As Yugioh gets more complicated, it can be difficult to look at a freshly pulled card and know whether it's for the bulk bin or competitive gold. Yugioh is unique among its card game compatriots in that it does not have a rotation system. Rotation refers to when cards are only allowed for a certain period of time, such as in the Pokemon Trading Card Game where cards rotate out of Standard play after three years. This means that the entirety of Yugioh's card pool must be considered when thinking of deck building applications.

Anatomy of a Card

Let's check back to the basics for a second. Monster cards are comprised of six factors - name, attribute, level, type, effect, and stats. Monster cards are by far the most complicated to rank, as Spell and Trap cards just do what they say. Out of these six factors, only level, effect, and stats tell you anything without the context of other cards. As such, the ardeous journey to understanding competitive viability starts with factor staples.

Factor Staples

Factor staples are cards that generically apply to one of the six card factors. For example, Reinforcement of the Army makes every Warrior-type monster in the game better, as you have an effective four copies of them, and one card that represents all level four or lower Warriors in one. 

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. A less straightforward example includes levels when it comes to Extra Deck options. Let's say level eight synchros are all the rage - by proxy, level three and four tuners are more valuable due to level five and four non-tuners being quite common. Other cards that re-contextualize levels are XYZ monsters and cards like Trade-In and Sacred Sword of Seven Stars.

This gets further complicated with the inclusion of Link monsters. In modern Yugioh, many of these monsters are Link-1s, meaning they only need one specific type of monster. For example, Fiendsmith's Requiem only requires a Light Fiend monster. This means Moon of the Closed Heaven, a generic Link-2 Light Fiend, creates a bridge between any two monsters and Requiem. This gives value to any card that can create two monsters on the field. Hardly an intuitive standard to judge cards by! 

But the bridges don't stop there! Let's look at our inconspicuous friend Dipity. Looking at its card anatomy, we can see it's a Light Fiend monster, so it can be used to summon Requiem. But it has an overlooked attribute: being a Normal monster! This can be capitalized on with Primite Lordly Lode, and facilitate the use of Primite Drillbeam while starting a Fiendsmith combo. In essence... Fiendsmith Requiem enables Dipity to be good, and as such, the Primite engine also gets better.

State of the Meta

Similarly to how cards don't exist in a vacuum in regards to the card around them, cards also exist within a competitive environment. At the time of its release, Dark Ruler No More became an instant staple due to the high volume of "omni-negate" boards - combinations of monsters with negation effects that would render your entire turn useless. A card that could break this board instantly was just what was needed. However, board breaking has changed shape since then: either boards focus more on a sustainable grind game, disruption is focused more in the hand with cards like Mulcharmy Fuwalos, or interaction has been diversified with searchable trap interaction.  Dark Ruler No More started as a great card, then lessened in impact. Perhaps we could say that cards can't be wholly judged as "good" or "bad," but rather judged within its time frame.

Take a look at the iconic Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind. By today's standards, halving the ATK points of an opponent's monster is middling, but when you look at one of the most popular threats at the time - Stardust Dragon - it starts to tell a different story. Alongside its condition to Special Summon itself if you control a Blackwing monster, Gale was way ahead of its time and got limited as a result. Speaking of archetypes...

Archetypal Context

 Of course, the easiest way to find out if a card is good is judging how much synergy it has within its own deck. True Light is a powerful card in the Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck, but it's a Trap card, so normally, it would be too slow to consider. Enter Maiden of White, a monster that can send itself to the Graveyard to activate True Light from the Deck. Within its archetypal context, True Light is more of a Continuous, quick-play Spell than a Trap card.

In the same way, Blue-Eyes White Dragon itself is a card that cannot be judged outside of its archetypal context. I mean, it's a Level 8 Normal monster, so there has to be more than meets the eye! Putting together the effects of True Light and Maiden of White reveals a new picture - off of just the latter card, you get a Level one tuner, a level eight body, and a continuous grinding machine. The sky really is the limit when it comes to what new wacky ideas that Konami comes up with to make any card viable.

Conclusion 

It's difficult to jump into Yugioh as a beginner, and a big part of that is the missing context on what cards are good. Any aspect of the card, from its attribute, typing, stats, or even lack of effect could be the difference between it being mediocre and an important combo bridge. Temporal context matters with cards like Dark Ruler No More, where it will flux in and out of the meta as needed. And even cards that are considered too slow for their time can get a boost from nowhere as new archetypal support bolsters its ranks. (And hey, what deck isn't top tier when they get a Link-1 that searches their Field Spell?) The next time you reconsider a card, remember that its meta status can change in the blink of an eye!