As everyone knew, giving old monsters new forms was one of Konami's standard moves. Many classic old Decks also followed the trends of new formats, using some new Summoning Method as their direction for upgrades.
For example, the evolution of Blue-Eyes White Dragon clearly went in the Synchro direction. Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon, Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon, and the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Spirit Dragon that appeared later all injected fresh blood into the Blue-Eyes series. At its peak, they even pushed this old Yu-Gi-Oh! archetype to the throne of World Champion in the new generation.
Compared to Blue-Eyes, which had once claimed the championship, the Red-Eyes series, which had been compared to Blue-Eyes back in the original generation, had not lived nearly as comfortably. Even with support, it had remained lukewarm, unable to touch even the threshold of competitive play, let alone become World Champion.
It had finally received a true powerhouse like Red-Eyes, only for top competitive Decks everywhere to splash it in recklessly. Other people's Decks were carried onto the pie chart by Red-Eyes, eating and drinking well, while the Red-Eyes archetype itself was still left stranded by the roadside.
The worst part was that Red-Eyes, that powerhouse, had ended up working too many jobs for too many masters. Splashable everywhere, it was reported and ultimately received a permanent ban. That once again robbed the already declining Red-Eyes family of its main pillar, making things even worse.
But in fact, Red-Eyes had also received support through a new Summoning Method in the new generation: the "Xyz Summon."
Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon, a Red-Eyes archetype Xyz Monster. A Rank 7 Xyz requiring any two Level 7 Monsters, with 2800 ATK. Both its Rank and base stats were standard Red-Eyes fare.
This card could not be destroyed by effects while it had Xyz Material.