Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game O-R

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game character index
Storyline Cards/Characters: Duel Terminal | World Legacy | Abyss | Visas Starfrost | Diabellstar
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 O to R.

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Ocean Dragon Lord

The Ocean Dragon Lord series ("Sea Dragon God" in the OCG) consists of the Sea Serpent monsters Levia-Dragon – Daedalus, Kairyu-Shin and their vassals and evolved forms. They revolve around the usage of Field Spells, particularly "Umi", making use of them to enhance or fuel their powerful effects.

"Daedalus" was used by Anacis/The Admiral in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. "Kairyu-Shin" and its vassals were used by Mako Tsunami/Ryoga Kajiki in Duel Monsters.

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Tropes for the "Daedalus" series

"Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo Daedalus

Originally a random monster in the Invasion of Chaos booster set, "Daedalus" is a high-leveled WATER Sea Serpent monster, meant to be used with Umi to fuel a potent field wipe effect. It went onto receiving multiple upgraded/sidegraded (and even downgraded) forms, whose effects all revolve around the existence of Field Spells on the field in order to activate their less-potent, but still powerful removal effects.

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• Deader than Dead:
  • Once per turn, Chaos Daedalus can banish a number of cards equal to the number of face-up Field Spell Cards.
  • If Metaphys Daedalus is Special Summoned by the effect of a Metaphys monster, you can banish all other face-up Special Summoned monsters on the field.
• Hydra Problem: Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus was based off the Hydra from Greek mythology; considering the origin of its name and the the fact it was two heads.
• Geo Effects: Most of the monsters in the series take advantage of the presence of a Field Spell on the board - allowing them to use their extremely potent removal effects.
• Kraken and Leviathan: Levia-Dragon - Daedalus, obviously.
• Meaningful Name: Levia-Dragon - Daedalus is named after Daedalus, but not the "Daedalus" from Greek mythology. Instead, it's a reference to the HMS Daedalus, a nineteenth-century British warship which reported the sighting of a gigantic sea serpent monster on 1848.
• Nerf: When Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo Daedalus came out, it was erroneously printed as a simple Tribute Summon monster, meaning you could Tribute Summon it with two Tributes (or one if you used something like Unshaven Angler) or Special Summon it by any means, while keeping the Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End nuke effect. This was obviously rectified in later printings.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Codarus eventually turns into Levia-Dragon - Daedalus, boosting it's power from "popping 2 cards" to "nuking everything else". Indicentally, this can actually make Codarus stronger as it simply sends the cards to the Graveyard without destroying them, bypassing many destruction effects. This is taken further as Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo Daedalus, where it nukes everything else and the hand, while also now being tied with Spiral Serpent for the highest ATK on a Sea Serpent.

Kairyu-Shin and its vassals

Ocean Dragon Lord - Kairyu-Shin

These monsters all share a common background; they were used by Mako Tsunami in the original Duel Monsters anime and manga. 20 years later, the Legendary Duelists pack series released a number of retrains of the aforementioned monsters, and tenuously tied them to the "Umi" Field Spell. The series is supported by the Kairyu-Shin ("Leviathan" in the OCG) and Sea Stealth Spells and Traps. They all share the common trait of having 200 more ATK/DEF than their original counterparts - referencing the original "Umi" and its stat boost.

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• Call-Back: In the TCG, "Ocean Dragon Lord - Kairyu-Shin" shares the same string on its name that "Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo Daedalus" has - which is a translation of "Kairyu-Shin"'s OCG name, "Sea Dragon God". Moreover, both are based on the Leviathan - its name is "Sea Dragon God - Leviathan" in Japanese.
• Geo Effects: The monsters of this series all possess strong effects on their own, but can only be used to their full potential with "Umi" on the field.
• Kraken and Leviathan: "Kairyu-Shin" is based on Leviathan, much as Daedalus, and is explicitely named as such in the OCG.
• Mythology Gag: As a series whose sole initial connection was its user in the anime, this is to be expected.
  • For starters, they all have 200 extra ATK/DEF than their original counterparts, referencing their ATK values when played while "Umi" is on the field.
  • "Ocean Dragon Lord - Kairyu-Shin"'s first effect and the effect of "Rage of Kairyu-Shin" both reference Mako's duel with Yugi, and how he used "Kairyu-Shin"'s attack and the "Ocean" zone to his advantage, flooding the field and reducing the number of land usable by Yugi until he could only control a single land-based monster.
  • "Electric Jellyfish"'s second effect is a reference to how, in the same duel, "Jellyfish" was able to absorb the electric attack of "Feral Imp" equipped with "Horn of the Unicorn", becoming stronger in the process.
  • "Mega Fortress Whale" has a final effect, which allows you to special summon a WATER Warrior monster from your GY to your hand when destroyed. This is a reference to the final turn of Mako's duel with Joey in Battle City, in which after his "Fortress Whale" was destroyed, Mako played "Return of the Doomed" to revive his "Legendary Fisherman".
  • "Sea Stealth II" is the name that Mako gave to his revamped strategy in the same duel, referencing how his "Legendary Fisherman" would continuously hide and then appear just to attack (Special Summon while in the Battle Phase, then destroy, and summon back again).
• Took a Level in Badass: Fortress Whale, Fiend Kraken, Jellyfish and Kairyu-Shin all receive upgrades that help the Umi field card out and support monsters played by Mako Tsunami.

Odd-Eyes / Pendulum Dragon

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Yuya Sakaki's ace monster

Odd-Eyes is an archetype of Dragon-Type monsters that are the signature cards of Yuya Sakaki, the protagonist of ARC-V. The moniker "Odd-Eyes" refers to the heterochromia iridum present among the members of the archetype. The central monsters of the archetype are Odd-Eyes Dragon and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, and like other protagonist ace monsters, Odd-Eyes Dragon has many evolved forms. The monsters are specialized in different Special Summoning types, each dragon having a different effect with a different focus on the gameplay.

Besides the various evolutions of Odd-Eyes Dragon, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon has its own series of evolutions, particularly the Pendulum Dragon series, with its members being specialized in inflicting more damage through combat. The Odd-Eyes archetype is supported by Yuya's Magician archetype (see M subpage), and is a member of the Four Dimension Dragons alongside Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon (see other subpages).

Stargazer Magician, Timegazer Magician and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon are also the first Pendulum Monsters in the game, Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon is the first Xyz Pendulum monster and Nobledragon Magician is the first Tuner Pendulum monster. Odd-Eyes is also unique in that, while most archetypes stick to one or two major summoning types, it's one of the first archetypes^note Technically the second. Zefra was the first, albeit combining its main Pendulum Summoning gimmick with cards from other archetypes that specialized in specific summoning types. Also, despite D/D/D being able to go for all the Extra Deck summons, it possessed no Ritual options, so it technically doesn't count. that has the ability to go for every major summoning type in the game,^note that being Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Ritual as well as having a variant of itself for each summoning type.

In the manga, Yuya also uses an Odd-Eyes/Performapal hybrid that focus more on the Odd-Eyes archetype. The manga introduces new members of the Odd-Eyes family, which aren't necessarily new forms of the original Odd-Eyes Dragon. However, it does introduce Odd-Eyes Phantom Dragon, an alternate counterpart to Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

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• Ambiguously Evil: It is not entirely clear whether Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon is evil or not.
• Ambiguous Gender: Since Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's human form is White Wing Magician, Clear Wing is confirmed to be female. In the case of Odd-Eyes, his human form, Double Iris Magician, is male. This begs the question what gender Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon may have.
• Anti-Magic: In addition to sending Spell and Trap Cards back to the hand, Odd-Eyes Gravity Dragon forces the opponent to pay 500 Life Points in order to activate card effects.
• Breath Weapon: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's Spiral Flame Strike is depicted as a crimson stream of energy that is spit through its mouth.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite the majority of this archetype being DARK monsters, they are not evil and are even Yuya's signature cards. This applies especially to Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, which is of the DARK attribute and resembles a malevolent black dragon, yet is unambiguously heroic.
• Fusion Dance: Most of the generic "Odd-Eyes" Fusion monsters are of the Power Booster type.
  • Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a Fusion Monster that requires an Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and a Spellcaster-Type monster.
  • Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a Contact Fusion Monster that requires a DARK Dragon-Type monster and a Beast-Type monster.
  • Brave-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a Fusion Monster that requires a Pendulum Dragon monster and a Warrior-Type monster.
  • Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon is Fusion Summoned by using one Odd-Eyes Monster and one Pendulum Monster.
  • Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon is the fusion between Starving Venom Fusion Dragon and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in the anime.
  • Performapal Odd-Eyes Metal Claw is the Fusion of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Silver Claw.
  • Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon is the combined form of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon.
  • Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon is another Xyz combination of Odd-Eyes Pendulum and Dark Rebellion, but an inverted version of Odd-Eyes Rebellion, as its dominant half is Odd-Eyes Pendulum, not Dark Rebellion.
  • Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon is the Synchro combination of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, having the former as the Tuner.
  • Odd-Eyes (Pendulum) Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon became one to create Supreme King Dragon Zarc.
  • Odd-Eyes Rebellion Xyz Dragon is a cross between Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon and Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Odd-Eyes Pendulumgraph Dragon, a Ritual Pendulum evolution of Odd-Eyes, is covered head to tail in gleaming gold armor.
• Light Is Good:
  • Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon is a LIGHT monster, is primarily colored in white, is surrounded by a light aura in its artwork, and is used by the anime protagonist.
  • Odd-Eyes Arcray Dragon is a theoretical good version of the antagonist of ARC-V, "Supreme King Z-ARC". Not only is it LIGHT attribute and shares most of its properties with "Supreme King Z-ARC", it has a name condition that always forces its name to be "Supreme King Z-ARC" (and thus is not actually treated as an "Odd-Eyes" monster).
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Odd-Eyes Rebellion's Monster Effect that destroys all Level 7 or lower monsters the opponent controls is called Overload Howling in the anime and generates strong sonic waves.
• Meaningful Name: Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon is named after the Japanese name of Tribute Summoning, "Advance Summon", similar to how all of the other Dimensional Dragons are named after a Summoning mechanic. It can be Tribute Summoned by Tributing any Level 5 or higher monster and has an effect that only activates when it is Tribute Summoned.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Odd-Eyes Rebellion has the title "Haou Kokuryuu" in the OCG, which means "Supreme King Black Dragon". Considering who the Supreme King was and black dragons are usually bad news, run away.
  • Taken further with Odd-Eyes Raging whose title is "Haou Retsuryuu", which means "Supreme King Violent Dragon". Violent being a major attribute to this dragon can't be good news.
• Non-Indicative Name: Rune-Eyes, Beast-Eyes and Brave-Eyes have "Pendulum" in their names, despite not being Pendulum Monsters.
• Odd Name Out: Rune-Eyes, Beast-Eyes and Brave-Eyes are not Odd-Eyes monsters. The only relation they have with Odd-Eyes regarding the names is the "Pendulum Dragon" part.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Each form of Odd-Eyes seems to look crazier than the previous one. Unlike most Dragon-Type monsters, most of the dragons of this archetype have no wings and they run instead of flying.
• Power Copying: Odd-Eyes Venom can copy an opponent's monsters effect and gains its ATK until the end of the turn.
• Red Is Heroic: Odd-Eyes, Odd-Eyes Pendulum, Odd-Eyes Raging, Odd-Eyes Saber, Odd-Eyes Meteorburst, Rune-Eyes and Brave-Eyes are red, and Odd-Eyes Pendulum is the signature card of redheaded Yuya. Odd-Eyes Pendulum is also the first red signature of a YGO protagonist, especially in contrast to the white Neos, the white Stardust and the white Utopia (not counting any of their evolutions).
• Shock and Awe:
  • Odd-Eyes Rebellion's dominant half is Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, thus its power is mostly lightning based and manifests as either electric auras or bolts of lightning. Its tusks are also charged with electric power when it attacks.
  • When Odd-Eyes Raging charges its attack, its wings emit electricity.
• Super Mode: "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon - Overlord", the Signature Move variant of "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon". Unlike the original "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon", which requires the user to use an Xyz Monster as material to unlock its full potential, "Overlord" can be Xyz Summoned by using "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon" itself as material and gets the triple attack boost for free, making it a quick and easy way to push for damage.
• Swiss-Army Hero: Most of the stronger Odd-Eyes monsters are variations of the original Odd-Eyes Dragon, which can evolve into different, more powerful forms if certain conditions are fulfilled.

Ogdoadic

From the murky depths they come...

Ogdoadic^note "Abyssal" (溟界, Meikai) in the OCG is an archetype of LIGHT and DARK Reptile monsters, based on primordial forces and deities from Egyptian Mythology. They specialize in Special Summoning from the Graveyard and Tributing monsters to bring out their higher forms, featuring stronger and more disruptive effects on their stronger members, with their boss capable of annihilating all monsters on the field that weren't summoned from the Graveyard.

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• Back from the Dead: Their specialty. No matter how many times you bring them down, Ogdoadic monsters will just summon themselves from the Graveyard again. As such, Snake Rain is a phenomenal enabler for this deck by letting them dump half their monster lineup to be summoned immediately.
• Equivalent Exchange: Unusually, many of their monsters feature effects that benefit both your opponent and yourself; Flogos trades a monster the opponent controls for another, stronger monster from their GY, while Zohah lets your opponent draw a card in exchange for letting you search an Ogdoadic monster before making both players send a card from their hand to the GY, and Keurse and Aleirtt both let your opponent get monsters back if they Special Summon themselves. Fortunately, this also nicely sets up the abilities of Aron and Amunessia, which trigger when the opponent adds cards to their hand or field.
• Evolutionary Levels: As their monsters get stronger, their appearance becomes more complex. Nunu and Nauya, their most basic members, resemble ordinary snakes in body shape, while the stronger monsters become more and more humanoid while Ogdoabyss is a giant serpent with black angel wings.
• Gold and White Are Divine: The Ogdoadic monsters are covered in various bits of gold and white armor, and are based on parts of the Egyptian pantheon.
• Making a Splash: According to the lore, these gods are liquid beings created from the Black Water of Origin. In addition, water can be seen in their artwork.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The archetype is named after the Ogdoad of Egyptian Mythology.
• Snake People: Their stronger members have both reptilian and humanoid traits.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: The archetype features both LIGHT and DARK monsters, appropriately for a series based on the primordial chaos of Egyptian myth.

Ojama

The first five Main Deck Ojamas, as seen in Solidarity.

Ojamas are an archetype of LIGHT Beast-Type monsters with 0 ATK, appearing as ugly humanoid critters. The original set of the archetype (Yellow, Green, Black, and King) are prominent monsters of Jun Manjoume/Chazz Princeton in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

At introduction, their playstyle focuses on monster zone disruption and swarming (to a limited degree). Later on, they received support cards that tied them to Manjoume's other cards, the Armed Dragons and V-to-Z monsters, supporting the summons of the latter two through their own swarming capabilities.

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

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• Beware the Silly Ones: In the artwork for Nitwit Outwit, they successfully ambushed the Six Samurai and Shien.
• Butt-Monkey: The Ojamas seem to be used as the butt of humor on several card illustrations, such as being hunted down on Harpies' Hunting Ground, being tossed by Man-Thro' Tro', being used to practice boxing in Ojamatch or flattened in Power Filter. Yellow in particular has it rough, being electrocuted in the OCG art work of Wattcancel.
• Canon Welding: Ojamas originally had no direct affiliation with the Armed Dragon or A-to-Z archetypes other than that they were all used by the same duelist in the anime. Years later however, the three archetypes were all connected together through Ojamatch (Ojama + Armed Dragon), Ojamassimilation (Ojama + A-to-Z), and Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon (Armed Dragon + A-to-Z), making them a three-in-one archetype themed after Jun Manjoume.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the artwork for Ojamatch, Ojama Yellow is clearly losing against Armed Dragon LV5.
• Combination Attack: Ojama Delta Hurricane!! shows the original trio of Ojamas working together to launch a massive energy blast. It's a parody of the Harpies' combination attack, Triangle Ecstasy Spark.
• Extra Eyes: Ojama Pink has three additional eyes on top of having two where you would expect to find them.
• Fan Disservice: They're misshapen, odd-looking cartoony monsters that go around wearing only a pair of briefs.
• Fusion Dance:
  • The design of Ojama King contains that of its three Fusion Materials: the eyes of Ojama Yellow, the body & nose of Ojama Black, and the mouth of Ojama Green. The design also includes the same clothing that the Fusion Materials wear.
  • Any two Ojamas can be fused to create Ojama Knight.
• Geo Effects: Ojama Country can summon Ojamas from the Graveyard, which indicates that they become determined to beat their opponents when they're near their home field. The ATK and DEF switching is because everyone except the Ojamas are confused by the strangeness of Ojama Country.
• Gonk: All of them are pretty ugly and weird looking monsters.
• Homage: Ojama Red's effect may be a homage to the Super Sentai series of television shows, as the Red Ranger is always the leader of the team.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Ojama Knight is Ojama Yellow in a knight's armor.
• Lethal Joke Character: The Ojamas are a bunch of weaklings by themselves. However, as their flavor text mentions, "when the three are together, something happens".
  • The original result was "Ojama Delta Hurricane!!", which obliterates your opponent's hand and field but requires the three Ojama brothers as an activation condition. Later support gives them swarming, searching and consistency other archetypes would kill for.
  • As a Mythology Gag for GX, the Ojamas have support cards that let them easily summon Armed Dragons (Ojamatch) and the VWXYZ fusions (Ojamassimilation), both of which can be searched by Ojama Blue. This means that they can use the otherwise horrendously hard-to-summon but able to completely wreck the enemy Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon as a legitimate boss monster.
  • Their Link monster, Ojama Emperor, may take 3 Beast monsters for a 0 ATK monster, but with Ojama Country on the field, he gains 3000. Even without it, though, any battle damage a player would take from battles involving him goes to the opponent instead.
• Meaningful Name: "Ojamashimasu" is a Japanese phrase roughly translating as "pardon me for interrupting/intruding". It's why the flavor text on the card mentions the Ojamas always butt in on things, why their stronger cards fill up the opponent's Monster Zones, and why their later support cards butt into the A-to-Z and Armed Dragon series (aside from, y'know, all of them being used by Chazz).
• Power Trio: Ojama Yellow, Black and Green are the original Ojama cards. Most artwork features all three of them and they are the only Normal Monsters of this archetype.
• Sibling Fusion: The Ojama Brothers (Yellow, Black, and Green) can be fused into Ojama King.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: The artwork for Ojamassimilation shows Ojama Black and Green about to modify a helpless Yellow, referencing the DNA Surgery/DNA Transplant series.
• Stone Wall: Ojama King has 3000 DEF, and Ojama Knight trails just after him with 2500. However, both are stuck at 0 ATK without Ojama Country in play.
• Underwear of Power: All of them wear only briefs.

P.U.N.K.

.'>P.U.N.K. is an archetype of Level 3, 8, and 11 monsters. The Level 3 monsters are all EARTH Psychic Tuners, and either search out archetypal cards from the Main Deck, or Special Summon archetypal monsters from the Extra Deck. Their main strategy is to summon a Level 11 Synchro Monster by using a Level 3 Tuner and a Level 8 non-Tuner.

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• Arc Number: Six. Every P.U.N.K. Tuner has 600 DEF and has an effect that its controller can activate by paying 600 LP. Noh P.U.N.K. Ze Amin goes one step further by granting another P.U.N.K. 600 ATK if it's sent to the Graveyard.
• Art Attacker: Each Level 3 P.U.N.K. uses art to attack their enemies and support their allies.
  • Art Initiates Life: Sharakusai draws paintings that come to life as Rising Carp and Amazing Dragon.
  • Instrument of Murder: Wa Gon uses music to support P.U.N.K. monsters in Wild Picking and Crash Beat.
  • Marionette Master: Madame Spider uses puppets to disrupt the opponent's cards in Dangerous Gabu and Nashiwari Surprise.
  • Mask of Power: Ze Amin uses theatre masks to turn into the more powerful Level 8s Foxy Tune and Ogre Dance.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Rising Carp and Amazing Dragon are based on the same myth, longmen, that inspired Magikarp and Gyarados from one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s rival franchises. To drive this home, Gyarados is often referred to as a "dragon" just like Amazing Dragon is, but both lack their respective franchise's Dragon typing and instead focus on their aquatic and flying aspects; the former is a Water/Flying type whereas the latter is a WIND Sea Serpent.
• Back from the Dead: Amazing Dragon can Special Summon P.U.N.K. monsters from the graveyard.
• Call-Back: The Level 3 P.U.N.K. monsters being EARTH Psychics that require paying LP to activate their effects is reminiscent of the early Psychic monsters, many of which were EARTH and also had effects that required paying LP to activate. Their boss monster being a Synchro Monster might also reference the fact that Psychics being introduced during the Synchro era.
• Cast from Hit Points: Each Level 3 P.U.N.K. has an effect that can be activated by paying 600 LP.
• Combat Medic: Foxy Tune can give its controller LP based on the ATK of a monster it destroys by battle. Pretty handy in an archetype with a few Cast from Hit Points effects.
• Irony: Despite the name and art theming, P.U.N.K. isn't based on any form of art normally associated with the punk subculture, but instead traditional Japanese art.
• Magikarp Power: Carp Rising's effects encourage using it as material for Amazing Dragon in order to invoke this trope. It's a reference to longmen, a story about a simple carp transforming into a powerful dragon — the same legend that inspired the Trope Namer. Their types play into this as well, as the former is a Fish and the latter is a Sea Serpent.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Sharakusai's name is a portmanteau of famed ukiyo-e artists Sharaku and Hokusai, while Ze Amin is named after noh actor and playwright Zeami Motokiyo.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Amazing Dragon, despite the name, isn't a Dragon or even a Wyrm, but instead a Sea Serpent. Makes more sense in the OCG, where Sea Serpent is Kairyū or "Sea Dragon".
• Theme Naming: Each P.U.N.K. card is named after a traditional Japanese art. The Level 3 monster represents the artist, and the other cards with the same name represent the art itself.
  • The Ukiyoe P.U.N.K. cards are named after ukiyo-e painting. Sharakusai is the artist, and the other Ukiyoe P.U.N.K. cards are Rising Carp and Amazing Dragon.
  • The Gagaku P.U.N.K. cards are named after gagaku music. Wa Gon is the artist, and the other Gagaku P.U.N.K. cards are Wild Picking and Crash Beat.
  • The Joururi P.U.N.K. cards are named after ningyō jōruri (also known as bunraku) puppetry. Madame Spider is the artist, and the other Joururi P.U.N.K. cards are Dangerous Gabu and Nashiwari Surprise.
  • The Noh P.U.N.K. cards are named after noh theatre. Ze Amin is the artist, and the other Noh P.U.N.K. cards are Foxy Tune, Ogre Dance, and Deer Note.
  • The P.U.N.K. JAM cards represent impromptu collabs between the other P.U.N.K. artists. "Dragon Drive" has Sharakusai and Ze Amin, while "Extreme Session" has Wa Gon and Madame Spider.

Paladin of Dragon

Paladins of Dragons, known as Knights of Dragons (竜の聖騎士, Naito Obu Doragon) in the OCG, are a series of Level 4 Ritual Monsters with 1900 ATK that are largely associated with Dragon-Type archetypes. They revolve around activating their effects when attacking or destroying monsters, as well as tributing themselves to bring out stronger monsters, typically ones belonging to their associated archetypes. Paladin of White Dragon and Paladin of Dark Dragon are used by Seto Kaiba and Katsuya Jonouchi/Joey Wheeler respectively in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series and Paladin of Photon Dragon is used by Kaito/Kite Tenjo in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

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• Dragon Rider: They are all humanoid entities riding on top of dragons.
• Foil: White Dragon to Dark Dragon. They share the same Level, Type, ATK, and DEF, and their effects are very similar to each other. Fittingly, their associated archetypes, Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes, respectively, are foils to each other.
• You Don't Look Like You: The dragons they ride typically look like juvenile versions of dragons prominent within their associated archetypes. Dark Dragon's dragon, however, looks nothing like a Red-Eyes dragon, instead looking more like a Palette Swap of White Dragon's dragon.

Paleozoic

Paleozoic, known as Burgesstoma in the OCG, is an archetype that debuted as Korean exclusives in Clash of Rebellions. Based on extinct animals whose fossils were in the Burgess Shale, their strategy revolves around Trap Cards with the ability to Special Summon themselves as Normal Monsters.

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• Anti-Magic: Olenoides can destroy a Spell or Trap Card on the field.
• Dub Name Change: From Burgesstoma to Paleozoic.
• Extra Eyes: Paleozoic Opabinia has five eyes, just like its real life namesake.
• Meaningful Name: The original name of the archetype is derived from the Burgess Shale with each card named after an extinct animal whose fossil could be found there. All of those species date back to the Paleozoic era.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: They're used from the field as Trap Cards, then Special Summoned from the Graveyard as Monsters. Unlike most so-called "Trap Monsters", they only count as Monsters when Summoned rather that both a Trap and a Monster. Because of this mechanic, Paleozoic decks tend to lack monsters as their Traps already have that covered.
• No-Sell: All Paleozoic monsters are unaffected by the effects of other monsters.
• Stone Wall: Opabinia has 2400 DEF - the highest among Rank 2 Xyz monsters - and 0 ATK. It is also unaffected by the effects of other monsters.
• Zerg Rush: The Paleozoic Trap Cards can Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard as a monster whenever a Trap Card is activated, allowing them to quickly swarm the field and amass Xyz Materials for Anomalocaris and Opabinia.

Penguin

And they will march, just as they have done for centuries... in the harshest place on Earth.

Penguin is an archetype of low-Level WATER monsters based on, of course, penguins. Originally little more than a small set of filler monsters with random effects, the series later received archetypal support, and its gameplay was tidied up to focus on flip effects and bouncing.

Some early Penguin cards were used by Otaki/Crump in Duel Monsters; Guard Penguin is used by Rio Kamishiro/Kastle in ZEXAL.

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• Back from the Dead: Small Penguin's effect; when it is sent to the Graveyard after being flipped face-up, you can target a different Penguin in your Graveyard and Special Summon that target.
• Five-Man Band: Penguin Brave depicts a five-man group of RPG Heroes, but they're penguins. The penguin with the sword is The Hero, the purple ninja is The Lancer, the martial artist penguin is the Big Guy, the Cleric penguin is The Smart Guy, and the Wizard penguin is The Heart.
• Homage: Nightmare Penguin seems to have been inspired by The Penguin from Tim Burton's Batman Returns.
• Killer Rabbit: The entire archetype is full of cute Penguin fighters.
• Large and in Charge: The Great Emperor Penguin is the largest of the series.
• Stone Wall: Much like Penguin Soldier, Nightmare Penguin can bounce many of your opponent's stronger monsters. This card can only target 1 card, but it has a basic 1800+200 DEF, and might withstand an attack which Penguin Soldier may not.
• The Smurfette Principle: For Penguin Heroes. The wizard one appears to be the sole female of the group.
• Visual Pun: Nightmare Penguin wears a tophat and tailcoat, resembling The Penguin, a popular villain from the Batman franchise.
• Weak, but Skilled: Penguin Soldier is one of the the best cards of the Penguin archetype. This card can send 2 monsters on the field back to their owner's hand; you can even Flip this card to return 1 monster your opponent controls and this monster, so you can re-use this card's effect. This card is especially effective against Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link Monsters, since they will leave the Field entirely. Also, this card allows its player to work around the effects of cards that negate destruction.

Performage

Performage (Entermage in the OCG) is an archetype of Spellcaster monsters based on circus artists and street magicians. They focus on preventing the player from taking damage and swarming the field to set up for Xyz Summons.

They are used by Dennis Mackfield in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime.

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• Adapted Out: Despite having a lot of cards in the anime, only a few Performage cards were adapted into the physical card game, and support for the archetype ceased after two sets. This is likely to do with the deck's strength and synergy with the Performapals, which created one of the most infamously broken decks in the game: PePe (Performapal Performage).
• Back from the Dead: In the anime, Performage Trick Clown can revive himself when sent to the Graveyard. In the game, he can Special Summon any Performage monster from the Graveyard.
• Dub Name Change: From Entermage to Performage.
  • Stilts Shooter —> Stilts Launcher.
  • Higurumi —> Flame Mascot.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Performapals after Dennis's true allegiance is revealed.
• Power Nullifier: One of Damage Juggler's effect is to negate a card's effect that would have inflicted effect damage, and destroy that card.

Performapal

Performapal (Entermate in the OCG) is an archetype based on circus animals and entertainers in fancy clothes. They're primarily a Pendulum Summoning-oriented Deck, and have varied effects although their primary focus is on altering the ATK and DEF of monsters. They are used by Yuya Sakaki in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime and manga, alongside the Odd-Eyes and Magician archetype.

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• All Your Powers Combined: Sort of. Partnaga's Monster Effect can target one of the face-up monsters the player controls; it gains 300 ATK for each Performapal the player currently controls.
• Anti-Magic: When Elephammer declares an attack, all Spell/Trap Cards the opponent controls return to his/her hand.
• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • Spike Eagle's effect allows the player to target a face-up monster he/she controls; that monster can inflict Piercing Damage in that turn.
  • Camelump's Pendulum Effect does the same, plus the attacked monster in Defense Position lose 800 DEF.
• Badass Longcoat: Worn by Pendulum Sorcerer.
• Big Good: Elephammer is currently the strongest of them by stats, being a Level 6 monster with 2600 ATK. This is also confirmed by Yuya, saying that Elephammer is the leader of the Performapals.
• Blush Sticker: Some of them.
• Captain Ersatz: Trump Witch is based on the Dark Magician Girl, since the color of her dress and her hair color are the same as of the Dark Magician Girl's. This is intentional, since Trump Witch was drawn by a nine-year old girl named Mizuki Imai for the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Start Commemoration! Monster Design Contest.
• Character Select Forcing: During the early days, you pretty much need to use the Magician and Odd-Eyes archetypes in conjunction with them mostly because they had terrible scales (meaning that the Magicians were needed to actually Pendulum summon), and had no Fusion monsters of their own. (Meaning you needed Odd-Eyes or other cards to fuse with.) Later releases give Performapals that have better scales and can work better alone, though.
• Dub Name Change: From Entermate to Performapal. Some individual examples:
  • Discover Hippo —> Hip Hippo.
  • Plusturtle —> Stamp Turtle.
  • Drumming Kong —> Drummerilla.
  • Hei Tiger —> Salutiger.
  • Mammosplash —> Splashmammoth.
  • Pendulum Magician —> Pendulum Sorcerer. This was necessary to avoid confusion with the Magician (Majutsushi) Pendulum Cards.
• Fusion Dance: An "Odd-Eyes monster + a "Performapal" monster = Performapal Odd-Eyes Metal Claw. Visually, it's a fusion of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Silver Claw.
• Glass Cannon: While they can quickly and easily reach high ATK and strike hard with their own effects, such gains are often temporary and they quickly become vulnerable at the end of the turn, as few of them have good ATK or DEF on their own.
• Honorable Elephant: Elephammer, the strongest member of the archetype, and the one stated by Yuya to be their leader.
• Horned Humanoid: Both Uni and Corn, who as their names suggest, have single unicorn horns poking out of their foreheads.
• Panthera Awesome:
  • Salutiger has 1700 ATK and it can search for you a Pendulum Performapal whenever it destroys a monster in battle and sends it to the Graveyard. With other Performapals increasing Salutiger's ATK, it can be powerful.
  • Fire Mufflerlion's Monster Effect allows another Pendulum Monster to attack a second time.
  • Handsome Liger has similar effect to Salutiger.
• Shrinking Violet: Cheermole's artwork shows her trying to hide her face. Also shown in the anime.
• Snake Whip: Whip Snake is a snake that uses itself as a whip.
• Stone Wall:
  • Kaleidoscorp has 2300 DEF and 100 ATK.
  • Partnaga has 2100 DEF and 500 ATK, plus all of the opponent's monsters that have a lower Level than Partnaga's Level 5 cannot attack.
  • Thunderhino has only 1800 DEF and 200 ATK, but it is a Level 4 Monster in comparison to the two Level 5 and 6 monsters above. Even if it's dead, Thunderhino can protect your Performapals on the field by banishing it from the Graveyard.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Performapals are generally not strong, but they can manipulate the ATK or DEF on the field or have other useful effects.

Phantom Beast

Phantom Beasts are an archetype of Beast, Beast-Warrior and Illusion monsters based on mythological figures. The main Phantom Beasts are an adaptation of the White Knight archetype used by Jun Manjoume/Chazz Princeton in GX, though Yugi also uses a couple members, namely Gazelle and Chimera (which were retroactively made into Phantom Beasts when they became a TCG/OCG archetype).

The Mecha Phantom Beasts are technically a sub-archetype of Phantom Beasts, though the two have no gameplay relations.

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• Demon Lords and Archdevils: Berfomet is based on Baphomet (and is even called that in Japanese) and in the 19th century the name came into popular English-speaking consciousness with the publication of various pseudo-history works that tried to link the Knights Templar with conspiracy theories elaborating on their suppression. The name "Baphomet" then became associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Lévi.
• King of Beasts: Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast is based on the earliest concept of the Chimera, having the head of lion, a head of a ram, and a snake for a tail. While this chimera does not have the head of a ram, its second head does have ram horns.
• Moose Are Idiots: Phantom Beast Wild-Horn is based on the Alaskan moose. Its effect does not support its fellow Phantom Beasts.
  "If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing Battle Damage to your opponent."
• Multiple Head Case: Phantom Beast Thunder-Pegasus and Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast have two heads each.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Phantom Beast Cross-Wing. While it's in the Graveyard, "Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts" and all "Phantom Beast" monsters on the field gain 300 ATK.
• Non-Indicative Name: Even though it is named "Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts", Gazelle resembles a lion, which hunts gazelles.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Gazelle and Chimera predate the rest of the archetype's members and the group itself becoming an archetype. Because of this, their names were translated into the TCG languages lacking the archetype name string. When the other Phantom Beasts were released, they specifically named Gazelle in their card text so that it could be supported by archetypal support. This issue was eventually properly rectified when later printings of Gazelle and Chimera were given archetype conditions to explicitly state that they are members of the archetype.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard has the usual centaur body shape but with lizard characteristics (most notably its head and tail).
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They're essentially the anime-exclusive White Knight monsters given a new coat of paint and made into Beast-Warriors instead of Warriors:
  • Thunder Pegasus is based on White Knight Gardna, with a similar statline and effect (Thunder Pegasus prevents destruction by battle while Gardna prevents battle damage).
  • Cross-Wing is White Knight Swordsman with higher stats and the same effect.
  • Wild-Horn is White Knight Lancer with slightly more ATK.
  • Rock-Lizard has a similar stat line as White Knight Lord, albeit trading in Lord's battle protection for the ability to be summoned with a single Phantom Beast tribute. It also has the same effects to damage the opponent when destroying a monster or when destroyed by a card effect, but with bigger numbers.

(The) Phantom Knights

The Phantom Knights archetype (Phantom in the OCG), which includes The Phantom Knights sub-archetype (Phantom Knights in the OCG), is an archetype of DARK Warrior monsters with effects that are activated by banishing themselves from the Graveyard, and have a focus on performing Xyz summons of Rank 2-4 monsters (mainly Rank 3s).

They are used by Yuto and Yuya Sakaki in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime and manga.

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• Animated Armor: Most of the Phantom Knights monsters appear to be various haunted pieces of armor.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Dark Gauntlets, Mist Claws and Shadow Veil are Trap cards with the ability to summon themselves as monsters fom the graveyard but with the drawback of being banished if they leave the field. However, since Xyz Materials do not count as being on the field, they can be used for Xyz Summons and, once detached, will end up back into the graveyard where their effects can be activated once again.
  • Phantom Knights' Sword, Wing and Fog Blade can all be banished during either player's turn, to summon a Phantom Knight monster from the GY. However, the summoned monster will be banished if it leaves the field. Like with the above example, using the summoned monsters as Xyz materials will allow them to avoid that drawback.
• Black Knight: The Phantom Knights are, as their name implies, ghostly knights and they all wear black clothes or armor. The Xyz Monsters fit the image the best, particularly Break Sword who comes with a Cool Horse.
• Dub Name Change: From Phantom to Phantom Knights and from Phantom Knights to The Phantom Knights. Justified in order to avoid confusion with other cards that have "Phantom" in their name.
• Ironic Name: The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor actually has the highest DEF in the archetype.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Cursed Javelin's effect can, until the end of the turn, negate the effects of an opposing monster on top of changing its ATK to 0.
  • Fog Blade will negate the effects of a face-up effect monster on the field while also preventing it from attacking or being attacked.
• Status Buff:
  • Dusty Robes can change itself to defense potion to have a DARK monster gain 800 ATK and DEF until the end of the opponent's next turn.
  • If used as a material for the summon of a DARK Xyz monster, Rugged Gloves can increase the ATK of that monster by 1000.
  • Additionally, they have quite a few ATK-raising effects among their Trap Cards.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Phantom Knights' stats are laughably low, with their strongest monster, Rusty Bardiche, weighing in at a meager 2100 ATK. However, they can offset this with a wide array of effects for buffing ATK, defending against the opponent's attacks, and disrupting their field.

Photon / Galaxy(-Eyes) / Tachyon

"Are you ready to repent?"

Photon and Galaxy monsters are a series of LIGHT monsters, the Galaxies mostly being the archtype boss monsters while the Photons are the weaker members, and there are support cards for either. They rely on swarming the field with powerful monsters to summon their ace members, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.

In the ZEXAL anime and manga, they are the signature cards of Kite Tenjo. The Photons are also used by Gauche/Nistro and Droite/Dextra, though the former replaces them with Heroics. Another Galaxy-Eyes user is Mizael/Mizar who uses Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon and C107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon instead. Fuya Okudaira/Nelson Andrews has Number 83: Galaxy Queen (who is also part of the Sparrow series) in the early episodes of ZEXAL.

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• Anti-Magic: Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy's claim to meta relevancy is its Quick Effect to, once per turn, negate a Spell and then attach it to itself as material.
• Badass Preacher: Galaxy Wizard resembles a bishop. It may only have zero ATK and an average DEF, but its Xyz summoning capabilities are devastating. Because Galaxy Wizard's search effect doesn't specify only monsters, the player can search out any other Galaxy card such as Galaxy Expedition or Galaxy Queen's Light to aid in the summon of Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.
• Barrier Warrior:
  • During either player's turn: You can send Kuriphoton from your hand to the Graveyard and pay 2000 Life Points; you take no damage this turn. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can send 1 Photon monster from your hand to the Graveyard, except Kuriphoton; add this card to your hand. The effect of Kuriphoton can only be activated once per turn.
  • Any Battle Damage you take from battles involving Photon Circle is halved.
• Continuity Cameo: Orbital 7 is based off of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL character, Orbital 7. This card supporting the Photon and Galaxy archetypes relates to the relationship between the character and the archetypes' user, Kite Tenjo. Also, the Roger Counter is based on how Orbital 7 replies to anything Kite orders it to by saying "roger". He later joins the archetype proper as Photon Orbital.
• Characterization Marches On: While the archetype was originally based around summoning and supporting Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon as their flagship monster, their game plan eventually shifted to using Galaxy-Eyes as the centerpiece of a Rank 8 engine with a few cards focusing on Rank 4. There's more than a bit of Irony in the situation, with a monster that was originally billed as an Xyz killer later being used primarily as Xyz Material.
• Charged Attack: Subverted with Photon Chargeman: He can charge himself with extra energy and double his ATK for 2 turns, but cannot attack upon doing so. Played straight with the Spell Photon Booster, which gives a power boost to monsters with the same name. However, the intended use of said cards is to easily summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, not attack with the affected monsters.
• Cool Starship: Number 42: Galaxy Tomahawk is a massive spaceship resembling a stealth fighter.
• Cyber Cyclops: The lower-level Galaxy monsters have a common design motif of having a mechanical appearance with only a single eye (as seen on monsters like Soldier, Cleric, and Mirror Sage).
• Draconic Abomination: Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon, who has the honor for providing the trope's page image. It truly looks nothing like the rest of its dragonic kin, being a massive, ghastly and amorphous-looking beast made of dark matter itself, howling with its shark-esque visage alongside the tormented souls orbiting it.
• Drone Deployer: Number 42: Galaxy Tomahawk is a giant spaceship that can Special Summon as many Battle Eagle Tokens, smaller Attack Drones, to the controller's field as possible, but they are destroyed during the End Phase. Also, the opponent takes no further battle damage that turn.
• Evil Counterpart: Mizael's Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is implied by name to be one to Kite's Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's roar in the anime is similar to how Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon roars in the Japanese version and its effect is similar to the effect of Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. It also has its own Neo version.
• Glass Cannon: Not as much as prevalent as other decks; but Galaxy and by extension, Photon decks prefer quickly summoning their main monsters or making Rank 8 XYZ plays; but their decks usually offer little defense if stopped and usually have rough recovery once their onslaught is halted.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Photon Slayer and Galaxy Knight.
• Man of Kryptonite: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is designed to take down Xyz monsters, where it can remove itself and the monster it battles from play and return both to the field later. Due to the way Xyz Monsters work, this removes their Xyz Material Monsters, leaving them without the ability to activate their effects. To add insult to injury, Galaxy-Eyes gains 500 ATK for each Xyz Material the other removed monster had when they jumped out of play.
• Meaningful Name: "Prime" means "Main" or "Important", which could show Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon is the "Main" "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" or important to Photon Dragon.
• Multiple Head Case:
  • Photon Cerberus is based on the mythical beast, Cerberus, the guard hound of the underworld. Unlike the other "Cerberus" monsters, this card stays true to its namesake.
  • Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon has three heads. Number C107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon has three heads as well.
  • Twin Photon Lizard is a two headed dragon that is fused by using ANY two Photon monsters and it can split itself into it's base forms.
• Next Tier Power-Up:
  • Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon has two improved Xyz versions, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon. The latter has its own upgrade, Number C62: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon.
  • Number C107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is the upgrade to Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon.
• Odd Name Out:
  • Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is the first Galaxy to also belong to the Number series and the first not to belong to the Photon archetype.
  • Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon is the first Galaxy-Eyes to break the naming pattern of "(...) Galaxy-Eyes (Elementary Particle) Dragon".
  • Galaxy-Eyes Cloud Dragon is the only Galaxy-Eyes Dragon whose name is not based on particles. However, the "cloud" in its name could refer to an electron cloud, which is still a quantum property of matter.
• One-Hit Kill: Fully possible thanks to the release of Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon, which can, if detached from an Xyz Monster during the Battle Phase, double the ATK of all Number monsters you control. The most obvious application for this is using it alongside Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon to summon Prime Photon Dragon, who then detaches Afterglow for its effect to reach at least 11200 ATK. And Afterglow can then spit out another Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, putting 3000 more ATK on board after that. If that wasn't good enough, Number C62: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon can reach the same ATK value by detaching Afterglow Dragon, with the bonus of being able to attack three times.
• Our Dragons Are Different: A good majority of the monsters are Dragon-Type, usually a variant of Galaxy-Eyes who itself is a dragon made of bright, stellar lights. The Tachyon Dragons, Hope Harbinger and Dark Matter get shout-outs for the former two being more like Humongous Mecha modeled after dragons rather than being dragons themselves, while the latter barely looks like a comprehensible entity.
• Phosphor-Essence: Many of their monsters emit a bright glow from within their bodies to fit their stellar and light theming. Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon in particular appears to be made of light.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Photon Strike Bounzer can negate any monster effect that activates on the field simply by detaching an Xyz material, your opponent loses 1000 life points in addition.
  • Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon can be useful in destroying monsters that are rather hard to get rid of such as Marshmallon, Number 39: Utopia or Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. In addition it can remove the hindering effects of certain monsters such as Photon Crusher, Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast or Beast King Barbaros. In a Hieratic deck, you can use this card's effect to reverse the ATK reduction to 0 sustained by Dragon-Type monsters that have been Special Summoned by the effects of Hieratic monsters.
• Time Master: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is able to negate card effects and control time to its own advantage during the battle phase. Its Barian-Force upgraded counterpart has an effect that negates the effects of all other cards and resets the entire state of the duel to that of the beginning of the turn and and then averts the occurrence of any unfavorable outcomes during the main phase.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Because several low-level Photons have incongruously high attack power, they often come equipped with some balancing restriction. For example Photon Crusher's effect is similar to early beatdown favorite Goblin Attack Force, and Photon Sabre Tiger loses 800 attack if it's the only Tiger on your side of the field.
  • The Galaxy archetype also tends to favor overwhelming the opponent through gigantic ATK values, with the majority of their Xyz monsters hitting 4000 ATK or more, and their card effects are almost all based on getting their heavy hitters out as quickly as possible. Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon is probably the best example, since it's only good for hitting absurdly high ATK values at the expense of everything else, including Battle Damage. Which, considering that it can run over Five-Headed Dragon on its own, is still enough to make it scary.
• Winged Humanoid: Photon Papilloperative.

Plant Princesses

The Plant Princesses are a series of Level 8 Plant-Type monsters with different Attributes, based on various flowers.

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• Alternate Character Reading: Chirubimé's japanese name (Aki Chirubime) is a wordplay, since 'Aki' phonetically means 'autumn' however, because of the Japanese characters used to write this name, it means as well 'red princess', alluding to the red color of maple leaves; while Chirubimês is a wordplay composed by 'chiru', which is the japanese verb used to express the idea of falling leaves, and 'bime' is the same as 'hime' which means princess, thus Chirubimé's whole name literally means: Autumn Red Princess of Falling Leaves.
• Anthropomorphic Personification:
  • Tytannial represents Autumn, given that it is a WIND monster and Autumn is typically a windy season. In addition, the flower the princess emerges from, the Camellia, typically blooms in late Autumn.
  • Queen of the Night represents Winter, given that it features snowflakes in its card artwork and is a WATER monster. Also, its flower, which is a cactus flower, is the only of this family's flowers capable of blooming in Winter due to the climate differences of a desert environment.
  • Talaya represents spring, since it is also a WATER monster and Spring is typically a rainy season. In addition, the flower it is based off, the Cherry Blossom, blooms in Spring– around April, when Cherry Blossom Festivals are typically held.
  • Mariña represents Summer, given that it is a FIRE monster, and Summer is universally the hottest season. In addition, Sunflowers are the only flower featured in the princesses' artwork that blooms in Summer.
  • Chirubimé also represents Winter given that Maple tree blooms in this season and, being an EARTH monster, may represent the environment in which this plant grows: dry, stable soils. It could also represent the Autumn, as its leaves are red and the leaves that fall in this season become nourishment for the earth.
• Plant Person: All of them can be seen sprouting out of the flowers they represent.

Plunder Patroll

Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul...

Plunder Patroll is an archetype of Fiend-Type monsters that focus on Special Summoning their archetypal Extra Deck monsters during the opponent's turn via their own card effects, thus bypassing the need to use materials to Summon them. The archetype generally utilizes a control strategy, primarily relying on using its effects during the opponent's turn to disrupt their combos.

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• Back from the Dead:
  • Once during either player's turn, the controller can use the effect of Booty to change the Attribute of an opponent's monster to one of their choice until the end of the turn, then they can take a Plunder Patroll monster from their Graveyard and either return it to the Deck or Special Summon it.
  • Goldenhair's own effect allows the controller to Special Summon it from the Graveyard, provided they discard a card as a cost. However, if they do this, they cannot Special Summon non-Plunder Patroll monsters for the rest of the turn.
• Badass Crew: They are aesthetically based on a pirate crew, and they certainly act the part, with all of them having effects capable of being used on the opponent's turn for maximum disruption of their moves.
• Big Eater: According to Master Duel, Blackbeard has a fierce appetite.
• The Captain: As his name suggests, Blackbeard is this among the crew.
• Cool Ship: The Plunder Patrollship monsters are this. Brann and Moerk have Ignition Effects that become Quick Effects if a Plunder Patroll card is equipped to them. Lys allows the controller to add a Plunder Patroll card from their Deck to their hand if they use its negation effect while a Plunder Patroll card is equipped to it. In all, these interactions symbolize a member of the crew manning the ship and using it to interfere with the opponent's moves.
• Equippable Ally: One of the archetype's notable gimmicks is equipping its monsters to archetypal Extra Deck monsters, typically the Plunder Patrollships, in order to gain some form of advantage. If they are equipped with Plunder Patroll cards, Brann and Moerk have Ignition Effects that become Quick Effects, while Lys allows its controller to add a Plunder Patroll card from their Deck to their hand if its negation effect is used. Thematically, this represents a crew member manning the ship and piloting it to respond to the opponent's tactics.
  • Redbeard and Whitebeard have a Quick Effect wherein they can Special Summon archetypal Extra Deck monsters during the opponent's turn, provided the Summoned monster's Attribute matches that of a monster on the opponent's field or Graveyard, then equip themselves to the Summoned monster.
  • Blackbeard has a Quick Effect that can be used on either player's turn that behaves similarly to the effects of Redbeard and Whitebeard, except it targets an Effect Monster the controller controls and equips said target to the Summoned monster.
  • Shipshape Ships Shipping can banish itself from the Graveyard to allow its controller to equip a Plunder Patroll monster, or Emblem of the Plunder Patroll, from their Deck to an archetypal monster they control.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Bluebeard, Redbeard, Whitebeard, and Blackbeard all have beards of the color in their names. As her name suggests, Goldenhair has a full head of blonde hair.
• Foil: Brann and Moerk possess a number of traits that contrast each other. To start, the former is a Synchro Monster, which have white card borders, while the latter is a black bordered Xyz Monster. Both monsters are also facing opposite directions in their card artworks, and while the former's artwork depicts daylight, the latter's is a nighttime scene. Their stats are reversed and their effects target monsters and backrow, respectively.
• Gadgeteer Genius: According to Master Duel lore, Bluebeard designs the Plunder Patrolls' ships, enabling their travels across the lands.
• Meaningful Name: The names of the Plunder Patrollships are words derived from the Norwegian language that refer to their Attributes.
  • Brann is the Norwegian word for "fire", which fits with its FIRE Attribute.
  • Lys is the Norwegian word for "light", and unsurprisingly, its Attribute is LIGHT.
  • Moerk is an English transliteration of mørk, the Norwegian word for "dark". Fittingly, Moerk is a DARK monster.
  • Jord is the Norse personification of the earth, and so is an EARTH monster.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Like several other archetypes, this archetype focuses on Special Summoning monsters from the Extra Deck. However, most other archetypes who do this amass materials on their controller's turn to use to Special Summon their Extra Deck monsters. This archetype instead uses the effects of their Main Deck monsters and Blackbeard to Special Summon its Extra Deck monsters directly from the Extra Deck during the opponent's turn without the use of materials.
• Named After Someone Famous:
  • Blackbeard's name likely derived from the infamous pirate of the same name.
  • Several ships in the Royal Norwegian Navy have borne the name "Brann", making it a fitting name for the Plunder Patrollship monster.
  • Similarly, there are a number of ships in the French Navy with the name "Lys", giving the Plunder Patrollship monster of the same name some historical basis.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They are pirates, who also happen to be trolls, hence their Fiend-Type.
• No Sense of Direction: On rare occasions, Whitebeard accidentally steers the Plunder Patrolls in the wrong direction. Regardless of those odd moments, Whitebeard guides the ship well.
• Pirate: The archetype is aesthetically based on pirates. They also act the part, as much of their strategies are utilized on the opponent's turn. In particular, the Main Deck monsters and Blackbeard are able to cheat out the archetype's Extra Deck monsters without using materials for the Summon. The Patrollships are able to utilize disruptive effects to banish (or "steal") cards away from the opponent's field, and such effects can be used on the opponent's turn if they have Plunder Patroll cards equipped to them.
• Punny Name: The archetype's name, Plunder Patroll, the latter word of which is a portmanteau of patrol and troll, is a good place to start. Parrrty and Shipyarrrd also deserve mentions, being the words party and shipyard respectively combined with "arrr", a common statement of agreement ascribed to pirates.
• Tagalong Kid: Goldenhair, who also comes with a hint of Little Miss Badass. In the Master Duel lore, she's even described as an apprentice who becomes a full-fledged member of the crew.
• Team Pet: Blackeyes the crow appreciates Blackbeard's kindness and is close to him. This crow is used to scout out areas for the rest of the crew.
• The Smurfette Principle: Goldenhair is the only female member of the archetype.
• Status Buff:
  • Brann has an effect that increases the ATK of the controller's other Fiend-Type monsters by 500.
  • Emblem boosts the ATK of the monster it is equipped to by 500. It also has an effect wherein it can send itself to the Graveyard, Special Summon a Plunder Patrol monster from the Extra Deck, and then equip the Summoned monster with the monster it was previously equipped to as an Equip Spell Card that grants 500 ATK to the Summoned monster.
  • When its controller Special Summons an archetypal Extra Deck monster from the Extra Deck, Parrrty can equip itself from the Graveyard to the Summoned monster as an Equip Card that grants 500 ATK to the Summoned monster.
  • Shipyarrrd bolsters the ATK of every Plunder Patroll monster the controller controls by 500 for each Plunder Patroll card in their Spell & Trap Zone.
• Talk Like a Pirate: The names of Parrrty and Shipyarrrd are portmanteaus of party and shipyard respectively combined with "arrr", a common statement of agreement used by pirates. Considering the pirate theme of the archetype, this is very fitting.
• Troll: They are literal trolls that also happen to be pirates, hence their Fiend-Type. However, the members of the archetype are also characterized by having Quick Effects (or Ignition Effects that can become such) that are meant to disrupt the opponent during their turn, tying into common impressions of trolls as people who behave in a manner that deliberately antagonizes others.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Redbeard is the navigator of the crew and a leader who is wise beyond his years.

Power Tool / Life Stream Dragon

Docking strength with courage to protect the earth's peace!

^{Life Stream Dragon} The courage and power to protect the future of the planet is a Revolution!

Power Tool is an archetype comprised of Machine-Type Synchro Monsters and Equip Spells used by Lua/Leo in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, including his ace monster Power Tool Dragon. Their playstyle mainly focuses on the searching and equipping of Equip Spells, which can then be discarded to activate a variety of effects like preventing their wielder's destruction, negating monster effects, and changing battle positions. Meanwhile, their support connects them to the Morphtronic archetype, boosts their ATK, negates opposing monster effects, and allows for Equip Spells to be returned from the field or graveyard to the deck and deal burn damage in the process.

It is eventually revealed that Power Tool Dragon’s true identity is Life Stream Dragon, one of the Signer Dragons who doubles as a Tuner with effects that can make its owner’s life points become 4000, negate effect damage, and prevent its destruction by banishing Equip Spells from the graveyard.

Years later, they received new support that allows for easier searching and equipping of Equip Spells and summoning Life Stream Dragon to the field without it needing to be Synchro Summoned the traditional way.

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• Combat Medic: When Life Stream Dragon is Synchro Summoned, it can make its owner’s life points become 4000.
• Draw Aggro: During your opponent's turn, your opponent cannot select a monster other than a monster equipped with Double Tool C&D as an attack target. The monster that battles the equipped monster is then destroyed at the end of the damage step.
• Evil Counterpart: Power Tool Mecha Dragon, the Duel Dragon counterpart of Power Tool Dragon who can allow you to draw one card during your turn and can steal Equip Cards from monsters on either player’s field to equip to itself.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Power Tool Braver Dragon appears to be based off of Power Tool Dragon’s appearance in the anime, specifically the instance when it was equipped with Double Tool C&D during Lua’s duel against Divine in episode 36 of 5D's. In addition, Braver's name also appears to be a reference to Power Tool Dragon's summoning chant in the Japanese version. It can also be interpreted as being Life Stream Dragon wearing a souped-up version of Power Tool Dragon's armor, considering Braver is the highest-Leveled and second-strongest of the three (Level 9 at 2500 ATK and 2300 DEF, while Power Tool Dragon and Life Stream are Level 7 at 2300 ATK and 2500 DEF and Level 8 at 2900 ATK and 2400 DEF respectively).
  • The artwork for Life Extreme references episode 143 of 5D's where Power Tool Dragon first became Life Stream Dragon when its armor was shed by the Crimson Dragon.
• No-Sell:
  • If Power Tool Dragon would be destroyed while equipped with an Equip Spell Card(s), you can send one of those cards to the graveyard instead.
  • If Life Stream Dragon would be destroyed while face-up on the field, you can banish one Equip Spell from your graveyard instead.
• Status Buff: Double Tool C&D can give Power Tool Dragon or a Level 4 or higher Machine-Type Morphtronic monster you control 1000 ATK.
• Stone Wall: Power Tool Dragon and Power Tool Mecha Dragon both have 2300 ATK and 2500 DEF.

Prank-Kids

The Prank-Kids are an archetype composed of monsters of various Types and Attributes. The Main Deck Prank-Kids can Special Summon another Prank-Kid from the hand or Deck if it was sent to the Graveyard as a material for the summon of a Prank-Kids Link/Fusion monster. These Extra Deck monsters in turn have effects that can recover Prank-Kids cards in the graveyard, allowing for rapid resource generation if a Prank-Kids is allowed to activate its deck-summoning effect.

The archetypal boss monsters, Battle Butler and Rip-Roarin-Roaster, have powerful board wipe Quick Effects activated by tributing themselves. The latter cost however can be substituted by banishing a Meow-Meow-Mu from the GY, the critically important archetypal Link 1 monster that sets up the Prank-Kids 1 card combo.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Fusions and Links, save for Bow-Wow-Bark.
• Recurring Element: To the Gem-Knights and Ritual Beasts, as all three archetypes feature Aqua, Pyro, and Thunder monsters, and are Fusion-focused to boot.
• Rule of Three: The Prank-Kids themselves each depict a trio of small, mischievous creatures. There are also three different ones in the Main Deck (until Rocksies made it four), three different Fusion Monsters and three different Link Monsters (until Meow Meow made it four).

Predaplants

Predaplant, known as Predator Plants in the OCG, is an archetype comprised of DARK Plant-Type monsters based on various carnivorous plants and carrion flowers. Their playstyle revolves around Fusion Summoning and placing Predator Counters on the opponent's monsters which has the effect of reducing their Levels to 1. They then take advantage of this situation through various effects. The Predaplants are a sub-archetype of the Predap archetype which also contains Spell and Trap cards supporting the group's strategy. They are used by Yuri in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime and manga.

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• Back from the Dead: Drosophyllum Hydra can summon itself from the hand or graveyard by tributing a monster with a Predator counter on them. Also, the spell cards Predaponics and Predaprunning have an effect that summons a monster from the graveyard.
• Casting a Shadow: All members of this archetype are DARK monsters and several of their Fusion Monsters require DARK monsters as Fusion Material. This is also why Super Polymerization is commonly used within this deck, since DARK monsters are very common monsters in the game, and Yuri also happens to own that card.
• Dark Is Evil: They are used by Yuri, look monstrous and due to their Attribute, they can be used as Fusion Materials for Yuri's ace monster, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The anti-heroic Manga version of Yuri also uses the archetype.
• Dub Name Change: From "Predator" and Predator Plant" to "Predap" and "Predaplant".
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first four Predaplants had a more plant-like appearance compared to the more animalistic appearance of the later ones.
• Fusion Dance: The Predaplant archetype as a whole is primarily focused on Fusion Summoning monsters and they are capable of performing multiple Fusion Summons in a row thanks to their ability to search for cards that can fuse them together or of making use of Predator Counters to use the opponent's monsters as Fusion Material. The following Predaplant Fusion Monsters or members related to them are the following below:
  • 2 "Predaplant" Monsters = Predaplant Ambulomelides.
  • 1 "Predaplant" Monster + 1 DARK Monster = Predaplant Chimerafflesia.
  • 1 Fusion Monster + 1 DARK Monster = Predaplant Dragostapelia.
  • 3 DARK Monsters on the field = Predaplant Triphyoverutum.
  • 1 "Predaplant" Monster + 1 DARK Monster whose original level is 8 or higher = Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon. Visually, it's a powered up form of "Starving Venom Fusion Dragon".
  • 1 DARK Fusion Monster + 1 Fusion Monster = Starving Venom Predapower Fusion Dragon.
• Irony: The effects regarding the Predator Counters reducing the Level of the opponent's monsters conflict with Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's second effect which requires the opponent's monsters to be Level 5 or higher.
• Man-Eating Plant: With the exception of the Fusion Monsters, all of the Predaplants are based on various species of carnivorous plants.
• Planimal: Apart from Flytrap, Moray Nepenthes, Squid Drosera and Chimera Rafflesia, the Predaplants resemble animals with plant-like characteristics more than actual plants.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Dragostapelia negates the activated effects of all monsters an opponent controls with a Predator counter on them.
  • Starving Venom Predapower Fusion Dragon can negate the activation of an effect by tributing one monster with a Predator Counter on it. The tributed monster can be from either side.
• Signature Scent: Considering that the Fusion monsters are both themed after carrion flowers, they probably smell like corpses.
• Theme Naming: Befitting their name, the Predaplants are named after carnivorous plants and carrion flowers but their names also contain the name of an animal species they resemble.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Main Deck monsters' ATK isn't especially high, so they have to rely on their use of Predator Counters and their effects to make up for it.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • As with other archetypes that rely on counters, effects that causes the monster with Counters to leave the field, such as the Gladiator Beasts tagging out, causes their strategy to be reset. Gate Blocker is also a problem for them due to its effect preventing counters from being placed on the field.
  • Xyz Monsters are also a problem for them due to them not having Levels and thus being unaffected by the Level-modifying effect of the Counters. On the flip side, Predaplants can be this to Xyz decks (as well as Synchro decks) by disrupting monster levels required for an Xyz summon.
  • Just like Xyz, Link Monsters are also a problem, if not even more so since on top of not having a level that can be modified, their summoning requirements requires the player to have a certain number of monsters on the field and don't care about levels, so the counters can't be used to disrupt the opponent's attempt at summoning monsters.

Prediction Princess

An archetype of Fairy-Type monsters, the Prediction Princesses revolve around supporting Flip and Ritual Summon. They are used by Mieru Houchun/Aura Sentia in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime.

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• Alchemic Elementals: Coingnoma, Arrowsylph, and Crystaldine are named after the gnome, the sylph, and the undine respectively. There is no monster named after the salamander yet.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The archetype includes Ritual Monsters and non-Ritual Flip Monsters. Then Nether Prediction Princess Tarotreith was added, which is the game's first Ritual Flip Monster.
• The Cameo: Prediction Princess Bibliomuse physically resembles Mieru, its user in the anime.
• Theme Naming: Each princess is named after a divination technique, such as tarot, or ouija. The Flip Effect Monsters are also named after various mythological creatures.

Princess Siblings

White Magician Pikeru

Ebon Magician Curran

The two Princess siblings are Pikeru and Curran. Pikeru studied white magic while Curran studied black magic, and the two will eventually face each other to prove their power and become either Princess Pikeru or Princess Curran. Technically a part of the Prophecy archetype, as they have part of the OCG name for Prophecy in their OCG names.

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• Animal-Eared Headband: Of the hat variety. Pikeru wears a yellow scapegoat hat while Curran wears a black bunny hat.
• Glass Cannon: The princesses have decent enough ATK and some pretty useful effects but both their default and upgraded forms have 0 DEF and no protection abilities, which makes them sitting ducks for any kind of removal or battle position-changing effects.
• Magical Girl Queenliness Test: Referrenced with the card "Trials of the Princess" which is used to turn either White Magician Pikeru or Ebon Magician Curran into Princess Pikeru or Princess Curran.
• Telepathy: Pikeru has the ability to read minds as can be seen in the Pikeru's Second Sight trap card. The Japanese version of the same card outright calls it "Pikeru's Mind Reading".

Purrely

Congratulations! Your Epurrely evolved into Expurrely!

Purrely can refer to both an archetype of Fairy monsters and the Level 1 monster Purrely, which is the central card of the Deck. Lore-wise, they are a species of friendly domesticated animals that live in harmony with humans and evolve into unique forms depending on the conditions and emotions of the environment that they are raised in.

The archetype as a whole is capable of rapidly Summoning the Rank 2 Epurrely monsters with a combination of the aforementioned Level 1 monster and the "Memories", a trio of Quick-Play Spells that the Epurrelies can attach to themselves as materials when they resolve. By gaining a certain amount of materials, the Epurrelies can then be ranked up to the more powerful Rank 7 Expurrelies.

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• Big Eater:
  • The artwork of Purrely Delicious Memory has Purrely getting ready to enjoy a big feast. That cat has a big appetite.
  • Epurrely Plump's concept art has a mention of how its belly pops out when it eats too much.
• Friend to All Children: According to The Valuable Book EX 3, Expurrelies are big enough for children to be able to ride on their backs.
• Heavy Sleeper: Purrelyly, if Purrely Sleepy Memory is any indication.
• An Ice Person: Epurrely Beauty is described as Epurrely Ice Type in the concept art. It has icy wings and it can freeze wherever it walks.
• Making a Splash: In addition to its icy powers, Epurrely Beauty has a mysterious water tail and it can swim with the fins on its ears, hinting at its connection to water.
• No-Sell: Delicious Memory and Happy Memory can temporarily make any monster or card on the field unable to be destroyed by battle or card effects, respectively. Expurrely Noir takes this one step further by making itself immune to the opponent's activated effects if it has at least 5 materials attached to it.
• Odd Friendship: Purrelyly and Purrely. Purrelyly is quiet and shy, while Purrely is outgoing and friendly.
• Personality Powers: According to its concept art, Purrely changes personality based on its current attribute, explaining its Epurrely and Expurrely forms and the Purrely support cards easily. Four of these personalities include absent-minded, vivid, positive and shy.
• Plant Person: Epurrely Plump has cotton-like fur and its feet have a texture similar to tree bark.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Purrely, natch. The concept art goes out of its way to describe its cuteness in detail.
• Rule of Three: Purrely has three Memories that correspond to it, each featuring an Epurrely who can attach these Memories to themselves as material up to three times per turn.
• Status Buff: Any Purrely with Delicious Memory attached to it gains 300 ATK/DEF for each material it possesses.

Raccoon

Raccoons, also known as Tanooki in the OCG, are EARTH Beast-Type monsters who focus on swarming the field with Level 2 Beast-Type monsters in order to bring out their ace monster Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu. The whole archetype is used by Ponta while Sandayu by itself is used by Alito in his duel against Girag in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

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• Mook Maker: By detaching one Xyz Material, Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu can Special Summon one Kagemusha Raccoon Token, whose ATK becomes equal to the current ATK of the monster on the field that has the highest ATK (your choice, if tied).
• No-Sell: While you control another Beast-Type monster, Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.
• Weak, but Skilled: Their monsters don’t have very high ATK, but they more than make up for it through their effects to help pull off potentially devastating combos.

Raidraptor

Multiple bogeys inbound, moving to engage.

Raidraptors, known as Raid Raptors in the OCG, are an archetype of DARK Winged Beast-Type Monsters which look like destructive robotic avians, holding several guns throughout their bodies. They are able to swarm the field quickly to perform Xyz Summons, and extensively employ archetypal Rank-Up Magic cards and Rank-Up styled effects to summon bigger Xyz Raidraptors. This archetype is used by Shun Kurosaki/Shay Obsidian from ARC-V.

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• Anti-Magic: Satellite Cannon Falcon has the ability to wipe out all of the opponent's Spell and Trap cards if it Xyz summoned while having an Xyz Monster as material. And if that wasn't enough, the cards cannot be activated in response to the effect.
• Back from the Dead: Sharp Lanius is capable of special summoning a Raid Raptor monster from the grave after it attacked.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: Blade Burner Falcon's ATK are boosted to an impressive 4000 if the player is losing by 3000 LP or more. In the manga, this reflects Kurosaki's Combat Sadomasochist tendencies.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Similar to The Phantom Knights and Blackwings, Raidraptors are heroic DARK monsters which are used by the Anti-Hero Kurosaki.
• Dub Name Change:
  • For the archetype itself, it changed from Raid Raptors to Raidraptor.
  • Étrange Falcon became Stranger Falcon.
  • Devil Eagle became Fiend Eagle.
• Energy Absorption: By detaching an Xyz Material, Rise Falcon can target a Special Summoned monster the opponent controls; Rise Falcon gains ATK equal to the current ATK of that target.
• Evolutionary Levels: Thanks to the Rank-Up Magic cards this archetype has. The Rank-Up forms are neither Number C monsters nor CXyz monsters, and they are rather similar to Number 39: Utopia Beyond.
  • Rise Falcon (Rank 4) —> Blaze Falcon (Rank 5) —> Revolution Falcon (Rank 6) —> Arsenal Falcon (Level 7) —> Satellite Cannon Falcon (Rank 8) —> Ultimate Falcon (Rank 10) —> Final Fortress Falcon (Rank 12) —> Rising Rebellion Falcon (Rank 13).
• Four Is Death: To Xyz Summon Rise Falcon, you need three Level 4 Winged-Beast-type monsters, assembling the 4-4-4 formation.
• Kill Sat: Takes the form of Raidraptor Satellite Cannon Falcon, complete with Wave-Motion Gun attack fired from the orbit.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: The Raidraptors look like mechanical falcons and other birds of prey. Neither of them are Machine monsters, though.
• Mook:
  • In the anime, a Vanishing Lanius can Special Summon another Vanishing Lanius from the hand. Apparently in the anime, the swarming ability of this archetype requires multiple numbers of the same card, adding the monsters of this archetype little to no personality.
  • Exaggerated after the reveal of the other Main Deck monsters; essentially, almost every non-Xyz Raidraptor monster has "Lanius" in its name, like a unit codename.
• No-Sell: Ultimate Falcon and Rising Rebellion Falcon both have an innate immunity to other cards' effects, while Final Fortress Falcon gains this immunity if it has a Raidraptor Xyz Monster as Xyz Material.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Like their spiritual predecessors the Blackwings, Raidraptors are Winged-Beast monsters that fight oppression and are used by a heroic character who is fighting for his friends and family. Unlike the far more organic Blackwings, Raidraptors are all mechanical in appearance and more animalistic in shape, symbolizing their warfare against the Fusion Dimension.
• One-Man Army: Rise Falcon and Revolution Falcon are able to attack multiple enemy monsters once each, though Rise is restricted to Special Summoned monsters. Arsenal Falcon is also able to make multiple attacks—and unlike Rise and Revolution, can do so regardless of whether there are monsters to attack at all—but it can only attack up to the number of Raidraptors that serve as its materials.
• Power Copying: Rising Rebellion Falcon can temporarily inherit the effects of any Raidraptor Xyz Monster in your Graveyard by detaching three materials.
• Shout-Out: Satellite Cannon Falcon is a blatant one to the titular mecha from After War Gundam X. Everything from the charging seqence that involves massive panels opening up on the monster in the ARC-V anime to the resulting destruction just screams Gundam X. Still awesome though.
• Sigil Spam: The red double R crest. This is taken to its logical extreme with "Rise-Rank-Up-Magic Raidraptor's Force", whose base name is both stylized and abbreviated in the original Japanese as "ЯRUM".
• Weak, but Skilled: Several of the Xyz Monsters have surprisingly low ATK for their Ranks, but potent effects to make up for it.
  • Last Strix, the weakest member of the archetype, can tribute itself to Special Summon any Raidraptor monster from the Extra Deck in the Defense Position and with its effects negated. This enables an easy Ultimate Falcon by comboing with a Rank Up spell.
  • Two of the archetype's Rank 4 Xyz monsters have only 100 ATK. However, Rise Falcon can gain ATK equal to the ATK of a targeted Special Summoned monster of the opponent, and attack all monster once each during the Battle Phase. Force Strix, on the other hand, can add Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast monsters from the deck to the hand and gain 500 ATK and DEF for each other Winged-Beast monsters on your side of the field.
  • Blaze Falcon and Revolution Falcon have low ATK for their Ranks, but they can destroy any Special Summoned monster the opponent controls, the former being able to destroy all of them at once, and the latter being able to reduce the ATK and DEF of an opponents Special Summoned monster to 0.
  • Devil Eagle only has 1000 ATK but its effect can inflict damage equal to the ATK of a Special Summoned monster the opponent controls.

Raika

Raika is an archetype of Insect, Plant, and Reptile monsters introduced in Legacy of Destruction. They are a Link Monster-oriented strategy that uses the ability to send cards from the hand to the Graveyard, banish cards from the Graveyard, and return banished cards to the Deck to create a resource loop capable of quickly Link Summoning other Insect, Plant and Reptile Link Monsters and access higher Link Ratings.

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Reactor

Reactor is an archetype of DARK Machine-type monsters. Their main strategy revolves around inflicting damage to an opponent whenever they play a particular type of card, with their effects also usually destroying said card, while at the same time preparing to summon their ace monster, Flying Fortress SKY FIRE. They are used by Bommer/Greiger in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

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• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Dark Flattop. Fittingly, it allows you to Special Summon one Reactor monster from your graveyard, ignoring summoning conditions, and if it's destroyed, you can special summon one level 5 or lower Machine-type monster.
• Anti-Magic: Spell Reactor・RE and Trap Reactor・Y FI destroy (but don't negate) Spell or Trap cards, respectively, that your opponent activates, and inflicts 800 damage to their Life Points each time. Flying Fortress SKY FIRE can also destroy a card your opponent Sets.
• Humongous Mecha: They're robots that resemble planes.
• Nerf: Dark Strike Fighter's effect was later errata'd so that it can only be activated once per turn.

Red Dragon Archfiend

The pulse of the king now forms a line here! Witness the power of the rumbling heavens!

Red Dragon Archfiend, known as "Red Demon's Dragon" in the Japanese, is an archetype of Dragon-type Synchro monsters that serve as the signature card of Jack Atlas across various appearances. They rely on overwhelming the opponent through brute power and Synchro Summoning advanced forms of themselves. They are also part of the "Red" series which can be used to help Synchro Summon them.

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• Adaptation Deviation: While the manga Red Dragon Archfiends are supposed to use their lesser forms to summon the stronger ones, the real life cards only specify they need to use a Dark Dragon-type Synchro monster for the summon, which can be any Dark Dragon Synchro you like.
• Anti-Magic: Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend King Calamity, can negate the opponent's card effects under different circumstances. The strongest of them, Red Supernova Dragon, can banish itself when your opponent activates a monster effect or attacks with a monster, to banish all of the opponent's cards.
• Big Red Devil: A towering red dragon with curved horns, massive claws, and fiery breath.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane have wrist-mounted blades.
• Composite Character: Red Supernova Dragon takes the power-up effect of Red Nova Dragon (gains 500 ATK for each Tuner in your Graveyard) and its second effect is a combination of the Red Dragon Archfiend's field nuking effect and Stardust Dragon's defense counterplay effect (can banish itself when the opponent uses a monster effect or attacks to banish all their cards, then summons itself back on the next turn).
• Dark Is Not Evil: They're massive demonic dragons that rely on brute force and nuking fields, but they're still Signer Dragons sent to save the world and they're still used by Jack after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The anime and manga both feature Jack Atlas using the archetype, but take its playstyle in very different directions and aesthetics. The anime Red Dragon Archfiends rely on destroying the opponent's cards and powering themselves up, as their evolved forms stay draconian in appearance and add more red to their color scheme, fitting with Jack's support for them having a general fire-theme and some of them being FIRE Attribute. The manga Red Dragon Archfiends focus on negating the opponent's card effects and Special Summoning Tuner monsters to set up further Synchro plays, their evolved forms take on a more humanoid and demonic appearance with more black in their color scheme, and they and their support are strictly for DARK Attribute monsters. In real life, fortunately, the two branches of the archetype can synergize with each other just fine.
• Dragons Are Demonic: This one certainly is, with all the demonic and fiery motifs going on in their designs. Also, it's right there in the name.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: As Hot Red Dragon Archfiend keeps evolving to higher forms, it becomes more and more deformed and bestial. By the time it hits Level 12 as King Calamity, it's barely even recognizable as the original monster.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: Red Dragon Archfiend's effect destroys all the opponent's Defense-position monsters when it defeats something in battle. Assault Mode, Scarlight, and Tyrant, all rely on nuking the opponent's field in more efficient ways. Special mention especially to Tyrant, who has the strongest effect of all where it destroys everything on the field besides itself.
• Meaningful Name: Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend's effect is to destroy everything on the field except itself, and negating the opponent's Spell and Trap effects when it attacks. A tyrant indeed.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike a lot of Synchro monsters, most of the highest tier Red Dragon Archfiend cards require two Tuner monsters to Synchro Summon, and Red Supernova Dragon requires three.
• Mythology Gag: The creators state that Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend's right claw is a reference to the series finale of 5D's, where Yusei's duel-ending attack had Junk Warrior deliver a superpowered punch that Red Dragon Archfiend tried to catch with its right claw; thus Scarlight has its claw covered in bones that look like bandages. This may also be why Scarlight has the effect to destroy the opponent's Special Summoned monsters: Junk Warrior got so powerful thanks to Yusei's Zerg Rush strategy flooding the field with low-level Special Summoned monsters.
• Punny Name: Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend has multiple meanings to its name, which is also spelled sometimes with a hyphen: "Scarlight" as a play on "scarlet", the shade of red; it phonetically sounds similar to "Starlight", making it a parallel to Yusei's monsters; "Scar-light" as a reverence to the Japanese name of Red Nova Dragon, Scar Red Nova Dragon; and finally "Scar-right" because its right horn and claw are wounded. There's also "Scarred Dragon Archfiend", another pun on Scar Red.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: They're a series of red and black dragons called "Red Dragon Archfiend", they're of the Dark-attribute, and their effects mostly center on destroying the opponent's cards. Subverted in that they're not actually evil, just Anti Heroic.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Stardust's blue. Red Dragons focus on mass destruction and high damage attacks with little protection to speak of. This is reflected in their color scheme: Red Dragons are aggressively red.
• The Rival: To the Stardust archetype, in keeping with Jack's rival with Yusei. Red Dragon Archfiends rely on destroying the opponent's cards, while Stardust cards protect cards from destruction. The original Red Dragon Archfiend and Stardust Dragon even have opposing poses in their artwork. Additionally, if you have the original Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend on the field during the End Phase and Stardust didn't attack that turn, you will have to destroy one of the two due to their effects - Red Dragon Archfiend's effect will destroy Stardust unless you use Stardust's own effect to save itself and destroy Red Dragon Archfiend.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Level 8 base Red Dragon Archfiends are plenty strong. Then another Tuner hits the field and they Synchro Summon into something even worse. And there's probably another worse tier or two above that coming next.

Red-Eyes

A ferocious dragon with a deadly attack.

Red-Eyes is an archetype of DARK monsters (with the exception of one WIND monster). The archetype is based mainly on supporting one of the earliest Monster Cards, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, a DARK Level 7 Normal Monster. Red-Eyes is the Shadow Archetype to Blue-Eyes and rivals the latter's power with its potential. The first wave of Red-Eyes monsters were created with fusion in mind; but the next wave of Red Eyes cards focus on rapidly special summoning Red-Eyes monsters and inflicting massive burn damage in a short time or activating powerful gemini monster effects. A third wave of Red-Eyes cards focused on Equips.The dragon is famous for being one of Katsuya Jonouchi/Joey Wheeler's signature monsters, which was originally owned by Dinosaur Ryuuzaki/Rex Raptor. Fubuki Tenjoin/Atticus Rhodes also uses a Red-Eyes deck in GX.

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

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• Always Second Best: Red-Eyes Black Dragon is significantly weaker than Blue-Eyes White Dragon and even with their alternate forms, it's inferior in terms of power. This extends to their archetypes, as the "Blue-Eyes" archetype is much more varied in terms of monsters, spells & traps. It also has more support cards than "Red-Eyes".
• Anti-Magic:
  • Archfiend Black Skull Dragon prevents the opponent to activate card effects until the end of the Damage Step when this card attacks.
  • Lord of the Red can destroy backrow or monster cards when the opponent activates a backrow card or an effect.
  • Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon can destroy any card effect (including spells and traps) via discarding one card from your hand when your opponent activates an effect, which if successful will give it 1,000 ATK points.
• Back from the Dead: A lot of Red-Eyes cards can revive fallen Red-Eyes monsters.
• Barrier Warrior: Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact protects all your other Red-Eyes monsters from being destroyed by attacks and effects. Combo it with Dragon Shield or another copy and you've got an indestructible shield that renders all of your Red-Eyes monsters untouchable.
• Belly Mouth: Meteor Black Comet Dragon and Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon appear to have the head of one of their constituent monsters on their chests (Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact and Black Metal Dragon, respectively).
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • In the Capsule Monsters anime, it's corrupted by the Blade of Chaos.
  • In the 10th Anniversary movie, the card is stolen by Paradox from either Jonouchi or Fubuki and then the former summons the corrupted version, Malefic Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
• Breath Weapon: Red-Eyes Black Dragon's Inferno Fire Blast, which can hit the opponent directly.
• Call-Back: In a way, the archetype has evolved into its support monsters evoking this, as most of them are new versions of or reference Jounouchi's cards or others' cards famously used by him:
  • Red-Eyes Baby Dragon (Baby Dragon, with Thousand Dragon's pose albeit mirrored)
  • Red-Eyes Fang with Chain (Kunai with Chain)
  • Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact (Meteor Dragon)
  • Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning (Summoned Skull, originally Yugi's monster)
  • Red-Eyes Retro Dragon (not the monster itself, but the fact that Time Machine is in the artwork, referencing Jounouchi using this card to revive Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon against Bandit Keith)
  • Gearfried the Red-Eyes Iron Knight (Gearfried the Iron Knight)
  • Archfiend Black Skull Dragon (Black Skull Dragon). Red-Eyes Fusion as well (depicting both Red-Eyes and Summoned Skull in the process of fusing into Black Skull Dragon)
• Canon Welding: Originally, Summoned Skull (Archfiend of Lightning), Gearfried the Iron Knight, Meteor Dragon, Baby Dragon, and Kunai with Chain had nothing to do with Red-Eyes Black Dragon beyond being a few of the signature cards of a classic character. Now, with them gaining Red-Eyes variants, the archetype has evolved into one themed after Katsuya Jounouchi/Joey Wheeler.
• Dark Is Evil: In GX, it's played straight with Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, since they contain the evil energy of Darkness/Nightshroud. That's why Fubuki removes them from his deck, but keeps Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Depending on the show and owner. In Jonouchi or Yugi's deck, it's played straight. When Fubuki uses it, it's this trope unless he uses Red-Eyes' Darkness forms.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • In the Duel Monsters anime, Red-Eyes Black Dragon switches its owner very often. Ryuuzaki loses it to Jonouchi, then he loses it to Seeker/Rare Hunter, who loses it to Yugi, and there is a big implication that Yugi loses it to Jonouchi, since he has it back in season 4.
  • Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon's effect allows you to Special Summon the opponent's Zombie-type monster that is defeated by this card.
• Dem Bones: Black Skull Dragon, though it's not a skeleton.
• Dracolich: Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon is the zombie version of Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. It later got Synchro retrains in Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon and Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon Lord, both of them coming about from its conflicts with Doomking Balerdroch.
• Dragon Knight: Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is Dark Magician wearing armor that looks like Red-Eyes Black Dragon. He's also a Magic Knight, wielding a sword but keeping his Spellcaster type and magical abilities judging from the card's artwork.
• Equippable Ally: Several Red-Eyes cards or monsters associated with the them have the ability to equip themselves to another monster.
  • Red-Eyes in the anime (or a Dragon in the OCG) can merge with Claw of Hermos to create the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword which can be equipped to any monster of your choosing.
  • Black Metal Dragon can be equipped to any Red-Eyes monster (sans Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon), giving it 600 ATK.
  • Red-Eyes Baby Dragon, if destroyed by battle, can summon a Level 7 or lower Red-Eyes monster from the deck and equip itself to that monster, granting it an extra 300 ATK.
  • Red-Eyes Slash Dragon can invoke this trope by equipping a Warrior monster from the graveyard to itself each time it attacks, turning said monster into a equip spell that grants Slash Dragon an extra 200 ATK.
• Extra Eyes: Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon and its derivatives have another pair of eyes on their lower jaws, basically having heads made up of two upper jaws instead of an upper one and a lower one.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon are the metal versions of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, respectively. Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon is an actual Machine-type monster.
• Foil: To the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, naturally enough, and in more than just the palette.
  • In the old days, the Blue-Eyes' unchallenged power contrasted the Red-Eyes' potential to Fusion Dance. Since then the Blue-Eyes has gained some fusion potential... mostly with itself (and in one case the Black Luster Soldier). The Red-Eyes, meanwhile, shares fusions with the Meteor Dragon, Summoned Skull, Dark Magician, and Gearfried the Iron Knight.
  • Modern Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes decks both rely on summoning their main monster to the field quickly, and in multiple copies when possible. However, at that point the Red-Eyes and its cards rely on inflicting large amounts of burn damage, while Blue-Eyes attacks and racks up battle damage. Also a point of note — Blue-Eyes' stronger forms are Fusion and Synchro monsters, while Red-Eyes' stronger forms are Fusion monsters with one Xyz monster.
• Fusion Dance: Red-Eyes has multiple fused forms and the archetype even has its own Fusion spell card, Red-Eyes Fusion.
  • Red-Eyes Black Dragon + Summoned Skull = Black Skull Dragon; the Archfiend Black Skull Dragon is a retrained B. Skull Dragon with Archfiend support that requires any "Red-Eyes" Normal Monster + a Level 6 "Archfiend" Normal Monster.^note Basically just Summoned Skull, its non-Gemini Summoned Red-Eyes counterpart, and Beast of Talwar.
  • Red-Eyes Black Dragon + Meteor Dragon = Meteor Black Dragon, which has its own retrained form: the Meteor Black Comet Dragon. The latter requires any Level 7 "Red-Eyes" Monster + a Level 6 Dragon Monster.
  • Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon seems to be a fusion of Black Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon despite being an Xyz monster.
  • Red-Eyes Black Dragon + a Warrior Monster = Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, which looks like Red-Eyes Black Dragon covered in Gearfried-themed armor.
  • Red-Eyes Black Dragon (or any dragon-type effect monster) + Dark Magician = Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. As the fusion is a merger between Yugi and Joey's Signature Mons, it could be seen as a Shout-Out to their friendship in the show.
• Glass Cannon: A Red-Eyes deck is very good at quickly getting big monsters on the field and racking up massive burn damage in the process. However, they lack protection from card effects (especially susceptible to being banished) and their monsters aren't that powerful, meaning it's easy to run them over with something bigger even if you don't have a card effect to wipe the board.
• Non-Indicative Name: Meteor Black Dragon is not black. The "Black" in its name is just a part of Red-Eyes' name.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Red-Eyes dragons are famous for their red eyes, black scales and their various forms, and all look like typical Western fire-breathing dragons in contrast to the more mystical Blue-Eyes. Oddly, Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon (Red-Eyes Black Dragon combined with Metalmorph) is actually a Machine monster, while the obviously-mechanical Black Metal Dragon is still a Dragon. Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon's retrains are all proper Dragons, though.
• Powered Armor: Lord of the Red is a human wearing a Red-Eyes Black Dragon themed armor. It can be summoned with the Red-Eyes Transmigration Ritual Spell card. Furthermore, in the anime, Jonouchi is the one wearing the armor, so you are probably led to imagine to wear the armor yourself.
• Purple Is Powerful: Meteor Black Dragon is more purple than black, but it has the highest base ATK of all forms of Red-Eyes.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of the most iconic part of the archetype are the red eyes.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Red-Eyes Black Chick, particularly in the anime.
• Shadow Archetype: Red-Eyes is this to Blue-Eyes. Their various forms also follow this pattern.
  • Red-Eyes Black Chick is the counterpart to the Kaibaman.
  • Paladin of Dark Dragon is the counterpart to the Paladin of White Dragon.
  • Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon is the counterpart to Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon.
  • Meteor Black Dragon is the counterpart to Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
  • The Black Stone of Legend is the counterpart to The White Stone of Legend.
  • Red-Eyes Alternative Dragon is the counterpart to Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon.
• Sudden Name Change:
  • When Red-Eyes became a full-fledged archetype, Red-Eyes Black Chick was renamed to Black Dragon's Chick to exclude it from the archetype; previously, it was specifically excluded by Red-Eyes support cards.
  • In the TCG, the name of Red-Eyes Black Dragon had always shortened "Black" to just "B.", a detail that confused many players. This actually caused some trouble for Konami, as Red-Eyes Alternative Black Dragon used "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" in its text instead of the card's proper name, necessitating an errata on the official card database. The name of the card was eventually changed to say "Black" with its new printing in Legendary Duelists: Season 1... with Alternative Black Dragon still using the previous errata.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Red-Eyes Black Chick grows to Red-Eyes Black Dragon. From there, it can fuse with Meteor Dragon or Summoned Skull or it can become Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon or Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and then to Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, in contrast to the other Red-Eyes monsters, lacks any effect other than gaining ATK for each Dragon in your Graveyard. However, considering how quickly they can fill the Graveyard, this easily makes it the biggest beatstick the archetype has to offer.
• Weak, but Skilled: In comparison to the powerful Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes is less powerful, but it has a huge potential. Red-Eyes various forms and their effects compensate for its relative lack of power.

Relinquished / Eyes Restrict

All that is yours is rightfully mine... and mine it will be!

Relinquished, known as Sacrifice in the OCG, is a rather unique monster. It is a Level 1 Ritual Monster with 0 ATK and DEF, but has a very disruptive effect that allows it to absorb the opponent's monsters to power itself up. It also possesses Fusion forms in the Eyes Restrict (Eyes Sacrifice in the OCG) monsters, which have similar absorption abilities to Relinquished, but are also capable of locking down other monsters on the field. In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Relinquished and Thousand-Eyes Restrict serve as the ace cards of Pegasus.

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• Achilles' Heel: In the manga and anime, its multiple eyes. Damaging or incapacitating them stopped all of the powers of "Thousand Eyes Restrict", enabling it to be destroyed in battle. This is somewhat enforced in the game, since negating the effects of "Relinquished" and its powered-up forms leaves them as 0/0 weenies.
• All Your Powers Combined: Unlike the other cards in the series, Millennium-Eyes Restrict can equip multiple monsters to itself and gain the combined ATK and DEF of those monsters. It also inverts the trope by negating the effects of all monsters that share a name with a monster equipped to it.
• The Assimilator: The archetype revolves around the monsters equipping an opponent's monster to gain ATK and DEF.
• Attack Reflector: While the base Relinquished has a monster equipped to it, any battle damage taken in battles involving it is also dealt to the opponent.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Relinquished's effect in a nutshell has it absorbing an opponent's monster to steal its ATK and DEF.
• Dub Name Change: Due to TCG censorship, instances of "sacrifice" are usually replaced by other words, which is how Relinquished and Eyes-Restrict received their TCG names.
• Eldritch Abomination: They're all incredibly bizarre-looking even by the game's standards. Their main gimmick, absorbing other monsters to gain strength, only furthers their eldritch-ness, as do the Fusion forms' powerful lockdown effects.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Thousand and Millennium-Eyes Restrict have eyes on almost every surface.
• Fusion Dance:
  • Relinquished combines with Thousand-Eyes Idol to form Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
  • Relinquished can fuse with any Effect Monster to form Millennium-Eyes Restrict. Thematically, it's a combination of Relinquished and Millennium-Eyes Illusionist.
  • Relinquished itself is a combination of Dark-Eyes Illusionist and an unnamed exoskeleton-like Illusion monster.^note The latter only appeared in the manga, in which Ritual summoning required two sacrifices and a base monster to power-up unlike the standarized version of the OCG.
• Glass Cannon: Relinquished Anima is a purely offensive Link Monster that can absorb almost any Monster that is located in the Zone in front of it. However, it can't use the equipped Monster to survive an attack like Relinquished or Thousand-Eyes Restrict can. Additionally, like all Link Monsters, it can't go into Defense position.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Golden-Eyes Idol's effect to see the opponent's hand is an obvious homage to Pegasus' Millennium Eye which does the same.
  • Millennium-Eyes Restrict is also a reference to Pegasus' Millennium Eye, evident by it having Millennium Eyes all over its body similar to Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Thousand-Eyes Restrict prevents all other monsters on the field from changing their battle positions or attacking.
  • Millennium-Eyes Restrict negates the effects and prevents the attacks of any monster with the same name as one equipped to it. This extends to when they're in the Graveyard or even BANISHED.
• Taking the Bullet: If Relinquished or Thousand-Eyes Restrict is attacked and has an opponent's monster equipped, you can destroy the monster equipped to it instead.
• Weak, but Skilled: All of them have 0 ATK and DEF and are a mere level 1. However, this means that Relinquished can be Ritual Summoned using any one monster with a level, and their effects more than make up for their lack of points by stealing them from the opponent and, in the case of the Fusion Monsters, shutting down their monsters.

Reptilianne

Reptilianne, called Reptiless in the OCG, are an archetype of Dark Reptile monsters themed on mythical reptiles. They drain the ATK of enemy monsters to 0 as a means to manipulate and take control of them in various ways. The archetype is used by the Dark Signer Misty in 5D's.

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• Continuity Cameo: Melusine resembles Misty Tredwell, which is fitting as she used them in the 5D's anime. Melusine even calls upon Ccarayhua's geoglyph in Reptilianne Recoil.
• Cute Monster Girl: Despite the general monstrosity of their lower halves, Coatl, Echidna, Melusine, and Vaskii are quite pleasing to the eyes up top, while Lamia, Naga, and Nyami are rather adorable. The rest however subvert it by being physically monstrous in all ways.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: The "Reptilianne" series focuses on reducing your opponent's monsters' ATK to 0.
• Gender Flip: Vasuki is a male serpent king in Asian mythology. In the game, Reptilianne Vaskii is female.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Despite the theme of the archetype, this is mostly averted, with the Cute Monster Girl members all being based on mythological entities already described as either attractive or at least pleasant to look at. Meanwhile, for the characters frequently decribed in myth as monstrous: Gorgon has bone-thin arms and a cobra-like head, Hydra's long necks end in snarling, elongated, helmet-covered faces, Medusa is a very ugly Fat Bitch, and Scylla has a wolf-like face with a snarling smile as fierce as those on her lower body.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Reptilianne Vaskii has four arms, drawing from the frequence of conflating Hindu-based naga with the various multi-armed deities.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • In the OCG, Reptiless Hydra looked more like a lamia, while Reptiless Lamia looked very blatantly like a hydra, so when they came to the TCG they ended up getting their names swapped around.
  • Reptilianne Viper looks less like a viper and more like a cobra
• Odd Name Out: Reptilianne Viper is the only real "Reptilianne" monster so far to not be based on a mythological figure.
• Our Hydras Are Different: Reptilianne Hydra, in keeping with the archetype, has a snake-like lower half with a human-like torso and arms, while also having four heads attached to long snake-like necks. Interestingly, instead of an effect representing "cut off one head, two more take its place", it's effect to "destroy all face-up monsters with 0 ATK that your opponent controls, then draw 1 card for each you destroy" implies growing more heads by eating her foes.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Most of these monsters are named after creatures from Indian or Greek mythology and resemble feminine snake-people or pseudo-reptiles in appearance.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Unlike the other members of the archetype, which base their cuteness, beauty, or monstrosity on human-like aesthetics, Reptilianne Viper instead has the appearance of a cuddly little baby snake monster whose outstretched arms are just begging for a hug. It's ability to take control of an enemy monster with 0 attack just by being summoned, presumably through the abilities of other Reptilianne monsters, implies that it enthralls the enemy through Cuteness Proximity.
• Snake People: They're all some variant of snakes with human body parts.
• Taken for Granite:
  • Reptilianne Medusa is based on the Gorgon Medusa, who turned anyone that stared into her eyes to stone. This card's effect reflects that, by preventing the monster from attacking or changing battle positions.
  • Reptilianne Gorgon is based on the Gorgons from Greek mythology. Its ability to reduce other monsters' ATK to 0 and preventing them from changing battle position is based on the Gorgons' power to turn people who look upon it to stone. In the anime, when it used its effect, the monster it battled was turned to stone.
• Token Mini-Moe: Reptilianne Naga, Lamia, Nyamu, and Viper are smaller, younger, and cuter than the other members.

Rescue-ACE

"I'll extinguish you with my burning soul!"

Rescue-ACE, sometimes shortened to R-ACE, is an archetype of FIRE monsters split between Warriors and Machines, with a control-centered strategy revolving around their chief card, Rescue-ACE Hydrant.

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• Fun with Acronyms: Most of the Spell/Trap support has the first letter of each member's name forming the R-ACE in their name (RESCUE!, ALERT!, CONTAIN!, EXTINGUISH!). This also plays off the real-life fire response procedure R.A.C.E., though with some substitutions.^note Remove, Alarm, Confine, Evacuate
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Hydrant may have 0/0 base stats, but it's one of the lynchpins in the archetype, since it can help you search for the other R-ACE members and most of the R-ACE Spells/Traps are more potent if you control Hydrant.
• Status Buff: Headquarters grants each R-ACE monster 500 ATK/DEF while your opponent controls a monster.

Rescue Squad

Rescue Squad is a series of cards themed around animals wearing rescue gear. They are Level 4 EARTH Beast monsters with 300 ATK and 100 DEF who share the common ability to either send themselves to the GY or banish themselves from the field as cost to Special Summon monsters from the Deck with their effects negated. Most of them are designed to support the latest summoning mechanic at the time of their release, such as Rescue Rabbit supporting Xyz Summoning, Rescue Hamster supporting Pendulum Summoning and Rescue Ferret supporting Link Summoning.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: Their spell Emerging Emergency Rescute Rescue combines this with a pun based on "cute" (which all of the Rescue Squad are). Moreso in the Japanese, where the card is read as "Kinkyū Kyūkyū Kyūmei Reskyū", which repeats the onomotopeia multiple times for some tongue-twisting, teeth grinding experience.
• Power Nullifier: Any Effect Monsters summoned by the Rescue Squad have their effects negated.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The whole line is focused on cute critters that can summon monsters.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Their effects allow them to summon other monsters, which are then destroyed during the End Phase of the same turn.

Resonator

The Resonators are an archetype of low-level Fiend Tuner monsters. Each of them are depicted as holding a tuning fork and mallet. Being Tuners, they focus on supporting Synchro Summoning by special summoning themselves or other monsters or having effects that trigger when used as synchro materials. They are used by Jack Atlas in 5D's and ARC-V.

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• Anti-Magic: Force Resonator can be sent from the field to the Graveyard to target a monster and prevent the opponent from activating cards and effects that would target a monster(s) until the end of the damage step in which said monster attacked.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Red Rising Dragon can revive a single Resonator from the graveyard when it's synchro summoned. It can also banish itself to revive two Level 1 Resonators from the GY with their effects negated.
  • Similarly, the trap card Red Carpet can, if the player controls a Dragon Synchro monster, be used to revive two Resonators, regardless of their levels and doesn't negate their effects.
• Elemental Powers: The Resonators cover all six main Attributes. Dark Resonator, Synkron Resonator, Crimson Resonator and Vision Resonator are DARK, Flare Resonator, Red Resonator, Double Resonator and Soul Resonator are FIRE, Barrier Resonator, Chain Resonator and Mirror Resonator are LIGHT, Creation Resonator is WIND, Force Resonator is WATER, and Clock Resonator is EARTH.
• Heal Thyself: When Red Resonator is Special Summoned, its controller can gain an amount of LP equal to the ATK of a monster they control.
• The Imp: They're Fiends and their designs are somewhat similar to imps, with horns, glowing eyes, and sharp teeth. But they're too small, both in their appearance and in-game with their low ATK/DEF stats, to be a threat on their own. Which is why they focus on Synchro Summoning bigger, more threatening monsters, like the Red Dragon Archfiends.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Red Carpet's artwork show Dark and Barrier Resonator along with a silhouette of Red Nova Dragon. Not only does the card summons two Resonators from the graveyard but when used with Red Dragon Archfiend, Dark Resonator and Barrier Resonator can indeed be used to summon Red Nova Dragon as the total levels of the materials would equal 12.
  • Crimson Resonator's design is meant to evoke the appearance of Red Dragon Archfiend, Jack Atlas's ace monster.
  • The artwork of Resonator Command features Dark Resonator as well as Mad Archfiend, Vice Berserker and Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow. All of these monsters were used by Jack Atlas.
  • The design and name of Vision Resonator serves as a form of Ship Tease between Jack Atlas and Carly Nagisa, as Vision Resonator incorporates several design elements of the Fortune Lady archetype (Carly's deck), including the bat wings, the eye-shaped crest on the chest area, both ends of their scythe-like Magic Staffs, as well as Dark Signer Carly's orange color scheme.
• No-Sell: A few of the Resonators have effects meant to protect themselves or other monsters from destruction. This was meant to stall for time until their player gathered enough monsters on the field to Synchro Summon.
  • Dark Resonator can prevent its destruction by battle once per turn.
  • Clock Resonator has a similar effect that can also prevent its destruction by effect in addition to battle but needs to be in face-up defense position to use it.
  • Barrier Resonator can be sent from the hand to the Graveyard to prevent a Tuner the player controls from being destroyed by battle for the whole turn as well as prevent any battle damage the player would take if it was attacked.
• The Rival: Just as Red Dragon Archfiend is the rival to Stardust Dragon, the Resonators are this to the Synchrons. They are used by two rivaling characters and although they are both versatile Synchro engines, they are obviously meant to summon Red Dragons and Stardust monsters respectively. This culminate in Synkron Resonator, mocking their rival's name.
• Status Buff: Any Synchro Monster summoned using Flare Resonator as material will have its ATK increased by 300.
• Support Party Member: They're not very impressive on their own, instead being designed as Synchro support, with their later members focusing specifically on the Red Dragon Archfiend monsters.
• Zerg Rush: Several of the later members of the Resonator archetype have effects that allow them to Special Summon themselves or other monsters on the field to provide the player with enough Synchro Materials to summon powerful boss monsters. Unlike other Synchro decks, having multiple Tuners is beneficial for Resonator decks due to the more advanced evolutions of Red Dragon Archfiend requiring two or even three Tuner Monsters to be Synchro Summoned.

Rikka

Rikka, translated as Snowflower in the OCG, is an archetype of female WATER Plant monsters debuting in Secret Slayers. They focus on Xyz Summons and Tributing monsters to build their field presence and control the opponent's own. Most of their Spell and Trap support has the optional clause of Tributing a Plant monster to activate them, which will increase their potency.

The Rikka themselves can be divided into two distinct groups. The Fairies, which reside in the Main Deck, are grouped into pairs of monsters with mirrored ATK/DEF. The more defensive monsters are able to Special Summon themselves from the hand to the field under various conditions, usually related to Tributing monsters—while their more offensive counterparts are able to revive themselves if they are in the Graveyard, though they are banished if they leave the field. Then, there are the Queens, which reside in the Extra Deck, have equal ATK/DEF, and help protect the field presence gained with the Fairies while disrupting the opponent as well.

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• Amazon Brigade: All of them are female.
• An Ice Person: Each Rikka, befitting her name, has a very wintry look about her.
• Back from the Dead: Several Rikka can Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard, but are banished if they leave the field.
  • Rikka Tranquility can Special Summon a Rikka monster from the Graveyard in Defense Position and, if the optional cost of Tributing a Plant monster was paid, another Plant monster as well.
  • Kanzashi is able to Special Summon a monster from any player's Graveyard and turn it into a Plant monster.
• Floral Theme Naming: Most of the Rikka are named after various species or genera of flowering plants, several of which happen to flower during winter.
• Human Shield: One of Kanzashi's effects allows her controller to Tribute a Plant monster from your hand or field to prevent other friendly Plants from being destroyed by a card effect.
• Plant Person: The archetype is comprised of Plant monsters. Several of their cards can also turn the opponent's monsters into Plants as well under certain circumstances.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Each Rikka monster is shown to have one in their artwork as a way to emphasize their elegant appearances.
• Status Buff:
  • Erica can be Tributed from your hand or field when another friendly Plant monster is battling, and have it gain 1000 ATK/DEF until the end of the turn.
  • Teardrop gains 200 ATK each time a card is Tributed, though it also loses that buff at the end of each turn.
• Token Mini-Moe: The bite-size Rikka Petal is the only monster in the archetype that is neither a Fairy nor a Queen. She is able to aid the Fairies, however, by excavating them and either adding them to the hand or sending them to the Graveyard, allowing them to be Special Summoned later on via their own effects.

Robo

Roboyarou

Robolady

Robo is a series consisting of a pair of Level 3 EARTH Machine-Type Normal monsters known as Roboyarou and Robolady who can fuse with each other to become more powerful versions of themselves called Super Roboyarou and Super Robolady. Their playstyle involves Super Roboyarou and Super Robolady switching out with each other when one is on the field while the other is in the Extra Deck, with the two becoming stronger in battle depending on what they target. Super Roboyarou is used by Tristan Taylor as his Deck Master in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

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• Cyborg: They appear to be this in akin to Jinzo.
• Foil: The stats of Roboyarou (900 ATK, 450 DEF) is opposite to that of Robolady (450 ATK, 900 DEF).
• Fusion Dance: Fusing Roboyarou and Robolady together gives you either Super Roboyarou or Super Robolady, with the former two's flavour texts mentioning this as being their main method of upgrading.
• Status Buff: Super Roboyarou gains 1000 ATK when he battles an opposing monster while Super Robolady gains 1000 ATK when she attacks the opponent directly.
• Super Mode: Super Roboyarou and Super Robolady are stronger forms of Roboyarou and Robolady, obviously.
• Tag Team: Their main gimmick involves Super Roboyarou and Super Robolady being able to switch places with each other when one of them is on the field and the other is in the Extra Deck.

Roid / Vehicroids

The -roid monsters, as it is commonly used, is an archetype consisting mainly of non-WIND Machine monsters, taking the form of cartoonified living vehicles; this distinction is important because the -roid name is quite heavily used in card naming in Yu-Gi-Oh!, meaning that the archetype, as it is technically judged in gameplay, includes loads of monsters (including another entire archetype, Speedroids) that are disconnected to its theme and were not intended to be a part of it.

They are often referred to as Vehicroid, which is actually the name of the sub-archetype dealing with their Fusion monsters. In terms of gameplay, the -roids have no central gameplay style; being one of the earlier archetypes made during YGO's earlier days, their monsters weren't designed with consistency in mind, and each had their own effects and synergize with each other poorly. Over time, some semblances of a playstyle were developed, mainly fusion and swarming. This archetype is used by Sho Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale in GX, who later combines it with Cyber Dragons and Cyberdarks in season 4.

The Speedroid archetype is technically a subarchetype of the -roids, but is fully separate from the -roids in gameplay and is in fact specifically excluded by -roid support cards.^note One of the later -roid monsters with a searching ability, Mixeroid, deliberately excludes WIND -roids to prevent the Speedroid archetype from being used with it.

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• Anti-Magic:
  • Armoroid banishes all Spells and Traps from the field if Tribute Summoned.
  • Carrierroid can negate and destroy a card effect that targets a Spell or Trap by discarding 1 card.
  • Stealthroid destroys 1 Spell or Trap at the end of the Battle Phase if it attacks and another "roid" monster is on the field.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: The two Vehicroid Fusions all have the ability to inflict piercing damage.
• Back from the Dead: You can do a nice combo by combining Ambulanceroid's and Rescueroid's effects. After a Vehicroid monster has been destroyed, like "UFOroid", you can use Rescueroid's effect to send it back to your hand, and then use Ambulanceroid's effect to summon it back. It may also be done with multiple Rescueroid's and Ambulanceroid's. This combo becomes even better if you combine it with Cyber Summon Blaster. Their combined form, Ambulance Rescueroid, also can do this.
• Cannibalism Superpower: If Truckroid battles an opponents monster and sends it to the Graveyard, the destroyed monster is equipped to Truckroid itself and gains ATK that is the sum combined with Truckoid's ATK.
• Cool Bike: Cycroid along with the Fusion Monster Pair Cycroid are based on bicycles.
• Cool Shades: Stealthroid lacks the Toon-like eyes, replacing them with what looks like red sunglasses.
• Cool Plane:
  • Gyroid is inspired by a Gyrocopter
  • Jetroid is based on a Harrier jump jet.
  • Shuttleroid is modeled after the Space Shuttle, even though it was not released internationally.
  • Stealthroid appears to based on a real-life stealth bomber.
• Cool Train: Expressroid and Steamroid are respectively based on a bullet train and a steam locomotive.
• Cute Machines: The original roids are cartoonized vehicles.
  • By contrast, Barbaroid, their trump card in the manga, noticeably lacks their distinctive eyes and has no cartoon-like qualities.
• Death from Above: Implied with Shuttleroid’s effect. It flies into outer space to avoid an attack, and then it crashes with a massive impact.
• Draw Aggro: While the controller controls Decoyroid, the opponent cannot target any other monster they control for attacks.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Kyukyuroid —> Ambulanceroid
  • Navyroid —> Carrierroid.
• Flying Saucer: UFOroid takes cues from a real-life hypothetical UFO.
• Homage:
  • Super Vehicroid - Stealth Union is a direct tribute to GaoGaiGar, from the 1997 Sunrise anime, The King of Braves GaoGaiGar. Namely, it bears more resemblance to GaoFighGar, a variation on the original GaoGaiGar mecha, which appeared in the 2000 sequel OVA, The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL. On top of looking practically identical, the component machines are strikingly similar: GaoFighGar is a combination of a specialized phantom fighter, a stealth fighter, a multistage rocket, and twin drill tanks; whereas the original GaoGaiGar is composed of a similar stealth fighter and drill tank, but with a bullet train replacing the rocket in the combination, and a lion-robot.
    This is more obvious in the anime, when once joined with a monster the "absorbed" monster's head is placed on the chest of this card, and this card's design alters to gain several more of the traits normally associated with GaoGaiGar (such as squared lower legs, thicker upper arms/legs, and prongs on either side of the head). The short sequence where the monster is being summoned even bears a resemblance to the Final Fusion sequence. The ideal fourth Machine for the homage is "Jetroid" rather than "Truckroid", as this would cause the result to be near-perfectly identical GaoFighGar.
  • Also one to Transformers:
    • Armoroid is designed after Jetfire.
    • Mixeroid has Constructicon Mixmaster's cement mixer truck form and green color scheme.
    • Even overlapping with Super Sentai, Super Vehicroid - Mobile Base takes cues from CityFormers, e.g. Metroplex.
• Meaningful Name: Submarineroid's effect simulates the type of vehicle it is based off of—a submarine that launches a long-range attack before submerging again.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While most of the roid monsters are either cartoony vehicles or giant mechs, Barbaroid, the Ultimate Battle Machine looks like a robotic war machine. Justified since its Fusion Materials in the manga were more robotic in design than the rest of the roids.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Several later Vehicroid support cards specify non-WIND monsters, preventing them from being accessible by Speedroids (which is a whole different archetype in its own right). However, this does result in monsters like Jetroid and Gyroid being caught in the crossfire and excluded from their own archetype.
• This Is a Drill: Drillroid along with the Fusion Monster Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill are DrillTanks.
• Toon: The first batch of Vehicroids appear to be sentient rubberhose vehicles, in spite of the fact that they are not Toon Monsters.
• Visual Pun: Mixeroid is a cement mixer Vehicroid. Its effect mixes other Vehicroids into one.
• We Need a Distraction: Decoyroid’s name and effect may come from the fact that RC vehicles are generally used to distract people in movies.
• Winged Humanoid: UFOroid Fighter is depicted as the winged Elemental HERO Tempest riding a modified UFOroid (referencing how it was summoned in the anime with Tempest as the Warrior-type material).

Rokket / Borrel

You got a bullet in your head!

The Rokket archetype, known as either Vullet or Varrett in the OCG, is comprised of bullet-themed DARK Dragon-Type monsters with the ability to destroy themselves when targeted by a Link Monster's effect and an effect that lets them summon another Rokket during the End Phase of the turn during which they were destroyed. They are used by Revolver/Varis in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, along with the Borrel archetype, known as Varrel in the OCG.

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• Abnormal Ammo: The Rokket monsters are dragons whose appearances are themed after bullets and can be used as such by Borreload Dragon.
• All Your Powers Combined: Borrelend Dragon's protective effect is a combination of Borrelsword, Borreload, and Borrelguard's effects, which respectively protect the player from being destroyed by battle, targeted by monster effects, or destroyed by card effects.
• Animal Mecha: All of them are mechanical dragons, but are Dragon-type rather than Machine-type like the Cyber Dragons and Drytrons.
• Anti-Magic:
  • Autorokket can destroy itself to send an opponent's Spell or Trap card to the Graveyard.
  • Borreload Savage Dragon can negate the activation of an opponent's card or effect by removing a Borrel counter from itself.
• Arms and Armor Theme Naming: The Rokket and Borrel monsters' names as well as several of their associated monsters' names are derived from terms that are associated with firearms.
• Back from the Dead:
  • If its player controls a Borrel monster, Miniborrel Dragon can summon itself from the graveyard by tributing a Link 3 or lower Link monster.
  • Borrelguard can revive any monster that was destroyed and sent to the graveyard during the turn at the cost of sending 1 card from the Spell/Trap zone to the graveyard.
  • Borreload eXcharge Dragon can revive a Borrel monster from the graveyard by detaching a material. However, said monster will be banished during the end phase and the player will be unable to attack directly or special summon more monster if they use that effect.
  • Borreload Furious Dragon can banish itself from the graveyard to revive a DARK link moster from the graveyard but it will be unable to activate its effects during the turn.
  • Borrelend Dragon resurrects one Rokket monster back to the field after it negates one monster effect. The resurrected monster can still use its effects after being summoned.
  • Rokket Synchron can revive one level 5 and above Rokket monster after it's normal summoned on the field.
• BFS: Borrelsword Dragon can combine its bladed horns into a head-mounted sword half the size of its body, hence the name.
• Breakout Character: Borrelsword Dragon is only one of many retrains of Borreload Dragon (and has a direct counterpart in Borrelguard Dragon), but became very popular for its design and in-game effects and got the most reprints out of any of the Borrel and Rokket monsters besides the original Borreload Dragon, even becoming the only one to have a Premium Gold Rare print with alternate artwork.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Savage, eXcharge, Furious and Riot incorporate the color associated with their respective summoning mechanic into their color scheme.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Borrelguard and eXcharge have Triceratops horns.
• Dub Name Change: From either Vullet or Varrett to Rokket, and from Varrel to Borrel.
• Foil:
  • Borrelsword and Borrelguard are this to each other. They have opposite Link arrows and their names carry opposite meanings which are reflected by their intended use: Borrelsword is unable to be destroyed by battle, and meant as an offensive option as it can quickly finish off an opponent while Borreguard cannot be destroyed by card effects and is meant to play a more supportive role thanks to its ability to revive monsters from the graveyard.
  • Borreload Dragon is one to Firewall Dragon as both are their respective series' expies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician. While both are Link 4 monster, Firewall is a LIGHT Cyberse monster that requires other monsters to be linked to it to use any of its two effects while Borreload works fine on its own and has the ability to steal other monsters and link them to itself but can be used alongside the Rokket.
  • Similarly to the above, Borreload eXcharge Dragon is one to Firewall eXceed Dragon as both are Rank 4 DARK Xyz monsters versions of Borreload and Firewall with an effect that lets them revive monsters from the graveyard. However, eXceed gains the ATK while eXcharge can reduce the ATK/DEF of an opposing monster and does not require being linked to use any of its effects.
  • Finally, Borrelend Dragon and Firewall Darkfluid Dragon are both Link-5s with identical arrows that require at least 3 Effect Monsters to Summon, and are capable of making multiple attacks in one turn. At 3500 ATK, Borrelend has the edge in raw stats, and can attack every monster the opponent controls without any tradeoffs whatsoever. Darkfluid, meanwhile, is able to gain much more ATK under the right conditions, but its ability to attack more than once requires the player to first remove a counter via negating an opponent's activated monster effect, and as these counters are the source of that additional strength, this means any subsequent attacks can burn off that ATK gain very quickly.
• The Juggernaut: Borrelend Dragon is a 3500 attack point Nigh-Invulnerable monster that cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, be targeted by monster effects, can negate one monster's effect and resurrect one Rokket monster, and can attack all monsters on the field. Once it hits the field, it's a massive pain in the ass to deal with.
• Mythology Gag: It's not the first time that firearms-themed monsters have appeared in the game but unlike Barrel Dragon, the Borrel and Rokket monsters actually have the Dragon type.
• Multiple Head Case: Borrelend Dragon has three heads, and appears to be a Fusion Dance of three Borrel dragons (implied to be Borreload, Borrelsword, and Borrelguard through its card effects).
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They're robotic dragons based on guns/bullets. Borrelsword Dragon takes this a step further by having a BFS on its head formed by its horns, and vanilla Borreload seem to have mind control capabilities of some kind.
• No-Sell: Borrelsword Dragon cannot be destroyed by battle, Borrelguard Dragon cannot be destroyed by card effects, and Borrelend's effect combines the two (alongside Borreload's targeting immunity) into one neat package. Borrelcode Dragon cannot be destroyed by card effects so long as a Link monster has a link arrow pointing toward it.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons that are either bullet or gun-themed and have mechanical appearances.
• Power Nullifier: Anesthrokket can negate a monster's effect.
• Recurring Element:
  • Borreload Dragon is this to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, being Dragon-type monsters with 3000 ATK that are used by the main rival.
  • Borrelend Dragon follows the trend set by Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon by being a three-headed evolution of the rival's main ace but shares its ATK value with Red Nova Dragon and Doom King Armageddon's evolutions.
• Spam Attack: Borrelend Dragon's ability to attack all monsters on the field can easily clear out an established board with ease thanks to its hefty 3500 attack points and total protection from effects.
• Taking You with Me: Metalrokket Dragon destroys all opponent's cards in the same column and Shelrokket Dragon destroys 1 monster in the same column and all monsters in adjacent zones.

Rose / Rose Dragon

A cold flame envelops the world. Black flower, bloom!

Rose cards are naturally based on roses, and are typically Plant-type. This archetype is used by Aki Izayoi/Akiza Izinski in 5D's. In Duelist Legend 4, the Rose Dragons came out expanding upon Black Rose Dragon and Blue Rose Dragon, and oriented around summoning plant and dragon synchro monsters.

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• Action Bomb: Black Rose Dragon's claim to infamy is its ability to destroy everything on the field upon being summoned - including itself.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Queen Angel of Roses. She can destroy a monster with the weakest ATK. This indicates that she's so strong, the weak simply fall against her.
• Black Knight: Twilight Rose Knight. It can prevent Plant-Type monsters from being attacked and can summon another Plant-Type to the field upon being Normal Summoned. The first effect is Twilight Rose Knight showing his loyalty to the Rose clan. The second effect is Twilight Rose Knight calling another member of the Rose clan to the field.
• Combat Tentacles: The aptly-named Rose Tentacles, which can use them to attack multiple times if your opponent controls plants. Black Rose Dragon also sports six thorny vines that it uses to constrict enemies in the anime when using its second effect.
• Evil Counterpart: Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua is the antithesis to this Black Rose Dragon; Black Rose Dragon destroys all cards on the field when it's summoned, where as Ccarayhua destroys all cards on the field when it's destroyed. Also Misty Lola (Ccarayhua's user) was Aki's nemesis at one point.
• Fallen Angel: Fallen Angel of Roses and Rosaria the Stately Fallen Angel. Rosaria could be based on the fallen arch-angel "Lucifer", as he is commonly depicted as having angel wings on one side and black wings on the other side.
• Fiery Redhead: Rose the Warrior of Revenge, is so passionate on the battlefield, she has the fire element and deals extra damage to her foes.
• Homage: Splendid Rose's black and green costume, its halving effect and drop kick attack are similar to Kamen Rider Double, particularly Double's "CycloneJoker" form. This is made evident by the fact that the "CycloneJoker" form embodies both a "Trickster" style, as seen by the first effect of this card, and a "Wind" style, seen by the second effect of this card allowing it to attack twice, similar to the monsters of the Element archetype's WIND monsters' effects.
• Mythology Gag: Cross Rose Dragon is a reference to the debut pack for Black Rose Dragon, Crossroad of Chaos. Cross Rose could be seen as a pun for Crossroad. It even has an effect that lets you summon A Rose Dragon synchro from the extra deck.
• Planimal: Bird of Roses. Its effect calls two Plant-Type Tuners when it dies. This effect is the Bird of Roses using a death call to bolster the Rose army forces. The Rose Dragons are this as well, but Dragon-Types.
• Petal Power: Particularly in the anime, where the effect of Black Rose Dragon devastates the field in a storm of petals.
• Playing with Fire: In the anime, Black Rose Dragon attacks by breathing Technicolor Fire.
• Something about a Rose: Their user, Aki, is a Girly Bruiser, as are many of the humanoid monsters.
• Stealth Pun: Blood Rose Dragon being renamed to Ruddy Rose Dragon in the TCG. While "ruddy" refers to a shade of red, it's also used in British English as an euphemism for the expletive "bloody".
• Took a Level in Badass: Ruddy Rose Dragon is one for Black Rose Dragon. It can banish monsters from the graveyards and has an enhanced version of Black Rose Dragon's effect that can be used if one of its materials is a Black Rose Dragon. It can also float into Black Rose Dragon and negate an effect if tributed when an opponent uses a card effect that destroys a card. This last effect's similarity to Stardust Dragon's own destruction negation ability did not escape notice the moment the card was revealed...
• Weak, but Skilled: Black Rose Dragon has the lowest combined ATK and DEF out of all Signer Dragons. Ironically, its key effect is one of the most powerful, effective and easily to use - it completely destroys the field. What's more is that the summoning conditions are the least restrictive that a Synchro Monster can have, meaning that any deck that can potentially make level 7 Synchro monsters can make Black Rose Dragon and use its effect.
• Zerg Rush: Many of these cards are geared towards Plant-Type support and have a variety of effects ranging from swarming the field to Synchro Summoning easily.

Runick

"Alone I sat when the Old One sought me,
The terror of gods, and gazed in mine eyes:
"What hast thou to ask? Why comest thou hither?
… would you know yet more?"

Runick, called simply Rune in the OCG, is an archetype of mostly Quick-Play Spells that focus on disrupting the opponent's plays and milling their Deck in the process by banishing cards from the top of the opponent's deck. Their cards restrict their ability to enter the Battle Phase, but to make up for this they also have the ability to Special Summon an arsenal of Fusion Monsters from the Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone, all of which have the ability to either protect the user or the user's cards.

Lore-wise, the archetype is set on the opposing end of the "Generaider" lore, starring a Featureless Protagonist who has been called into the world by a mysterious masked magician to eliminate the Generaiders. To do so, they are entrusted with a collection of "runes" with wondrous powers that grow in strength as the Generaiders are defeated. By utilizing the powers of the runes to carve a path through the world and befriend great allies, you too can discover the truth behind this strange and fantastical journey.

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• Anachronism Stew: The Generaider/Runick universe appears to be mostly medieval fantasy-based, but the artwork of "Runick Flashing Fire" shows the protagonist wielding a magically-powered firearm.
• Arc Welding: "Runick Dispelling" shows the protagonist healing the adventurers that appear in "Generaider Boss Fight". "Runick Allure" depicts a masked Loptr, Shadow of the Generaider Bosses granting the hero a shard of Odin's legendary spear Gungnir, which activates their skill tree in "Runick Tip".
• Call-Back: "Sleipnir the Runick Mane" is a Level 9 monster that summons Runick Tokens if the opponent adds cards from their deck to their hand, referencing the gameplay style of Generaider Boss Stage which revolves around summoning a Level 9 monster when the opponent adds a card to their hand and flooding the field with Generaider Tokens as fuel for their effects. For extra flavor, the Runick Tokens summoned by Sleipnir share the exact same properties as Generaider Tokens. Quite appropriate for the horse owned by Harr, Generaider Boss of Storms.
• Featureless Protagonist: As the Runick cards are depicted from a first-person point of view, the appearance of their protagonist is unknown aside from their hands and the arsenal of magical armaments they wield in various Runick Quick-Play Spells.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Runicks have almost zero ways of dealing damage to the opponent—the only monsters in their employ reside in the Extra Deck, and only two of them have ATK above 0. Of these, one monster has an effect that nullifies any battle damage dealt by it, and the other will more than likely be banished for the duration of the Battle Phase instead of battling at all. More importantly, the majority of their cards require the player to forfeit their next Battle Phase if even one of them is used. Instead, they focus on "Decking out" the opponent—an alternate win condition where a player loses if they have no cards in their Deck to draw—by way of banishing the top cards of their opponent's Deck.
• P.O.V. Cam: The artwork for all the Spell Cards is of a first-person perspective ala various RPGs.
• Power Fist: "Runick Destruction" has the protagonist using magical gauntlets to destroy a seal while Hugin and Munin cheer them on.
• Runic Magic: Fittingly enough, all of the Quick-Play Spells and Fusion Monsters contain runes in the artwork.
• Skill Scores and Perks: "Runick Tip" has the protagonist using a magical shard to summon a skill tree in their left hand. According to concept art, the shard is a fragment of Gungnir, a mythical spear wielded by Odin.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The The Valuable Book EX 3 lore section regarding the Runicks/Generaiders is written in the form of a video game strategy guide and describes which runes are most effective against certain enemies.
  • Runick Flashing Fire is effective against Frodi, Generaider Boss of Storms due to its long-ranged heat bullets being capable of dealing with Frodi's elusive speed and flight.
  • Runick Destruction is effective against Utgarda, Generaider Boss of Delusions as its mighty punching attack is the only way to break through its castle gates.
  • Runick Freezing Curses is effective against Naglfar, Generaider Boss of Fire due to Logical Weakness.
  • Runick Slumber is needed to obtain the Runick Golden Droplet, which will allow you to gain access to Mardel, Generaider Boss of Light.
  • Runick Dispelling is required to break the ice curse affecting fellow adventurers afflicted by Nidhogg, Generaider Boss of Ice.
  • Runick Smiting Storm is effective against Hela, Generaider Boss of Doom by breaking the immortaility curse that allows her to continuously revive minions.
• Theme Naming: The Runick Fusion Monsters are entities in Norse Mythology that are directly related to Odin (Harr, Generaider Boss of Storms in this context). Hugin and Munin are based on ravens that act as scouts for Odin, Geri and Freki are based on wolves that accompany Odin, and Sleipnir is Odin's steed and a son of Loki (after he turned into a female horse and mated with another horse).
• Treacherous Quest Giver: The hero of the Runick cards is assisted by a masked mage, who is later revealed to be Loptr, Shadow of the Generaider Bosses manipulating the hero into killing the Generaider Bosses to unseal the power of Laevatein, Generaider Boss of Shadows.

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