I mean sure, so long as you can close out the game on your next turn. Otherwise you're bound to either get finished off with mere burn damage or whatnot.
@@chrisjr6214 i tried it to word it as a definition, every card can be useful or useless depending on a lot of factors, the matter is are those factors recurring or relevant? That's the fun of a game!
@@chrisjr6214the point being is that the cost will always be doable no matter what position you are in the game since it’s always gonna take half as appose to a set number of life points like skill drain where it’s useless if you have 1000< LP or having to discard a card on the off chance that your hand is completely empty. Card is always live as long as your opponent plays the game.
The thing about early Yugioh is that it was at a slower pace, with players whittling away at each other's life points over numerous turns. In that context, players were more wary about maintenance costs for cards and drawing Solemn Judgement on your first turn was seen almost as drawing a dead card as there was no card that was worth paying 4000 LPs to stop. And even activating it later in the game was seen as very risky as while you would pay less LP it would also be at a stage when your LP were a lot more precious. That changed once the game's pace rapidly quickened and became all about pulling off your combos in order to flood the field for an OTK. In that context, players were more than happy to pay massive LP just to stop someone from pulling off their combos because it didn't matter whether you started the next turn with 8000 or 100 LP, if you had stopped your opponent in their tracks and left them open you pretty much won the game. If anything Solemn Judgement's cost became a boost as the thing about paying half your LP means you can always activate it (also, you started getting a lot of cards that WANTED a game state where your opponent had more LP).
I think you pretty much nailed it. Why would you make your opponent's job easier? I can just run a Magic Jammer or Seven Tools of the Bandit. Sure, they are more limited in use, but I'm not setting myself up to lose the game. At least that would have been the logic at the time.
pretty much right on point minus a few more reason 1) solem was a Holo 2) you can't solem set cards 3) everyone is playing 3 MST/back row removal 4) graceful into pot is a thing 5) burn was viable basically if you go first and set solem pass on stand by your opponent can MST to force it out, in main either graceful or pot to force it out. you basically put yourself into at best 2 turn clock at worst a 1 turn clock (after opponent turn) if you're not Cimo and have god like top decks
@@GarethXLYeah primarily the issues mentioned The value provided by solemn vs the risk of playing it was just not that great in the initial game. It became much more viable when blocking a single card generated a large advantage vs the risk of using solemn (ie the high cost of losing solemn to removal). Funny because now the game has accelerated to the point that solemn is somewhat risky due to the slow nature of traps
I remember thinking it was bad. Half your life points just to stop one card? Why do that when you can destroy a card for free with the many trap cards that killed monsters and spell cards that destroyed trap cards.
That’s because you’re thinking about life points. Alot of players say that in Yu-Gi-Oh! “The only life point that matters is the last one”. Once you stop thinking too hard about the life points and more about the field you can see that’s absolutely true. Solemn Judgement starts to feel less like “pay half your life points to stop one card” and more like “stop one card for free”. As the only time life points are truly a factor is when they are about to hit 0. The game is much more about what’s on the field than anything. There are cards that can destroy a monster or a spell and/or a trap sure but they are usually on their own separate cards. Like how dark hole and heavy storm are on two separate cards while SJ can stop almost ANY card you wish. But let’s just say you’re still a player that’s protective over your life points. Their comes to a point where they are so low, that the card would barely have an effect on the game against you. Honestly if you have about let’s say 2000 or less, might as well play it if it stops your opponent from playing a card that would have won then the match.
@@truthteller7283pay half your life points to stop your self from losing duel. It can stop a lot of powerful cards it's good thing to have to stop your board from being wiped acts like a lighting rod
Its so funny that historical goat format never ran it but now its commonly seen. Fun to see what effect years of game knowledge has when people revisit older formats
The best thing about SJ (and the reason it is so broken) is the fact that it’s a counter trap. That means that you will almost always be able to negate whatever your opponent is attempting to do, uninterrupted. Even if your opponent has a full board of negates, you will still be able to stop their play with SJ. SJ is simply absurd.
From my understanding, it had more to do with the fact that players in older formats put more value on their life points back then as opposed to players nowadays that realize that the amount of LP you have doesn't matter at the end of the day so long as you win the game. It was because of this mentality that people were more afraid of playing a card like Solemn Judgement that requires you to give up half your life points. As for the point about Ring of Destruction, while I don't remember how common it was back then, it was still a card that players feared for it's ability to end a game on the spot if a player's life points were low enough, especially since it could force a draw with it's old, pre-errata effect text
@@matthewkuscienko4616 I played Yu-Gi-Oh from 2003-2006 and haven't touch a card since. You are exactly right. People valued life points a lot. To the point that some people though I was crazy for paying 1000 points to use something like Confiscation or Delinquent Duo. Back then even I didn't play Solemn Judgement even though in hindsight it was a great card.
@TheFishingNomad I haven't actually played the game in a good number of years now myself, but like you, I was into the game back then around even it first came out, and part of me thinks that a reason why people valued life points more than they do now is partly because of the anime's influence, since characters would freak out if the person they were rooting for had their life points get low. That's mostly speculative, of course, but either way, back then players looked at cards like that through a very different lens, and this caused people to worry more about things like that than we do these days, partly because of a lack of experience with the game. This especially shows when considering that people are building decks for older legacy formats differently than they did when the format was still current because we now have the benefit of hindsight that we can use to apply the knowledge we have gained as a playerbase to improve the decklists that were played
My favorite thing to do to Solum Judgement players were respond with Dark Bribe. Congrats bro you paid half your LP to get negated but I'll give you a free draw as a consultation prize.
I still remember in the past when i played solemn in the past and someone would ask why the fk would i burn myself for 4k since that would be me helping them kill me. The easiest answer was so that you're raigeki wouldn't clear my board of 1800 beaters for free, and now my 4k contribution lets me keep the monsters i accumulated for the past 3 turns.
Having played and won hundreds of for money tournaments during the early era of Yugioh, I remember always considering this card but just never being able to justify it. There were a few players who ran then at my locals, and would defend it adamantly, but they never faired well in tournametns, and more often the not when I watched their games I could trace their loss back to Solemn Judgment. As others have said, OTKs were super rare back then, and if you opponent was running one, thats why you had this in your side board, but for most matches they were long slow drawn out slug fests where each side was trying to gain card advantage so they could more quickly whittle down their opponents life points before their own. It's why Magic Cylinder was limited to 1 despite being an unchainable, slow, minus 1, because throwing your opponents gemni elf's attack back in their face meant you were 1 attack, maybe 1 whole turn, closer to winning. If you negated my summon, probably all it was going to do was hit you for less then the SJ did to you, so SJ was literally just a worse Sakeretsu Armor in that scenario.
A main reason I think it was over looked is probably because not a lot of people had 3 copies till then. Tho I wasn't playing competitively at that time (I was 4), it might just be a factor that people didn't have the card or an easy way to get their hands on it
People gave lp much more importance than they should have, by playing goat at locals I realized that most of the time judgment prevents your opponent from normal summoning or allows you to attack for game without having to worry about mirror force for example
Well yeah, most meta players can't build a functional deck without looking it up. It's usually the casual community that figures out the weirder interactions. For example, I've been running a Dino Stun style deck utilizing Normal Dinos, Lost World, Transcendosaurus, Torrential Tribute(3) and Dark Hole(2). Now I'm seeing Dino Stun popping up more in ranked play but with players running more floodgates in it (not my style). That being said, it's effective because Synchro Transcendosaurus can protect itself and other dinos from the GY from destroy all effects and targeting while wiping boards before they're an issue.
@@Nobody1mportant999This is not even close to true at all. The only reason people didn't think ahead back in the early eras is because NOBODY wanted to share ANY of their deck lists with the broader public. Everyone hoarded their techs like a dragon with treasure. There were also no simulators or good locations to post about anything. All we had was Pojo, which was not very intuitive and was not popular for the broader community. The only ones who play test constantly and find interactions are the meta players. If the casual players were as good as you say, they would have won more events, especially early on, than they did.
@@orga7777 you do realize that the casual players are more willing to experiment because they don't care as much about WL records or topping a tournament so they're less likely to fill their decks with hand traps and "staples" (Impermanence, Ash, etc.) which leads to more interactions and more chances to discover interesting tech. Tell me you Google deck lists without telling me 💀
I used to play with my sister as a little kid when Metal Raiders first released. She used this card religiously. Hard for me to believe it was overlooked at the time, because it was definitely busted immediately when it came out.
The thing is, even if you do value LP highly, the cost of Judgment is still manageable because you're not usually going to pay 4000 for it. The early competitive community had to learn that through practice. Sometimes things about a card aren't immediately obvious by reading it, and that's especially true of Yugioh.
It's also worth noting that you're never unable to pay the cost to activate Solemn Judgement since unlike with most cards that require a cost of some sort, you might not have the resources available to pay for it. People realize now, though, that a card with a cost you can always afford to pay that can negate pretty much anything is too good to pass up on
@@omardanelli2911 the cost is to pay half your life points, if you’re at 1 and halving it keeps you at 1 then you’re not actually halving your LP, therefore you’re not able to pay the cost and the effect does NOT go off
I used to think it was terrible until someone negated 3 actions in a row in goat format. My eyes were opened when my opponent killed me with only 17 LP to spare.
I ran this at 3 in the main as soon as it released. Everyone hated that I was willing to give up half my life points to negate 1 card....3 separate times.
My guessing is that, at the time of release and prior to 2007, while the effect would be potent, it was more of a time where LP mattered a lot more than nowadays, so willingly spending half your LP for one card may have seemed a very steep cost. Nowadays, with the game being more amount taking the opponent out in a single turn, and many varying forms for resourcing (stuff needing to be in the grave/banished, LP under a certain amount, etc), spending your LP is a much more common practice.
Goat Format: *You go first, draw Solemn judgement You summon a monster and place it Your opponent summons a monster and you say no way and they go next*
@@rifasclubAnd the only life point to ever matter is the last one. If you win the game because you activate three Solemn Judgement, does it matter what your life points are at?
Everyone says that until they get KO’d by Sparks. Seriously, I side a few OG burn cards cause there’s always one person at locals who thinks lifepoints are an infinite well. At least up until they realize they paid too much and now they’ve got a Sophie’s Choice: use up their negates on stopping the burn damage, or lose. I have literally won a duel with Sparks against an Unga Bunga Ra. Dude got humbled real quick. Moral of the story is LP costs are worth it as long as you don’t get careless
@@bsgfan1If someone is playing a card like Ra, they deserve to lose to Sparks. In a setting of competitive decks, the life points don't matter that much outside of time rules (where those cards are sided out anyway). There is a reason Solemn Judgement was eventually banned back in the day. The card was excessively good and always was. What matters more isn't your life points, but how long you can keep pressure in your favor. Solemn Judgement allows you to keep up pressure while wrecking your opponent's card advantage and power moves. Which is why now, Goat Format events have a massive spike in Solemn play. Stopping stuff like Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute is way more impactful than 4k life.
@@orga7777 You completely missed the point. Yes, competitive decks are less of an issue because, as I said, LP costs are fine as long as you’re not reckless with them. Competitive players are aware of that but the overwhelming majority of duelists are not. Hence why those players are at the competitive level in the first place. Top tier duelists know precisely when to pay half their LP if it means stopping a combo at its weakest point. But even Judgement can’t save you if you’re down to 1000 LP cause you panic negated every effect your opponent activated. If you reach a point where your opponent only needs to breath on you to get the W, that’s 100% your own fault. Keep in mind, this is a meta where monsters that are immune to destruction and card effects are king. Your monsters should be able to protect themselves and cards like Judgement are meant to stop combos. You say stopping things like Dark Hole and Torrential are more impactful, but negating those mean nothing if your opponent can continue their entire combo uninterrupted because you wasted all your negates.
They did. The whole game played differently then. If you used it to negate even something important, but didn't immediately win, you could still get beaten by burn damage or a board-wipe followed by a big beat-stick.
My friend who got this card early on knew of the importance of this card, because it was one of the few cards that could stop Jinzo from being summoned, despite being a trap card. It is an incredible flex pick card that allows you to stop that one critical card from being used, often winning him the game at the most crucial moment. Being a counter trap, it could only be stopped by other counter traps, so there was hardly any way to counter it.
It was mostly overlooked because when it was first released the power level of the game was so much lower that there weren't that many cards worth paying such a high price to negate. After that, even though stronger cards that would have been worth negating became more common, older players were still stuck in the mindset that it was a risky play, while newer players might not even be fully aware it existed.
I love Solemn Judgement! Crafting 3 of this surly boy for my Dinomorphia deck really showed me how nice it is not to live in constant fear of back row hate!
I remember at nationals last year I talked to Jerome and asked what his favorite card was because I wanted him to sign it. He said "probably solemn judgment, I played it all the time early on and just no one was on it. People eventually caught on. Either that or change of heart". We said "well you must be pretty happy COH came off the list then huh?" And he said "well it does a little more than mind control and that's limited and doesn't see any play, so that was the argument in the room for it to come off". My man literally wanted Change of Heart off the list just because he likes it lol
The reason people didn't use it was because life points actually mattered. You didn't lose to a board of five special summoned extra deck monsters on turn 1-2. It was back and forth with beat-sticks and weird effect monstersz
Solemn was a staple on every deck in my home country from day 1. We always said we don't play tcg we glay GCD Guyanese card game. My countries name is Guyana. It's weird how these cards got overlooked.
So the big reason it wasnt used a ton early on historically is because Burn was far kore common at larger events, so paying half your LP could just lose you the game. Even modern Reaper doesnt always play 3 cuz Stein is around
Back in middle school, when I got this in a booster, I immediately thought it was great. 1/2 lp is worth it to say no to any major threat was always fantastic. Not that I actually understood the meta back then. But I did figure out that some cards were decisive, while others were just pawns on the board.
In 2004 i was one of the few people at my local shop that maindecked solemn and tools. (Everyone played jammer). I would have played more if i could afford them. The game mentality was so different but the idea of half my lifepoints means nothing if im going to lose because of the play anyway was foreign for a lot people without experience i games like magic where the power of control and counters were so prevailing
My Head Judge friend and a guy I knew at Konami said it was banned because it promoted bad play. Duels would go by so fast and it was hard for players to learn or something. But take that with a grain of salt.
And now, the only time i see the solemn judgement in master duel is in stun deck (or maybe in lab? I never meet one tho). Trap card is often need to stop player from playing (like tcboo and red reboot), or break entire broad (evenly match). Oh yeah, the trap from archetype is also used. Otherwise, it used for imper.
funny. when it got released i maindecked it from day 1. player at my local area said that card was bad and did not understood why they lose to this bad card again and again xD. unfortuyaly i only owned 1 copy of that card xD
I feel like judgment was always at its best when things like heavy storm existed. Only when power 5 spells became more and more relevant, so did judgment
Nowadays it is a sideboard option for when you know you are going first,but why negate spells when you can prevent them from being activated in the first place?And then you play Anti-Spell over it
The reason it wasn't used as much is because back then, OTK was not easy to achieve... while these days, almost all meta decks contain at least one way to OTK
In goat format, in single solemn judgement can guarantee win the match and during backrow removal is very limited, not to mention, duster is limited to 1. LP is totally doesn't not matter at all, if paid half LP can lead your victory. Now in modern yugioh, it still strong but it slow used. Very few deck can capatilize solemn brigade card to maximum pottential even have failed artype counter fairy. Currently only dinomorphia can capatilize solemn judgement but i believe is already over since iron thunderhammer introduce and iron thunderhammer is omninegate completely power crept solemn judgement
When you think about it this card if you could prevent an opponent from destroying it or if you always had one as a backup could mean that at least in older formats your opponent could never play the game. Half your life points sounds crazy but stopping your opponent from playing the game is worth it since as ive heard life points sort of dont matter
Because in a game that was based around pure card advantage a 1-1 trade that kicked away half your life AND does nothing to help you when you're behind was just not good.
As someone who played casually, i thought Solemn Judgement was too risky unless you were already winning. Wasnt until the meta had threats such as Chaos Empeor Dragon that i understood what it's supposed to do. And from I understand, Solemn Judgement had help from decks caring more about pacing than simply placing a card or 2. Just how old are Gladiator Beasts again?
i knew this card was good when i saw it in a yugioh game. When i first started yugioh i was the same as everyone but when i played magic, that's when i realized that life was a resource. half of your Current LP total ISN'T that bad.
I always laugh at people using Solemn Judgement against me when they got full LP because I use a burn deck, nice job doing half the job for me now take 1500 burn from scattershot
Face it, it got to the point it was use to chain solemn judgement to your solemn judgement, that’s why it got limited. Ban? They just wanted people to take a break from the card lol
Simple answer is that people cared more about life points until 07 when the game started speeding up and people realized that life points are another resource to make plays
A few reaspns: everyone was playing 3 of it, there weren't many activation or summon negates back then, and the ones that did usually made you discard a card as well, had conditions like when monster activates its effect or only activate in a certain phase, and only stopped monsters or spells and traps, whereas this can always be activated and stop any activation or summon. You can always pay half your LP and stopping the right card at the right moment can stop you from losing or make you win the next turn.
I paused shortly during the time the card was banned and can somewhat see why. Basically, people back then thought that Solemn Judgment as stronger as a late game card and that early in the game, paying 4000LP was rarely worth it, except when you were forced to activate it. This has started to change, as 2012 for the first time had multiple decks with strong and consistent openings in turn 1 or 2 (even if it just meant a NS that searches something), which was very uncommon before and has just started to become normalized. In that way, Judgement no longer was seen as detrimental in your opening hand and would always drastically disrupt your opponents opening with no possible counterplay (there was no red reboot duh). And Judgment shit on Xyz too, which didn't help (they also banned Trish and Bulb + put Formula to 1 to kill Synchros) I hope this kinda explains why, even though I'm sure that it was heavily debated at that time, especially compared to other newly banned cards that no one ever complained about, like Trap Dustshoot
You know, if paying huge sums of your LP for plays is considered a “trivial” expense, that gives me an idea for a card that turns that notion on it’s head, by making it so that you gain LP equal to any amount of LPs they pay for said play: _Life-Force Syphon_ Quick-Play Spell _For the rest of the duel, the following is effects are applied:_ ⚪️Each time your opponent would pay any amount of LP, or take any amount of effect damage from their own cards or effects: You can increase your LP by equal to the amount payed or damage taken. ⚪️Once per turn, If you take any amount of battle or effect damage from an an opponent’s card or effect, you can either banish or tribute 1 card from your hand or field: Increase your LP by equal to the ATK or DEF (your choice) of any 1 monster that is banished or in the GY. _You can only activate 1 “Life-Force Syphon” per duel._ So NOW any amount of LP they pay actively or self-inflict can be used to increase your own LP, thus making it harder for them to actually win, AND if they run a deck that ends up with amy number of monsters banished or in the GY, those monster’s can be used to further bolster yourself from their efforts, and even the card’s tribute cost can get one such monster banished or in the GY in the first place.
@@bestaround3323 I mean it’s a quick-play spell that applies a permanent (and thus impossible to negate I believe) effect for the rest of the duel that could potentially allow to shrug off otherwise fatal amounts of damage, while also making it so that your opponent’s efforts to “pay to play” only strengthen you… So if someone uses Judgment while they have 8000 LP, and pay 4000 to use after you’ve used this card, you now gain 4000 LP then and there. That isn’t exactly chump change.
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFire I mean, if your opponent can set up a board of negates to prevent you from doing anything else, it won't matter how many Life Points you have.
@@CaptainJLinebeck I mean that’s one of the main ways to win anyway these days, so if anything this gives you a fighting chance, turns the duel a battle of attrition. Once it goes through, those negates can’t touch the prema-applied effects, so you can hopefully survive as long as you have cards from your hand or field to tribute or your opponent uses cards that make them pay LP…. It doesn’t have to be “perfect”, it just has to be “enough”.
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFireyeah, issue is that historically LP gain hasn't ever been enough. Plus the fact that a lot of current (not all, but a lot of them) decent decks don't spend much LP if any to establish their boards. And the ones that do can just stop you from doing anything on your turn even if you have 20k LP and just beat you down with high attack monsters like Accesscode Talker
If you're going to spam the card back to back to prevent your opponent from playing, you better have a plan B, Because you can run all three copies against me and I'll just attack for game. Thanks for making my job easier.
Stop 80% of plays at a cost you can always pay
I mean sure, so long as you can close out the game on your next turn. Otherwise you're bound to either get finished off with mere burn damage or whatnot.
@@chrisjr6214 i tried it to word it as a definition, every card can be useful or useless depending on a lot of factors, the matter is are those factors recurring or relevant? That's the fun of a game!
@@chrisjr6214or you let your opponent summon their boss monster which is their win condition anyway.
@@chrisjr6214the point being is that the cost will always be doable no matter what position you are in the game since it’s always gonna take half as appose to a set number of life points like skill drain where it’s useless if you have 1000< LP or having to discard a card on the off chance that your hand is completely empty. Card is always live as long as your opponent plays the game.
@@ScrubTheNub false you can’t halve 1 life point, so if you end up only having 1 LP left, then you can’t use SJ
The thing about early Yugioh is that it was at a slower pace, with players whittling away at each other's life points over numerous turns. In that context, players were more wary about maintenance costs for cards and drawing Solemn Judgement on your first turn was seen almost as drawing a dead card as there was no card that was worth paying 4000 LPs to stop. And even activating it later in the game was seen as very risky as while you would pay less LP it would also be at a stage when your LP were a lot more precious.
That changed once the game's pace rapidly quickened and became all about pulling off your combos in order to flood the field for an OTK. In that context, players were more than happy to pay massive LP just to stop someone from pulling off their combos because it didn't matter whether you started the next turn with 8000 or 100 LP, if you had stopped your opponent in their tracks and left them open you pretty much won the game. If anything Solemn Judgement's cost became a boost as the thing about paying half your LP means you can always activate it (also, you started getting a lot of cards that WANTED a game state where your opponent had more LP).
I think you pretty much nailed it. Why would you make your opponent's job easier? I can just run a Magic Jammer or Seven Tools of the Bandit. Sure, they are more limited in use, but I'm not setting myself up to lose the game. At least that would have been the logic at the time.
pretty much right on point minus a few more reason
1) solem was a Holo
2) you can't solem set cards
3) everyone is playing 3 MST/back row removal
4) graceful into pot is a thing
5) burn was viable
basically if you go first and set solem pass on stand by your opponent can MST to force it out, in main either graceful or pot to force it out.
you basically put yourself into at best 2 turn clock at worst a 1 turn clock (after opponent turn) if you're not Cimo and have god like top decks
Magical Library and Magical Scientist are cards where it's worth to pay 4000 LP to prevent the summon
Id say negating a BLS or CED with potential to do LETHAL damage is worth half your LP at any time 😅
@@GarethXLYeah primarily the issues mentioned
The value provided by solemn vs the risk of playing it was just not that great in the initial game.
It became much more viable when blocking a single card generated a large advantage vs the risk of using solemn (ie the high cost of losing solemn to removal).
Funny because now the game has accelerated to the point that solemn is somewhat risky due to the slow nature of traps
My mind : "Im gonna otk these guy by summoning Accesscod-"
Opponent set card : "Stop right there criminal scum!"
I remember thinking it was bad. Half your life points just to stop one card? Why do that when you can destroy a card for free with the many trap cards that killed monsters and spell cards that destroyed trap cards.
That’s because you’re thinking about life points. Alot of players say that in Yu-Gi-Oh! “The only life point that matters is the last one”. Once you stop thinking too hard about the life points and more about the field you can see that’s absolutely true. Solemn Judgement starts to feel less like “pay half your life points to stop one card” and more like “stop one card for free”. As the only time life points are truly a factor is when they are about to hit 0. The game is much more about what’s on the field than anything. There are cards that can destroy a monster or a spell and/or a trap sure but they are usually on their own separate cards. Like how dark hole and heavy storm are on two separate cards while SJ can stop almost ANY card you wish.
But let’s just say you’re still a player that’s protective over your life points. Their comes to a point where they are so low, that the card would barely have an effect on the game against you. Honestly if you have about let’s say 2000 or less, might as well play it if it stops your opponent from playing a card that would have won then the match.
@@truthteller7283pay half your life points to stop your self from losing duel.
It can stop a lot of powerful cards it's good thing to have to stop your board from being wiped acts like a lighting rod
You get a Swiss Army Knife Response to any card and the cost can always be paid no matter what.
@@truthteller7283well almost everyone thought that at the time so that explains why it was unused at the time
@@Meme-pg5twbecause the game wasn't played like it is now
Solemn Johnson, or as I call him: "NO!" The card.
Its so funny that historical goat format never ran it but now its commonly seen. Fun to see what effect years of game knowledge has when people revisit older formats
Meta Players: "It is only half of my life points. The only life point that matters is the last."
Exactly
For the cost of half my life...
*OLD MAN SAYS NO!*
The best thing about SJ (and the reason it is so broken) is the fact that it’s a counter trap. That means that you will almost always be able to negate whatever your opponent is attempting to do, uninterrupted. Even if your opponent has a full board of negates, you will still be able to stop their play with SJ. SJ is simply absurd.
For some reason? That reason being someone topped playing 3 of the card and said the famous words, "the only lifepoints that matter is the last one."
Apparently it didn’t see that much play when it first came out because it was too risky when cards like Ring of Destruction were a thing.
Even less people played Ring of Destruction during that time than Solemn Judgment.
From my understanding, it had more to do with the fact that players in older formats put more value on their life points back then as opposed to players nowadays that realize that the amount of LP you have doesn't matter at the end of the day so long as you win the game. It was because of this mentality that people were more afraid of playing a card like Solemn Judgement that requires you to give up half your life points. As for the point about Ring of Destruction, while I don't remember how common it was back then, it was still a card that players feared for it's ability to end a game on the spot if a player's life points were low enough, especially since it could force a draw with it's old, pre-errata effect text
@@matthewkuscienko4616 I played Yu-Gi-Oh from 2003-2006 and haven't touch a card since. You are exactly right. People valued life points a lot. To the point that some people though I was crazy for paying 1000 points to use something like Confiscation or Delinquent Duo. Back then even I didn't play Solemn Judgement even though in hindsight it was a great card.
@TheFishingNomad I haven't actually played the game in a good number of years now myself, but like you, I was into the game back then around even it first came out, and part of me thinks that a reason why people valued life points more than they do now is partly because of the anime's influence, since characters would freak out if the person they were rooting for had their life points get low. That's mostly speculative, of course, but either way, back then players looked at cards like that through a very different lens, and this caused people to worry more about things like that than we do these days, partly because of a lack of experience with the game. This especially shows when considering that people are building decks for older legacy formats differently than they did when the format was still current because we now have the benefit of hindsight that we can use to apply the knowledge we have gained as a playerbase to improve the decklists that were played
My favorite thing to do to Solum Judgement players were respond with Dark Bribe. Congrats bro you paid half your LP to get negated but I'll give you a free draw as a consultation prize.
I still remember in the past when i played solemn in the past and someone would ask why the fk would i burn myself for 4k since that would be me helping them kill me.
The easiest answer was so that you're raigeki wouldn't clear my board of 1800 beaters for free, and now my 4k contribution lets me keep the monsters i accumulated for the past 3 turns.
I remember a friend never playing solem judgment because and i quote "the cost is way too high to negate one thing and not worth it"
Having played and won hundreds of for money tournaments during the early era of Yugioh, I remember always considering this card but just never being able to justify it. There were a few players who ran then at my locals, and would defend it adamantly, but they never faired well in tournametns, and more often the not when I watched their games I could trace their loss back to Solemn Judgment.
As others have said, OTKs were super rare back then, and if you opponent was running one, thats why you had this in your side board, but for most matches they were long slow drawn out slug fests where each side was trying to gain card advantage so they could more quickly whittle down their opponents life points before their own. It's why Magic Cylinder was limited to 1 despite being an unchainable, slow, minus 1, because throwing your opponents gemni elf's attack back in their face meant you were 1 attack, maybe 1 whole turn, closer to winning. If you negated my summon, probably all it was going to do was hit you for less then the SJ did to you, so SJ was literally just a worse Sakeretsu Armor in that scenario.
A main reason I think it was over looked is probably because not a lot of people had 3 copies till then. Tho I wasn't playing competitively at that time (I was 4), it might just be a factor that people didn't have the card or an easy way to get their hands on it
People shelled out plenty of money for plenty of cards at the time.
People just unironically thought life points were super important
People gave lp much more importance than they should have, by playing goat at locals I realized that most of the time judgment prevents your opponent from normal summoning or allows you to attack for game without having to worry about mirror force for example
Solemn Judgment has aged very very well indeed over the years. I use Solemn Judgment in my Guru Control deck to keep the negation pressure going.
We sometimes overestimate the intelligence of meta players and this is proof.
Look how much time it took to Psy frame Gamma to be a meta staple.
Well yeah, most meta players can't build a functional deck without looking it up. It's usually the casual community that figures out the weirder interactions. For example, I've been running a Dino Stun style deck utilizing Normal Dinos, Lost World, Transcendosaurus, Torrential Tribute(3) and Dark Hole(2). Now I'm seeing Dino Stun popping up more in ranked play but with players running more floodgates in it (not my style). That being said, it's effective because Synchro Transcendosaurus can protect itself and other dinos from the GY from destroy all effects and targeting while wiping boards before they're an issue.
@@Nobody1mportant999This is not even close to true at all. The only reason people didn't think ahead back in the early eras is because NOBODY wanted to share ANY of their deck lists with the broader public. Everyone hoarded their techs like a dragon with treasure. There were also no simulators or good locations to post about anything. All we had was Pojo, which was not very intuitive and was not popular for the broader community. The only ones who play test constantly and find interactions are the meta players. If the casual players were as good as you say, they would have won more events, especially early on, than they did.
Maryland's meta used the hell out of Solemn. During pre and early Synchro, it was at 3 at all regionals.
@@orga7777 you do realize that the casual players are more willing to experiment because they don't care as much about WL records or topping a tournament so they're less likely to fill their decks with hand traps and "staples" (Impermanence, Ash, etc.) which leads to more interactions and more chances to discover interesting tech. Tell me you Google deck lists without telling me 💀
I used to play with my sister as a little kid when Metal Raiders first released.
She used this card religiously. Hard for me to believe it was overlooked at the time, because it was definitely busted immediately when it came out.
Holy crap the bots are getting efficient at commenting on shorts.
And their removal just as fast.
Wow Duel Logs is so cool. Btw my parents said they would buy me a Duel Logs plushie if I got 10 million subscribers wink wink
The thing is, even if you do value LP highly, the cost of Judgment is still manageable because you're not usually going to pay 4000 for it. The early competitive community had to learn that through practice.
Sometimes things about a card aren't immediately obvious by reading it, and that's especially true of Yugioh.
It's also worth noting that you're never unable to pay the cost to activate Solemn Judgement since unlike with most cards that require a cost of some sort, you might not have the resources available to pay for it. People realize now, though, that a card with a cost you can always afford to pay that can negate pretty much anything is too good to pass up on
Unless you have 1 LP, you can’t half 1 LP
@@natedog8281 you can still pay the cost. You just stay at one life point
@@omardanelli2911 the cost is to pay half your life points, if you’re at 1 and halving it keeps you at 1 then you’re not actually halving your LP, therefore you’re not able to pay the cost and the effect does NOT go off
@@natedog8281 life points round up because there are no decimals in Yugioh. It actually goes down to 0.5 LP, but rounds back up to 1.
I used to think it was terrible until someone negated 3 actions in a row in goat format. My eyes were opened when my opponent killed me with only 17 LP to spare.
I ran this at 3 in the main as soon as it released. Everyone hated that I was willing to give up half my life points to negate 1 card....3 separate times.
My guessing is that, at the time of release and prior to 2007, while the effect would be potent, it was more of a time where LP mattered a lot more than nowadays, so willingly spending half your LP for one card may have seemed a very steep cost.
Nowadays, with the game being more amount taking the opponent out in a single turn, and many varying forms for resourcing (stuff needing to be in the grave/banished, LP under a certain amount, etc), spending your LP is a much more common practice.
Goat Format: *You go first, draw Solemn judgement
You summon a monster and place it
Your opponent summons a monster and you say no way and they go next*
OTK from 8k hp was much harder back then and using SJ could put you into an easy OTK situation for the opponent.
It was overlooked because most players back then thought life points mattered when they didn't.
If you don't have lifepoints you lose the game... That's like rule number 1.
@@rifasclubAnd the only life point to ever matter is the last one. If you win the game because you activate three Solemn Judgement, does it matter what your life points are at?
Everyone says that until they get KO’d by Sparks. Seriously, I side a few OG burn cards cause there’s always one person at locals who thinks lifepoints are an infinite well. At least up until they realize they paid too much and now they’ve got a Sophie’s Choice: use up their negates on stopping the burn damage, or lose. I have literally won a duel with Sparks against an Unga Bunga Ra. Dude got humbled real quick. Moral of the story is LP costs are worth it as long as you don’t get careless
@@bsgfan1If someone is playing a card like Ra, they deserve to lose to Sparks. In a setting of competitive decks, the life points don't matter that much outside of time rules (where those cards are sided out anyway). There is a reason Solemn Judgement was eventually banned back in the day. The card was excessively good and always was. What matters more isn't your life points, but how long you can keep pressure in your favor. Solemn Judgement allows you to keep up pressure while wrecking your opponent's card advantage and power moves. Which is why now, Goat Format events have a massive spike in Solemn play. Stopping stuff like Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute is way more impactful than 4k life.
@@orga7777 You completely missed the point. Yes, competitive decks are less of an issue because, as I said, LP costs are fine as long as you’re not reckless with them. Competitive players are aware of that but the overwhelming majority of duelists are not. Hence why those players are at the competitive level in the first place. Top tier duelists know precisely when to pay half their LP if it means stopping a combo at its weakest point. But even Judgement can’t save you if you’re down to 1000 LP cause you panic negated every effect your opponent activated. If you reach a point where your opponent only needs to breath on you to get the W, that’s 100% your own fault. Keep in mind, this is a meta where monsters that are immune to destruction and card effects are king. Your monsters should be able to protect themselves and cards like Judgement are meant to stop combos. You say stopping things like Dark Hole and Torrential are more impactful, but negating those mean nothing if your opponent can continue their entire combo uninterrupted because you wasted all your negates.
Don't insult the OG Sakaretsu Armor
People during that time still thought that Life Points mattered
They did. The whole game played differently then. If you used it to negate even something important, but didn't immediately win, you could still get beaten by burn damage or a board-wipe followed by a big beat-stick.
It's because half your life points was SCARY back then.
My friend who got this card early on knew of the importance of this card, because it was one of the few cards that could stop Jinzo from being summoned, despite being a trap card. It is an incredible flex pick card that allows you to stop that one critical card from being used, often winning him the game at the most crucial moment. Being a counter trap, it could only be stopped by other counter traps, so there was hardly any way to counter it.
The most egregious overlook of a good card in the history of the game imo.
It was mostly overlooked because when it was first released the power level of the game was so much lower that there weren't that many cards worth paying such a high price to negate.
After that, even though stronger cards that would have been worth negating became more common, older players were still stuck in the mindset that it was a risky play, while newer players might not even be fully aware it existed.
Solomon is the reason we look back at old yugioh formats and try to see if the best deck was really the best deck and not just fire water format.
I started calling solemn judgement the mighty eagle because anytime my opponent is about to do something i flip it and be like: *NO*
Its usefulness also increased as combos became more prominent
Ahh, Sakuretsu. My childhood nightmare
Solemn Judgment gets better the longer the game goes on. If you're down to your last 1000, you're probably only one hit from losing anyway
I love Solemn Judgement!
Crafting 3 of this surly boy for my Dinomorphia deck really showed me how nice it is not to live in constant fear of back row hate!
People finally realized that paying half your lp to stop your opponent's turn was more than worth it.
I remember at nationals last year I talked to Jerome and asked what his favorite card was because I wanted him to sign it. He said "probably solemn judgment, I played it all the time early on and just no one was on it. People eventually caught on. Either that or change of heart". We said "well you must be pretty happy COH came off the list then huh?" And he said "well it does a little more than mind control and that's limited and doesn't see any play, so that was the argument in the room for it to come off". My man literally wanted Change of Heart off the list just because he likes it lol
Everyone in old school: pay half life bad
Me, a Dinomorphia intellectual: don't mind if I do
Bro now i cant even play a card before they have thier whole deck on the board
The reason people didn't use it was because life points actually mattered. You didn't lose to a board of five special summoned extra deck monsters on turn 1-2. It was back and forth with beat-sticks and weird effect monstersz
Solemn was a staple on every deck in my home country from day 1. We always said we don't play tcg we glay GCD Guyanese card game. My countries name is Guyana. It's weird how these cards got overlooked.
I will not lie I abused the hell out of that card back in goat format
So the big reason it wasnt used a ton early on historically is because Burn was far kore common at larger events, so paying half your LP could just lose you the game.
Even modern Reaper doesnt always play 3 cuz Stein is around
Back in middle school, when I got this in a booster, I immediately thought it was great. 1/2 lp is worth it to say no to any major threat was always fantastic.
Not that I actually understood the meta back then. But I did figure out that some cards were decisive, while others were just pawns on the board.
In 2004 i was one of the few people at my local shop that maindecked solemn and tools. (Everyone played jammer). I would have played more if i could afford them. The game mentality was so different but the idea of half my lifepoints means nothing if im going to lose because of the play anyway was foreign for a lot people without experience i games like magic where the power of control and counters were so prevailing
I think you forget it was expensive for a VERY long time.
My Head Judge friend and a guy I knew at Konami said it was banned because it promoted bad play. Duels would go by so fast and it was hard for players to learn or something. But take that with a grain of salt.
And now, the only time i see the solemn judgement in master duel is in stun deck (or maybe in lab? I never meet one tho). Trap card is often need to stop player from playing (like tcboo and red reboot), or break entire broad (evenly match). Oh yeah, the trap from archetype is also used. Otherwise, it used for imper.
funny. when it got released i maindecked it from day 1. player at my local area said that card was bad and did not understood why they lose to this bad card again and again xD. unfortuyaly i only owned 1 copy of that card xD
Bro I got double judgmented early I was beyond shiddy
I feel like judgment was always at its best when things like heavy storm existed. Only when power 5 spells became more and more relevant, so did judgment
You need this thing vs dark ruler no more
It wasn't played at 3 because there were no reprints, likely until 2007 lol
I was the only person in my group at school who used solemn judgment regularly
Uh... I think bots have shown up in here.
Nowadays it is a sideboard option for when you know you are going first,but why negate spells when you can prevent them from being activated in the first place?And then you play Anti-Spell over it
Back then people valued their LP more, and often one card wasnt life or death enough for players to really take in solemns value
The reason it wasn't used as much is because back then, OTK was not easy to achieve... while these days, almost all meta decks contain at least one way to OTK
The old man say no
In goat format, in single solemn judgement can guarantee win the match and during backrow removal is very limited, not to mention, duster is limited to 1. LP is totally doesn't not matter at all, if paid half LP can lead your victory. Now in modern yugioh, it still strong but it slow used. Very few deck can capatilize solemn brigade card to maximum pottential even have failed artype counter fairy. Currently only dinomorphia can capatilize solemn judgement but i believe is already over since iron thunderhammer introduce and iron thunderhammer is omninegate completely power crept solemn judgement
When you think about it this card if you could prevent an opponent from destroying it or if you always had one as a backup could mean that at least in older formats your opponent could never play the game. Half your life points sounds crazy but stopping your opponent from playing the game is worth it since as ive heard life points sort of dont matter
Got my first top 8 in goat format thanks to solemn
Probably thought the effect was too powerful against combo decks
Ahhh frog monarch ❤
God says "no"
Everyone that had a copy ran a copy back then. Just because it wasnt used "competitively" doesn't mean it was ignored.
Because in a game that was based around pure card advantage a 1-1 trade that kicked away half your life AND does nothing to help you when you're behind was just not good.
As someone who played casually, i thought Solemn Judgement was too risky unless you were already winning. Wasnt until the meta had threats such as Chaos Empeor Dragon that i understood what it's supposed to do.
And from I understand, Solemn Judgement had help from decks caring more about pacing than simply placing a card or 2. Just how old are Gladiator Beasts again?
Damn, imagine if modern Yu-Gi-Oh did something about the card everyone and their mum constantly runs at 3.
Banned for being too good unbanned when it's effectively been made useless by pure power creep
And what came out in 2008? Synchros
Solemn Judgment would be a staple at 3 in goat format if not for Ring of Destruction being legal.
Hmm why was a one card omni-negate that could not be countered except with same said omni negate banned? I have no idea how this could happen
i knew this card was good when i saw it in a yugioh game. When i first started yugioh i was the same as everyone but when i played magic, that's when i realized that life was a resource. half of your Current LP total ISN'T that bad.
For a wile I preferred 7 tools of the bandit. But solemn judgment is good. especially in late game.
Where did you find that graph for how much a card was used ?
Just say no.
This is the most skillful card in the game. People never realized until it was banned.
Sakuretsu armour is good
Back in old school yugioh but battle traps nowadays are terrible
@@natedog8281 sad but true
Solemn was used heavily because of JD
I always laugh at people using Solemn Judgement against me when they got full LP because I use a burn deck, nice job doing half the job for me now take 1500 burn from scattershot
Dinomorphia
Pay 4k to say No
It was not "overlooked", the game was just incredibly slower back then...
I was simping for YHVH here before it was cool!!!
Face it, it got to the point it was use to chain solemn judgement to your solemn judgement, that’s why it got limited. Ban? They just wanted people to take a break from the card lol
This didn't explain why the card was banned.
Simple answer is that people cared more about life points until 07 when the game started speeding up and people realized that life points are another resource to make plays
A few reaspns: everyone was playing 3 of it, there weren't many activation or summon negates back then, and the ones that did usually made you discard a card as well, had conditions like when monster activates its effect or only activate in a certain phase, and only stopped monsters or spells and traps, whereas this can always be activated and stop any activation or summon. You can always pay half your LP and stopping the right card at the right moment can stop you from losing or make you win the next turn.
It stops anything and you can pay the cost every time. Not really anything. It can't stop monster effects, but still.
@BlazeCon97 everyone playing 3 of it isn't a reason. Everyone plays 3 ash and I've not seen that banned yet.
I paused shortly during the time the card was banned and can somewhat see why.
Basically, people back then thought that Solemn Judgment as stronger as a late game card and that early in the game, paying 4000LP was rarely worth it, except when you were forced to activate it.
This has started to change, as 2012 for the first time had multiple decks with strong and consistent openings in turn 1 or 2 (even if it just meant a NS that searches something), which was very uncommon before and has just started to become normalized. In that way, Judgement no longer was seen as detrimental in your opening hand and would always drastically disrupt your opponents opening with no possible counterplay (there was no red reboot duh). And Judgment shit on Xyz too, which didn't help (they also banned Trish and Bulb + put Formula to 1 to kill Synchros)
I hope this kinda explains why, even though I'm sure that it was heavily debated at that time, especially compared to other newly banned cards that no one ever complained about, like Trap Dustshoot
Is the card still banned?
No it's been unbanned since 2018 if I remember correctly
Sometimes I forget women play trading card games too, I'm so used to this hobby being a sausage fest.
Keren bg
You know, if paying huge sums of your LP for plays is considered a “trivial” expense, that gives me an idea for a card that turns that notion on it’s head, by making it so that you gain LP equal to any amount of LPs they pay for said play:
_Life-Force Syphon_
Quick-Play Spell
_For the rest of the duel, the following is effects are applied:_
⚪️Each time your opponent would pay any amount of LP, or take any amount of effect damage from their own cards or effects: You can increase your LP by equal to the amount payed or damage taken.
⚪️Once per turn, If you take any amount of battle or effect damage from an an opponent’s card or effect, you can either banish or tribute 1 card from your hand or field: Increase your LP by equal to the ATK or DEF (your choice) of any 1 monster that is banished or in the GY.
_You can only activate 1 “Life-Force Syphon” per duel._
So NOW any amount of LP they pay actively or self-inflict can be used to increase your own LP, thus making it harder for them to actually win, AND if they run a deck that ends up with amy number of monsters banished or in the GY, those monster’s can be used to further bolster yourself from their efforts, and even the card’s tribute cost can get one such monster banished or in the GY in the first place.
Honestly not sure if it would see play
@@bestaround3323
I mean it’s a quick-play spell that applies a permanent (and thus impossible to negate I believe) effect for the rest of the duel that could potentially allow to shrug off otherwise fatal amounts of damage, while also making it so that your opponent’s efforts to “pay to play” only strengthen you…
So if someone uses Judgment while they have 8000 LP, and pay 4000 to use after you’ve used this card, you now gain 4000 LP then and there. That isn’t exactly chump change.
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFire I mean, if your opponent can set up a board of negates to prevent you from doing anything else, it won't matter how many Life Points you have.
@@CaptainJLinebeck
I mean that’s one of the main ways to win anyway these days, so if anything this gives you a fighting chance, turns the duel a battle of attrition. Once it goes through, those negates can’t touch the prema-applied effects, so you can hopefully survive as long as you have cards from your hand or field to tribute or your opponent uses cards that make them pay LP…. It doesn’t have to be “perfect”, it just has to be “enough”.
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFireyeah, issue is that historically LP gain hasn't ever been enough. Plus the fact that a lot of current (not all, but a lot of them) decent decks don't spend much LP if any to establish their boards. And the ones that do can just stop you from doing anything on your turn even if you have 20k LP and just beat you down with high attack monsters like Accesscode Talker
Yeah it got banned because it was too cheap and they wanted people to buy Solemn warning and Solemn strike
If you're going to spam the card back to back to prevent your opponent from playing, you better have a plan B, Because you can run all three copies against me and I'll just attack for game. Thanks for making my job easier.
yea the card was bad until the game became more combo oriented, which is how every card game evolve btw