Unlike most of the olderYu-Gi-Oh!Trading Card Game sets reprinted in the 25th Anniversary, Dark Crisis was among the least popular ones. Although it included neat new forms of fan-favorite cards, like Exodia Necross, andpopular staple cardsstill used to this day, like Skill Drain, the set was less competitive than its predecessors.
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Dark Crisis, while not the most popular set, still includes some nostalgic cards that you can grab to grow your collection without breaking the bank. If you have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! For years or are just getting into the hobby, this set has some amazing cards you’ll want to have.
10Cost Down - $3.04
Although it may seem like a bad card since it forces you to play higher-level Monsters in your for it to be useful, Cost Down is a fun card to use. When Dark Crisis was released, this card was meant to cheat out of playing cards like Summoned Skull without requiring Tributes.
While not the most competitive card, Cost Down can be used in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! For some funny Synchro plays or even to Normal Summon huge Monsters during your first turn.
9Dark Flare Knight - $3.56
A fusion of two of themost iconic Monstersin Yu-Gi-Oh!, piloted by two of the main characters in the original series, Dark Flare Knight, while not a particularly strong card, it makes up for its usability by being one of the most incredible looking Fusion cards in the game.
Luckily, you can get your hands on this Flame Swordsman and Dark Magician Fusion for reasonably cheap, making this a great card for the collection binder or for a night of fun anime-style duels.
8Vampire Lord - $3.95
If you currently playYu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, you might remember the pain experienced while facing Destiny Hero: Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer. Vampire Lord was one of the original versions of these types of cards that become quite difficult to remove due to its effect on Special Summon itself after being sent to the Graveyard by an effect.
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Requiring a tribute to summon, Vampire Lord will most likely only take up one or two slots in your deck, making its low price extremely accessible.
7Guardian Grarl - $4.18
Many cards from this set are only popular because they have appearances in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Some cards while borderline unplayable, will retain some sort of value due to nostalgia or just straight-up amazing designs.
Not only does Guardian Grarl have great artwork, but its playstyle is quite unique. It requires you to have their signature Spell cards on the field to proc their effects.
While Guardian Grarl only appears in the anime for one episode, it was an impactful episode that many remember fondly to this day, especially with that spooky and menacing double-sided battle axe.
6Kaiser Glider - $4.77
While most of the cards in Dark Crisis are unusable and mostly for collection purposes, Kaiser Glider is a great card to include in your Goat Format deck. Kaiser Glider has inherent protection from battling against Monsters with the same attack, but if your opponent somehow finds a way to remove it, its secondary effect will trigger and return a monster back to the owner’s hand.
This effect can remove a pesky target that your opponent committed a ton of resources for and be able to bounce back the next turn.
5Guardian Ceal - $5.25
Just like Grarl, this Guardian card can only be Summoned by having its signature weapon on the Field. Since these Guardian cards revolve around their weaponEquip Spells, their effects do so as well.
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Guardian Ceal can destroy a monster on the field by sending an Equip Spell card equipped to it to the Graveyard. While Ceal can be a bit slow in modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, you can come up with some interesting decks with loads of Equip Spells like Mage Power.
4Reflect Bounder - $6.19
Reflect Bounder is an iconic card on its own. Not only does this card pack a punch at 1,700 ATK, but it acts as a makeshift Magic Cylinder, one of the best Trap Cards in older Yu-Gi-Oh! formats.
This card is an easy piece to slot into any of your Chaos-based decks. Being a Light attribute card that destroys itself after damage calculation, it’s an easy way to set up your Graveyard and banish a Light and a Dark for those explosive Chaos Sorcerer turns.
3Skull Archfiend Of Lightning - $7.95
Reading the effect on Skull Archfiend Of Lightning is a bit underwhelming. While it has a 50/50 chance of negating an effect that targets the Archfiend, this card makes you pay 500 Life Points every turn.
It may not seem that many Life Points for such a powerful effect and a whopping 2,500 ATK, but with the speed of duels, 500 every turn can add up quite fast. The only reason why this card is such a commodity for duelists is that it is another version of one of Yugi’s signature Monsters, Summoned Skull.
2Shinato, King Of A Higher Plane - $9.37
Ritual Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! are some of the most underrated cards in the game. They are similar toFusion Summoningbut reliant on the level of the Monster that you are trying to Summon.
UnlikeSynchro Summoning,Ritual Summoningdoes not require a Tuner Monster but rather a Ritual Spell card.
Shinato is a massive 3,300 ATK beater that can also inflict pseudo-piercing damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the DEF Position Monster that it destroys. In a slower-paced format like Goat, Shinato is a huge threat once the pieces align.
1Exodia Necross - $22.91
There is a reason why players love Exodia. The Forbidden One can win you the game automatically just by having all five pieces in hand.
But what happens if some of the pieces end up in the Graveyard by one of your opponent’s effects? Exodia Necross is your answer.
This card is a bit situational because all five pieces of Exodia need to be in the Graveyard or you will lose your Exodia Necross, but the longer this card stays on the field, the bigger it gets by gaining 500 ATK every turn, letting you stall enough to bring back the pieces to your hand.
