Hello readers! I'm here writing to you on a set of monsters that has caught my eye ever since they came out way back in the ages of Legacy of Darkness. Of course, to the Veteran Yu-Gi-Oh players you all know there were a few featured in the sets leading up to Legacy of Darkness, but they hadn't fully flourish until then.

            Fiends were made popular in the anime by the evil character of Bakura Ryou, one of Yugi's best friends and one of his worst enemies. However, in the actual TCG Fiends were made popular by the mother of fiends herself; Dark Necrofear. You also cannot forget the father of Fiends, Dark Ruler Ha Des. They duo together were a massive amount of firepower for Fiend players to use at their disposal. Although Ha Des found himself being thrown into Beatdown decks here and there from time to time, he fully was abused in the Fiend Themed Deck.

            Of course, one of the most infamous Fiends at the time of Legacy of Darkness was Yata-Garasu, the one-hit kill bird. Thus began the age of the Yata-Lock decks, the idea was to destroy the opponent's hand with Delinquent Duo, Confiscation, and The Forceful Sentry, then clear the field and lock them down for game. You still may see this strategy now if you play in an area with Traditional Format.

            The next few sets rolled along, and Fiends had their support here and there, but another huge installment of support did not come until the release of Dark Crisis. Dark Crisis was considered, outside of Legacy of Darkness, THE set for Fiends to flourish off of. It gave way to Archfiend Decks, and more utility for Fiend decks to use as ammunition.

            Archfiend themselves, should you have no noticed, are based on Chess Pieces. For most of you this was dreafully obvious, for others it may not have. Some Archfiends were not officially titled "Archfiend", ironically, a few of these include: Axe of Despair and Fiend Skull Dragon. Archfiend Decks are reliant on the card known as 'Pandemonium', which stopped the costly effect of Archfiends. It also allowed the player to search out an Archfiend from the deck with a level equal to or less than the destroyed Archfiend. A few other Fiends to mention from that set are: Mefist the Infernal General and Giant Orc.

            However, Archfiends did not explode into fame as most were anticipating, and just became another overlooked deck. Sets continually were released here and there, but nothing was around to boost Fiend card performance majorly until now. With the release of Cybernetic Revolution a few more "playable" Fiends have came into existence such as: Goblin Elite Attack Force, Cybernetic Archfiend, and the previously released Night Assailant in Soul of Duelist have all helped boost Fiends since the ages of Dark Crisis and Legacy of Darkness.

            Here I'll give you an example of what a typical Fiend Control Deck will look like, this is casual, nothing solely competitive.

MONSTERS: 17

2 x Dark Necofear
1 x Dark Ruler Ha Des
1 x Mefist the Infernal General

1 x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 x Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 x Sangan
1 x Morphing Jar
1 x D.D. Warrior Lady
2 x Mystic Tomato
2 x Newdoria
1 x Dark Jeriod
3 x Goblin Elite Attack Force

MAGIC: 16

1 x Pot of Greed
1 x Graceful Charity
1 x Delinquent Duo
1 x Lightning Vortex
2 x Book of Moon
1 x Premature Burial
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Snatch Steal
1 x Mystical Space Typhoon
1 x Metamorphosis
1 x Swords of Revealing Light
2 x Nobleman of Crossout
1 x Enemy Controller
1 x Giant Trunade

TRAPS: 7

2 x Dust Tornado
2 x Return From the Different Dimension
1 x Call of the Haunted
1 x Ring of Destruction
1 x Mirror Force
2 x Royal Decree

            Hope you all enjoyed this article about the History of Fiends! Sorry if most of this was already general knowledge, it's geared towards some newer players.

                                                                                                                        -WiCkEd