Dark Magician - Failed Cards, Archetypes, and Sometimes Mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh 

Hearing Yugi shout "Dark Magician... *DARK MAGIC ATACK* " lives rent free in my head

"the last thing anyone does in yugioh is read so why would you force your monster to do it" dude you cannot come out of the gates with a banger like this

Dark Magician : *breathe TSX1 : BROKEN DARK MAGICIAN COMBO BEST DECK TIER 0 BROKE META

You forgot to mention Mahad's other downside that it has 3x to chance to be in your first hand if you have it in your deck

It's funny that the main weakness of dark magician is dark magician itself

I have no clue how Konami can release generic cards thinking they will fix a specific archetype. It truly is like they've never played a card game before, let alone their own.

Just a reminder to all people saying that this will trigger old school fans: It only failed in competitive tcg, a wagon most archetypes are already in. People play casual Yu-Gi-Oh for a reason.

I think the “the end board is always 1 piece away, even with a good hand” was the perfect way to explain the deck’s current situation. Great video. Nonetheless, it’s still my favourite deck. So we keep doing what we can with what we got.

The description of this video is the same description from the penguin video. Guys this does not deserve to be top comment.

Honestly, I love Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl and all of their support, but I agree. Trying to establish a powerful end board is very hard and if I am going second, I might as well surrender if the opponent makes a half-decent board.

it may be failed but in our hearts it succeeded forever...

One of dark Magicians biggest problem is the fact you have to run a level 7 vanilla monster that has become more and more worthless in the hand or on the field. Personally the deck needs an effect monster replacement to Dark Magician that is treated as dark magician basically everywhere to combo with the support, and has 1+ effects of the necessary spell cards on it. A dark magician that has the effects of dark magic attack and magicians combination on it suddenly means you need to run less DM cards, and the monster itself actually does something on field. The DM engine is so bloated because of the amount of continuous spells/traps you have to run. The deck has strong search and draw power, but because you have to see 4 cards for your endboard cutting the amount down would help immensely, and let you run more non engine to compete and die less to hand traps like ash blossom. I've been running this deck for years in the TCG and Master duel and that's the decks biggest lingering problem. Running branded cards helps you get your fusions more consistent, but can be resource intensive leading to weaker backrow end boards. Running it pure gives you a better backrow but less consistent extra deck plays, and since eternal soul is the linchpin of the deck you have to protect it and see it, or youre just ending on Dragoon pass (in TCG), which doesnt cut it usually. If I could give two support cards to DM to help them it would be making eternal soul 2 without the complete board wipe when removed, maybe it just destroys DM when removed since it was protecting them, or hell its 2024 give up the board wipe entirely. And giving us something like Eternal Dark Magician that's treated as DM in the deck, field, hand, and grave (or just make it always, no ones running both it and DM anyways) and give it 2 of the different DM spell/trap effects like a dark magic attack on summon to wipe backrow, and an effect negate as a tribute to summon a DMG from gy or deck, or something like DM circle on summon for the search and banish, giving you two targeted banishes when its summoned if youre running DM circle naturally. Support like this wouldnt make it a Tier 1 threat, but would actually help this aging deck become more usable .

I know they don’t do erratas that buff cards, but I don’t see why Eye of Timaeus hasn’t gotten one that makes it searchable by soul servant or Dark magic circle.

I’d be less upset about Dark Magician being a mid archetype if it were cheaper to build for what it is. It feels bad putting a list together and saying, “I could just play a better deck for the same price or less”

I'm sure Triamids are an amazing addition to the failed archtype collection

One thing to mention is that when Dark Magician's main set of support was still new, the deck was prohibitively expensive. I remember wanting to build it at the time and gave up on it because it was just a fun rogue deck yet cost almost twice as much as full power Zoodiac at the time.

Would be funny if one of these days they pulled a Flame Swordsman on Yugi's deck: That is, take one Monster he uses that has received little to no support. And then release a bunch of great support centered around it that makes it a decent deck much better than Dark Magician could be. Just like how despite Red-Eyes being Joey's signature Monster, Flame Swordsman in one support wave became way better than Red-Eyes has ever been.

If Eye of Timaeus was searchable by Soul Servant, and Dark Magical circle, it would honestly be a very consistent deck with extremely powerful endboards. The deck doesn't have a ton of searching capabilities outside of niche spells and traps

1900 beat sticks were actually still at a premium when Skilled Dark Magician came out, especially ones who could be grave yard food for chaos monsters, so while he wasn't great at actually summoning Dark Magician, he was a good card that supported DM.

The biggest crime against Dark Magician was Konami being stuck up and having Magi Magi Magician Gal locked unless it got censored. God bless Kazuki Takahashi's soul for actually standing his ground and not seeing such a beauty changed.

Minor note on Skilled Dark Magician: Skilled Dark did have a small niche back in Goat Format and some of the formats that preceded it (though this niche would disappear completely once Cybernetic Revolution was released). Its effect was entirely irrelevant, and Dark Magician wasn't even run alongside it. The niche came entirely from Skilled Dark Magician's stats, and specifically the fact that it had unusually high DEF for a 1900 ATK Level 4 with no downside (which meant it was not as vulnerable to Tsukuyomi or Book of Moon as most beatsticks of the time, while still running over almost all Level 4 and lower monsters that saw play at the time) and was Dark (meaning it could fuel the Chaos monsters). All that said, it wasn't a *great* option; it was effectively a vanilla that just happened to have some unique, useful characteristics, plus it was incompatible with both Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest (not something you wanted to see on a monster that wasn't one of your game-enders).

Ok, so, good to see that I'm not the only one who had a Brick Magician experience.

This is hilarious because i was suggested this from a video where Joey was talking to Yami saying how bad this archetype is

Ah yes, Dark Magician, my favorite Penguin Card

If you're really good at playing Dark Magician, the title shouldn't upset you, it's sadly true. The more I played it, the more it's gaping flaws became apparent. DM is a win-more deck. You either survive the first turn and win forever, or you brick and die. The rare times I got a semi-decent hand, I could fill every spell and monster zone with win conditions... but only after I was clearly going to win. All it's best support only slightly helped DM and utterly broke other decks, it's sad that the best way to play DM cards is to just not include most of them. Same with Red-Eyes, which was worse in that sense, so having Dragoon work in everything but both decks is almost on brand for both archetypes.

The massive design problem behind trying to make a meta-deck based around a classic fan-favourite card has always been: the original card is so outdated that new cards need to be extremely powerful to make up for it... but these new cards need to be unplayable in any other deck. Furthermore, the business incentive to always need to new cards that sell is a double-edged-sword for fan-favourite archetypes. New cards in this archetype always sell so they will print more, but they will sell regardless of whether the deck is top tier or not. Meanwhile, new archetypes will only sell if their are instantly powerful. Therefore, the best business decision is to frequently print good-but-not-gamebreaking fan-favourite cards, and give gamebreaking abilities to new archetypes. Therefore, all fan-favourite decks are cursed to almost always be good-but-not-the-best with the hope that the 1 new addition they need is just around the corner.

For Dark Magicians, it needed less spell/traps and more Level 4 or lower monsters. Be a one linear archetype instead of combining it with Blue Eyes, Red Eyes, Gia, Black Luster Soldier, Chaos, and even Dak Magician Girls, etc. (What's next, Dark Magician Harpie). Perhaps treat the monster line up as "treated as a Dark Magician" monster card or have it be "Dark Magician on the field or GY" to make the deck more searchable. That way, the Spells/Traps can say simply , " Add a Dark Magician card" or "special summon one Dark Magician" instead of saying "a card that mentions Dark Magician. "

As someone whos been playing card games for thirty years and an OCG Yu Gi Boomer and Dark Magician player since i was in middle school, this video is 100% on point. As much as i love the archetype it is 100% not a good deck because it doesnt have that little push that helps all its pieces come together into a cohesive whole thats better than the sum of its parts. Instead its often as good as if not worse than the sum of its parts. Its super fun in casual YGO but just a single competitive event will have you reaching for the Eldlich for future games. Sad tos ay, but im okay with DM being a rogue deck.

Honestly dark magician the being the very first protagonist ace monster with 2500 ATK that became traditions for protagonist ace monsters with 2500 ATK never thought that dark magician archetype of all things has received video for failed cards archetypes and mechanics

I saw the title and I thought "Ok let me hear him out first"

"The last thing anyone does in Yu-Gi-Oh! is read so why would you force your monster to do it?" I died

If Red-Eyes Fusion is ash'd, you still must abide by Red-Eyes Fusion's restrictions. Ash Blossom negates the effect, not the activation.

between souls, soul servant, rod, and illusion of chaos and another 10 cards in a booster someday we'll have a deck boys

Lets remember: Dark Magician is one of the worst monsters ever printed even in its time

The penguin guy from the series wrote the description

I think that Konami should just reboot the archetype. For example, they can give the Dark Magicians storyline a training arc. Konami can have the Dark Magicians accidentally travel to a new world, i.e. the world of Albaz, and have the Dogmatikas hunt their rears down, forcing the DMs to learn new magics, and become stronger to defend themselves and return to their homeworld. Or they can just create a whole new Dark Magicians archetype, let the OG Dark Magicians retire, pass the torch to younger Magicians, name the new generation of Magicians monsters "Dark Magician Legacy" or something, and then give them new supporting cards occasionally. This will sort of keep the name "Dark Magician" around while giving the old janky engine and the OG Garnet Magicians monster a graceful burial, and letting the dead stay dead. Sometimes, it is better to leave the mummies inside the pyramid. But if Konami still wants to do another excavation for another display at the British Museum, they can also give the new Magicians line up the ability to summon their teacher and senior to help them out in battle.

Much as I love the Dark Magician archetype, as I find it enjoyable to play (when I don't brick at least), it's definitely more of a casual deck than a competitive one.

9:30 that downside is really funny. Every time I play against a DM deck with my Crystal Beasts they get this huge setup going and attack into my Sapphire Pegasus without realizing I can pop it to the back row to trigger Rainbow Bridge of the Heart and blow away their entire field.

The thing that's missing, that most people miss. Is every other deck focuses on getting 1 particular board. Dark Magician can make multiple good boards. I actually had an opening hand that had Illusion of Chaos, Rod, Dark Magician, Circle, and i think Dark Magician Girl. I was going to use rod to get Salvation but decided to use Circle, Salvation was second from the top took that, used that to set soul, used rod to bait no handtraps so grab bind between teacher and student, used Illusion of chaos to grab Timaeus, sent DMG to top of deck. Use timaeus to send rod to Graveyard, Special Summon Timaeus, Use Timaeus ability 2 to fuse into Dragon Knight, activate vond between teacher and student special summon Dmg Set DBM, pass turn they specual summon normal summon they activate a card to kill my DK, i pop soul special DM babish their monster. They set 1 monster and 3 backrow pass during their end phase i pop DBM wipe the board. Another game i shut down a burn deck with dark cavalry from opening with Magicians soul and Eye of timaeus. Another game i opened red eyes fusion at locals twice.sometimes you brick yeah it happens. But the trick is knowing what your opening hand wants to do. Sometimes just having an answer to an opponents play is enough to keep you alive.

What's wild about the DMG archetype support over the years is that they were releasing it at the same time as BEWD support and you could literally see and feel what Konami's favorite was from the very beginning. You can argue DMG is worse because there's more anime cards to interact with where BEWD was almost entirely original from the very beginning since Kaiba mostly focused on trap cards and immediately getting BEWD or Obelisk to the field. I don't think there's a way to fix DMG at this point, there's just too many routes for the archetype and no way to satisfy everyone. The fact that in the year 2024, DMG still literally lives and dies by a 10 year old trap card and every hand trap in the game is just silly. Red-eyes gang represent.

I like the call out to sam releasing a "dm unbeatable tier 0 deck opponent surrenders" every week 😂

Running red eyes forget which one helps this deck out a lot

“The last thing anyone does in Yu-Gi-Oh! is read so why would you give your monster to do it” OH NOOOOOOO, that was so on point!!!

As a Dark Magician player I found this video very interesting and I think it helped me see more clearly the flaws in my deck. Still gonna run a Branded Dark Magician in a tourney tomorrow lol

why did they make an archetype with a 'pop this spell to lose' card

"... and everyone's favorite waifu, Dark Magician Girl." 😂

"The last thing anyone does in yugioh is read, so why would you force your *monster* to do it?" Because someone needs to be able to figure these things out damnit and I can't be bothered to peel my eyes away from the trainwreck that is my opponents XXX anime field protector

Four ace monster archetypes that beat the Dark Magician archetype in terms of M.E.T.A. impact and/or Splashability for their cards over the years • Firewall/Code Talkers • Odd-eyes/Performapals • Stardust/Synchron • Utopia/Utopic

There’s quite a few mistakes in the video: - Palladium Orcale Mahad’s effect to summon itself cannot miss timing if drawn by Sacred Sword of Seven Stars. Drawing Mahad as the last action in the chain, even if you draw other cards with Mahad, it will still activate the trigger effect in hand - Palladium Oracle Mana was released in the 2019 Gold Sarcophagus Tin, not in the Dark Side of Dimensions Movie Pack. You also missed Magician of Black Chaos MAX, which is another form of Dark Magician support - Illusion of Chaos does not negate effect activations. It only negates activated effects (yes there is a difference) - Magikuriboh requires you to take damage before being able to use its quick effect Although you make good points about why DM has not performed well in the TCG, it’d still be appreciated if things could be double checked in future

looks like i need to prepare my pitchfork and tourches for the upcoming Blue-eyes video

I never really expect old cards to be great with new support, but it's always fun to revisit them, at least to me.

You beat me to it! As the DM RU-vidr I wanted to cover this absolute mess of a deck 😂 Still, DM best deck

Not to be an “umm actually” but Oracle Mana didn’t come in the movie pack, it was a tin world premiere card

This video made me think if HERO, my favourite archetype, is or not a failed archetype as well. I understood why Dark Magician is a failed archetype which was unfortunate to hear, but it also made me understand that your favourite archetype isn't always the best one to use in a competitive format where you need to think strategically, objectively what cards are needed and what are not to build a strong and competitive deck against other players.

This week ive mixed dm w be and its amazing how well the joint support works (dm the dragon knight plus jet dragon let alone w inperial is crazy!)

Also incorrect, if REF got ashed, you still cant summon that turn. So no you arent making Anaconda that turn.

But he’s the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense!

I'm a DM player since 2001 (the video mensions Magic Formula, well, I started with Yami and Book of Secrets Arts 😅) and I have to say something, the DM archtype isnt a failed one because its not ment to win tournaments, its just ment to have fun with, just that. Today the archtype is so wide and have so much variety that you can make a ton of creative and funny decks with it. For example, ten years ago I used to play Summoner Monk to play Elemental Hero Prisma, send a DM to the grave and reborn it with Daigusto Emeral using the monk and prisma to summon it, and today, in Master Duel, I use the top deck manupulation of circle, illusion of chaos and soul servant to use The True Name with Slifer and the Revived Sky God. I wont lie, back in the day I tried to actually win tournaments whit my favorite card and I did it sometimes but the deck is just not ment for that, soooo... your deck doesnt have room for hand traps? cant always end in the desireable board? cant win agais the wombo combo no sense top 0 meta deck?... THAT IS FINE!! just make the deck you want to play WITH and dont worry for the deck you play AGAINST. This is a game guys, try have fun with it 🧙

As an old school fan, this actually didn't upset me at all. On the contrary, I quite enjoyed this video, and it was nice to finally see a complete deep dive on the archetype. Great watch/listen, DuelLogs! Having said that, and while I understand the parameters of these videos, I definitely don't think this archetype was meant to be used all in one deck. The name of Dark Magician's game is versatility. Although a singular deck is certainly possible, he and his archetype were custom built to be splashed, to come to the aid of others. His archetype at moment allows for him to lend himself to a Gaia deck, Red-Eyes deck, Blue-Eyes deck, BLS deck, Chaos deck, or just a straight-forward Warrior deck - and he has potential even beyond those. Another thing that gets conveniently swept under the rug here in order to direct what sometimes feels like legitimate toxicity at the Dark Magician is the fact that there exists a slew of great generic/"indirect"/non-archetypal support cards that can make his deck an absolute juggernaut, and keep the Magician recycling back to the field with terrifying efficiency. And again, I do fully understand that on this channel, archetypes are analyzed purely on their own merits/specific cards, but the DM archetype (being one of the oldest in the game) is one of the only ones in the game that actually can't be fairly analyzed like that. In any other version of the game besides world championship tournaments, he's a beast. But because he can't wipe out an opponent's entire family in the opening handshake with just his own specific cards, he's considered an embarrassingly unsuccessful flop LOL. I mean no disrespect to the channel, but I have to respectfully disagree here. Thank you for the work you put into this video, sir.

Duel Logs really attacking my boi, the Dank Magician.

Getting topdecked by a yugi player running magicians magic in duel links is pure agony

I will say, one of my favourite things about Dark Magician is what a good combination it is with Super Polymerization. Any Dragon, Warrior, or Spellcaster monster, (such as Dis Pater or Baronne) is food for a fusion. It doesn't help if you can't get DM on field, and of course you have to draw the Super Poly, but it IS something DM does well.

Excellent video as always. Palladium Oracle Mana was available until a Mega Tin. Only Mahad was in the Movie pack.

That Magic Formula bit was uncalled for. True, but uncalled for. And honestly? I expect nothing less from these videos.

This is Yugioh’s most successful failure. This thing just won’t go away.

You know what's hilarious? Yugi's deck was not optimal from the start. It had over 40 cards, a lot of them terrible, and didn't usually have a win condition beyond drawing Exodia or tapping into Protagonist Bullshit slash Mirror Force or very dated Magical Hat rulings. And here we are with a deck emulating his star monster that is solely centered around one or two cards, only now the problem is so many of the cards are _so good_ we've got to run all of them, leading into yet another 40+ card deck. Only now it's a 40+ card deck that has a semi-unrealistic dream combo. And we're getting as old as Solomon Muto, who was the deck's original creator. If that isn't irony, I don't know what is.

My friend and I have been casual players since '03. I have slowly built a DM deck with most of the cards mentioned! It's certainly not as good as some of the other decks I've made, but I love it till this day!

the way konami releases dark magician support trying to make the deck viable feels like adding one more lane to fix traffic

I'm afraid to ask if your gonna make a video about HEROs(I say this cause this is my favorite archetype)

Little correction: Magician of Chaos doesnt "need" Chaos Form to be summoned. It says you "can" use it. So Other Ritual Spells are fair game.

Amazing video. Got me thinking how I always say archetypes like Harpies are one card away from being meta and when that card arrives is too late for the format 🤣

with how much you see Dark Magician on Master Duel Ladder, you'd never think it was this unsuccessful

Yes we Dark Magician Fans love pain. Either from meh support or ridiculous prices 😅 💀

I do want to mention if it hasn't been mentioned yet,. Palladium Oracle Mana didn't debut in the DSOD movie pack but the 2019 mega tins for the TCG

One of my favorite pranks as a Witchcrafter player is using Witchcrafter Draping on Eternal Soul since that also causes it to trigger

I love Dark Magician

Dark magician really needs a new fusion spell card like branded fusion or red-eyes fusion that uses materials from the deck to summon.

I feel like an extra deck monster that can quick effect summon itself when multiple dark magician cards are destroyed at once that then allows it to banish a number of cards up to the number of dark magician cards destroyed would be really good for the deck.

These videos are super interesting. As a casual player, thank you. Not gonna lie though, this deck goes hard in Duel Links.

I wonder if Duel Logs might ever do a "Why D/D/D Failed" video, just to be spitefull

Every dark magician player must be imprisoned and never see the light of day

Dark Magician was my main deck for a long time when I got into master duel on release after not playing yugioh since school yard days. It really was heartbreaking realizing for myself how true a lot of the points are in this video as i branched out and built and learnt more (and better) decks. Unfortunately, while cool as hell, the ultimate spellcaster kinda sucks which really is sad

Another video i would love to see is you talking about the new yubel support

You know what Dark Magician needs? It needs a Pendulum monster or 2… Because Pendulum “Magician” monsters are their own archetype, thus Dark Magician cards would suddenly have A LOT more options going for them with the right card… _Supreme Pharaoh Dark Magician_ (DARK) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pendulum Scales: 7⬅️➡️7 _Your monsters can be tribute summoned using cards in your spell/trap zones as tributes. Each time a Spell/Trap card or effect is activated, you can increase or decrease this card’s pendulum scales by 1. Once per turn, during either players turn, you can tribute 1 card from your hand or field: Add 1 card to your hand (from your deck or GY) that mentions “Magician”, “Millennium”, “Exod”, “Sarcophagus”, “Mummy”, “Sphinx”, “Pyramid”, or “Pharaoh” in its name or effects._ Spellcaster/Pendulum/Tuner/Effect _Requires 1 less tribute to normal summon/set for each pendulum monster in your Pendulum zones. You can tribute 2 Spell/Trap cards from your hand or field (Quick Effect): Special Summon this card from your hand, GY or Pendulum Zones. Once per turn (Quick Effect) You can tribute 1 card from your hand or field (Quick Effect): Add 1 card to your hand (from your deck or GY) that mentions, “Horus”, “Gravekeeper”, “Triamid”, “Nephtys”, “Ogodoadic”, “Hieratic”, or the name of a DIVINE monster, in it’s name or effects._ ATK/2500 DEF/2100 Basically the idea is to have the card be a union of as many Egyptian themed archetypes as possible, since the OG Dark Magician is the ace card of THE main Pharaoh of the series. The Pendulum effects divide up the cards you can search for, meanwhile the other Pendulum Effects can help get any monsters you search out in the field easier (via easier tribute summons by using your spell/trap cards as tributes, or manipulation of the pendulum scales). And the monster effects make the card easier to summon/set as a monster, either by discounting its normal summon/set for each pendulum monster in your pendulum zones (which a pendulum deck would want anyway), or by letting you special summon it from your hand or GY (like if you first dumped the card there from off the field, like as discard fodder) by tributing 2 spells/traps as you would 2 monsters for a level 7+ tribute summon. Also the name is a play on “Supreme King”, since “Pharaoh” was the equivalent rank back then, and the card lives up to its name by searching out anything remotely Egyptian related that could fit in 1 card.

Theduellogs Duellogs: "everyone's top waifuh, DM Girl" me: *Laughs in Eatos!*

Dark Magicians were great in Falsebound Kingdom though. The og, Girl, Arkana's Dark Magician (Dark Magician #2), and Black Chaos all have good stats, and the three guys can each initiate a combo attack with Girl to do 1000+ damage. Plus they all have night adept, and can use high level magic items

Dark Magician: "I went from iconic wizard to a flop...guess you can say I really 'saw’ that coming!

Video: Dank Magician doesnt go burrrrrr Description of Video: Penguins anyone??

We Triggering all the yugiboomers with this one!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

This is the deck that made me want to play MasterDuel, and even though it might not be the best, it was simple enough to pick it up.

I think this really shows the biggest hurdle in legacy support. Back in the early days, you didn't need a defining mechanic to make a boss monster, but that made it impossible to build a deck around later on. When the time came to give them something unique to define themselves, they either couldn't stop at just *one* focused idea, or when they did they felt they had to force a connection to the original card instead of making a retrained version. This is especially bad for the original trio, Blue Eyes, Dark Magician, and Red Eyes (though you could argue Blue Eyes suffered the least, it still didn't do *great*)

I can't wait for someone to inevitably find this video that is a massive petdecker and get very offended

It didn't really fail if it made Konami money from nostalgia bait. Topping the tcg isn't the be all end all

Umi control/legendary fisherman is proof they can design good support for ancient archetypes. They just need to put that level of effort in more often

Amazing analysis of the story of all DM supports, great video

I haven’t even watched the video yet, but I know for a fact that the comment section is gonna be mad toxic.

When you see someone playing Dark Magician or Blue eyes you just now is must be a newbie anime fan, and most times a free win. So it hurts more when you end up losing againts them dang it! 🙃

I’ve used this deck in so many different variations over the years but it seems dark magician of chaos/pure DM is the best one for my playstyle. Beastial was also a nice hybrid but I prefer the DM support instead because it actually give me a working extra deck.

Just a correction; Mana was a 2019 Megatin promo, not from the Dark Side of Dimensions movie pack.

Hi