Introduction
With the announcement of Konami giving some level of official acknowledgements to alternative formats, there’s been a lot of questions. There’s still plenty of information to wait on at this juncture before making any definitive statements. One of these formats is what they have called ‘Common Charity,' which is a Common only format. It’s an equivalent to Magic the Gathering’s “Pauper Format." This is different to a “Pure Pauper” which would allow only cards that had their first printings in Common. With Common Charity, it’s all Commons, which means reprints of previous foil cards can change matters.
People will continue to theory-craft what this Common Charity meta will look like. Decks such as Gouki, Tenyi and Lunalight are being touted as contenders. There's been lots of testing to figure stuff out. Currently big ‘towers’ type decks have been mentioned, but there’s also enough tools for a control game. However, this article isn’t about the decks themselves, but rather, the individual cards. We'll be looking at what generic staples are available as Commons and what ones aren't. As the best decks take their place and the format shapes up, it’s handy to know what kind of cards to look for when digging through your collection, especially for new players wanting to give this type of Yugioh a try.
What We'll be Looking At
While budget players may enjoy this format, this is not necessarily all about what is budget friendly; many foil cards are cheap and some Commons are not so cheap. This is more about what is and isn’t available in Common than what is cheap. Things may also change in the future too. Therefore, this will be about what is the case at the time of writing. If something is only a foil at the time of writing, we will try to look at a potential substitute that may have to fill the gap, if any. We don’t need to go into much detail about what these cards do, as they are all popular ones. Still, it helps to know which ones are available when considering what to build for this format.
Ghost Girls Gone
There’s quite little in the way of this famous series of hand-traps available in this format. “Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit” is not available. “Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries” is not available. Same goes with “Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion”, “Ghost Sister & Spooky Dogwood” and “Ghost Mourner & Moonlit Chill”. Why, that’s almost all of them!
There is one available Ghost Girl hand-trap left in Common. “Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring” has a Common printing courtesy of the Soulburner Structure Deck. Ash Blossom has seen competitive success since its initial introduction. That said, it’s not necessarily budget friendly. It will still cost some money to pick up your play-set. Not every draw Spell this card deals with are Commons. With less things to go against, Ash may not be as popular in the format this time. Some still exist, though, so don't entirely count it out. Ash also stops cards being sent from deck to Graveyard, which will be helpful to stop something like “Foolish Burial."
Hand-Trap Holiday
In addition to the Ghost Girls, there’s a large amount of hand-traps in Yugioh that have seen play. Some of them still only exist as foils, but others are available for use as Commons. Let’s take a look at these and see what’s available.
Right away, people won’t have to worry about the ‘Imperm column’ as “Infinite Impermanence” is not available. Despite becoming more available as a Super Rare recently, it’s still not yet at the point where it’s a Common. While we don’t have a substitute for the Spell/Trap part of the effect, finding a substitute for the monster effect part is easy. Historically suggested as a budget counterpart to “Infinite Impermanence," you have “Effect Veiler” available in Common printings. “Effect Veiler” has been around a long time and still sees occasional play.
Having “Effect Veiler” to stop effects is also in part to not having access to another important hand-trap - “PSY-Framegear Gamma." Gamma, along with the card it summons alongside the effect negation, “PSY-Frame Driver” are not available as Commons yet. They have Rares, making them more budget friendly, but in Common Charity format, that’s just not quite enough.
Other Hand-Traps to consider
There’s another handful of hand-traps available. “D.D. Crow” has been around a long time, as a good way to get things out of the opponent’s Graveyard. “D.D. Crow” has its Common printings only having been in tournament packs. Definitely keep an eye on OTS packs to reprint staple cards potentially in Common for this format. "Skull Meister" is also a card with a similar effect that can work.
Another hand-trap that is worth grabbing is “Droll & Lock Bird." Thanks to its printing in the Order of the Spellcasters Structure Deck, you have this available at Common too. Having Droll available can stop decks that do a lot of searching. Unfortunately at this time, when dealing with decks that are summoning a lot in the turn, you won’t have access to “Nibiru, the Primal Being” to wipe their field when they overextend.
Another hand-trap that is allowed include “Honest," giving Light Attribute decks some power. “Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended” is currently not a Common. Lastly, one card that can be played from your hand is “Red Reboot”. The Rokket Revolt Structure Deck provided a Common printing of this, meaning you have a good tool against Trap decks. It is Limited, however, so you might need to deal with back-row in other ways, which we’ll go into later.
Taking down Handtraps
While Limited, “Called by the Grave” is a Common and still good to splash into decks to deal with the still existing threat of Ash Blossom. However, with only one printing in foil so far, “Crossout Designator” is not yet available in Common. It may not be particularly effect in this format anyway, compared to the OCG.
Draw Power
Draw Spells are an integral part of any Yugioh meta, going back to the days of the original Pot. The Pot Spells have evolved over the years, giving different variations on the theme. The most recent Draw Spells in Yugioh history to have made an impact are “Pot of Prosperity” and “Pot of Extravagance” which banish cards from your Extra Deck into order to get cards from the top of your deck. However, both of these cards are currently foil only and that means they aren’t allowed in Common Charity.
To access Common ones, you have to go back to some of the previous ones in Draw Spell history. “Pot of Desires” banishes 10 cards from the top of your deck, but gets you a draw 2. While this may not be as ideal in a deck where you have a lot of one-of cards, in general this card is worth the trade-offs. It helps to careful of stray Ash Blossoms ready to negate your draw, after you’ve already paid the cost. However, Ash isn't around as much so you can be a bit more confident. Perhaps those banishes would also be helpful in growing a big and strong “Gren Maju De Eiza."
“Pot of Duality” is also an option as a substitute for Prosperity. Since Duality stops Special Summons that turn, not every deck can always take advantage of it. Despite that, the ability to pick one of the top three cards of your deck to add to your hand is something to be considered. If the game is going a bit slower, which it may do sometimes as many meta decks aren’t allowed, the trade-off could be worth it here too.
Other Draw Spells
“Pot of Avarice” is also available as a common. While not great to open as you need a bunch of monsters in the Graveyard to shuffle back, it’s still something useful if you can fill the Graveyard quickly enough. Something like Gouki will be able to do that quite well to recycle their cards.
“Upstart Goblin” is around at Common since its release in Dark Beginning 1. However, it’s only allowed at one copy at the moment. The consistency from this card would still be appreciated. With Ash not being as frequently seen, there's less risk in using it.
Popping Cards
When building a deck, especially when going second, there’s the matter of being able to break boards. Here’s a look at the cards that are and aren’t available for your Commons only deck.
Firstly, here's something that's a good way to out a card, also being playable as a strong body on the field. That’s “Dinowrestler Pankratops." While Limited, it’s still a great going second card to stick in a Side Deck. It’s available as a Common, thanks to its original printing. The similar “Alpha, Master of Beasts” is not, though.
Back-Row Blasting
Despite having been freed from the ban-list, you won’t have access to “Harpie’s Feather Duster” as it’s still only a Foil in recent reprints. “Lightning Storm” is also still only a high rarity card. Therefore you won’t be able to clear entire back-rows at once. “Mystical Space Typhoon” is available in a multitude of Common reprints stretching back to the dawn of time, but it’s a bit outdated. “Cosmic Cyclone” and “Galaxy Cyclone” are also available, so they may make better options. “Twin Twisters” is available, which is probably your best option as it can hit up to two Spells or Traps at once.
It doesn't wipe the back-row, but "Hey, Trunade!" has been seeing some play in the format, pushing for a big tempo swing. For a Trap option to hit back-row, "Heavy Storm Duster" can clear that as well.
More like Solemn Charity
Good news control players. All three of the major Solemn Counter Trap cards are available in Common. “Solemn Warning” and “Solemn Judgment” have been Common for some time. In addition, “Solemn Strike” got its Common printing in the Mechanized Madness Structure Deck, after having been foil only for around four years prior. With all three options in the Solemn Brigade, you have access to some of the best negates in Yugioh history. “Solemn Scolding” is still only a Secret Rare, but nobody really cares much about that one anyway, because of its steep cost.
Board-wipes
For breaking boards, you will not have access to “Raigeki," nor “Lightning Storm” as previously mentioned. In lieu of those, your option is “Dark Hole”, which is available. That said, Dark Hole is a card that requires good timing as it will hit your own monsters. Something good to open going second, still. Or if you draw it later on, it may be able to trigger some of your floaters.
For a more reactive board wipe, you have “Torrential Tribute” available in many Common printings. That’s a card that has been gaining some new popularity in recent times, so perhaps the same will be said for this format too. It’s also going to require good timing, but worth considering. Another way to destroy a board you can use is by summoning "Black Rose Dragon."
Dealing with boards
Another way of dealing with boards that is not available is “Evenly Matched." While slower due to not having Evenly’s play from hand option, you may be able to use “Gozen Match” or “Rivalry of Warlords” to lessen the amount of cards on your opponents field. These floodgate cards are available at Common for decks that can take advantage of those.
Another way to out a monster is “Dogmatika Punishment”, which was available as a Common from the get go. The best target for it “Wind Pegasus @Ignister” is a Common thanks to the 2021 Mega Tins.
Battle traps, like the 'Mirror Force' traps are allowed and budget, but not much help due to being quite outdated. They are also turned off by something like "Lunalight Kaleido Chick". Instead, if you want a way to stop attacks, "Threatening Roar" is going to be your best choice. It won't out the monster, but it's more likely to go off and prevent you being OTK'd.
Kaijus
One thing that is going to be very useful in taking down big threats like ‘towers’ style monsters, are ‘Kaiju’. You have access to three of them in Common. Unfortunately, there’s no “Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju”, which was the best one. No Gadarla, Kumongous or Thunder King either. The ones you will be able to use are “Radian, the Multidimensional Kaiju”, “Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju” and “Jizukiru, the Star Destroying Kaiju”. Radian has the least attack of the three. The latter two are unfortunately on the higher end of Kaiju attack values, but are helpful to out threats, especially as a side option against Kaijus. “Fairy Tail - Luna” is a card that goes very well with the Kaijus you have and is also at Common.
"Lava Golem" is also something to consider to fulfil a similar role. It does use the Normal Summon, but a deck like 'Tenyi' that doesn't require it is fine with that. It also takes down two monsters rather than just one.
Linking Issues
When building your Extra Deck, there’s a ton of generic monsters to consider. Link Monsters especially are splashable in most Decks.; The most seen of these are the ‘Knightmares’, but you are out of luck this time. Both the monster and back-row popping ones, “Knightmare Cerberus” and “Knightmare Phoenix” respectively, are not available. Cerberus has a Super Rare and Phoenix has a regular Rare as their lowest rarities, which is not quite enough just yet. Hopefully this format can benefit from Common reprints of them soon. The also useful “Knightmare Unicorn” is not available either. The lack of these cards is pretty big for the format. For your Link 2 option, you may have to consider “Underclock Taker” which is a Common with some decent usefulness.
Another thing you won’t have access to is “Crystron Halqifibrax”, a card that has been the start of many combos. You also miss out on a number of big Link 4 bosses. This includes “Appolousa, Bow of the Goddess”,“Borrelsword Dragon” and of course, “Accesscode Talker”. For a Link 4 boss, you may have to go back to the days of “Borreload Dragon” which has a Common printing from its Structure Deck. “Gouki the Powerload Ogre” is also worth a mention as you can use any Warrior-Types for it. "Linkuriboh" is also something available to note.
“Ra’ten, the Heavenly General” is a Common Link 3 option that has easy to make requirements. Not only does it get you a Special Summon to continue plays, but it’s mostly used as a free destruction effect at the start of the Battle Phase. This makes it a really good staple card in the format.
Other Commons to Consider
There’s so many cards available as Common as it of course is the most common kind of card available. We can’t discuss all of them, but here’s a selection of things worth talking about. First, “Monster Reborn” is available in Common, so that’s nice. As is “Book of Moon” too with many printings since the start. “Foolish Burial” was also previously mentioned as something found in Common. “Foolish Burial Goods” is in Common too. For a good Link or Xyz monster making package and extender, you have “Parallel eXceed” available as Common from its original printing. "Artifact Lancea" is something that you can use, but you don't have access to some of the other important 'Artifact' cards. If you want access to some helpful Trap cards, then "Trap Trick" is also something to mention.
We don’t have “Ready Fusion”, but we do have the Limited “Instant Fusion” at Common if you have good targets for it. “Thousand-Eyes Restrict” is one such option available.
A Few More Staples
A few last things to mention before we finish. You won’t have access to an expensive foil staple like “Triple Tactics Talent”, missing out on its multiple effects. For the monster stealing part, you will have access to “Crackdown” as a Common to take control of a monster.
We’ve also got “Skill Drain” available too, for decks that can use it to stop effects. "Dark Ruler No More" will also stop effects for the turn. A quick rundown of some other allowed cards I want to mention include: "Chaos Hunter", "Allure of Darkness", "Mind Control", "One for One", "Reinforcement of the Army", "Leviar the Sea Dragon" and "Time Thief Redoer".
Many of the good Paleozoic monsters are in Common, such as Dinomischus and Canadia. They can make good control options and bodies on field. Lastly, keep an eye on Portuguese language OTS packs. They often have extra cards in them in the Common slot and something useful could turn up.
Conclusion
The Commons only format is now something with official recognition. That means more people figuring out what kind of things they can accomplish in it. With future reprints, things will change, shaking up this format as more options get added. For now, these are a selection of a handful of staples and generic cards that you’ll be able to use. Thanks to the Common Charity discord for some advice when finishing this article. Time will tell how the format continues to evolve and which of these generic cards will make it into your decks.
