So let's start with this beautiful chart.
Disclaimer
February 2009 to May 2009 there were no big events due to the switch to Konami from Upperdeck.
May 2009 to September 2009 Konami's website accidentally lost most of their information.
If anyone wants to get the SJC/YCS/WCQ information from the above period, if they can find it, and give me links, I'd gladly implement it into my chart and table.
May 2009 to September 2009 Konami's website accidentally lost most of their information.
If anyone wants to get the SJC/YCS/WCQ information from the above period, if they can find it, and give me links, I'd gladly implement it into my chart and table.
Basically what I'm showing here is the topping of decks using Gadgets. The red bars are original Gadgets (no STUN or Machina), the blue are Machina Gadgets, and the green are Gadget STUN. The black bar shows the release date of Machina Mayhem. Below you will find a table of the variations on numbers, in case you get confused by the colorful chart. As you can see most of the tops with Gadgets in the TCG meta are from Machina variations. This shows that it's the Machina side of the house that's giving Gadgets any kind of lime light.
Now why is this? Why Gadgets over other kinds of machines? Well, of all the machine archtypes, outside of Machina, Gadgets are the most structurally sound. They are self replacing cards that help thin the deck. Thus, they are easily mixed in with the Machina archtype.
Now, how were these decks topping? Well, we already know how Gadgets are supposed to work from the original deck dubbed "5th Gadget" that ran nine gadgets total and supported them with a plethora of one for one spells and traps. A gadget deck uses the deck thinning and constant flow of gadgets to continue to have monsters in hand for front row presence while utilizing a lot of one for one spells and traps to simplify as much as possible and end up with positive card count to the opponent's zero card count. Their opponent would end up top decking and the gadget player would have the resources to answer whatever they top deck. Gadget STUN was basically no different. It took the theory behind 5th Gadget and applied more universal counters to it. Thunder Kings and Doomcaliber Knights were slipped into the deck and the nine gadget count was dropped to six. So, we could really count the Gadget STUN in with the Gadgets of our chart and table. I did not make a second set of each because Gadgets vanished from both as it was. Just look at green and think red and you'll see it.
So, what made Machina Gadgets so much better? Obviously, the Machina side of the house. Machina is what was winning it, not the Gadgets. Original Machina Gadget lists did build off of the original gadget theory of simplification but you look later and you see that they deviate. Yes they simplify but they brought in more answers to the back breaking Cyber Dragon. Especially in the side deck as most people were siding the Cyber Dragons for the match up. Books of Moon, Bottomless Trap Hole, Solemn Warning, even Zombie World saw play time, all to counter the ridiculousness of Cyber Dragon.
But our intention here is to show that Gadgets are terrible. As I already stated the charts show that it was Machina that made their victories possible, not the Gadgets themselves. The use of Gadgets was merely consequence as the best synergy for the Machina archtype.
Now, you may be thinking, "But they are still topping." Yes but we are in a new format. New formats always begin with a mass of diversity and falling back on things that players know to be stable. A lot of players go to events at this time not exactly sure of what they should be expecting. Sidedecks are built to counter the known biggest threats; Samurai, Plants, X-Sabers, Gravekeeper's, Fish OTK and Formula Monarchs. Gladiator Beasts and Machina are decent choices as they are less sided against and less combo oriented, meaning they are more structurally sound. But, with Machina losing two of their Books of Moon as counters to the Cyber Dragon plays, the release of Trishula, the increased play of Effect Veiler, and so on, their innate ability to stand against main decks and even side decks is starting to dwindle. While they were a decent choice at the beginning of the format, their effectiveness will continue to drop. Of course, this is theory and has yet to be seen but the theory is sound.
Machina will continue to be a good fall back deck that is able to side swipe those who do not expect it to be seen. It will also continue to be able to lucksack like a champion with silly plays like Limiter Removal. However, use of the Gadget archetype is also very likely to drop due to the increased support being released for the Karakuri archetype. Already we've been seeing Karakuri Machina Plants taking up the reigns as a better Machina supporting deck, especially given its OTK potential. Aside from the OTK deck, Karakuris themselves have a lot more flexibility in their playstyle than the straight forward Gadget variation.
As we know and have known for years, the more flexible decks are generally the better to play. This theory is generally only broken by decks whose basic focus is the OTK (Frog FTK, KMP, etc etc) or utter control by a single line of play (Samurai, X-Sabers).
Gadgets and now Machina Gadgets are things of the past. Things to be remembered due to the theory (simplification with continuous replacement) and specific cards (Machina Gearframe and Fortress) that pushed them to victory in their times.
Thanks goes out to Mustard for collecting the below information.
SJC St. Louis February 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohc2cd.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8094
SJC Houston March 2007 - One Gadget
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh20d0.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8161
SJC Columbus March 2007 - One Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohe2cd.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8250
SJC Montreal April 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohd3f4.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8330
SJC Anaheim April 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh8226.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8401
SJC Philadelphia May 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh63f4.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8464
UK Nationals May 2007 - One Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohec4a.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8483
SJC Minneapolis June 2007 - One Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioha114.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8519
Canadian Nationals June 2007 - One Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh3cfc.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8576
US Nationals June 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohdd98.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8632
European Nationals July 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh4a8e.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8702
SJC Detroit July 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh3ff0.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8791
SJC Indianapolis August 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh3f64.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8867
SJC District of Columbia September 2007 - Two Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh286f.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8947
SJC Chicago September 2007 - Two Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohcfe3.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=8996
SJC Durham October 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohc18b.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9062
SJC San Mateo December 2007 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohf031.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9155
SJC Orlando January 2008 - Four Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohe321.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9266
SJC Houston February 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohc870.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9337
SJC Costa Mesa March 2008 - Two Gadgets
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh3ff8.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9427
SJC Columbus March 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh71d3.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9494
SJC Nashville May 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioha58f.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9619
United States Nationals June 2008 - One Gadget
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohad48.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9762
Canadian Nationals June 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh84a5.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9820
SJC Philadelphia July 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohb50f.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9865
SJC Honolulu July 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh214c.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9915
SJC Toronto July 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohbccd.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=9977
SJC Indianapolis August 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh3cbc.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10048
SJC Baltimore July 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohd5f3.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10116
SJC Tulsa July 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioha731.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10181
SJC Seatle October 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh9551.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10234
SJC Charlotte October 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohbcce.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10292
SJC Chicago November 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohb866.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10368
SJC Atlanta November 2008 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugioh1ac2.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10419
SJC Detroit December 2008 - One Gadget STUN
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohdf4e.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10472
SJC San Francisco January 2009 - None
http://gillysgonnawalk.com/metagame/yugiohc119.html?tabid=33&ArticleId=10558
-----------DISCLAIMER--------------
SJC Austin October 2009 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=584
SJC Columbus November 2009 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1070
SJC Los Angelos January 2010 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1527
23 February 2010 - Machina Mayhem Released!
Changes in Ban List 01 March 2010
SJC Nashville March 2010 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1856#more-1856
SJC Edison April 2010 - One Machina Gadgets, one Gadget STUN
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=2327
YCS Washington May 2010 - Two Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=2597
YCS Chicago June 2010 - One Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=2928
United States WCQ July 2010 - Two Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=3347#more-3347
Canada WCQ July 2010 - One Gadget STUN
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=3015
South America WCQ July 2010 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=3012
Gen Con Indy August 2010 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=3564
Changes in Ban List 01 September 2010
YCS Toronto September 2010 - One Machina Gadget
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=3893
YCS San Jose September 2010 - Three Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=4187
YCS Philadelphia October 2010 - Two Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=4497
YCS Atlanta November 2010 - One Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=4861
YCS Dallas February 2011 - Two Machina Gadgets
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=5172
Changes in Ban List 01 March 2011
YCS Charlotte March 2011 - None
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=5393
YCS Anaheim April 2011 - One Machina Gadgets
]http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=5695#more-5695