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If you want to take your Yu-Gi-Oh! deck to the next level, then you’ll have to incorporate search cards.
These are cards that can bring your best cards out of your deck, and straight into your hand or field.
This saves you the pain of waiting to draw the right card, hoping you’ll get the pieces you need for strategy… why wait when you can get it instantly?
A lot of archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh! will have in-built searchers, i.e. effects that search cards of a particular name like “Performapal” monsters, or “Nekroz” monsters.
For this list, I’ve compiled the best non-archetypal search cards, so that no matter what deck you’re playing you can add these cards in for a little extra oomph.
10. Goddess of Sweet Revenge
This card is an absolutely fantastic searcher when you’re down on your luck.
It’s designed for those anime-like situations where you’re about to lose the duel, when all of a sudden one card saves the day.
While Goddess of Sweet Revenge is the only card in your hand or field, you can discard it from your hand to prevent an attack, while also destroying every single card your opponent controls!
If that wasn’t enough of an edge to give you the comeback, you can then special summon any monster from your deck.
Just when your opponent thinks they’ve got you beat, this turns the tables, and smacks them in the face.
9. Damage Condenser
This card can turn an empty field into a weapon, when played right.
When you take battle damage, Damage Condenser special summons a monster from your deck with attack less than or equal to the battle damage you just took.
If you activate this trap when your opponent attacks with their strongest monster, you’ll be able to bring out some seriously strong monsters for free!
Why bother with materials to tribute summon your Blue Eyes, when this card does it for practically nothing?
8. Waking the Dragon
Waking the Dragon is a very situational searcher. But when it goes off, your opponent won’t stand a chance.
If this card is sent to the graveyard or is banished because of an opponent’s card effect, you can special summon any monster you like from your deck or extra deck.
This makes Waking the Dragon an insanely powerful side-deck option: if you know your opponent is playing a lot of spell and trap removal, then this card is great at punishing them for it.
The fact you can even play extra-deck monsters with this effect truly makes this card stand out. You won’t find another card like it in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!
7. Temple of the Kings
Temple of the Kings is an amazingly flexible searcher, allowing you to summon a monster from your hand, deck, or extra deck (providing that it’s a fusion monster).
This means whatever the situation is, you’ll have an answer for it.
And all you have to do to activate this card’s effect is just control a Mystical Beast of Serket, which is a powerful level 6 monster that can absolutely steamroll your opponent.
And who can pass up on this card’s other effect?
Each turn you can activate one trap card the same turn it was set. This allows you to get some seriously powerful effects out, without having to wait a turn to use them.
6. Obedience Schooled
This is an old-school spell card from the Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal days that has recently seen play due to a certain deck in the meta: Melffys!
With this spell card you can special summon three level 2 beast monsters straight from the deck, with the caveat that they’re destroyed during the end phase, and have their effects negated.
However, this isn’t a problem when you use them for extra deck summons!
This effect sets you up perfectly for a rank 2 XYZ summon, or maybe even a link 3 monster summon!
Whatever route you take, just make sure it’s a beast monster you’re summoning, as Obedience Schooled prevents you from summoning all non-beast monsters for the rest of the turn.
5. Foolish Burial
You guys remember when the graveyard was meant for cards that were dead or used up?
Me too.
Foolish Burial sends one card from your deck to the graveyard. And getting rid of your deck’s best cards may sound like an odd idea, there are so many effects in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! that can meddle with the graveyard.
So Foolish Burial is as good as adding any card straight to your hand!
Foolish Burial also triggers any monster effects that activate when cards are sent to the graveyard, meaning when played right, you can use Foolish Burial to set off a whole chain of crazy combos.
4. Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
If you’re playing any sort of ritual-monster strategy in your deck, then you’ll definitely want to play a playset of this guy.
When it’s normal or flip summoned, you can search any ritual monster or spell card from your deck & add it to your hand.
This is an insanely flexible way of setting up your ritual plays!
If you’re unfamiliar with how ritual monsters work, you need to have both the ritual monster and the ritual spell in your hand in order to perform a ritual summon. As someone who plays quite a few ritual decks, I can’t tell you how many times you draw one piece but not the other.
With Manju this isn’t a problem anymore. You can search whatever part of your ritual strategy is needed, whenever you need it.
3. One for One
Discarding a monster for a level 1 monster from your deck sounds like a pretty bad deal.
Well, as effect monsters got better and better, Yu-Gi-Oh! started to see some seriously broken level 1 monsters – just take a look at King of the Skull Servants!
Bringing out the right monster with this card can be the kickstart to your combos that you need to win the game.
One for One is also especially great in synchro decks, allowing you to bring out those level 1 monsters so you have just the right levels to synchro summon with.
2. Terraforming
Field Spells have had a complete transformation since the days of old school Yu-Gi-Oh.
Field spells used to be cards that gave your monsters a slight boost, while transforming the battlefield into some sort of mountain or forest (well, at least it did in the anime!)
Nowadays, Field spells add a whole new level of consistency to your deck, allowing you to search additional monsters, special summon for free, or lock your opponent out of certain effects.
Seriously, take a look at Mystic Mine and you’ll see just how powerful field spells have gotten!
Because of all this, any cards that search for field spells are way more powerful.
In fact, Terraforming has now been limited – meaning you can only have one copy of it in your deck. And other field spell searchers such as Ancient Fairy Dragon have been outright banned!
If your deck’s strategy involves a field spell, then Terraforming is a necessity.
1. Gold Sarcophagus
Gold Sarcophagus is easily the best way of adding any card you like directly from your deck to your hand.
With Gold Sarcophagus, you can add spells, traps, monsters, whatever you need to clinch that victory.
All you need to do is banish that card from your deck face-up, then two turns later that card is all yours!
Two turns isn’t a long time at all in Yu-Gi-Oh!, even in this modern format where games are faster.
And with this strategy you’ll have the exact cards you need to win in no time, making Gold Sarcophagus an amazing way to add consistency and speed to any deck.
Rob Myers is a physics student from England, who spends his time looking at space and turning it into numbers. In his free time he enjoys playing card games, reading the Discworld series, and working his way through his never ending video game library.
