Characters / Yu Gi Oh Card Game E To F

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game character index
Storyline Cards/Characters: Duel Terminal | World Legacy | Abyss | Visas Starfrost
Lore Cards/Characters: Atlantean | Dracoslayer | Endymion | S-Force | Six Samurai | Skull Servant
Other: Recurring Generic Monsters | HEROes | Numbers
A to B | C | D | E to F | G to I | J to L | M | N | O to R | S Part 1 | S Part 2 | T to U | V to Z

Characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, sorted alphabetically from E to F.

---

Earthbound

Dark signs portend darker dangers.

Earthbound is an archetype revolving around the Earthbound Immortals, a series of Level 10 DARK monsters based on the Nazca lines who were the primary antagonistic forces of the Dark Signers arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. In addition to their own unique abilities, all of them share two powerful effects that prevents them from being targeted for attacks and lets them attack directly. However, they have the drawback of requiring a face-up Field Spell, otherwise they are destroyed. Furthermore, there can only be one Earthbound Immortal on the field. Over the years, they have received support that both help to make summoning and sustaining them easier.

They eventually received a sub-archetype known as the Earthbound Servants, DARK Fiend-Type monsters used by Sergey Volkov in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V whose effects support Earthbound monsters and have a heavy focus on both Fusion and Synchro Summoning. However, it wouldn't be until roughly seven years after their anime appearance that most of them made their OCG debut in the Animation Chronicle 2023 booster pack.

---

• Achilles' Heel: One similar to their anime effect. If you get rid of the Field Spell on board, the respective Immortal will self-destruct (whereas the anime Immortals would have all their effects negated, then blow-up on the End Phase).
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • All of the Earthbound Immortals are unaffected by the opponent's Spell and Trap Cards in the anime. They lost this effect in the OCG.
  • In the anime, the absence of a Field Spell negated their effects, and they would then be destroyed during the End Phase of the turn if a new Field Spell isn't played until then. In the OCG, they are instantly destroyed by their own effects if no Field Spell is in play.
  • Wiraqocha Rasca, despite being by far the strongest Earthbound Immortal in the anime by having an HP to One effect, has a far less impressive forced-discard + ATK gain effect in the actual card game.
• Animal Motifs: All of the Earthbound Immortals are based on animals.
  • Uru is based on a spider.
  • Aslla piscu vaguely resembles a hummingbird.
  • Cusillu possesses the appearance of a monkey.
  • Ccarayhua moderately resembles a lizard.
  • Ccapac Apu barely resembles a giant.
  • Chacu Challhua looks like an orca.
  • Wiraqocha Rasca is modeled after a condor.
• Bowdlerise: The archetype's name string in Japanese is 地縛神, which translates to "Earthbound God". The TCG instead changes this to "Earthbound Immortal".
• Brainwashed: Uru's ability lets his controller gain control of an opponent's monster for one turn in exchange for the sacrifice of one of his own monsters.
• Combat Medic: By targeting one face-up monster your opponent controls, Geo Gremlin allows you to gain life points equal to the targeted monster’s ATK.
• Death-Activated Superpower: Several of the Immortals have effects that activate when the monster disappears from the field.
  • Were Cusillu to be destroyed by battle, it can halve the opponent's life points by having its controller tribute a monster.
  • Ccarayhua destroys all cards on the field if destroyed by a card effect that isn't its own.
  • If Aslla Piscu leaves the field, it takes all of the opponent's face-up monsters with it while inflicting 800 damage for each one.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Earthbound Immortals are Kaiju-sized in the anime and dwarf all of the Signer Dragons.
• Field Power Effect: Earthbound Geoglyph is the archetype's game-only archetypal Field Spell, introduced in Duelist Pack: Legend Duelist 5. It can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects while a Level 10 monster is on the field, which all of the Earthbound Immortals are, covering up their Achilles' Heel. The card also indirectly supports the Inca series as well by placing their Synchro dragons in the Graveyard to initiate their Inti and Quilla loop.
• Fusion Dance: The Earthbound Servants are connected via Earthbound Prisoner Line Walker to Harmonic Synchro Fusion, which by sending a face-up Tuner and non-Tuner monster to the Graveyard allows you to Special Summon both a Fusion Monster and a Synchro Monster using the sent monsters as their materials. This can help build a quick setup for bringing out Geo Kracken and Geo Gryphon or Gremlin, who in-turn can be fused to bring out Geo Grasha.
• God of Evil: They are called Earthbound Gods in the Japanese variation.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: Once per turn, if a monster(s) is Special Summoned from your opponent's Extra Deck, Geo Kracken can destroy as many monsters your opponent controls as possible that were Special Summoned in the same turn, then inflict 800 damage for each monster destroyed by this effect.
• Mythical Motifs: In contrast to the Earthbound Immortals, the Earthbound Servants are based off figures from mythology and folklore.
  • Geo Grasha is based off Glasya-Labolas.
  • Geo Gremlin and Gremlina are based off gremlins.
  • Geo Gryphon is based off the griffin.
  • Geo Kraken is based off the Kraken.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Earthbound Linewalker physically resembles Rudger/Roman Goodwin, the leader of the Dark Signers and Uru's user.
  • Earthbound Greater Linewalker is one to Rex Goodwin. It physically resembles his muscular appearance as a Dark Signer, with a golden left hand to represent the fact that Rex grafted his brother Rudger's hand onto himself to gain the powers of a Signer. Furthermore, the card's name alludes to Rex's manga incarnation, who had the title of "Duel Priest".
  • Earthbound Greater Linewalker's effect of making the opponent's LP become 3000 when an Earthbound Immortal is Normal Summoned is a reference to the anime effect of Rex's Earthbound Immortal, Wiraqocha Rasca, who could change the opponent's LP to 1 if the controller skipped their Battle Phase. Combining Greater Linewalker with a successfully executed Wiraqocha Rasca ATK boost effect (or just any other 3000 ATK Earthbound Immortal) allows one to replicate Rex's anime combo, where he used Wiraqocha Rasca's anime-exclusive effect to change Yusei's LP to 1, and then attack the latter directly through its effect on his next turn.
  • The Ultimate Earthbound Immortal features Wiraqocha Rasca in its card artwork, and its name is a reference to the fact that Wiraqocha Rasca was touted as the "strongest Earthbound Immortal" in the anime.
• No-Sell:
  • Earthbound Prisoner Ground Keeper renders all Earthbound monsters you control immune to destruction by battle or card effects while a card is in a Field Zone.
  • When activated and in the Field Zone, Earthbound Prison can target one opposing Effect Monster and negate its effects. Then if the former is destroyed by an opponent's card effect while you have an Earthbound monster on your field and/or in your GY, you can negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls until the end of the turn by halving your opponent's life points.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Ccapac Apu is the based on the Nazca Line of the giant. However, he is not particularly bigger than the other Immortals.
• Rainbow Motif: Each Earthbound Immortal is covered with marking that glow in a color of the rainbow. In the 5D's anime, this also extends to their respective Dark Signers, who wear robes bearing the same colors.
  • Red: Uru
  • Orange: Aslla piscu
  • Yellow: Cusillu
  • Green: Ccarayhua
  • Blue: Ccapac Apu
  • Indigo: Chacu Challhua
  • Violet: Wiraqocha Rasca
• Weak, but Skilled: Wiraqocha Rasca is the weakest of the Immortals in terms of ATK and DEF. Fortunately, its effect lets him increase its ATK by up to 3000, while also having a devastating hand-rip effect.

Egyptian Gods

Slifer, Ra, and Obelisk, the Egyptian God monsters.

The Egyptian Gods, also known as the Three Phantom Gods (Japanese: 三幻神, Sangenshin) in Japanese, are the trio of DIVINE attribute and Divine-Beast type monsters: The Winged Dragon of Ra, Obelisk the Tormentor, and Slifer the Sky Dragon (Osiris in OCG). They were important story cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga, and are considered the most powerful cards in that universe.

In the actual card game, the first Egyptian God cards released were Illegal (i.e. unusable in legal games) collector cards with unique card designs and flavor text in place of card effects. Around 2009-2012, legal Effect Monster versions of the three were gradually released in the OCG, followed by the TCG. Compared to the anime and manga, the legal versions' have greatly weakened effects. Support cards were gradually released in the years since, including the cards representing the alternate forms of Ra.

Holactie the Creator of Light, the ultimate form of the Egyptian Gods formed from the combination of the three, was released as a part of the Duel Art Campaign in 2011, and only 10,000 cards were released. It is DIVINE attribute and Creator God type, and has a Duel Winner effect that immediately wins its owner the Duel when it is Special Summoned, which requires tributing all three Egyptian Gods.

For information on their role in the anime, see Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime And Manga Cards.

---

• Adaptational Badass: Immortal Phoenix has a base ATK/DEF stat of 4000/4000, compared to how Ra as God Phoenix appeared in the anime/manga which had 0 ATK/DEF from Yami Marik's strategy of reviving it, albeit it has battle immunity with damage reduced to 0.
• Adaptational Wimp: Their anime and manga counterparts are Purposefully Overpowered Physical Gods, and stated to be the strongest cards in the game. For the sake of game balance, their OCG incarnations were significantly weakened.
• Anti-Magic: If Fist of Fate was activated during the controller's Main Phase, it can destroy all Spell and Trap Cards the opponent controls.
• Assist Character:
  • When Ra's Disciple is Summoned, it Special Summons two more copies of itself from the hand or Deck, instantly allowing for the Tribute Summon of an Egyptian God.
  • Reactor Slime's effects also setup the summon of an Egyptian God, either by using the Slime Tokens for their tribute summon, or using the Metal Reflect Slime you grabbed to summon Egyptian God Slime and tribute it.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The player who manages to Tribute Sphere Mode and Special Summon Ra with its effect can be said to have accomplished this, as they managed to awaken Ra from its stasis and gained the use of a monster with a hard hitting 4000 ATK.
• Born-Again Immortality: Immortal Phoenix's effect evokes this trope, as it sends itself to the Graveyard during the End Phase and Special Summons a Sphere Mode in its place, which can be thought of as an egg for Ra.
• Breath Weapon:
  • Ra's God Blaze Cannon. It charges a fireball inside its ring that transfers it to its head and then fires a golden fire blast.
  • Slifer's Thunder Force is a long yellow thunder beam fired from the first mouth. The Summon Lightning Bolt ("Shou Raidan"), fired from the second mouth, is a blue lightning ball that weakens the enemy monster.
• Came Back Strong: If Ra is sent to the Graveyard and the controller also has Immortal Phoenix in the Graveyard, they can Special Summon the latter. Given that Ra's Phoenix Mode was regarded as a Super Mode in the anime and manga, from a thematic standpoint, it is evocative of this trope.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Ra's manga effects (and as such, its OCG support cards) include an option to tribute all the other monsters you control to add their attack power to Ra.
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • Both of Ra's effects rely on its controller paying LP to work. Its first effect lets the controller pay LP until they have 100 left, then Ra gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount paid. Its second effect targets and destroys a monster on the field by paying 1000 LP.
  • Immortal Phoenix possesses an augmented version of Ra's second effect, where the controller can pay 1000 LP to send a monster on the field to the Graveyard, without targeting or destroying it.
  • Sun God Unification allows the controller to do the same thing as Ra's first effect. The difference is that the controller can use this effect with a Special Summoned Ra at any point during a Main Phase, rather than when Ra is Normal Summoned, as was the case with its first effect.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Slifer is red, Obelisk is blue, and Ra is gold or yellow. This extends to their illegal printed cards, which are colored like the monsters they depict.
• Composite Character: On Ra's card game incarnation, its effect to pay 1000 LP to target and destroy a monster is actually possessed by its Phoenix Mode in the anime and manga, likely because the designers wanted the base Ra to represent the whole Ra package from the anime/manga rather than just its base form. When Immortal Phoenix was released in the card game years after the release of the base Ra, it was given an augmented version of this effect, which sends monsters to the Graveyard without targeting or destroying them.
• Decomposite Character: In the anime and manga, The Winged Dragon of Ra was a singular card, with its Sphere and Phoenix Modes being alternate forms that it could shift into under certain circumstances. In the OCG, the three forms of Ra were split into three separate cards. Additionally, some of base Ra's effects that were cut from the game card were reintroduced by later support cards, including Ancient Chant, Blaze Cannon, Dark Spell Regeneration, Millennium Revelation, and Sun God Unification, with each giving back some of these effects to Ra, splitting Ra into even more cards.
• Draw Aggro: Egyptian God Slime prevents the opponent from targeting the controller's monsters with attacks or card effects, except copies of Egyptian God Slime.
• Dub Name Change: The series as a whole went from being called the "Three Phantom Gods" in Japanese to the "Egyptian God Cards" in the TCG languages. The individual members themselves also underwent name changes in translation.
  • Winged Divine Dragon of Ra —> The Winged Dragon of Ra.
  • Giant God Soldier of Obelisk —> Obelisk the Tormentor.
  • Celestial Dragon of Osiris —> Slifer the Sky Dragon.
  • Horakhty, the Creator God of Light —> Holactie the Creator of Light
• Equivalent Exchange: Two of Ra's effects require giving up a certain amount of resources to transfer them into equivalent amounts of ATK and DEF to Ra (monsters and Life Points, respectively).
• Evil Knockoff: Egyptian God Slime is one to Obelisk, to whom it visually resembles. This is appropriate, as it was created by Yami Marik to replicate some of Obelisk's power.
• Fusion Dance:
  • When utilizing Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer effect in the anime and manga, the controller is shown to physically merge with Ra. This is directly referenced by the name of Sun God Unification, which simulates said effect.
  • Holactie is the combined form of the three Egyptian Gods. While they fuse to become her in the anime and manga, she is instead an Effect Monster in the OCG that can be Special Summoned from the hand by Tributing the three Egyptian Gods.
• Glass Cannon: Ra is an interesting example in that instead of being one, he makes you this. Paying all but 100 of your Life Points for Ra will grant you a massive beatstick that can possibly end the game in one turn, but any form of burn damage or direct attacker, no matter how small, will be able to defeat you on the spot.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: Ra is a golden-colored monster, and in the anime and manga, is regarded as the strongest Egyptian God monster, if not the strongest monster in the game. Pertinent to this, it occupies a higher hierachical position than Slifer and Obelisk. The combined form of thre Egyptian Gods, Holactie, is also gold-colored and shrouded in a golden aura.
• Hour of Power: None of them have any permanent field presence if Special Summoned (except Ra summoned by Sphere Mode), and their support cards keep up with this by allowing them to gain effects that only last until the End Phase.
• HP to One: In the anime and manga, Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer effect required the controller to pay LP until they had only 1 LP left, with Ra gaining ATK and DEF equal to the amount paid. The effects in the OCG that stimulate this, Ra's first effect and the first effect of Sun God Unification, changed the amount of LP remaining to 100 instead. However, given that LP are usually handled in increments of 100, and that it would be very rare for a player's LP to go below 100 without hitting 0, this trope is still functionally in effect.
• Instant-Win Condition: If a player Special Summons Holactie, they automatically win the Duel.
• The Magic Poker Equation: The True Name is intended to evoke this trope, as upon activation, the controller declares a card name and excavates the top card of their Deck, and if they are correct, that card is added to their hand and they can then add to their hand or Special Summon a DIVINE monster from their Deck. If, however, they declared wrongly, the excavated card is sent to their Graveyard.
• Mechanical Monster: Ra resembles a machine-looking bird dragon.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Sphere Mode is the first (and to date, only) monster that can be Normal Summoned to the opponent's field. It and Holactie are the only monsters with ? ATK or DEF without an effect to determine that stat.
• Megaton Punch: Obelisk's Signature Move, Fist of Fate, consists of it punching the attack target with incredible force.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Ra, when originally released, was heavily weakened compared to the original anime and manga, with many of its effects cut, and the effect it had was given much more restrictions. Later support cards attempted to rectify this, with each one approximating at least some aspects of its anime and manga effects. This was even used as a selling point by Konami in promoting Legendary Duelists: Rage of Ra, the TCG pack where most of this support was released. These run the gamut from Sphere Mode referencing Yami Marik and Mai's duel, to referencing Yami Marik's most prominent strategy in the manga/anime, which was sending Ra to the graveyard, then using Monster Reborn to revive it, then use its Point-to-Point Transfer effect, and/or tribute the rest of his monsters to increase Ra's attack to colossal values, along with Instant Attack effect to attack all the opponent's monsters and then the opponent directly, bypassing any effects and conditions (the combo of these two abilities being called "One Turn Kill" in the manga), or revive it as God Phoenix to shield himself from any attacks and effects with its immortality, and destroy one monster the opponent controls no matter whose turn it is. Ancient Chant completes Ra's collection of original effects by allowing it to gain the power of the tributes used for its Summon.
  • Reactor Slime visually resembles a combination of Metal Reflect Slime, Jam Breeding Machine, and Humanoid Slime. Metal Reflect Slime was used by Yami Marik, while the latter two cards were used by Strings while under Marik's control. Its effect supports both the Slime Tokens and Metal Reflect Slime.
  • Guardian Slime visually resembles Humanoid Slime taking the form of Set, the Egyptian god. In Egyptian mythology, Set served as one of the protectors of Ra during his nightly journey through the underworld, which explains both why Guardian Slime is a member of the Guardian archetype and its effects.
  • Juragedo [that was a Normal Monster in the manga/anime] became an Effect Monster in the TCG, whose effects are mostly derived from the small interaction the card had with Ra in the manga - namely supporting the One Turn Kill combo.
  • Fist of Fate has a first effect that negates the effects of an opponent's Effect Monster, destroy it, and disables said effects of any monsters with the same original name, referencing Yami Yugi Tributing Yami Marik's Egyptian God Slime for Obelisk's effect, by targeting Egyptian God Slime with the anime and manga version of Soul Taker's effect.
  • Soul Crossing allows the player to Tribute Summon a Divine-Beast monster by Tributing opponent's monsters, referencing Kaiba using the anime and manga version of Soul Exchange to Summon Obelisk by Tributing the opponent's monsters, most notably (seen in the card's artwork) Ishizu Ishtar's Agido, Kelbek, and Zolga in their duel.
  • Magical Trick Mirror has a second effect to send 1 Monster Reborn to the Graveyard to Special Summon Obelisk in Defense, and forcing all monsters your opponent controls to attack it, referencing Kaiba using this card to activate Yami Yugi's Monster Reborn from his Graveyard to Special Summon Obelisk, and redirect Dark Magician's attack to it.
• Named After Someone Famous: Slifer's dub name is derived from Roger Slifer, who co-produced the English dub of the first season of the original anime series for 4Kids Entertainment.
• No-Sell:
  • Immortal Phoenix is completely unaffected by the effects of other cards.
  • Blaze Cannon grants Ra the effect of being unaffected by the opponent's card effects until the end of the turn in which it is activated.
  • Mound of the Bound Creator prevents Level 10 or higher monsters (which the Egyptian God monsters all are) on the field from being targeted or destroyed by card effects.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Their original illegal printed cards contain several differences from both legal cards and other illegal cards. Their card frames are colored differently from other cards, with each having the same color as the monster it depicts, and these colors are not shared with any other monster cards (meaning that Obelisk's blue frame is different from the Ritual/Link Monster blue, and Ra's yellow isn't the Normal Monster yellow). Their card backings are colored in the same colors as their card frames and lack the Konami logo in the top left corner and the game's logo in the bottom right corner. These cards are also the only cards to have flavor text that is not italicized. Finally, Slifer and Ra are the only cards with undetermined ATK and DEF whose stats are written in a nonstandard manner. Slifer's stats are written as "X000", while Ra's are written as "????", though this is changed to the standard "?" in later printings.
• Odd Name Out:
  • As Slifer was the only Egyptian God to undergo a significant Dub Name Change, it is the only one to have a name with an English basis in the TCG languages, instead of Egyptian or Greek.
  • Obelisk is the only Egyptian God whose name in the OCG was not derived from an Egyptian deity.
• Olympus Mons: They are the only monsters of the DIVINE Attribute. Furthermore, the Egyptian Gods are the only monsters of the Divine-Beast-Type, while Holactie has her own exclusive Type, Creator God. As they are in-story Physical Gods, this likely alludes to their intended story role as the most powerful cards in the game.
• One-Hit Kill: Ra's anime and manga counterpart possessed effects that enabled the controller to Tribute monsters and pay their LP to it, enabling Ra to gain ATK equal to the ATK of the Tributed monsters and the amount of LP paid, ostensibly so that the controller can raise its ATK to massive quantities to OTK the opponent. While Ra lost most of these effects when printed in the OCG as a playable card, several support cards that it later received in the OCG restore this functionality to it. Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer effect even alludes to the fact that the controller is supposed to use it for this trope, as its name in the original Japanese language anime and manga is "One Turn Kill".
• One-Hit Polykill: Blaze Cannon gives Ra the ability to deal one of these, as if it attacks, all monsters the opponent controls are sent to the Graveyard after damage calculation.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Ra is a golden mechanical-like bird dragon who can turn itself into a phoenix. Slifer is a red snake-like dragon with giant wings and two mouths that breathe thunder and lightning. Both of them are neither Dragon-Types nor Wyrm-Types.
• Oxymoronic Being: Ra possesses two effects which are at odds with each other. When it is Normal Summoned, its first effect allows its controller to pay LP until they have 100 left, then Ra gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount paid. Its second effect allows its controller to pay 1000 LP to target and destroy a monster. If its controller uses the first effect, they won't have enough LP to use the second; if they forgo the first effect to use the second effect, then Ra will be left with 0 ATK and DEF, and thus be unable to damage the opponent after their field is cleared.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • If Thunderforce Attack is activated while the controller controls Slifer, it destroys as many face-up monsters the opponent controls as possible.
  • If Obelisk's controller Tributes two monsters as a cost, they can use its effect to destroy all monsters the opponent controls. However, Obelisk cannot attack during the turn that effect is used.
  • If Ra affected by Blaze Cannon attacks, the controller can send all monsters the opponent controls to the Graveyard after damage calculation.
• The Phoenix: Ra's Phoenix Mode, also known as the Immortal Phoenix. Its OCG incarnation even evokes the phoenix in a literal sense, as it sends itself to the Graveyard during the End Phase and Special Summons Sphere Mode in its place.
• Playing with Fire: Ra uses divine fire on its attacks.
• Power Nullifier: The effect of Fist of Fate negates the effect of an opposing Effect Monster, and then destroys it. This effect negation lasts for the rest of the turn. In addition, Fist of Fate also negates the effects (both activated effects and those that do not activate) of any monster on the field with the same original name as the destroyed monster.
• Power of the Sun: Just like its mythological basis, Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun, The Winged Dragon of Ra is described as a solar deity. One of its support cards is even named "Sun God Unification".
• Power Trio: There are three of them, and as in-story Physical Gods, this is a given.
• Promoted to Playable: The original printed Egyptian God cards were non-legal cards, released as promotional collector's items. Thus, they were colored very differently from any legal card, lacked written effects and instead simply had flavor text. They also had text stating that they could not be used in a Duel. As such, they only saw play in the most casual of games, where their inclusion in a deck was agreed upon by both players. Years after the original illegal cards were released, the Egyptian Gods later received playable legal cards, albeit with effects that were Nerfed from their anime and manga incarnations.
• Purposely Overpowered: The original printed incarnations of the Egyptian God cards don't even have any written effects, and were immediately deemed illegal to use in a Duel, implying that their effects were so numerous and powerful that the designers choose not to even hint at them.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Holactie has ? ATK and DEF, and unusually for a monster with such stats, she has no effect that can be used to determine them. Given that she automatically wins the controller the Duel when Special Summoned, such an effect is not necessary. It can be implied that the designers intended to evoke this trope, by suggesting that Holactie's power is literally infinite.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ra and Obelisk have red eyes. Slifer's yellow eyes also glow red.
• Required Secondary Powers: Because Ra cannot be Special Summoned, any support card for it that wants to enable this must contain text that explicitly ignores its Summoning conditions in order to allow for it to be Special Summoned, such as Sphere Mode, Millennium Revelation, and Dark Spell Regeneration. This is rather egregious in that Special Summoning Ra is the only way in which the controller can use Sun God Unification's first effect on it.
• Robbing the Dead: Dark Spell Regeneration can only be activated on the field when an opposing monster declares an attack, and allows the controller to take a Spell Card from the opponent's Graveyard and Set it to their field.
• Rule of Three: There are three Egyptian God monsters, and each one requires three Tributes to be Tribute Summoned. Ra additionally also has three forms that it can cycle through in the anime and manga, which were all made into separate physical cards. In the manga, Ra also possessed three groups of unique effects that were gradually revealed over the course of the plot.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Ra can be said to be this while in its Sphere Mode, as it is a Physical God sealed up in a giant, immobile levitating sphere. Once Ra is unsealed, however, by Tributing Sphere Mode to Special Summon it, it hits the field with 4000 ATK.
• Shock and Awe: Slifer breathes thunder and lightning.
• Signature Move: Each of the Egyptian God monsters have named attacks in the anime and manga, and each attack has a card named for it, designed to be used with the respective Egyptian God.
  • Slifer: Thunderforce Attack
  • Obelisk: Fist of Fate
  • Ra: Blaze Cannon
• Single Specimen Species: Holactie is the only monster of the Creator God-Type.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Winged Dragon of Ra, and The Creator God of Light, Horakhty.
• Stationary Boss: Sphere Mode cannot attack, nor can it be targeted for attacks. Due to this, if it is the only monster on the controller's field, the opponent cannot declare an attack at all. Justified, as it is the inert sealed form of Ra, and in the anime and manga, was functionally useless to either player until one of them manages to unseal it.
• Status Buff:
  • Slifer gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in its controller's hand.
  • If Ra is Normal Summoned, its controller can pay LP until they have 100 left, then Ra gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount of LP paid.
  • Sphere Mode changes the ATK and DEF of a copy of Ra Special Summoned through its effect to 4000.
  • Blaze Cannon grants Ra three effects that last until the end of the turn. First, Ra becomes unaffected by the opponent's card effects. Second, when an attack is declared involving Ra, the controller can Tribute any number of their monsters that did not declare an attack that turn, and let Ra gain ATK equal to the Tributed monsters' combined original ATK until the end of the turn. Third, if Ra attacked, the controller can send all monsters the opponent controls to the Graveyard after damage calculation.
  • Divine Evolution increases the ATK and DEF of a monster whose original Type is Divine-Beast by 1000, provided that said monster did not previously have the effect of Divine Evolution applied to it.
• Status Effects: If a monster is Normal or Special Summoned to the opponent's field in Attack Position while Slifer is on the field, Slifer's effect causes the Summoned monster to lose 2000 ATK, and if the Summoned monster's ATK is reduced to 0 this way, it is destroyed.
• Stone Wall:
  • Sphere Mode is a functional version of this, as it cannot be targeted for attacks or effects. If it's the only monster on its controller's field, that means that the opponent cannot attack at all.
  • Egyptian God Slime cannot be destroyed by battle, and while it is on the field, the opponent cannot target its controller's other monsters for attacks.
• Super Mode: Immortal Phoenix is ostensibly meant to be this to Ra's standard card. It can only be Special Summoned from the Graveyard when Ra is sent from the field to the Graveyard, indicating that Ra Came Back Strong by transforming into its Phoenix Mode.
• Winged Humanoid: Obelisk has wings like the other two Egyptian gods, but unlike them, he has a humanoid form. Holactie resembles a woman with wings.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Slifer's first mouth fires the yellow Thunder Force. The second mouth fires the blue Summon Lightning Bolt.

Eldlich / Eldlixir / Golden Land

All that glitters is not gold...

Eldlich is an archetype consisting of a single main deck Level 10 LIGHT Zombie monster, Eldlich the Golden Lord. Eldlich is supported by the Eldlixir and Golden Land archetypes of Spell and Trap cards, who also support each other. Their individual effects are:

• Eldlich: Eldlich has a hand effect and a GY effect that when combined lets it Special Summon itself and pop a card at the cost of two Spells/Traps.
• Eldlixir: They can Special Summon any Zombie from the hand, Deck, and/or GY, but they can only summon Eldlich if there isn't already an Eldlich on their field. They can banish themselves from the GY to set Golden Land cards from the Deck.
• Golden Land: They are primarily Trap Monsters that provide disruption if Eldlich is on board. They can banish themselves from the GY to set Eldlixir cards from the Deck.
  
  

The archetype's main playstyle thus involves summoning Eldlich with its own effect or with Eldlixirs, disrupting the opponent with Golden Land, and banishing Eldlixirs and Golden Lands from the GY to set more Eldlixirs and Golden Lands. Eldlich also has a fusion form, Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord, which the archetype has access to through Seven Cities of the Golden Land.

Eldlich's lore takes cues from several golden myths and legends, including El Dorado, the Magnum opus of alchemy, and Midas touch. Eldlich is the product of a large alchemical ritual to create the philosopher's stone that went horribly wrong. The stone transmuted everything around it into gold and turned humans around it into golden zombies, and grew a body around itself to become Eldlich. Ambitious individuals seeking to claim the gold of Eldlich's Golden Land would also find themselves decimated by Eldlich's powers and transmuted into golden zombies.

---

• Alchemy Is Magic: Alchemy is a major theme of the archetype, via the "Eldlixir" cards named for the Grand Elixir/Elixir of Life. The individual Eldlixir cards are named for the colors in the Magnum Opus of Alchemy. Following the theme of searching for gold, the Eldlixirs depict alchemists attempting to create the Philosopher's Stone, to make gold. This ends up creating golden zombies out of the researchers and surrounding fauna.
• Bilingual Bonus: Quite a bit for Spanish speakers.
  • El Dorado Adelantado = The Golden Advanced. Noteworthy is the usage of "adelantado," a former title for Spanish nobles in the 16th century.
  • El Rey Conquista Eldlich = The Conquest King Eldlich.
• Bling of War: It'd be harder to say what part of Eldlich isn't covered in gold and jewels. The Golden Land Trap Monsters are noticeably blinged-out as well, as is the Cursed Eldland itself.
• City of Gold: Cursed Eldland truly is just a city made entirely of gold and treasure, in keeping with the El Dorado theme.
• Combat Stilettos: Eldlich's full art shows off he has a wicked pair of high heels.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Eldlich's effect is able to return it to the hand if it's in the Graveyard by sending a friendly Spell or Trap to the Graveyard, and then to Special Summon any Zombie from the hand (which, invariably, will end up being itself). That Summoned monster then gains 1000 ATK/DEF and can't be destroyed by card effects until the end of the opponent's next turn.
• Demon of Human Origin: According to Eldlich's card lore, after the stone cursed the whole city with gold, many other travellers sought out the stone before becoming golden zombies themselves, until one particular man managed to resist losing his mind.
  "The stone that had led countless travelers to their doom ultimately found itself in the hands of one inhumanly strong-willed man. And so, Eldlich the Golden Lord, a being unparalleled in his greed, and immortal ruler of the Golden Land, was born."
• Fusion Dance: Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord is Summoned by Fusing Eldlich the Golden Lord with a Level 5 or higher Zombie. This is depicted as "Eldlich" using one of its "Golden Land" vassals (which are all Level 5 or higher) as a power booster.
• Gold Fever: Less that it drives you insane, moreso that it zombifies you.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: A dark take on this, as the surrounding land and the victims of Eldlich's artifact start getting covered in patches of gold.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Eldlixir cards seem to depict an attempt to create a Philosopher's Stone, to create gold. In "Eldlixir of Black Awakening", a black stone has been created. However, the process runs out of control when the stone turns white in "Eldlixir of White Destiny". "Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine" shows the researchers transforming into golden zombies, while the now-red stone continues to spread its power. They've made gold, but at the cost of their lives and sanity.
• Humanoid Abomination: As the name would imply, Eldlich is something much more than meets the eye, a powerful lich whose artifact is capable of turning anything both living and non-living into gold, and those affected are transformed into zombies. New support reveals that Eldlich's gilded body is an exoskeleton restraining him from turning into a much more monstrous version of himself.
• Hulking Out: Though Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord is a Fusion between Eldlich himself and any Level 5 or higher Zombie, it's visually a much more massive and imposing Eldlich, with his stats swapped and boosted by 1000 each. He's even treated as the original Eldlich while in the Monster Zone. The artwork for Seven Realms of the Golden Land imply this further, energy flowing from his eyes and the artifact as his mouth starts to reveal what's actually beneath.
• Human Sacrifice: The key ingredient to the Philosopher's Stone that gives Eldlich his power is human life. The researchers who first made the stone tried using animals at first, but the Stone remained inert. They tried to hold off on using humans, but then a corpse washed ashore and from there, they went Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and started sacrificing humans en-masse to complete the Stone.
• In the Hood: Eldlich has a purple hood that can be mistaken for a cape. It serves more like a massive mane for Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord.
• Light Is Not Good: Eldlich, along with the Golden Land Trap monsters, are all LIGHT monsters, Eldlich himself being related to a curse of sorts that turns things into gold.
• Lovecraft Lite: It's not shown to be quite like other much more abstract archetypes like, say, Entities or even Worms (despite the name), but Eldlich is still an unholy force capable of doing terrifying things to those who try to seek it or the Golden Land out.
• Meaningful Name: A cross between "eldritch" (Eldlitch's status as something much more unnatural than expected) and "lich" (the archetype's real monster line-up are zombies who had stumbled upon the Cursed Eldland that Eldlitch rules over).
• Midas Touch: Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine shows that the artifact on Eldlich's chest is the source of the gold that spreads across the land and turns people into gold covered zombies.
• Orcus on His Throne: While certainly not in a gameplay sense, Eldlich seems to be content sitting at home and letting his zombies or his artifact do all the work for him.
• Our Liches Are Different: Eldlich is a powerful undead lich made out of pure gold, that can transform anything into gold and transform living beings into undead golden zombies.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The Eldlich and Golden Land Trap monsters were made undead due to a curse which turns parts of their body into gold. They are also unique within Yu-Gi-Oh! for being LIGHT Zombies, an incredibly rare combination of Attribute and Type (for reference, when Eldlich the Golden Lord was released in 2020, it was only the fifth LIGHT Zombie in the game).
• Philosopher's Stone: The stone in Eldlich's chest may well be a philosopher's stone. The Eldlixir cards appear to depict its creation, going through the steps of the Magnum Opus of alchemy. It seems to give Eldlich the power to transform anything around him into gold, as well as grant him a form of immortality.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Golden Lord has quite good effects and pretty high stats.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Rather, Eldlich is the only one who does something, as there are no other true monsters, and the Trap Monsters are zombies under his control.
• Schmuck Bait: The Cursed Eldland invokes this trope by being covered in gold in order to lure in new sacrifices for the Philosopher's Stone.
• Shown Their Work: While most people are familiar with the legend of El Dorado as a golden city, and would thus associate it with Cursed Eldland, Eldlich himself may be a callback to the original meaning of the legend, a man covered in gold.
• Slouch of Villainy: Golden Land Forever! shows Eldlich lounging in his massive throne. Eldlich's alternate art from Maximum Gold: El Dorado gives a good full-body shot depicting him lounging this way.

Elemental Lord / Elementsaber

Banlists are more of a suggestion.

The Elemental Lords, known as Spirit Gods (霊神 Reishin) in the OCG are Level 8 monsters with 2800 ATK and 2200 DEF that are Summoned when exactly 5 monsters of their Attribute are gathered in the Graveyard. They force you to skip your next Battle Phase if they leave the field, but when Summoned, their effects replicate some of the most powerful Forbidden cards in the game's history.

The Elemental Lords later received support in the form of the Elementsabers, an archetype of Warrior monsters with the ability to change Attributes while in the Graveyard, allowing the Elemental Lords to be Summoned more easily.

---

• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Their Field Spell, Temple of the Elemental Lords, grants your monsters 200 ATK/DEF for each monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard.
  • Elementsaber Lapauila Mana can be Summoned by sending 2 monsters with different Attributes from your hand to the Graveyard, and grants blanket effects to the Elemental Lords and Elementsabers on your field, depending on the original Attributes of any Elementsabers sent to activate that effect.
• Bilingual Bonus: The names of each Elemental Lord came from their corresponding element in various languages. See also Theme Naming below.
  • Notable exception to this is Moulinglacia in Mermails. This is mainly since the deck can easily fill up their Graveyard with WATERS monsters and manipulate it with cards like Salvage (and formerly Tidal). Also, it is searchable with Atlantean Dragoons (which can be utilized from the Deck with Genex Undine/Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince).
• Dub Name Change: Reishin/Spirit God -> Elemental Lord; Forceaurage -> Phosphorage; Willard -> Lapauila Mana.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Grandsoil, the first Elemental Lord to be released, did not possess a hard once per turn clause on its unique effect that became characteristic for the rest of the Elemental Lords. As a result, it wound up being used in degenerate loops designed to spam said effect repeatedly and rapidly amass advantage. It later received an errata that slapped such a clause on the effect and brought it in line with the other Elemental Lords.
• Elemental Embodiment:
  • It appears that the Elemental Lords are going to represent the elements in the same way as the Monarchs being the same in almost every way except for Attribute, summoning requirements, and the effect that activates upon summoning.
  • The Elementsabers can be seen as this, too, as each one's armor bears resemblance to that of their respective Elemental Lord.
• Theme Naming:
  • Each Lord is named in a different language with their respective element: "Grandsoil" (Earth) and "Windrose" (Wind) in English (this one could be German too), "Moulinglacia" (Ice) and "Phosphorage" (Orage = Thunderstorm) in French, and "Pyrorex" (Fire) in Latin.
  • The Elementsabers are all named after a Hawaiian word that pertains to their respective Attribute: "Molehu" (twilight), "Lapauila" (lightning), "Malo'o" (dried), "Nalu" (wave), "Makani" (wind), and "Aina" (land).
• Took a Level in Badass: Based on Elemental Training's artwork and TCG name, Lapauila Mana appears to be an upgraded form of Lapauila.
• Uniformity Exception: Umbramirage is the only Elemental Lord whose unique effect seems to be based on a (previously) banned monster card instead of a Spell or Trap; in this case, it's Sangan (or rather its pre-erratum version).

Empowered Warrior / Aether / Summoner

Aether, the Empowering dragon.

The Warrior Empowered Warriors are an archetype of Warrior-Type monsters related to the Summoners series of Spellcaster-Type monster. Their effects are varied, ranging from normal monster support to summoning other monsters to the field, or destroying cards. Their ace cards are the Aether group of Dragon-Type monsters.

---

• Anti-Magic: Hydrotortoise's effect destroys a Spell or Trap Card on the field when flipped face-up.
• Dark Is Evil: Aether, the Wicked Empowering Dragon has black scales in contrast to his previous gold coloration.
• The Four Gods: The first four Empowered Warriors are based on the four gods, with Aether representing the Yellow Dragon.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: Aether is the most powerful card in the series in terms of ATK and is gold-colored. However, its wicked form, who has the same ATK, is more useful.

Entity

In their house at your extra deck, The Entities wait dreaming

The Entity series are cards based on the Cthulhu Mythos. There are six monsters, two each Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz, and a couple of support Spells for them. They have effects that rely on synergy between the three card types. The Elder Entities are Fusion Monsters, the Old Entities are Synchro Monsters, and the Outer Entities are Xyz Monsters. The ace card of the archetype is Outer Entity Azathot, who can obliterate the opponent's field under the right circumstances.

---

• All Your Powers Combined: Azathot requires one of each monster type (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz) as its Xyz materials to activate its effect, and the way the series works it's meant that you use the other members of the archetype to pull that off.
• Anti-Magic: When Azathot hits the field, your opponent can't activate monster effects for the rest of the turn.
• Artifact of Doom: The Unspeakable Trapezohedron, based on the Shining Trapezohedron.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: When Hastorr is sent to the Graveyard as a monster, it equips itself to an opponent's monster, negating its effects and stopping it from attacking. Get rid of it as an equip card and it gives control of that monster to you.
• Eldritch Abomination: Duh, they're blatantly based on the works of HP Lovecraft. Their card artworks are some of the most bizarre and unsettling in the game. Special mention to, appropriately enough, Azathot, who is just a roiling mass of darkness with mouths and arms emerging.
• Eldritch Location: Their Dreamland Field Spell.
• Glass Cannon: Azathot can destroy all cards on the opponent's field if summoned as intended, but it can only do it once under normal circumstances, and 2400 ATK is not hard to run over. It's going to hit hard when it hits, but after that it's likely not going to last long.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Elder Entities N'tss and Norden are human in appearance, but given the theme of the archetype, it's a safe bet that their true nature is far different.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: While their significance isn't as prominent once ARC-V hit and other archetypes began doing the same, the Entities were one of the first archetypes to combine Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz. This leads to some very bizarre effects individually that synergize quite well when the cards are put together. Though, given it's a Cthulhu mythos archetype, having cards with unusual effects is very fitting.
  • Elder Entity Norden is a Fusion of any 2 Xyz or Synchro monsters. Elder Entity N'tss meanwhile isn't summoned by a Fusion cards, but by sending its Fusion Materials on the field to the Graveyard; its Fusion Materials are the same as Norden's.
  • Old Entity Cthugha can return all Rank 4 Xyzs on the field to the Extra Deck when summoned, and if used as a Fusion or Xyz Material, the controller can draw a card. Old Entity Hastorr equips itself to an opponent's monster when sent to the Graveyard, negating its effects and not letting it attack, then if it leaves the field while equipped, the equipped monster changes control to you.
  • Outer Entity Nyarla lets you discard cards to change its Rank, and you can detach all its Xyz Materials to attach another monster in your Graveyard to it as an Xyz Material, then Nyarla's Type and Attribute become the Type and Attribute of the chosen monster. The ace of the series, Outer Entity Azathot, can only uses its most potent effect if it has one of each card type (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz) as its Xyz Materials.
• Omnicidal Maniac: If you manage to get Azathot out using a Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz as its three Xyz Materials, it can destroy the opponent's field by detaching an Xyz Material.
• Stone Wall: Nyarla has a whopping 2600 DEF, but 0 ATK.

Evil Eye

The Evil Eye of Selene, the focus of the archetype.

Evil Eye, or simply Cursed Eye (Jugan) in the OCG, is an archetype of Fiend monsters that revolve around the Equip Spell Evil Eye of Selene and its various support cards.

Mechanically, the Evil Eye monsters with human forms all gain disruptive Quick effects if equipped with "Evil Eye of Selene", which also grants strenghtened effects to the Spells and Traps in the archetype. The familiars setup the Link summon of their boss monsters.

---

• Cast from Hit Points: The tradeoff for Evil Eye of Selene; each time you activate the effect of the monster it's equipped to, or another Evil Eye Spell or Trap, it buffs the monster by 500 ATK, but it also drains an equal amount of LP. Furthermore, by paying 1000 LP and banishing a fellow Spell/Trap, you can set this card from your Graveyard to your field.
• Critical Status Buff: The counterpart of Selene, Gorgoneio, buffs its equipped monster's ATK by the difference in LP between you and your opponent if yours is lower. The costs for Selene's effects can thus help set this up for some potentially massive boosts in strength.
• Familiar: The Retainers, Bajilius and Catoblepas, serve as these to Medusa and Serziel, respectively.
• Flawed Prototype: Evil Eye of Selene seems to be one to Evil Eye of Gorgoneio, as the latter has no negative effects and also counts as Evil Eye of Selene for the purposes of the equipped monsters and backrow. However, it can also count as a Super Prototype, given that the Eye of Selene grants much stronger protection effects despite the heavy costs.
• Foil: Serziel and Medusa are rivals to each other, and the contrast between them is very blatant: their ATK/DEF are the inverse of each other, Serziel searches other "Evil Eye" cards from the Deck—unlike Medusa who returns them from the Graveyard—and they're also each other's Spear Counterpart to boot.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Serziel is somewhat androgynous.
• Glass Cannon: Their central card is Evil Eye of Selene which, as mentioned above, can drain a lot of LP very quickly.
• Magical Eye: Natch.
• No-Sell:
  • Any Evil Eye monster equipped with Evil Eye of Selene can't be destroyed by battle or card effects, and the opponent can't target it with card effects either.
  • Catoblepas can prevent a single instance of an Evil Eye Spell or Trap from being destroyed by an opponent's card effect.
• One-Winged Angel: The influence of the Evil Eyes turns Serziel and Medusa into their Link Monster forms, Zerrziel and Gorgone.
• Power at a Price: In addition to requiring LP payment to activate the Evil Eye-equipped monsters, they will force you to pay for its usage with a mandatory negative effect on the Standby Phase.
• Status Buff: By activating Evil Eye card effects while you have an Evil Eye equipped with Evil Eye of Selene, that equipped monster can gain 500 ATK a pop. Gorgone's effect also grants it 100 ATK for each different Evil Eye card in your Graveyard.

Evil★Twin / Live☆Twin

Sweet on the outside...

...bitter on the inside.

The Evil★Twins are a duo of monsters introduced in the Deck Build Pack: Genesis Impactors. Mechanically, the series consists of four named archetypes: Live☆Twins, Evil★Twins, Ki-sikil, and Lil-la. The Live☆Twins are Cyberse monsters with the appearance of super-deformed Virtual YouTubers, the comedic online personae of Ki-sikil and Lil-la. The Evil★Twins are Fiend monsters, and are Ki-sikil and Lil-la's real-life identities: phantom thieves stealing treasures at night. Their Spell/Trap supports depicts the activities of the Live☆Twins online or the Evil★Twins offline, with the former being Spells and the latter being Traps.

They seem to have a rival duo in the form of Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny. The smaller rival is Sunny, and her taller sidekick is Luna.

Gameplay-wise, Ki-sikil and Lil-la, in both their Live☆Twins and Evil★Twins forms, focus on summoning the other if they're not present on the field, and they use the summons to Link Summon the extra deck Evil★Twins link monsters with the main deck Live☆Twins monsters.

---

• All There in the Manual:
  • According to the concept artwork of Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny, the taller sidekick is named Luna and she acts as Sunny's chaperone.
  • Bonus artwork from CARD GAME ART WORKS implies that they are also part of the S-Force universe, with Ki-sikil and Lil-la meeting I:P Masquerena at a diner while Sunny and Luna chat with Rappa Chiyomaru in an adjacent booth behind them.
• Arc Symbol: The star in the archetype's name, something that hadn't been seen since the OCG only Magi Magi ☆ Magician Girl. Interestingly, it's empty looking for the Live☆Twins but filled out for the Evil★Twins.
• Battle Rapping: The art of Lil-la-Rap shows Live☆Twin Lil-la engaging in battle rap with the viewer while Luna's Live Twin counterpart Magicaluna is acting as DJ. According to Lil-la, she's doing this to increase her chances at getting her and Ki-sikill another gig.
• Bratty Half-Pint: In contrast to her adult-like virtual counterpart, Sunny comes off as a smug girl whose ego is much bigger than her height. Seeing as she leads the Sunny Gang/Team Sunny and humiliated the Evil★Twins, her ego may be warranted.
• The Cameo: Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness is on the thumbnail of a video for sake of a Clickbait Gag.
• Cast from Hit Points: Played with in Live☆Twin Lil-la's case; her effect makes it so that your opponent must pay 500 LP to declare an attack.
• Clickbait Gag: The thumbnail for one of their videos pokes fun at this by having the classic red circle and bright, pointing arrows to draw comparisons between Ki-sikil's pointy hair accessories to the tail of Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness.
• Connected All Along: As seen in a picture from the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game Art Works Book, Ki-sikill and Lil-la can be seen hanging out with I:P Masquerena, while Sunny and Luna can be seen hanging out with S:P Little Night/S-Force Rappa Chiyomaru.
• Cosplay: The Live☆Twins are dressed in Pikeru and Curran's clothes in the thumbnails for one of their videos. They're also more overtly cosplaying as Ghost Ogre & Ash Blossom in another video's thumbnail. According to the card lore, Ki-sikil is considered a weirdo by the other demons for wearing those gaudy outfits and Lil-la does the designs for those outfits.
• Classy Cat-Burglar / Phantom Thief: They're a blend of both. Ki-sikil & Lil-la are both attractive young women in Spy Catsuits who frequently perform heists on incredibly valuable artifacts completely undetected, and their channel doubles as a front for clients to request targets for them.
• Combat Medic: Live☆Twin Ki-sikil heals you for 500 LP each time your opponent declares an attack.
• Combination Attack: Whatever it is that allows the two together as Ki-sikil - Lil-la to send your opponent's entire field to the GY, minus two cards of their choosing.
• Dark Is Evil: Given Lil-la's a thief who uses a fake identity to cover her tracks.
• Fangs Are Evil: Ki-sikil's prone to flashing grins with attention being drawn to her canines. Her Live☆Twin counterpart outright has Scary Teeth, especially when she's mad.
• Girlish Pigtails: Live☆Twin Ki-sikil has these. They're actually still present as Evil★Twin Ki-sikil, but usually held back like a Tomboyish Ponytail.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Live☆Twin Lil-la's holding a plush of a shark with stumpy legs. According to the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game Art Works Book, Ki-sikil won it from a crane game for Lil-la. Lil-la loves this plushie so much, she even hugs it in her sleep.
• Home Base: Ki-sikil and Lilla have a secret base, which is fully described in the Yugioh Card Game Art Works book.
• Hime Cut: Evil★Twin Lil-la has these, though her Live☆Twin version's is a more unkempt variation.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Luna is described as a "superhumanly-perfect chaperone". In fact, Luna is so perfect that Sunny bases her online avatar on her.
• Jack Frost: Live☆Twin Ki-sikil Frost is based on Jack Frost and Christmas as there's presents in her artwork and she's dressed up like a snowman.
• Light Is Not Good: Ki-sikil is just as complicit in her crimes as Lil-la, and seems all too happy about it.
• Male Gaze: THE CHRONICLES reveals that the base form of Ki-sikil and Lil-la's thief outfits use Sensual Spandex. We are then given a brief Transformation Sequence where the camera hangs on Ki-sikil's hips as her skirt materializes.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Evil twin wireless networks are phony Wi-Fi access points that pretend to be legitimate as they secretly steal from unsuspecting users they lure in.
  • Additionally, together Ki-sikill and Lil-la are named Ki-sikil-Lil-la, a Sumerian variant of lilitu, which can mean "of the night" (the Evil★Twins carry out their crimes at night), on top of Lili being female demons (the Evil★Twins are Fiends).
• Meme Acknowledgement: The concept art designer for Lil-la Treat acknowledges the "Ecclesia is the type that eats lots of [meals]" meme. Ki-sikill learns about the origin of that design and she is annoyed that Lil-la would just casually bring up that reference to the Abyss storyline, which is apparently fictional in the Evil Twin world.
• Money Fetish: According to the card lore, Lil-la loves money a lot. Even her attempt at battle-rapping in the artwork of Lil-la-Rap is an attempt at getting better-paying gigs.
• Mythology Gag: Them being twins in pink & blue while also being Fiends brought to the minds of many Delinquent Duo & Gemini Imps.
• The Napoleon: Heavily implied with Sunny in the card art for Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny with her clearly trying to stand on tiptoes in spite of her shoes clearly not being made for it, something that is made even more obvious when compared to Luna.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: The Live☆Twins are bright, vibrant and cheerful. The Evil★Twins are unrepentant criminals who exploit said personas.
• Our Demons Are Different: While the Evil★Twins are Fiends and their lore implies that they are demons of sorts, they're completely human in appearance. They do sport demonic wings and tails in their card artwork, but those are simply Hard Light holograms generated by their outfits.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Their lore states that they're mercenary Phantom Thieves, who use their channel as a means to secretly take requests for targets to steal. They will grab anything they're commissioned to, but they have a preference for shiny stuff.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ki-sikil — both as a Cyberse and a Link Monster — is much more outgoing than the more reserved Lil-la. Just to hammer it home, Ki-sikil is often kitted out in red outfits, and Lil-la in blue. This is especially prominent with the Live☆Twin personas, with Ki-sikil making a lot of exaggeratedly upbeat expressions while Lil-la is consistently very mellow looking with half lidded eyes.
• The Rival: Ki-sikil - Lil-la gains a rival duo in the form of Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny. The blonde girl with the curled pigtails in Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny artwork shows up to mock their failed heist from the events of Boo-Boo Game in the artwork of Live☆Twin Sunny Snitch.
• Sailor Fuku: Live☆Twin Lil-la's outfit resembles one.
• Shout-Out:
  • The artstyle for the Live☆Twins brings Panty & Stocking or Puffy AmiYumi to mind.
  • The Evil★Twins instead feel like one towards Persona 5 with their entire theme of being Gentlewoman Thieves.
  • In the corner of Live☆Twin Ki-sikil's full artwork, she's doing a troll face. Lil-la's features a face straight out of Pop Team Epic and another one being Gudako's default expression.
  • Evil★Twin’s Trouble Sunny seem to be based on Off the Hook and Scanty & Kneesocks.
• Siblings in Crime: It's in the name. They're thieves who use their online personalities as facades.
• Spy Catsuit: The Evil★Twins don these, even when at home.
• Tag Team Twins: The deck is designed to get both Ki-sikil and Lil-la on the field as early and often as possible, with their Live☆Twin and Evil★Twin versions both having the means to summon the other twin if she's not already in play. A number of their cards also benefit from having them both on the field.
• Tricked into Signing: Implied with Live☆Twin Home, with there being a pop-up the Live☆Twins personally motion for you to click, with their channel in the background but all the thumbnails are replaced with padlock symbols.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The entire theme with them; the Live☆Twins are the innocent and sweet but ultimately fake online personas the Evil★Twins use while they go off to do no good.

Evol

Evoltile Odonto and Evolsaur Vulcano in the artwork of "Evolutionary Bridge".

The Evol cards are a series of FIRE monsters. They are separated as the low leveled, Reptile-type Evoltile, the higher leveled, Dinosaur-type Evolsaur and the Dragon-type Xyz Evolzar.

The playstyle of the archetype involves the Evoltile triggering their own effects to swarm the field with Evolsaur monsters, which in turn can be used to Xyz summon their Evolzar boss monsters, which possess a variety of control-basded effects, in a process referencing the Evolutionary Levels trope.

---

• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Played straight in this archetype.
• Evolutionary Levels: The whole premise of this archetype. From Evotile to Evolsaur, then finally to Evolzar.
• Meaningful Name: The archetype's name is derived from the term Evolution.
• Prehistoric Monster: Played straight with the Evoltile and Evolsaur, but averted with the Evolzar.

Exchange of the Spirit

Exchange of the Spirit is a Trap Card famously used, though unsuccessfully, by Isis/Ishizu Ishtar in her Duel against Seto Kaiba. By activating this card while both players have at least fifteen cards in their Graveyards, then paying 1000 Life Points, it swaps the Graveyards of each player with their Decks.

The card has since received a series of support that benefits from EotS already being in the Graveyard, mostly in the form of retrains of cards that Ishizu played as well.

---

• It Only Works Once: The most recent erratum for Exchange of the Spirit states that it can only be activated once per Duel.
• Manipulating the Opponent's Deck:
  • The core strategy behind "Exchange of the Spirit" is that it will swap the Decks of both players for the cards in their Graveyards, dumping a large number of cards from the Deck instantaneously and leaving both players with limited resources.
  • "Agido the Ancient Sentry" and "Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard" both have the capability of sending the top 5 cards of both players' Decks to the Graveyard when they are sent to the Graveyard from either the hand or Deck. Due to the possibility of the opponent triggering Graveyard effects in addition to the user's own, "Mudora the Sword Oracle" and "Keldo the Sacred Protector" can banish themselves to shuffle any 3 cards from either Graveyard back into the Deck, replenishing the user's resources while also putting back resources that the opponent may be attempting to use.
• Mythology Gag: There are several references toward the duel between Ishizu and Kaiba during Battle City.
  • Mudora the Sword Oracle's name and artwork references how Mudora was equipped with Cestus of Dagla during Ishizu's duel against Kaiba.
  • The name of Gravekeeper's Trap is derived from a line Ishizu spoke to describe her deck's strategy. Ishizu herself appear in the card's artwork.
  • The artwork for Exchange of Despair and Hope features Obelisk the Tormentor, Zolga, Agido and Kelbek as a reference to how Kaiba used Soul Exchange to tribute the latter three monsters to summon Obelisk.
• Our Fairies Are Different: All the monsters that support this card are Fairy-Type, but resemble quasi-mechanical constructs with Egyptian motifs. Lampshaded in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, when during the second run of Espa Roba's Duel Carnival, he's completely surprised by Mudora being Fairy-type.

Exodia / Forbidden One / Millennium

The unstoppable Exodia.

Exodia, also known as the Sealed, is a monster that consists of five different pieces, all five of which comprises the Forbidden One archetype. Gathering all five pieces in the player's hand brings him/her an instant win. Exodia is one of the most famous monsters of all time since its appearance in the first Duel Monsters episode. Each piece is limited and in early years it was rather difficult to gather all five pieces, but during the years, the Exodia archetype has gained much more support. Besides Exodia the Forbidden One, there are other Exodia and Exodia-related monsters, such as Exodia Necross and Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord that focus on using the five pieces of the Forbidden Ones in different ways, often providing back-up strategies.

The 25th Anniversary of the game and the release of Infinite Forbidden brought back the archetype with a focus on a new boss monster, tying it to the new Millennium support, with a number of retrained monsters that reference the Duel Monsters series of games.

Exodia and its versions are used by Yugi Muto (and technically Sugoroku/Solomon), Seeker/Rare Hunter, Gozaburo Kaiba, the Yubel-possessed Martin Kanou/Marcel Bonaparte and Amon Gaman/Adrian Gecko. For information on their role in the anime, see Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime And Manga Cards.

---

• Animal Motif: Snakes.
• An Arm and a Leg: Four of the five pieces are the severed limbs of Exodia.
• Chained by Fashion: The four limbs are chained, since they are sealed.
• Dark Is Evil: Exodia Necross is completely black and is something of an evil version of Exodia.
• In Name Only: Exxod is only superficially related to the rest of the archetype, and is designed for an entirely different strategy.
• Instant-Win Condition: The Exodia archetype is oriented around winning Duels via their effects.
  • Exodia the Forbidden One is the first card to invoke this. Gathering all five Forbidden One cards in your hand automatically wins you the Duel.
  • Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord has an effect that caused the controller to send a monster from their hand or Deck to the Graveyard when it declared an attack. It wins its controller the Duel if they sent all five Forbidden One cards to the Graveyard that way.
  • If Exodia, the Legendary Defender was Tribute Summoned by Tributing five monsters and destroyed a DARK Fiend-Type monster owned by the opponent by battle, its controller wins the Duel.
  • True Exodia allowed its controller's opponent to win the Duel if it and the four Forbidden One Normal Monsters were the only monsters on the field.
• Losing Your Head: The head of Exodia is often presented as either an head or a limbless torso.
• Kamehame Hadouken: Obliterate!!! is designed to be a card version of this.
• Megaton Punch: Exodia Necross's Exodia Crush.
• Meaningful Name: Exodia's name is derived after the Book of Exodus.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Phantom Exodia Incarnate gains strength based on the owner's Life Points, decreasing them during each of their Standby Phases. This reflects how Exodia drew upon Simon Muran's ba when summoned during the Shadow RPG in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga.
  • Millennium Fiend Reflection and Millenniumoon Maiden are Illusion monsters, based on the typing of their original counterparts in the Duel Monsters games.
  • The Caveman Who Awoke After A Millennium (the retrain of Sengenjin) is shown in its art holding Millennium Shield. Sengenjin's flavor text describes it as carrying Millennium Items, and Millennium Shield's first English flavor text claimed that the shield is a Millennium Item itself.
• Nepharious Pharaoh: At the very least Exodia is not nice looking with the postiche and nemes framing a desiccated face.
• No-Sell:
  • The Legendary Exodia Incarnate is immune to any card effect.
  • The Phantom Exodia Incarnate is immune to destruction by card effects.
• Physical God: Even its effect is god-like, since it gives you automatic win.
  • Emphasized with The Legendary Exodia Incarnate, immune to all card effects and a whopping 5000 ATK if all five pieces are in the graveyard.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Exodia is a sealed monster which is so powerful that it's divided into five pieces.
  • Exxod is Exodia sealed in stone.
• Signature Move: Obliterate!!! for the original Exodia, which was made into a card.
• Stone Wall: Exxod, Master of The Guard has 0 ATK, but 4000 DEF. That is a nod to the fact that the original five pieces of Exodia do not have offensive feasiblities on their own and, if need be, would otherwise be used to defend the player's Life Points.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Each of Exodia's limbs counts as a monster, and can be played as such. They're very weak on their own, but are still functioning monsters nonetheless.

Exosister

Assemble to the end, savior maidens! Exorcise the evil with a blessed miracle!!^note From left to right: Elis, Sophia, Irene, Stella

Exosister is an archetype of Level/Rank 4 LIGHT monsters that focus on Xyz Summoning, punishing the opponent for causing cards to leave the graveyard, and battling monsters Special Summoned from the Graveyard.

Mechanically, the archetype works on pairs - Ellis and Stella, and Irene and Sophia, that exorcise evil with holy water weapons. Each of the girls can "transform" into their Xyz counterparts if the opponent moves a card from either player's graveyard, with the exception of Martha, who can Xyz summon when either player moves a card out of the GY.

---

• Arc Number: 8. The Main Deck monsters can give their controller 800 LP and each monster's DEF contains 800. The use of the sideways 8 to represent the infinity symbol (∞) is also noted, as the infinity symbol is present in the artwork of each of the Xyz Monsters. Their ultimate boss monster is also a Rank 8 that can only be summoned using two Rank 4 Exosisters as material.
• After the End: The artwork implies that this is the type of setting that the Exosisters live in, as ruined and overgrown buildings can be seen in the background of multiple cards.
• Amazon Brigade: The archetype is composed entirely of women, and their Xyz forms show they're not afraid to get into battle themselves. The designer for the Exosister archetype describes them as "sisters + military uniforms"
• Cast From HP: Several support cards of the archetype require paying 800 LP to activate. This is offset by the 800 LP that can be gained from the Main Deck monsters.
• Compressed Hair: According to Sophia's art, she rolls up her twintails into her hat.
• The Leader: According to Card Game Art Works, Elis is the leader of Lilium who brings cheerfulness to her team.
• Mage Marksman: As they're holy sisters, Gibrine wields a holy water-based rifle while Asophiel uses a magical bow and arrow. Asophiel's gloves magically create the ammo for the bow.
• Making a Splash: In accordance with their shared Light-type, the Exosisters all use holy water in their purification weaponry.
• Meaningful Name: "Exosister" appears to be a combination of the words "exorcist" and "sister". They're exorcists with their anti-graveyard effects, and sisters in two meanings of the word. The effects that "pair" them imply that each pair is composed of biological sisters, while the names of the Xyz forms and general appearance of the Main Deck forms imply they're nuns (Irene in particular, who appears to be wearing a coif, part of the traditional religious habit of nuns).
• Muscles Are Meaningless: According to Irene's concept art, her divine protection gives her physical strength in her dainty frame.
• Odd Couple: The trope name comes up in an unofficial translation of the Card Game Art Works. The designer of the Exosisters states that Irene is the tall gentle one, while Sophia is the short hard worker who can accomplish anything she puts her mind to. Sophia comes up with the plans for the duo, but Irene acts as the support, making the two an interesting couple.
• Perpetual Smiler: Stella always has a smile on her face, but in some situations, she can become a crybaby.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The name of each Xyz Monster is the combination of the monster's Main Deck form and an archangel. The Deck's support is largely themed after words and phrases found in Latin, Christianity, or both.
  • Mikailis: Mikhael + Elis.
  • Kaspitell: Qaspiel + Stella.
  • Gibrine: Jibril + Irene.
  • Asophiel: Israfil + Sophia.
• Sixth Ranger: Martha, who is mentioned to be the older partner of Ellis until she went missing in a previous battle.
• The Smart Guy: Sophia's intelligence has increased because of her divine protection. Asophiel's holy water enhances her thinking speed in combat.
• Swiss-Army Gun: Gibrine's rifle has two modes: Blooming Flower (prioritizes scope) and Bud (Prioritizes piercing).
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Kaspitell wields a massive spear that can manipulate holy water in combat. It's a fitting weapon as Kaspitell is the partner of Mikailis, the current leader of the Exosisters, making her The Lancer of the group.

F.A.

Dawn Dragster and Dark Dragster in the artwork of "F.A. Overheat".

F.A. (short for Formula Athlete) is an archetype of Machine monsters with 0 ATK. Most of their monsters' effects allow them to increase their own Levels by 1 each time an F.A. Spell/Trap or effect is activated, to gain 300 ATK x their Level, and finally to gain additional effects if they reach Level 7.

Due to their Level-manipulation mechanics, F.A.s are based on Synchro Summoning, with Dawn Dragster and Motorhome Transport being among the strongest Synchro Monsters in-archetype.

---

• All Your Powers Combined: As a Link monster, Shining Star GT doesn't really have levels and bases its attack points on the combined levels of F.A. monsters it points to multiplied by 300.
• Benevolent A.I.: Its resident Tuner monster, Auto Navigator, resembles one of these in form and function; its effect drops the Level of another F.A. monster to its original Level—"slowing it down", so to speak—while making its own Level equal to the difference.
• Cast from Hit Points: Cast From LP: Whip Crosser requires the opponent to pay 300 LP if they're activating the effect of a monster with inferior Level/Rank.
  • Pit Stop works this way as well, in a sense, as it decreases an F.A.'s Level by 2 in order to draw cards.
• Down to the Last Play: Dead Heat's effect works this way. While an F.A. monster is battling another monster, it gives you an option to allow each battling player to roll a die; rolling higher increases the F.A.'s Level by 4 until the end of the turn (ergo, it gains 1200 ATK), rolling lower destroys it instead, and rolling the same result forces a re-roll.
• Expy: Dark Dragster is one to Racer-X from Speed Racer as while the identities of most of the F.A. drivers is fairly obvious (U.A. Midfielder for Sonic Meister/Dawn Dragster, U.A. Dreadnought Dunker for Whip Crosser, U.A. Perfect Ace for Hang On Mach, U.A. Blockbacker for Turbo Charger), it's unknown just who is behind its wheel due to its totally opaque windshield.
• Foil:
  • To the U.A. series. Both initially debuted as TCG-exclusive archetypes and utilize an identical naming scheme. U.A., however, are composed of EARTH Warrior monsters themed on futuristic sports players, while the F.A. series are WIND Machines based on futuristic racing machines.
  • Dawn Dragster and Dark Dragster can also qualify. Both are Level 7 monsters with 2000 DEF and effects that allow them to destroy a card once every turn by reducing their own Levels. However, Dawn Dragster is a LIGHT Synchro monster that can inflict piercing damage, but only destroys Spells or Traps by negating them first; Dark Dragster, meanwhile, is a DARK Semi-Nomi monster that can target and destroy any 1 card on the field.
• Gathering Steam: None of them start out exceptionally strong (if nothing happens to thwart its effect, the base attack of the archetype's biggest monster is a mere 2700), but the more F.A. spells and traps are paid, the more powerful they become in terms of raw stats and devastating effects.
• Go Through Me: Turbo Charger's effect prevents any monster of inferior Level/Rank from targeting any other monster for attacks or with effects.
• Instant-Win Condition: Courtesy of Winners, whose effect allows its controller to banish a card from their hand, field, or Graveyard each time an F.A. monster inflicts battle damage to the opponent. If three of those cards are each a different F.A. Field Spell—to wit, winning on three different racetracks—Winners' controller wins the championship … er, Duel.
• No-Sell: Sonic Meister and Hang On Mach; Sonic Meister is unable to be destroyed by battle against any monster of inferior Level/Rank, while Hang On Mach is immune to any monsters' activated effects if their Level/Rank is inferior to its own.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Turbo Charger and Whip Crosser can become this when their Levels become 7 or higher. Turbo Charger's effect prevents the opponent from activating their monsters' effects while an F.A. monster battles; Whip Crosser prevents the opponent from discarding cards to activate effects.
  • Although it lacks levels, the archetype's Link monster, Shining Star GT, can instead gain "Athlete Counters" when an F.A. Spell or Trap is activated, which it can then use to negate monster effects.
• The Rival: Dark Dragster to Sonic Meister as they are often seen racing against one another in several F.A. spells and traps.
• Rule of Seven: With the exception of Auto Navigator and Motorhome Transport, most of the monsters of this archetype either gain effects upon reaching Level 7 or are Level 7 themselves like Dark Dragster and Dawn Dragster.
• Shout-Out: To Speed Racer, presumably.
• Spikes of Villainy: Two as of yet unreleased racers featured in a number of the archetype's support cards differentiate their black and purple vehicles from Dark Dragster by having them decorated with far more sinister protrusions.
• Status Buff:
  • Both their Levels and their ATK can be increased when certain conditions are met.
  • Additionally, their Field Spells can increase the Levels of all F.A. monsters by 2 during the Main Phase, Battle Phase, or both.
• There Can Only Be One: You can't special summon a Dark Dragster from your hand if you all ready have one out on your field. However, you can special summon a Dark Dragster that was special summoned from the hand previously out of your GY even if the second (or even third) Dark Dragster is on the field.

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail Tales

Fairy Tail is a series of Level 4 LIGHT Spellcaster-Type monsters that each possess 1850 ATK and 1000 DEF. They resemble anthropomorphic animals based on princesses from various fairy tales and their effects references events from the corresponding story.

---

• Awesome, but Temporary: Cinderella's effect lets her equip an equip spell card from anywhere but the banished zone but said card will return to the hand at the end of the turn.
• Back from the Dead: Snow can revive herself during either player's turn at the cost of banishing seven cards from the graveyard.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The effects of each Fairy Tail monsters allude to events from the tale the card is based on.
  • Snow's effect is a reference to how Snow White was brought back to life while said effect's cost of banishing seven cards is a reference to the Seven Dwarfs.
  • Sleeper's effect to change flip herself face-down is a reference to how Sleeping Beauty was put into a deep sleep due to a curse.
  • Cinderella can, at the cost of discarding a spell card, be equipped with an Equip Spell card from the hand, deck or graveyard alluding to the Fairy Godmother's gifts. And just like how the spell ended at midnight in the story, the equip card will return to the hand at the end of the turn.
  • Kaguya's second effect is a reference to the impossible requests she gave to her would-be suitors.
  • Rochka's ability to give the opponent 500 LP is an attempt to show affection to the shepherd Lel. The opponent giving the player a card is the shepherd Lel returning that affection. The ability to send Rochka is her melting away due to her love warming her up too much.
• Punny Name: The group's name is a pun of "Fairy Tale" and "Tail".
• Weak, but Skilled: While 1850 ATK is quite strong for a level 4 monster, it isn't enough to compete with higher-leveled monsters. Fortunately, their effects are useful.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Fairy Tail - Snow's outfit had its colors changed in the TCG (notably swapping one of her primary colors from blue to green), likely to avoid any resemblance to the Disney version of the character.

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time...

The Fairy Tale series is composed of monsters whose design takes inspiration from stories written by the Brothers Grimm. While their effects lacked a clear focus in the anime, the TCG versions revolve around the Field Spell Golden Castle of Stromberg. They are used by Leon von Schroeder in DM.

---

• Captain Ersatz: As the archetype is based on the Brothers Grimm tales, all the card art is a clear-cut reference to a character or object from the stories. While most of the cards have their name changed like Prinzessin^note Cinderella and Thorn Princess^note Sleeping Beauty, some keep their names like Little Red Riding Hood, Tom Thumb, and the Seven Kid goats.
• Power at a Price: Golden Castle of Stromberg can quickly generate an advantage for its controller by summoning Fairy Tale monsters right from the deck while providing protection from attacks. However, this comes with a hefty maintenance cost of 10 cards from your deck during each of your Standby Phases.
• Status Buff: On the flip side, Hexe Trude can make a monster gain 400 ATK after she destroys a monster by battle, Glass Slippers can grant Prinzessin 1000 ATK, and Iron Hans gains 1000 ATK for each Iron Knight on the field.
• Status Effects: A number of cards in the series rely on manipulating ATK, particularly while Golden Castle of Stromberg exists on the field. For instance, Iron Knight loses 1000 ATK while Iron Hans is on the field, and Glass Slippers can cause any equipped monster that isn't a Fairy-Type to lose both 1000 ATK and its ability to attack.
• Writing Around Trademarks: The reason for the name change from Cinderella to Prinzessin in the TCG in order to avoid possible lawsuits from Disney, due to how the card resembles the character from the movies.

Felgrand / Darkblaze Dragon

No dragon ever truly dies.

Felgrand is a series of LIGHT monsters who focus on summoning Dragon-Type monsters from the Graveyard to trigger their effects.

Darkblaze Dragon is a Dragon-Type monster that is usually paired or associated with Felgrand due to being released together in their original Deck, and gaining benefit from Felgrand's playstyle.

---

• Anti-Magic: Arkbrave Dragon's effect upon it being Special Summoned from the GY allows you to banish all face-up Spells & Traps your opponent controls, which also gives it 200 ATK/DEF for each.
• Back from the Dead: Their playstyle revolves around summoning Dragon-Type monsters from the Graveyard.
• Combos: Step one, summon Paladin or Guardian and equip one of the dragons to it. Step two, use Ruins of the Great Divine Dragon to send the equipped dragon to the Graveyard and summon a token. Step three, Tribute both Paladin/Guardian and the token to summon the dragon you just sent to the Graveyard.
• Dragons Are Divine: Felgrand Dragon is a case of this, if it's retrain's name, Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand, didn't tip you off.
• Dragon Knight: Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, the upgraded form of Paladin of Felgrand.
• Equippable Ally: Paladin of Felgrand and Guardian of Felgrand both have the ability to equip themselves with Dragon-Type monsters.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Felgrand Dragon's is particularly impressive, what with the massive and sharp chin and said jaw being metallic.
• Mythology Gag: Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand is a reference to the Legendary Knights from the anime. Not only does it have the same ATK and DEF as them but its rank is equal to their levels. All of them are also tied to dragons.
• No-Sell: Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand can detach a Xyz material to target and make any monster on the field unaffected by other card effects.
• Plague Zombie: Felgrand Dragon underwent zombification at some point in time, becoming Skeletal Dragon Felgrand.
• Power Nullifier:
  • The other half of Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand's effect. The monster will be unaffected by all other effects, but it will have its effects negated.
  • Skeletal Dragon Felgrand keeps some of these powers, being able to negate a monster's effect on the field when another monster is Special Summoned from the GY.
• Resurrective Immortality: The general theme for Felgrand Dragon & it's support cards.
• Took a Level in Badass: The original Felgrand Dragon could only use its effect if it was Special Summoned, but that could only be done from the graveyard and only if it was sent there from the field. Its retrained version not only lacks the restriction, but also has a more powerful version of its effect as well as an additional one.

Fiendsmith

Fiendsmith is an archetype of LIGHT Fiend monsters that debuted in The Infinite Forbidden. They are a Fusion and Link Monster archetype whose cards either have effects that trigger when they are sent to the Graveyard in any way or can be activated from the Graveyard. The Link Monsters also have the capability of equipping themselves to non-Link LIGHT Fiend monsters on the field from either the field or Graveyard, with the archetype's Fusion Monsters gaining additional benefits when Link Monsters are equipped to it.

---

• Equippable Ally: The Link Monsters give benefits to non-Link Fiend Monsters, with extra benefits going to the archetype's Fusion Fiend Monsters. In lore, this is how the Fiendsmith powers up.
• Fiery Redhead: The Fiendsmith seems to be a hot-blooded redhead who can tame demonic weapons and use them for his Fusion Monster transformations.
• Fusion Dance: The Fiendsmith's Fusion forms seem to be him asserting his dominance over the Link Monsters of the archetype.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: A majority of the Fiendsmith cards' names are based on Catholic terminology.

Fire Fist

The brotherhood's Xyz leader: Tiger King

Fire Fists, called Flaming Star (炎星 Ensei) in the OCG, are a series of FIRE Beast-Warrior-Type monsters that rely on synergy with their Continuous Spell and Continuous Trap support cards, Fire Formation (炎舞 Enbu, "Flame Dance" in the OCG), which have various effects, though most of them provide a minor ATK boost.

Most of the Fire Fists have effects that let you Set Fire Formation cards directly from the deck or Graveyard, and in tandem with Fire Formation cards, the Fire Fists can control the field. Thematically, the Fire Fists are based on characters from the classical Chinese novel Water Margin, hybridized with animals.

---

• The Atoner: In ancient times, a legion of evil souls were banished to the heavens, to endure centuries of imprisonment. Now they have seen the error of their ways, and the strongest of these souls have returned to Earth, to make things right and do penance for their crimes. Returning to their original forms, each has also gained the power of a mighty animal spirit, which they can manifest through their legendary weapons. No longer merely men, these immortals now walk the earth as Beast-Warrior-Type monsters from the very heavens.
• Battle Aura: As seen in the artworks, every "Flaming Star" monster has a flame which represents a monster/animal form, except "Choten" who its a flame and doesn't have any monster/animal from.
• Bears Are Bad News: Yushi's Battle Aura looks like a bear; fitting for a warrior based on the "Blue Faced Beast".
• Dub Name Change: The Fire Fist monsters' naming in the TCG consist exclusively of animal names, without any references to the original character names from Water Margin, likely due to the sheer difficulty of incorporating references to a Chinese book that is relatively unknown in the west.
• Our Ghosts Are Different:
  • Choraio based on Chao Gai. After his death, Chao essentially serves as spiritual guardian of the outlaws and ceremonial sacrifices are made to him.
  • Chotenn is based on Zhang Daoling. Zhang died on Mount Qingcheng in 156 during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han at the age of 123. However, it is also said that Zhang did not die but learned the arcana of Taoism to ascend in broad daylight (Xiandao). Instead, his body became like luminous ether, disappearing from eyesight and became an immortal.
  • Hoshin was based on Hong Xin. Hong Xin was a marshal (太尉) sent by Emperor Renzong to seek Celestial Master Zhang to help them in combating a plague. After completing his mission and before returning to the capital, he visits the temple near where the Master resides and unsuspectingly releases 108 demons trapped in a secret chamber for centuries. The demons spread out throughout the land after their release and are incarnated as the 108 Liangshan heroes in Emperor Huizong's time. As if Hong Xin's actions are predestined, a stone tablet that stands on the location where the demons are imprisoned has the words "Opens when Hong arrives" (遇洪而開) carved on it.
• Recurring Element:
  • This archetype is similar to the "Prophecy" archetype due to their reliance on an archetype of Spell and Trap cards. The Prophecy archetype relies on the "Spellbook"" archetype, while the "Flaming Star" archetype relies on the "Flaming Dance" archetype of Spell and Trap Cards.
  • The way Hienshaku Special Summons itself from your hand is similar to "High Priestess of Prophecy".
• Theme Naming:
  • In Japanese, the "Flaming Star" monsters are named after the 108 heroes of Water Margin, mixed with names of animals.
  • The TCG names just focuses on the animals because it is quite difficult to translate the name mix into other languages.
  • The "Flaming Dance" Spell/Trap Cards are named after celestials.

Firewall / Proxy

Banlist.exe has encountered an error and will now shut down.

Firewall (not to be confused with the trap Firewall) is a series of LIGHT and DARK Cyberse monsters that debuted in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. They are cybernetic draconic beings with names based on computing terms; a number of other monsters, including Proxy Dragon and Security Dragon, are related to this series.

The central monster of the series is Firewall Dragon, a LIGHT Link 4 monster with an evolution called Firewall Dragon Darkfluid. They are the ace monsters of the protagonist of VRAINS, Yusaku Fujiki.

---

• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Darkfluid gains a counter if a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Ritual monster is in the graveyard, for a total of four counters.
  • Singularity has many effects based on the other Firewall boss monsters. It can return cards to hand and can summon another monster if a monster it points is sent to the graveyard, much like the original Firewall Dragon. It benefits from having Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Ritual monsters in the graveyard like Darkfluid. Finally, like Darkfluid and eXceed, it can increase its ATK to make up for its low original ATK.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Firewall eXceed Dragon can use one overlay material to target and special summon one Link-4 monster and place it so it points towards it.
  • Proxy Horse can banish itself from the graveyard at the end of the turn to return two Cyberse monsters to the Extra Deck.
  • Firewall Guardian can special summon itself back to the field if used as Link Material, but banished when it leaves the field.
  • If a monster Singularity points to is destroyed by battle or sent to the GY, it can special summon a Cyberse monster from the GY.
• Blue Is Heroic: Nearly all of them, save for Security Dragon, are blue in tone and are used by the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite being pitched as Yusaku's ace monster in the VRAINS anime, the original "Firewall Dragon" has relatively few appearances for an ace monster and was largely replaced by the "Code Talker" line and various other upgraded forms of "Firewall Dragon", with "Firewall Dragon" itself only being summoned six times throughout the entire show and otherwise only being referenced in flashbacks. This is commonly attributed to the fact that "Firewall Dragon" was banned in the OCG/TCG during the anime's run and thus could not be marketed very well since it was not legally playable.
• Dragon Rider: Paladin of Storm Dragon's artwork has Firewall Dragon carrying an unknown paladin on its back.
• Good Counterpart: As the second Link 6 monster created, Firewall Dragon Singularity is meant to be this archetype's counterpart to The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister. It has the same arrows as the Arrival, but upside-down so that half of the arrows point to the opponent. Singularity lacks the Arrival's protection, but has a greater variety of effects to compensate. The Arrival removes enemy monsters through a destruction ignition effect while Singularity's quick effect removes the opponent's cards by returning them to the hand. While the Arrival summons tokens, Singularity can summon any Cyberse from the GY. Finally, the Arrival's ATK is set in stone the moment it's summoned, but Singularity can keep stacking the ATK boost from its quick-effect.
• Nerf: After being completely forbidden for two years, the original Firewall Dragon's effects are given an errata so it can come off the ban list. The two effects are restricted with a hard once-effect once per turn restriction, and the second effect's Special Summoning is restricted to Cyberse monsters.
• Odd Name Out: All cards have "Dragon" in their name and look like cybernetic dragons in their card art, except for Proxy Horse.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Firewall Dragon and its evolutions aren't dragon type, rather, is a Cyberse type being that looks like a dragon with weird blue bodylines and white metallic armor.
• Power of Friendship: Most of their effects activate when a monster is linked or co-linked to their Link arrows. Darkfluid gets stronger and Singularity's quick-effect is more potent for every different kind of Cyberse Extra Deck monster in the graveyard.
• Status Buff:
  • For every counter placed on it Darkfluid gains 2500 attack points on the battle phase, reaching up to 13000 Attack points if set up right.
  • eXceed Dragon gains 500 ATK times the Link Rating of monsters it's linked to.
  • Darkfluid - Neo Tempest Terahertz gains 2500 ATK when it uses its quick effect to send a Cyberse monster from the deck or extra deck to the graveyard, on top of gaining the sent monster's attribute. It can also attack monsters up to the number of attributes it has.
  • Singularity gains 500 ATK for each card it returns to the hand with its quick effect.
• Status Effects: Firewall Guardian can negate the attack, reduce the attack points of an opponent's Link monster to 0, and only affected by its own effects once an attack is declared.
• Taking the Bullet: Proxy Dragon can redirect attacks or card effects to a monster linked to its arrows.
• Theme Naming: Firewall Dragon and its archetypes are named after the computer terms Firewall and Proxy.

Fishborg

...Klaus?

Fishborgs are a small series of WATER monsters that appear as fish controlling robotic suits. Their common theme is to revive themselves from the Graveyard, and with three of them being Tuners, this aids greatly into Synchro decks.

---

• Blade Below the Shoulder: Fishborg Launcher's weapon of choice.
• Combat Tentacles: Fishborg Planter sports these.
• Guns Akimbo: Fishborg Blaster.
• Mini-Mecha: Appearance-wise they are fish (or water-based organisms) controlling robotic suits from inside water-filled bowls.
• Nonindicative Name: Despite the name "Fishborg," the Fishborg Launcher appears to be powered by a Belostomatidae insect.
• Not Quite Dead: They can Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Fishborg Launcher is the counterpart to, and intended replacement for, "Fishborg Blaster". Furthermore, the ATK/DEF of this card are the reversed ATK/DEF of "Fishborg Blaster".
• Visual Pun: The fish inside the Fishborg Launcher's tank resembles an archer fish, a kind of fish capable of shooting down flying insects with squirts of water. This is a fitting reference to this monster's appearance since the fish is piloting a robotic suit armed with long ranged blasters.

Five-Headed Dragon (Petit Dragon / Ranryu / Darkfire Dragon)

The Five-Headed Dragon, called Five God Dragon in the OCG, is the strongest Fusion Monster, tied with Dragon Master Knight. Formed by a Fusion of any five Dragon-Type monsters, it boasts 5000 ATK and ridiculously simple summoning conditions for a Dragon deck that can find room to use Dragon's Mirror. In the Duel Monsters anime, it is the trump card of the Big Five, but it also appears occasionally in GX. It was later given an associated Link monster, Five-Headed Link Dragon in Duel Overload.

According to the backstory provided in Japanese materials, the fire head was once Petit Dragon, who served the Charmer Wynn. His form when Wynn is in her Familiar-Possessed State is called Ranryu. His desire to become stronger lead to him becoming the Darkfire Dragon, who merged with four other dragons to become the Five-Headed Dragon.

The card received a retrain in LINK VRAINS Pack 3, known as Five-Headed Link Dragon.

---

• Achilles' Heel: It is impervious to all elemental attacks and hits hard, but a strong enough LIGHT-elemental attack, will finish it.
• Big Bad: In the anime's Legendary Heroes arc, it was said to be the Final Boss before the Big Five summoned it to serve as such.
• Bigger Stick: 5000 ATK and 5000 DEF — very rarely equalled, never surpassed without effects. Enough to run over any monster and do some serious damage too.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Its five heads represent all five normal Attributes except LIGHT, preventing it from destruction with any non-LIGHT and non-DIVINE monster.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Petit Dragon is one of the cutest, most harmless creatures you could find in the game. The Five-Headed Dragon is one of the strongest, most fearsome creatures you could find in the game.
• Fusion Dance: The jury is out on which four other dragons Darkfire Dragon could have fused with. The tanned head vaguely resembles Megarock Dragon and one of the others resembles Serpent Night Dragon, but the other two have no obvious visual counterparts.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The backstory states the Five-Headed Dragon was defeated by Dragon Master Knight, just like it was in the anime's Virtual World arc. Furthermore, Dragon Master Knight is a LIGHT monster with 5000 ATK and gains 500 more for each Dragon in play.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The virtual game in the anime has stopping the ritual to unseal it as the main quest. Yugi and his friends succeed in stopping it, but the Big Five rewrite the game code and summon it anyway, making it a very meta case of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard.
  • In the backstory, once it was defeated by Dragon Master Knight, the Black Luster Soldier sealed the Darkfire Dragon in the Salamandra sword. Now it's the sword of Flame Swordsman.
  • The Big Five summon the dragon again in cyberspace using each of their Deckmasters. As a Ritual Monster no less.
• Shout-Out: A five-headed evil dragon, with each head representing a different Attribute, is very similar to Dungeons & Dragons depictions of Tiamat. Fittingly, the Five-Headed Dragon is used by the Big Five, who try to use it to usurp Seto — the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is based on Bahamut.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Petit Dragon was once a loyal friend to the Charmers.
• The Worf Effect: Despite having an ATK that rivals even Obelisk the Tormentor, its record in the anime is pretty bad. Out of five appearances in the franchises (not counting flashbacks), there is only one case where the duelist using it has won. (And that time, the opponent was just an unnamed patron at KaibaLand.)

Flame Swordsman

"I keep telling you, my name is Frank!"

Flame Swordsman is one of the original ace monsters of Katsuya Jonouchi/Joey Wheeler in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, a FIRE Warrior-Type monster with 1800 ATK and 1600 DEF. The TCG version is a non-Effect Fusion monster, but his retrains support other Warrior-Type monsters by giving them additional ATK and have the ability to Special Summon monsters from the graveyard when destroyed.

It wasn't until over twenty-one years after his debut that Flame Swordsman finally received his own proper archetype, with a playstyle that helps greatly streamline his summoning, sustain his field presence, and revolve around the use of equip cards to boost his battling capabilities. Among the newest support are retrains of his sword Salamandra, whose effects greatly benefit Flame Swordsman monsters or other monsters that mention him.

---

• Anti-Magic:
  • Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects when you Normal Summon a FIRE Warrior monster while Flame Swordsrealm is active.
  • Fighting Flame Sword can negate an opposing effect that targets Flame Swordsman or a monster that mentions him once per turn.
• Back from the Dead:
  • When destroyed, Blue Flame Swordsman allows you to Special Summon one FIRE Warrior-Type monster from your graveyard.
  • When destroyed, Ferocious Flame Swordsman allows you to Special Summon one non-Link Monster from your graveyard, with the summoned monster being banished when it leaves the field again.
  • Mirage Swordsman can Special Summon himself from the Graveyard if a face-up FIRE Fusion Monster(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect.
• Composite Character: Mirage Swordsman is a retrain of Mirage Knight that appears to incorporate elements of Flame Swordsman and Dark Flare Knight into his design and effect, such as him being FIRE instead of LIGHT and being able to summon Flame Swordsman or a monster that mentions him from the Deck or Extra Deck.
• Cool Sword: Flame Swordsman's sword Salamandra, which also appears as an Equip Spell Card that gives a FIRE monster equipped with it 700 ATK. It later got monster retrains in Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon and Fighting Flame Dragon, both of which can be equipped to give the aforementioned ATK boost and other buffs like attacking twice in one turn.
• Equippable Ally:
  • Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon can equip itself to Flame Swordsman or a monster that mentions it to give it 700 ATK.
  • Fighting Flame Dragon can be equipped anytime except during the Damage Step to a Warrior Fusion Monster from your field or GY as an Equip Spell. If said monster is Flame Swordsman or a monster that mentions him, they gain 700 ATK and can make a second attack during each Battle Phase.
• Fusion Dance:
  • The TCG version of Flame Swordsman is a Fusion Monster whose materials are Flame Manipulator and Masaki the Legendary Swordsman. Later support forgoes the Fusion Summoning in favor of just Special Summoning him directly from the Extra Deck through various means.
  • Flame Swordsman can fuse with Dark Magician to form Dark Flare Knight.
  • Ultimate Flame Swordsman can be Fusion Summoned by fusing Flame Swordsman with Fighting Flame Dragon.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Flame Swordsman is a Normal Monster in the anime, but was inexplicably made a Fusion Monster in the TCG.
• Mutual Kill: If Mirage Swordsman battles an opponent's monster, you can destroy both battling monsters at the start of the Damage Step.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Fighting Flame Swordsman bears a resemblance to Jonouchi. Its artwork meanwhile is a reference to Episode 13 of the original series where Jonouichi's soul gets trapped inside Flame Swordsman by the power of the Millennium Ring.
  • Salamandra With Chain, appearance and effect-wise, is a composite of Salamandra and Kunai with Chain, both of which were used by Jonouchi in the anime throughout his duels.
• Status Buff:
  • Blue Flame Swordsman can give 600 of his own ATK to another Warrior-Type monster you control.
  • Ferocious Flame Swordsman gives all Warrior-Type monsters on the field 500 ATK.
  • Ultimate Flame Swordsman can double his ATK if he battles an opposing monster, but will be destroyed during the End Phase.
  • Once per turn, when a monster declares an attack while you have Flame Swordsrealm on your field, you can detract 1000 ATK from a Warrior monster you control to have all other monsters you currently control gain 1000 ATK until the end of the turn.

Fleur

Pretty (and dangerous) in pink.

Fleur is a series of monsters focusing on two different strategies: Using Fleur Synchron to Synchro Summon Chevalier de Fleur, and using Necro Fleur to Special Summon Sorciere de Fleur from the Main Deck. Later support would give them more tools to accomplish these strategies as well as additional boss monsters to summon. While they contain cards from both the Noble Knight and Synchron archetypes, they are moreso intended for the Fleur series than for those archetypes. They are used by Sherry LeBlanc in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.

---

• Action Girl: Chevalier de Fleur is a Level 8 Warrior-Type Synchro Monster with 2700 ATK and Sherry's ace monster. Its upgraded form, Baronne de Fleur, also counts.
• Adaptational Badass: Some of the later Fleur support cards were based on cards from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds and turned out far better than their anime counterparts, allowing the series to turbo out its boss monsters. No doubt this occurred due to them being released over 10 years after their debut in the anime, and needing more and better effects to keep pace with the game, which had sped up considerably in the interim.
• Anti-Magic: The unifying factor for the boss monsters of the series is their ability to negate backrow.
  • Chevalier de Fleur can negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card once per turn, but only on your turn.
  • Baronne de Fleur can negate any card or effect activation, though only once while face-up on the field.
  • Centaur Mina can negate the activation of a Trap Card during your turn, but the card is Set back under the opponent's control, where they can activate it again.
• Back from the Dead: Baronne de Fleur can Special Summon a Level 9 or lower monster from your graveyard by returning itself to the Extra Deck. This is also helpful for re-summoning Baronne since her negate can only be used once while face-up on the field.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: A Beast and a (LIGHT) Warrior make the Beast-Warrior Centaur Mina.
• Breakout Character: Baronne de Fleur is easily the most popular and most recognizable Fleur monster in the series by a landslide.
• Clingy MacGuffin: When Fleuret de Fleur is put into the graveyard from the Spell & Trap zone, it can bring itself back to the field by equipping itself to a Synchro monster you control. This allows its 700 ATK boost to be transferred to a new Synchro monster if the one it's equipped to is used to Synchro Summon another. And it can be destroyed by the effects of White Steed of the Floral Knights and Synchro Dilemma to activate their effects while coming back to avoid card disadvantage.
• Dark Action Girl: Sorciere de Fleur is a Level 8 Spellcaster-Type Effect Monster with 2900 ATK and is Sherry's ace monster during her Face–Heel Turn.
• Dark Is Evil: Necro Fleur and Sorciere de Fleur, both DARK monsters, symbolize Sherry's temporary Face–Heel Turn.
• Death-Activated Superpower: If Necro Fleur is destroyed by a card effect, its effect lets the player call Sorciere de Fleur to the field to replace it. Later cards such as Sage de Fleur and Synchro Dilemma were made to abuse this with effects that destroy one of your own cards.
• Foil:
  • Fleur Synchron to Junk Synchron. Fleur is LIGHT while Junk is DARK. Both are Synchron Tuners yet also members of another archetype/series. Both have an ability to Special Summon a Level 2 or lower monster, though Junk summons from the graveyard in order to set up a Synchro Summon while Fleur summons from the hand after being used as Synchro Material, extending Synchro plays.
  • Fleur Synchron to Necro Synchron. Fleur is LIGHT while Necro is DARK. Fleur has 400 ATK and 200 DEF while Necro has 200 ATK and 400 DEF. Both are Machines that resemble Plants, though Fleur looks like a bud and Necro looks like a bulb. The dichotomy between the two is shown in Synchro Dilemma, where Fleur is shown during the day and Necro is shown during the night.
• Fusion Dance: Centaur Mina was Fusion Summoned in the anime by fusing Noble Night's Spearholder with Horse of the Floral Knights. Her TCG counterpart retcons this by requiring only a LIGHT Warrior monster and a Beast monster.
• Glass Cannon: Sorciere and Sage de Fleur each have a respectable 2900 ATK, but 0 DEF.
• Gratuitous French: Chevalier de Fleur and Sorciere de Fleur mean, respectively, Flower Knight and Flower Sorceress in French. Justified, seeing as the character who used those cards in the anime was French. The Japanese names of Chevalier de Fleur and Sorciere de Fleur are incorrect in French.
• Hitodama Light: Present in the art of Necro Fleur and Necro Synchron.
• Horseback Heroism: Baronne de Fleur is Chevalier de Fleur riding an armored horse as it rears back dramatically while she brandishes her sword, Fleuret de Fleur, and massive shield.
• Irony: Despite Fleur's flower theme, the series only has one Plant monster, Necro Fleur. And it's not even a boss monster, though it does have the ability to Special Summon are far better monster.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: As Sherry's deck generally references Jeanne d'Arc, Sorciere de Fleur references the accusation of Jeanne being a witch, symbolizing Sherry's temporary Face–Heel Turn.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Chevalier de Fleur is a Warrior-Type monster covered in knight armor, just like Jeanne d'Arc.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Fleur" is the French word for "flower", referring to the flower-themed appearance of the monsters.
  • Fleuret de Fleur, as "Fleuret" can refer to a fencing foil, the weapon depicted in the card's art, or an ornament resembling a flower, tying into the series' flower theme.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Fleur Synchron and Necro Synchron are Machines, like most Synchrons, despite looking like Plants. Though closer inspection of the art reveals rivets in their bodies, hinting at their mechanical nature.
• Necromancer: This is Sorciere de Fleur's ability. When she is Normal or Special Summoned, she can bring back any monster from the opponent's Graveyard, but only for one turn and it cannot attack directly.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Centaur Mina, a redheaded female centaur wearing armor while brandishing a longsword and shield.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Fleur series and its support are rather eclectic in design, containing three Attributes (LIGHT, DARK, and WIND), six monster Types (Plant, Machine, Spellcaster, Beast, Warrior, and Beast-Warrior), a Fusion Monster (despite Fleur focusing on Synchro Summoning), an Equip Spell (when Fleur has never cared about Equips) and cards from two different archetypes which were never intended to work together (Noble Knight and Synchron). Yet all the cards works surprisingly well with each other.
• Wicked Witch: Sorciere de Fleur, a Spellcaster-Type monster. See Jeanne d'Archétype above for more details.

Floowandereeze

Say that five times fast!

The Floowandereeze are an archetype of Winged-Beast monsters that specialize in Normal and Tribute Summoning, with the caveat that once they're on the field, they stop the player from all forms of Special Summoning.

Judging by the card artwork, they seem to be a trio of Arctic terns who visit various locations all over the world, meeting their various exotic birds along the way in their journey.

---

• Actually Four Mooks: The card artwork of each Floowandereeze monster card depicts the Floowandereeze trio interacting with the various monsters, which makes them four monsters within a card.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The Floowandereeze archetype is quite unusual in that it prohibits any kind of Special Summon and instead allows for additional Normal Summons when their effects resolve. Also, rather than going to the Graveyard the cards are banished instead while filling the same functionality. The way their effects are set up also makes them the only archetype that can Normal Summon monsters during the opponents turn, often extensively so. Additionally, with the use of Floowandereeze and the Unexplored Winds they can use not only opponents monsters, but any kind of card as tribute fodder. All these attributes have quite the knock-on effect as they make the Floowandereeze incredibly difficult to interact with as a lot of the game is centered around Special Summoning and the Graveyard outside of very specific counters.
• Out-of-Turn Interaction: The archetype has become somewhat infamous for taking this trope to new heights. Instead of just activating effects during the opponents turn, they are straight up able to normal summon and execute long combos to the point that one can be left asking whose turn it really is.
• Parental Substitute: Snowl is seen helping the Floowandereeze pack in the artwork of Floowandereeze and the Advent of Adventure like a doting mother. Snowl wishes the trio good luck on their journey.
• Power Nullifier: Empen prevents Special Summoned monsters from activating their effects if they're in Attack Position. This straight-up blocks Link Monsters from doing anything that starts a Chain. Snowl can also flip your opponent's monsters face-down to shut off anything else.
• Zerg Rush: The Floowandereeze archetype specializes in Normal Summoning and Tribute Summoning to the point of enabling it during the opponents' turn.

Flower Cardian

Welcome to the Koi-Koi Games

Flower Cardian, known as Cardian in the OCG, is an archetype debuting in the ARC-V anime, used by Tokumatsu. They are based on the traditional Japanese card game named Hanafuda, infamous for the Koi-koi game.

Their playstyle revolves around consistently drawing Cardian monsters to make combinations (Yaku) to Synchro Summon their Boss Monsters, emulating the playstyle of traditional Koi-koi game. To help with this strategy, the Spell supports makes it easier to setup the Summon, such as stacking Cardian monsters to be drawn by other Cardian effects or assembling Cardian monsters on the board.

---

• Anti-Magic: Lightflare can negate Spell and Trap, as well as the effects of monsters any Flower Cardian battles.
• Art Shift: In the anime. Whenever a Flower Cardian Synchro Monster is Summoned, the background turns into traditional Japanese painting that references the Yaku formed to Summon it, in contrast to the monster's more animesque appearance.
• The Cameo: All over the place, due to each Cardian non-Synchro monster (barring Matsu) depicting the artwork of their corresponding hanafuda card with something in it replaced by a Yu-Gi-Oh! card. Some examples:
  • Matsu ni Tsuru (January Pine Crane): Crane Crane
  • Susuki ni Tsuki (August Pampas Moon): The Wicked Avatar
  • Yanagi (November Willow Storm): Giant Trunade
  • Yanagi ni Ono no Michikaze (November Willow Poet): Flower Cardian Lightshower and Poison Draw Frog
• Cards of Power: And apparently they're also sentient.
• Cool Helmet: Lightflare's bird helmet, a reference to the December Phoenix (Kiri ni Houou) card.
• Crippling Overspecialization: They really don't like being teamed up with other archetypes, locking down summons of non-Flower Cardians and discarding drawn cards if they aren't Flower Cardians, meaning they essentially have to be played pure. They also have only a very small handful of cards that can summon monsters without controlling other cards, and without those cards, they brick hard.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After Tokumatsu returns to his Enjoy Choujiro persona.
• Dub Name Change: From "Cardian" to "Flower Cardian". The individual cards receive direct translations: for instance, "Ameshikou" becomes "Lightshower", "Matsu ni Tsuru" becomes "Pine with Crane", and "Gokou" becomes "Lightflare".
• Irony: Yanagi ni Ono no Michikaze depicts Lightshower and Poison Draw Frog as a reference to the rain man/poet and frog. The former locks you out of your Draw Phase, while the latter lets you draw a card.
• Large and in Charge: Boardefly. Ironically, he is one of the weakest among the three boss monsters in terms of stats, tied with Moonflowerviewing.
• Luck-Based Mission: Ultimately, the success of a Flower Cardian deck depends on the player's ability to draw into the right cards at the right time. They do have a few Luck Manipulation Mechanics to work with, but if you end up revealing three Spell/Trap cards with Chokoikoi... Well, enjoy.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike your average Synchro deck, the Flower Cardians don't have to worry about adding up levels as their Tuners automatically make the Synchro Materials level 2, which is very necessary given that some of their monsters have absurdly high levels (including a level 11 Tuner) to fit their Hanafuda motif. They're more focused on using Main Deck monsters of matching levels to draw and summon enough Synchro Materials to bring out their bosses.
• No-Sell: Lightshower makes all Flower Cardian monsters unable to be destroyed by card effects, or be targeted by the opponent's card effects.
• Numerological Motif:
  • The Level of each non-Synchro Flower Cardian represents the Month of their original Hanafuda card.
  • The ATK and DEF of each non-Synchro Flower Cardian is equal to its point value in Hanafuda x100.
• Shock and Awe: Lightshower's "electric-rim" umbrella, a reference to the November Storm (Yanagi) card. Moonflowerviewing has a similar weapon, an “electric-rim” hand fan.
• Weak, but Skilled: The non-Synchro monsters are exceptionally weak stat-wise, but are needed to Summon their boss monsters.

Fluffal / Edge Imp / Frightfurs

"Frightfur Factory" depicting the transformation of "Fluffal Bear" and "Edge Imp Scissors" into "Frightfur Bear" and "Frightfur Wolf".

The Fluffal archetype, known as Furnimal in the OCG, is a series of adorable EARTH Fairy-Type monsters based on animal plushies, all of them with wings.

They focus on Fusion Summoning with the Edge Imps, necessary to bring out their uh..."evolved" forms: the Frightfurs, known as Des-Toy in the OCG. They are used by Sora Shiun'in in ARC-V.

---

• Anti-Magic: Frightfur Sheep and Chimera prevent the opponent from using cards or effects whenever they attack or are attacked. Frightfur March can negate the activation of a monster effect or that of a spell/Trap card that targets a Frightfur.
• Ax-Crazy: Frightfur Leo is depicted as this in the anime, which also reflects Sora's true nature. Frightfur Leo laughs like a maniac and makes all those crazy noises. It also goes nuts when it is introduced, destroying the facility around its surrounding.
  • It is put to shame by Tiger in the anime, giggling like a deranged psychopath when attacking.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Edge Imp Sabres's effect allows it to come back from the graveyard once per turn when you place a card from your hand on top of your deck.
  • Frightfur Sheep can return from the graveyard when it's destroyed.
  • Frightfur Saber-Tooth can summon a Frightfur monster from the graveyard when it is fusion summoned. Since it needs a Frightfur monster for material, you can special summon the Frightfur used in its summon.
• Bowdlerise: From Des-Toy to Frightfurs. Also, the scissors, of all things, were inexplicably censored.
• Call-Back: Frightfur Chimera seems to be based of Goyo Guardian. Both have 2800 ATK and can Special Summon enemy monsters they have destroyed. The difference between them is that Goyo Guardian Special Summons them in Defense Position while Chimera can Special Summon them in either position, though the Summoned monster's ATK is halved, and Chimera gets 300 ATK for each monster the player controls this way.
• Came Back Strong: When Frightfur Sheep is destroyed, its effect allows it to return to the field with an additional 800 ATK.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Frightfur Bear's effect. In the anime, it is visualized by Bear eating the monster it destroyed, in one gulp.
• Chain Pain: Edge Imp Chain and Frightfur Sheep. In the anime, Frightfur Sheep even chokes a person with its chain.
• Chainsaw Good: Edge Imp Saw and Frightfur Leo.
• Creepy Monotone: Fluffal Bear and Fluffal Leo in the anime.
• Dark Is Evil/Dark Is Not Evil: The Edge Imps and Frightfurs fall into either category, due to Sora being Evil All Along, but he eventually undergoes a Heel–Face Turn.
• Demonic Possession: The Frightfurs are corrupted versions of the Fluffals. The corresponding Edge Imp monsters have their eyes and metal parts showing from the Fluffal bodies.
• Dub Name Change: From Furnimal to Fluffal, and from Des-Toy to Frightfur. The names of the Des-Toys were also shortened.
  • Des-Toy Scissor Bear —> Frightfur Bear.
  • Des-Toy Scissor Wolf —> Frightfur Wolf.
  • Des-Toy Scissor Tiger —> Frightfur Tiger.
  • Des-Toy Wheel Saw Lion —> Frightfur Leo.
  • Des-Toy Chain Sheep —> Frighfur Sheep.
  • Des-Toy Sabre Tiger —> Frightfur Sabre-Tooth.
  • Des-Toy Mad Chimaera —> Frightfur Chimera.
  • Edge Imp Scissor —> Edge Imp Sambres.
  • Edge Imp DT Modoki —> Edge Imp Frightfuloid.
  • Furnimal Lion —> Fluffal Leo.
• Evil Laugh: In the anime, Frightfur Bear, Frightfur Chimera and especially Frightfur Leo and Frightfur Tiger.
• Fusion Dance: The Fluffals combine with the Edge Imps become the Frightfurs, making them examples of The Composite.
  • Frightfur Bear is the visual combination of Edge Imp Sabres and Fluffal Bear.
  • Frightfur Sheep is the combination of Fluffal Sheep and Edge Imp Chain.
  • Frightfur Leo is the combination of Edge Imp Saw and Fluffal Leo.
  • Frightfur Kraken is Fluffal Octopus fused with Edge Imp Tomahawk.
  • Frightfur Whale has Fluffal Dolphin combined with Edge Imp Scythe.
• Killer Teddy Bear: Once the Edge Imps have their way with them, the Fluffals are transformed into mutilated plushies.
• Living Toy: All of them. The Edge Imps might not count as toys, though.
• Never Say "Die": Like Des Koala or Des Frog, this is the case of the Des-Toys.
• Panthera Awesome: Frightfur Leo, Frightfur Tiger and Frightfur Sabre-Tooth.
• Punny Name: Des-Toy is a pun to "death toy" and "destroy".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: All of the Edge Imps have these. Similar pink-red eyes appear peeking out of the mouths of the Frightfurs summoned using Sabres as Fusion Material. Finally, Frightfur Chimera's middle head and Frightfur Leo both have red eyes.
• Slasher Smile: Frightfur Leo possesses one of these.
• Shear Menace: The Edge Imps and the Frightfurs have blades sticking out of them, mainly Edge Imp Sabres and its Fusions.

Force

Don't get too attached.

^{Nomadic Force}

^{Missing Force}

Force is a series of Level 4 Warrior-Type Effect Monsters with 1000 DEF and effects that require them to tribute themselves.

Yusei Fudo used a copy of Exiled Force that he borrowed from a Sector Security inmate for his duel against Warden Takasu/Armstrong in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.

---

• Actually Four Mooks: At first in Exiled Force, they are ten monsters in one card, but due to their use of bad equipment in Nomadic Force, their numbers are reduced to four in Missing Force.
• Artifact of Doom: Nomadic Force depicts the warriors having gotten their hands on several weapons that make them stronger. However, Missing Force depicts them suffering from their equipment’s effects. This is highlighted in the increase and decrease in ATK of the three cards (1000 –> 1700 –> 1500).
• Dwindling Party: They start out with ten members, but use of bad equipment dwindles their party down to four.
• Mind Manipulation: If you control no monsters other than Missing Force, you can tribute them to take control of one monster your opponent controls until the end phase. However, you cannot Special Summon or conduct your battle phase during the turn you activate this effect.

Fortune Ladies / Fortune Fairies

Fortune Lady Earth (left), Fortune Lady Light (top), and Fortune Lady Wind (right).

Fortune Ladies are a series of elementally-attuned Spellcaster-Type monsters with the similar gimmick of gaining one Level each of your Standby Phases, and having ATK and DEF equal to their Level multiplied by a variable value. They rely on swarming the field and increasing their Levels to use effects, and also have some cards to banish and retrieve their members, particularly with the Field Spell Future Visions, which banishes all Normal Summoned monsters until the next turn.

They have younger and weaker counterparts called the Fortune Fairies, who in the anime are Normal monsters with 0 ATK and DEF and having Levels from 1 to 6. In the real-life card game, they were made into effect monsters which support Spellcaster monsters in general.

Both archetypes are used by Carly in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the Fortune Fairies prior to becoming a Dark Signer, and the Fortune Ladies during her time as a Dark Signer.

---

• Back from the Dead: Fortune Lady Every has the ability to revive herself if she is in the graveyard during the opponent's End Phase by banishing another Spellcaster from the Graveyard.
• Bowdlerize: The Fortune Ladies are among the most scantily clad and buxom female archetypes in the game. As a result, they are edited to be less busty and wearing more clothing for international artworks.
• Color-Coded Elements: Each of the initial six Fortune Ladies, as well as the Fortune Fairies, are dressed in the color of their Attribute, each in a color of the rainbow.
  • Light - yellow.
  • Fire - red.
  • Wind - green.
  • Water - blue.
  • Dark - purple.
  • Earth - orange.
• Cute Witch: The Fortune Fairies are this. They later overgrow this trope when becoming the Fortune Ladies.
• Fire Is Red: Fortune Lady Fire. A Fiery Redhead FIRE monster and an effect that can deal burn damage.
• Lady of Black Magic: Fortune Lady Dark. Whenever a Fortune Lady destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard she can special summon another Fortune Lady from the Graveyard.
• Magic Wand: Each of them has one, combined with a Sinister Scythe.
• Magikarp Power: The longer they stay on the field, the higher their Level grows and the more power they gain.
• Mythology Gag: Fortune Lady Past's appearance resembles that of Dark Signer Carly who used the archetype in the anime.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Fortune Ladies are shapely, buxom women wearing little clothing and heels. This was significantly toned down for the international release.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Fortune Fairy Chee has glasses that obscure her eyes, however her cute appearance doesn't make her look particularly dangerous. Her Fortune Lady version Fortune Lady Earth however looks very intimidating in comparison◊.
• She Is All Grown Up: The Fortune Fairies were cute, small fairies, but they evolved to Fortune Ladies and are full grown women.
  • Similarly, Fortune Lady Every is an older version of Solitaire Magician.
• Took a Level in Badass: From the Fortune Fairies to Fortune Ladies.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As one can infer from the colorful personalities of the Fortune Fairies, they took a significant level in cynicism growing up into adults. Fitting considering Carly's own story of becoming a Dark Signer in 5D's.
• Water Is Blue: Fortune Lady Water. Blue hair, blue skin and a WATER monster.
• Wind Is Green: Fortune Lady Wind. Green hair, green skin and a WIND monster, her effect is also bouncing Spell and Trap Cards, a common effect of WIND-themed cards.

Fossil

Fossil Fusion, the centerpiece of the archetype.

Fossil is an archetype of Level 4, 6, and 8 EARTH Rock Fusion Monsters that can only be Summoned through the Spell Card "Fossil Fusion". Rather than using monsters in the hand or field as Fusion Materials, Fossil Fusion instead banishes monsters from either player's Graveyard. Some Fossil monsters even specify which Graveyard one of their Fusion Materials must be in.

The Fossil monsters can be separated in two categories; the "Fossil Machine", "Fossil Warrior" and "Fossil Dragon" monsters, which required Machine-, Warrior- and Dinosaur-type monsters to be summoned in the anime; and the "Cenozoic", "Mesozoic" and "Paleozoic" (only in the OCG) monsters, which are level 4, level 6 and level 8 monsters that require a monster of their respective level to be summoned, with the monsters becoming stronger the older the era they reference.

Alongside this, there's a bunch of non-Fossil Rock monsters that support "Fossil Fusion" in the TCG, and Fossil Dina Pachycephalo, which is a "Fossil" monster by name, but technically not part of the archetype. "Fossil" cards are used by Jim "Crocodile" Cook in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

---

• Adaptational Badass: Fossil Dina Pachycephalo is one of the most extreme cases of this trope. It went from having a situational DEF boost based in battle in the anime, to having one of the most potent Special Summon lockdown effects in the TCG. The card's age probably has something to do with it, as it was printed almost 14 years before all the other "Fossil" cards were printed.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: With the exception of Skull Bone and the Fossil Machines, the Fossil monsters all have the ability to inflict piercing damage.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Time Stream's second effect can Special Summon any Fossil from the Graveyard.
  • At the cost of discarding a card during the opponent's turn, Skull King can summon a monster in your opponent's graveyard to your side of the field.
• Dem Bones: Flint Cragger, Fossil Warrior Skull Bone, Fossil Dina Pachycephalo and Fossil Dragon Skullgios are all reanimated skeletons of prehistoric creatures.
• Devolution Device: Time Stream is one, devolving the Fossil monsters from their "Cenozoic" forms to their "Mesozoic" and then "Paleozoic" counterparts.
• Evolution Power-Up: Or to be more specific "De-Evolution Power-Up". Time Stream tributes a Fossil Fusion monster and summons a more powerful one from an earlier era in its place.
• Flawed Prototype: Gameplay-wise, the Fossil archetype and Fossil Fusion - as it was played in the anime - were one to Invoked and Invocation. Their fusion materials were highly restrictive, Fossil Fusion needed to banish materials from both graveyards to activate, and the card lacked search and recycling options, compared to Invoked's streamlined fusion materials, ability to fuse using only a single GY, and their fusion card being highly searchable and self-recycling. When "Fossil Fusion" was finally printed in 2020 (almost 15 years after its anime debut), all the aspects that made "Invoked" playable were taken into account and incorporated into the Fossil playstyle.
• Glass Cannon: The Fossil Dragons, Skullgios and Skullgar, have incredibly high ATK for their Levels but 0 DEF. Skullgios is especially notable for being able to inflict double battle damage and to switch the ATK/DEF of any monster it battles, but having no other way to defend itself.
• Herd-Hitting Attack:
  • The Fossil Warriors each have an effect allowing them to make a second attack during the Battle Phase.
  • The Fossil Machines all share an effect that allows them to make multiple attacks on monsters.
• Lost in Translation: The "monsters become stronger the older the era" aspect of the "Fossil" Fusion monsters was removed from their name on their localization in the GX anime - which removed the "Cenozoic", "Mesozoic" and "Paleozoic" string of the names of the monsters.
• Mythology Gag: The artwork of Speciment Inspection in the OCG is slightly different from how it originally appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the most notable being the addition of a man in the background, whose hairstyle greatly resembles that of Jim "Crocodile" Cook, the archetype's user in the anime.
• T. Rexpy: Fossil Dragon Skullgios appears to be the animated fossil of a Tyrannosaurus. Fittingly, its debut apperance in the anime had Ultimate Tyranno being used as one of the materials for its fusion summon.

Four Dimensional Dragons

From left to right: Starving Venom, Dark Rebellion, Odd-Eyes and Clear Wing.

The Four Dimensional Dragons are a series of Dragon monsters that are fundamental to the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. They are said to the the strongest Dragons of their respective summon mechanics, and as such, were used by Z-Arc to satisfy his bloodlusting audience.

Each Dragon eventually gained an archetype of its own, composed of themselves and their evolution forms. "Xyz Dragon" is used by Yuto, "Synchro Dragon" is used by Yugo and "Fusion Dragon" is used by Yuri in the Arc-V anime. Yuya and Z-Arc use all of them, in addition to the "Odd-Eyes" archetype, which technically encompasses all of the "Pendulum Dragon" archetype.

The series is deeply intertwined with the "Supreme Dragon" archetype. For more information on them, check the "S Part 2" page. For more information on the "Odd-Eyes" archetype (and by extension, Pendulum Dragon), check the "O" page.

---

Tropes associated with the entire series:

• Battle Aura: They are cloaked in one of their respective color in their alternate artworks.
• Body Motifs: "Eyes" for Odd-Eyes, "Fangs" for Dark Rebellion and Starving Venom, and "Wings" for clear wing.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Odd-Eyes is red and green, Dark Rebellion is black, Crystal Wing is white and Starving Venom is purple, all fitting in with their respective summon mechanic.
• Dragons Are Divine: They are said to be the apex of each of their respective summon mechanics.
• Giant Flyer: All of them can fly (or at least float) with the exception of Odd-Eyes (who rather hilariously skips like a chicken).
• Sigil Spam: All of them (except Clear Wing) have orbs to a massive extent, even moreso in their evolved forms.
• Status Buff: With the exception of Odd-Eyes, all of them can "steal" the ATK of an opponent's monster and add it to their own, making them very powerful in battle.
• Took a Level in Badass: All of them eventually gained both anime and OCG original evolutions that add even more potent buffing, negation and revival effects.
• Uniformity Exception:
  • Starving Venom was the last one to be introduced, and differs from the rest on level (8 compared to 7 for the others), and ATK (2800 to 2500).
  • Clear Wing is the only WIND Dragon, while the rest are DARK.
  • Odd-Eyes is the only dragon without wings.

Xyz Dragon/Rebellion

Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs!

Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon is one of the four members of the Four Dimensional Dragons featured in Yu Gi Oh ARCV. The two archetypal names associated with the monster are Rebellion and Xyz Dragon, and it features many evolutions and variants within these archetypes. The archetypes are associated with the "Phantom Knights" archetype through "Raider's Knight" and "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon Overlord". As its name suggests, the monster and its variants are all Xyz Monsters. "Dark Anthelion Dragon" is the manga counterpart of "Dark Rebellion".

The "Xyz Dragon" monsters focus on reducing the opponent's monster ATK and then adding the reduced quantity to their own. The "Rebellion" Pendulum Dragons instead rely on destroying multiple opponent's monsters, either through their effects or multi-attacks, and then delivering a One Turn Kill.

---

• Collective Identity: Black Fang Magician is treated as part of the "Xyz Dragon" archetype thanks to an archetype clause.
• Fusion Dance: As their user Yuto spent the most time absorbed by Yuya, this archetype has the most combinations with the "Odd-Eyes" dragons.
  • "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon" is a combination of "Dark Rebellion and "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.
  • "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon Overlord" is meant to be a less powerful, but easier to bring out alternative combination, which also supports the other "Rebellion" dragons and "Phantom Knights" Xyz monsters.
  • "Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon" is an inverted combination of the two, taking more away from "Odd-Eyes" design, and symbolizing Yuya falling to his rage.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Their method of attack in the anime is ramming into opponents with their protruding fangs.
• One-Hit Kill: The archetype is built around this, as multiple of their monsters have extremely potent ATK boosting, multi-attack effects that guarantee dealing massive damage in a single turn.
• Power Nullifier:
  • "Arc Rebellion" will negate the effects of all other face-up monsters in addition to its ATK boosting effect, complimenting its OTK strategy.
  • "Dark Requiem" can negate the activation of an opponent's monster effect, then destroy that card.
• Shock and Awe: In the anime, Dark Rebellion's draining effect has it snaring the opponent with electric tendrils, and they often become shrouded in lightning when attacking.
• Status Buff:
  • Can either cut the opponent's monster ATK in half (Dark Rebellion) or reduce it to zero (Dark Requiem), then add the reduced ATK to their own. Arc Rebellion is also able to gain the original ATK of all other monsters on the field.
  • Dark Anthelion has the same effect of Dark Rebellion, except it becomes a Quick effect and it's not permanent.
  • Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon will gain 200 ATK for each card from the opponent it destroys with its detach effect.
• Title: Requiem: "Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon" which is named as such in reference to Yuto's grief for his lost comrades in the resistance. It also has stained glass wings in reference to church buildings.
• Vampiric Draining: Their specialty is stealing ATK from opponents' monsters to boost their own.

Synchro Dragon/Clear Wing

Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed!

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is one of the Four Dimension Dragons featured in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V and is associated with both the Clear Wing and Synchro Dragon archetypes. They are also affiliated with the Speedroid archetype through "Clear Wing Fast Dragon" and "Hi-Speedroid Clear Wing Rider". As their names imply, they are all Synchro Monsters. "Clear Wing Fast Dragon" is the manga counterpart of "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon".

They focus on negating the opponent's monster effects (and then destroying them), while adding the destroyed monster's ATK to their own.

---

• Anti-Magic: "Crystal Clear Wing" can negate the activation or effect of an opponent's Spell or Trap card.
• Call-Back: Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is one to the 5D's anime, being a level 10 Accel Synchro monster like Shooting Quasar Dragon, and posing in the shape of the "infinity" symbol, referencing the Meklord monsters.
• Collective Identity: White Wing Magician has an archetype clause that makes it part of the "Synchro Dragon" archetype.
• Cyborg: "Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon" and "Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" are vaguely mechanized powered-up forms of the base dragons, possibly influenced by their connection with the "Speedroid" archetype, which is all composed of Machine-type monsters.
• Fusion Dance:
  • Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon is one of "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" and "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon".
  • Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon seems to be a combination of "Clear Wing" and "Crystal Wing".
  • Hi-Speedroid Clear Wing Rider is a combination of "Clear Wing" and the TK2000PS, Yugo's duel runner in the anime.
• No-Sell: "Crystal Clear Wing" can make itself immune to the opponent's monster effects for the turn.
• Power Nullifier: All the "Synchro Dragon" (and Odd-Eyes Wing) monsters can negate an opponent's monster effect (with the exception of "Crystal Clear Wing" who negates a Spell/Trap instead).
• Razor Wings: They attack by flying at their enemy to slash them with their wings.
• Status Buff: Through the destruction of the opponent's monster, whose ATK will then be added to the respective Dragon. "Odd-Eyes Wing" is also able to do this while in the Pendulum zone.
• Uniformity Exception: "Clear Wing Fast Dragon" is the only (other than Odd-Eyes) manga Dragon that still remains part of one of its original archetypes.

Fusion Dragon/Starving Venom

Now become one, and from the hell beneath your petals, give birth to a new terror!

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is one of the Four Dimension Dragons featured in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, associated with the Starving Venom and Fusion Dragon archetypes. The card is also related to the "Predaplant" archetype through "Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon" and "Starving Venom Predapower Fusion Dragon". As their names imply, they are all Fusion monsters. "Starving Venemy Dragon" is the manga counterpart of "Starving Venom".

They focus on battle manipulation effects, copying the effects of other monsters on the field and GY, and also share a Death-Activated Superpower effect meant to discourage their removal through battle and effect destruction.

Starving Venom is "technically" a sub-archetype of the Venom archetype, even though the two are completely mismatched in theme and gameplay.

---

• Armor-Piercing Attack: Supreme King Servant Dragon Starving Venom allows one of your monsters to inflict Piercing Damage on your opponent.
• Back from the Dead: Greedy Venom can do this if there's a high-level DARK monster in the GY, while Starving Venom Predapower can choose to use its effect on itself once.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Upon Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's purification by its Fusion with Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, it became beautiful and is compared to a flower.
• Cherry Blossoms: Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon has a cherry blossom motif that symbolizes its purification and beauty.
• Collective Identity: Purple Poison Magician is treated as a "Fusion Dragon" monster thanks to an archetype clause.
• Dark Is Evil: Almost every DARK monster of this archetype is evil.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The definite example for this trope is Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon, a Fusion that purified Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
• Death Activated Super Power: Starving Venom and Greedy Venom have a variation of Taking You with Me that will destroy all of the opponent's monsters, with the latter slapping in a self-revive clause. Starving Venom Predapower will also be able to revive a DARK monster in the GY.
• Ditto Fighter: "Starving Venom" and "Starving Venemy" can copy the name of an opponent's monster, although this has no apparent usage in the TCG.
• Dub Name Change: From Starve Venom to Starving Venom.
• Eaten Alive: Starving Venom attacks monsters with its extra mouths and devours them whole with it.
• Evil Counterpart: Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is one to Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.
• Fusion Dance:
  • A Predaplant monster + a DARK monster with an original level of 8 or higher = Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon. Visually, it's a powered up form of "Starving Venom" using the Predaplant monster as a power booster.
  • Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon is specifically the combination between Starving Venom Fusion Dragon and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.
• Light Is Good: While still being a DARK monster like its supposed Fusion Materials, Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon has prominent white body parts that make it look more beautiful and good. It is the purified form of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Starving Venom takes the cake, since its many mouths can grow giant fangs.
• Mythology Gag: "Venemy counters" seem to be the manga equivalent of "Predator counters", but also a reference to the "Venom counters" used in GX, which also weakened the opponent's monsters, since, as mentioned earlier, all of the "Starving Venom" monsters are technically part of the "Venom" archetype.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is a kind of humanoid dragon that has a snake-like appearance and plant-like characteristics.
• Power Copying:
  • Starving Venom can copy the name and effects of a Level 5 or higher monster the opponent controls.
  • Venemy Dragon can copy the opponent's monster effect and name without restriction, while also negating it and reducing its ATK.
• Power Nullifier: The manga dragons, "Starving Venemy" and "Venemy Lethal Dose" can negate the effect of an opponent's monster and all of the opponent's monsters, respectively.
• Sinister Scythe: Starving Venom's tail looks like a scythe.
• Status Buff: Starving Venom can gain the ATK of an opponent's Special Summoned monster on summon, and Odd-Eyes Venom can do so for any of the opponent's monsters without restrictions.
• Swamps Are Evil: Greedy Venom invokes this, as it can summon poisonous swamps to take down its enemies.
• Tail Slap: Starving Venom whips with its tail when attacking directly.
• Too Many Mouths: Starving Venom has a couple of mouths on some body parts and they can grow to extreme sizes to devour big monsters whole.
• Uniformity Exception: "Starving Venemy Dragon" is the only manga dragon to have an evolved form: "Starving Venemy Lethal Dose Dragon".

Frog / Toad

Up to down; Treeborn Frog, Ronintoadin and Toadally Awesome.

The Frog and Toad archetypes are two related series of low-level WATER Aqua types that rely on swarming the field and using various effects to search out other each other. They lack power, but have various handy effects.

Originally, the Frog archetype was focused on comboing with the Des Frog and supporting it specifically. This element was later dropped as the Frogs and Toads transitioned into a generic WATER/Aqua support archetype that provides other archetypes with low level swarming. However, in the Xyz era, a shockingly powerful Toad known as Toadally Awesome was released, combining swarming, negations, spell/trap stealing, and floating into one tight package. Toadally Awesome, backed by the endless Frog/Toad swarms, became a boss monster in and of itself, and a triple-Toadally Awesome setup can derail nearly every single deck in the era.

The Frog archetype is used by Princess Rose in GX.

---

• Amphibian Assault: They are an archetype of frog monsters. Don't let their harmless appearances and weak attack points fool you; their effects can be quite devastating.
• Anti-Magic: Unitoad's effect lets it destroy a Spell or Trap Card if another Frog or Toad is on the field.
• Battle Aura: Des Frog has a dark one, fitting with its original name "Death Frog".
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Their homeland, Wetlands.
• Brown Note: Des Croaking, which destroys all of your opponent's monsters. The art of Des Croaking shows three Des Frogs croaking in unison.
• Deflector Shields: Froggy Forcefield is depicted as this in the artwork, acting as a watered-down Mirror Force.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In its early stages, the Frogs were based around Des Frog, with most of their support cards supporting Des Frog specifically. However, they shifted gears into a low-level spam archetype in the 5D's era, and even though they had a few cards that treated themselves as Des Frog to try and get use out of the old support, Des Frog quickly fell out of relevance.
• Fusion Dance: 3 Des Frog combine together become D.3.S Frog, becoming an example of The Composite.
• Lost in Translation: All the original Japanese names for Frogs included puns based on their effects and artworks. Very few Frogs recieved this treatment at the international releases.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Treeborn Frog (a frog and an angel), Unifrog (a frog and an unicorn), Beelze Frog (a frog and a demon), Substitoad and Tradetoad (a toad with a demonic and angelic half).
• Never Say "Die": Death Frog was censored to Des Frog in the TCG localization to avoid implications of a Death Frog.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Poison Draw Frog and Flip-Flop Frog have extremely long tongues, which are used to pull in a card from off-screen. Their effects reflect the card art.
• Parent-Child Team: According to the description for the Toadally Awesome mate, they are described as a parent-child duo with white rice-cake like skin and a tendency to bring things from out of nowhere.
• Samurai: Ronintoadin. It looks ready to unsheath its bamboo stick like a samurai should before a fight. Its mouth even has a piece of straw like a wandering ronin.
• Stone Wall: Dupe Frog has 2000 DEF, and acts as a tank with an effect that forces the opponent to target it only, but only has 100 ATK to fight back with.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Tradetoad is one to Substitoad after the latter got banned, sharing a similar "tribute and Special Summon" effect, with Tradetoad's being much weaker.
• Visual Pun: Submarine Frog's appearance is likely based on the term "frogman," which is a person equipped to work underwater. The term is quite often used to refer to combat divers, which Submarine Frog certainly is.
• Weak, but Skilled: Though weak, "Frog" cards can unleash devastating effects that include rapid summoning, the option to increase their ATK or protect themselves from destruction, and wiping out all cards the opponent controls.

Fur Hire

Rookie Fur Hire

Fur Hire, known as the Skyfang Brigade (空牙団, Kūgadan) in the OCG, is a band of anthropomorphic animals possessing various Types, Attributes, Levels, and a shared focus on swarming the field.

The Level 4 or lower monsters have effects that Special Summon another monster Fur Hire from the hand, which in turn activates their own unique effect when a monster "Fur Hire" is Special Summoned. The Level 5+ monsters have their own unique effects that activate when they are Special Summoned and provide protective effects for the rest of the squad.

---

• The Baby of the Bunch: As the hatchling, Rex is the youngest of the group.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't ask where Helmer's nose is. He'll get mad with you.
  • Tell Sagitta her feathers are pretty and she gets extremely mad.
• Cheated Angle: The artist for Rafale mentions to avoid front-facing poses when drawing Rafale and to make his head tilt a bit to the left or right to make things easier.
• Cool Airship: Their associated Field Spell, Fandora, the Flying Furtress, is definitely this. In-game, it can search for a Fur Hire monster in exchange for giving up your normal draw for the turn, and can destroy the opponent's field if five or more different members of the group are on the field.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Beat's concept shows that he was once part of a tribe of rabbit people before mysterious folk burned it all down. Luckily, Rafale adopted him and let him join the Fur Hire archetype.
  • The concept art for Sagitta shows her chained up with others of her kind. It is also mentioned that Sagitta's species live in groups, but she is now alone for now.
• Dub Name Change: They were known as "Skyfang Brigade" in the original, but were changed to "Fur Hire".
• Family of Choice: They're a group of mercenaries from all walks of life. Despite that, they are a close-knit group.
• Fish People: Helmer is an anthropomorphic fish, complete with human-like hair. To avoid dehydration on long trips, Helmer often soaks in a personal bathtub. According to a joke in Helmer's concept art, Water monsters have a bathtub in their room.
• Hired Guns: The archetype's English TCG name implies that they are this.
• Hypocritical Humor: Helmer often chastises the younger members of the Fur Hire crew, despite being in the same age range is them.
• Non-Standard Character Design: A variant, as the card texts for their support cards in the English TCG words said support as "monster "Fur Hire"", as opposed to ""archetype" monster", as is the case for the support cards for other archetypes.
• Painting the Medium: The card text for the archetype's support cards in the TCG, which take advantage of the archetype's Punny Name to tell you that they are "monsters "Fur Hire"".
• Pun-Based Title: Every single monster in the archetype has this in their English TCG names.
• Punny Name: The archetype's English TCG name, Fur Hire, a pun on "for hire", as they're suggested to be a mercenary group.
• Running Gag: In the concept arts, Helmer often tells Beat to put on clothes, but Beat refuses to follow Helmer's orders.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Donpa is the energetic one, while Recon is the shy, reserved one.
• Sky Pirate: Well, more like an actual brigade of soldiers than actual pirates, but there's enough of the trope in place that it can be easy to get confused. They even have their own flying ship.
• Status Buff: Bravo's unique effect grants an extra 500 ATK/DEF to any Fur Hire already on the field.
• The Stoic: Sagitta rarely talks about her inner feelings to the rest
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Folgo and Rafale often argue with each other, to the point there's a section dedicated to their arguing in the Fur Hire concept arts.
• World of Pun: The archetype is full of this in the English TCG, from the archetype's Punny Name, to every monster having a Pun-Based Title in its name, to their support cards wording said support as supporting a "monster "Fur Hire"" as opposed to an ""archetype" monster", which is the case for other archetypes. Their Field Spell Card is even called "Fandora, the Flying Furtress".
• Zerg Rush: All Level 4 or lower monsters have Special Summoning effects, which can quickly fill up the board.

---