Not only was he the best friend of Yugi Muto, the greatest duelist to have ever lived, but he was a fantastic duelist himself! He overcame all sorts of challenges and obstacles with his mighty warrior monsters. And in this list we’ll break down some of the best cards in Joey’s decks, just in case you want a little of that Brooklyn spice in your own deck. Note: this list only includes cards actually used by Joey Wheeler in the anime. Some of the legendary deck products released give Joey some powerful new XYZ monsters – but seeing as Joey didn’t have access to XYZ summons in the anime, it feels a bit silly to mention them now!
15. Panther Warrior
If you want to win at Yu-Gi-Oh, you’ll need to have some monsters with big attack stats in your deck. Panther Warrior has one of the best attack stats you’ll ever find on a level 4 monster – coming in at a whopping 2000 attack! The downside is that every time you want to attack with it, you’ll have to tribute another monster. It’s a pretty steep cost. But if you’ve got the monsters to spare, then Panther Warrior may be the best way of stampeding your way to victory.
14. Graverobber
Spell cards are getting more and more powerful as Yu-Gi-Oh progresses. Not only have you got the old-school powerhouses like Raigeki to deal with, but also newer cards like Forbidden Droplet can ruin your entire game plan! If your opponent has any of these powerful spell cards, Graverobber is an amazing way of the turning the game around. You can use it to steal an opponent’s spell card from their graveyard, and if you choose to play it, you take 2000 points of damage. While this may sound pretty steep, it’s a ludicrously cheap way of getting pretty much whatever spell card you want from your opponent – and an amazing way of getting some payback.
13. Rocket Warrior
Rocket Warrior is a decent monster with a great way of weakening your opponent’s monsters. Whenever this guy attacks an opponent’s monster, the defending monster loses 500 attack after the damage step. This means while the defending monster doesn’t lose 500 attack during this battle, it will for the next one. The cherry on top is that Rocket Warrior can’t be destroyed by battle during your turns, nor will you take any damage from attacks involving this card. This means you can weaken any of your opponent’s monsters, regardless of how high their attack is, since you’re not taking any damage either way.
12. Metalmorph
In the anime this card has a slightly different effect: It turns monsters into metal versions of themselves (like it turned Red-Eyes Black Dragon into Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, and for some reason Musician King into Heavy Metal Musician King). In reality, this card is a decent way of beefing up your monsters. When equipped, a monster will gain 300 attack and defense, plus half of the attack of any monster it attacks! This means the better your opponent’s monsters, are the more effective Metalmorph, and their own strong monsters may be their own downfall.
11. Black Skull Dragon
While Black Skull Dragon is a normal monster with no effect, it’s so iconic that I just had to give it a shout out. This card is pretty much a representation of Yugi and Joey’s friendship. It’s a fusion between Yugi’s Summoned Skull and Joey’s Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Yugi fusion summoned this card in a tag duel against the Paradox brothers in season 1, and used it to win them the duel. With a crazy high attack stat of 3200, Black Skull Dragon is an odd yet interesting fusion that could be played in any deck that uses both the materials.
10. Fairy Box
I absolutely love trolling my opponent in Yu-Gi-Oh. The more frustrated my opponent gets, the more fun I’m having! (Can you guess that I play control decks a lot?) Fairy Box makes the battle phase so much more frustrating for your opponent. Every time they want to attack, you can flip a coin and call it. If you call it right, the attacking monster loses every single one of its attack points, and your opponent will be in for some serious damage! The best thing about this card is how it introduces a bit of chance into the game. My favorite thing in Yu-Gi-Oh is when entire games boil down to a coin flip or a dice roll, so cards like this could always have a spot in my deck if the build is right.
9. Marauding Captain
When synchro and XYZ monsters were introduced, this card went from good to amazing instantly. When it’s normal summoned, you can special summon any level 4 or lower monster from your hand as well. If you special summon a level 3 monster then this sets you up perfectly for a rank-3 XYZ summon – and there are some seriously powerful options to choose from there! Alternatively, you could special summon a tuner from your hand and go into a synchro monster. While Joey may not have had access to these powerful extra deck monsters at the time, I’m sure if he did, he would have won a lot more duels with this guy in his deck.
8. Gearfried the Iron Knight
This card is so good that there was actually an OTK you could pull off with it. It involved recursively destroying and equipping the equip spell Butterfly Dagger- Elma, and then using cards like Royal Magical Library to draw unlimited cards (to get all the pieces of Exodia). In terms of normal gameplay, this guy is fantastic. Any equip spell that’s equipped to it is instantly destroyed. While this may sound like a disadvantage, it actually helps out in the right situations. Firstly, with an attack stat of 1800, this guy really doesn’t need an attack boost; he’ll get over most other level 4 monsters with ease. Secondly, this ability prevents your opponent from equipping it with any harmful equip spells like Cursed Armements, meaning Gearfried will stay strong and healthy for as long as you need.
7. Kunai with Chain
Kunai with Chain is such a confusing card. It’s a battle trap that’s effectively an equip spell – if you’re teaching a newbie to play Yu-Gi-Oh, this is a card to avoid like the plague. When your opponent’s monster attacks, you can activate Kunai with Chain to change that monster to defense position. You then have the option of equipping this card to one of your monsters to have it gain 500 attack. While most trap cards would be sent to the graveyard after use, this card actually stays face-up like an equip spell. Confusing to say the least, but helpful in many situations.
6. Goblin Attack Force
Goblin Attack Force is arguably one of the strongest level 4 monsters in the entire game. It has an insanely high attack stat of 2300, which rivals pretty much every other level 4 monster (and even many level 5 or 6 monsters) Your opponent will have to tribute summon or special summon from the extra deck to overcome this card. When it does attack, it’s changed to defense position at the end of the battle phase, where sadly it’s grand total of 0 defense points leaves it pretty much defenseless. A great way to counter this is with Skill Drain – this will negate the ability of forcing it into defense position, while you get to keep the 2300 attack beat stick that doesn’t require any tributes.
5. Gilford the Lightning
If there’s one thing I love about old-school Yu-Gi-Oh, it’s how good tribute summoning used to be. You barely see tribute summons in modern Yu-Gi-Oh – but back then it was the best way of getting your strongest monsters out. And here’s one of Joey’s cards that works real well with that kinda strategy: When Gilford the Lightning is tribute summoned, you have the option of tributing 3 monsters instead of the normal 2. If you do so, you can destroy every single monster your opponent controls! This’ll leave your opponent completely defenseless, while a 2800 attack monster stares them down.
4. Red-Eyes Black Dragon
We couldn’t make a list about Joey Wheeler without mention Red-Eyes Black Dragon. It’s his signature card, and is as iconic as the Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon! As the polar opposite of Blue-Eyes, this card represents the power of friendship, and believing in your abilities. Red-Eyes has seen a lot of support recently too. We’ve got some great XYZ monsters added to the card pool, some fusion monsters that will knock the socks off of any unsuspecting players – and probably the most powerful extra deck monster in all of Yu-Gi-Oh: Red Eyes Dark Dragoon! Whether you’re playing Yu-Gi-Oh competitively or casually, Red-Eyes Black Dragon is a great way to add some nostalgia to any deck.
3. Time Wizard
Time Wizard is one of the best cards relying entirely on chance. As I said before, I love gimmicky cards like this that can change the entire game with a coin flip… which is why I’ve put Time Wizard so high up on the list! This card is very high risk, very high reward. Once per turn you can flip a coin and call it: If you call it right, you can destroy every single monster your opponent controls. However if you call it wrong, all of your monsters are destroyed, and you take damage equal to half of all their attacks. This is enough damage to take you out of the game if you’re not careful – so this risk has to be a calculated one. Yet if you’re lucky with your coin flips, this card is a Raigeki every single turn. Just make sure you’ve got your good-luck charm nearby.
2. Scapegoat
Scapegoat is a card that’s overpowered both in old-school Yu-Gi-Oh and in the modern game. Back in the day, Scapegoat was an annoyingly hard obstacle to overcome. Just when your opponent thought they had you on the ropes, you could flip up Scapegoat and all of a sudden they’ve got 4 more monsters to overcome in battle. This can buy you enough time to pull together your game winning strategy. And it’s an incredibly powerful token-creating card in this Link-summoning format. Link monsters can be link summoned using token monsters, turning Scapegoat into a one-card link-4 monster – and there are some seriously powerful Link-4’s to choose from! Just take a look at Firewall Dragon and you’ll see why Scapegoat is so valuable.
1. Jinzo
Without a doubt, the best card in Joey’s arsenal has to be Jinzo. It’s one of the few cards in Joey’s deck that has actually seen widespread play competitively – and it’s easy to see why. While Jinzo is on the field, all trap effects become completely useless, and neither player can activate any new traps. Old-school Yu-Gi-Oh is home to some ludicrously overpowered trap cards – some of which are still played even to this day! Cards like Imperial Order, Macro Cosmos, and Mirror Force are all powerful traps that can completely mess up your game plan. While Jinzo locks you out of your own traps, the security of knowing that you don’t have to worry about a stray trap taking you out of the game is well worth the cost.
