Ancient Gear

The Ancient Gears, known as Antique Gears in the Japanese version, are a series of Machine-Type monsters that overwhelm the opponent while preventing them from activating Spell or Trap Cards when they attack. They were released in The Lost Millennium, Shadow of Infinity, and Structure Deck 10: Machine Re-Volt (in the form of the Gadjiltron sub-Archetype), with further support in Light of Destruction and The Duelist Genesis.

Play Style
Trap Cards and Quick-Play Spell Cards that activate during the Battle and Damage Steps tend to be some of the most common and troublesome cards used by players, and this Archetype is all about preventing your opponent from using them. This ability makes them potent. Some of the Ancient Gears (notably "Soldier" and "Engineer") have a low ATK for their Level, so the basic strategy is to use the many support cards available (possibly "Gaia Power", since all of the "Ancient Gears" are EARTH based) to boost their ATK. A typical Ancient Gear deck includes ways to normal summon "Ancient Gear Golem", possibly some support for "Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon" or "Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera" (with a combination of "Red Gadget", "Green Gadget" and "Yellow Gadget") and maybe a way to use "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem". Most of the basic strategies behind using such a deck require winning through controlling the highest ATK point monster on the field, and then attacking until you win.

It is important to note that Ancient Gears are not immune to Trap Cards (aside from "Engineer", who can't be targeted by traps). If your opponent has a "Mirror Force" ready, for example, attacking with a non-Ancient Gear (or an Ancient Gear monster that does not have the standard effect) will allow your opponent to wipe out all your monsters in Attack Position, including the Ancient Gears.

Due to the amount of cards that deal specifically with summoning from the deck ("Spell Gear" and "Machine Duplication"), also the fact that most Ancient Gear monsters require tributes to summon, "Reload" or "Magical Mallet" might be worthy choices for this deck. "Terraforming" will also come in handy to retrieve "Geartown" early on. Without Geartown, you will need an alternate source of tribute fodder, as the more usable Ancient Gears requires at least one tribute, while the lesser of them tend to have a survivability issue. "Pot of Avarice" and "Ancient Gear Workshop" will also help out as most of the more powerful Ancient Gears cannot be special summoned from the graveyard.

Strategy
Ancient Gears have gained strength with the release of "Geartown", which makes summoning high-level Ancient Gear monsters much easier, and when "Geartown" is destroyed, you can special summon any Ancient Gear monster from your deck, hand or graveyard to the field (except for the Ancient Gear monsters that can't be special summoned at all). And due to the release of "Geartown", Ancient Gears have risen in popularity and can be considered as a Tier 2 ranking deck.

"Ancient Gear Drill" can be used to search out some quick-play spells like "My Body as a Shield", "Shrink", and the aforementioned "Limiter Removal". These cards work well with "Ancient Gear Drill" because they can be activated during your opponent's turn so you don't have to wait until your next turn to activate them.

Some of the Ancient Gear monsters can be special summoned. "Ancient Gear Engineer" is a good offensive tool (but you'd probably want to increase its ATK from its base of 1500) because you can attack with it and destroy a spell or trap after it attacks (due to its effect).

You can also use "Cost Down", "Star Blast" or "Mausoleum of the Emperor" to make normal summoning the level 5 or higher Ancient Gear monsters easier.

Since all of the Ancient Gear monsters are Machine-Type, the Spell Cards "Limiter Removal" and "Power Bond" can be used on them. So, if you use "Power Bond" (or at least "Polymerization") to Fusion Summon "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" in combination with "Limiter Removal" you're probably able to quickly achieve an OTK. You can also use Enemy Controller, Book of Moon or Block Attack to take advantage of low defense monsters with Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem for an OTK. Add one Ojama Trio at least in a side deck; is just an option if your opponent have a stall deck and have high defense monsters. By killing one ojama token you can deal 8100 with Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem and Power Bond or Limiter Removal effects.

Weaknesses
Because most Ancient Gears cannot Special Summon and Forced Back can be a big problem. They all have high Levels which causes a dead draw.

Monsters

 * Machina Gearframe
 * Ancient Gear Beast
 * Ancient Gear Knight
 * Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon
 * Giant Rat
 * Ancient Gear Engineer
 * Ancient Gear Golem
 * Cyber Dragon

Spells

 * Geartown
 * Future Fusion
 * Overload Fusion
 * Terraforming
 * Limiter Removal
 * Trade In
 * Machina Armored Unit
 * Power Bond

Traps

 * Rivalry of Warlords
 * Gozen Match
 * Magical Hats
 * Reckless Greed
 * Ojama Trio

Extra Deck

 * Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem
 * Chimeratech Overdragon
 * Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
 * Armory Arm
 * Ancient Fairy Dragon (If the deck is Geartown based)
 * Black Rose Dragon (If the deck is Geartown based)

Trivia

 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the Ancient Gear set is used exclusively by Vellian Crowler, with the exception of Dimitri, who only copied Dr. Crowler's strategy against Syrus. They also reappear in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, used by a vice-principal at Duel Academy, Rudolph Heitmann.


 * The original five "Ancient Gears": Ancient Gear Cannon, Soldier, Engineer, Beast and Golem, all have ATK equal to their DEF.


 * The Ancient Gears' concept of having limited Spell and Trap immunity is similar to the Duelist Kingdom Arc of the second season anime, where Machine-Type monsters were immune to magical attacks.


 * Ancient Gears are one of the few significant Archetypes to have had all but one of their support cards and members released in the actual card game (Elemental Heroes, for one, have many support cards that exist only in the anime). In addition, nearly all of them are released in the Structure Deck 10: Machine Re-Volt.


 * Ancient gear decks are slow to summon due to dead draws, preferred certain cards like "Trade-In" or "Hand Destruction" to help get better draws