The 15 Most Powerful Yu-Gi-Oh Cards, Ranked

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[@apsamplifier]

_What would we all do without CBR?_

[@alirezaomrani7650]

Honestly I’ve been out of the YuGiOh loop for such a long time… I don’t even know what you guys are talking about anymore 🤣 Like, I was part of the original generation of Yugioh (with the Millennium-Age and Egyptian theme and all that) but after I finished the Anime and watched the final episode of the show. I sort of just STOPPED being into Yu-Gi-Oh altogether. Don’t get me wrong! I really do still enjoy the game (or at least I did before my mom threw out all my yugioh cards 😭) and I still love how there are still a lot of creative mechanics and strategies being used by players to play the game!! I just personally can’t get back into the Franchise due to there being so much dissonance between how my generation of Yugioh played the game, than how modern fans play the game. It’s just a really different vibe from how I used to casually play the game, that I don’t really feel like inclined to go back to it anymore. I’ll always love YugiOh though! I remember one of the most exciting moments in my life, was when I travelled to Davis and stayed there, and found this cool Yu-Gi-Oh card shop and I saw in the window panel a Dark Magician of Chaos and a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and I immediately fanboyed the freak out because I had never seen those cards outside the Anime before in real life. So begged my Mom to buy me them, and when she said No I threw the greatest Tantrum ever and finally got them. Getting to hold those cards in my actual hands is an experience I’ll never Forget.

[@SamiTheCannibal]

I wonder if these articles are written by real people or just AI generated and quickly reviewed.

[@hermitxIII]

Articles like this were being written with algorithmic gibberish well before A.I. spiked in popularity.

[@SargeWolf010]

^ yup

[@Meowvela]

People, but not reviewed by editors. As someone who used to work at this exact website, the writers are paid pennies per hour, and the articles are basically slapped up on the site ASAP, with the only editing being to add some extra keywords/Search Engine Optimization if there isn't enough already. Granted, this info's from last year, and by the time I left they were having us filter all of our articles through an AI. So it could well be they're AI-written by now. In short - writing for Valnet/CBR/Screenrant/TheGamer is probably not the best job ever. (I actually wrote a few Yugioh articles there before leaving, with increasingly weird premises. The last being an overly wordy answer to "is Pot of Greed STILL banned?!?" because my editors were confident it would get more clips than something less clickbaity. It got... a couple hundred? Which when we were supposed to hit 1000+ for each was pretty low)

[@antman7673]

@@hermitxIII This article is so much better than the previous. Chances are high, it is AI generated.

[@mattcaston9546]

So long as we can identify the AIs, we'll never be overtaken when they become our eventual overseers

[@steezah3063]

"Dis bih Apollousa" is craaazy 😂🤣

[@Acholight.]

For an article I don't think they did a bad job of on the cards they chose or the explanations. A lot of these are usually clickbait/yugiboomer bait for people but it looks like they took the time to analyze the metagame at least enough for a nice list, not bad for a mainstream article!😄

[@admontblanc]

This kind of list is bad for many reasons and the first 2 cards tell you all about why. If your list of 15 cards has Bonfire in it then all the other 14 cards not being meta relevant make the list worthless from any analytical point. With Exodia as the 14th spot then you're talking about generic powerful cards, then Bonfire is definitely an average card, and a more limited searcher card than many others.

[@alastorcorvus]

@@admontblanc fair point, Small World is the most versatile searcher and still didn't made the list.

[@shiroplays9482]

Elemental Hero Air Neos is the most powerful card. Even Konami is afraid of reprinting it and releasing it to the general public.

[@doggozwei281]

It COULD be because of that time someone got struck by lightning for playing it. Wait, that might've been a different card...

[@Dodoite]

Love the final fantasy shirt 🐥

[@TheDonitus]

i actually want it so bad he needs to drop a link

[@Hashbrown1682]

I've been out the loop for almost 10 yrs So am I going to watch this video regardless? Yes

[@jacobcoates7987]

Dragon shrine is the closest thing to a rota that dragons ever need.

[@alastorcorvus]

they also have Magnamhut and Melody of the awakening dragon

[@wanderlustwarrior]

CBR, ScreenRant, etc. lists are pretty much halfway designed with knowledge, and halfway edited by someone to try to appeal to casuals in a "how do you do, fellow kids" way. The way I see it, some engine cards are more powerful than the omninegate or floodgate cards nowadays, and can usually recover from a board wipe like that. The generic gates/negates aren't inherently bad when they're used by a lesser deck, but the problem is when a deck that can already flood can ALSO play floodgates/omninegates AND respond to yours. Using Snake Eye for an example, they can respond to many of these cards before they go off, just as part of their normal combo: Once you've got the field, summon Flamberge after Nibiru goes off, link the token and Flamberge off, now you've got 4 monsters an no worry about Nibiru. Subversion/Flamberge on an opponent's monster or used hand trap to block Evenly. Ash Blossom is useless against the Snake Eye field or Diabellstar's effect, Snake Eye Ash can bait it out with the hand effect and then with any face up card can still go into full combo. Separately, Consider the Apolloosa/Nibiru example you mentioned. Generally, Apo can't be summoned any earlier than one's fifth summon, and by that time the strongest engines have already worked in either some kind of negate specifically for Nibiru. It's not Apo alone, it's the engine that builds a board with Apo as an added perk. Or with Abyss Dweller, Dinomorphia just chain an effect to summon Rex and negate its effect, or prevent it from even being used.

[@Meowvela]

The amount of research done by writers varies a tooon, which definitely creates a spread of articles. I usually tried to fact check my articles as much as I could, though the company pushed for faster articles over better ones.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

@@Meowvela you were one of the writers there?

[@Meowvela]

@@wanderlustwarrior Yep! Lasted about two years in total, though things may have changed since I left

[@admontblanc]

​@@MeowvelaI dunno about you, and I'm not a writer but I think a list like this doesn't make sense and doesn't help a less knowledgeable player. My reasoning being that Bonfire isn't a very powerful card, it's a good card and very relevant ATM for obvious reasons, if you make a list of 15 cards and Bonfire is the first mention then I expect the whole list to be filled with meta relevant cards completely. But by having Exodia right after Bonfire the author then shifts into generic power cards then Bonfire definitely has no place here as a card like Raigeki or Dark hole will still punch a hole on a Snake Eyes board, for example, whereas Bonfire remains a simple type searcher, one that you can only use once per turn at that.

[@Meowvela]

@@admontblanc I can actually provide some context for this! So, first, notice how there's two authors? That means this was subject to at least one "update", which contrary to the name doesn't necessarily mean a rewrite. Instead, an old article received 5-10 new entries (or sometimes, an especially lengthy list - some went above 30 entries - gets cut down), often with entirely different prompts and premises, as well as a totally different author and tone. Plus, the ideal turnaround time from receiving a pitch to "finishing" the article was 12-72 hours, and there aren't actually any hard requirements on who writes what. (beyond possibly needing to ask your editors about switching from Anime to gaming) The result? Not everyone actually researches the topic fully, especially if the article is due soon, overdue, or a priority article. Plus sometimes you had to scrape info from Reddit posts and memes if you weren't actually as familiar with the topic as you thought. Here, there may be another side detail: all the context that was given in most cases was the title text alone. So "powerful" might mean different things to different people. An "instant win", "high stats" "meta" "iconic" etc.

[@CatnipBro]

The auto-generated chapters got the names of Exodia and Little Knight right, but then gave us Diona Star, Bisal Dru Worm, Bor Savage Dragon, and Barona Flo

[@antman7673]

Exodia is one of the strongest cards. It basically shapes the banlist and card design, so that it is impossible to FTK.

[@sepheiba]

I lost hope for s-force getting any more support after S:P was printed

[@starjadiancloneinvestigato1772]

overall I agree with the list contents. of course we can all debate on order but almost everything there bar exodia and bystials felt like they were truly strong. And yeah everybody says it but generic synchros suck the life out of deck building especially when they are so strong

[@antman7673]

Same goes for XYZ: Rank8s also can negate monster effects or Spells. Those are also generic.

[@buddbrown6858]

Little Knight is crazy because it powercreeps Knightmare Unicorn and DPE at the same time, generic materials too

[@jbone_malone]

CBR😂 Alec would be disappointed!

[@fatefulwaffle]

Honestly. If I see CBR, I know to take it with many grains of salt. Loving Paul's commentary on it though

[@namenlosNamenlos]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@idontwatchtv]

I'm an MD player and figuring out a way to stop SP, seems like I have to start stacking 3 forbidden droplets in my decks when SP gets released in MD.

[@DavidEllner]

I mean verte anaconda literally was unreal for unlocking dragoon. I know it’s banned currently, but it was unreal effect. Also maxx C, it still wrecks havoc on master duel.

[@CandlelightWanderer]

Maxxx c is actually really weak. Verte was not an issue..

[@Honest_Mids_Masher]

​@@CandlelightWanderer95% usage rate. Why would a weak card see that much use?

[@pspsmallz]

Literally the best card in any format where it's legal is not weak lol

[@blackfistxu7953]

Great shirt !

[@Fishingwithmyfishers]

This Nibiru event is actually fun. Whats great is that instead of people being scared to play into Nib, people are just playing decks that don’t revolve around multiple special summons. I’ve actually been using a Gate Guardian deck, I special summon once max per turn.

[@IncandescentCrowvus]

I’m using labyrinth so I just spread my 5 special summons between both of our turns lolol

[@admontblanc]

I'm playing Endymion, so I just summon as much as I need, like usual.

[@Honest_Mids_Masher]

I still played combo. Just make junk speeder unaffected by card effects or out up a negate and then im fine

[@redcastlefan]

I like that shirt, funky Hawaiian style.

[@yardship]

It’s a nice shirt!

[@its_heeho]

I was taking a bit to get out of bed today to get ready for locals, thanks for that motivation!

[@basic_Nerd]

"Always a little obnoxious when Konami finds a way around their own counter play cards that they made." If only there was a way to avoid having that kind of power creep. Like a format that rotates or something. Hmm

[@skivit]

another banger T-shirt from Paul

[@Meowvela]

As someone who used to work for CBR (pretty sure my Bio there still links back to my channel here) and wrote this kind of article in the past, feel free to ask me anything ^_^

[@fesc22]

I love that shirt. Where did u get it?

[@zagger999]

I'd say Solemn Judgement is the ultimate 'f-you' going first card. With how it negates, if you have it your opening combo then set it, it can be just as game ender as Ash, and if you have both...

[@xxtakakagexx3995]

I just played against a Diabellstar/Invoked deck last night on Master Duels.

[@robertopena8112]

Did you win?

[@xxtakakagexx3995]

@@robertopena8112 eventually yeah.

[@peterpetrov5073]

I was thinking for AA Zeus today😊

[@mark1A100]

I hope promethean princess doesnt get banned. I think the effect is actually pretty fair concidering the cost. and tied to its type. its hot right now becuase snake eyes and to a lesser extent fire kings can abuse it but on its own its just an extender with some interuption

[@androiduser3895]

Weird order and no I:P or either of the tactics no imperm?

[@kennethM]

6:44 I’d argue that it’s not even really the snake eyes. It’s the array of generic boss monsters. Like on its on the snake yes boss monster is a blue eyes that gets rid of a monster on their turn and steals it on yours.

[@jinsu0504]

i mean bonfire isn't like rota...in that rota can be activated more than once per turn, and THAT truly made it one of the most desirable cards

[@antman7673]

But in conjunction with populus, bonfire is also an emergency teleport with less emergency. In that case it basically summons from deck.

[@admontblanc]

​@@antman7673but then mixing Bonfire with cards like Exodia doesn't make sense. Even the explanation the author offered said it all, the card is relatively good now, not so much in the future.

[@ChaosDarkLight]

18:20 which card?

[@nickyheart]

"this is a fair hit" yeah it is !!

[@djjorge87]

Being played/revelant and powerful are two different things. Solemn judgment is one of the most powerful cards ever made still to this day.

[@myrddraal5331]

How did they not mention any of the snake eye cards? Flamberge excluded? lol

[@AWPNubDiesel]

Not even a mention of Maxx "C" or shifter is kinda weird lol

[@MZX4206969]

SP Little knight is expensive. Ill wait for the reprint before I invest in it. It's going down in price so not worth getting

[@Downtown_Andy]

Paul what is your beef with dragons?

[@mikehawk8984]

Poopoo lizard link 🦎 🔗

[@Downtown_Andy]

@@mikehawk8984we all had some good laughs at locals when I fusion armamented blue eyes ultimate a whole bunch of times

[@ZeldaMia]

Ariseheart shoulda been number one. Still my most hated card. And Fenrir... and Unicorn.

[@ickyog]

No fenrir is criminal

[@makaveliandcheese]

When is the next pod of greed

[@apsamplifier]

Tomorrow! Ran late this week

[@GhostintheMachine25]

That list was hit and miss for me, definitely inaccurate since its missing 2 of the most/strongest played traps in the game (wont say which ones so I dont spoil the video). Also I think everyone on Team APS should do their own top 15 rankings for strongest cards and try to guess how the others ranked their lists, that would be an awesome video

[@iitzbenni]

Swordsoul is literally baronne de fluer turbo!

[@FuzzyBubbles01]

Nice shirt

[@amartin2484]

It's funny how all these cards are in master duel , but for some reason Dragoon is still not and it's been powercrept by DPE lol🤬

[@admontblanc]

Dragoon is definitely not power crept by the DPE, fusion destiny is similar to red eyes fusion but without the drawbacks and the materials to summon DPE are less bricky, but dragoon is still superior as a standalone summon, and it would be a better tool in decks that don't special summon.

[@midcoregamer7625]

For a list of "the most powerful cards", it's baffling that they didn't mention a single banned card. Painful Choice is effectively a +4, Maxx C is Maxx C, and Imperial Order was too strong to exist in the game even after it was errata'd.

[@MiracleMan9978]

I played yugioh back when summoned skull was the best card in the game. I’m so lost trying to follow the game now

[@admontblanc]

So you never played?

[@MiracleMan9978]

@@admontblanc I played a couple locals lol used just a beat down deck. I think I quit once yata was out. I think about 2005

[@admontblanc]

@@MiracleMan9978 earlier then, and Summoned Skull was never the best monster, but it was relatively good for the stat line a "only" one tribute cost.

[@MiracleMan9978]

@@admontblanc you had to be there

[@saigaryuu7565]

Where Maxx C and Foolish Burial ?

[@DzevadTopcic]

@@Fishingwithmyfisherssuper poly isn’t limited, I run 6 in my deck

[@PricefieldPunk]

I like how the list has a lotta legit annoying powerful cards but then they also put Exodia on the list lmao Like i guess its technically powerful but almost as a meme. If someone beats me with Exodia im happy to take the L tbh.

[@Griffnix]

Alec would have quit if you brought this up on the podcast.

[@MrWojoRising5446]

Comic book resources???? Is that what that stands for???

[@Kevinhhh151]

There is cards I guess they should be banned ...as epidemic virus and calamity and silva (dark world monster that discard) ...but how this list of most powerful individual cards not having tactical talent and superpoly

[@jamalie100]

The cards listed seemed to teeter between irrelevant and meta

[@ShadowSaberBaroxio]

Number 0: *Maxx C.*

[@Shinde425]

Bonfire is not a “powerful” card. It’s only as powerful as its targets.

[@admontblanc]

And even by the targets it's not a crazy card, it just so happens that it boosts the consistency of the current most played deck.

[@brucwayn6403]

Not bad but deffinitely not a complete top 15

[@d.s.r7407]

this didnt age well💀