Yu-Gi-Oh is an anime series adapted from a manga by Kazuki Takahashi created in 1996. This anime series tells the story of a young man named Yugi Mutou. After he completes the Millennium Puzzle pieces, he awakens a Pharaoh spirit from the past named Yami Yugi and possesses him.
In this story, Yugi really loves the world of monster duels. He and the Yami Yugi in him experience all kinds of adventures and duel with great duelists. Well, this time I want to review the list of the best duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh story. For those of you who used to follow this series, you must be familiar with the following duelists.
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10. Odion
Odion is the half-brother of Malik Isthar and Ishizu Ishtar. He is also known as Rishid and has a very loyal attitude towards Malik. Odion is the second person in the Rare Hunter group, a group of rare card seekers who move in the underworld. In the Battle City tournament, Odion faced Jonouchi. He upholds the principles of being a true duelist and has great respect for his opponent.
In the duel, Odion uses a battle deck that has an Egyptian theme. Compared to ordinary trap cards, Odion's cards were of a much different level and he called them "Trap Hell". This strategy can be said to have two main advantages, namely Odion is able to use several traps to counter the opponent's movements and put pressure on the opponent.
Not only that, Odion also has a mainstay card, namely the "Temple of Kings" Field Spell which allows him to summon the strongest monster Mystical Beast Serket.
9. Mai Valentine
Mai Valentine is a very tough female duelist. At the beginning of her appearance, she was described as a woman who was glamorous and obsessed with money as well as power. In addition, she was also very arrogant and prided herself on her dueling skills.
Throughout the story, Mai has also participated in various dueling events such as Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. In the duel event, Mai managed to defeat many quite talented duelists, such as Rex Raptor.
In duels, Mai Valentine uses decks containing Harpie monsters and other cards focused on resurrecting her favorite card Harpie Lady. Apart from that, she also uses Equip Speel cards to increase Harpie Lady's powers, such as the Rose Whip and Cyber Shield. In addition, Mai also still has another ace card, namely Harpie's Pet Dragon.
8. Noah Kaiba
Noah Kaiba is the biological of Gozaburo Kaiba and also the main enemy in the Virtual World arc that only appears in anime. At the age of twelve, Noah had an accident that left his body disabled. To saved his son, Gozaburo uploaded Noah's thoughts into a supercomputer. So, Noah can live in the Virtual World. The incident happened before Gozaburo adopted Seto Kaiba and also Mokuba.
In the Virtual World, Noah has a very fierce duel with Yugi. He also has a very unique and powerful deck, namely the Creation Deck which is symbolically based on the creation of the earth. The deck was able to defeat Seto Kaiba in a duel. He then fought against Yugi using another strategy, namely the Spirit Deck which focuses on filling Life Points very quickly. Although he is very tough in duels, Noah is finally defeated by Yugi who uses Kaiba's deck.
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7. Dartz
Dartz is the main enemy in the Waking the Dragons arc. Dartz was the last ruler of Atlantis. In addition, its history is also connected with the lost city. He is also the master of the Orichalcos which has powerful magic power equivalent to Millennium Items.
He can combine Orichalcos soldiers from all over the world and also wash his hands. Dartz has a very great dueling ability. He is also a character capable of cornering Yami Yugi. In the duel, Dartz uses the Orichalcos Deck centered on "The Seal of Orichalcos" as well as his upgraded forms "Orichalcos Deuteros" and "Orichalcos Tritos".
Most of the monster's attack power is combined with "Mirror Knight Calling" which is able to create "Mirror Knight Tokens" and Shield Counters aimed at unprotected Tokens. In addition, Dartz also uses a strategy to reduce the damage he takes during the fight to 0 or no damage at all.
6. Joey Wheeler
Joey Wheeler is Yugi Mutou's best friend. At the beginning of his journey, he was an amateur duelist who did not know how to duel. However, over time he became a very great duelist and was able to defeat strong opponents, such as Rex Raptor, Espe Roba, and also Odion. In addition, Joey Wheeler's dueling style is also very unique and risky because he often plays gambling relying on his luck.
Joey Wheeler's deck also alternates in each story. In the Duelist Kingdom story, Joey uses Warrior and Beast Warrior-type monsters. He also uses several Magic cards as well as Traps to increase the abilities of his monsters or weaken the opponent's strength.
In the Battle City story, Joey's abilities improve greatly and he uses a more balanced deck. Some of Joey's mainstay cards are Gracefull Dice and Skull Dice which are his favorite gambling cards. In addition, Joey also has several mainstay monsters, such as the Flame Swordsman and Red Eyes Black Dragon.
5. Maximillion Pegasus
Maximillion Pegasus is the president of the Industrial illusions company and the creator of the game Duel Monsters. He has a wide variety of cards that have never been released to the public. Before becoming obsessed with the game Duel Monsters, Pegasus used to have a desire to become an artist.
Pegasus is also the main enemy in the Duelist Kingdom tournament arc. He is a tough duelist that is very difficult to beat because he is able to read the opponent's movements with the power of the Millennium Eye installed in his left eye.
Unlike the other duelists, Pegasus uses decks that focus on creating Toon World. Pegasus's deck contains various of interesting toon monsters. In addition, Pegasus also often uses strategies to control and even block the movement of opposing monsters with their main card. Thanks to the ability of the Millennium Eye, Pegasus is able to anticipate the opponent's attack until the opponent has difficulty fighting back.
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4. Marik Isthar
Malik Isthar is the leader and founder of the underground organization Rare Hunters. He is also the younger brother of Ishizu Ishtar and the heir to the Tomb Keeper. He played a big role as the main antagonist in the Battle City arc who becomes Yugi's enemy. When Odion is defeated, Malik's body is taken over by another person within him, namely Yami Malik.
As a duelist, Yami Malik is very hard to beat. He can even beat other duelists easily, such as May Valentine and Jonouchi. In the final duel between Malik and Yugi, the two of them played a shadow game. If Yami Marik loses, Malik's true existence will disappear. Meanwhile, if Yugi loses, Tugi's body will also disappear.
Yami Malik uses Immortality-Torture-Deck which focuses on slowly making his enemies suffer. He uses various cards that can reduce the opponent's strength, such as Dark Jerod and Plasma Eel cards that reduce the opponent's ATK. In general, Malik's deck consists of various very powerful trap cards as well as Fiend-type monsters.
His main card is the god card "The Winged Dragon of Ra". To resurrect Ra, he uses various cards so that they can be thrown into the grave first and then resurrected using “Monster Reborn”. In the end, Yami Malik was defeated by Yugi in a very fierce duel.
3. Rafael
Rafael is the strongest Doma Swordsmen and also the only swordsmen who doesn't lose his soul after being defeated by the target. He is also one of the characters who can see Duel Spirits without using Solid Vision. In addition, Rafael is also one of the characters who can defeat Yami Yugi in a duel. From that, it can be said that Rafael is a very strong duelist and has abilities that are on par with Yami Yugi.
In a duel, Rafael uses a Guardian-type deck. Uniquely, Rafael's cards look very old and shabby. However, strangely, the back of Rafael's card still looks clean and undamaged. The usual tactic used by Rafael is to use the Guardian Treasure card to speed up his access to his other cards. In addition, his Guardian card must first have the appropriate Equip Card before it can be combined.
2. Seto Kaiba
Seto Kaiba is Yami Yugi's main rival as well as the reincarnation of Priest Seto, the original guardian of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba is also the brother of Mokuba and the chairman of KaibaCorp, the world's largest multinational gaming company. He is a genius and very skilled in the fields of science and technology.
But, Kaiba has a selfish attitude and is very obsessed with defeating Yugi and becoming the strongest. One of the greatest technologies created by KaibaCorp is the high-tech Duel Disk as well as Solid Vision technology which is able to make the monsters in the cards look real.
In the duel, Kaiba's card is Blue Eyes White Dragon. In the deck, there are three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards. With the three Blue Eyes cards, Kaiba can fuse the three cards and become his strongest monster, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. In addition, Kaiba has an aggressive Beatdown strategy to attack opponents with attacks with high ATK monsters. In addition, Kaiba also uses Magic and Trap cards to support his strategy. In addition, Kaiba also had the Obelisk the Tormentor god card.
1. Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Without a doubt, Yami Yugi is the greatest and strongest duelist in the series. He is a spirit from Pharaoh named Atem who is sealed in the Millennium Puzzle. He then resided in Yugi Muto's body after Yugi Muto managed to resurrect him through the Millennium Puzzle he had put together. The two of them also work together to become the king of duelists by winning various tournaments, such as Duelist Kingdom Battle City, and also the Grand Championship.
Yami Yugi has a very genius nature and is always looking for the best strategies and opportunities to win duels. Yugi is very flexible in his game. He is good at adapting to unexpected situations. He always uses Yugi Muto's deck. Yugi's deck consists of various types of monsters as well as Magic and Trap cards.
However, the deck mostly contains Fiend and Spellcaster type monsters which represent its mystical side. In addition, in the deck there are also Egyptian god cards (Osiris, Obelisk, and Ra). Not only that, Yugi also has a Dark Magician as his ace card that often saves him in various difficult situations in his duel.
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