Dark Magician Guide (9/11/2025)

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OVERVIEW

Dark Magician is an archetype revolving around the vanilla monster Dark Magician, the main ace of the characters Yami Yugi & Yugi Muto in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. In 2023, we saw the release of cards like Secrets of Dark Magic & The Dark Magicians. In 2024, we saw the release of cards like Chronicle Magician and Magicians' Combination, as well as the Battle Chronicle and Bane of Darkness Skills.
With 2025 however, came the biggest boost the Deck has ever received since 2023! We saw the release of Magician's Salvation, Soul Servant, Illusion of Chaos and MANY more powerful DM cards, as well as the incredibly powerful Skill: Master of the Dark & Chaos!
With this newfound power and strength the deck has gained and with many old strategies now no longer being as powerful, this guide aims to help introduce players to the new, best way to play Dark Magician for those that are looking to improve their Dark Magician Decks and try out new strategies. Some abbreviations may be mentioned in this guide to shorten the guide a bit and will help players become familiar with terms used by many DM players. Not every abbreviation will be used but are notably included due to how common they are used. Here is a quick Glossary of terms you should familiarise yourself with:

GLOSSARY

• Apprentice = Apprentice Illusion Magician
• Backrow = Cards in your Spell/Trap Zone
• Cavalry = Dark Cavalry
• Circle = Dark Magical Circle
• Combination = Magicians' Combination
• DM = Dark Magician
• DMG = Dark Magician Girl
• Endboard = A specific setup a combo aims to finish the turn on
• Engine = A small package of cards that serves as combo pieces
• GY = Graveyard
• IoC = Illusion of Chaos
• LP = Life Points
• Mahad = Palladium Oracle Mahad
• MoC = Magician of Chaos
• Navigation = Magician Navigation
• OTK = One Turn KO
• Paladin = Dark Paladin
• Prep = Preparation of Rites
• Rod = Magician's Rod
• Salvation = Magician's Salvation
• Secrets = Secrets of Dark Magic
• Souls = Magicians' Souls
• TDM = The Dark Magicians
• Quintet = Quintet Magician

Updated Guide Contents

Anytime this guide receives an update, change notes will be posted here. Keep an eye out for what's new!

• 10/11/2025: Added an Additional Notes section with a New Player to New DM Guide video

MASTER OF THE DARK & CHAOS

Released on September 30, 2025, Master of the Dark & Chaos is a Skill that takes away the ability to Normal Summon DM without Tributing, but grants players the ability to setup cards like Magician's Salvation and Magicians' Combination on the very first turn and provide us with so much advantage! This Skill can only be used by Yami Yugi and Yami Yugi (Street), and can only be unlocked by Summoning Black Luster Soldier (Ritual Monster and/or Normal Monster) 5 times while using Yami Yugi (Street).

Like the other Skills, this Skill has summoning restrictions too. You can only Normal or Special Summon the following monsters:

• Level 8 LIGHT monsters
• Level 8 EARTH monsters
• DARK Spellcaster monsters
• Any Extra Deck monster

If you saw the "Any Extra Deck monster" part, you're reading that correctly. For the first time in what seems like forever, Dark Magician can finally summon ANY monster from the Extra Deck! Our DARK Dragon Fusions are finally playable and they can be put to good use in the right situation! If you fancy and are somehow able to, you can even Synchro Summon anything you want, just as long as the Tuners can be summoned. This restriction also enables any Super Polymerization plays you'd like to perform, which can take apart the right Deck!

Moving onto the Skill's effects, it has two effects that can only be activated once per Duel. The first effect can only be activated by revealing any DARK Spellcaster in your hand to your opponent. At the cost of shuffling a card into the Deck and sending 1 DMG from your hand or Deck to the GY, you can add any 2 cards that are Dark Magician or mention it in the card's text. This effect lets you set up Magicians' Combination, as well as allowing Magician's Salvation and Soul Servant to have their secondary effects live instantly. It also allows you to grab exactly what you need to start off whatever combo you're trying to go for!

The second effect can only be activated if only your opponent controls a monster. When activated, it will add Ultimate Fusion to your hand, play Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to the field face-down (which cannot be flipped face-up in the same turn) and put Black Luster Soldier in your GY (which can be Special Summoned). The best part about this effect? All 3 cards come from outside of your Deck and do not need to be included in your Deck! The only card you will need to put in your Extra Deck for them to be usable is Dragon Master Knight. By using Ultimate Fusion while Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is on the field, you will be able to destroy 1 face-up card your opponent controls, forcing them to respond!

CHOOSING YOUR MAIN DECK CARDS

So with all that Master of the Dark & Chaos can do, what exactly should you be running? Here's some cards that are recommended for your Deck building:

Dark Magician (3)

The ace of the Deck, and the one card the entire Deck revolves around. You will always want 3 in your Deck, as the more access you have to DM, the longer you'll be able to last in a grind game! Running less than 3 can not only introduce consistency problems, but will end up quickly ending the game if you no longer have access to it.

Dark Magician Girl (1)

If we're talking about Dark Magician, you can't forget about the magical lady herself! DMG will gain 300 ATK for every DM in both players' GYs and can become troublesome in a DM mirror match. Also, DMG can be Summoned back to the field by Magicians' Souls, Magician's Salvation, Magicians' Combination OR the effect of The Dark Magicians is destroyed by battle or card effect! You will only ever need to include 1, as you never want to draw into it in order to get the maximum benefit out of Master of the Dark & Chaos!

Apprentice Illusion Magician (1-3)

Apprentice allows you to Special Summon itself by discarding 1 card from your hand and whenever it's Summoned, you can add 1 Dark Magician to your hand from your Deck, granting you another way to search for DM. It can also serve as a battle trap, by sending itself to the GY during damage calculation when any other DARK Spellcaster battles, granting the monster 2000 ATK & DEF!

Magician's Rod (1-3)

Rod is considered to be one of the best Normal Summons you can perform in a DM Deck, as it can add from your Deck any Spell/Trap that mentions "Dark Magician" in its text. What's more, during your opponent's turn, if you activate a Spell/Trap Card or effect while it's in your GY, you can Tribute 1 Spellcaster monster to add this card back to your hand! Being able to get itself back into your hand over and over is great for guaranteeing you've got follow up for the next turn. The amount of Rod you'll want to play can vary from Deck to Deck, so experiment with different numbers to see what works best for you.

Magician's Souls (1-3)

A Dark Magician card that solves the problem of your Spell & Trap Zones being stuck with cards you don't want and gets DM or DMG into rotation! By sending a Level 6 or higher Spellcaster monster from your Deck to the GY, Magicians' Souls can either Special Summon itself or send it to the GY and then Special Summon either 1 Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl from your GY. When it's on the field, you can send up to 2 Spells/Traps from either your hand or field to the GY and draw the same amount of cards you sent. In fact, it's so good that when it's paired with Illusion of Chaos, both cards become a very powerful draw engine that multiple Decks can run without running any other Dark Magician cards.

Illusion of Chaos (1-3)

Illusion of Chaos is Dark Magician's in-archetype monster searcher and one of the best monsters in the archetype. You can add 1 Dark Magician or non-Ritual Monster that mentions it from your Deck to your hand and then place 1 card back on top of the Deck simply by revealing this card. What's more, if you Summon this card to your field and your opponent activates a monster effect, you can use its Quick Effect to return itself to the hand, Summon Dark Magician from your GY and negate the opponent's monster effect, as well as trigger any effects that can be activated when you summon DM! With the ability to grab whatever monster you need and put back into your Deck whatever you don't need, it fixes so many consistency problems that DM suffers from and works extremely well with Preparation of Rites, allowing DM to play 30 card Decks with ease!

Magician of Chaos (0-2)

With Master of the Dark & Chaos being able to setup Magicians' Combination easily, as well as searching any card that is or mentions "Dark Magician" in its text (including this one), Magician of Chaos finally comes back to the spotlight! MoC is a Level 7 Ritual Monster whose name becomes "Dark Magician" while on the field or in the GY! MoC can also target and destroy a card once per turn in response to a Spell/Trap Card or effect being activated. Its third effect, which will only trigger if it's destroyed by battle or card effect, will allow you to Special Summon a "Chaos" or "Black Luster Soldier" Ritual Monster from your hand (except another Magician of Chaos), ignoring its Summoning Conditions. This effect can be used to summon out Illusion of Chaos from the hand and provide a free monster negate! The best part about Magician of Chaos' effects? The once per turn effect can be used again and again every time you summon it back from the GY! This provides the Deck with a lot of interruptions, given that you can keep bringing it back constantly! This is best used with the Master of the Dark & Chaos Skill due to the Skill's effect being able to easily search this monster.

Magician's Salvation (1-2)

No more problems searching for Eternal Soul when our Field Spell does it for us! When you activate Magician's Salvation, you have the option to set the signature trap from your Deck to the field. It also has a bonus of being able to target any DM or DMG on your field that you Summoned and Special Summon a DM or DMG from your GY with a different name than that targeted monster! This effect opens so many new strategies that weren't previously possible and helps push the Deck to endboards we could only ever dream of! Plus, it its addition to any DM Deck means that you no longer have to search it or draw into it!

Dark Magical Circle (1-2)

This serves as the archetype's main source of removal when you Normal or Special Summon Dark Magician (outside of the Damage Step) by being able to target a card the opponent controls and banish it! It also serves as a way to not only grab Dark Magician itself or any Spell/Trap that mentions it from the top 3 cards of your Deck, but to also stack the top 3 cards of your Deck for your next draw! 3 used to be optimal for getting this card into your opening hand, but with all of the new cards, we no longer need to run so many copies! The amounts you use will depend on which Skill you are using, so test to see what's more optimal for you.

Soul Servant (2-3)

A Quick-Play Spell Card that can put from your hand, Deck or GY to the top of your Deck Dark Magician or **any card that mentions DM or Dark Magician Girl in its text! This can allow you to grab critical combo pieces from a draw effect OR even add DM from the activation effect of Dark Magical Circle! If you banish this card from your GY, you can draw cards equal to the number of "Palladium" monsters, "Dark Magician" and/or "Dark Magician Girl" that are differently named on both players' fields and in their GYs! This gives players a reason to add Palladium Oracle Mahad to your Deck (more explained about Mahad below) and also provides a means of being able to recycle your cards and stack your Deck with whatever you need at the right time! The amount of draw power this card alone can generate is huge and is giving players more of a reason to push their Decks to 30 cards!

Secrets of Dark Magic (1-2)

This is your main method of Fusion Summoning, requiring "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl" as one of the materials. Being a Quick-Play Spell, Secrets can be utilised well during the opponent's turn to help avoid having your entire field wiped out, or even during the Battle Phase to quickly overwhelm the opponent! 1 Secrets is generally ideal as you can always put it back into the Deck with Soul Servant if you ever need to Fusion Summon again, whereas 2 can help with times where you need to beat down an opponent with tons of LP. Secrets can also be used to Ritual Summon if you ever wanted to Ritual Summon Illusion of Chaos, which is useful at providing you with a monster negate and a way to summon DM from the GY! For Bane of Darkness however, you can leave this card out as the Skill will give you a means to Fusion Summon for free, leaving you free to experiment with other cards.

Preparation of Rites (1-3)

Thanks to the addition of Illusion of Chaos, we now have a reason to start running this card! It can add any Level 7 or lower Ritual Monster from your Deck to your hand and if you happen to have 1 or more Ritual Spells in your GY, you can add any one of them from your GY to your hand! This gives us a level of consistency we haven't had in Duel Links before and will make consistent 30 card Decks a reality! The amount of copies you want to run will depend on how well you're drawing into your combo starters and if you need to increase your consistency or not OR if you're running a Ritual focused Deck or not.

Dark Magic Expanded (1-3)

Dark Magic Expanded will provide you with 1-3 benefits depending on the combined total of DMs and DMGs on the field and in both players' GYs. 1+ will give any DARK Spellcaster of your choice an extra 1000 ATK, 2+ will prevent your opponent from responding to your Spell/Trap Card and effect activations + make them indestructible for the rest of the turn, and 3+ make all DARK Spellcasters currently on your field immune to the opponent's card effects for the remainder of the turn! Since Master of the Dark & Chaos gets DMG into the GY, you're already part of the way there, making it easy to get 2 of Expanded's effects online! If you're looking to go down that route, it's worth the consideration for adding it to your Deck.

Illusion Magic (0-1)

Illusion Magic is yet another method of being able to add to your hand up to 2 copies of Dark Magician from your Deck or GY. This card can only be acquired by levelling up Arkana to level 25, and only one copy can be obtained. You are required to Tribute a face-up OR face-down Spellcaster monster in order to activate this card however, so any card that changes the types of monsters while they're face-up will stop you from using this card! This card is good for getting more copies of DM out of your Deck and can see some usage, depending on the type of combo you're looking to go for.

Dark Magic Attack (1)

It's Dark Magician's signature move in a card! If you control DM, you can activate this card and destroy every single Spell/Trap the opponent controls! Against some backrow heavy Decks this card is invaluable not only at dealing with the opponent's interruptions, but also be such a powerful threat that it can force your opponent to stop you from activating it at all costs! This should be included in every single DM deck, as you never know when you might be staring down a full back-row and need to get rid of it all at once.

Magician Navigation (1-3)

Navigation used to be the main method of Special Summoning DM onto the field, along with 1 other Level 7 or lower DARK Spellcaster from your Deck. Now with our Skill allowing you search critical combo pieces and easily setup other cards that can Summon DM, Navigation's usage has shifted to its additional effect. If you control Dark Magician and Navigation wasn't sent to the GY in the same turn, you can banish it from the GY to target 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls and negate its effects until the end of the turn! Being able to send this to the GY with Magicians' Souls not only sets up Navigation's GY effect, it provides a bonus draw too! This card can now come back into the limelight just like others mentioned in this guide!

Eternal Soul (1-2)

Eternal Soul is the archetype's main form of Summoning DM from your hand or GY during both players' turns, but it can also search out Dark Magic Attack or Thousand Knives if you decide to run either of those cards. Eternal Soul makes any monster named "Dark Magician" unaffected by the opponent's card effects. This card comes with a catch however: If Eternal Soul leaves the field while it's face-up, it will destroy all monsters on your field. You will need to keep this in mind whenever you play this card. 1 copy is perfectly fine to use, but some do value the safety in having an extra copy just in case!

Magicians' Combination (1-2)

Magicians' Combination is a Trap Card that didn't see proper play when it was added, until now! When a card of effect is activated, you can use this card to Tribute 1 DM or DMG and Special Summon from your hand or GY 1 DM or DMG that is named differently to what you Tributed, in order to negate the activated effect you responded to. It also has the added benefit that if it is sent to the GY while it was already face-up on the field, you can destroy 1 card on the field without targeting! With Master of the Dark & Chaos or Magicians' Souls being able to provide the setup for this card, it instantly becomes worth adding to your Deck and can become an annoyance for the opponent if they don't deal with it correctly.

THE EXTRA DECK CHOICES

With the core of the Main Deck sorted, let's go through the main choices of what you'll want to include for your Extra Deck.

The Dark Magicians (1-2)

The Dark Magicians, a Fusion Monster that requires the use of either DM or DMG and 1 Spellcaster to Fusion Summon it. It can not only draw you a card whenever a Spell/Trap Card or effect is activated, but can also set it for you if it's a Spell or Trap and if the card you set was a Quick-Play Spell or any type of Trap, you can activate it the same turn it was set! Each copy of TDM on the field will grant you one draw each, so having multiple on the field will grant you multiple draws. And if this card happens to be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can Summon out 1 DM and 1 DMG. You won't get this effect if it leaves the field by any other means however. The amount of TDM you'll want varies depending on what play style you're looking for, so try different amounts!

Master of Chaos (1)

Master of Chaos is a Fusion Monster that specifically requires DM and a "Black Luster Soldier" or "Chaos" Ritual Monster in order to Fusion Summon it. If you're able to Fusion Summon it, it will let you target 1 LIGHT or DARK monster in your GY and Special Summon it, which leads into its next effect. If you Tribute a LIGHT and DARK monster from your field, you can banish every monster your opponent controls! This is a great effect that gets around targeting protection and destruction protection effects. The Special Summon effect promotes the aggressive attacking style by allowing you to bring back more monsters and help clear the way for direct attacks, but it also opens up the possibility of turning Master of Chaos into a combo piece for our endboard! Another trick up this monster's sleeve is that if it's destroyed by battle or card effect after being Fusion Summoned, it allows you to target any Spell Card in your GY and add it to your hand! This can get us prepared for our next turn and make our opponent think twice before they go about destroying it.

Dark Magician the Knight of Dragon Magic (0-1)

Ever wanted to give all of your monsters Dark Cavalry's piercing damage effect? Say no more! Being summonable with Master of the Dark & Chaos, its Continuous Effect gives every single monster you control, including itself, the ability to deal piercing damage if you attack a Defense position monster! It also has another effect where once per turn, when any one of your monsters destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can inflict effect damage to your opponent that is equal to half the original ATK of the destroyed monster! If you include Gaia the Dragon Champion in your Extra Deck, you will be able to summon out both it and DM when this card is destroyed by any means while it's on the field! With our limited Extra Deck slots however, you might want to leave Gaia the Dragon Champion out and sacrifice the third effect so that you can play many other cards!

Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight (0-1)

With Master of the Dark & Chaos, this is another monster can finally see proper play! It has a Quick Effect which lets you discard a card in order to target 1 face-up card on the field and destroy it! Although it is a simple effect, it can help put any cards you don't want in your hand, straight into the GY and get rid of an opponent's face-up card at the same time!

Dragon Master Knight (1)

Our going second big beater! Dragon Master Knight is used exclusively with Master of the Dark & Chaos and with 5000 ATK, you can deal some serious damage with it!

Amulet Dragon (0-1)

Just like the other DARK Dragons, this monster is finally playable thanks to Master of the Dark & Chaos! It has a mandatory effect that must activate whenever its Summoned, making you target 1 or more Spell Cards in either player's GY. Once the effect resolves, it will banish as many of the targets as it possibly can and boost Amulet Dragon's ATK by 100 for every Spell it banishes! If there are any Decks that are extremely reliant on Spell Cards, this effect can be devastatingly powerful and push the Duel your way! Its second effect will only activate whenever its destroyed, allowing you to target any Spellcaster in your GY and Special Summon it. This can keep you in the fight and bring back anything your opponent previously got rid of!

Quintet Magician (0-1)

A massive Spellcaster Fusion Monster that must be Fusion Summoned. Quintet Magician requires 5 Spellcasters to Fusion Summon it and boasts a whopping 4500 ATK & DEF. What's more, while Quintet is face-up on the field, it cannot be Tributed, cannot be used as Fusion Material and cannot be destroyed by card effects. Combine Quintet Magician with 1 or 2 copies of Apprentice and you can inflict some massive damage to your opponent, beating over the strongest of towers. If you use 5 differently named Spellcasters to Fusion Summon Quintet, you can destroy all of your opponent's cards on their field! Using 5 different named monsters does take some setting up however and will require you to include a variety of monsters in your Deck/Extra Deck, so you'll need to determine whether you'll want to invest for that effect or not.

The Great Double Casted Caster (0-1)

The Great Double Casted Caster is a Fusion Monster that requires the use of 2 non-Effect Monsters to Fusion Summon it. The first effect gives The Great Double Casted Caster ATK points equal to the combined total of any non-Effect Ritual, Fusion, Syncho, Xyz or Link Monsters used for its Fusion Summon. This monster can also attack directly! If it's destroyed by battle or card effect, you can target any non-Effect Monster that's in your GY or in your banishment and Special Summon it back! With Master of the Dark & Chaos being able to put a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon onto your field if only your opponent controls a monster, you can summon this by combining it with DM and take your opponent by surprise!

I:P Masquerena (1)

That's right, we can finally play this! With Master of the Dark & Chaos being able to set up our GY and Magician's Salvation being great at summoning DMG or DM from the GY, I:P is now easily summonable and can setup so many other monsters. There are a lot of strategies that opens up with the inclusion of I:P and is a must have in any Deck that utilises Master of the Dark & Chaos, in order to threaten the possibility of summoning a powerful monster like Underworld Goddess of the Closed World!

Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden (1)

Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden is a LIGHT Spellcaster Link Monster that requires 1 Level 4 or lower Spellcaster monster in order to Link Summon it. You might be thinking, "Why even include this if you can't use any of its effects?" Well, there's two reasons for its recommendation. Firstly, you can Link Summon this using Magician's Rod as material and have Rod's GY effect ready to go! Secondly, it provides you with a LIGHT monster that you can Tribute for Master of Chaos's banish effect to wipe your opponent's field! This is a card you shouldn't dismiss, as its inclusion could very well be the one monster your Deck needs to make many plays possible. Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden is also good for providing another name for Quintet's destruction effect and can be worth the addition.

STAPLE CARDS TO CONSIDER

Now that we have the main cards added, what other options could you add? Let's go through some staple cards you could consider adding into your Deck that can easily add/substitute in.

Link Monsters

Since we can summon tons of monsters to the field, making Link Monsters has never been easier! The Knightmare Link Monsters (Knightmare Unicorn, Knightmare Phoenix and Knightmare Cerberus) are very popular and can be swapped in and out of your Deck based on what your Deck needs and what Decks are going up against. You can also utilise Underworld Goddess of the Closed World, a Link-5 monster that allows you to use 1 monster the opponent controls as Link Material! Some other choices of Link Monsters you can use include Topologic Bomber Dragon, Unchained Abomination, Decode Talker, Proxy Dragon and Linkuriboh! See what works best for your Deck and what will compliment your strategy well.

Monster Staples

Monster staples come and go with every format, with some being able to completely shut down different Decks. Popular choices of monster staples include Artifact Lancea, D.D. Crow, Droll & Lock Bird, Effect Veiler, Kiteroid, Skull Meister and many more! It's recommended to select 1 staple and stick to it, but you can mix and match various cards!

Spell Staples

Various Spells can be universal in any Deck, and some are very powerful at what they do. Book of Moon, Cosmic Cyclone, Forbidden Droplet and Book of Eclipse are among some very popular choices that many people use. There are many other Spells that can help out as well, so look through to see what you have and what you can work in with your Deck.

Trap Staples

A lot of various Traps can prevent the opponent from continuing their turn and completely flip the Duel on its head when timed right. Since our backrow will be quite full a lot of the time, it's generally recommended to use Normal/Counter Traps like Compulsory Evacuation Device, Floodgate Trap Hole, Infinite Impermanence, Warning Point and Champion's Vigilance! Think about your match ups and how your Deck aims to play when considering your traps of choice! If you don't believe you'll need any, then it's perfectly fine to leave out Trap staples and focus more on other parts of your Deck!

HOW ABOUT SOME SPICE?

By this point you will have a lot of various cards to consider adding to your Deck, but what if you wanted to spice things up a bit and do something different? Let's go through some of those cards that you could potentially include in your Deck if you're looking to try something different.

Chronicle Magician (0-1)

Chronicle Magician can Special Summon itself from your hand whenever a monster with 2500 ATK or DEF is Summoned to your side of the field (except during the Damage Step) and grant any Dark Magician or Blue-Eyes White Dragon you control an extra 2500 ATK! This monster is excellent for setting up Rank 7 Xyz Monsters if you're pivoting towards an Xyz focused Extra Deck.

Chronicle Sorceress (0-1)

Chronicle Sorceress is a versatile card for DM and Blue-Eyes that will let you send to the GY either BEWD or any card that mentions it, OR DM or any card that mentions it. This effect can only be used for each archetype depending on what Attribute monsters you currently have in your GY and you cannot send a Chronicle Sorceress to the GY with this effect. With Master of the Dark & Chaos being able to get Dark Magician Girl into the GY, its effect will be live instantly and could set up some additional plays by sending cards like Magician Navigation to the GY!

Strength in Unity (0-1)

Strength in Unity is a Continuous Spell that lets you target 1 card your opponent controls or in their GY and banish it if you're able to successfully Ritual/Fusion Summon a monster using BEWD or DM as one of the materials. This card can also let you send it to the GY to target 1 Level 7 or higher Normal Monster in your GY and either add it to your hand or shuffle it back in your Deck. Although it can grant an extra banish and then get rid of itself to get DM back into your hand or Deck, there are many other staple cards that have replaced this card's spot. You can give this card a try if you find yourself struggling against specific match ups that utilise cards in their GY.

Palladium Oracle Mahad (0-1)

Palladium Oracle Mahad is a very debatable inclusion as it is a LIGHT Spellcaster and cannot be summoned with the latest Skill. However, since Mahad is a "Palladium" monster, it counts towards the draw effect of Soul Servant! The big downside to Mahad is that if it ends up in your opening hand, it can tend to be stuck there and is the one card you don't want to draw due to Skill restrictions. Others see big value in a free Special Summon, others do not see value in a card that can risk getting stuck in your hand easily. Although Mahad is one of my favourite monsters, you should take all of the risks into consideration before choosing to add this to your Deck.

Magikuriboh (0-1)

Magikuriboh is a fun card that allows you to discard it during the Main Phase or Battle Phase if you took battle damage or if the opponent dealt you any effect damage in the same turn and Special Summon 1 DM or DMG from your Deck or GY. It also comes with the benefit of being able to add itself back to your hand if one of your face-up Spellcasters was destroyed by battle or an opponent's card effect! Although it's a DARK Fiend and cannot be Summoned with the Skills, it can create some new and fun strategies by providing more access to DM when needed and using it for discarding when activating Dark Cavalry's effect as an example! Only 1 will be necessary if you choose to include this card.

IT'S TIME TO COMBO

So now that you have all your card choices sorted, what kind of combos can you perform? Below are some videos that demonstrate the new capabilities of Dark Magician and what all our new support can enable!

• In the following video, you'll see an example combo of how you can play the Deck on the first turn, utilising The Dark Magicians and getting Eternal Soul, Dark Magical Circle and Magicians' Combination all setup! The video also shows how you can deal immense damage to your opponent, even if they have over 10k LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BCvDrww1IQ

• In the following video, you'll see some example combos created by the community that shows the massive potential of being able to activate Magician Navigation on the very first turn with the draw effect of The Dark Magicians and setup powerful fields that can be very difficult for your opponent to counter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydzi7j_Biio

Reminder about Combo Examples

Every combo line is an opportunity to look for alternative strategies and either finish your turn with various combinations of cards to help turn the duel into your favour or reduce your opponent's life points to 0 with various attack strategies. There will be Duels where your opening hand will brick and do absolutely nothing for you. There will also be Duels where you play your cards extremely well, but your opponent has every counter ready for them. And there will even be Duels that you cannot do anything due to the opponent's card effects. Keep in mind that when these things occur, you should aim to study the opponents you face and how their Decks play to identify where their strategy falls apart and what choke points the Deck contains that you can use to your advantage. Also, from time to time when your Deck isn't performing as best as you'd like, look at your Deck and see what you're getting the most value from and what's not contributing much value. Swap cards in and out as you need and determine what is going to work best for you.

SOME DECKS FOR INSPIRATION

Below are some sample Decks that use the Master of the Dark & Chaos Skill. Use these Decks as inspiration for creating your own, or feel free to copy them card for card until you're familiar with each Skill's play style. If you feel that some cards are not working for you or you don't exactly have certain cards shown in these sample Decks, always feel free to change some out of cards that work best for you. Do keep in mind that some of these Decks may not function as well in the current meta game compared to when they were shared.

Included in these sample decks is a Deck that was used by a user named skillShot, who won 1st place in a community tournament with it!

TIPS AND TRICKS TO REMEMBER!

It's time for some Tips and Tricks! Here's some things you should keep in mind regarding specific card interactions in the DM archetype and with the Skills:

1. If you are able to send 3 copies of Apprentice Illusion Magician from your field and/or hand to the GY in the During Damage Calculation step when your DM for example attacks an opponent's monster, each Apprentice will give DM a combined total of 6000 ATK/6000 DEF, making DM's stats become 8500 ATK/8100 DEF! If your opponent doesn't have a strong enough monster, no way to negate those effects or no way to prevent taking damage, this could instantly win the Duel! Apprentice's effect will work for any DARK Spellcaster, not just DM. Keep that in mind when trying to beat over high ATK monsters!
2. If your opponent is attempting to get rid of a face-down Eternal Soul and you have The Dark Magicians on the field, **you can activate it to get a free draw and also bring out 1 DM and 1 DMG to defend yourself with when Eternal Soul destroys all of your monsters!)**This is only advisable if you have extra copies of Eternal Soul OR are trying to invest into a Quintet Magician by using 5 differently named Spellcasters. If you have other monsters that you do not want to destroy with your own effect, leave Eternal Soul face-down and let the opponent get rid of it.
3. The effect of The Dark Magicians to Special Summon 1 DM and DMG will activate even if it's destroyed by an effect like Dark Hole immediately after being Fusion Summoned! Use this knowledge and Secrets of Dark Magic to turn your field from potentially no monsters left into 2 monsters remaining!
4. If you have any Spell/Traps cards in your hand that you cannot use whatsoever and need to dig into your Deck to grab your combo pieces, consider summoning Magicians' Souls to the field with its effect and then using its on field effect to send your dead Spell/Trap Cards for draw power! This works even better with Magicians' Combination while it's face-up as you'll not only get a draw out of it, you'll be able to destroy a card on the field without targeting!
5. Chaining Soul Servant to the activation of Dark Magical Circle and placing Dark Magician or any Spell/Trap that mentions it, will allow you to grab the card you just placed right on top!
6. Soul Servant's draw effect counts both players' GYs, meaning that if you play against a DM Deck, you won't even need to put any names onto the field or in the GY to draw cards if your opponent already has names on their field or in their GY! Also, if Palladium Oracle Mahad, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl are on the field OR in either players' GY, you can draw 3 cards with Soul Servant's GY effect!
7. Any monster that changes its name to "Dark Magician" while its on the field will still allow you to activate the effect of Magician's Salvation and Dark Magical Circle when DM is summoned!
8. If Eternal Soul is shuffled into the Deck or banished face-down, you will not activate its mandatory effect and your field will be safe from being wiped out!

ADDITIONAL NOTES

If you are a new player and are looking to acquire everything necessary for your first Dark Magician Deck, following this tutorial video is HIGHLY RECOMMENED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPFVujzyqjU