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.

There are (excluding different combination with other themes or archeypes) two most used Ancient Gear decks; Geartown Decks and Golem Decks. A Geartown Deck focus on destroying "Geartown" and Special Summon "Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragons" and recycle "Geartown" with cards like "Minefieldriller" and "The Transmigration Prophecy". This kind of deck is faster than a Golem Deck, but has more critical weaknesses. A Golem Deck focus on Fusion Summon and to summon "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" or "Ancient Gear Golem". Golem Decks aren't used to getting their main monster to the field in one turn like a Geartown Deck, but once they do, they have the victory in their hand. "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" has piercing damage, which can be useful with its 4400 attack. And in combination with "Limiter Removal" or "Power Bond", you can take down your opponent in one single blow, maybe even if they have a monster on their side. Another commonly used combo is using "Power Bond" to summon Ultimate Golem and double its attack, then using "Limiter Removal" to double its attack once again. It will now have 17600 ATK. Ancient Gear Explosive could be used, though your oppponent's survival up this point is unlikely, to finish what is left of your opponent's Life Points.

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 gained a little popularity and can be combined with Machina to create a competitive playing 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", "Mausoleum of the Emperor" or even their own support cards, like "Ancient Gear Castle" and "Geartown" 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. Cards like Solidarity can provide extra ATK bonuses.

Weaknesses
"Macro Cosmos" will ruin an Ancient Gear duelist's strategy because "Geartown"'s effect will NOT activate if it is removed from play (you need "Geartown" to be in the graveyard for its effect to activate). Also without "Geartown", an Ancient Gear Deck can be very slow so you can solve this problem by using "Machina Fortress" released in Structure Deck: Machina Mayhem. "Machina Fortress" can easily be special summoned by discarding one big monster such as "Ancient Gear Golem" or "Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon" OR discarding machines adding up to eight worth of levels.

Another common weakness for nearly every deck in the game including "Ancient Gears", is "Royal Oppression"; it shuts "Geartown" down completely. You can counter this by adding cards like "Twister" and "Royal Decree" in your Side Deck. It is also advised to add Imperial Iron Wall.

Cards like "System Down", "Acid Rain", and "Magnetic Mosquito", will totally destroy any Ancient Gear deck, and these cards are the ones that are hardest to counter. "Ancient Gear Beast" can negate "Magnetic Mosquito"'s effect, but otherwise, it is nearly impossible for Ancient Gears to counter those cards.

Monsters

 * Machina Gearframe
 * Machina Fortress
 * Machina Peacekeeper
 * Black Salvo
 * Drill Synchron
 * Giant Rat
 * Cyber Dragon
 * Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
 * Jinzo
 * Cyber Valley
 * Red Gadget
 * Green Gadget
 * Yellow Gadget
 * Card Trooper
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior (if the deck is Geartown based)
 * King of the Swamp and/or The Earth - Hex-Sealed Fusion (if using Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem)

Spells

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

Traps

 * Rivalry of Warlords
 * Gozen Match
 * Magical Hats
 * Reckless Greed
 * Ojama Trio
 * Pole Position
 * Malevolent Catastrophe
 * Royal Decree

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 four "Ancient Gears": 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 Monsters generally are hard to Normal Summon as some are Normal Summon-only, so having cards like Trade-In, Hand Destruction, Magical Mallet and Reload can help.