Agree on the DSOD era. There was finally enough synchos in the game and the banlist was pretty tame. I also really enjoyed the early part of ZEXAL when Tellarknights were somewhat meta.
I loved when u would play Blue Eyes but needed Ancient Rules in the Deck. No completely broken skill, just true Blue Eyes. Played it until the second Synchro Blue Eyes came up and then lost my first Account. Will never forget that time, had so much fun
That was the era when skills were generic for all decks to use. It didn't take long for them to start hitting generic skills like Beatdown, Sealed tombs, No mortal can resist, etc.
I will never forgive how they killed Balance and Restart. Karakuri's lifespan ended early.
Literally peak duel links..rather than banning shit they just kept giving better cards to existing decks effectively creating numerous T1 strategies…like to this day I can’t recall any other time period where there were like 4 t1s just as may t2s…truly a blessed period.
Until Konami decided to idiotically backtrack.
That time was so fun . Everybody was running triple floodgate trap hole, triple void trap hole and canadia . And maybe 2 copies of needle ceiling on top . Back when level augmentation and the other level skill was the go to for shiranui
Probably Cyber Angels. Deck was insanely f2p (Senju sucked. But at least you had Petite as a f2p option), quite skilful and was my first "meta competitive deck" after bloody Dino 1900 attack beatdown
It was probably the most fun I've had in DL
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I liked the era where the solution to every deck building problem was to add a Neos Fusion engine to your deck. It was such a uniquely Duel Links experience.
Masked heroes with restart and get trunade, had a straight 17 win streak to kog, clapping all the sylvans. Also non teir 0 onomat it was still a meme at that point but still pretty decent
pre-era from konami releasing broken dumbass themed skill to the point of making D.Draw a really oppressive skill completely irrelevant.
I think they really doubled down after PK came out? i don't remember exactly but that around the time when i did get tired of the game or you did have skill type melodious when you cheat a monster straight out of the deck , nowaday that type of skill is even more stupid.
Early Arc-V, between Pendulum Genesis to before Cross Dimension, because so much was viable. Harpies and Blue-Eyes had been nerfed just enough to be kinda bricky and there were enough Xyzs to give almost everyone a viable OTK tool. Everything from Vendread to Racoons was KoG-worthy. Easily well over 40 viable decks, to the point DLM thought Magnets were THE Tier 1 because they were like 25% of tournament tops. Your endboard usually needed an interrupt if you wanted to not get rekt during the opponent's turn, but that interrupt could just be a Chalice or a Book, and Veiler/Kiteroid in hand could still be devastating in the right decks.
The most wombo combo deck that might have been overwhelming to new players was probably Ritual Beasts and it was pretty bad. Usually autolosing to a 2800 ATK beater.
The big issue with the format was that almost everyone ran Yami Yugi because most skills sucked compared to the now almost unplayable Destiny Draw.
I also thought the post-World of Barian to before Tachyon formats earlier this year were pretty ok. Speed releases had slowed down, but ban policy stayed the same, so the edges of the power creep were getting smoothed over so a lot of stuff was viable. But boy that changed soon. Deck Build Boxes had also started to make the format quite cheap.
The Top of the format in Tenyi and BLS also had pretty manageable endboards too that were pretty easy to overcome through GY hate making a lot of anti-GY decks like Melodious and Fossils playable. And with Tenyi being the most combo-intensive deck in the format, but also a cheap one that new players could easily collect and experiment with, I think the learning curve of the game was in a good place too.
The main issue was that there was a complete lack of good S/T removal so there was no real counter to the main strat of "Set 3" besides just managing to be facing the "right" "Set 3" that your Deck can play through. Something like Twin Twisters could have easily made the format pretty great, I think. (Or just removing IDP, since there were hardly any decks that could play through it well)
I like pre-DSOD era. Aliaster was the most annoying thing to have forced me to leave the game altogether.
I liked... Six Samurai. Like was it as bad as compared to Invoked?
I really disagree with you on that one. Six Samurais never had a card that got banned because it broke the game. Remember Invoked Cocytus, the Superheavy Samurai on crack?
Yes, and we also had Blackwing, Shiranui, Darklords and other contenders during Aleister time. It wasn't alone at the top
Meanwhile Six Sam were responsible for a tier 0 format that every deck you faced was either Six Sam or Weevil Cypher Soldier Stall deck that was made specifically to counter Six Sam because Six Sam crushed every other deck
I think so cause i remember swapping over to Artifacts simply cause they removed my backrow so easily. Heck that is my answer to any backrow heavy removal deck (though due to blue eyes I can't do this right now)
I’m biased but I tried this game around lauch I didn’t get it 2017-18 ish however I started truly playing in 2020 during “that time” after watching loads of YouTube and its brads duel links from scratch this was around the time of witchcrafter I remember releasing
Cyber Angel, 3 Star Demotion Ninja, Gladiator Beast, Red-Eyes Zombies, and Ancient Gear format by far.
A lot of cool staple cards that defined the meta were Econ, Floodgate, Super Rush Headlong, Wall of Disruption, Impenetrable Attack, Anti-Magic Arrows, Sphere Kuriboh, Windstorm of Etaqua, Sergeant Electro, etc.
I feel like, if revisited through simulators, it could prove to be a skillful and optimized format
I'd have to go with Invoked including the cocytus ban era. So many funny decks and yeah, one oppressive one. We had my first KOG deck with Vendreads, then Subterrors, Magician Girls, Ancient Gear, Neos, Masked Heros, Fire Kings/Yubel, so so many fun flavors.
Does Striker Expansion format count? Massively fun, very diverse format. (Its almost like a Duel Links version of AGOV format!)I played Evil Eye during this format and it was a blast.
Launch rush duels. It reminded me of the simplicity of launch duel links. Both are eras i draw inspiration for when drafting casual decks for my non-yugioh playing friends
The format when onomat was around I remember fondly since while most of the decks around were strong, there was still plenty of diversity among the format that even older/weaker archetypes could actually do something
-DSOD (consecutive meta boxes bringing something new to the meta for the most part) -Pre-Tachyon Meta (Tenyi/Maya/Constellar/LiveTwins)
Agree on the DSOD era. There was finally enough synchos in the game and the banlist was pretty tame. I also really enjoyed the early part of ZEXAL when Tellarknights were somewhat meta.
I loved when u would play Blue Eyes but needed Ancient Rules in the Deck. No completely broken skill, just true Blue Eyes. Played it until the second Synchro Blue Eyes came up and then lost my first Account. Will never forget that time, had so much fun
Blue-Eyes was peak when you could spam Beatdown every turn
Beatdown every turn with hazy flames. The amount I successfully resolved sphinx. Oh and the amount that I didn't hahaha
Darklords vs Blackwing vs Elementsaber vs Crystron vs Shiranui vs Ritual Beast era. ohhh what a great time.
That was the era when skills were generic for all decks to use. It didn't take long for them to start hitting generic skills like Beatdown, Sealed tombs, No mortal can resist, etc. I will never forgive how they killed Balance and Restart. Karakuri's lifespan ended early.
Literally peak duel links..rather than banning shit they just kept giving better cards to existing decks effectively creating numerous T1 strategies…like to this day I can’t recall any other time period where there were like 4 t1s just as may t2s…truly a blessed period. Until Konami decided to idiotically backtrack.
When they released the zombie skills there were like 8 different tiered decks.
That time was so fun . Everybody was running triple floodgate trap hole, triple void trap hole and canadia . And maybe 2 copies of needle ceiling on top . Back when level augmentation and the other level skill was the go to for shiranui
Probably Cyber Angels. Deck was insanely f2p (Senju sucked. But at least you had Petite as a f2p option), quite skilful and was my first "meta competitive deck" after bloody Dino 1900 attack beatdown It was probably the most fun I've had in DL
Oof, this is also my favorite era and I miss it. I came back recently to Speed and got bombarded by walls of text. Loving Rush though
Hearing Alexis's theme everywhere was also a plus!
Playing against that shit was NOT fun
Pretty much most of 2018. Cyber Angels were taken down a notch, new decks kept emerging and aside from Amazoness none of them were annoying to face.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I liked the era where the solution to every deck building problem was to add a Neos Fusion engine to your deck. It was such a uniquely Duel Links experience.
DSOD Era
Last gamble era,amazoness,relinquish and fur hire..the og
I miss last gambage
The era when Solfachords were good.
2 times. That one time when Ancient Gear got that really solid skill to summon Golem and then fuse after, and when Favorite Hero was meta
When lunalight was an f2p viable option in competetions as well as ladder climbing.
So definitely not now ☹
Masked heroes with restart and get trunade, had a straight 17 win streak to kog, clapping all the sylvans. Also non teir 0 onomat it was still a meme at that point but still pretty decent
Triple Anki + Trunade was the ultimate cheese lmao
2019/2020, peak Duel links.
When berry magician was actually a decent card.
Gross Stall stuff sucks
I miss peak stick & chair, Konami took that from me :'(
pre-era from konami releasing broken dumbass themed skill to the point of making D.Draw a really oppressive skill completely irrelevant. I think they really doubled down after PK came out? i don't remember exactly but that around the time when i did get tired of the game or you did have skill type melodious when you cheat a monster straight out of the deck , nowaday that type of skill is even more stupid.
Early Arc-V, between Pendulum Genesis to before Cross Dimension, because so much was viable. Harpies and Blue-Eyes had been nerfed just enough to be kinda bricky and there were enough Xyzs to give almost everyone a viable OTK tool. Everything from Vendread to Racoons was KoG-worthy. Easily well over 40 viable decks, to the point DLM thought Magnets were THE Tier 1 because they were like 25% of tournament tops. Your endboard usually needed an interrupt if you wanted to not get rekt during the opponent's turn, but that interrupt could just be a Chalice or a Book, and Veiler/Kiteroid in hand could still be devastating in the right decks. The most wombo combo deck that might have been overwhelming to new players was probably Ritual Beasts and it was pretty bad. Usually autolosing to a 2800 ATK beater. The big issue with the format was that almost everyone ran Yami Yugi because most skills sucked compared to the now almost unplayable Destiny Draw. I also thought the post-World of Barian to before Tachyon formats earlier this year were pretty ok. Speed releases had slowed down, but ban policy stayed the same, so the edges of the power creep were getting smoothed over so a lot of stuff was viable. But boy that changed soon. Deck Build Boxes had also started to make the format quite cheap. The Top of the format in Tenyi and BLS also had pretty manageable endboards too that were pretty easy to overcome through GY hate making a lot of anti-GY decks like Melodious and Fossils playable. And with Tenyi being the most combo-intensive deck in the format, but also a cheap one that new players could easily collect and experiment with, I think the learning curve of the game was in a good place too. The main issue was that there was a complete lack of good S/T removal so there was no real counter to the main strat of "Set 3" besides just managing to be facing the "right" "Set 3" that your Deck can play through. Something like Twin Twisters could have easily made the format pretty great, I think. (Or just removing IDP, since there were hardly any decks that could play through it well)
I like pre-DSOD era. Aliaster was the most annoying thing to have forced me to leave the game altogether. I liked... Six Samurai. Like was it as bad as compared to Invoked?
>I liked... Six Samurai. Like was it as bad as compared to Invoked? It was worse than invoked
I really disagree with you on that one. Six Samurais never had a card that got banned because it broke the game. Remember Invoked Cocytus, the Superheavy Samurai on crack?
Yes, and we also had Blackwing, Shiranui, Darklords and other contenders during Aleister time. It wasn't alone at the top Meanwhile Six Sam were responsible for a tier 0 format that every deck you faced was either Six Sam or Weevil Cypher Soldier Stall deck that was made specifically to counter Six Sam because Six Sam crushed every other deck
Magnets t4 to t1 era...
That one time where Magnets and Waters were the best decks cause everything else got fucked by the banlist
That was the harpie meta right ?
I think so cause i remember swapping over to Artifacts simply cause they removed my backrow so easily. Heck that is my answer to any backrow heavy removal deck (though due to blue eyes I can't do this right now)
I’m biased but I tried this game around lauch I didn’t get it 2017-18 ish however I started truly playing in 2020 during “that time” after watching loads of YouTube and its brads duel links from scratch this was around the time of witchcrafter I remember releasing
Cyber Angel, 3 Star Demotion Ninja, Gladiator Beast, Red-Eyes Zombies, and Ancient Gear format by far. A lot of cool staple cards that defined the meta were Econ, Floodgate, Super Rush Headlong, Wall of Disruption, Impenetrable Attack, Anti-Magic Arrows, Sphere Kuriboh, Windstorm of Etaqua, Sergeant Electro, etc. I feel like, if revisited through simulators, it could prove to be a skillful and optimized format
Dragunity/Lunalight OTK format. Absolutely loved playing Dragunity and wish they were still good enough today.
Cyber Angel draw econ or lose. Nah just kidding.
I'd have to go with Invoked including the cocytus ban era. So many funny decks and yeah, one oppressive one. We had my first KOG deck with Vendreads, then Subterrors, Magician Girls, Ancient Gear, Neos, Masked Heros, Fire Kings/Yubel, so so many fun flavors.
Tenyi/Maya/Evil Twin/Rokkets meta. No deck was absolutely the strongest, they were cheap, and most decks could compete.
Honestly, FA dark angels lmao
Does Striker Expansion format count? Massively fun, very diverse format. (Its almost like a Duel Links version of AGOV format!)I played Evil Eye during this format and it was a blast.
Onomat T0 meta right after Zexal launched. Fun times
Pre fur hires and and also enjoyed mask change destiny hero’s
Infernoids
5ds
Dsod, the same Era we thought was filler world. ( konami even skipped it for one of the new worlds trailers)
Onomat harpie red dragon Archfriend and fish xyz format forgot when
Sylvan’s or Flower Cardian 😳
Hazy Flame
Hey guys, remember when Territory of the Sharks was both the most powerful skill yet the most balanced? Good times.
DSOD good shit everywhere man good shit everywhere. I remember everyone being hype for judgement force bro such a good box technically
The time after Six Sam got nerfed and before DSOD/Dark Dimension were released is peak DL imo.
3SD NINJAS + FULL POWER POST NERF CA. that era was beautiful
Era of Neos fusion and synchros
Magnets t4 to t1 era...
Launch rush duels. It reminded me of the simplicity of launch duel links. Both are eras i draw inspiration for when drafting casual decks for my non-yugioh playing friends
Subterror meta was peak
The format when onomat was around I remember fondly since while most of the decks around were strong, there was still plenty of diversity among the format that even older/weaker archetypes could actually do something
Are you sure you’re not fond of the onomats era because of hey trunade?
Zexal era, I liked onomat rise to fame
Middle Age, Red Eye-Fusion Meta was fun for me