Ice Barrier - Failed Cards, Archetypes, and Sometimes Mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh

if you asked anyone who played the 5Ds format back in early 2010 to name two I Bayer monsters trishal and bionic would be the main monsters that come out of their mouths as both these generic single monsters were Main Stays in any deck that could make them sadly what won't come out of the mouths are any other iceberger monsters while the Synchro saw abundant play the rest of the cards saw binders and bins even when they gained more support in 2021 any chance of the deck being viable was utterly thought out so let's look at the iceberry archetype and see what made this deck's chances run cold ice barriers were introduced to the Yu-Gi-Oh World in dual terminal arcade but became more accessible to the public in the Hidden Arsenal Series in 2009 like many Hidden Arsenal archetypes it did nothing on release as many Hidden Arsenal archetypes just needed Direction the first main deck monsters didn't really make any impact blizz defender of the ice bear was a level one monster that needed to get destroyed by battle to let you draw a card chiromancer of the ice bear was a level two tuner with a wonky effect that stopped level four or higher monsters from attacking if another ice bearer was on the field while the these two were highly disappointing ways to start the era of ice barriers there would be one shining star that would begin the reign of ice barrier synchros that would terrorize the game this proved true when the TCG was shown bionic Dragon of the ice barrier a generic level six Synchro with 2300 attack and 1,400 defense it allows you to discard any number of cards from your hand to Target the same number of cards in the field and bounce them back to the hand prionic was an absolute Powerhouse back in 2010 you could use this effect more than once per turn and bounce back any card on the field be your opponent or yours as long as you had cards in your hand to discard bionic effect made it easy to dismantle the boards and overcome significant threats not many boss monsters had protection either making bionic even more dangerous as its generic level six made it easy to summon and its effect got around the singr Titans such as Stardust Dragon and colossal fighter you could even use it to reset cards you needed on your board like continuous spells and traps and it was used in soft Loops that made boards filled with Synchro monsters if you see fit it would be a staple in every SRO deck and one of the best go-to options whenever you need to remove any obstacles in the field until it got banned in 2011 it would later be brought back at the TCG safely nerfed and eroded with the effect being a hard once per turn can only target your opponent's cards and specifying that the effect does indeed Target the card doesn't really see any play today as it's a former shell of itself however if anything proved to be a highlight for our friends from the tundra bionic is one of the best printed the next that have ice bear support was Gold Series 3 which gave them numbing grub of the ice barrier this monster would make one of your opponent's monster zones unusable while was on the field if it was normal summoned it would also make itself unusable in the entire Arch type and led to the name of grub as it was nothing more than food for your bulk pile so already the archetype had three unusable cards and when The Shining Darkness introduced another card to the archetype it ensured there was another unplayable Card Magic Triangle the ice beiger was the first spell card that made you reveal three ice Bearer monsters from your hand to special subm in ice Bearer monster from your deck while cards that recruit monsters out of the deck are always strong this one was just kind of mid thanks to the archetype that was played in there was barely anything to summon of the zark type at the time and even when more targets came out later for this card to summon the requirements to use the card were too abysmal as it required you have three ice bear monsters to reveal the last thing anyone wants to use is a card that gives your opponent knowledge of what's in your hand and what you're playing especially when your deck barely has any Synergy that statement remained true in hit in Arsenal 2 as the deck got several more monsters to play or at least that was supposed to be the case di SoJO the ice bearer was a level six monster that changes his defense position when it's normal or flip summoned and while it's on the field spell trap card effects can't destroy ice Bearer monsters you control medium of the ice bearer was a level seven monster that can be special summoned if your opponent controls four more cards than you and your opponent can only activate one spell a trap card while this card is face up on the field per turn Pilgrim of the ice bear was a level four that couldn't be destroyed by battle by monsters with 1,00 or more attack finally geomancer the ice bear was a level three Tuner monster which you discard one card to declare attribute and that attribute can't Target this monster for attacks nothing's worse than getting four new monsters and seeing that they were still kind of unplayable getting two highle monsters alongside two lowle monsters with Middle Lane facts and no cohesion or Synergy is horrendous for any archetype however another Synchro was introduced ice barriers and once again it was abused by everyone but ice barriers Doren Tiger King of the ice barrier was a level six Synchro they need one tuner plus one or more non-tuner water monsters you can return other face up cards in your side of the field to the hand when it's at summon then this card gains 500 attack for each card return to their hand until the end of the turn while it doesn't seem as strong as bionic it was just as dangerous as bionic as it allowed players to loot back cards and resources to the hand which amusingly meant another ice bear SRO could do fdk or Loops Doran was mainly known for an fdk involving symbol of Heritage and everyone's favorite fdk involved Synchro power tool Dragon the only saving grace of this card not being completely busted was it needing non-tuner water monsters as materials and that most of the loops it was in were kind of inconsistent that didn't stop Konami from trying to keep the piece and they semi-limited Doren to two in 2009 it would proceed to have ond andof visitations on the list being put back to three in 2011 right back to 1 in 2013 then bouncing between limited and semi-limited before being placed at three with an AATA to make its effect a hard once per turn nonetheless AED or not that didn't change the fact that the ice bearers couldn't use this card effectively it's not like they were any effective as a deck anyway plugging random monsters with effects to a deck with no direction is a formula for failure as a deck figured out there still needed to be a way to bring the archetype together as it needed more starter monsters or solid extenders Star Strike blast did give it another good piece of support through the heaps of trash that came in there Medallion of the ice bearer was their newest spell card which simply added an ice beer monster from your deck to your hand like that ice bearers had a card that most Hidden Arsenal archetypes wish they had a simple Searcher was like water in a desert yet ice barrier was was lucky to get it it would be a shame if there was nothing good to search for though Royal Knight of the ice bear was a level five monster that one tribute summoned special summoned an ice cofin token to your opponent's side of the field and that token can be tributed for a tribute summon dance princess the ice bear was level four which could allow you to reveal a number of ice bear monsters in your hand to bounce that many of your opponent's spells and traps to their hand once per turn and finally mirror the ice bear was a quickplay spell that came with multiple effects each time an opponent's activated monster effect would banish a card from your hand deck or graveyard for turn if from your hand you rip two random cards from your opponent's hand if field you banish two cards your opponent controls and if graveyard you banish two cards from their graveyard as you might have expected the support went through the same old song and dance as all the others Royal Knight was another terrible monster that need to be tribute summoned in an already slow deck dance princess was actually a reasonably decent card but offered nothing else but removal and mirror was too conditional of a card needing your opponent to banish something for it to be alive surprisingly it was shortly seen as a counter to necros when this card was used to combat the necros at trishula during its short stay as a side Deck card of the meta that's the best highlight you can get from this slatest support a Searcher with nothing good to search and trula's one true weakness a mirror this wouldn't be the end of trishula support as the main stars continue to get more supported Hidden Arsenal 3 seven new monsters came to the a of the ice barriers including another Synchro monster Samurai of the ice bear was level four monster that one changed from Attack position to defense position let you destroy it to draw one card shock troops with the ice bear was level three that allowed you to Tribute it to destroy one face up water bster in the field then add an ice bear monster from your deck to your hand D dark was level two tuner that could attack directly if all you controlled were face up monsters that were level two or lower spell breaker was level four that lets you send an ice Bearer monster from your hand to the graveyard once per turn to stop both players from activating spell cards until the end of your next turn while this card is face up on the field caran of the ice bear is level one that can return two ice bear monsters from your graveyard to your deck in order to make both players draw one card General ganard was level eight where during your main face you can normal summon one ice bear monster in addition to your normal Summoner set once per turn their newest extract addition was gun gear Dragon of the ice barrier a level seven syro monster with 2500 attack and 1,700 defense which needs a tuner plus one or more non-tuner water monsters to make once per turn you can discard up to two cards to select the same amount of cards you oppon controls and Destroy them gun gear is considered the weakest of all the ice spayer synchros this card was given a limit on how much you could pop and Konami made sure not to make the same mistakes with bionic and Doren by giving gar an effected destroys instead of returning cards to the hand limiting any chances for this card to do any kind of Loops so there's no need for the yuu community to deal with another fdk from the hands of the ice barriers what they needed to worry about was the deack still being cold garbage even with the continuous support the deck still had no Synergy play style or Direction it seemed at this point Konami was just printing Monsters of the facts just for the sake of it and not considering that the deck had too many issues needing to be addressed this tragedy doesn't get fixed until the next set either that's even with stating that Hidden Arsenal 4 gave ice bearers one of the most dangerous synchros of the 5D era hidden Arsenal's Ford came out in the TCG on April 9th 2011 and players couldn't wait to open packs and pull the hype of the format trishula Dragon of the ice barrier this level 9 SRO took one tuner plus two or more non- tuners to make when SRO summoned it allows you to banish one carard in your opponent's field hand in graveyard at the peak of the 5D format trishula was one of the top synchros in the TCG having in a fact that does not Target and his non-destruction removal in three different places was devastating in most games it was even more devastating when you summoned it on your opponent's turn you see back in 2011 formula synchron was heavily ran in heavy Synchro style decks like TG and plants who would make boards with enough material that when their turn rolled around they would use formula sron affect a SRO summon trishula and interrupt their combo plays and then play through cards that would usually be able to stop trishula like a valer a play like this was able to end your opponent's turn back in the old formats also if it didn't shock you enough already this card was involved in loops and decks like infernity could continuously Loop it back to the extra deck to replay it until your opponent was left with nothing left in their starting hand so you can guess where trishula went for the majority of its lifespan right on the band list with its Canon 2012 until it was eventually Limited in 2013 semi- Limited in 2019 and given its release papers in 2020 where the card sees no play due to how fast and evolved the current Yu-Gi-Oh is today if only the support back then evolved just as fast Defender the ice barrier is a level three tuner that stops your opponent from declaring attacks with monsters with an attack equal to or greater than this card's defense while you can dra ice barrier monster warlock of the ice bear is a level three monster that makes both players set spell cards before activating them and then you can't activate them until the next turn sacred Spirit of the ice bear was level four spirit Monster like a spirit Monster it can't be special summoned and reach turned to the hand dur the end phase however if you control another ice bear monster it's end phase effect becomes Target one monster your opponent controls and return it to the hand General ROV of the ice Bearer was level six that makes your opponent discard one card of their choice to activate their monster effects or else it's negated strategis that the ice bear is level four that lets you send one ice bear monster from your hand to the graveyard to draw one card once per turn secret guards of the ice bear was level two that protected your ice bear monsters from being targeted by your opponent's monster effects finally General Galo of the ice bearer was level seven that targets an ice bear monster in your graveyard except another the C itself and special summons it during the end phase if Hidden Arsenal is recognized for having most of the failed Arch types this is a significant reason why throughout seven sets the archetype received the most support and still wasn't or if barely playable it was a slow bricky deck even with a built-in search card piled with random monsters lited with random effects that didn't even gel correctly with strong Synchro boss monsters let alone with each other he proves that just given an arch type support after support after support doesn't justify its playability after yet another case of playable sros and unplayable monsters ice bearers were pushed to the Wayside until New support came out in the TCG set Photon shock wave in 2015 prior of the ice bearer was a level two monster with 1,000 attack and 400 defense it give be special summon from your hand if you control another ice barrier monster but you can't special summon level five or higher monsters if it's summoned this way you can tribute this card to Target ice barrier monster in your graveyard and special summon it for some reason they thought giving an extender in a Synchro deck a restriction to not allow to use your Synchro monsters when it was brought out was a good idea while this card was horrendous to play an ice barrier believe it or not this mediocre card did see play in The Meta while this card is clearly allergic to Synchro decks the card flourished as an extender in the X's era giving the deck access to monsters like totally awesome or using his effect for spamming out level four ice beard monsters MC baham shark who got you a totally awesome too it even saw more use later than the link era as an extender playing the same role so basically you were traded in dragons to play a frog and blue cards which was better than the option of not having a playable deck at all prior gave ice barer its first decent play style to moderate success however this play style could only be decent for so long as formats and more powerful decks emerge so Konami returned to the basics to make ice barrier synchros again the campaign was in full bloom as Konami announced the release of structure deck freezing chains in 2021 the structure deck improved the deck's ability to get ice bear monsters on the field so they could perform singr sum more consistently five new monsters alongside two new spell cards finally gave it an Arsenal Stars a chance to see play revealer the ice bear was level four spellcaster that prevented your opponent from tribute summoning while you controlled an ice barrier monster it also lets you discard one card from your hand to special summon an ice barrier from your deck but it would be locking to special summoning water monsters for the rest of the turn if you discard a card or send cards from your hand to the graveyard for an ice be Monster's effect you can banish his card from your graveyard instead speaker was a level four spellcaster that prevented your opponent's defense position monsters from switching position while you control another ice barrier monster and once per turn allowed you special summon this card from your hand if you control another ice barrier if this card was in the graveyard and he controlled an ice barrier you can banish it to special summon a level one ice barrier token General Wayne was a level five Warrior that banished any spell traps that your opponent use on the field if your opponent controlled a monster and you controled an ice be monster you can special summon this monster from your hand and if it's normal or special you can add an ice Bearer spell trap from your deck to your hand hexa was a level one tuner that drops your opponent's monsters attack and defense by 500 while you can turn another ice barrier once per turn you can send a level three lower ice barrier monster from your deck to the graveyard to increases card's level by that amount until the end of the turn finally zoig Jen was a level two Warrior that you contribute to special summon a level five or higher ice bear monster from your hand if this card is in your graveyard except the turn of aen there you can Target a level three or higher water monster you control reduce it level by two and spal some of this card from the graveyard but banish it when it's removed from the field if you couldn't tell by the effects these cards were way better than their previous counterparts revealer was the start of the deck needed special summoning monsters from the deck for your plays while cards like speaker Wayne and hexa were extenders supplying extra resources for your plays they even had bonus Floodgate effects while they were on the field all of this was supposed to be used used to bring out their newest boss Monster trishula Zero Dragon of the ice barrier which is a level 11 Synchro monster that takes one tuner plus two or more non- tuners when this card singr summon you can banish up to three cards your opponent controls if an opponent's card destroys the singr summon monster you can special summon the original trishula from your aakar graveyard make its attack 3300 have the attack of all your opponent's monsters then negate their effects okay not everything could be a home run well the banishing effect was decent the card was terribly underwhelming the card depended on your opponent to destroy it during a time where there were multiple ways to remove a card from the field that didn't involve destruction effects the biggest grievance is that it brings out trishula but doesn't treat the summon as a Synchro Summon giving you only a 3,300 attack beat stick and only the monsters on the field currently are negated it also wasn't as if the old ice Bearer synchr were any improvements since they've been either outdated or received in AATA by then for spells freezing chains of the ice bearer was a continuous spell that lets you target one level four ice bear monster from your graveyard and special summon it when activated if you control three more ice beer monsters ice Bearer monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's monsters special seven from the extra deck winds over the ice barrier allowed you to Tribute any number of ice bear monsters you control to special summon level four lower ice bear monsters from your deck equal to the number of monsters you tributed during the main phase except to turn this cares into the graveyard you can banish it to add an ice bear monster from your graveyard or that's banished to your hand freezing chains and winds were both automatic Staples in the deck freezing chain gives you extra extension protection for your monsters while winds can fix your board and add flexibility to your plays so with all these tools at their disposal did Ice barrier go anywhere of course they didn't we wouldn't have this video if they did something while they gained a starter they're highly dependent on having monsters on the field making them highly reliant on board presence since most of their cards depend on them having an ice Bearer on the field cards like Goen match Nibiru and summon limit pretty much shut the deck down and make it challenging to set a strong board also this deck is weak against banishment which can completely mess up the graveyard effects from your monsters or any cards that can recur resources like freezing chains also the deck performed poorly against established boards when going second and had difficulty breaking your opponent's established boards so the deck was now playable but didn't stand a good chance against the meta and was seen as a fun deck to play the final card currently in the TCG for ice barriers came in lightning overdrive in 2022 judge of the ice bear was a level four Warrior that punish your opponent every time they activate a card or effect and made them pay life points by making them lose 500 more life points if you control another ice bear monster once per turn you can Target one or two ice bear monsters in your graveyard alongside one or two monsters in your opponent's graveyard and shuffle them into the deck you can also banish this card from your graveyard if you control an ice barrier to change a face up attack position monster to defense position furthermore you can never play this card as its Floodgate effect is situational its ignition effect on the field and graveyard barely hinders your opponent so it doesn't contribute as an extender or a starter the card doesn't give any advantage of its use and it's best avoided in any build of ice barrier now at this point in the video we usually would just laugh at these cards and call it a day however we we must hold back our Chuckles because the archetype was given Hope on the horizon in 2023 terminal world was released in Japan revealing four new ice Bearer cards that further boost the power of the deck mirror magic Master the ice Bearer is level two tuner that lets you tribute one other effect monster to special summon up to three level one ice beiger tokens to your side of the field and increases card's level by the same number still you're locked into special summoning water singr monsters from your extra deck if this card is sent to the graveyard you can add an ice beard monster that's banished or from your deck to your hand Georg sword master the ice Bearer is a level five warrior monster that prevents your opponent from activating monster effects in the graveyard while you control an ice Bearer monster once per turn if you control another ice bear monster you can special summon this monster from your hand and if this card is no more special you can special summon a level five or ice bear monster from your hand or graveyard Frozen domain leading to the ice bear was a new continuous trap card that prevented your opponent from activating cards or effects in response to the activation of your ice bear monster effects if any monsters are special summon from extra deck you can return an ice bear monster you control to the hand or deck to place one card in the field or the graveyard on the bottom of the deck once per turn this card also has a maintenance cost needing you to reveal three ice beer Monsters of different names in your exra deck or it's destroyed during the end phase to wrap up this soon to be TCG cards lania Dragonic ancestor of the Ice Spirit Mountain is a level 10 Synchro needing one water tuner plus one of more non-tuner monsters once per chain if your opponent special summons a monster you can special summon one iceberry monster from your hand deck extra deck or graveyard then you can change one opponent's attack position monster to defense position this effect can be used lose twice per turn surprisingly enough if this face up single summon card in its owner's control leaves the field by an opponent's card you can special summon one ice bear single Monster from your extra deck and the summon is treated as a proper Synchro Summon lania is the boss monster that ice beer players have downright prayed for since the release of the structure deck the card allows Ice Bears to have more assertive turn one boss monsters that can interact with your opponent's play at the same time it gives you access to any ice beard monster you need for free from anywhere when your opponent plays monsters regardless of the level or the attack or defense power of the ice Bearer monster you want you can get anything from general rho or medium to set up strong floodgates into your opponent's plays this hilariously overpowered effect is also followed by the fact that removing this card can lead to a free live ice barrier Synchro Monster not only did they receive a fantastic boss monster but they also received outstanding main deck support georgius was not only an extender but fetched you an extra resource from your hand or graveyard and boasted a potent Floodgate effect that Revenge your opponent from activating monster effects in the grave with almost every recent Yu-Gi-Oh monster having some sort of effect that activates when sent to the graveyard georgius would be a powerful card used during your end board mirror judge was effectively a one card extra deck summon and useful recycle for getting your resources and Frozen domain was a decent trap that can spin back any nuisances on the board while protecting your ice be monsters from being responded to though the maintenance costs might deter players from playing the card this support can push this deck into scen some meta playay as these cards help build a better board give the interaction this deck desperately needs and most of all give it a solid play style that can compete now that that's out of the way back to laughing at them though the new support can give them some hope the current ice barrier archetype is one of History's biggest bus Not only was this archetype push to the Forefront of the Hidden Arsenal campaign but they were also given some of the worst if not dominant synchros to be printed in the entire game and still went nowhere for years the deck literally play like a block of ice and it had no Synergy from the main deck to the extra deck no cohesion no good starters and no Extensions by the time they got the support they needed way back in 2011 it was already too late the play style was just Spam out monsters was easy to interrupt and offered no interaction with your opponent's turn outside of measley Floodgate effects while being weak against Floodgate effects it's tough to defend most archetypes out of Hidden Arsenal because most of them were treated the same as ice bearers by being the worst things in Yu-Gi-Oh a bunch of cards with effects on them ice barriers deserve a cold shoulder as it's put into the Yu-Gi-Oh Hall of fail and thanks for watching are there any other Decks that belong on the failed cards and mechanics please leave a comment like And subscribe and we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: TheDuelLogs

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Keywords: yugioh, ygo, dev, pro, link, duels, auto-matic duels, online, current, ban, list, dueling, network, theduellogs, the, duel, logs, loggs, Yu, Gi, Oh!, YGOpro, gimmick, links, top ten, edopro, 2021

Id: 5Zsi1uaZfHE

Length: 22min 24sec (1344 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024