Yu-Gi-Oh! God Cards

The short answer

The three God cards share a frame of rules and differ in what they do once they're on the field. Each is a Level 10 Divine-Beast monster with the DIVINE Attribute, each requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon and can't be Normal Set, and none of them can have its Normal Summon negated.

Obelisk the Tormentor

BP01-EN021

4000 ATK and DEF. Tribute 2 monsters to destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Slifer the Sky Dragon

BP02-EN127

Gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in your hand, and cuts your opponent's new monsters by 2000 ATK.

The Winged Dragon of Ra

BP02-EN126

Pay LP down to 100 for ATK, or pay 1000 LP to destroy a monster.

Obelisk the Tormentor

Obelisk is the simplest of the three: a 4000 ATK monster your opponent can't target, with a way to clear their side of the field. Its full TCG text reads:

"Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated. Neither player can target this card with card effects. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Send it to the GY. You can Tribute 2 monsters; destroy all monsters your opponent controls. This card cannot declare an attack the turn this effect is activated."

The tradeoff is in the last two sentences. Destroying your opponent's monsters costs you 2 more monsters, and Obelisk can't attack that turn, so the effect clears the way for your other monsters rather than for Obelisk itself.

Slifer the Sky Dragon

Slifer's strength depends on how many cards you're holding, and it punishes your opponent for summoning in Attack Position. Its full TCG text reads:

"Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Send it to the GY. Gains 1000 ATK/DEF for each card in your hand. If a monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your opponent's field in Attack Position: That monster(s) loses 2000 ATK, then if its ATK has been reduced to 0 as a result, destroy it."

Slifer's ATK rises and falls with your hand size, so every card you play from your hand makes it smaller. Unlike Obelisk, nothing in Slifer's text stops card effects from targeting it.

The Winged Dragon of Ra and its other forms

Ra is the only one of the three that cannot be Special Summoned, and its ATK comes from your Life Points. Its full TCG text reads:

"Cannot be Special Summoned. Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can pay LP so that you only have 100 left; this card gains ATK/DEF equal to the amount of LP paid. You can pay 1000 LP, then target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target."

Paying down to 100 LP makes Ra large and leaves you one hit from losing, and its destroy effect costs 1000 LP each time, so the two effects compete for the same Life Points. Two later cards, both Divine-Beasts, give Ra other ways onto the field.

The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode

CIBR-ENSE2

Can be Tributed to Special Summon The Winged Dragon of Ra from your hand or Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions, with 4000 ATK/DEF.

The Winged Dragon of Ra - Immortal Phoenix

DUPO-EN046

Special Summons itself from the GY when Ra is sent from the field to your GY, and is unaffected by other cards' effects.

Sphere Mode needs 3 Tributes too, but they can come from either side of the field, and it is summoned to that side, then returns to its owner during the End Phase of the next turn. Immortal Phoenix sends itself to the GY in each End Phase to Special Summon Sphere Mode, and Sphere Mode can then be Tributed for Ra again.

DIVINE, Divine-Beast and the related cards

DIVINE is an Attribute and Divine-Beast is a Type, and the Egyptian Gods have both. Some cards search for them by Attribute: The True Name can add or Special Summon a DIVINE monster from your Deck if you guess the top card correctly, and Mound of the Bound Creator adds a DIVINE monster to your hand when it is destroyed by a card effect.

The Wicked Gods are the cards most often confused with them. The Wicked Avatar, The Wicked Dreadroot and The Wicked Eraser are Level 10 monsters that also need 3 Tributes, but they're DARK Fiends, not DIVINE Divine-Beasts. The Wicked Dreadroot, for example, halves the ATK and DEF of all other monsters on the field.

Holactie the Creator of Light is the card that combines all three. It's a Level 12 DIVINE Creator God whose text reads: "Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by Tributing 3 monsters whose original names are "Slifer the Sky Dragon", "Obelisk the Tormentor", and "The Winged Dragon of Ra". This card's Special Summon cannot be negated. The player that Special Summons this card wins the Duel." TurnZero HQ's catalog has no TCG printing of it.

The Sacred Beasts are a separate group of three, with their own page. Yu-Gi-Oh! Sacred Cards →

The unplayable 2003 promos

The first English-language God cards could not be played. On April 17, 2003, Slifer (GBI-001), Obelisk (GBI-002) and Ra (GBI-003) were released in Asian-English as promotional cards with the Japanese Game Boy Advance game Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International: Worldwide Edition. They have lore text in place of game text and state that the card cannot be used in a Duel.

Those promos are collectibles, not game pieces, and they aren't among the printings TurnZero HQ prices. The legal versions came later, with the effects quoted above, and each God now has many printings: 24 for Obelisk, 22 for Slifer and 18 for Ra in TurnZero HQ's catalog, including Egyptian God Decks for Obelisk and Slifer and the Legendary Duelists: Rage of Ra set.

What the God cards are worth

Most God card printings are cheap, because all three have been reprinted many times. The money is in the rarest finishes and a few old Shonen Jump promos. These are TCGplayer market prices as of October 2, 2026.

The same printing can sit far apart by edition. The Ghost Rare LED7-EN000 Ra was $159.68 in 1st Edition and $92.12 Unlimited, while the Ultra Rare of the same code was $17.81 and $14.77. If you have a God card, check the set code, rarity and edition mark before you look it up. How to price a Yu-Gi-Oh! card →

TurnZero HQ's Yu-Gi-Oh! collection records each copy by printing and edition and values it from TCGplayer's market price for that edition, updated daily, and the scanner reads the set code to find the printing. For a promo with no market price, such as a GBI card, you can give the copy a custom value. How the collection tracker works →

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