That’s right, here we’re gonna be ranking the best coin flip cards in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! So let’s hope luck’s on your side as we go through this list, ranging from the pretty decent, to the actually usable cards (I mean, it is a list about coin flip cards, come on!)
15. Tour of Doom
Kicking off the bottom of our list we have Tour of Doom. Once on the field, this card can be activated at the beginning of the opponent’s turn, each of their turns. Once activated, you’d flip a coin: if it’s heads then the opponent can’t normal summon this turn, and they also cannot flip a facedown monster. This means the only way they can summon a monster this turn is with Special Summoning. Or if it lands on tails, this effect is applied to you on your next turn. The reason this card is so low on the list is because, if you’re winning, you don’t need to use it; and if you’re losing, chances are the opponent already has a monster on the field. And then you run the risk of not being able to summon a monster yourself next turn. This card is good in the right hands, you just have to predict when the opponent is going to make a big move… Even so, it doesn’t prevent Special Summoning, so you can’t prevent your opponent from summoning, just Normal and Flip Summoning.
14. Cup of Ace
Barely beating out Tour of Doom, we have Cup of Ace! The reason I placed this card above Tour of Doom is because it’s much less destructive and a bit more impactful. So while the gain is lower, so is the loss; and I feel like the safer pick is the better one. Cup of Ace lets you flip a coin, if it lands on heads you get to draw 2 cards. If tails, then your opponent gets to draw 2 cards instead. Yep, it’s really that simple. Either you get lucky and (hopefully) draw 2 cards you can use, or you give the opponent 2 cards that could help them beat you. Probably not one of the greatest draw cards in the game, but certainly one you could run with not too much downside. But this is why it’s so low on the list, because it really is a 50/50 on what happens. And either way it shouldn’t impact the game too much, but who knows, maybe you’ll top deck!
13. Gambler of Legend
The first monster card of the list, hopefully it’s not as unlucky as the number I’ve placed it at… Well in the 13th spot we have Gambler of Legend! On your turn you can activate this card, and you flip 3 coins and get an effect depending on how many flips land on heads. We’ll go from worst to best. If 0 flips land on heads, you have to put your entire hand in the graveyard. If 1 flip lands on heads, you have to target 1 card you control and destroy it. If 2 flips land on heads, you pick a random card from your enemy’s hand and discard it. If all 3 of the coins land on heads, you can target every monster your enemy controls, and destroy them all. So all-in-all this card is slightly beneficial. Getting only 1 heads flip is bad, but not game ending. And the chances of getting 0 heads is really slim, so you shouldn’t have too much too worry about. And if the card is annoying you too much and you get 1 heads, you can just destroy Gambler of Legend himself!
12. Arcana Force I – The Magician
Next up we have an absolute mouthful of a card… Arcana Force I – The Magician. Upon summing this card you can flip a coin. If it lands on heads then any time a spell is activated, you can make this card’s ATK double its original ATK. If it lands on tails, any time a spell is activated, the enemy gains 500LP. So this sounds like it could be really strong in theory, because even if the enemy gains 500LP, this card can out damage that. But if the opponent has a stronger monster (which is likely as this card only has 1100ATK), then this card only helps your opponent. It also isn’t even that powerful if you land a heads, as you have to activate a spell card. And even if you have a field spell or equip spell, they aren’t applied to the double ATK, as the card reads “this card’s ATK becomes double its original ATK”, basically cancelling out any other buffs it has.
11. Ms. Judge
Ms. Judge has an incredibly strong effect. When the enemy uses a card effect, you can flip 2 coins. If both land on heads: negate that effect. Now if this is so strong, why is she so low on the list? Well, it’s only a 25% chance for you to land 2 heads, and the effect can only be used once per turn. This really limits her capabilities. And on top of this, as a Level 4 monster, her ATK (1800) and DEF (600) are a sight for sore eyes the later you get into the game. However, she definitely has her uses. And she can come in clutch if your opponent wants to use a card like Monster Reborn or Mirror Force. This can really cripple decks that rely on specific card effects too, like Vampire Sorcerer or Vampire Vamp in a Vampire deck.
10. Goddess of Whim
Now I know what you’re thinking… How on earth is a card like Goddess of Whim on this list, let alone in the top 10?! But let me explain myself! This card has the potential to sweep your opponent’s board in the early game. On your turn, you can flip a coin and call it. If you guess it, double Goddess of Whim’s ATK for the rest of the turn, otherwise halve it for the rest of the turn. So, this sounds similar to Arcana Force I – The Magician, right? Note quite. Unlike The Magician, this card isn’t limited by its original ATK. Meaning if you put equip spells on it and have a good field spell, it can reach monstrous heights. And when used in conjunction with cards like Second Coin Toss (we’ll get on to that one later), you almost guarantee calling the coin toss correctly, making this card a huge threat in the early game, and still helpful in the midgame if you have a good array of equip spells and a field spell.
9. Time Wizard
Ah yes, good old Time Wizard! This is probably the best known “coin flip” card, and for good reason. I decided to include Time Wizard over Time Wizard of Tomorrow simply because you can summon it straight from the hand, and because if your Time Wizard does go to the graveyard, it’s much easier to re-summon. During your turn you can flip a coin, and if you correctly call it you target and destroy every one of your opponent’s monsters. However, if you call it incorrectly, then you target and destroy every one of your monsters, and you take damage from all of your face-up monsters ATK added together, then halved. While this card can be game changing, it’s only a 50/50 that it’s beneficial for you. Even with the 50 / 50 of a coin flip, the risk is greater than the reward. If you call it wrong you take damage and lose all your monsters, if you call it right you only destroy all of your opponent’s monsters, which is still strong… just not worth the risk of losing all of your monsters.
8. Lucky Chance
Initially, I had this card a lot higher on my list. But the more I looked through my list, I realized two things… The first being: Oh my God, there are actually some good coin flip cards. The other being, is drawing cards really that useful? So that’s why we have Lucky Chance right around the middle of this list. Lucky Chance can be activated any time a monster effect procs a coin flip. Then you flip a coin, and if it matches the coin flip of the monster effect, draw 1 card. This might sound a little lackluster. But as a continuous trap card, it stays on the field and can be activated multiple times per turn. This lets you potentially draw multiple cards per turn.
7. Sasuke Samurai #4
Another middle of the road card here is Sasuke Samurai #4. This card’s effect is really strong, but a massive risk. When battling a monster you can toss a coin (before damage calculation), and if called correctly, you destroy the enemy’s monster. On paper, this seems great. And it can be. If your opponent wants to attack you with a stronger monster there’s a 50 / 50 that you destroy it. And then Sasuke Samurai #4 lives to fight another day. However if you’re making the attacks, it becomes much less useful. For example, if you attack a monster with higher ATK, there’s a 50% chance that you lose health and this card gets destroyed. Similarly, if this card is stronger than what it’s attacking, you can use the effect… but why would you need to? You’re going to destroy that monster anyway. For these reasons it’s in the middle of the pack, and is definitely useful when playing defensively. But it loses importance when you’re on the offensive.
6. Twin-Barrel Dragon
Here’s a card with a nice simple effect: after you summon this monster you flip 2 coins, and if both land on heads you can target 1 of your opponent’s cards and destroy it. The reason this is so much higher on this list is because you’re destroying any card your opponent controls, instead of negating the effect of a card. If your opponent has a strong monster, you can target that. An annoying trap card? Destroy that, and the sky’s the limit with what you can eliminate. It is a Level 4 monster, so it’s ATK and DEF definitely fall off in the late game. But early game this thing is a force to be reckoned with. And in the mid-to-late game, you can summon it in hopes of destroying a card your opponent has.
5. Fairy Box
If the enemy tries to attack then you can activate this card and flip a coin: if called correctly, the monster’s ATK is reduced to 0 until after the battle phase. Otherwise, the attack goes through as normal. It should be noted that this card is Continuous, and so stays on the field until it’s destroyed. However, at the start of each of your turns you have to pay 500LP to keep this card on the field. Fairy Box is incredibly powerful at times. And with cards like Second Coin Toss, it becomes even stronger. The only reason it’s not higher on the list is because of the LP cost. If you’re low on LP it can be hard to justify activating it. Plus, using it in the early game isn’t as useful because most of your opponent’s monster’s ATK will be lower anyway. So you’ll be preventing damage, but not as much. And you have to keep in mind the passive 500LP you’ll be losing just to keep it on the field.
4. Proton Blast
Another Continuous Spell card on this list, and the one I consider the best here… but it doesn’t actually have a coin flip itself. This card can be activated once per turn when a card effect lets you toss coins, and it applies the effects based on how many flips land on heads. If there are 1 or more heads, you can inflict 500 damage to your opponent’s LP. If there are 2 or more heads, you destroy one of the cards your opponent controls. If there are 3 or more heads, you get to look at your opponent’s hand and choose a card for them to discard. Additionally, when this card is in the graveyard and there’s another card effect that calls for 2 or more coin flips, Proton Blast can be banished from your graveyard so that every coin flip is treated as a heads. Now all of these effects are separate. But the 1, 2, and 3 heads coin flips all stack. So if you get 3 heads you deal 500 damage to the opponent’s LP, and you can destroy 1 of their cards on the field, and remove a card from their hand after looking at it. This really propels Proton Blast to the higher end of this list, and is a must-have for any luck-focused deck.
3. Desperado Barrel Dragon
Number 3 on the list is what I consider to be the strongest coin flip monster… Desperado Barrel Dragon. This card has a lot of effects, so let’s get into them. First off, if you control a DARK machine monster and it gets destroyed, you can special summon this card from your hand. This itself is crazy, considering this card has a whopping 2800ATK. But that’s not why it’s on the coin flip list! Once per turn you can flip 3 coins, and for however many heads you get, you can destroy up to the same number of (face-up) monsters that your opponent controls. And if you land 3 heads, you can draw 1 card. Jeez. Imagine your opponent attacks your poor defenseless (not literally) Cyberdark Edge. You special summon Desperado Barrel Dragon from your hand, and then on your turn you activate its effect, flip 3 heads, and destroy 3 of your opponent’s monsters. That is the power of this card. But it should be noted that if you use the coin flip effect of Desperado Barrel Dragon, it cannot attack for that turn. But if you clear the opponent’s board, who cares!
2. Dark Sanctuary
I was gonna have this card at the top, but realistically I just couldn’t (trust me, the actual number 1 is just better). So taking the runner-up spot we have Dark Sanctuary. This card has a lot of effects. So I’m only going to be talking about the one that’s relevant to coin flipping. If your opponent wants to attack, you can toss a coin: if it lands on heads, negate the attack and apply half of the monster’s ATK as LP damage. If it lands on tails, the attack goes through as normal. This effect can be activated multiple times per turn, so if your opponent has multiple monsters attacking, chances are you’ll land a heads at least once. And our #1 pick on this list actually ups those odds even more! But this effect does make Dark Sanctuary a priority for your opponent to target. So you should be sure to run 3 of these in your deck, as well as Terraforming, so you can set up as early as possible.
1. Second Coin Toss
Can you guess what this card does? Pretty straightforward really, and very useful. This card lets your retry any coin flip you do (once per turn). And it works on cards that flip multiple coins too, but you do have to flip all of the coins again. The reason this card is number 1 is because, any time you roll the wrong way, you can just say “Nope!” And try again. Dark Sanctuary didn’t land a heads? Don’t worry, try again! You called Goddess of Whim wrong? No you didn’t! Even though this card can only be called once per turn, it’s still by far the best coin flip card, and it’s at the center of all coin flip decks. And for good reason: it’s insanely good!
