When you play Yu-Gi-Oh! have come a long way since the days when they would just take a few life points here and there (I’m looking at you, Sparks.)
The best burn cards in the game today can take thousands of life points from your opponent, mess up their game, and give you the win when you were about to lose.
But where should you begin?
Well, this list is probably a good place to start, since I’ll be listing the Best Burn Cards.
25. Spell Shattering Arrow
Spell Shattering Arrow is one of only two cards on this list that are played by teams that don’t burn.
It is a Quick-Play Spell that removes as many of the opponent’s face-up Spell cards as possible and deals 500 damage to the opponent for each one.
During the Pendulum Era, this was a great card to use because it often caused the opponent to take 1000 damage just for putting up their scales.
Pendulums are still around, so it’s still a good card, but they often have protection, which makes it a little less powerful.
24. Dark Room Of Nightmare
This card is a must-have for any burn deck. Each time the opponent takes damage from a card effect other than Dark Room of Nightmare, deal 300 damage to them.
This works in everything from Chain Burn to Trickstar. It gives a little extra damage that might not seem like much, but it adds up quickly.
For a Trickstar, the damage goes from 200 to 500. The loss goes from 1500 to 1800, and so on.
23. Just Desserts
Just Desserts is a standard Trap card that is a key part of every burn deck. For each monster the opponent controls, this card does 500 damage to them.
A long time ago, this card wouldn’t have been very amazing, but since the beginning of the Xyz era, players have been able to easily summon four or five monsters, often without using up all of their resources.
It’s easy to flip this and give 2000 to 2500 damage to the opponent, which takes away a quarter of their life points, and that’s if they don’t have more than one of this card.
22. Trickstar Narkissus
The Narkissus card is a good danger. If the opponent gets damage from an effect, it can special summon to the field, which is helpful.
Then, your opponent takes 200 damage every time a monster effect is used.
This isn’t much at first, but it adds up quickly if the player can’t get Narkissus off the field right away.
It also becomes more dangerous when paired with other cards in the deck or on this list.
21. Trickstar Lycoris
Lycoris is likely the best Trickstar right now for dealing burn damage.
Lycoris can special summon itself by selecting and returning to hand a Trickstar Monster the player controls.
Then, whenever the opponent adds a card to their hand, they can do 200 damage for each card added.
This can add up quickly in a game where most decks work by adding cards to the hand, but even if it doesn’t, the player can use Trickstar Reincarnation to force the opponent to discard and draw.
This makes them discard their entire hand and draw as many cards as they lost, doing up to 1200 damage.
20. Bad Reaction To Simochi
This card is first on the list because it can’t do burn damage by itself, but it can be used to make some very nasty plays.
Bad Reaction To Simochi is a Continuous Trap that turns any effect that ‘gives’ Life Points into one that ‘takes’ Life Points instead.
You might think that your opponent can avoid playing cards that give Life Points by not playing them.
But when there are cards like Gift Card that give your opponent 3000 Life Points, they might not have any other choice.
19. Cannon Soldier
Have you ever wanted to shoot your monsters at the other player to hurt them?
I mean, that’s a strange dream… But either way, this might be the right card to have that experience.
Cannon Soldier is a Machine monster with 1400 ATK and 1300 DEF. It’s been around for a while, so you might remember it from the anime.
The only thing it does is let you sacrifice a monster you control to deal 500 burn damage to an opponent.
This can cause thousands of straight LP damage, but your monsters will die. So don’t use this too much!
This card has also been used in some very nasty one-turn-kill (OTK) schemes, but none of them are really working right now.
18. Fire Princess
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are a lot of cards that give you Life Points.
And every time you use this monster, you can burn your opponent.
Fire Princess is an LVL4 monster with 1300 ATK and 1500 DEF. Every time you gain a Life Point, she does 500 damage to your opponent.
On paper, this influence might not sound like much.
But if your deck is built around taking advantage of this effect, you can put your opponent in a situation where they can’t win while you have a huge advantage in Life Points.
17. Secret Barrel
Many burn cards depend on how many cards your opponent already has on the field.
But this one makes sure that you can’t win even if you have a lot of cards.
Secret Barrel is a simple trick card that does 200 damage to your opponent for every card they control. This includes every card in their hand, though.
This can quickly add up to 2000 or more damage if your opponent has a full hand and a few cards on the field.
And it doesn’t happen once per turn. So, if you have more than one, you’re putting together a plan.
16. Secret Blast
Some of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! Put your opponent in a situation where it doesn’t matter what they do, they’ll still lose.
This is shown by Secret Blast.
Even though it doesn’t do the most damage on this list, Secret Blast is a great card because it doesn’t need to be set up.
This Trap card does 300 burn damage for every card your opponent controls, which is pretty good.
But if your opponent chooses to get rid of the card, they take 1000 damage. So they will get hurt either way.
15. Cauldron Of The Old Man
Burn damage can make or break a game.
But if you get hit hard, you might appreciate Life Points more.
You can choose between the two options with this card.
The Cauldron of the Old Man is a Continuous Spell that gives you a spell counter when you cast it and then every time you go to standby.
You can use these counters to either give yourself 500 Life Points per counter or do 300 damage to your opponent per counter.
It’s possible that these aren’t the best deals in the game. But having that choice is still great.
14. Chain Strike
Yu-Gi-Oh! is the only card game where you can link effects together and react to effects with other effects.
So of course there is a way to punish your opponent for doing it.
Chain Strike is different from the other cards on this list because it can be added to a chain starting at link 2.
This card gives 400 damage per chain link, so the longer the chain, the more damage it does.
If you’re clever, you can even build a deck around making this card’s effects work together to make it even deadlier.
13. Magic Cylinder
This famous trap card is a must-run if you want to punish your opponent and use the power of their monsters against them.
Magic Cylinder is a well-known trick that lets you stop an attack and burn your opponent for the same amount of damage as the attack.
If your opponent has a strong big monster, you could win if they attack without thinking at the right time.
Even though this card can change the game, it is lower on this list because if your opponent lives, the game doesn’t really change and they still have that powerful monster for the next turn.
12. Magical Explosion
It’s always nice to see a little bit of burn harm here and there.
But if you want to build a deck around it, this is one of the cards you can use as the center of your plan.
Magical Explosion can only be used when you have no cards in your hand.
For each Spell Card in your Graveyard, it does 200 damage to your opponent.
This might not seem like a lot.
But if your deck is built around sending cards to the Graveyard over and over again, that burn damage can be a big deal.
So big, in fact, that this card can only be in one deck at a time on the ban list. This is to stop one-hit-kills.
11. Ring Of Destruction
Can we take a moment to enjoy the fact that one of the versions of this card’s art is a metal ring with grenades on it?
Now that I think about it, it’s pretty close to the truth.
Ring Of Destruction is a trap card that destroys one of your opponent’s face-up monsters if its ATK is lower than their Life Points.
After that, that much damage is done to both sides.
The result is carefully written so that your opponent doesn’t die right away.
But the fact that this card can kill a monster and deal thousands of damage makes it a very dangerous one.
10. Wave Motion Cannon
Nothing puts more pressure on you than a set amount of time.
Wave Motion Cannon is a powerful spell card that stays on the field and gets stronger as time goes on.
You can send this card to the graveyard to deal 1000 damage to your opponent for each standby phase it was on the field.
That means this card can kill your opponent in one hit in 8 turns.
Just be careful, because that’s a long time for a card to stay on the field.
Sometimes it’s better to use its power early to do good damage.
9. Ceasefire
In most decks, there are more monsters with effects than regular ones.
In fact, many decks only use monsters that do something.
With that in mind, this card is a force to be reckoned with!
Ceasefire is a trap that can be set off when there is a monster on the field with an effect or that is face down.
Every face-down monster is turned face-up, and for every effect monster on the field, you deal 500 burn damage to your opponent.
This can add up to a crazy 6000 LP hit.
Ceasefire can do more damage than most boss monsters, even though it’s more likely to do half that amount.
8. Blaze Fenix, The Burning Bombardment Bird
There are cards on this list that can do a lot of burn damage, but would you like to see a card that does that every turn?
Blaze Fenix is a Fusion monster with 2800 ATK and 2300 DEF.
During each of your main phases, it can deal 300 burn damage for every card on your opponent’s side of the field.
Even though this monster’s burn effect isn’t as powerful as some others, it can add up over the course of a fight.
And with good ATK and DEF, it’s also not bad in battle.
7. Fairy Wind
Fairy Wind is the other card on this list that isn’t a burn card and is used by almost every deck.
It’s a pretty good side deck card for tourney players.
It destroys as many face-up Spell and Trap cards on the field as it can, then deals 300 damage to both players equal to the number of cards destroyed.
This is a great way to get rid of Field Spells, Traps or Spells that last a long time, and Pendulum Scales.
Even though the damage isn’t that important, the card itself is great.
6. Life Equalizer
Some Yu-Gi-Oh cards have to be read twice because, at first glance, they don’t seem to do anything.
When there is a difference of 8000 Life Points between two people, Life Equalizer makes both of their Life Points equal to 3000.
Keep in mind that some cards give life points to your opponent.
And some cards give you a benefit if your opponent has more life points than you do.
If you can build a deck around this effect, Life Equalizer can deal 5000 or more burn damage all at once.
It can be hard to set up, but this card should not be undervalued.
5. Blazing Mirror Force
Mirror Force is a well-known Trap that hurts your opponent when they hit without giving your back row any respect.
A few Mirror Force cards have been added to the game over time.
One of the most dangerous is this.
When your opponent announces an attack, Blazing Mirror Force kills every monster your opponent controls that is in an attack position.
This is a great effect on its own.
But the “blazing” part is caused by some serious burn damage.
Both players take damage equal to half the total ATK of every monster they kill, which is usually a lot.
Of course, you also have to make it through the blast. But your opponent could lose both the battle and all of their monsters.
4. Curse Of Darkness
Even in the best decks, the back row is used to set up and bring out the best monsters.
This Trap card is a very powerful way to stop that kind of plan.
Curse of Darkness is a Continuous Trap that does 1000 damage to either player every time they use a spell card.
This means that if your opponent plays 8 spell cards while this card is in play, they will lose the game.
Or they can at least cut down on the length of their own LP.
It’s important to know that this card is very bad because it can also hurt you.
But if you know what you’re doing, you can stop a Spell-heavy deck in its tracks.
3. Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon
The Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is one of the most powerful monsters that was added to Yu-Gi-Oh lately.
This monster has a long list of effects that will blow your mind, and one of them is a pretty good burn.
Aside from being a powerhouse with 3000 ATK/2500 DEF, immunity to targeting and damage effects, and built-in effect negation… you might want to use one more effect here.
You can kill a monster your opponent controls once per turn and deal burn damage equal to that monster’s ATK!
This card is just fantastic.
And if you want burn damage on top of a great boss monster, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is one of the best.
2. Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli
The best Yu-Gi-Oh decks can Special Summon monsters all over the place, and many of them can fill the field with monsters in just one turn.
So, how dangerous do you think it could be for a burn effect to be based on a special summon?
Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli is a Fusion monster with 2400 ATK and 1000 DEF. She is a very strong monster.
And once per turn, you can send a Gem-Knight card from your Deck or Extra Deck to the Graveyard to deal 500 burn damage to each special-summoned monster on the field.
This can quickly add up to more than $3,000 at once.
And if your opponent doesn’t deal with it right away, you can do it again the next time it’s your turn.
1. Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon
Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon can punish your opponent for just playing the game if you have a Dragon deck.
This LVL7 XYZ monster has a good 2800 ATK/2400 DEF. But its effect, which does 500 damage to your opponent every time they use an effect, is more important.
Even against the best professional decks, this can quickly add up to thousands of damage, giving your opponent a tough choice:
Do they want to set up badly to avoid getting hurt, or do they want to play with no Life Points?
Burn damage can be very powerful.
But the fact that this card makes your opponent pay for using effects takes it to a whole new level.
Because of this, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is number one on this list.
