Dark Magician – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday (2002)

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Dark Magician has gained A LOT of support and is our Throwback Thursday choice.

Vanilla Level 7’s aren’t ever good. 2500ATK was obsolete straight-away with the release of Summon Skull in the Starter Deck and BEWD being the best two-tribute monster out the gate. Fast forward many MANY years later and DM is its own archetype with support across the board. You can’t play it in anything other than a deck that is designed around it or DARK Spellcaster monsters, period. With the support nowadays you can search Dark Magician, buff it, search out the cards to make it dominate your opponent, etc. Eternal Soul, Magician Navigation, Soul Servant, Dark Magic Circle, Dark Magic Inheritance, Magician’s Rod, Apprentice Illusion Magician, the list goes on and on, but those are some of the best (especially Eternal Soul). It’s great to see that Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician, the two original monsters from when the game began got a load of support to make them competitive, even if it took well over a decade for each.

Because of all the support, Dark Magician has become so much better since its original release.

Advanced-4/5     Art-5/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

A month themed around the protagonists, why not look at all their ace monsters? With Yugi’s week, we of course start with Dark Magician.

Dark Magician is a Level 7 DARK Spellcaster with 2500 ATK and 2100 DEF. Fine stats on a Level 7, and DARK Spellcaster is once again a major plus. He’s the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, which while not literally the strongest Spellcaster due to Cosmo Queen existing, Dark Magician makes up for it with the plethora of support that Cosmo Queen wishes she could have. So many different cards in the game that summon Dark Magician or get effects when you summon/control Dark Magician. Dark Magician is extremely searchable as well, especially in its own Deck so you should never have an issue getting to this. It’s Fusion Material for many great Fusions like Dark Paladin (shoutout to Alex), Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, Dark Cavalry, The Dark Magicians, and Dragun of Red-Eyes. All cards mentioned are summonable off of The Eye of Timaeus by just tributing Dark Magician. You also got its Chaos Form themed Ritual in Magician of Chaos, which treats itself as Dark Magician on the field and in the grave just like Magician of Dark Illusion and Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, which shows how important Dark Magician is in terms of namesake in its own strategy. It’s a card that has a ton of support and will always get more support being Yugi’s ace. It’s a must in Dark Magician Decks until the potential we get a retrain that’s always treated as Dark Magician (kinda like Harpie Lady cards) and has a good effect, but I doubt they’d do that since they’d want us to play the original til the end of time. Have these ready for Dragun of Red-Eyes as well, it’ll be weird to see Dark Magician become a staple.

Advanced Rating: 5/5

Now get ready, since I don’t know what Dark Magician artwork you’ll end up seeing and the fact there’s a ton, I’ll give a rating for all of them in terms of art. Ready? Let’s go.

Art: 4/5 for the LOB artwork, 5/5 for the DDS artwork, 2.5/5 for the tablet artwork, 5/5 for Kazuki Takahashi’s artwork, 4.5/5 for the Movie Pack artwork, 3.5/5 for the 2016 Yugi Structure Deck artwork, 5/5 for the Arkana artwork, and 4.5/5 for the Duel Power artwork.

Alex
Searcy

It seems only appropriate to look at Dark Magician here for Throwback Thursday.  While there are so many reviews in the past for Dark Magician, I chose not to link them, but he’s had 7 in the past.  Most recently in September of 2017, so it’s been 2.5 years.  First reviewed all the way back in April of 2002, and my how the landscape has changed since then.

Dark Magician, even in Magician’s Force, back in the day, didn’t get or have much support to make himself very playable.  TODAY, however, he only continues to get more support, and only becomes better as a result of it.  Dark Magician can be the focal point of his own Spellcaster Deck, while he can also just be an asset or player in various builds focusing on other boss Monsters.  

Contrary to popular belief as well, he doesn’t need Dark Magician Girl, as most of his/their support cards are open ended enough to be able to be used with or for either.  While she does have her own small handful of support cards, the vast majority of the support is for him or both.  It’s fun to see how much support Dark Magician, as well as Spellcasters have these days.  Create some fun here and see what happens.  

Rating:  4.75/5  He’s not perfect, but there’s so many builds, and the support is everywhere.

Art:  Many different arts these days.  The one pictured here is a 4.5/5  This outfit with him coming from the stone tablet is my favorite, however.