Yugioh Tier List: All ANIME Characters Ranked

Jaden is a gregarious, laid-back, eager, compassionate, confident, humorous young man who is deeply committed to the sport of Dueling. For Jaden, the answer to every issue lies in a good duel. With a few notable exceptions, he never gives up, no matter how difficult or hopeless the situation may seem. Outside of a few cases, he treated his opponents with the utmost respect and complimented them while in a Duel. The Gentle Darkness, an innate talent inside Jaden, allows him to communicate with and command the souls of the Duel Monsters.

By adopting the Supreme King’s character, Jaden swiftly became the undisputed ruler of the Duel Monster Spirits. Jaden plays with an “Elemental Hero” deck with superhero-themed Warrior-Type monsters. He now holds the record for most Duels fought by any character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Series. Jaden’s “Elemental Hero” monsters are generally weak. Despite this, he employs many Spell and Trap Cards that enhance them and enable them to unleash lethal combos. Because almost all “Elemental Heroes” in the anime can fuse, Jaden’s Deck loaded various Fusion cards that could be employed in any situation. “Elemental Hero Flame Wingman” is Jaden’s distinctive “Elemental Hero” ability, which may be coupled alongside “Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman.”

Yusei Fudo

Yusei is a hero with a high moral character. He is a serious, severe, and profound guy who prioritizes the welfare of his fellow man and his friends. He is unselfish, protective, fraternal, compassionate, and generally severe. His dependability has earned him respect for the program’s other characters. He is often portrayed as very serious, calm, and clear-headed, even in dire circumstances. This causes him to avoid acting rashly and carefully consider his options before making a move, allowing him to remain one step ahead of his opponent at all times. During his Duels, it becomes clear that he often uses mental flowcharts of card combinations to help him plan his moves.

He has a strong sense of responsibility to his friends and the community and is reluctant to do anything that may endanger them. The fact that Yusei twice cobbled together a functioning Duel Runner out of spare parts and that he successfully jammed the criminal mark into Rally Dawson attests to his technological prowess in the realm of computers and mechanical devices. Yusei has extraordinary abilities thanks to his Signer mark, such as detecting and communicating with other Signers and preventing supernatural events like his soul being swallowed by an Earthbound Immortal or rewriting history from happening to himself or others. Yusei utilizes a “Junk” Deck in his games.

A Tier

The characters mentioned in A tier could be S rank for many series fans because everyone understands the character differently. Consequently, their story arcs are so well written that they are on par with the top characters of the Yugioh. As for me, they fall short of making it to the top. I am in love with the series and all its characters.

I have only divided them into different tiers for this ranking. But their decks are well versed and they could easily land in the S tier if not for some minor shortcomings.

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Yuma Tsukumo

Yuma is a quick, bouncy, and happy little kid who loves to set himself unrealistic challenges that he always fails. His record of failure hasn’t deterred him one bit, though; he claims that taking on new difficulties is what fuels his drive to succeed. Yuma values his parents’ affection for him and the key they gave him very highly. Instead of having his room, Yuma chooses to spend the night in the treasury attic stuffed with souvenirs and relics from his parents’ travels. He has his father to thank for instilling a sense of challenge and a refusal to give up. Yuma was repeatedly shown to be capable of telepathic communication with Astral, and his innate capacity to see and hear Astral has only increased with time.

But Yuma’s strength seems to derive from his dogged spirit and awareness of “Kattobingu.” To accomplish his Xyz Summons, Yuma employs an “Xyz One Turn Kill” Deck that relies heavily on the powerful “Number” cards. Because of his abundance of Trap Cards, his monsters are mostly unscathed in combat. He has access to cards like “Blustering Winds”, “Wonder Wand”, “Bound Wand”, and “Double or Nothing” that may help his monsters gain attack. His business card reads, “Utopia, Number 39.” However, he can only employ it in battle with Astral, much like his other “Numbers.”

Yuya Sakaki

Yuya appears to have inherited his father Yusho Sakaki’s vibrant personality and love of theatrics and showmanship. He greatly respects and admires his father and hopes to follow in his footsteps as a performer. Yuya adopts a melancholy posture, reserving his dramatic character for his final combinations. He doesn’t take them seriously because he tends to act like a complete idiot at first. Compared to the main characters in the previous series, Yuya lacks a great degree of confidence. In Yuya’s opinion, Dueling exists only to provide joy to its participants, and the practice makes him sick when used in times of conflict.

Dueling used to be his go-to for crowd entertainment, but he has second thoughts after running with his counterparts and learning about the four dimensions and the crises between them. Yuya is very agile and physically strong because of his rigorous training as a You Show Duel School Action Duelist. When Yuya is provoked deeply enough—either by the power of the Four Dimension Dragons or by his Dimensional doppelgangers—he can Awaken, an involuntary ability that activates without his conscious control. Yuya plays with a deck titled “Performapal,” “Magician,” and “Odd-Eyes.” The “Performapals,” with their cartoonish features and carnival garb, stand in for his desire to amuse people. At the same time, the “Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon” represents the bravery he gained from Yusho Sakaki. While their attack is poor, they make up for it with a wide range of potentially beneficial effects in combat. Therefore, he will be placed in the B tier.

Voice Actor	Mike Liscio
Powers	Pendulum Summon

Yusaku Fujiki

Little Yusaku was a good-natured and cheerful kid who took great pleasure in Dueling. He was innocent until he was abducted and tortured for months as part of the Hanoi Project a decade ago. He had severe PTSD due to the event, and, despite years of counseling, he still had dreams about the torment he endured. He is portrayed as excellent under pressure and bright due to his belief that his life will be cut short and that he will have neither friends nor a future. Yusaku’s compassion for others and understanding of their plights shone through despite his experiences and cynicism about himself.

Yusaku is a talented hacker with a level head who can quickly figure out puzzles. Yusaku is calm under pressure and very bright, but his true talent lies in his ability to hack and break systems. He has keen perception and is adept at gauging the mood of a room and determining the nature of a given situation based on what he has seen. While engaged in a fight, he pays great attention to his opponent’s facial expressions and body language to determine whether or not they are planning anything. Hence he is seldom caught off guard. Yusaku makes use of a Cyberse Deck. His primary tactic is to use well-planned actions to flood the field with Link Monsters.

Voice Actor	Shoya Ishige, Jake Paque
Powers	solves mysteries in a cool manner

Seto Kaiba

Kaiba, taken in by the family after his birth, is now the primary owner and C.E.O. of KaibaCorp, the world’s most significant international gaming company. He created virtual software for video games as a kid prodigy when he was a skilled computer programmer, engineer, and inventor. He is feared by his colleagues and adversaries alike in the business sector for being a fiercely intelligent businessman and ruthless investor, garnering him the hospitality and respect he requires. Kaiba’s goal is the same as everyone else’s: to be the best Duelist in the world. Kaiba is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s most successful and influential businesspeople and investors.

As a young prodigy and a polymathic genius, he can master any field he sets his mind to. Since his early teens, he has successfully reimagined and led his global firm while pursuing his lifelong love for gaming. He has emerged again and again as the undisputed world champion at activities as diverse as Duel Monsters and chess. Throughout the series, Kaiba’s “Blue-Eyes White Dragons” and  “Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon” are the primary boss monsters in his Decks. His decks often use a Beatdown approach, which relies on an army of monsters with a solid attack to swiftly and decisively wipe the board. Kaiba’s severe, rigid, and uptight mentality is reflected in his playing cards’ aggressive, confrontational, and violent nature.

Voice Actor	Kenjiro Tsuda, Hikaru Midorikawa
Powers	computer programmer, engineer, and inventor

B Tier

Moving down to B tier, which is the average rank of this article. These characters have less impactful story arcs than the characters mentioned above. As seen in the story, they did not significantly impact outside some arcs.

Their mediocre narratives and decks also had a hand in them being placed in the middle tier of the Yugioh tier list.

Chazz Princeton

The relationship between Jaden and Chazz is analogous to that between Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba. They’ve faced off in Duel seven times over the anime’s seasons. He starts as a Duelist who only plays the most powerful cards, but by the end of the story, he’s using Ojama cards and proving that any deck can be successful with the right strategy. Chazz’s Deck undergoes more transformations than any other Yu-Gi-Oh! Character as his life and perspective on Dueling alter. His first Deck is a Fiendish Dark one with Chthonian monsters and other formidable Fiends. Although we don’t get a good look at this Deck, it appears to feature multiple control mechanisms, such as “Chthonian Polymer” and “Chthonian Soldier,” which can use an opponent’s powerful monsters against them, and “Mefist the Infernal General” and “Helpoemer,” which can force an opponent to discard cards from their hand.

After some time, Chazz uses cards from his “Ojama,” “Armed Dragon,” and “VWXYZ” Decks interchangeably. His “Ojama” cards are used to back up his “Armed Dragon” or “VWXYZ” card, which are a part of a Power Deck that is constantly being expanded with more and more support cards. As Chazz serves Sartorius, he incorporates “Beetron,” “White Veil,” and “Infernal White” into his Deck. Later, Sartorius bestows a “White Knight” Deck with “White Knight Lord” as its centerpiece.

Voice Actor	Taiki Matsuno, Tony Salerno
Powers	Expert in duel monsters

Aster Phoenix

Aster is a professional Duelist, and his faith in fate compels him to go up against the most formidable adversaries. He has a kind demeanor and honest motives, but his stubbornness and pessimism might make him miss the mark. He continues to chase his dreams despite the dangers and insurmountable obstacles because he believes he must bear the responsibility of restoring his father’s honor and the “Destiny Hero” that was wrongfully taken from him. Aster could travel a great distance to the building’s rooftop. Even though it was Bastion’s chamber and Aster was again disguised as a Duel Monster, the genius misunderstood himself for seeing things when he realized he had been observing Aster the whole time. The Deck Aster used had cards from eight different booster packs.

Although this Deck was somewhat unorganized, it included the necessary pieces to Summon and used “Archlord Zerato.” The vast majority of the cards in the Deck came from the TCG/Ancient O.C.G.’s Sanctuary expansion. When Aster sees the four “Monarch” Duel Spirits that Sarina had cast establishing a barrier around Domino City, he admits that he is one of the rare few who can see Duel Monster Spirits.

Voice Actor	Akira Ishida, Oliver Wyman
Powers	professional Duelist

Zane Truesdale

In Jaden Yuki’s first year at Duel Academy, the best Duelist is Zane Truesdale. During that year, Zane is one of Jaden’s friendly adversaries, but he has a turn of attitude the following year that makes him adopt a more harsh approach to Dueling. In the following years, he develops serious heart issues and searches for an opponent worthy of giving him his last and greatest Duel before he passes, only to be brought back to life for mysterious reasons in Season 4. Zane is calm under pressure and holds his opponents and cards in the highest regard. To him, winning is significant because of the bond between a Duelist and their opponent and between the Duelist and their Deck. Although not explicitly stated, Zane utilizes a Cyber Art Deck. Using “Power Bond,” Zane summons the “Cyber Dragon,” Fusion Monsters, the “Cyber Twin Dragon,” and the “Cyber End Dragon.”

To speed up the Summon of Cyber End Dragon, Zane employs Fusion cards like Time Fusion and Future Fusion to counteract the damage dealt by Power Bond. He uses Cyber Kirin, De-Fusion, and Damage Polarizer. During the Society of Light storyline, Zane obtains the Underworld Deck, which features the shadowy inversions of his “Cyber Dragons.” The Cyberdark Edge card, the Cyberdark Keel card, the Cyberdark Horn card, and the Cyberdark Dragon card are the main attractions of this Deck. Zane uses “Power Wall” to send practically his entire Deck to the Graveyard to enhance “Cyberdark Dragon” by banishing Dragon-Type monsters from his Deck.

Voice Actor	Takeshi Maeda, Scott Rayow
Powers	Cyberdark

Reiji Akaba

He is one of the most brilliant minds in the world, making him a Super Elite Duelist. Reiji, at age 15, is the youngest Duelist in history to get official certification to Duel on the professional circuit. Despite their present cooperation, Reiji serves as Yuya Sakaki’s prominent opponent, initially because of his ability to Pendulum Summon and then because of his ways. He’s demonstrated to be a sharp thinker and a savvy strategist, and he claims to only participate in contests he can easily win. Although his acts may seem otherwise, Reiji cares about the well-being of people and will not betray his companions. Due to his intelligence, Reiji is an excellent warrior and Duelist.

He can leap great distances to avoid harm or reach for a strategically placed Action Card. To accomplish the Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum Summons of the “D.D.D.” monsters, Reiji employs a “D.D.” The Deck is built around the “Contract” archetype of Magic and Trap Cards, and he uses cards like “Lease Laundering” and “D.D.D. Resource Management” to circumvent the effects of his cards. Fusion Summoning “D.D.D. Flame King Temujin” through “Contract with the Devil King” is a standard tactic for Reiji, who then uses his Graveyard to call forth additional monsters, most often utilizing “D.D. Night Howling” and “D.D.D. Gale King Alexander” in a Synchro Summon.

Voice Actor	Yoshimasa Hosoya
Powers	natural ability to see and hear Astral

C Tier

C rank is the below-average tier. They are either downgraded in the story development or their power levels but never at both.

Nonetheless, I still love them and their decks. And overall, if not much else is special about them, their personalities are still cool and I probably cherished every moment with them when they appeared on my screen.

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Astral

Eliphas had originally programmed him to go to the Human World and destroy the Barian World to Rank-Up the Human World. Still, Kazuma Tsukumo changed his programming so that he would go to Yuma instead. Despite his memory loss, Astral approaches Dueling with intelligence and composure. You can only see Astral, a Duelist from another realm, if you are Yuma Tsukumo or have some other connection to the Barian World, or if you have been exposed to the energy that originated in the Astral World or the Barian World, such as the power of the Arclight Family’s crest. Since everyone else cannot see or hear Yuma.

The non-material entity known only as “Astral” has been demonstrated to possess the ability to hold Duel Monster cards. However, it is unclear if this is limited to the “Numbers” or all cards. Yuma benefits from his knowledge of the “Numbers,” and he can manipulate these cards in some manner. For instance, if Astral isn’t there, Yuma can’t play any “Numbers,” because they don’t show up in his Extra Deck. Yuma employs an attacking strategy with his Deck, whereas Astral employs a defensive one with “Gogogo” monsters. Like Yuma, he employs various Spells and Trap Cards in his quest to Summon “Utopia” and its improved successor.

Since Astral has access to all 100 original “Numbers,” he employs a “Number” Deck for his Duel with Yuma, and he makes sure to include the improved versions of “Utopia” in his Deck. Strategically, his Deck is built on rapidly Summoning “Utopia” and its many transformations, with “Number 99: Utopic Dragon” as a backup plan.

Voice Actor	Miyu Irino
Powers	Hypnotism with the puzzle’s magic

Yubel

Currently a Common in New Domino City in the Synchro Dimension, Rin is a Turbo Duelist. Before Yuri kidnapped Rin, she and Yugo had intended to compete in the Friendship Cup. As far as Leo Akaba is concerned, Rin is an integral part of his schemes. Because of what Leo did, Rin’s physical body was destroyed as she merged with the others to create Ray Akaba. To be sure, her legacy will go on via Zuzu Boyle. Like Zuzu, Rin is a strong-willed young woman who participates in Turbo Dueling while riding her monsters. Yugo claims Rin is brutal in battle and can corner him during one of their Duels. She has a hint of tsundere nature, like Zuzu and Celina, as shown by the fact that she kicked Yugo in the stomach when he finally reached her in the tower to save her.

“Windwitch – Winter Bell” and “Windwitch – Crystal Bell” demonstrate that Rin is comfortable riding her monsters. Rin employs an “Effect Damage Tactics” oriented “Windwitch” Deck. She uses a wide variety of “Windwitch” monsters, such as “Windwitch – Ice Bell,” to flood the field with effect damage, and then Synchro Summons “Windwitch – Winter Bell,” which can duplicate the effects of monsters in the Graveyard, to repurpose the effect of “Ice Bell” for further damage. Doktor hypnotized her, then gave her “Fusion Parasite,” allowing her to use Fusion. With her new “Windwitch – Crystal Bell,” she can make even better use of the effect of “Winter Bell.” If her opponent can break past the security provided by “Fusion Parasite,” she may establish a loop to Summon additional copies of “Crystal Bell.”

Voice Actor	Hiromi Tsuru
Powers	The Gentle Darkness

Comparison Table

Characters	Tier	Voice Actor	Powers
Yami Yugi	S	Shunsuke Kazama	Hypnotism with the puzzle's magic
Yugi Muto	S	Megumi Ogata	Thousand Knives, Traps against attacks, Durability Negation, Power Augmentation
Jaden Yuki	S	Kenn	The Gentle Darkness
Yusei Fudo	S	Yuya Miyashita	locate other Signers and protect himself
Yuma Tsukumo	A	Tasuku Hatanaka, Eli James	natural ability to see and hear Astral
Yuya Sakaki	A	Mike Liscio	Pendulum Summon
Yusaku Fujiki	A	Shoya Ishige, Jake Paque	solves mysteries in a cool manner
Seto Kaiba	A	Kenjiro Tsuda, Hikaru Midorikawa	computer programmer, engineer, and inventor
Chazz Princeton	B	Taiki Matsuno, Tony Salerno	Expert in duel monsters
Aster Phoenix	B	Akira Ishida, Oliver Wyman	professional Duelist
Zane Truesdale	B	Takeshi Maeda, Scott Rayow	Cyberdark
Reiji Akaba	B	Yoshimasa Hosoya	natural ability to see and hear Astral
Astral	C	Miyu Irino	Hypnotism with the puzzle's magic
Yubel	C	Hiromi Tsuru	The Gentle Darkness

Verdict

As you can see from this Yugioh tier list, I have a deep and abiding affection for all 14 characters and find it impossible to keep quiet about it. I did a little rearranging, and we can all agree that’s the best way to present the essential characters.

I also tried my absolute best to be as true to the characters as possible, but as you can tell from the article, I profess my love for this series multiple times. So I am not the one you should come to if you want an outsider’s opinion, I deeply love these shows and my bias plays a massive role in my decisions. With that said, I am once again open to criticisms, and If you disagree with any of my placements, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll take your opinion into account.