Yu-Gi-Oh! is a famous long-running trading card game. Throughout the game's history, many archetypes were created, each having a unique gimmick that sets them apart from the others. The franchise also has several anime and manga series to help promote the card game. Many cards from the anime/manga were adapted to the real-life game, often having effects buffed, nerfed or even changed altogether (e.g. Masked HERO Dark Law). However, not every card debuted in the anime/manga make it to the real-life game. Some cards or archetypes get left in the anime/manga. Despite this, some cards will eventually find their way to the real-life game after a long time. For example, it took over ten years for Cyber Angel and Fossils to come to the OCG/TCG. This article will look at some archetypes/series that have yet to be released when this article was written. 

Mystic

Mystic is a series used by Blair/Rei from the GX Anime during Season 2 after abandoning her "Maiden in Love" Deck from Season 1. Not much is known about this archetype, as it was only used in one duel. It also doesn't help that Blaire/Rei never got a solo duel after this one duel. The next time she dueled, she changed her Deck again. 

From what was shown, the archetype revolves around using Mystic Egg to Special Summon a weak Mystic Monster from the Deck. The player would then evolve that weak Mystic Monster into a stronger Mystic Monster with Mystic Revolution.

Only four cards were shown: Mystic Baby Dragon, Mystic Dragon, Mystic Egg and Mystic Revolution. Blair/Rei also used a monster called "Spike Egg", but its effects were never shown, so it's unknown whether it's part of the Mystic series or archetype. The effect text on Mystic Egg and Mystic Revolution revealed that Mystic Baby Knight, Mystic Knight, Mystic Baby Magician and Mystic Magician also exist but was never shown in the anime.

It's unknown why NAS never expanded on this archetype, considering Blair became a recurring character. It's also strange because the GX Ending theme features the Mystic cards prominently, hinting that they were initially planning to expand on the Mystic card series.

Armatos Legio

Armatos Legio is an archetype debuted in Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains. A significant villain, Lightning, main this Deck. Unlike "Mystic" used by Blair/Rei, we actually got to see a lot from this anime archetype. The archetype aesthetic is based on ancient Roman warriors. 

Like most archetypes from the Vrains anime, Armatos Legio focused on Link Summoning. They do this by swarming the field with weak monsters and then Link Summoning powerful monsters. The archetype also has a gimmick where they're quite reliant on linking the Main Deck monsters with Link monsters to bring out the Deck's full power. For example, many monsters gain additional effects if a Link Monster points to them. This is made easy thanks to the effect of their field spell, Armatos Colosseum, and the archetype's swarming capability.

It's honestly strange why Konami never released this archetype. It's fully fleshed out and it's functional. It may require a few buffs here and there, but it should be easy to adapt to the actual game. Also, considering that a major antagonist used it in the show, you would think it would get released. However, it never happened. This could be due to a combination of Vrains' troubled production and the reduced anime cards slots in the booster packs during the Vrains era. In fact, many antagonists' archetypes from Vrains also suffered the same fate. Despite this, I can see Konami eventually releasing this in their Animation Chronicle packs in the future due to how easily adaptable this archetype is. 

Sad Story

Sad Story is a series of Trap/Spell cards used by the Dark Signer, Misty, in the 5D anime. The series of cards debuted in Misty's second duel against Aki Izayoi, where it's used to tell the audience her backstory. These cards were her main strategy, completely replacing her original strategy of using Reptilianne monsters to reduce the opponent's monsters' ATK to 0 during her first duel. 

The Sad Story series comprised of five cards: Sad Story - Atrocious Day, Sad Story - Sorrowful Memories, Sad Story - Unwavering Truth, Sorrowful Chain and Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings. The three spell cards, Sad Story - Atrocious Day, Sad Story - Sorrowful Memories and Sad Story - Unwavering Truth, are Continuous Spells that force both players to shuffle any monster, spell or trap card back into their Deck during their normal Draw. Therefore, essentially locking both players out from drawing. Sorrowful Chain can be activated when all three Sad Stories spell cards are on the field, enabling the player to Special Summon Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings onto the field. Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings has an effect that bypasses the Sad Story's locking effects and reduces the opponent's hand, causing a further lock. 

As of now, only Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings from this series was released. I highly doubt Konami will ever release the rest of the Sad Story series as they're extremely bad and hard to balance around. They're inconsistent and will probably never work, but if they somehow did work, there'll be hardly any counterplay.

Thorn Prisoner

Thorn Prisoner is an archetype that debuted in the Arc-V anime. Sergei uses it in his debut duel against Yuzu. The deck quickly got replaced by another anime-only archetype, Earthbound Servants. Aesthetically, the Thorn Prisoner monsters are humanoid monsters bound in torturing devices, which may be a dream for many masochists out there. 

Thorn Prisoner's gameplay involves reducing your life points and stalling the opponent with attack negation, damage reduction and battle prevention effects. These effects require the player to pay LP to trigger, which helps reduce the player's own life point. They also have a mini burn strategy that uses Thorn counters to damage the turn player. Their boss monster, Thorn Overserver Vandarlizuma, gain higher ATK the less LP the controller has, enabling an easy OTK.

It's a shame that Konami never released this archetype, as it has a unique gimmick. However, Thorn Prisoners being a small archetype and that the more popular Earthbound Servants quickly replacing it probably didn't help. Interestingly, this archetype was a candidate in the OCG COLLECTION PACK poll rather than the more prominent Earthbound Servant archetype that Sergei used. This may be a hint that Konami intends to release this archetype one day. 

Motor Worm

Motor Worm is a series of cards used by Faust in Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains. Not much is known about this series of cards, as Faust only had one onscreen duel in the show. In that duel, only a handful of cards were shown (Motor Worm Bait, Motor Worm Gate, Motor Worm Spreader Queen, Motor Worm Token, Egg Clutch, Worm Revival and Wormhole Defense).

From what was shown, their main gameplay revolves around generating tokens to gear their Link Summoning. The tokens are also used as fuel for other cards' effects. When combined with Wormhole Defense, this card series can essentially create a softlock by filling up the opponent's field with tokens that can't be tributed or used as Link Materials. This series boss monster is Motor Worm Spreader Queen. It gains 700 ATK for each Insect-Type monster on the field.

Similar to the other two Knight of Hanoi's archetypes (Dark Mummy and Helix), this one was never released. This could be due to Vrains' trouble production or the reduction of anime cards slots in the booster pack. However, in my opinion, this card series also doesn't feel quite as thought out compared to the other Vrains' anime archetypes. Therefore, I think it was intentional that it was never adapted to the OCG. 

Alchemy Beast

Alchemy Beast is an archetype used by Amnael in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. The archetype is based on common metals and animals used in alchemy, hence the name "Alchemy Beast". This archetype is made up of six monsters fitting each attribute. Each Alchemy Beast monster has an accompanying spell card that directly supports a specific Alchemy Beast.

Despite having six monsters and six spell cards, the archetype has a lackluster gimmick. All the monsters have the same stats (500 ATK). They all have the same effects (Cannot be Summoned. Can only be summoned if Special Summoned using "X Spell Card". This Alchemy Beast can attack directly). The deck also falls apart if they don't have Chaos Distill on the field. In saying that, Chaos Distill is actually a very powerful card. It's essentially a Spell Card version of Macro Cosmos. However, the problem is that despite Alchemy Beast relying on Chaos Distill to function, they don't actually benefit from being banished by Chaos Distill. In the anime, Amnael used Alchemy Beast with the Helios series, but the archetype does nothing to support Helios. 

I'm not surprised that this archetype was never released. The archetype is essentially just one monster copied and pasted onto five other monsters.

En Spell Cards

The "En" Spell Card series was a significant plot card introduced in Arc-V's last arc, acting as a 'deus ex machina' to defeat Zarc since no one heard of Kaiju or Lava Golem. Ray, Reira and Leo used these cards in the anime. The lore of these cards is that they contain the Earth's natural energies, which counters Zarc. Each En card represents a bracelet girl and the Deck they play. For example, En Birds represents Ruri and her Lyrilusc Deck. En Moon represents Serena and her Lunalight deck. En Winds represent Rin and her Windwitch Deck. En Flowers represent Yuzu and her Melodious Deck. 

There are only four En cards, En Birds, En Flowers, En Moon and En Winds. En Birds, En Winds and En Moon turns Fusion, Xyz and Synchro monsters into Normal Monsters, negating their effects. En Flowers then nukes the field, inflicting effect damage to the controller of the destroyed monsters. Essentially, the En cards are simply Extra Deck Floodgates. 

Seeing how these cards are essentially plot device cards, it's no surprise that Konami never bothered adapting them to real life. Their effects of being watered-down versions of Skill Drain definitely hurt their chances of being adapted to the real game as well. 

Earthbound Servant

Earthbound Servant/Prisoners is a sub-archetype used by Sergei from the Arc-V anime. It debuted in Sergei's second duel, replacing Thorn Prisoners. Earthbound Servant/Prisoners is quite unique as it is a sub-archetype to the iconic Earthbound Immortals from 5D. Aesthetically, it resembles the Earthbound Immortal monsters. However, everything else is completely different. Unlike the Earthbound Immortals, Earthbound Servants/Prisoners aren't boss monsters. They don't have the glaring weakness of requiring a Field Spell and you can have more than one Earthbound Servant/Prisoner monster on the field. They also focus on Extra Deck plays, which the Earthbound Immortals lacked. Earthbound Immortal monsters are based on the Nasca line, while the Earthbound Servants/Prisoners aren't. 

The main gameplay of Earthbound Servants/Prisoners involve either fusing or tuning the Earthbound Prisoner monsters to perform a Fusion or Synchro Summon. Due to this, the archetype came with a spell card, Harmonic Synchro Fusion, to allow the player to simultaneously Fusion and Synchro Summon a monster at the same time. The Prisoner monsters also have effects that activate in the Graveyard to trigger the effect of the Earthbound Servant monsters. 

I'm surprised Earthbound Servants/Prisoners aren't adapted to the real game, considering a major antagonist used it in Arc-V during the Synchro arc. Like Ancient Gear, it's also a homage to the largely popular Earthbound Immortal monsters. It's actually a wonder whether Konami will ever release these cards considering they weren't even considered for the OCG COLLECTION PACK poll, while Thorn Prisoner was. 

Ancient

Ancient is a series of cards debuted in the DM anime, used by Solomon Muto. The series comprises Ancient City, Ancient Dragon, Ancient Gate, Ancient Giant, Ancient Key, Ancient Tome and Stone Giant. 

The series revolves around summoning Ancient Dragon in the most convoluted and complex way possible. Ancient Dragon itself is 2800 ATK monster that can be revived thanks to Ancient City. It also has Red Dragon Archfiend's effect. However, the amount of effort used to Summon it just isn't worth it. First, the player needs to the Field Spell, Ancient City. Ancient City is a requirement to activate the other cards. After that, the player needs to activate Ancient Tome, a card that does nothing but punish the player. Then the player needs to Summon the Level 5 Ancient Giant successfully. The player would then need to activate Ancient Key to Special Summon two Stone Giant Tokens. You will need to then switch the two Stone Giant Tokens battle positions twice. Oh, and by the way, the Stone Giant tokens and Ancient Giant's effects inflict damage to the controller if they don't attack. After switching the tokens battle position twice, it then finally triggers Ancient Key's effect, destroying the tokens and activating Ancient Gate. Then you'll need to use Ancient City to send Ancient Giant, Ancient Key and Ancient Gate to the grave to Special Summon Ancient Dragon. 

The problem preventing this card series from being made into a real Deck is that it was clearly made for the anime. Ancient Dragon's stats and effects don't measure up to the convoluted steps needed to summon it. Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth is hard to summon, requiring two cards, but Ancient Dragon requires seven! In saying that, Konami might adapt these cards to real life one day. It is a DM card series, and nostalgia sells.