History AwesomeButImpractical / YuGiOhCardGame

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_iC1000:_Numeronius_Numeronia Number iC1000]]. To win with this card, you need to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C1000:_Numeronius Number C1000]] first (and let your opponent destroy it with a card effect), which the easiest way to summon is to use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Numeron_Chaos_Ritual Numeron Chaos Ritual]]. Both cards are intensely tough to summon/activate, as there are several convoluted hoops to jump through (destroying one specific monster you own with specifically a monster effect ''and'' getting a Numeron Network in the Graveyard, activating and resolving Chaos Ritual, and hoping your opponent is dumb enough to destroy Numeronius with a card effect and ''not'' have another one ready for Numeronia and/or fail to remove Numeronius without destroying it, all while devoting at least ''half'' your Extra Deck to pulling this off). But, if you succeed, you get a '''RANK 13''' monster with '''100000 ATK''' (no, seriously you didn't read that wrong), and if you opponent does not attack, you win. And even if your opponent does attack, you can just detach a Xyz material from this card to negate the attack.[[note]] It does bear keeping in mind that it only has 100K ATK on your ''opponent's'' turn, meaning there's nothing stopping your opponent from using [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Battle_Mania Battle Mania]] to force it to attack one of their monsters, during which it will have '''''0 ATK'''''. Oh, and its attack negation effect only applies to your opponent's monsters, so have fun with that.[[/note]] However, a better way to use the Numerons was to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_S0:_Utopic_ZEXAL Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL]] instead, which could lock your opponent down hard enough that it might as well be an instant win anyway, which actually became a meta strategy and led to its ban in the OCG and TCG.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Final_Countdown Final Countdown]]: On the bright side, you win automatically after a certain number of turns, and the only way to stop it is to win before that happens. But that certain amount of time? ''20 turns''. (10 of yours, 10 of the opponent's) ''And'' it has a 2000-point cost, and is difficult to search -- you essentially have to resolve this on your very first turn to get a chance at winning otherwise you're forced to expend your defensive resources to just hope to get the card, at which point you probably don't have the resources to survive until it goes off. While Final Countdown was more playable in older, slower formats, modern decks' ability to build a formidable board means your defenses can only lapse for one turn at most before losing. The only reason anyone would add this to their deck was if they were a massive fan of Music/{{Europe}}.

* Even in a deck with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Insect_Queen Insect Queen]] in mind, it's pretty cumbersome to get some mileage out of her. For starters, she's level 7, meaning you need two Tributes to even get her on the field (or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Trojan_Horse The Trojan Horse]], which can count as two for an EARTH monster). Next, while she does gain 200 ATK for every Insect on the field[[note]] Including herself and your opponent's, for a whopping ''2000'' ATK boost[[/note]], she needs a Tribute in order to attack thus effectively giving her 200 ATK ''less'' than when she came onto the field in a best-case scenario. Sure, she summons a Token every time she attacks a monster, but you still need a Tribute in order for her to attack, and that Token only has a measly ''100 ATK[=/=]DEF''. [[FromBadToWorse And she summons it at the end of your turn]] '''''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck IN ATTACK MODE!]]''''' Unless you took necessary precautions, no points for guessing which monster becomes your opponent's target on their turn. There does exist [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metamorphosed_Insect_Queen Metamorphosed Insect Queen]], which rectifies Insect Queen's shortcomings on top of protecting your Insects from your opponent's card effects as long as there is at least one other Insect on the field and gaining another attack Tributes permitting. The only downsides to MIQ are that she doesn't get an ATK boost from Insects anymore and she needs to be summoned by a card effect, which can easily be done with cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cocoon_of_Ultra_Evolution Cocoon of Ultra Evolution]].

** There's an alternate method to summon this card though: Use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyber-Stein Cyber-Stein]] to summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Armityle_the_Chaos_Phantasm_-_Phantom_of_Fury Armityle the Chaos Phantasm - Phantom of Fury]], give it to your opponent, then pray your opponent does not get rid of this card during the End Phase. If you successfully do it, all your opponent's card will be banished, and Armityle the Chaos Phantom will be summoned ignoring its summoning condition, but you will be left with a 0 ATK Armityle during your opponent's turn.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Royal_Straight_Slasher Royal Straight Slasher]]. It must be Special Summoned with "[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Royal_Straight Royal Straight]]", which requires giving up King's Knight, Queen's Knight, and Jack's Knight from your hand or field. Upon summon, if you have the above cards in your Graveyard, you can mill one monster of each level from one through five to wipe the opponent's field. While the mix of Graveyard setup and a board-wipe might sound impressive, the summoning condition of Slasher is surprisingly tricky, and its effect is hard to activate in its own deck, since most [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Three_Musketeers_of_Face_Cards Three Musketeers of Face Cards]] decks don't run Level 1 or 2 monsters. Two better targets for Royal Straight would be [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Arcana_Triumph_Joker Arcana Triumph Joker]], which is a non-Nomi; or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Arcana_Knight_Joker Arcana Knight Joker]], which is a 3800 ATK beatstick that is better off just summoned by [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyber-Stein Cyber-Stein]] instead.

* For how impressive it sounds, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Huge_Revolution Huge Revolution]] certainly falls under this trope. If the conditions are correct, you can send your opponent's entire hand to the Graveyard and nuke their entire field, which should put them at a [[StealthPun huge]] disadvantage. But those conditions? Three weak, specific Normal Monsters with no relation to each other (they don't fall under an archetype that supports them) that have different Types, Attributes, and Levels, making searching for them all but impossible. Even if you somehow manage to pull it off, the combined original ATK of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/People_Running_About People Running About]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Oppressed_People Oppressed People]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/United_Resistance United Resistance]] (i.e. the three monsters needed to activate this card) is a mere 2000, and you're unlikely to have another monster to inflict further battle damage. If that wasn't enough, it is a Trap Card that can only be activated during your Main Phase, which completely goes against the point of it being a Trap Card (i.e. being able to be activated during either player's turn). ''And you still have to Set it and wait for your next turn before you can activate it''. Not to mention the revolution can easily be negated by every Counter Trap under the sun. It is almost completely impossible to build a Deck around this card, and it's not recommended to try.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Horakhti Holactie the Creator of Light]] requires you to tribute all 3 Egyptian God cards to summon (and no cheating with cards that take the names of other cards, they have to be the originals). If you do summon it, however (and its summon can't be negated), you win the duel instantly, much like Exodia. But aside from decks specifically designed to bring it out, it's rather worthless (and it rarely works even in those decks). Not to mention, if your opponent allowed you to setup to the point where you could get the three God cards on field, you probably could have won in the meantime.

** Subverted as of their 2023 support, which is far less restrictive in what monsters you're allowed to summon outside of the archetype, making Superheavy Samurai one of the more powerful Synchro decks, either by filling the board with powerful Extra Deck monsters or straight-up performing burn OTKs. Sadly, it comes at the cost of making the in-archetype boos monsters less attractive to summon by comparison.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/End_of_the_Line End of the Line]] is a Trap Card that has the ability to draw you two cards or ''four cards''. The problem? It can only be activated if you have 100 LP or less, and its four cards condition can only be fulfilled if you have less than 10 LP, meaning that it is virtually unplayable since very few games go down to 100 LP, much less 10. The only deck that is realistically capable of playing this card is Dinomorphia, and even then it is widely considered a gimmick at best since it's both unsearchable and doesn't help the archetype whatsoever.

* [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/End_of_the_Line End of the Line]] is a Trap Card that has the ability to draw you two cards or ''four cards''. The problem? It can only be activated if you have 100 LP or less, and its four cards condition can only be fulfilled if you have less than 10 LP, meaning that it is virtually unplayable since very few games go down to 100 LP, much less 10. The only deck that is realistically capable of playing this card is Dinomorphia, and even then it is widely considered a gimmick at best since it's both unsearchable and doesn't help the archetype whatsoever.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_88:_Gimmick_Puppet_of_Leo Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo]] is an Xyz Monster that has an effect that can allow you to win the duel within 3 turns of it being on the field. However, it requires you to have no Spells or Traps on the field to use its effect and keeps you from conducting your Battle Phase that turn if you do. This is extremely dangerous against any skilled opponent since it allows them plenty of time to get the right card to stop it before you get that far (which isn't too hard to do as Leo has ''no'' protection to speak of) and requires you to be very cautious about what Spell/Trap cards you set/activate lest you give up the ability to use its effect. It also requires 3 level 8 monsters to summon; most of the Rank 8 toolbox has high ATK monsters (such as the Galaxy-Eyes Xyz monsters or some Gimmick Puppets themselves), at which point you have to question why would you even bother summoning Leo instead of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Galaxy-Eyes_Full_Armor_Photon_Dragon any other]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_38:_Hope_Harbinger_Dragon_Titanic_Galaxy Rank 8]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Undead_Vampire that could]] end the game in the same number of turns ''or less'' without requiring you to forgo the usage of Spells and Traps. To make things even worse for Leo, there's absolutely nothing stopping the opponent from letting you put 2 counters on it (since you probably won't be doing much else with Leo on the field anyway), and then stealing it with something like Enemy Controller to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard place the third counter themselves]].

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Final_Countdown Final Countdown]]: On the bright side, you win automatically after a certain number of turns, and the only way to stop it is to win before that happens. But that certain amount of time? ''20 turns''. (10 of yours, 10 of the opponent's) ''And'' it has a 2000-point cost, and is difficult to search -- you essentially have to resolve this on your very first turn to get a chance at winning otherwise you're forced to expend your defensive resources to just hope to get the card. Given the modern decks' ability to build a formidable board, your defenses can only lapse for one turn at most before losing. The only reason anyone would add this to their deck was if they were a massive fan of Music/{{Europe}}.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_88:_Gimmick_Puppet_of_Leo Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo]] is an Xyz monster that has an effect that can allow you to win the duel within 3 turns of it being on the field. However, it requires you to have no spells or traps on the field to use its effect and keeps you from conducting your battle phase that turn if you do. This is extremely dangerous against any skilled opponents since it allows them plenty of time to get the right card to stop it before you get that far and requires you to be very cautious about what spell/trap cards you set/activate lest you give up the ability to use its effect. It also requires 3 level 8 monsters to summon; most of the rank 8 toolbox has high attack monsters (such as the Galaxy-Eyes Xyz monsters or some Gimmick Puppets themselves), at which point you have to question why would you even bother summoning Leo instead of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Galaxy-Eyes_Full_Armor_Photon_Dragon any other]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_38:_Hope_Harbinger_Dragon_Titanic_Galaxy rank 8]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Undead_Vampire that could]] end the game in the same number of turns ''or less'' without requiring you to forgo the usage of spell and traps.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Converging_Wishes Converging Wishes]] Special Summons 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck if you have 5 or more Dragon-Type Synchro Monsters and equips it to Stardust Dragon. When equipped, it gains ATK equal to all the combined ATK of all Dragon-Type Synchro Monsters in your Graveyard. Also when it destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can banish 1 Dragon Synchro monster to make it attack again. This could easily result in a 10000+ ATK multiple attacker, but the cost of activating this card is utterly ridiculous.

* Back in the old days of the game, there was [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gate_Guardian Gate Guardian]], a 3750 ATK monster who can only be summoned by tributing his three components, each of which require two tributes themselves. The best bit? Gate Guardian's three pieces combined have ''twice'' as much ATK as Gate Guardian (not to mention pretty decent effects that Gate Guardian doesn't get), and 3 monsters are harder to get rid of than a single target, so Gate Guardian is impractical ''even in a deck based around him''. A good example of this can be found in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khtSmTR23I8#t=4m36s the last duel of this video]]. He had to have a perfect hand, get lucky with Monster Gate, discard a ''Dark Hole'', be left with no other cards on the hand or field (aside from the field spell), all to watch Gate Guardian be destroyed by a simple Mirror Force.[[note]]Fun fact: at the end of the video, the Duelist states that, out of the many Duels in which he used that Deck, he only ever successfully summoned Gate Guardian thrice, including the time depicted. In mild fairness, it was less a Gate Guardian deck and more a Zubaba General deck that could summon Gate Guardian for style points, but that's still a damning record.[[/note]] The closest thing to a use it has is its high stats for a main-deck Warrior, making it good fodder for Zubaba General or [=UFOroid=] Fighter - but even then, you could do the same thing with, say, any given Black Luster Soldier variant, and lose 750 extra ATK on already-overkill stats in exchange for having a monster that can actually be summoned or do things.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hero_Flash!! Hero Flash]] is what you get after playing its component letters, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/H_-_Heated_Heart H - Heated Heart]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/E_-_Emergency_Call E - Emergency Call]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/R_-_Righteous_Justice R - Righteous Justice]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/O_-_Oversoul O - Oversoul]]. The individual letters are unsearchable Spells but they are all pretty good in their own right -- E is a searcher, R is S/T removal, and O is a Monster Reborn for a Normal HERO. H, being a buff spell, is the only one of questionable quality. When you put them all together and activate this card... you get a revival of a Normal HERO monster and your Normal [=HEROes=] get to attack directly this turn. It's a very poor payoff for all that buildup, and you're better off just using Emergency Call on its own.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Board Destiny Board]] is probably one of the most difficult victory conditions 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 during your opponent's End Phase consecutively (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 still has some problems. First, the Spirit 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]]. Most important of all, Dark Sanctuary does ''nothing'' to protect Destiny Board itself, which still remains a magnet for every backrow removal under the sun; and with eight-ten turns available to formulate a strategy to get rid of Destiny Board, any player worth their salt will be able to eventually counter it and make all your hard work go to waste. [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sentence_of_Doom Sentence of Doom]] mitigates this problem somewhat, since it lets you play a Spirit Message as if you played it using Destiny Board's effect, cutting down the number of turns from eight to ten to ''three''. But again, no backrow protection for Destiny Board or the Spirit Messages.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Board Destiny Board]] is probably one of the most difficult victory conditions 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 during your opponent's End Phase consecutively (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 still has some problems. First, the Spirit 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]]. Most important of all, Dark Sanctuary does ''nothing'' to protect Destiny Board itself, which still remains a magnet for every backrow removal under the sun; and with eight-ten turns available to formulate a strategy to get rid of Destiny Board, any player worth their salt will be able to eventually counter it and make all your hard work go to waste.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantum_Mecha_Overlord_Great_Magnas Super Quantal Mech King Great Magnus]] is a Rank 12 Xyz monster. Yes, a Rank 12. It requires 3 Level 12 monsters to summon, which will very rarely happen; but it can be summoned via its archetype's field spell. The impracticality of it is that in order to summon him this way, you need to have three other Xyz monsters either on the field or in the Graveyard, and in order to get his better effects, you need more materials on him. A hell of a lot of work for this guy... Well, should you pull off the impossible, you have a Rank 12 monster with 5-7 materials, giving him immunity to virtually any card effect, places a lock on the opponents deck, and can spin cards back to the deck with one xyz material.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raidraptor_-_Final_Fortress_Falcon Final Fortress Falcon]] is a rare Rank TWELVE Xyz which can be summoned by ranking up Ultimate Falcon. It has 300 more ATK and 800 more DEF, and if it has a Raidraptor monster as material, is unaffected by card effects. But instead of field suppression, Final Fortress is first and foremost an offensive attacker, letting you banish a Raidraptor from the Graveyard each time you kill a monster by battle to attack again, and letting you detach an Xyz Material to put all banished Raidraptors back in the Graveyard. Last Strix helps you get this monster out faster, but it is still ungainly and loses its immunities if its materials are detached, making Ultimate Falcon an overall better boss monster.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rocket_Arrow_Express Rocket Arrow Express]] has 5000 attack (one of only a handful of monsters that do) and just requires your field to be empty to special summon it from your hand. The problem is that its effect makes it so you can't conduct your battle phase the turn it's summoned, you can't activate any card effects or set anything while it's on the field, and it destroys itself unless you discard your entire hand each of your standby phases. All of this adds up to a monster that has extremely high attack but makes you into a sitting duck for your opponent when you summon it (unless the opponent happens to have a Skill Drain on the field, though even then, you still have to pay the maintenance cost). Even in the anime, reactions to summoning this thing were basically "what the hell?" However, it's NotCompletelyUseless, since you can still summon monsters, meaning pairing it with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Night_Express_Knight Night Express Knight]] and/or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mirror_Ladybug Mirror Ladybug]] means you're all set for a Rank 10 Xyz Summon (which is as hard as it sounds, by the way), but even then it's been replaced by more practical Rank 10 enablers like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heavy_Freight_Train_Derricrane Heavy Freight Train Derricrane]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Express_Bullet_Train Super Express Bullet Train]].

* Cards that can only be used once per Duel are this by default. Cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bacon_Saver Bacon Saver]] or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Speedroid_Dupligate Speedroid Dupligate]] have some handy effects that would be utterly broken in casual and competitive play... if you had a means of recycling their effects in a single Duel.

* 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 affected by ''any'' Spell Cards, [[BlessedWithSuck including your own]].
* The anime-only card, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ragnarok Ragnarok]]. The effect? If [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician Dark Magician,]] [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician_Girl Dark Magician Girl,]] [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Sage Dark Sage,]] or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magician_of_Black_Chaos Magician of Black Chaos]] (a minimum of 2 required) are on the field, all monsters on the enemy's side of the field can be banished. The cost? You have to banish ''every monster from your hand, deck, and graveyard''. The cost was probably only there for the undoubtedly [[RuleOfCool awesome]] visual effect: all of Yugi's monsters appear and swarm the enemy in order to banish it. There exists a real-life counterpart of it, Dark Burning Magic (which is based on the ''manga'' version of Ra's defeat), which completely removes the "lose all your other monsters" requirement, making it a quirky pick in Dark Magician decks that use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bond_Between_Teacher_and_Student Bond Between Teacher and Student]].

* The banned [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Victory_Dragon Victory Dragon]], an extremely hard-to-summon monster with stats that, for those difficult conditions, are relatively unremarkable. If it somehow attacks directly for the win, wins the entire ''match''. Not just this game, but an entire set of "best of three" duels. However, there's no rule (at least not in the US ruleset) saying your opponent can't just [[StopHavingFunGuys forfeit the duel when you attack]], sparing him the match loss. And in nearly any tournament setting of the sort where matches are actually played, Victory Dragon is banned.

[[folder: Other]]
* Having more than forty cards in your deck. You ''may'' be able to get away with forty one - forty three, but going to the max sixty card limit is generally seen as a bad thing. Sure, having extra cards in the deck for any given situation is nice, but it makes actually getting the cards you ''need'' in any given situation much, ''much'' harder to draw.
** Konami apparently took note of this and started to make some cards that actually avert this nature. Two notable examples are [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Pot_of_Desires Pot of Desires]], who nets the player the infamous "Pot of Greed" advantage at the cost of losing 10 cards from his deck permanently, and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/That_Grass_Looks_Greener That Grass Looks Greener]], which can mill 20 cards from the player's 60-card deck if played on the first turn, effectively setting up plays for an entire game. In fact, Grass did its job [[GoneHorriblyRight a bit too well]], becoming almost a win condition if resolved and getting limited and later banned in the TCG.
* From a meta, non-card game itself example: Konami actually did make [[{{Defictionalization}} toy Duel Disk to play the card game with anywhere]], but they were rife with problems. Even disregarding the obvious fact that they don't come with super advanced holographic imagery, and the fact that they were intended for young children to play with, as something that ''can'' work with the card game, it still deserves a mention here. Early creations didn't include an extra deck or banish zones, and the slots that held the cards in were too small for sleeves, making accidentally bending and tearing the cards frustratingly common. Even though later Duel Disks would fix this problem, there were still quite a few annoyances. Not only do they give the wearer ''insane'' wrist cramps shortly after putting them on, you'll likely get a few eyebrows raised your way if you tried playing with someone with it outside. Additionally, it's hard to keep track of what the opponent has played and make sure they don't pull any sleight of hand when they're far away, meaning it's likely you'll only ever use it inside while standing close next to someone, and if that's the case, you're better off just playing at a table where you can sit down and have a better view of the field.
* Cards that can only be used once per Duel are this by default. Cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bacon_Saver Bacon Saver]] or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Speedroid_Dupligate Speedroid Dupligate]] have some handy effects that would be utterly broken in casual and competitive play... if you had a means of recycling their effects in a single Duel.

* Cards that rely on coin tosses and die rolls are the very embodiment of this trope by default, as they revolve around chance. They tend to have powerful effects if luck is on your side but effects that are detrimental to you otherwise. For example, the Trap Card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gamble Gamble]] can be activated if your opponent has 6 or more cards in their hand and you have 2 or less, and allows you to draw until you have ''5 cards in your hand'', which would be a GameBreaker if it didn't revolve around a coin toss that can result in your next turn getting skipped instead if you fail (and your opponent somehow holding a full hand of cards). The Arcana Force monsters revolve entirely around coin tosses, and the Deck will collapse in on you if you're unlucky. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dice_Re-Roll Dice Re-Roll]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Second_Coin_Toss Second Coin Toss]] can give you a second [[StealthPun chance]], but it's still not recommended to build a Deck around cards that rely on luck. The one exception is [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sixth_Sense Sixth Sense]], which can either result in you drawing an insane amount of cards or milling your own Deck, both results can be taken advantage of in the modern game as many Decks are Graveyard-reliant. In fact, Sixth Sense is considered a GameBreaker and was immediately Limited and then banned upon its introduction to the TCG in 2013, and in the OCG it has been banned since 2005.
* 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 affected by ''any'' Spell Cards, [[BlessedWithSuck including your own]].
* In an excellent example of PowerCreep, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Injection_Fairy_Lily Injection Fairy Lily]] has long since succumbed to this. Back in the days where tribute monsters ruled the game, this monster could instantly boost its attack by 3000 to kill any of them at a 2000 Life point cost, often more than worth it due to the resources they pooled into it. This made it limited and briefly banned in the early days of the game. Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to pump out gigantic beaters, and Lily's effect is too expensive to be worth using over those. The only time it's seen in the limelight since was its brief stint as [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman one of the few outs at the time]] to the infamous [[GameBreaker/YuGiOhCardGame Apoqliphort Towers]].

* The anime-only card, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ragnarok Ragnarok]]. The effect? If [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician Dark Magician,]] [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician_Girl Dark Magician Girl,]] [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Sage Dark Sage,]] or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magician_of_Black_Chaos Magician of Black Chaos]] (a minimum of 2 required) are on the field, all monsters on the enemy's side of the field can be banished. The cost? You have to banish ''every monster from your hand, deck, and graveyard''. The cost was probably only there for the undoubtedly [[RuleOfCool awesome]] visual effect: all of Yugi's monsters appear and swarm the enemy in order to banish it. There exists a real-life counterpart of it, Dark Burning Magic (which is based on the ''manga'' version of Ra's defeat), which completely removes the "lose all your other monsters" requirement, making it a quirky pick in Dark Magician decks that use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bond_Between_Teacher_and_Student Bond Between Teacher and Student]].
* For how impressive it sounds, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Huge_Revolution Huge Revolution]] certainly falls under this trope. If the conditions are correct, you can send your opponent's entire hand to the Graveyard and nuke their entire field, which should put them at a [[StealthPun huge]] disadvantage. But those conditions? Three weak, specific Normal Monsters with no relation to each other (they don't fall under an archetype that supports them) that have different Types, Attributes, and Levels, making searching for them all but impossible. Even if you somehow manage to pull it off, the combined original ATK of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/People_Running_About People Running About]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Oppressed_People Oppressed People]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/United_Resistance United Resistance]] (i.e. the three monsters needed to activate this card) is a mere 2000, and you're unlikely to have another monster to inflict further battle damage. If that wasn't enough, it is a Trap Card that can only be activated during your Main Phase, which completely goes against the point of it being a Trap Card (i.e. being able to be activated during either player's turn). ''And you still have to Set it and wait for your next turn before you can activate it''. Not to mention the revolution can easily be negated by every Counter Trap under the sun. It is almost completely impossible to build a Deck around this card, and it's not recommended to try.
** Similar 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 (i.e. monsters with bottom-of-the-barrel stats and 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 and most low-level Normal Monster support is based on spamming them out, 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 since low-level Tokens and Normal Monsters can rarely OTK through battle damage even with a full board of them. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Triangle_Power Triangle Power]] or in some cases [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shield_and_Sword Shield and Sword]] does make that part a little easier, but while filling the field with weak Normal Monsters isn't too insane, it's still very hard to search out Law of the Normal, often leaving you with a field of weak monsters and nothing to do with them.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Scorpion_Combination Dark Scorpion Combination]] when it goes off is pretty cool: it allows all your Dark Scorpions or Don Zaloog to attack the opponent directly, circumventing their low ATK values. While it reduces the damage they deal to the point that you'll only deal a maximum of 2000 damage, all the Dark Scorpions have effects that activate when they deal damage, meaning using it should set your opponent back pretty far in advantage (one card sent back to the hand, one back to the deck, one discarded, one Spell or Trap destroyed, one search for you). The problem? It can only be used while your field contains one of each of the five Dark Scorpions. Even with every bit of Dark/Warrior consistency boosting you can find and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mustering_of_the_Dark_Scorpions Mustering of the Dark Scorpions]], this is still almost impossible to pull off, since the Dark Scorpions are frail, low-power monsters that need to be able to inflict damage to do anything, one of whom is level 5--playing them as intended, that's ''seven'' specific cards in your starting hand. On top of that, it's a Normal Trap, which makes the effect even slower and easier to stop--so even with the aforementioned perfect hand, you still have to set it and wait a turn--while providing no gain whatsoever, since it's useless during the opponent's turn. The effect is harder to pull off than many instant-win conditions or any of the above nukes, and all for the sake of 2000 damage and triggering your Dark Scorpion effects. It's been observed that the effect would actually be pretty balanced if it was a Continuous effect that simply let them attack directly for reduced damage at any time; as it stands, it's one of the worst cards in the game.
* In the card game, we have [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Final_Destiny Final Destiny]], which destroys all cards on the field at the cost of 5 discards. Since the maximum hand size is 6 (barring the use of spells like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hieroglyph_Lithograph Hieroglyph Lithograph]] and [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Infinite_Cards Infinite Cards]]), playing Final Destiny leaves you with likely no hand and no field, giving you no way to take advantage of the freshly-cleared field. Not to mention, getting 5 cards in your hand to discard is a pretty tall order to begin with unless you drew Final Destiny in your opening hand.
** Pretty much everything that has already been said about Final Destiny can also be said about [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Guarded_Treasure Guarded Treasure]]. You discard 5 cards, subsequently drawing 2 cards and drawing 2 cards instead of 1 for your normal draw during your following Draw Phases if it's still on the field. Drawing cards is a key to success in the card game, but in addition to the problems mentioned above with Final Destiny, you have to wait for your following turns to get much use out of Guarded Treasure, and if your opponent has any competence whatever they'll be able to destroy it before the first one.
* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Vehicroid_-_Stealth_Union Super Vehicroid Stealth Union]], a CombiningMecha Fusion Monster with an effect that lets it attack all the opponent's monsters, deal damage even if the monsters are in Defense Mode, and reduce your opponent's monster count by one by equipping it... made of four specific monsters plus a card that lets you Fusion Summon, and ''halves its own ATK every time it attacks'' until it's done attacking. 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 banned [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Victory_Dragon Victory Dragon]], an extremely hard-to-summon monster with stats that, for those difficult conditions, are relatively unremarkable. If it somehow attacks directly for the win, wins the entire ''match''. Not just this game, but an entire set of "best of three" duels. However, there's no rule (at least not in the US ruleset) saying your opponent can't just [[StopHavingFunGuys forfeit the duel when you attack]], sparing him the match loss. And in nearly any tournament setting of the sort where matches are actually played, Victory Dragon is banned.

* The Dark Crisis booster pack brought quite a few of these in addition to Exodia Necross, an example being [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Berserk_Dragon Berserk Dragon]]. While it has 3500 Attack, it can only be Special Summoned with the Quickplay Spell Card [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/A_Deal_with_Dark_Ruler A Deal with Dark Ruler]] on a turn that one of your Level 8 monsters is sent to the Graveyard. It also gets to attack all monsters on your opponent's field once... but in addition, it loses 500 Attack at the end of each of your turns, which will quickly make it easy prey to anything tough your opponent has. However, this did see ladder use in ''Duel Links'' with [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Sacred_Phoenix_of_Nephthys Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys]] decks (albeit less consistent than a pure Nephthys deck), which provided an easy way to fulfill its summoning condition with [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_King_Island Fire King Island]] and synergized well with Nephthys's Spell and Trap clearing effect for a surprise extra 3500 ATK to finish the game.

* Considering its [[RuleOfCool really cool]]-looking effect in the [[Anime/YuGiOh anime]], [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gandora_the_Dragon_of_Destruction Gandora the Dragon of Destruction]] is considered this for four reasons. First of all, this card cannot be Special Summoned, which means that you will have to tribute two monsters on your field or use a double-tributer. Secondly, you will have to pay ''half'' of your LP to nuke the field except this card. Although it banishes the cards, there are plenty of cards that don't have anywhere near as bad of a cost. Thirdly, this card gains 300 ATK for each card destroyed this way. However, the ATK boost is not impressive unless there are lots of cards on the field beforehand. [[FourIsDeath Fourth, and lastly]], this card is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase of the turn it was Summoned.
** Gandora has an even more powerful version, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gandora_Giga_Rays_the_Dragon_of_Destruction Gandora Giga Rays the Dragon of Destruction]]. A NOMI monster (meaning you have to Special Summon it by its effect first) that hit the field for the "simple" cost of any 2 monsters in your hand and/or on the field. It instantly gains 300 ATK for every banished card, so in a dedicated build, it could swing as a beefy beatstick. But what makes it fit this category is its other effects. [[RuleOfThree By paying half of your Life Points]], you can do a variety of increasingly devastating effects... depending on how many Gandora cards with different names are in your Graveyard. For 1, you just nuke the field, for 2, you banish everything on the field, and if you have copies of OG Gandora, Gandora X, AND Gandora Giga Rays in your Graveyard, you get to banish EVERYTHING on the field AND in both player's Graveyards, meaning you most likely won't get a second chance to use that powerful of a nuke again that Duel. Plus, getting those monsters in the Grave will most likely telegraph to your opponent exactly what you're trying to do if they have any logical sense. Satisfying as hell, but not very reliable. It's even worse in the OCG, since you can only activate the "up to 2" effect because [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gandora-X_the_Dragon_of_Demolition Gandora X The Dragon of Demolition]] is ''banned'' thanks to the card inverting this trope and instead being an extremely reliable FTK tool in combination with the Crusadia cards and the Guardragons.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reign-Beaux%2C_Overlord_of_Dark_World Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World]]: He's the big daddy of the Dark World archetype (until they [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Grapha got a new big daddy]]), who gains effects when discarded by effects (but not costs) and gains ''better'' effects when discarded by an opponent's effect! This guy, however, needs to be discarded by an opponent's effect in order to do anything, and while there are ways to force an opponent's effect into letting you discard (such as with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Deal Dark Deal]]) they're way too inconsistent to rely on as a main tactic. But if you ''do'' manage to discard him by your opponent's effect, you get a monster with a respectable 2500 ATK AND you get to destroy all your opponent's monsters OR their spells and traps! However, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Goldd,_Wu-Lord_of_Dark_World Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World]] is only marginally less awesome but summons himself when discarded by your own effect, so he's one of the more practical cards in a Dark World deck.

* The Spell card [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reversal_Quiz Reversal Quiz]]: To use it, you have to discard your entire hand and get rid of every card you have on the field. Afterwards, you have to guess what the card on the top of your deck is (Monster, Trap, or Spell). If you guess correctly, you get to swap Life Points with your opponent. Whilst this seems like a decent enough payoff, if you fail to guess the card on top of your deck, you're essentially defenseless against your opponent (unless you've got more Life Points than them, which defeats the purpose of playing the card in the first place). If you do guess it correctly, you'll still have to hope that the very next card you pick up is a decent card which can defend you from your opponent, since they'll essentially get a free shot at you after you activate Reversal Quiz. If it isn't a decent card, then by the time you can get a decent enough defense up, your opponent will probably have whittled your Life Points down to what they were when you played the card. In short, it is virtually impossible to play Reversal Quiz and get out of a situation which only it could have solved/improved. The only use of this card is a [[https://yugipedia.com/index.php?title=Reversal_Quiz_OTK&oldid=5013359 really gimmicky OTK.]]
* Some of the Spirit Monsters from the Legacy of Darkness booster pack and such can be this. An example is the [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yamata_Dragon Yamata Dragon]], who packs 2600 Attack and upon inflicting battle damage, allows you to draw until you have five cards in your hand. There's also [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi]], which has 2800 Attack, and, if it does battle damage to the opponent, they have to discard their entire hand during their next draw phase before they draw. The problem is that both of them take two tributes. Now let's look at the main drawbacks of Spirit Monsters. First, they can't be Special Summoned in any way, so it's usually not worth it unless you build a deck around them. Second, they return to your hand at the end of the turn, so it can mean trouble if they're the only things you have on the field. There is the [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Spiritual_Energy_Settle_Machine Spiritual Energy Settle Machine]], which allows them to stay on the field, but you have to discard one card from your hand each turn to keep it on the field. And if that leaves the field at any time, the spirit monsters return to the hands, so it's not the easiest thing to maintain. However, later support cards for Spirit Monsters makes them easier to summon, and Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi's effect is potentially game-ending enough to promote it from this trope to [[DeathOrGloryAttack high-risk, high reward]].
* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ultimate_Obedient_Fiend Ultimate Obedient Fiend]]: 3500 attack and 3000 defense, and negates the effects of monsters it destroys... but in order for it to attack it has to be the only card on your side of the field, and you can't have any other cards in your hand.
* The Counter Trap card [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Judgment_of_Anubis Judgment of Anubis]] has a cool name and an awesome effect: you can negate a card, destroy a monster, and inflict damage equal to its attack points all at once. However, the negated card in question has to be very specific: a Spell card that destroys your Spell/Trap cards. In practice, it becomes essentially an anti-[[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heavy_Storm Heavy Storm]]/[[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mystical_Space_Typhoon Mystical Space Typhoon]] card similar to cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/White_Hole White Hole]] which are powerless against anything else and thus are most likely to just be a dead draw.
* [[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. However, though it is impractical as a defender, it was commonly used in burn decks since ramming into 2600 DEF still hurts a lot.
** Similarly, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Defender Destiny HERO - Defender]] has 2700 DEF and requires no Tributes to Normal Summon/Set, but woe betide you if it's in face-up Defense Position during your opponent's Standby Phase, as they'll be able to draw another card.
* Some of the Archfiend monsters, particularly the ones introduced in Dark Crisis, can be considered this. On one hand, they have a side effect that allows you to roll a die in response to your opponent's cards that target it, and if it ends up a certain number, you can negate the effect completely and destroy it. However, it comes at a rather large turnoff of a cost: they ''force'' you to pay between 500 and 900 Life Points (depending on the monster) during each of your Standby Phases whether you want to or not, unless you have less than the required amount (in which case the monster is destroyed), even if Skill Drain is active. You can remove this effect using the field card [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Pandemonium Pandemonium]], however.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Checkmate Checkmate]], their intended FinishingMove card, is particularly baffling: it allows Terrorking Archfiend to attack directly. While this certainly isn't ''terrible'', it's only 2000 damage, since Terrorking's effects are battle-destruction related. It also requires the sacrifice of another monster, which is a cost Archfiends aren't very good at paying. Mostly, the card is notable for [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot spending an awesome name]] on an effect that doesn't even come close to winning you the game. Sure, you can still boost Terrorking until it has respectable enough ATK, but by that point, you'd be better off boosting up a monster with native direct-attacking.
* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rocket_Arrow_Express Rocket Arrow Express]] has 5000 attack (one of only a handful of monsters that do) and just requires your field to be empty to special summon it from your hand. The problem is that its effect makes it so you can't conduct your battle phase the turn it's summoned, you can't activate any card effects or set anything while it's on the field, and it destroys itself unless you discard your entire hand each of your standby phases. All of this adds up to a monster that has extremely high attack but makes you into a sitting duck for your opponent when you summon it (unless the opponent happens to have a Skill Drain on the field, though even then, you still have to pay the maintenance cost). Even in the anime, reactions to summoning this thing were basically "what the hell?" However, it's NotCompletelyUseless, since you can still summon monsters, meaning pairing it with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Night_Express_Knight Night Express Knight]] and/or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mirror_Ladybug Mirror Ladybug]] means you're all set for a Rank 10 Xyz Summon (which is as hard as it sounds, by the way), but even then it's been replaced by more practical Rank 10 enablers like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heavy_Freight_Train_Derricrane Heavy Freight Train Derricrane]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Express_Bullet_Train Super Express Bullet Train]].

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Muka_Muka Muka Muka]] was a 600 ATK Level 2 Monster that gained 300 ATK and DEF for every card in your hand. This sounds like a good deal, since if you draw him on the first turn, you can get a Level 2 Monster with 2100 ATK... and his big brother, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Enraged_Muka_Muka Enraged Muka Muka]], costs a tribute but starts with 1200 and gains 400 for each, which would give him 3200 ATK in the same situation. So what's the problem? Well, he's completely useless in the mid-game, because by then both players probably have only one or two cards in their hand. Even if you draw him early, it's a better strategy to just play the cards in your hand instead of letting them sit there to power up Muka Muka. There are Decks that try to focus on drawing tons of cards to inflate Muka's strength, but let's be honest - if you have a whole Deck focused on drawing cards, it's a better idea to just run Exodia. Surprisingly, it actually ''was'' seen in some early tournaments, which ran a copy for use as a finisher, though this was more a testament to the power of an unlimited pre-errata [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sinister_Serpent Sinister Serpent]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Painful_Choice Painful Choice]] than anything.
* LV Monsters zigzag this. Their concept (protect a weak Monster and then Tribute it to summon an upgraded form) sounds like it'd be rife with this, but in practice, they vary quite a bit. The payoff for a LV line can be as devastating as the Spell-sealing [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Horus_the_Black_Flame_Dragon_LV8 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8]]... and then there's Dark Lucius and Allure Queen, who are terribly underwhelming. To level up Dark Lucius, you need to use his 1000-ATK [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV4 LV4 form]] to destroy an opponent's monster, then bring out his 1700-ATK [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV6 LV6 form]] and negate an opponent's monster's effect that activates when it's destroyed, and only then can you summon the respectable [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV8 LV8 form]] You are probably asking, "What if I try to start from the [=LV6=] form?" Then you're screwed; Lucius's higher forms only get their effects if summoned by a lower form, so starting from the [=LV6=] form leaves you with a weak card with no effect. (And no, they don't get their effects if you use Level Up, either.) You're probably also asking, "What if my opponent doesn't have a Monster with an effect that activates when destroyed?" Then you're screwed, because [=LV6=] can't activate its effect and level up. And Lucius is the ''stronger'' one. Allure Queen has the same drawback of its cards losing their effects if not Summoned by a lesser form's effect, but they add in the problem that they rely on the opponent having the right Monsters on the field. Furthermore, their effect (equip an opponent's monster onto themselves) is pretty much a watered-down version of Relinquished, a much older and easier-to-play card. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Allure_Queen_LV7 Allure Queen LV7]] has only 1500 ATK and no way to raise it, which makes it a sitting duck. At least if you couldn't jump through all the hoops, you could use Lucius [=LV8=] as an effect-less beatstick, but attempting to Normal Summon Allure Queen [=LV7=] is about as dumb as strategies get.

* Many 2000 ATK+ Level 4 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 (with a few standout exceptions like Goblin Attack Force and Berserk Gorilla). 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?
* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_30%3A_Acid_Golem_of_Destruction Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction]]. It boasts a good 3000 ATK - one of the highest among Rank 3 Xyz monsters- making it a very potent beatstick. However, it also prevents you from Special Summoning, forces you to detach one of its Xyz Material every turn or take a hefty amount of damage, and on top of that, it can't attack at all while it has no Xyz Material. As such, it's only really used for attacking in situations where it can end the game, when a player desperately needs to get over a high attack monster, or alongside a Skill Drain. This is because its ''[[LethalJokeCharacter real]]'' use, as implied in the anime, is to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc1Er8GhdQA use a card like Creature Swap or Mystic Box to give it to the opponent,]] tossing them a useless monster that shuts down their strategies and kills them in four turns.
* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Tellarknight_Ptolemaeus Tellarknight Ptolemaeus's]] effect to detach 7 materials to skip the opponent's turn, definitely fits this trope. As it is literally impossible to summon it with more than 6 materials (and in most cases, no more than 5), the fastest way you could possibly get to this is by exhausting pretty much all your resources to give it those 6 materials and hope it lives until your next turn, spending at least one Stellarknight card from your extra deck in the process. And, quite frankly, if you can manage to have 6 level 4 monsters on your field, you probably have far better options than waiting a turn to skip the opponent's turn after that (especially in a warrior deck like Tellarknights, where [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_86:_Heroic_Champion_-_Rhongomyniad Number 86: Heroic Champion - Rhongomyniad]] was an option to lock your opponent down hard enough that you're basically skipping their turns anyway). Thus, you'll probably never use or see this effect used in competitive duels with it legal.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raidraptor_-_Final_Fortress_Falcon Final Fortress Falcon]] is a rare Rank TWELVE Xyz which can be summoned by ranking up Ultimate Falcon. It has 300 more ATK and 800 more DEF, and if it has a Raidraptor monster as material, is unaffected by card effects. But instead of field suppression, Final Fortress is first and foremost an offensive attacker, letting you banish a Raidraptor from the Graveyard each time you kill a monster by battle to attack again, and letting you detach an Xyz Material to put all banished Raidraptors back in the Graveyard. Last Strix helps you get this monster out faster, but it is still ungainly and loses its immunities if its materials are detached, making Ultimate Falcon an overall better boss monster.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Converging_Wishes Converging Wishes]] Special Summons 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck if you have 5 or more Dragon-Type Synchro Monsters and equips it to Stardust Dragon. When equipped, it gains ATK equal to all the combined ATK of all Dragon-Type Synchro Monsters in your Graveyard. Also when it destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can banish 1 Dragon Synchro monster to make it attack again. This could easily result in a 10000+ ATK multiple attacker, but the cost of activating this card is utterly ridiculous.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zoodiac_Boarbow Zoodiac Boarbow]], which by default can attack the opponent directly, also has an effect that, if the conditions are met, forces the opponent to send all their cards on the field and in their hand to the graveyard if this card inflicts battle damage, an effect that will almost certainly win you the duel against most decks if successful (it swaps to defense afterwards, but it's moot by that point). But, said conditions are completely absurd, requiring having a minimum of 12 materials stacked beneath it. Sure, the archetype has ways of stacking Xyz on top of other Xyz multiple times a turn, but doing so requires, at minimum, waiting a turn after summoning this with at least one non-Xyz Zoodiac attached as a material or one Fire-Formation spell (since ATK points are necessary to trigger this effect in the first place), using few (if any) of the xyz monsters' effects, dedicating an absurd amount of extra deck space to individual Zoodiac xyz monsters, and finally, getting the chance to successfully attack and resolve the effect. If said attack fails, [[DeathOrGloryAttack all of the effort you put into it goes to waste]]. And, when the archetype as a whole has quickly become a major GameBreaker due to the effects of [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zoodiac_Ratpier Ratpier]], being able to Xyz summon using only one monster, and the rest of the archetype's Xyz monsters' far more practical effects (see [[GameBreaker/YuGiOhCardGame this page]] for more details), you begin to wonder why they bothered giving Boarbow such a horrendously impractical effect at all.
** This became especially ironic with the release of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Divine_Arsenal_AA-ZEUS_-_Sky_Thunder Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder]]. Summoning this monster requires you to have attacked with any Xyz Monster during that turn and that's it, and what you get out of it is a monster that can wipe the entire board for two materials at Spell Speed 2, while also not being Once Per Chain or Once Per Turn. The easiest way to meet this conditions is with a Direct Attacking Xyz Monster...like Zoodiac Boarbow. So instead of trying to throw caution to the wind to somehow trigger Boarbow's massive effect, it's far easier to just summon Boarbow early on top of any Zoodiac, swing for a pittance of damage and then in Main Phase 2 Xyz Change a bunch of times to summon a Zeus with an absurd amount of Materials which also happens to have an effect that is arguably better than Boarbow's alternate effect to begin with (Can't force the hand discard, but you get to do the board wipe at any point). Now the effect has gone from AwesomeButImpractical to just pointlessly redundant in the face of such a GameBreaker.
* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flower_Cardian Flower Cardians]], an archetype based on the game ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafuda Hanafuda]]'', have unparalleled drawing and deck-thinning capabilities, the ability to make dozens of summons in a single turn through both monster effects and summoning Spells [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Koi_Koi Super Koi Koi]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flower_Gathering Flower Gathering]], and multiple powerhouse Synchros, including [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flower_Cardian_Lightshower Lightshower]], who has 3000 ATK, protects all your Cardians from targeting and destruction, and does 1500 damage per turn, and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flower_Cardian_Lightflare Lightflare]], who has 5000 ATK, negates Spells and Traps and the effects of monsters it battles, and summons Lightshower for free when it dies. It'd be the most powerful Synchro archetype in the game, if not for one little problem: [[LuckBasedMission bricking.]] Flower Cardians have a grand total of ''two'' monsters that can be summoned without controlling any other cards, meaning that unless you get them or one of their summoning Spells in your opening hand, you're going to get [[AccidentalPun mulched]]. And to make matters worse, while they have many draw cards, the majority of them only work if the card you drew was another Cardian, and while they have easy spamming and Tuners, many of their effects limit you to summoning more Cardians. This leads to a deck that [[CripplingOverspecialization needs to be played pure]] to use its full potential, but doing so also makes the deck's weaknesses most evident.
** As if all of the above wasn't enough, Flower Cardians received a support card in 2020 that matches just how awesome but impractical the deck is as a whole: [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_All_In! Super All In!]], which allows you to return a Synchro monster you control to the Extra Deck to summon 4 Cardians from the graveyard, draw a card, and summon it if you drew a Cardian. Sounds great so far, but if you ''didn't'' draw one? You lose half your life points and blow up all the monsters you just summoned (and any others you control, but this would be one at most). In addition to this, the fact that Lightshower and Lightflare require four and ''five'' monsters to summon respectively means that at most, you really only break even on card advantage, and that's ''if'' you drew a monster off of the effect. However, Super All In! does at least let you get a Spell or Trap back from your graveyard at the end of your turn... but only if it was discarded by the effect of a Cardian monster.

* The [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Timelord 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.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sextet_Summon Sextet Summon]], requires you to banish SIX monsters with the same original Type but different monster card types (Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, Link) from your hand, GY, and/or face-up field, then Special Summon 1 monster with the same original Type as the banished monsters from your Deck or Extra Deck. The effect is decent, but nowhere ''near'' worth the absurdly steep cost, especially as it doesn't ignore summoning conditions, not to mention probably unnecessary as any halfway decent deck should be able to get its key monsters out at least somewhat consistently in the first place.

* 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 [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Steam_Train_King 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. 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.
* [[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 its extremely costly Summoning condition of five monsters, especially when the likes of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Borrelsword_Dragon Borrelsword Dragon]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Accesscode_Talker Accesscode Talker]] can be made for much less.
* [[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 to the extent that one draw can make the difference between victory and defeat, 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]]. That said, they were considered extremely useful back in the day, and were widely played; it's just that the modern game has become so hostile to Counter Traps that unless one is playing a mostly-Traps deck, it's hard to justify using anything but the best ones available.

* Even in a deck with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Insect_Queen Insect Queen]] in mind, it's pretty cumbersome to get some mileage out of her. For starters, she's level 7, meaning you need two Tributes to even get her on the field (or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Trojan_Horse The Trojan Horse]], which can count as two for an EARTH monster). Next, while she does gain 200 ATK for every Insect on the field[[note]] Including herself and your opponent's, for a whopping ''2000'' ATK boost[[/note]], she needs a Tribute in order to attack thus effectively giving her 200 ATK ''less'' than when she came onto the field in a best-case scenario. Sure, she summons a Token every time she attacks a monster, but you still need a Tribute in order for her to attack, and that Token only has a measly ''100 ATK[=/=]DEF''. [[FromBadToWorse And she summons it at the end of your turn]] '''''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck IN ATTACK MODE!]]''''' Unless you took necessary precautions, no points for guessing which monster becomes your opponent's target on their turn. There does exist [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metamorphosed_Insect_Queen Metamorphosed Insect Queen]], which rectifies Insect Queen's shortcomings on top of protecting your Insects from your opponent's card effects as long as there is at least one other Insect on the field and gaining another attack Tributes permitting. The only downsides to MIQ are that she doesn't get an ATK boost from Insects anymore and she needs to be summoned by a card effect, which can easily be done with cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cocoon_of_Ultra_Evolution Cocoon of Ultra Evolution]].
* The [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rank-Up-Magic Rank-Up-Magic]] cards are pretty useful, since they let you summon an Xyz Monster that's one or two Ranks higher than one you have on the field[[note]] or "Rank up", if you want to use shorthand[[/note]]. Plus, any Xyz Materials that were on the targeted monster get carried over to the summoned monster. While pretty much all of them do get flack for only being useful on certain archetypes or needing very specific conditions to use them, they also have some handy effects to make up for it, like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rank-Up-Magic_Barian%27s_Force stealing one of your opponent's Xyz Monster's materials]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rank-Up-Magic_Cipher_Ascension giving your Xyz Monster a boost]]... And then there's [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rank-Up-Magic_-_The_Seventh_One Rank-Up-Magic - The Seventh One]]. In order to use this card, you have to draw it on your normal Draw Phase, reveal it to your opponent, and then activate it at the start of your Main Phase 1 before doing anything else, basically telling them flat out what your next move is. And that happens to be using The Seventh One to use any of the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_10X Number 10X]] monsters to summon its respective Number C version. That means you will be blatantly telegraphing to your opponent that you'll be summoning a monster that will only be able to use its ability once, if it's lucky, although spitting out a free Chaos Number with a good statline is always a decent effect, and some of them [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C101:_Silent_Honor_DARK don't care about only having one material]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C107:_Neo_Galaxy-Eyes_Tachyon_Dragon only need to use their ability once to give you a big advantage]]. But that's assuming your opponent doesn't negate ''something'' along the way. That's not taking into account the very likely possibilities that you drew The Seventh One due to a card's effect or you drew it in your opening hand, making it a brick. And did we mention that you can only use The Seventh One ''once per Duel?''
* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Six_Shinobi The Six Shinobi]]. The awesome? It lets you skip your opponent's ''entire'' turn. They won't even be able to draw a card! The "but"? You need a certain number of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Six_Samurai Six Samurai]] monsters with different Attributes to use it. Steep, but somewhat doable. The impractical? You need six monsters for this to work. [[DoubleTake Wait, what?]][[note]] No, you can't cheat by equipping one of your monsters with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Six_Samurai Spirit of the Six Samurai]], since it won't count as a monster, meaning you need at least one of their Extra Deck monsters to pull this off. [[/note]] As [[WebVideo/Rank10YGO Rata]] puts it: "I feel like if you manage to get your board to this state, there won't ''be'' a next turn."

* [[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]].

* 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]].

* LV Monsters zigzag this. Their concept (protect a weak Monster and then Tribute it to summon an upgraded form) sounds like it'd be rife with this, but in practice, they vary quite a bit. And then there's Dark Lucius and Allure Queen, who are... this trope. To level up Dark Lucius, you need to use his 1000-ATK [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV4 LV4 form]] to destroy an opponent's monster, then bring out his 1700-ATK [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV6 LV6 form]] and negate an opponent's monster's effect that activates when it's destroyed, and only then can you summon the respectable [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV8 LV8 form]] You are probably asking, "What if I try to start from the [=LV6=] form?" Then you're screwed; Lucius's higher forms only get their effects if summoned by a lower form, so starting from the [=LV6=] form leaves you with a weak card with no effect. (And no, they don't get their effects if you use Level Up, either.) You're probably also asking, "What if my opponent doesn't have a Monster with an effect that activates when destroyed?" Then you're screwed, because [=LV6=] can't activate its effect and level up. And Lucius is the ''stronger'' one. Allure Queen has the same drawback of its cards losing their effects if not Summoned by a lesser form's effect, but they add in the problem that they rely on the opponent having the right Monsters on the field. Furthermore, their effect (equip an opponent's monster onto themselves) is pretty much a watered-down version of Relinquished, a much older and easier-to-play card. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Allure_Queen_LV7 Allure Queen LV7]] has only 1500 ATK and no way to raise it, which makes it a sitting duck. At least if you couldn't jump through all the hoops, you could use Lucius [=LV8=] as an effect-less beatstick, but attempting to Normal Summon Allure Queen [=LV7=] is about as dumb as strategies get.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyberdark_End_Dragon Cyberdark End Dragon]]. A 5000 ATK monster, unaffected by your opponent's activated effects, and can attack a number of times each Battle Phase, up to the number of Equip Cards equipped to it. Needless to say, it's tough to summon: It must either be Fusion Summoned by fusing 2 specific Fusion cards or Special Summoned by Tributing 1 Level 10 or lower "Cyberdark" Fusion Monster equipped with "Cyber End Dragon". Granted, the Cyberdark archetype has ways to dump the materials into the Graveyard directly from the Extra Deck and then fuse them from the GY, but there's still a chunk of setup required for this play.
** Its little brother, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyberdarkness_Dragon Cyberdarkness Dragon]], is no slouch either. It can equip any Dragon or Machine monster from your Graveyard to it on summon (gaining its ATK in the process), and has a non-once-per-turn effect to negate and destroy ''anything'' your opponent tries to play by simply ditching an Equip Card on your field. As for its Fusion Material? Five Cyberdark monsters. It's almost mandatory for the player to drain their Graveyard resources with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Overload_Fusion Overload Fusion]] to bring this thing out, since getting five of them in your hand and field is basically never going to happen, and by the time it comes down, your opponent might not care much about the negation since they're already done setting up their field.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_Catapult_Cannon Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon]] can easily erase the opponent's field, and prevent them from using almost anything. But to Summon it, you need to have Special Summoned both [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/VWXYZ-Dragon_Catapult_Cannon VWXYZ]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_LV7 Armed Dragon LV7]], which are boss monsters of distinct archetypes with no synergy. It's much more convenient to just devote your deck to one archetype.

* [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rocket_Arrow_Express Rocket Arrow Express]] has 5000 attack (one of only a handful of monsters that do) and just requires your field to be empty to special summon it from your hand. The problem is that its effect makes it so you can't conduct your battle phase the turn it's summoned, you can't activate any card effects or set anything while it's on the field, and it destroys itself unless you discard your entire hand each of your standby phases. All of this adds up to a monster that has extremely high attack but makes you into a sitting duck for your opponent when you summon it (unless the opponent happens to have a Skill Drain on the field, though even then, you still have to pay the maintenance cost). Even in the anime, reactions to summoning this thing were basically "what the hell?" However, it's NotCompletelyUseless, since you can still summon monsters, meaning pairing it with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Night_Express_Knight Night Express Knight]] and/or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mirror_Ladybug Mirror Ladybug]] means you're all set for a Rank 10 Xyz Summon (which is as hard as it sounds, by the way).

* [[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 ''every'' card effect, 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. You could circumvent this problem by using [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ecole_de_Zone Ecole de Zone]] to summon a Mask Token with high ATK and/or DEF due to LoopholeAbuse of the fact that certain Tokens count as Normal Monsters or even a monster like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Charcoal_Inpachi Charcoal Inpachi]] to give yourself a chance, but it's a slim one since ten turns is still too long to awaken this sleeping giant.

* The Spell card [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reversal_Quiz Reversal Quiz]]: To use it, you have to discard your entire hand and get rid of every card you have on the field. Afterwards, you have to guess what the card on the top of your deck is (Monster, Trap, or Spell). If you guess correctly, you get to swap Life Points with your opponent. Whilst this seems like a decent enough payoff, if you fail to guess the card on top of your deck, you're essentially defenseless against your opponent (unless you've got more Life Points than them, which defeats the purpose of playing the card in the first place). If you do guess it correctly, you'll still have to hope that the very next card you pick up is a decent card which can defend you from your opponent, since they'll essentially get a free shot at you after you activate Reversal Quiz. If it isn't a decent card, then by the time you can get a decent enough defense up, your opponent will probably have whittled your Life Points down to what they were when you played the card. In short, it is virtually impossible to play Reversal Quiz and get out of a situation which only it could have solved/improved. The only use of this card is a [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reversal_Quiz_OTK really gimmicky OTK.]]

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Wicked_Eraser The Wicked Eraser]] is particularly flawed. 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 x1000, which means if your opponent controls only one monster with 1100 ATK or more, he's done. When [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Metaltron_XII,_the_True_Dracombatant Metaltron XII, the True Dracombatant]], far easier to summon and has better effects then the God cards, you know this is Awesome but Impractial.

* Cards that can only be used once per Duel are this by default. Cards like [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bacon_Saver Bacon Saver]] or [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Speedroid_Dupligate]] have some handy effects that would be utterly broken in casual and competitive play... if you had a means of recycling their effects in a single Duel.