Whether we’re talking about old school Spellcaster beat down, or more modern Pendulum Magicians, nothing beats a well-built spellcaster decks. And while Spellcasters may have a lot of strong monsters, you’re going to need more than just strong monsters if you want to win at Yu-Gi-Oh! You’re going to need cards to back up those monsters. But what are the best spells and trap to support your spellcaster strategies? And what decks should you play them in? Let’s check out some of the best to make your deck a mystical force to be reckoned with.
15. Magicat
This guy is only really useful to spellcaster decks that have access to synchro summoning, so you’ll need a few tuners in your deck to really make use of this card. If Magicat is sent to the graveyard for the synchro summon of a spellcaster monster, you can put any spell card from your graveyard to the top of the deck – meaning you can use it all over again next turn! (Providing your deck doesn’t get shuffled, of course) There are loads of great spellcaster synchro monsters to choose from – there’s really one for every kind of strategy! Spellcaster decks rely heavily on spells in order to do their magic. Having a card that can recycle your best spells is key to winning – and ensures that you can use that winning combo again and again.
14. Jigabyte
You may recognize Jigabyte from elsewhere in Yu-Gi-Oh. Not only is this card part of the Gagagigo monster line, but it also appears on the artwork of Familiar Possessed- Eria. It’s this close connection to the Charmer archetype that Jigabyte’s effect references. Whenever you control a spellcaster monster, you can special summon this guy from your hand. This is great if you’re looking to incorporate extra deck summoning into your strategy. Jigabyte gives you those extra resources you need to make summoning possible. For example, if you control another level 4 monster, this effect immediately sets you up for an XYZ summon! Or maybe you’ve got a tuner on the field, which you can combine with Jigabyte into a powerful synchro monster.
13. Magic Gate of Miracles
Summoning more monsters so you can summon from the extra deck is great and all… But you know what’s better? Stealing your opponent’s monsters to summon with instead! That way, not only will you get an insanely powerful extra deck monster, you’ll also be able to steal your opponent’s best monsters. Another great strategy with this card is to steal an opponent’s monster with a good defense stat. Magic Gate of Miracles forces the stolen monster into defense position, and it can’t be destroyed in battle. This means you’ll have a monster that protects you from direct LP damage every single turn, regardless of how powerful your opponent’s monsters are.
12. Spell Wall
If there’s one thing Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is full of, it’s negate cards. With cards like Solemn Judgement back at 3 copies per deck, and monsters getting more powerful with each passing set, it’s no wonder that so many decks are opting to include cards that negate summons now. Spell Wall provides some great protection against this. On the turn this card is played, any summons for Spellcaster monsters can’t be negated, nor can your opponent activate effects in response to their summon. This ensures you can get your monsters out on the board safely – without worrying about them getting blown up immediately! The downside to this card is that your opponent doesn’t take damage during the turn you activate it. But it’s a pretty good price to pay to ensure the safety of your monsters – although this can still hinder your gameplan if you don’t plan around it.
11. Magical Blast
Typically in Yu-Gi-Oh, most of your damage will be done by battle. Sometimes this just isn’t enough, and you need that little bit of extra damage to really put the screws on your opponent! Magical Blast inflicts 200 damage for each Spellcaster you control. If you’ve got a field full of monsters then you’re looking at around 1000 points of damage. This may not sound like a lot, and really it isn’t a lot. But this is where Magical Blast’s second effect comes into play. During your draw phase, you can forfeit your draw that turn to add this card from your graveyard right back to your hand. This means you can sink damage into your opponent repeatedly. And that kind of repeated burn damage can win games in no time.
10. Spellbook of Power
Spellbooks are a great way of powering up any magician deck. They’re a series of spell cards that each focus on powering up your Spellcasters in different ways: Some of them will give you an attack boost, others will provide protection from various card effects, and all of them are useful. This book in particular gives your Spellcaster a whopping 1000 point attack boost. On top of that, for every monster it destroys in battle, you can search a Spellbook card from your deck & add it to your hand. Combine this with cards that let you attack multiple times in a turn (see #7) and you’ve got some serious power on your hands.
9. Magical Dimension
Magical Dimension is great for getting rid of dud cards. It’s inevitable that at times in Yu-Gi-Oh, you’ll have useless monsters on the board. You could be playing the best deck possible, and there’ll always be a time when a monster is just a bit redundant. Magical Dimension recycles these guys into better cards you may have in your hand. Here’s how it works: you can tribute a monster you control to special summon a Spellcaster from your hand, and then immediately destroy 1 monster on the field. So not only are you upgrading your monsters for your better ones, but you’ll be destroying your opponent’s monsters at the same time.
8. Magicians Unite
Magicians Unite is proof that there really is power in numbers. As long as you control two spellcasters, you can make one of them have a huge attack of 3000. That’s a Blue-Eyes White Dragon! But for the rest of the turn, your other Spellcaster monsters can’t attack, which is understandable. I mean, at that point it would almost be overkill. This effect doesn’t prevent your other non-spellcaster monsters from attacking, however. Meaning if you can use your other spellcasters to summon any other type of monster, your opponent might be taking some serious damage.
7. Diffusion Wave Motion
Fun fact: Newer prints of this card have to include a clause stating that this doesn’t count as a “Fusion” card. Many years after this card was printed, we started seeing cards that could search Fusion cards to make Fusion decks a little more consistent – and this card technically has “Fusion” right there in the name. If you have high-level Spellcaster monsters in your deck, this card is fantastic for finishing games. You can target a level 7 or higher Spellcaster you control, and this turn it can attack every single one of your opponent’s monsters! If your opponent has quite a few weak monsters, this can clear their entire board – while sinking in a metric ton of damage. The best thing about this effect is that the destroyed monsters can’t activate their effects, and are straight up negated. This means your opponent can’t stop your attack streak with something like Man-Eater Bug, and they’ll have to come up with some other strategy to overcome your Spellcasters.
6. Dwimmered Path
Bringing back cards from the graveyard is seriously important in Yu-Gi-Oh. Your opponent will likely have a whole bunch of cards in their deck that destroy your monsters, or maybe they just have some really high attack monsters that you didn’t anticipate. Either way, if you can just bring back your Spellcasters like nothing happened, then you’ll be one step closer to victory. Dwimmered Path is perfect for just that, adding one effect-monster Spellcaster from your graveyard to your hand. Sadly you can’t add normal monsters. But in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! normal monsters are seriously rare (with exception to the Dark Magician, of course). And so for most Spellcaster builds, you won’t be affected by this restriction much.
5. Gagagashield
It’s all well and good to spend your resources getting out your best monsters. But all of that means nothing if they’re immediately destroyed by your opponent. Gagagashield is one of the best pieces of monster protection that Spellcasters have. It acts like an equip spell, but it’s in the form of a trap card, meaning you can activate it during your opponent’s battle phase while they’re unprepared! And while it’s equipped to a Spellcaster, this card prevents your monster from being destroyed from battle or card effect up to twice per turn. This means if your opponent wants to get rid of your Spellcaster monster, they’ll effectively have to beat it 3 times!
4. Bound Wand
Bound Wand provides a great attack boost for your Spellcaster monsters, while also doubling the value of what you can get from them. While it’s equipped to your monster, that Spellcaster gains attack equal to its level x 100. While a few hundred attack points may not be much, this kind of attack boost can make the difference between winning and losing a battle. So it’s always worth keeping these kind of attack boost cards in your deck. And when the equipped monster is destroyed & this equip spell is sent to the graveyard, you can special summon that equipped monster back from the grave. For maximum value out of this card, equip it to a Spellcaster that has an effect that triggers on summon. That way you’ll get to activate it twice with Bound Wand equipped.
3. Wonder Wand
It’s no surprise that draw power is crucial to winning in Yu-Gi-Oh. I mean, why else would Pot of Greed be banned? Wonder Wand gives your Spellcaster monster 500 attack while equipped – which isn’t a huge attack boost, but it may make the difference every now and then. However the real use of this card is its second effect: You can send both this spell and the equipped monster from the field to the graveyard to draw 2 cards! Being able to draw 2 cards, especially in such a generic way, is not common at all in Yu-Gi-Oh. And if you’re running a Spellcaster deck you should definitely make use of this one.
2. Magician’s Souls
While Magician’s Souls is itself a Spellcaster, it’s so good for Spellcaster decks that I couldn’t possibly make a list of support cards and not mention this one! When it’s in your hand it’s ludicrously easy to summon: All you need to do is send one level-6 or higher Spellcaster monster from your deck to the graveyard! This allows you to set up your graveyard with a great Spellcaster monster, so you can just summon them right back with some other effects. While it’s on the field you can also send 2 spells or traps from your hand/field/graveyard to draw 2 cards. This is a fantastic way of replacing your used-up spells and traps with some better cards from your deck – and it’s probably the best way to draw more cards in any Spellcaster deck.
1. Secret Village of the Spellcasters
We’ve talked about draw power, protection, monster revival, and lots more in this list. But there’s one strategy that’s really worth employing if you want to get the upper hand on your opponent: Floodgates. Floodgates are cards that stop one or both players from doing certain things in the game. And there’s a lot of ‘em. In this case, Secret Village of the Spellcasters prevents your opponent from activating spell cards while they don’t control a Spellcaster monster! Spell cards are such a big part of many common strategies, so this effect can be absolutely devastating to your opponent. The odds that your opponent is also running a Spellcaster deck is vanishingly small – especially in today’s format where a lot of the top decks are Dragon orientated, meaning this could shut down your opponent 99 times out of 100. If you’re playing any sort of deck that consistently summons Spellcaster monsters, then I’d recommend this card at 3 copies without hesitation. The ability to lock down your opponent so brutally is an opportunity that’s hard to pass up.
