One of the most cherished forms in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh is the goat format.
It includes all cards that have been made available up to and including The Lost Millennium, which is the first set made available during the ‘GX’ era of Yu-Gi-Oh.
It’s a time of reminiscence, potent spells, and cards that will always be banned in the standard TCG.
In addition to having a smaller card pool, the Goat format includes its own restricted and forbidden list that is based on the ban list currently in use for tournaments.
I mean, Pot of Greed isn’t even on the banned list, and other notorious strong cards like Snatch Steal are still allowed to be used, which is a sharp contrast to the list we know and love today.
When playing Goat format for the first time, it can be difficult to know where to begin because there are so many potential decks to pick from.
Let’s examine some of the components that are essential to any Goat format strategy.
17. Book of Moon
“Book of Moon” is a spell card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. It allows you to flip any face-up monster on the field face-down, temporarily neutralizing its effects and preventing it from attacking.
It can be used defensively or to disrupt your opponent’s strategy. Introduced in 2005, it has become a popular and versatile card in competitive play.
16. Chaos Sorcerer
Cannot be summoned or set normally. Must first be Special Summoned from your hand by sending away 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your GY.
Once per turn, you can choose one monster on the field that is facing up and get rid of it.
The turn you use this ability, this card can’t attack.
15. Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis, the first card on this list, is permanently banned in Advanced format.
You can special summon a fusion monster from your extra deck (or current fusion deck) with the same level as the tributed monster by tributing a monster you control.
This potent spell card was largely employed in control decks for goats, where you would use Scapegoat to summon a lot of tokens, then use this card to tribute a token and call Thousand Eyes Restrict from your extra deck.
The fact that Metamorphosis can summon so many potent fusion monsters makes it the ideal side deck component for virtually every Goat format deck.
14. Tsukuyomi
In Yu-Gi-Oh, there aren’t many spirit monsters who have experienced meta play, but those that did were game-changingly strong (we’re looking at you, Yata Garasu).
During the end phase of the turn they were summoned, spirit monsters self-return to the hand.
On the one hand, this deprives you of a monster with which to defend.
On the other side, this enables you to repeatedly use their on-summon effects.
With the help of Tsukuyomi’s effect, you can turn any monster on the field into a face-down defensive position. This effect can be used to deal with high attack-stat threats your opponent controls as well as to reset your own flip-effect monsters.
13. Magical Merchant
Speaking of fantastic flip-effect monsters, the Magical Merchant is a monster with a flip-effect that can assist you in searching through your deck to locate those potent spells or traps.
You can mill cards from the top of your deck when this card is face-up until you mill a spell or trap, at which point you add that card to your hand.
Goat format is renowned for the strength of its spells and traps; just a few examples include Pot of Greed, Delinquent Duo, and Heavy Storm.
You may obtain these cards even more quickly with Magical Merchant, ensuring you have the materials required to defeat your adversary.
Additionally, Magical Merchant is a fantastic addition to any Chaos strategy. Magical Merchant is an excellent technique to get these resources into your graveyard because Chaos decks involve special summoning ‘Chaos’ monsters by ejecting a Light and a Dark monster from the graveyard.
12. Trap Dustshoot
Card advantage is absolutely essential to victory in Goat format, just like it is in contemporary Yu-Gi-Oh.
You’ll be well on your way to winning if you can make sure that you have more resources available than your rival.
One of the most painful strategies for maintaining card advantage is trap dustshoot. You can flip up this trap card to see your opponent’s full hand while they have four or more cards in their hand, and you can also shuffle one monster card back into the deck while doing so.
This not only deals with any strong monsters your opponent could have, but it also informs you of their complete hand.
11. Mirror Force
Mirror Force is the quintessential example of a vintage Yu-Gi-Oh! card.
Board wipes like Mirror Force are virtually unrecoverable in a slower format like Goat.
In contemporary Yu-Gi-Oh!, recovering from board wipes is rather simple because to your deck’s abundance of graveyard effects, effects that activate upon destruction, and even effects that can special summon monsters from the graveyard.
With these vintage cards, not so much.
10. Scapegoat
The card known as the Scapegoat essentially established the Goat format.
It serves as the cornerstone of the Goat control strategy in addition to being a fantastic staple for the majority of other decks in this format.
You can special summon four level 1 tokens to your side of the field in defense position using this rapid play spell card. These tokens cannot be used for tribute summoning.
This card is a flexible battle trap that may be used in general Goat-format strategies. This is a great strategy to build a defensive wall and stop battle damage from direct hits if you’re trapped with an empty board.
Scapegoat has a variety of uses in the game of Goat. It can be used as an aggressive move by summoning Thousand Eyes Restrict, or it can be used to set up extra defensive boards to help you defend your life points.
9. Breaker the Magical Warrior
Yu-Gi-Oh has a lot of strong spells and traps, especially in Goat format.
Therefore, if you want to have a chance of succeeding, you’ll need a strategy for dealing with them.
With a Spell Counter attached, Breaker the Magical Warrior enters the arena with 300 attack. Then, to cast a spell or activate a trap, remove a Spell Counter from anyplace on the field.
Who doesn’t appreciate some spell/trap removal? This is an excellent addition to almost any deck.
However, in Spell Counter decks, Breaker becomes enormously better.
The majority of the cards in these decks have effects that generate Spell Counters; because Breaker the Magical Warrior may claim all of these counters as his own, if you have enough Spell Counters, you can eliminate your opponent’s backrow in one round.
8. Nobleman of Crossout
In Goat format, using monsters is extremely prevalent.
In the Goat format, some decks, such P.A.C.M.A.N. (Pure Advantage Camel Munches All Noobs), actually pose a danger to the metagame. operate only on flip effects, all of which will activate if you attempt to step on them during combat.
By eliminating and banishing that monster, Nobleman of Crossout perfectly addresses these dangers.
The threat is then neutralized for the remainder of the game if the monster was a flip-effect monster, and both players banish all copies of that card from their main decks.
Any Goat format plan must include this removal because it is among the greatest you can acquire.
7. D.D. Warrior Lady
It’s awesome to defeat your opponent’s monsters in combat and cast them into the graveyard.
But occasionally you require a little more strength.
When D.D. Warrior Lady battles a monster controlled by an opponent, you have the option to banish both this card and the opponent’s monster. This gives creatures a little more permanence.
Dealing with monsters that you just can’t get rid of is made easy with this.
If your opponent has a powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon with a high attack stat that you simply cannot defeat, you can simply run into it with D.D. Warrior Lady, take some battle damage, and then banish them both.
6. Magician of Faith
What does having one broken spell in your deck beat out? How about several?
Magician of Faith is a flip monster that, when turned face up, lets you add one spell card from your graveyard to your hand.
By doing this, you can increase the worth of your spell cards by two. Magician of Faith ought to be a main deck mainstay in every deck, especially with all the broken spell cards in Goat format.
5. Snatch Steal
Snatch Steal is an equip spell that gives you the ability to permanently control an opponent’s monster in exchange for granting them 1000 more life points each time they go into standby.
When things become tough, this is a terrific way to end games.
You can either use Snatch Steal to steal a powerful monster and defeat your opponent with it or you can tribute summon your own monsters using the monster you stole.
This combo becomes into an unbeatable piece of removal if you can tribute summon into a card like Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, which kills a monster on summon, or a similar card.
4. Heavy Storm
Matches in the goat format are largely decided by spells and traps.
You’ll need a technique to deal with a lot of spells and traps at once because of how powerful the spells and traps of this age are.
The best spell/trap removal ever printed is Heavy Storm, therefore it seems sense that this card is restricted in the standard TCG.
This disarms all spells and traps on the field, whether they are facing up or down.
This not only eliminates whatever dangers your opponent may have been hiding in their backrow, but it can also set off the devastation effects of your own spells and traps.
3. Sangan
With the aid of the card Sangan, you can quickly access the important monsters in your deck.
Sangan will be able to speed up your strategy regardless of the deck you’re using in Goat format.
When Sangan is destroyed in battle in the Goat-format version (i.e., prior to errata), you can add any monster with 1500 attack or fewer from your deck to your hand.
This may be used to take cards like Magical Merchant, which can pull strong spells and traps from the deck, Magician of Faith, which can recycle your exhausted spells, or Tsukuyomi, which can deal with strong monsters.
In other words, it can grab anything you need, whenever you need it.
2. Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning (also known as “BLS” in the Goat community) is one of the best boss monsters available in the Goat genre.
BLS is the boss monster for Chaos decks, which rely on banishing a Light and a Dark monster from the graveyard to summon strong monsters.
This warrior has 3000 attack points, making him nearly unbeatable in combat, and his monster effects are devastating.
Either 1 monster on the field can be removed from play by a non-targeting effect, or if a monster is destroyed by combat by this card, it can attack once more.
This transforms BLS into a board wipe that also significantly damages your opponent; it is clear why BLS is such a game-winning strategy in Goat format and why Chaos decks are so well-liked.
1. Graceful Charity
Actually, the best draw spell ever created is Graceful Charity.
And the fact that this card is even permitted in Goat format is astounding.
You can draw three cards from this deck and then throw away two of them. In addition to being a fantastic method to rotate through your deck’s top cards, this card is very strong in chaos decks.
Off of this effect, you can discard a Light and a Dark creature to prepare for your Chaos summoning.
Sometimes it can be impossible to get both of these creatures into the graveyard, but Graceful Charity manages to do so while still letting you draw.
Graceful Charity is a terrific way to see your finest cards as soon as possible, regardless of the deck you’re using. It has to be a standard for this format.
