The Yu-Gi-Oh franchise is a stomping ground for some of anime's best villains, Marik sadly isn't one of them.

The Battle City tournament was Yu-Gi-Oh at it's absolute best as Marik was introduced as a mysterious individual with access to alot dangerous cards and a lot of dangerous people, but rather than Marik being a villain with alot of intrigue, his darkside took over and all the appeal went with it as he became just a regular psychopath, losing even more appeal when the tournament was interrupted by filler taking away his threat level, he wasn't even a good final boss as he actually did lose to Joey but got through by virtue of incapacitating him killing any remaining dignity he had.
The Kaiba and Yugi battle being more hyped and Bakura filling Marik's role better just leaves the blonde Egyptian in khakis weak in the villain department.
Still better than Dartz at least.