What Happened? #1 [Number 101: Silent Honor ARK]

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

I'm starting a new weekly segment called "What Happened", asking why cards have fallen out of grace of the meta in favor of other cards.

This Week:

Once a card costing more than some decks, #101 is most famous for being the ace card of the leader of the Barians, Nasch. And it served well as a staple Rank 4 for quite some time, but seems to have recently dropped off of the face of the earth.

So where did #101 go? Why isn't it wonderful anymore?

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

It is both outclassed and outed by castel. Simple as that.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

It is both outclassed and outed by castel. Simple as that.

How?

It has 100 more ATK and can survive hits Castel can't, despite the limits on its effect.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

How?

It has 100 more ATK and can survive hits Castel can't, despite the limits on its effect.

It is face-up. That means it can be outed by Castel.

[Bringerofcake]

it's actually seen a small uptick in power, due to a lot of decks not wanting their monsters to hit the graveyard. It suffers from the same weaknesses as castel, but with a slightly bigger body and resistance to being destroyed. In Shaddoll format it was bad since it stuck around long enough to be Fusion food and triggered El-Shaddoll effects, and right now it doesn't work too well vs Kozmo. It's still not an awful card.

[Hexanort]

castel can hit any face-up card while this only hit face-up Special Summoned monster in attack pos...kind of a big difference there...

 

also 101 effect disappear if its removed before the target is attached

[Tinkerer]

This card definitely does what it does better than Castel, but Castel hits a much wider variety of things. Overall, it seemed a bit redundant to use both, so this dropped out in favor for the latter.

 

...as for my personal opinion, I still love this thing and would often throw it in if I have any Extra Deck space (and its usable).

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

also 101 effect disappear if its removed before the target is attached

It is important to remember that when castel was a new thing, Karma Cut and PWWB were both very prominent cards, so this was super relevant

[Maeriberii Haan]

Another thing that makes this fall from grace is the prominence of floating bosses in the meta back then, and right now it doesn't even handle 3 of the usual setup for sitting people (Raff, a Narch, and Kozmo ships). Granted, neither does Castel, but castel hits more anyway so 101's niche becomes really small.

[Toffee.]

Castel also has the pro ability to hit Pends in the Pend Zone.

Assuming it gets that chance.

[Lonk]

This card is at least still used in Mermails due to being a WATER.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

If only 101 had a hard OPT+ a detach 1 instead of two effect

[Synchronized]

It's still a damn good card. You should be playing it in anything that is focused on RK4 spam solely. If you've only got a few slots, Castel should be priority.

[Spinny]

It's still a damn good card. You should be playing it in anything that is focused on RK4 spam solely. If you've only got a few slots, Castel should be priority.

I usually run 1 of each since they can both have their pros and cons, but if not enough space then just castel because it's more solid in alot of situations.

[Toffee.]

C101 is always a fun card, if you bother to play it.

101 has more usage going for it then 103/C103

[Spinny]

C101 is always a fun card, if you bother to play it.

101 has more usage going for it then 103/C103

Before castel was a thing, My C101 deck was so annoying. Xyz Reborn on a C101 is so dumb lol

[Toffee.]

Before castel was a thing, My C101 deck was so annoying. Xyz Reborn on a C101 is so dumb lol

That's because C101 is more likely to stick around, compared to C103.

[玄魔の王]

The two big factors were the aforementioned Shaddoll Fusion thing, and that spinning is harder to fix than this guy. Then floodgates became super important, which Castel fixes.

 

It is important to remember that when castel was a new thing, Karma Cut and PWWB were both very prominent cards, so this was super relevant

Pretty much, since with Castel you have to do it preemptively and thus you can't cost them the OPT.

[Neochu-H]

i summon this with RUM seventh one and go into C101 soooooo yeah

[玄魔の王]

i summon this with RUM seventh one and go into C101 soooooo yeah

Then they Castel C101, leaving it and 101 both unable to be made again that game.

[ihop]

Another thing that makes this fall from grace is the prominence of floating bosses in the meta back then, and right now it doesn't even handle 3 of the usual setup for sitting people (Raff, a Narch, and Kozmo ships). Granted, neither does Castel, but castel hits more anyway so 101's niche becomes really small.

 

This, I think, is one of the key points and it's been the case even before the current format. Last format there were Shaddoll fusions which still triggered upon being detached, Dantes which were in DEF and triggered anyway, Nekroz boards with Unicore which 101 couldn't touch anyway, Qliphorts which were normal summoned and Infernoid which just tributed themselves. Castel just has far more utility because it's actually able to remove serious threats which are not necessarily the big monsters - stuff like Kozmotowns, Floodgates and Pendulum scales are often far more threatening and are what you really need to be removing. If there's ever a format again where people are winning games with Dracossacks and stuff like that it'll be good again, but as long as the things you really want to be targetting are face-up spells and traps Castel is just infinitely better.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

C101 is always a fun card, if you bother to play it.

101 has more usage going for it then 103/C103

Too bad C101 doesn't require you to run 101.

[IQuitDolphin]

Now this is some YGO 101-*shot*

[vla1ne]

sadly, monarchs aren't touched by this, even without march. but i still love this card for the artwork.

[Exiro]

I was expecting this to be "What happened" as in "What the hell happened to Yu-Gi-Oh! and why does Konami now print cards as broken as Number 101: Silent Honor ARK". I was greatly disappointed.