History AwesomeButImpractical / YuGiOh

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Big_Shield_Gardna Big Shield Gardna]] has 2600 DEF and it requires no Tribute to summon. The catch? At the end of the Damage Step of a battle where this card is attacked, it ''turns to attack mode'', and it only has 100 ATK, meaning that your opponent's next monster will both destroy Big Shield Gardna and get a direct swing at your Life Points.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metaltron_XII,_the_True_Dracombatant Metaltron XII, the True Dracombatant]] is unaffected by the effects of cards with the same card type (Monster, Spell, and/or Trap) as the original card type of the cards Tributed for its Tribute Summon, and can Special Summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Naturia_Exterio Naturia Exterio]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Steam_Train_King Superheavy Samurai Steam Train King]] when it gets destroyed by your opponent, in fact any Fusion/Synchro/Xyz Extra Deck monster that is EARTH/WATER/FIRE/WIND. So why isn't this card used often in Draco decks? It requires 3 Tributes(very expensive) and can easily be Tributed by a Kaiju, but to be fair, he's better than the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Egyptian_God Egyptian Gods]]. Even when [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Master_Peace,_the_True_Dracoslaying_King friggin' Master Peace]] got banned, there's still no reason to use it due to it's resources.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Relay_Soul Relay Soul]]. To win with this card, you have to give your opponent this card, hope they set it and activate it, and pray the card summoned by this card's effect leaves the field--- which is something no sane person would play.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metaltron_XII,_the_True_Dracombatant Metaltron XII, the True Dracombatant]] is unaffected by the effects of cards with the same card type (Monster, Spell, and/or Trap) as the original card type of the cards Tributed for its Tribute Summon, and can Special Summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Naturia_Exterio Naturia Exterio]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Steam_Train_King Superheavy Samurai Steam Train King]] when it gets destroyed by your opponent, in fact any Fusion/Synchro/Xyz Extra Deck monster that is EARTH/WATER/FIRE/WIND. So why isn't this card used often in Draco decks? It requires 3 Tributes(very expensive) and can easily be Tributed by a Kaiju, but to be fair, he's better than the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Egyptian_God Egyptian Gods]].

With thousands and thousands of cards, [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh The Yu-Gi-Oh card game]] has so many cool cards that just aren't really worth the effort that it gets its own page. For actual awesome and practical cards, see [[GameBreaker/YuGiOhCardGame here]].

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Berserker_Crush Berserker Crush]] banishes any monster from your Graveyard to give Winged Kuriboh the ATK/DEF of the banished monster. If you precede this with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Secret_Pass_to_the_Treasures Secret Pass to the Treasures]] and combine it with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Double_Attack Double Attack]], and by banishing a monster with 4000 or more ATK, you can potentially get a one-turn kill with one of the weakest monsters in the game's history.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Quasar_Dragon Shooting Quasar Dragon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Blazar_Dragon Cosmic Blazar Dragon]] have the hallmarks of this trope: Quasar has 4000 ATK, can attack twice, can negate anything once per turn, and summons [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Star_Dragon Shooting Star Dragon]] from your Extra Deck when it leaves the field (awesome); Blazar can negate '''any''' Effect, Summon and Attack by banishing itself until the End Phase. They require a Tuner Synchro Monster and two non-Tuner Synchro Monsters whose levels add up to 12 as materials (impractical). At first glance, it seems like another "deplete your hand to summon it, leaving you with no defense" monster, like Gate Guardian above. However, a good number of Synchro Monsters give you extra draw power, which somewhat balances it out; specifically, one of the most commonly used materials is [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Hyper_Librarian T.G. Hyper Librarian]], a Lv.5 Synchro Monster that lets you draw a card whenever either player Synchro Summons anything while it's on the field, making it a staple in Synchro decks. Combine this with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Formula_Synchron Formula Synchron]], a Lv.2 Tuner Synchro Monster, and you're all but guaranteed to draw a minimum of 3 cards while summoning him. Combined with the versatility of Lv.5 Synchro Monsters in general, this means that while it's not practical as your main monster, it can very easily be splashed in most Synchro decks.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Quasar_Dragon Shooting Quasar Dragon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Blazar_Dragon Cosmic Blazar Dragon]] have the hallmarks of this trope: Quasar has 4000 ATK, can attack twice, can negate anything once per turn, and summons [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Star_Dragon Shooting Star Dragon]] from your Extra Deck when it leaves the field (awesome); Blazar can negate any Effect, Summon and Attack. They require a Tuner Synchro Monster and two non-Tuner Synchro Monsters whose levels add up to 12 as materials (impractical). At first glance, it seems like another "deplete your hand to summon it, leaving you with no defense" monster, like Gate Guardian above. However, a good number of Synchro Monsters give you extra draw power, which somewhat balances it out; specifically, one of the most commonly used materials is [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Hyper_Librarian T.G. Hyper Librarian]], a Lv.5 Synchro Monster that lets you draw a card whenever either player Synchro Summons anything while it's on the field, making it a staple in Synchro decks. Combine this with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Formula_Synchron Formula Synchron]], a Lv.2 Tuner Synchro Monster, and you're all but guaranteed to draw a minimum of 3 cards while summoning him. Combined with the versatility of Lv.5 Synchro Monsters in general, this means that while it's not practical as your main monster, it can very easily be splashed in most Synchro decks. [[DifficultButAwesome It can easily be a game winner]] if you ''do'' manage to get him out, however.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Quasar_Dragon Shooting Quasar Dragon]] has the hallmarks of this trope: it has 4000 ATK, can attack twice, can negate anything once per turn, and summons [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shooting_Star_Dragon Shooting Star Dragon]] from your Extra Deck when it leaves the field (awesome), but it requires a Tuner Synchro Monster and two non-Tuner Synchro Monsters whose levels add up to 12 as materials (impractical). At first glance, it seems like another "deplete your hand to summon it, leaving you with no defense" monster, like Gate Guardian above. However, a good number of Synchro Monsters give you extra draw power, which somewhat balances it out; specifically, one of the most commonly used materials is [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/T.G._Hyper_Librarian T.G. Hyper Librarian]], a Lv.5 Synchro Monster that lets you draw a card whenever either player Synchro Summons anything while it's on the field, making it a staple in Synchro decks. Combine this with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Formula_Synchron Formula Synchron]], a Lv.2 Tuner Synchro Monster, and you're all but guaranteed to draw a minimum of 3 cards while summoning him. Combined with the versatility of Lv.5 Synchro Monsters in general, this means that while it's not practical as your main monster, it can very easily be splashed in most Synchro decks. [[DifficultButAwesome It can easily be a game winner]] if you ''do'' manage to get him out, however.

*** That said, Gate Guardian does shockingly see some usage. Mostly when it comes to farming certain event duelists. As Gate Guardian can be utilized as a unmovable wall to stall your opponent with no worries until you can set up your field. Most commonly, people utilize Union attack on Gravekeeper's Vassal to farm a lot of points. However, other than this method, no one would ever utilize Gate Guardian.

*** That said, Gate Guardian does shockingly see some usage. Mostly when it comes to farming certain event duelists. As Gate Guardian can be utilized as a unmovable wall to stall your opponent until you can set up your field with no worries. Most commonly, people utilize Union attack on Gravekeeper's Vassal to farm a lot of points. However, other than this method, no one would ever utilize Gate Guardian.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Bribe Dark Bribe]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Recall Recall]] have become this. They are generic Counter Traps that can be chained to most Spells/Traps, or monster effects, respectively. Considering that the large majority of Counter Traps have restrictive activation requirements, these two seem welcome...until you realise they also let your opponent draw one more card. In a game where hand advantage is incredibly important, cards that let your opponent draw more are not worth any advantages they offer. If you want to run a generic Counter Trap, it's a better idea to just run [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Solemn_Judgment Solemn Judgment]]/[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Solemn_Warning Warning]]/[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Solemn_Strike Strike]].

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Board Destiny Board]] is probably one of the most difficult victory condition to achieve. Not only will you need to have your ''entire backrow'' to reserve its [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Spirit_Message Spirit Messages]], each one can only be placed each of your opponent's End Phase (which means it takes about ''ten'' turns to achieve victory with this set of cards). And should one of the Spirit Messages you control leaves the field, all of them are gone for good! [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sentence_of_Doom Sentence of Doom]] was made to mitigate two of those problems, but that still means that you have to wait at least six turns to achieve Destiny Board's victory condition. You can use [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Sanctuary Dark Sanctuary]] to summon them as monsters, but that only leads to even more problems. First, the Sprit Messages won't have any ATK or DEF and can't be given a boost since they're immune to all card effects, including your own. Sure they can't be targeted for attacks, but Dark Sanctuary doesn't stop your opponent from attacking directly, so you can't use the Spirit Messages as [[StoneWall Stone Walls]]. And if they do attack, it comes down to a coin toss whether the attack goes through or not. And let's not forget that you'll have progressively fewer Monster Card Zones to work with if you do choose to summon the Spirit Messages as monsters.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Board Destiny Board]] is probably one of the most difficult victory condition to achieve. Not only will you need to have your ''entire backrow'' to reserve its [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Spirit_Message Spirit Messages]], each one can only be placed each of your opponent's End Phase (which means it takes about ''ten'' turns to achieve victory with this set of cards). And should one of the Spirit Messages you control leaves the field, all of them are gone for good! You can use [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Sanctuary Dark Sanctuary]] to summon them as monsters, but that only leads to even more problems. First, the Sprit Messages won't have any ATK or DEF and can't be given a boost since they're immune to all card effects, including your own. Sure they can't be targeted for attacks, but Dark Sanctuary doesn't stop your opponent from attacking directly, so you can't use the Spirit Messages as [[StoneWall Stone Walls]]. And if they do attack, it comes down to a coin toss whether the attack goes through or not. And let's not forget that you'll have progressively fewer Monster Card Zones to work with if you do choose to summon the Spirit Messages as monsters.

** Simalar to Huge Revolution, we have [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Law_of_the_Normal The Law of the Normal]], this card also Nukes your opponent's field and hand, and you need 5 Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters with no effects on the field in order to use this card. The one silver lining of this particular card is that Tokens count as Normal Monsters, so it's not as hard to fulfill the activation conditions, but you still need a way to actually kill the opponent after playing it.

* [[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 , quicker and more splashable option is to just use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/85289965 Borrelsword Dragon]].

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Board Destiny Board]] is probably one of the most difficult victory condition to achieve. Not only will you need to have your ''entire backrow'' to reserve its letters, each letter can only be placed each of your opponent's End Phase (which means it takes about ''ten'' turns to achieve victory with this set of cards). And should one of the letters you control leaves the field, all of your letters are gone for good!

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Vehicroid_-_Stealth_Union Super Vehicroid Stealth Union]], a CombiningMecha Fusion Monster made of 4 specific monsters, with an effect that lets it attack all the opponent's monsters while negating their effects... and ''halving its own ATK'' until the end phase. It's quite concerning that this monster, which takes 5 specific cards to summon, is effectively only 100 ATK stronger than the Normal Summonable [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Asura_Priest Asura Priest]].

* The [[https://yugipedia.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.

*** Although its [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C88 upgraded form]] looks a bit better than the original form for not having the latter's restrictions and immune to effect targeting, it is pretty hard to summon as it must be Special Summoned with a "Rank-Up-Magic" Spell Card targeting its original form, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Also, its victory condition is pretty redundant since it has a hefty 3500 ATK and can detach an Xyz material to inflict 1000 damage every turn.

** Simalar to Huge Revolution, we have [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Law_of_the_Normal The Law of the Normal]], this card also Nukes your opponent's field and hand, and you need 5 Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters with no effects on the field in order to use this card.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Big_Shield_Gardna Big Shield Gardna]] has 2600 DEF and it requires no Tribute to summon. The catch? At the end of the Damage Step of a battle where this card is attacked, it ''turns to attack mode'', and it only has 100 ATK, meaning that your opponent's next monster will both destroy Big Shield Gardna and get a direct swing at your Life Point.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Divine_Neos Elemental HERO Divine Neos]]. It 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.

* [[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]] The only reason you'd want to make this play would be to make room for a Spell or Trap Card.

* [[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://yugipedia.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.

With thousands and thousands of cards, [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh The Yu-Gi-Oh card game]] has so many cool cards that just aren't really worth the effort that it gets its own page.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zushin_the_Sleeping_Giant Zushin the Sleeping Giant]] may very well be the all-time champion of this. To summon this guy, you have to keep a Level 1 Normal Monster (i.e. a monster with bottom-of-the-barrel stats and no effect) alive for most likely '''''10 TURNS'''''. In a game where even monsters with all kinds of protection effects tend to last 2 or 3 turns at ''most'' and Duels can be decided within the space of ''one''. And you have to have Zushin in hand for all 10 turns. On the other hand, if you manage to do the impossible, you get a monster that can beat down basically ''anything'' the opponent throws at it and is immune to every card effect - but can only deal 1000 damage at a time[[note]] No, you can't boost its ATK, since it's immune to ''all'' card effects, including yours[[/note]]. Notably, Zushin was even considered Awesome, But Impractical InUniverse in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': it was considered to be on-par with the [[PhysicalGod Egyptian Gods]], but even though every man and his dog had a copy, '''nobody''' has ''ever'' been able to summon him until Team Taiyou pulled it off, it's ''that'' hard to summon.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zushin_the_Sleeping_Giant Zushin the Sleeping Giant]] may very well be the all-time champion of this. To summon this guy, you have to keep a Level 1 Normal Monster (i.e. a monster with bottom-of-the-barrel stats and no effect) alive for most likely '''''10 TURNS'''''. In a game where even monsters with all kinds of protection effects tend to last 2 or 3 turns at ''most'' and Duels can be decided within the space of ''one''. And you have to have Zushin in hand for all 10 turns. On the other hand, if you manage to do the impossible, you get a monster that can beat down basically ''anything'' the opponent throws at it and is immune to every card effect - but can only deal 1000 damage at a time. Notably, Zushin was even considered Awesome, But Impractical InUniverse in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': it was considered to be on-par with the [[PhysicalGod Egyptian Gods]], but even though every man and his dog had a copy, '''nobody''' has ''ever'' been able to summon him until Team Taiyou pulled it off, it's ''that'' hard to summon.

** [[TropeCodifier The good ol']] [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Forbidden_One Exodia]]: It gives you an instant win, but only if you have 5 certain cards in your hand at the same time (the cards can also be played as weak monsters). And you can only have one of each in your deck. The only way to use him efficiently is to have a deck completely built around getting him in your hand, which is still a heavily luck-based strategy which leaves you almost defenseless, especially if your opponent uses cards that discard from your hand. '''[[SubvertedTrope However]]''', with more and more stall cards and cards that ''purely'' increase draw power, Exodia decks eventually become one of the most hated "solitaire" decks players ever faced.

*** In 2019, another Exodia card was announced, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Exodia,_Master_of_The_Guard Exodia, Master of The Guard]] and of course it has a win condition attached. For this one, if you tribute summon it by its effect of tributing '''''5''''' monsters and then proceed to destroy a DARK Fiend monster your opponent owns (which means no cheating with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Nightmare_Archfiends Nightmare Archfiends]]), you win the duel. Between the absurd Tribute Summoning requirement and specific battle restrictions, it's unlikely this condition will be met with any frequency, since you're generally going to need three specific cards in hand (Exodia, an attribute-changing card like Scroll of Bewitchment, and a type-changing card like DNA Surgery) and five Tributes available. And Master of the Guard has ''no'' protection whatsoever. All things considered, if you want to use Exodia as a beater, you're probably better off with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Legendary_Exodia_Incarnate The Legendary Exodia Incarnate]].

* The Timelords can be Normal Summoned without Tribute if you control no monsters, are immune to destruction by any card, you take no battle damage from battles involving them, and have pretty powerful effects after they battle. Completely undefeatable? No. First, they cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck (though their own support gets around this), which is pretty bad in a metagame focused on fast Summoning. There are ten of them (and that's barring [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sephylon,_the_Ultimate_Timelord Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord]]), and they all have 0 ATK and 0 DEF barring [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sandaion,_the_Timelord Sandaion]] and Sephylon (and the former prevents any player from taking battle damage from battles involving it. Yes, that includes your opponent), making it extremely foolish to build a Deck around them as they clog up 25% of your entire Deck. Also, during your Standby Phase, they are shuffled back into your Deck. On top of all that, their powerful effects rely on them getting off an attack, and they are not immune to being returned to the hand or Deck, or banished. One attack-negating effect from your opponent, and their effects are wasted and you must watch them meaninglessly shuffle themselves into your Deck on your next turn.