Counterpart

See also: Card evolutions

A card is considered to be a counterpart of another card if it is intentionally made similar in appearance or effect.

Appearance counterparts

Early sets (especially from Vol.1 to Booster 7) recycled monster designs very frequently. Typically, the monster are identical in appearance, different only in colors, names and other stats. They are otherwise considered unrelated entities given their dissimilar names and the lore stated in their respective flavor text, with few exceptions.

Original counterpart	Derivative counterpart
"Ancient Tool"	"Patrol Robo"
"Armored Rat"	"Prevent Rat"
"Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness"	"Obese Marmot of Nefariousness"
"Crawling Dragon #2"	"B. Dragon Jungle King"
"Dark Gray"	"Ancient One of the Deep Forest"
"Dissolverock"	"The Thing That Hides in the Mud"
"Doriado"	"Lady of Faith"
"Dorover"	"Liquid Beast"
"Dragon Piper"	"Pot the Trick"
"Droll Bird"	"Great Bill"
"Electric Lizard"	"Thunder Kid"
"Enchanting Mermaid"	"Amazon of the Seas"
"Fiend Reflection #2"	"Fiend Reflection #1"
"Firegrass"	"Living Vase"
"Fusionist"	"Little Chimera"
"Gate Deeg"	"Ghoul with an Appetite"
"Gatekeeper"	"Royal Guard"
"Grappler"	"Drooling Lizard"
"Ground Attacker Bugroth"	"Amphibious Bugroth"
"Haniwa"	"Rock Spirit"
"Hitodenchak"	"Armored Starfish"
"Holograh"	"Disk Magician"
"Hourglass of Life"	"Hourglass of Courage"
"Hunter Spider"	"Kumootoko"
"Hyosube"	"Psychic Kappa"
"Krokodilus"	"Anthrosaurus"
"Kuriboh"	"Wretched Ghost of the Attic"
"Larvae Moth"	"Needle Worm"
"Larvas"	"Mon Larvas"
"Lesser Dragon"	"Armored Lizard"
"Man-Eating Plant"	"Darkworld Thorns"
"Mavelus"	"Blue-Winged Crown"
"Meotoko"	"Hiro's Shadow Scout"
"Mushroom Man"	"Mushroom Man #2"
"Mystical Capture Chain"	"Binding Chain"
"Nekogal #1"	"Nekogal #2"
"Nightmare Scorpion"	"Giant Scorpion of the Tundra"
"Petit Angel"	"Shining Friendship"
"Petit Dragon"	"Fairy Dragon"
"Petit Moth"	"Acid Crawler"
"Protector of the Throne"	"Invader of the Throne"
"Queen's Double"	"Princess of Tsurugi"
"Rock Ogre Grotto #1"	"Steel Ogre Grotto #1"
"Rose Spectre of Dunn"	"Arlownay"
"Serpent Marauder"	"Flame Viper"
"Silver Fang"	"Wolf"
"Skull Servant"	"The Wandering Doomed"
"Sleeping Lion"	"Leo Wizard"
"Sonic Maid"	"Hibikime"
"Spirit of the Books"	"Crow Goblin"
"Spirit of the Harp"	"Muse-A"
"Stone Armadiller"	"Ancient Lizard Warrior"
"Synchar"	"Pale Beast"
"Tentacle Plant"	"Man Eater"
"The Furious Sea King"	"Night Lizard"
"Tomozaurus"	"Little D"
"Trent"	"Ancient Tree of Enlightenment"
"Tyhone"	"Tyhone #2"
"Uraby"	"Trakodon"
"Vishwar Randi"	"Succubus Knight"
"Water Omotics"	"Fairy of the Fountain"
"White Magical Hat"	"The Bewitching Phantom Thief"
"Winged Cleaver"	"Bladefly"
"Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1"	"Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #2"
"Winged Egg of New Life"	"Wing Egg Elf"
"Yashinoki"	"Snakeyashi"

Effect counterparts

"Barrel Dragon" and "Blowback Dragon" are considered counterparts since the latter's effect was based on the former's. However, counterparts in effect are sometimes less obvious or even unintentional.

Some counterparts are upgraded versions of Normal Monsters given effects, e.g. "Obnoxious Celtic Guard" is this to "Celtic Guardian". These are referred to as retrained cards.

There are enhanced counterparts, such as "Muka Muka" to "Enraged Muka Muka", "Man-Eater Bug" to "Nobleman-Eater Bug", "Hane-Hane" to "Hade-Hane", "Levia-Dragon - Daedalus" to "Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus", "Milus Radiant" to "Missus Radiant", etc.

Another kind of counterparts are the Dark counterparts, released in Phantom Darkness. These cards are dark versions of several popular monsters, such as "The Dark Creator" or "Dark Armed Dragon". All of them resemble older monsters in appearance, name, ATK and DEF, etc, with the exception that they are all DARK.

The majority of "Malefic" monsters are counterparts of older cards, e.g. "Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon".