The Best Alt-Art Cards In YGO

Summary

• Customize your deck with alternate art and rarities for a visually appealing and unique look.
• Hand traps like Ash Blossom and Droll and Lock Bird have dynamic alternate arts to swap out.
• Unique alternate arts for iconic cards like Raigeki, Dark Magician Girl, and Eldlich enhance their appeal.

Putting together a deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! can challenge your brain, but it is only half the fun of deck building. Customizing it can truly make your deck visually appealing when you bring it to a local tournament or play with friends. This can mean having colored sleeves that match the monsters, or a play mat that expresses the type of vibe you want to bring to the table.

Another great way to customize your deck is by including cards with different rarities or alternate art styles. Even if the cards themselves still do the same thing, some alternate printings show off more of the monster’s personality while giving others a cooler visual of what they do on the field.

10

The Hand Traps

Great Variety For Some Of The Most Common Cards

To list every hand trap with an alternate art would eat up an entire list. From Ash Blossom to Droll and Lock Bird, all of the most important hand traps have some form of alternate art. This swaps their positions and makes them look even more dynamic than before.

For Ghost Belle, this gives her a more gothic look, while cards such as Droll and Lock Bird have a more action-oriented depiction. Since hand traps are some of the more frequently used cards, it’s nice to swap them out as a way to further customize your deck.

9

Raigeki

Destroy Monsters With Style

If you want to wipe out all of your opponent’s monsters in one go, then Raigeki does the trick. This bolt of lightning is one of the most iconic cards from the Duel Monsters era, and it received an alternate art that makes it even cooler.

The alternate art for Raigeki features the Egyptian God, Slifer, descending from the sky and blasting the ground with a bolt of lightning. This is what your opponent’s monsters must see when you slap this card down on the field.

8

Dark Magician Girl

One Of The Most Iconic Monsters In Yu-Gi-Oh!

Ever since her introduction, Dark Magician Girl has been a fan-favorite monster. This also means that she has her fair share of alternate arts scattered around. As a card, Dark Magician Girl doesn’t do much other than get stronger the more Dark Magicians you have in the grave.

Her design and presence in the anime helped increase her popularity. This in turn resulted in various alternate arts being printed that depict her casting spells, striking a unique pose, or with variant backgrounds to show off her personality.

7

Knightmare Unicorn

A Majestic Knightmare Monster

Before S:P Little Knight, Knightmare Unicorn was the go-to bounce card for dealing with troublesome boards. Just Special Summon it, discard a card, and then target another monster on the field to send it back to the deck.

Knightmare Unicorn has one of the coolest alternate arts due to the nighttime setting and having Knightmare Corrupter Iblee riding on its back. It’s a nice way to tie in different monsters from the same archetype by making them share the card art.

6

I:P Masquerena

A Speedy Getaway

I:P Masquerena lets you Link Summon during your opponent’s turn. This can be vital for dodging targeting effects and going into a powerful monster. In most printings, I:P Masquerena is depicted on her knees and striking a pose. However, a cooler version of her art exists.

This is the alternative art of I:P Masquerena which has her on her motorcycle ready to ride out in style. This depiction has a cyberpunkish vibe that shows off the nighttime city in the background. With a purple hue and neon yellow lights, this card makes any extra deck cooler to rummage through.

5

Eldlich The Golden Lord

Sitting Like A Boss

Zombies are known for coming back from the graveyard. Eldlich The Golden Lord is a Trap-based monster that can send your opponent’s cards to the graveyard and bring itself back easily. It also turns itself into a wall that can’t be destroyed by card effects.

What makes players love Eldlich’s alternate art is simply the way he is posed. He is sitting in his chair like a boss with one hand up to his face. This is the perfect pose for a monster that stands in your opponent’s way.

4

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Good Old Blue-Eyes

Dark Magician is cool and all, but until it gets a structure deck that makes it good, Blue-Eyes White Dragon remains the king. This legendary monster from the Duel Monsters era has had its fair share of alternate art printings over the years.

With some decks using multiple copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon in their strategies, you can have it so that every copy has a unique style. Do you want one with the classic anime style? How about a version of the card on top of the Kaiba Corp skyscraper?

3

One For One

A Card Featuring Iconic 5Ds Monsters

Decks that utilize Level one monsters love having a copy of One For One in the deck. This card is a generic Spell that can Special Summon any Level one monster from the deck. All it costs is a discard from the hand.

One For One received an alternate printing in the Quarter Century Bonanza set which depicts Quillbolt Hedgehog and Sonic Chick. This special card is an homage to the 5Ds era of the game where players could Summon out an easy Tuner using this card.

2

Polymerization

Duel Monsters Or Yu-Gi-Oh! GX?

Fusion Summoning is one of the better Summoning mechanics in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. It is also cool to see it in the anime where two monsters become one. Polymerization has two unique variants depending on which era you love most.

The first alternate art featured heavily in the Duel Monsters anime as it depicts two monsters getting fused together. This is the anime-accurate card. If you love Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and your favorite duelist is Jaden, then you can get a Polymerization variant from Quarter Century Bonanza that depicts Elemental Hero Avian and Burstinatrix coming together to form The Flame Wingman.

1

Tour Guide From The Underworld

The Tour Finally Begins

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds introduced many iconic monsters but one of the most memorable ones is Tour Guide From The Underworld. This card is incredibly useful for Summoning out another Level 3 Fiend monster from the deck.

The original artwork depicts the tour guide blowing her whistle and calling her group over to the tour bus. The alternate artwork, on the other hand, has her actually giving her tour with various other monsters following her lead. This makes her card more fun and dynamic by showing her at work.