If there are any monsters that the King of Games, Yugi Muto, is known for, it’s the Dark Magician archetype. The series of monsters is Yugi’s most trusted, and they’ve bailed him out of plenty of very sticky situations in the past. As such, he uses many of the magicians in his deck.
While plenty of these Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters are very strong, others simply can’t stack up, and take up space in Yugi’s deck more than they actually add to it.
Dark Sage
Dark Sage is just about as useless as a monster can get. Dark Sage can only be special summoned by tributing a Dark Magician after the duelist calls their Time Wizard’s effect correctly. Wow, that is horrifically specific. It’s absolutely insane to even get this card summoned, and what one gets is simply not at all worth the cost.
It has 2800 attack points and allows the player to add one spell card from their deck to their hand after its summoned. What a let down for such an extreme price. This is easily the worst magician in Yugi’s deck.
Magician of Black Chaos
Magician of Black Chaos is really one of the worst magicians in Yugi’s deck, which might explain why it never appeared after the Duelist Kingdom arc concluded.
Magician of Black Chaos has 2800 attack points, which might be a bit more than the regular Dark Magician, but the monster is actually a ritual monster, meaning it requires an additional card + tributes in order to summon to the field. 300 extra attack points is not worth the effort to bring out, making it one of the worst magicians in Yugi’s deck. The next one is really just as bad, however.
Dark Magician Knight
Dark Magician Knight is not a good card, let’s be blunt about that. It has the same stats as Dark Magician, and can only be summoned by tributing Dark Magician after using a card called Knight’s Title. Once summoned, it can destroy one card on the field, that’s it.
That’s a fine effect, but it isn’t worth two extra cards into a deck that totally aren’t needed. There are plenty of other cards that are able to destroy one card on the field, along with cards that can do much more than that. At the very least, Dark Magician Knight does have an effect, unlike Magician of Black Chaos.
Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight
Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight is better than the other cards on this list, but still isn’t necessarily an A-lister in Yugi’s deck. While Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight is a fusion summon, it comes with 2600 attack points and a somewhat nifty ability.
If a duelist sends one card from their hand to the graveyard, they can destroy a card on the field. This card still isn’t all that great, but it’s better than the others on the list so far.
Amulet Dragon
Amulet Dragon isn’t necessarily a good card, but it can at the very least help a duelist out in a pinch. Another fusion summon, Amulet Dragon has 2900 attack points and can banish as many spell cards as it wants from both players’ graveyards for an extra 100 attack points for each. That’s fine.
Its more important effect is that it can special summon any spellcaster from the graveyard when it’s destroyed, which is at least helpful. Still, not really a card that any pro-duelist is going to be pining after.
Dark Paladin
Dark Paladin is a fusion monster that requires Dark Magician and Buster Blader to summon and comes with 2900 attack points. In addition, when a quick effect spell card is activated its owner can discard a card to navigate its effect and destroy it. While not as important, Dark Paladin also gains 500 attack points for all dragons in the graveyard and on the field.
Dark Paladin’s effects give it some nice basic protection and can make it a pretty solid boss monster if it’s in the right deck, giving it a high spot on the list.
Dark Magician Girl
The two highest cards on this list are in their spots due to the fact that they both have a huge amount of support surrounding them specifically. In terms of Dark Magician Girl, she has a whole sub-archetype formed around her, the magician girls. Berry, Lemon, Apple, Chocolate, and Kiwi Magician Girl are all Dark Magician Girl cards that work together to protect one another from attacks and effects while slowly bringing each other out onto the field.
While most of these cards are actually better than Dark Magician Girl herself, they all support her as well as one another, which earns her a high spot on the list. While Dark Magician Girl has a good amount of support, she doesn’t have quite as much as the No. 1 spot on this list, Dark Magician.
Dark Magician
If you didn’t notice by some of the entries on this list, quite a few cards need Dark Magician to even get onto the field in the first place, along with plenty of other actual good cards that Yugi didn’t use in his deck.
Dark Magician is what the entire archetype is based on. There are tons of cards that directly support Dark Magician. While the card itself really isn’t all that great, in terms of the Dark Magicians that Yugi was using, the original certainly takes the No. 1 spot on this list.