Top 10 STRONGEST Yugioh GX Sets

Yugioh GX was Konami’s stance on keeping the franchise moving and growing. After all, with the success of the original Yugioh era it only made sense to do that. The animated series had its pros and cons but the actual card sets themselves were nothing short of a booming success; contributing heavily to Yugioh’s card selling Guinness Record that it eventually got in 2011. Yugioh GX was no doubt one of the biggest peaks of the game and these wonderful sets reflect that with their moderate card pools of interesting and creative cards, comparatively more balanced from the original Yugioh sets and the perfect blend of archetypes with general cards any deck could find useful. What up guys, this is SaberWolf94 and today I will be honouring these sets by putting them on the spotlight and ranking them, right here on sabatcg. The Top 10 Strongest Yugioh GX Sets!! Let’s do it.

I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t help putting these 2 sets together for the number 10 spot. Both of them came out at around the same time and have a lot of other similarities in the cards they introduced. Lost of Millennium brought a power card in Brain Control but Elemental Energy did a similar thing with Pot of Avarice. Ancient Gear Golem would end up commanding a lot of cards centred around it while Elemental Hero Sparkman and Clayman were key components for some of the best Elemental Hero Fusion monsters and even Evil Hero Lightning Golem. On the other hand Elemental Energy harbours some of those very Fusion monsters, Shining Flare Wingman and Wildedge.

They even each share a strong anti-fusion card that could take a spot in your side deck. I would say that Lost of Millennium could have been the stronger set of the two considering Brain Control had a bigger impact in the game and got banned quicker but Elemental Energy balances this out by also introducing the Dark World archetype with some of their better cards to boot.

Some key cards for TLM include: Elemental Hero Sparkman, Elemental Hero Clayman, Winged Kuriboh, Ancient Gear Golem, Ancient Gear Beast, D.D. Survivor, Reshef the Dark Being, Brain Control, Battery Charger, Misplolymerization.

And for EEN: Elemental Hero Bladedge, the Dark World cards, Elemental Hero Wildedge, Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, Pot of Avarice, Ojamagic, Roll Out, Non-Fusion Area.

In a way Tactical Evolution is worse than the previous 2 sets in that it doesn’t have that big power card in its set, but it gets an advantage as a bigger set of 90 cards and includes a wider array of useful cards for various strategies. I suppose the closest thing it gets as a power card during that time would be Necro Gardna, but while good it hardly compares to Brain Control or Pot of Avarice. It does get a close mimic to Pot of Avarice with Fifth Hope, a fantastic recovery card for any Elemental Hero deck even if it conflicts with Miracle Fusion. It has a big theme on Reptile type cards, a usually forgotten and neglected type and the Venom archetype which while it wasn’t the greatest, its strongest monster was invincible if it was ever summoned. Its other theme of cards involves Gemini monsters and normal type monsters in general and a lot of these cards here are pretty good.

Key cards for TAEV include: Necro Gardna, the Venom and reptile cards, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, Crystal Seer, Zombie Master, Fifth Hope, Double Summon, Summoner’s Art, Common Charity, the Gemini cards.

This may be a bit surprising to some of you as some people consider Cyberdark Impact as one of the weakest and most forgotten sets. It’s true, a good majority of its cards revolve around gimmicks; some of which are unique to only this set and are just very weak and useless overall. In spite of that, the few good cards that are in this set are really, really good. What they share is preventing your opponent to special summon and we can all agree this is a very strong strategy. This isn’t even the biggest thing as I’d say in my opinion the biggest power card here is Instant Fusion; just a common card that went under the bus for many in its early period, but the smartest player knew that a card that breaks mechanics would gain a broken role one day. Going back to controlling special summons Vanity’s Fiend and Vanity’s Ruler are close to one card win conditions and are a big part of this set’s strength.

One can’t also forget about Chain Strike, another key card here that led to hated but successful direct damage decks known as Chain Burn, with chaining multiple cards being one of this set’s themes too. Clearly now you see this set isn’t as weak as it first appears.

Key cards certainly include: Vanity’s Fiend, the Elemental Barrier Statues, Vanity’s Ruler, the Cyberdark cards, Instant Fusion, Chain Strike, Degenerate Circuit, Justi-Break, Accumulated Fortune and Black Horn of Heaven.

A lot of players will be familiar with Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure and Banisher of the Radiance as they flip the game upside down for a lot of strategies aiming to sent cards in the graveyard. With such a popular concept you get a popular counter too. However I don’t think many players realize that all three cards originally come from the same one set, Enemy of Justice. That’s not the only thing though, as this set marks the debut of the first group of Destiny Hero cards with Diamond Guy inspiring a whole strategy around his effect. Elemental Heroes also got one of their best cards with E-Emergency Call and a bunch of other useful spells. From all the great fairy cards and techs like Icarus Attack, Enemy of Justice wastes very little space in its 60 card arsenal with a big variety of useful cards no matter where you look.

Some key cards include: Destiny Hero Diamond Dude, Cyber Gymnast, Cyber Prima, Cyber Phoenix, Bountiful Artemis, Banisher of the Radiance, Voltanis the Adjudicator, E-Emergency Call, R-Righteous Justice, O-Oversoul, Dimensional Fissure, Icarus Attack, Macro Cosmos, Miraculous Descent.

If we were going of just general epicness and coolness factor, Gladiator’s Assault would take the number 3 spot here in my personal opinion, but when it comes to real strength this set doesn’t really bring that much; and in fact if it wasn’t for the Gladiator Beasts here it wouldn’t even make it a t number 10. But that just goes to show you how strong and revolutionary Gladiator Beasts were at the time and were the foundation of how Konami build archetypes in the future that specifically wanted to be good. Like Tactical Evolution it gains an advantage over most other GX sets by having a much bigger card pool compared to them, but it doesn’t really accomplish that much with it. The fantastical Cloudians also make their debut here serving as the sort of antithesis archetype to Gladiator Beasts, but unfortunately were very weak even when they first came out; pretty much because they were very difficult to use, complicated to build and had a very exploitable weakness.

As much as I love their art direction they are mostly a liability here. Its other unique trait is having the biggest roster of secret rares in a normal set which was pretty random and also made specific secret rares to acquire very difficult. Despite all I’ve said though Gladiator’s Assault does have some very good techs like the Shadow and Light Imprisoning Mirrors and some of the secret rares here are actually quite good.

Some of its key cards are: Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, Chiron the Mage, Armed Samurai-Ben Kei, Golem Sentry, the Light, Dark and Earth Hex Sealed Fusion cards, Rescue Cat, Gatling Dragon, King Dragun, A Feather of the Phoenix, Lightning Vortex, Swords of Concealing Light, Fulfilment of the Contract, Re-Fusion, Threatening Roar, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Good Goblin Housekeeping, D.D. Dynamite, Deck Devastation Virus.

Power cards is a simple task for Force of the Breaker as well giving us the one and only Raiza the Storm Monarch a main component of Perfect Circle Monarchs and one of the strongest Monarchs in any Monarch deck period. Oh, and did you know Eradicator Epidemic Virus also comes in this set? Not to mention all the field spell grabbers which also make this set sweet. I think you guys get the idea so what’s the verdict on all the great cards?

10. Lost Millennium & Elemental Energy (2005)

9. Tactical Evolution (2007)

8. Cyberdark Impact (2006)

7. Enemy of Justice (2006)

6. Gladiator's Assault (2007)

The main key cards are obviously the Gladiator Beasts, Expressroid, Test-Ape, Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor, Spirit of the Six Samurai, Elemental Hero Plasma Vice, Evil Hero Lightning Golem, Evil Hero Dark Gaia, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos (he gets his own mention), Swing of Memories, Light Imprisoning Mirror, Shadow Imprisoning Mirror, Release from Stone, Double-Edged Sword Technique, Test Tiger, Royal Firestorm Guards, Necroface, Soul Taker.

It can be argued if Flaming Eternity is the first official GX set since it makes more sense for Lost of Millennium to be that but regardless, this set hit the scene with a bang and once you familiarize yourself with its cards it won’t be difficult to see why. Right of the bat this is the home set of Rescue Cat and this set could probably get away with its rank because of that card but it actually offers so much more in its small 60 card set list. I’d be inclined to say that Granmarg is the weakest out of the traditional Monarchs but he’s still a Monarch and still has its uses. Then we have Lightning Vortex a very powerful tech card in the formats where Raigeki and Dark Hole weren’t around. Oh, and Deck Devastation Virus? It also debuts in this set. From power cards to great tech cards you won’t be disappointed with all the useful cards this set has to offer.

Similar to Ancient Gear Golem an entire archetype of cards is built around Cyber Dragon now but even in its debuting period it got all the tools needed to be an extreme threat with its fusion monsters build to OTK your opponent in the blink of an eye. Despite all the Cyber Dragon glamorizing this set has far more than just that, lots of other power cards that, may mostly focus on aiding fusion summoning but are incredibly useful in that regard.

5. Flaming Eternity (2005)

Anyone that followed the game from its early beginnings knows why Cybernetic Revolution gets this high of a ranking. It is the easy reason of Cyber Dragon. Sure, the card certainly isn’t as revolutionary and unique as it once was and it sounds more ludicrous when compared to Rescue Cat, Brain Control or Pot of Avarice power cards that remained strong and got banned eventually. Even so you have to consider when this card was released there was nothing like it. Special summoning monsters for free and big ones at that wasn’t the common thing players learnt to know. In fact it was very difficult outside of the staple revival cards. It’s usually agreed upon that playing first gave you the advantage of setting traps and having an uninterrupted summon, talking about back in the day of course. Cyber Dragon’s free summon effect was so good that it made you happy if you played second and opened with it.

It was really difficult for me to go for a tie in the number 10 spot since I knew from the early stages of writing this that Strike of Neos and Force of the Breaker were getting tied at number 3. It is what it is though as these 2 sets are also very similar with 69 cards each to their name and an overall similar level of power, at least in my opinion. Strike of Neos introduces the Six Samurai archetype which, while not as strong as the Gladiator Beasts was one of the stronger ones in that period. While not that great we also get some new Dark World cards which I suppose were at least decent in that time. Force of the Breaker matches that introducing 2 new archetypes that were solid in that period, Crystal Beasts and Volcanics.

This set’s main key cards include: Elemental Hero Bubbleman, Cyber Dragon, Mechanical Hound, Tyrrano Infinity, Cyber Twin Dragon, Cyber End Dragon, Power Bond, Fusion Recovery, Miracle Fusion, Dragon’s Mirror, System Down, Magical Explosion, Dimension Wall.

4. Cybernetic Revolution (2005)

3. Strike of Neos & Force of the Breaker (2007)

The similarities don’t stop there though as both sets had a share of secret rares focusing on the light and dark attribute respectively and many of these cards were useful too. What really pushes these 2 sets though above nearly every other gx set is their power cards and tech cards in addition to what I just described. D.D. Crow has been a great side deck card for many moons now and you can thank Strike of Neos for introducing it. Neo-Spacian Grand Mole was also an excellent card to easily deal with strong monsters if you didn’t have another way to stop them and this is also where we get Advanced Ritual Art too, one of the most effective methods to ritual summon for quite some time.

For Strike of Neos some of those cards include: Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and the other Six Samurais pretty much, Gene-Warped Warwolf, Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, Great Shogun Shien, Shien’s Footsoldier, Electric Virus, Puppet Plant, Marionette Mite, D.D. Crow, Ancient Rules, Dark World Dealings, Twister, Advanced Ritual Art, Birthright, Pulling the Rug, Meltier, Sage of the Sky, Harvest Angel of Wisdom, Nova Summoner, Gellenduo.

As for Force of the Breaker we have: Volcanic Rocket and the other Volcanic cards, the Crystal Beast cards, Gravekeeper’s Commandant, Warrior of Atlantis, Zeradias, Herald of Heaven, Harpie Queen, Sky Scourge Norleras, Sky Scourge Invicil, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Backs to the Wall, Prometheus, King of the Shadows, Recurring Nightmare, Eradicator Epidemic Virus.

Okay, so if you’re familiar with me you know I’ve praised this set a number of times already but it cannot be understated, Phantom Darkness is the strongest GX set and in my opinion maybe even the strongest Yugioh set of all time. Let’s just stick to GX sets seeing as that’s the article. As I mentioned in the Light of Destruction portion of this article these 2 sets surpass all the other GX sets with an incomparable difference and while Light of Destruction comes close, Phantom Darkness stands its ground as the overall strongest. They have their similarities, Phantom Darkness also an 100 card set list to its name and has an extreme focus on the dark attribute. Here’s the difference though, it doesn’t introduce any specific new archetype and all of its amazing dark attribute cards can fit into many decks and strategies. Lightsworns were strong, but Phantom Darkness led to the creation of iconic tier zero decks, Dark Armed Return, Tele-Dad among other variations.

2. Light of Destruction (2008)

Before we get to that though here’re some of all the great cards key cards from Light of Destruction: Guardian of Order, Honest, Cross Porter, Volcanic Queen, the Lightsworn cards of course, Judgment Dragon, Substitoad, the Batteryman cards, Destiny End Dragoon, Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Demise of the Land, Light of Redemption, Deck Lockdown, Limit Reverse, Destruction Jammer, Summon Limit, Magical Exemplar, Tualatin, Divine Knight Ishzark, Angel 07, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.

The disparity between Light of Destruction (and the obvious number one, am sorry) is so big that even Strike of Neos and Force of the Breaker seem average by comparison. This set is like Gladiator’s Assault on its max potential. It has a bigger card pool than most GX sets with 100 cards and introduces an extremely strong and at the time unique archetype with Lightsworn. Unlike Gladiator’s Assault though it makes great use of its bigger set list with a lot of power cards. This set is heavily themed on the light attribute buts its power cards aren’t limited just to that type. It does so much that you don’t know where to begin. Its trademark card Honest, wasn’t only a phenomenal card in any light attribute deck, it was also quite revolutionary, not as much as Cyber Dragon but still. Lightsworns build on the foundation laid out by Gladiator Beasts; a strong set of cards with their own unique twist and an extremely strong boss monster as a summon goal.

If you were a fan of simple meta power cards you’d welcome Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo with open arms as well. And speaking of Gladiator Beasts they get one of their key cards, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus from this set. The card that really pushed them on the next level; a lot of eyes were focused on this set just for this card alone. This set is such a marvel, easily fitting as the last set of the GX era and one of the biggest contributors putting the game at its peak. One of.

This is gonna do it for this article! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the next one.

Before I unveil what I think is an obvious number one, the only 2 sets left out are Shadow of Infinity and Power of the Duelist. Power of the Duelist has some cool cards for me but as a whole it loses to every other GX set when it comes to power. It does pack a few power cards in Future Fusion, Overload Fusion and Chimeratech Overdragon but outside of that and some solid Destiny Heroes it doesn’t have much. The focus on the weak alien cards drags it down even more. Shadow of Infinity is the real honourable mention here as it does bring us Demise King of Armageddon one of the very few strong ritual monsters but in my opinion it ultimately is a weaker set than Elemental Energy and the Lost of Millennium. Now then, for a predictable number one the only gx set left is........

The ones left out...

1. Phantom Darkness (2008)

And now for some of its finest key cards: Dark Grepher, Gladiator Beast Andal, Samsara Lotus, Armored Cybern, Cyber Valley, The Dark Creator, Dark Nephthys, Dark Armed Dragon, Armageddon Knight, Shadowpriestess of Ohm, Gigaplant, Gladiator Beast Darius, Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth, Super Polymerization, The Beginning of the End, Dark Eruption, Fires of Doomsday, Unleash your Power, Six Samurai United, Gladiator Beast’s Battle Archfiend Shield, Gladiator Proving Ground, Chain Material, Dark Illusion, Escape from the Dark Dimension, Drastic Drop Off, Double Tag Team, Offering to the Snake Deity, Darklord Zerato, Allure of Darkness, Lonefire Blossom, Metal Reflect Slime, Goblin Zombie.

Judgment Dragon was meant to rival Dark Armed Dragon from this set, but Dark Armed Dragon could fit in a wide variety of decks with dark monsters, with Judgment Dragon specifically needing Lightsworns. Do I even need to mention Allure of Darkness? It’s not just all the amazing darkness cards, Phantom Darkness has numerous other power cards you may even be surprised they come here, the original versions of Super Polymerization and Lonefire Blossom. From Cyber cards, Gladiator Beast cards and even a fantastic Six Samurai spell we could be here for hours talking about all the amazing cards here. Have no doubt, Phantom Darkness holds true power as a set and Yugioh players that experienced it in its freshness will never forget it.