Who said that to win, you had to attack?
One of the strangest rogue decks in Yu-Gi-Oh is the Mill deck.
The goal of this approach is to get rid of all of your opponent’s cards so that they “deck out” and lose.
This can be done by making someone draw a ton of cards or by sending cards from their deck to the graveyard until they have nothing left.
The great thing about this approach is that it doesn’t matter what deck your opponent is using:
As long as you can keep them coming back, you will always win.
So, without further ado, let’s hit the deck and start making this list of the best mill cards in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!
18. Book of Eclipse
Book of Eclipse was once one of the best mill cards. It’s still pretty good, but link summoning has made it less powerful.
Eclipse is a quick-play spell that you can set and use on your opponent’s turn, like a trap.
When you do this, all face-up monsters, including yours, are turned face-down for defense.
At the end of the turn, enemy monsters are turned face-up, and your opponent draws as many cards as the number of monsters you turned face-down.
17. Dark Bribe
Dark Bribe is an old card that is still useful. It stops and removes a spell or trap that your opponent has, then lets them draw a card.
Same idea as Chainsaw: slow down their plan and use the bonus card they get to your advantage.
And since Dark Bribe is a trap, it doesn’t use up your normal summon/set for the turn like Chainsaw does, so you can prepare other animals instead.
Without getting too deep into the rules, you should also know that Dark Bribe is a counter trap that works at “spell speed 3” (which you can learn more about here).
This means that your opponent can only respond to it with other counter traps, so normal quick-play effects like Mist Valley Apex Avian can’t stop it.
16. Warm Worm
Warm Worm is a rare insect-type monster that has fire as an attribute. When it is killed, three cards from the top of your opponent’s deck are sent to the graveyard.
Three is a good number to ransack, and even though Warm isn’t very strong in battle, his ability is useful because it works with both battle and effect destruction, even if it was your own card that caused the effect destruction.
Also, even though some cards can be used from the graveyard, it’s usually better to mill into your opponent’s graveyard instead of their hand. This makes it harder for most of their units to be played.
15. Gift of Greed
The first card on this list can only be used in mill decks (unless you like to lose).
The back of this card says exactly what it does:
It lets the other player draw two cards.
So, this is a good way to make your opponent draw more cards and get closer to running out of cards. However, it is a trick card, which is bad. So you’ll have to set it up before you can play it.
Mill decks, on the other hand, can easily stop the game when they need to. So, I’d say that Gift of Greed is a good mill choice in general.
14. Iron Chain Dragon
Iron Chain is a strategy that has about four cards, but only two of them are good (looking at you, Digital Bugs…)
This is one of the better Iron Chain cards:
It is a level 6 combination that can mill your opponent for 3 cards every time it does battle damage. That should be easy to do with 2500 strikes.
The best thing about this card is that you can use it again every time. You could also play this card with Double Attack to get, well, double the value!
If Iron Chain Dragon wasn’t a synchro monster, it would be much higher on the list. It’s a real pain to have to make room in your deck for tuner cards.
Even more so when you want as many of your cards as possible to be used against your opponent.
13. Voltic Bicorn
Sadly, this is another case of a completely insane ability, but that stupid silver edge makes it almost impossible to play.
When this card is destroyed, you can give your opponent seven cards.
The best way to use Voltic Bicorn is to let your opponent bring out their big boss monsters and then just crash this guy into them. Yes, you will take some damage in fight.
But they will lose seven cards.
Then, all you have to do is keep doing it over and over again with a rebirth trap like Call of the Haunted to make your opponent draw 14 cards.
This card is a must-have if your mill deck has enough space for two tuners to make a level 7 combo.
12. Morphing Jar #2
This monster in a bottle is the little brother of the Morphing Jar. It can do a lot of damage in a mill deck.
When he is struck or flipped up, all monsters on the field are put back into the deck.
Then, each person mills until they find the same number of monsters they lost, and all of the level 4 or lower ones are brought back with a special summon.
If you play this against a deck with a lot of spells or traps, like Spellbooks or Dark Magicians, your opponent is likely to lose a lot of cards, if not all of them.
If you really want to beat your opponent into the ground (and make them afraid of face-down cards for the rest of their lives), use this with Inferno Tempest, which gets rid of all monsters in their deck.
If you do this right, you’ll win the fight right away.
11. Dragged Down into the Grave
Ah, truly a diplomatic Yu-Gi-Oh card if I’ve ever seen one.
Dragged Down into the Grave lets you and your opponent see each other’s hands. You can then pick a card you don’t like and force your opponent to replace it.
This is great for a couple of reasons:
With this card, you not only get through your opponent’s deck faster, but you also get rid of any possible threats.
So, you can be sure that your plan for milling won’t be interrupted any time soon.
Big boss monsters or cards that destroy magic or traps would be good cards to get rid of. Monsters are usually not very common in mill decks, with only a few monsters here and there.
So, if you want to win, you’ll need to keep your magic and traps safe.
Just make sure you don’t have anything too good in your hand, or your opponent will likely stop you from doing that.
10. Chainsaw Insect
The effect of the Chainsaw Insect was meant to make up for the fact that it has 2400 attack and is free to call.
But this is a Yu-Gi-Oh! card.
Any “bad” results can (and will be) taken advantage of with enough planning and thought.
In this case, Chainsaw bug not only gives us a big monster to protect ourselves with, but it also helps us mill our opponent.
With an attack number that is almost as good as the great Monarchs, this helpful creature is a must-have for any mill deck.
9. Level Modulation
This spell card was first made to help the LV strategy from the GX era. It works like the opposite of Pot of Greed.
You let your opponent draw two cards, and in exchange, you can bring back an LV monster from your graveyard using a special effect.
This LV monster can’t hit or use its effects, which is a shame. But this is still a great way to defend yourself while you’re busy destroying your opponent’s deck.
In the best case, you can take a Level 10 Armed Dragon from your deck. Then you would definitely be safe and sound behind a 3000 attack wall.
8. Necroface
No matter how good this card is, it gives me the creeps.
I mean, it’s just a scary doll head with tentacles coming out of it!
When Ol’ Cthulhu Head (Necroface) is sent away, the top five cards of each player’s deck are sent away.
The best thing about this effect is that it makes it much harder to get back banned cards than it is to get back cards from the graveyard. So when you get rid of a card, it’s pretty much gone for good.
Necroface and Gold Sarcophagus are a great way to make this go off right away. Necroface will be taken out of the deck right away, so you don’t even have to wait for it to show up in your hand.
7. Gravekeeper’s Servant
This is what I call milling on your own.
You’ve spent so much time taking cards from your opponent’s deck until it’s empty. It’s now their turn to help.
Every time they announce an attack, they have to send the top card of their deck to the graveyard because of this continuous spell card.
As your opponent’s deck gets smaller and smaller, Gravekeeper’s Servant will force them to get closer and closer to the edge every time they try to take away your life points.
And if you really want to mess with your opponent’s head, combine this magic card with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, which takes a card from the field and puts it on top of their deck.
Now, they have to decide whether to attack and lose that monster or not attack and keep your life points.
Decisions, decisions…
6. Needle Worm
You think of this guy when you think of a mill deck.
One of the most well-known mill deck cards is Needle Worm. In fact, Needle Worm and Morphing Jar #2 can work together to make an infinite loop that can kill your opponent quickly.
When it’s face-up, you can remove the top 5 cards of your opponent’s deck.
This is one of the few cards on this list that both mill decks and normal decks can benefit from.
Taking away your opponent’s tools will always give you the upper hand. So Needle Worm works well in just about any deck.
Also, it’s important to point out how good cards like Needle Worm are against pendulum teams.
Most monsters in a pendulum deck go face-up to the Extra Deck when they are killed, so revival spells like Monster Reborn are rarely used in pendulum decks.
Needle Worm could mean that their monsters don’t do anything.
5. Kuraz the Light Monarch
There’s a reason why Monarchs are always on these lists:
Monarchs are monsters that are incredibly strong and have amazing powers, and Kuraz the Light Monarch is no different.
Kuraz not only kills your opponent’s monsters, but it also helps them run out of cards. This is a great way to get rid of those big monsters you just can’t get past. Then you can mill safely for another turn.
Kuraz can also be used in a pinch if you have a hand full of useless cards. You can use his ability to get rid of bad cards you have on your side of the field.
Kuraz can’t attack on the turn he’s called, which is the only bad thing about this. But as a monster with 2400 attack, he gives great protection until the next turn.
4. One Day of Peace
A must-have for mill decks, burn decks, and Exodia decks:
If you can think of a rogue deck, it plays One Day of Peace.
This card is great because it lets you get closer to your more powerful mill cards, mills your opponent for 1 card, and saves you from damage for an entire turn.
If this card were worth any more, it would be worth as much as gold.
One Day of Peace is a must-have and should be printed in at least three copies.
3. Card Destruction
Card Destruction was on the list of cards that should be banned for a long time, and rightly so.
But in 2018, it was allowed again, but only one copy was allowed. Since then, it has caused a lot of trouble on many battlefields.
This card not only gives your opponent a whole hand’s worth of cards, but it also lets you restock and get to your best cards quickly.
Card Destruction is best used after your opponent has used a lot of spells or tricks that make them draw cards, like Gift of Greed.
The more cards they have in their hand, the more damage this card will do.
If you can force your opponent to draw enough cards, this card could win the game for you.
Just put your best cards down before you play this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown away my power pieces by accident because of this card.
2. Inferno Tempest
Inferno Tempest is hard to cast, but it’s also a spell that pays off in a crazy way.
If your opponent’s attack does 3000 damage, they will lose every monster in their deck and graveyard.
I can’t think of any deck that could still work after such a terrible loss.
Even though 3000 damage sounds like a lot, there are a lot of decks that can do it.
The most famous card in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Blue Eyes White Dragon, has 3000 attack. And Rank 10 Train decks can easily get over 5000 damage.
And for a level of power that is almost disgusting, combine this card with D.D. Dynamite to deal 300 damage to your opponent for every card you discard.
Just be aware that you’ll also lose your monsters here, so play your best ones first.
1. Morphing Jar
Could there be anything else to add to a list of mill cards?
Morphing Jar has been on the banned list for most of its life, and it is probably the scariest pot or jar that Yu-Gi-Oh! has to offer, which is a long list.
Well, there is now only one copy of Morphing Jar, and it’s back with a rage.
The broken thing about Morphing Jar is that if you use it right, you can mill your opponent for 5 and draw 5 cards for free.
All you have to do is set this card when you don’t have any cards in your hand. After that, it’s like cards are falling from the sky.
This means that you are likely to draw one of the other strong mill cards on this list, and your opponent will only have a small amount of cards left in their deck when your turn is over.
Follow up Morphing Jar with Crush Card Virus or Eradicator Epidemic Virus to make sure your opponent doesn’t have any cards left while you keep milling.
