One of the most unassuming archetypes visually in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh has to be the Frog archetype. I mean, they are simply cute little frogs of different types and breeds, how powerful could they be? However, Frogs have been one of the most constant archetypes to reappear in the Yu-Gi-Oh meta throughout the years in multiple variations. From starting as simple tribute fodder, to filling the graveyard to defeat the opponent in a single turn, to being the archetype associated with and being able to turbo out one of the most powerful Xyzs this game has ever seen, Frogs have almost done it all in the game, mainly through the same culprits being a constant when Frogs pop up. Today, I want to cover the history of the Frog archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh to see everything they have done and why they've been one of the more versatile archetypes throughout competitive Yu-Gi-Oh history.
Treeborn Frog
Despite debuting in 2005's Cybernetic Revolution, none of the Frog monsters would be able to make an immediate competitive splash. They would have to wait for 2006's Shadow of Infinity to get the first monster in this archetype to see competitive play in the form of Treeborn Frog. Treeborn Frog is a low Level 1 monster with 100 ATK and DEF, not looking so strong on paper, but where it lacks in power on its own, it makes up for with a great effect. Treeborn Frog could revive itself from your graveyard during each Standby Phase, only as long as you do not have any Spell or Trap Cards in your possession and you don't already control Treeborn Frog. This made Treeborn Frog one of the best cards in the game to serve as tribute fodder for some of the powerful tribute monsters like the Monarchs and Jinzo at the very least. Treeborn Frog could also be tributed with an Enemy Controller to steal an opponent's monster during the Standby Phase and then activate its effect in the graveyard again to bring itself back. Later on, it could eat up Light and Darkness Dragon's negations by constantly activating, though future printings gave it a soft once per turn while in the grave, so it couldn't trigger multiple times unless you revived it and put it back. Treeborn Frog made Monarch Decks much more powerful in 2006, which caused Konami to limit Treeborn Frog to 1 so shortly after its release to prevent players from seeing it consistently, but a Deck like Monarchs would still play the copy of Treeborn Frog since it was still some of the best tribute fodder at the time. It would eventually peel off the list, especially as we get more Frog support that limited the amount of Treeborn Frogs you needed to begin with.
Frog Monarch
The first proper "Frog" Deck would come in 2010 after a few more support cards would come out, the first being Substitoad in 2008, which can tribute a monster to summon any Frog directly from the Deck, getting you to any Frog name you need. This would combine well with 2009's Swap Frog, who on summon could send any Level 2 or lower WATER Aqua from your Deck to the graveyard, can discard a WATER monster to Special Summon itself from the hand to prevent you from using your Normal Summon, and could let you bounce a monster you control to the hand to let you Normal Summon any Frog monster not named Swap Frog in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. These two cards made seeing Treeborn Frog far more consistent, creating the Frog Monarch strategy. Swap Frog and Treeborn Frog could both serve as great tribute fodder for Monarchs like Raiza the Storm Monarch, Caius the Shadow Monarch, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, or Mobius the Frost Monarch along with other good tribute monsters like the aforementioned Jinzo, Dark Dust Spirit, and Vanity's Fiend.
This strategy would get better with the release of Ronintoadin as well, who can banish a Frog from the graveyard to revive itself from the graveyard, giving you even more tribute fodder. If you could get two Frogs on the field, however, you could also play Light and Darkness Dragon mentioned earlier, and some builds would even try Obelisk the Tormentor since 3 tribute materials weren't that difficult, especially with Ronintoadin. This is the Deck where you would also often see the play to use Enemy Controller with Treeborn Frog in the Standby Phase to steal an opponent's monster and still get your Treeborn Frog out on the field. If you couldn't get your Tribute Summon off immediately, you could also rely on cards like Battle Fader, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Tragoedia to protect your life points, so it was fine taking its first turn to set up if needed. Frog Monarchs were a mainstay in the game for many years until the game got too fast for them, plus the fact that Monarchs would eventually get the support that made them no longer need the Frogs.
Frog FTK
One of the purest Frog strategies we have ever seen is the Frog FTK in 2010 which spawned from the release of Ronintoadin. One thing to note about both Ronintoadin and Substitoad is that neither card has any once per turn restrictions, letting you use them both as many times as you want. All you would need to get the FTK live is a Substitoad, any other monster on the field, and Mass Driver. Substitoad would tribute a monster to summon a Swap Frog to send Ronintoadin directly from the Deck to the graveyard, due to the fact Ronintoadin isn't a Frog by name and therefore can't be summoned off Substitoad, and then you would simply tribute every monster with the Substitoad to keep summoning more Frogs to get 20 of them into the graveyard. Ronintoadin would then banish a Frog to revive himself, which you would then tribute off of Mass Driver to deal 400 damage to the opponent, rinse and repeat til you dealt 8000 damage to the opponent. If you couldn't pull the FTK off, you could also just get all the Frogs into the graveyard for your Mass Driver later and end on two copies of Dupe Frog to prevent the opponent from attacking. The Deck could also use Fishborg Blaster and side into something like Quickdraw Synchron to become a pseudo-Synchro Deck in case the FTK doesn't work in later games due to a counter like Hanewata. You also had consistency with cards like One for One, Moray of Greed, Card Destruction, and even Hand Destruction along with recovery in the form of Salvage so pulling the FTK wasn't too difficult. The strategy was strong enough to win the 2010 World Championship and ended up getting both Substitoad and Mass Driver banned, with the former only returning to the TCG when Ronintoadin got banned much later on.
Fish OTK
After the FTK left the game, the Frogs would focus on helping the player OTK instead. You would commonly see Treeborn Frog, Swap Frog, Ronintoadin, and Dupe Frog run together to try and get the tribute fodder needed to summon Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth. Coelacanth would then discard a card to summon copies of Fishborg Blaster and Oyster Meister from the Deck to make smaller Synchros like Armory Arm and Formula Synchron and try to OTK with powerful Synchros like Red Nova Dragon or Shooting Star Dragon, and you even had access to the Armory Arm OTK with Colossal Fighter running into an opponent's monster equipped with Armory Arm that would barely be stronger than your Colossal Fighter to have your monster destroyed in battle and Armory Arm does 2800 damage to the opponent while Colossal Fighter revives himself to repeat this play til you OTK the opponent. The Deck just tries to stay alive using the Frogs as defense til you can get to the tools needed to OTK via Moray of Greed, Gold Sarcophagus, and even Pot of Duality. This would be the strategy that gets Fishborg Blaster banned and even Formula Synchron limited. Armory Arm would also be changed to no longer work with Colossal Fighter since he would need to stay in the graveyard to check for his ATK to deal the burn damage, but this would be reversed many years later when the play was no longer likely to be relevant.
Lancer Frogs
One of the more fun versions of Frogs to pop up, this Deck is similar to the Frog Monarch strategy, only instead of trying to Tribute Summon a Monarch, you would instead summon Sea Lancer. Sea Lancer would then target your banished Fish, Sea Serpent, and Aqua monsters and equip them to himself to gain 1000 ATK for each monster he has equipped. This combines well with the fact that Ronintoadin is going to banish your Frogs from the graveyard to revive himself, and Sea Lancer can just keep equipping your banished Frogs to himself every turn to get more ATK. Sea Lancer could also destroy one of the equipped monsters from himself to protect himself from destruction, which could trigger Dupe Frog to search for a Frog or Poison Draw Frog to let you draw a card. This was never the most competitive version of Frogs, but it was fun and did manage to top a Regional in 2013.
Des Frog OTK
Another more fun version of Frogs is the Des Frog OTK. One thing to note about Dupe Frog and Ronintoadin is that both monsters are treated as the original Frog while on the field, Des Frog. Special Summoning either monster would allow you to use Inferno Reckless Summon to summon 3 copies of Des Frog directly from the Deck, and then you would hope to resolve Des Croaking with 3 Des Frogs on the field to destroy all of the opponent's cards. You could then use copies of Ronintoadin to make Xyzs like Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, Daigusto Phoenix, and Ghostrick Socuteboss to help you get the damage needed to OTK the opponent, and copies of Des Frog could go into Rank 5s like Number 61: Volcasaurus, Number 73: Abyss Splash, Number 12: Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja and Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh to help get your OTK if they are needed, with Volcasaurus being used to go into Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger if you used his effect. It's another case where this wasn't ever the best Deck, or super competitive to begin with, but it did top the 2014 North American WCQ, which is a very impressive feat.
Toadally Awesome
Frogs would go quiet for a couple of years after Frog Monarchs died down and the Des Frog OTK topped in 2014, but late 2016 would revive the relevance of Frogs with the release of Toadally Awesome, one of the best Xyzs in this game's history. Now Toadally Awesome wasn't generic, as he required 2 Level 2 Aqua Monsters to summon, which limited him initially to a strategy like Frogs, that is until you remember he is a Rank 3 or lower WATER Xyz. This turned Toadally Awesome instantly into the best Bahamut Shark in the game, where any Deck that could provide 2 Level 4 WATER monsters could make a Bahamut Shark and immediately get out Toadally Awesome. In return, you get a monster who could send an Aqua monster from your hand or field to the graveyard to negate an opponent's card or effect, destroy it, and then set that card directly to your side of the field. If you would send Toadally Awesome to the grave for this effect, you could also add a WATER monster from your graveyard back to your hand, which could either get Toadally Awesome back into your Extra Deck to bring out with Bahamut Shark again, or you could add back any WATER monster that would allow you to perform combos again. This did make Frog strategies relevant once again, along with strategies that would make Bahamut Shark like Atlantean Mermails and even HEROs for using cards like Elder Entity Norden combined with Elemental HERO Bubbleman to try and combine Toadally Awesome with a potential Masked HERO Dark Law. Toad's relevance to Frogs was that he could detach a material from himself during each Standby Phase to summon a Frog from Deck, getting out a Swap Frog to dump Ronintoadin, or a Dupe Frog for battle protection and searching potential, making Decks that could use Frogs even more powerful. Toadally Awesome would change the way WATER strategies would play for years, whether they used Level 2 Aquas or could make Bahamut Shark.
Mermail Frogs
One of the Frog strategies that came from the release of Toadally Awesome was Mermail Frogs. This Deck did play like standard Atlantean Mermail, who could easily summon a Bahamut Shark to summon your Toadally Awesome, but you also had a few Frogs weaved into the Deck with 3 Swap Frogs and a Ronintoadin to make Toadally Awesome the intended way, since being WATER monsters does add to Atlantean Mermail synergy to summon monsters like Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord and Swap Frog's discard effect, while not being a way to trigger Atlantean Dragoons for example, could trigger Mermail Abyssgunde or Mermail Abysshilde to get your Level 4 Mermails on the field for Bahamut Shark, or Level 7s for Mermail Abyssgaios to try and add alongside your Toadally Awesome. It wasn't a common Deck to see Frogs in, as future Atlantean Mermail Decks would stir away from the Frogs in favor of just relying on Bahamut Shark to summon your Toads, but it was one of the early Frog strategies coming out of the release of Toadally Awesome that found success.
Paleozoic Frogs
Another archetype that's been associated with Frogs in its history has been the Paleozoic archetype. This archetype full of mostly Traps is unique, as every time a Trap is activated, they come back not as a Trap, but as a monster. This is mostly important to Frogs because all the Paleozoics when they become monsters will be Level 2 Aqua monsters, meaning they are material that can naturally Xyz Summon your copies of Toadally Awesome. The Paleozoics are also pretty good as Trap Cards as well, with Paleozoic Canadia being Book of Moon while Paleozoic Olenoides is Dust Tornado and Paleozoic Dinomischus is Karma Cut. You also have ways to put more Paleo Traps in the grave with Paleozoic Marrella along with putting Traps with grave effects like Lost World as well. Paleos would also be banished if they leave the field and aren't used as Xyz Material, which is why you also got Paleozoic Leanchoilia to return them to the graveyard along with a card like Absolute King Back Jack that would be run in That Grass Looks Greener versions of the Deck along with Fiend Griefing. The Frog package of Dupe Frog, Swap Frog, and Ronintoadin also works with the Paleozoics to make their own Xyz Monsters like Paleozoic Opabinia to use Paleos from the hand and search for them, or Paleozoic Anomalocaris for removal each turn, though both Xyzs do prefer if you get at least 1 Trap attached to them as material, which of course would be the Paleozoics. Paleo Frogs would be one of the best Frog strategies, and be viable until Ronintoadin got banned in the TCG due to the next and final version of Frogs.
Spright Frogs
The final version of Frogs, and the one you'll see most often, is the Spright Frog strategy. The Spright archetype is a Level 2 archetype that makes getting to any Level 2 in the game super consistent via their Xyz Monster, Gigantic Spright. This makes turning the Frog engine on as consistent as ever. The Sprights are also good on their own merits since all of them can be Special Summoned if you control a Level 2, with Spright Blue searching your Spright Monsters and Spright Jet searching for your Spright Spells and Traps like Spright Starter to summon more Sprights, Spright Gamma Burst for OTKing with your Level, Rank, and Link-2 monsters, or disruption options with Spright Smashers and Spright Gamma Burst. You also had a negation for monster effects with Spright Red and Spell and Traps with Spright Carrot. You even got Spright Elf as the archetypal Link-2 that gives your monsters it points to some targeting protection, plus it can revive Level, Rank, and Link-2 monsters to constantly use Toadally Awesome. Sprights also having DARK monsters means you get another good Rank 2 in the form of Number 65: Djinn Buster for monster effect negation as well.
This would cause the OCG to ban Toadally Awesome and limit Swap Frog, making the Frogs just some Rank 2 tools to the Deck, though Swap Frog would return to the OCG at 3 once cards like Spright Jet, Spright Blue, and Spright Starter took hits along with the banning of Spright Jet. The TCG would also ban Spright Jet, along with Ronintoadin to slow Sprights' access to Toadally Awesome (and allow Substitoad to once again be TCG legal). TCG would also have Spright Starter at 2, but it eventually came back to 3, as would consistent access to Toadally Awesome since Swap Frog could send Mirror Mage of the Ice Barrier from the Deck to the graveyard so you can search for Freezing Chains of the Ice Barrier to revive it and make your Toadally Awesome, though you no longer have Spright Elf to revive it and the TCG never really got to use Ronintoadin with Spright Sprind, otherwise, Frogs would have been super consistent in Spright. Spright Frogs are still a solid strategy, and most Level, Rank, and Link-2 monsters do technically support this strategy. It isn't one of the best Decks anymore, but it still pops up every once in a while, especially as Spright can still mix with other strategies like Adventurer, Runick, and Fiendsmith since cards like Gigantic Spright only locks you to Level, Rank, and Link-2 monsters for the rest of the turn after you use their effects.
Conclusion
Frogs have offered a ton of variety in how they've been played since their release. Their early days were being offered as some of the best tribute fodder in the game for Monarchs and the Fish OTK strategy, while the Frog FTK with Substitoad and Mass Driver was one of the most consistent FTKs in the game's history until Substitoad and Mass Driver got banned and Frogs once again get relegated to their tribute fodder. Frogs are also good in Edison, which should go without mention as one of the most popular past formats in the game's history, so you can at least play something like Frog Monarchs to this very day since the strategy is no longer viable in more modern formats. Thankfully the release of Toadally Awesome kept the Frogs alive again, being so powerful that the OCG would limit and ban the card, while the TCG would slow access to it with the banning of Ronintoadin, leaving it to pure Paleozoic versions and anything that can make Bahamut Shark like Atlantean Mermail and Sharks. It's been years since we got a new Frog card, and Centerfrog isn't too great to end on for an archetype with the legacy that Frogs have, so hopefully we'll see a new member to the Frog Swamp eventually, and hopefully the TCG keeps Toadally Awesome legal as long as its able to so Frogs can have some form of relevancy in the modern game until they do get said support.
