Word of Sean: The Necessary Evil of Dragon Rulers in Yu-Gi-Oh!

You know who they are. Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Long ago the Yu-Gi-Oh! world was settling back into a world of balance, where Wind-Ups and Inzectors were losing their brokenness and rogue decks could see play (even Harpie's were looking to be a viable deck). Then, everything changed when the Dragon Rulers attacked. Only Konami, master of all ban-lists, could stop them. But when the world needed them most, they hit other cards.

Three formats passed and the Yu-Gi-Oh! community discovered a new outlet. Three banlists a year. And although the new system has a long way to go before saving anyone, it did what all other banlists feared to do: took a swing at the dragons that ruined our world and that topped Worlds.

Yet from the bitter colds of the wintertime, or the fiery heat of the summer (depends where you live) did something stir. A malice once thought dead. One day, not too long ago, I was dueling on a server on YGOPro (check it out). It was Hieratics. I made a face similar to McKayla Maroney's from the London Olympics:

But then something happened. My opponent tributed off some meager Hieratic monster for Hieratic Dragon of Su. I had no cards in my backrow, so, all was well. My Lightpulsar Dragon was going nowhere. I figured, at the worst, he would simply summon a Wattail Dragon and XYZ into Atum, make REDMD and chain from there. But he did not summon a level 6 Dragon monster. He summoned Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos. And what I knew was this. They were back. The beasts I once thought destroyed by the banlist.

"NO!" I shouted at my laptop as my opponent hurriedly XYZ summoned my dread foe: Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack. "HOW ARE YOU BACK? WHY ARE YOU IN HIERATICS! YOU SLEW HIERATICS NOT EVEN TWO MONTHS AGO!"

My friends, there is no denying that they have returned in the disguise of other decks. After the Duel, which I believe I won somehow (probably BLS, that card's just broken), I began to settle down and think. Hieratics were indeed a complete dead, unplayable deck up until two months ago. Yet I'd seen a sudden resurgence in them. And I liked that. I'd forgotten how much I missed having to actually think instead of having to implore constant strategies against Dragon Rulers.

My anger has quelled since that day, folks. Only to be revived by Evilswarms, which is a good segway into why Dragon Rulers are a necessary evil in our Yu-Gi-Oh! community today.

First off, they were dead. The January 2014 banlist absolutely slaughtered the deck.

And you know what, I was a happy guy. I hated playing against Dragon Rulers. Mostly because they were the deck that brought out Dracossack the easiest and I still struggle getting that stupid thing off the field. But more on that card later.

Now, though, I see the funny side. Dragon Rulers were never made to be an archetype. Or if they were, then, Konami screwed us big time when they didn't just limit them to one from the get-go. I am of the belief that Dragon Rulers were simply made to be splashed into different decks of either the same attribute or that their affects could contribute to. I mean, who would've ever thought that Dragon Rulers could make Lightsworn more powerful? Because they do, and even though I've been more Lightsworn duelists than I've lost to recently (ha...can't summon Judgment Dragon on me), they are a much more complex opponent than before. Because now when I see Eclipse Wyvern hit the Graveyard, I know what's coming. A Dragon Ruler, and then...

The card who has no right still being unlimited.

The point is, though, Dragon Rulers make the weak decks stronger. I dueled someone using Plants and they were able to implore Blaster and Redox and Tempest effectively. Heck, I even run Tempest in my Chaos Dragon side-deck now (because I hate Evilswarm Opion and Spirit Ryu is actually a good card to use against it, fun fact). In my Atlantean deck (too cheap for Mermails, heck yeah) I run a copy of Tidal. Before, when I didn't run Tidal, that deck was a joke. Now? Mermail Abyssgaios says otherwise.

And I know that Dragon Rulers weren't all about themselves when they were first released, and I know that their hit on the banlist hurt not just that deck but several others. Yet those decks were able to find outs through the Dragon Rulers. Debris Dragon-Tempest has almost become a staple common in Decks that run low-attack point monsters. Redox is implored in nearly every single Machine deck there is because of his Monster Reborn-like ability. As as mentioned before, Tidal works just fine in a Mermail/ Atlantean/ Merlantean deck.

Gotta admit, I used to hate these cards to death. I still do, but, it's not a direct hate. It's more of a blame, actually. I blame them for Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack blowing the crap out of my field. I blame them for when my Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon gets snatched by Number 11: Big Eye. I blame them when my lone Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter is up against both Dracossack and Big Eye and my Mirror Force is useless because of those stupid tokens.

The thing about Dragon Rulers is that they need to stick around. Otherwise these decks that saw little play will see even littler play. What's good is that now, Dragon Rulers are calmed down. Being limited to just 1 card per deck really helps the opponent out. I know that's not the name of the game, but it evens the playing field a little more. Harpies don't run multiple copies of Tempest, so, getting over that hump is relatively painless compared to the two or three there were before. Hieraticruler, you know for a fact, will only carry one copy of each card, so it makes things much easier to play around.

However, there is another reason that I think Dragon Rulers need to stick around. This reason is actually the main reason why I've started to side-deck two copies of Spirit Ryu: Evilswarms.

Evilswarms have not been hit once since their release in Hidden Arsenal 7. And they have arguably one of the most broken cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! just sitting in their Extra Deck at 3: Ophion. Ophion is the reason why Hieratics, Chaos Dragons (my deck), Gishkis, and almost any other deck that relies on special summoning Level 5 or higher monsters cannot good. My heart sinks when I see an Evilswarm Thunderbird hit the board. I know what's coming. And with cards like Safe-Zone and Infestation Pandemic, these Evilswarms are nearly invincible. Not to mention Ophion's attack of 2550, which only a handful of Rank 4 XYZ monsters can handle (though Maestroke says otherwise, I've seen more Evilswarm players maining Safe Zone for their Ophion to prevent this...ugh).

But Dragon Rulers help this. Ophion can't stop anything when it's not on the field. Dragon Rulers bring speed to decks that severely lack it. Hieratics would often lose instantly to Evilswarms, but with Dragon Rulers and Debris Dragon in the deck, they have quicker outs to stronger, more invincible cards like Big Eye, Master of Swords, Dracossack, Gaia the Thunder Charger. Granted, this all has to happen while the Evilswarm player does not have Ophion and if you have a way to prevent Evilswarm Bahamut from being a thing, but still, you get my point. The Dragon Rulers aid those who cannot help themselves. And in my case, they bring to life interesting techs to side in against Evilswarms.

If you don't understand why I would use Spirit Ryu, it's for this reason: use Tempest's effect to ditch itself and a Spirit Ryu to get a second Spirit Ryu, summon him, then discard at least two Dragon cards, which shouldn't be too difficult, and now his attack is 3000, more than enough to stop Ophion and you still haven't special summoned anything above level 4 (however this effect ends at the end of the turn so you better set up some protection against the possibility of Ophion returning or something).

This all isn't to say that Dragon Rulers aren't particularly broken cards. They are, there's no doubt about it. But some decks need this brokenness to make them beautiful (wow, just like people, you're all great in my eyes, especially if you've stuck with me so far with this blog post) and to make them strong. You simply can't run certain decks nowadays without their help. Or, you can, but, you may have a tough time going about it.

Considering how Dragon Rulers helped the format by leaving but have also helped the format by partially sticking around, I honestly don't have a solid opinion anymore other than they are not my most feared deck. I'm strangely not afraid to play Prophecy decks because the last few times I did I beat them on their third turn with Veilers and MSTs (maybe they just have poor opening hands, I don't know how the Chaos Dragon match-up with them really works). Mermails I actually never see anymore, so, Evilswarm is the only deck that can give me a rough go-around anymore because I essentially use all my resources on one Ophion. Maybe one day they'll actually get hit.

See you next time!

P.S: For those of you reading who have no idea what I'm talking about, I found a meme to put your thoughts into the virtual world of the Interwebs!