Kaiba chiefly runs decks that centralize on a Beatdown strategy to aggressively overwhelm his opponents with high-attack monsters. During the first several arcs of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, his deck comprises of vicious-looking monsters, with most of them being Fiend-Type and of the DARK Attribute. The Spells and Traps in his Deck normally serve to disrupt and counter any strategies his opponents would use. In the later arcs, he incorporates Virus trap cards such as "Giant Germ", "Crush Card Virus" and "Virus Cannon" that give it the traits of a Virus Control Deck and Swarm Deck.
As the series evolves, Kaiba's switches his focus towards Dragon-type monsters. His later decks comprise a lineup of Dragon-type monsters and Dragon-type support cards such as Spear Dragon, Luster Dragon #2, Different Dimension Dragon and the Chaos Emperor Dragon while still maintaining the Blue Eyes White Dragon as his most aggressive boss monster. His later decks still retain much of the aggressive offensive beatdown strategies to wreak havoc upon his opponents with high attack points incorporated with Dragon-type support cards that contain inherent self-protection effects.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
1st Anime
2nd Series Anime
Childhood Deck
(This Deck is seen in a flashback during the Virtual World arc. These cards were taken away by Seto and Mokuba's stepfather, and were taken back by Mokuba Kaiba.)
Duelist Kingdom
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Solomon Muto | 1 | Win (off-screen) |
Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi | 1 | Lose |
Joey Wheeler | 16 | Win |
Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi | 22-24 | Win |
Maximillion Pegasus | 26-27 | Lose |
During Duelist Kingdom, his Deck utilized various brutal appearing monsters to reflect his personality. Ghost Kaiba also utilized Kaiba's Deck and the Duel Computer also used some of his cards when Kaiba wanted to test his new Duel Disk system. Notably, his signature card (through all seasons of the anime and manga) is the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". His main plan consists of using "Saggi the Dark Clown" as bait, then use "Crush Card" to destroy the opponent's Deck. Against Yugi he tries regaining Life Points or destroying the opponents cards to stall until he draws the right cards required for Summoning "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" for the final blow.
Test Deck
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Duel Robot | 54 | Win |
After obtaining "Obelisk the Tormentor" and developing the Duel Disk, Kaiba creates a Deck to test them both out and Duels against a Duel Computer, which used some of Kaiba's own cards.
Battle City
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Koji Nagumo | 60 | Win |
Rare Hunter 2 and Rare Hunter 3 | 68 | Win (with Yami Yugi) |
Lumis and Umbra | 70-73 | Win (with Yami Yugi) |
Ishizu Ishtar | 93-94 | Win |
Yami Marik, Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler | 122-124 | Win; 2nd place |
Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi | 129-134 | Lose |
Joey Wheeler | 135-137 | Win |
In Battle City, Kaiba's Deck takes on several traits of a Virus Deck, which focuses on removing cards from his opponents' Decks and leaving them with limited options. One of the main strategies in this Deck includes using "Crush Card Virus" and "Virus Cannon" to mill his opponents' Decks, while also attempting to Summon "Obelisk the Tormentor" for the finishing blow. His "Obelisk the Tormentor" is supported with "Soul Exchange", and if that fails, he uses his "XYZ" monsters as offense until he is able to Summon "Obelisk".
- Battle Ox
- Blue-Eyes White Dragon x3
- Dark Gremlin[Notes 10]
- Gadget Soldier
- Hyozanyru
- La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp
- Ryu-Kishin Powered
- Saggi the Dark Clown[Notes 11]
- Vorse Raider
- X-Head Cannon
- Absorb Spell
- Card Guard
- Card of Demise
- Command Silencer
- Cost Down
- Enemy Controller
- Fiend's Sanctuary
- Interdimensional Matter Transporter[Notes 6]
- Lullaby of Obedience
- Monster Reborn
- Polymerization[Notes 8]
- Pot of Greed
- Quick Attack
- Ring of Defense
- Shrink
- Silent Doom
- Soul Exchange
- Spell Sanctuary
- Stop Defense
- The Flute of Summoning Dragon x2
- Thirst for Compensation
- Virus Cannon
Virtual World
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Leichter | 108-109 | Win |
Noah Kaiba | 114-116 | Lose (continued by Yami Yugi, who won) |
Gozaburo Kaiba | 120-121 | Win |
The Virtual World Deck is very similar to Kaiba's Battle City Deck, though with more emphasis on Dragon-Type monsters, and without his Egyptian God (as the Virtual World's Deck construction list excludes the God Cards).
Waking the Dragons
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Alister | 149-150 | DRAW |
Alister | 166-167 | Win |
Dartz | 177-182 | Win (with Yami Yugi) |
During the Waking the Dragons arc, Kaiba uses a Virus/Critias Deck. Kaiba's Deck evolves considerably, as he begins to include many more Dragons in his Deck, while also gaining "Fang of Critias", and still supporting "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "XYZ" monsters. He supports many of his Trap Cards with "Fang of Critias", creating powerful monsters to defeat the opponent.
Grand Championship
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Zigfried von Schroeder | 194-195 | Win |
Kaiba only Dueled once in the Grand Championship arc (in order to officially disqualify Zigfried von Schroeder). This Deck, which still consisted mostly of Dragons, focused on swarming the field with monsters that were removed from play, using "Dimension Fusion".
Dawn of the Duel
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Yami Bakura | 200 | No result |
Kaiba Duels once in this arc as well, against Yami Bakura, but the Duel is not finished because his opponent leaves in the middle of it. Against Bakura, he included cards from previous arcs, focusing mainly on his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Kaiba uses cards from previous arcs while he's in ancient Egypt to protect himself and others from harm.
Briefcase
On more than one occasion, Kaiba has opened his briefcase to reveal a large collection of rare cards.
First Briefcase
Upon hearing that Solomon Muto has a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Kaiba brings a briefcase full of rare cards in an attempt to trade him for it.
Second Briefcase
Kaiba's second briefcase contained his prototype for the Duel Disk as well as many other valuable cards he took to Duelist Kingdom with him.
- Armored Lizard
- Axe Raider
- Basic Insect
- Big Insect
- Crawling Dragon
- Cyber Commander
- Flying Elephant[Notes 24]
- Garnecia Elefantis
- Garoozis
- Gokibore
- Grappler
- Gyakutenno Megami[Notes 25]
- Hitotsu-Me Giant
- Illusionist Faceless Mage
- Kamakiriman
- Kairyu-Shin[Notes 24]
- Killer Needle
- Masaki the Legendary Swordsman
- Mystic Horseman
- Red-Eyes Black Dragon [Notes 24]
- Tiger Axe [Notes 24]
- Torike
- Trakodon
Third Briefcase
Kaiba's third briefcase of cards was offered to improve Koji Nagumo's deck prior to him dueling with Obelisk the Tormentor. Kaiba's condition was that he could keep the rare cards he added if he beat him in a duel.
Fourth Briefcase
Kaiba's fourth briefcase consists of some of his best and most powerful cards offered to Yugi for his duel against the Pharaoh.
Manga
Early manga
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Chapter(s) | Outcome(s) |
Dark Yugi | 9-10 | Lose |
Sugoroku Mutou | 27 | Win |
Dark Yugi | 36-39 | Lose |
Seto's early Deck includes these cards as well two unnamed monsters.
Duelist Kingdom
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Chapter(s) | Outcome(s) |
Joey Wheeler | 26-27 | Win |
Dark Yugi | 41-46 | Win |
Maximillion Pegasus | 49-52 | Lose |
Seto's Duelist Kingdom manga Deck includes these cards, as well as one unnamed monster.
Test Deck
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Chapter(s) | Outcome(s) |
Duel Robot | 89 | Win |
This Deck was made by Seto in order to test the power of The God of the Obelisk against his three "Blue-Eyes".
- Monster Reborn (in hand)
- Negate Attack
Battle City
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Chapter(s) | Outcome(s) |
Rare Hunter 2 and Rare Hunter 3 | 118 | Win (with Dark Yugi) |
Lumis and Umbra | 126-130 | Win (with Dark Yugi) |
Ishizu Ishtar | 166-171 | Win |
Dark Marik, Dark Yugi, Joey Wheeler | 180-183 | Win; 2nd place |
Dark Yugi | 193-203 | Lose |
Seto's Battle City Deck is very similar to his anime Deck, and it also contains one Level 8 unnamed monster. Dark Marik described his Deck during his Duel with Yugi as a Power Deck designed to suppress the opponent with monsters while gathering sacrifices to Summon his God card. Kaiba is not limited to using his own monsters, however, making liberal use of "Soul Exchange" to use his opponent's monsters as the sacrifices he needed. At the same time, he did not abandon his "Blue-Eyes White Dragons," often using them as either backup or a temporary replacement for "Obelisk," and including multiple methods to Summon them with the utilization of the ordinary twin-Tribute method. He also retained his Virus strategies, which he used against Ishizu, but he likely temporarily abandoned them in the manga after learning that his "Crush Card" strategy would be ineffective against "Ra."
- Card of Demise
- Cost Down
- Devil's Sanctuary (gave to Yugi before his Duel against Marik)
- Enemy Controller
- Interdimensional Matter Transporter
- Monster Reborn
- Polymerization
- Shrink
- Silent Doom
- Soul Exchange
- The Flute of Summoning Dragon
- Voice of the Heavens
R
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Chapter(s) | Outcome(s) |
Willa Mette | 14-15 | Win |
Yako Tenma | 28-30 | Lose |
Kaiba runs a Crack-and-Power Deck. Having lost his God card, Kaiba has expanded upon his previous strategies; he includes new support for Virus Cards and also more "self-fusing" Fusion Monsters, notably the "Material" series. His "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" are back to their old position of spearheading his Deck.
Other
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Episode(s) | Outcome(s) |
Gerard | 21-22 | Win (Gerard's flashback) |
Kaiba was only shown Dueling during Gerard's flashback. He defeated him with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".
A Monster Spirit named Kaibaman—who was rumored to have been created in honor of Kaiba, has been shown to possess a Deck based on Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon Deck. All the listed cards were part of Kaibaman's Deck.
Pyramid of Light
Record | |
---|---|
Opponent(s) | Outcome(s) |
Maximillion Pegasus | Win |
Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi | No result |
In the movie, Kaiba's Deck works by removing monsters like the "XYZ" monsters from play to Special Summon them back to the field. After obtaining "Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon", he modifies his Deck slightly to include it and "Pyramid of Light"
Only the cards used by Kaiba in his Duels were shown in the film. The full Deck List was given in the novelization of the film.
The Dark Side of Dimensions
In the film, Kaiba plays a "Blue-Eyes Deck", featuring expanded support for "Blue Eyes White Dragon" and other high Level Dragon-Type monsters.
Scripted Duels
North American World Championship Qualifiers 2012
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Tournament | Outcome(s) |
Joey Wheeler | North American WCQ 2012 | Win |
North American World Championship Qualifiers 2013
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Tournament | Outcome(s) |
Maximillion Pegasus | North American WCQ 2013 | Win |
During this duel, Kaiba claims to have specially pre-delivered Saga of Blue-Eyes White Dragon Structure Deck.
World Championship 2016 Special: Yugi vs. Kaiba
Record | ||
---|---|---|
Opponent(s) | Tournament | Outcome(s) |
Yugi Muto | World Championship 2016 Special | Lose |
Video games
The Eternal Duelist Soul
Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel
The Falsebound Kingdom
The Sacred Cards
World Championship Tournament 2004
The Dawn of Destiny
Kaiba's signature card is shown to be Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Reshef of Destruction
7 Trials to Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005
Nightmare Troubadour
Decks
Deck Recipe
Jump Ultimate Stars
World Championship Tournament 2007
World Championship Tournament 2008
Online Duel Accelerator
Duel Terminal
Pulse of Trishula
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Used by Duel Computer.
- ↑ This card is used to jam the gun of one of Pegasus' henchmen in episode 30. The scene was absent from the dub.
- ↑ This card was played as an Effect Monster. It is a Normal Monster in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ This card was used in the Big Five's virtual game to destroy a "Dragon Capture Jar" in episode 45.
- ↑ The second copy can be seen in his hand after he activates the first in episode 23.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 This card was used as a Magic Card. It was depicted as a Trap Card in the dub. It is a Trap Card in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ This card was used as a Quick-Play Magic Card. It was depicted as a Trap Card in the dub. It is a Counter Trap Card in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Alternate version in the dubs.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 This card was used as a Trap Card. It is an Effect Monster in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 This card was played as a Normal Monster. It is an Effect Monster in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ This card can be seen in his hand near the end of episode 70.
- ↑ This card is discarded via the effect of "Michizure of Doom" in episode 93.
- ↑ This card was present in his Deck prior to episode 135.
- ↑ This card was sent from his hand to the Graveyard via the effect of "Spirit Ryu" in episode 109.
- ↑ This card is used by Yugi after he merges his Deck with Kaiba's to duel Noah. He states it is Kaiba's card.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 This card was sent from the top of his Deck to the Graveyard via the effect of "Hiro's Shadow Scout" in episode 108.
- ↑ He Summoned this card to help fight The Great Leviathan in episode 182.
- ↑ He Summoned this card to help fight The Great Leviathan in episode 183.
- ↑ This was only named in the dub and is in reality just "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" affected by the effect of "Tyrant Burst Dragon".
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 This card is discarded to activate "Spell Reproduction" in episode 195.
- ↑ This card is seen in his hand in episode 195.
- ↑ This card was discarded via the effect of "Graceful Charity" in episode 195.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 This card was seen in Kaiba's briefcase only in the dub.
- ↑ This card is only seen in Kaiba's briefcase in the manga. In the anime, it is apart of his deck.
- ↑ In chapter 10, Kaiba uses a copy stolen from Sugoruko Muto, which added from his pocket. By chapter 27, Kaiba added three copies of his own to the deck.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 This card was played as a Virus Card. It is a Trap Card in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ This card was played as a Fusion Monster. It is an Effect Monster in the TCG/OCG.
- ↑ This card was played as a Virus Card.
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 30.6 This card can be seen when he searches his Deck with "Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands".
- ↑ He obtains this card after his Duel with Pegasus. The novel reveals that he removes "Enemy Controller" from his Deck to add it.
- ↑ The novel reveals he removes this card from his Deck to add "Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon".
- ↑ This card is used during a virtual simulation and was not included in the Decklist given in the novel.
- ↑ The novel reveals he removes this card from his Deck to add "Pyramid of Light".
- ↑ He obtains this card after his Duel with Pegasus. The novel reveals that he removes "Cloning" from his Deck to add it.
- ↑ This card was sent from his Deck to the Graveyard via the effect of "Dark Sacrifice" during his Duel with Virtual Dark Yugi.
- ↑ Kaiba discards this card as part of the effect of "Graceful Charity".