List of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

The following is a list of notable cards that are in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. The cards listed are notable for their relevance to the anime and manga of the same name, its three spin-off series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, and the real-life card game.

Notable Individual cards

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

During the Memory World arc, the Blue Eyes White Dragon is revealed to be the Ka of a girl named Kisara. She and Priest Seto (Seto Kaiba's past incarnate) shared a deep bond that appears to have carried over into Kaiba's modern-day obsession with the BEWD. As a monster, versus just a playing card, the power of the Blue Eyes was shown to surpass even that of the Egyptian gods, as it was the first monster to successfully injure Zorc Necrophades. Its ultimate and future form is the fusion of the 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, a Fusion Monster with 4500 ATK points.

Crush Card Virus

Despite the name, Crush Card Virus, is one of the most powerful yet worst Trap Card ever in Yu-Gi-Oh. Crush Card Virus has the ability to destroy all of your opponent's monsters with 1500 or more ATK on the field and in their hand and Deck by tributing a dark type monster. It was also particularly devastating because it lets you view your opponents hand and thus work out their strategies based on the cards they had hidden there.

Cyber Dragon

Cyber Dragon is the signature card of Zane Truesdale in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, and a staple for many tournament decks in the TCG and OCG. Cyber Dragon is a five star monster that can be Special Summoned if your opponent has a monster on the field but you do not. Three Cyber Dragons can be fused into Cyber End Dragon, a monster with 4000 ATK points, creating one of the strongest monsters in the game in terms of ATK. The latest ban list puts Cyber Dragon back at the card limit of 3 per deck, making Cyber End Dragon a much more viable option.

The Cyberdark cards are the counterpart to the Cyber Dragon series, and make their debut in season 2 of GX. They consist of Cyberdark Keel, Cyberdark Edge and Cyberdark Horn, and they can be fused to create Cyberdark Dragon. The Cyberdark strategy revolves around equipping Level 3 or lower Dragon-type monsters and gaining their attack strength, or fusing them to create Cyberdark Dragon who can equip any dragon in the grave, as well as gain attack power proportionate to the number of monsters in your graveyard.

Cyber Dragon is also popular among Synchro users, as its own effect that summons itself to the field without any cost, allowing players to easily Synchro Summon almost any Level 6 or higher Synchro Monster.

Cyber-Stein

Cyber-Stein or Devil Franken in the OCG, which is named after Frankenstein. At the cost of 5000 Life Points this card allowed a player to Special Summon a Fusion monster without using Polymerization or material monsters.

Cyber-Stein has been the subject of two controversies in the history of the card game. Cyber-Stein was originally printed only for winners of Shonen Jump Championship competitions, with the first card having a bid placed on eBay for over $20,000 US dollars.^[1] The buyer did not pay,^[1] however and the card was resold for approximately $7,000 USD. Due to its ability to quickly put a powerful fusion monster into play ignoring its summon requirements, giving a huge advantage to the player. This card has been listed into the group of cards banned from official tournaments since 2006.

This card popularised the use of Cyber End Dragon in decks. Cyber End Dragon's usage fell into decline after it was banned in 2008, however.

Dark Armed Dragon

Dark Armed Dragon, commonly abbreviated to "DAD", is commonly played in the winning Shonen Jump tournament decks and it is based on Chazz Princeton's Armed Dragon cards. Dark Armed Dragon is a Level 7 DARK Monster with the ATK/DEF of 2800/1000. It can only be Special Summoned by having exactly 3 DARK Monsters in the Graveyard. While it is on the field, one can remove from play one DARK monster from the Graveyard to destroy one card on the field. When this card is released, a common strategy was to use cards such as Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight to send DARK monsters to the Graveyard, then remove them, and use recursion effects such as Return from a Different Dimension and/or Dimension Fusion to swarm your opponent to win. As a result, it was restricted to two per deck (semi-limited) and now it is restricted to one (limited).

Dark Magician

Yugi Mutou's key signature card. In the manga and anime, Yugi often uses the Dark Magician against various foes, making it his signature monster card. When in a duel against a strong foe, Yugi often 'evolves' Dark Magician to stronger forms using Ritual and Spell Cards. The Magician of Black Chaos and Dark Magician of Chaos are examples of its more powerful forms, along with Dark Magician Knight, Sorcerer Of Dark Magic, Dark Sage, Dark Paladin and Dark Eradicator Warlock.

There is another Dark Magician series monster called Dark Magician Girl, which Yugi starts using in the Battle City arc of the manga and anime. While it is weaker than Dark Magician, it gains 300 ATK for every Dark Magician or Magician of Black Chaos in either Graveyard. The Dark Magician Girl also has another form called Toon Dark Magician Girl, which Pegasus uses it in his Toon Deck against Kaiba in the 4th season.

In the final arc of the manga and anime, a priest named Mahado served under Pharaoh Atem, using the Millennium Ring. In a fatal battle against Bakura, he allows himself to be killed, so that his spirit can become the Dark Magician. His apprentice, Mana, later becomes Dark Magician Girl.

Egyptian Gods

Further information: Egyptian God cards

The three Egyptian God cards appeared during the Battle City Tournament. They were hunted by Marik Ishtar. The three God Cards are "The Winged Dragon of Ra"("The Winged God Dragon of Ra" in Japan), "Slifer The Sky Dragon"("The Sky Dragon of Osiris" in Japan), and "Obelisk the Tormentor"("The Giant God Soldier of Obelisk" in Japan).

Exodia Set

This contains the following cards: cards "Exodia the Forbidden One", "Left Arm of the Forbidden One", "Right Arm of the Forbidden One", "Left Leg of the Forbidden One" and "Right Leg of the Forbidden One". A player with all of Exodia's parts in their hand can declare an automatic victory, regardless of Life Points. Exodia is divided into a head, and four limbs (two arms and two legs). The story of why and how it was split and sealed is revealed in the final season, when its original master, Shimon fragmented it because it was too powerful. However, when Zorc attacked the palace, Shimon released the beast to do battle with him. Although the two traded blows with near-equal power, Exodia lost because it was summoned by Shimon's life energy, and thus when Shimon could no longer power it, Exodia was destroyed by Zorc.

Exodia has a few counterpart cards. Exodia Necross, a ghostly, necromantic version of it, which is summoned by the effect of the Spell Card --- Contract with Exodia, and can only be used when all the five pieces of Exodia are in the Graveyard. Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord, which is summoned by returning all monsters in the Graveyard to your deck, and when it attacks, you can send any monster to the grave from your deck, when all "the Forbidden One" cards are sent to the graveyard by its effect, the player wins the game. And Exxod, Master of the Guard, found in the Structure Deck "Invincible Fortress". It's important to note that the Exodia Head (identified as Exodia the Forbidden One) is an Effect Monster while the four limbs are all Normal Monsters.

Exodia-centered decks are based into cards that hasten the search for monsters from the main deck at the expense of offensive power. Players relying on this strategy end-up on a race to gather the Exodia cards in hand before having their Life Points depleted (a hard task as only one copy of each part is allowed per deck in official matches),though there are a few strategies which help players get all the Exodia cards in their hands in minimal amount of turns. It is not a very reliable deck, because it's hard to get all five cards without having one's Life Points depleted first.

Judgment Dragon

Often compared to Dark Armed Dragon in terms of sheer power, Judgment Dragon (Judgment Dragoon in Japan) can be seen as the LIGHT counterpart of DAD and is, currently, one of the strongest Duel Monsters. It is the trump card of the Lightsworns archetype, a LIGHT Dragon-type monster with 3000 ATK points, and can only be Special Summoned while there are four or more Lightsworn monsters with different names in the player's Graveyard. Judgment's Dragon effects include the typical self-milling effect of the Lightsworns, which will send the top four cards from its controller's deck at the end of each of his/her turns, and the ability to destroy every other card on the field except itself, by paying 1000 Life Points. Judgment Dragon was infamous in that players can do a One Turn Kill by using its effect to destroy all other cards on the field, then head for a Direct Attack, which made this card restricted to a maximum of two copies per deck. Although, on the September 1st ban list of 2011 it was made unlimited and is now at 3 copies can be played.

Kuriboh

Kuriboh (クリボー, Kuribō^?) has been used in Yugi's Deck, and has been seen many times. It was famous due to its cute appearance. It initially appeared alone, but later became one of Five Kuriboh Brothers, each with a different ability ranging from combining into new forms of Kuriboh to blocking an opponent's strike.

Kuriboh also has a counterpart, Winged Kuriboh (ハネクリボー, Hane Kuribō^?), who serves as a Duel Spirit and card in Jaden's Deck.^[2] It was given to Jaden from Yugi in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.^[3] Winged Kuriboh has two alternative forms: Winged Kuriboh LV10 and Winged Kuriboh LV9. Winged Kuriboh LV10 was used by Jaden in his duel against Chazz to defeat his VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon.^[4] Winged Kuriboh LV9 was used in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX volume 3 against Seika Kohinata. This card was included with the book as a promotional giveaway. A female variation, the Kuribon, was introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's as part of Luna's (Ruka) Fairy/Spirit deck. in recent series ZeXal, a new cyberized variation, the Kuribolt has been introduced, which can generate token copies of itself, and has its own support series of cards.

Kuribohs have the ability to negate battle damage. Thanks to this ability Kuriboh is sometimes side decked to counter "One Turn Kill" Decks.^[5] The Kuriboh series is backed up with a few support cards. One of which, The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, can be used for tech in Monarch decks, either to place a Kuriboh in hand to block the aforementioned One Turn Kill, or to Special Summon one to be tributed.

Polymerization

Known simply as Fusion in the Japanese version, this is a Spell card that enables the user to perform a "Fusion Summon", by fusing certain monsters with one another (known as Fusion Material Monsters) to create a new one (known as a Fusion Monster). Generally, monsters summoned in this way have a higher attack and defense than their original forms, and inherit one or more of the effects of its Fusion Material Monsters in some form or another. This card is integral to many decks, and is used by many characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Main character Jaden Yuki arguably has his deck based on it, as most of his Elemental Hero monsters are weak without fusing with one another. The Neo Spacians do not require a Polymerization card in order to Fusion Summon an Neo Spacian Fusion monster.

A type of Fusion Monsters called "Evil Hero", mainly used by Jaden Yuki after being obsessed by the dark side of his aura, is not Fusion Summoned using Polymerization but "Dark Fusion", another card used to fuse Elemental Heros to become Evil Heroes.

This card possess a stronger version, the "Super Polymerization", that demands the player to discard one card to activate it, but the Fusion Summon cannot be negated by other card effects, and can have one of the opponent's monsters in the field as a Fusion Material Monster.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon

A dark dragon that is commonly seen as a rival and counterpart to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Its link to Blue-Eyes is explicitly stated in the first movie: "The Blue-Eyes brings power, while the Red-Eyes brings potential". While the Blue-Eyes is stronger in terms of pure power, the Red-Eyes has a greater number of alternate forms that can overpower the Blue-Eyes.

"Red-Eyes Black Dragon" is one of Joey Wheeler's strongest monster cards, originally belonged to Rex Raptor. Rex bet it against Joey in the hopes of seizing his Time Wizard, but Joey instead used that same card to fossilize Rex's dinosaur monsters and thus claimed victory, along with his favorite card.^[6] The card goes on to become a key card in Joey's deck, and he gradually integrates more and more cards to strengthen the Dragon and call forth its alternate forms. In the Battle City arc, Joey loses the card to a Rare Hunter, which is then reclaimed by Yugi. Joey declines to take the card back, saying he would reclaim when he grows as a Duelist and beats Yugi in a duel. While the conclusion to their duel is never seen, following arcs in the anime show Joey has Red-Eyes in his deck, implying that he lost but Yugi gave it back anyway, as Yugi is still World Champion.

The card is also used by Nightshroud and his host, Atticus Rhodes in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Nightshroud uses the full extent of the card's power through a wide array of cards based around it, including Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. After Nightshroud is defeated, his spirit is sealed in the card and Atticus periodically calls on its power for assistance, though he does use Red-Eyes outside of his Nightshroud form. Red-Eyes also makes an appearance in the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, as a card found by Shougo Aoyama, and finds himself under pursuit by Kaiba.

In 2008, the Structure Deck "Zombie World" was released and along with it, the Ultra Rare card, Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon, which is the zombie counterpart of "Red-Eyes Black Dragon".

Other counterparts include Red-Eyes Wyvern, a rarer, but less powerful counterpart of "Red-Eyes Black Dragon"; Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, a cybernetic, metal-coated version of "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" with increased ATK; Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon which gains ATK points proportionate to each Dragon-type monster in the player's Graveyard; Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, which can Special Summon one Dragon-type Monster from the player's hand or Graveyard every turn; and the newly introduced Malefic Red-Eyes Black Dragon, a malevolent corruption of the original, which can be Special Summoned by removing from play a regular "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" from the deck itself, but is destroyed immediately when there is no Field Spell Card face-up on the field.

"Red-Eyes Black Dragon" too, has Fusion counterparts. By fusing itself with Summoned Skull, Black Skull Dragon can be Fusion Summoned. Another fusion is with Meteor Dragon to form the powerful Meteor Black Dragon.

Signer Dragons

Six Dragons/Dragon-type Synchro Monsters who play a pivotal role in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, which introduces the concept of Synchro Monsters and Tuner Monsters into the game. Each dragon is the signature card of one of the Signers, the series' main characters. The Signer Dragons are: Stardust Dragon (Yusei Fudo), Red Dragon Archfiend (Jack Atlas), Black Rose Dragon(Akiza Izinski), Black-Winged Dragon (Crow Hogan), Ancient Fairy Dragon (Luna), and Life Stream Dragon (Leo). In the anime series, all of the Signer Dragons are related to, and serve an all-powerful monster, the Crimson Dragon, whose card was never seen.

Ancient Fairy Dragon

Capping at 3000, this Synchro Monster has the highest DEF of the Signer Dragons. However, its strength lies in its two special abilities: The first ability allows the user to Special Summon one Level 4 or lower monster from his/her hand, at the expense of skipping the user's Battle Phase; the second ability allows the user to destroy a Field Spell Card on the field to gain 1000 Life Points, and also the user can add one Field Spell Card from his/her deck to his/her hand.

This card also works well in tandem with her servant Regulus from Ancient Prophecy, who can return a Field Spell from the Graveyard back into the deck.

Black Rose Dragon

This Synchro Monster has become widely used in Plant-type decks due to its ability to make a hole in the enemy defense. It can reduce an opponent's monster attack to 0 and change it into Attack Position, by removing from play a Plant-type monster from the Graveyard. It can also act as a "field bomb", destroying all cards on the field (including itself) when its Synchro Summoned, if the situation on the field becomes too unfavorable to the player. Just this effect has made this card a staple in many non-Plant-type decks.

It also has the support card Thorn of Malice that, if equipped to it or to a Plant-type monster, raises its attack and gives it piercing damage, among other effects.

Black-Winged Dragon

Known as Black Feather Dragon in Japan, this Synchro Monster is a good option to counter Burn decks or to gain an extra advantage from cards activated by expending Life Points. It can be used to negate Effect Damage by placing a counter on this card and reduce its ATK by 700 for each counter on it. In addition the user can remove all the counters from Black-Winged Dragon, and select an enemy Monster to decrease its ATK by 700 for each counter removed, also the opponent receives damage equal to that amount.

Life Stream Dragon

Not only does this Tuner Synchro Monster have high stats (2900 ATK/2400 DEF), but it has the ability of negating Effect Damages from other cards, rendering Burn decks useless. Also, when Synchro Summoned, this card can recover the user's Life Points to 4000, if its lower than that amount. By removing from play an Equip Spell Card from the Graveyard, this card can prevent its own destruction. Its only drawback is that between all six Signer Dragons, it is the most difficult to Synchro Summon, as it requires another Synchro Monster, "Power Tool Dragon" as a Synchro Material Monster.

Power Tool Dragon

Despite not a Signer Dragon by itself (it is actually a Machine type monster), it is indispensable to Synchro Summon Life Stream Dragon and it aids players who favors Equip Spell Cards, as once per turn it can randomly add one among three Equip Spell Card from the deck to player's hand, and can prevent its own destruction when equipped with an Equip Spell Card, by sending the Spell Card to the Graveyard instead.

Red Dragon Archfiend

With the highest attack points among the Signer Dragons (3000 ATK), this monster, known as Red Demon's Dragon in Japan, can tear down an enemy's defense instantly as when it attacks an opponent's Defense Position Monster, all Defense Position Monsters the opponent controls are destroyed. To counterbalance its devastating effect, it has the drawback of having other monsters you control destroyed at the end of the turn unless they attacked that turn.

It also has a stronger Assault Mode form, and can be tuned with Majestic Dragon (Savior Dragon in Japan) and another monster to Synchro Summon the even stronger Majestic Red Dragon (Savior Demon's Dragon in Japanese). It can also be tuned with two Tuner Monsters to Synchro Summon its most powerful form, the Level 12 Red Nova Dragon (Scar-Red Nova Dragon in Japanese), a 3500 ATK monster. Red Nova Dragon gains 500 ATK for each Tuner Monster in the Graveyard. The card is also immune to card destruction effects, and can negate an opponent's attack by removing itself from play, and returning to the field at the end of the turn.

It also has some support cards like Crimson Fire, which negates the effect of an opponent's Spell or Trap Card that inflicts damage on the player and the opponent receives twice the Effect Damage instead.

Shooting Quasar Dragon

Being the ultimate form of Stardust Dragon, this Monster can only be Synchro Summoned with three or more Synchro Monsters, including one Tuner Synchro Monster. It is a Level 12 Synchro Monster with 4000 ATK and DEF that can attack multiple times equal to the number of Synchro Material Monsters used to Synchro Summon it, and can negate the effects of other cards once per turn. If removed from the field, all monsters in the field are removed and the user can Special Summon a Shooting Star Dragon from the Extra Deck.

Stardust Dragon

This card is considered one of the most useful Synchro Monsters due to its ability to prevent cards on the field from being destroyed, by having it tributed and returned to the field at the end of the turn, allowing this effect to be used multiple times.

It also has a stronger Assault Mode form, and can be tuned with Majestic Dragon and another monster to Synchro Summon the even stronger Majestic Star Dragon (Savior Star Dragon in Japanese). It can also be tuned with a Tuner Synchro Monster to Synchro Summon another stronger form of Stardust Dragon, the Shooting Star Dragon, a 3300 ATK monster that can attack multiple times during a turn, equal to the number of Tuner Monsters revealed among the top five cards in the deck. The card is also immune to card destruction effects once per turn, and can negate an opponent's attack by removing itself from play, and returning to the field at the end of the turn.

It also has some support cards like Starlight Road, a Trap Card that prevents cards on the field from being destroyed, and allows the player to Special Summon a Stardust Dragon from the Extra Deck; and Stardust Xiaolong, a Level 1 monster that can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard when Stardust Dragon is Synchro Summoned, aiding the player to summon Majestic Star Dragon or Shooting Star Dragon.

Deck types

Aliens

Aliens are a powerful series of reptile monsters introduced in "Power of the Duelist", "Cyberdark Impact", "Strike of Neos","Crimson Crisis" and other packs. Alien cards usually focus on using A-Counters which allow the user to use a variety of choices such as destruction, specific theft, revival and weakening a monster's attack.

Ancient Gears

Ancient Gear (Antique Gears in the original Japanese version) are a set of machine-type monsters used by Dr. Crowler in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The cards can negate the effects of spells and traps that activate when an "Ancient Gear" Monster attacks, giving them some layer of protection against common strategies. The cards are a reference to war machines used by the Holy Roman Empire that utilized gears. Though human or animal shaped in nature, most of the cards in the series feature a helmet similar to those worn by members of the Roman guard.

Arcana Force

A series of cards used by the primary antagonist of the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Sartorius. The cards are based on the Major Arcana tarot cards, reflecting Sartorius's ability to see the future. In the anime, the cards spin and their position when the spin ends(upright or upside down) determine their effects, with the former position always conferring positive effects while the latter confers negative. In the OCG and TCG, a coin flip is used instead.

Archfiends

Archfiends did not get their own classification until they started being printed as such. The term is mostly used in English language cards instead of the term, 'demon', in the Japanese cards. Monsters such as Terrorking Archfiend, Skull Archfiend of Lightning, Archfiend Soldier, Archfiend General and the Synchro Monsters Red Dragon Archfiend and Thought Ruler Archfiend' are part of this archetype. Some of the first of these cards were produced in a chess themed set, that had a chess board in the background of the artwork, and piece names in the card titles. These were released in the Dark Crisis and Dark Revelation booster packs. There was Terror King, Infernal Queen, Dark Bishop,Shadow Knight, Des Rook and Vile Pawn, respectively. This batch all pretty much required the use of a card called Pandemonium, the field card that lets the player use the Archfiends without paying life points, and even allow some Archfiends to be on the field (Archfiend General). All cards with Demon in their name in the original card game were retroactively classified as Archfiends in the English version. This caused problems, as no consistency of names had been established to replace Demon in the English version, so many cards without Archfiend in their name were classified as Archfiends. This was confusing, as such information was not to be found on the cards themselves. Some of these cards include Lesser Fiend, Axe of Despair, Summoned Skull, and Shadow Tamer. In Yu-Gi-Oh GX, a shadow duelist named Titan used an archfiend-oriented deck.

Blackwings

A dark-archetype of Winged Beast-type Monsters used by Crow Hogan in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, known as "Black Feathers" in the Japanese version. They can easily perform a Synchro Summon as they utilize Special Summoning effects to swarm your opponent, thus increasing the total level of monsters. There are a lot of cards that work well with Blackwings like Icarus Attack and Swallows Nest. These cards allow you to destroy your opponents cards by tributing Winged Beast-type Monsters and change your Winged Beasts. Many Duelists consider Blackwings to be quite overpowered due to their ability to be summoned easily, and their effects that emulate teamwork between the cards. Cards like Sirocco the Dawn, for instance, who can pool the power of all Blackwings into a single monster. These are not just game winners but are in the vein of cards such as Ring of Destruction. Despite these complaints, not much has been done on the part of Konami to limit Blackwing decks.

Chaos

A deck-archetype that ran rampant over all tournaments prior to the creation of the Forbidden List, it is these monsters and "Yata-Garasu" that were blamed for the creation of the Forbidden List in the first place. The trademark Chaos cards are Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End (commonly abbreviated to CED), Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Chaos Sorcerer.

When they were first released, Chaos Emperor Dragon and Black Luster Soldier were the two that were used, because Chaos Sorcerer's effect did not seem to make it worth playing at the time. The original Chaos Deck relied on discarding Light and Dark Attribute monsters and removing them from play to meet the popular Special Summoning conditions of the Chaos monsters. With their powerful effects, ability to be easily Special Summoned and high attack power, the Chaos monsters could easily dominate an opponent.

It is of popular opinion among the best players in the game that Black Luster Soldier is the better card, for its ability to remove from play helpful monsters used by many during this time such as, Sangan, Witch of The Black Forest, Sinister Serpent, and others that had to be sent to the Graveyard to get their effects. With Chaos Emperor Dragon in particular, players would use its effect while Sangan or Witch of the Black Forest is on their field. By paying 1000 Life Points to destroy all cards on the field and in both players hands, Sangan's or Witch of the Black Forest's effects allow the player to search their deck for Yata-Garasu. With Yata, this could stop the opponent from drawing cards if it has inflicted damage to oppponent's Life Points. The end result is a situation in which the opponent has no cards in their hand or on the field, and cannot draw, making it impossible for them to win, barring effect cards in their Graveyard activating. This dangerous strategy has become known as a Yata-Lock, and both Yata-Garasu and Chaos Emperor Dragon were two of the cards on the first Forbidden List for this reason.

After Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning were banned, the Chaos theme did not see much play until the release of the popular card, Cyber Dragon in the Cybernetic Revolution set. Along with Zaborg The Thunder Monarch and a few other Light and Dark attribute monsters being released, this allowed players to create competitive Chaos Decks once again, but this time with Chaos Sorcerer's. With its effect being a slightly weaker version of Black Luster Soldier's but still being effective, Chaos Sorcerer quickly rose to being in the Top 8 decks for many tournaments until it too was banned. An update to the Forbidden list moved a new version of "Chaos Sorcerer" from the Forbidden status to Limited. The effect has been changed so that it cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Chaos Sorcerer is currently Unlimited, meaning that players are allowed to have up to three copies of the card in their decks. More recently, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning has become Limited, so players are allowed to have one copy of it in their deck (or side deck).

Although Chaos as an archetype is now non-existent in competitive play, weaker versions of the Chaos monsters have been released such as Demise, King of Armageddon and Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. Various other monsters relying on summoning by removing from play cards in the Graveyard are also commonly released, such as the Sky Scourges, two of which have abilities that mirror the abilities of Black Luster Soldier and Chaos Emperor Dragon. A new Level 8 Synchro Monster named Chaos Goddess was released in a recent pack, however it is difficult to bring out, requiring one Tuner LIGHT Monster and two non-Tuner DARK Monster. Chaos Goddess' effect is by discarding a LIGHT Monster from hand, a Level 5 or higher DARK Monster can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard.

Both of the Envoys are also used in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End were in the decks of the characters, Yugi and Kaiba, respectively in the original Yu-Gi-Oh series. Black Luster Soldier made an appearance in the Duelist Kingdom match between Yugi and Mai Valentine, and was played by the character Dimitri in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series while he was using Yugi's stolen deck.^[7] Chaos Emperor Dragon was used by Kaiba against the character, Zigfried von Schroeder.^[8]

Charmers

Charmers, known in Japanese as Spirit Envoys, are a special archetype of Spellcaster-type monsters with a different Attribute in which they have power over. The Charmers compose of mostly girl Charmers, Aussa the Earth Charmer, Hiita the Fire Charmer, Wynn the Wind Charmer, Eria the Water Charmer, Lyna the Light Charmer and the only male Charmer Dharc the Dark Charmer. Charmers have the power to lure monsters of the corresponding Attribute to the Charmer's side of the field as long as that Charmer stays alive.

There are also Familiar-Possessed versions of Charmers (Aussa, Hiita, Wynn and Eria) that send the corresponding Charmer and monster of the same Attribute to the Graveyard for them to be Special Summoned. Once on the field, when Familiar-Possessed Charmers attack an opponent's monsters in Defense Mode, the difference is subtracted to the opponent's Life Points. At press time, there are no "Familiar-Possessed Lyna" and "Familiar-Possessed Dharc".

Powerful versions of Charmers can Special Summon from the player's hand a monster of the corresponding Attribute by tributing 1 monster of that same Attribute to the Graveyard. The only drawback is the monster successfully Summoned on the field goes to the Graveyard if that particular Charmer is destroyed. So far, the only powered-up Charmers are Avalanching Aussa, Blazing Hiita, Storming Wynn and Raging Eria. Lyna and Dharc have no powered-up versions of themselves yet.

Charmers also have Spiritual Arts Trap cards that can be activated by Tributing 1 monster of a particular Attribute. Different "Spiritual Arts" card have different effects.

Somewhat related to the Charmers is the Ritual Monster Elemental Mistress Doriado and the Ritual Spell Doriado's Blessing. When successfully Ritual Summoned, Doriado adds an EARTH, WIND, WATER and FIRE Attribute to her default LIGHT Attribute using Monster Effects, Spells and Traps from each of those Attributes. Some say Doriado is the teacher of the Charmers herself due to her Extra Attributes Effect.

Crystal Beasts

A set of cards belonging to Jesse Anderson in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX The Crystal Beasts (known as Gem Beasts in the Japanese version) were based on gemstones gathered from all over the world. Crystal Beasts have the special ability to have themselves be treated as Continuous Spell Cards once they are destroyed as Monsters instead of sending them to Graveyard, giving extra bonuses. From there, various support cards can be used to revive them. They have become stronger now that Jesse has retrieved the Rainbow Dragon; the trump card of the Crystal Beasts deck.

In the TCG, Crystal Beasts are able to quickly swarm the field using Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and Crystal Blessing to amass Crystal Beasts in the Spell/Trap Zones, then use Crystal Beacon and Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle to Special Summon them all at once. Besides this, when four Crystal Beasts exist in the Spell/Trap Zones, Crystal Abundance allows the player to send all cards on the field to the Graveyard and then summon a numbers of Crystal Beasts from the Graveyard equal to the number of cards sent from the opponents side of the field. When used in such a fashion, Crystal Beast decks can accomplish a One-Turn Kill.

Placing "Crystal Beasts" in the Spell/Trap Zones also benefits the player when they have the Field Spell Card "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins" in play. This card carries several cumulative effects that may be activated depending on the number of "Crystal Beasts" that reside in the Spell/Trap Zone. The effects are as follows:

1+ - "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins" cannot be destroyed by card effects;

2+ - Once per turn, you can halve the Battle Damage you take;

3+ - By sending one "Crystal Beast" monster you control to the Graveyard, you can negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card and destroy it;

4+ - Once per turn, during your Main Phase, draw one card;

5+ - Once per turn, during your Main Phase, Special Summon one "Crystal Beast" cardfrom your Spell/Trap Zone.

Cyber Girls

This series of cards are used by Alexis Rhodes from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The monsters are all female monsters themed on dancing-related sports or ballet, such as Etoile Cyber, Blade Skater, Cyber Blader, Cyber Tutu, Cyber Gymnast and Cyber Prima. Their effects range from direct attack, card destruction, attack power increasing and not being destroyed by battle, depending on the monster. They were introduced in the third episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, titled A Duel In Love, in which Alexis brought out Cyber Blader, a fusion monster.

The background behind each of the Cyber Girls are all designed the same. As a result of these backgrounds you can tell the card is a Cyber Girl. They can be found in the Elemental Energy and Enemy of Justice expansions.

Dark Scorpions

This archetype of cards are all DARK-Attribute Warrior-type monsters. The Dark Scorpions are loosely based on the Robin Hood legend, but some fans speculate the Dark Scorpions are reminiscent of Pokemon's Team Rocket or Dragonball Z's Ginyu Force. The Dark Scorpions consist of their charismatic leader Don Zaloog and his friends Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong, Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn, Cliff the Trap Remover, and Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow. When any or all the Dark Scorpions cause Battle Damage to an opponent, their Effects can cause serious damage against that opponent.

When Don Zaloog is out and the card Mustering of the Dark Scorpions is activated, any Dark Scorpion monster is automatically summoned onto the field. Dark Scorpion Combination is a Trap that allows all 5 Dark Scorpions on the field to attack the opponent directly and cause him/her to lose 2000 Life Points (400 for each Dark Scorpion), and activate their Effects for added damage. Additionally, Meanae the Thorn can look for any card with "Dark Scorpion" in its name (or Cliff the Trap Remover) in either the Deck or Graveyard and add it to the player's hand, including Dark Scorpion Combination.

Dark World

This archetype of cards consists of all Dark-Attribute Fiend-type monsters. Their special ability is to Special Summon themselves (or activate their effects in the Graveyard) when they are discarded by a card effect. These cards are extremely powerful when they are combined with cards that help discard cards from your hand, like Card Destruction, Dark World Lightning, Morphing Jar, and others. There are some support cards from this deck, including, in June 18, the new Starter deck Devil's Gate (released in Japan on 18 June).

Destiny Heroes

A series of DARK-attribute Warriors, these are the trademark cards used by Aster Phoenix (Edo Phoenix in the Japanese version), introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. They are considered counterpart cards of protagonist Jaden's Elemental Heroes, and possess abilities pertaining to the passage of time, ranging from the displacement of his opponent's monsters into the future to the revival of his monsters or halving of his opponent's Life Points within a turn. In the same way, they have a wide support base of cards, some of which (Dark City, D-Cubic and Destiny Mirage) directly parallel the support (Skyscraper, Wroughtweiler and Elemental Mirage) for the Elemental Heroes.

Some of the Destiny Heroes include Diamond Dude (Diamondguy), Doom Lord (Devilguy), Dreadmaster (Dreadguy), Captain Tenacious (Diehardguy), Blade Master (Daggerguy) and Dogma (Dogmaguy). Many are based on various anti-heroes of British literature (such as Double Dude being a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in contrast to American superhero-based Elemental Heroes). In the original series, all the Destiny Heroes had the suffix "Guy" and had names starting with "D" (Devilguy, Doomguy, Dogmaguy, etc.). The only exceptions were Plasma (though the original name is Bloo-D, which D is still a main part of the name),Dread Servant,Darkangel (lacking the "Guy" suffix), and the Final D, which is the fusion of D-Heroes Dogma Guy and Bloo-D, also known as Dragon D-End(Destiny End Dragon).

Destiny Heroes served as a playable deck type, particularly while Elemental Hero Stratos was unrestricted.^[9] This deck type has proven a popular choice and has featured in some of the top eight decklists in "Shonen Jump TCG Championship Series Tournaments".^[10] Beyond this, a decktype known as "Diamond Dude Turbo" (abbreviated DDT) also exists, relying on using Diamond Dude's effect in tandem with Destiny Heroes "Malicious" and "Dasher", as well as "Card Trooper" and the Spells "Destiny Draw" and "Magical Stone Excavation". The Deck Revolves around using 'Destiny Draw and Magical Stone Excavation with "Diamond Dude"'s effect to gain card advantage, as costs are not paid with "Diamond Dude"'s effect.^[11] "Malicious" and "Dasher" are sent to the Graveyard with the many discard effects featured in the deck so their effects can activate, allowing the player to get many monsters to the field. Another type of Destiny Hero deck is known as "Perfect Circle", which revolves around Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. By using cards like Destiny Draw and Foolish Burial to discard Disk Commander, players can then revive it continuously using Destiny Hero - Fear Monger, among other cards, and draw two cards every time Disk Commander is special summoned from the graveyard, allowing them to accumulate large hands with ease.

Earthbound Immortals

Known as Earthbound Gods (jibakushin^?) in the Japanese version, Earthbound Immortals are powerful monsters used by the Dark Signers in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Each of them represents one of the Nazca Lines which, in the anime, are powerful beasts that threatened the world 10,000, and 5,000 years ago. When summoned, they absorb souls, and negative energy in order to give them power. Earthbound Immortals are particularly powerful in that they have the ability to attack the player directly and can not be chosen as an attack target, although the anime often introduces scenarios in which they can attack monsters and be attacked themselves. Also in the anime, they are immune to traps that directly effect them. They require a field spell to be active in order to be summoned, and they are destroyed if the field spell is destroyed (in the anime, this simply negates their effects.) There are eight Earthbound Immortal monsters, one for each Dark Signer, Uru (Roman Goodwin), Ccapac Apu (Kalin Kessler), Cusillu (Devak), Ccarayhua (Misty Tredwell), Aslla Piscu (Carly Carmine), Chacu Challua (Greiger) and Wiraqocha Rasca (Rex Goodwin). There is also an eighth Earthbound God in the anime series,Scar-Red Nova, whose servant tried to subjulgate Jack Atlas to make of him a vessel to its rebirth, but Jack managed to absorb the god's powers instead to create his Red Nova Dragon.

Elemental Heroes

Elemental Heroes are the trademark of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX main protagonist, Jaden Yuki, as well as being the supporting cards for the Destiny Heroes belonging to Aster Phoenix (Edo Phoenix in Japanese). Elemental Hero decks rely heavily on Fusion Summon, so as to gain the power to control the situation, as the basic Elemental Heros are weak on their own. Many (if not all) Elemental Heros also have their own specialized support cards that have been released in later booster packs. Some of which in recent releases have been Elemental Hero Stratos (CT07), Elemental Hero Ocean (Re-print)(CT07) and Elemental Hero Ice Edge (STOR). There is supposedly a new OCG exclusive Field Spell Card that is unconfirmed to be released, "Elemental Sanctuary". Some Elemental Heros Fusion Monsters, mostly that states Elemental Hero Neos and a Neo-Spacian as Fusion Material Monsters, conduct "Contact Fusion" instead of the normal Fusion Summon. A Contact Fusion does not require any Fusion or Polymerization Spell Card, it is instead conducted by returning the Fusion Material Monsters back to the Deck.

Several well-known Elemental Heroes monsters are the basic Clayman, Sparkman, Burstinatrix(Burst Lady), Bubbleman, Avian(Featherman), Neos, Bladedge(Edgeman), Stratos(Airman), Necroshade, Prisma, and Wildheart(Wildman), and the Fusion Monsters Flame Wingman, Shining Flare Wingman, Tempest, Magma Neos, Chaos Neos, Glow Neos, Storm Neos, Neos Wiseman, Marine Neos, Mariner(Sailorman), Plasma Vice, Dark Bright, Mudball Man, Thunder Giant, Rampart Blaster(Rampart Gunner), Electrum, Wildedge, and Divine Neos(God Neos). In the manga, Jaden mainly uses a different set of Elemental Heroes, including Woodsman, Stratos, and Ocean, and his key card Terra Firma(The Earth), given to him by Koyo Hibiki. Similar to Neos, Terra Firma can gain additional forms by sacrificing another Elemental Hero on the field, and after absorbing another Elemental Hero, he becomes Terra Firma Magma.

In addition, there exist "Evil Heroes", dark counterparts of certain Elemental Heroes that gain additional effects, which are more destructive, such as Evil Hero Inferno Wing (Flame Wingman's counterpart) and Evil Hero Lightning Golem (Thunder Giant's counterpart).

Fairy Agents

The Agents are LIGHT Fairy-Type Monsters that were introduced in Ancient Sanctuary, and were reprinted in both Dark Revelation Volume 2 and the new structure deck, Lost Sanctuary. These monsters are especially designed for decks containing the card "The Sanctuary in the Sky". They are all named "The Agent of <property> - <planet>".

Fortune Ladies

This Archetype was first introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. The "Fortune Ladies" were used by Carly Carmine as a Dark Signer. These "Fortune Ladies" gain anywhere from 200 to 400 attack points during the player's Standby Phase and have unique effects that include draw power, special summoning, spell/trap/monster removal, and inflicting effect damage. The Fortune Ladies are Fortune Lady Water, Fortune Lady Fire, Fortune Lady Earth, Fortune Lady Light, Fortune Lady Dark, and Fortune Lady Wind. A monster that supports Fortune Ladies is Solitaire Magician.

Gadgets

A series of machine-type monsters whose effects allow players to search for relevant Gadget monsters. They are Green Gadget, Red Gadget and Yellow Gadget. Each of the Gadgets can search each other from the player's deck. They are also supported by Stronghold the Moving Fortress, Boot Up Soldier - Dread Dynamo, Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon and Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera. They are found in the Machine Re-Volt and Machina Mayhem Structure Decks.

They were notably used by Yugi Moto in the Ceremonial Duel against Atem in the last episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

Gadgets are a mildly well known set, due to their effects and appearance in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series. Players often use them to get ahead in what is considered card advantage, by gaining another Gadget in hand each time a gadget is summoned and protecting the Gadgets with numerous removal and negation-based cards like Sakuretsu Armor, Widespread Ruin, Dimensional Prison, Bottomless Trap Hole and Royal Oppression. The card known as Elemental Hero - Stratos (E. Hero Airman) tended to neutralize the use of Gadgets this way. Stratos has recently been limited to one copy in play, allowing Gadget use to thrive again.

Gemini Monsters

Gemini Monsters (known as Dual Monsters in the OCG) are a subtype of Effect Monster. They have effects, but these effects must be "unlocked" by performing an additional Normal Summon on them while they are face-up on the field (known in the OCG as a Second Summon). Until then, they are treated as Normal Monsters on the field and in the Graveyard. You cannot Special Summon Gemini Monsters from the hand or the deck by abilities that supports Normal Monsters, like "Ancient Rules", because they still count as Effect Monsters while in the hand and Deck. However, since they count as Normal Monsters while they are in the Graveyard, they benefit greatly from the many support cards that allow Normal Monsters to be summoned back from the Graveyard, like "Birthright". All Gemini Monsters to date are treated as Normal Monsters while they are face-up on the field before being Gemini Summoned, or while they are in the Graveyard. If they exist anywhere else, they are treated as Effect Monsters.

The process of Gemini Summoning a Gemini Monster (that is being treated as a Normal Monster by its effect) is just the same as performing any other Normal Summon, except that the monster is already on the field and tribute(s) is not needed for Gemini Monsters of Level 5 or above. You cannot Gemini Summon a Gemini Monster that has already been Gemini Summoned (and is still considered to have been Gemini Summoned). Once a Gemini Monster has been Gemini Summoned, it is then treated as an Effect Monster and it gains the effect(s) written on it.

In order to Gemini Summon, you must Normal Summon the Gemini Monster again and if you do so, you cannot Normal Summon another monster in the same turn, except by other card effects(Ultimate Offering, Swap Frog, etc.). While this entire process seems very troublesome to go through, do note that Gemini monsters usually have extremely useful effects, often without a drawback. Gemini Monsters were initially released in "Tactical Evolution", with more released in "Gladiator's Assault", "Phantom Darkness", "Light of Destruction", "Structure Deck 17: Warrior's Strike" and "Stardust Overdrive" booster pack.

Gladiator Beasts

This series of cards was released in the "Gladiator's Assault" booster pack and is based in the strategy and effort of activating their effects. Most Gladiator Beast monsters have the ability of "tag" with another Gladiator Beast in the Deck after it has battled and Special Summon it on to the field to activate its effect. The effect reads "At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card attacked or was attacked, you can return it to the Deck to Special Summon 1 Gladiator Beast monster from your Deck, except a copy of the same monster". The most powerful Gladiator Beast in the TCG is Gladiator Beast Heraklinos with 3000 ATK Points. These monsters also have a "Contact Fusion" theme, just like the Neo-Spacians with Elemental Hero Neos, returning the Fusion Material Monsters to the Deck instead of the sending them to Graveyard, and also without using Polymerization. This effect does not have a limit so it can be use multiple times. Other Gladiator Beasts include Murmillo, Bestiari,Hoplomus and others. Usually, one card or more comes in a pack to support this Deck. The names of this monsters have been taken from gladiator classes in the Roman period or real characters in the time such as Alexander the Great and Octavius. It has yet to be confirmed if this series of cards will be shown in the anime series. Of all the Deck types used in tournament gameplay, this is one of the most well-known and powerful. It is also one of the few Deck types which all cards in the series are Unlimited(with the exception of Gladiator Beast Bestiari being Limited).

Harpie Lady

The Harpie Lady cards were made famous by the anime character Mai Valentine. They are all winged-beast cards of the wind attribute. They are cards based on the Harpies in Greek mythology. However instead of appearing as ugly, they are quite beautiful. The monsters include Harpie Lady, Cyber Harpie Lady, Harpie Queen, Harpie Girl, Harpie Lady Sisters, and Harpie's Brother. Support cards include Elegant Egotist, Triangle Ecstasy Spark, and Harpie's Hunting Ground (making the Harpies one of the few archetypes to have their own specific field spell). Their support monsters, Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon and Harpie's Pet Dragon attack points and special abilities are increased by the Harpie Lady monsters. Harpies combine the ability to be rapidly summoned, to destroy the opponent's cards, and to increase each other's attack and defense points. Properly played, Harpies can overwhelm the opponent in moments with high attack power and powerful effects, but they are individually not too strong, so they are vulnerable to opponents who Summon strong single Monsters early to whittle down the number of Harpies on the field.

Infernity

An archetype used by Kalin Kessler (known as Kyousuke Kiryu in Japan) in the 5D's anime series, which include a handful of DARK Monsters possessing strong effects which can only be activated when the player has no cards in hand. An advantage of this archetype is that it includes cards whose effects are activated in field, at hand, in the Deck or Graveyard. However, most Infernity Monsters have low ATK and DEF, and the necessity of having an empty hand leaves the player with fewer options to defend himself/herself, in the case of a predicament. In the U.S. version of the series, their name are changed to "Infernality". In the current TCG/OCG format, the Infernity Loop is a rather powerful play. A combo using Infernity Launcher, Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Necromancer, Infernity Revenger(or Infernity Beetle) allows the player to Synchro Summon up to three Level 8 or 9 Synchro Monsters in one turn . Popular choice would be Stardust Dragon; Scrap Dragon; Mist Wurm; Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier; and Infernity archetype's ace monster, Infernity Doom Dragon.

Jurracs

The Jurracs, known as Juraks in the OCG, are a set of FIRE Dinosaur-Type monsters. Visually, most Jurrac Dinosaurs are brightly colored, usually with bright red and yellow extremities and blue bodies, resembling the various colors of flame. The common focus of their effects are centered around destroying opponent's monsters by battle to activate effects, and gain ATK power by tributing other Dinosaur-Type monsters. One of three Synchro Monsters in the set, "Jurrac Giganoto" has the ability to grant additional ATK points to "Jurrac" monsters on the field for each "Jurrac" monster in the player's Graveyard.

Notably, many of the Jurrac monsters search Jurracs with 1700 ATK or less, as opposed to the customary 1500 or less often searched (such as with "Giant Rat", "Nova Summoner", and "Masked Dragon").

Lightsworns

Known as Lightlords in the OCG. A series of LIGHT monsters who's effects are based on sending cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard, whether it be for a cost of a particular card or the effect of a Lightsworn monster. Due to the speed at which this archetype depletes the number of cards in your deck, running out of cards and decking out is always a risk. However, many of the Lightsworns are built for speed and ending the game quickly. In addition, the deck has a boss monster known as Judgment Dragon, which can basically reset the field and strike for heavy amounts of damage. If built correctly, sending cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard each turn will help the player much more than hurt him, and Lightsworn can be a deadly, and often frustrating, deck to be paired off against.

A way to counter this is to use a removal deck, 'Dimensional Fissure' is useful because any cards sent to the graveyard are removed from play instead. This prevents Lightsworns from sending cards from the top of their deck to the graveyard.

Macro Removal

This deck is based on the combined effects of cards such as Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure or Banisher of the Radiance with the effect of D.D. Survivor which allows you to special summon it during the end phase of the turn it was removed from your side of the field.

This deck aims to destroy any graveyard-based strategy and also gives you advantage over standard decks. A common variant of this deck is the Macro-Monarch Deck, focusing on the effect of D.D. Survivor to tribute it for the tribute summon of the Monarchs, then special summoning the tributed D.D. Survivor again during the end phase.

Cards such as D.D. Scout Plane, Cyber Valley, Chaos End, Different Dimension Reincarnation and Return from the Different Dimension are also used in this deck.

Monarchs

The Monarchs, also named Emperors in the OCG, is an Archetype of high-level monsters (all monarchs are level 6 with the exception of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, who is level 5) with 2400 attack points, 1000 defense points and an effect triggered when they are tribute summoned. The Monarchs were initially released in Ancient Sanctuary (AST) with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Single monarchs have been released in the following sets:

Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (AST), Mobius the Frost Monarch (SOD), Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (RDS), Granmarg the Rock Monarch (FET), Raiza the Storm Monarch (FOTB) Delg the Dark Monarch (STBL) and Caius the Shadow Monarch (SDDE).

The "Four Elemental" Monarchs are used in the anime by the "Light Brigade" led by Sarina, Sartorius' sister. This arc depicts four duelists who each use decks based around their Monarch's elemental inclination (Ice, Thunder, Fire, Earth).^[12]

The Monarch Deck is a very popular deck theme in the TCG, often featuring in top eight decklists in major tournaments. Monarch decks usually focus on Tribute Summoning Monarchs without losing any card advantage by tributing monsters. This is often done with cards such as Battle Fader, Cyber Dragon, Treeborn Frog, Brain Control and Soul Exchange.^[13]

Machina

The Machina archetype started March 2009 when the Machina Mayhem structure deck was released. Its main focus is Machina Fortress. The deck uses searching monsters such as Machina Gearframe and Machina Peacekeeper to add Machinas to your hand, allowing you to summon Machina Fortress. The deck's key cards are all found in the structure deck, making it a good deck for beginners. The Machina archetype itself has fared fairly well in tournaments, particularly for a deck that has been given so little support.

Machina's are very consistent. Machina Mayhem is very strong, focusing on having union monsters to power up your monsters and protect them, then destroying you opponent with Machina Fortress, Machina Force, and The Big Saturn. It is recommended to buy at least three, combining the good cards to make a unbeatable, championship-worth deck. This deck is arguably one of the best structure decks out there.

Malefic

Known as SIN in Japan, this were used by Paradox in the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time. During the movie, Paradox steals monsters from various characters from the various series, and plays dangerous 'Malefic' versions of them. They are special summoned by removing their counterparts in the Deck or Extra Deck from play. Similar to Earthbound Immortals, they require a field spell to be in play and to remain on the field. The Malefic Monsters Paradox possesses are Malefic Stardust Dragon, Malefic Cyber End Dragon, Malefic Rainbow Dragon, Malefic Blue Eyes White Dragon and Malefic Red Eyes Black Dragon. Outside of the monsters he had stolen, Paradox has his own personal Malefic monsters, Malefic Parallel Gear, Malefic Paradox Dragon and Malefic Truth Dragon.

Meklords

Known as "Machine Emperors" in the Japanese version and used in the 5D's anime series by the "Three Emperors of Yliaster" and their combined form, Aporia. While in the anime series some Meklords are composed of five different monsters that combine into one single form, in the real game each Meklord is one single card. Some single traits of all Meklords is that they can only be summoned in the field by following a specific condition and most of them have the ability of take control of the opponents' Synchro monsters to empower themselves. Some Meklords also possess some special independent effects that put them in advantage even against players who do not use Synchro Monsters at all.

Morphtronics

Morphtronics, known as Deformers in the Japanese versions, are an Archetype of monsters debuting in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. They are used by Leo in the anime, and were introduced in the Set "Crossroads of Chaos". They're continued in the sets, Crimson Crisis and Raging Battle. Their effects are dictated by their Battle Position.

They are depicted in how they "morph" when they change their Battle Position, which changes their effect and appearance (humanoid form in Attack Position; item form in Defense Position). They transform into small household items, like magnets and mobile phones. Despite their appearances, Morphtronics are not all Machine type monsters and they also represent a wide array of Attributes. These cards may be based on the entire Transformers toyline that are still very popular.

Morphtronics are low in Level and have low ATK and DEF, but often have effects that can rapidly boost their collective power. Because of their low levels they benefit from cards such as Gravity Bind or Morphtronic Bind and Level Limit - Area B. They also benefit from Light of Intervention so that they can be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position.

Neo-Spacians

Another set of cards Jaden had in his deck during season 2. The six alien monsters, each based on a manga design, originated from Neo Space and came to help Jaden fight the Society of Light. They were designed by Jaden, printed by Kaiba, and sent into space (where Jaden later finds them) in order to share the game with alien life. The ideas which led to their creation, while appearing to simply be the overactive mind of a childhood Jaden, are in reality linked to his past life as the King of Neo Space. Their unique ability, other than their effect, is that they can evoke Contact Fusions with Elemental Hero Neos, upgrading his form with their power, without using Polymerization. Its members are composed of Aqua Dolphin, Flare Scarab, Air Hummingbird, Grand Mole, Glow Moss, and Dark Panther, with each being of a different Attribute. Each Neo-Spacian has a "Chrysalis" version of itself that acts as an aide to summoning them.

The Neo-Spacians are typically lacking in power, but have powerful effects to compensate: the effects of the Contact Fused-Neos is typically an upgraded version of this effect. They also have several Contact and Coccoon cards that let them Special Summon themselves. They even have their own field card, Neo Space, to counteract the return of Contact Fused-Neos cards back to the Fusion Deck. Recently, Neos has been shown to have the ability to Contact Fuse more than one Neo-Spacian at the same time, leading to Magma Neos, Chaos Neos and Storm Neos.

Neos also has forms created using regular Fusion methods: Rainbow Neos, a fusion with Rainbow Dragon; and Elemental Hero Divine Neos, which is a fusion of Neos and all six Neo-Spacians in the anime. In the TCG, it is a fusion of Neos, at least one other Elemental Hero, at least one Neo-Spacian and two other monsters, which can be Elemental Heroes, Neo-Spacians, Destiny Heroes or Evil Heroes. Despite having weak stats for a level 12 monster (2500 ATK & DEF), by removing one of the aforemented monsters from the graveyard, Divine Neos gains 500 extra ATK and the effect of the monster removed for the rest of the turn.

In the TCG Neo-Spacian Grand Mole has seen the most play because of its ability to send a monster back to a players hand simply by attacking it. The effect activates before Damage Calculation so there are no Life Points lost by doing this. A "Mole-Lock" can be created in this way by using its effect in combination with Ultimate Offering, returning all your opponents' cards on the field to their hand. The card is one of two (the other being Elemental Hero Stratos) Elemental Hero-related cards that have been limited.

Nordic

An archetype used by Team Ragnarok in the 5D's anime series composed of cards inspired in the Norse mythology whose main strategy is aiding in the summoning of one of the Aesir, three powerful Synchro Monsters with devastating effects. Each of the Aesir can only be Synchro Summoned with one of its correspondent Tuners, Nordic Beasts for "Thor, Lord of the Aesir", Nordic Alfars for "Loki, Lord of the Aesir" and Nordic Ascendants for "Odin, Father of the Aesir". There are also spell and trap cards excusive for the use of Nordic and Aesir monsters.

Numbers

A type of Xyz Monster that is a major part of the story in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime series. In the anime, the 100 Numbers cards are pieces of the spirit Astral's memories, which begin to possess other duelists. Astral teams up with Yuma Tsukumo to battle those duelists with Numbers cards, earning the card upon victory. In the anime and manga, a "Number" can only be destroyed in battle by another "Number", unless their effects are negated or an effect that treats a non-"Numbers" monster as one is applied. The most prevalent Numbers in the series is Yuma's key card, "Number 39: Utopia".

Ojama Trio

A set of cards, used by Chazz Princeton in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The members include Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green, and Ojama Black. Ojama Yellow initially served as Chazz's only duel spirit. But after forced into a duel where Chazz could only use monsters with 500 or less attack points Chazz acquired the other two brothers much to his annoyance.^[14] In the English version, Ojama Yellow has a high-pitched, falsetto voice, while Ojama Black and Ojama Green have voices similar to Moe and Curly of The Three Stooges.

Each Ojama has 0 attack points and 1000 defence points. Although weak in appearance, they host a great deal of support cards, such as Ojama Delta Hurricane! and Ojamagic and two fusions, Ojama King and Ojama Knight, who cuts the Monster Spaces on an opponent's field by 3 and 2 respectively. Ojama King lacks in ATK power also, but has 3000 DEF, which can trump most attackers, such as Ancient Gear Golem.

The support card Ojama Trio is often used by players in the TCG who are using burn decks (a deck type that focuses on inflicting direct damage to the opponent via card effects, as opposed to battle damage).^[15] Ojama Trio places three Ojama tokens on the opponents side of the field, restricting their opponent's ability to summon, allowing Just Desserts and Secret Barrel to inflict more damage, and also inflicting 300 points of damage when each token is destroyed.

Recently, new Ojama cards Ojama Red and Ojama Blue have been released, as well as a support Field Spell Ojama Country in the booster pack Raging Battle.

Sacred Beasts

The Sacred Beasts (三幻魔, Sangenma^?, Three Phantom Demons in the Japanese anime) are prominent plot points in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Known as Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms. They are dark counterparts to the Egyptian God cards, but their history and reason for existing are not made clear. The Chancellor of Duel Academy mentions a legend that they have the power to destroy Duel Monster cards by absorbing their energy, and they were thus sealed on the island. Like the God cards, the Beasts are depicted as the most powerful of all Duel Monsters in GX and serve essentially the same purpose as the God cards did in the original anime.

The main antagonist of the first season, Kagemaru, used the cards to drain energy to rejuvenate his aged body, but was defeated. The antagonist of the third season, Yubel, also used them for the same purpose of rejuvenating itself. Yubel also reveals the Sacred Beasts have a combined form, Armityle, the Chaos Phantom, although its design and role differ greatly from the combined form of the God Cards. These monsters reflect the Egyptian God Cards; Slifer the Sky Dragon, Winged Dragon of Ra & Obelisk the Tormentor. However, unlike the Egyptian God Cards, Sacred Beast Cards are not directly immune to trap, spell and monster effect cards.

The Six Samurai

The Six Samurai are a series of Warrior-type monsters that debuted in Strike of Neos, with further support included in Gladiator's Assault. Their names include "The Six Samurai" or "Shien". They rely on having multiple Six Samurai on the field to use their effects, and as such a Deck revolving around them is often based on swarming the field, as comparable to Blackwings.

The "Six Samurai" monsters consist of the original six, as well as their allies and masters. "Shien" cards are supported by this theme, "Great Shogun Shien" seeming to be the warlord they serve. The overall theme seems to be futuristic, while in some form drawing inspiration from feudal Japan.

The basic Six Samurai monsters (with the initial '6') all have the effect "If this card would be destroyed you can destroy another "Six Samurai" monster you control instead" and also "While you control another "Six Samurai" monster with a different name, this card can... ", meaning that their effects only activate when another "Six Samurai" monster is on the field.

Toons

"Toons" are a set of monsters utilized by Duel Monsters creator Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original version) throughout the series. The cards are unavailable to other duelists in the anime, as Pegasus himself owns the only copies. The cards consist of "cartoon" version of other monsters, including Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The cards are generally immune to damage by monsters, but are destroyed if their "Toon World" support card is removed from the field. Pegasus uses the monsters in almost all of his duels, including his appearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

The monsters, albeit with watered-down effects, were released early in the real card game's history. The cards are parodies of depictions of characters in American cartoons. Some examples of Toon cards are Toon Alligator, Toon cannon soldier, Blue eyes Toon Dragon.

Synchrons Warriors

"Warriors" are a set of Warrior-type cards most commonly used by Yusei Fudo in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. In most duels, Yusei would start off with Speed Warrior, whose attack doubles on the turn it is summoned. Four of his Warrior cards, Junk Warrior, Turbo Warrior, Nitro Warrior and Road Warrior, are Synchro Monsters at levels 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Similarly, he has 4 matching "Synchron" monsters, Junk Synchron, Turbo Synchron, Nitro Synchron and Road Synchron, that he uses for Synchro summoning, often using the respective Tuner for each Synchro Monster. These monsters often have effects that support the summoning of Synchro Material Monsters. Most of his Warriors are speed-themed, with designs based on vehicles and car parts. Other Warriors and Synchrons in Yusei's deck includes Max Warrior, Junk Archer, Level Warrior, Turret Warrior, Fortress Warrior, Shield Warrior and Quickdraw Synchron. The monsters Drill Warrior and Drill Synchron were created by a viewer in a contest held by the anime. So far the only Synchro monster in this archetype is the level 2 Synchro/Tuner monster Formula Synchron that allows the player to draw one extra card when synchro summoned.^[16]

T.G.

T.G., short for Tech Genus is an archetype used by Bruno in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. They are all bionic in appearance to reference the identity of their master. It consist of monsters who can "replace" themselves with different monsters when they are destroyed. Most of the non-Synchro monsters search for other T.G. monsters besides ones that share their name. Some T.G. Synchro monsters can only be summoned with other Synchro monsters as materials.

Vehicroids

"Vehicroids"(Commonly known as just "roids") are a set of Machine Cards used by Syrus Truesdale in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Roids are weak in terms of ATK since their level 6 monsters do not have over 1600 ATK. Roids are also a set of cards whose artwork are cartoonish and are based on some sort of Machine in real life (Example: Truckroid or Steamroid). Some of the roids strongest cards are Armoroid, Super Vehicroid - Stealth Union, Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, and UFOroid Fighter. Roids have many support cards in which turn Forbidden Cards into Unlimited cards here. These cards have a lot of combos. For example, the Decoyroid lock, which is made of Decoyroid, Ambulanceroid, Rescueroid, and Cyber Summon Blaster against a Deck where you must attack ensure a guaranteed win. This Deck purely relies on strategy.

All the "roids" are Ambulanceroid, Decoyroid, Cycroid, Rescueroid, Carrierroid, Expressroid, Truckroid, Kiteroid, Jetroid, Patroid, Armoroid, Submarineroid, Steamroid, Gyroid, Drillroid, Stealthroid, UFOroid, Shuttleroid, Steam Gyroid, Ambulance Rescueroid, Super Vehicroid - Stealth Union, Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, UFOroid Fighter, Pair Cycroid, Supercharge, Wonder Garage, and Vehicroid Connection Zone.

Wicked God Cards

The Wicked Gods (邪神, Jashin^?), introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! R, are a trio of cards owned by Pegasus' protégé and adopted son, Yakou Tenma. Tournament-legal versions of the cards, known as The Wicked Dreadroot, The Wicked Avatar and The Wicked Eraser, exist in the OCG, released alongside the June 2005, February 2007, and March 2007 respective issues of V Jump. Their TCG equivalents have been released in Shonen Jump, with The Wicked Eraser included in the magazine's September 2007 issue, The Wicked Avatar included in the November 2007 issue, and The Wicked Dreadroot was included in the January 2008 issue. The Wicked God Cards slowly made their introduction in Yugioh! R. "The Wicked Dreadroot" and "The Wicked Eraser" were released in the TCG in Wave 1 of the 2010 Collector's Tins.

In terms of the anime, the founding of these cards are hidden away by Pegasus, after the release of the first 3 God Cards and the unfortunate events which followed them, the thought of having these cards in the wrong hands would be too great of a risk. When they had been discovered by Yakou Tenma, who is Pegasus' protege, they were thoroughly impossible to impede.

Worms

Worms are a series of LIGHT attribute Reptile-type Monsters, which focus heavily upon theirFlip Effects. Visually, they resemble hideous alien creatures of a predominant single color, and often possess lipless toothy vertical mouths. They were introduced in "Duel Terminal - Synchro Awakening!!" and have their own set, "Duel Terminal - Invasion of Worms!". They are a very well developed set that yet has been used by players in tournaments and contests. Storywise, it might be the Worms are invading and attacking Hero City. In the artwork of Worm Zero, it is possible to see Hero City underneath Zero as it comes down from the sky.

X-Sabers

X-Sabers are an EARTH attribute archetype of monsters. They can give you quick field advantage based on the Special Summon effects of their monsters and support cards. This deck also features many tuner monsters which allow you to quickly Synchro Summon any Synchro Monster or any X-Saber Synchro Monster, such as XX-Saber Gottoms or XX-Saber Hyunlei. Cards such as XX-Saber Faultroll or XX-Saber Boggart Knight allow you to easily swarm your opponent. A known broken combo is the X-Saber Faultroll + XX-Saber Ragigura loop.

This is a powerful deck, often featuring in top eight decklists. There are also powerful support cards such as Saber Slash which allows you to destroy a number of face-up cards equal to the number of face-up X-Saber Monsters you control or Gottoms Emergency Call which allows you to Special Summon two X-Saber monsters from your graveyard if you control a face-up X-Saber Monster.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Yu-Gi-Oh! news at Pojo.com December 2004 archive. "pojo.com". http://www.pojo.com/yu-gi-oh/news/2005/Archive-Dec2004.shtml. 
2. ^ Cards in Jaden's deck "Upper Deck Entertainment". http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/yugioh/en/products/yugiohgx/jaden.aspx. 
3. ^ Yugi: Why don't you take this? Something tells me it belongs with you. (he hands Jaden Winged Kuriboh) /Jaden: Wow... for real? (Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters) GX Episode #1)
4. ^ Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episode 4. "TV.com". http://www.tv.com/yu-gi-oh!-gx/making-the-grade/episode/423549/recap.html. 
5. ^ Kuriboh features in many side decks to counter "One Turn Kills". "Metagame.com". http://metagame.com/yugioh.aspx?tabid=33&ArticleId=7028. 
6. ^ Episode 12. "yu-jyo.net". http://www.yu-jyo.net/001/012.html. 
7. ^ Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 19. "TV.com". http://www.tv.com/yu-gi-oh!-gx/the-king-of-the-copycats-2/episode/423565/recap.html. 
8. ^ Episode 195. "yu-jyo.net". http://yu-jyo.net/005/195.html. 
9. ^ Forbidden & Limited lists. "Upper Deck Entertainment". http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/yugioh/en/gameplay/forbidden/advanced_current_new.aspx. 
10. ^ Top eight decklists: St. Louis, February 2007 "metagame.com". http://metagame.com/yugioh.aspx?tabid=33&ArticleId=8094. 
11. ^ Individual card rulings D-E "Upper Deck Entertainment". http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/yugioh/en/gameplay/faqs/cardfaqs/default.aspx?first=D&last=E. 
12. ^ Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episodes 75, 76 and 77 TV.com.
13. ^ Top eight decklists: Houston, March 2007 "metagame.com". http://metagame.com/yugioh.aspx?tabid=33&ArticleId=8161. 
14. ^ Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 35. "TV.com". http://www.tv.com/yu-gi-oh!-gx/sibling-rivalry/episode/423591/recap.html. 
15. ^ Top eight decklists: Montreal, April 2007. "metagame.com". http://www.metagame.com/yugioh.aspx?tabid=33&ArticleId=8330. 
16. ^ The original drawing is shown at the end of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Episode 74

External links

• The Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia
• Yu-Gi-Oh card rulings-powered by netrep API
• Yu-Gi-Oh Dragon Deck Help