The Official April 2005 Format Guide & Discussion

[Vala]

There seemed to be a fair bit of demand for this, so I thought I'd make this thread for people to get together and discuss the format. With DN's unlisted playlist, it's now fairly to play with others who want to use the deck. What this thread will allow us to do is standardise the format and set out clear rules to make the format fun and enjoyable for those who want to experience or relive it.

Thread Navigation

1. Introduction
2. April 2005 List
3. Honour Bans
4. TCG Set Legality
5. Regarding Rulings

1 - Introduction

It may seem odd to delve into Yu-Gi-Oh!'s past, but doing so is a worthwhile experience. The 2004-2005 formats are often regarded as the most fair and skilled formats. This is down to a few things. Firstly, Special Summons were... erm... special. What this means is that OTKs were very rare and that the game was much slower pace. It would also severely reduce the likelihood of a swarm occurring, meaning that fields are much more manageable and balanced.

Secondly, resources were valuable. There weren't many floaters running around, and the floaters that did exist were easily dispatched by cards like Nobleman of Crossout. This coupled with the fact that cards like Heavy Storm and Lightning Vortex exist means that you have to keep resources back or you'll lose a lot of card advantage. This keeps a psychological field cap into effect meaning that the disparity between both players' fields should be very low. This allows players to catch up to their opponents, making the game fairer. This also means that Spirits are very good because you don't run the risk of losing them during your opponent's turn.

Thirdly, there was a lot of card balance. Everything had a counter. Even cards like Delinquent Duo could be stopped by cards like Sinister Serpent or Night Assailant. You could literally be hit by the whole trinity and be fine so long as you were careful with your resources and built your deck well. Generally speaking, you will win by outplaying your opponent instead of a win condition.

Finally and most importantly, the format allows for a lot of creativity with deck building. The whole notion of "run everything in 3s" just doesn't work for this format. There wasn't any advantage to doing so at the time, which means you can run a lot of one-of cards. Basically the whole deck could become tech without any consistency issues. This gives you a lot of flexibility with deck building and makes way for a lot of creativity. A lot of people ran Goat Control at the time, but builds differed drastically from one person to another.

You can research the format here: http://buycrystalmeth.org/metagame/y....html?tabid=35


2 - April 2005 TCG List

This is the list itself. The list is 100% accurate.

Forbidden
• Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
• Fiber Jar
• Magical Scientist
• Makyura the Destructor
• Witch of the Black Forest
• Yata-Garasu

• Butterfly Dagger - Elma
• Change of Heart
• Confiscation
• Dark Hole
• Harpie's Feather Duster
• Mirage of Nightmare
• Monster Reborn
• Painful Choice
• Raigeki
• The Forceful Sentry

• Imperial Order

Limited
• Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
• Breaker the Magical Warrior
• Cyber Jar
• D.D. Warrior Lady
• Dark Magician of Chaos
• Exiled Force
• Exodia the Forbidden One
• Injection Fairy Lily
• Jinzo
• Left Arm of the Forbidden One
• Left Leg of the Forbidden One
• Marshmallon
• Morphing Jar
• Protector of the Sanctuary
• Reflect Bounder
• Right Arm of the Forbidden One
• Right Leg of the Forbidden One
• Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
• Sangan
• Sinister Serpent
• Tribe-Infecting Virus
• Twin-Headed Behemoth

• Card Destruction
• Deliquient Duo
• Graceful Charity
• Heavy Storm
• Lightning Vortex
• Mage Power
• Mystical Space Typhoon
• Pot of Greed
• Premature Burial
• Snatch Steal
• Swords of Revealing Light
• United We Stand

• Call Of The Haunted
• Ceasefire
• Deck Devastation Virus
• Exchange of the Spirit
• Magic Cylinder
• Mirror Force
• Reckless Greed
• Ring of Destruction
• Torrential Tribute

Semi-Limited
• Abyss Soldier
• Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow
• Manticore of Darkness
• Marauding Captain
• Night Assailant
• Vampire Lord

• Creature Swap
• Emergency Provisions
• Level Limit - Area B
• Nobleman of Crossout
• Reinforcement of the Army
• Upstart Goblin

• Good Goblin Housekeeping
• Gravity Bind
• Last Turn

3 - Honour Bans

These bans are by no means official and you don't have to follow them if you don't want to. They're in place specifically to make sure any OTK decks or decks that limit player interactivity are killed and to keep the game fair.

Forbidden
• Cyber Jar

• Dimension Fusion
• Level Limit - Area B
• Monster Gate
• Reasoning
• Wave-Motion Cannon

• Gravity Bind
• Last Turn

4 - TCG Set Legality

Booster Packs
• [] LOB - Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon
• [] MRD - Metal Raiders
• [] MRL/SRL - Magic Ruler / Spell Ruler
• [] PSV - Pharaoh's Servant
• [] LON - Labyrinth of Nightmare
• [] LOD - Legacy of Darkness
• [] PGD - Pharaonic Guardian
• [] MFC - Magician's Force
• [] DCR - Dark Crisis
• [] IOC - Invasion of Chaos
• [] AST - Ancient Sanctuary
• [] SOD - Soul of the Duelist
• [] ROD - Rise of Destiny
• [] FET - Flaming Eternity
• [] TLM - The Lost Millenium

Starter Decks
• [] SDY - Yugi
• [] SDK - Kaiba
• [] SDP - Pegasus
• [] SDJ - Joey
• [] SKE - Kaiba Evolution
• [] SYE - Yugi Evolution

Structure Decks
• [] SD1 - Dragon's Roar
• [] SD2 - Zombie Madness
• [] SD3 - Blaze of Destruction
• [] SD4 - Fury from the Deep

Tin Promos
• [|] BPT - 2002 and 2003 Collector's Tins
• [] CT1 - 2004 Collector's Tins
• [] CT2 - 2005 Collector's Tins

Special Editions
• [] IOC-SE - Invasion of Chaos SE
• [] ROD-SE - Rise of Destiny SE
• [] TLM-SE - The Lost Millennium SE

TCG Reprint Sets
• [] DB1 - Dark Beginning 1
• [] DB2 - Dark Beginning 2
• [] DR1 - Dark Revelation Volume 1
• [] DR2 - Dark Revelation Volume 2
• [] DR3 - Dark Revelation Volume 3

Tournament Packs
• [] TP1 - Tournament Pack 1
• [] TP2 - Tournament Pack 2
• [] TP3 - Tournament Pack 3
• [] TP4 - Tournament Pack 4
• [] TP5 - Tournament Pack 5
• [] TP6 - Tournament Pack 6

Jump Magazine Subscription Cards
• Blue-Eyes White Dragon
• Red-Eyes B. Dragon
• Archfiend of Gilfer
• Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon

Miscellaneous Sets
• [] MP1 - McDonald's Promotional Cards
• [] PT1 - Pharaoh's Tour Championship Prize Cards 2005

Miscellaneous Cards
• Kanan the Swordsmistress
• Black Luster Soldier
• Firewing Pegasus

5 - Regarding Rulings

This format follows current card rulings, not rulings present in 2005. This is to prevent rule sharking and inaccuracies and to just generally make life easier for people. Any questions can either be posted on this thread or in the TCG Q&A forum.

Game mechanics also match current mechanics (such as missing the timing, chain resolution, etc.). Players still retain priority to activate the ignition effects of monsters in response to the summon of one of their own monsters during the Main Phase.

Special cases will be posted below:

The once per duel clause on Twin-Headed Behemoth matches its current rulings in that the effect can only be used once for an entire duel for all copies of Twin-Headed Behemoth, but will remain limited in order to preserve the authenticity of the format.

Continuous traps may not be activated and activate their effects(s) ad simul. You may not negate a Scapegoat with a Royal Oppression that is activated in response.

Sangan must be being treated as a monster in order to claim its effect.

[KishKosh]

I have to say, I really like this idea. Being a relatively newer player (2010-Present) I never really got a chance to see how this format would play out. I'll definitely be trying it out a bit.

[Vala]

Just had a game with ~iNight~. Glad I dropped to two Metamorphs. Didn't have clogging issues this time, though DD and Reaper hurt a lot more.

[KishKosh]

Running Goat Control I assume. I'm almost done with a build of my own. Most of these decks will have major Chaos components I assume.

[Vala]

They'll have chaos aspects in them, yes. BLS was staple.

Sorcerer was only really used in Chaos Warrior decks, which are fairly easy to side against.

BLS is fairly balanced from my testing. He gets stolen 9 times out of 10 by SS or TER. He helps finish up when the game's nearly over. If he does become a problem, we can address it. He can be quite a liability and clogs fairly easily, and can Backfire massively.

[KishKosh]

In researching this, I wish that the wikia actually listed the cards for the sets that were available at the time.

[Vala]

The Wikia's F/L list isn't accurate either, which made compiling the list harder than it needed to be. I had to ask around quite a bit to make sure it was right. I then had to ask around again to check set legality. >.>

My list is 100% accurate apart from CCV. CCV was limited, but you wouldn't own one. If you owned one, you were an amazing player or had an awful, awful lot of money. There were like 8 of them, so I banned it to reflect this.

[KishKosh]

Wikia people need to step their game up. And I remembered hearing about someone on my block getting the Crush Card at the time (I played then too, but I was 9 or 10 at the time and had no damn idea what I was doing). It turned out it was a Fake Trap with Crush Card on top in black sharpie. And thus ends useless story time.

[Vala]

If you think Crush Card was rare, a Cyber-Stein was once sold for $7,000.

[KishKosh]

Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't change much does it.

[Vala]

It really doesn't. :/

[KishKosh]

Doesn't pay to be a cheap minority in this game huh.

[Vala]

That's the beauty of DN.

[KishKosh]

I got my deck up and built, so if we're ever on at the same time, hit me up.

[Vitiel]

Were ALO decks ever relevant around this era?

[Vala]

Originally Posted by Unlosing Ranger

Were ALO decks ever relevant around this era?

To an extent. Abyss Warrior went semi and Serpent was limited.

[bwang]

Oh man, Goat Control...my favorite deck of all time.
Its amazing how much skill was in the meta at the time, despite the existence of the Trinity and BLS.

Does anyone know what the OCG meta was at this time?

[Vitiel]

[Vala]

Originally Posted by bwang

Oh man, Goat Control...my favorite deck of all time.
Its amazing how much skill was in the meta at the time, despite the existence of the Trinity and BLS.

Does anyone know what the OCG meta was at this time?

There were almost no exclusives at the time, so the same. They got CRV earlier, but I've banned it for now. CyDra shook things up an awful lot. Suddenly you could summon twice and one of them was 2100. Suddenly Vampire Lord was terrible and Airknight wasn't looking so hot.

[Vala]

Originally Posted by Unlosing Ranger

Needs less Cylinder and DMoC and more outs to TER.

[Vitiel]

What are some especially good outs? CED, BoM?

[Vala]

Originally Posted by Unlosing Ranger

What are some especially good outs? CED, BoM?

Tsukuyomi and BoM are best. They let you recycle your Penguins too.

[Vitiel]

Originally Posted by Valafar123

Tsukuyomi and BoM are best. They let you recycle your Penguins too.

Is it okay that I'm light on the traps?

[Vala]

Originally Posted by Unlosing Ranger

Is it okay that I'm light on the traps?

You'll want a couple more maybe. Just not too many or Jinzo/Decree will murder you.

A single BTH is really good.

[Vitiel]

Think it's worth going over 40 here for one and perhaps Raigeki Break or something?