From Dark Magicians all the way up to Pendulum Magicians, spellcasters have always had a say in which deck is the best. So it’s only natural that Spellcasters contain some of the most powerful monsters in the game, too. Whether you’re looking to build a pure spellcaster deck and need some in-archetype support, or if you’re just generally looking for some strong cards for your deck, this list will break down the best of the best for you, the crème de la crème, the ultimate magicians in terms of attack and defense!
15. Dark Magician
When talking about ultimate magicians, you have to start with the man himself. Dark Magician is the signature monster of Yugi Muto. And this has always been the card to save him in a pinch. Despite his flavor text, he’s certainly not the best magician in the game. However, there are a metric ton of cards that can bring it out for practically nothing. Cards like Eternal Soul and Magician’s Navigation have made it insanely easy to special summon this guy for free. If you’re looking to build a spellcaster-only deck, then you can’t go wrong with a Dark Magician build. New cards are being made every single year for this deck, and they’re only getting stronger!
14. Exodia the Forbidden One
Continuing the retro vibe, we have the unstoppable Exodia. When you have all 5 pieces of Exodia in your hand, you win the game. Simple, right? There are very few cards in any card game that let you win instantly. Which is why Exodia is such a powerful spellcaster. There are a whole variety of decks focusing on Exodia to win the game. Typically this involves drawing as many cards as you physically can while either burning your opponent for damage with cards like Just Desserts, or simply stalling them for time with cards like Mystic Mine. Either way, pulling off a victory with Exodia is an unbeatable feeling. And it truly makes you feel like the king of games!
13. Chaos Sorcerer
You know what’s better than powerful monsters? Powerful monsters that are ridiculously easy to summon! To play Chaos Sorcerer, all you need to do is banish a Light and a Dark monster from your graveyard. This means you don’t even have you to use up your normal summon to get a great monster out! And once it’s on the field, you can banish any face-up monster on the field once per turn. This means that every single turn you can get rid of one of your opponent’s annoying monsters, without having to worry about any effects that activate in the graveyard.
12. Effect Veiler
Definitely the most versatile card in the list, Effect Veiler deserves a spot in pretty much every deck. You can discard Effect Veiler to negate the effects of a monster on the field until the end of the turn. This is fantastic for stopping your opponent from doing a whole myriad of awful things, be it destroying your monsters, special summoning other monsters, or starting a combo chain so long that you’d need a book to keep you busy. This card is also a level 1 tuner – meaning you can special summon it from the deck with One for One to have instant access to all the synchro monsters in your extra deck.
11. Aleister the Invoker
Invoked decks are absolutely dominating the fusion deck portion of the meta game at the moment. And you won’t find a fusion deck more powerful than an Invoked deck. In fact, it was recently a meme in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom that normal summoning Aleister was always the start of any combo. When Aleister is summoned, you can search a copy of Invocation from your deck to your hand. Invocation is an in-archetype fusion card, letting you summon a whole range of deadly fusion monsters, depending on what monsters you have in your hand. Some great options to summon here are Invoked Cocytus who can attack while in defense position, or Invoked Mechaba who can negate spells, traps, and monster effects.
10. Relinquished
You won’t be relinquishing control of the game with this card in play. As one of the creepiest looking monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh, Relinquished was the boss monster of Pegasus – and pretty good, too. Yeah, unbelievably, the same guy whose deck consisted of cartoon rabbits was also running Relinquished. If you don’t already know, Relinquished lets you steal an opponent’s monster, turning Relinquished into a monster with the same attack and defiance as whatever you stole. What’s more, any battle damage you’d take from battles involving this card is inflicted onto your opponent instead. Even after all that, if your opponent does manage to destroy this monster by battle, you can simply destroy the equipped monster instead. So this guy is a fantastic way of protecting your life points, while destroying your opponent’s best monsters. And if it was easier to summon, I’d put it in literally every deck I own.
9. Wisdom Eye Magician
Wisdom Eye Magician singlehandedly gave Pendulum Magicians a lethal level of consistency. While it’s in the pendulum zone with another Magician pendulum monster, you can destroy it to replace it with a different Pendulum Magician. This means you can get your best pendulum scales in play right from the get-go. This card is also great in tandem with Star Pendulumgraph, which lets you add a Pendulum Magician from your deck to your hand whenever a Pendulum Magician is destroyed. If you’re playing a pendulum deck of any sort, it’d be a wise idea to think about including this spellcaster.
8. T.G. Hyper Librarian
Chances are, if you’re playing a synchro combo deck, you’ll be playing a copy of this card. T.G. Hyper Librarian lets you draw a card for every time you synchro summon. When this was first released, synchro summoning happened maybe twice in a turn if things were going really well. In modern Yu-Gi-Oh, you can easily draw up to 5 or 6 cards in a turn from this guy. This insane effect (and the fact that it’s an easy-to-summon spellcaster) has put this card on the limited list. So you can’t abuse its effect in multiples. Still, easily one of the most powerful spellcasters in Yu-Gi-Oh, and arguably the best synchro monster too.
7. Nekroz of Unicore
Here’s another card that’s served its time on the ban-list. Nekroz of Unicore is a spellcaster that takes Nekroz decks from great, to unstoppable. While this card is on the field, all extra deck monsters have their effects negated. For a ritual deck like Nekroz, this isn’t a problem, as all their strong monsters reside in the main deck. For most other decks, however, they’ll be locked out of most of their key resources.
6. Harmonizing Magician
Even though this card has 0 attack and defense, it’s simultaneously the most powerful card in any pendulum magician deck. When Harmonizing Magician is pendulum summoned from the hand, you can special summon a Pendulum Magician monster straight from the deck to the field. This means through one card, you’ve got the ability to xyz summon, fusion summon, synchro summon… the field is your oyster! As a pendulum tuner, a great option to go into here would be Ignister Prominence the Blasting Dracoslayer, which can shuffle cards on the field right back into the deck.
5. El Shaddoll Winda
Just like Nekroz of Unicore, this spellcaster makes utilizing the extra deck near impossible. While Winda is on the field, both players can only special summon once per turn. This ramps up the pressure on your opponent, forcing them to reach their powerful monsters in 1 card. A lot of decks simply won’t be able to do this. And in no time, they could be left defenseless. Just make sure to special summon Winda last on your go, so you’ve got all your boss monsters out while you’re not restricted.
4. Summoner Monk
At the peak of the XYZ era of Yu-Gi-Oh, this card cost an arm and a leg (and probably the rest of Exodia, too). By discarding a spell card, you can special summon any level 4 from your deck. And while that monster can’t attack the same turn, it still has its effects, and can be used for any kind of extra deck summon. This was most commonly used for rank 4 xyz summons, such as Number 39: Utopia who can negate two attacks, or Evilswarm Exciton Knight who can blow up your opponent’s entire board. Summoner Monk makes XYZ summoning ludicrously easy, leading to huge monsters very quickly. This card is useful in pretty much any deck that runs level 4 monsters, which applies to a huge range of decks and playstyles.
3. Magician of Black Chaos MAX
An upgrade to the upgrade of the ultimate magician in terms of attack in defiance (ultimate cubed…?) Did anyone follow that? When Magician of Black Chaos MAX is ritual summoned, your opponent can’t use monster effects for the rest of the turn. This is devastatingly brutal if you can summon this card on your opponent’s turn. And while that may sound like an impossible feat, there are loads of ritual based decks that can achieve that pretty easily. I’d recommend checking out the Megalith/Impcantation deck that can summon this guy on your opponent’s turn, and also actually search it from the deck so you can do this combo whenever you need!
2. Number 11: Big Eye
This is easily the best rank 7 monster in Yu-Gi-Oh, and very nearly the best spellcaster too. While this spaceship-needle thing may not look much like a spellcaster, it truly has an enchanting effect. By detaching one XYZ material from this card, you can immediately take control of an opponent’s monster. This can either be used to get rid of your opponent’s big threats, or to take their monsters and use them as materials for extra deck summons. Combine the two and you’ve got a brutal combo already. You could also use the stolen monster for a link summon, which generally just requires monsters of any type. Some great options to go into here would be Saryuja Skulldread or Borreload Dragon.
1. Red Eyes Dark Dragoon
It’s no surprise that the big, bad, broken boy is right at the top of this list. With Red Eyes Dark Dragoon, you can destroy 2 of your opponent’s monsters, burn them equal to the attack of those destroyed monsters, and negate their spells/traps/monster effects… But then what? Well, then you get a 4000-attack monster! The fact that this card gets stronger and stronger every time it negates by its effect, makes it seriously powerful. The only way this guy can be destroyed is by battle. Meaning if your opponent wants to get rid of this threat, they’ll have to beat that 4000/5000/6000+ attack stat, with a monster of their own. So once you get Dragoon out, the game is pretty much yours for the taking. I’d seriously recommend playing this guy and pronto, because I would not be surprised in the slightest if he hits the ban list.
