Mill decks are one of the more bizarre rogue decks of Yu-Gi-Oh. The aim of the game with this strategy is to get rid of every single card in your opponent’s deck so that they lose by decking out. This is done by either making someone draw loads and loads of cards, or by sending cards from their deck to the graveyard until they have nothing left. The great thing about this strategy is that it literally does not matter what deck your opponent is playing: As long as you can keep them drawing, you’ll be winning no matter what. So without further ado, let’s hit the deck and start drawing up this ranking of the best mill cards in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!
15. Gift of Greed
Starting off this list is a card that’s only use is mill decks (unless you like losing). This card does exactly what it says on the tin (or jar): It lets your opponent draw 2 cards. So this is a decent way of getting your opponent to draw more cards and get closer to decking out, but comes with the disadvantage that it’s a trap card. So you’ll have to set it before you can play it. However, mill decks can easily slow the game down to a halt when they need to. So I’d say overall, Gift of Greed is a great mill option.
14. Iron Chain Dragon
Iron Chain is one of those archetypes that has about 4 cards to their name, with only 2 of them being useful (Looking at you, Digital Bugs…) This is one of the better cards from the Iron Chain archetype: It’s a level 6 synchro that can mill your opponent for 3 cards every time it does battle damage. And with 2500 attack, that should be easy to do. The main reason this card is so great is that you can reuse it every turn. You could also combo this card with Double Attack to get, well, double the value! Iron Chain Dragon would be way higher up the list if it wasn’t a synchro monster. Having to make room for tuner cards in your deck is an absolute pain. Especially when you want as many of your cards to be milling your opponent.
13. Voltic Bicorn
Sadly this is another case of an absolutely insane ability, but that damn silver border makes it near impossible to play. With this card you get to mill your opponent for 7 cards when it’s destroyed. The best way to use Voltic Bicorn is to let your opponent bring out their big boss monsters, and just crash this guy into them. Sure, you’ll take a little bit of battle damage. But they’ll be losing 7 cards. All you need to do then is rinse and repeat, using a revival trap like Call of the Haunted to mill your opponent for a total of 14 cards. If your mill deck has room to spare for a couple of tuners to make a level 7 synchro, then this card is an absolute must.
12. Morphing Jar #2
The baby brother to Morphing Jar, this demon in a bottle can pack a punch in a mill deck. When he’s attacked or flipped up, it shuffles away all monsters on the field. Each player then mills until they reveal the same number of monsters they lost, and special summons all of the level 4 or lower ones. If you play this against a spell/trap heavy deck like Spellbooks or Dark Magicians, then odds are your opponent is going to be losing a hefty chunk of their deck – if not all of it! If you really want to grind your opponent into dust (and leave them with a life-long fear of face-down cards), combine this with Inferno Tempest which removes all monsters in their deck. Pull this off right and you’ll win the duel then and there.
11. Dragged Down into the Grave
Ah, truly a diplomatic Yu-Gi-Oh card if I’ve ever seen one. Dragged Down into the Grave lets you and your opponent see each other’s hands, pick a card you don’t like, and force them to replace it. This is fantastic for two reasons: Not only are you cycling through your opponent’s deck faster with this spell, but you’re also eliminating any potential threats. This way, you can make sure that your milling strategy won’t be interrupted any time soon. Good cards to get rid of would be big boss monsters, or cards that destroy spells/traps. Mill decks are typically very monster light, with a couple of monsters sprinkled here and there. So you’ll want to keep your spells and traps safe if you want to win. Just make sure you don’t have anything too good in hand, or else your opponent will probably nip that in the bud.
10. Chainsaw Insect
Chainsaw Insect’s effect was meant to make up for the fact that it’s a 2400 attack monster you can summon for free. However, this is Yu-Gi-Oh! With enough thinking and plotting, any “bad” effects can (and will) be exploited. In this case, Chainsaw insect not only gives us a big monster to protect ourselves with, but also helps us to mill our opponent. With an attack stat that rivals that of the great Monarchs, any mill deck would be incomplete without this helpful critter.
9. Level Modulation
Initially designed as a support card for the LV archetype from the GX era, this spell card acts as a reverse Pot of Greed. You let your opponent draw 2 cards, and in return you can special summon an LV monster from your graveyard. Sadly, that LV monster cannot attack or use its effects. But this still provides a great defense while you’re busy shredding your opponent’s deck! In the best-case scenario, you can grab an Armed Dragon LV 10 from your graveyard. Then you’d be sitting nice and cozy behind a 3000 attack wall, that’s for sure.
8. Necroface
As good as this card is, it gives me the heebie-jeebies. I mean, it’s literally a creepy doll head filled with tentacles! When Ol’ Cthulhu Head (Necroface) is banished, each player banishes the top 5 cards of their deck. The great thing about this effect is that banished cards are way harder to retrieve than graveyard cards. So the cards you do get rid of are practically gone for good. A great way to instantly fire this off is to combine Necroface with Gold Sarcophagus. This will instantly banish Necroface from the deck, meaning you don’t even have to wait for it to show up in your hand.
7. Gravekeeper’s Servant
This is what I call DIY milling. You’ve spent so much time dwindling your opponent’s deck down to nothing. Now it’s their turn to help out. This continuous spell card forces them to send the top card of their deck to the graveyard every time they declare an attack. As your opponent’s deck gets smaller and smaller, Gravekeeper’s Servant will force your opponent to put themselves closer and closer to the edge every time they try to take out your life points. And if you really want to play mind games with your opponent, combine this spell card with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, which takes a card currently on the field and puts it on top of their deck. Now do they attack and lose that monster, or hold back and leave your life points intact? Decisions, decisions…
6. Needle Worm
When you think of a mill deck, you think of this guy. Needle Worm is one of the classic mill deck cards. In fact, there’s an infinite loop involving Needle Worm and Morphing Jar #2 that can instantly deck-out your opponent. When it’s flipped up, you destroy the top 5 cards from your opponent’s deck. This is one of the few cards on this list that is actually beneficial to mill decks and regular decks alike! Removing resources from your opponent is always going to give you an advantage. So Needle Worm is great in pretty much any deck you like. It’s also worth mentioning how great cards like Needle Worm are against pendulum decks. Pendulum monsters typically go face-up to the Extra Deck when destroyed, so very few pendulum decks will run revival spells like Monster Reborn. Needle Worm can mean their monsters are useless!
5. Kuraz the Light Monarch
There’s a reason that Monarchs always crop up in these rankings: Monarchs are insanely strong monsters with incredible effects, and Kuraz the Light Monarch is no exception. Not only does Kuraz destroy your opponent’s monsters, but it helps to deck them out at the same time. This is great for removing those big monsters you just can’t get over, leaving you safe to mill another turn. Kuraz can also be used in a pinch if you have some useless cards in your own hand. You can pop cards on your side of the field and use his effect to replace your own bad cards this way. The only drawback here is that Kuraz can’t attack on the turn he’s summoned. But as a 2400 attack monster, he provides some fantastic defense until the next turn.
4. One Day of Peace
A staple to mill decks, burn decks, and Exodia decks: If there’s a rogue deck you can think of, it plays One Day of Peace. The great thing about this card is that it lets you get closer to your more powerful mill cards, and it mills your opponent for 1 card, and it protects you from damage for an entire turn. If this card had any more value it would be worth its weight in gold. One Day of Peace is an absolute staple and should be run at 3 copies, no question.
3. Card Destruction
Card Destruction was on the ban list for so many years, and rightfully so. Yet it was unbanned in 2018 and limited to one copy. And since then it has wreaked havoc on many a battlefield. Not only does this card mill your opponent for an entire hand’s worth of cards, but it also allows you to replenish your stocks and get right down to your best cards. The best time to use Card Destruction is after playing a bunch of spells/traps that make your opponent draw cards, such as Gift of Greed. The bigger their hand is, the bigger the damage this card will cause. With enough draw power forced onto your opponent, this card could be game winning. Just make sure you set your best cards before playing this. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve accidentally discarded my power pieces with this card.
2. Inferno Tempest
Inferno Tempest is hard to pull off, but also a ludicrously rewarding spell. If your opponent can deal 3000 damage in one single attack, they will lose every single monster in their deck and graveyard. I can’t think of a single deck that could function after a devastating loss like this. Although 3000 damage sounds like a lot, loads of decks can achieve this. For starters, Blue Eyes White Dragon, the most iconic card in Yu-Gi-Oh! has 3000 attack. And Rank 10 Train decks can easily get up to 5000+ attack. And for an almost disgusting level of power, combine this card with D.D. Dynamite, to blow your opponent away with 300 damage for every card banished! Just beware that you’ll also lose your monsters here, so make sure you’ve already played your best ones.
1. Morphing Jar
Could any list of mill cards really be topped off with anything else? Morphing Jar has been on the ban list for most of its life, and is definitely the scariest pot and/or jar that Yu-Gi-Oh! has to offer (and that’s a surprisingly long list). Well Morphing Jar is now back at one copy, and it’s back with a vengeance. The broken thing about Morphing Jar is that if used correctly, you can mill your opponent for 5 and draw 5 cards for free! All you have to do is set this card while you have an empty hand, and then it’s practically raining cards. This means you’ll probably draw into some of the other powerful mill cards on this list, and your opponent will have a fraction of their deck left once your turn is over. For vicious levels of hand control, follow up Morphing Jar with Crush Card Virus or Eradicator Epidemic Virus to make sure your opponent is left with nothing while you just keep on millin’.
