Card Game
Card of the Day
TCG Fan Tips
Top 10 Lists
Banned/Restricted List
Yu-Gi-Oh News
Tourney Reports
Duelist Interviews

Featured Writers
Baneful's Column
Anteaus on YGO
General Zorpa
Dark Paladin's Dimension
Retired Writers

Releases + Spoilers
Booster Sets (Original Series)
LOB | MRD | MRL | PSV
LON | LOD | PGD | MFC
DCR | IOC | AST | SOD
RDS | FET
Booster Sets (GX Series)
TLM | CRV | EEN | SOI
EOJ | POTD | CDIP | STON
FOTB | TAEV | GLAS | PTDN
LODT
Booster Sets (5D Series)
TDGS | CSOC | CRMS | RBGT
ANPR | SOVR | ABPF | TSHD
STBL | STOR | EXVC
Booster Sets (Zexal Series)
GENF | PHSW | ORCS | GAOV
REDU | ABYR | CBLZ | LTGY
NUMH | JOTL | SHSP | LVAL
PRIO

Starter Decks
Yugi | Kaiba
Joey | Pegasus
Yugi 2004 | Kaiba 2004
GX: 2006 | Jaden | Syrus
5D: 1 | 2 | Toolbox
Zexal: 2011 | 2012 | 2013
Yugi 2013 | Kaiba 2013

Structure Decks
Dragons Roar &
Zombie Madness
Blaze of Destruction &
Fury from the Deep
Warrior's Triumph
Spellcaster's Judgment
Lord of the Storm
Invincible Fortress
Dinosaurs Rage
Machine Revolt
Rise of Dragon Lords
Dark Emperor
Zombie World
Spellcaster Command
Warrior Strike
Machina Mayhem
Marik
Dragunity Legion
Lost Sanctuary
Underworld Gates
Samurai Warlord
Sea Emperor
Fire Kings
Saga of Blue-Eyes
Cyber Dragon

Promo Cards:
Promos Spoiler
Coll. Tins Spoiler
MP1 Spoiler
EP1 Spoiler

Tournament Packs:
TP1 / TP2 / TP3 / TP4
TP5 / TP6 / TP7 / TP8
Duelist Packs
Jaden | Chazz
Jaden #2 | Zane
Aster | Jaden #3
Jesse | Yusei
Yugi | Yusei #2
Kaiba | Yusei #3
Crow

Reprint Sets
Dark Beginnings
1 | 2
Dark Revelations
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Gold Series
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Dark Legends
DLG1
Retro Pack
1 | 2
Champion Pack
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Turbo Pack
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
5 | 6 | 7

Hidden Arsenal:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
5 | 6 | 7

Checklists
Brawlermatrix 08
Evan T 08
X-Ref List
X-Ref List w/ Passcodes

It's Baneful with more top 10 lists.  The 10 best cards from Pharaonic Guardian, Magician's Force and Dark Crisis.  Contact me at banefulscolumn@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.

Pharaonic Guardian

Provided key support for Zombie and burn decks.  Had some good meta cards.

10. Lava Golem

A mainstay for burn decks, disposing of 2 opponent's monsters that are potential threats whilst burning away at their life points.  Giving the opponent a strong beater is an issue, but stalling and removal helped it.  Mainly, it exists in burn decks – not so much control.

9. Don Zaloog

To be honest, I never was crazy for this card.  It felt like a White Magical Hat with 400 more ATK, though with cards like Shrink, it could use it's hand control ability through battles too.  It was pretty big for it's time, even if it is a bit obsolete today.

8. Necrovalley

This card is the foundation, cornerstone and bedrock of Gravekeeper's, providing them with a meaningful offense boost of 500 ATK.  More importantly, it restricted the opponent's ability to remove cards from the graveyard, stopping cards like Chaos and Monster Reborn. 

7. Gravekeeper's Spy

Essential to gravekeeper decks.  Strong defense wall at 2000 DEF.  The fact that it could summon itself made it a good +1 back in the day when the meta was slower.

6. Book of Moon

An incredibly versatile card that could disable monster effects by flipping them face-down, negate attacks, stop combos, protect your monster from certain removal, re-using flip effects or helping your monster win in battles.  This card has been ever-present every tournament scene just about.

5. Trap Dustshoot

Originally neglected, once Confiscation and Forceful Sentry were banned, people considered this option to the point where it became nasty enough to be banned.  It's a great way to mess up an opening hand and it allows the player to combo Mind Crush with it.

4. Spirit Reaper

A defense wall that can also be used as hand control.  Unprecedented for it's time and still good even today.  Nonetheless a card that really helped out the Zombie archetype but is also useful in other decks too.

3. Mirage of Nightmare

This card was a can of worms waiting to be abused.  It was mostly a balanced card but the biggest problem was that you could use it with an empty hand, draw 4 cards and then destroy it with a card likst MST to prevent you from discarding.

2. Ring of Destruction

It was the secret rare to get of the set.  Usually the boss card of a set is a monster, but this time, it was this trap card that everyone wanted.  Good for an attritionary OTK, quick removal and it's chainable too.  Banned now because it ended games too quickly.

1. Metamorphosis

This card made fusions way too easy to summon so it had to get banned.  Though it did really help bring cards into play that were hard to summon.  Using this on a Scapegoat token for Thousand Eyes Restrict was big play years ago.  But imagine what we could've done with this card today.

Magician's Force

A mostly forgettable set which introduced numerous deck types, none of which took off.

(Honorable Mention: Autonomous Action Unit, a capable card that never really found a purpose)

10. Des Koala

A good defense wall that could do 1200-1600 damage in one shot.  Still good stuff.

9. Spell Shield Type 8

You could -1 yourself to negate any Spell card or negate one that targets for free.  Never was an amazing card but it had it's uses.

8. Apprentice Magician

This card definitely had it's format.  It brought out cards like Magician of Faith and helped fueled Monarch decks.  A good assist to spell counters.  All around good.

7. Royal Magical Library

With 0 ATK, most people didn't play it because summoning it was too risky.  Though Exodia/FTK decks can abuse this by constantly playing Spell cards and getting a +1 from some of them.

6. My Body as a Shield

A versatile quick play spell that protects your monsters.  It had some usage in tournaments over the years, but with more ways to get rid of monsters – not just destroying – it became less reliable.

5. Magical Merchant

A largely ignored, but always good, card that's good for dumping monsters and obtaining a spell/trap.  Was good for fueling graveyard decks and can even help Lavals today.

4. Wave-Motion Cannon

This card found a place in burn, being able to deliver upwards of 3000-4000 damage in a single blow if you can keep it out long enough.  At the very least, it's a spell/trap removal magnet that can make your opponent nervous.

3. Breaker the Magical Warrior

This card was a staple for it's time.  Today, we have 3 Mystical Space Typhoon so we just don't understand.  But it was able to destroy a (usually) unchainable spell/trap card and then be a 1600 ATK beater on top of it.  In a faster format today, it's still useful, but not nearly as essential.

2. Tribe Infecting Virus

With a single discard, you can destroy a monster your opponent controls or your opponent's whole field of monsters if their deck specializes in one type.  And you could use this effect as many times as you want.  Yeah, it was nasty stuff and they had to ban it.

1. Magical Scientist

Currently banned.  An immensely broken card which can Special Summon numerous Fusion monsters in the same turn.  Before, they were launched with Catapult Turtle in an FTK.  Today, in Traditional Format, you can use it to bring out any XYZ you want into a lockdown.  Essentially, you can win the duel with this one card.

Dark Crisis

A really weak set, with a handful of good cards.  It emphasized Guardian monster/equip cards which were abject failures.

10. Final Attack Orders

Combined with Skill Drain, this card helped make a new deck type where big beaters with adverse effects can run over your opponent's weaker effect monsters.  And your opponent can't set defenses anymore.

9. Dragged Down Into The Grave

You having to discard made this card a bit costly, but today Dark Worlds are using it for their benefit.  It's like a free "Confiscation" that lets you trigger an effect and draw too.

8. Interdimensional Matter Transporter

This was never really used in tournament play much, but it essentially protects your monsters from practically any harm letting them dodge out of the way.  You just risk taking more life point damage though.

7. Final Countdown

Spawned Final Countdown decks which would stall as an alternate win condition.  They were never reliable, but the fact that this card spawned an entire deck after it makes it noteworthy.  Recently, it was limited to 1, so now Final Countdown will have a tough time managing.

6. Sakuretsu Armor

A weaker version of Mirror Force that was excellent for it's era, though now that Mirror Force is at 2 and Dimensional Prison also exists, this card is harder to recommend.

5. Reflect Bounder

Back then, it had decent stats for a beater, really helped burn and was a LIGHT for Chaos.  It mostly functioned as stall, because they would at least lose 1700 life points by battling this card. 

4. Vampire Lord

Back then 2000 ATK outpaced the LV4 beaters, but today it can get ran over by lots of easy to summon monsters.  That, and destroying monsters isn't the main way to remove threats anymore.  For, it's time it was an iconic card that helped Zombies.

3. Tsukuyomi

This card was banned for a little while for abusing Mask of Darkness, but now that flip effects aren't common, it's okay.  By flipping monsters face-down it can kill strong creatures with weak defenses in battle or negate continuous monster effects.

2. D.D. Warrior Lady

A very capable card that can banish an opponent's monster.  To me, it's still relevant today, despite lacking archetypal support.  With lots of card with nasty on-field effect or ones that benefit from graveyard effects, this gets rid of them both quickly.  It almost always is a one-for-one that could strategically become more.

1. Skill Drain

This one is still relevant today.  It negates all on-field monster effects, while allowing graveyard effects, so if you can tailor your deck around graveyard effects (or normal monsters), you can cripple most of your opponent's.  It's still a great option for many side decks and quite a few main decks.