Thinking Back...

When I started playing 7 years ago, back in 2003 or 2002(End of...), a very powerful combo is to summon Lord of Dragon and activate Flute of Summoning Dragons to special summon up to 2 Blue Eyes. Unless I have Mirror Force, that would have been GAME.

When was the last time you saw this happening. Well, I have not seen this in 6 years or so. Since the beginning of the Chaos Era, this combo would be too inconsistent and does not win you games. You need to remember that, before Chaos Emperor Dragon, people are fighting monster with monster and Equip spells such as United We Stand and Mage Power were everywhere. The most common monster with effects to destroy other monsters are Man Eater Bug and Old Vindictive Mage. 1900 beaters were beast back then, so summon 2 Blue Eyes at once would be godly. Until someone came into the game and destroys just about everything with a mere 1000, and YATA-locked you.

Lord of Dragons and Flute of Summoning Dragons are really Relics to YGO's past. Like most cards from the 1st and 2nd series of the packs, have become too bad for todays standards. Imagine 7 years ago, if someone told you about a monster that just pops out of no where as long as you have 3 DARKs in your grave and could blow your cards out by removing them. Or a deck that summons so fast and having their own RoTA and a new type of monsters similar to Fusion. You would be like, stop day dreaming, that won't happen. Guess what, yesterday's dream is today's META game.

When we think of cards from the early history of the game, we would think that they are either too useless to be use in any game, or too powerful to be release from the banned list. I really wonder how the hell we played in that time. But come to think of it, there wasn't such a thing as OTK. Summoning 2 to 3 big Machine monsters using Ultimate Offering and play Limit Remover on them was one of the only OTK methods, but it takes 6 cards in hand and a turn or 2 just to set it up, as compare to today's BAHA's FROG STD or yesterday's YATA-lock.

Well, why am I writing such a long post, what was my main point again ... Oh ya! how things were and how can we do to make things feel a bit retro again. Well, I guess you could say that no way things would be that way again. Whats past is past, this is the future, a time where Obelisk is just another monster and Summon Skull is a relic that is placed in the retro pact of your binder.

A game back then usually last ... I dunno, on average 10 to 15 turns maybe. Now, the only decks that take it that long are control decks. We used to feel safe with a 1900 beater on our side of the field and having about 3000+ life, knowing unless your opponent has Monster Reborn or Chance of Heart, you would have your next draw. Now, I won't even feel safe even if I had a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon and 8000 life at my disposal unless I have a face down or a Battle Fader at hand. Dealing 2000 damage a turn without an empty feel on your opponent side would be task before, but I see deck doing over 10000 damage now with high consistency.

Take a look at this :

RETRO POWA!(40)

monster(18):
3x Blue Eyes White Dragon
3x Tyrant Dragon
3x E HERO Prisma
3x Lord of Dragons
2x Herald of Reincarnation
2x Phantom of Chaos
1x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Morphing Jar

spell(12):
3x Trade-In
3x Flute of Summoning Dragons
1x Monster Reincarnation
1x Future Fusion
1x Dragon's Mirror
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Turnade
1x Cold Wave
1x MST

trap(9):
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Beckoning Light
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment
2x Dark Bribe

Lets say if I had this deck during 2003, I would win the World Championship, but now... This is just another deck that tries to be at least Tier 2. Thats just solid proof how different a game we are in now as compare to back then.