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[Gai Murakumo]

For anybody that has watched the first episode what do you guys think? I thought it was good. Yusaku seems like another Yusei to a degree which I like. The opening song is great and extremely catchy.

Spoiler

No actual duel occurred so we will have to see how Yusaku's style and how the dueling actually looks like in Vrains.

 

[Glitchesarecool]

Yikes that first episode is kind of terrible.

Let's just throw a ton of terms and places at the wall, show you EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER, what's this Speed Dueling thing even going to be? At least in previous series they took their time with the introduction of things. What is the virtual world even?

Not that I'm expecting much out of the anime after Zexal and Arc V dragging out their stories for what felt like decades, but still.

At least the OP isn't horrible to listen to.

On the subject of the actual game, I have a very bad feeling about this Link Summoning method.

 

[KarasuEXE]

I actually liked the new mechanic; however, it completely shits on the past 10 years of the card game.

Coming back to Arc-V after dropping GX at the middle of the series was an incentive to try to play the card game again. I got some episodes left to watch, but I liked Arc-V a lot.

Back to this new series, as I said, I kinda liked the "Link Summon" mechanic. But I don't know if I should watch VRAINS... only for Konami to drop this system AGAIN in the next series, and for me to spend more money to get the anime cards... AGAIN

 

[Fj0823]

My review. MAJOR episode 1 SPOILERS

As many of you know I've been a Yugioh fan since I catched the Yugi vs Weevil duel on TV, it all went downhill from there lol.

I played with counterfeit cards until my family got better financially, I finally built an official deck that emulated Yugi's deck, but I made it better by using only spellcaster related cards. My lifelong hobbie was born.

From there I always wanted to be the first in the country to master whatever summoning method or card type appeared, from unions to contact fusions to xyz to pendulums.

That always required keeping up with the anime and its ever changing cast and plot.

I was there when Yugi defeated Atem, I was with Yudai through his depression, I cheered like an idiot when Shooting Star Dragon came from the Sky to Masaki Endoh, I also was there for many many turn 1 Utopias, and recently I followed a war of different dimmensions each using different summoning methods.

It pains me to say this, but VRAINS might have had the weakest first episode of this entire franchise.

First off we are treated to a virtual world were we see this incredibly powerful AIs being trapped inside some sort of firewall, how do we know they are powerful? because they imply it with some cryptic dialogue from the leader of the Knights of Hanoi.

Ignis, a goofy AI comes to the rescue and copies his buddies data inside his own data or something, he gets injured but manages to escape.

We cut to the Virtual World were some Knights of Hanoi grunt is being beaten by totally not the MC's level 4 monster...

Then we cut to school and get to meet Yusaku. And Man, I love this kid. Quiet, To the point, but with a likeable calm demeanor. He seems like Yusei but with an arrogant way of talking down to others instead of just ignoring them like Yusei did.

Yusaku gets a GIGANTIC info dump on.what dueling is by one of the ugliest YGO characters ever designed, and that's saying something after Zexal.

He goes to his shady friends Hot Dog stand and he gets another cryptic info dump where some things about his past are hinted. We also learn that duelists used to surf in data waves, but they're gone now.

Yusaku then notices the Knights of Hanoi attacking Blue Angel's duel live stream,they are searching for something, a rogue AI apparently. So what does he do?

He hacks the AI into his old physical card duel disk.

He connects to the virtual world and heroically rescues Blue Angel, stares to the evil dude and goes

"If you want this AI, you have to defeat me, as the AI is now bound by my duel disk!"

Ignis hacks the Data Waves back and the first speed duel in years is abouta to take place!!

Shit. Not this again. Please no.

Motherfuckers gave MC the same episode 1 plot armor they gave to Yuma in Zexal. As you might recall that made the writers unable to have Yuma lose relevant duels for the entirety of season 1, and then resulted in his spirit partner dying and coming back at least 4 times in seasons 2 and 3.

That's boring. Arc-V had the main character lose fair and square against scrubs,major villains or even allies sometimes and GET BETTER for it. Now we're back to an invincible main character or the plot resolves itself.

Now they DO try to address it by making it seem like Yusaku doesn't give a fuck about Ignis, he treats him like shit and even threatens the Knights telling them that if they don't duel him he will delete Ignis himself.

That kinda hurt Yusaku's initial likeability and come on, we all know these 2 will be Nakama by episode 4.

My other problem is...why should I care? Everything was so fucking cryptic we dont know why is Yusaku doing any of this.

Previous series never really explained the characters arc in the first episode, but they had a clear objective for that first duel. Yugi had to save his Grandpa,Jaden needed to enter Duel School, Yusei had to win or he'd be arrested, Yuma was trying to get his best friend's cards back and Yuya wanted to clean his father's name.

None of those spoil the big plot but they are a small motivation for that first duel. Here we have a lot of techno mumbo jumbo and "I will uncover my mysterious past" shit that's not relatable at all.

Back when I watched 5D's I needed to know what happens next, Arc-V ended its first episode introducing the new cards and dedicated the next few episodes to the character figuring his new cards out, the original first episode had Pegasus take interest in Yugi and even Zexal ended with a cool hook by introducing Astral at the very end.

Here, I feel that I only want to watch the next episode to see the Link Summon animation. That's not good.

The ending is fucking great though!!
https://youtu.be/RlEhdRxmuaA

5/10, mediocre.

So TL;DR: Great Main Character, Lots of cryptic exposition going nowhere, some awful AWFUL character designs, some great card designs, and cool music.

 

[HypnoDarkrai]

For those that didn't know. Duel Links celebrated the broadcast of VRAINS with card sleeves and a game mat.

 

[Crimsonlink]

No duel monster summoned in the first episode.... WTF Konami!

Also the sailor moon like transformation made me laugh more than it should have when it happened.

This is a series first though where the protag is a loner and not surrounded by friends, at least not yet.

Also why is Aoi so plain in non VRAINS form? Give me more of the purple hair chick please. All the villain designs look bad imo and the MC's palette swap is pretty terrible in color coordination.

I mean they seem to be stealing ideas from previous shows and executing them terribly. Yusei like protag with amazing Hacker skills but shit communication and affability. There was a millennium eye reference in the OP so thats season 1 right there. The villains look like Yliaster knock offs and some parts of that Zexal crap.

Speed duels looks like an attempt to cash off the idea of riding duels with that shitty data storm thing. Looks pretty awful visually.

Not overall convinced so far but they have at least 2 more episodes to change my mind.

Mediocre like fj said. Ending song was great though.

 

[mhi]

I could ride with fusion for a while but ritual is where I started raising my eyebrows. Ejected before the Xyz and Synchro craziness.

 

[Watch Da Birdie]

I was really confused about the relationship between the real world and VRAINS here---like the dragon appeared in VRAINS (and both Oni and Aoi could see it apparently), but then the screen breaks in the real world and people run off screaming as if they were being attacked?

Did the people engulfed by the flames die, are they in a coma, or did their account just get deleted and that's it?

It wasn't that bad of a first episode, but it was really vague at parts.

 

[Fj0823]

I could ride with fusion for a while but ritual is where I started raising my eyebrows. Ejected before the Xyz and Synchro craziness.

But ritual and fusion were introduced in the same generation

Spoiler

And Rituals Suck

 

[JudgeN]

What the fuck did I just watch, i'm so confused. Not a good first impression at all.

 

[SolarKnight]

I found it amusing that in the VR world the characters were all running for their lives rather than just, you know, logging out.

Also loving the hot dog stand secret base.

 

[Sandfox]

I liked this first episode. It set up some potentially interesting things and gave us a look at a good amount of the cast. The MC's personality seems like a welcome change after the past two series, but it's obviously early.

But ritual and fusion were introduced together

Spoiler

And Rituals Suck

Fusion came quite a bit before.

 

[Fj0823]

I liked this first episode. It set up some potentially interesting things and gave us a look at a good amount of the cast. The MC's personality seems like a welcome change after the past two series, but it's obviously early.

Fusion came quite a bit before.

I was referring to the "Gen" concept. Fusions and Rituals are both Gen 1.

But yeah, Rituals came a few boosters later that Gen, I'll edit my post

 

[Valkerionseven]

I found it amusing that in the VR world the characters were all running for their lives rather than just, you know, logging out.

Also loving the hot dog stand secret base.

Maybe its like a MMO where you have to wait 15-30 seconds while not in combat to log out. The darkest mental dive VR system lol.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

I liked this first episode. It set up some potentially interesting things and gave us a look at a good amount of the cast. The MC's personality seems like a welcome change after the past two series, but it's obviously early.

Pretty much how I felt about it. Plus I like the fact that they had the balls to focus more on the setting and plot and not even have a major duel in the first episode.

 

[Char Aznable]

all cool and allright with the first episode except for no children's card games

 

[Super Stardust]

I can't believe his hair is yellow, orange and pink... and I thought yuyas green hair was bad but this is way worse.

 

[Crimsonlink]

I can't believe his hair is yellow, orange and pink... and I thought yuyas green hair was bad but this is way worse.

Thank you for agreeing. I wish the hair change didn't occur when he transforms. His raspberry hair works well enough.

 

[MaximumSpider]

5D's will never ever be surpassed, huh?

 

[Sandfox]

5D's will never ever be surpassed, huh?

The second half of 5Ds weighs it down IMO.

I can't believe his hair is yellow, orange and pink... and I thought yuyas green hair was bad but this is way worse.

So if Yuya was a tomato, what do we go with this time?

 

[Bubble]

The 5D's love here is so surprising. First 64 episodes are good, but the other 90 episodes are fucking crap. So the majority episodes are terrible, all of the main characters are either terrible (Yusei, Crow) or irrelevant (Aki, the twins) and the duels aren't even that good (Jack is pretty great though and his duels are the best).

Don't think I could take another series with a Yusei-like main character.

 

[Fj0823]

The 5D's love here is so surprising. First 64 episodes are good, but the other 90 episodes are fucking crap. So the majority episodes are terrible, all of the main characters are either terrible (Yusei, Crow) or irrelevant (Aki, the twins) and the duels aren't even that good (Jack is pretty great though and his duels are the best).

Don't think I could take another series with a Yusei-like main character.

People are forgiving of 5Ds shortcomings for 2 reasons

1) They had to handle the meltdown of the whole Carly VA thing and make changes that were never intended

2) Even at its worst it still had super hype memorable moments

 

[Qvoth]

finally watched the 1st episode
not really sure what's going on since they haven't explained anything
cool ED song though
anybody knows a decklist for stargrail deck? might wanna mess around with ygopro abit

 

[Crimsonlink]

The 5D's love here is so surprising. First 64 episodes are good, but the other 90 episodes are fucking crap. So the majority episodes are terrible, all of the main characters are either terrible (Yusei, Crow) or irrelevant (Aki, the twins) and the duels aren't even that good (Jack is pretty great though and his duels are the best).

Don't think I could take another series with a Yusei-like main character.

Gtfo out Jack fanboy. You just salty your king is holding that L from Yusei.

 

[Fj0823]

I also think history will be kinder to Arc-V like it was for 5D's, people we're really hating the WRPG and calling 5D's the worst ever and a waste of potential by the time Zexal started.

Like 5D's, Arc-V has a super strong first half and a mediocre but not really offensive conclusion. Some of the end game duels were awesome and I love Z-Arc far more than ZONE as a final boss.

It also helps that both 5D's and Arc-V had characters capable of forming a strategy beyond "bigger Synchro/Pendulum"

The Duel were Yusei Summons this Baby is still one of my favs

I appreciate that he at least toyed with the idea of fusion when his regular Synchros were useless.

Meanwhile in Zexal: "Man if there was only another type of monsters capable of facing this threat...But only Xyz exist ):" I was literally screaming to the screen...

And that seems to be the directions VRAINS is taking, hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[Gai Murakumo]

People are forgiving of 5Ds shortcomings for 2 reasons

1) They had to handle the meltdown of the whole Carly VA thing and make changes that were never intended

2) Even at its worst it still had super hype memorable moments

The whole Carly VA situation is a shame because the arc between Jack and Carly was great. In terms of hype memorable moments my favorite to this day in the entire Yugioh anime series has to be the summoning of Shooting Quasar Dragon, or at least the Opening version Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Opening 5 Version 2 which with "Going My Way" playing in the background:

 

[Fj0823]

finally watched the 1st episode
not really sure what's going on since they haven't explained anything
cool ED song though
anybody knows a decklist for stargrail deck? might wanna mess around with ygopro abit

Here's some, never tried them but I have played against them a couple times
https://ygorganization.com/atleastitsnotasaberfacewaryet/

Be ready to play super slow though, because Links nerfing all other gameplay options made the game slow and strategic like the pure, amazing OG so they are a great thing!™

Spoiler

It's actually super fucking fast

in all seriousness they're good, but nothing game breaking

 

[A.J.]

I also think history will be kinder to Arc-V like it was for 5D's, people we're really hating the WRPG and calling 5D's the worst ever and a waste of potential by the time Zexal started.

Like 5D's, Arc-V has a super strong first half and a mediocre but not really offensive conclusion. Some of the end game duels were awesome and I love Z-Arc far more than ZONE as a final boss.

It also helps that both 5D's and Arc-V had characters capable of forming a strategy beyond "bigger Synchro/Pendulum"

5DS first season can work well as a standalone while Arc-V's first season is all set up for the bigger story. It's a shame because I love the first season of Arc-V.

 

[Slayven]

IF it continues they will just need to rebuild the game from the top to bottom. Is Crunchy roll getting this?

 

[Fj0823]

IF it continues they will just need to rebuild the game from the top to bottom. Is Crunchy roll getting this?

Nah, the base Main Deck mechanics are always the same,Though this is the very first time a new mechanic directly affects the previously established Extra Deck mechanics, which is why a lot of people are a uneasy on the change.

Crunchyroll has all the previous series, dub and sub.

So its very likely they will get this

 

[Slayven]

Nah, the base mechanics are always the same,Though this is the very first time a new mechanic directly affects the previously established mechanics, which is why a lot of people are a uneasy on the change.


Crunchyroll has all the previous series, dub and sub.

So its very likely they will get thIs

I feel off with Arc, i need to catch up. I love the shows until they get super serious and we find out the multiverse is on the line.. Did they top XYZ super sayjian form?

 

[Fj0823]

I feel off with Arc, i need to catch up. I love the shows until they get super serious and we find out the multiverse is on the line.. Did they top XYZ super sayjian form?

No, Arc V shafts some of it's cooler characters at the end but NOTHING there gets to that level of stupidity. Everyone shines at least once.

Most of Arc's twists are properly foreshadowed and the end game duels are cool, but it doesn't reach the potential seasons 1-2 set up. Also the females, as always, get the worst shaft.

It's still my second favorite regardless.

 

[Crimsonlink]

No, Arc V shafts some of it's cooler characters at the end but NOTHING there gets to that level of stupidity. Everyone shines at least once.

Most of Arc's twists are properly foreshadowed and the end game duels are cool, but it doesn't reach the potential seasons 1-2 set up. Also the females, as always, get the worst shaft.

It's still my second favorite regardless.

I need to watch again after Syncho dimension. At least the last few duels were good to decent.

 

[Slayven]

No, Arc V shafts some of it's cooler characters at the end but NOTHING there gets to that level of stupidity. Everyone shines at least once.

Most of Arc's twists are properly foreshadowed and the end game duels are cool, but it doesn't reach the potential seasons 1-2 set up. Also the females, as always, get the worst shaft.

It's still my second favorite regardless.

I love the one dude in Arc's whole shtick is no trap or magic cards. Just manly monsters

 

[A.J.]

Not really digging either of Aoi's designs. It's a bit of a bummer since Yuzu/Serena/Rin/Ruri all had good designs. Weirdly enough I like both of Yusaku's though even with the gold and pink hair.

 

[Fj0823]

I love the one dude in Arc's whole shtick is no trap or magic cards. Just manly monsters

He's cool

He

Spoiler

takes a shit ton of loses for the team but always goes out like a man. So he's not really shafted, think of Tien Shin Han in Dragon Ball Z,He is outclassed but always goes out with something

(small spoilers for later seasons)

Not really digging either of Aoi's designs. It's a bit of a bummer since Yuzu/Serena/Rin/Ruri all had good designs. Weirdly enough I like both of Yusaku's though even with the gold and pink hair.

I was against her design until I got to learn about her character, she's a shy,plain and boring looking girl IRL so that's why she goes with the whole diva act for her virtual persona. She is overcompensating.

It works for me.

My problem is with the villains, they're diet Ylliaster in terms of designs

And you're right, Yusaku works somehow were Yuma failed miserably.

 

[darkziosj]

the charecter designs are so bleh.

 

[Sandfox]

The Crow stuff and Yusei being a perfect messiah were the worst thing about 5D's outside of the stuff related to Carly's VA.

Pretty much every Yugioh series except the original is full of squandered potential for one reason or anything.

No, Arc V shafts some of it's cooler characters at the end but NOTHING there gets to that level of stupidity. Everyone shines at least once.

Most of Arc's twists are properly foreshadowed and the end game duels are cool, but it doesn't reach the potential seasons 1-2 set up. Also the females, as always, get the worst shaft.

It's still my second favorite regardless.

The final duels and overall ending were pretty terrible.

 

[Fj0823]

The Crow stuff and Yusei being a perfect messiah were the worst thing about 5D's outside of the stuff related to Carly's VA.

Pretty much every Yugioh series except the original is full of squandered potential for one reason or anything.

Agreed, I'll throw some Aki character assassination in there too.

The final duels and overall ending were pretty terrible.

Disagree.

Spoiler

Yuri

finally bitting it was great

Spoiler

,Everyone jobbing to Z-Arc

was great for me too, if you are talking about Yuya

Spoiler

taking challenges while looking for Yuzu in the epilogue,

then yes those were boring AF.

But still, I liked the Ending better than 5D's. Only Because Z-Arc was properly set up and he was so stupidly OP. ZONE was a fucking joke, Hell Aporia was a fucking joke...

Also I liked Arc-V's

Spoiler

because Yuya and Yuzu stay together at the end, Kingdom Hearts II style...poor Axel..I mean Kurosaki though

Fuck 5D's "different careers, sorry bitch" BS.

But Overall 5D's is my favorite series by a large margin, despite my problems with it. The first 2 arcs are THAT good.

The Original's Virtual Arcs, Dragon Arc, and specially Fairy Tale Arc Drag it down to 3rd place for me. I also kinda hated the final arc, but that final duel totally redeems it in my eyes

I know they are technically filler, But Konami pushes cards from those sagas quite a bit. So they're impossible to ignore.

 

[Glitchesarecool]

Arc V was bad. It had a really strong start but as soon as they started jumping dimensions, it was just bad all around.

Not Zexal bad though. Good lord.

 

[A.J.]

I just wanted a good end for Shun, Serena, and Reiji. They were too good for that series.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

The whole Carly VA situation is a shame because the arc between Jack and Carly was great. In terms of hype memorable moments my favorite to this day in the entire Yugioh anime series has to be the summoning of Shooting Quasar Dragon, or at least the Opening version Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Opening 5 Version 2 which with "Going My Way" playing in the background:

That's actually my second favorite moment in 5D's. The scene that broke the hype meter for me was Yusei pulling out Shooting Star Dragon from almost nothing vs. Team Ragnarok. One of the most intense summons in the show imo.

https://sendvid.com/8ksovisk

 

[Fj0823]

I just wanted a good end for Shun, Serena, and Reiji. They were too good for that series.

Yeah, Serena

Spoiler

ceasing to exist

and Shun

Spoiler

pretty much losing all his loved ones

hurt.

I agree that was unnecessary cruelty. Reminds me of the Ending of the Zamasu Saga in Dragon Ball Super.

That's actually my second favorite moment in 5D's. The scene that broke the hype meter for me was Yusei pulling out Accel Synchro from almost nothing vs. Team Ragnarok. One of the most intense summons in the show imo.

https://sendvid.com/8ksovisk

My favorite part of that duel is him summoning Savior Star Dragon and bounding it to the field as a stall tactic

 

[A.J.]

Yeah, Serena

Spoiler

ceasing to exist

and Shun

Spoiler

pretty much losing all his loved ones

hurt.

I agree that was unnecessary cruelty. Reminds me of the Ending of the Zamasu Saga in Dragon Ball Super.

And Reiji is still the least loved sibling in that family since Leo was still obsessed with Ray until the end and even Reira chose to side with Ray over him. And he had to lose a duel to Yuya while Yuya argued that Zarc was just a victim of society.

 

[chaosaeon]

Well would you look at that, the designs are somehow even worse. And more summoning methods you say ? Good, the game wasn't already getting broken anyway with ridiculous meta stuff ... smh. I think I'm only interested in what would be considered classic stuff now. I don't think it's for me anymore now that you can summon 4 monsters on you first turn that are all stronger than a blue eyes and unkillable or whatever.

 

[A.J.]

Well would you look at that, the designs are somehow even worse. And more summoning methods you say ? Good, the game wasn't already getting broken anyway with ridiculous meta stuff ... smh. I think I'm only interested in what would be considered classic stuff now. I don't think it's for me anymore now that you can summon 4 monsters on you first turn that are all stronger than a blue eyes and unkillable or whatever.

Blue Eyes are actually pretty good still. They are one of the msot spammable high attack beaters our there. And they are generally untouched by the meta change.

 

[Fj0823]

Well would you look at that, the designs are somehow even worse. And more summoning methods you say ? Good, the game wasn't already getting broken anyway with ridiculous meta stuff ... smh. I think I'm only interested in what would be considered classic stuff now. I don't think it's for me anymore now that you can summon 4 monsters on you first turn that are all stronger than a blue eyes and unkillable or whatever.

People always say this about new mechanics, and my response is always the same

Such balance!!

Also Blue-Eyes is an extremely solid deck now, back in the day it was a useless POS

 

[Bubble]

People are forgiving of 5Ds shortcomings for 2 reasons

1) They had to handle the meltdown of the whole Carly VA thing and make changes that were never intended

2) Even at its worst it still had super hype memorable moments

Yeah, I know what happened with the Carly VA thing. It is a shame because I thought the whole Yliaster being a cult/Peru connection was really interesting and such a cool premise. I think what sucks the most is just that 5D's had so much potential to be great, and to see take a nosedive in quality after Post-Season 1 (post episode 64) is such a shame.

But still, there are still a ton of poor decisions with 5D's.

-Like Crow replacing Aki as the 3rd main star. Yeah, I get that Black Feathers are really popular, but his character is so pointless with Yusei around. I mean, the Arc-V version of Crow was a big improvement on 5D's crow.
- Yusei.... just everything about him. His change in character, his deck, the deus ex machina... he's just the worse main character (haven't watched Zexal).

PS: The ending duel with Yusei vs. Jack also pissed me off. It would have been a perfect character ending for Jack to finally beat Yusei, but of course they didn't.

I'm not sure what ending between Arc-V or 5D's I hate the most. Arc-V's ending is the more disappointing one, but I hated pretty much all the characters by the end of 5D's. At least Arc-V had some great characters like Sora (my favorite Yugioh character) and Kurosaki (the dude lost his sister + his best friend).

 

[A.J.]

Yeah, I know what happened with the Carly VA thing. It is a shame because I thought the whole Yliaster being a cult/Peru connection was really interesting and such a cool premise. I think what sucks the most is just that 5D's had so much potential to be great, and to see take a nosedive in quality after Post-Season 1 (post episode 64) is such a shame.

But still, there are still a ton of poor decisions with 5D's.

-Like Crow replacing Aki as the 3rd main star. Yeah, I get that Black Feathers are really popular, but his character is so pointless with Yusei around. I mean, the Arc-V version of Crow was a big improvement on 5D's crow.
- Yusei.... just everything about him. His change in character, his deck, the deus ex machina... he's just the worse main character (haven't watched Zexal).

PS: The ending duel with Yusei vs. Jack also pissed me off. It would have been a perfect character ending for Jack to finally beat Yusei, but of course they didn't.

I'm not sure what ending between Arc-V or 5D's I hate the most. Arc-V's ending is the more disappointing one, but I hated pretty much all the characters by the end of 5D's. At least Arc-V had some great characters like Sora (my favorite Yugioh character) and Kurosaki (the dude lost his sister + his best friend).

Except Crow was arguably even worse in Arc-V since he kept stealing airtime from actual Arc-V characters. And he broke Sawatari's duel disk. And he some how magically escaped being carded in the climax even though no other carded character could do that. Yugo really should have been in Crow's role in this series. Fuck Crow.

 

[Fj0823]

Crow absolutely sucks, but I think his 5D's version sucks more for replacing Aki. Sawatari was always a joke so nothing of value was lost

Regarding the game I keep noticing a lot of people championing this narrative that back in Gen 1 all decks had a chance to win and Dark Magician and Blue Eyes were the limit when it came to power.

That's so wrong, back in the day no one wasted time with Blue-Eyes or DM when Summoned Skull with Axe of Despair was a million times faster thanks to Witch of the Black Forest.

You always got Delinquent Duo'd first turn and had to start the duel with 4 cards, your opponent would spam card destruction graceful charity and pot of greed till they got the perfect hand, then they played Metamorphosis into Thousand-Eyes Restrict and laughed at your tears...you either drew Raigeki or GG.

And that was even before Invasion of Chaos!!

Back in the day it wasn't 5-6 meta decks at the top, it was 5-6 cards. And it sucked.