Frogs are one of the most powerful engines in all of Edison format. Which is very interesting, because at SJC Edison you would not have run into them once. Frogs were completely unknown back in the day (with the exception of Treeborn Frog, which saw tons of play as a standalone card), and wouldn’t become known until immediately after Edison format ended. The Shining Darkness contained the card Ronintoadin, which combined with the rest of the engine allowed for a brutal and degenerate FTK1First Turn Kill, ie beating your opponent before they’ve even taken a turn that would rise to the top of a very powerful metagame.

But one of the neat things about historical format revivals is getting to apply lessons of the future to the past. And as it turns out Frogs were pretty damn good even without their Ronin. In fact, the biggest difference between today’s Edison metagame and the metagame at SJC Edison is the effect Frog-based decks have had. Mask of Restrict was not a side deck staple in April 2010 I can tell you that.

So! Who are our amphibian friends?

The only Frog to have seen real-world play at this time, and consequently the only Frog on the banlist (at 2). Treeborn Frog is an easy and repeatable source of fodder for tribute summons. A Monarch’s best friend. The fact that there’s no once per turn restriction on this card makes it really hard to deny, too. Even if your opponent flips a trap to get Treeborn Frog off the field, if it’s still your standby phase, you still have no spells or traps, and you still don’t already control a Treeborn Frog, you can summon it right back. Early modern Frog engine exploration was entirely focused on getting this guy to the grave more efficiently. Such as:

Swap Frog is a great way to dump Treeborn to the grave. It can be special summoned from your hand, and then bounce itself back for additional summons/bounces, clearing out as many WATER monsters as you want. It can also return other monsters to hand, letting you get additional uses out of enters play effects like Caius the Shadow Monarch. There’s an interesting rulings wrinkle that works out in Swap’s favor in Edison; you’re allowed to return Swap Frog to hand as many times as possible (since returning it to hand resets the “once per turn” clause), up until you actually use that extra normal summon. This is despite the fact that you can only actually gain that extra summon once, and that Yu-Gi-Oh normally has very strict restrictions on doing things that can’t properly resolve. But for whatever reason, you’re allowed to keep bouncing Swap, and it took years for that ruling to get corrected.

Substitoad is an incredible card. It’s the one that would wind up banned in the very next list to answer that Frog FTK deck, but even without Ronintoadin this card is kinda unfair. At worst, you can tribute Substitoad for its own effect, summon a Swap, use Swap to send Treeborn and then bounce the Swap back to hand for future plays. But if you can pair that Sub with any other monster, you can go to town, continuously tributing the monster you summon to summon another, cycling through every Frog in your deck (and using Swap Frog triggers to send your extra Substitoads too). One For One is the most common way to get that set up, allowing you to special summon your Substitoad directly from your deck. One For One is limited, because it turns out there are a lot of really good level 1 monsters in the game.

Of course, simply dumping your whole engine to the grave is only part of the fun…

Dupe Frog is what turns Frogs from efficient Treeborn support into their own true engine. It has a powerful defensive effect, preventing your opponent from attacking any monsters besides it. If you pair that with Substitoad, whose other effect prevents Frogs from being destroyed by battle, you can get a pretty good wall going. It goes even harder if you have 2 Dupes in play, because each Dupe renders the other as an invalid target, leaving your opponent with no valid targets and thus unable to attack at all. And even if your opponent manages to find an answer to the Dupe lock, you’ll get to grab Frogs from deck or grave when they go, setting up some midgame Swap plays.2Dupe Frog’s effect is a “When…You Can” trigger though, so it can miss the timing if something else happens in-between it meeting its trigger condition and there being an open game state for its triggered effect to go on the chain. No, nobody knows why it was made like that, Yu-Gi-Oh is a game where the arbitrary decisions of petty tyrants become core pillars of card design.

Since Substitoad gives you incredible access to any Frogs in your deck, the Frog engine will often incorporate some silver bullets. Unifrog is a great way to safely poke at your opponent’s backrow, clearing them out before you commit to a big play. Flip Flop Frog can keep your opponent’s field clear of monsters, continuously resetting itself to be flipped up each turn. Both Frogs benefit heavily from having an established Dupe lock protecting them.

Fishborg doesn’t see play all the time. Level 2 Synchro Monster Formula Synchron isn’t printed yet, which is what really broke Fishborg (and wound up getting it banned forever). But it can do work in Edison, becoming tribute fodder (for both tribute summons and Substitoad) just as often as it goes into Synchro plays.

These two have effects that don’t matter, since T.A.D.P.O.L.E. never sees play. What they do have are levels that facilitate easier Synchro summons with Fishborg Blaster, and the word “Frog” in their name. Decks that go all-in on the Frog engine will sometimes run these guys just for that.

Additionally, decks that go really hard into Frog plays will sometimes play these support spells. Salvage can let you get turn 1 Substitoad plays even more consistently, grabbing it from the grave after Swap Frog sends it there. Moray of Greed is even better turn 1, but its utility swiftly drops off from there, as Frog decks like to empty most of their WATER monsters into play or the grave ASAP.

Well, I mentioned that everything from Fishborg down are sometimes foods. But the engine covered above is just defense and support. What do Frogs pair with? Next time, we cover one of their most common partners. Did somebody call for a HERO?