At its core, Yu-Gi-Oh! is quite a simple affair. It all boils down to a monster-battling game in which the player summons their powerful forces to do battle against their opponent’s monsters, before swinging at the player’s own Life Points. When those precious Life Points reach zero, that player loses the Duel.

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As time has gone on, the game has introduced more and more new mechanics. If you’ve been out of the loop for several years, you might have never even seen XYZ (“ik-seez”) cards before. Let’s take a look at some of the very worst of these black denizens of the Extra Deck.

10 Tin Archduke

There’s really no getting away from the fact that the Tin Archduke looks super ridiculous. We’re not judging by card art alone, though, so let’s just put its adorable little mustache to the side for a moment. What really matters is that the Tin Archduke costs three level-four monsters, and it really doesn’t have the stats to justify that.

However, while its ATK and DEF are completely average, its effect (allowing you to detach an XYZ material to switch an opponent’s monster’s battle position) can be somewhat useful from an attacking or defending standpoint. Good job, Tin Archduke, we’ve ranked you the least bad.

9 Heroic Champion - Excalibur (Anime Version)

At face value, Heroic Champion—Excalibur isn’t a bad card at all. In fact, its effect allows the player to remove two Materials from it to double its ATK until the other player’s next End Phase. A 4000 ATK powerhouse? Don't mind if we do.

However, it’s the Heroic Champion Excalibur, seen in the anime, that we’re concerned with here. For whatever reason, the version of the card that serves a Nistro’s ace has an incredible drawback. Its effect is the same, but with the following caveat: it can only attack when the controlling player’s Life Points are 500 or below. A very strong card for sure, but in this state, it’s incredibly niche.

8 Number 88: Gimmick Puppet Of Leo

In the game of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there’s such a dizzying amount of cards to pick from that all kinds of interesting decks and strategies can be devised. Some cards are completely bizarre or made for the joke’s sake, while others are just very niche or pure gimmicks.

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Number 88: Gimmick Puppet Of Leo, true to its name, offers not only a huge gimmick, but an entire gimmicky win condition of its own. Its effect is quite complicated, but here’s how it works: Once per turn, if you don’t control any Spell or Trap cards, you can remove a Material from it to add a Destiny Counter to it (you don’t get a Battle Phase on turns you do this). If you reach three Destiny Counters, you automatically and instantly win. It’s certainly interesting and has some potential, but it’s just outright impractical.

7 Number 7: Lucky Straight

If you’re a Yu-Gi-Oh! player who enjoys living on the edge, running the quirkiest, luck-based cards and winning or losing on dice rolls and/or coin flips, you’ve probably run your share of Arcana Force decks. You’ll probably also appreciate our next pick: Number 7: Lucky Straight.

This unique card has just 700 ATK and DEF to begin with. The player can remove a Material from it to roll a six-sided die twice; its ATK becomes the highest roll x700 until the end of the opponent’s next turn. Moreover, if the total roll was 7, the player can also choose one of the following three effects: send all other cards on the field to the graveyard, Special Summon a monster from their hand or either graveyard, or draw 3 cards then discard 2. It’s not outright bad, perhaps, but relying on luck in a truly competitive match is very dangerous.

6 Gem-Knight Pearl

Why does the dashing Gem-Knight Pearl occupy the middle spot of our list? Because it’s just so divisive, that’s why. On the one hand, its ATK is somewhat high at 2600, and it doesn’t have any effects that cost Materials which XYZ Monsters tend to have. As such, it’s a good deal more ‘independent’ than most cards of its type.

By the same token, though, it’s a waste to run more than one copy of it, and it loses out on the very thing that tends to define XYZ Monsters: their unique Extra Deck utility. Without support, it’s just completely vanilla, like a standard-issue powerful Normal Monster.

5 Number 56: Gold Rat

Of course, the key to victory in any TCG or CCG is getting your hands on the right cards at the right time. Your deck might contain exactly what you need to clear your opponent’s board and win, but if you don’t have access to it at the time, you’re out of luck.

Of course, we don’t all have Yugi Moto’s much-ballyhooed Heart of the Cards on our side, so, sometimes, we’ve got to make our own luck. Number 56: Gold Rat can help a little with that, allowing the player to draw an extra card and shuffle another back into the deck, but its stats are awful and there’s a spell with exactly the same effect: Card Trader. It’s not as bad as some of the cards that are coming up, but it’s very redundant.

4 Snowdust Giant

We feel for Snowdust Giant, we really do. Look at it—with its tiny, furious head that’s completely out of proportion with its body! Look at its awesome, spiky ice-club! It’s trying so hard to be interesting.

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Snowdust Giant is a member of the Snow archetype (Alexis Rhodes played with them). These cards revolve around the concept of accumulating Ice Counters and using them to buff themselves or hold back the opponent. It’s unique, for sure, but these cards just don’t have the support they need to function very well. Snowdust Giant needs a very specific deck to work at its best, and its best is still worse than anything much more generally effective cards can do.

3 Baby Tiragon

Ah, the infamous Baby Tiragon. This feeble level one Dragon Monster has just 900 ATK and DEF, making it completely impractical in most situations as an attacker and completely unable to defend itself.

Of course, it had an effect—and an interesting one, at that. After detaching a Material, the player can choose a level one monster they control; said monster can attack the opponent directly. The issue here is that it specifies a level one monster, meaning that you’ll only get value out of this in very specific scenarios using very niche cards. Outside of that, Baby Tiragon’s weakness means it’ll usually be a liability.

2 Number 63: Shamoji Soldier

Yu-Gi-Oh! boasts many, many different effect monsters, which boast a huge variety of abilities between them. Some will buff themselves and/or their allies, others will debilitate or outright destroy enemy monsters. Number 63: Shamoji Soldier, however, doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo about how these effects should work.

That’s right, it buffs both players equally. On detaching a Material, the player can choose one or other of its two effects: either both players gain 1000 Life Points, or both players draw a card at the start of the opponent’s next Standby Phase. With card advantage being so crucial in Yu-Gi-Oh!, you never really want to give your opponent an extra draw, and, with its 0 ATK and 2000 DEF, there are only incredibly niche reasons for ever using this card at all. For our money, only the final pick is worse.

1 Number C92: Heart-eartH Chaos Dragon

Let’s have a look at you, Number C92: Heart-eartH Chaos Dragon. 1000 ATK, O DEF? That’s unfortunate. Your cost is 4 level 10 monsters? That’s super troublesome. You’d better have an absolutely showstopping effect to make up for all of this.

Well… not so much. Once a turn, you can detach a Material from it to negate all effects of your opponent’s face-up cards for that turn. It also cannot be destroyed by battle and causes the player to gain Life Points equal to the amount of battle damage its opponent takes. In short, it’s actually quite a severe step down from Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon, so there’s really no reason for it to be in the game at all.

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