Dark Magician Deck is a control deck in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel. Check out the core deck list, key combos, how to play & beat as well as F2P or budget options!

Dark Magician Deck List

Main Deck: 41 Cards
x3	x3	x3	x2	x2
x2	x1	x1	x1	x1
x3	x3	x3	x2	x2
x1	x1	x1	x3	x3
Extra Deck: 15 Cards
x2	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1

Dark Magician Breakdown

Tier Evaluation

Tier Ranking
Tier 2
Deck Archetype		Deck Difficulty
Control		Medium
Deck Evaluation
Dark Magician has received quite a lot of dedicated support, making it have a flexible playstyle Chaos monsters have innate synergy with the Dark Magician archetype Has a surprising amount of options for the Extra Deck, with a focus on using Level 6 and Level 7 monsters

Dark Magician Deck Guide: How to Play

Main Deck Monsters

Dark Magician, easily one of the most iconic Monsters in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Over the time of the card game, it's gotten quite a lot of support, both directly and indirectly.

A key strategy is to get the titular Level 7 Normal Monster onto the field as soon as possible, or at least be on hand. Monsters like Magicians' Souls and Apprentice Illusion Magician help a bit, with both having the effect that can Special Summon them from the GY and Deck, respectively. Magician's Rod searches out Spells and Traps that mention "Dark Magician" in their card text.

Timaeus the United Dragon is the Deck's newest way to conduct Fusion Summons, having that ability built into it as an effect. It can be easily Special Summoned onto the field, making Extra Deck that much easier to do.

Illusion of Chaos allows the Deck to be far more consistent with its card advantage, and can be used as material for certain boss monsters. Though players can use this card in a Ritual Summon, its ability to get cards from the Deck just by revealing itself is too potent to not use most of the time. Secrets of Dark Magic can be used to Ritual Summon this monster as well, if the player chooses to.

Key Spell and Trap Cards

A duo of Continuous Spells and Traps all provide benefits to a "Dark Magician" Deck. Dark Magical Circle banishes an opponent's card on the field when it's summoned and provides some form of card advantage, while Eternal Soul can recycle "Dark Magician" Spells and Traps from the GY, on top of making it immune from the opponent's card effects.

Most of the Dark Magician Extra Deck monsters can be cheated out with Secrets of Dark Magic, acting as a Fusion-based a Quick-Play Spell. Feel free to use this in the middle of the Battle Phase.

Lastly, Magician's Salvation is the easiest way to set a copy of Eternal Soul from the Deck, allowing it to be activated as soon as the player passes their turn.

Extra Deck

The Fusion Monsters are options for the player, and Dark Magician has quite a number of options. The Dark Magicians is the easiest to summon, provides a draw once per turn if a Spell or Trap is activate, and can activate them if the card drawn was a Quick-Play Spell or Trap.

Dark Magician the Dragon Knight can be cheated onto the field with a help from Timaeus the United Dragon. The former can Special Summon Dark Magician from the GY as a floating effect, which can be used as a combo extender, or just an additional presence on the field.

The real endgame boss of this Deck is Master of Chaos, which comes along with the addition of the Illusion of Chaos engine. A free Special Summon for LIGHT or DARK monsters once per turn, it can tribute monsters of those attributes to completely wipe the opponent's field of monsters by banishing them.

Quintet Magician is considered the "last optionquot;, having a complete field wipe when using 5 different monsters as Fusion Materials, and is extremely hard to remove from the field.

"Dark Magician" Decks even have options for Xyz Monsters, with the help of Ebon High Magician and Ebon Illusion Magician as Rank 7 Xyz Monsters. Ebon High Magician enables the use of Quick-Play Spells from the hand during the opponent's turn, and has a floating effect that Special Summons a DARK Spellcaster monster from the Deck, and destroying a card afterwards.

Ebon Illusion Magician is the more aggressive of the two Xyz Monsters. It can Special Summon a Normal Spellcaster Monster from the hand or Deck, and if that monster attacks this card can banish a card once per turn.

Among the Link Monsters in the Extra Deck, there are two noteworthy additions that play well with the Dark Magician Deck's antics. Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Chaos, for example, has an additional targeted effect and card destruction immunity if it is Link Summoned with a Level 7 or higher monster as material. It is also often used as material to bring out Master of Chaos.

Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians is a great card to bridge into an Accesscode Talker combo, but it can also provide a free Special Summon to Spellcaster monsters from the hand or GY, which Dark Magician greatly appreciates as much as possible, especially with Dark Magical Circle active on the field.

Core Combos and Interactions

Illusion of Chaos Engine

Dark Magician

Illusion of Chaos

Magicians' Souls

Illusion of Chaos and Magicians' Souls make for a very consistent combo that provides quite an consistent combo for card advantage. The Ritual Monster searches out the latter Effect Monster, then after being added on the hand, can discard Illusion of Chaos to Special Summon Dark Magician straight from the Deck.

Dark Magician Early Summon

Magicians' Souls

Dark Magician

Eternal Soul

This is your other main combo to get Dark Magician out onto the field as soon as possible. Use Magicians' Souls to send a Dark Magician to the GY and activate Eternal Soul to Special Summon it onto the field.

Dark Magician the Dragon Knight

Dark Magician

Timaeus the United Dragon

Dark Magician the Dragon Knight

Another Dragon Fusion monster, this time summoning Dark Magician the Dragon Knight. With another Spellcaster monster to send from the field or hand to the, you can Special Summon Timaeus the United Dragon and Fusion Summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight. It's a powerful boss monster that protects your Spells and Traps from being targeted and destroyed by card effects..

Budget Dark Magician: F2P Friendly

Lower Rarity Replacements

Droll & Lock Bird	Somewhat a budget Ash Blossom & Joyous Summer but with its own downsides. You can trigger its effect whenever a card is added to your opponent's hand, sending it to the GY, stopping any and all new cards to be added to both player's hand for that turn.
Twin Twisters	Another quick spell that can aid in taking down back row cards. Works in lieu of having Solemn Judgement.
Transcode Talker	Transcode Talker can be used in lieu of Accesscode Talker in a pinch. Both it and the cards it's linked to get an additional 500 ATK.
Prohibition	A budget Called by the Grave. But may be more useful in some ways as it's not limited to just monster cards.

Dark Magician Counters: How to Beat

Best Decks to Use Against Dark Magician

Branded Despia

Branded Despia is strong all around, both defensively and offensively, with multiple floating effects that can disrupt a Dark Magician Deck. The most troublesome is its punishing the use of multiple effects, through the effect of Masquerade the Blazing Dragon.

Branded Fusion Decks
Branded Tri-Brigade	Branded Despia
Branded Cyber Dragon	Branded Zombies
Branded Ishizu	Branded Dragonmaids

Runick Control

Runick can cause problems for Dark Magicians, banishing their cards straight from the Deck if they manage to get the right cards and start the Duel at Turn 1. Take note that Dark Magicians do not get any benfit having cards banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard.

Runick Control Deck List and Card Guide

Gravekeeper's

The original control archetype, Gravekeepers protect and lock down the Graveyard. Especially with its signature Field Spell, Necrovalley, no cards can exit the GY once sent there, and effects that can be activated there are negated so long as the Field Spell is active.

Gravekeeper's Deck List and Card Guide

Best Cards to Tech Against Dark Magician

	Royal Decree
	A card that seals the effects of any and all Trap Cards, limiting the options of your opponent for summoning Dark Magician, especially through Eternal Soul. But Imperial Order is a double-edged sword, since you won't be able to use any other trap cards as well.
	Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
	One of the main goals of this Deck is to search out and/or Special Summon Dark Magician and get it onto the field as soon as possible. Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring will help stop the acceleration of this Deck, and the bad thing is that just about every deck runs this hand trap.
	Super Polymerization
	Most of the monsters in this Deck have the DARK Affinity on them, which is one of the most represented Elements in the game. With this in mind, Super Polymerization has become a very popular counter against any DARK-heavy Decks, especially with one of the most popular Extra Deck monsters being Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
	Anti-Spell Fragrance
	True to a Spellcaster's roots, a Dark Magician Deck is rather reliant on Spell Cards to continue combos. Stopping them at any point will derail any chance for them to get to their win condition. Anti-Spell Fragrance is a very popular counter against Spell Card-heavy Decks, since players cannot activate their Spells immediately, and have to Set them first, making them prime targets.
	Macro Cosmos
	A Dark Magician Deck treats the Graveyard as a secondary resource. The last thing a Spell Card or a Dark Magician wants in a Duel is to end up being Banished. Macro Cosmos banishes any card that were supposed to go to the GY, so long as this card is face-up and active on the field.
	Twin Twisters
	For a simple quick-fix, against the backrow, using Twin Twisters will help you get rid of cards in the Spell/Trap Zone on the field at the cost of discarding a card. Works especially well if no protection against the backline has been set up yet.
	Prohibition
	Basically naming a card like Dark Magical Circle or Eternal Soul will stop them from working moving forward. Though Prohibition won't work on cards that are already active on the field, you can quickly get rid of those using something like Twin Twisters.

Limit the Use of Spells and Traps

Dark Magician Decks rely on various ways of getting Dark Magicians onto the field.

Using a combination of spells and traps to stop those summons from happening will quickly put the duel in your favor.

Related Packs to Dark Magician

Darkest Magics	Inevitability of Chaos
Knowledge of the Mythlords	Legacy Pack
Master Pack	Soldiers from the Storm
Space-Time Transcendents	Star-Studded Futures
The Cerise in the Ebony	Vortex of Magic

The Darkest Magics Pack grants you the cards you'll need to form the base of the Dark Magician Deck.

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Related Guides

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Deck Archetypes

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Decks

Deck Tier List: Best Decks for Season 35

List of All Covered Decks

World Champion Decks

2024 World Champions: Team 7
Horus Tearlaments	Yubel	Fire King Snake-Eyes
Salamangreat	Purrely	Vanquish Soul

Decks Used in Worlds 2024

Decks Used By All Teams in Worlds 2024
snipehunters	CER	Hero's Future
BOTB	MYYGO	Thank Love
CER 2 x FCG	BRAZ IL	Maxx “Yee”
Double Noir	Rogue Ruler

Aggro Decks

List of All Aggro Decks
D/D/D Aggro	Code Talker / Prank Kids	Zoodiac
Blue-Eyes	Virtual World	SPYRAL Control
Toon Kingdom	Red-Eyes	Blue-Eyes
Zoodiac	Prank-Kids	Zoodiac Tri-Brigade
Pure Tri-Brigade	Ancient Gear	Dragonmaid
Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc (Bird Up)	Dinosaur	Raidraptor
HERO	Dragon Link	Despia
Magikey	Adamancipator	Black Luster Soldier
Pendulum Magician	Stardust Dragon	Tenyi Swordsoul
Cyberdark	@Ignister	Cyber Dragon
The Winged Dragon of Ra	Despian Predaplant	Despia Darklord
Odd-Eyes Performapal	Numeron FTK	Six Samurai
ABC	Trickstar Windwitch	Blackwings
Fluffal	Cupid Pitch Turbo	Lunalight
Vampire	Ultra Athletes	Thunder Dragon
Z-ARC Pendulum Magician	Adventurer Rose Dragon Tenyi	Adventurer P.U.N.K.
Suship	Pure D/D/D	Numeron Egyptian Gods
Galaxy Eyes OTK	Borrelend Dragon Link	Vaylantz
Beetrooper	Icejade Ra	Therion ABC
Libromancer	Mathmech	Spright Evil☆Twin
Spright Tri-Brigade	Ishizu Chaos	Slifer Arcana Knights
Gaia OTK	Vernusylph	Ancient Warriors
Ghoti	Springans	8-Axis Gizmek Orochi
Danger! Dark World	Mikanko	Scareclaw Kashtira
Zombie World P.U.N.K.	Hungry Burger Nouvelles	Obelisk the Tormentor
Mannadium	Gate Guardian	Gold Pride P.U.N.K.
Superheavy Samurai	Nemleria	Dragon Rulers
Snake-Eye	T.G. Diabellstar	Skull Servant
Kaiju	Resonators	Earthbound
Malefic	Kozmo	Armored Xyz Shark
Unchained	Battlin' Boxer	Chimera Illusion
Fire King Snake-Eyes	Vaalmonica	Memento
Horus Tearlaments	Centur-Ion	Dragon Master Magia
Ice Barrier	Infernoid	Lightsworn
Ogdoadic Ragnaraika	Genex	Tenpai Dragon
Goblin Biker	Infernoble	Armed Dragon
Flame Swordsman	Melodious

Control Decks

List of All Control Decks
Invoked Shaddoll	Eldlich Control	Drytron Fairy
True Draco	Dark Magician	Traptrix
Phantom Knights	Madolche	Relinquished
P.U.N.K.	DPE Scythe	Evil★Twin
Paleozoic Frog	Salamangreat	Gravekeepers
Monarch	Tellarknight	Agent
Exosisters	Darklord	Plunder Patrol
Rikka	Floowandereeze	Adventurer Phantom Knights
Dinomoprhia	Tri-Brigade Gladiator Beast	Adventurer Witchcrafter
Dark Magician Gravekeeper	Branded Tri-Brigade	Branded Despia
Zombie Vampire	Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon	Spellbook
Branded Cyber Dragon	Branded Zombies	Pure Scareclaw
Dinomorphia	Runick	Labrynth
Harpies	Buster Blader	Umi Control
Endymion	Nekroz	Spright
Spright Runick	Ishizu Runick	Branded Ishizu
Crystal Beasts	Orcust	Altergeist
Witchcrafter	Subterror Krawler	Mayakashi
Ishizu Tearlaments	Evilswarm	Melffy Spright
Bystial Branded	Dogmatika Bystial	Naturia Runick
Generaiders	Kashtira	Purrely
Ninja	Rescue-ACE	Gishki Spright
Prediction Princess	Vanquish Soul	Jinzo
Egyptian God	Ojama Control	Aromage
Ghostrick	Kuriboh	Anti-Meta Stun
Runick Spright Fur Hire	Horus Control	Toy Box Dark Magician
Yubel	Voiceless Voice	Rikka Ragnraika
Ritual Beast	Shining Sarcophagus

Burn Decks

List of All Burn Decks
Red-Eyes Burn	Timelord Burn	Chain Burn
D.D. Dynamite	Igknight OTK	Cubic
Dinosaur Bishbaalkin FTK	Volcanic Snake-Eyes	Transaction Rollback Burn

Alt-Win Decks

List of All Alternate Win Decks
Crooked Cook Exodia	Flower Cardian Exodia	Treasure Panda Exodia
Suicide	Defense OTK

All Budget Decks

List of All Budget Deck Guides
Budget Shark Xyz	Budget Eldlich	Budget Hippo Turbo
Budget Despia	Budget F.A. Metalfoes	Budget Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Budget Chain Burn	Budget Majespecter	Budget Yosenju
Budget Flower Cardian	Budget True Draco	Budget Amorphage
Budget Ishizu Tearlaments

Best Cards for Decks

Lists of Best Cards for Deck Building
Best Staple Cards		Best Searchers		Best Hand Traps
Best Board Wipes		Best Negates		Best Fusion Monsters
Best Synchro Monsters		Best Xyz Monsters		Best Link Monsters
Best Structure Decks			Best Decks to Go 1st or 2nd