History Main / ManipulatingTheOpponentsDeck

* This is how damage works in the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2 Trading Card Game''. Your deck size is determined by your Player Character's HP stat, and when direct damage is dealt, the player who took the damage sends cards from the top of their Deck to the Trash. If a player's Deck runs out of cards (thus signifying that their HP has reached 0), their opponent wins the game.

** When Yugi duels Strings, the latter initially sets up a powerful combo of Slifer the Sky Dragon, a card which gets stronger the more cards the user has in their hand, and Revival Jam, which automatically revives itself when destroyed and causes the user to draw three new cards due to Strings' Card of Safe Return. Yugi wins by destroying Revival Jam and activating Brain Control to steal control of it. As Slifer automatically attacks whatever enemy is on the field and Revival Jam keeps reforming, Strings ultimately decks out due to his own Card of Safe Return.

** When Yugi duels Leon, the latter uses a card called Golden Castle of Stromberg. It allows the user to summon monsters from their deck and it destroys the opponent's monsters when they attack you, but comes at the steep cost of milling half the user's deck each turn. Leon's brother cheats by hacking the system and forcing Yugi to pay the card's cost each turn by discarding his cards.

** During the Battle City arc, before Joey Wheeler is set to duel Weevil Underwood, the latter pays off a random kid to steal Joey's deck and add the "Parasite Paracide" card to it mid-run. This card makes all of Joey's monsters become Insect-type once he draws it, which Weevil uses in tandem with "Insect Barrier" to ensure Joey cannot attack him. Both cards are in the official TCG with these effects (albeit Parasite Paracide has to be activated from the owner's side of the field first before it goes into the opponent's deck).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'': The Durant card released in the 2011 Noble Victories expansion has a move, Devour, which forces the opponent to discard a card for every Durant in play. The infamous [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_(TCG) Durant Mill]] focuses on fielding a whole field of Durants to devour the opponent's deck.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a few spells that rearrange some top-most cards of a player's library. This may also be combined with the millstone to force those cards to be discarded.

* Adding useless (or even [[PoisonMushroom harmful]]) cards to your deck

** The Book of Stabbing miniboss adds a useless Wound card into your deck each time you take damage from it... which is an issue, since it attacks with a BladeSpam of at least six individually weak attacks each turn, and all of them can potentially add a Wound to your deck.

** The Chosen inflicts the Hex status on you, which adds a useless Dazed card to your deck each time you play a card that isn't an attack. This starts off harmless, especially since any in your hand are removed at the end of your turn, but if you don't end the fight quickly you'll find it almost impossible to get the cards you need to block her attacks or deal enough damage to get rid of her.
** Sentries alternate between regular attacks and adding two useless Dazed cards to your deck.
** The Hexaghost adds Burn cards to your deck when it attacks, which deal take up space and deal ScratchDamage if you end your turn with them in your hand.

* An extremely overbearing strategy in ''VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice'', as most characters are card-reliant on some level. This makes characters who can take advantage of cards that manipulate the deck like Gift Exchange by virtue of their strong base stats {{Tier Induced Scrapp|y}}ies among players who are familiar with this style of play.

** In one match, Yugi faces a duelist known as the Rare Hunter[[note]]he's named Seeker in several videogame spin-offs[[/note]] whose deck relies on stalling the opponent and drawing cards as quickly as possible in order to pull off the Exodia combo[[note]]A player can claim victory if they play Exodia the Forbidden One while having Exodia's other four body-parts in their hand[[/note]] as an InstantWinCondition. At one point, Rare Hunter is forced to summon Exodia by itself in order to bolster his defences, but gloats that it doesn't matter as he has multiple copies of the same card in his deck and can just draw another one later - only for Yugi to counter it with Chain Destruction, destroying all cards in Rare Hunter's deck with the same name and rendering his win condition unachievable.

** One of the general Blue specializations is deck destruction, through use of cards depicting MindRape actions such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=489342 Thought Scour]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370663 Traumatize]]. Sometimes it's combined with Black's ability to control the board and the opponent's hand to make for a devious blue-black mill strategy -- [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=455918 Glimpse the Unthinkable]], for instance, is one of the most efficient single-use mill cards.

[[folder:Live Action Films]]

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Jaden at one point duels the pro-duelist Howard X Miller, whose name is even a pun on 'mill'. As his name suggests, his deck revolves around using Monster Register to force his opponent to discard cards each turn while stalling with spell and trap cards.

** In one episode, Yugi faces a duelist known as the Rare Hunter[[note]]he's named Seeker in several videogame spin-offs[[/note]] whose deck relies on the Exodia combo[[note]]A player can claim victory if they play Exodia the Forbidden One while having Exodia's other four body-parts in their hand[[/note]] as an InstantWinCondition, and has cards that help in that effect (such as Pot of Greed, which draws two cards, and Swords of Revealing Light, which prevents monsters from attacking). At one point, Rare Hunter is forced to summon Exodia by itself in order to bolster his defences, but gloats that it doesn't matter as he has multiple copies of the same card in his deck and can just draw another one later - only for Yugi to counter it with Chain Destruction, destroying all cards in Rare Hunter's deck with the same name and rendering his win condition moot.

** King Togwaggle swaps you and your opponent's decks around, but gives the opponent a 5-mana card that switches the decks back. If you can find a way to burn that card or get a copy of that card yourself, you can make the switch permanent.

* ''VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody'': In battle, [[VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight Reisen]] can "inflict madness" on her opponents through a mix of [[MasterOfIllusion bending light/sound to create illusions]], and [[EmotionBomb psychically disrupting their rhythm]]. This is represented both by [[ConfusionFu attacks with confusing properties]], and by some of her [[LimitBreak Spell Cards]] (plus her associated System Card) having the unique ability to destroy cards in the opponent's hand. One of these attacks, ''Desolation "Discarder"'', also inflicts a StatusAilment which renders the opponent unable to play cards for a short time.

** Beneath the Grounds shuffles 3 Nerubian Ambushes into the opponent's deck - when drawn, they summon a minion that can attack the ambushed player.
** Iron Juggernaut, Clockwork Goblin and Wrenchcalibur shuffle bombs into the opponent's deck that explode and do damage when drawn.

** Mindrender Illucia forced you and the opponent to swap hands and decks for 1 turn, giving you a chance to take cards that their strategy relies on and use them for your benefit instead. This was so frustrating to the players on the receiving end that it was heavily nerfed in patch 21.3 to just give the user a ''copy'' of the opponent's hand rather than actually swapping them.
** Glide can be used to force both players to shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 4 new cards.
** Flik Skyshiv destroys all copies of a targeted minion and all spells with the same name.
** Skulking Geist destroys all 1 mana spells in both player's hands and decks.
** King Togwaggle replaces you and your opponent's deck with each other's. The opponent gets a 5-mana card that switches the decks back. If you can find a way to burn that card by giving it to them while they have a full hand or get a copy of that card yourself, you can make the switch permanent.
** Hakkar the Soulflayer shuffles a Corrupted Blood into both player's decks - when drawn, it does 3 damage to the player and shuffles another 2 Corrupted Bloods into the same deck.
** Warlocks have a number of cards that can destroy cards in their opponents deck, including Gnomeferatu (destroy the top card), Altar of Fire (destroy three cards from both decks), Tickatus (remove 5 cards from the opponent's deck if corrupted), Void Contract (destroy half the cards in both decks), and Azari the Devourer (destroy all remaining cards in the opponent's deck).
** The Darkness summons a dormant but very powerful 20/20 minion, then shuffles 3 candles into the opponent's deck - if all 3 are drawn, the minion awakens.

* ''{{TabletopGame/Pokemon}}'': The infamous [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_(TCG) Durant Mill]] focuses on fielding a whole field of Durants to devour the opponent's deck.

** In one episode, Yugi faces a duelist known as the Rare Hunter[[note]]he's named Seeker in several videogame spin-offs[[/note]] whose deck relies on the Exodia combo[[note]]A player can claim victory if they play Exodia the Forbidden One while having Exodia's other four body-parts in their hand[[/note]] as an InstantWinCondition. At one point, Rare Hunter is forced to summon Exodia by itself in order to bolster his defences, but gloats that it doesn't matter as he has multiple copies of the same card in his deck and can just draw another one later - only for Yugi to counter it with Chain Destruction, destroying all cards in Rare Hunter's deck with the same name and rendering his win condition moot.

* All the no. 3 card from ''TabletopGame/{{Citadels}}'' and its expansion packs. The first edition has the Magician, who can force to trade a card trade with any other player. The additional set gives the Wizard, who can see another player's hand and steal a card. The 2016 adds the Seer, who can take one random card from every other player, then give one card of their choice from their own hand to each player.