Several different Type and Attribute combinations in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh seem perfect for each other. When you think of WATER, the perfect Types to go with it usually would be Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua. FIRE and Pyro are obvious candidates for a matching Type and Attribute combo. Dragons and Spellcasters also complement the LIGHT and DARK Attributes more often than not, and WIND Winged Beasts are a very fitting combination. When you think of EARTH as an Attribute, there are a few Types to come to mind, like Beast, Plant, and Warrior, for example, but the Type it has become connected to in terms of an actual Deck is Machine. In this article series, I want to cover the history of EARTH Machines in Yu-Gi-Oh, primarily focusing on the archetypes that would come together to closely exemplify what EARTH Machine is played as today, so an archetype like Qliphort will not be covered since that Deck has always done its own thing. I will go throughout the years to see EARTH Machine archetypes that have been able to play on their own or combine with other EARTH Machine strategies to make a competent Deck, and see how successful this Type and Attribute pairing has been throughout the years.
Introduction
After a nearly three-year wait for the TCG playerbase, the Gadgets finally reached the format towards the beginning of 2007. Lost was the opportunity to play these monsters in a format like Goat, where they surely would have excelled, but the hype behind these cards was still there. Green Gadget, Red Gadget, and Yellow Gadget were still three fairly unique cards even in 2007, as there still weren't a lot of monsters that could add other monsters from the Deck to the hand upon their summon, though the release of Elemental HERO Stratos was impending in the TCG shortly after the Gadgets. However, 9 Gadgets searching for each other still outpace only 3 copies of Stratos to search for your HERO monsters. Now that the wait for the Gadgets to release is over for the TCG format, it's time they are put to the test and see how they perform.
A Strong Debut
One of the first opportunities to play the Gadget archetype at a major event was the Shonen Jump Championship in Orlando in January 2007. We were at a stage where Machines were extremely dominant with the combination of Overload Fusion and the now limited Future Fusion to make a major push with Chimeratech Overdragon. Monarchs were also viable at this time, with all the good tribute fodder in the game like Treeborn Frog, Gravekeeper's Spy, and Cyber Dragon giving the material to Tribute Summon your Monarchs. Safe to say, Gadgets had some strong competition compared to if they released at least two years earlier, but Gadget strategies were still successful at the event, taking 2 of the Top 4 slots at SJC Orlando 2007, losing out to a Monarch Deck and a Machine strategy using Overload Fusion and Future Fusion to load up a powerful Dimension Fusion play. Both the topping Gadget lists had their differences, but both were somewhat similar to the theory around the Deck that was previously seen in the OCG.
Both Decks had some of the common answers to monsters previously seen in Part 1, with cards like Smashing Ground and Sakuretsu Armor both being maxed out on, with other removal between lists like Fissure, Hammer Shot, Mirror Force, Ring of Destruction, Widespread Ruin, and more seeing play along with stat adjusting cards like Rush Recklessly and Limiter Removal, with Shrink still being locked behind being an SJC prize card at this time and would be a few months before it's mass reprint. Both lists also maxed out on Cyber Dragon for an easy-to-summon beater as well. Chris Evans also ran Cyber Phoenix since its targeting protection can extend to the Gadgets, and it helped you keep card advantage after being destroyed in battle, offering you a draw in return. There was also Breaker the Magical Warrior and Chiron the Mage in his list, which both were seen in OCG lists as well, to take care of backrow, plus the recently released Snipe Hunter, since the Gadgets searching can give you discard fodder for your Snipe Hunter to remove the opponent's cards. There was also a copy of Overload Fusion in his Main Deck and Future Fusion in the side as a potential blowout with Chimeratech Overdragon.
The second list to Top 4 this SJC was run by John Brewer, who took a different approach to the Gadget Deck. John maxed out on Fissure compared to Chris's list, and he included Hammer Shot in his version of the Deck. Snipe Hunter and Breaker the Magical Warrior also appear in his Deck, with his only copy of Chiron the Mage being moved to the side. John did opt to try a copy of Ultimate Offering for his attempt at damage output instead of relying on the Overload/Future Fusion combo. We also see Banisher of the Radiance in his list, similar to the OCG in their attempts to counter a Chimeratech Overdragon OTK, as well as a copy of Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, since Kycoo can rip Treeborn Frog from the graveyard and prevent Overload Fusion from being activated. A copy of Pot of Avarice is also in this Deck to potentially recycle his Gadgets to keep the train going, or his other utility monsters to counter his opponent as well.
Both versions of Gadgets that topped their debut event in the TCG had their similarities and differences, but we can see a lot of the OCG theories from previous years still holding true in the TCG version of the strategy. Gadgets are fairly adaptable in how they can be teched out to counter the competition, and despite not winning their debut event, taking 2 slots in the Top 4/8 can still call for a successful debut for cards you could have argued should have been released to the TCG much sooner than they did.
The Follow Up
After their first event, Gadgets would take SJC St Louis off the next month as the release of Stratos made Airblade Turbo become a viable strategy, making games able to end at an extremely fast past with a combination of Dimension Fusion and Dark Magician of Chaos fueling the field with monsters you would banish off Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade in a Deck that easily filled the graveyard via Reasoning and Monster Gate. There was also a similar explosive play with Bazoo the Soul-Eater banishing your monsters to make an explosive Dimension Fusion play as well. Thankfully for Gadgets, both Stratos and Dimension Fusion were quick to get limited as strategies like this became popular. They would return at Houston in March, as Adam Corn reached Top 8 with a Gadget Monarch Deck using some of the tribute fodder you'd see for Monarchs to fuel summons of powerhouses like Mobius the Frost Monarch, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. The Gadgets would also not be maxed out in this version, being run at 2 copies each, which can be a common occurrence when you want the Gadgets for searching utility, but not to clog your Deck with too many cards. If they survive thanks to your Battle Traps, Shrinks, or Bottomless Trap Holes, then they could also serve as good Monarch fodder. A decent return to face a nerfed Bazoo Return and Diamond Dude Turbo, along with all the other Monarch variants that would be out there at the time.
Gadgets would also earn another Top 8 later in March 2007 at SJC Columbus, running Gadgets alongside Banisher of the Radiance once again and being the first list with 3 copies of Shrink. There was also Hydrogeddon in the Main to take advantage of weaker monsters summoned to get multiple copies of Hydrogeddon out for damage, plus the new Neo-Spacian Grand Mole to out bigger monsters by bouncing them back to the hand. He would also run 3 copies of Card Trader, likely to swap out Gadgets he doesn't need in hopes of drawing some other utility cards. Card Trader wouldn't stick around beyond this event, but it was an interesting tech to try and take advantage of how the Gadgets can keep your hand advantage fairly up.
After Columbus, Gadgets would take several events off in favor of strategies exploiting cards like Dimension Fusion and later Card Trooper, along with the Demise OTK having explosive power to end the game thanks to Demise, King of Armageddon, as well as the Monarch variants running around, for example. Perfect Circle would also become a strategy using all the powerful cards at the time to make a coherent Deck that can generate a lot of advantage via Elemental HERO Stratos, Destiny HERO - Disk Commander, Destiny HERO - Malicious, and Destiny Draw, and being able to fairly consistently summon a Monarch. They would show up at a few Nationals, taking 2nd Place at the UK National Championship and even winning the Canadian National Championship, as well as a top finish at SJC Minneapolis. Some main differences include Drillroid showing up for Defense Position monsters, a high Trap count being swapped for copies of Royal Decree, and the Overload/Future Fusion combo showing up at times to give Gadgets an explosive OTK play.
A First World Championship Appearance
After years of not being able to appear at the World Championship due to the lack of a TCG release, the Gadgets could finally be legal for play at the 2007 World Championship. The game had sped up at this point to where a win for Gadgets would be more difficult compared to if they could contend at this level years earlier, mainly thanks to some of the other strategies I mentioned previously being legal for this event. With that said, Gadgets did manage to reach a Top 8 slot thanks to Dario Longo. Dario went the route of running 2 copies of each Gadget, along with some ways to take care of other monsters like D.D. Assailant and Exiled Force appearing in his Main Deck, and graveyard strategies could be countered with Dimensional Fissure in the side and 3 copies of D.D. Survivor to keep coming back to keep a body on board. A playset of Trap Dustshoot also shows up in this list to snipe powerful monsters from the opponent's hand to make the Gadgets safer on the field, which can combo with the 1-of Mind Crush in the Deck, which can also have information for you due to Confiscation also being legal. Spell Shield Type-8 also makes an appearance as an answer to some of the other power Spells that might be in the room. Gadgets might not have had the debut we'd hoped for, but they at least appeared in an ever-accelerated game state.
A Much Faster Game
Towards the end of 2007 and heading into 2008, Gadgets would wane in meta relevance, showing up every once in a while, usually with a single player opting to play the Deck that would be able to reach top cut, though they would be unable to win an event. Josh Fuzzy was able to Top 8 SJC Phoenix, and Marc Glass was able to Top 16 SJC Washington DC for example, with the Deck being ran with the standard utility cards from previous lists, with Marc Glass maxing out on Solemn Judgment as that card would soon shoot up in popularity in the following year. Wayne Trader would also be able to Top 16 at SJC Washington DC using Jinzo and Royal Decree to shut off Traps, Magician of Faith to recover power Spells, Morphing Jar for more draw power, and Spirit Reaper for reliable defense. Washington DC would be one of the more successful showings for Gadgets with these multiple tops, especially with all the competition and the addition of Zombies with the release of Il Blud and Zombie Master to go with strong Zombies of the past like Pyramid Turtle and Ryu Kokki. There would also be 2 Top 16 lists at SJC Chicago from Chris Pittato and Daryl Gessler, with Chris running Raiza the Storm Monarch in his version of otherwise standard Gadget lists from what we've seen previously.
The Dark Times Loom
2008 would be a dark year for the game as Phantom Darkness would release early into the year and introduce strategies revolving around Dark Armed Dragon that would be way too much for the Gadgets to handle. Before that, however, Matthew Tuxford would manage to reach a Top 4 finish at SJC Orlando at the start of the year, now being able to replace Sakuretsu Armor with the much more powerful Dimensional Prison and teching his Deck out to stop the powerful monsters and strategies out there with a lot of familiar cards ran with Gadgets plus your standard staples.
After the release of Phantom Darkness, Gadgets would now have a very hard time keeping up with the speed of the game, managing only three more top cut finishes in 2008 with some interesting tech choices. Angel Flores reached Top 16 at SJC Costa Mesa in March 2008, using Banisher of the Radiance and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer to control the graveyards of these DARK strategies trying to finish games with Dark Armed Dragon, but he would also run a few copies of Blue Thunder T-45 to serve a similar role that Hydrogeddon served in the past, only with 100 more ATK and being able to infinitely summon Thunder Option Tokens compared to Hydrogeddon being limited to 3 copies. Cipher Soldier also shows up in the Main for the first time since these Dark Armed Dragon strategies would also have Warrior monsters, your soldier can trample over with 3350 ATK. Zachary Lechtner would also Top 16 the US National Championships in 2008, using cards to stop all the Special Summoning going around via DARK Decks and the now full-power Gladiator Beasts post the release of Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, as his Deck maxes out on both Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo and Royal Decree since they don't affect Gadgets and their lack of Special Summoning. The last would be Robbie Kohl, one of the most famous Gadget players in the Yu-Gi-Oh community, topping SJC Detroit in the Top 16, using Royal Oppression for the new Synchro mechanic along with other new staples like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and also Soul Taker for a new spot removal card while Fissure and Smashing Ground were limited, plus even Mirror Wall showed up in his Deck so the Gadgets could handle the powerful ATK monsters in the game. However, after this, the Gadgets would take top-level events off for all of 2009, struggling to keep up with Tele-DAD, Blackwings, and Synchro Cat.
A New Lease on Life
After a volatile 2009 for the Gadgets to try and compete in, they would get a revival in 2010. This would mainly come through the Machina Mayhem Structure Deck, but the Machinas will be saved for Part 3. However, Gadgets were able to once again stand as an anti-meta strategy with all the new tools that have been released to assist the Deck in controlling the game state. They would now be able to handle direct attacks and punish the opponent with powerful monsters like Gorz and the newly added Tragoedia, as well as having Doomcaliber Knight legal to play in the Deck once it was released in the TCG and not locked behind being an SJC prize card. They could also use Thunder King Rai-Oh to stop the opponent from searching, who could be removed from the field to stop an opponent's Synchro Summon to turn your Gadgets back on as well. Royal Oppression would now be a staple in the Deck in the Synchro era, though Gadgets might still fear being wiped off the field via Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. Besides that, some of the classic staples remain, along with Starlight Road to stop mass removal cards and give you a strong Stardust Dragon. Generic Tuners like Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind and Plaguespreader Zombie also show up to give Gadgets a chance to use the Synchro Mechanic for themselves. The Monarch of choice, if opted to run one, is also now Caius the Shadow Monarch, with better removal than Raiza previously had.
Pure Gadgets at this stage wouldn't be common, their popularity as a pure Deck not showing until the Xyz Mechanic would drop, but until then, anti-meta Gadgets were able to get a few tops, like Renaldo Lainez getting 2nd Place at SJC Edision in April 2010 and Justin Delhorn reaching a Top 4 finish at the Canadian WCQ. Even once the Xyz Mechanic dropped and Ultimate Offering was able to facilitate multiple Xyz Summons in a single turn due to the Gadgets constantly searching for each other, playing pure Gadgets as an Anti-Meta strategy would still be viable as Justin Delhorn would once again show at YCS Indianapolis in August 2011, using some more newer cards like Pot of Duality on turns you wouldn't make an Xyz Summon and Reborn Tengu to keep field presence.
However, one of the more common ways to play Gadgets once you were able to Xyz Summon is to use Ultimate Offering to spam the board with Rank 4 monsters. All they needed was the first Rank 4 in Number 39: Utopia to be able to pull this play off, not to mention some other Rank 4s that would come after to make like Steelswarm Roach, Maestroke the Symphony Djinn, and Number 16: Shock Master, to name a few. This way to play Gadgets showed off how powerful a card like Ultimate Offering could be, which is why the card has now been banned since the tail end of 2013, but not before it could top events like Regionals and even a Top 16 at YCS Indianapolis 2011 via Andrew Salazar.
The End of an Era
Once Ultimate Offering was out of the game, Machina Gadgets were for sure the way to play with the Gadgets now, as there are better ways to play an anti-meta strategy than relying on the Gadgets in the early-mid 2010s. With that said, Gadgets did make a few appearances in the mid-2010s before fading off in the background for good. Christoper Gonzalez reached a Top 32 finish at YCS Chicago in March 2014, replacing Ultimate Offering with Chain Summoning and attempting to make the Chain Link 3 required for the card using effects like Tin Goldfish and Kagetokage, respectively, both of which are searchable via Gear Gigant X and King of the Feral Imps. He would also run Traptrix Myrmeleo to search defensive cards like Trap Hole and Bottomless Trap Hole, or to trigger the backrow removal via Tin Goldfish. Fiendish Chain is also there to stop bigger monsters, and he would run a very small Machina package with Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders, to make a Rank 7 like Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack.
The final appearance of the original Gadgets would come in September 2016, as Carlos Sima was able to Top 32 YCS Mexico City with a Gadget strategy. His Deck would facilitate extra Normal Summons via a Brilliant Fusion package to make Gem-Knight Seraphinite while also putting a Performage Trick Clown in the graveyard for you to summon to make a Rank 4 with. Tin Goldfish would also be replaced with the newly released Gold Gadget and Silver Gadget, which both honor the original trio despite now being LIGHT Machines. These two would mainly see play in ABC, but Carlos ran them with the original Gadgets since the destruction of either Gold or Silver would summon a Level 4 or lower Gadget from the Deck. He also has Instant Fusion to summon Elder Entity Norden for more Rank 4 options, The Blazing Mars to use Gadgets in the grave to summon a boss monster that exists in your Main Deck, revival like Call of the Haunted and Oasis of Dragon Souls to keep putting Level 4s on the field, and Compulsory Escape Device to go with the limited Compulsory Evacuation Device as removal. Karma Cut also uses the Gadgets in hand to banish a monster on the field. You could use the Gadgets to make generic Rank 4s like Number 101: Silent Honor ARK and Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer, along with Traptrix Rafflesia to access Bottomless Trap Hole and Time-Space Trap Hole from the Deck. Quaking Mirror Force is also the battle trap of choice to make the opponent's board clogged with set monsters they can't flip back up. This was a cool variant of Gadgets to give them one last hurrah in the sun, not counting Gold and Silver being ABC cards at this time.
Conclusion
The Gadgets did have a decent showing at first, being able to earn top spots at SJC events in the very beginning and finally being able to top the World Championship. However, with a late release to the TCG, it becomes clear the Gadgets didn't get a chance to reach the peaks they would have been able to in years past, only getting a singular SJC win in 2007. The game was speeding up by the time this trio would release, and it would constantly be kicked up a notch, whether it was Diamond Dude Turbo, Perfect Circle, Dark Armed Return, or Gladiator Beasts. They were even slightly hindered directly when all three Gadgets were semi-limited, likely from how long they were OCG legal and still topping over there potentially, but it was eventually clear the powercreep was getting to Gadgets since they would return to 3 each in March 2008 and still only got 2 tops that year after. They did get a revival in 2010 as an anti-meta strategy and Rank 4 turbo Deck to give pure Gadgets some more results once again, but at that stage, their peak was not as a pure Deck. Next time, we'll look at Gadgets one last time, this time with the Machina strategy to see how they perform, and potentially some other interesting strategies that aren't the Gadgets to make use of the Machinas.
