Top 10 BEST Yugioh Duelist Packs

Duelist Packs were some of the earliest pack variants Konami introduced in the early GX era focusing on cards used by main characters and serving as a way to reprint cards and perhaps bring some good new original cards in the mix. All of them are relatively small sets compared to regular ones and that makes them more forgettable but many of them have actually played a big role in our game when they got released. Today I’m here to give you the Top 10 Best Yugioh Duelist Packs from what we got so far.

The rules are pretty simple. The sets need to be classified as Duelist Packs, so the Legendary Duelist sets aren’t considered here. The Duelist Packs will be judged on their respective eras as well as their impact and dominance upon release. The longevity of the sets relevance will also play a small role. More importantly how rich the Duelist Packs were with strong new cards (tournament recurring cards), great reprints and even how they affected the history of the game. These will be the main rules but other small factors might come into play and at the end of the day you might have a different opinion. Sit tight and enjoy!

Dimensional Guardians gets a lot of hate for being a relatively useless set at the time of its release but when it comes to some decent reprints it’s not half bad. Big cards would obviously include Red Dragon Scarlight and Red Wyvern but it also gives easy access to the Resonator engine and the Cyber Angel ritual cards. Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon and Starliege Paladynamo are also easily obtainable cards in this set and considering it’s prized so cheaply because of the low demand, it’s actually quite a bargain for someone interested in almost all the cards in here. Pretty lacklustre in style and kinda boring but it secures its spot at number 10.

The Yugi Duelist Pack is pretty similar to Dimensional Guardians being a mostly boring set at the time of its release, including iconic, yet mostly useless cards owned by Yugi when released in 2009 that had been reprinted a million times before anyway. However, upon close inspection the set does still include easy access to numerous staple cards like Mirror Force, Monster Reborn and Brain Control, more general cards that can go in any deck; and it includes the gadgets. During that time access to Mirror Force and the gadgets wasn’t nearly as prevalent making this Duelist Pack a lot more useful than Dimensional Guardians back then. Nevermind that the gadgets was actually a solid competitive deck too. It may not be the best but it isn’t the worst either.

Many people may not know this, but you can actually create a semi-reliable OTK Evil Hero deck in 2008 before the Dark Armed Return emergency banlist and it was even better in Japan as they had Gorz long before we did. However, the best general cards from this set would have to be Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, an ever useful monster that could deal with even the strongest of your opponent’s monsters and Evil Hero – Infernal Prodigy; the first monster able to special summon itself for free without the condition of Cyber Dragon and Spell Striker. Other notable cards would have to be Elemental Hero Neos Alius easily accessible as a common now from Tactical Evolution and more forgotten but useful cards like Swing of Memories and Hero’s Rule 2. A Duelist Pack from the Phantom Darkness and Light of Destruction days, you really can’t go wrong with Judai Yuki 3.

As one of the newest Duelist Packs Rivals of the Pharaoh has some obvious advantages when it comes to the total card pool of more useful cards but it’s not perfect. For me it will always be a reminder of the pointless Sangan errata and supporting the Silent archetypes that still couldn’t do anything but despite these negatives it still has plenty to make up for that. Even though Sangan gets a pointless errata it still gets reprinted here along with hard to get Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Necroface. The gadgets can also be picked up from here along with Fiend’s Sanctuary and some dragon type power spells; Dragon’s Mirror, Dragon Shrine and Silver’s Cry. And that’s not the end of it but you get the idea. Certainly a very stylish set especially in comparison to Dimensional Guardians that came even after it. If you want to get a variety of good and cool cards, Rivals of the Pharaoh is the Duelist Pack for you.

I had a tough time deciding between Duelist Pack 1 and 3 of Fudo Yusei but ultimately pack 3 won out for a few reasons with the main one being Effect Veiler. If there’s one card that’s more generally inclusive from these 2 sets than Stardust Dragon is Effect Veiler. Also, it was a lot easier to acquire as a rare in here compared to Stardust Dragon as a super and it can be argued it’s more useful even today compared to Stardust Dragon. In addition this set has better overall reprints with Cards of Consonance, Starlight Road and even Drill Warrior.

People that have played the game for more than 10 years know how significant and revolutionary Cyber Dragon was when it was released in Cybernetic Revolution. So it comes as no surprise that a set reprinting it as a rare in 2007 would have at least one major plus point but there are other merits to this set too. Chimeratech and Cyber Dragon OTK decks weren’t irrelevant decks during that time and this Duelist Pack allowed easy access to the most crucial cards in the main deck and fusion deck. Cyber Twin Dragon, Cyber End Dragon, Chimeratech Overdragon and Power Bond weren’t common or rare cards in their sets not to mention Future Fusion would have more than broken uses as the game went on. There is no doubt in my mind that this is one of the strongest Duelist Packs to stand the test of time.

Stardust Dragon. It had been the face of the entire 5DS era and even after that, to this day a consistently useful and sought after card. It has been reprinted a billion times by now, no doubt one of the most reprinted cards of all time, especially considering it isn’t even the oldest. And despite all that even the low rarity versions maintain decent value. Now imagine that this set had its third print at the height of its popularity. Yeah, that’s the case. Now, I will admit this set gets most of its ranking merely by this card but it still includes some other particularly strong cards especially for the time such as Armory Arm, Tuningware, Quillbolt Hedgehog and Junk Synchron. There isn’t really much more to say but its significance for reprinting Stardust Dragon as a super are back then is undeniable.

While great reprints are important in sets like Duelist Packs, what makes them unique are their own original cards and the impact they manage to achieve like main sets would. Enter Judai Yuki 2 the set that first brought us Card Trooper, an original card from the set that was actually very good and revolutionary. Excluding Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest, most cards that replaced themselves when dying had the condition of either battle or effect, however Card Trooper would let you draw a card no matter how it was destroyed. As long as it was destroyed, not sent or removed from play, it didn’t matter, you drew a card. Nowadays most floaters are like that but back then Card Trooper stood out. Because it had 400 attack and was a machine you could use Machine Duplication and Limiter Removal and you didn’t care about Torrential Tribute, you would draw cards either way.

Transforming into a 1900 beater always had a use and its deck discarding effect led it to see play in many competitive decks like Lightsworn, Dragon Rulers, Chimeratech decks just to name a few. Getting back to the set it also includes the original print of Burial from a Different Dimension, another card with similar implications. The hero spell cards were another good addition but the inclusion of a revolutionary original card in Card Trooper makes this Duelist Pack worthy of the number 3 spot here.

10. Dimensional Guardians (2017)

9. Yugi (2009)

8. Judai/Jaden Yuki 3 (2008)

7. Rivals of the Pharaoh (2016)

6. Ryo Marufuji/Zane Truesdale (2007)

You knew it was coming. Duelist Pack Edo Phoenix does what Judai Yuki 2 does 50 times better. Destiny Draw and Diabolic Guy/Malicious were game changing cards in more ways than one. Destiny Draw was the first archetype based draw card, a Pot of Greed, but with a specific cost to balance it; you had to discard a Destiny Hero to play it. This already made it a phenomenal card but with Destiny Hero Malicious in the same set it was one of the strongest 2 card combos of all time. With Elemental Hero Stratos this led to the creation of the Hero Engine giving you strong and consistent draw power and field presence with Malicious for more combos. Some of the best decks had these cards as bread and butter including Airblade Turbo, Dark Armed Return and Tele-Dad.

Before I unveil the number 1 Duelist Pack I want to mention some honourable mentions particularly Johan Anderson. This Duelist Pack also featured original cards that had a major impact in the meta in both Phantom Skyblaster and Grinder Golem. The problem is that we’re talking almost 10 years after the release of that set; the immediate impact of these 2 cards was non existent. This is also my general knowledge on the matter as the last set I was still involved in contemporary Yugioh was Raging Tempest. So I don’t feel it’s fair for me to give judgment so in your mind you can swap this set with whatever one you feel like from these 10 if you think it deserves it.

5. Fudo Yusei (2009)

Other Hero focused decks like Destiny End Dragoon, Plasma and Dark Law also used them and that’s just scratching the surface. That’s reason enough to put this set at number 2 but in actuality Destiny Hero Beatdown decks and other variants were decent decks for the time even if not the best and this set is your one stop shop having 99% of all Destiny Hero cards in 2007. This set honestly, probably should have been number 1 but I think there’s one more Duelist Pack that is slightly more deserving.

In my opinion Duelist Pack Crow is the most complete Duelist Pack set. Blackwings were a good, easy to use and beloved deck for many and in 2011 almost all of the cards you needed could easily be accessed in this set. That includes extra deck cards like Armed Wing, Armor Master and Ascendant. However, one cannot forget that this is the set Zephyros the Elite made its original debut, a card not only a great new addition in Blackwing decks but numerous decks that could utilize its effect to essentially get a free summon used to this very day. The inclusion of a generally good original card that had an impact from the beginning and the fact that this set harbours a great archetype almost to its entirety makes Duelist Pack Crow the most well rounded and best Duelist Pack from what we got so far.

4. Fudo Yusei 3 (2011)

3. Judai/Jaden Yuki 2 (2007)

And there you have it. If there’s any missed opportunity here is how they haven’t made packs for Fubuki, Jack Atlas and other popular characters from the series. I suppose nowadays Duelist Packs have been replaced by the Legendary Duelist pack series so maybe they’ll do something close to what I imagine in the future. Thanks for reading!

2. Edo/Aster Phoenix (2007)

Honourable mentions...

1. Crow Hogan (2011)

It also didn’t reprint Sapphire Pegasus and the other Crystal Beasts there were easily accessible anyway in lower rarities. Same with Fudo Yusei 2, a few strong cards reprinted that weren’t difficult to get and didn’t bring much else besides that.