Archetype condition
The name of this article is unofficial, or it uses unofficial terminology. It may change at any time as official terms are found or created. |
An archetype condition is a condition that says a card is a member of an archetype even if the card's name does not include the archetype's name.
For monsters other than Normal Monsters, an archetype condition is always listed at the beginning of the card text (but after Materials, if any); Normal Monsters instead list it at the very bottom of the text box. (Previously, non-Normal non-Effect Monsters also placed it at the bottom of the text box, as seen with the various prints of "Black Skull Dragon".) On Japanese cards, they are simply written as a regular sentence as part of the main body; on non-Japanese cards, they are always in parentheses and on a separate line from the rest of the card text.
Because an archetype condition is a condition and not an effect, it is unaffected by cards such as "Skill Drain". It is also the only text that can be printed in the card text of a Normal Monster that can affect gameplay in any way (and is therefore not italicized). For a Pendulum Monster, it is the only monster effect text that can affect gameplay while the card is placed in a Pendulum Zone.
Contents
List of cardsEdit
HistoryEdit
Archetype membership is ordinarily determined by a card's name: an archetype's support (and anti-support) cards list a specific string in their effect, and a given card is a member of that archetype if its name includes that string. Because Yu-Gi-Oh! is originally a Japanese franchise, all such support is originally determined by Japanese names at time of card design. When cards are localized for non-Japanese regions, a suitable translation must be used to name the archetype, that name string must be used in the names of all archetype members, and no other cards must ever use that string in their names.
This system breaks down when archetypes are retroactively established: unrelated cards may be released whose names happen to contain a certain word or string, and then support cards are released much later that work on all old and new cards containing that string. That string is not considered an archetype until after support cards exist. However, in the meantime, the old cards may have already been localized without any common string in their names.
PredecessorsEdit
Initially, when English card texts referred to archetype members, they would write this as "a card that includes "[archetype]" in its card name"; in modern card texts, this is instead written as "a "[archetype]" card". This more long-winded text was a more literal translation of the Japanese text at the time.
The "Amazoness" archetype was the first to encounter a situation where a card that was a member of the archetype in Japanese did not include the appropriate string in their English name—"Amazoness Archer" was at the time named "Amazon Archer" (despite the first "Amazoness" support being released in the OCG prior to the English release of "Amazon Archer"). To compensate, all "Amazoness" support cards specified that they supported "Amazoness" cards as well as "Amazon Archer" individually by name. This approach would later be used for several other archetypes.
The "Archfiend" archetype was the next archetype to encounter this localization issue. However, due to the large number of cards affected, Upper Deck Entertainment took a different approach. "Archfiend" was treated as a special category of card, with support worded as "an Archfiend card", formatting the support more like modern archetype support, but without quotation marks around the archetype name. On their website, Upper Deck Entertainment has a page explaining what an Archfiend card was, including a list of all cards without "Archfiend" in their English name that are "Archfiend" cards.[1]
"Archfiend" is a special category of card. Most Archfiends can be identified by their name. Any card with "Archfiend" in the card name, is an Archfiend.
In addition, several older cards are also considered to be "Archfiends." These cards include:
Axe of Despair
B. Skull Dragon
Beast of Talwar
Fiend Skull Dragon
Lesser Fiend
Shadow Tamer
Summoned Skull
Toon Summoned Skull
Other cases usually involved one or two outlier cards, so were handled the same way as "Amazon Archer"—with all support for that archetype specifically listing the outlier card's name. For example, "Manga Ryu-Ran", whose Japanese name was 「トゥーン・ドラゴン・エッガー」 ("Toon Dragon Egger"), is a "Toon" card, but the "Toon" archetype was not supported until the release of "Toon Table of Contents" 3 years after its first print; to resolve this, the original text of "Toon Table of Contents" specified "Add 1 card [...] that includes "Toon" in its card name, or is named "Manga Ryu-Ran". Similar cases occurred for "Phantom Beast Cross-Wing" and "Phantom Beast Thunder-Pegasus" needing to support "Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts" (due to its Japanese name containing "Phantom Beast"); and "Ojama Country" needing to support "Ojamuscle" (due to its Japanese name containing "Ojama").
One more unique case would appear prior to the creation of archetype conditions: "Rainbow Dragon" and "Rainbow Dark Dragon" both had 「
In European languages other than English, there is one additional case that predates archetype conditions: "Arsenal Summoner" supports the "Guardian" archetype, but this must include "Guardian Angel Joan". Due to language differences around the translation of the term guardian angel, "Guardian Angel Joan" has the exact word "Guardian" in Japanese, Korean, English, Spanish, French, and German; but lacks it in Italian and Portuguese ("Joan Angelo Custode" does not have "Guardiano", and "Joan, o Anjo da Guarda" does not have "Guardião"). The effect of "Arsenal Summoner" would then have to handle this on top of the many archetype exclusions at the same time. To resolve this, Upper Deck Entertainment worded the effect in all non-English European languages as (translated) Add 1 GUARDIAN card from your Deck to your hand., with the text formatting implying that Guardian is acting as its own special category, similar to the previous situation with "Archfiend" cards.
CreationEdit
When releasing "Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast" in areas outside of Japan, a new problem arose: "Chimera", like "Gazelle" from before, also had "Phantom Beast" in its Japanese name. Since "Chimera" had already prominently appeared in the anime under its localized name, its name could not be changed for marketing reasons, and it was impractical to reprint all existing "Phantom Beast" support to include "Chimera" as well. Archetype conditions were created to resolve this, with "Chimera" receiving the line (This monster is always treated as a "Phantom Beast" monster.)—after the widespread adoption of archetype conditions, this was later updated to (This card is always treated as a "Phantom Beast" card.), matching the now-standardized archetype condition text.
Several additional cards have since received archetype conditions for the same reason, including most cards mentioned above. In other cases, where an existing localized name is not well-known, cards have been renamed to include them under archetypes. For example, "Amazon Archer" had its English name changed to "Amazoness Archer" to include it in the "Amazoness" archetype, and "Oscillo Hero #2" had its English name changed to "Wattkid" to include it in the "Watt" archetype.
Uses outside localizationEdit
After the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game created archetype conditions, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game took notice and began to adopt them in the original Japanese cards, when it was desirable to include a card in an archetype without having to include the particular archetype string in its Japanese name.
The first Japanese card to use an archetype condition was "Number 39: Utopia Beyond". "Utopia Beyond" originated in the anime with a name that included all of the components of the Japanese name of the "Utopia" archetype, but with other text interrupting the name, ordinarily preventing it from being an archetype member. Because it was desirable to make it a member of the "Utopia" archetype without changing its anime name, an archetype condition was used in Japanese. In European languages, its name was simply localized to include "Utopia", so the archetype condition was removed.
After its usage on "Utopia Beyond", archetype conditions became more common in Japanese. In Japanese, it is often used when releasing an anime- or manga-original card in the OCG to make it part of an archetype it is closely tied to, despite the archetype's name not appearing in its own. For example, the manga-original card "Contrast HERO Chaos" has a similar name in all released languages, but contains an archetype condition in all languages of the TCG and OCG stating that it is an "Elemental HERO" monster.
ExceptionsEdit
The "Chaos" archetype, spanning hundreds of monsters across all eras, includes several monsters released during early years, such as "Kamionwizard" and "Morphing Jar #2". No card currently supports every Monster, Spell, or Trap Card belonging of the "Chaos" archetype. Explicit support for monster using the explicit text "Chaos" are currently always either "Chaos" Ritual Monsters or "Chaos" Synchro Monsters. Conversely, there are cards with the "Chaos" text string in the TCG that do not belong to this archetype, such as "Dark Magician of Chaos". None of these cards that would result in an archetype-exclusion condition are Ritual or Synchro monsters.
Additionally, all "Number C" and "CXyz" monsters belong to the "Chaos" archetype, and many already have the string "Chaos" in their TCG names (and repeated 「カオス」 in their Japanese names), are instead supported by their sub-archetype strings. No card supports the entire "Chaos" Xyz monsters by explicitly mentioning "Chaos" Xyz in their card texts.
As a result, there are currently no archetype condition or archetype-exclusion condition associated with "Chaos" monsters even if it would otherwise result in one.
Similarly, the "Magician" archetype, which includes "Time Wizard", but excludes "Dark Magician", only have support cards which specifically apply to "Magician" Pendulum Monsters and Continuous Spell Cards.
Cards with archetype conditionsEdit
All languagesEdit
This list consists of cards where archetype conditions are deliberately used outside of localization purposes, to give more flexibility to card designers when naming cards. These have since become the most common use of archetype conditions.
TCGEdit
All languagesEdit
These conditions are present in all print languages of the TCG.
English names | English archetype name | Japanese names | Japanese archetype name |
---|---|---|---|
A Deal with Dark Ruler Axe of Despair Black Skull Dragon Beast of Talwar Fiend Skull Dragon Lesser Fiend Shadow Tamer Summoned Skull Toon Summoned Skull |
Archfiend | 「デーモンとの 「デーモンの 「ブラック・デーモンズ・ドラゴン」 ("Black Daemon's Dragon") 「タルワール・デーモン」 ("Talwar Daemon") 「デス・デーモン・ドラゴン」 ("Death Daemon Dragon") 「レッサー・デーモン」 ("Lesser Daemon") 「デーモン・テイマー」 ("Daemon Tamer") 「デーモンの 「トゥーン・デーモン」 ("Toon Daemon") |
「デーモン」 ("Daemon") |
Blaze Cannon | Blaze Accelerator | 「ゴッド・ブレイズ・キャノン」 ("God Blaze Cannon") | 「ブレイズ・キャノン」 ("Blaze Cannon") |
Celestial Sword - Eatos | Noble Arms | 「 |
「 |
Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts |
Phantom Beast | 「 「 |
「 |
Manga Ryu-Ran | Toon | 「トゥーン・ドラゴン・エッガー」 ("Toon Dragon Egger") | 「トゥーン」 |
Ojamuscle | Ojama | 「おジャマッスル」 | 「おジャマ」 |
Rainbow Dragon Rainbow Dark Dragon Rainbow Overdragon |
Ultimate Crystal | 「 「 「 |
「 |
The four cards in the Skull Archfiend series are also another unique case: While their English and other European language names all include "Archfiend", they have a condition stating that their name becomes "Summoned Skull" when on the field (in order to receive "Summoned Skull"-specific support). Due to this, they require another condition on top stating that they are all still treated as an "Archfiend" card. This second condition is not needed in Japanese and Korean.
In Italian only, "Un Accordo col Signore Oscuro" ("A Deal with Dark Ruler") was later renamed "Un Accordo con l'Arcidemone" , allowing its archetype condition to be removed. This was likely done because the old name became doubly problematic with the creation of the "Darklord" archetype ("Signore Oscuro" in Italian), which would have otherwise required adding an archetype-exclusion condition on top of the archetype condition.
Non-English languagesEdit
These conditions only appear in certain non-English language prints of these cards.
English name | English archetype name | Affected language(s) | Affected name(s) | Affected archetype name |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cyber Raider | Cyber | Italian | Predone Cibernetico | Cyber |
Dark Armed Dragon | Armed Dragon | Portuguese | Dragão Negro Armado | Dragão Armado |
De-Synchro | Synchro | Italian | De-Sincronizzazione | Synchro |
Dharc the Dark Charmer Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy |
Charmer | German | Dharc, der finstere Zauberer Dharc, der finstere Zauberer in düster |
Verzaubererin |
Fabled Grimro | Fabled | Italian | La Favolosa Grimro | Il Favoloso |
Gadget Soldier | Gadget | German Italian |
Maschinensoldat Soldato Gadget |
Apparat Congegno |
Goblin's Secret Remedy | Goblin | German Spanish |
Kobolds letzte Rettung El Remedio Secreto del Trasgo |
Goblin Goblin |
Guardian Angel Joan | Guardian | Italian Portuguese |
Joan Angelo Custode Joan, o Anjo da Guarda |
Guardiano Guardião |
Lava Battleguard | Battleguard | French German Italian Spanish |
Garde des Laves Lavakampfwächter Guardiano di Lava Guardián de Batalla de Lava |
des Gardes Kampfwache Battagliasorvegliante Escolta de Batalla |
Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk | Meklord Astro | Italian | Astro Drago Meklord Asterisco | Astro Meklord |
Mustering of the Dark Scorpions | Dark Scorpion | Spanish | Reunión de los Escorpiones Oscuros | Escorpión Oscuro |
Photon Generator Unit | Photon | Italian Spanish |
Unità Generatrice di Fotoni Unidad Generadora de Fotones |
Fotonico Fotónico/a |
Psychic Megacyber | Cyber | Portuguese | Megacyber Psíquico | Ciber |
Ride of the Valkyries | Valkyrie | French Italian Portuguese Spanish |
Chevauchée des Valkyries Cavalcata delle Valkyrie Cavalgada das Valquírias Cabalgata de las Valquirias |
Valkyrie- Valkyria- Valquíria- Valquiria- |
Rank-Up-Magic Limited Barian's Force | Rank-Up-Magic | German | Rangsteigerungsmagie Barians kleine Kraft | Rangsteigerungszauber |
Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord | Timelord | French German Spanish |
Sephylon, le Seigneur Ultime du Temps Sephylon, der ultimative Zeitherrscher Sephylon, el Amo del Tiempo Definitivo |
Seigneur du Temps Herr der Zeit Señor del Tiempo |
Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda | Ritual Beast Tamer | French German Italian Portuguese Spanish |
Winda, Dompteur Avatar Bête Spirituelle Geistungeheuer-Avatar-Zähmerin Winda Domatore Avatar Bestia Spirito Winda Domador Avatar da Besta Espiritual Winda Domador Avatar del Espíritu Bestia Winda |
Dompteur Bête Spirituelle Geistungeheuer-Zähmer/in Domatore Bestia Spirito Domador da Besta Espiritual Domador del Espíritu Bestia |
Superheavy Samurai Soulbang Cannon Superheavy Samurai Soulbeads Superheavy Samurai Soulbreaker Armor Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer Superheavy Samurai Soulshield Wall |
Superheavy Samurai Soul | Portuguese | Canhão Samurai Superpesado Estrondo de Almas Samurai Superpesado Colar das Almas Armadura Samurai Superpesado Quebra Almas Samurai Superpesado Perfurador de Almas Muralha Samurai Superpesado Escudo da Alma |
Samurai Superpesado Alma |
Swamp Battleguard | Battleguard | French German Italian Spanish |
Garde des Marais Sumpfkampfwächter Guardiano delle Paludi Guardián de Batalla del Pantano |
des Gardes Kampfwache Battagliasorvegliante Escolta de Batalla |
Tri-Blaze Accelerator | Blaze Accelerator | French Italian |
Accélérateur Tri-Flammes Acceleratore Tri-Fiammata |
Accélérateur de Flammes Acceleratore Fiammata |
White Aura Bihamut White Aura Dolphin White Aura Whale |
White Aura | German | Weiße Aura Bihamut Weißer Auradelfin Weißer Aurawal |
Weißaura |
- For unknown reasons, the Italian card database entry for "Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight" previously had an archetype condition, but this was removed from both the database and the physical card when it was reprinted, causing a theoretically unresolved issue (the latest Italian texts of "Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight" and "Dark Burning Attack" now conflict, where previously they did not).
OCGEdit
After archetype conditions began to be used outside of localizations, they began to appear in OCG cards as well. This list mostly consists of cards whose localizations could conveniently or coincidentally still include the archetype name.
English names | English archetype name | Affected language(s) | Affected name(s) | Affected archetype name(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Celtic Guard of Noble Arms | Celtic Guard | Japanese Korean |
エルフの 엘프의 성검사 |
エルフの 엘프 검사 |
Necroid Synchro Salamangreat Zebroid X |
roid | Simplified Chinese | 死灵同步 转生炎兽 类斑马X |
机人 |
Number 39: Utopia Beyond | Utopia | Japanese Korean |
No.39 희망황 비욘드 더 호프 |
유토피아 |
Multiple "Superheavy Samurai" monsters | Superheavy Samurai | Japanese Korean |
超重 초중 |
超重武者 초중무사 |
Raidraptor Replica | Raidraptor | Japanese Korean |
||
Twilight Ninja Nichirin, the Chunin | Ninja | Japanese Korean |
황혼의 중인-니치린 |
첩자 |
- Certain "Superheavy Samurai" (OCG: "Superheavy Warrior") cards keep the "Superheavy" part of their OCG names but use a different descriptor than "Warrior", and use an archetype condition to bridge the gap. To keep the above table simple, the list of affected cards is as followed: "Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi", "Superheavy Samurai General Coral, "Superheavy Samurai General Jade", "Superheavy Samurai Commander Shanawo", "Superheavy Samurai Monk Big Benkei", "Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi", "Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji", "Superheavy Samurai Brave Masurawo", "Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi", "Superheavy Samurai Stealth Ninja", "Superheavy Samurai Steam Train King", "Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi", and "Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo".
TextEdit
CardEdit
Language | Text | Translation |
---|---|---|
English | (This card is always treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) | |
French | (Cette carte est toujours traitée comme une carte "[archetype]".) | (This card is always treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) |
German | (Diese Karte wird immer als „[archetype]“-Karte behandelt.) Formerly: (Diese Karte wird | |
Italian | (Questa carta viene sempre considerata come una carta "[archetype]".) Formerly: (Questa carta |
(This card always gets considered as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) Formely: (This card is always considered as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) |
Portuguese | (Este card é tratado como um card "[archetype]".) Formerly: (Este card |
(This card is treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) Formerly: (This card must always be considered as a(n) "[archetype]" card.) |
Spanish | (Esta carta se trata siempre como una carta "[archetype]"). | (This card is always treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card). |
Japanese | このカード Formerly: このカードはルール Formerly: このカードはルール |
This card's name is also treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card as a rule. Formerly: This card is also treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card as a rule. Formerly: As a rule, this card is also treated as a card with "[archetype]" in its name. |
Korean | 이 카드는 룰 상 "[archetype]" 카드로도 취급한다. Formerly: 이 카드는 룰 상 "[archetype]" 카드로 |
This card is treated as a(n) "[archetype]" card as a rule. |
MonsterEdit
This notation is deprecated, presumably to make it clear that the condition applies even if the card in question is not currently treated as a monster, e.g. by becoming an Equip Card.
Language | Text | Translation |
---|---|---|
English | (This monster is always treated as a(n) "[archetype]" monster.) | |
French | (Ce monstre est toujours traité comme un monstre "[archetype]".) | (This monster is always treated as a(n) "[archetype]" monster.) |
German | (Dieses Monster wird immer als ein „[archetype]“-Monster behandelt.) | |
Italian | (Questo mostro viene sempre considerato come un mostro "[archetype]".) | |
Spanish | (Este monstruo se trata siempre como un monstruo "[archetype]"). | |
Japanese | このカードはルール |
This card is treated as a(n) "[archetype]" monster as a rule. |
Korean | 이 카드는 룰 상 "[archetype]" 몬스터로도 취급한다. | |
Simplified Chinese | 此卡名在规则上也视为“[archetype]”卡。 |
ReferencesEdit
- ↑ "What is an "Archfiend"?". Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. Upper Deck Entertainment. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009.