You’ll need to add search cards to your Yu-Gi-Oh! deck if you want to take it to the next level.
These cards can take your best cards right out of your deck and put them in your hand or on the field.
This saves you the trouble of having to wait for the right card to be drawn and hope you get the pieces you need for planning…
Why wait if you can have it now?
A lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! themes have built-in searchers. These are effects that look for cards with certain names, like “Performapal” or “Nekroz” monsters.
I’ve put together this list of the best search cards that aren’t archetypes so that you can add them to any deck for a little extra power.
15. Magical Meltdown
Magical Meltdown is a powerful Field Spell that lets you look for an Aleister the Invoker and use card effects that Fusion Summon a Fusion Monster without worrying about being attacked.
With Aleister on the field and this card in play, you get a lot of value and can win a Duel on your own.
14. Fire Formation – Tenki
Because of this card, Beast-Warrior decks became more important in the metagame.
It makes teams that use the Beast-Warrior type much more reliable.
Meta-contenders include decks like Zoodiac, Tri-brigade, and Lunalight.
13. Spright Starter
Since the Spright archetype was added to the game, they are often used as an Engine in many different decks, such as Evil-Twin, Tri-brigade, Runicks, and many more.
Spright Starter is a one-card combination for Level 2 cards that can be used in decks.
Even though it is Semi-Limited right now, other Spright monsters can easily search for this card.
12. Cyber Angel Benten
It’s not a strong monster on its own, but Cyber Angel Benten works really well with LIGHT Fairy monsters, especially ones like Drytron that focus on rituals.
Since you can search for those particular monsters after paying a payment, it is very important to get resources as soon as possible.
11. Block Dragon
Block Dragon was and is the reason why Adamancipators are so strong.
Rock-type monsters can’t be killed while they’re on the field, but the best thing about it is that it can search up to 3 monsters with a total Level of 8 when it’s sent from the field to the graveyard.
With its effect of being able to Special Summon itself from the Graveyard, this monster made it easy for the Deck to get important cards.
10. Goddess of Sweet Revenge
When you’re down on your luck, this card is a wonderful searcher.
It’s made for anime-style situations where you’re about to lose the fight but one card saves the day.
If Goddess of Sweet Revenge is the only card you have in your hand or on the field, you can throw it away to stop an attack and destroy all of your opponent’s cards.
If that wasn’t enough to give you the upper hand, you can then use a special call to bring any monster from your deck into play.
This is also a great way to bring out the boss monster in your deck.
Just when your opponent thinks they have you beat, this changes the tables and hits them in the face.
9. Damage Condenser
When played right, this card can turn an empty field into a weapon.
Damage Condenser lets you special summon a monster from your deck whose attack is less than or equal to the damage you just took in battle.
If your opponent charges with their strongest monster, you can use this trap to bring out some very strong monsters for free.
Why spend materials to summon your Blue Eyes with a gift if this card can do it for almost nothing?
8. Waking the Dragon
Waking the Dragon is a searcher that is very specific. But when it goes off, your opponent won’t be able to do anything about it.
If this card is sent to the graveyard or erased by an opponent’s card effect, you can special summon any monster from your deck or extra deck.
This makes Waking the Dragon an insanely strong side-deck card: if you know your opponent is playing a lot of spell and trap removal, this card is a great way to punish them for it.
With this effect, you can even play monsters from your extra deck. This really makes this card stand out. You won’t find another Yu-Gi-Oh! card like it.
7. Temple of the Kings
Temple of the Kings is a very versatile searcher that lets you call a monster from your hand, deck, or extra deck, as long as it is a fusion monster.
This means that no matter what comes up, you’ll be ready.
To use this card’s ability, all you have to do is control a Mystical Beast of Serket, which is a strong level 6 monster that can completely destroy your opponent.
And who can pass up the other impact of this card?
You can use one trap card each turn on the same turn it was set. This lets you use some very strong effects right away instead of having to wait your turn.
6. Obedience Schooled
This is an old spell card from Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal that has recently been used because Melffys is a popular deck.
With this spell card, you can special summon three level 2 beast monsters from the deck, but they are destroyed at the end of the turn and their powers are cancelled.
But this isn’t a problem when you use them to call extra cards from your deck!
This effect makes it easy for you to call a rank 2 XYZ monster or maybe even a link 3 monster.
No matter what you do, make sure the monster you call is a beast, because Obedience Schooled stops you from summoning anything else for the rest of the turn.
5. Foolish Burial
Do you guys remember when the graveyard was for dead or used up cards?
Me too.
Foolish Burial puts one card from your deck into the graveyard.
Even though it might seem strange to get rid of your best cards, there are many effects in current Yu-Gi-Oh! that can mess with the graveyard.
So Foolish Burial is the same as adding any card to your hand right away.
Foolish Burial also activates any monster effects that happen when a card is sent to the graveyard.
This means that if you play Foolish Burial right, you can use it to start a crazy chain of combos.
4. Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
If you have any kind of ritual-monster plan in your deck, you’ll definitely want to play a playset of this guy.
When it’s called normally or by flip, you can search your deck for any ritual monster or spell card and add it to your hand.
This is an incredibly versatile way to set up your ritual shows.
If you don’t know how ritual monsters work, to do a ritual call, you need to have both the ritual monster and the ritual spell in your hand.
I play a lot of ritual decks, and I can’t tell you how often you draw one piece but not the other.
With Manju, this is no longer a problem. You can search whenever you need to find a certain part of your ritual plan.
3. One for One
Getting rid of a monster to get a level 1 monster from your deck seems like a bad deal.
I mean, how good could a monster of level 1 be?
So, as effect monsters got better and better, Yu-Gi-Oh! I started to see some level 1 monsters that were really broken, like King of the Skull Servants.
Using this card to summon the right monster can help you start the combos you need to win the game.
One for One is also great in synchro decks because it lets you bring out level 1 monsters so you have the right number of monsters of the same level to use for a synchro summon.
2. Terraforming
Since the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh, Field Spells have changed in a huge way.
Field spells used to be cards that gave your monsters a small boost and turned the landscape into a mountain or forest (at least, that’s what happened in the anime!)
Field spells give your deck a whole new level of consistency. They let you look for more monsters, special summon for free, or stop your opponent from using certain effects.
Seriously, look at Mystic Mine to see how much more strong field spells have become.
Because of all this, cards that look for field spells are much stronger than they used to be.
In fact, Terraforming is now limited, which means you can only have one copy of it in your deck. And other field spell searches, like Ancient Fairy Dragon, have been taken off the market completely.
If your deck’s plan involves a field spell, you have to have Terraforming.
1. Gold Sarcophagus
Gold Sarcophagus is by far the best way to put any card you want from your deck straight into your hand.
You can add magic, traps, monsters, or anything else you need to win with the Gold Sarcophagus.
All you have to do is take that card from your hand and put it face up on the bottom of your deck. After two turns, that card is all yours.
Even though Yu-Gi-Oh! games are getting faster, two turns is not a long time at all.
And if you use this strategy, you’ll have the exact cards you need to win quickly.
This makes Gold Sarcophagus a great way to add speed and stability to any deck.
