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The following is a list of notable cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. The cards listed are notable for their relevance to the anime and manga of the same name, its spin-off series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and the real-life card game.

Contents 1 Individual Cards 1.1 Advanced Ritual Art 1.2 Blue-Eyes White Dragon 1.3 Cyber Dragon/Cyberdark Dragon 1.4 Cyber-Stein 1.5 Dark Magician 1.6 Dark Magician Girl 1.7 Exodia 1.8 Kuriboh 1.9 Red-Eyes Black Dragon 2 Series of Cards 2.1 Arcana Force 2.2 Chaos 2.3 Destiny Heroes 2.4 Elemental Heroes 2.5 Gadgets 2.6 Gem Beasts 2.7 Monarchs 2.8 Neo-Spacians 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

A Ritual Spell that can be used to summon Ritual monsters from your hand by sending Normal monsters from your deck to the Graveyard.

The card is notable for making the aforementioned monsters playable, both of which had been deemed unplayable at a competitive level. Since it's release it has been used in a "One Turn Kill" varient. Advanced Ritual Art would be used to Summon Demise King of Armageddon, by sending Insect-type monsters to the Graveyard. Demise's effect would then clear all other cards from the field, while the player summons Doom Dozer by removing the insects from their Graveyard. Then by playing Megamorph or using Metamorphosis to summon Cyber Twin Dragon, the player could attack directly for the win.^[1]

The signature card of Seto Kaiba, it is one of the strongest monsters in the game, and viewed as the pinnacle of power in the anime. Its attack is White Lightning in the English anime, and Burst Stream in the Japanese anime. In the manga and anime, there are only four in the entire world,^[2] the explanation being that the card was considered "too powerful" and therefore discontinued. Kaiba, who dreams of owning all of them, acquires three of them through underhanded tactics such as Mafia deals, or forcing the owners into Bankruptcy. Only three of one card can be in one's deck at a time, and the fourth Blue-Eyes belonged to Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Muto in the English anime). After claiming the final Blue-Eyes, Kaiba rips it up so it can never be used against him.^[2]

The card becomes Kaiba's trademark card and a motif of sorts, as he owns a jet, a dueling dome and a theme park all based on the beast. It is rumored that the card Kaibaman was created by Kaiba himself and is heavily based on him in appearance.^[3] In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episode in which Kaibaman appears, he even has the same voice, deck and mannerisms.^[4] Kaiba's appearance of a white coat and bright blue eyes also conjure the dragon's image.

In the final season of the anime, the dragon is revealed to be the spirit of Kisara, a young woman who was captured by Akhenaden for the power of the beast. Kaiba's past incarnation, Priest Seto, fell in love with Kisara and defended her to death. Priest Seto first became interested in the Blue-Eyes when he saw Bakura's Diabound use Burst Stream to defeat Obelisk the Tormentor - he cites this incident as indicating there exist monsters with powers that surpass the Pharoah's God Cards. This leads to his search for stronger monsters that eventually leads him to Kisara. After Akhenaden killed her and possessed Seto, Kisara's spirit entered Seto's mind and destroyed Akhenaden. The love the two shared is the reason why Kaiba was driven to claim all the Blue-Eyes cards in the present.

The monster itself is described by Zorc as "the ultimate creature of light," with power greater than that of the three God Cards (this is true only for the anime). The second Yu-Gi-Oh! Movie supports this by having Blue-Eyes and its forms representing Kaiba, the King of Light, and being his strongest creatures. In the anime, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon's power is further demonstrated by being the first monster who deals actual damage to Zorc, cutting off Zorc's forearm with a blast. Even Exodia, considered by many to be invincible, was unable to do this: while he did damage Zorc, Zorc was able to regenerate.

The Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon is portrayed in the anime as an evolution of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It was capable of deflecting all of Zorc's attacks with its own Triple Burst Stream. The Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon and Dragon Master Knight are further evolutions of the Ultimate Dragon. Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon is summoned by first sacrificing a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It was only featured in the second movie. Dragon Master Knight, a combination of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Black Luster Soldier, made a few apearances throughout the anime. Each time it is summoned through a combined effort of Yugi and Kaiba. In the TCG the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon is commonly used for One-turn kill deck types.

The favorite cards of Zane Truesdale, the two cards symbolize yin and yang, with the bright, active Cyber Dragons being the yang and the dark, passive Cyberdark Dragons being the yin. The cards are part of a dueling philosophy known as Cyber-Style, the art of which was taught at a dojo. Zane was the dojo's top pupil and thus earned favor from the dojo's master, who gave him his Cyber End Dragon. Cyberdark Dragon, however, remained sealed in the dojo for being too dangerous. After Zane graduated Duel Academy and subsequently falls into a losing streak, he reforms with a dark persona. He thus returns to the dojo to claim the forbidden Underworld deck with the Cyberdark Dragon. His master, in an attempt to show Zane the error of his ways, seized control of his treasured Cyber End Dragon. Zane, however, turned on his monster and destroyed it to claim the Underworld deck.

Cyber Dragon serves as a popular card in the real life Trading Card Game and as such multiple copies of the card feature in the Top eight decks in Shonen Jump tournaments.^[5]. This is due to the fact it is not only a powerful "beatstick" (high ATK monster), but as it can be Special Summoned, it can be quickly tributed for an even stronger monster. It also hosts a wide array of support cards including three fusions: Cyber Twin Dragon, Cyber End Dragon and Chimeratech Overdragon. All of these have been involved in "One Turn Kill" decks, although this deck type has been weakened by the banning of Cyber-Stein and the limiting of Overload Fusion.^[6]

Cyberdark Dragon and the cards in its series are similarily powerful, allowing players to not only reuse the cards in their Graveyard, but to provide monsters with even higher ATK than the normal Cyber Dragon: the ideal cards for use with the Cyberdarks, Masked Dragon and Twin-Headed Behemoth, are easy to get into the Graveyard and boost the Cyberdarks to 2200 and 2300 ATK points (compare to Cyber Dragon with only 2100). As well, their release more or less coincides with the release of Five-Headed Dragon: thus, players can create decks that utilize both. In such a deck, even if Five-Headed Dragon (5000 ATK) is defeated, players can simply summon Cyberdark Dragon and get an even stronger monster in exchange.

The design of cards in the Cyber Dragon series has links to Chinese mythology, Cyber Dragon representing the Chinese dragon, Cyber Kirin representing the Qilin, and Cyber Phoenix representing the Fenghuang.

Cyber-Stein or Devil Franken in the OCG is named after Frankenstein. At the cost of 5000 Life Points this card allowed a player to Special Summon a Fusion monster.

Cyber-Stein has been the subject of two controversies in the history of the card game. Cyber-Stein was originally printed only for winners of Shonen Jump Championship competitions, with the first card having a bid placed on eBay for over 20,000 US dollars.^[7] The buyer did not pay,^[7] however and the card was resold. The card is now available as a rare in Dark Beginning 2(one random Rare card can be found per booster pack).

After it's reprinting Cyber-Stein featured in many "One Turn Kill" decks. These decks focused on Special Summoning Cyber Twin Dragon or Cyber End Dragon and doubling it's attack with either Megamorph or Limiter Removal. Many players criticized the effortless wins this strategy generated, this resulted in Cyber-Stein being a late addition to the forbiddden list on December 21st, 2006.^[8]

Used mostly by Yugi Mutou (although another duelist also used it),^[9] the Dark Magician is a rival to the Blue-Eyes, mostly due to the bitter rivalry between their owners. The Dark Magician, while possessing less raw attack power compared to the Blue-Eyes, has many alternate forms with greater power and special abilities that allow Yugi to use and reuse it in countless ways to trump Kaiba's dragon. Notable alternate forms include the Dark Magician of Chaos and Dark Paladin, which Yugi uses to defeat Kaiba in their final duel during Battle City.

Additionally, the Dark Magician has a large library of specific spell and trap cards that can augment its power. Several of these are general to the Spellcaster class of monsters, like Magical Dimension and Diffusion-Wave Motion. Others, such as Thousand Knives and Dark Magic Attack, are specific to the card type.

In the final season of the anime, the card is revealed to be the embodiment of Mahad, the Pharaoh's childhood friend and guardian. When Bakura attacked Mahad, Mahad sacrificed himself to merge with Illusion Magician, the fusing forming the Dark Magician. In doing so, Mahad vowed to protect the Pharaoh for eternity, a vow that he continues to serve to the Pharaoh's reincarnation, Yugi.

A female counterpart to the Dark Magician, she is another of Yugi's trademark cards. In the English anime she is voiced by Bella Hudson. Following her introduction into the anime, she gained a greater deal of popularity among the fandom. She, unlike the Dark Magician, has appeared as a Duel Spirit twice.

The Dark Magician Girl played an important part in the fourth season of the anime, she was the representative of the Duel Monsters' world who begged Yugi and Yami Yugi to stop Dartz. She would eventually lead the forces of her world in an all-out assault on the 'Leviathan in an attempt to destroy it, but this failed. In the final season of the anime, the card is revealed to be the Ka Monster of Mana, the Pharaoh's childhood friend and Mahad's pupil/successor.

Her Duel Spirit appeared once again in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. During a school festival, the one day Duel Spirits can take physical form, she appeared to duel Jaden Yuki. The crowd cheered actively for her, and even though she lost, she didn't care because she had so much fun. Before the day ended, she used the last of her energy to give Syrus Truesdale, who she thought was cute and who also had a crush on her, a kiss on the cheek.^[10]

The shortened name of Exodia the Forbidden One, Exodia is commonly perceived in the anime and manga as being the strongest of all Duel Monsters. Its first appearance in the anime was a memorable one: it destroyed all three of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragons and depleted his Life Points with a single blast. Although Exodia is typically shown as being summoned and attacking in the anime, its actual effect activates in the hand: players who gather all five Exodia parts in their hand can declare an automatic victory, regardless of Life Points.

Exodia is split into a head, and four limbs (two arms and two legs). The story of why and how it was split and sealed is revealed in the final season, when its original master, Shimon (Sugoroku Mutou's past incarnation) fragmented it because it was too powerful. However, when Zorc attacked the palace, Shimon released the beast to do battle with him. Although the two traded blows with near-equal power, Exodia lost because it was summoned by Shimon's energy, and thus when Shimon could no longer power it, Exodia was destroyed.

Exodia has a counterpart called Exodia Necross, a ghostly, necromantic version of it. Used by Gozaburo Kaiba against his step-son Kaiba,^[11] this version of Exodia is powered by the five limbs being in the Graveyard, and as long as all five parts remain, it cannot be destroyed in any way and gains 1000 points every time it battles. Kaiba manages to destroy the beast by removing the five limbs from play. Exodia Necross is thus stripped of its powers and left a weakened husk.

In the TCG, Exodia Necross isn't as powerful; although it remains indestructible from battle, Spell, and Trap Cards, it is still open to monster effects. Its effect also only applies to the specific term "destroyed by...", meaning it can be returned to the hand or deck, removed from play (by any card), destroyed while face-down, and can have its effects negated and then be destroyed. The ATK increase is only 500 points, and only occurs during the Standby Phase. General consensus with the card is that if players are going to create a deck with the Exodia parts, it is better to use them for an automatic win than summoning a monster

Kuriboh has been used in Yugi's Deck, and has been seen many times. It intially appeared alone, but later became one of Five Kuriboh Brothers, each with a different ability ranging from combining into new forms of Kuriboh to blocking an opponent's strike. Kuriboh, like Dark Magician Girl, appears in the Waking the Dragons arc, but to a lesser degree of importance.

Kuriboh also has a counterpart, Winged Kuriboh, who serves a Duel Spirit and card in Jaden's Deck.^[12] It was given to Jaden from Yugi in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.^[13] Winged Kuriboh has an alternative form Winged Kuriboh LV10. This was used by Jaden in his duel against Chazz to defeat his VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon.^[14]

Kuribohs have the ability to negate battle damage. Thanks to this ability Kuriboh is sometimes side decked to counter "One Turn Kill" Decks.^[15] The Kuriboh series is backed up with a few support cards. One of which, The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, can be used for tech in Monarch decks, either to place a Kuriboh in hand to block the aforementioned One Turn Kill, or to Special Summon one to be tributed. Despite this ability, Kuribohs are looked down on in the anime, Kaiba stating that he doesn't know a serious duelist who uses it during his first duel with Yugi.

A dark dragon that is commonly seen as an evil counterpart to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (as evidenced by its name). Its link to Blue-Eyes is explicitly stated in the first movie: "The Blue-Eyes brings victory, while the Red-Eyes brings potential." While the Blue-Eyes is stronger one-on-one, the Red-Eyes has a greater number of alternate forms that can overpower the Blue-Eyes, such as Meteor Black Dragon (used in the first movie by Yugi to destroy all three of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes at once) and Black Skull Dragon. Another notable form of the Red-Eyes is the Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon.

The Red-Eyes is one of Jonouchi's strongest cards. It originally belonged to Dinosaur Ryuzaki, but he bet it against Jonouchi in the hopes of seizing his Time Wizard. Jonouchi instead used that same card to fossilize the dragon and thus claimed victory, along with Dinosaur's favorite card.^[16]

The dragon has since appeared in many of Jonouchi's duels. It played a key role in defeating both the Meikyū Brothers and Bandit Keith during Duelist Kingdom. When Jonouchi lost it in a duel with a Rare Hunter and subsequently won back by Yugi during Battle City, Jonouchi vows to duel and become better and face Yugi in the finals to earn it back. Neither the anime or the manga shows this duel, but as Jonouchi has the dragon afterwards it is assumed he was able to defeat Yugi. Jonouchi has a rematch with Dinosaur in Season 4, where Dinosaur intends to defeat the dragon as a punishment for its apparent betrayal. Jonouchi instead uses it along with Hermos to create the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword to power up his Gearfried the Swordmaster to defeat Dinosaur again.

The card is also used by Nightshroud, aka Atticus Rhodes in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Nightshroud uses the full extent of the card's power through a wide array of cards based around it, including Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, a stronger form of the card. After Nightshroud is defeated, his spirit is sealed in the card and eventually reclaims Atticus for a short time when he uses the deck to duel Zane.

The main components of Sartorius' deck, they are light-based antithesis to the Neo-Spacians. The Arcana Force monsters are largely based on the Major Arcana, and the Spells and Traps that supplement them are based on the Minor Arcana. The Arcana Force monsters and many of their related cards rotate on screen when played - their effect is determined by their position (right-side up or up-side down) when the opponent calls for the rotation stop, in turn giving the opponent the illusion the cards are based on luck and they are able to decide their fate, a reflection of Sartorius' views on destiny.^[17]

The abilities of the cards may help either duelist depending on their position. However, stronger Arcana Force monsters merely have a less-powerful, but still helpful ability as their secondary effect as opposed to a detrimental one. The leader of the series is Arcana Force EX - The Light Ruler, the 23rd "extra" Arcana Force card and the only one not based on an actual Tarot card, instead being the embodiment of light. The summoning of the card is preceded by a convergence of three pillars of red, blue and green light. In addition, an even mix of these colors in the spectrum produces white light.

A deck-archetype that reigned over the tournaments prior to the creation of the Forbidden List, when many of the original Forbidden cards were Chaos cards. The trademark Chaos card is Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, although Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer are also given this classification. The original Chaos deck relied on discarding Light and Dark Attribute monsters, removing them from play to special summon the Chaos monsters. With their powerful effects, ability to be easily summoned and high attack power, the Chaos monsters could easily dominate an opponent.

There exists a card in the OCG Light and Darkness Dragon. The artwork on this card features the ring that is present on both of the Envoys, also its attribute is treated as both Light and Dark making it easier to summon the other chaos monsters.^[18]

Both of the Envoys are used in the anime. Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End were in the decks of Yugi and Kaiba respectively. Black Luster Soldier was played by Dimitri in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, while he was using Yugi's deck.^[19]Chaos Emperor Dragon was used by Kaiba against Zigfried.^[20] It is later explained in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX that Chaos Emperor Dragon is banned from tournament use.^[21]

With Chaos Emperor Dragon in particular, players would use its effect while Sangan or Witch of the Black Forest was in play, destroying all cards and allowing players to search their decks for Yata-Garasu, which could stop the opponent from drawing if it did damage: players could simply attack their opponent with Yata over and over to keep their opponents from playing a single card. This dangerous strategy has become known as a Yata-Lock, and both Yata-Garasu and Chaos Emperor Dragon were two of the cards on the first Forbidden List for this reason.

Since then, the Chaos deck has been weakened steadily by the banning of key cards like Witch of the Black Forest, and eventually, all three Chaos monsters themselves were Banned. Their legacy lives on, however, as Shadow of Infinity released two ritual monsters that had watered-down versions of the original Chaos effects. In the upcoming Force of the Breaker, three new Demon cards will be released, two of which have similar effects and summoning requirements to the Chaos monsters as well, although the removal of monsters from the Grave is both type and attribute specific, balancing their power.

A series of Dark-type Warriors, these are the trademark cards used by Aster Phoenix during the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. They are considered the rival cards to Jaden's Elemental Heroes, and possess abilities pertaining to time or the passage of time, ranging from the displacement of his opponent's monsters into the future to the revival of his monsters or halving of his opponent's Life Points within a turn.

Some of the Destiny Heroes include Diamond Dude, Doom Lord, Dreadmaster, and Dogma. Many are based on various anti-heroes of English literature (such as Double Dude being a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). In the original series, all the Destiny Heroes had the suffix "Guy" and had names starting with "D" (Devilguy, Doomguy, Dogmaguy, etc). The only exceptions were Bloo D and Darkangel, both of which were specially made Heroes.^[22]

Destiny Heroes served as a playable deck type, particularly while Elemental Hero Stratos was unrestricted.^[6] This deck type has proven a popular choice and has featured in some of the top eight decklists in "Shonen Jump TCG Championship Series Tournaments".^[23] Beyond this, a decktype known as "Diamond Dude Turbo" (abbreviated DDT) is also seeing play, relying on using Diamond Dude's effect in tandem with Destiny Heroes "Malicious" and "Dasher", as well as the Spell "Destiny Draw".

A series of monsters that serve as the tradmark cards used by Jaden Yuki. The strength of the Elemental Heroes comes from the various Fusions that are created through combinations of the Elemental Hero cards, nearly every two Heroes can combine, allowing for a very flexible deck. While most of the Elemental Heroes are each based on the designs of various American super heroes (like Necroshade to Spawn and Burstinatrix to Sunpyre), the design of Elemental Hero Neos is based on the Japanese manga Guyver.

A series of machine-type monsters whose effects allow players to search for relevant gadget monsters. They are Green Gadget, Red Gadget and Yellow Gadget. Each of the Gadgets can search each other from the player's deck. They are also supported by Stronghold the moving Fortress, Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon and Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera. They are found in the Machine Re-Volt Structure Deck.

They were notably used by Yugi Mutou in the Ceremonial Duel against Atem in the last episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

Gadgets are a very popular set, due to their effects. Players often use them to get ahead in card advantage, by gaining an extra card each time a gadget is summoned and then protecting the gadgets with cards like Sakuretsu Armor.

The main cards of Johan Andersen, the Gem Beasts are a series of monsters based on various gemstones, including rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. The most notable gameplay attribute of the cards is that, they cannot be destroyed like normal monsters. Whenever a Gem Beast is destroyed, it is crystallized and reappears as a Continuous Spell in the owner's Spell/Trap zone, allowing it to survive as a gemstone.

The cards are based on an ancient lithograph from ancient Rome constructed from seven precious stones as a sign of the ruler's power. The strongest card of the set is Rainbow Dragon, which is summoned through the combination of the seven gemstones. However, the card does not exist, although Maximillion Pegasus promised Johan he would create the card once the lithograph of the monster is found. After Duel Academy transported into the other world, Pegasus finds the lithograph and creates the card to bring the students back.

A series of cards whose effects are triggered when Tribute Summoned. The members include Zaborg, Mobius, Thestalos, Granmarg, and Riser. The effects all deal with the disposal of cards. All the Monarchs have 2400 attack points, 1000 defence points and are level six with the execption of Zaborg who is level five. The Monarchs were initially released in Ancient Sanctuary with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Since then single monarchs have been released in following sets.

The Monarchs are used in the anime by the "Light Brigade" led by Sarina, Sartorius' sister. This particular arch depicts four duelists who each use decks based around their Monarch's elemental inclination (ice, thunder, fire, etc), with Riser not being featured as it was not in existence at the time.^[24]

The Monarchs are very popular deck theme in the real life Trading Card Game. Often featuring in top eight decklists in major tournaments. Monarch decks usually focus on Tribute Summoning Monarchs without losing any card advantage by tributing monsters. This is often done with cards such as Treeborn Frog, Brain Control and Soul Exchange.^[25] Mobius is usually the most popular, with Zaborg and Thestalos being featured in varying quantities from deck to deck.

Another set of cards Jaden had in his deck during season 2. The six alien monsters, each based on a manga design, originated from Neo Space and came to help Jaden fight the Society of Light. Their unique ability, other than their effect, is that they can evoke Contact Fusions with Elemental Hero Neos, upgrading his form with their power. Its members are composed of Aqua Dolphin, Flare Scarab, Air Humming Bird, Grand Mole, Glow Moss, and Dark Panther, with each being of a different Attribute.

The Neo-Spacians are typically lacking in power, but have powerful effects to compensate: the effects of the Contact Fused-Neos is typically an upgraded version of this effect. They also have several Contact and Coccoon cards that let them Special Summon themselves. Recently, Neos has been shown to have the ability to Contact Fuse more than one Neo-Spacian at the same time. (Elemental Hero Magma Neos, a fusion of Neos with Grand Mole and Flare Scarab), although this power has not been shown extensively.

• Egyptian God Cards
• Legendary Dragon Cards
• Sacred Beast Cards

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