Often given as tournament prizes for winning the world championship, the rarest Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are truly one of a kind.

As fans of any card game know, card games can get expensive very quickly. Keeping up with the best decks can often cost a player hundreds of dollars just for two or three cards. As expensive as it can be to play at a tournament level, it's even more expensive to collect rare cards.

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The most rare cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! aren't just rare because Konami printed them in a higher rarity. No, the most rare cards come as tournament prizes, often for winning the world championship. They're not just rare because they're shiny, it's because only two or three copies of the card exist in the entire world.

Gold Sarcophagus remains one of the best spell cards in the game, which is why it was limited on Konami's banlist for over a decade. The player could banish a card from their deck face-up, then during their 2nd standby phase after activation, add the card to their hand.

Since there's nothing stopping players from adding it to their hand sooner, Gold Sarcophagus remains limited. The Shonen Jump Championship 2007 prize card version of this card has seen massive jumps in price, starting at $8000 in 2020 before jumping to $25000 by early 2022.

Stardust Divinity was the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship prize card for 2010, complemented by Konami choosing to make it a powerful Synchro monster. It can only be synchro summoned and comes with a hefty 3000 ATK and Defense, making it one of the most powerful Stardust monsters from the early synchro era.

Like every card of its kind, Stardust Divinity is a Match ender, but people would must really want it to summon it. The card requires one light Tuner and two or more non-tuner monsters, a steep cost for a level 10 card. This card is currently going for around $64,000.

Kaiser Eagle was the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship prize card for 2019, which made it the most recent prize card until 2022 Worlds. A Link-5 monster that required three or more winged beast effect monsters, Kaiser Eagle would be a boon to any player running a Winged Beast deck — if the deck was legal.

The card Kaiser Eagle amassed a worth of $140,000 in 2021. Since then, the card's value has plummeted significantly and is now half the cost. Sitting at $70,000, now is the best chance to pick one up.

Des Volstgalph has been printed a number of times, but the most rare version is the Ultra Rare Shonen Jump Championship card. Considering Konami doesn't do SJCs anymore, this card feels even more impossible to get a hold of.

The card was likely pretty impressive at the time, considering it could deal additional damage each time it sent an opponent's monster to the graveyard. It even gained attack with each resolved Normal or Quick-Play spell, a type of effect that would become more common later on. Most recently, this card could sell for over $95,000, a significant drop from when it sold for around $149,000 in May 2022.

Known as "the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense," the original Dark Magician got Yugi out of many dangerous situations. The Duel Terminal Parallel Rare version of the card is perhaps the rarest version of them all, the gold standard for anyone looking to trick their Dark Magician deck out.

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For years, the card was only worth around $500, but somewhere in 2022, one of the copies went for around $100,000. Presumably the relative impossibility of getting the card caused its rarity to spike.

At one point, Crush Card Virus was one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most powerful cards. Much like in the anime, the card could render an opponent's deck useless. Even though the effect only lasted for three turns, that was often more than enough to turn the tide of the duel.

The original Shonen Jump Championship version of the card is one of the rarest cards on the planet. These days, it goes for around $115,000. These days Crush Card Virus has been errata'd into being a bad card, but that doesn't make this card any less valuable.

Tyr was created for the World Championship series in 2008. These cards tended to have the same effect, with the player being able to end the match by attacking the opponent with it directly and reducing their life points to zero.

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This effect is somewhat game-breaking, so it's illegal to play it in a tournament. However, the rarity makes Tyr one of the most sought-after cards in the game. Currently, the card goes for over $198,000, and its value has only gone up since its release.

Officially, this is the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! card. Kaiba's Blue-Eyes deck hosts filled with powerful monsters, but the most powerful of the time remains the fused Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. The winner of the 2001 Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship has received a special version of the card.

The reason Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon became the most expensive card was because this card sold for 45 million yen in 2018. Exchange rates varied from year to year. Currently, this meant the card sold for over $330,000 to a Japanese YouTuber named Yukkichi.

Tyler, The Great Warrior became a legendary Yu-Gi-Oh! card. Konami created it in response to a young man's Make-A-Wish request, giving him a custom card while he battled cancer. The card featured a Dragon Ball Z-esque character in the art, which earned it the name Super Saiyan Trunks in the community.

Tyler still holds the card today, and doesn't have any intention of giving it up. Since no other version of the card exists and the holder doesn't wish to part with it, it's theoretically impossible to place a value on it. To its owner, it certainly must be priceless.

The very first Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament awarded Yugi Muto's legendary Black Luster Soldier monster. It wasn't just any version of the warrior monster, but one created on stainless steel. With only one in existence, the value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

In 2013, Kotaku stated the card was up for purchase at 998 million yen, which these days would be worth around $7.3 million dollars. That doesn't necessarily mean someone will buy it for that price, but when a card truly is one of a kind, it's priceless.

NEXT: Yu-Gi-Oh! 10 Cards Worth Picking Up In Master Duel

Staff Writer for CBR, Sage Ashford has also written for Comicon as well as other sites such as The Gamer, and has been doing freelance work since 2014, and been working for CBR since 2017. His focus is primarily on spreading the word on obscure anime, comic books, and games whenever possible. Follow him on Twitter @ sageshinigami, or on Twitch @ sageshinigami.

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