just good ol book of moon in this format. I opened up more crimson bolder lines, gave you a potential answer to jowgen/ophion if you could get through wisdom/pandemic, flip monsters down so babies can attack over to turn off emptiness but it’s most important use was in response to swift scarecrow in the mirror to flip your own attacking monster down and make scarecrow resolve without effect.
It would be interesting to see the Dragon Ruler vs “lswarm” matchup to put Evilswarm Ophion to the test and see if they were a viable anti meta strategy. Especially after the Rulers got hit by the banlist.
@@patrickfogel3143 which is why they ran shit like key beetle and safe zone cuz the lock was ophion protect it with key beetle protect key beetle with safe zone
Y'all did a pretty good job piloting this deck, but the number of times lethal was passed up on really reminded me how much practice it took to become competent in this format. Looking forward to see how your play evolves!
The lesser decks during this format were the ones I found most interesting. A lot of people trying their best to find ways to out the Dragon Ruler boards with not Dragon Rulers was such a fun thing to see. As a Madolche player from as early as Abyss Rising, I know I had my fare share of fun times duking it out against Rulers using varying versions of the deck.
I played Ultimate offering gadgets, and that's what made this format so fun is that the rogue decks were only playable because they usually had a one of that was a legit auto win in the deck, madolches we're one too lol
And here it is! I got into Yugioh right at the very beginning with Starter Deck Kaiba, me and all my friend group played the game and while it was very much playgruond Yugioh I'd say I was a relatively competent player for whatever that's worth, at some point, I don't remember exactly when, during the latter half of the GX era in 2006-2007 I stopped playing the game for a time cuz I entered that "I'm too old for kid stuff" phase of my life, but around half way into the 5DS era, some point in 2009 I think, I realized being "too old" for things was stupid so I started getting back into the game, and it was like falling in love all over again, I adored the synchro summoning mechanic and what it added to the game, and when Dueling network came out in May 2011 I got into the game hard, I started actually playing at a somewhat competitive level, since I didn't have to worry about price being an obstacle anymore, and as a I said on a previous video September 2011 is easily my favourite format of all Yugioh, but as I also said the following March 2012 format is probably my least favourite format, aside from this one, as a big synchro fan who was still lukewarm to Xyz monsters that banlist felt like a targeted hit-list telling me that I had to play Xyz whether I liked it or not, and at least when it came to the Xyz decks at the time, Inzector, Wind-Up, and Dino Rabbit, I definitely did not like it, I still managed to stick with the game though my interest was waning but Dragon Ruler format truly was my "end of Yugioh", it may be a skillful mirror match, but I prefer diversity, and the speed of the game was just getting a bit too fast for me, I didn't leave Yugioh immediately, it was actually the September 2013 Banlist that was the final nail in the coffin for me, because A) only the babies got hit and as a result Dragon Rulers was still the best thing you could be playing, and B) this was the list where the OCG and TCG finally split, and it was terrible timing for me personally, cuz the OCG list actually gave me some hope by unbanning Trishula, one of my favourite monsters, really in the long term I doubt that would have mattered but in the short term when the TCG list for the first time ever decided to be different and not unban Trish, it stung really hard, and at that point I left Yugioh forever, basically, at the time I thought I may get back into the game eventually, but it's been 9 years now and I still haven't :p As a result of your series, Progression, History, and the like, I have psuedo gotten back into the game in the last couple years, but only as a spectator sport, still haven't actually played again, and given the pace of the current game, and that I already thought Dragon Rulers was a bit fast for my tastes, I don't really intend to play again, at least not in its current form, regardless Yugioh is a big part of my life so I'm happy to have found your series, and plan to keep watching them for as long as you keep makin' em, and even if I never get back into the regular game, I might at least try out Rush Duels or something at some point
An unsung hero of this matchup that I saw get passed over a few times is Colossal Fighter. Arms Aid OTK aside his ability to crash into Blasters left in attack, revive itself and swing again to clear 2 monsters at once is really good. He also can suicide with Crimson Blader *then revive the Crimson Blader* for another attack, or he goes to 2900 and beats over Blaster if there is a Blader in the GY. Lastly in lists that run Forbidden Chalice or against decks that field a 2900 attack position monster you can deck your opponent out with Fighter if they Maxx "C" you. You just suicide into the monster and revive Fighter again and again until they deck out depending on how much LP you have. He's just annoying in general to deal with since you can't out it by battle which leaves your Rank 7s as your out and those lose to hand traps. He's relevant in Ravine Ruler format as well.
A sugestion, update the opening footage after the DR era. Since it doesn't include anything from Arc-v onward. And a LOT of modern YGO is defined by what comes in Duelist Aliance onward. Hell we're still using some archtypes from back them to this day!
Great work guys. This has been the best episode for me thus far. I entered my first Regional during this format with a budget Dragon Ruler deck. Still have fond memories of the good old times. Looking forward to the next months
okay, i havnt played yugioh since middle school when i borrowed my friends cards and played on the bus, and rn, im feeling the hyp of this game, i know everyone has been dreading this episode, but this is everything i ever wanted, ive loved almost every one of these series, and i just wish i could play in person. sigh, i love your content cimmooo and MBT keep it up
It’s crazy to me that I’m very excited for this part. I have fond memories of going to my first ever locals (didn’t compete) and watching 2 people go at it in the mirror and they were sweating cuz how hard they thought about their turns
Joseph should start throwing in some "opposite" answers if he wants to win RPS I feel. Like choosing even because DRs have an odd number of starts. Might remove the reasoning for it, but he is getting clobbered lol.
Man, this episode was fantastic. Im excited for this period in the game! I never played it so im stoked to see all the variants in action! This remains my favorite series on the channel
I've only watched 2 minutes of the video so far as of writing this comment, but I have to say: Best intro/sponsor spot ever. Such rigorous training will be necessary for dealing with several weeks of Dragon Rulers.
I know a lot of people are not looking forward to this two/one deck meta but im really interested in the variants. In addition, for a over centralized format the decks are at least interesting.
Well that intro sure gives MBT and Cimo shippers more fuel to the fire. Alex dreaming about Joseph. So have fun with including that in your shipping material 🤣
I am very happy to see this finally turn up in History. I was priced entirely out of the game when the Rulers came and stopped playing and eventually keeping up with the game until just about the end of the Pendulum times, so it's very interesting to see this deck that I've heard so much about finally in action.
34:45 Cimo's making a an excellent point here imo. Modern Yugioh doesn't suck so much because of Combo decks, it mostly sucks because those Combo decks are able to make multiple disruption monsters that don't let the other player play the game at all. Enough omni-negates make most of the cards in one's hand not matter unless it's something that can't be negated by a monster (like a Kaiju or Dark Ruler). The Dragon Ruler mirror had Crimson Blader which also didn't allow the opponent to play the game but that one at least required a successful Battle Phase. Say about Dragon Rulers all you want, they were obviously overpowered and the format was horrible and unplayable for other decks (except Spellbooks). But the mirror match was still very enjoyable Yugioh outside of Vanity's imo.
The most represented deck now ends on a non target monster banish and passes, the negate thing is mostly a stereotype, outside of drytron we haven't had any big negate combo decks for over a year
@@andrejv.2834 Meanwhile the best deck currently in the OCG ends on a re-summonable toad, multiple pops and can make an in-engine Rank 2 extender that also turns off Nibiru. My point still stands, the absolute best strategy in modern Yugioh is to go first and say "no", even if spot removal on a big boss monster is slightly less offensive than a negate on a big boss monster.
@@Kirin_the_Bouncing_Unicorn the best strategy has always been to say "no", you were just mostly doing it with traps like torrential or bottomless before, very rarely do we see decks like this where they make a protected board and wait for next turn Also the ocg is basically a different card game entirely, different banlist and a few sets ahead
@@andrejv.2834 Another reason why Branded Despia is good btw is because it's excellent at Chain Blocking, aka bypassing negates against its most important monsters. Which is however a rare luxury most other decks don't have.
@@andrejv.2834 The difference between traps and disruption monsters however is that the former don't OTK you and a lot of the time were just simple 1 for 1s while the latter attack you for game on turn 3 and disrupt you for completely free most of the time. Before that decks had to often to make the compromise between playing Traps aka disruption or engine pieces aka things that advance your own game plan. Big negation boss monsters existed but they were the exception, not the norm.
I really appreciate the mention about the prices because I had no idea. I wouldn’t mind some additional financial context to these episodes though you guys do a fine job at it is.
And we have finally arrived when I tried to return to Yugioh after not playing since Raiza's debut. It didn't go so well. :P But the Dragon Rulers look like such a fun deck! I can't wait to see 6 more months of videos of this archetype!
This was crazy. I love the Dragon Ruler archetype but never got the chance to experience Dragon Ruler format, so seeing you guys give me that window into how it was was great. It was nice to see these mighty dragons make their presence known. Thank you guys a lot and I cant wait for the next episode.
I began playing Yugioh at a local gaming group just a month or so before the Dragon Rulers dropped. I still remember the sheer awe of pulling a Star Eater, Number 107, Big Eye or Drcossack - you got one, *EVERYONE* wanted to trade it. To this day it's an even split between memories of absolute fun and those of soul-crushing repetition.
I used to run a lightsworn ruler chaos deck and it was wild back in 2013 or whenever they all came out it was pretty much guaranteed to either win or deck out by my second turn. it was my favorite deck, and now that they're back in master duel im trying to make a modern version of it
Good episode, nice the promo ad by Cimooo's Productions and the duel was interesting. It was near the end of the Dragon Ruler era that I returned to play so it's interesting to see how that era was
I feel like they both forgot you could sack dracossack to pop something instead of sacrificing a token. This is often a great option because it prevents you from getting locked by Crimson Blader.
For a competitive player who could afford to keep up with the game this was arguably one of the better formats the game has seen, the meta may not have been particularly diverse with it largely being a 2 deck format until the September ban list announcement but tier 2 decks such as Mermail, Karakuri Geargia, Infernity, Fire Fist, Evilswarm and Constellar could steal games and still occasionally made tops in events. The format was extremely tough and skill testing though with the various mirrors and face-offs between the Rulers and Spellbooks easily being some of the most skill-intensive games I've ever seen played. Personally I loved the format... I didn't have too much success IRL at the time due to not being able to afford one of the big 2 but I had alot of fun grinding the top tables on Dueling Network at the time. Post September was when the format really got crazy as whilst Dragon Rulers were pretty much the single best deck at that point were arguably tier 0 the varieties of ways to play them and the games between them were crazy; Dragunity Rulers, Plant Dragon Rulers and eventually Mythic Rulers were all dominating. At the time I played a Fire King deck that was playing the level 3 Fire Fist engine with 3 Rekindling... Garunix just lined up really well into Dracossack and the level 3 Fire Fist engine gave the deck an explosive advantage engine and the ability to OTK out of nowhere with Rekindling. Despite alot of players hating this format for me it will always be one I remember very fondly.
@@coreygolphenee9633 it was definitely a better deck in late 2012 and kinda fell off during Dragon format. But yeah not a bad deck however and was still capable of getting tops.
I like that you called Spellbooks by their OCG name, Prophecy. Btw, the most broken thing about Card Destruction in this deck is that you can stack it with Super Rejuvenation.
This is definitely my favorite episode of History so far! I have PTSD from this format, as Rulers are terrifying if you *aren’t* playing them. But the mirror really does show off the intense plays the archetype is capable of and they are very cool. Cannot wait for the inevitable Spellbooks v. Dragon Rulers episode!
Nice to see that after being well on their way for a month, the dragon rulers have finally made it out of the tunnel and appeared in the series Probably one of the most fun episodes we've had this year, if not the most fun
I wish I would have played more during this format. I played Frog Monarchs at that time and I actually mained and Obelisk which seemed silly to most but it was actually quite reliable to summon in that deck and Dragon Rulers only had one out to it. Obelisk rendered their dragons, Big eye and Draccosac useless. I also sided 3 Trifortressops which meant they couldn’t get over it once it was summoned with Draco. It was awesome and I actually pissed a few Druler players off with all of that once they realized they couldn’t beat it.
Watching this at 1.5x speed makes it seem like both of you knew these decks in and out to play stuff left and right. Despite any misplays it made the duels seem a lot more interesting.
After MBT drops the Maxx C on Cimo's first turn, I believe the best play is to ptich lightning to lightning, summon tempest from deck and then tribute summon your other tempest. Then Super Rejuv in the end phase for 6. Gets you 6 looks at hand traps or additional super rejuvs and only gives MBT one additional draw.
pitch tempest and lighting for tempest, search flamvell guard, make colossal, pass rejuv for 4. you give them one extra card, but you can't be Blader'd, you can even set heavy since its so whatever in the matchup. Colossal Fighter is a house in the mirror, because it either requires Blaster plus a fire to answer it, which is high investment, or it threatens to eat entire boards on the way back if they can't kill it.
@@coreygolphenee9633 you know that refers to like just ignoring the maxx c entirely right? Doing whatever play you would’ve gone for without it being activated to just try to win
@@moncala7787 when I played in this format you just stopped whatever you were doing, I wouldn't dare let someone draw cards unless I was going to create a board state that one that turn
The ad this time is kind of awesome, not gonna lie. Turning it into a Dragon Ruler Training Montage was genius.
I kind of love the idea of the brand saying "We'd like you to do an ad for our company" and Alex pitching them this idea and them having no idea what a Dragon Ruler is but trusting him that the audience would find it funny
The background generic “80s hype music” is the cream on top
What you mean this time? They're always awesome xD Cimo really knows how to implement these ads into something entertaining.
Gluten freemo strikes again
I am unbelievably excited for this period of History. So much to say about it. This was when Yugitubing and Yugioh articles really hit their stride. Legendary players came to the forefront during this year. So many cool decks and variants cropped up with each player trying to out metagame the other metagamers. But the funniest thing of all is how many games ended without a single life point lost. People would stare at a board, do some mental math and concede like 30% of games.
We do that today!
agreed, this is the format i remember most playing on duelingbook followed by the qli/doll/ba format lol
I mean....yugioh today?
It was dragonruler vs prophecy vs Evilswarm
@@metalmario1231 We're almost a full decade past dragon rulers now. Considering how much the game has changed since 2013, it's crazy that the same resignations happening now happened back then
I feel like this mirror is special because it’s basically like a pistol duel; you are literally a split second away from lethal at every point in the game. Making a move too soon into a handtrap gets you killed. Going Big Eye and leaving it there to steal gets you killed. One of the most intense mirrors of all time.
Yeah it is certainly high-stakes, kinda like HAT and Infernity in some ways too. I wish I had someone like you to play this format with maybe Evilswarms vs. DRulers
It's was super fun to me because it really came down purely to card advantage when the decks are so capable of generating it that it is very easy to incorrectly sequence stuff, which ends up getting you killed, a smart timing of a card or pitching the optimal cards for effects ends up making the difference because the decks really were forced to just throw the same boards at each other because that's what they did
This is Yu-Gi-Oh!'s way of playing Russian roulette, I guess
I love how much effort cimoooooooo puts into his ads to make them entertaining!
God I love Cimo’s ads. They actually blow me away every time, the man is dedicated to making them fun
I think Joseph just needs to have a master class for yugioh history. His lectures are always my favorite part of these videos
Things I wanna see on history:
Spellbook mirror
Dragon Rulers vs Spellbook
Rogue decks vs both
Dragon Ruler variants, I heard even Obelisk was viable during this time
When the baby dragons were banned, hieratic rulers was crazy!
this format was legit dumb, played it at locals and regionals, rather play other formates fr, only thing worse then spellbook/ruler format was teledad
@@karensmith8956 Despite how it sounds, it was actually pretty solid because Obelisk was an untargetable 4k beatstick, and pretty much every prevalent monster in the format (notably Big Eye & Dracossack) specifically targeted, making him immune & hard to beat over.
Obelisk was frequently run - mostly for the mirror match but he also made the odd wave in the other general matchups - because Dragon Rulers' ability to churn out tribute fodder without using their normal summon was unrivalled in the format & it straight up insta-won against some decks that couldn't out it (such as Dragon Rulers' not running Obelisk lmao).
As a competitive player at the time, obelisk was only viable in side. he was basically never main decked (id say never but my memory is slightly hazy)
@@Emeryns my favorite variant actually went unmentioned, dragunity rulers.
I straight up cannot fathom cards being $300-350 a copy, why were they so much more expensive back then compared to any competitive staple nowadays? The most expensive cards I've seen cap out at about $130 with Aluber and Pot of Prosperity at their height, even Forbidden Droplet was never that crazy.
Aluber? Are you talking about competitive staple Aluber the Bouber of Douber? Nice
It may have to do with foils being guaranteed in sets today where as back then they weren’t.
I dont think any of the cards, individually, were worth 300$+. Sack was over 100$ sure, but not 300$.
t0 formats are always like this. its completely different price wise
Nekroz format was worse. If I recall correctly Brionac was the same price for a main deck card you needed 3 of to play the deck in a true tier 0 format unlike the rulers. With some of the extra deck staples you could get away with 1 or 2.
The Rulers are so interesting to me from a design stand point, because clearly they were meant to be strong support cards for Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water attributes after years of complaints that the only attributes that got strong support were Dark and Light. But somewhere along the design line they made them work too well with each other and one of the strongest decks of all time was born. When the limits started coming in you could tell that they still wanted them to fulfill that role, doing everything in their power to avoid out right banning the Rulers, with the hope that maybe they'd just get used in their intended way. A Blaster in Fire Fist, a Tidal in Mermail, a Redox in Geargia, and a Tempest in Mecha Phantom Beast. But while you did see that, Dragons as a whole just were too strong of a Typing to ever stop Dragon Rulers as a coherent deck from existing as at least a generic engine.
thats not even including the power level they would have as a deck if they could use lights and darks. one way to make dragon ruler successors is to add an additional resriction where dragon rulers of the different attribute can't be summoned so as a deck its clunky
I ran Blaster in my Fire Fists back then. Fun times.
Simply changing them to not remove dragons for their effects could have fixed it. If they were isolated by attribute they wouldn’t function together, and at 8 cards total the archetype barely deserves to be called an archetype
@@Dmaulinator locking out ruler like cards of the same attribute would be a better way since it gives more options for effects and summoning conditions while making a deck of them too clunky to not be back row pass
The only way to "fix" the rulers would be to remove the condition that allows them to banish dragon monsters for their summoning
And when the seventh angel play the trumpet... The dragon rules were born.
And so it was, that everything went downhill from there
@@adambartholomew6575 not necessarily,yugioh still had a moment of hope in the coming formats when the dragon rulers get neutered. every format past druler in 2014 was super fun,diverse,interactive,high ceiling but low power(although a bit sacky once soul charge gets released)
Infernity was crazy tbh
@@adambartholomew6575 I have to agree, the new mechanics were always great, but most formats were annoying due to the card design, some were great though.
I find it so fitting that we followed the last hurrah of Chaos with the rise of a tier 0 deck that uses every attribute BUT the chaos typings.
There is a ruler build that uses eclipse wyvern and light and darkness dragon.
I think it was the one that won worlds.
though they likely did that for a reason imagine there being a dark and light dragon ruler
iirc Dragon Rulers were never tier 0 bc Spellbooks were also around and Spellbook of Judgement is an insanely stupid card that was legal at the time
@@UnuUO post September ban list Rulers became tier 0 I believe... could be wrong though I guess that is somewhat dependant on whether you call Dragunity Rulers a Dragunity deck more than a Dragon Ruler deck or not. Either way Dragon Plants and Dragunity Ruler definitely ended up dominating the rest of the meta after Spellbook of Judgment was banned.
@@randomprotag9329 Honestly, that should have happened. LIGHT and DARK Dragon Rulers would be the most game-breaking things to ever exist in a card game 😎
Very impressive and funny ad for sure. And the training montage was hilarious too
Always love MBT's card sleeves and their references to the deck he's playing😄
This is the best ad and training montage I've ever seen
Having only ever experienced Dragon Ruler in the Tag Force Arc-V game, it's exciting to see how it evolved over time.
I started playing Yugioh during the end of the pendulum era, so I've only ever heard of Dragonrulers from people talking about tier 0 formats, and how it was the strongest deck ever ect ect. Never actually seen how they were played, which is why I love this series!
All of the top tier decks in this format were so consistent that they then became stupid hard to play
So you missed pepe, the worst format in yugioh history in my opinion. Atleast dragon rulers fought against spellbooks, pepe had no competition whatsoever. It was so depressing trying to play against them
Not sure if it was wide-spread - but at my locals around this time players would keep this token-card with them with all the pictures of the dragon-rulers in a matrix so you could put counters on it and keep track of which one used which effect
Also, cant believe he wasn't playing return from the different dimension - card is insane
I don't think I want to imagine how unstoppable Dragon Rulers would've been if Return was allowed at the time o.o'
@@RaceBandit it was
@@RaceBandit it was only banned once they put each dragon ruler to 2. they had banned the baby rulers by then
I don't have to imagine because I played it in the deck at the time :^)
People didn't immediately picked up that return is broken in that deck. It got banned later during d ruler lifespan and people had been using it, it's why it got banned to begin with if I remember correctly
Fun fact: super rejuvenation came from the same set as Yata-Garasu.
I’ve been trying to understand why Konami printed a card with that effect when there was no synergy for discarding or tributing dragons. If anyone knows, please help me solve this mystery.
tyrant dragon was in that set as well. gray wing was a Dragon that could attack twice if you discarded during main phase 1.
spirit ryu let you discard a Dragon to gain 1000 ATK and it was not once per turn.
plenty of synergy in that set that people forget about cause it wasn't that good I suppose
It came out in Japanese set Struggle of Chaos that had 3 themes, fiends,warriors and dragons. Burst Breath and Tyrant Dragon (one of the flagship Ultras) both tribute dragons on your field (tyrant when you want to special summon it back, Burst Breath for cost). Plus you can use it when you tribute summon Tyrant Dragon to get resources back. These cards also came out in Legacy of Darkness but because Legacy of Darkness is a mix between two OCG set the sub theme of Dragon is diluted between the card pool.
did you ever read the full spoilers of Legacy of Darkness??
Dragons were pretty much all about tributing, discarding, and reviving back then. That's why they weren't very good lol.
Well mystery solved
I’m happy to see this episode finally be here. Tachyon Galaxy was the last set I really experienced before quitting and going fully into others card games. I was one of the people who got price’d out sadly due to card prices as a broke college freshmen, but it’s always interesting seeing this era of the game again.
I really appreciate Cimo so thoroughly explaining the decks in a simple yet very effective way. Helps me a lot as I never really experienced this format.
I'll admit, one thing I miss about the Dragon Rulers being legal is that they added extra fun and consistency (sort of) to any deck their in. Gage showed that off in Prog Season 1.
did he really
Redox pass.
I'm glad you all started with a mirror and even more glad you picked this list. Great episode!
Ive come out of my deep cryo-sleep to simply show my absolute appreciation for this series, but most importantly this deck. I know the Yugioh history videos would reach this point one day. Arguably one of the defining times of Yugiohs entire history!
Book was so much more than just good ol book of moon in this format. I opened up more crimson bolder lines, gave you a potential answer to jowgen/ophion if you could get through wisdom/pandemic, flip monsters down so babies can attack over to turn off emptiness but it’s most important use was in response to swift scarecrow in the mirror to flip your own attacking monster down and make scarecrow resolve without effect.
It would be interesting to see the Dragon Ruler vs “lswarm” matchup to put Evilswarm Ophion to the test and see if they were a viable anti meta strategy. Especially after the Rulers got hit by the banlist.
Blaster pops it
@@patrickfogel3143 which is why they ran shit like key beetle and safe zone cuz the lock was ophion protect it with key beetle protect key beetle with safe zone
There's a reason Gem-Knight Pearl is in the Extra.
I mean, historically we already know Evilswarm wasn't a hard counter to the Dragon Rulers.
My guess is lswarms might be part of history of jank
Originally, I was dreading Dragon Ruler format. HOWEVER, Cimo’s ad’s have this whole thing worthwhile.
Y'all did a pretty good job piloting this deck, but the number of times lethal was passed up on really reminded me how much practice it took to become competent in this format.
Looking forward to see how your play evolves!
That ad was the best ad I've seen in a long time 👏 👏
CIMO REALLY IS TOO GOOD AT ADS HE COULD LITERALLY SELL ME AIR
The lesser decks during this format were the ones I found most interesting.
A lot of people trying their best to find ways to out the Dragon Ruler boards with not Dragon Rulers was such a fun thing to see.
As a Madolche player from as early as Abyss Rising, I know I had my fare share of fun times duking it out against Rulers using varying versions of the deck.
I played Cyber Dragon in this time period and Chimeratech'ing their dracosacks was fun
I played Watts and walled them out with hopperlock
cool to hear about these other strategies too :D
I played Ultimate offering gadgets, and that's what made this format so fun is that the rogue decks were only playable because they usually had a one of that was a legit auto win in the deck, madolches we're one too lol
And here it is! I got into Yugioh right at the very beginning with Starter Deck Kaiba, me and all my friend group played the game and while it was very much playgruond Yugioh I'd say I was a relatively competent player for whatever that's worth, at some point, I don't remember exactly when, during the latter half of the GX era in 2006-2007 I stopped playing the game for a time cuz I entered that "I'm too old for kid stuff" phase of my life, but around half way into the 5DS era, some point in 2009 I think, I realized being "too old" for things was stupid so I started getting back into the game, and it was like falling in love all over again, I adored the synchro summoning mechanic and what it added to the game, and when Dueling network came out in May 2011 I got into the game hard, I started actually playing at a somewhat competitive level, since I didn't have to worry about price being an obstacle anymore, and as a I said on a previous video September 2011 is easily my favourite format of all Yugioh, but as I also said the following March 2012 format is probably my least favourite format, aside from this one, as a big synchro fan who was still lukewarm to Xyz monsters that banlist felt like a targeted hit-list telling me that I had to play Xyz whether I liked it or not, and at least when it came to the Xyz decks at the time, Inzector, Wind-Up, and Dino Rabbit, I definitely did not like it, I still managed to stick with the game though my interest was waning but Dragon Ruler format truly was my "end of Yugioh", it may be a skillful mirror match, but I prefer diversity, and the speed of the game was just getting a bit too fast for me, I didn't leave Yugioh immediately, it was actually the September 2013 Banlist that was the final nail in the coffin for me, because A) only the babies got hit and as a result Dragon Rulers was still the best thing you could be playing, and B) this was the list where the OCG and TCG finally split, and it was terrible timing for me personally, cuz the OCG list actually gave me some hope by unbanning Trishula, one of my favourite monsters, really in the long term I doubt that would have mattered but in the short term when the TCG list for the first time ever decided to be different and not unban Trish, it stung really hard, and at that point I left Yugioh forever, basically, at the time I thought I may get back into the game eventually, but it's been 9 years now and I still haven't :p As a result of your series, Progression, History, and the like, I have psuedo gotten back into the game in the last couple years, but only as a spectator sport, still haven't actually played again, and given the pace of the current game, and that I already thought Dragon Rulers was a bit fast for my tastes, I don't really intend to play again, at least not in its current form, regardless Yugioh is a big part of my life so I'm happy to have found your series, and plan to keep watching them for as long as you keep makin' em, and even if I never get back into the regular game, I might at least try out Rush Duels or something at some point
That must be the greatest intro into a video i have ever seen. Alex Cimoooo, you incredible duelist, i salute your creativity
Cimo really goes all out with these ads. They’re a lot of fun!
Man, I was waiting for this so badly. Dragon Rulers was one of my favorite formats of all time.
It's weird seeing Redox in Cimo's deck and not Gage's.
Let's be glad he didn't pull a Gageh by doing Redox pass.
It's even weirder that he didn't end the turn with only redox in his board
REDOX PASS.
But seriously Redox is a monster reborn. That's why Gage used it
An unsung hero of this matchup that I saw get passed over a few times is Colossal Fighter. Arms Aid OTK aside his ability to crash into Blasters left in attack, revive itself and swing again to clear 2 monsters at once is really good. He also can suicide with Crimson Blader *then revive the Crimson Blader* for another attack, or he goes to 2900 and beats over Blaster if there is a Blader in the GY. Lastly in lists that run Forbidden Chalice or against decks that field a 2900 attack position monster you can deck your opponent out with Fighter if they Maxx "C" you. You just suicide into the monster and revive Fighter again and again until they deck out depending on how much LP you have. He's just annoying in general to deal with since you can't out it by battle which leaves your Rank 7s as your out and those lose to hand traps. He's relevant in Ravine Ruler format as well.
A sugestion, update the opening footage after the DR era. Since it doesn't include anything from Arc-v onward. And a LOT of modern YGO is defined by what comes in Duelist Aliance onward. Hell we're still using some archtypes from back them to this day!
My favorite format ever. I really hope they stay on this format for a few episodes like they do with other fan favorites.
I also hope they cover LADD Rulers, such a fun build, also the one that won Worlds.
Great work guys. This has been the best episode for me thus far. I entered my first Regional during this format with a budget Dragon Ruler deck. Still have fond memories of the good old times. Looking forward to the next months
I really appreciate the effort you put into making these ad segments funny and relevant to all the videos.
I love his dog just slowly turning into a crack baby as Cimo talks more Dragon Ruler strats🤣
okay, i havnt played yugioh since middle school when i borrowed my friends cards and played on the bus, and rn, im feeling the hyp of this game, i know everyone has been dreading this episode, but this is everything i ever wanted, ive loved almost every one of these series, and i just wish i could play in person. sigh, i love your content cimmooo and MBT keep it up
It’s crazy to me that I’m very excited for this part. I have fond memories of going to my first ever locals (didn’t compete) and watching 2 people go at it in the mirror and they were sweating cuz how hard they thought about their turns
Joseph should start throwing in some "opposite" answers if he wants to win RPS I feel. Like choosing even because DRs have an odd number of starts. Might remove the reasoning for it, but he is getting clobbered lol.
I mean, he could've picked the number of rulers
Man, this episode was fantastic. Im excited for this period in the game! I never played it so im stoked to see all the variants in action! This remains my favorite series on the channel
I love the add bit, please do more of these cimo.
I love the Episode, Joseph’s card sleeves, and the effects of the rulers. Top notch episode
I've only watched 2 minutes of the video so far as of writing this comment, but I have to say: Best intro/sponsor spot ever. Such rigorous training will be necessary for dealing with several weeks of Dragon Rulers.
I know a lot of people are not looking forward to this two/one deck meta but im really interested in the variants. In addition, for a over centralized format the decks are at least interesting.
Well that intro sure gives MBT and Cimo shippers more fuel to the fire. Alex dreaming about Joseph. So have fun with including that in your shipping material 🤣
I'm very excited to see those. I remember playing Gusto in this time period, and I sometimes got a win off of Dragon Rulers.
I can safely say cimooo working out was not something I expected to see today
Dragon Tales sleeves.
This was my show when I was a kid.
These ad spots have been incredible!
The melffy pony is amazing
I am very happy to see this finally turn up in History. I was priced entirely out of the game when the Rulers came and stopped playing and eventually keeping up with the game until just about the end of the Pendulum times, so it's very interesting to see this deck that I've heard so much about finally in action.
34:45 Cimo's making a an excellent point here imo. Modern Yugioh doesn't suck so much because of Combo decks, it mostly sucks because those Combo decks are able to make multiple disruption monsters that don't let the other player play the game at all. Enough omni-negates make most of the cards in one's hand not matter unless it's something that can't be negated by a monster (like a Kaiju or Dark Ruler). The Dragon Ruler mirror had Crimson Blader which also didn't allow the opponent to play the game but that one at least required a successful Battle Phase. Say about Dragon Rulers all you want, they were obviously overpowered and the format was horrible and unplayable for other decks (except Spellbooks). But the mirror match was still very enjoyable Yugioh outside of Vanity's imo.
The most represented deck now ends on a non target monster banish and passes, the negate thing is mostly a stereotype, outside of drytron we haven't had any big negate combo decks for over a year
@@andrejv.2834 Meanwhile the best deck currently in the OCG ends on a re-summonable toad, multiple pops and can make an in-engine Rank 2 extender that also turns off Nibiru. My point still stands, the absolute best strategy in modern Yugioh is to go first and say "no", even if spot removal on a big boss monster is slightly less offensive than a negate on a big boss monster.
@@Kirin_the_Bouncing_Unicorn the best strategy has always been to say "no", you were just mostly doing it with traps like torrential or bottomless before, very rarely do we see decks like this where they make a protected board and wait for next turn
Also the ocg is basically a different card game entirely, different banlist and a few sets ahead
@@andrejv.2834 Another reason why Branded Despia is good btw is because it's excellent at Chain Blocking, aka bypassing negates against its most important monsters. Which is however a rare luxury most other decks don't have.
@@andrejv.2834 The difference between traps and disruption monsters however is that the former don't OTK you and a lot of the time were just simple 1 for 1s while the latter attack you for game on turn 3 and disrupt you for completely free most of the time. Before that decks had to often to make the compromise between playing Traps aka disruption or engine pieces aka things that advance your own game plan. Big negation boss monsters existed but they were the exception, not the norm.
I really appreciate the mention about the prices because I had no idea. I wouldn’t mind some additional financial context to these episodes though you guys do a fine job at it is.
2:20 Deck List /Breakdown
20:30 Duels
As long as Cimo's ads are all this great we'll never skip lol
This man and his amazing ad cutaways. This has to be the most on brand and funniest one ive ever seen
And we have finally arrived when I tried to return to Yugioh after not playing since Raiza's debut. It didn't go so well. :P
But the Dragon Rulers look like such a fun deck! I can't wait to see 6 more months of videos of this archetype!
hearing these first minutes now in tear format is kinda funny and calming at the same time ;)
This was crazy. I love the Dragon Ruler archetype but never got the chance to experience Dragon Ruler format, so seeing you guys give me that window into how it was was great. It was nice to see these mighty dragons make their presence known. Thank you guys a lot and I cant wait for the next episode.
And thus this marks the end of Yugioh as many knew it. Excited to watch this episode tho as I didnt really catch the dragon ruler format
That fucking intro/ad was god tier. Good shit Cimo lol
This episode was stellar. Truly the beginning of a legendary era of this game competitive's side.
I began playing Yugioh at a local gaming group just a month or so before the Dragon Rulers dropped. I still remember the sheer awe of pulling a Star Eater, Number 107, Big Eye or Drcossack - you got one, *EVERYONE* wanted to trade it. To this day it's an even split between memories of absolute fun and those of soul-crushing repetition.
I gotta say, the mbtification of cimo with these new skits is a really cool arc to behold
Kinda loving these ads at the start of the video, they're seriously well done!
That was the best opening bit I have ever seen from your channel, props Cimo
2 months of this is gonna be a hell of a time! Dragon rulers were expensive but the comp play was amazing from a spectator pov
100% love the skits and preparation both of you have done for the episode, keep up the great work!!
History of Yu-Gi-Oh! episode wins
Cimoooooooo: 41
MBT: 41
And thus begins a beautiful era
Man, I miss these dragons! Mixing them with the lightsworns was my first introduction into competitive Yugioh. Hella fun times
I wasn't into Yugioh around this time so it's nice seeing why they were so powerful
I used to run a lightsworn ruler chaos deck and it was wild back in 2013 or whenever they all came out it was pretty much guaranteed to either win or deck out by my second turn. it was my favorite deck, and now that they're back in master duel im trying to make a modern version of it
0:48 the first time Cimo has done PE since High School 🤣
I love the sponsor, not because of who is sponsoring you but because your puppy is really cute!
Good episode, nice the promo ad by Cimooo's Productions and the duel was interesting. It was near the end of the Dragon Ruler era that I returned to play so it's interesting to see how that era was
I feel like they both forgot you could sack dracossack to pop something instead of sacrificing a token. This is often a great option because it prevents you from getting locked by Crimson Blader.
I’m so happy to see this cuz this is the period I stopped playing yugioh and missed out on this
Favorite starting ad ever and MBT explaining formats and decks is the same as dads reading kids books for bed 😂
For a competitive player who could afford to keep up with the game this was arguably one of the better formats the game has seen, the meta may not have been particularly diverse with it largely being a 2 deck format until the September ban list announcement but tier 2 decks such as Mermail, Karakuri Geargia, Infernity, Fire Fist, Evilswarm and Constellar could steal games and still occasionally made tops in events. The format was extremely tough and skill testing though with the various mirrors and face-offs between the Rulers and Spellbooks easily being some of the most skill-intensive games I've ever seen played. Personally I loved the format... I didn't have too much success IRL at the time due to not being able to afford one of the big 2 but I had alot of fun grinding the top tables on Dueling Network at the time.
Post September was when the format really got crazy as whilst Dragon Rulers were pretty much the single best deck at that point were arguably tier 0 the varieties of ways to play them and the games between them were crazy; Dragunity Rulers, Plant Dragon Rulers and eventually Mythic Rulers were all dominating. At the time I played a Fire King deck that was playing the level 3 Fire Fist engine with 3 Rekindling... Garunix just lined up really well into Dracossack and the level 3 Fire Fist engine gave the deck an explosive advantage engine and the ability to OTK out of nowhere with Rekindling. Despite alot of players hating this format for me it will always be one I remember very fondly.
Nobody brings up the ultimate offering gadget lists which to me was the anti meta deck
@@coreygolphenee9633 it was definitely a better deck in late 2012 and kinda fell off during Dragon format. But yeah not a bad deck however and was still capable of getting tops.
I like that you called Spellbooks by their OCG name, Prophecy. Btw, the most broken thing about Card Destruction in this deck is that you can stack it with Super Rejuvenation.
Still to this day my favorite format of all time. Dragon ruler mirrors are so intense and skillful, wish it was played more
I like how we saw a little into cimoooo personal life a little bit with the ad
So much of this matchup feels like whoever goes ‘no you’ the most wins
This episode was very good despite numerous misplays.
This is definitely my favorite episode of History so far! I have PTSD from this format, as Rulers are terrifying if you *aren’t* playing them. But the mirror really does show off the intense plays the archetype is capable of and they are very cool. Cannot wait for the inevitable Spellbooks v. Dragon Rulers episode!
Nice to see that after being well on their way for a month, the dragon rulers have finally made it out of the tunnel and appeared in the series
Probably one of the most fun episodes we've had this year, if not the most fun
I wish I would have played more during this format. I played Frog Monarchs at that time and I actually mained and Obelisk which seemed silly to most but it was actually quite reliable to summon in that deck and Dragon Rulers only had one out to it. Obelisk rendered their dragons, Big eye and Draccosac useless. I also sided 3 Trifortressops which meant they couldn’t get over it once it was summoned with Draco. It was awesome and I actually pissed a few Druler players off with all of that once they realized they couldn’t beat it.
Purely seeing the Shrimp Factor meal is making my mouth water. Now I'm sorta intrigued at the sponsor!
Okay, while not God tier like Internet Historian's, Alex's sponsors are just way too good. Congrats dude for the sponsors!
Yoooooo two for two with these ads tho. At this rate we’re gonna end up with a whole 80’s style movie of them
"and it very nearly became the Yu-Gi-Oh we know and love today"
Woah hey now, love is a strong word.
I played ultimate offering gadgets during this and it was always fun to absolutely blow people out every now and again
In-correct take on super rejuv. It's used at all points of the game to filter into handtraps or maindeck answers even if it's just 2 more cards.
Watching this at 1.5x speed makes it seem like both of you knew these decks in and out to play stuff left and right. Despite any misplays it made the duels seem a lot more interesting.
i'm so stoked for the upcoming episodes. dragon rulers without the babies had some of the coolest variants.
After MBT drops the Maxx C on Cimo's first turn, I believe the best play is to ptich lightning to lightning, summon tempest from deck and then tribute summon your other tempest. Then Super Rejuv in the end phase for 6. Gets you 6 looks at hand traps or additional super rejuvs and only gives MBT one additional draw.
pitch tempest and lighting for tempest, search flamvell guard, make colossal, pass rejuv for 4. you give them one extra card, but you can't be Blader'd, you can even set heavy since its so whatever in the matchup. Colossal Fighter is a house in the mirror, because it either requires Blaster plus a fire to answer it, which is high investment, or it threatens to eat entire boards on the way back if they can't kill it.
Don't ever take the Maxx C challenge especially in a format with card destruction.
@@coreygolphenee9633 you know that refers to like just ignoring the maxx c entirely right? Doing whatever play you would’ve gone for without it being activated to just try to win
@@moncala7787 when I played in this format you just stopped whatever you were doing, I wouldn't dare let someone draw cards unless I was going to create a board state that one that turn