History AwesomeButImpractical / YuGiOh

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a mediocre 2500 ATK monster which only effect is that you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. If you wanted to copy monster effects, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] might be better alternatives, simply because they can copy any monster.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Five-Headed_Link_Dragon Five-Headed Link Dragon]]. 5000 ATK, unaffected by other card's effects, cannot be destroyed by battle by most Attributes, and can nuke your opponent's field if you used 5 different Attributes to Link Summon this card. The catch is you must banish 5 cards from your GY face down during your opponent's End Phase, or this card is sent to the GY. If you could summon 5 monsters by the way, a better option is to just use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/85289965 Borrelsword Dragon]].

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Five-Headed_Link_Dragon Five-Headed Link Dragon]]. 5000 ATK, unaffected by other card's effects, cannot be destroyed by battle by most Attributes, and can nuke your opponent's field if you used 5 different Attributes to Link Summon this card. The catch is you must banish 5 cards from your GY face down during your opponent's End Phase, or this card is sent to the GY.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a mediocre 2500 ATK monster which only effect is that you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. If you wanted to copy monster effects, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] might be better alternatives.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]],
[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Supreme_King_Dragon_Starving_Venom Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom]] are easier to summon and have better effects than Divine Neos, simply due to the fact they can copy ANY monster.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] ,

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] , [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Supreme_King_Dragon_Starving_Venom Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom]] are easier to summon and have better effects than Divine Neos, simply due to the fact they can copy ANY monster.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] , [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Supreme_King_Dragon_Starving_Venom Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom]] are easier to summon and have better effects than Divine Neos, simply due to the fact they can copy ANY monster.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] , [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Supreme_King_Dragon_Starving_Venom Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom]] are easier to summon and have better effects than Divine Neos, simply due to the fact they can copy ANY monster.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. This card must be Fusion Summoned using any 5 "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monsters (including at least 1 "Neos" or "Neo Space" monster, 1 "Neo-Spacian" monster, and 1 "HERO" monster). All you get is a 2500 ATK monster which only effect is you can banish one "Neos", "Neo Space", "Neo-Spacian", or "HERO" monster from your Graveyard, also it gains a measly 500 ATK, and until the End Phase it also gains the banished monster's effects. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Phantom_of_Chaos Phantom of Chaos]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Windwitch_-_Crystal_Bell Windwitch - Crystal Bell]] are easier to summon, are easier to summon and have better effects than Divine Neos.

* [[https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=8591 Goddess of Sweet Revenge's]] effect is essentially a hand trap field nuke with the added benefit of being able to Special Summon any monster in its controller's deck. However, a couple of very situational conditions have to be met just to use this card's effect: 1. The card's controller must not have any other cards in their hand or their field (this includes spell and trap cards) 2. Your opponent must be attacking with one of their monsters. If a player manages to get into the kind of situation that it is literally made for, then it is awesome, as it allows the controller to make a quick surprise come-back (provided it isn't negated, as it has no protection against the myriad of effect-negating cards detailed elsewhere on this page), but any other situation leaves this card a complete dead draw.

* Even if it has the second highest ATK points of any monster in the game, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Force Machina Force]] is one of the best examples of Awesome, But Impractical due to its extremely difficult summoning conditions of having [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Commander_Covington Commander Covington]] on your field and sending [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Defender Machina Defender]], [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Soldier Machina Soldier]], and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Sniper Machina Sniper]] you control to the graveyard. To make things worse, it cannot declare an attack unless you pay 1000 Life Points. What's more, it's a "NOMI", meaning that if your opponent destroys it, it's gone for good (unless you feel like using something like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Monster_Reincarnation Monster Reincarnation]] and repeating the whole process of summoning it again.) This card only sees use in a Machina deck as discard fodder to summon [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Fortress Machina Fortress]], a far more practical boss-monster for the archetype, and even then it's since been outclassed by the likes of [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Cannon Machina Cannon]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Megaform Machina Megaform]], which have other uses. It can also be used as an unconventional StoneWall because of its high ATK, if it wasn't for [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Bottomless_Trap_Hole the]] [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/System_Down countless]] [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Inaba_White_Rabbit methods]] of getting around it.

* The likely king of ineffectual boss monsters: [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/D.D._Jet_Iron D.D. Jet Iron.]] Oh, yes, it has 4000 ATK, but its summoning requirement is sending four rather specific monsters to the Graveyard from the hand or field, and none of those four are anything above mediocre. On top of that, its only effect is being able to tribute itself to revive those same monsters - which might actually be more useful, since three of them are also fairly high-level. But only one of the cards used to summon it is searchable, and searching it out requires you to tribute one of the other ones, so you'll almost never be able to bring it out! Unless you're the biggest fan in the world of its anime wielder or ''Manga/BabelII'', there's almost no reason to even attempt using it.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon/Assault_Mode T.G Halberd Cannon/Assault Mode]]. To summon this card, you need to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon T.G Halberd Cannon]] which has the exact same summoning requirements as Shooting Quasar Dragon mentioned above using [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Assault_Mode_Activate a very specific Trap Card]]. When your opponent would Summon a monster, you can negate the effect to banish that card and all Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls. It has 4500 ATK, but you'd never see it in the meta, likely because it's more difficult to summon than Shooting Quasar Dragon.

* The [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai Superheavy Samurai]]. Not only are the majority of them [[HumongousMecha massive robot]] samurai, but many of their best monsters can attack while in Defense-Position using their DEF as ATK. Not only that, but these monsters also have DEF as high as ''4800,'' making them close to indestructible. Oh, and some of their higher leveled monsters can be Special Summoned without a sacrifice. So what's the catch? Any Deck that focuses on them has to focus on them alone. That means you can't bolster it with other cards outside its archetype, not even Spells or Traps. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, you read that right.]] A pure Monster Deck sounds horrendously imbalanced already, but very few Superheavy Samurai monsters have ATK that breaks 2000, meaning any card effect that forces monsters into Attack Mode would screw you over big time.

* The [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai Superheavy Samurai]]. Not only are the majority of them [[HumungousMecha massive robot]] samurai, but many of their best monsters can attack while in Defense-Position using their DEF as ATK. Not only that, but these monsters also have DEF as high as ''4800,'' making them close to indestructible. Oh, and some of their higher leveled monsters can be Special Summoned without a sacrifice. So what's the catch? Any Deck that focuses on them has to focus on them alone. That means you can't bolster it with other cards outside its archetype, not even Spells or Traps. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, you read that right.]] A pure Monster Deck sounds horrendously imbalanced already, but very few Superheavy Samurai monsters have ATK that breaks 2000, meaning any card effect that forces monsters into Attack Mode would screw you over big time.

* In general, cards that grant {{Instant Win Condition}}s are difficult to play, but satisfying to see actually work.

* Many 2000 ATK+ LV4 or lower monsters have some kind of drawback: Giant Kozaky, Flash Assailant, Zombyra The Dark, Nuvia the Wicked, Unfriendly Amazon, Goblin Attack Force and that's just a sample. The practice started to die down around the release of 2000-ATK Normal Monster Gene-Warped Warwolf, but even before then, players had largely refused to bite. Put simply, most cards with the aforementioned drawbacks suffered such severe drawbacks that you needed to restructure your strategy to accommodate them, which flew in the face of BoringButPractical Beatdown strategy: sure, you could set your whole hand and Flash Assailant would be good, sure, you could play Scapegoat and Panther Warrior would be acceptable... or you could just play Gemini Elf, which has only 100 less ATK. The fact that Beatdown in general has fallen heavily out of favor means that even Gene-Warped Warwolf is pretty much meaningless today, so what chance has a loser like Boar Soldier got?

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon/Assault_Mode T.G Halberd Cannon/Assault Mode]]. To summon this card, you need to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon T.G Halberd Cannon]] which has the exact same summoning requirements as Shooting Quasar Dragon mentioned above. When your opponent would Summon a monster, you can negate the effect to banish that card and all Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls. It has 4500 ATK, but you'd never see it in the meta, likely because it's more difficult to summon than Shooting Quasar Dragon.

* There is a series of WATER monsters that are unaffected by Spells as long as [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Umi Umi]] is on the field. This is great against cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raigeki Raigeki]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Hole Dark Hole]], until you realize that they can't be targeted by ''any'' Spell Cards, [[EquivalentExchange including your own]]. Plus, there's nothing stopping your opponent from shutting down that strategy by activating their own Field Spell and activating [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Field_Barrier Field Barrier]]

* There is a series of WATER monsters that are unaffected by Spells as long as [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Umi Umi]] is on the field. This is great against cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raigeki Raigeki]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Hole Dark Hole]], until you realize that they can't be targeted by ''any'' Spell Cards, [[EquivalentExchange including your own]]. Plus, there's nothing stopping your opponent from shutting down that strategy by activating their own Field Spell and activating [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Field_Barrier Field Barrier]][[note]] There can only be one Field Spell in play at a time. If a new one is activated, the old one is destroyed. [[/note]]

* Even if it has the second highest ATK points of any monster in the game, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Force Machina Force]] is one of the best examples of Awesome, But Impractical due to its extremely difficult summoning conditions of having [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Commander_Covington Commander Covington]] on your field and sending [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Defender Machina Defender]], [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Soldier Machina Soldier]], and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Sniper Machina Sniper]] you control to the graveyard. To make things worse, it cannot declare an attack unless you pay 1000 Life Points. What's more, it's a "NOMI", meaning that if your opponent destroys it, it's gone for good (unless you feel like using something like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Monster_Reincarnation Monster Reincarnation]] and repeating the whole process of summoning it again.) This card only sees use in a Machina deck as discard fodder to summon [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Fortress Machina Fortress]], a far more practical boss-monster for the archetype, and even then it's since been outclassed by the likes of [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Cannon Machina Cannon]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Megaform Machina Megaform]], which have other uses.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Wicked_Eraser The Wicked Eraser]]: First of all, he can't be Special Summoned, which means if he's sent to the Graveyard (which is quite likely considering almost all of his effects occur when he's sent to the Graveyard), he's done. (Unless you plan to use Monster Reincarnation, or something like that.) On top of that, his attack and defense are equal to the number of cards your opponent controls, which means if your opponent controls only one monster with 1000 ATK or more, he's done.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Black_Metal_Dragon Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metalzoa Metalzoa]] can be special summoned from deck by tributing their original counterpart on field outfitted with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metalmorph Metalmorph]]. The problem? You're sending Metalmorph to grave for a measly 100 attack and defense points increase, while the very monster you sent to grave could reach a higher attack value by attacking anything with at least 300 attack points. And not only that, the monsters are completely useless in hand and graveyard since they can only be summoned from deck, forcing you to run cards to return them to deck should you be unlucky enough to draw them. In short, they're just too much trouble for the measly "reward" you get by playing them.[[note]]In the original anime and manga, the "reward" was slightly better - Machine-type monsters were inherently AntiMagic, so being able to trade in a normal monster for a machine counterpart, with ''no'' trade-off in attack power, was win-win.[[/note]]

* There is a series of WATER monsters that are unaffected by Spells as long as [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Umi Umi]] is on the field. This is great against cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raigeki Raigeki]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Hole Dark Hole]], until you realize that they can't be targeted by ''any'' Spell Cards, [[EquivalentExchange including your own]].

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon/Assault_Mode T.G Halberd Cannon/Assault Mode]]. To summon this card, you need to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Halberd_Cannon T.G Halberd Cannon]] which has the exact same summoning requirements as Shooting Quasar Dragon mentioned above. When your opponent would Summon a monster, you can negate the effect to banish all that card Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls. It has 4500 ATK, but you'd never see it in the meta, likely because it's more difficult to summon than Shooting Quasar Dragon.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Cosmo_Neos Elemental HERO Cosmo Neos]] can lock your opponent from activating cards, also cards your opponent controls cannot activate their effects for this turn, and destroys all cards your opponent controls during the End Phase. You need to shuffle Elemental Hero Neos and 3 Neo-Spacian monsters to summon this card. Needless to say, even if this card was released in 2007, it's still too slow to summon.

* Many 2000 ATK+ LV4 or lower monsters have some kind of drawback: Unfriendly Amazon, Flash Assailant, Zombyra The Dark, Nuvia the Wicked, Dark Elf, Goblin Attack Force and that's just a sample. The practice started to die down around the release of 2000-ATK Normal Monster Gene-Warped Warwolf, but even before then, players had largely refused to bite. Put simply, most cards with the aforementioned drawbacks suffered such severe drawbacks that you needed to restructure your strategy to accommodate them, which flew in the face of BoringButPractical Beatdown strategy: sure, you could set your whole hand and Flash Assailant would be good, sure, you could play Scapegoat and Panther Warrior would be acceptable... or you could just play Gemini Elf, which has only 100 less ATK. The fact that Beatdown in general has fallen heavily out of favor means that even Gene-Warped Warwolf is pretty much meaningless today, so what chance has a loser like Boar Soldier got?