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Baneful's Column Death of
the Staples We've always defined a staple as a card that virtually
every deck must use. Staples were ubiquitous during the
first few years of Yu-Gi-Oh, but their role has diminished
over the years. Staples have largely died and aren't used
nearly much any more. This is because of a combination of three changes to the
game. 1. Overpowered cards (like Pot of Greed and Graceful
Charity) have been banned. This went on during the Chaos era
and GX era (04-06) where over a dozen powerful staples were
banned in the same year. 2. Archetypes have created their own staples (like Six
Samurai United and Black Whirlwind) that better suit their
deck type than basic, but generic, powerful cards. 3. Power creep has created equal or better options to
cards that we have formerly called staples. For example,
"Mirror Force" went from a trap card all decks must use to a
card that's one of the many great options you could use. Heavy Storm and Monster Reborn used to be staples before
they were banned last year. Many people today consider
Mystical Space Typhoon (MST) a staple, but that's just about
it. In 2003-2005, decks had like 15-25 staples. Think about
that. Half to two-thirds of a lot of decks consisted of the
same exact games. Then, years after that, we had like 5 to
10 staples at any given time. Now, we're down to almost
none. A Brief History The earlier sets had lots of staples. This is because the
game was new and it needed building blocks. By creating
support cards for specific themes, there may have been too
many variables to manage at once, so cards that any deck
could have made sense to make. Set 1: Legend of Blue-Eyes: Swords of Revealing
Light, Raigeki, Monster Reborn, Dark Hole, and Pot of Greed Set 2: Metal Raiders: Magician of Faith, Change of
Heart, Heavy Storm, Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest and
Mirror Force Set 3: Magic Ruler: Cyber Jar, Mystical Space
Typhoon, Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Snatch Steal,
Delinquent Duo, and Painful Choice Set 4: Pharaoh's Servant: Imperial Order, Nobleman
of Crossout, Call of the Haunted, Premature Burial, and
Jinzo. Shortly after, for the next year onward other staples
started coming out: Graceful Charity, Harpie's Feather
Duster, Sinister Serpent, Torrential Tribute, Yata-Garasu,
Fiber Jar, Ring of Destruction and the like. Almost all
tournament-winning decks in 2003-2005 shared the same 20 or
so cards cards between them. Sure, wierd decks like Exodia
and Last Turn FTK wouldn't use cards like Delinquent Duo,
for example, because hand control doesn't satisfy their main
automatic-win goal. But they are wierd anomalies, an
exception to the general rule. In a sense, these common cards united us all. It was easy
to learn how to play because you know what most cards do.
Learning dozens of different cards from different archetypes
today takes a better sense of memory, while opening up lots
of new options and gameplay mechanics. Still, the game has
become harder to learn due to the fact that every deck
requires an entirely different rulebook (metaphorically
speaking) to operate from. Currently Staples, in the universal sense that we used to know
them, are largely dead. But I would say that there are many
cards that play a similar (but different) role as staples. 1. Semi-Staples Cards that the majority of decks use, but not most. For
example, Dark Hole and Pot of Duality are versatile cards
with widespread application but a player might not want to
hurt their field presence with the former or hinder their
swarming ability with the latter. 2. Archetype Staples Cards that specific decks must use. Decks outside of that
archetype won't use it. For example, all Madolche decks
should use Madolche Chateau but all other deck types
shouldn't bother with it. 3. Contextual Staples Decks that meet certain conditions must use the card. A
deck with 5+ DARK monsters, for example, should run Allure
of Darkness without question. A deck that is easily capable
of summoning LV8 Synchro monsters should use Stardust
Dragon. Spells Spell cards used to be [arguably] the strongest type of
cards, but since Synchro's and XYZ's came out, they have
taken a backseat to monster effects and monsters that
Special Summon themselves or other monsters. Today, for
example, we have lots of good spell cards, but none of them
particularly stand out as a staple. Examples. Book of Moon is versatile, but has difficulty
netting you a +1. Dark Hole is great for anti-swarm but will
disrupt your field presence as well. Mystical Space Typhoon
is easy and effective removal, your archetype may have
better backrow-hate. Pot of Duality can both be a great
draw/search option and a detriment to your Special
Summoning. There's no one Spell card that every deck must
use, though it's arguable that the above cards could be
called "semi-staples" because a lot of decks use them. Monsters Monster staples? Forget about it. I can't think of any.
The majority of deck types out there simply only use cards
related to their theme and see most other cards as an
unwelcome intrusion. There are monsters like Effect Veiler
and Maxx "C" that lots of different decks can use, but they
are largely a matter of choice. Sangan stopped being a
staple after field-presence became more necessary. When
Magician of Faith was banned years ago, it was a staple. It
was unbanned and now most decks don't use it. To put it simply, if a monster can't be searched to your
hand or special summoned via other cards, it's hard to
accomodate. For example, FIRE Beast-Warrior decks have Tenki
to search out Wolfbark and Fire Fists, but once-staples like
Breaker the Magical Warrior can't be consistently accessed. Traps As for Trap Cards, that's a really interest situation
because we have so many great options that there's no single
clear path that a player can go with their trap line-up. You
can pick whatever you want, and of course, whatever works
best for the deck as each of the great trap cards out their
have their own set of pros and cons. Fiendish Chain negates effects but doesn't remove the
threat. Torrential Tribute is fast removal but destroys your
monsters too. Solemn Warning stops any monster but with an
expensive 2000 LP cost. You can choose Mirror Force for mass
removal or Dimension Prison for banishing, but both are
often sitting ducks for spell/trap removal. Bottomless Trap
Hole doesn't get around weak monsters but takes care of
everything else. Compulsory Evacuation Device is good for
aggro and XYZ/Synchro hate but often can be a -1. The list
goes on, but you get my point. There's no single trap card
out there that can be called a staple, especially since some
decks even pride themselves on not using trap cards. Royal
Decree for them, then. Where We're At So basically, the idea of cards that are best for every
deck is not really relevant. Instead, it's moreso a matter
of what kind of deck you are running. And accordingly, there
are cards that you should use. Are staples dead forever? They'll come and go over the
years as the meta changes, for a wealth of different
reasons. But they will always have a significantly reduced
role. And this is where we stand. We will probably always have
some sort of staple to cling onto. Right now, that card is
MST. But there's one thing I'm almost certain of. We'll
never be back to most decks using the same 15-20 cards
again. --- Contact:
banefulscolumn@gmail.com
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