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This is Dark Magician, a Control Deck in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel featuring one of the most recognizable monsters in the card game's history. Check out the core deck list, key combos, how to play & beat as well as F2P or budget options!
| Rarity | Name | Qty |
|---|---|---|
| Soul Servant | 3 | |
| Called by the Grave | 1 | |
| Crossout Designator | 1 | |
| Preparation of Rites | 2 | |
| The Eye of Timaeus | 1 | |
| Red-Eyes Fusion | 1 | |
| Magicalized Fusion | 1 | |
| Magician's Salvation | 3 | |
| Dark Magical Circle | 3 |
| Rarity | Name | Qty |
|---|---|---|
| Eternal Soul | 3 |
Magician's Robe
|
Magician's Robe is one way to get Dark Magician on the field as soon as possible, but you have to discard a Spell Card in order to trigger its effect. It can Special Summon itself back onto the field if the opponent uses a Spell or Trap, but this card is banished the next time it leaves the Field. |
|---|---|
Palladium Oracle Mahad
|
Palladium Oracle Mahad is more of a situational monster, given that its effect makes it stronger against DARK monsters. When this card is drawn, this can immediately be Special Summoned after being revealed as part of its effect. As a floating effect, it can Special Summon a Dark Magician from anywhere should it be destroyed by battle or card effect. |
| Primite Engine | The Primite Engine actually does have synergy with Dark Magician, given that the iconic monster is a Normal Monster Card. The usual set up with Primite Lordly Lode can Special Summon one on the field, while setting up a powerful negate in Primite Drillbeam, and all it takes is one Normal Summon of Primite Dragon Ether Beryl. |
| Bystial Engine | With the unbanning of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, this incentivizes players to run more Dragon-centric Decks to add synergy as Fusion Material. The Bystial Dragons are crucial here, being additional bodies for free by banishing a LIGHT or DARK monster from either GY. Branded Regained lets them constantly revive the Bystial Dragons from said GY if the opponent does a Special Summon, and you get a free draw once per turn if a LIGHT/DARK monster is banished!
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The Illusion of Chaos Engine 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 bring out the monster 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.
Ideally, you want to use Illusion of Chaos to search Magicians' Souls, then use Soul Servant to place the former on the top of the Deck. You then send the top card of the Deck to the GY, which in this case is Illusion of Chaos, to Special Summon Magicians' Souls, which can then give you 2 draws by sending Spells or Traps on hand or field to the GY.
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While Dark Magician is not the strongest monster in the entire Deck, it is the key monster the entire Deck is built around. Normally it is used as fodder for Fusion Summons as part of the required materials, but you also want to summon it on the field whenever you can while you have Dark Magical Circle active on your field.
Dark Magical Circle's effect triggers once per turn, and it banishes a card from the field if Dark Magician is summoned. Magician's Salvation helps in summoning the Normal Monster to the field whenever you summon a different monster with the name Dark Magician.
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Timaeus the United Dragon is easy to summon from the hand, but what gives its value is its ability to conduct a Fusion Summon without the use of a Fusion Spell on hand. If you do not have Secrets of Dark Magic or Magicalized Fusion on hand, Timaeus will be enough.
It can also use itself as material to Fusion Summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, but ideally you want to use this effect for Master of Chaos or The Dark Magicians.

Eternal Soul is the sole key Trap Card for the Dark Magician Deck. It lets you Special Summon a Dark Magician from the hand or GY once per turn. This Trap Card also acts as protection, as while it is active, all monsters with the Dark Magician name are immune to the opponent's card effects.
However, if this card leaves the field other than being shuffled into the Deck (as it does not activate its effect from there), your field is essentially wiped. Try not to let that happen by setting up protection, like the effect of Dark Magician the Dragon Knight and Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.
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If you feel like you have one more summon to do, or all other options have been denied, you can always use 2 Effect monsters as material to Link Summon Predaplant Verte Anaconda.
Use its effect to send Red-Eyes Fusion to the GY and copy its effect, where you send a copy of Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon from Deck to GY to Fusion Summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.
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 as a Continuous Spell. However, its may be more useful in some ways as it is not limited to just monster cards, and the card remains unable to be used until this Continuous Spell leaves the field. |
| Tips in Beating Dark Magician Decks |
|---|
|
・Remove Eternal Soul ・Stop Any Search Attempts ・Limit Dark Magician's Use of Spells ・Best Decks to Use Against Dark Magician ・Best Cards to Use Against Dark Magician |
Eternal Soul made it really easy to Special Summon Dark Magician, even on its opponent's turn. Pair that with Dark Magical Circle, and its a free banish of your cards if Dark Magician hits the field.
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At all costs, you should remove Eternal Soul from the field and trigger its self-nuke effect. Cards like Harpie's Feather Duster, Lightning Storm or Heavy Storm should do the trick. Keep in mind that it only gets harder once some the boss monsters are on the field to protect it, like Dark Magician the Dragon Knight's protection effect or Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon's omni-negate.
Compared to other archetypes, Dark Magician Decks often do not have reliable searchers to get their key cards on hand as soon as possible. The Illusion of Chaos Engine may provide some sense of card advantage in pitching two unusable cards for draws, but outside of that it is far slower compared to other Decks.
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A well-timed search stopper like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or Droll & Lock Bird should prevent the Dark Magician Deck from adding to the hand.
Dark Magician relies a little too heavily on the usage of Spell Cards to get to their needed cards and start their combos. Try to set up counters that focuses on denying the activation of Spell Cards.
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For those that can do Rank 8 Xyz summons, Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy is a classic. Diabellze the Original Sinkeeper forces the opponent to Set Spell Cards before activating them, giving you enough time to pop them quickly with card destruction like Mystical Space Typhoon.
| 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. |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Gravekeepers | ![]() 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. |
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. |
| 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 |

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Deck Archetypes
Deck Tier List: Best Decks for Season 48
| 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 | |
| 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 |
| List of All Alternate Win Decks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Crooked Cook Exodia | Flower Cardian Exodia | Treasure Panda Exodia |
| Suicide | Defense OTK | |
Hi Anonymous, There seems to be an issue. We'll get it fixed ASAP, but for your reference, the card is Magicians' Combination. Hope this helps!
Dark Magician Deck List and Card Guide



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The description is a bit misleading, unless I am missing something you can't link summon selene with only DM and effect veiler, you would have to use them to link summon a link 2 monster then revive DM then summon selene use the effect to summon a spellcaster and then summon accesscode talker