Webtoon Spotlight

Random Spotlight#6: Yugioh Protags Ranked

Intro

As a kid who's watched way too much anime way too young, I was a walking advertisement for every toy at the time. When I had finally entered tweenhood, I found myself with six Bakugan, over 50 Beyblades, numerous beywheelz, and of course, six decks worth of Yugioh. And while all these series are still going on in some way shape or form, and that they will always play a special place in my heart, Yugioh is probably the only one I've kept up with the most. Because unlike other shows of the same genre, I've always felt like this franchise has maintained a sense of legacy far better than most of them and that unlike others shows they weren't afraid to change, or become something simpler for a new generation.

So far, every series has added something to the equation, and naturally, for something that has been going on for 20 years over seven series, everybody has got a favorite series and protag. But who is the best of the best? Well, I guess that it's up to me to decide, so let's rev things up because it's time to get your game on and swing into the flows!

Rules

Since all these characters come with their own set of restrictions, gimmicks, and rules, I will explain how I'm going to be doing this. Think of this as a hodgepodge between ranking each protag, my general thoughts, and analysis on each protag and my opinion on which of their decks is the best if all these guys dueled each other like ten times. The goal here is to take these guys from their peak while using the decks that they think are their strongest and how they would most likely duel in this scenario (for better or worse) without their magical powers or special overall advantages (ex: draw of fate and shining draws). These duels will all be in the master rule 3 format, and I will explain why later. And while some of these decks have only gotten a couple of duels to shine, I also think that we've got enough of an idea to fill in these blanks. Let it be known that when I'm going to be talking about how these guys are portrayed in the anime since I'm the most familiar with that format. Finally, take everything I'm about to say here with the grainiest of salts. I like every single protagonist on this list, but I'm not afraid to admit their genuine flaws, and I don't have a competitive TCG bone in my body since I said before I'm using this as more of a basis to talk about the mc's of one of my first anime. I surprisingly haven't seen every single episode of the anime either, so you can feel free to debate with me on my picks in a respectful manner. With that out of the way, here are the decks I'm going to be working with.

Atem: Ceremonial duel

Jaden: Eos deck

Yusei: Signer dragon deck that he used against Z-ONE but no speed spells

Yuma: eos deck with his utopia's.

Yuya: eos deck with all of his counterpart's aces but with no action spells. Any cards used when he was only awakened will be out too.

Yugi has simply not had enough duels to be applicable on this list, and so will be counted out. Atem's draw of fate is also out. Yuma, despite not having his utopia for his final duel against astral, will have them in this scenario since it just feels weird not having them on here. However, he will not have astral helping him in this scenario and will not have access to his shining draws, zexal weapons, and rank up magic cards that astral himself had access to in their final duel. Astral will not participate in this battle because he only had his deck in the final duel every other time has been Yuma's. Finally, Yusaku and Yuga will not be on this list due to my severe lack of knowledge on Vrains and Sevens. This is also because the board had to be changed up because of the introduction of Link monsters and Rush Dueling. I know master rule 5 is already in effect, but I still feel like it's a bit of a leash on Yuya's skills. With all of that out of the way, let's formally begin this mess of a list.