Dark Magician
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Dark Magician (Black Magician in the Japanese version) is a card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series of manga, and anime, as well as the real-world game based on the series. He is considered to be the signature card of the series' main protagonist, Yugi Mutou, and as such is one of the most recognizable cards in the series.
He can fuse with many cards to create a new monster . He was voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas (US) & Kazunari Kojima (Japan).
When Yami Yugi used this card in the Virtual World arc, it served as his Deck Master, and as such, he had a unique ability.
- Deck Master Ability: Pay 1000 Life Points to duplicate the effect of one Spell Card.
[edit] Anime/Manga History
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The Dark Magician was once an ancient Egyptian High Priest called Mahaado (Mahaad in the English anime), the original holder of the Millennium Ring. He was also a mentor to Mana, who eventually became the Dark Magician Girl (Black Magician Girl). He gave his life in service to the throne during a Shadow Game against Bakura in the former Pharaoh's tomb. Upon his failure to defeat Bakura's Diabound, Mahaado sacrificed himself in order to fuse his soul with his 'Ka' monster Illusion Magician, creating the Dark Magician. The reason Mahaado sacrificed himself to become Dark Magician was that he had been saved by the Pharaoh from a snake bite when he was young. Thus, he becomes the Pharaoh's eternal servant to repay the debt. This is why Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) feels such a strong connection to the card, as Dark Magician has appeared in almost every Duel Yugi has been in. It's also worth mentioning that the Dark Magician (and to a lesser extent, the Dark Magician Girl) seems to have taken on some more human characteristics (possibly remnants of Mahad's personality) as the series has progressed, such as his finger-wagging gesture whenever Mystical Box is used, and the smirk that usually accomanies it.
Dark Magician appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, when Dimitri (Kagurazaka) took Yugi's Deck and used it to challenge Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki). Using the trap card Dark Renewal, Dimitri was able to summon the Dark Magician and devastate Jaden's monsters with its own power and cards such as Thousand Knives. When Jaden played Elemental Hero Bladedge, Dimitri responded with Dedication through Light and Darkness, tributing his Dark Magician to play Dark Magician of Chaos.
[edit] Mahado's Monsters
His 'Ka' monster, whom he fused into to become Dark Magician, was Illusion Magician. While he had many other monsters, only Shadow Ghoul was summoned by Mahad prior to his sacrifice.
[edit] Cards
As Dark Magician is considered a central card in the series, many other cards have been designed around him, with a large number being used by Yugi Mutou. Some other related cards are used by the duelist Dimitri in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX when he steals Yugi's deck.
Dark Magician is considered to be a balance of two extremes - the power of Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the versatility of Red-Eyes Black Dragon. While more powerful than Red-Eyes, Dark Magician is more versatile than Blue-Eyes in terms of its potential combinations.
[edit] Monsters
[edit] Amulet Dragon (Anime exclusive)
Amulet Dragon is seen during the Waking the Dragons arc, in which the Pharaoh faces Doma swordsman Rafael for the second time. In its appearance, Amulet Dragon destroys Rafael's signature Guardian Eatos (the same monster that had defeated Yami Yugi earlier in the arc), but is later destroyed when Eatos is reincarnated into Guardian Dreadscythe, a personification of Rafael's darker parts.
[edit] Dark Eradicator Warlock
This card was released as one of the six new cards released in the Spellcaster's Judgment Structure Deck. It was never seen in the anime, but is considered decent Dark Magician support card due to the heavy burn damage it can inflict to the opponent through the activation of spell cards. Toon Table of Contents is a praticularly useful method of using this effect to the full. Toon Table of Contents can continually search itself out and eventually a Toon monster, this will result in your opponent losing 3000 life points while providing yourself "deck thinning" and searching out a Toon monster. Meteor of Destruction and Tremendous Fire can be useful with this monster as they can create 2000 points of damage per card and can, potentially, defeat the opponent.
[edit] Dark Flare Knight and Mirage Knight
In the Virtual World story arc, Yami Yugi uses Dark Magician as his Deck Master against the Big 5 when he teams with Joey. When the Big 5 form the Five-Headed Dragon from the combination of their five Deck Masters, Yami Yugi and Joey form Dark Flare Knight from the combination of their two Deck Masters, which in turn form Mirage Knight after an intentionally unsuccessful attack. Mirage Knight itself was powerful enough to destroy Five-Headed Dragon.
[edit] Dark Magician Girl
[edit] Dark Magician Knight
After Mirage Knight defeated the Big Five's Five God Dragon it was not enough to win the duel, as the Big Five activated the trap card A Deal with Dark Ruler, paying half of their life points to prevent any battle damage from Mirage Knight and allowing them to Summon Beserk Dragon. Joey, who had managed to survive on 300 life points, provided the finishing blow in the duel, by using Knight's Title to change Dark Magician to Dark Magician Knight (which lacks its ability in the anime), and by using Flame Swordsman's Deckmaster ability to power up Dark Magician Knight, it allowed Yami Yugi to use it to attack Berserk Dragon and win the duel.
[edit] Dark Magician of Chaos
Yugi is never seen using this card although it apparently was in his Deck since Dimitri (Kagurazaka) used it in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series when he steals Yugi's deck and duels Jaden Yuki. After Jaden summons Elemental Hero Bladedge, Dmitrii uses Dedication through Light and Darkness to tribute his Dark Magician to summon this card. Using its ability, Dimitri is able to retrieve his Monster Reincarnation from the Graveyard and devastates Jaden's ranks. It is destroyed when Jaden uses the field spell card Skyscraper to increase the attack points of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman to 3100, giving it enough power to destroy the Dark Magician of Chaos and severely damage Dimitri's life points with its effect.
The Dark Magician of Chaos is notable for being one of the two monsters that require two tributes that are actually considered tournament level cards, with the other being Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Its ability to return a spell card from the Graveyard at no cost is only rivaled by Magician of Faith, who is a much weaker monster. Furthermore, this card commands a powerful field presence and its other ability disables certain effects such as that of Sangan. Its only true weakness is that it is removed from play when it leaves the field for any reason, although this can be taken advantage of with cards such as Dimension Fusion and Return from the Different Dimension .
Note that Dark Magician of Chaos does not give Dark Magician Girl an additional 300 attack points when it is in the Graveyard. Its ritual counterpart, Magician of Black Chaos, does.
[edit] Dark Paladin
Dark Paladin was first played by Yugi in his duel against Kaiba in the Battle City arc during the semi-finals. Beforehand, Kaiba summoned his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and skimmed the cards in both players' Decks to three of their choice. Yugi then played Double Spell (because Kaiba previously used Monster Reborn and Polymerization, both effects were duplicated due to Double Spell's effect in the Animè), fusing Dark Magician and the revived Buster Blader (because of Monster Reborn being duplicated by Double Spell) to summon Dark Paladin. Furthermore, Dark Paladin gained 1000 attack points due to the presence of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon on his side of the field (note in this particular episode of the anime Dark Paladin does not gain attack points from Dragons in the Graveyards). When Kaiba's turn came again, he started his assault, and Yugi activated Magic Formula which would give Dark Paladin 500 more attack points, but Kaiba transferred those points to Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon through Absorb Spell. Yugi then played De-Fusion, separating Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon into three separate Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Dark Paladin's attack points then went up to 4900. Using Diffusion Wave-Motion, Yugi paid 1000 of his life points for Dark Paladin to attack every monster on Kaiba's side of the field, winning him the duel.
The Dark Paladin is next used in the Grand Championship arc, where Yugi duels against Vivian Wong, an Asian duelist that has a crush on Yugi. Although most of the Duel is skipped, it shows Yugi's Dark Magician being attacked by Vivian's Dragon Lady. After Yugi's attempts to defend using Big Shield Gardna fails, he summons Skilled Dark Magician. He then plays three Spell Cards to put three Spell Counters on Skilled Dark Magician, and add Buster Blader and Dark Magician to his hand. He then tributes Skilled Dark Magician to play Dark Magician and fuses it with Buster Blader in his hand to play Dark Paladin, which gains 500 attack points for each of the four dragon type monsters in Vivian's Graveyard that she discarded using a spell card. Yugi then uses Dark Paladin to destroy Dragon Lady, winning the duel.
The original Dark Paladin of Magician's Force used the picture shown to the above. Later, it was admitted the wrong picture was used, and owners of the error card can mail in their Dark Paladins to receive one with the "proper" picture, shown to the right. The Dark Paladins in Dark Revelation 1 and Duel Master's Guide use the corrected picture. The Dark Paladin had supposedly been stated as a counterpart to Magician's Valkyria (like the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl).
[edit] Dark Sage
In the Duelist Kingdom final battle against good friend Joey Wheeler, Joey attempts to use his Time Wizard in an attempt to destroy Dark Magician by aging his Baby Dragon to Thousand Dragon. Although Joey is successful, as a result, Dark Magician could be tributed to summon Dark Sage, (In the English version of the anime, it states that the Dark Magician aged a thousand years) which could draw a spell card once summoned and activate a card during your opponent's turn, which Yami Yugi does to win the duel.
[edit] Magician of Black Chaos
Magician of Black Chaos is a ritual monster boasting considerable statistics, this monster has only been used by Yami Yugi twice throughout the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! series. The first time was against Maximillion Pegasus, where Yami Yugi used it against Pegasus' Thousand-Eyes Restrict. With the aid of Kuriboh and the spell card Multiply, the Thousand-Eyes Restrict was blinded (which got rid of his effect that prevented other monsters attacking or changing Battle positions) and Yami Yugi used the Magician of Black Chaos to annihilate Thousand-Eyes Restrict, winning him the duel.
The next time it is used is in the Virtual World arc, where Yami Yugi uses it against Noah Kaiba. He summons this card by tributing Valkyrion the Magna Warrior with Dark Magic Ritual and it stands alongside his Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl. His attack is ultimately blocked when Noah uses Chaos Barrier to cause Magician of Black Chaos to destroy the Dark Magician Girl. Noah ultimately destroys this card using the power of Hino-Kaga-Tsuchi in combination with the equip spell card Flaming Fist in order to destroy the Magician of Black Chaos.
[edit] Skilled Dark Magician
Skilled Dark Magician was seen and used in the Grand Championship arc, where Yugi defeats contestant Vivian Wong by summoning Dark Paladin.
[edit] Sorcerer of Dark Magic
Sorcerer of Dark Magic is only ever seen in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light. In the movie, it had an additional ability that allowed it to lower the attack points of all monsters on the opponent's field by 500 for every Spellcaster that was in the player's Graveyard. This effect allowed Yami Yugi to cripple Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon due to the fact that Yami Yugi had three spellcaster type monsters in his Graveyard. Its ability to negate trap cards was later used when Kaiba utilized Peten the Dark Clown combined with the trap card Deck Destruction Virus in an attempt to destroy the remainder of Yami Yugi's deck. However, the Sorcerer of Dark Magic's ability allowed Yugi to negate the trap, effectively destroying Kaiba's strategy. Unfortunately for Yami Yugi, Kaiba was able to summon his Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon whose ability rendered all targeting effects against it useless (because that effect of the Sorcerer targets the monster). With its attack strength not diminished, the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon obliterated Yami Yugi's Sorcerer of Dark Magic.
[edit] Toon Dark Magician Girl
One of Pegasus' signature toon monsters. Similar to Dark Magician Girl this card gets a 300 attack point increase for each Dark Magician and Magician of Black Chaos in either players graveyard.
[edit] Spells
[edit] Dark Magic Curtain
First seen in the anime in Yugi's duel against Arkana. In this particular episode Arkana stated it allowed him to summon a high level monster like the Dark Magician from his deck at the cost of half his life points. yugi then claimed that both players were allowed to use this effect and then summoned his Dark Magician Girl. However in the ceremonial battle Yami Yugi played this card to special summon his Dark Magician and Yugi made no effort to use it to summon a monster of his own.
The real life version of this card only allows one player to use its effect and can only be used to summon Dark Magician.
[edit] Sage's Stone
Yugi himself never uses Sage's Stone in the series but did use it against Kaiba/Anubis in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light after reviving his Dark Magician Girl from the Graveyard to Summon Dark Magician from his deck. He then tributed them to Summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic, whose incredible abilities enabled Yami Yugi to control the field until the advent of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. In the series, it was used by Téa Gardner (Anzu Mazaki in the English manga and Japanese versions) during the Virtual World arc against one of the Big Five, Crump, who had taken the form of Nightmare Penguin. When faced with his abilities and a powerful defence, Teá played this card, which combined with her Dark Magician Girl on the field, summoned Dark Magician from Yugi's deck, who was nearby at the time. The Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl were able to tear through his ranks and win the duel for Téa.
[edit] Thousand Knives
A means of monster-destruction, this card has only been used sparingly by the duelists throughout the series. Arkana uses this card during the Battle City, arc in an attempt to destroy Yami Yugi's Dark Magician while challenging it with his own. It is next seen in the Ceremonial Battle between Yugi and the Pharaoh Atem. Using this card, Atem removes Yugi's Marshmallon to avoid losing one thousand life points.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, Dimitri uses this card against Jaden Yuki after he steals Yugi's deck. After Summoning Dark Magician by using Dark Renewal, Dimitri uses this card to destroy Jaden's Elemental Hero Thunder Giant and strike a direct blow to his life points.
[edit] Diffusion Wave-Motion
Seen multiple times throughout the series, Yami Yugi utilizes Diffusion Wave-Motion as a method of mass destruction and it often is the last card he plays to clinch a duel in his favour. The first time it is seen is against Seto Kaiba in the Battle City semi-finals, where Yami Yugi uses Dark Paladin combined with this card to wipe out all three of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragons, winning him the Duel. He next uses it against the first of the Orichalcos duelists, and destroys all of his token monsters through this method combined with the Dark Magician Girl. His final usage of it is against Leon von Schroeder, where he destroys all of his monsters with Dark Magician, winning him Kaiba's Grand Championship.
[edit] Dedication through Light and Darkness
This card is only seen in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, where Dimitri, who has stolen and is using Yugi's deck. After Jaden Summons Elemental Hero Bladedge, it appears to have an advantage against Dimitri's Dark Magician. Dimitri then tributes Dark Magician with this card to play Dark Magician of Chaos.
[edit] Rivalry with Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Dark Magician is often called the rival to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, mainly because of they are the favorite cards of rivals Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba. When Yami Yugi was pharaoh, a stone tablet showed him and Priest Seto (the past incarnation of Seto Kaiba) fighting a shadow game and the Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes were their main monsters. The outcome of the original battle was not known, although in the Memory World, Seto wins. If this result is the same as the original battle is not addressed. As well, the movie Pyramid of Light addresses the issue that Pharaoh Atem and Priest Seto (and thus their reincarnations as well) represent Darkness and Light, respectively, so that they are destined to be rivals, and as the Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes are the Duel Monster incarnations of these two forces, they too are destined to be rivals.
