Error card

During production, cards are sometimes printed with flaws. In some cases, these printing errors add no value to the card. Cards, for example, that are printed when the press runs out of ink are not official misprints. Printing presses cannot be easily stopped, so it's very common that cartridges run out of ink before they can be refilled. While quality control usually prevents this situation, it can happen with some regularity since a press needs time to refill properly. Cards that have chopped edges or unevenly cut borders are not misprints. After card sheets are printed, precisely aligned blades cut the sheet into individual cards. At some point, the cutting blades become dull or misaligned, and this results in imprecise cuts and irregular edges.

An actual misprint results from a malformed printing plate. Usually, the printing plate contains a design error made before the plates were manufactured. Plates are inspected and, if necessary, discarded before card production begins. Unfortunately, malformed printing plates pass inspection on occasion, and some cards print with this error. Once the mistake is identified, the defective plate is discarded and replaced by a new one, and misprinted cards are destroyed before they are packaged. These misprints must escape this last quality assurance also, and their rarity gives them their collectible value.

However, if the printing plate is not destroyed and substituted by a new one, the error cannot be considered as a defect, since production took the conscious decision to continue printing with a malformed plate. Misprints are supposed to happen by a combination of accidental errors before the production starts, and by definition, are supposed to be extremely rare. If production continues while the problem is acknowledged and no intervention occurs, there is no accidental error and cannot be considered defected.

Misprints

Official Misprints

To be considered as an official misprint, a card must be printed from an unacknowledged defective plate. Once the error is reported, the defective plate must be discarded and substituted by a new one which does not contain the same error. The defective plate must be destroyed, so the same problem does not persist in the same production run. In most cases, misprints are located and destroyed or are subject to substituted quality controls before they can reach the streets, so the amount of available misprints in the market is very limited.

Examples of official misprints:

• A "Dark Paladin" from the 1st Edition release of Magicians Force which featured an alternate art intended exclusively for the Duel Masters Guide.
• A "Goblin Attack Force" from Pharaoh's Servant (Unlimited Edition) has the EARTH Attribute meshed with a Level Star.
• The "Gold Series" edition of "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" had 3000 DEF, where in reality it should have had 3800 DEF.
• The first printing of Nomi monster "Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus" from Structure Deck: Fury from the Deep showed it as a monster that could be Normal Summoned. It has since been errata'd.
• A "Amazoness Fighter" from Magician's Force has 1300 ATK printed instead of the real 1500 ATK. In later booster pack prints, this was changed to represent the real ATK amount.
• A "Counter Counter" from Tactical Evolution (1st Edition) was accidentally printed in its initial run with no Counter Trap Card symbol on it. This was later added in later runs of the First Edition pack.
• A "Kinetic Soldier" from Champion Pack: Game Four has the monster's Attribute mistakenly listed as LIGHT.
• An "Elemental HERO Wildedge" listed one of its fusion material monsters as "Elemental Hero Edgeman" instead of "Elemental HERO Bladedge". "Edgeman" is the literal translation of Bladedge's name from Japanese.
• "Colossal Fighter" had in a starter deck a poker print over the original artwork.
• A "Dark Assailant" in SDK 1st edition had its name written as Dark Assassin.
• "Blackwing - Ghibli the Searing Wind" from DP11 is misprinted as a Level 4 monster. The correct Level should be 3.
• A "Book of Secret Arts" from LOB & SDY is misprinted without the feather above the book.
• A "Two-Mouth Darkruler" from LOB is misprinted as a Dragon instead of a Dinosaur.
• A "Sword of Dark Destruction" from SDY is misprinted without the electric aura around the sword and with a different background color.
• A Korean version of "Neos Wiseman" from PP06 is misprinted as a Fusion Monster, instead of a normal Effect Monster.
• Some early copies of all Super Rares from Champion Pack: Game Six were accidentally printed as Ultra Rares.
• A Secret Rare German "Book of Moon" from Legendary Collection 3 Mega-Pack printed with the text of "Creature Swap".
• A "Trial of Nightmare" in LOB 1st edition had its name written as Trial of Hell.

Duel Terminal

• A Super Rare "Evilswarm Ophion" from DT07 that doesn't have its Parallel Film over the card.
• An Ultra Rare "Vylon Disigma" from DT06 that have its Parallel Film finished at the start of the name of the card.

Spelling mistakes

There's a small group of cards that initially may be considered as misprints, since they contain an official error accidentally generated before the production began, but once the problem was informed, the company which produces the cards decided it was so insignificant that continued the production using the same plate. As a result, the entire run of this printings contains the same error so they don't count as defects. These cards usually only have one or two letters misplaced, which in most cases are not noticeable. Since there are thousands of these cards in circulation, hardly any can be considered to be valuable misprints. Note this same criteria is also used when printing books, newspapers, advertising, etc.

Examples:

• The Special Edition "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End" TLM-ENSE2 with the word "your" spelled "yoru" in its lore's effect.

• "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" from Soul of the Duelist has 3 m's in the word "Summoned".

• "Exodia the Forbidden One" secret version from the Master Collection Volume 1 has "you" instead of "your" in its Lore box.

• The "Twin-Headed Behemoth" in Structure Deck: Rise of the Dragon Lords English has an extra 0 in its card number (SDRL-EN0010).

• "Riryoku Field" from Structure Deck: Kaiba Evolution has 3 l's in the word "Spell" in the lore.

• "Koa'ki Meiru Gravirose" has "you" instead of "your" in its effect.

• The 1st Edition of "Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing", from Duelist Alliance, has "Syncro" instead of "Synchro" on its Type text.

• "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend has "destoy" instead of "destroy" in its effect.

Unofficial misprints (card which have production defects):

Due to the nature of the printing process, the press needs to be constantly supervised and re-calibrated. The printing plates are supposed to be perfectly aligned to respect each others position. From time to time, due to the printing press vibrations, one of the plates loses its proper alignment, producing cards with their names, artwork or texts out of their original positions. These cards can be considered as a production failure, but not as official misprints, since the printing plates are not defective. The plates just need to be re-aligned.

Also note a massive press cannot be easily stopped. Once it starts to run, it moves as fast as a train. Stopping a press in the middle of production is an unlikely situation. If the press runs out if ink, the production is not stopped. Usually, the press continues its work while being refilled. For this reason, several sheets can be partially printed with parts of their artwork or texts missing. These sheets are usually located and separated from the rest before being cut and packed, but from time to time few of these cards may reach the streets. Refilling the press can cause the exact opposite situation, cards printed with excess of ink. Both of these situations can be considered as bad quality printings, but not official misprints.

Similar as the ink filling problem, the press is fed with several different paper rolls of different weight. The paper rolls are also mixed with an Aluminum foil roll to produce the Yu-Gi-Oh! foil cards. Sometimes, one of the rolls runs out, producing as a result cards thinner than usual, cards that have the foil on top or back of the card, or cards that do not have foil at all. When replacing the paper rolls few cards can be produced thicker instead.

All cards with irregular edges or cards that were cut out of center are not misprints, but miscuts.

Examples:

File:RingofDestruction-IOC-NA-UR-LE-MISPRINT.jpg

Any card with text (title or lore) or art out of place:

• A "Ring of Destruction" has the name out of the card name box.
• A "Destroyersaurus" has the name over the level stars.

Any card that has no ink on its name or lore, or an appropriate amount of color in some parts of the art (ink flaw):

• "The Ultra Rare versions of "Sylvan Snapdrassinagon" and "And the Band Played On" (via Primal Origin: Deluxe Edition) have been frequently reported with no ink on its title name.
• A "Raigeki" from Legend of Blue Eyes printed black instead of white.
• A "Jinzo" from Pharaoh's Servant with no ink on its head.

Mismatches

Several different printing plates are used to produce one sheet of cards. A plate set for a specific run of cards is usually composed of four plates - one for each color, plus one or two extra plates for the special finish of some cards (gold or silver lettering, shining cover for parallel rares, etc). Sometimes, one of the printing plates does not belong to the same set. By mistake, one of the plates is mounted on the press from a different sheet set. As a result, several sheets are printed with their names switched with other cards, sometimes of different rarity. In these cases, once the error is discovered, the wrong plate is switched back with the correct one and the production continues. In fact, in most cases, this type of error is easily detected during the initial test run of a sheet and immediately fixed, but few cards can be missed and accidentally packed, hence the reason why mismatches can be easily found on the streets. These cards do not count as official misprints for two reasons: the plates aren't defective and there's no need to create a new one and the correct plate simply is placed back on its correspondent position, and in most cases the mismatch was produced as part of an initial test printing. Cards printed during the initial test are supposed to be discarded before the main production begins (see below Production test prints).

Examples (the flaw is the similar in some cases):

Any card whose name does not correspond with the card's artwork or code (plate mismatch):

The following 30 examples are the reprinted Rare cards from the English language Dark Beginning 1 tins distributed in Europe and have their names swapped with the names of the Rare cards from Dark Beginning 2:

• A "Gaia the Fierce Knight" with the name "Last Turn".
• A "Cyber Jar" with the name "Statue of the Wicked".
• A "Gearfried the Iron Knight" with the name "Kuriboh".
• A "Giant Rat" with the name "Witch of the Black Forest".
• A "Hayabusa Knight" with the name "Riryoku Field".
• A "Mad Sword Beast" with the name "Blast with Chain".
• A "Magician of Faith" with the name "Sangan".
• A "Man-Eater Bug" with the name "Morphing Jar".
• A "Morphing Jar #2" with the name "Dark Balter the Terrible".
• A "Mystic Tomato" with the name "Fiber Jar".
• A "Nimble Momonga" with the name "Royal Command".
• A "The Fiend Megacyber" with the name "Thunder Nyan Nyan".
• A "The Legendary Fisherman" with the name "Reinforcement of the Army".
• A "Toon Summoned Skull" with the name "Graceful Charity".
• A "Flame Swordsman" with the name "Cyber-Stein".
• A "Gaia the Dragon Champion" with the name "Royal Oppression".
• A "Axe of Despair" with the name "Sasuke Samurai".
• A "Black Pendant" with the name "Jowgen the Spiritualist".
• A "Fairy Meteor Crush" with the name "Spiritualism".
• A "Fissure" with the name "Bazoo the Soul-Eater".
• A "Giant Trunade" with the name "Fiend Skull Dragon".
• A "Limiter Removal" with the name "Penguin Soldier".
• A "The Forceful Sentry" with the name "Ryu Senshi".
• A "Tribute to the Doomed" with the name "Marauding Captain".
• A "Dust Tornado" with the name "Horn of Heaven".
• A "Jar of Greed" with the name "Ring of Magnetism".
• A "Magic Drain" with the name of "Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer".
• A "Magical Hats" with the name "Pyramid Turtle".
• A "Spellbinding Circle" with the name "Emergency Provisions".
• A "Trap Hole" with the name "Fusion Gate".

• A "Black Magic Ritual" with the wrong name "Marshmallon".
• A "Dragon Ice" with the wrong name "Super Vehicroid - Stealth Union".
• An "Elemental HERO Chaos Neos" with the wrong name "Rainbow Dragon".
• A "Rainbow Dragon" with the wrong art of "Elemental HERO Chaos Neos". This effect monster misprint is much harder to find than its Fusion monster misprint counterpart.

Any card whose lore does not correspond to the card's artwork, name or code (plate mismatch):

• A "Winged Sage Falcos" (from Spanish language Tournament pack) The name on the card is in Portuguese, but the rest of the card is in Spanish.

Any card whose title name has a different rarity of the one originally intended to be (plate mismatch):

• A "Snake Rain" with the title name printed in Secret Rare foil.
• An "Elemental HERO Marine Neos" with its title name printed in Secret Rare foil.

Any card with a foil finish (common, super rare, ultra rare, ultimate, ghost or secret) different from the one originally intended to be (paper sheet mismatch):

• A "Mispolymerization" that was printed as a Normal Spell Card with no foil finish.
• A German "Diamond Dire Wolf" that uses "Mystical Fairy Elfuria"'s Secret Rare foil sheet instead of its own.

Some cards are printed in 1st Edition, but do not have the golden square at the bottom of the card, it is just silver, like an Unlimited Edition card. Also, they usually have the square printed slightly off.

Production test prints

Since preparing the press to print a specific set of cards is a labor that takes several hours, prior to the main run, several test sheets are printed to determine if the printing press has been properly calibrated. This production test includes all possible variations a card may have. The most common is a series of CMYK stripes initially printed to corroborate if the press has the appropriate amount of ink all over the printing roll. Once it has been tested, these production tests are discarded and trashed. However, since cut and packing is part of the entire production line, sometimes few of these test cards can be packed by accident, and are included in few boosters. Few of these test prints have significant value, since they are have no actual purpose except for being a curiosity.

Examples:

• Any card with plain CMYK color stripes, (any rarity).
• Any blank card with no face, (any rarity).
• Any blank card with no back, (any rarity).
• Any card partially blank, may contain just the artwork or text, but in most cases not both, (any rarity).

Defects not considered as misprints:

Any card with a foil sheet (rare, ultra rare or secret) all over the top or back of the card (paper flaw):

• A "Don Zaloog" from Dark Beginning Series with foil all over the card's front.

Any card cut off center, or with bad edges (miscut):

• A "Mirror Force" from Gold Series (TCG-EN) cut off center.
• An "Imperial Order" from Pharoh's Servant cut in half.
• A "Mystical Space Typhoon" from Structure Deck: Marik, just a corner.