When Kaiba first showed up at Yugi’s grandfather’s card shop, it was to buy the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon off of him...just so he could tear it in half. Why? Because he owned the other three, and he didn’t want the card he viewed as the most powerful monster in Duel Monsters used against him.

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But many years have passed since Kaiba and Yugi dueled over Kaiba’s out of line actions. In that time, Blue-Eyes was surpassed and then managed to catch up to the game once again. As if Kaiba was the one actually in control of Konami, the Blue-Eyes deck of today may actually be the best deck based on monsters from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the very best cards in that deck.

10 MELODY OF AWAKENING DRAGON

Admittedly, it doesn’t say the words “Blue Eyes” on it anywhere, but it’s effect reads: “add up to 2 Dragon monsters with 3000 or more ATK and 2500 or less DEF from your deck to your hand”.

The literal exact stats of the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon itself. The only reason it doesn’t say “add up to 2 Blue-Eyes to your hand” is so they could continue making support for the Blue-Eyes deck which would also allow this card to work with them. This spell card is clearly designed to get Blue-Eyes into the player’s hand as quickly and efficiently as possible, all for the cost of discarding a single card.

9 RETURN OF THE DRAGON LORDS

Here’s another card which doesn’t mention Blue-Eyes, but is pretty direct support for it and Joey’s Red-Eyes Black Dragon. It can target a level 7 (Red-Eyes) or level 8 (Blue-Eyes) monster in the graveyard and special summon it.

By itself, this actually isn’t too great of an effect, but what aids it is the secondary effect. If a Dragon monster would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from the graveyard instead. A player’s best chance of stopping Blue-Eyes is to destroy it before the opponent can attack with it, but with this Blue-Eyes is protected from everything from the classic Mirror Force to creating a monster that’s simply bigger than it.

8 DRAGON SPIRIT OF WHITE

Despite not having Blue-Eyes in its name, the first line of this card’s text reads that it’s always treated as a “Blue-Eyes” card. Plus it kinda looks like Blue-Eyes’ ghostly brother anyways. It’s treated as a normal monster in the hand or graveyard, which gives it synergy with some of Blue-Eyes’ other support.

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But when it’s summoned, it’s an effect monster that can target a spell or trap card of the opponent’s and banish it. And in a pinch, it can tribute itself during either player’s turn to special summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the hand. So even though it’s smaller than Blue-Eyes, it can quickly find its big brother.

7 BLUE-EYES SPIRIT DRAGON

Kaiba’s strongest monster turned to the power of Synchro to reach a new stage in its evolution. The card specifically works by fusing “Blue-Eyes” monsters with the tuners that go with the Blue-Eyes deck, giving us a level 9 with inverted stats to the original Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Spirit Dragon does a lot for the deck as well.

It locks down the opposing player from summoning two or more monsters at one time, heavily limiting Pendulum plays. But it can also negate graveyard card effects, and if necessary, tribute itself to bring out any other Light Attribute Dragon Synchro Monster. At this point, the Blue-Eyes feel more like a brotherhood.

6 WHITE STONE OF THE ANCIENTS

White Stone of the Ancients has double the stats (600 / 500 ) than White Stone of Legend, and it can often feel twice as useful as White Stone of Legend. The card allows the player to special summon a “Blue-Eyes” card from the deck if White Stone of the Ancients was sent to the graveyard that same turn.

But not only that, but this card could be banished from the grave to special summon a Blue-Eyes card in the graveyard. These effects combined to make the Blue-Eyes deck better overall, plus it’s one more tuner to work with the deck’s synchro monsters.

5 BLUE EYES ALTERNATIVE ULTIMATE DRAGON

If Blue-Eyes White Dragon got a powered-up form, it’s only fair that the fusion of all three Blue-Eyes gets one as well. Like the Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, Alternative Ultimate Dragon has identical stats to the other fusion. But it can’t be targeted or destroyed with card effects, meaning it’s a 4500 ATK beatstick the opponent will have to find a way to simply attack over or remove with non-targeting effects.

Much like Alternative, once per turn it can destroy a card on the field, but if Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon was used as material, it can target three cards instead. This is a truly terrifying card, and deserves an appearance in at least one Yu-Gi-Oh! film in the future.

4 WHITE STONE OF LEGEND

This card was introduced over a decade ago, and originally didn’t really seem to do very much to help Blue-Eyes as a deck, even if the card itself mentions Blue-Eyes. Its effect was short and sweet: if it’s sent to the graveyard, the player can add a Blue-Eyes White Dragon to their hand.

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It was a quick way to get Blue-Eyes to the hand, but had little synergy with Blue-Eyes beyond that. It was a tuner, but the only level 9 that mattered (Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier) required three monsters, meaning Blue-Eyes couldn’t actually make anything. Fortunately, other Blue-Eyes cards would come along to fix this.

3 AZURE-EYES SILVER DRAGON

We’ve had Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but for the first synchro card something new was necessary: enter Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon. Which is kinda cheating since this is basically just Blue-Eyes with more defined colors, but we can roll with it. A level nine synchro monster, it has inverted stats to Blue-Eyes White Dragon at 2500 ATK and 3000 DEF. However, its effects make it impossible for the opponent to target any Dragon monsters with card effects or be destroyed by effects which don’t target.

Plus, should it survive a turn, the following turn it can summon a Normal Monster from the graveyard...like the Blue-Eyes a player likely used to summon it.

2 BLUE-EYES ALTERNATIVE WHITE DRAGON

Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon is the version of Blue-Eyes Kaiba would use if they made a remake of Duel Monsters. The card has identical stats to the original Blue-Eyes, but far easier summoning conditions.

It can special summon itself by revealing a Blue-Eyes White Dragon in the hand. From there, it can activate an effect to destroy a monster the opponent controls, though it uses that at the cost of its own attack. The only downside to this deck are the attempts to balance it, making all of its effects once per turn, but that really just keeps the card from being banned forever.

1 BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON

Much like with Dark Magician, Konami was smart enough to let the “most powerful monster in Yu-Gi-Oh” remain relevant in its own deck. It’s got 3000 ATK, which is still the most powerful of any monster that isn’t a fusion or synchro or some form of extra deck monster.

It doesn’t have any effects (we’d have to go to Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon for that), but it can be special summoned so easily it doesn’t really need any. Plus, it synergizes so well with all of the support that it can easily be turned into something that does have effects if needed.

NEXT: Yu-Gi-Oh!: 10 Coolest Monsters In The Series