The Most Broken Cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! History

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a game with thousands of cards, and yearly releases keep the game growing. To avoid stagnation and to stay exciting, to keep the player base and the deck designers engaged, some degree of power creep is necessary. However, sometimes power creep goes a little too fast and too far.

In general, new cards are stronger, but usually old decks can still compete. New sets bring new staples and sometimes cards get replaced. was the best premium spell/trap removal in the game. But when arrived, it was never seen on a decklist again. Power creep is good, healthy, and as previously stated necessary.

Today I'm addressing some very specific cards. These cards all proved "broken"—meaning, unbalanced and overpowered compared to others. They all broke the game in one way or another. Each generates so much value on its own that it's miles above other "good" cards. They are the cards that leave us wondering, "Why were they ever printed?"

mystical space typhoon — Mystical Space Typhoon was limited early in the game

cosmic cyclone — Mystical Space Typhoon was limited early in the game

Soul Charge

In April 2014 the brand-new Yu-Gi-Oh! set Dragons of Legend released. It focused on themes from the anime and included many cards never seen before. was there to support and was introduced to help slower spell/trap-orientated decks. Another famous card from the set was . one monster and draw a card when it is destroyed—pretty good for that time. Other cards had an immediate impact. and warped the metagame. In 2014 the game still was relatively slow; control was the meta. These "hands" were the foundation of the HAT format (Hands-Artifacts-Traptrix), one of the best formats Yu-Gi-Oh! has ever seen.

It's pretty obvious this set brought way more than just legacy support. New powerful staples shook up the game quite a bit. However, one card beats them all. Enter .

Target any number of monsters in your GY; Special summon them. And if you do, you lose 1000 LP for each monster Special Summoned by this effect. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this card. You can only activate 1 "Soul Charge" per turn.

To start things off, when this card entered the card pool, was still banned. I'm not sure who thought Monster Reborn for five was a good idea. Every time I look back on that meta I'm reminded that this card actually exists and was legal at three copies. At any time, if you were behind on board, you can just summon back one or more monsters. Of course, you lose life points and you can't attack. But this was when the xyz power level was at an all-time high. It was easy to summon back two monsters, make a or to disrupt your opponent's board. This card provided the ultimate comeback and the ultimate board-building value at the same time.

lonefire blossom — Bringing back the gang

Soul Charge remained legal for five years. After being limited in 2015, it was finally banned on January 28, 2019, a surprisingly long time. This card won many games whether as a topdeck or just drawn in the opening hand. You build your board, and after you're done, you just make it a little bit better.

Outer Entity Azathot

The Entity archetype is infamous in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. It took a while for them to all get here. It all started in the 2015 Mega tins, which gave us and . This archetype focuses on the combination of fusions, synchros, and xyz monsters. Norden was for example summoned by fusing together one synchro or xyz monster plus one synchro or xyz monster. This roughly translates to either two Zoodiac monsters or . Norden wreaked havoc on the meta for a long time. Instant Fusion became an instant xyz. Hastorr never saw play. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others I suppose.

In 2018 Shadows in Valhalla focused on valkyrie, ninjas, and the Outer Entities. Two of these are important— and —and Azathot was the bogeyman of the two.

3 Level 5 monsters You can also Xyz Summon this card by using an ''Outer Entity'' Xyz Monster you control as material (transfer its materials to this card). Cannot be used as a material for an Xyz Summon. After this card was Xyz summoned, your opponent cannot activate monster effects for the rest of that turn. If this card has at least 3 Xyz Materials (1 Fusion, 1 Synchro and 1 Xyz Monster): You can detach 1 material from this card: destroy all cards your opponent controls.

For those missing the point, the effect that your opponent cannot activate monster effects for the rest of that turn isn't an effect that activates. When Outer Entity Azathot is successfully summoned there is no stopping it. People got inventive quickly and realized you can easily summon Azathot in your opponent's turn using . This basically ended the turn for your opponent since there's not much they could do except set a couple of spells/traps.

outer entity azathot — Look at all this interaction!

ash blossom & joyous spring — Look at all this interaction!

Soon, however, people realized that to set up this combo they actually needed to combo in your own turn first. We all know comboing is very hard, especially with all those pesky hand traps running around. Do you know how to stop them? Oh wait, we can just make Azathot in your turn! This is the strategy that Lunalight players quickly adopted. All you need to do is summon two level four monsters and overlay them for to then overlay for Azathot. Safe from interruptions and all that before the fifth summon. With easy extending through , Azathot was something else. Unmatched protection and disruption. Stopping an entire mechanic by just being successfully summoned. It took some time for the card to be banned in January 2020 since it was released. After adapting to this new strategy, the card quickly left the game.

Saryuja Skull Dread

This is a weird one. was originally released in Extreme Force in 2018 and has been at three ever since. It wasn't banned, it wasn't limited, not even semi-limited. However, this card has been at the center of many FTK strategies and still remains untouched.

2+ monsters with different names This card gains effects based on the number of materials used for its Link Summon. 2+: If a monster(s) is Normal of Special Summoned to a zone this card points to: That monster(s) gains 300 ATK/DEF. 3+: Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can special summon 1 monster from your hand. 4: When this card is Link Summoned: You can draw 4 cards, then place 3 cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck in any order.

The list of what's good about Saryuja is a long one. First of all, it's generic. You have almost no restrictions playing this card. You can use tokens, level four monsters, xyzs, links, everything. Second, it is a dragon. This card has been featured in almost every Guardragon decklist being extremely synergistic with and . With three pointers down it gives you all the space you need to special summon everything you want from your extra deck. With only 2+ monsters it's easily summoned as well.

The first effect, to gain 300 ATK/DEF isn't the best one of the three, but it is definitely good. Pushing some monsters just over some break points proved to be quite strong. Summoning underneath its pointers made it 2,900, which is quite oppressive. Other monsters were just pushed over the 3,000 break point which was quite hard to deal with.

The second effect, to summon a monster from your hand is an effect other cards were banned for. comes to mind. That card was used "roughly" the same as Saryuja, making card advantage and extending. This can summon any monster form your hand, not restricting you in any way. Not negating its effects, not restricting it to its pointers. Nothing.

The third effect is in my opinion its problem. Drawing four cards from your deck. Of course, you have to shuffle three back afterward, but you're digging four cards deep into your deck. You don't have to shuffle three of the drawn cards back, no, just any card from your hand. Drew ? Shuffle it back.

None of these effects are once per turn. This means you can make multiple Saryujas and keep cycling cards. One strategy proved successful abusing the Yuja, Danger first-turn kill. Using Dangers and Saryuja to cycle through your entire deck, carefully placing Slash Draws in specific places underneath your deck and eventually killing the opponent through burn damage. Another strategy employed . This ended on a monster that skipped your opponent's turn and then one-turn-killed immediately after.

Danger!? Tsuchinoko? — Who said this game didn't have enough draw power?"

It is a matter of time before people go back to Saryuja and abuse him some more. It is amazing this card has managed to dodge the Forbidden & Limited list for so long.

Very Fun Dragon

Now there are many other cards to talk about. is on the top of everyone's hit list at the moment, so it's kind of redundant for me to talk about it even more. I personally think is in another league as well. No summon negate? Okay, no more back row is kind of insane. , , and are all leagues above comparable cards.

What do you think is a broken card that I haven't mentioned? And do you expect Saryuja to get onto the list eventually?

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.