Piles Win Games

[brotherofAnubus]

lol if that were true we'd want our hard earned money back.

But this is the Decklist of Roy St. Clair in the World Championships in 2004. He got 5th place with this list. In my opinion it looks like a pile stacked with banned cards.

Monster Cards
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Magical Scientist
1 Reflect Bounder
1 Exiled Force
1 Witch of the Black Forest
3 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Sangan
1 Magician of Faith
1 Morphing Jar
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spell Cards
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Greed
1 Enemy Controller
1 Confiscation
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Card Destruction
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 The Forceful Sentry
1 Graceful Charity

Trap Cards
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Waboku
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Magic Jammer

Side Deck
1 Thunder Nyan Nyan
2 Sasuke Samurai
1 Berserk Gorilla
1 Jinzo
3 King Tiger Wanghu
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Scapegoat
1 Exchange
1 Ceasefire
1 Royal Decree
1 Waboku

Fusion Deck
3 Fiend Skull Dragon
3 Reaper on the Nightmare
3 Ryu Senshi
3 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
3 Dark Flare Knight
3 Musician King
3 Super Roboyarou
3 Punished Eagle
3 Giltia the D. Knight

NOTE: I didn't put this on here to get people going "This deck sucks!" but rather discuss how the format was back then (before the ban list apparently) and how it compares/contrasts to the format today.  

[Burakku_Kitsune]

"I winced at the x3 MSTs and the fusion deck. The first fusions sucked!! They were like weak normal monsters I think the weakest one was fusionist it had 900 ATK. I mean why bother? Polymerization would do more good as a bluff trap card at that point. and you could use those monsters as tributes if anything else.  

[brotherofAnubus]

idk, Reaper on the Nightmare is like a direct attacking Spirit Reaper.

And Thousand-Eyes Restrict got banned! What does that tell ya?

But nowadays some to most of those useless fusions would be used for instant fusion.  

[Baulfret3]

It´s true, you can clearly see the banned cards, but i have to say that i really like reaper on the nightmare, specially combined with Chaos emperor dragon.
But again, you can clearly see half of the deck is forbidden, pot of greed is long gone.  

[armycat jockamoe]

Well the joke is that a pile of banned cards is still more of a strategy than a pile.

I mean consider this a pile with no synergy, versus this which even without any synergy or overall plan every card they topdeck is just a broken effect waiting to happen.

The format then was more of a show of "I can top deck a great response very turn!". While today decks tend to need to be built around a true central theme, because so many of the generic broken cards have been banned.

I mean think This Deck vs. BW. Who wins? Really even tier 1 BW would probably get stomped. I mean turn one lets say the BW guy swarms the field and loads the grave for a Vayu summon if things go south. This deck has any number of responses, Tribe, an Evnoy, several spells, a couple of the traps. So overall this "pile" is way better than most modern decks could hope to be.

Again though it comes back to the fact that back then top tier decks were essentially Chaos stacked with broken singles. While today decks are "Bosses" surrounded by support to make them work.

Well that's more or less my take of the formats of now and then. Of course though there are some exceptions.  

[Sasori00923]

I agree with jock, back then the decks weren't just based on the 1 card that could save your a** it was based around a whole concept that any card I draw can and will end this duel if don't play it smart and go headfirst into it now the decks revolve around 1 monster and if they don't get it on the field the deck is pretty much useless I mean don't get me wrong some of the best decks right now are themed decks but they depend too much on a single thing hell I'll use a themed deck now and again but not frequently because that creates openings if you concentrate on 1 type the type that's strong against it or that holds and advantage over will chew it up and spit it back out in mere minutes....right now I'm running a mixed destruction deck that seems to go on par with most topnotch decks and it's strongest monster is only 2450 and it's a Ha Des which I rarely even use as the duels are well over by the time I actually get him in my hand I say the deck isn't really a pile but more of straight shot to I WILL COMPLETELY OVERWHELM AND DESTROY YOU! it's pretty clear that's what the guy intended and I think it could probably go toe to toe with any deck pretty much own it but that's just me..........