Which decks/formats were the most skilful?

[ihop]

Because 2 threads have now been derailed by this convo. I'll give my opinion when I get on my laptop.

[Aman Indra]

 i hope no one will say goat format or tele-dad.

[ENMaker]

I never played Tele-DAD or GOAT and have barely any knowledge of either but in any case I don't see how one format can be defined as "more skillful" or actually skill-based compared to another in a game where you largely depend on luck to get the right cards to allow you to do things and regardless of how what cards you're running or what opponent you're facing, if you open up terrible and they open amazing you're going to lose regardless of whatever supposed skill your deck is built to enable or is enabled by.

 

That wasn't very coherent but hopefully should get the point across. People here have totally different definitions of what is skillful but luck is still at least 50% of every deck and format so to pick one out as objectively better in terms of that does not make any sense to me. Someone may prove me wrong or change my mind who knows, but that's my main feeling on the topic at this moment.

[ihop]

I never played Tele-DAD or GOAT and have barely any knowledge of either but in any case I don't see how one format can be defined as "more skillful" or actually skill-based compared to another in a game where you largely depend on luck to get the right cards to allow you to do things and regardless of how what cards you're running or what opponent you're facing, if you open up terrible and they open amazing you're going to lose regardless of whatever supposed skill your deck is built to enable or is enabled by.

 

That wasn't very coherent but hopefully should get the point across. People here have totally different definitions of what is skillful but luck is still at least 50% of every deck and format so to pick one out as objectively better in terms of that does not make any sense to me. Someone may prove me wrong or change my mind who knows, but that's my main feeling on the topic at this moment.

A skillful format is one where it's easily possible to win with slightly inferior hands on a fairly regular basis. A deck like Rabbit is more or less defined by luck, as if someone opens Laggia 4 backrow it's very hard to lose, whereas in D Rulers or Goats the outcome of the game isn't predetermined by opening hands.

[Resident Fascist]

Dragon Ruler format gets my vote. 

[Slinky]

Goat format was widely viewed as possibly the most skillful format, so that can't be ignored. Rulers weren't skillful outside of the mirror match but the mirror match happened often enough to where it didn't really matter. Basically a skillful format causes players to think about their moves instead of auto-piloting.

[Progenitor]

From what I understand GOAT format actually fits this definition very easily.  Since everyone was playing essentially the same deck, it all came down to techs and mentality.

 

Also I know everyone hated it but I kinda liked the Post-PRIO formats.  Even HATrix as a concept weren't really that crazy.  Annoying as hell?  Sure, but they were essentially "I'm going to play this duel at my pace until you waste all your resources at which point I'm going to simply beat you down."

 

The rest of the decks in that short span from the Death of Dragons to Shaddolls weren't all too insane.  There was the occasional Infernity shenanigans but there was a pretty wide variety from what I remember in terms of at least viable decks.

[Aerion Brightflame]

I consider the original Dragon Ruler format to be the epitome of skill in modern YGO. I'm less inclined to include goats, because really it was a different game than what we have now. Like an actually different card game. 

 

It was definately up there. 

 

And until I see Dark World tier 0 format (A horrible idea I know), that will remain my answer. 

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

February OCG Rulers with Rejuv @1, Rulers @2, and no RFTDD, savoring Rejuv to get the max utility out of DDR, Ravine, and Trade-in. Shield Sword.
 

Most skilled format

 

Tele-DAD or Return DAD

Goat Control

Plant Synchro (tengu plant, right before the awful Match 2012 list)

There's nothing skillful of chaining one Rejuv into another

[VampireofDarkness]

February OCG Rulers with Rejuv @1, Rulers @2, and no RFTDD

 

There's nothing skillful of chaining one Rejuv into another

Ravine Ruler tbh is up there. Rejuv Ruler is bs, Ravine Ruler is something to see, Return DAD as a player of the format I am less inclined to believe it was on the same skill level as others, but Tele-DAD no doubt was something to see. Plants would be next in line, Goats were as well, but tbh that was as Aerion puts it was a whole other game.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Ravine Ruler tbh is up there. Rejuv Ruler is bs, Ravine Ruler is something to see, Return DAD as a player of the format I am less inclined to believe it was on the same skill level as others, but Tele-DAD no doubt was something to see. Plants would be next in line, Goats were as well, but tbh that was as Aerion puts it was a whole other game.

No, not Rejuv Rulers. There was the March 2013 the three Rejuv Format, then the lists split and we had September rulers. TCG polluted with Six Sense and both with RFTDD

 

TCG limits rulers and bans Ravine in January

 

OCG banned RFTDD, unbanned Stein, Unlimted Debris, limited Sarc and swords, Lonefire at 2, rulers at 2, Rejuv at one, Honest at 2

 

Super skillful three way battle between Geargia, Rulers (plants or w/o) and Chronofacts

 

Not surprise you've never heard of it tbh, but that's the format that made Sheild-Sword a f***ing amazing move. Rulers got limited, offering banned, heroes came out, format OCG side went to s*** until the current Format

 

 

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about. This was a fairly standard build for the time, granted Moon Rose only came into the format half-way though. Switch out your floodgates for the match up. Chrono Facts has Fairies, and Rocks, stopping one or the other would halt the Nebra-Sanctum engine (warlords). Skill Drain was for the Verz (who still remained fairly dominant even after the Ophion limit and the Geargia match up). Don't remember exactly what the MST was good again. Rainbow Life or Self-Destruct button, for Machu burn. 

 

Shield-Sword:

 

Dracosac summon 2 tokens. Normal (ideally, you can Debris I guess)  the Influence Dragon. Make Dracosac a dragon with Influence effect, tokens count as normals, so at that point you can summon Trishula, (the sword) or Azure (the shield) 

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Most skillful format I have played in was Rulers, after their first hit.

 

Most skillful format I have played in when I had a clue what was going on would probably be HAT, though the skillfulness of this is much more up for debate.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Most skillful format I have played in was Rulers, after their first hit.

 

Most skillful format I have played in when I had a clue what was going on would probably be HAT, though the skillfulness of this is much more up for debate.

Six Sense and RFTDD robbed that format.

[ihop]

Six Sense and RFTDD robbed that format.

 

I mean, almost every good format had a card/combo that was a little bit too powerful and usually meant you won if deployed correctly. Goats had BLS, TeleDAD had luckily timed Crush Card, Tengu Plant had One for One+Dandy, etc. The format was still skillful as funk because even resolving a Sense or a Return wasn't guaranteed since you needed to play round Judgment/Trap Stun as well as not losing before you can set up. Of every format I've played (and trust me, I've played a ton), the D-Ruler mirror had the most options, the least difference in a good hand and a bad hand and the fewest standard plays. I really can't see past it as the most skillful matchup ever.

 

Also, why are people calling it GOAT? It's not an acronym you know.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

I mean, almost every good format had a card/combo that was a little bit too powerful and usually meant you won if deployed correctly. Goats had BLS, TeleDAD had luckily timed Crush Card, Tengu Plant had One for One+Dandy, etc. The format was still skillful as f*** because even resolving a Sense or a Return wasn't guaranteed since you needed to play round Judgment/Trap Stun as well as not losing before you can set up. Of every format I've played (and trust me, I've played a ton), the D-Ruler mirror had the most options, the least difference in a good hand and a bad hand and the fewest standard plays. I really can't see past it as the most skillful matchup ever.

 

Also, why are people calling it GOAT? It's not an acronym you know.

That's fair, I wouldn't expect any of you to have played CGR format. But it truly lacked something that could swing games like that. Rejuv usually only net you a +1. Stein had it's risks and you had to wait a turn since Geargiant X searching. Chronofacts had honest, but you could predict that and play around it.

 

Of the TCG formats, I would have to say that Plant Sync was the more skillful in recent history. Dandy OFO was strong, but not earth Shaking like Rejuv into Rejuv or CCV 

[ihop]

Oh, TCG's Rejuv format was aids and was definied by how many Rejuv you drew, I'm not arguing that. I do agree that plant synchro was very skillful, but it doesn't have nearly the amount of options as D-Rulers did and it was always far more obvious what the best play was in that deck than in Rulers where every different hand basically requires different play.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Oh, TCG's Rejuv format was aids and was definied by how many Rejuv you drew, I'm not arguing that. I do agree that plant synchro was very skillful, but it doesn't have nearly the amount of options as D-Rulers did and it was always far more obvious what the best play was in that deck than in Rulers where every different hand basically requires different play.

Rejuv was honestly fine at 1, as long as you made sure the babies weren't around.

 

TCG went a bit to hard on the deck IMO, but to each his own, I really enjoyed the third Ruler format, but seeing that TCG didn't allow for that to happen (be that good or bad is up to you), it's not really fair for me to claim that format's superiority 

[Slinky]

No, not Rejuv Rulers. There was the March 2013 the three Rejuv Format, then the lists split and we had September rulers. TCG polluted with Six Sense and both with RFTDD

 

TCG limits rulers and bans Ravine in January

 

OCG banned RFTDD, unbanned Stein, Unlimted Debris, limited Sarc and swords, Lonefire at 2, rulers at 2, Rejuv at one, Honest at 2

 

Super skillful three way battle between Geargia, Rulers (plants or w/o) and Chronofacts

 

Not surprise you've never heard of it tbh, but that's the format that made Sheild-Sword a f***ing amazing move. Rulers got limited, offering banned, heroes came out, format OCG side went to s*** until the current Format

 

 

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about. This was a fairly standard build for the time, granted Moon Rose only came into the format half-way though. Switch out your floodgates for the match up. Chrono Facts has Fairies, and Rocks, stopping one or the other would halt the Nebra-Sanctum engine (warlords). Skill Drain was for the Verz (who still remained fairly dominant even after the Ophion limit and the Geargia match up). Don't remember exactly what the MST was good again. Rainbow Life or Self-Destruct button, for Machu burn. 

 

Shield-Sword:

 

Dracosac summon 2 tokens. Normal (ideally, you can Debris I guess)  the Influence Dragon. Make Dracosac a dragon with Influence effect, tokens count as normals, so at that point you can summon Trishula, (the sword) or Azure (the shield) 

 

I don't know wtf CGR is, but thats just Ravine Rulers using OCGs list. A deck that is also unoptimized because they aren't running Blader for the mirror

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

I don't know wtf CGR is, but thats just Ravine Rulers using OCGs list. A deck that is also unoptimized because they aren't running Blader for the mirror

Top three Decks were Chronofacts, Geargia, and Rulers.

 

It's the only one I had left, I normally clean my lists out after the new format, you should play Koaki meru drago for the fact match up too

 

The point being that format didn't have any power cards on the scale of RFTDD or SS, also the rulers being at 2 allowed for more techs, and said techs mattered in deciding who won, reminds one of a certain format, I'm sure you could make a better list, my poor deckbuilding skills from over a year ago wasn't the point

[Sleepy]

Goat Format was great, but the game could do better, I think.

For one, the slower pace and few generic draw effects tried to make up for the lack of search options you'd usually get nowadays. Which combined with enough unknowns in the form of set cards and 1 of staples, it was an incredibly fun guessing game at times, and it did demand keeping track of what had already been used.

 

TeleDAD the way I saw how games ran back in the day and the way people remember it as is not the same.

I'd like to see a mirror match of it with commentary somewhere that showed me all that Skill people remember in it. I found it very hard when trying out hands back in 2008 not to consistently end with a very solid field and at least one solemn much of the time, and that sounds like it'd hurt player 2 a lot.

I remember last year someone linked me to an article of a player describing scenarios, but it'd probably leave me a better impression to see them first hand.

 

Somewhere in the Dragon Rulers days is probably the answer, at least for the mirror match.

I saw how different plays could be made with the same hands, ranging from the obvious terrible actions, to ones that looked very solid, to ones that went above and beyond to benefit the player but not everyone could initially see. 

Though that is probably also the least enjoyable format in this list for me, though mostly for the complexity creep in the effects. Dragon Rulers were kind of a pain to keep track of with their hard OPT 1 of 3 effects, sometimes even for the users themselves that I saw around.

I liked HAT format and also I don't remember which one it was where Shadolls were still fairly new but before Qliphs appeared. Though don't have a huge enough scale on those formats past personal impressions on playing during those days so I'll leave it as honorable mentions.

[Spinny]

Nekroz, BA and shaddoll format is/was pretty skilful IMO.

[Hunduel]

Feel free to kill me, but I actually think that the previous format was awesome. Lots of options even for competitive scene and an it was awesome even for casuals with lots of new & fresh deck styles, most of them being budget.

 

Actually, I still can't understand why people prefer Synchrocentric format. It was just horrible. It was not skillful at all: everyone just ran that awful deck and literally made all the same moves over and over again. Even Tele-DAD at its prime were a more skillful format than that one.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Synchrocentric format

Like Plant Synch?

 

or like Sync cat?

[Hunduel]

Like Plant Synch?

 

or like Sync cat?

 

Tengu Plant/Plant Synchro, more precisely.

[ihop]

Feel free to kill me, but I actually think that the previous format was awesome. Lots of options even for competitive scene and an it was awesome even for casuals with lots of new & fresh deck styles, most of them being budget.

 

ily