Introduction to 3 Card Blind

Yu-Gi-Oh has, for most of its life, only really had one format - Advanced.
Meanwhile, Magic The Gathering has had many, official or fanmade. Among them is 3 Card Blind, one of its most unique formats.
With the many recent crisis in Yugioh - the massive increase in price, power creep and other issues - it's never been a worse time
to play Advanced Yugioh and never been a better time to start exploring other metas, so let's explore one and see what the fuzz is about.

Basic Ruleset & Tournament Structure

Your Main Deck is of exactly 3 cards, with 1 card extra deck, and you cannot lose via deckout.

This is the main rule of the game. Because of this there is literally no randomness to the outcome of the duels; a deck of 3 Breaker the Magical Warrior  are always gonna lose to a deck of 3 Gene-Warped Warwolf  for example. Because of this, the format isn't about playing the game per se but rather about deckbuilding; the goal of the game is to create a decklist that can win as many matchups vs other decks as possible.

Almost if not all play is done via tournaments.
When a tournament opens, everyone submits their decklists. Then, after everyone got their deck in a large spreadsheet is posted, matching every deck vs every other deck. The players then all work together to figure out which decks beat which and which ones tie, and after this score is tallied - every time a deck always wins a matchup, it gains points. If it loses, then it doesnt. After all matchups are calculated then the deck that has the most winning matchups is the winner.

This makes the format low on execution (and no need for scheduling!) but very rewarding for deckbuilders or jank players who enjoy looking for undiscovered synergies or niche cards. You'll find lots of obscure cards such as Engraver of the Mark or Kozmo Dark Planet enjoying success in this format for example. There is lots to cook, and lots to discover.

Banlist and Staples

The format does have its own banlist. The following cards are banned:

Cauldron of the Old Man 
Self-Destruct Button
The Tyrant Neptune
Delinquent Duo 
D.D. Designator 
Confiscation 
Last Turn 
Psi-Blocker

Anyone familiar with most of these cards will know why, however a few are worth highlighting.
Notably, Psi-Blocker is banned but Prohibition isn't. This is for two reasons; the first is that Psi-Blocker works when going second; Prohibition can't affect monsters already on the field while Psi-Blocker can. In a number of matchups it was found that Prohibition loses a lot of its sting going second, a problem that Psi-Blocker does not have. More importantly however, Psi-Blocker is on a body. This might seem as a detriment - being more easily removable - but is in fact an advantage. It means that if your last card is Blocker then you can still attack for it to win the game, something you can't do with Prohibition. Despite being more easily removable this double layer of versatility made it have a much higher win rate, thus getting the ban.

Another card notable from this list is Last Turn. FTK'ing is rather hard with only 3 cards - Morphtronic Telefon loops can't be stabilished in just one turn and is easily disruptable by the opponent if they get a turn to react, for example. Last Turn - alongside The Tyrant Neptune - ended being the only real FTK's we found so far, alongside the handrip cards. You'd normal summon Jowgen the Spiritualist and set Last Turn, and win instantly. You'd have a third card to help with going second, and together with Jowgen's removal effect you get an extremely powerful deck. Needless to say, it was banned.

Most decks have some core gameplay - 1 or 2 cards that form some synergy, usually in the form of a boss monster with protection, a resource loop or good enough trades to win the game. This leaves most decks to have one card of room for staple, alongside a free Extra Deck. The most common staple cards are Kashtira Fenrir and Solemn Scolding. Fenrir is almost everything you'd want in a card: It is a beater that can close out the game, it can act as disruption and it is also a very powerful form of removal. However, it has several exploitable weaknesses: It targets, and it also cannot remove face-downs. If it's destroyed by a monster like Exiled Force it also won't get its effect, either. Scolding acts as an upgrade to Solemn Judgment, paying less LP and gaining the ability to negate monster effects rather than just summon for a neglible downside - decks running Solemn aren't running other cards they can set, making it a strict upgrade.

Sample Decks

Not sure where to start, or need some examples of decks? Here's a few good ones.

Infernity Archer This Creepy Little Punk Solemn Scolding - this deck decides to rather than use removal to instead use Infernity Archer to attack over the opponent's stuff. Creepy Little Punk revives Archer every turn, making it tricky to fully out. Scolding acts as a solution for anything that threatens this loop, in particular Fenrir.

Kozmo Dark Planet Kozmo Dark Planet Solemn Scolding - this deck has one simple idea: Most decks just, can't out Dark Planet. Being immune to targeting and with 4k attack means most forms of removal used can't win. Solemn Scolding can out whatever the opponent might use to out it, requiring them to either have backrow removal or two different ways to out it.

Kashtira Fenrir Engraver of the Mark Zoodiac Whiptail Zoodiac Drident - this deck makes use of the Extra Deck. The idea is to have 4 different cards that trade well and trade with different styles of interaction - Fenrir targets to banishes face-down, Drident is a quick effect pop, Whiptail is a non-targetting banish and Engraver deals with Prohibition alongside being disruption and more pops. In addition, all 3 of the main deck cards are monsters, letting the deck always put pressure and win, avoiding ties.

Dodger Dragon  Astral Kuriboh Final Countdown Number 59: Crooked Cook - another deck with the Extra Deck, this one is truly heinous. Dodger Dragon prevents Solemn Scolding from being activated, and then you follow it up with Astral Kuriboh to make an unkillable unaffected Crooked Cook, winning via Final Countdown. The deck does still have significant weaknesses: Even with Dodger Dragon the deck is terrible going second, losing to Fenrir or any non-counter trap disruption. It also can suffer if the opponent has direct attackers like Archer or ways of doing piercing.

Where to play & Conclusion

 
If you love to explore the niche and overlooked yugioh cards, or simply don't have time for YGO proper but still wanna cook, this is the format for you. Due to needing a large number of players for a tournament to properly work, it's recommended to join the Yu-Gi-Oh 3 Card Blind discord for discussion, joining tournaments and getting to participate in the format. We just finished wrapping up our second tournament, and entrance for our third tour open soon.

Plug aside, 3 Card Blind shows that there is a lot more to Yu-Gi-Oh and card games in general than just the Advanced, competitive format - there's many ways to use cardboard, specially so in a game as large and comprehensive as this. With the crisis in Modern YGO side formats like this provide good, clean fun for when you can't afford Diabellstars but still want to scratch that cardboard itch.