Mai Valentine is the first female duelist in Yu-Gi-Oh! She is confident, beautiful, and arrogant. Fans recognize her beauty and the beauty of her monsters. Mai Valentine’s deck features some of the iconic monsters and archetypes in Yui-Gi-Oh!
Mai Valentine plays a lot of female monsters in her decks. Her signature cards are Harpies. Mai controls the field with her winged beasts. She also plays a less popular archetype, Amazoness,. The Amazoness, have a similar theme of hunters and strong women like the Harpie Ladies.
My list only contains cards from Mai Valentine’s deck in the anime and manga. I judged cards by their usefulness in the TCG. Konami has continued to create new cards for the archetype, Harpie. However, most of those cards did not appear in Mai Valentine’s deck in the anime and manga.
1. Harpie’s Feather Duster
Harpie’s Feather Duster is one of the strongest cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! since its introduction in Tournament Pack 8. Mai Valentine plays this card in episode 29 during her duel against Yugi (Atem). She activates the card twice during their duel to destroy Yugi’s Spellbinding Circle and Mirror Force.
The effect of Harpie’s Feather Duster destroys all of the opponent’s traps and spells. You perfectly counter the opponent’s strategy. You will gain a major advantage if you destroy many traps and spells with Harpie’s Feather Duster.
2. Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation
Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation is Mai Valentine’s signature card in season 4. This spell destroys all of your opponent’s monsters and deals damage to your opponent equal to his or her monster with the highest ATK. Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation is a useful card against decks that spam the field with monsters.
This card first appears in Mai’s flashback in episode 151. Mai Valentine plays Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation to defeat Maximillion Pegasus. She plays the card to destroy Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Pegasus’s Thousand-Eyes Restrict with Harpie’s Pet Dragon had 3,800 ATK. Due to the effect of Harpie Lady Phoenix, Pegasus’s life points are reduced to zero, and Mai wins the duel in epic fashion.
3. Harpie’s Feather Storm
Harpie’s Feather Storm is a good trap for Harpie decks. It negates all of the effects from your opponent’s monsters for a turn. Harpie Feather Storm shuts down the opponent’s deck. He or she will not be able to gain any advantages from their monsters’ effects.
You can activate Harpie’s Feather Storm from your hand if you control a Harpie. This trap is one of the few traps with the ability to play it from your hand. You do not need to set it. However, an opponent can destroy it on the field and activate its effect to add a Harpie’s Feather Duster to your hand.
4. Monster Reborn
Monster Reborn is one of the best cards in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh! Almost every character from the original anime plays this card. Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, and Mai play Monster Reborn to gain the benefits of its effect. Monster Reborn special summons a monster from either player’s graveyard.
5. Elegant Egotist
Elegant Egotist is the perfect name for a card in Mai Valentine’s deck. She has a big ego about her beauty and skills. Her Harpie Ladies share the same arrogance in their facial expressions.
Elegant Egotist is an efficient card for Harpies. Elegant Egotist special summons a Harpie Lady from the deck. This spell card adds consistency to the deck and today’s decks with Harpies play this card. For example, Elegant Egotist can special summon a Cyber Harpie Lady or a Harpie Lady Sisters.
6. Dramatic Rescue
Dramatic Rescue is a handy Trap Card. When your opponent targets an Amazoness, you may return your monster to your hand and special summon a new monster from the hand. Dramatic Rescue demonstrates its dramatic effect by special summoning a powerful monster from your hand. However, the opponent must target an Amazoness to activate the Trap Card.
Dramatic Rescue only appears in one duel in the original anime. Mai Valentine activates this card against Yami Marik. He targets Mai’s Amazoness Fighter with Nightmare Wheel, but Mai activates Dramatic Rescue! She special summons Cyber Harper Lady, and Nightmare Wheel is destroyed because its original target left the field.
7. Harpie’s Pet Dragon
Most of the Harpie Ladies do not a strong ATK. They have a pet dragon, Harpie’s Pet Dragon for offense. Harpie’s Pet Dragon gains 300 ATK for each Harpie Lady on the field. This monster has synergy with many monsters in the archetype. Many Harpie monsters become Harpie Lady on the field.
Mai Valentine unleashes Harpie’s Pet Dragon in episode 29 in her duel against Yugi. She nearly defeats him with this might card. However, Yugi unleashes Black Luster Solider to slay Harpie’s Pet Dragon and seal the victory.
8. Cyber Harpie Lady
Cyber Harpie Lady is one of the strongest versions of Harpie Lady. She has respectable Attack Points (ATK) of 1,800. She can destroy weaker monsters in battle.
Furthermore, her single effect gives her the name “Harpie Lady” at all times. This ruling includes her in the deck. You may special summon Cyber Harpie Lady with Elegant Egotist.
9. Cyber Shield
Equip Sell cards were commonly played cards in the original anime. These cards give a weapon or armor to increase a monster’s stats, and the monster would overcome a powerful monster. Mai plays Cyber Shield and equips it to a Harpie Lady. Harpie Lady has a lackluster ATK of 1,300, Cyber Shield adds 500 ATK to make a more respectable ATK.
Furthermore, Mai Valentine plays this card in her duel against Joey Wheeler during Duelist Kingdom. She equips Cyber Shield to her Harpie Lady. However, Joey wins the duel with his epic combo with Time Wizard and Baby Dragon.
10. Harpie Lady Sisters
Harpie Lady Sisters is one of Mai Valentine’s signature monsters. The anime treats the card as a trio of Harpie Ladies. They all have stats as individuals instead of a collective group. Harpie Pet Dragon gained 900 ATK with Harpie Lady Sisters on the field, and the anime consider them to be individuals.
However, Harpie Lady Sisters is not a fantastic card in the TCG. You must first summon this card with Elegant Egotist. This winged beast is a useless card without Elegant Egotist. Furthermore, Harpie Lady Sisters do not have impressive ATK for a level 6 monster. 1950 ATK is considered low points for a monster at this level.
Final Thoughts:
Despite the popularity of Harpie from the anime, the majority of Mai Valentine’s cards are underwhelming monsters in the TCG. The anime treats her as a top duelist, but her deck’s cards are not impressive. The majority of monsters on this list would not appear in competitive decks.
Overall, Mia Valentine’s popularity is due to her beautiful design and the designs of her monsters. Fans always appreciate female characters with beautiful designs. Mai Valentine’s best card is clearly Harpie’s Feather Duster. It is one of the best cards in the game.