So instead it makes its way to the limited list. A general rule of thumb is that cards on the limited list are quite broken, but not broken enough to warrant a ban. Even so, with all the options available, most people are probably quite intimidated by the entire list. And trust me, there are some limited cards that are so powerful they’re probably better than a good number of cards on the ban list.
15. One Day of Peace
There probably isn’t a stall deck out there that isn’t already using One Day of Peace. But if you haven’t added it to your deck, then you sure are missing out. One Day of Peace is quite simple too: it allows both players to draw a card, and prevents both players from taking damage until the end of your opponent’s next turn. As a result, the timing of when you play this card can become extremely important. In many cases, you should probably finish your battle phase to deal damage before using this. On the other hand, you can also use this card to eliminate damage from other cards like Power Bond, which occurs at the end of your turn.
14. Exodia the Forbidden One
Nothing sounds better than winning a duel just for drawing specific cards, right? Well that’s what most Exodia players thought when they picked up this deck. If you’ve somehow never heard of this card before, essentially if you draw the head, arms, and legs of Exodia (5 cards in total) then you win the duel. I’ll admit, playing against an Exodia player is quite annoying. They spend an eternity on their first turn just for you to lose without playing a single card. On the other hand, playing Exodia can be quite interesting since it’s kind of like a puzzle to see if you’ll be able to draw your entire deck in a single turn. There are tons of variations of Exodia decks out there, and it’s definitely worth it to try at least once – just to see what the buzz is about.
13. Dinowrestler Pankratops
Dinowrestler Pankratops has been picking up some steam lately, as more people are finding out about this not very well-known card. Here’s what it does: If your opponent controls more monsters than you, you can special summon Dinowrestler Pankratops from your hand. Then you can tribute any Dinowrestler monster (including itself) to target and destroy any card your opponent controls. So this basically destroys any of your opponent’s cards for free – and it’s a really easy monster to summon. You can even use this for an Xyz or Link summon if you want, which is a major plus.
12. Danger! Nessie!
Danger! Nessie! might seem like a bit of a gamble to use… but as long as you manage to activate its effect, you win anyways. You can activate Danger! Nessie! in your hand, and your opponent must choose a random card to discard. If the card chosen is not Danger! Nessie!, you can special summon it to the field and draw a card. If the card was Danger! Nessie! then you can instead add another Danger! card to your hand. Obviously if you’re playing a deck like Exodia and you can’t afford to risk discarding your win condition, you shouldn’t play this card. But for most other decks this is a great choice.
11. Danger!? Tsuchinoko?
You’re probably a little confused that I didn’t touch upon which Danger! card to add to your hand for Danger! Nessie! Well, Danger!? Tsuchinoko? could be that card. This is pretty much identical to Danger! Nessie!, but the only difference is the effect that occurs when Danger!? Tsuchinoko? is discarded. On discard you can just special summon it. This is a pretty nice effect, since it allows you to special summon a level 3 monster at virtually no cost. In addition, since this card is special summoned no matter what, it’s a great choice as a material for rank 3 Xyz monsters like The Phantom Knights of Break Sword.
10. Reinforcement of the Army
I have absolutely no clue what Konami was thinking when they made this card unlimited. I mean, you can search from such a wide variety of monsters – and it’s not even limited to once per turn. Reinforcement of the Army is as simple as it gets. When you activate this card, you can add a level 4 or lower warrior monster from your deck to your hand. There are literally hundreds of monsters that fit this condition, with plenty of incredible warrior monsters out there. As a result, Reinforcement of the Army can fit into almost every warrior deck. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a warrior deck that didn’t include one.
9. Emergency Teleport
Emergency Teleport isn’t as flexible as Reinforcement of the Army. But if you put it in a deck it belongs to, you’ll quickly realize it’s much more powerful. When you activate Emergency Teleport, you can special summon any level 3 or lower psychic monster from your hand or deck – but you have to banish it during that end phase. This is such an amazing card since, in a deck like Virtual World, it allows you to special summon any of your level 3 monsters for free. Needless to say, searching specific monsters is always something that makes or breaks an archetype – so Emergency Teleport is a huge boost to archetypes that use low-level psychic monsters.
8. Sekka’s Light
Every player dreams about playing cards that are equal in power to the famous Pot of Greed. Well Sekka’s Light is that card. As long as you have no spells or traps in your graveyard, Sekka’s Light allows you to draw 2 cards. However, for the rest of this duel, you cannot activate any spells or traps, except Sekka’s Light. In addition, you can banish this card from your graveyard to reveal a monster in your hand, shuffle it into the deck, and draw a card. Obviously if you play spells or traps, you shouldn’t be playing Sekka’s Light. But if you’re playing a deck that doesn’t use many (or any) spell or traps, then Sekka’s Light is insanely broken – it’s literally a better version of the banned green pot we all know and love.
7. Monster Reborn
Monster Reborn is probably the most famous card on this list. And why so famous, you ask? Its fame probably comes from the fact that it was banned for over a decade and brought back quite recently (as of this writing). With Monster Reborn, you can special summon any monster from either player’s graveyard. Obviously this is just broken, since you can either summon monsters to help special summon extra deck monsters, or you can just flat out revive an extra deck monster from either player’s graveyard to wreak havoc on your opponent.
6. Terraforming
With so many decks relying on field spells, Terraforming was such an easy way for players to guarantee a copy of their field spell in their opening hand. Which is why it has become limited. Activating Terraforming allows you to add any field spell from your deck into your hand. In a way, you can think of this as a 4th copy of your field spell in your deck, since it can search any field spell by itself. Or if you already drew your field spell, you can activate Terraforming anyways to get rid of the extra copies and make sure your next draw is something useful. In terms of decks that this card would fit in, Invoked, Mystic Mine, or Sky Striker would all be valid options.
5. Miscellaneousaurus
Usually I try to keep these lists somewhat general – or at least viable to multiple archetypes. But Miscellaneousaurus was just so insane that it had to be on this list. Here’s what it does: If Miscellaneousaurus is in your hand, you can discard it and then during your Main Phase all Dinosaur monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent’s card effects. Then you can banish this card from the graveyard along with any other number of Dinosaur monsters to special summon any Dinosaur monster with a level equal to the number of monsters you banished. With just a single card, you’re able to make your monsters untouchable, and you’re even able to special summon any monster from your deck too (given you have enough monsters in the graveyard).
4. Harpie’s Feather Duster
Similar to Monster Reborn, Harpie’s Feather Duster was banned for a really long time. And to the surprise of many players, it was unbanned in 2020. Activating Harpie’s Feather Duster allows you to destroy all of your opponent’s spells and traps. And that’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s exceedingly simple. But as we’ve seen in the past, being simple can be very effective. If you happen to play a Harpie Lady deck, then you should know there’s also a way to search for this card using Harpie’s Feather Storm. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s another card to counter Harpie’s Feather Duster: Gryphon Wing. But it is definitely too niche to play so you’ll rarely encounter it in a duel (if ever).
3. Foolish Burial
Even just ranking the most popular limited cards in this list, Foolish Burial might just be the most used card here – since it provides support for such a wide variety of archetypes. As the trend of simplicity continues, Foolish Burial allows you to send a monster from your deck to your graveyard. Older players (or brand new players) might be confused by this. But nowadays, nearly every Yu-Gi-Oh archetype has some kind of effect that activates when a specific monster is sent to the graveyard. For example, this could be used in Eldlich, Virtual World, Drytrons, Cyber Dragon, Dragon Link, Adamancipator, Burning Abyss… you probably get it by now, but the list just goes on.
2. Called by the Grave
These days, getting a good starting hand isn’t a big deal anymore. But every player’s worst nightmare is not being able to play out a good starting hand. What do I mean by that? Well if you’ve been a victim of hand traps, Called by the Grave is here to help. After activating Called by the Grave, you can target any monster in your opponent’s graveyard and banish it. Then that monster (and any other monsters sharing the same name) have their effects negated until the end phase. This is an amazing card to use against hand traps like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, since it requires a player to discard the monster before activating its effect.
1. Raigeki
And finally we reach the pinnacle of this list, Raigeki. Most players already know about this card since it’s quite old. But new players should be delighted to learn about this card (if they’ve somehow avoided ever seeing it until now). Raigeki is like the monster counterpart to Harpie’s Feather Duster: It destroys all your opponent’s monsters. Needless to say, this is a marvelous deal since it’s like a black hole, but doesn’t destroy your side of the field. Interestingly enough, there’s also a counter to this card called Anti Raigeki. But again, it is way too niche to be played these days. If you’re running Raigeki you should be more concerned about general spell negation than anything else.
