Rare Hunters

The Ghouls (Rare Hunters in the English anime, and Jackals in some video games) are a group of card thieves and duelists in the anime and manga series Yu-Gi-Oh!

History
The Ghouls were formed by Marik Ishtar to collect the Egyptian God Cards and other cards of value, becoming a group with money and power to grant Marik power. It is not specified exactly when they are formed, but they are known to be Marik's henchmen and assist him in his goals. Odion Ishtar is the second in command of the Ghouls.

The first Ghoul to appear (although not addressed as one) is Bandit Keith, who steals the Millennium Puzzle from Yugi Moto. Yugi wins the Puzzle back, but not before meeting Marik through his mind control of Keith, who warns Yugi he will return. In this duel the methods of the Ghouls is also set: nearly all of the Ghouls cheat in their duels.

When Seto Kaiba organizes the Battle City Tournament (which he did to lure out the Rare Hunters who had the other two Egyptian God Cards), Marik orders his minions to go to the tournament and defeat the duelists there, hoping to seize many rare cards that the world's best duelists would surely have. However, upon discovering his sister Ishizu Ishtar has given the final God card Marik needs to Kaiba, Marik travels to Battle City himself to take the card. As it were, Yugi Muto is also in the tournament, giving Marik the perfect opportunity to take both the Millennium Puzzle and the final God card.

As he travels to Domino, Marik has several other Ghouls attempt to defeat Yugi, but they fail. Marik is desperate enough to have one of them use a God card, Slifer the Sky Dragon. When Yugi prevails again and takes Slifer, Marik attempts to have two Ghouls defeat him and Kaiba in a tag-team duel. This too fails, and as Kaiba and Yugi now have enough locator cards to enter the finals, Marik decides there is nothing else to do but face the two himself, and so he and Rishid enter the finals.

After this, the fate of the Ghouls is not known, although the video game Yu-Gi-Oh!: Reshef of Destruction, which is an alternate-universe game set in the aftermath of Battle City, portrays them as still seeking the God cards with Bandit Keith as their new leader.

Membership
Here are the known memberships in Ghouls:

Marik Ishtar
Main article: Marik Ishtar

Odion Ishtar
Main article: Odion Ishtar

Keith Howard
Main article: Keith Howard

Keith was a Rare Hunter while Marik controlled him using the Millennium Rod.

Lumis and Umbra
Lumis and Umbra/Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness (光の仮面 Hikari no Kamen; 闇の仮面 Yami no Kamen) are members of Marik's Ghouls organization. They pride themselves on being an unbeatable tag team. By Marik's command, they challenge Seto Kaiba and Yugi Mutou to a Tag-Team Duel at the rooftop of a skyscraper. In this duel, the glass panels that they are standing on each have a bomb attached to them. As soon as a player's Life Points drop to 0, the bomb will detonate sending the loser down a thirty-floor fall to his death (for the English version of the Anime, the bombs were changed to "Dark Energy Boxes" that would send the loser to the Shadow Realm before the fall).

In the original version, Mask of Light is voiced by Yuu Mizushima and Mask of Darkness is voiced by Kouji Ishii.

Deck As their names suggest, they use a Mask-themed Lockdown Deck, that weakens and manipulates the opponent's cards while lowering their opponent's Life Points.

Arkana
Arkana/Pandora (パンドラ Pandora) is a Rare Hunter and member of the Ghouls organization, who frequently uses the Dark Magician card in duels. Unlike Yugi's Dark Magician, Arkana's is red instead of purple. He was once a famous stage magician, with his lovely assistant fiancé, but fell into despair after a dangerous illusion he was performing went awry, scarring his once-beautiful visage to the point where he drove his fiancé away in his anguish. Ruined and depressed for causing his love to leave him, he stumbled from day to day until he met Marik Ishtar, who promised to help him regain the love of his fiancé if he became a Rare Hunter. However, after he was defeated and saved by Yugi Mutou in a duel in which the loser gets his legs chopped off by a buzzsaw (in the English anime, the buzzsaws were changed to Dark Energy Disks that sent the loser's mind to the Shadow Realm upon contact), he realized that the promise was a lie and that, if Yugi had not saved him, Marik would have left him to die. However, Marik banishes Arkana's mind to the Shadow Realm a short time after.

Pandora's name was changed to Arkana in the English anime because "Pandora" is a feminine name in English. "Arcana" is the plural form of the Latin word "arcanus". The English word "Arcane" is derived from that word.

Arkana has also appeared in the Waking the Dragons arc as a lost soul wandering the sacred circle Yugi ventures through to find his other half.

In the original Japanese version Pandora is voiced by Takehito Koyasu.

Deck

Strings
Strings/The Pantomimer (パントマイマー, Pantomaimā), known as the "Quiet One," is one of Marik Ishtar's Rare Hunters during the Battle City arc. At first, he appeared to be a stationary mime in the park and was a curiosity for many of the people there, but when Marik took control of him, he went to confront Yugi and duel him.

Strings had a huge advantage up his sleeve, the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon. Using a five card combo involving Slifer, Revival Jam, Infinite Cards, Jam Defender, and Card of Safe Return, Strings put Yami in a tight situation. Every time he attacks, Strings can redirect the attack to Revival Jam, which automatically regenerates itself and thanks to Card of Safe Return, he can draw three cards from his deck whenever this happens and because of Infinite Cards, he can hold as many cards as he wants. This made Slifer practically unbeatable.

Yami is just about to give up until Kaiba arrives and encourages him to fight on. The two manage to figure out the weakness to Slifer. Yami uses Brain Control to take control of Revival Jam, forcing Slifer to attack it with its second mouth. Then Revival Jam regenerates, forcing Strings to draw three more cards. Then Slifer attacks again. This continues in a never-ending loop until Strings' Deck is empty, and thus he loses the Duel. Yami gets Slifer the Sky Dragon for his victory.

Strings himself is entirely devoid of personality, and is merely a shell for Marik's will. This worked to Marik's advantage, since God Cards normally do not obey anyone without a Millennium Item, Strings' empty mind allowed Marik to bypass this restriction - Slifer obeyed Marik's will, though Marik didn't have to be there in person. However, Strings' lack of mental awareness also served another end - he had no conscience and could feel no pain, so would hold nothing back.

Deck

Seeker
The Rare Hunter (レアハンター Reā Hantā; named Seeker in the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters) was a member of Marik's Ghouls (Rare Hunters in the dub) organization. He and other minions ambushed Joey Wheeler and forced him into duel. When Joey was defeated, they took his Red-Eyes B. Dragon.

Yami Yugi and Joey met him while in the Battle City Tournament. Joey challenged him to recover his monster, but the Rare Hunter refused and decided to duel Yugi instead for his Dark Magician. Joey tried to warn Yami of the Rare Hunter's deck, but he exclaimed that he would tear up the Red-Eyes if Joey told. Yami discovered it out on his own later, and used cards that would prevent Rare Hunter from holding all Exodia pieces in hand, and finally destroyed Exodia (using Chain Destruction) and won the duel. Yugi also discovered that Rare Hunter was using marked cards, and he destroyed them (in the original Japanese version, they were fake cards).

Marik stated that this Rare Hunter was the weakest of his minions when he speaks to Yugi after banishing the Rare Hunter's mind to the Shadow Realm.

Deck The Rare Hunter uses an Exodia Deck, which includes 3 copies of each piece of Exodia and various high defense monsters, such as "Stone Statue of the Aztecs" and "Gear Golem the Moving Fortress".