History GameBreaker / CardBattleGame

*** '''Kensho, the Aeromaster''' is a foe to fear. Boasting a nasty combination of high [[ResistantToMagic Ward]], [[AnIcePerson Frostbreath]], and [[HarmlessFreezing Freeze]], Kensho is an incredibly versatile choice that can be put to good use pretty much from the get-go. He has a little of everything: a surprisingly strong Attack stat for a wizened old monk, solid defenses that make him pretty much immune to dying from Poison or Scorch without lots of concerted effort, and the dreaded "Freeze every 2", which is absolutely ''obscene'' on a 2-delay card. That's right -- in spite of only being a mid-speed card, a high-level Kensho can cast Freeze ''every other turn!''
*** '''Leroux, the Macabre'''. Leroux's combination of Valour, Siphon, and Dualstrike results in a card that reaches an extremely high Attack stat right off the bat, strike whatever card is in front of it ''twice'' for that amount, and then heal off whatever damage it may have taken. At higher levels, particularly once it hits level 7 and gets Dualstrike every 2 (read: ''[[OhCrap every other turn]]''), it's very easy for an unchecked Leroux to blitz through anything and everything foolish enough to come hear it. Combine his toolkit with Aria, who gives every card Berserk, and you make him into an IncreasinglyLethalEnemy on top of that.
*** '''Nuvis, the Eye Collector'''. On paper, Nuvis's combination of Invisibility, Empower Goblin, and Empower Mecha is offset by his low base Attack and FragileSpeedster nature, and he looks like he could be a decent fast support for Goblin and Mecha decks. In practice, Nuvis is perhaps the ''only'' Goblin or Mecha you'll ever want to use outside of a Mecha or Goblin BGE, since without other Goblins or Mechas, he's guaranteed to use both of those Empowers on ''himself''. With only 1 turn of delay before Nuvis activates, that means you had better think fast or risk losing a few cards to what amounts to a 30-damage nuke on whatever's in front of Nuvis, ''every single turn''. Even Leroux has a brief {{cooldown}} on its Dualstrikes -- Nuvis has no such limitation. Oh, and in case you missed his description above, it has Invisibility, so he's difficult to defeat with the conventional hexbolt strategy. Your best bet against Nuvis is to pray you draw a card with Nullify, a highly situational skill which pretty much cripples him outright.

*** '''Lok'thor, the Reborn'''. In much the same vein as Seraphim above, [[FanNickname Lok]] is a 4-delay Champion with the infamously annoying combination of Emberhide and Regenerate, allowing it to deal tons of passive damage while it waits to activate. With Legendary Health equipped, it's an outright NighInvulnerable monster without a way to deal lots of damage to it quickly. Plus, its ease of use means it can find a home in tons of decks, even outside of its own BGE. Unlike Seraphim, Lok'thor isn't a premium card, so since any player can get Champion Stones for it, it's ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome damn near everywhere]]'' as the premier defensive pick for F2P players, whether you're a heavy spender or a neophyte.

!! OTher examples

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StatusInflictionAttack 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" (filling an entire 15-card deck with these) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not. Tellingly, it's still one of the best slow counter cards ''after'' it got a much-needed {{nerf}} in early 2022, which lowered its Attack to 15, its HP to 57, its Vengeance to 10, its Emberhide to 8 and its Regenerate to 11.
** Legendary runes, which typically [[RareCandy increase the power of one skill by 1.5 times]], are incredibly useful, but one takes the cake: the Rune of Greater Health, which increases a card's max HP by 30 percent. Not quite so useful on frailer cards, but it's a ''godsend'' on slow, bulky cards... like [[FromBadToWorse the aforementioned Seraphim]], who goes from 60 HP to a nigh-unkillable '''78 HP''' with one equipped!

** High-level [[PurposelyOverpowered Champions]] tend to have more health and stronger skills than most Legendary cards of the same speed tier, as a sort of reward for [[MagikarpPower grinding 4,000 Champion Stones]] or simply BribingYourWayToVictory. The result is that Champions absolutely dominate the upper levels of the {{metagame}}, particularly [[DamageIncreasingDebuff hexers]], [[HarmlessFreezing freezers]], [[MoreDakka bolters]], or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs some unholy combination of those three]]. This trend doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, either, as three new Champions release every four weeks.

* Online card game [[http://www.elementsthegame.com/ Elements: the Game]]: the Aether element is very overpowered, with such charming things as multiple completely untouchable monsters and a shield that just makes you invulnerable to non-spell damage for three turns, but the real killer has to be the Entropy element weapon, Discord. If your opponent gets out a Discord in the first few turns, you will almost certainly die, because the special power of Discord is to randomly shunt your [[{{Mana}} quanta]] around - typically reducing high ones, like, say, the types your deck is based on. The incredibly rare Shards only make balance worse - the aether-aligned one, the Shard of Wisdom, enables you to turbocharge the already obnoxiously strong immortal creatures (which can't be affected by ''any'' spells or targeted abilities other than the Shard of Wisdom, making them almost totally impossible to kill) so that they become significantly stronger and deal spell damage, which bypasses nearly all the shields in the game. They also have access to Mindgate, a permanent item which, for an upkeep of 2 Aether quanta, effectively allows them to see what the next card in their opponent's deck will be...[[PowerCopying by copying it.]] Finally, they can also spend 7 Aether quanta to activate Parallel Universe, another card which copies any targetable creature on the field. That 10/10 Golden Dragon you brought out? They now have one too, and at 5 less total quanta cost.

* The [[LightningBruiser Elite Barbarians]] from ''VideoGame/ClashRoyale''. After receiving a tremendous buff in stats in December 2016, they suddenly turn from the worst card in the game into one of the most overpowered card in all of Clash Royale. Basically, at the cost of 6 Elixir, you spawn a pair of them with a good amount of hit points and great attack but the thing that makes them overpowered is their insane speed. Left unopposed, they could very quickly make short work of your tower in just ''one'' deployment. The problem is that you have to react very quickly or else they do tremendous amount of damage to your tower so if your internet is slow or you have a slow reaction time, you're screwed. It's defensive capabilities are just as great as their incredible speed and attack allow them to quickly make short work of tanks such as Golem, Giant, Royal Giant and Hog Rider before they even reached the tower and their high hit-points makes them quite resistant to spells. In fact the card is so prevalent that it single-handedly made many decks (Such as Golems, Giants, Lava Hound, and siege cards like X-Bow) useless and forced many players to carry multiple anti-Elite Barbarian cards (Skeleton Army, Minion Horde, Tombstone, Barbarian and opposing Elite Barbarian) just to deal with them, greatly limiting your deck-building and even then would probably also bring counters to them. Adding insult to the injury, their Common rarity meant that it's very easy to overlevel them in ladder games[[note]]That is not to say that they aren't good in tournament gameplay, in fact they're just as good in contrast to the Royal Giant[[/note]] so you'd probably encounter them in like every 2 games.

** And of course, Succubus Queen: Lilith. Hypnotizes every enemy creature ''every turn'', turning them into a 0 Attack - 1 HP useless board filler that can only return to its original form by being targeted by a spell, and destroys a hypnotized creature at the end of her controller's turn. This made her a perfect partner for cards like Witch:Xena (another bothersome unit) and Mermaid:Sise. Not only that, she can transform a friendly unit into a clone of herself before she dies, making her ''hilariously'' hard to get rid of.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StatusInflictionAttack 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" (filling an entire 15-card deck with these) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not. Tellingly, it's still one of the best slow counter cards ''after'' it got a much-needed {{nerf}} in early 2022, which lowered its Attack to 15, its HP to 57, its Vengeance to 10, its Emberhide to 8, and its Regenerate to 11.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StatusInflictionAttack 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" ([[UpToEleven filling an entire 15-card deck with these]]) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not. Tellingly, it's still one of the best slow counter cards ''after'' it got a much-needed {{nerf}} in early 2022, which lowered its Attack to 15, its HP to 57, its Vengeance to 10, its Emberhide to 8, and its Regenerate to 11.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StatusInflictionAttack 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" ([[UpToEleven filling an entire 15-card deck with these]]) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not. Tellingly, it's still one of the best slow counter cards ''after'' it got a much-needed {{nerf}} in early 2022..

* The [[AllegedlyFreeGame free-to-play]] Kongregate game ''[[https://www.kongregate.com/games/synapticon/spellstone Spellstone]]'' has a few:
** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StatusInflictionAttack 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" ([[UpToEleven filling an entire 15-card deck with these]]) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not.

** Cards that can [[StatusInflictionAttack apply Hex]], a status condition that makes everything hit by it take increased damage for the turn. This applies to direct attacks ''and'' offensive skills like Bolt and Frostbreath. As a result, a common strategy for skilled players is "Hexbolt": setting up for big damage with cards that can Hex everything on the field, then [[ShootEverythingThatMoves spamming Hex-boosted Bolts and Frostbreaths]] until all the opponent's cards are destroyed.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StandardStatusEffects 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. It isn't even a [[PowerEqualsRarity Champion card]][[note]]Champion cards are special cards, sometimes with [[NominalImportance plot relevance]], that are PurposelyOverpowered. Because of this, a player can only ever own one copy of a Champion card, no matter what[[/note]], so it's possible to find decks that [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer use nothing but Seraphim]]. This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" ([[UpToEleven filling an entire 15-card deck with these]]) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not.

** Cards that can Hex, a [[StandardStatusEffects status condition]] that makes everything hit by it take increased damage for the turn. This applies to direct attacks ''and'' offensive skills like Bolt and Frostbreath. As a result, a common strategy for skilled players is "Hexbolt": setting up for big damage with cards that can Hex everything on the field, then [[ShootEverythingThatMoves spamming Hex-boosted Bolts and Frostbreaths]] until all the opponent's cards are destroyed.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth passively regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StandardStatusEffects 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! Also note that in ''Spellstone'' regeneration, Vengeance, and Emberhide are all passive skills, which completely bypasses the [[MightyGlacier speed issue]] of being a 4-delay card, so the only thing it ''can't'' do out of the gate is attack directly. It has an attack stat of ''17'', to boot: more than capable of dishing out serious damage. And this isn't a Champion card This card is so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" (filling an entire 15-card deck with these) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not.

* The [[AllegedlyFreeGame free-to-play]] Kongregate game ''Spellstone'' has the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Rogue Seraphim]]. While this card has a delay of 4 (meaning it takes [[MightyGlacier 4 turns to activate]]), it makes up for this with an absolutely ''massive'' pool of health compared to similarly slow cards (as the max-level [[TieredByName Unchained Seraphim]], it has a whopping 60 HP), and it [[RegeneratingHealth regenerates]] 20% of that health ''every turn''. While this alone would be problematic, Seraphim gets two CounterAttack skills on top of that: Vengeance, which deals 12 damage to anything that attacks it directly, and Emberhide, which applies [[StandardStatusEffects 10 HP's worth of burns]] to anything that attacks it directly. Worse, Emberhide ''stacks'', which means that any card unlucky enough to [[SpamAttack Dualstrike]] Seraphim will take 24 damage from Vengeance and ''another'' 20 from burns! It's so powerful, in fact, that "Seraphim spam" (filling an entire 15-card deck with these) is enough to ruin pretty much anyone, whether their cards are bolstered by [[FieldPowerEffect tribe-specific Battleground Events]] or not.

* While many overpowered cards and decks have come and gone in ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'', perhaps the biggest game-breaking deck of them all would have to be Neutral Blood in ''Wonderland Dreams''. To summarize, the brokenness of Neutral Blood came from massive tempo plays in the first 4 turns followed by drawing their win condition by turn 6. The basic Neutral Blood flowchart goes like this: Play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105611030 Tove]] on turn 2, a very overstatted 3/3 that couldn't attack until you played a Neutral minion, which was barely a drawback in a Neutral-focused deck. Turn 3 you play any 3-cost Neutral to activate Tove, but the best one would be a [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105011030 Goblin Leader]] for an extra Goblin. You follow that up with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105041010 Alice, Wonderland Explorer]] to turn those puny 1/2 Goblins into much heftier 2/3s. In case of emergencies, your 4-cost [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105611020 Big Knuckle Bodyguard]] gives you a big body ''with'' removal. All this is to help you not fall behind when you play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104621020 Baphomet]]'s Enhance effect to draw a follower with 5+ Attack and reduces its cost by 3 for 5 points, so that you can play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105641020 Spawn of the Abyss]] on turn 6, which can deal as much as 16 damage (8 Attack + 8 direct damage to the leader), '''80%''' of their max health, in a single hit evolved if it hit face. If your opponent doesn't have an immediate answer to your turn 2-4 plays they'd be in big trouble even before Spawn of the Abyss can hit their face, and they'd ''better'' have a Ward to stop it if they even want a small chance to come back late game. What should be noted that ''every'' one of these cards mentions were nerfed after release, all of them before the next expansion hit.

* While many overpowered cards and decks have come and gone in ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'', perhaps the biggest game-breaking deck of them all would have to be Neutral Blood in ''Wonderland Dreams''. To summarize, the brokenness of Neutral Blood came from massive tempo plays in the first 4 turns followed by drawing their win condition by turn 6. The basic Neutral Blood flowchart goes like this: Play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105611030 Tove]] on turn 2, a very overstatted 3/3 that couldn't attack until you played a Neutral minion, which was barely a drawback in a Neutral-focused deck. Turn 3 you play any 3-cost Neutral to activate Tove, but the best one would be a [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105011030 Goblin Leader]] for an extra Goblin. You follow that up with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105041010 Alice, Wonderland Explorer]] to turn those puny 1/2 Goblins into much heftier 2/3s. In case of emergencies, your 4-cost [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105611020 Big Knuckle Bodyguard]] gives you a big body ''with'' removal. All this is to help you not fall behind when you play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104621020 Baphomet]]'s Enhance effect to draw a follower with 5+ Attack and reduces its cost by 3 for 5 points, so that you can play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105641020 Spawn of the Abyss]] on turn 6, which can deal as much as 16 damage (8 Attack + 8 direct damage to the leader), '''80%''' of their max health, in a single hit evolved if it hit face. If your opponent doesn't have an immediate answer to your turn 2-4 plays you'd be in big trouble even before Spawn of the Abyss can hit your face, and you'd ''better'' have a Ward to stop it if you even want a small chance to come back late game. What should be noted that ''every'' one of these cards mentions were nerfed after release, all of them before the next expansion hit.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Yu-Gi-Oh! video games]]

* The 8-digit password on the bottom left corner of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' cards serves as an identification number so that you can get the same card in any ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' video game. Older games let you pretty much [[OldSaveBonus port your entire physical deck into the game]] for free, but there's nothing stopping you from just looking up the password of a powerful card online. Later games fixed the strength of this function by adding costs to it -- some let you obtain any card at any time but at an exorbitant price, others restrict the use of the password function only to obtaining additional copies of cards you already have in-game, and a few place the corresponding card in the shop, so [[DoubleUnlock you still have to gather up the cash if you try to obtain a game breaker early on]].
* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDarkDuelStories'':
** Change of Heart. Its effect in this game is permanent instead of only lasting one turn like in real life, so you can steal your opponents best monster from them for the rest of the duel if you use it right.
** Thousand-Eyes Restrict. It's a normal monster in this game, requiring no tributes, which steals your opponent strongest monster, and increases its level by 2 (equivalent to a 1000 ATK/DEF boost), so you can deal massive amounts of direct damage right away. Broken for obvious reasons. Coupled with Change of Heart, Brain Control, and Relinquish, duels becomes a "I steal your monster, you steal my monsters" game against the tier 4 / 5 opponents.
** Dark Hole is one due to a quirk in the tribute mechanics. You're allowed to tribute monsters, play Dark Hole, then tribute summon a monster in that order. Played with minimal monsters on your field to tribute, Dark Hole becomes cost free.
** Cocoon of Evolution will evolve into Great Moth after a turn on the field, which then evolves into Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth the turn after. With its high defense for a 4 star monster, it'll likely survive long enough to change once. Finally, the Cocoon can be used once your Duelist Level reaches 26! This is extremely low compared to the benefit this card gives you.
* ''[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_Legacy_of_the_Duelist Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist]]'' and ''[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_Legacy_of_the_Duelist:_Link_Evolution Link Evolution]]'': In Single Player matches, '''there is no Forbidden and Limited list''', allowing you to put 3 copies of '''ANY''' card you want. '''FROM THE START'''. Yes, you heard that right. This includes the broken [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zoodiac Zoodiacs]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Pot_of_Greed Pot Of Greed]], the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ruler Dragon Rulers]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magical_Scientist Magical Scientist]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Last_Will Last Will]] and '''freaking [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Exodia EXODIA]]'''. Now you can steamroll your opponent easily with these cards.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsCt7vpoODU&feature=emb_title This speedrun]] is just an example of how this can be abused.
* Exodia in ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005''. The game has a special area in which ''there is no banned/limited list'', which means you're not only allowed three separate copies of each Exodia piece in your deck, you're allowed three copies of Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest to search them out, AND three copies of Dark Hole, which destroys all monsters on both sides of the field, nuking the opponent's offense while allowing your searchers to do their job. There is also access to 3 copies each of Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity, which all together accounts for ''fifteen cards'' with essentially no penalty. The in-game currency reward system has a strong bias towards winning through non-standard means (and Exodia is considered non-standard); what this means is that you get ten times the normal winnings for performing ''poorly''. You can even buy a Deck that is ''pre-made with all the above cards''. Be wary, though, because the opponents in that area are also not bound by the banlist either, so you might get stomped by the opponent spamming similarly broken strategies.
* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheSacredCards'' had an absurd number of these... so many that the difficulty comes from trying to determine which of these are the ''most'' game-breaking. To give a few {{JustForFun/egregious}} examples:
** Darkness Approaches. Rather ironic, as the real-life card game version is considered one of the worst spells in the game, but there's no denying how utterly game-breaking the SC version is. It turns all monsters on your whole field face-down for no cost at all, allowing them to re-use their instant Flip Effects - a great many of which are clearly meant to be used once per card. One extreme example is Revival Jam, a card that copies itself when activated. Not game-breaking by itself, but with a single Revival Jam and a single Darkness Approaches, you now have '''''four''''' Revival Jams on your side of the field ready to pounce.
** Hourglass of Life. It powers up every monster on your side of the field by 500 attack and defense points. Permanently. Not only is this a GameBreaker by itself, but combine it with the above Darkness Approaches and Revival Jam tactic, and you now have two 2500 ATK and two 2000 ATK Revival Jams (not to mention the now 1700 ATK Hourglass itself) in practically no time at all. It is possible to, with the right combination of Hourglass of Life, similar attack boosts, and Darkness Approaches, get a full field of garden-variety monsters to over '''4000''' ATK, without ever needing any tributes. To call this a OneHitKill is an understatement.
** The lesson of just how game-breaking these sort of attack boosts are is taught to the player very quickly via Witch's Apprentice, a card the player ''starts with''. It works like Hourglass of Life, except it only powers up Shadow-element monsters. Which in itself is overpowered, because of how the game's ElementalRockPaperScissors works. In theory, it's Shadow > Light > Fiend > Dreams > Shadow. The problem with this is that Dreams-element monsters are ridiculously rare, to the point where encountering ''one'' in the ''entire game'' is an event unto itself, making Shadow an unintentional InfinityPlusOneElement. And on the off-chance that you do encounter such a monster...well, that's what your trap cards are for.
** Torrential Tribute, which instantly wipes out every single monster on the opponent's field the instant they try to attack with absolutely anything. And unlike the real-life game, where Mirror Force (a WEAKER version of said card, as it doesn't hit face-downs) is limited to one, you can have three Torrentials in your in-game deck.
** For that matter, almost any trap card in the game, because the AI is stupid enough to attack every time it has a chance to win that particular battle. This definition of "chance" includes your face-down monsters. All you need to do is the following: set trap, set monster, end turn, laugh as the opponent kills themselves, attack with all face-up monsters, and repeat until you have won the duel. Traps like Invisible Wire (kills anything under 2000 ATK that attacks you, which no enemy except the final boss can summon without a tribute), Acid Trap Hole (everything under 3000 ATK), and Widespread Ruin (just everything) make the game insultingly easy. To make matters worse, these cards have a deck cost that is absurdly low; deck cost acts sort of like your CharacterLevel, determining the relative power of your deck. Widespread Ruin costs less than the local [[TheGoomba Goombas]] to put in your deck, and the other traps cost even less than ''that''. Only Torrential has anything even vaguely resembling a real cost...which you can still pay at the very beginning of the game with minimal effort.
*** To top that off, Trap Master has an effect that creates an Acid Trap Hole ''for free'', while only taking up a little more deck capacity than the card itself. You can have what amounts to up to 6 Acid Trap Holes in a Deck, and that's before taking into account reuses thanks to Darkness Approaches. Its paltry 500 ATK matters very little when the opponent will subsequently try to attack it and lose their strongest monster in the process.
** Beckon to Darkness falls under the same vein as Trap Cards, being able to destroy anything that isn't a God Card, having a very low deck cost, and always hitting the strongest monster the opponent has. From start to finish, it will always see play in the player's deck because it's so efficient at taking out threats they otherwise cannot surmount.
** Don't even get started on Coccoon of Evolution. Its duelist level requirement is really quite low. You can have 3 per deck, 2000 defence, needs no tribute. After one turn, it evolves into Great Moth. Another turn later, and ''that'' evolves into Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth. 3500 ATK, usually only usable once you've already got two God Cards and quite overwhelming.
** Ancient Lamp. While its moderately high level requirement means you can't use it until mid-late game without LevelGrinding, it more than makes up for this with its ability to completely circumvent the level requirement system. As soon as it hits the field, it can summon La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp - whose level requirement is extremely high, and justifiably so. La Jinn overpowers every single non-tribute monster that can possibly be summoned by your opponents in the game - and the most common field effect gives it an automatic 540-point attack boost without you even needing to do anything, in a game where the 500-point attack boost from Hourglass of Life is a GameBreaker, as listed above. And to cap it all off, it's [[InfinityPlusOneElement Shadow element]]! Add a Darkness Approaches and a Witch's Apprentice, and with just 3 cards and no tributes you have not one but ''two'' monsters with 3340 attack, both of which are nigh-impossible to hit with ElementalRockPaperScissors, in just two turns. Wish your opponents luck, they'll ''need'' it.
** You can use The Inexperienced Spy or Monster Eye to reveal all the cards in your opponent’s hand and change them to face-up position, preventing him/her from activating the temporary effects of Effect Monsters. Really useful against enemies that use effects.
** Instead of needing to Tribute when you're intending to Summon a high-level monster, you can manually Tribute monsters from your field at any point in your turn, and the game will only permit you to Summon if you've Tributed the right number. This means you can Tribute your monsters, play a boardwipe that would normally destroy them first, and then summon a high-level monster to attack a now-defenseless opponent. Or you can do things like use Brain Control on an opponent's monster, and then Tribute it just so they can't get it back.
* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'': Due to similar mechanics, almost every game breaker listed under ''The Sacred Cards'' also applies, even if some of them have been restricted to only 1 or 2 copies per deck or have had their deck costs inflated. On the other hand, you're probably going to ''need'' them to beat opponents with cards [[NintendoHard far stronger than yours]].
** Monster-destroying effects are even more vital to help you overcome the advantage the opponent has. Nothing except the God Cards have protection against them, so you can easily turn the tables after the opponent has spent resources on their strongest monster.
** The Winged Dragon of Ra's Phoenix Mode can be discarded in the hand to immediately appear on the field in Battle Mode, negating the need for three tributes. [[note]]It doesn't necessarily guarantee a win, though, if your opponent can lower its Attack/Defense Points with Effect Cards or Umi.[[/note]] You can only access it by the game's final chapter, but given that it's going into a pretty steep DifficultySpike, you might need it to level the playing field.
** Dark Flare Knight can similarly be discarded from the hand to immediately summon Mirage Knight to the field, a 2800/2000 monster that normally needs two tributes. Mirage Knight then splits into a Dark Magician and a Flame Swordsman on the opponent's next turn, giving you two powerful beatsticks. Provided you can afford it in terms of money and deck capacity, there is no reason to not run Dark Flare Knight in most any deck you may end up building.
** Castle of Dark Illusions constantly turns your monsters face-down, acting as a ''continuous'' version of Darkness Approaches. It also constantly turns the field into the Yami field which conveniently gives it a 30% power boost, creating a 3250 DEF wall with no drawback. However, its absurd deck cost makes it unlikely for a player to even run it until postgame, unless they somehow take control of an opponent's copy.
** The Paradox boss rush has you winning specific cards from the Millennium Guardians on top of the normal duel rewards. If you answer Paradox's question wrongly or choose to leave in the middle of the boss rush by going left, you have to start over, but also get to keep everything you've won on the way. This means you can keep defeating the first Guardian to get a ton of Kuribohs to wager on duels, or keep beating the third Guardian to amass Giant Soldiers of Stone for large sums of money.
* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheDuelistsOfTheRoses'' has a lot of extraordinary cards only available through hacking, passwords, or the Destiny Draw mechanic. Card Reincarnation can get you Darkness Approaches, which is effective for the same reason as it was in ''The Sacred Cards'', and there are two monsters it works wonderfully with: Mystical Elf, which when flipped raises the attack power of all Light monsters (including itself) by 800 points, and Wood Remains, which raises the attack power of all Wood Remains on the field by 500. The kicker here? You can get a Wood Remains by fusing a zombie and plant monster that both have less than 1000 attack points, and you can get a Mystical Elf by fusing either Dancing Elf or Wing Egg Elf with a Fairy-type monster with less than 800 attack points. These materials are easy to farm from the right opponents and significantly raise the number of potential copies of these monsters a deck can bring out.
** You think those are bad? Try Spirit of the Books. An otherwise unknown normal monster in the TCG becomes completely effective here, because its flip effect is to summon Boo Koo, another otherwise unknown monster in the TCG. When Boo Koo is flipped, Spirit of the Books gains 700 attack points. If Boo Koo is fused with another Winged Beast monster with less than 1400 attack, it creates yet another Spirit of the Books. This creates an endless cycle of powerups so long as every newly flipped Boo Koo can be fused with another Winged Beast you draw. You do have to throw out the weaker Spirits so that new ones can keep coming in, but hey, three or more psycho cleric hawks with over 5000 attack? That's worth it.
** in this game, Pumpking, king of ghosts pumps the attack of all your zombies when in defense mode permanently every turn (even the face down ones). Pumpking is particularly easy to fuse from your hand, using the games generic attack power based fusion system. (Plant+zombie = Wood Remains) + another zombie =Pumpking. Also not that hard to get in card form. One of the starter decks even has it. This game also has Coccoon of Evolution too. Just like before, fuse it with Larvae of Moth or Petit Moth to get Pupae of Moth, which turns into Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, which decreases the attack and defense of your opponents creatures every turn permanently when in defense mode (even the face down ones). And Pupae of Moth enter the graveyard when Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth comes on the field, allowing you to resurrect it with many cards to get ANOTHER moth, and the pupae of moth enters the graveyard again, where it can be brought back AGAIN.... Now we add in Blue Eyed Silver Zombie, with a flip effect that turns all your creatures into zombies, which are then pumped by your many pumpkings. Call of the Haunted does the same thing, but on a spell card. You quickly build a field of 9999/9999 monsters and turn your opponents into 0/0 with large numbers of pumpkings and moths.
* The ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTagForceSeries'' games allow you to use certain cards that were only in the anime:
** The Tag Force games allow you to use the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Synchro_Monster Dark Synchros]]. Ordinarily, they're Difficult but Awesome, with their raw power balanced out by the trickiness in using a 0-ATK, high-level [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Tuner_monster Dark Tuner]] to summon it... unless that Dark Tuner is [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Tuner_Doom_Submarine Doom Submarine]]. Doom Submarine can revive itself once per game while you control no monsters, and it's Level 9, meaning it can summon pretty much any Dark Synchro you could want. Discard Submarine, Summon Submarine, Normal Summon something else... free Dark Synchro.
** Even as Dark Synchros go, Hundred-Eyes Dragon is incredibly strong. It can be played with a simple combo of Doom Submarine/[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Infernity_Randomizer Infernity Randomizer]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Infernity_Mirage Mirage]], it has a nasty 3000 ATK, and it has three effects. The first shuts down opposing Spells and Traps while it attacks, the second gives it the effects of all the Infernities in your Graveyard (which can include piercing and burn damage, drawing a card every turn, indestructibility by battle or effects, summoning Infernities from the Graveyard, or making it impossible for you to lose the Duel), and the third lets you, whenever the Dragon is somehow destroyed, add any card from your Deck to your hand. This last effect combos perfectly with fellow anime-only card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cursed_Prison Cursed Prison]], letting you Summon it instantly in DEF, so that you'll be able to grab a card when it gets taken down.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fog_Castle Fog Castle]], which revives a monster up to four times after it gets destroyed, is incredibly abusable with any card whose effect activates upon destruction. How does knocking 35 cards from your opponent's Deck with a Voltic Bicorn sound? How about using Sangan to instantly draw out Exodia? If that wasn't enough, when Fog Castle runs out of uses, you get to take four monsters from your Graveyard and add them to your hand, massively boosting your advantage in the unlikely event that you haven't just won the Duel.
** Philosopher's Stone Sabatiel may be limited to one, but it can be added from your Deck to your hand whenever you lose a [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Winged_Kuriboh Winged Kuriboh]], so it's incredibly easy to draw (especially with a [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Flute_of_Summoning_Kuriboh Flute of Summoning Kuriboh]]). It lets you pay half your LP to add any card from your Deck to your hand. And then it goes back to the Deck, letting you play it again. After three activations, it turns from its original effect to one that multiplies one monster's ATK for a turn by up to 5, potentially giving you a card with over 10,000 ATK... and somehow, that feels like a downgrade.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Trick_Battle Trick Battle]] (a card that reverses the results of a battle so the stronger monster gets destroyed, but damage is still calculated normally) sounds like a quirky bit of fun... until you combo it with Colossal Fighter, a card that can revive itself when destroyed. Summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Colossal_Fighter Colossal Fighter]], activate Trick Battle, attack a weaker monster. Your opponent takes damage, but the weaker monster stays and Colossal Fighter gets destroyed. Since it was technically destroyed by battle, you can Summon it back, and since you Summoned it back, you can attack again. Repeat until the opponent dies.
** The [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Draw_(rule) Destiny Draw]] mechanic, which automatically placed a designated card on top of your Deck if you were losing, was remarkably abusable, letting you put game-winning cards on top of your Deck in the second turn with some good management of your Life Points. The Tag Force version of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Afterglow Afterglow]], which shuffles itself into the Deck and wins the Duel if you draw it on the next turn, was probably the worst offender. What made it more egregious is that you can set a handicap that starts you off at an immense Life Point disadvantage, which allows you to immediately access Destiny Draw.
** The trio of the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/ZEXAL_shout ZEXAL shout]] cards are illegal in the real card game (for very good reasons) but are legal in this game.
*** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Creator_of_Hope Creator of Hope]]: At the start of your Draw Phase, if your LP is lower than your opponent's and this card is in the GY because this card in your possession was destroyed by an opponent's card and sent there since your last Draw Phase (you can ram it into your opponent), you can put '''ANY CARD''' from your deck and place it on top on your deck before conducting your normal draw. How about the aforementioned Afterglow, that instantly OTKs your opponent?
*** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Winning_Formula Winning Formula]] allows you to Special Summon '''any''' Number monster from your Extra Deck, except a Number C monster, if only your opponent controls a monster. So now [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_81:_Superdreadnought_Rail_Cannon_Super_Dora Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Galaxy-Eyes_Full_Armor_Photon_Dragon Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon]]( by using [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_62:_Galaxy-Eyes_Prime_Photon_Dragon Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon]] as material) is easily splashable in any deck that can use this card.
*** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Creator_of_Miracles Creator of Miracles]] targets 1 [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C39 Number C39]] monster you control, and lets it attack your opponent directly, and if you have activated the effects of "Creator of Hope" and "Winning Formula" previously this Duel, when it inflicts battle damage to your opponent,'''YOU WIN.''' You could just Special Summon [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_39:_Utopia Number 39]] using Winning Formula then upgrade it to [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_C39:_Utopia_Ray Utopia Ray]] to easily activate this card's effect, making it the easiest Duel Winner to ever exist in this game.
** You can unlock the option to disable the banlist in ''ARC-V Tag Force Special'' by paying 1000 JP, allowing you to use 3 copies of the above cards
* ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler'': A few Super Powers such as Crush Virus and Lose Turn are broken if used right.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Card Games]]

[[/folder]]

* ''GameBreaker/YuGiOhDuelLinks''

** ''GameBreaker/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft''
** ''GameBreaker/LegendsOfRuneterra''
** ''GameBreaker/YuGiOhDuelLinks''

[[folder:Yu-Gi-Oh! card games]]

[[folder:Yu-Gi-Oh!]]

There are ''way too much'' of {{Game Breaker}}s across the numerous ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' {{Card Battle Game}}s, so it deserves its own category on this subpage.

There are a ''lot'' of YMMV/GameBreakers across the numerous ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' {{Card Battle Game}}s, so it deserves its own category on this subpage.

There are a ''lot'' of GameBreakers across the numerous ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' {{Card Battle Games}}, so it deserves its own category on this subpage.

* The 8-digit password on the bottom left corner of ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' cards serves as an identification number so that you can get the same card in any ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' video game. Older games let you pretty much [[OldSaveBonus port your entire physical deck into the game]] for free, but there's nothing stopping you from just looking up the password of a powerful card online. Later games fixed the strength of this function by adding costs to it -- some let you obtain any card at any time but at an exorbitant price, others restrict the use of the password function only to obtaining additional copies of cards you already have in-game, and a few place the corresponding card in the shop, so [[DoubleUnlock you still have to gather up the cash if you try to obtain a game breaker early on]].

* Exodia in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh: 7 Trials to Glory''. The game has a special area in which ''there is no banned/limited list'', which means you're not only allowed three separate copies of each Exodia piece in your deck, you're allowed three copies of Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest to search them out, AND three copies of Dark Hole, which destroys all monsters on both sides of the field, nuking the opponent's offense while allowing your searchers to do their job. There is also access to 3 copies each of Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity, which all together accounts for ''fifteen cards'' with essentially no penalty. The in-game currency reward system has a strong bias towards winning through non-standard means (and Exodia is considered non-standard); what this means is that you get ten times the normal winnings for performing ''poorly''. You can even buy a Deck that is ''pre-made with all the above cards''. Be wary, though, because the opponents in that area are also not bound by the banlist either, so you might get stomped by the opponent spamming similarly broken strategies.
* ''VideoGame/YugiohTheSacredCards'' had an absurd number of these... so many that the difficulty comes from trying to determine which of these are the ''most'' game-breaking. To give a few {{JustForFun/egregious}} examples:

* Yugioh Destiny Board Traveler: A few Super Powers such as Crush Virus and Lose Turn are broken if used right.

* The Sevens cards, Rosemon's Lure and Download Digivolve in VideoGame/DigimonDigitalCardBattle, all of which counts as InfinityPlusOneSword.
** Armor evolutions. If your partners have enough experience and good equippable Digi-parts, their Armors can carry you throughout a good portion of the post-game. It's even a viable strategy to make the three partner cards you can get the only Digimon cards in a deck and using nothing but overpowered Option cards to boost them further.

** The trio of the ZEXAL based cards are illegal in the real card game (for very good reasons) but are legal in this game.

* Exodia in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh: 7 Trials to Glory''. The game has a special area in which ''there is no banned/limited list'', which means you're not only allowed three separate copies of each Exodia piece in your deck, you're allowed three copies of Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest to search them out, AND three copies of Dark Hole, which destroys all monsters on both sides of the field, nuking the opponent's offense while allowing your searchers to do their job. There is also access to 3 copies each of Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity, which all together accounts for ''fifteen cards'' with essentially no penalty. The in-game currency reward system has a strong bias towards winning through non-standard means (and Exodia is considered non-standard); what this means is that you get ten times the normal winnings for performing ''poorly''. You can even buy a Deck that is ''pre-made with all the above cards''.

** You can play Dark Hole or Heavy Storm in between sacrificing a monster, so they become practically costless if you only have a few cards on the field.

** Monster control cards. You can even use Brain Control or Change of Heart to steal an opponent’s monster and sacrifice it, even if you have no tribute monsters.

** The Winged Dragon of Ra's Phoenix Mode can be discarded in the hand to immediately appear on the field in Battle Mode, negating the need for three tributes. [[note]]It doesn't necessarily guarantee a win, though, if your opponent can lower its Attack/Defense Points with Effect Cards or Umi.[[/note]]

** The Paradox boss rush has you winning specific cards from the Millennium Guardians on top of the normal duel rewards. When you reach Paradox at the end, you can intentionally answer his question wrongly to be forced back to the start of the boss rush with your rewards intact, meaning you can keep defeating the first Guardian to get a ton of Kuribohs to wager on duels, or keep beating the third Guardian to amass Giant Soldiers of Stone for large sums of money.

** in this game, Pumpking, king of ghosts pumps the attack of all your zombies when in defense mode permanently every turn (even th face down ones). Pumpking is particularly easy to fuse from your hand, using the games generic attack power based fusion system. (Plant+zombie = Wood Remains) + another zombie =Pumpking. Also not that hard to get in card form. One of the starter decks even has it. This game also has Coccoon of Evolution too. Just like before, fuse it with Larvae of Moth or Petit Moth to get Pupae of Moth, which turns into Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, which decreases the attack and defense of your opponents creatures every turn permanently when in defense mode (even the face down ones). And Pupae of Moth enter the graveyard when Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth comes on the field, allowing you to resurrect it with many cards to get ANOTHER moth, and the pupae of moth enters the graveyard again, where it can be brought back AGAIN.... Now we add in Blue Eyed Silver Zombie, with a flip effect that turns all your creatures into zombies, which are then pumped by your many pumpkings. Call of the Haunted does the same thing, but on a spell card. You quickly build a field of 9999/9999 monsters and turn your opponents into 0/0 with large numbers of pumpkings and moths.

** The [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Draw_(rule) Destiny Draw]] mechanic, which automatically placed a designated card on top of your Deck if you were losing, was remarkably abusable, letting you put game-winning cards on top of your Deck in the second turn with some good management of your Life Points. The Tag Force version of[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Afterglow Afterglow]], which shuffles itself into the Deck and wins the Duel if you draw it on the next turn, was probably the worst offender. What made it more egregious is that you can set a handicap that starts you off at an immense Life Point disadvantage, which allows you to immediately access Destiny Draw.

** The [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Draw_(rule) Destiny Draw]] mechanic, which automatically placed a designated card on top of your Deck if you were losing, was remarkably abusable, letting you put game-winning cards on top of your Deck in the second turn with some good management of your Life Points. [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Afterglow Afterglow]], which shuffles itself into the Deck and wins the Duel if you draw it on the next turn, was probably the worst offender. What made it more egregious is that you can set a handicap that starts you off at an immense Life Point disadvantage, which allows you to immediately access Destiny Draw.