Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Best Burn Cards

Summary

• Burn decks in Yu-Gi-Oh! focus on inflicting damage without attacking with Monsters.
• Nostalgic burn cards like Sparks and new powerful cards like Chain Energy offer various burn strategies.
• Burn cards like Trickstar Lycoris and Chain Strike provide strategic options for dealing damage in unique ways.

There are several different kinds of decks in Yu-Gi-Oh! There are aggressive one turn kill type of decks. There are control decks, which control the flow of the game to their benefit. There’s lockdown decks that stop the opponent from playing. There’s even combo decks, which are about showing off how many Monsters the player can summon in a single turn.

But the one type of deck people barely talk about involves burn. The term “burn” means inflicting damage without actually attacking with Monsters. Most classic Yu-Gi-Oh! players remember Ookazi for this, a card which hit players for 800 damage. But over the years, they’ve come up with far superior cards to Ookazi, and players even make strategies with them now.

Updated: March 12, 2025 by Alexander Pinera: Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has plenty of new and nostalgic cards that have served their purpose over the years. One such subgroup are all the burn cards that give players ways to scratch at their opponent’s life points without attacking. While burn strategies as a win condition fade away from the Yu-Gi-Oh! meta, they can be incredibly useful in tournaments when trying to win due to the time limit. Any archetype that can burn the opponent during their combos also makes it easy to get your opponent’s life points low enough to secure that type of victory without having to see if your jab at your opponent’s board enough to break through.

20

Sparks

A Classic Burn Card

Sparks may not be powerful, but it has a nostalgic standing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! community as one of the first ever burn cards. This Spell Card deals 200 damage to your opponent. There are no conditions for its use other than damaging your opponent.

However, Sparks has been used in various OTK methods in which the card is recycled back to the hand repeatedly to burn your opponent 200 Life Points at a time.

19

Fiendsmith’s Lacrima

A Powerful Tool For Fiendsmiths

Fiendsmith’s Lacrima was such a powerful tool for the Fiendsmith archetype that it found itself on the ban list. This is because it could burn your opponent while you do your combos. How much damage doesn’t really matter, since the burn effect is used for time rules.

This can be the deadliest card if both players have won one game with only time remaining on the tie breaker. This is where Fiendsmith Lacrima could come in, burn your opponent, and put them at lower Life Points than you, resulting in a victory for you once the clock runs out.

18

Riryoku Guardian

Gate Guardians Can Gatekeep Too

The updated Gate Guardian cards are mainly fueled by nostalgia. However, they have one sick burn card that drains your opponent of half their life points. Basically, as long as you have a Gate Guardian Fusion on your side of the field, this card can work its magic.

This card doesn’t just burn though, it also adds those life points to your Gate Guardian monster as an attack boost. If you can hit your opponent after this effect goes through, you can win the match easily.

17

Chain Energy

The Strongest Burn Card Ever Printed

Chain Energy is a card so powerful, it got banned. Any other card that would eventually have the same effect would take a bit of setup before you could get that kind of power. This card makes players take 500 damage each time a card is played.

This effect is also not once per turn or limited to one copy on the field at a time. So slapping down two at once made it, so your opponent could only activate eight cards before they lose the game.

16

Catapult Turtle

Duel Monsters Era One Turn Kill Method

Catapult Turtle was the original burn monster back in the Duel Monsters era. All you need to make this work is Catapult Turtle on the field and some monsters to tribute for the burn. While it may seem cumbersome to keep losing monsters this way, it could actually otk your opponent.

This is because Catapult Turtle was not a once per turn card in the past. This specific detail was added as an errata due to the card’s effect being exploited by spamming a bunch of monsters just to tribute them away for burn damage.

The Red-Eyes Archetype has always been one that’s had a bit of an identity crisis. It’s been OTK focused, Gemini focused, and of course, burn focused. None of them really stuck, but Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is great.

Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon has solid protection since, so long as it has Xyz material, it can’t be destroyed by card effects. In addition, as long as it has material, any time the opponent activates a card or effect, 500 burn damage is applied. Since the game is so focused on combos, this means Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon will be dealing out a ton of damage.

14

Blazing Mirror Force

The original Mirror Force is one of the most iconic cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and a card inspired by it is also great. Blazing Mirror Force has the same effect as the original, but in addition to destroying all attack position monsters, burn damage is applied equally to half the combined original attack of all the monsters destroyed.

Blazing Mirror Force’s burn damage does affect both players and affects you before the opponent. However, a field wipe on the opponent’s field along with dealing potentially game-ending amounts of burn damage can be worth the sacrifice in the right format.

13

Wave Motion Cannon

Starting The Countdown

Here is a card that all Mystic Mine players of yesteryear can remember, Wave Motion Cannon. Its biggest weakness is it can lead to a dead card if it ever gets destroyed before it used. However, if it stays on the field, Wave Motion Cannon can defeat the opponent all by itself.

Each Standby Phase, Wave Motion Cannon charges up, doing 1000 burn damage for each one that passed by while it was on the field. This can stack all the way up to 8000 or higher, allowing it to potentially be the most powerful burn card in the game.

12

Cauldron Of The Old Man

Gain Or Inflict, Your Choice

Cauldron Of The Old Man is a burn card with choices. During each of your Standby Phases, it gets a counter. Then, during the Main Phase, it can use two different kinds of effects. The first will gain 500 Life Points for each counter.

The other effect is inflicting 300 damage to the opponent for each counter. Both of these effects don’t use up any counters, meaning it can easily spiral out of control and do devastating amounts of damage, with life point gain available as a back-up strategy if your life points get too low.

11

Ring Of Destruction

One Of Kaiba’s Favorite Burn Cards

Perhaps the most iconic burn card, Ring Of Destruction was a staple in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and it was so good it had to be erratad. Despite its nerf, Ring Of Destruction is still a fantastic card, dealing with a problem Monster while also blasting into your opponent’s life points.

It targets a Monster the opponent controls with an attack less than or equal to their HP, and will destroy it and cause both players to take damage equal to the original attack of that target. Burn decks don’t tend to have ways to get rid of monsters, which is why Ring Of Destruction is perfect for them in the right format.

10

Trickstar Lycoris

Many Tricks Up Their Sleeve

Some burn cards fall into different archetypes. Lycoris from the Trickstars is a good example of this. Lycoris can Special Summon itself by targeting a Trickstar monster the player controls and returning it to hand. Then, whenever the opponent adds a card to their hand, they can inflict 200 damage for each card added.

This can add up quickly in a game where adding cards to hand is pretty much how all decks work, but even if it doesn’t, the player can force the opponent to discard and draw by using Trickstar Reincarnation, which makes them discard their entire hand and draw equal to what they lost, inflicting up to 1200 damage.

9

Trickstar Narkissus

More Than One Trick For Trickstars

Narkissus is a solid threat card from the past. It can Special Summon to the field if the opponent takes effect damage, which is helpful. Then, each time the opponent activates a monster effect, they take 200 damage.

This isn’t a lot at first, but it adds up rather quickly if the player can’t get Narkissus off the field immediately, and it becomes more dangerous when paired with other cards in the deck or on this list.

8

Secret Blast

Ramping Damage

The Pendulum Era introduced plenty of fresh burn cards including Secret Blast. It inflicts 300 damage to the opponent for each card they control, which means they could take up to 3300 damage if their opponent had a full field.

Of course, this is unlikely, but there’s still a better chance than not that this inflicts a good deal over a thousand damage with three to five monsters they’re dealing anywhere 900-1500. But the even better part is if the opponent tries to destroy it before the player wants to activate it, it still manages to get a solid punch in.

7

Just Desserts

A Trap With Massice Burn Potential

One of the classic Trap Cards that’s key to every burn deck is Just Desserts. The card inflicts 500 damage to the player’s opponent for every monster they control. Ages ago, this wouldn’t be a very impressive card, but since the early Xyz era, players have been summoning four and five monsters with ease, often not even exhausting all of their resources.

It’s easy to flip this and knock out a fourth of your opponent’s life points. In the early days, being lucky enough to draw into more than one of these could put you in a serious advantage.

6

Dark Room Of Nightmare

No burn deck goes without using this card, at least not back when the game was slower. Each time the opponent takes damage from a card effect other than Dark Room of Nightmare, inflict 300 damage to the opponent.

This works in everything from Chain Burn to Trickstar. It offers that extra bit of damage that seems like it doesn’t matter but adds up quickly. It is just the thing you need to kick your burning techniques into overdrive.

5

Fairy Wind

Pop Spells And Deal Burn

The other non-burn deck card on this list that’s run by pretty much any deck, Fairy Wind, serves as a pretty solid side deck card for tournament players. It destroys as many face-up Spell and Trap cards on the field as possible, then inflicts damage equal to the number of cards destroyed times 300, but it inflicts it to both players.

This is great for eliminating Field Spells, Continuous Spells or Traps, and Pendulum Scales. The damage isn’t particularly relevant, but the card itself is great.

4

Spell Shattering Arrow

A Useful Removal For Face-Up Spells

Spell Shattering Arrow is one of two cards on this list that’s run by non-burn decks. A Quick-Play Spell, it destroys as many face-up Spell Cards the opponent controls as possible, and inflicts 500 damage to the opponent for each.

This was a great card to use during the Pendulum Era, as it often meant making the opponent take 1000 damage just for setting their scales up. It’s still a decent card now, as Pendulums have remained around, but they often have protection, which limits this card’s power a little.

3

Ceasefire

An Effect Placeholder

One of the more painful Trap cards to deal with, the card punishes decks with face-down Monsters though no deck does that anymore aside from a few select archetypes. If there’s a face-down defense position monster or an Effect Monster on the field, Ceasefire flips all of the monsters on the field face-up without activating any Flip Monster effects.

Then, it deals 500 damage to the opponent for every Effect Monster on the field. Since this is the most common type of Monster Card, it is easy to see this card ramp up in burn damage.

2

Secret Barrel

Punishing Players For Overextending

Yet another Trap card, it seems like the only thing burn cards have going against them is that they have to be set and survive a turn first. Secret Barrel is no joke. It punishes players for overextending, as it can inflict 200 damage for every card on the field and for each card in the opponent’s hand.

Activated first turn, it can inflict a maximum of 1200 damage, but if there are enough shenanigans on the field this can easily hit an opponent for more than they can handle at once.

1

Chain Strike

Chains Become A Nightmare

This is one of the best cards from the GX era, and with good reason. A card which can only be activated as Chain Link 2 or higher, Chain Strike inflicts 400 damage times the Chain Link number for this card.

The best way this works in a Chain Burn deck is when the player flips four different traps in succession that either inflict damage or draw cards, then plays this for a maximum of 2000 damage in a single turn. Typically, Chain Strike is saved for the last push to bring an end to the game.