Error card

A copy of "Dark Calling", showing a printing ink runout error.

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.

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.

Misprinted cards are legal for tournament play. However, the misprinted item is treated as if it was correct. For example, a "Gaia the Fierce Knight" with the name misprinted as "Last Turn" is treated as the former, rather than the latter.

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

Any card with incorrect card text

"Two-Mouth Darkruler", printed with an incorrect Type.

• The first printing of Nomi monster "Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus" from Structure Deck: Fury from the Deep with an effect allowing it to be Normal Summoned.
• "Elemental HERO Wildedge" from Duelist Pack: Jaden Yuki 2 listed one of its Fusion Materials as "Elemental Hero Edgeman" instead of "Elemental HERO Bladedge". "Edgeman" is the literal translation of the Japanese name of "Bladedge".
• "Winged Sage Falcos" from Spanish Tournament Pack 5 with its name in Portuguese, but the rest of the card in Spanish.
• "Book of Moon" from German Legendary Collection 3: Yugi's World Mega Pack printed with the effect of "Creature Swap".
• "Kaiser Glider" from Italian Duelist Pack: Kaiba printed with the effect of "Different Dimension Dragon".
• "The Agent of Force - Mars" from Italian Dark Revelation Volume 2 with "Venere" instead of "Marte" written in its name.
• "Two-Mouth Darkruler" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon printed as a Dragon instead of a Dinosaur.
• "Chaos Necromancer" from German Dark Revelation Volume 2 printed as a Beast instead of a Fiend.
• "Gearfried the Swordmaster" from French Flaming Eternity printed as a Dragon instead of a Warrior.
• "Amazoness Fighter" from Magician's Force with 1300 ATK instead of the correct 1500 ATK.
• "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" from Gold Series with 3000 DEF instead of the correct 3800 DEF.
• "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" from Japanese Structure Deck: Deluxe Set printed as an effect type Fusion Monster.
• "Paleozoic Dinomischus" from Japanese Extra Pack 2016 printed with the effect allowing it target 1 monster instead of 1 card.
• "Elemental HERO Great Tornado" from Japanese Booster SP: Raging Masters with 2000 DEF instead of the correct 2200 DEF.
• "Black Luster Soldier" from Portuguese Yugi's Legendary Decks with the effect allowing it to be Special Summoned instead of Ritual Summoned with the "Black Luster Ritual".
• "Sea Monster of Theseus" from non-English TCG Raging Tempest with its Type/Ability line stating it is simply a [Zombie] monster rather than a [Zombie/Fusion/Tuner] monster. Konami Digital Entertainment is offering to exchange the cards for corrected versions in the same language via mail or in-person at European YCS events from Feb. 20, 2017 onward.
• Some copies of "Flame Swordsman" from Dark Beginning 1 were printed with the name "Cyber-Stein".
• The European Legendary Collection 2: Gameboard Edition print of "Anti-Aircraft Flower" was printed with "(No Suggestions)" instead of "tributing" in its card text.

Any card with incorrect card type symbol

• "Counter Counter" from Tactical Evolution 1st Edition with no Counter Trap Card symbol on it. This was later added in later runs of the First Edition pack.
• "Metalmorph" from Premium Pack (TCG) with a Continuous Trap Card symbol instead of being a Normal Trap Card.

Any card with incorrect Attribute or Attribute icon

"Goblin Attack Force", with an incorrect Attribute icon.

• "Goblin Attack Force" from Pharaoh's Servant Unlimited Edition with the EARTH Attribute text overlaid on a Level Star.
• "Kinetic Soldier" from Champion Pack: Game Four has the monster's Attribute mistaken as LIGHT instead of the correct EARTH.
• "Nitro Warrior" from Duel Terminal 1 has the monster's Attribute printed as WIND instead the correct FIRE.
• "Metal Dragon" from Japanese Vol.3 has the monster's Attribute printed as DARK instead the correct WIND.
• The Attribute icon on some copies of "Fireyarou" from Vol.3 has the purple background color of the DARK icon while still having the FIRE icon's text.

Any card with incorrect Level or Rank stars

• "Morphing Jar" from Italian Champion Pack: Game Two is misprinted as a Level 3 monster. The correct Level should be 2.
• "Blackwing - Ghibli the Searing Wind" from Japanese Duelist Pack: Crow is misprinted as a Level 4 monster. The correct Level should be 3.

Any card with incorrect art

• Some copies of "Book of Secret Arts" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon & Starter Deck: Yugi were printed without the feather above the book.
• Some copies of "Sword of Dark Destruction" from Starter Deck: Yugi were printed without the electric aura around the sword and with a different background color.
• "Fiend Reflection #2" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon reprinted in Legendary Collection with a part of the art shifted to the side.
• "Turtle Tiger" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon reprinted in Legendary Collection with a part of the art shifted to the side and printed with incorrect colors.
• "Mausoleum of the Emperor" from English language Turbo Pack: Booster Two has the art out of place.
• "Dark Paladin" from the 1st Edition release of Magician's Force which featured an alternate art intended exclusively as the Duel Master's Guide promotional card. The art was corrected in the unlimited edition. Also for a limited period after the release of Magician's Force Upper Deck Entertainment replaced the misprinted "Dark Paladin" for anyone who sent it back to them with the 1st Edition corrected art version which is very hard to find because of the limited amount produced.

Any card with an incorrect card frame

"Neos Wiseman" printed with a purple card frame.

• "Neos Wiseman" from Korean Premium Pack Vol.6 is printed with purple color as a Fusion Monster, instead of a regular Effect Monster.
• Some copies of "Colossal Fighter" from Starter Deck: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's were printed with blue color POKER challenge logo and backside card pattern print over the original artwork.
• Some copies of "Portuguese" "Cupid Serve" and "Battle Survivor were printed with white color as a Synchro Monster, instead of a regular Effect Monster

Any card of incorrect rarity

• Some copies of all Super Rares and Ultra Rares from Duel Terminal 7 don't have the Shatterfoil film over the card.
• Some copies of all Super Rares from Champion Pack: Game Six were printed as Ultra Rares.

Spelling mistakes

Sometimes cards contain spelling mistakes. However, these are not considered misprints, because they occur on all cards in that print run. Usually cards only have one or two letters misplaced, which is often difficult to notice.

Examples

Cards with spelling mistakes in their lore

• The English print of "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End" from The Lost Millennium: Special Edition with the word "your" spelled "yoru" in its card text.
• The English print of "Exodia the Forbidden One" from Master Collection Volume 1 has "you" instead of "your" in its card text.
• The English print of "Koa'ki Meiru Gravirose" has "you" instead of "your" in its card text.
• The English print of "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" from Soul of the Duelist has 3 m's in the word "Summoned" in its card text.
• The English print of "Riryoku Field" from Starter Deck: Kaiba Evolution has 3 l's in the word "Spell" in the card text.
• The English print of "Destiny HERO - Plasma" from the Collectible Tins 2007 has a missing word ("this card gains equal to") as well as several grammatical errors ("negate all the effect of face-up effect monster").
• The English print of "Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon" from the Legendary Collection reprint of Spell Ruler has "your" instead of "you" in its card text.
• The English print of "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend" from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's - Volume 006 has "destoy" instead of "destroy" in its card text.
• The English print of "Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing" from Duelist Alliance has "Syncro" instead of "Synchro" on its Type text.
• The English print of "Dance Princess of the Nekroz" from Secrets of Eternity and 2015 Mega-Tin Mega Pack has "Necroz" instead of "Nekroz" in one instance in its card text.
• The English print of "The Prime Monarch" from Emperor of Darkness Structure Deck and OTS Tournament Pack 2 has "Crards" instead of "Cards" in its card text.

Cards with typographical errors in their card numbers

"Twin-Headed Behemoth" with a misprinted card number.

• Many copies of the Phantom God print of "Enchanting Mermaid" had the card number G-23 instead of PG-23.
• The French print of "Remove Trap" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon has an "O" instead of a "0" in its card number (LDD-FO48).
• The Portuguese print of "One-Eyed Shield Dragon" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon uses the English card number instead (LOB-087).
• The Portuguese print of "Doma The Angel of Silence" from Metal Raiders lacks the P in its card number (PMT-015).
• Some English prints of "Twin-Headed Behemoth" from Rise of the Dragon Lords Structure Deck have an extra 0 in their card number (SDRL-EN0010).
• English prints of "Painful Choice" from Dark Beginning 1 have an "O" instead of a "0" in the card number (DB1-ENO33).

Unofficial misprints

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 very fast. 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 and is later replaced, producing as a result cards thinner or thicker than usual, cards that have the foil on top or back of the card, or cards without any foil at all.

Examples

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

"Ring of Destruction" with a mispositioned name.

• Some copies of "Gemini Elf", "Magic Cylinder", "Ring of Destruction" and "Lava Golem" from Invasion of Chaos: Special Edition have the name out of the card name box.
• Some copies of Gold Rares from Gold Series 4: Pyramids Edition have double names, one of them printed at the bottom of the card name box.
• Some copies of Secret Rares from Hidden Arsenal have multiple names.
• Some copies of Ghost/Gold Rares from Gold Series: Haunted Mine have the art out of place.
• Some copies of Ghost Rares from Ghosts From the Past: The 2nd Haunting have the art out of place.

Any card with missing name or description, or inappropriate amount of color (ink flaw)

• "Raigeki" from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon with its name printed in black instead of white.
• "Dark Spirit of the Silent" from Labyrinth of Nightmare with its name printed in black instead of white.
• Some copies of cards of all rarities except Common, Super Rare and their Parallel Rare versions have no name stamped or printed with no ink in the title name.
• Some cards are printed with yellow ink stains or with missing ink spots on the front side.

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

Any card with incorrect name

"Black Magic Ritual" printed with the name "Marshmallon".

• Some copies of "Black Magic Ritual" from Premium Pack were printed with the wrong name "Marshmallon".
• Some copies of "Dragon Ice" from the 1st edition Gladiator's Assault were printed with the wrong name "Super Vehicroid - Stealth Union".
• Some Ghost Rare copies of "Elemental HERO Chaos Neos" from the 1st Edition Gladiator's Assault were printed with the wrong name "Rainbow Dragon".
• Some Ghost Rare copies of "Rainbow Dragon" from the Tactical Evolution: Special Edition were printed with the wrong artwork of "Elemental HERO Chaos Neos". This effect monster misprint is much harder to find than its misprinted Fusion monster counterpart.
• All 30 Rares from the Dark Beginning 1 set reprinted in the English language European Collectible Tins 2005 have their names swapped with the names of the Rares from Dark Beginning 2.

Any card with incorrect title name rarity

"Gaia the Dragon Champion" with incorrect name foil.

• Some copies of "Tri-Horned Dragon" and "Gaia the Dragon Champion" from the unlimited edition Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon set reprinted in the 2002 Booster Pack Tins have the title name printed in Ultra Rare instead of Secret Rare lettering foil.
• Some copies of all 18 Rares from the unlimited edition Tactical Evolution set reprinted in the Collectible Tins 2007 have the title name printed in Secret Rare lettering foil.

Any card with incorrect or missing foil finish

• Some Ultra Rare copies of "Maximum Six" from the unlimited edition Light of Destruction were printed without the foil finish.
• The early print of 1st Edition German Cosmo Blazer had all of the Secret Rares printed with foil sheet of the other Secret Rares instead of their own. For example "Diamond Dire Wolf" that uses the background foil finish of "Mystical Fairy Elfuria". This error was fixed in the subsequent 1st edition release of the set after the Sneak Peek.
• Some copies of "Raigeki" from Dark Beginning 1 were printed with the Attribute symbol with foil covering.
• Some Ultra Rare copies of "Infernity Dwarf" and "Infernity Guardian" from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2009: Stardust Accelerator promotional cards set were printed with the Attribute symbol with foil covering.
• Some copies of "Cyber End Dragon" and "Cyberdark End Dragon" from Structure Deck: Cyber Strike were printed with the foil sheet of the other card in addition to their own. The far-left stars of the monsters' Levels are double stamped and the image foiling of the other card can be seen as a blue outline.
• A few copies of all Ultimate Rares from OTS Tournament Pack 20 don't have foiling over the card.

Any card with incorrect security foil

Some 1st Edition cards have silver security foil, and reciprocally some Unlimited Edition cards have gold security foil.

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 cards have significant value, since they have no actual purpose except for being a curiosity.

Examples

A blank test print card, featuring only the outer card border, edition, and security foil.

A test print card, printed with a typical test pattern.

• A blank card with no face, any rarity.
• A blank card with no back, any rarity.
• A card partially blank with a misplaced face (offset front side).
• A card with regular CMYK color stripes, any rarity.
• A card with reversed order CMYK color stripes, any rarity.
• A card with horizontal CMYK color stripes, any rarity.
• A card with one of the elements missing (no lore).
• A card with only one of the elements present (just the artwork).
• A card with the text SAMPLE printed on the back side.

Defects not considered to be misprints

Any card with a foil sheet all over the front or stamped through the back of the card (paper flaw)

• A Super Rare "Don Zaloog" from Dark Beginning 2 with foil all over the card's front.

Any card improperly cut, cards with irregular edges or corners

• A "Mirror Force" from Gold Series cut off-center.
• An "Imperial Order" from Pharaoh's Servant cut in half.

While cards with both front and back sides cut off-center are not considered misprints but miscuts, those with an offset face but a regular back side are considered misprints since they were cut properly, but the paper sheet was misplaced during the front side printing.

Asian-English cards

English language cards with a Japanese back are not misprints, they are Asian-English cards intentionally printed that way. They are produced in limited amounts exclusively for Asian countries outside of Japan, China and South Korea.

Previous versions of card text intentionally printed prior to their errata

Errata are changes to a card's elements, description or effect wording, usually to make the card rulings easier to understand for the players. Cards which were intentionally printed that way prior to any change and are not considered misprints, but cards with unintentional mistakes later fixed by errata are considered misprints.

See also

• Counterfeit - counterfeit cards may be mistaken for error cards, but are not the same thing
• Error card on Wikipedia
• Error cards on Bulbapedia