Summary
Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime often creates exclusive effects for cards to make them look cool, but these effects don’t always match real-world card games. Kaiba has played some of the strongest real-world cards in the anime, including Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, which was banned from competition. Kaiba’s philosophy of treating his cards as powerful tools is consistent with his use of rare and valuable cards, while Yugi’s card choices are generally less effective but he enhanced them through his connection and faith in the Heart of the Cards.
Many characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime uses some incredibly powerful cards, but sometimes those cards aren’t as powerful as when they’re added to real-world card games. However, some cards retain their power in the real world and continue to distort the game. One character in the anime plays these cards at a higher rate than any other character.
To make certain cards look cool and encourage viewers to buy them, Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime often gives them exclusive effects that won’t fit in the actual game. This is especially true in the first season when the rules are more flexible but later it will also apply to more iconic cards like Winged Dragon of Ra (although the Yu-Gi- trading card game Oh! tried to solve this problem by separating the symbolic cards (its different forms into different cards). There are also cases where powerful cards in anime like Dark Magician or Blue-Eyes White Dragon are much less powerful in real life due to them being mechanically underpowered or inconsistent. Despite these circumstances, there are still some cards that have great power that the anime shows them to have.
Kaiba played the strongest cards of Yu-Gi-Oh! in Anime
Of course, when discussing powerful cards, things like Pot of Greed, Monster Reborn, and a number of other powerful spells come up. While these are very powerful, they cannot win the game on their own as monitoring is required to take full advantage of them. Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, played by Kaiba in the show’s fifth season, is a boss monster that can win the game on its own. It’s so powerful that it was actually one of the first cards to be banned from competitive play in real world play. An argument can also be made that Crush Card Virus is the strongest, in the rare case where a weakened anime effect does not reduce this card’s power, but Kaiba also plays that card.
It’s fitting that the fighter playing the strongest real-world cards in the show is Kaiba. Kaiba begins the series obsessed with acquiring the world’s most powerful cards, and although he eventually shifts focus to defeating Yugi, the cards he uses to do so still have More prestigious and rare than cards of other characters. Yugi started the series with the powerful Exodia and acquired some other extremely powerful cards like the Egyptian God Card, but the main cards he used in his deck were generally much weaker. Yugi enhances these cards through his connection to them and his belief in the Heart of the Cards, while Kaiba views his cards as more powerful tools.
While Exodia’s effect allows a fighter to win the game, it is too inconsistent to be extremely powerful in the real world.
Kaiba’s powerful cards represent his philosophy in Yu-Gi-Oh!
Given his philosophy, it only makes sense for Kaiba to use the strongest cards in the game in the real world. In the real world, Heart of the Cards is much less reliable than in the anime, so the powerful cards Kaiba uses will generally outperform those used by other fighters. However, Yu-Gi-Oh! The anime proves that strength isn’t everything when it comes to these duels as well as even with these string cards, Kaiba cannot defeat his opponent.
Episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! is streaming on Crunchyroll!
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