Archfiends
From Yu-Gi-Oh!
According to the Upper Deck Entertainment website, "Archfiends are a special category of card. Most Archfiends can be easily identified by their name. Any card with "Archfiend" in the card name, is an Archfiend."
This category was officially introduced with the release of Dark Crisis, as a way to standardize the English translation of OCG card names containing "Demon" 「デーモン」. To avoid confusion, "Demon" is often spelled "Dæmon" or "Daemon", to show that the card is an Archfiend: some non-Archfiend cards have "Demon" spelled differently[1], and some monsters have Japanese names with "Demon" as a possible translation[2].
Some of the Archfiends are chess themed including Terrorking, Infernalqueen, Desrook, Darkbishop, Shadowknight and Vilepawn Archfiend, all of whom are named after Chess pieces, and feature a chessboard pattern as their backround. The support card "Checkmate" is named after Checkmate, the final winning move in Chess.
Since some Japanese cards with names containing "Demon" 「デーモン」 had already been released in the English TCG, they were retroactively classified as "Archfiends", although their official names were left unchanged. These include:
- A Deal with Dark Ruler[3]
- Axe of Despair
- B. Skull Dragon
- Beast of Talwar
- Fiend Skull Dragon
- Lesser Fiend
- Shadow Tamer
- Summoned Skull
- Toon Summoned Skull
- Wicked Mirror[4]
[edit] Notes
- ↑ "Regenerating Rose"'s Japanese name 「スプリット・
Ｄ ・ローズ」 translates to "Split Demon Rose", but "Demon" is spelled 「デモン」, so it is not an Archfiend. - ↑ "Infernal Incinerator"'s Japanese name 「炎獄魔人ヘル・バーナー」 "Engoku Majin Hell Burner" translates roughly to "Hellfire Demon Hell Burner", but it does not contain 「デーモン」, so it is not an Archfiend.
- ↑ Even though this card is technically an Archfiend, there is no situation where it is important for it to be listed as an Archfiend, so UDE does not list it as one.
- ↑ "Wicked Mirror" has not yet been released in the TCG. When it is released, it will likely have its name changed to contain "Archfiend" (similar to how "Sentinel of the Seas"' name was changed, to show that it is not a Guardian monster).
