Throughout the years, Yu-Gi-Oh has had multiple anime series, manga, and movies. Like any good show or movie, when there is a hero, there is also a villain. A great villain makes for a better hero. Yugi/Pharaoh being the original dueling team, they had a lot of great villains. That being said there are also a lot of other villains in the other renditions of Yu-Gi-Oh that had just as evil duelers throughout there series.
Whether it is Yugi/Pharaoh, Jaden Yuki, or Yusei Fudo, their hearts are always in the cards and are ready to take on any challenger.
10 Vellian Crowler
Crowler was one of the main antagonists of the first few seasons of the Yu-Gi-Oh Gx series. He is on the department chair and the headmaster of Duel Academy. He currently uses the Medieval Shadow Deck. He was a great antagonist because he was constantly trying to get Jaden kicked out of the academy or scheming against him.
Crowler does, however, grow throughout the show and learn to appreciate Jaden's potential. That said, it did not stop him from being the biggest jerk of the first and second season. How did he become headmaster if he is literally trying to get the best duelist kicked out of the school?
9 Seto Kaiba
Kaiba is one of the greatest duelists and consistent competitors in the anime series. In fact, he is the reincarnation of Priest Seto, the first wielder of the blue eyes white dragon cards. Kaiba was adopted by the multimillionaire Kaiba family and is now next in line for KaibaCorp.
In the premiere episode of Yu-Gi-Oh, Kaiba kidnaps—or in this case grandpa-naps—Yugi's grandfather because he would not sell his prized Blue eyes white dragon card to Kaiba. When Kaiba finally gets his hands on the card, after he defeats Solomon Moto in a duel, he rips it up in front of Yugi. That's pretty messed up.
8 Noah Kaiba
Noah is the only biological child of Gozaburo Kaiba, that is until Noah became the brother of Seto and Mokuba. When Noah was 12, he got into a bad car accident which left him in a comatose state. In hopes of making his son feel alive again, Gozaburo created a virtual world that Noah could live in where his accident didn't matter.
Of Course, his life in this virtual world did not give him happiness for long, and he sought revenge on Seto, as he now has all his father's attention. Noah then kidnapped Seto, Yugi, and his friends in an effort to destroy them.
7 Kagemaru
Kagemaru is the main antagonist of the first season of the Yu-Gi-Oh GX series. Before he went to the dark side, he founded the Duel Academy and sat on the board. Being the leader of the Beast riders, he used the sacred beast deck.
When poor health and old age took over his body, he yearned to be young again. He hoped to use the duel spirits to return to his former self. When he came to Duel academy by helicopter, a lot of students wanted to battle him, but he only accepted one offer... Jaden.
6 Z-One
Z-One was the last antagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's anime. He was a savior of the Meklord Emperor Genocide, which is what brought the world into an apocalyptic future. Z-One is 200 years from an alternate future In Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's timeline.
He founded the Iliaster cult, which translates to the "first chaos in the matter of all things." His followers call him god, the creator, or sometimes the ancient one. Z-One's plan was to destroy New Domino City because he thought it was the right thing to save the future. Despite him insisting it was for the better, it did not stop him from tearing New Domino and Satellite into two
5 Maximillion Pegasus
Pegasus is the creator of Duel Monster and the president of Industrial Illusions. He is the first antagonist introduced in the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime. He has his hands on various cards that have not been seen by the public eye but tends to use his toon/illusion deck when dueling.
Pegasus is in possession of the Millennium eye. Pegasus wanted to gain control of KaibaCorp for their Solid Vision and all the Millennium items to resurrect his dead lover Cecelia. He went as far as to take the souls of Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, and Solomen Muto in his efforts to save his wife. When Yugi defeats him he becomes an ally to Yugi and his friends throughout the rest of the series.
4 Sartorius
Sartorius is one of the antagonists in the Yu-Gi-Oh Gx series. He was a fortune-teller who specialized in tarot cards, but the deck he used for dueling was called the arcane deck. He was possessed by The Light of Destruction, a celestial entity that wanted to use him to remake the world for an extraterrestrial being.
Much like other villains on this list, Sartorius wanted to destroy the world and start over new. He thought convincing Jaden to join on his side was the key to dreams. Sartorius is not the evil one in this scenario, but the entity that posses him. When Jaden eventually defeats him, Sartorius thanks him for ridding him of the extraterrestrial monster.
3 Yami Bakura
Yami Bakura is the evil apparition of the Millennium Ring. He took over the body and personality of Bakura Ryou. Throughout the original Yu-Gi-Oh series, he was always lurking the shadows, but he did not become the main antagonist until the last season of the series. He uses a multitude of decks throughout the series, which makes sense, considering he is over 3,000 years old.
Of course, Yami wanted world domination. Thought out the series he had a bunch of plans to do this, but they were always foiled. There was a time Yami trapped Yugi, Joey, Tristen, Tia Ryou's spirits into their favorite cards in a scheme to try and get his hands on the Millennium puzzle.
2 Yubel
Yubel is an antagonist in the Yu-Gi-Oh Gx dimension World arc. As a child, Jaden had the Yubel card in his collection. The catch to using the Yubel card growing up was that the opponent would fall into a coma upon defeat. When Jaden had the opportunity to send the card to space because of a card design contest, he was quick to enlist. In space, Yubel was shown the light of destruction and it turned her crazy. She became obsessed with Jaden's love and affection which she once had when Jaden was a kid.
Yubel returned to earth to try and convince Jadem to become a ruler of the demons, but Jaden refused. When Jaden won the duel against her, she saw the error of her ways and they fused together to become a dueling team.
1 Yami Marik
The last villain on this list is Yami Marik, the leader and founder of the Rare Hunters. He is the main antagonist of the Battle City Finals arc. He is the second personality of Marik Ishtar that becomes a reality because of Marik's pain and hatred.
Marik did not have a good life, as his father used to beat him to a pulp and forced him to guard the Pharaoh's tomb until Marik died. He is not opposed to killing and has tried on multiple occasions. Dark Yami succeded in killing Marik's father for their suffering. Marik never gives up on trying to defeat Yugi and harness the power of the Pharaoh.