Malefic

Overview

A while back it occurred to me, “Why didn’t Paradox steal more dragons? Wouldn’t he have wanted the best armada he could amass to ensure Pegasus’ death?” So, I started thinking about fanfic ideas for how he might have gone about it. Obviously, this isn’t such a fanfic, but the other day I did get the itch to design the cards that he might have stolen and corrupted, specifically limiting it to dragons and draconic machines belonging to named characters in the anime.

Malefic Black Rose Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Black Rose Dragon” from your Extra Deck. You can only use effect ③ of “Malefic Black Rose Dragon” once per turn. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ If this card is Special Summoned by its own procedure, and you control “Malefic World”: You can destroy all cards on the field. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

If Paradox had used time travel to duel Akiza, Leo and Luna at the same time as Yusei, presumably this would be the first dragon he’d want to capture. I didn’t want it to be too easy of a board wipe, hence the hard once per turn and requirement of Malefic World.

Malefic Black Rose Dragon’s art is Black Rose Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Ancient Fairy Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Ancient Fairy Dragon” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ Once while this card is face-up on the field: You can pay 2000 LP; Set 1 “Malefic” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY, but banish it when it leaves the field. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

In an Akiza / Leo / Luna vs Paradox duel, Ancient Fairy Dragon would probably be Paradox’s second priority after Black Rose Dragon, as it would have either a handy fetching effect or summoning effect. I opted for the former, though with a hefty cost and restrictions so it doesn’t make the deck too consistent.

Malefic Ancient Fairy Dragon’s art is Ancient Fairy Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Power Tool Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Power Tool Dragon” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ Once per turn, if this card is not equipped with an Equip Card: You can excavate the top 5 cards of your deck, and if you do, equip 1 excavated “Malefic” monster to this card, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. ④ If this card would be destroyed while equipped with a “Malefic” card(s), you can send 1 of those cards to the GY instead. ⑤ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

In an Akiza / Leo / Luna vs Paradox duel, if Paradox has already gotten his hands on Black Rose Dragon and Ancient Fairy Dragon, he may as well grab Power Tool Dragon while he’s at it. It could provide a way to get Malefic Truth Dragon into the graveyard faster, or at least be something that can remain on the board after using the effects of Malefic Black Rose Dragon or Malefic Gandora (while Malefic Territory is on the field, of course).

Malefic Power Tool Dragon’s art is Power Tool Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Red Dragon Archfiend

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Red Dragon Archfiend” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ After damage calculation, if this card attacked an opponent’s monster: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy it. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

If Paradox had stuck around longer when dueling Yusei and Jack and Crow had butted in on the duel, why not steal Red Dragon Archfiend? I didn’t want Malefic Red Dragon Archfiend repeatedly clearing the board, there’s already Malefic Black Rose Dragon and Malefic Gandora doing that once each, so I opted for a smaller but more flexible post-battle destruction effect.

Malefic Red Dragon Archfiend’s art is Red Dragon Archfiend’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Black-Winged Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Black-Winged Dragon” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ If you would take damage, place 1 Malefic Counter on this card instead (max. 4). ④ Loses 700 ATK for each Malefic Counter on it. ⑤ Once per turn: You can remove all Malefic Counters from this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; that target loses 700 ATK for each Malefic Counter removed, then, if its ATK is now 0, destroy it, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to its original ATK. ⑥ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

If Paradox had stuck around longer when dueling Yusei, then Jack and Crow had butted in on the duel, and Paradox had already captured Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend, why not try and go 3 for 3? With its ease of summoning, I didn’t want it doing damage with every use of its effect, so I figured reserving it for when the target hit 0 ATK would be a neat way to go about it.

Malefic Black-Winged Dragon’s art is Black-Winged Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Horus

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8” from your Deck. You can only use effect ③ of “Malefic Horus” once per turn. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ When a Spell Card or effect is activated, if you control “Malefic World” (Quick Effect): You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

Since Truman masquerading as Daigo Sorano used this in GX to devastating effect and it would have been perfect for protecting Malefic World, you can’t tell me Paradox wouldn’t have grabbed this at the first opportunity once he got to the GX era. I originally just had it replicating Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8’s negation effect with updated templating, but when I posted these cards on Reddit with their updated art, someone commented that given Malefic Horus’ easier summoning requirements than Horus LV8, it might be much easier to splash Malefic Horus in non-Malefic decks and abuse it. So, I decided to make effect ③ require Malefic World, the same as Malefic Black Rose Dragon, to mitigate that risk.

Malefic Horus’ art is Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Vice Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Clear Vice Dragon” from your Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ Once per battle, during damage calculation, if this card attacks an opponent’s monster: The ATK of the attack target becomes 0 and this card gains ATK equal to the attack target’s original ATK, during damage calculation only. ④ If this card would be destroyed by an opponent’s card effect, you can banish 1 card from your hand instead. ⑤ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

Seeing as it was used by Yusuke Fujiwara, the second-in-command of the final villain of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, it wouldn’t surprise me if Paradox had considered swiping Clear Vice Dragon for himself.

Thematically, that would make for a very interesting card. The Clear archetype is themed around forgetting one’s past, erasing one’s future, surrendering one’s identity and individuality, and becoming nothing. This is shown by Clear monsters not having an attribute in the anime, and Clear World punishing players based on the monster attributes they controlled. Meanwhile, the Malefic archetype’s theme is to confront the sins of the past and weaponise them to change the future, hence its playstyle of corrupted monsters and its original Japanese name, “Sin”. Given those two philosophies are completely at odds, I figured if Clear Vice Dragon became a Malefic monster, it could not remain a Clear monster, hence why I named it “Malefic Vice Dragon” and not “Malefic Clear Vice Dragon”.

In terms of its design, I decided to reflect that by adjusting its ATK gain effect, reducing the opponent’s monster to 0 (taking the past’s sins) and gaining its original ATK (weaponising those sins against your opponent), rather than just gaining double the opponent’s monster’s current ATK. As for the anti-destruction effect, I figured I’d align it with other Malefic monster effects and make the cost banishing from the hand rather than discarding, since that synergises better with my other Malefic monsters.

Malefic Vice Dragon’s art is Clear Vice Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Cyberdark Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Cyberdark Dragon” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ If this card is Special Summoned: Target 1 of your banished Dragon or Machine monsters; equip it to this card as an Equip Spell that gives this card ATK equal to the equipped monster’s original ATK. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

Paradox stole Cyber End Dragon from Syrus anyway, so why not take the 2 for 1 deal and grab Cyberdark Dragon at the same time? Since Malefic banish dragons and machines to summon themselves, I figured Malefic Cyberdark Dragon equipping one of them instead of a monster from the graveyard would tie in neatly with how the archetype works. As for the last part of that effect, I didn’t want Malefic Territory cancelling out the ATK gain in battle, so having the equipped monster applying the ATK rather than Malefic Cyberdark Dragon itself seemed a neat way of getting around that.

Malefic Cyberdark Dragon’s art is Cyberdark Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon” from your Deck. You can only use effect ④ of “Malefic Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon” once per turn. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ Gains 400 ATK for each of your banished Dragon or Machine monsters. This effect cannot be negated by the effect of a “Malefic” card. ④ When a Spell Card or effect is activated that targets a “Malefic” card (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 card from your hand; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. ⑤ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

If Paradox went and snatched cards from Syrus, namely Zane’s former aces, and from Yusuke, the third member of their trio, there’s a good chance that would put Paradox on Atticus’s radar and give him an excuse to bust out his Red-Eyes’. For Paradox’s part, the anime effects of Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, like Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8’s effect, would be too good to pass up. Profiting off of using stolen Dragons and adding more protection for Malefic World? The choice is obvious. To play into banishing the uncorrupted monsters needed to summon Malefic monsters, having it gain ATK from banished Dragons and Machines rather than Dragons in the Graveyard seemed obvious. Given how easy it is to summon, I figured restricting the Spell negation effect to just targeted Malefic cards might be warranted so it doesn’t become too powerful in other decks, and making the cost banishment rather than discarding made sense to continue tying into the banishment effects of the real cards and my custom cards.

Malefic Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon’s art is Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Armed Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Armed Dragon LV7” from your Deck. You can only use effect ③ of “Malefic Armed Dragon” once per turn. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ You can banish 1 monster from your hand, then target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

Like with Malefic Red Dragon Archfiend, I didn’t want Malefic Armed Dragon being a repeatable board wipe given how easy Malefic monsters are to summon, so I figured scaling it back to a single monster regardless of ATK would work nicely, and banishing rather than discarding would play into Malefic Cyberdark Dragon’s effect as well.

Malefic Armed Dragon’s art is Armed Dragon LV7’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Five-Headed Dragon

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Five-Headed Dragon” from your Extra Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ The first time this card would be destroyed by battle with a DARK, EARTH, WATER, FIRE, or WIND monster each turn, it is not destroyed. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

I like to think that if Paradox did take Five-Headed Dragon, it’d be towards the bottom of his priority list, given its 1-3 track record of losing against Yugi and Kaiba, Yugi and Joey, and Jaden by himself, and only winning against a nameless Kaiba Land patron playing against a duel bot. Then again, a 5K beater is a 5K beater. Given its ease of summoning, I figured reducing the indestructability effect to once per turn would be reasonable. I did consider giving it a stronger weakness to LIGHT and DIVINE monsters, but decided against it.

Malefic Five-Headed Dragon’s art is Five-Headed Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with black monochrome heads and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Harpie’s Pet Malefic Dragon

Harpie’s Pet Malefic Dragon (LV 7 / Dragon / Effect / 2000 ATK / 2500 DEF), effect: “Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Harpie’s Pet Dragon” from your Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ Gains 300 ATK/DEF for each “Malefic” monster on the field. This effect cannot be negated by the effect of a “Malefic” card. ④ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.”

With how many Malefics Paradox was flooding the field with in the movie, Harpie’s Pet Malefic Dragon would fit right in. In the TCG, you’d have to use Malefic Territory to get more than 300 ATK/DEF out of it’s effect, and I didn’t want Malefic Territory making that useless in battle, so I added the anti-negate part.

Harpie’s Pet Malefic Dragon’s art is Harpie’s Pet Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Gandora

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 “Gandora the Dragon of Destruction” from your Deck. ① There can only be 1 “Malefic” monster on the field. ② Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. ③ If you control “Malefic World”: You can pay half your LP; destroy all other monsters on the field, and if you do, banish them, then this card gains 300 ATK for each monster banished this way. This effect cannot be negated by the effect of a “Malefic” card. ④ During the End Phase: Send this card to the GY. ⑤ If there is no face-up Field Spell on the field, destroy this card.

Like with Malefic Black Rose Dragon, since it doesn’t stick around, I figured keeping its full board wipe functionality and requiring Malefic World would be fine. Like with Malefic Cyberdark Dragon, I didn’t want Malefic Territory cancelling the ATK gain. Originally I had it equipping one of the destroyed monsters with an effect to give it ATK, like Malefic Cyberdark Dragon does, but that felt clunky in comparison, so I changed it to just outright be immune to negation by other Malefic cards, like Harpie’s Pet Malefic Dragon. I also didn’t want it to be a one-card method to summon Malefic Truth Dragon, hence why it just goes to the graveyard rather than destroying itself.

Malefic Gandora’s art is Gandora the Dragon of Destruction’s artwork horizontally reflected and outlined, with a black monochrome head and wings, and with the background replaced with the art for Malefic World.

Malefic Planetary Gear

You can only use effect ① of “Malefic Planetary Gear” once per turn. ① You can discard this card; add 1 “Malefic World” from your Deck or GY to your hand. ② When you Synchro Summon a “Malefic” monster, you can banish this card from your GY as 1 of the monsters required for the Synchro Summon.

I figured a way to retrieve Malefic World would be nice, and plenty of other Field Spell fetchers discard themselves, so that seemed the natural route to take. Given that, banishing itself from the Graveyard as a Synchro Material in the same manner that the Ritual Djinn monsters do for Ritual Summons seemed a natural fit for enabling more Synchro plays.

Malefic Planetary Gear’s art is an image of the Planetary Particle from the anime horizontally reflected and outlined, with black monochrome gears, and with Malefic World as the background.

Malefic Exchange

① Reveal 1 “Malefic” monster in your hand or Deck, and 1 non-“Malefic” monster mentioned on it in your hand; shuffle that non-“Malefic” monster from your hand into the Deck, then draw 2 cards. ② If a “Malefic” card you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

With all the new Malefic monsters I’d designed that were based on Main Deck monsters, recycling the non-Malefic monsters used to summon them that got stuck in your hand was always the core goal of Malefic Exchange. For its activation condition, I settled with revealing the Malefic monster whose counterpart you want to shuffle back into the Deck. I contemplated making the condition revealing the non-Malefic card, but besides potentially not being a legal category of cards to reference, I didn’t want to risk non-Malefic decks using those monsters normally trying to abuse Malefic Exchange. Some of the newer official Malefic cards also have Graveyard effects, so I figured why not add one to Malefic Exchange, and opted for a general protection effect to cover effects that might get past existing Malefic monsters’ effects.

Malefic Exchange’s art is 3 copies of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card back from Mystical Cards of Light, with 1 of them in monochrome in reference to Paradox’s stolen copy of Stardust Dragon also being monochrome, and with Malefic World as the background.

Details

Development: February 2024 – April 2024

Latest Errata: May 2025

Format: Advanced Format

Made With: GIMP, www.cardmaker.net

Based on: Iconic and plot-relevant dragons from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s

Copyright

Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi and the property of Studio Dice / Konami. All copyright goes to them. My Malefic custom cards are fan cards I designed based on the Malefic archetype featured in Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time, and the following iconic dragons:

• Black Rose Dragon, used by Akiza Izinski in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Ancient Fairy Dragon, used by Luna in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Power Tool Dragon, used by Leo in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Red Dragon Archfiend, used by Jack Atlas in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Black-Winged Dragon, used by Crow Hogan in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, used by Daigo Sorano and Trueman in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Clear Vice Dragon, used by Yusuke Fujiwara in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Cyberdark Dragon, used by Zane and Syrus Truesdale in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, used by Atticus Rhodes in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Armed Dragon LV7, used by Chazz Princeton in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Five-Headed, used by the Big Five and a duel robot in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Zane Truesdale and Trueman in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• Harpie’s Pet Dragon, used by Mai Valentine in Yu-Gi-Oh!
• Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, used by Yugi Muto in Yu-Gi-Oh!

I also created Malefic designs based on the following:

• The Planetary Particle, a key component of the Ener-D reactor system in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
• Strategy-specific draw 2 cards like Trade-In and Destiny Draw

All card artworks and anime images used in my custom cards’ artoworks were sourced from yugipedia.com and edited in GIMP, and as such I do not own them. Their rules text follows a hybrid of the original Japanese cards’ numbered effect formatting, and the Problem-Solving Card Text format used for English-language cards, using the most recent cards as examples. The finished card images were created using www.cardmaker.net.