Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

Dark Magician Deck List and Card Guide

Master Duel - Dark Magician Top Image
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
Dark Magician x3 Magicians x3 Magician x3 Maxx "C" x2 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring x2
Effect Veiler x2 Apprentice Illusion Magician x1 Dark Magician Girl x1 Chronicle Magician x1 Timaeus the United Dragon x1
Illusion of Chaos x3 Magician x3 Dark Magical Circle x3 Called by the Grave x2 Preparation of Rites x2
Crossout Designator x1 Secrets of Dark Magic x1 Secret Village of the Spellcasters x1 Eternal Soul x3 Infinite Impermanence x3
Extra Deck: 15 Cards
The Dark Magicians x2 Dark Magician the Dragon Knight x1 Master of Chaos x1 Quintet Magician x1 Ebon High Magician x1
Ebon Illusion Magician x1 Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon x1 I:P Masquerena x1 Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy x1 Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Chaos x1
Knightmare Unicorn x1 Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians x1 Accesscode Talker x1 Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax x1

Dark Magician Breakdown

Tier Evaluation

Tier Ranking
[2 IconTier 2(/games/Yu-Gi-Oh-Master-Duel/archives/355397#hm_11)
Deck Archetype Deck Difficulty
Control Medium
Deck Evaluation
CheckmarkDark Magician has received quite a lot of dedicated support, making it have a flexible playstyle

CheckmarkChaos monsters have innate synergy with the Dark Magician archetype

CheckmarkHas 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

Master Duel - Dark Magician

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.

Magicians Magician Magician Apprentice Illusion Magician Timaeus the United Dragon

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 Chronicle Magician

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

Dark Magical Circle Secrets of Dark Magic Magician Eternal Soul

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 Dark Magicians Dark Magician the Dragon Knight Master of Chaos Quintet Magician

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.

Ebon High Magician Ebon Illusion Magician

"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.

Black Luster Soldier - Soldier of Chaos Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians Accesscode Talker

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 ImageDark Magician Illusion of Chaos ImageIllusion of Chaos MagiciansMagicians' 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

MagiciansMagicians' Souls Dark Magician ImageDark Magician Eternal Soul ImageEternal 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 ImageDark Magician Timaeus the United Dragon ImageTimaeus the United Dragon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight ImageDark 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 ImageDroll & 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 ImageTwin Twisters Another quick spell that can aid in taking down back row cards. Works in lieu of having Solemn Judgement.
Transcode Talker ImageTranscode 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 ImageProhibition 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

Master Duel - Branded Despia Top Image

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

:Master Duel - Runick Top Image

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

:Master Duel - Gravekeepers Top Image

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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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

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

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Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Deck Archetypes

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Decks

Deck Tier List: Best Decks for Season 27

List of All Covered Decks

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 -

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 -

Burn Decks

List of All Burn Decks
Red-Eyes Burn Timelord Burn Chain Burn
D.D. Dynamite Igknight OTK Cubic
Dinosaur Bishbaalkin FTK Anti-Meta Stun

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

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