Some of the coolest and most powerful decks in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh have been used by spellcasters.
Spellcasters have always had a say in which deck is the best, from Dark Magicians to Pendulum Magicians.
So it makes sense that Spellcasters have some of the strongest monsters in the game.
If you want to build a pure spellcaster deck and need some backup cards from the same archetype, or if you just want some strong cards for your deck.
This list will break down the best of the best, the crème de la crème, the ultimate attackers and defenders among magicians.
18. Double Iris Magician
Double Iris used to be banned, but now you can use it as much as you want. This is probably the biggest reason to try the pendulum Magicians.
He has a useful scale 8 that lets him destroy himself to double the battle damage your dark spellcaster does that turn.
He also has an amazing destruction effect that searches a Pendulumgraph card for either Star (a spell that finds Magicians when one leaves your field) or Time (a trap that destroys your Magicians to destroy enemy cards).
This doesn’t happen once per turn, and because Double Iris always counts as a “pendulum dragon,” the spell Duelist Alliance can even search for him.
You can also kill him with Sky Iris, Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer, or Luster Pendulum the Dracoslayer, in addition to the effect of his scales.
17. Beyond the Pendulum
Beyond is easy to call, even though it only has 1200 power. All you need are two monsters with effects that include a pendulum.
After being link summoned, she can pay 1200 life points to look for any pendulum monster. If you don’t pendulum summon that turn, it and your scales don’t work.
As if getting a free card wasn’t enough, Beyond can also destroy two cards when you swing two monsters of different levels to zones she points to.
This makes her a surprising strong way to get rid of cards.
16. Fairy Tail – Luna
Luna is one of the most underrated cards in the game. She has a great normal summon that lets you search your deck for an 1850 spellcaster.
You can choose another copy of herself, one of her other Fairy Tail sisters, or (for decks with spell counters) Reflection of Endymion.
Also, as a quick effect, Luna can return herself and an opponent’s card to your hand, unless your opponent sends a copy of it from their deck or extra deck to the Graveyard.
This is a surefire way to win with restricted monsters.
Also, don’t forget that Luna’s ATK is pretty good for a level 4, and she works well with the continuous spell Awakening of the Possessed, which gives you a draw when you call an 1850 spellcaster.
15. Dark Magician
If you want to talk about the best magicians of all time, you have to start with the man himself.
Dark Magician is the monster that Yugi Muto is known for.
And this was always the card that got him out of trouble.
Even though he has some color text, he is not the best magician in the game.
But there are a huge number of cards that can bring it out almost for free.
Cards like Eternal Soul and Magician’s Navigation have made it ridiculously easy to bring this guy back for free as a special call.
You can’t go wrong with a Dark Magician build if you want to make a spellcaster-only deck.
Every year, new cards are made for this deck, and they keep getting better.
14. Exodia the Forbidden One
Exodia, who can’t be stopped, keeps the retro vibe going.
You win the game when you have all 5 pieces of Exodia in your hand. Easy, right?
In any card game, there aren’t many cards that let you win right away. That’s why Exodia can cast such strong spells.
There are many different ways to win the game that focus on Exodia.
Most of the time, this means getting as many cards as you can while either hurting your opponent with cards like Just Desserts or just giving them more time to think about their next move with cards like Mystic Mine.
No matter what, getting a win with Exodia is the best feeling in the world. And you really do feel like you’re the king of games.
13. Chaos Sorcerer
What’s even better than strong monsters?
Monsters with a lot of power that are ridiculously easy to call.
All you have to do to play Chaos Sorcerer is get rid of a Light monster and a Dark monster from your graveyard.
This means you don’t even have to use your standard summon to get a great monster.
Once it’s on the field, you can get rid of one face-up monster per turn.
This means that every turn, you can get rid of one of your opponent’s annoying monsters without having to worry about effects that happen in the graveyard.
12. Effect Veiler
Effect Veiler is by far the most useful card on this list and should be in almost every deck.
You can get rid of Effect Veiler to stop a monster’s affects from happening until the end of the turn.
This is a great way to stop your opponent from doing a lot of bad things, like killing your monsters, special summoning other monsters, or starting a combo chain so long that you’d need a book to keep you busy.
This card is also a level 1 tuner, which means you can special summon it from the deck with “One for One” to get access to all of your extra deck’s synchro monsters right away.
11. Aleister the Invoker
At the moment, Invoked decks are by far the most popular type of fusion deck in the metagame.
And there is no combination deck that is stronger than an Invoked deck.
In fact, it used to be a joke among Yu-Gi-Oh fans that standard summoning Aleister always started a combo.
When you bring Aleister into play, you can search your deck for a copy of “Invocation” and put it into your hand.
Invocation is a fusion card that is part of its own archetype. It lets you summon a wide range of dangerous fusion monsters, based on what monsters you already have in your hand.
Invoked Cocytus, which can attack while in defense position, or Invoked Mechaba, which can cancel the effects of magic, traps, and monsters, are both great choices for what to call here.
10. Relinquished
When this card is in play, you won’t lose control of the game.
Relinquished was the boss monster of Pegasus. It had one of the creepiest looks of any monster in Yu-Gi-Oh.
Yeah, it’s crazy that the same guy whose deck was made up of cartoon rabbits also ran Relinquished.
If you don’t already know, Relinquished lets you steal a monster from an opponent, turning Relinquished into a monster with the same attack and resistance as the one you stole.
Also, if this card is used in a fight, any damage you would take is done to your opponent instead.
Even after all that, if your opponent still wins the fight and kills this monster, you can just kill the monster that is equipped instead.
So this guy is a great way to keep your life points safe while taking out your opponent’s best monsters.
If it were easy to summon, I would put it in every deck I own.
9. Wisdom Eye Magician
Wisdom Eye Magician gave Pendulum Magicians a deadly level of accuracy all on his or her own.
You can destroy it and put a different Pendulum Magician in its place if it is in the pendulum zone with another Magician pendulum monster.
This means you can start using your best pendulum scales right away.
This card also works well with Star Pendulumgraph, which lets you add a Pendulum Magician from your deck to your hand whenever a Pendulum Magician is killed.
If you play any kind of pendulum deck, it would be smart to think about putting this spellcaster in it.
8. T.G. Hyper Librarian
If you play a matching combo deck, it’s likely that you’ll play a copy of this card.
When you synchro summon with T.G. Hyper Librarian, you can draw a card.
When this first came out, synchro calling might happen twice in a turn if everything was going well.
You can easily draw 5 or 6 cards from this guy in a turn of current Yu-Gi-Oh.
This card is on the restricted list because of its crazy effect and the fact that it is easy to bring into play.
So you can’t use its power to hurt many people at once.
Still, one of the most powerful spellcasters in Yu-Gi-Oh, and maybe even the best combo monster.
7. Nekroz of Unicore
Here’s another card that’s been on the list of banned cards for a while.
Nekroz of Unicore is a spellcaster who turns great Nekroz decks into unbeatable ones.
While this card is on the field, all monsters from the extra deck don’t do anything.
This isn’t a problem for a ritual deck like Nekroz, because all of its strong monsters are in the main deck.
But for most other decks, they won’t be able to use most of their important tools.
6. Harmonizing Magician
Even though this card has no attack or defense, it is the most powerful card in any pendulum wizard deck.
When the Harmonizing Magician is pendulum summoned from your hand, you can special summon a Pendulum Magician monster from the deck to the field.
This means that you can xyz summon, fusion summon, synchro summon, and more with just one card.
You can do anything you want.
As a pendulum tuner, Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer, who can put cards from the field back into the deck, would be a good choice.
5. El Shaddoll Winda
Like Nekroz of Unicore, this spellcaster makes it almost impossible to use the extra deck.
While Winda is on the field, each player can only use a special call once per turn.
This puts more pressure on your opponent and forces them to play one card to get to their strong monsters.
This won’t be possible with a lot of decks. And they could lose all their weapons in no time.
Just make sure to special summon Winda at the end of your turn so that you can use all of your boss monsters while you are not limited.
4. Summoner Monk
At the height of the XYZ era of Yu-Gi-Oh, this card cost an arm and a leg (and possibly the rest of Exodia, too).
You can special summon any level 4 card from your deck by getting rid of a spell card.
Even though that monster can’t fight in the same turn, it still has its effects and can be used for any kind of extra deck summon.
This was most often used for rank 4 xyz summons, like Number 39: Utopia, which can stop two strikes, or Evilswarm Exciton Knight, which can blow up your opponent’s whole board.
Summoning XYZ is ridiculously easy with a Summoner Monk, which means that big monsters can be called up very fast.
This card is useful in just about any deck that has level 4 monsters, which is a very broad category.
3. Magician of Black Chaos MAX
An upgrade to the attack in spite of the ultimate magician (ultimate cubed…?
Did that make sense?
When you use a ritual to call the Magician of Black Chaos MAX, your opponent can’t use monster effects for the rest of the turn.
If you can bring this card out on your opponent’s turn, it’s a deadly blow.
And even though that might sound impossible, there are a lot of ritual-based decks that can do that without much trouble.
I’d suggest checking out the Megalith/Impcantation deck, which can summon this guy on your opponent’s turn and also find it from the deck, so you can use this combo whenever you want!
2. Number 11: Big Eye
This is by far the best rank 7 monster in Yu-Gi-Oh, and it’s also very close to being the best spellcaster.
Even though this spaceship-needle thing doesn’t look much like a magic wand, it really does work like one.
You can take control of an opponent’s monster right away by removing one XYZ material from this card.
This can be used to get rid of your opponent’s big threats or to take their monsters and use them as materials for extra deck calls.
If you put the two together, you already have a terrible combo.
You could also use the stolen monster in a link call, which usually just needs monsters of any type.
Here, Saryuja Skulldread or Borreload Dragon are both good choices.
1. Red Eyes Dark Dragoon
It’s no wonder that the big, bad, broken boy is at the top of this list.
With Red Eyes Dark Dragoon, you can kill two of your opponent’s monsters, burn them for the same amount as those monsters’ attacks, and stop any spells, traps, or monster effects they have.
But what then?
Then you get a monster with 4000 attacks!
This card is very strong because its effect makes it stronger every time it cancels out something else.
The only way to kill this guy is to fight him. If your opponent wants to get rid of this threat, they’ll need a monster with a higher attack stat than 4000/5000/6000+.
So once you get Dragoon out, you can pretty much win the game on your own.
I really think you should play this guy right away, because I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he got banned.
