It featured some new archetypes, as well as a variety of spells that are still undoubtedly some of the best cards out there. However, unlike many sets, Rise of the Duelist also contained some of the most expensive and sought-after cards. Needless to say, this made collecting a few choice picks on this list pretty difficult and costly. So if you’re curious about which of these cards are truly the best to track down, then take a peek below and see what grabs your attention.
10. D.D Crow
D.D Crow was a very popular card when it was first released, and is still played by many players. When D.D Crow is in your hand, you can discard it to target any card in your opponent’s graveyard, and then banish it. If you’re not sure why this card is so good, then consider the fact that almost every deck out there uses effects that involve cards in the graveyard. For instance, Eldlich the Golden Lord is infamous for constantly returning from the graveyard and destroying cards on your field. But with D.D Crow, you can easily take care of that problem by just banishing Edlich.
9. Ice Dragon’s Prison
Depending on the circumstances, Ice Dragon’s Prison can single-handedly turn the tides of a game – since it lets you both steal and banish a monster. When you activate Ice Dragon’s Prison, you can target a monster in your opponent’s graveyard and special summon it with its effects negated. Then you can banish a monster your opponent controls, as well as a monster you control. So essentially, this is a 1 for 1 trade, but you get a free monster in the process. The only problem is that both monsters need to have the same type. But an easy way to overcome this is by using cards like Zombie World or DNA Surgery to make all cards the same type.
8. Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon
Any monster with an effect that easily brings itself back from the graveyard is extremely annoying to deal with. Coincidently, Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon just so happens to be one of those cards. When this is Synchro summoned, you can excavate the top 5 cards of your deck and add an excavated light or dark monster to your hand – but you’d send the rest of the cards to the graveyard. And if Chaos Ruler is in the graveyard, you can summon it by banishing a light or dark monster from your hand or field, and then you’d banish Chaos Ruler when it leaves the field again. This can be easily accomplished, since you get to add a light/dark monster right when you summon this thing. Chaos Ruler can be a big pain to deal with too, since it has such a high attack. But it’s a great addition for any light or dark focused attribute deck.
7. Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles
Anyone who plays a Noble Knight deck should know just how powerful Emperor Charles is. During the end phase, you can activate Emperor Charles to equip an equip spell from your hand or graveyard onto this card. Then you can equip this card with a fire monster from your deck, which will give it an additional 500 attack. And finally, when an equip card is equipped to a monster, you can destroy any card on the field. If you are unfamiliar with the Noble Knight archetype, then you should know that the Noble Knight equip cards are absurdly powerful. For example, you can equip Emperor Charles with Infernoble Arms – Durendal, which allows it to make a direct attack on your opponent.
6. Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous
As of writing this article, the Starlight Rare version of this card easily goes for over $500. So you can probably guess that a lot of people want to get their hands on this thing. Here’s what it does: when a monster from the extra deck is on the field, you can special summon this card from your hand. And if this card is normal or special summoned, you can add any Dogmatika card from your deck to your hand. But after activating this effect, you cannot special summon monsters from the extra deck for the rest of this turn. That last effect means it’s really important for you to play your cards in the correct order. But otherwise, this card is extremely powerful since it allows you to search for any Dogmatika card. Overall, the flexibility really makes this a staple in any Dogmatika deck.
5. Shaddoll Schism
As the name suggests, Shaddoll Schism is yet another support card for the Shaddoll archetype. During the main phase, you can activate this card to fusion summon a Shaddoll monster by banishing monsters from your field or graveyard – but that monster cannot attack directly. Then you can send a monster your opponent controls to the graveyard with the same attribute as the summoned monster. The downside here is that the monster needs to be the same attribute. But the upside is that this is a continuous trap, so you can activate it each turn for as long as you need.
4. Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon – Air Raid
Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon – Air Raid is personally one of my favorite cards from this set, and definitely one of the more underrated cards on this list. Although it definitely has one seriously long name. You can special summon this card using a rank 5 or lower Raidraptor Xyz monster by discarding a rank-up spell. And once this card is summoned, you can target a monster your opponent controls, destroy it, and inflict damage equal to the attack of the destroyed monster. Once this card is destroyed, you can special summon Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon from your extra deck, and attach this as an Xyz material to it. Considering how powerful both these cards are, especially Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon, I’m honestly baffled when I don’t see it in a Raidraptor deck.
3. Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons
Gaia the Magical Knight of Dragons is the type of card that your opponent will want to get rid of right away. Otherwise, they’re in for a rough time. After you summon this card, during the main phase, you can activate Gaia’s effect to target and destroy another card on the field. And Gaia will lose 2600 attack in exchange. But hold on. Before you write this card off as useless, just know that it gains 2600 attack when it destroys another monster by battle. Additionally, when you summon it using Spiral Fusion, this card gains 2600 attack as well as a second attack during the battle phase. If you don’t activate this card on the turn it’s summoned and you destroy two monsters, you can have Gaia sitting around with 10,400 attack.
2. Forbidden Droplet
Forbidden Droplet is an absolutely amazing card to use against your opponent. But at the same time, it’s an absolute nightmare if your opponent uses it against you. With Forbidden Droplet, you can send any number of cards from your hand to the graveyard and target the same number of monsters that your opponent controls. Those monsters then have their attacks halved and effects negated. And to put the cherry on top, your opponent can’t activate cards of the same type that you sent to the graveyard (i.e. monster, traps, and spells) in response to this card. Which makes it very hard to counter. Against monsters like Cyber Dragon Infinity, this card is a blessing since it renders them useless and extremely vulnerable at quite a good cost.
1. Triple Tactics Talent
Now this last card to top off our list might be just as expensive as Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous… But for a good reason. When your opponent activates a monster effect during your main phase, you can activate this card to either draw 2 cards, take control of one of your opponent’s monsters, or shuffle a card from your opponent’s hand into the deck. This is essentially a 3-in-1 card, with the 3 cards being Pot of Greed, Change of Heart, and The Forceful Sentry – which all happen to be banned because they’re too powerful. Furthermore, in a meta filled with hand traps, this is one of the best cards to counter, since it allows you to easily recover from them. All in all, I’m quite surprised Triple Tactics Talent hasn’t made its way to the ban list yet (as of this writing). But at the same time, it’s extremely expensive. So it’s no surprise that not everyone is running it.
