Yu-Gi-Oh began in 1996 as a Japanese Manga, but it quickly became so much more, spawning an anime series, video games, and, of course, all of those amazing cards. To this day, scores of players hunt for the best yu-gi-oh card sets to lead them to victory, using a range of monster, spell, or trap cards to vanquish their opponents.

Yes, Yu-Gi-Oh sometimes gets confused with that other popular card game, but there’s a reason it’s one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. It has terrifying creatures, tricky spells, and a simple goal: whittle your opponent’s life points down to zero. Whether you’re a Yu-Gi-Oh pro or a curious newbie, you’ll benefit from learning about the 10 best Yu-Gi-Oh cards the game has to offer. Oh, and in the interest of helping you win, banned cards – cards considered too powerful for competitive play – are also banned from this list.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Let’s get this one over with right now. Blue-Eyes White Dragon, in a solely technical sense, is a beast of a card, with a whopping ATK of 3,000, making it the strongest normal monster card in Yu-Gi-Oh to date. It may be true that Blue-Eyes’s star power has faded in recent years, as it’s a fairly simplistic card with no special monster effects, but it’s tough to make a list of the best Yu-Gi-Oh cards without including the most iconic one to date. Blue-Eyes White Dragon was the centerpiece of many of the anime’s early plot twists, and today the original is considered one of the most valuable cards in the game.

Dark Hole

Beauty is in simplicity, and it doesn’t get more simple than the effect of this infamous spell card. Dark Hole does exactly what it says on the tin, it destroys all monsters on the field. Meaning, that if your opponent is using a monster-heavy deck, you can obliterate all their monsters (and their chances of winning) in one fell swoop. It’s quick, it’s clean, and it’s brutally effective. If you’re new to the game, it won’t hurt to keep a Dark Hole in your back pocket, just in case things get dicey, and you need an easy out.

Salmangreat Sanctuary

Salmangreat Sanctuary is another card best played in a specific deck – in this case, the Soulburner deck, a scorching-hot deck bursting with power. Soulburner is built around a reincarnation strategy, meaning that you send your monsters to the Graveyard in order to summon another copy. Much of the deck won’t work, however, without the Salmangreat Sanctuary spell, which allows you to cycle through a host of scary beasts. Salmangreat Sanctuary is great (pun intended) not because it's rare, but because of what you can do with it in the right deck.

Fallen of Albaz

In the land of Yu-Gi-Oh (and Pokémon), dragons can be downright deadly, and Fallen of Albaz is no exception. The foundation card in the Albaz Strike deck, this Dragon-type monster may be nothing special to look at, but in the context of the deck, it’s vital. Fallen of Albez is capable of absorbing enemy monsters to enhance its power. In the Albaz Strike deck, which has a fantastic supporting cast of fusion Dragons, this card can be lethal. Albaz Strike as a whole is a good choice for beginners, as it’s constructed to be playable (and powerful!) right out of the gate.

Wightprincess

Wightprincess requires a bit of skill to use correctly, but once she’s combined with the right cards – specifically, King of the Skull Servants – she can reduce the attack stats of all your opponent’s monsters to zero. And, in case this needs spelling out, even the most terrifying cards will look pretty useless with an attack power of zero. Use Wightprincess to strip your opponent’s power from their biggest monsters and watch their faces fall.

Cyber Dragon Nova

Last dragon, I promise! It wouldn’t be a Yu-Gi-Oh ranking without the Cyber Dragon Revolution, a deck rife with OTK (one-turn-kill) opportunities. Cyber Dragon Revolution focuses on Cyber Dragon cards (no surprises there), and while they’re all frightening, Cyber Dragon Nova is unquestionably the deck’s main event. Combined with the other Cyber Dragons, Cyber Dragon Nova can double its attack points. But wait, there’s more – if this card gets sent to the graveyard, it can be transformed into a fusion monster from the extra deck, i.e. the cards not included in the main deck but still playable in your match. To call this deck (and this card) overpowered would be an understatement.

Performapal Monkeyboard

This monkey’s smile may look creepy, but what will really get your opponent’s knees quaking is this card’s effect. Performapal Monkeyboard is a focal point of the devastatingly powerful PePe decks, which contain two archetypes – Performapal and Performage – designed to disrupt your opponent’s gameplay and achieve an early OTK. Performapal Monkeyboard’s use is technically complicated, but suffice to say it results in terrifying monsters being brought to the fore early and often. Performapal Monkeyboard was such a game-changer it was even banned for a while, but it was recently brought back to competitive play, albeit in a limited form.

Armityle the Chaos Phantasm

Remember what I said about monster cards with zero attack power being useless? Forget all that. Armityle is a fusion card of the three most powerful Sacred Beasts in the Sacred Beasts deck, and when those three cards – which are powerful in their own right – are banished, Armityle will be summoned, and your opponent will cry. Armityle cannot be destroyed by battle (what?) and gains 10,000 ATK during your turn (what?!). Plus, it looks scary as hell. Along with the other cards in the Sacred Beasts deck, Armityle will help you wipe the floor with your opponents.

Super Quantal Mech King Great Magnus

The name is ridiculous, and so is the card. Super Quantal Mech King Great Magnus is a stupid-good Machine monster that’s not easy to play – it requires six or more sacrifices – but once you get it going, you’ll all but ensure an oh-so-satisfying victory. Not only is the card itself super stacked (3600 ATK, 3200 DEF), at its most powerful its effect stops your opponent from adding cards to their hands at all. The card is OP, and you know it the instant you lay eyes on it.

Exodia, The Forbidden One

Capping this list with Exodia, The Forbidden One feels true to the anime, which introduced Exodia as the first card to provide an alternative win condition. Exodia is split into five pieces that, when assembled, end the game. This card tops the list not only because of its tricky-yet-satisfying win condition, but because of its legacy. To date, it’s remembered as one of the game’s early kings, keeping it cycling through decks despite its age. Contrary to its name, it’s also somehow one of the few cards with a unique win condition that isn’t banned.

There are many routes to victory in Yu-Gi-Oh, but if you want to set yourself up for success, using these cards in the proper decks will put you on the right path. With the help of the best Yu-Gi-Oh cards, you’ll be defeating your own Seto Kaiba in no time.