Fans of any card game know that they can quickly cost a lot of money. Buying just two or three cards from the best decks can cost a player hundreds of dollars.
Rare cards are even more expensive to collect than it is to play at a tournament level.
The rarest Yu-Gi-Oh! cards aren’t just rare because Konami made them rare or because people have kept their old cards.
The rarest cards are often given away as prizes at tournaments, like the world championship.
They are rare not just because they are shiny, but also because there are only two or three of them in the whole world.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a card game where the meta and the rarest cards change all the time.
We’ve changed this list by adding even more rare cards than most Yu-Gi-Oh! fans can only dream of having.
15. Blood Mefist
During the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s era, Blood Mefist was one of the coolest cards that came out.
Blood Mefist was a level 8 synchro monster that could damage the opponent based on every card they controlled during each of their standby phases.
Damage like that could add up quickly, and if that wasn’t enough, the opponent took 300 damage every time they set a spell or trap.
Even though setting cards aren’t as common in the game today, this was a powerful effect back then.
Unlike many other rare cards, this one hasn’t been made again yet. The only way to get the card is to get it from the 2011 Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship prize set.
This card is no longer useful because of how the game is played, but the Ultra Rare version of it is still worth around $8,500.
14. Shrink
Even though Shrink isn’t a “meta” card anymore, it’s still a good card from a practical point of view.
It’s a quick-play spell that can cut in half the ATK of any face-up monster on the field.
Most monsters will be affected, and the battle will change in an instant. After all, not many monsters can handle having their attack cut in half.
Even though the card is old, it is still easy to get, but people who like to have the rarest version of a card will have to pay a lot for this one.
In 2006, the Shonen Jump Championship prize card was Shrink. The price for this version of the quick-play spell is about $13,000.
13. Meklord Astro Mekanikle
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s brought in the Meklords, which were monsters that were supposed to be anti-synchro.
Even though the player has to send 3 Meklords to the grave to play Meklord Astro Mekanikle, the effects are worth it for the right deck.
It can equip a Synchro monster from an opponent every turn, and its ATK is equal to the total ATK of all the monsters it has equipped.
Mekanikle’s attack is already at 4,000, so it doesn’t take long for this card to become an OTK.
Even though the card is easy to get, the World Championship Qualifier National prize card, which sells for about $20,000, is the rarest one.
12. Goyo Guardian
Goyo Guardian was an important card in the early days of Synchro. It could only be played in certain decks because it needed an Earth Tuner, but it was so powerful that people couldn’t give it up.
Goyo Guardian could send an opponent’s monster to the player’s side of the field as a special summon if it was killed in battle.
In a slower-paced game, Goyo Guardian could quickly become a problem if the opponent didn’t have a way to deal with it.
Unsurprisingly, the rarest version of the card will cost a lot, with some copies going up to $25,000.
11. Gold Sarcophagus
Gold Sarcophagus is still one of the best spell cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is why Konami put it on a list of cards that could not be used for more than a decade.
The player could get rid of a face-up card from their deck and then add it to their hand during their second standby phase after activating.
Gold Sarcophagus is still limited, even though players can add it to their hand whenever they want.
The price of the Shonen Jump Championship 2007 prize card version of this card has gone up a lot, from $8,000 in 2020 to $25,000 in early 2022.
10. E-Hero Pit Boss
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Elemental Heroes are the only archetype that has been used too much. They don’t have the most annoying deck in the game, but seeing them get so many cards because Jaden Yuki used them can be annoying.
But to keep with the theme, most of them are about Fusion, even the Vision Heroes and Masked Heroes that aren’t part of the main group.
But for the World Championship in 2013, they made the group an XYZ monster. It’s made up of three level-6 monsters and ends the game in a way that’s different from what you’d expect.
Elemental Hero Pit Boss needs a spellcaster monster attached to it for its effect to work.
This may be a reference to Dark Magician, which was the best monster in the first Yu-Gi-Oh! series.
9. Stardust Divinity
The 2010 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship prize card was Stardust Divinity, which was made even better by the fact that it was a powerful Synchro monster.
It can only be summoned through synchro, and its ATK and Defense are both 3,000, making it one of the strongest Stardust monsters from the early synchro era.
Stardust Divinity is a game-ending card, but people would have to really want it to call it into play.
The card needs one light Tuner and at least two monsters that aren’t tuners. This is a high price for a level 10 card. Right now, this card goes for about $64,000.
8. Kaiser Eagle, The Heavens’ Mandate
The Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship prize card for 2019 was Kaiser Eagle. Until the 2022 Worlds, it was the most recent prize card.
Kaiser Eagle is a Link-5 monster that needs at least three winged beast monsters to use its effect. If the Winged Beast deck was legal, it would help any player who used it.
In 2021, the card Kaiser Eagle was worth $140,000. Since then, the card’s value has dropped a lot, and it now only costs half as much. At $70,000, right now is the best time to buy one.
7. Des Volstgalph
Des Volstgalph has been printed more than once, but the Ultra Rare Shonen Jump Championship card is the rarest one. Since Konami no longer makes SJCs, this card seems even harder to get a hold of.
At the time, the card was probably pretty powerful, since it did more damage each time it sent an opponent’s monster to the graveyard.
Even better, it got more attack with each Normal or Quick-Play spell that resolved, a type of effect that would become more common in the future.
As of late, this card could sell for more than $95,000, which is a big drop from May 2022, when it sold for around $149,000.
6. Dark Magician
The original Dark Magician helped Yugi get out of many dangerous situations. He was known as “the ultimate wizard in terms of both attack and defense.”
The Duel Terminal Parallel Rare version of the card is probably the rarest of all. It is the card to get if you want to trick out your Dark Magician deck.
The card was only worth about $500 for many years, but in 2022, one of the copies sold for around $100,000. Most likely, the card’s rarity went up because it was almost impossible to get.
5. Crush Card Virus
Crush Card Virus used to be one of the most powerful Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. The card could make an opponent’s deck useless, just like in the anime.
Even though the effect only lasted for three turns, that was often enough to change the outcome of the duel.
The card from the original Shonen Jump Championship is one of the rarest cards in the world. It sells for about $115,000 now.
Errata has made Crush Card Virus a bad card, but that doesn’t change how valuable this card is.
4. Tyr, The Vanquishing Warlord
Tyr was made in 2008 as part of the World Championship series.
Most of these cards did the same thing, letting the player end the game by directly attacking the other player and reducing their life points to zero.
This effect changes the way the game works, so you can’t use it in a tournament. But because Tyr is so rare, he is one of the most wanted cards in the game.
The card is worth more than $198,000 now, and its value has only gone up since it was first sold.
3. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
This is the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! card because it is the only one that has ever been bought.
Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes deck is full of powerful monsters, but the fused Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is the most powerful one at the moment.
A special version of the card was given to the winner of the 2001 Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship.
The most expensive card is the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, which sold for 45 million yen in 2018. From year to year, exchange rates changed.
At the time, this meant that the card was sold to a Japanese YouTuber named Yukkichi for more than $330,000.
2. Tyler, The Great Warrior
Tyler, The Great Warrior turned into a legendary Yu-Gi-Oh! card. Konami made it because a young man asked Make-A-Wish for a custom card while he was fighting cancer.
The art on the card looked like a character from Dragon Ball Z, so people called it “Super Saiyan Trunks.”
Tyler still has the card, and he doesn’t plan to give it up any time soon.
Since the card is unique and the owner doesn’t want to give it up, it’s theoretically impossible to put a price on it. It must be worth a lot to the person who owns it.
1. Tournament Black Luster Soldier
The legendary Black Luster Soldier monster was given to Yugi Muto at the very first Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament.
It wasn’t just any version of the warrior monster, but one made out of stainless steel. Since there is only one, it is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.
In 2013, Kotaku said that the card could be bought for 998 million yen, which is about $7.3 million today.
That doesn’t mean anyone will buy it for that price, but if a card is truly unique, it’s worthless.
