The Top 10 Underrated Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards

Top 10 underrated Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

When a new TGC releases its first set, I always wonder how long the game will last and how it will evolve. In case of Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, it is impressive to think the game is still among the most played games in the world after more than 25 years.

Obviously during such a long time, thousands of playable cards have been released to support a game that changed and evolved constantly since its first release. I am a big fan of this trading card game and I am (unfortunately) old enough to have been able to play this game for most of his long life. And no, I am not Grandpa Muto....

How large is Yu-Gi-Oh! card library?

As fun as it can be to think there are more than 11,000 cards to collect, Yi-Gi-Oh! players may at times have the impression the cards that are actually played are much less than that. As it is natural in TGCs, in some cases this is due to the natural evolution of the game.

For example, Normal monsters were quite useful when Yu-Gi-Oh! TGC was still young while now you would almost only see Effect monsters. In other cases, this is the result of a bit of game unbalance when some cards and archetypes may have receive more support than other. In this last case, players may to chose to use the “most recent” cards in order to have an advantage in competitive play while other players may then be forced to work out a way to counteract these cards.

Whatever the reason, every TGC usually sees a much small number of cards that are actually played that those available. In the case of Yu-Gi-Oh! this is a bit unfortunate considering how many Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are out there and how rich and deep the game is. However, there are always some players that add a few very interesting cards to their decks for the fun of having them and even if they are not among those generally considered THE most competitive cards in the game.

Those cards are often overlooked by newer players or by players only focused in making the most competitive deck but they can offer a great way to make your deck unique while still keeping it very competitive. You may call them “underrated” or “secret weapons” or “my personal trump cards” and I bet everyone have some examples to share. I will start first by sharing my personal list of 10 cards.

Top 10 underrated Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards: do you remember them?

Before I start talking about cards and to make a list, I think it would be good to clarify what I consider an underrated card in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. In general, these would be cards that do not see a lot of play in the current meta and that most of the times (but not always) belong to very old sets.

Most of these cards are likely to be Trap or Spell cards as they can easily fit any deck without compromising its engine and balance. A lot of players also have them in their side decks so they can be be added or removed depending on the opponent you are facing.

Another very good aspect of any underrated card is that they are often quite cheap to buy with respect to the other “powerhouses” everyone is using in tournaments. As most of the player do not use them, the price will be in fact mainly driven by availability and this is great as a lot of these cards tend to be reprinted periodically as fillers in newer collections. For example, the most recent 25th anniversary sets are for example an amazing source of oldies but goodies you may want to consider. I usually check here what is the most recent set for a card so that I can shop accordingly and save some money.

Considering the above, I guess every player have a small list of cards they still like/wish to play disregarding their effect. The list below is therefore by no mean a comprehensive list but I hope it may point out some interesting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards people may have forgotten or they may not even know they existed.

1. Torrential Tribute (Normal Trap Card) is by far one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards I personally like the most and one you have still good chances to see in some meta decks. Whenever you are facing a deck that focus on a long summoning chain, you can time the activation of this trap to do the maximum damage. In fact, no-one expects you will wipe out all the attack-position monster of your opponents in one shot once they spent 10-15 minutes to bring all of their combos out.

2. Another great Trap card that can fit any deck is Drowning Mirror Force (Normal Trap Card). It does not only stop an attack but it also shuffles all your opponent's attack-position monsters back into their deck. In the worst case scenario, you may have gained one more turn to bring out your combos and, if you are lucky, you may leave your opponent completely exposed to your next attacks. If you are struggling to find it, remember there is a copy in the Structure Deck: Obelisk the Tormentor.

3. Chain Energy (Continuous Spell Card) forces all players to pay 500 Life Points to Normal Summon, Special Summon, Set or activate each card from their respective hand. I know it affects you as well, but imagine your opponent's face thinking they can only play 16 cards before losing unless they get rid of this Chain Energy.

4. And The Band Played On (Continuous Trap Card) is a continuous trap card that doesn't allow players to special summon monsters whose cost is similar to monsters they control. The main aim of this card is to shutdown all the combo decks that rely on summoning multiple monsters to progressively increase their level and effect on the board.

5. Chain Disappearance (Normal Trap Card) is another good card that I saw played competitively in a few decks although it almost always stays in the side deck to be added once you know what the opponent is playing. The main reason for this choice is that this card only activates when a monster with an ATK of 1000 or less is Summoned and a lot of decks may not have enough key monster with a low ATK value to make this card very efficient. On the contrary, if you know your opponents strategy uses these monsters (“Purrely” to name one....) you can have a card that removes not only the newly summoned monster from play but also all monsters with the same name from their hand and Deck. Neat!

6. With respect to the cards discussed so far, Final Countdown (Normal Spell Card) is a bit of an odd card as it allow a player to win after a 20-turn countdown (at the cost of 2,000LP). This cards is more suitable for a rogue deck than for your side deck as you will need to stuff your deck of stalling cards like Swords of Revealing Light, Scapegoat, Swift Scarecrow or Evenly Matched in order to last for 20 turns in the current competitive format.

7. Crossout Designator (Quick Spell Card) can stop any effect from a played cards AND the same effect from cards on the field by just banishing one card from your Main Deck with the same effects. Essentially, you can sacrifice one of your card still in the deck in order to stop your opponent from doing any Special summoning for the whole turn or whatever else you need at that time. You can find it in the 2022 Tin's of the Pharaoh's gods.

8. Another interesting card to mix up your opponent plans is Blockout Curtain (Continuous spell card). Its first effect allow it to can be destroyed instead of any other card that would be destroyed by battle or opponent’s card effect. Then, if a card your opponent controls would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from the grave. This card is perfect for control and lockdown decks as it works as a Field Barrier and Counter combined. They’ll have to worry about taking out this card before they even think about hitting your monsters or set/face-up Spells and Traps.

9. Evenly matched (Normal Trap Card) is another good stalling card for any deck as it forces your opponents to banish cards face-down till they have the same amount of cards in play as you do. This trap can also activate from your hand if you do not have any cards in play and it is an amazing trap to play if your opponent goes first and they runs a combo deck.

10. The last of my ten cards, Book of Eclipse (Quick Spell Card) is a very situational card that seems to often find its way into competitive decks. The card effect changes all face-up monsters on the field to face-down Defense for one turn. It also allows the opponents to draw as many cards as the monsters that they will flip back up at the end of the player turn but this can not be as bad as allowing your opponent's to play their combos...

This ends my list of 10 underrated cards you may want to try to spice-up your games and deck and to keep having fun playing Yu-Gi-Oh!