Frog

Frog cards have "Frog" in their English name and ガエル (Gaeru) in their Japanese name. "Frog the Jam" is not a "Frog" monster because it does not have ガエル (Gaeru) in its Japanese name. They are all WATER-Attribute Aqua-Type monsters, making them the first Archetype of WATER-attribute and Aqua-Type. They debuted in the Cybernetic Revolution pack. Princess Rose uses this Archetype in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Anime.

One card that kept "Frogs" versatile and powerful was "Substitoad", but after Frog FTK won the 2010 World Championships, it was Forbidden, and so many "Frog" Decks lost their supreme speed.

Though weak, "Frog" cards can unleash devastating effects that include rapid summoning, the option to increase their ATK or protect themselves from destruction, and wiping out all cards the opponent controls. Many "Frog" cards are very low in Level, which makes them benefit from "Wetlands" as well as cards such as "Gravity Bind".

With the addition of Light of Destruction and from then on, "Frogs" are even more powerful with "Froggy Forcefield" to counter attacks, "Substitoad" (Traditional) to get out more "Frog" monsters and prevent them from being destroyed in battle, "Unifrog" to make direct attacks, and "Wetlands" to power up most "Frogs" by a considerable amount. Others include "Dupe Frog", "Flip Flop Frog" and "Swap Frog".

Another card that is helpful in a "Frog" Deck is "One for One" from the Raging Battle set, which will allow you to get "Substitoad" onto the field faster, so you're not wasting a Normal Summon or Set to get "Substitoad" out.

Because this Deck often heavily revolves around "Wetlands" and easily swarms the field with frogs for Tribute fodder it can easily accommodate an "Earthbound Immortal". "Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua" works superbly because its effect lets it deal damage even with cards like "Gravity Bind" active. "Earthbound Immortals" that require Tributes for their effects, such as "Earthbound Immortal Uru", also have great synergy with the Frogs' aforementioned swarming power.

Playing Style
Frog Decks use the Field Spell "Wetlands" that increases the ATK of all level 2 or lower Water Aqua monsters by 1200. You can use "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." (which on death gives you 2 more) or stalling Frog cards like "Substitoad" alongside "Flip Flop Frog" and "Treeborn Frog" (though you can't Special Summon him with "Wetlands" out), or "Dupe Frog", to defend in order to build up combos. For example, "T.A.D.P.O.L.E.s" can power your "Beelze Frogs" up to 2100 ATK, a sizeable amount for a Level 3 monster. You can take advantage of the fact that most Frogs are low-Level with cards like "Pride of the Weak" or "Graceful Revival". "Mermaid Archer" is also good with Frogs, since all Frogs except for "Des Frog" are Level 3 or lower. "Star Boy" is critical if you want to power up your frogs in a flash; even by itself, with the "Wetlands" support and its own ability, it becomes a 2250-ATK beat-stick.

"Fishborg Blaster" and "Deep Sea Diva" are good Tuners to include in a Frog Deck; they are easily Special Summoned and they benefit from "Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord", "Water Hazard" and other Water support. "Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier" is another effective Tuner, as "Wetlands" turns him into a 2500-ATK beat-stick. Dewdark of the Ice Barrier also works thanks to his ability to attack directly when you only control Level 2 or lower monsters--quite frequent in this Deck. The original Attack of 1200 and possible boost from "Wetlands" is nothing to ignore.

Des Frog OTK
The rapid summoning of "Des Frog"s can be used to OTK as follows: 1.Tribute Summon "Des Frog" when at least 2 "T.A.D.P.O.L.E.s" are in your Graveyard. See below for 1 turn set-up. 2.Use "Des Croaking" to destroy all cards on your opponent's side of the field 3.(option A):Activate "Solidarity" or "United We Stand" and then attack for 8100 damage with the 3 "Des Frogs". 3.(option B):Attack with all "Des Frog"s, then activate "Super Polymerization", summoning "D.3.S. Frog" and finally attacking for 8200 damage.

There can also be an FTK if you add a "One for One" or "Swap Frog" into your deck. If you draw a "Des Frog", a "Des Croaking", a "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." and "One for One" or a "Swap Frog", you can either: OR Tribute your monster for a "Des Frog" and follow from stage 2 above!
 * activate "One for One" and discard "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." from your hand to special summon "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." from your deck
 * discard one "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." from your hand to special summon "Swap Frog", then use its effect to send the second "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." from your deck to the graveyard.

It is also possible to normal summon "Substitoad", then Special Summon with "One for One" or "Swap Frog" to tribute for "Substitoad"'s effect. Summon "Swap Frog", and using its effect send "T.A.D.P.O.L.E." to the graveyard. Tribute Swap to summon another if you haven't already two "T.A.D.P.O.L.E."s in your graveyard, then use "Swap Frog's effect by returning it or "Substitoad" to your hand to tribute summon your "Des Frog".

As an alternative for step 3.(B), use "Polymerization" after using "Des Croaking", then "De-Fusion" after attacking with "D.3.S. Frog".

You can use the frog search cards like "Moray of Greed" and "Substitoad", along with stall cards like "Dupe Frog", "Treeborn Frog" and "Froggy Forcefield" to more reliably complete this OTK/FTK. Watch out for "Starlight Road", "Bottomless Trap Hole" and "D.D. Crow", however.

Frog Burn FTK/Mass Driver FTK (Traditional)
This FTK is hard to stop, and relatively easy to pull off. First, you need to get a Substitoad (Traditional Only) on the field (easy with One for One or Swap Frog + Salvage). Then, you just need another Monster on the field as fodder for his effect. At that point, dump as many Frogs as you possibly can into your Graveyard (cards like Banisher of the Light and Dimensional Fissure are the bane of this strategy). If you have three copies of Ronintoadin in your deck, there is a very good chance that if he's not already in your hand, he will be very soon, likewise with Mass Driver (Traditional Only). All you need to do now is get Ronintoadin in the Graveyard, either by Swap Frog's effect or by other means, and Mass Driver (Possible to substitute Cannon Soldier instead) on the field. Use Ronintoadin's effect to bring him back to the field and then Tribute him for 400 LP damage. Repeat until you win.

With the banning of "Substitoad" from September 2010 and "Mass Driver" in March 2011, this strategy is not easily playable. See other FTK/OTKs below for variants that can work easier.

See also: Frog Burn FTK

Zombie Frog Mill (Traditional)
This interesting strategy requires "Zombie World"/"DNA Surgery", one or two "Soul-Absorbing Bone Towers", "Substitoad" (Traditional Only) and any other monster. Make sure you've got everything on the field, then tribute your random monster with "Substitoad". This will summon a Zombie-type Frog, activating your "Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower"'s effect to mill 2/4/6 of your opponent' cards. Tribute the new Frog with "Substitoad" and repeat until game!

With one "Bone Tower", you will need 17/18 Frogs in your deck, which is easily possible. With two "Soul-Absorbing Bone Towers", you need about 9 "Frogs". Check the List of "Frog" monsters to select up to 25 copies of "Frogs". To reduce the number of "Frogs" required, you can use "Pot of Avarice" to recycle some already sent, while gaining more cards in the hand.

Additional ways to help this idea include using "Terraforming", "An Owl of Luck" and "Demise of the Land" to help get "Zombie World" out. "One for One" can Special Summon "Substitoad" out of the deck. If you discard "Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower" for "One for One", you can use "Book of Life" to revive it. If you Special Summon "Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower", "Inferno Reckless Summon" can pull the other two from your deck, hand, or graveyard. With a bunch of luck, you can activate this on your first turn if your opponent has a monster in their graveyard and one face-up on the field.

Dragon Frog Exodia (Traditional)
This strategy uses "Substitoad" (Traditional Only), "DNA Surgery"/"D. Tribe" & "Super Rejuvenation" to draw through your entire deck in one turn in order to cause a win condition using the 5 parts of "Exodia".

First get the "Substitoad" & your Type change trap on the field, then after playing "Super Rejuvenation" tribute enough "Frogs" to draw the rest of your deck during the End Phase.

Like most "Frog" combos, use "One for One" and such to get "Substitoad" as fast as possible, and from there setup the rest of the 3 card combo. Other cards that could be used are "A Cat of Ill Omen" to search for the Type Changing traps, as well as "Magical Mallet" / "Hand Destruction" to allow controlled drawing through the deck, in order not to lose any parts of "Exodia".

Bear in mind that when you tribute "Poison Draw Frog" or "Dupe Frog", their effects do not activate.
 * You can use "Swap Frog" to send them to the graveyard from the field to activate their own effects when "Swap Frog" is Summoned, however they will not actually be 'tributed' and therefore will not count for "Super Rejuvenation".

Ronintoadin Catapulting
This deck uses the monster Catapult Turtle to tribute Ronintoadin to deal damage to your opponent. Many ways to set this up include using Substitoad (Traditional Only) or Magical Merchant (See next FTK for method) to flood your Graveyard with Frogs. Increasing "Ronintoadin"s ATK is needed to effectively use "Catapult Turtle". This can be done with Wetlands, Star Boy, or Shield & Sword.
 * To speed this up activate Dark Room of Nightmare.
 * You can tribute Substitoad for Catapult Turtle or use A Legendary Ocean to Normal Summon without tribute.

Frog Beatdown Decks
Keep in mind that, in a Beatdown deck, "Wetlands" is much more important than in a OTK deck. Make sure you use 3, and at least one "Terraforming". Not drawing "Wetlands" can be a huge problem.

Using "Flip Flop Frog" is also crucial as you can easily clear the field every turn as long as he's not destroyed, and can also be a powerful beatstick with "Wetlands".

Although not a "Frog", "Penguin Soldier" can be a great help. You can use it to return 2 monsters on the field for a direct attack, and it gains the attack boost for "Wetlands".

Ancient Prophecy also added some great new support for low level water monsters including "Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord" to prevent your frogs from being destroyed by any means. This is particularly useful against "Lightning Vortex", "Mirror Force" and "Torrential Tribute". Also, "Moray of Greed", while a powerful card, is skippable as it's better to use "Pot of Avarice".

Since a combo of 2 "Dupe Frogs" or a "Dupe Frog" in defense position and a "Substitoad" essentially renders your opponents attacks completely useless, your main worry is monster destruction. It is therefore essential to include cards to negate this, such as the aforementioned "Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord" or "Destruction Jammer" from the Light of Destruction set.

If you want to incorporate Synchros, "Junk Synchron" works well as almost all Frogs are level 2 or lower, but "Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier" is one of the best tuners for Frogs. Not only is he the strongest monster affected by "Wetlands", he also has a powerful stalling effect (Though this would require running other Ice Barrier monsters). You can easily summon "Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier" using "Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier" and a "Mother Grizzly" or two of any level two monster. "Junk Warrior" is probably the best synchro monster for a Frog deck to to his gaining the attack of every level 2 monster on the field which means "Wetlands" makes him incredibly strong if you have at least one frog on the field.

Finally, it should be noted that a "Frog" deck is excellent at quickly filling the field with monsters thanks to its ability to lock down the opponents attacks. This makes it an ideal deck to include some very powerful monsters, as you will be able to easily summon even monsters requiring three tributes.

See the article Wetlands Deck

Frognarch
This type of deck utilizes Swap Frog and Substitoad to speed up the chances of getting Treeborn Frog on the field. This deck utilizes the potential of getting Light and Darkness Dragon out to stop your opponents, but also using Dupe Frog to stall, and Ronintoadin to get even more Tribute fodder.

Use Swap Frog's effect to bounce a Monarch monster back to your hand, and then tribute a monster like Treeborn Frog or a opponent monster using cards like Soul Exchange and Enemy Controller to Normal Summon the Monarch and use its effect again.

Normal Summon Substitoad, tribute for its own effect, and then Special Summon a Swap Frog to dump a Treeborn Frog to the Graveyard.

A popular play is the "Raiza Loop", which uses "Swap Frog" to return "Raiza the Storm Monarch" to your hand to continually return a card controlled by the opponent to the top of their Deck, disallowing them to Draw any new cards.

See the article: Frognarchs or Frog Engine

Frogs Of Aile (Traditional)
The basic concept of this deck is to first send as many frogs to the graveyard as possible along with Ronintoadin. This is most easily acquired via Substitoad's effect. Then summon The Little Swordsman of Aile and revive Ronintoadin with his effect then tribute him with The Little Swordsman of Aile's effect to boost his attack up by 700. (Repeat until no Frogs remain in your graveyard) Lastly equip The Little Swordsman of Aile with Shooting Star Bow - Ceal to attack for game.

However, by using Magical Merchant with a high monster to spell and trap ratio, you can dump many frogs into the graveyard along with Ronintoadin, to give him the frogs he needs to increase The Little Swordsman ATK. Salvage could also be used to recover Little Swordsmen that have been accidentally dumped. You could also use stall cards such as Level Limit Area B and Gravity Bind, as well as Kaiser Colosseum. Also you need at least 12 frogs in the graveyard, factoring in Shooting Star Bow - Ceal, to make an OTK.

Destiny Frogs (Traditional)
The deck is basically a frog engine, Substitoad dumping all of your Frogs (With Swap Frog dumping Ronintoadin). But then, you run the Destiny Hero boss monsters, Destiny Hero - Dogma and Destiny Hero - Plasma. Since you have Ronintoadin and possibly Treeborn Frog in the grave, Special Summoning them would be easy. To get Dogma out, you can tribute a Plasma or run another Destiny Hero, such as Destiny Hero - Malicious. Miracle Fusion can be teched for Elemental Hero Absolute Zero.