The best cards that Yugi Muto has in Yu-Gi-Oh! uses TCG

The first series of Yu-Gi-Oh! features some of the most iconic characters in the entire series. No character made a bigger impact than Yugi Muto himself, who fought his way to victory with a single draw. While there are many cards that have had iconic effects or significance to the story throughout the series, such as the Dark Magician, which of his cards was actually good?

From game-winning combos to cards banned for their superiority, Yugi's deck seems to contain some pretty great entries in the franchise's history. So let's take a closer look at the cards he played and see which ones were really the best.

11

Summoned Skull

Better than dark magician

While the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime likes Yugi to summon the Dark Magician as his ace monster, he had a much better card in his deck in those early days. The Summoned Skull has the same 2500 attacks as the Dark Magician and requires one less monster as a tribute.

For this reason, in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players would not summon any of Yugi or Kaiba's boss monsters in favor of this powerhouse. Luckily for Yugi, the anime's Duelist Kingdom arc allows players to get away with all sorts of illegal moves, and Yugi never had to pay tribute to get out his Dark Magician or his summoned skull.

10

Exodia

A game-winning combination

Yugi Muto's deck has had a lot of cards over the years, but one of the best was destroyed early on. These are the Exodia Pieces that earned him his original duel with Seto Kaiba. Unfortunately, they were thrown overboard on the way to the Duelist Kingdom.

Getting all five Exodia pieces will allow you to win a duel, so it makes sense to delete these cards from Yugi's arsenal. However, he doesn't really get it back, even though there are several copies around the world.

9

Monster reborn

A revival card with too many uses

Yugi had many cards in his deck that ended up being banned. One of them is Monster Reborn. Yugi often used this effect to bring back some of his fallen monsters. However, in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, it's more powerful than that.

Monster Reborn can also take monsters from your opponent's graveyard and bring them to your own field. This works not only to put more materials on the field, but also to move graveyard pieces away from where your opponent wants them.

8

Catapult turtle

From nonsensical plays to real heroic deeds

The Catapult Turtle appeared a few times in the anime, but the most iconic moment is when Yugi uses it to launch his own monster into Panik's Castle of Dark Illusion. It's one of the most bizarre moments from the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh!

However, Catapult Turtle is a pretty good card. This allows you to pay tribute to a monster and deal damage to your opponent equal to half of their attack. This made it useful for OTK methods until there was eventually an errata stating that it could only be done once per turn.

7

Mirror power

The scariest card in early Yu-Gi-Oh!

Combat traps used to be much better if they had a chance of surviving the combat phase. However, during the Duel Monsters era of the game, Mirror Force was a pretty neat way to get rid of all of your opponent's monsters.

Yugi used Mirror Force in the anime. However, he did so by bending the rules a bit. Yes, it destroys your opponent's monsters if they get cocky with their summoning and decide to attack, but when triggered it doesn't deal any damage.

6

Bottomless trap hole

Watch monsters fall

Nothing is more annoying than spitting out the strongest monster and then seeing it immediately removed from the field. Bottomless Trap Hole is another one of those cards that wreaked havoc on Yugi's opponents.

In this era, most players could summon one monster per turn. If they were really lucky, they could spit out two. Therefore, ensuring that the opponent's summon was wasted by using Bottomless Trap Hole was a good way to trap the opponent.

5

Pot full of greed

So complex that it requires an explanation

Pot of Greed is not only part of Yugi's deck, but also played a role in many of his opponents' decks. The ability to draw two cards without paying anything in return is a bust effect that resulted in the card being banned.

However, for Yugi and many of the duelists in the anime, that didn't stop them from using the card or explaining what it does. This card also became so iconic that several pot cards were printed to balance the drawing power.

4

Breaker The magical warrior

If Yugi has old meta cards

While monsters with removal effects are everywhere in the modern game, Yugi's Time mostly consists of cards falling into traps, being destroyed by spells, or simply being overwhelmed by stronger monsters. Breaker, the Magic Warrior, is a powerful monster with the ability to place a card in the back row.

This made it one of the more powerful cards Yugi used in the anime, as it had such a good effect without having to make up rules on the fly. It is also one of the first monsters to use spell counters.

3

Polymerization

Yugi's Evergreen Card

Before there were Synchros, Link, or even XYZ monsters, polymerization was the king of the playground. Yugi used this card to fuse some of the series' most iconic cards into his monsters. This also led everyone to believe that this card could be used to stack monsters on top of each other.

However, polymerization helped Yugi bring out other fusions such as Black Skull Dragon and Dragon Champion. Polymerization has also been a great card over the years as part of a core use in any archetype that likes to fuse monsters.

2

Kuriboh

The trap first hand

Kuriboh is often referred to as the weakest monster in Yugi's deck, but it is one of the best cards in it. Although weak, it has an ability that activates in the hand, making it one of the earliest known hand traps in the game.

Not only does it stop your opponent from hitting you with their strongest monster, it's also very cute. Some would even say that Kuriboh is the closest thing the franchise has to having a Pikachu mascot, although Kuriboh has endless variations.

1

The gadgets

Yugi's strongest archetype

In the later seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh! Yugi could get by with a lot of jank strategies that wouldn't exactly work in the meta. However, Yugi's deck contained an archetype that transcended the anime. These are the Gear gadgets.

These cards come in different colors and have effects that visit each other. In the real card game, gadgets got better and better over the years, with new support releasing them more quickly, allowing you to flood the field with bodies on the board.