Yu-Gi-Oh!: What Is Goat Format?

Quick Links

• What Is Goat Format?

• What Cards Are Legal?

• How To Play

• Popular Decks

For old and returning players, current Yu-Gi-Oh! may seem a tad overwhelming. With many summoning mechanics like Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and Links, the game has gotten away from many older players. Even though these new mechanics have added layers of complexity to the game, making high-level play a delight, some players might find the game far more enjoyable to play as it was in the original anime.

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What if you wanted to go back to the good ol’ days when turns were as simple as setting one monster and passing? What if you wanted to play Pot Of Greed? Maybe Goat Format is for you.

What Is Goat Format?

Goat Format is an unofficial format that is named after the iconic card, Scapegoat. The card was at its peak usage during this 2005 format so players adopted the name to represent is mark in time.

This format is the closest the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! will ever get to what is shown during the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs of the anime, sans the flagrant cheating. The boards are as simple as one monster and a couple of backrow cards, and there aren’t overly elaborate combos.

Rather, the game revolves around one or two card combos and powerful spells like Pot Of Greed, Graceful Charity, and Delinquent Duo, also known as the Holy Trinity.

What Cards Are Legal?

Since the format is not officially supported by Konami, Goat Format can vary a bit between playgroups, but its generally understood that it is based on the format played at the Shonen Jump Championship in Indianapolis in 2005.

That means the card pool available to players was everything from Legend Of Blue Eyes to Dark Beginning 2, including promo cards in between.

Since the event took place in August 2005, most players have agreed to use the banlist in place during that time, which was the April 2005 Forbidden/Limited List.

How To Play

Goat Format is one of the easiest ways to get back into or even learn Yu-Gi-Oh! for the first time. The game follows most of the basic Yu-Gi-Oh! rules except for some slight differences.

Unlike modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, even if you are going first, you get to draw a card, giving you a starting six in hand. Since the game is a bit more slow-paced with plenty of back-and-forth, top decking the card you need might be crucial to your victory. Main and extra decks, known as the fusion deck in this format, have no limit.

If you have played Yu-Gi-Oh! for a while, you’ve probably heard of the person who brought a 2,000+ card deck to a tournament since there was no rule signalling a deck limit. That happened later than the Goat format emulates, so it doesn't apply.

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Another difference from modern Yu-Gi-Oh! is that there can only be a single field spell card on the field at once. If your opponent activates a field spell while you have one on your side of the field, your card will be destroyed.

There are way more differences in the way that certain cards interact with each other, but these are all interactions you’ll find as you play with your group.

For example, Embodiment Of Apophis is one card in the pool that has its own ruling. The card can turn itself from a trap card to a monster, but the ruling says that it will still occupy both zones, locking you out of an extra spell/trap card zone.

Popular Decks

Even though you can definitely build a deck around the iconic Dark Magician or Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon, most of the best and popular decks of the format revolve around other powerful cards like Chaos Sorcerer and Metamorphosis.

Chaos

• Key Cards:
  • Chaos Sorcerer
  • Thunder Dragon
  • Graceful Charity

Led by the popular archetype consisting of Light and Dark monsters, Chaos, and all of its variants, aim to set up their graveyard quickly with the help of Thunder Dragon and Card Destruction to summon powerful bosses like Chaos Sorcerer and the limited Black Luster Soldier - Envoy Of The Beginning.

Warrior

• Key Cards:
  • D.D Warrior Lady
  • Mystic Swordsman LV2
  • Exiled Force

Warrior decks are the prime aggro decks of the format. They aim to hit fast and hard. With a full set of Warrior-type monsters in your arsenal, and Reinforcement Of The Army to search for any that you need, your opponent won’t know what hit them.

Goat Control

• Key Cards:
  • Scapegoat
  • Tsukiyomi
  • Book Of Moon

It’s only fair that the namesake of the format is one of the most popular decks. Goat Control has an out to just about any card in the format, including an easy way to summon Thousand-Eyes Restrict, a powerful fusion monster that can take control of your opponent’s monster, this deck can be a double-edged sword, one misplay, and it might be lights out for you.

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