History Main / LethalJokeCharacter

* You can capture humans in ''VideoGame/{{Palworld}}'' just like the eponymous [[{{mons}} Pals]]. Capturing a human yields a JokeCharacter with terrible work suitability, no Pal skills, poor stats and a weak, nonreplacable punch as their sole attack. This still applies if you capture a [[EliteMook Syndicate Elite]], they'll still have the same flaws, but due to a quirk in how damage is calculated, their punch attack ''deals as much damage as a rocket launcher''.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - once their capital is placed they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. With a decent start position and proper planning, they are among the most powerful civs in the game. They get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry a lot of favor with city-states or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty, giving themselves more resources while denying their competition the same. Being limited to one city also makes some otherwise difficult wonders (like the National Intelligence Agency) much easier to acquire. By the middle of the game you'll be raking in more than enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states will quickly let you work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - once their capital is placed they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are among the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry a lot of favor with city-states or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty, giving themselves more resources while denying their competition the same. Being limited to one city also makes some otherwise difficult wonders (like the National Intelligence Agency) much easier to acquire. Before long you'll be raking in more than enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldandSilver Pichu]] is truly a pretty bad character -- It's extremely light, a large number of its moves do recoil to it, and its attacks don't have much range or do much damage. On top of that, it's a clone of Pikachu, who, while not top tier, does basically everything Pichu can do much better. What else would be expected of a baby Pokémon? ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' is a different story, though. Pichu is still the lightest character the game, still has bad range, and still damages itself, now with even more moves giving recoil. However, the recoil doesn't do as much damage, Pichu's mobility and recovery have improved, and a lot of its attacks are quite powerful. Combine that with the rage mechanic -- which makes a character stronger the more damage they take -- and Pichu's biggest weakness is at least partially converted into a strength. It was, on the whole, re-worked from a JokeCharacter into a GlassCannon. It helps that Pikachu is a whole lot better in ''Ultimate'' than ''Melee''.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - once their capital is placed they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are among the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry a lot of favor with city-states or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty, giving themselves more resources while denying their competition the same. Being limited to one city also makes some otherwise difficult world wonders (like the National Intelligence Agency) much easier to acquire. Before long you'll be raking in more than enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - once their capital is placed they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are along the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry a lot of favor with city-states or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty, giving themselves more resources while denying their competition the same. Before long you'll be raking in more than enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are along the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry a lot of favor with city-states or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty, giving themselves more resources while denying their competition the same. Before long you'll be raking in enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are along the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry favor with city-states, or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty. Before long you'll be raking in enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* Venice in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}V'' was upgraded from a lowly city-state to a full-fledged civilization in the Brave New World expansion, and at a glance they seem severely outclassed - they cannot settle new cities (ever!) or even annex captured ones, and their unique naval unit (the Great Galleass) is only marginally better than the standard version. Used properly however, they are along the most powerful civs in the game - they get twice as many trade routes as any other civ and earn a unique replacement for Great Merchants that let them quickly curry favor with city-states, or even turn them into puppet states without that nasty warmonger penalty. Before long you'll be raking in enough revenue to purchase whatever upgrades or military units you may need, and securing enough delegate votes from friendly city-states to work your way to a diplomatic victory.

* You can capture humans in ''VideoGame/{{Palworld}}" just like the eponymous [[{{mons}} Pals]]. Capturing a human yields a JokeCharacter with terrible work suitability, poor stats and a weak, nonreplacable punch as their sole attack. This still applies if you capture a [[EliteMook Syndicate Elite]], they'll still have the same flaws, but due to a quirk in how damage is calculated, their punch attack ''deals as much damage as a rocket launcher''.

** There's [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198364 Bazaar Trader,]] who does the same thing as Donate with an added utility you'd never think of: you can target yourself with his ability. Red has a lot of cards that take control of an enemy's creatures for just one turn, but if you give those temporarily stolen cards to yourself with Bazaar Trader, the permanent effect overrides the temporary one and you get to keep the creature until the end of the game.
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ornithopter Ornithopter]] looks mostly harmless: A flying 0/2 is pretty useless. The 'thopter's real value for combos is that it has zero cost -- and you won't necessarily be using it for ''attacking''. Hint: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Enduring%20Renewal Enduring Renewal.]] In addition, it fuels cards like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arcbound%20Ravager Arcbound Ravager]] and other components of the Affinity / Robots decks, including [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cranial%20Plating Cranial Plating,]] which made it into a lethal evasive attacker. It can also be used to sneak in stuff using [[http://magiccards.info/bok/en/88.html ninjutsu.]] Amusingly, old versions of the rulebook (printed before any of those other cards existed) ended with an italicized notice: "Our condolences to anyone who has been killed by an Ornithopter." Ornithopter's status as one of Magic's most infamous Lethal Joke Characters earned it a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425813 spot in the Masterpiece Series: Kaladesh Inventions,]] a set of foil reprints at Mythic rarity featuring some of the most popular and powerful artifacts in Magic's history. Its FlavorText [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall even lampshades]] how unassumingly dangerous it can be.

** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=146022 Painter's Servant]] was a JunkRare that changed the color of every card in play and each player's deck. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Grindstone Grindstone]] was a similar Junk Rare that makes a player put the top two cards of their library into their graveyard and can repeat its effect, but only if the two cards share a color. Seeing as most competitive decks are two or three colors to avoid either CripplingOverSpecialization or MasterOfNone and lands, which make up about a third of most decks, are classed as colorless, the extra cards were rarely achieved. Players put two and two together and built a deck that could win on turn 3.
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Norin%20the%20Wary Norin the Wary]] is a joke cowardly character; his "ability" is that he runs away any time any player casts a spell or attacks, which translates to never accomplishing anything on his own. So naturally, someone eventually managed to go undefeated in a Modern tournament using [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140313114228/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/6569297 a deck]] where nearly every other creature comboed with him in some way.
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397682 Tarmogoyf]] was initially meant to be an EarlyBirdCameo for the Tribal and Planeswalker cards that would appear in ''Lorwyn''. And in the Standard environment it was legal in, it didn't make any waves, leading to players dismissing it as yet another JunkRare. However, in Extended and Modern, the 'Goyf's ability to tank some of the best and cheapest removal spells available -- such as Red's classic burn spell [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=442130 Lightning Bolt]] -- and its ability to come down as a big creature for the low price of 2 mana would make it a format staple and one of the most expensive and sought-after cards in ''Magic'', to the point where Wizards has reprinted it twice at Mythic Rare to satisfy demand.
** [[https://scryfall.com/card/frf/72/gurmag-angler Gurmag Angler]] from ''Fate Reforged'', at first glance, looks like Limited fodder. Even its "Delve" ability, which lets the player exile cards from their graveyard to pay for its cost, doesn't do much when it's a 5/5 creature for 7 mana with no means of evasion or special abilities. However, put it in formats like Modern or Legacy, where decks can rack up a fair number of cards in their graveyard just by playing, and it shows its true power. In decks that get tons of cards into their graveyard, like Delver or Hollow One, the Angler is a 5/5 that dodges most removal and can be played for as little as 2 or 3 mana.
** Several unlikely creatures have had successful decks of gimmicks built around them in the Commander format. For instance, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=559847 Squee, the Immortal]] comes off as pretty underwhelming, but the ability to be cast from Graveyard or Exile means never having to pay the increasing cost for losing one's commander, making repeated sacrifice strategies that much more viable. (And if your opponents do try to bury him in the deck, he can just be sent to the Command Zone in the process anyway.)

** Durant, the source of the [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_%28TCG%29 Durant Mill]]. The most Durant can deal is a pathetic 20 damage in an era where 100 damage or more is commonplace, and with only 70 HP, has less than half of the main attackers in the majority of popular tournament decks. Its potential, however, lies in its attack that doesn't deal damage: For each Durant the player has in play, "Devour" makes the opponent discard cards from the top of his or her deck. As there can be up to 4 Durants in play at a time, the opponent must discard up to 4 cards for each "Devour." Combine this with the card drawn at the beginning of each turn and search cards that burn through decks like [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Professor_Juniper_%28Black_%26_White_101%29 Professor Juniper]], and the Durant Mill became the only deck to see wide tournament play in the card game's entire history to create wins through depletion of the opponent's deck rather than knocking out Pokémon. Considering that Durant is ranked as Uncommon, the second-lowest rarity in the game, odds are the card designers didn't realize Durant's potential either. Durant became such a problem that a [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heatmor_%28Dark_Explorers_19%29 Heatmor]] card was produced specifically to eliminate Durant Mill decks. [[spoiler:It didn't work.]]

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Omastar_(Majestic_Dawn_26) The Omastar released in the Majestic Dawn set]], when put into play, would take all of the opponent's evolved Pokémon on their Bench and devolve them by one stage, with the evolutions returning to their hands. On paper, this isn't really that powerful, since it doesn't deal with the opponent's Active Pokémon, and they can just evolve them back the next turn. This Omastar started seeing wide tournament play, however, with [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Empoleon_(Platinum_26) Empoleon from the Platinum set]], whose "Jet Smash" attack deals 70 damage to any of the opponent's Pokémon. While Empoleon cannot use "Jet Smash" on consecutive turns, nearly all not-fully-evolved Pokémon at that point had 70 HP or less, providing the player with the ability to KO almost anything they wanted. This was particularly valuable if there was a Pokémon on the opponent's Bench providing useful passive abilities, since, of course, knocking them out would also shut them down.

** Similar to Exeggcute, the earliest sets had [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Tentacool_(Fossil_56) Tentacool]] from Fossil, who has a measly 30 HP and an attack for 10 damage for 1 Water Energy. Its value is its Ability, "Cowardice," which allows you to return Tentacool back to your hand at any time during your turn before you attack. This means any attack or Ability that requires one of your other Pokémon take damage, as long as it's 20 or less, can use Tentacool as the damage recipient, after which you return Tentacool to your hand and put it back in play, good as new. This pairs exceptionally well with [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Alakazam_(Base_Set_1) Alakazam]]'s Ability "Damage Swap," which let you move damage from one of your Pokémon to another as you please. As your Active Pokémon takes damage, use Alakazam's "Damage Swap" to place up to 20 damage onto each Tentacool, then use "Cowardice" to effectively remove that damage from existence; and with [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mr._Mime_(Jungle_6) Mr. Mime]] from Jungle, as Mr. Mime's Ability, "Invisible Wall," blocks all damage unless it's 20 or less. A deck with Mr. Mime, Alakazam, and Tentacool all together at once is effectively invincible.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Cat Rescue Cat]] might be the most famous example. When it was created, most players dismissed it as a ComMon with horrendous stats and a third-rate effect, and though it had some good runs in certain Beast decks, it was broadly only considered notable for its absurdly cute looks. Come Synchro Monsters and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/X-Saber_Airbellum X-Saber Airbellum]] in particular, and Rescue Cat jumped from cutesy ComMon to GameBreaker overnight. Its effect? Tribute it to summon two low-level Beasts, which are destroyed at the end of the turn. That's an instant Level 6 Synchro (and later, Rank 3 Xyz), right off the bat, just by itself, on a monster weak enough to be searched by dozens of effects. It's even [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Hamster spawned a]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Ferret series of]] RidiculouslyCuteCritter monsters with similar effects, one of which ([[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Rabbit Rescue Rabbit]]) had its own tournament-winning deck and remains a staple in Normal Monster-focused decks.
** The anime, and some of the video games, featured the Ancient Treasure cards: [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Crystal_Skull Crystal Skull]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ashoka_Pillar Ashoka Pillar]], and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cabrera_Stone Cabrera Stone]]. They all have 0 ATK, all except Ashoka Pillar have 0 DEF, and they deal damage to you when they're Summoned or destroyed. The trick is that the damage they deal is pretty damn high, and if you have the right cards, such as [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Barrel_Behind_the_Door Barrel Behind the Door]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Spell_of_Pain Spell of Pain]], you can easily redirect it to your opponent. If you get all three out, you can activate [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Triangle_O Triangle -- O]], which destroys all cards on the field and redirects the damage to the opponent, most likely taking a massive bite out of your opponent's LP.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gift_Card Gift Card]] increases your opponent's LP by 3000, which sounds like an extremely counterproductive idea... if not for cards like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Darklord_Nurse_Reficule Darklord Nurse Reficule]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bad_Reaction_to_Simochi Bad Reaction to Simochi]], which reverse all LP gain for your opponent into damage. Three Gift Cards in combination with Reficule or Simochi can take down the opponent in one turn.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mind_Control Mind Control]] is probably the closest counterpart to Lion's Eye Diamond. It was a "balanced" (read: useless) version of the incredibly strong [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Change_of_Heart Change of Heart]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Brain_Control Brain Control]]: it let you steal an opponent's monster for a turn, but since you couldn't attack with it or Tribute it (the things you want to do with a stolen card), this was pretty meaningless. But then Synchro Summon was added to the game, which let you use the stolen monster in a way that didn't count as Tributing -- steal an opponent's card, play a Tuner, and Tune them. Your opponent lost a card, you got material for a strong card. Mind Control spent a long time being limited to one.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kuriboh Kuriboh]] was this in the original series, to the point that Kaiba was actually shocked when he realized that someone used it. As it turned out, the Kuriboh's notoriously low stats also made it a perfect target for [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Multiply Multiply]], a combo that Yugi won multiple games with. One tiny fuzzball isn't much -- an infinitely-replicating horde of tiny fuzzballs is another thing entirely. The real card also counts; its effect is a proto-Swift Scarecrow, it can be instantly searched with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Flute_of_Summoning_Kuriboh The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh]], and the Multiply combo does exist in real life. Add [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Detonate Detonate]], and watch five of your opponent's cards die.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Winged_Kuriboh Winged Kuriboh]]. If destroyed in battle, you are safe from any further battle damage for the turn, and can be Special Summoned with The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh... and it comes with a much more powerful upgrade, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Winged_Kuriboh_LV10 Winged Kuriboh [=LV10=]]], which is much more lethal. [=LV10=] requires [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Transcendent_Wings Transcendent Wings]] has the same stats as Winged Kuriboh (let's be fair, you don't summon Winged Kuriboh [=LV10=] for its raw brute-force), but comes with a highly powerful effect: During your opponent's battle phase, you can tribute it to destroy all their face-up attack position monsters and inflict damage equal to the combined ATK of all destroyed monsters. This basically makes it a much more powerful (albeit slightly harder-to-play) version of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mirror_Force Mirror Force]]. Combine that with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Battle_Mania Battle Mania]], a trap that forces your opponent's monsters into attack position and makes your opponent unable to skip their battle phase, and chances are pretty big that you can defeat your opponent during their own turn.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_30:_Acid_Golem_of_Destruction Number 30 -- Acid Golem of Destruction]] appears to be the embodiment of AwesomeButImpractical at first glance. It has very good stats for a Rank 3, but it blocks off all your own Special Summons, it requires you to detach an Xyz material each turn or take 2000 damage, and once it's out of materials, it can't attack, so its stats are meaningless. So play [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Creature_Swap Creature Swap]] and give it to your opponent, meaning now ''they'' have a useless monster that shuts down their strategies and kills them in four turns. You can even use [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bahamut_Shark Bahamut Shark]] to bring out a material-less Acid Golem right off the bat, ready to make your opponent suffer.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Duston The Dustons]] are an {{Expy}} of the Ojamas, and work pretty similarly. They all have 0/0 stats, can't be Tributed or used for most types of Extra Deck summoning, and when they're destroyed, their controller suffers a detrimental effect. They sound completely useless, but this comes together with the card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/House_Duston House Duston]], which summons a bunch of Dustons to both players' sides of the field when destroyed. This means you can instantly flood your opponent's board with useless monsters, and when you add in [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Goblin_King Goblin King]] (which gains 1000 ATK for every Fiend in play) or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Starduston Starduston]] (which gains 1000 for every Duston sent to summon it), it can follow up with a OneHitKill. Unfortunately, they've since been hit ''hard'' by PowerCreep, as your opponent can use Dustons for Link Summons, turning them into a more straight JokeCharacter.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Jam_Breeding_Machine Jam Breeding Machine]] was widely seen as one of the worst cards in the game on release. All it did was spit out extremely weak [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Slime_Token Slime Tokens]] once per turn, at the cost of also blocking off summons of anything but Slime Tokens. However, much later, hefty ATK-boosting cards [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wetlands Wetlands]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Token_Stampede Token Stampede]] were released, and Slime Tokens are among the few things that can benefit from both, turning them from 500-ATK liabilities to 2700+ indestructible powerhouses. It's a long way from effective in competitive play, but against more casual opponents, beating down your opponent with a Slime Token is well worth it.
** At first glance, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gale_Dogra Gale Dogra]] seems like one of the worst cards ever made. For the price of terrible stats and a colossal 3000 LP, it lets you send a monster from your Extra Deck to your Graveyard, and due to the rules on Extra Deck summons, monsters sent this way cannot be revived. The thing is, there are a surprising number of Extra Deck cards that activate when being sent to the Graveyard by any means--in particular, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Herald_of_the_Arc_Light Herald of the Arc Light]] to search Ritual Monsters, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elder_Entity_N%27tss Elder Entity N'tss]] to destroy any card, and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/PSY-Framelord_Omega PSY-Framelord Omega]] to recycle any of your cards. And since there are no more limitations on the effect than the LP cost (which can be resolved by [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reprodocus Reprodocus]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Telekinetic_Charging_Cell Telekinetic Charging Cell]]), you can use its effect any number of times per turn. The result is that Gale Dogra's most widespread use in the modern game is using it for ''first-turn kill'' strategies, creating loops through the effects of the above cards that potentially let the player draw every card in their deck and burn all the opponent's LP.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Winged_Dragon_of_Ra_-_Sphere_Mode The Winged Dragon of Ra -- Sphere Mode]] was initially written off when it came out as it is essentially a dud card that requires three Tributes from either side of the field to summon to that side of the field, does nothing when it comes out, and its only "useful" effect is to Special Summon "The Winged Dragon of Ra" with 4000 ATK/DEF from the hand or Deck, which, combined with the Egyptian God cards being a notoriously mediocre archetype, you'd have a hard time justifying running even with Sphere Mode as an alternative summoning option. However, Tributing from your opponent's side of the field is an ''extremely'' powerful non-targeting removal option as very few cards can actually stop a Tribute Summon; combined with the modern metagame of using massive combos to build huge boards designed to mow down your opponent and use layers of removal protection effects to prevent your opponent from getting through it, being able to just pitch three of your opponent's monsters without them being able to do anything about it and leaving them with a dud that is nigh-unusable unless they happen to run Ra can single-handedly break entire strategies, causing Sphere Mode to be a powerful situational Side Deck option.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was basically an attempt to make a "balanced" version of banned-for-decades card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Forceful_Sentry The Forceful Sentry]], and spent most of its history as a punchline. Sure, you get to look at the opponent's hand, but so do they, and though it does banish a card of your choice, that card only stays gone until the end of the opponent's turn. In the slower formats of the time, this was essentially giving up one of your cards permanently along a quarter of your starting Life Points just to get rid of one opponent's card for a single turn. However, as the game got faster, Appointer went through a kind of inverse PowerCreep--duels getting shorter meant that Appointer worked incredibly well as a counter to individual "board breaker" cards like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Ruler_No_More Dark Ruler No More]]. Sure, the opponent would get their card back for their next turn, but in a situation where you would want to use Dark Ruler No More but you can't, there typically won't ''be'' a next turn. This is before accounting for the added info that comes from seeing the opposing hand. Due to this, Appointer was ultimately banned in the TCG.

* ''Act Cadenza Strife'', a fanmade game based on the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'', gives you the Kakashi Scarecrow, the training dummy from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. Its one attack is a slow and pathetic-looking strike... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZgkX3FtgY that shaves off about a quarter of the opponent's health bar.]]

** ''Tekken 6'' has Roger Jr., the kickboxing kangaroo, fighting inside his mother's pouch. Like his dad, he's both utterly ridiculous and thought by many to be a top-tier character.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Yellow The]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Green Ojama]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Black Brothers]] are a trio of low-level Normal Monsters with goofy looks and zero attack points, which, naturally, makes them useless. That was, until Konami released a number of Support Cards for them, starting with [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Delta_Hurricane!! a Spell Card]] that wipes your opponent's field for free if you have all three out, and also including [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_King a pair]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Knight of fusions]] that lock down your opponent's ability to summon their own monsters, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Blue a couple]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Red of "Cousins"]] that can help search and bring them out, and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojamuscle a number]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojamagic of spells]] which boost their attack (Including [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Country their own Field Spell]]) as well as search and summon them. Another [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojamassimilation Ojama support card]], in a CallBack to ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', focuses on supporting [[ComboPlatterPowers LIGHT-type Machine Unions, of all things]]. This is gimmicky but surprisingly effective when played with the outdated VWXYZ cards... and downright ridiculous when played with the tournament-winning ABC cards.
** There's also four cards based off of VideoGame/{{Parodius}}, resembling four plastic men riding paper airplanes. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Soitsu Two of]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Aitsu them are]] Normal Monsters with almost no attack or defense, but [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Doitsu the other]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koitsu two are]] Union Monsters (monsters that can turn themselves into Equip cards) and when unioned to the others, make them ''impressively'' powerful.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skull_Servant Skull Servant]]. This guy is well known as being among the weakest monsters in the game with no effect, low stats, and no support. Various aspects of the game treat them as the ButtMonkey... Until the release of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/King_of_the_Skull_Servants King of the Skull Servants]], a creature that gains 1000 attack points for every Skull Servant in your graveyard, as well as every King of the SS. Still sounds pretty tame given that you can only have up to three of each, so King caps at 5000... until they received [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wight a whole series of cards]] based around them, ''all of which'' count as Skull Servant in the Graveyard, turning King of the Skull Servants into a horrifically powerful beatstick that can comfortably reach five-digit ATK values and caps at over '''20000''' ATK, enough to comfortably OneHitKill the opponent twice over.
** Similarly, there's [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mokey_Mokey Mokey Mokey]]. A 300/100 fairy with no effects. But its flavor text says "Sometimes he gets mad [[AndThatsTerrible and that is dreadful]]," and its support cards show just how dreadful it can be -- three Mokey Mokeys can be fused to create [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mokey_Mokey_King Mokey Mokey King]], which despite having the same low stats allows you to summon as many Mokey Mokeys as you have in your graveyard when it leaves the field (destroyed, returned to the deck, etc.), and the spell card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mokey_Mokey_Smackdown Mokey Mokey Smackdown]] increases Mokey Mokey's attack to ''3000'' for 1 turn if a fairy type monster you control is destroyed. The official ruling is that if a Mokey Mokey is summoned after the effect is activated, it gets the effect too. Chain all three together and you probably get very close to beating your opponent in 1 round.
** Low-level Normal Monsters in general qualify. Low stats? You bet. No effects? Comes with the territory. But they are ''fast.'' Cards like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Common_Charity Common Charity]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/White_Elephant%27s_Gift White Elephant's Gift]], and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heart_of_the_Underdog Heart of the Underdog]] give them a surprising amount of draw power, while [[WeHaveReserves Human-Wave]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Human-Wave_Tactics Tactics]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_League_of_Uniform_Nomenclature The League of Uniform Nomenclature]], and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Enchanting_Fitting_Room Enchanting Fitting Room]] make filling the field with them easy. Level 1 Monsters are favored thanks to a little card called [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Triangle_Power Triangle Power]], which boosts their ATK and DEF by 2000 at the cost of destroying them later... which slots in well with ace card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Law_of_the_Normal The Law of the Normal]]. Law can only be played when you have five Level 2 or lower Normals, but it destroys all cards on the field and in both player's hands except those Normals. Play Triangle Power, then Law, and your opponent will be facing down a combined total of over 10,000 ATK with nothing to defend themselves. A variation of this is a trio of cards: [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Oppressed_People Oppressed People]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/People_Running_About People Running About]], and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/United_Resistance United Resistance]]. All three are weak, effect-less, and common... but they have a personal Trap, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Huge_Revolution Huge Revolution]], that can only be used when all three are together. It nukes your opponent's entire hand and field.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skull_Servant Skull Servants]]. These are well known as being among the weakest monsters in the game with no effect, low stats, and no support. Various aspects of the game treat them as the ButtMonkey... Until the release of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/King_of_the_Skull_Servants King of the Skull Servants]], a creature that gains 1000 attack points for every Skull Servant in your graveyard, as well as every King of the SS. After that there was [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Lady_in_Wight Lady in Wight]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wightmare Wightmare]], who both are treated as Skull Servant while in the graveyard. This means that with all of these cards in the grave, King can easily become a monster with ''11000'' attack points. To put this in perspective, This is over twice as much as the highest attack in the game. Later releases raise the ante with the addition of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wightprince Wightprince]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wightprincess Wightprincess]], buffing King's potential max ATK to '''17000'''.

* In ''VideoGame/SNKGalsFighters'' (a.k.a. ''[[Franchise/TheKingOfFighters The Queen of Fighters]]'') for the Platform/NeoGeoPocket, you can unlock Kyo Kusanagi's ''non''-martial artist girlfriend, Yuki. She looks like a defenseless schoolgirl, and she's often surprised whenever she wins, but her attacks can be deadly. She can fight by swinging her school bag around, advancing from one end of the screen to the other. She screams out a BigNo to stop air attacks cold. And best (or worst, depending on your point of view) of all, she has a 12-hit slap move that is dangerous all by itself, but can be easily chained to her scrambling super attack for up to 33 hits, the highest in the game!

* In ''VideoGame/SNKGalsFighters'' (a.k.a. ''[[Franchise/TheKingOfFighters The Queen of Fighters]]'') for the UsefulNotes/NeoGeoPocket, you can unlock Kyo Kusanagi's ''non''-martial artist girlfriend, Yuki. She looks like a defenseless schoolgirl, and she's often surprised whenever she wins, but her attacks can be deadly. She can fight by swinging her school bag around, advancing from one end of the screen to the other. She screams out a BigNo to stop air attacks cold. And best (or worst, depending on your point of view) of all, she has a 12-hit slap move that is dangerous all by itself, but can be easily chained to her scrambling super attack for up to 33 hits, the highest in the game!

** In the [[UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance GBA]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]] versions, he learns new Songs naturally; and his Regenerative song, Life's Anthem, will easily handle healing duties during any boss battle. The {{Bonus Dungeon}}s are the best thing to happen to Edward, thanks to new equipment. An upgrade to Bardsong (Chant) casts full-party Protect and Shell. Due to the game's poorly thought-out stat gains, you will see Edward gain a ''lot'' of health at Lv. 70, plus he has ''the highest base strength in the game'' at that level. He is so fast, it looks like he has auto-Haste, and Apollo's Harp hits most dragons and undead enemies in the final dungeon for 9,999 damage if he's in the front row. Guess he is just a late bloomer.

* From a natural selection point of view, Humanity in general is MotherNature's best case of this trope: Far worse senses than many other species, far weaker physical "stats", absolutely worse survival instincts, poor resistance to pain, no natural weapons and contrary to what the H.F.Y. meme thinks, we aren't in fact, "the most dangerous and bloodthristy motherf_____s in the jungle", yet we are {{ScarilyCompetentTracker}}s and {{SuperPersistentPredator}}s, we have hands, which are excelent manipulators, and we have [[OutsideContextProblem Science and Technology]], our very own RealLife DifficultButAwesome GameBreaker.

** Huggy Bear is pretty slow, has difficulty turning, and it cannot inflict any direct damage. What it DOES have going for it, however, is that it's one of the flattest bots in the middleweight division, meaning enemy attacks go either right over it or just barely graze it, and it has a unique tool, a sliding bar that travels across the middle of its H-shaped frame. True to its name, this bar is meant to trap opponents by hugging them, and once caught, it is very difficult to escape from, during which Huggy Bear will carry its opponent to a [[DropTheHammer Pulverizer hammer]] or [[SpectacularSpinning the Killsaws]] on the stage and stack up damage while the opponent cannot do anything. It is also very hard to flank: Its operator will bring it to the center of the arena, then have it sit there always facing the opponent waiting for them to approach, allowing it to overcome faster, more maneuverable opponents like Sabotage.

** When you see Chomp out in the [=BattleBox=], wildly swinging its [[DropTheHammer pointed hammer]] around and tipping itself on its side again and again, losing most of its matches, you may think it's a bunch of useless garbage. Said "useless garbage," however, defeated the reigning champion Bite Force, doing so by pecking into a tiny hole, with ludicrous precision, that broke Bite Force's weapon and messed with its movement. So far, Chomp remains the only robot to have won against Bite Force.

* "Chicken" George Boswell from the first All-Star season of ''Series/BigBrotherUS''. He was the only houseguest to come from the inaugural season, which had a completely different format much closer to [[Series/BigBrotherUK the British version]], and the other competitors wrote him off as a total non-factor. Then in week 3, he was nominated for eviction, and this seemed to awaken a new competitive fire in him... culminating in the week's veto competition, where he agreed to eat nothing but slop ''for the rest of the game'' to get himself off the block. That turned out to be 40 days in all, as George was evicted in 5th place.

* ''[[TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower]]'' has the Squig Herder who's a runty goblin with a mushroom growing out of his back and can summon up to 2 Squigs, pink chubby, toothy balls with legs. However, the Herder is wearing a surprisingly intimidating set of [[SpikesOfVillainy spiked plate armor]] and is carrying a rather nasty-looking Squig Fork - these are signs he's likely not going to be a pushover. And when he's actually put in battle, he's one of the best characters in the game. His fork weapons have a 2-square range which is unusual in a melee character plus it deals a lot of damage. While he's not particularly durable, his Squig summoning ability is fantastic. While he can only ever summon 2 in a mission, there's no CoolDown and the Squigs don't disappear after a turn limit. Additionally those Squigs are very powerful creatures that can withstand a lot of damage while dealing strong attacks, they'll also sometimes do a Reaction Strike against enemies entering the adjacent square and can also occasionally to charge get further movement in their turn.

-->-- '''The ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' Wiki''' on [[https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Dan Dan Hibiki]]

-->-- '''The Franchise/StreetFighter Wiki''' [[http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Dan on Dan Hibiki]]

** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159177 High Tide]]. Initially easy to overlook (''Fallen Empires'' was not a particularly popular set), later expansions brought assorted super powerful cards which this card would then fuel. Combined with several similar cards, it led to the ubiquitous "Combo Winter" era in the game's history.
** An even bigger ''Magic'' example is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2478 Necropotence.]] It famously got one star out of five from ''[=InQuest=]'' magazine. The very existence of this card taught players two very good lessons: one card is worth more than one life, and [[CriticalExistenceFailure the only life point that matters is the last]]. Once the Necrodeck became the strongest deck in Type 2 play, ''Inquest'' revised the card's score to ''five stars.''[[note]]If you want to theorise a reason for this misjudgement, a likely explanation is that they didn't think about the card properly -- read in a vacuum, one use of Necropotence's ability is terrible, as it comes with a huge number of harsh penalties (loss of the normal draw, cards are removed from the game instead of going to the graveyard, cards "drawn" with Necropotence at the cost of life aren't even added to your hand until the end of the turn), and indeed after you've filled your hand with Necropotence it becomes a heavy liability that you ideally want to get rid of again (aside for the usual reasons mono-black decks needed it, the classic Necrodeck included [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159266 Nevinyrral's Disk]] in part to remove its own Necropotence). It wasn't until they thought about it laterally and realised that there was no limit on the number of cards Necropotence could give you in one go apart from the amount of life you had to spend (and the 7-card hand limit) that they understood that you were accepting the card's considerable drawbacks in exchange for ''instantly refilling your hand from empty to full!''[[/note]]
** Yet another example: The card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15168 Donate.]] It is at its best when paired with yet another Lethal Joke Card, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2515 Illusions of Grandeur;]] the combo turns a temporary life-boost into a OneHitKill. This particular combo is the basis of the "Trix" decktype, which was considered a GameBreaker at the time.

** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3255 Lion's Eye Diamond]] is the most infamous example of this in ''Magic''. It was meant to be a useless "balanced" version of the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=600 Black Lotus,]] giving you free mana at the price of discarding your entire hand, leaving you with no spells to spend your mana on. ''[=InQuest=]'' magazine called it the worst card in the Mirage expansion set, and it was often cited as the prime example of a JunkRare in its early years. Then people realized that once you could get around the lose your hand drawback, the LED was basically an unrestricted Black Lotus. It didn't take long for the Lion's Eye Diamond to land in the Banned and Restricted lists once people figured out how to do that, especially after various cards were made that allowed spells to be cast from the graveyard, played around with the Discard mechanic, and did other such shenanigans that turned the LED's drawback into a boon. Nowadays, the Lion's Eye Diamond is a permanent resident of the Vintage Restricted list, a common sight in the Legacy scene, and the most expensive card in the Mirage expansion set.
** Wizards of the Coast took a while to learn the lesson of "Black Lotus is really, really broken"; their next attempt at creating a "fixed" Black Lotus, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4614 Lotus Petal]], which only produces one mana before going to the graveyard, also ended up broken (and restricted in Vintage), as it would still allow for free mana and could combo with various other cards (including storm cards, which copies itself for each other spell you cast in a turn, and cards like Yawgmoth's Bargain, which allows you to re-use your sacrificed Lotus Petals).
** Because they couldn't very well leave well enough alone, they tried again in Time Spiral. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370562 Lotus Bloom]] was a Black Lotus which took three extra turns to come into play. This also ended up creating an overpowered deck in combination with cards with the storm mechanic, particularly the otherwise unwieldy [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370537 Dragonstorm]]. Normally, you can't really cast any other spells in the same turn as you cast a 9 casting cost spell, but the Lotus Blooms are *free*...

** [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblins.]] In story, illustration, and card flavor, goblins are depicted as stupid, unpleasant nuisances little more respectable than cockroaches, who have [[BlueAndOrangeMorality very strange ideas]] about self-preservation, often placing more value on dying in new and creative ways than, you know, ''[[TooDumbToLive not dying.]]'' In fact, being ExplosiveBreeders is the only thing keeping the entire species from wiping itself out, across ''multiple'' settings. Plus, they're [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ugly]]. In gameplay mechanics, however, that combination of [[ZergRush overwhelmingly numerous]], [[WeHaveReserves suicidally reckless]], and [[BloodKnight maniacally hostile]] makes them a force to be reckoned with, and decks built around the goblin creature type are some of the most powerful. Related to this? Goblins and [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever Giants]]. Since giants are generally very expensive, they are a perfect match for the little buggers. The creators noted this, with goblins that actually reduce the cost of summoning giants or giants that use goblins for effects. And starting with ''Shards of Alara'' and the shard of Jund, the other large creature type in Red that Goblins synergize with? [[GarnishingTheStory Dragons]]. Tarkir also presents several goblins being servants of their lead dragons.

** Back in Legends, there was [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Karakas Karakas]]. A legendary land whose main purpose was bouncing legendary creatures, it was overlooked at the time because most legendary creatures in the Legends set were awful. But as the game's gone on, more and more legendary creatures of increasingly high power have come out, meaning that being able to kick one out of the game for a while (and making the mana spent on it wasted) has become increasingly useful. This is one of the few foolproof ways to deal with ''[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=573375 Emrakul]]'', and if used with [[https://scryfall.com/card/tsp/28/mangara-of-corondor?utm_source=mci Mangara of Corondor]] its effect might as well read "1WW, Tap - Exile your opponent's creature". It's since seen reprints at ''Mythic Rare'' in both Eternal Masters and Ultimate Masters, and its ability to say "Nope" to your opponent's win condition on command is such that it's ''outright banned'' in Commander.

** Back in Legends, there was [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Karakas Karakas]]. A legendary land whose main purpose was bouncing legendary creatures, it was overlooked at the time because most legendary creatures in the Legends set were awful. But as the game's gone on, more and more legendary creatures of increasingly high power have come out, meaning that being able to kick one out of the game for a while (and making the mana spent on it wasted) has become increasingly useful. This is one of the few foolproof ways to deal with ''[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=573375 Emrakul]]'', and if used with [[https://scryfall.com/card/tsp/28/mangara-of-corondor?utm_source=mci Mangara of Corondor]] its effect might as well read "1WW, Tap - Exile your opponent's creature". It's since seen reprints at ''Mythic Rare'' in both Eternal Masters and Ultimate Masters.