What are the common card themes used by each protagonist?

[KingJinzo]

its always been a rule that important monsters have to be beaten by other monsters (and Death by monster effect has a 50% chance of working)

Yeah, Atem and Yugi defeating Egyptian Gods with Magnet Warriors is very different to the spin-offs. Atem's victories are much more creative than the others because he never spammed Dark Magician or Slifer in every duel and won with them. He always used something different, while the other protagonists use their aces too often. Which ironically is how the game actually works, as many decks are build around certain ace monsters. Atem's deck is logically the weakest because it would never work in real life, but his deck is much more creative to work with.

I remember when Yusei dueled the guard robot. After breaking the robot's combo, Yusei could have just change Junk Warrior to Attack Position, attack and win. No, he Synchro Summoned Stardust Dragon for literally no reason and did 200 more unnecessary damage.

[Dread Kaiser]

Yeah, Atem and Yugi defeating Egyptian Gods with Magnet Warriors is very different to the spin-offs. Atem's victories are much more creative than the others because he never spammed Dark Magician or Slifer in every duel and won with them. He always used something different, while the other protagonists use their aces too often. Which ironically is how the game actually works, as many decks are build around certain ace monsters. Atem's deck is logically the weakest because it would never work in real life, but his deck is much more creative to work with.

I remember when Yusei dueled the guard robot. After breaking the robot's combo, Yusei could have just change Junk Warrior to Attack Position, attack and win. No, he Synchro Summoned Stardust Dragon for literally no reason and did 200 more unnecessary damage.

It would have been bad storytelling to Let him use God whenever.

Thats why he never used Slifer til the finals, where all his opponents had access to something comparable. it would be a complete Drama kill. as for the Dark Magician, it was merely "his rarest card" for a long while. It wasn't til like halfway through did the Magician have any real significance. and once he had all 3 Gods, he lost access to them (in the anime) or there were no more Card games (in the manga).

and I wouldn't call Atem's deck the weakest, don't forget Archetypes were not a thing at the time, every deck was Your40best/favoitecards.dek. Hell the fact it DIDN'T depend on some card or combo like most other characters is what made it the so good in-universe.

if we had to call someones decks the weakest, it would be Yuma (completely dependant on 1 monster and Zexal ex Machina-related stuff to support it, Go first set Solemn, GG) or Jaden (Loads of incredibly situational cards and a very resource draining Strategy, think about how well Jaden would have done if Pot of Greed was banned in-universe too)

Yusei had the best, no question, as...well he simply had the most Extra. he didn't rely on Bullshit like Yuma, situational cards like Jaden and had other monsters he can fall back on if Stardust wouldn't do the job.
Yuya is shaping to be a nice runner up as he is getting more and more flexible.

[LolsterXD97]

Mini-ace:
Yugi/Atem: Dark Magician Girl.
Judai: Elemental HERO Flame Wingman.
Yusei: Junk Warrior.
Yuma: I don't know since all was about Hope (Maybe Leviathan Dragon since that was his most used Number besides Hope or Heroic Champion - Excalibur)...
Yuya: Performapal Elephammer.

Cards with broken effects to counter the main villian's or any other opponent's broken shit in 1st place:
Yugi/Atem: Egyptian Gods and basically any plot device used by Atem (Underworld Circle as an example).
Judai: God Neos (Now Painful Choice would give you a free Fusion?), Super Polymerization (In the Anime it ignored Summoning Conditions so it could work even with Neos Fusions), Effect Shut, etc.
Yusei: Shooting Star Dragon (Which was nearly invincible), Shooting Quasar Dragon and Gathering Wishes.
Yuma: Utopia Beyond (Read the fucking first line of his Anime effect), Tsukumo Slash (Situational but ridiculous) and Endless Bond.
Yuya: Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon (OTK Machine if your opponent controls at least 2 level 7 or lower monsters, if they didn't die from the burn effect) and Misdirection Wing (This is until now the most broken card Yuya has, I expect more brokeness when going full Yami Yuya).

This isn't cards, but attemps of the protagonists to make infinite loops:
Yugi/Atem: The Revival Jam loop to beat its opponent by deck out thanks to Cards of Safe Return.
Judai: The failed loop attemped at Venominon with Wildedge.
Yusei: I don't remember right now.
Yuma: The infinite loop with DWZ - Chimera Clad when he was at Dark ZEXAL.
Yuya: The loop with Raingoat and Seesawhopper against Chojiro.

[Sanokal]

It would have been bad storytelling to Let him use God whenever.

Thats why he never used Slifer til the finals, where all his opponents had access to something comparable. it would be a complete Drama kill. as for the Dark Magician, it was merely "his rarest card" for a long while. It wasn't til like halfway through did the Magician have any real significance. and once he had all 3 Gods, he lost access to them (in the anime) or there were no more Card games (in the manga).

and I wouldn't call Atem's deck the weakest, don't forget Archetypes were not a thing at the time, every deck was Your40best/favoitecards.dek. Hell the fact it DIDN'T depend on some card or combo like most other characters is what made it the so good in-universe.

if we had to call someones decks the weakest, it would be Yuma (completely dependant on 1 monster and Zexal ex Machina-related stuff to support it, Go first set Solemn, GG) or Jaden (Loads of incredibly situational cards and a very resource draining Strategy, think about how well Jaden would have done if Pot of Greed was banned in-universe too)

Yusei had the best, no question, as...well he simply had the most Extra. he didn't rely on Bullshit like Yuma, situational cards like Jaden and had other monsters he can fall back on if Stardust wouldn't do the job.
Yuya is shaping to be a nice runner up as he is getting more and more flexible.

Honestly, Yugi probably had the best spell/trap lineup, especially when you look at the manga where his cards are less situational overall. He did try and use the Gods when they did R, but he didn't rely on them, which was rather nice. And Yuma's deck was a massive shame of wasted potential: simply using his main archetype engines and ing things up with his different Numbers alone would have been glorious just from that small change. Ah, I can't wait to write his next chapter for Dissidia...

[Volteccer]

Yuma had a lot of potential. He runs a lot of different levels, including a couple that can change levels. He could have switched between all if his numbers as needed. But, all too quickly, he began sticking to just utopia. So, he doesn't really have a secondary boss.

[LolsterXD97]

Yuma had a lot of potential. He runs a lot of different levels, including a couple that can change levels. He could have switched between all if his numbers as needed. But, all too quickly, he began sticking to just utopia. So, he doesn't really have a secondary boss.

He technically had F0 when he was obligatory stripped of Hope thanks to Numeron Dragon.

[Pendulum]

Yuma had a lot of potential. He runs a lot of different levels, including a couple that can change levels. He could have switched between all if his numbers as needed. But, all too quickly, he began sticking to just utopia. So, he doesn't really have a secondary boss.

4. The only Level that started to matter.
He doesn't have a secondary boss because his only boss has a billion forms.

[Dread Kaiser]

Yuma had a lot of potential. He runs a lot of different levels, including a couple that can change levels. He could have switched between all if his numbers as needed. But, all too quickly, he began sticking to just utopia. So, he doesn't really have a secondary boss.

The fact that he had Xyz he went to in place of 39 on occasion says, yes, he had a secondary boss. Number 17, later replaced by Excalibur

More sickening, it was shown that he COULD use the other numbers. effectively at that. like against the shadow giant where he summoned Volcasaurus and Atlandis in 1 go. hell he'd have FTK'd if he summoned Focus Force instead to negate unformed void.

name a IRL deck that can Drop a rank 5 and 6 with no setup, turn 1 (inb4 "name a IRL deck that uses a rank 5 and 6 not named cyber dragons")

- - - Updated - - -

4. The only Level that started to matter.
He doesn't have a secondary boss because his only boss has a billion forms.

actually at the time, R4NK wasn't really a thing. 7 was the bullshit rank at the time. the R4NK toolbox didn't become a thing til Ark and Nukeroach, before that it was rather balanced, had some stupid things like Lavalval and Shock of course, but not much else.

[Sanokal]

The fact that he had Xyz he went to in place of 39 on occasion says, yes, he had a secondary boss. Number 17, later replaced by Excalibur

More sickening, it was shown that he COULD use the other numbers. effectively at that. like against the shadow giant where he summoned Volcasaurus and Atlandis in 1 go. hell he'd have FTK'd if he summoned Focus Force instead to negate unformed void.

name a IRL deck that can Drop a rank 5 and 6 with no setup, turn 1 (inb4 "name a IRL deck that uses a rank 5 and 6 not named cyber dragons")

- - - Updated - - -



actually at the time, R4NK wasn't really a thing. 7 was the bullshit rank at the time. the R4NK toolbox didn't become a thing til Ark and Nukeroach, before that it was rather balanced, had some stupid things like Lavalval and Shock of course, but not much else.

Not to mention they banned Shock over here not long after.