Spellcaster

Spellcaster (Japanese: い Mahōtsukai-zoku "Magician Tribe"; Chinese: 魔法師族 Mófǎshīzú and formerly 魔法族 Mófǎzú "Magic Tribe" on the old Chinese-printed Japanese Dark Magician), is a Type consisting of beings that control magic, such as witches, wizards, and mages. The majority of these creatures contain effects and can be very versatile Monsters, used often with support of Spell Cards. Out of all types, Spellcasters are the most present on the current Forbidden and Limited lists.

A high proportion of Spellcaster monsters are either LIGHT or DARK and are the most prolific users of Spell Counters.

Archetypes include "Fortune Lady", "Prophecy", "Shadoll", "Gravekeeper's" and "Gagaga".

They also have two of their own Structure Decks, Spellcaster's Judgment and Lord of the Magicians, the latter of which was originally released in OCG, but has a TCG counterpart, Spellcaster's Command.

Every main protagonist uses Spellcaster-Type monsters in their Decks, Yugi Muto uses "Dark Magician", "Dark Magician Girl", "Dark Sage", "Magician of Black Chaos", "Breaker the Magical Warrior" and many others, Jaden Yuki uses "Card Ejector" and "Miracle Flipper", Yusei Fudo uses "Effect Veiler", "Arbitrator of Mediation", "Stardust Phantom", "Mystic Piper" and "Salvagent" and Yuma Tsukumo uses "Gagaga Magician", "Gagaga Girl" "Flelf" and "Gagaga Child".

Dark Magician Beatdown
The main idea of this Deck is Summon the "Dark Magician" along with some other cards like "Cybernetic Magician", "Dark Magician Girl" or some other strong Spellcasters. If you use it wisely, it is very effective, blocking your opponent's Spell Cards with "Secret Village of the Spellcasters" and negate his or her traps with Sorcerer of Dark Magic leaving your opponent open to your attacks with your best magicians. Using base spellcasters-Special Summon cards like "Magical Dimension" or "Magician's Circle" and some field-cleaning cards like "Lightning Vortex" and "Thousand Knives" and also "Dark Magic Attack" you can fill your field fairly fast, and because this Deck doesn't use a lot of traps you could add "Royal Decree" with no problem, another advantage is that being a pure Deck you could use "Rivalry of Warlords" to stop Synchro-based Decks. One can also combine "Royal Decree" with "Secret Village of the Spellcasters" to acheive a lockdown, albeit this only works if your opponent isn't using a Spellcaster deck as well.

Spell Burn
The very first Deck that introduced the use of Spell Counters and reusing Spell Cards. This Deck focused on Summoning "Dark Magician", then Special Summoning "Dark Eradicator Warlock". Once Normal Spell Cards were activated, it inflicts 1000 LP damage to the opponent, no matter which player plays the Spell Card. These Decks take patience and skill. Other key cards in the Deck would be cards that allow you to re-use Spell Cards (like "Hidden Spellbook"), and cards to keep your Spellcasters alive. "Royal Decree", "Jinzo", and even "Magical Hats" can protect your Spellcasters and stop Trap Cards from getting in your way.

Spellcaster Lockdown
Although probably one of the most effective strategies against any Deck when completed, it is most definitely one of the most complicated to achieve, since it takes skill and some luck. The purpose of this Deck is to stop your opponent from using Spell, Trap or Effect Monster to get any sort of advantage, hence the name. The cards needed are: "Dark Paladin", "Sorcerer of Dark Magic", and "Destiny Hero - Plasma". "Secret Village of the Spellcasters" can also be used when "Sorcerer of Dark Magic" is on the field, since it is easier to get onto the field than Dark Paladin. Because the main cards need to be Special Summoned in conditions sometimes hard to fulfill, some very useful support cards are "Magical Dimension", "Royal Decree" and "Divine Wrath", since they can be used as temporary substitutes for the main cards. Another substitute option are "Sage of Stillness" and "Sage of Silence", who are also Spellcasters, but need a power up achievable with cards like "United We Stand" or "Mage Power" to be able to activate their effects. At least one "Dark Magician" and "Buster Blader" is needed to Fusion Summon "Dark Paladin", it sometimes represents a problem to draw the right cards at the right time, so "Royal Magical Library" and "Jar of Greed" can help your chances .This Deck can benefit from a "Skilled Dark Magician" and with "Magical Citadel of Endymion" it will help you both get out a "Dark Magician and draw cards. "Mirror Force", "Trap Jammer", "Anti-Spell", or any of the more common attack blocker traps, such as "Sakuretsu Armor", "Dimensional Prison", or "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow", will help protect your combos. Since most Decks, especially in the Meta, rely on either Spell, Trap or Monster effects, their strategy will be trashed and they'll have no other way to beat you other than attack, but you can use two or "Magician's Valkyria" and a Miracle Flipper to stop even that.

Spell Counter Stall
This Deck can easily be used to burn through your opponent's deck, but takes a lot of patience to pull off. This basically revolves around the effect of "Defender, the Magical Knight" to stop your Spellcasters being destroyed. This Deck is best used with the help of cards like "Magical Exemplar" and "Magical Citadel of Endymion" for easy access to Spell Counters. The added effect of the Citadel gives you Spell Counters from a destroyed monster with Spell Counters on it. Other cards like "Pitch-Black Power Stone" and "Alchemist of Black Spells" help to give you more Spell Counters each turn. "Summoner Monk" is also very useful for searching out Defender, Exemplar, and Alchemist and also for easy XYZ Summoning into "Alchemic Magician" for searching out Spell Cards like "Mega Ton Magical Cannon" to ready your offensive attack. As for beatsticks, the inclusion of "Blizzard Princess" can greatly help you out as the effect stops Traps and Spells being activated to waste your Spell Counters. Traps you want to include are cards like "Hidden Spellbook" to recycle Spell Cards and "Magician's Circle" to swarm the field with cards like "Dark Red Enchanter". As for Spells, they're the most important part of this Deck as most most card effects in this Deck use Spell Cards to gain Spell Counters, so the Spellbooks are very useful because they effectively utilize and recycle each other. "Spellbook of Power" and "Spellbook of Wisdom" are a very effective combination because when they're both used they give your cards two spell counters, an added 1000 ATK points and protection from any Traps your opponent may play. Optional cards to put in or cards to save for siding are "Strength of Prophecy" and "Endymion, the Master Magician"; "Strength" allows you to recycle "Spellbooks" in your Graveyard, while "Endymion" can be easily Summoned with an abundance of Spell Counters on his "Citadel".