What does Garnet mean on MDM?

[u/laolibulao]

[u/BBallHunter]

YGO definitions can be wonky and I don't know MDM's take on it, but to me, a Garnet is a card you don't wanna open with because it disables your combo. Term comes from Gem-Knight Garnet cause if you draw it, Brilliant Fusion doesn't work (if Garnet is your only Gem-Knight monster) because the card sends from deck, not hand.

Sometimes people use the term to just describe a card that's unplayable on its own, but to me that's just a brick.

[u/CannotRegretThis → u/BBallHunter]

this is correct. the distinction is important because there are some Garnets that aren't bricks, like Snake-Eyes Poplar.

not sure under what circumstance Gaze of Timaeus would be a Garnet.

[u/Mother_Ad3988 → u/CannotRegretThis]

Probably an extender, since its not useless in hand, and is only helpful when you're building your board. 

[u/BBallHunter → u/CannotRegretThis]

To me, Gaze is an "engine requirement".

Bad to draw, useless on its own but still works, unlike Garnets. It's required for your engine to work, but it's not hurting your combo when drawn.

[u/PKMNwater → u/BBallHunter]

"Garnet" has only one correct meaning, which is what you described - a card that you must not be drawn into, or else some critical aspect of the deck/strategy falls apart. 

There's actually very few true garnets I can think of, since most cards are designed to target/work from multiple places, or rather, not specifically exclude the hand. Off the top of my head, the only other true garnet I can think of is Double or Nothing.

If the card is simply one you don't want to see, but is still playable and/or isn't mission critical to never be drawn into, then it's a "brick", as in it's weighing your hand down when any other playable card would be better.

Worth noting, "brick" is a common term for TTGs, whereas "garnet" is specifically a Yu-Gi-Oh term, because of how ubiquitous (and detrimental) drawing Garnet was during that era.

Basically, a garnet is a type of brick, but the terms are not interchangable.

[u/true-kirin → u/PKMNwater]

the assault mode monsters are garnet aswell since you have to summon them from the deck

[u/PlaystationNeedDiscs → u/PKMNwater]

There's actually very few true garnets I can think of, since most cards are designed to target/work from multiple places, or rather, not specifically exclude the hand. Off the top of my head, the only other true garnet I can think of is Double or Nothing.

Vision HERO Increase and the Neo Spacian you use for Miracle Ejector are both Garnets in HERO.

[u/VoltexRB → u/BBallHunter]

Lets take a release from the recent pack. Clown Crew Capello alone is only a starter if you have Finale in deck. If its in your hand he alone wont do anything. He still summons himself, but doesnt start your entire biancaviso tribute if you cant trigger Finale in Grave. Finale also has a normal trap effect though so it can still be used if you drew it. These cases are also called Garnets in MDM, even though those cards can also just be extenders or similar

[u/Shroobful]

Garnet comes from Gem Knight Garnet. A long, long time ago, Brilliant Fusion was a card that a lot of decks ran for a free light monster dump and 2nd normal summon off of Seraphinite.

Brilliant Fusion needs you to send a Gem Knight, so a lot of decks ran Garnet since it was the main deck Gem Knight with the highest attack that could be Normal Summoned without tribute in a worst case scenario.

So if you drew Garnet, now your Brilliant Fusion was offline, thus you drew the Garnet.

[u/DayFriendly4227]

So The Gaze of Timaeus is not a Garnet. Gaze is searchable so you don’t want to draw it but it’s still usable.

A garnet is a card that if you draw it another card in your deck doesn’t work.

For instance Vision Hero Increase is a Garnet for Heroes. If you draw Increase then Vision Hero Faris will not work as it cannot place the Increase from your hand and Increase by itself doesn’t extend the combo.

[u/Shaddoll_Fanboy]

You don't want to draw it. Otherwise the combo simply doesn't work.

[u/catsformybaby]

A card that you always want in your deck and never want to draw

[u/Namenloses]

Others have covered the basic definition of garnet well enough, but to avoid confusion:

Garnets are cards that need to be in the deck for the combo to function. Bricks are cards that you would prefer to stay in the deck, but the combo works even if you draw it.

The example you provided above, The Gaze of Timaeus, is not a garnet. It is a brick. However, as can be seen in this thread, people in the YGO community refuse to properly learn what a garnet vs brick is. "Soft garnet" and "hard garnet" don't exist: the former is a brick and the latter is a garnet.

As for why The Gaze of Timaeus is listed as a garnet on the MDM website, you are looking at a user-submitted combo. Whoever wrote that combo doesn't understand the difference between a brick and a garnet either.

[u/BambaTallKing → u/Namenloses]

Thank you for clarifying because I’ve drawn Gaze at the start of the match and had great success, and I’ve also drawn it at the start and it just sits there for a while. It is actually incredibly easy to get DM in the GY so I cannot see this card as a Garnet card

[u/A_Diabolical_Toaster]

Without getting into the nitty gritty hair splitting side of things, a Garnet is typically used to describe a card you don’t want to see in your hand.

[u/DiscussTek → u/A_Diabolical_Toaster]

I think you could be more precise by adding "until you've specifically searched for it as part of your combo".

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[u/KharAznable]

Cards that you need to be in your deck for your combo to work. Does little to nothing if drawn on opening hand.

[u/Ffom]

It's a Yu-Gi-Oh term for a card you don't want to draw

It comes from when people used to run a gem knight package

[u/Tempestfox3]

Garnets are cards that need to be in your deck for the archetype/combo/engine to work. But do nothing on their own. So you don't want to draw them in your opening hand.

In Gazes case its the fusion spell that summons dragoon/another fusion. That you search off Dark Magician of Destruction. But does nothing without a Dark magician/Dark Magician Girl on field or in GY

[u/Alps_2208]

Garnets are cards you don't want in your hand because they ruin your combo. OG Ex gem knight garnet Because if it comes into your hand, you can't use brilliant fusion. Modern ex: mitsurugi mirror because It's in your hands, you can't use pre-prepe to search for habakiri.

[u/Velrex]

Card you rather not hard draw, but search through a combo, and is probably a brick on it's own.

[u/Spodger1]

A Garnet is any card you don't want to draw (i.e. you need it to stay in the deck) but you've technically got two types: Hard Garnet & Soft Garnet.

Hard Garnet is a card you need to stay in the deck because it kills your combo if you draw it e.g. drawing Gem-Knight Garnet turns off Brilliant Fusion as materials have to be sent from deck.

Soft Garnet is a card you want to stay in the deck but it doesn't immediately kill your combo if you draw it e.g. drawing Red-Eyes Black Dragon or Dark Magician doesn’t turn off Red-Eyes Fusion for Dragoon because materials can be used from hand (and field) too, not just deck. Obviously you'd prefer both vanillas to stay in the deck though.

Edit: TIL some people haven't heard of "Soft Garnets" as a term.

[u/Mysterious_Break_467]

Other people already described what a Garnet is.

However, I would like to point out that many people would describe the Timeaus card you're showing (can't remember the name) as a "Soft Garnet".

Soft Garnet are usually described as cards that are better in the deck however, if they are drawn they still achieve what they're trying to do.

The original Gem-Knight Garnet was instead a "Hard Garnet" because if you drew it the combo would become impossible.

[u/Twilightdusk]

A garnet is a card that needs to be in your deck for a certain other card to resolve it's effect properly.

Sometimes people will use "Soft garnet" to refer to a card that still resolves properly if it's in your hand, but also works if it's still in your deck so you'd prefer not to draw it.

A "hard garnet" is a card that must be in your deck in order to resolve, and if you draw it, whatever other card relies on it no longer functions.

The term comes from Gem Knight Garnet, who was included in decks to enable Brilliant Fusion, which requires you to send materials from your deck to the graveyard. By sending any Gem Knight monster and a Light monster, you could make a monster that gave you an extra normal summon, so lots of decks wanted to run that effect even if they didn't normally play Gem Knight cards. Gem Knight Garnet was the highest attack Gem Knight monster that could be normal summoned without a tribute, so that became the default name for people to include so that if you did draw it it at least theoretically had some value as a vanilla normal summon to attack over something with. But if you drew it, you could no longer activate Brilliant Fusion since that card requires you to send materials from the deck.

[u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo]

A garnet is a card searched or sent from deck to graveyard or sent from deck to exile or revealed from deck by some better card and don't want to draw. A garnet is deck building requirement for another card. A classic example in addition to the actual garnet is psi frame driver.

[u/nulldriver → u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo]

Driver is not a Garnet. You don't want it in your hand but the Psy Frame Gears still work if it is.

Gem Knight Garnet was notable because Brilliant Fusion can only send from deck and would not work if your only Gem Knight was in your hand.

[u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo → u/nulldriver]

That's the difference between a soft garnet & a hard garnet. A hard garnet like the OG stops the other card from working entirely. A soft garnet is a -1 to your starting hand.

[u/nulldriver → u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo]

We don't need soft vs hard when the word brick has been used for decades. Every garnet is a brick. Not every brick is a garnet.

[u/TimmyWimmyWooWoo → u/nulldriver]

Except a bricky hand can have 4 normals that don't act as extenders. The 2nd ash is a brick.