Characters / Yu Gi Oh Card Game S Part 1

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

Characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, sorted alphabetically and starting from the letter S.

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Sacred Beast / Phantasm

The Sacred Beasts. Left to right: Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, & Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

The Sacred Beasts, also known as the Three Phantom Demons (Japanese: 三幻魔, Sangenma) in Japanese, are a series of extremely powerful monsters, consisting of Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. They are central to the storyline of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and are depicted as the GX equivalent to the Egyptian Gods. They are used by Kagemaru and the Yubel-possessed Martin Kanou/Marcel Bonaparte in the GX anime and Eve in the ARC-V manga.

Related to the Sacred Beasts is the Phantasm archetype, consisting of Fusion Monsters with summoning requirements related to the Sacred Beasts. It is comprised of Armityle the Chaos Phantasm, the fused form of the Sacred Beasts, and Phantasm Emperor Trilojig, a different monster from the ARC-V manga.

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Raviel's Shimmering Scraper consists of it using its claws to slash at the attack target.
• Anti-Magic:
  • Uria has an effect that allows its controller to target and destroy a Set Spell or Trap Card, which can't be responded to.
  • Hamon's Signature Move based support card, Cerulean Skyfire, negates the effect of an opponent's Spell or Trap Card.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: If Shimmering Scraper is discarded as a cost while the controller controls Raviel, for the rest of the turn, it doubles Raviel's current ATK and allows it to attack every monster the opponent controls once each.
• Back from the Dead: Hyper Blaze and Opening of the Spirit Gates can revive a Sacred Beast and a low-Level Fiend, respectively.
• Beast with a Human Face: Atop its head, Armityle has a white face resembling a Noh mask.
• Big Bad: Armityle, the fusion of all three Sacred Beasts. Trilojig from the ARC-V manga is part of a Big Bad Ensemble with Timelord Progenitor Vorpgate and Number XX: Utopic Dark Infinity, with the three serving as the collective ace monsters of Eve, the main villain.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: Hamon's Cerulean Skyfire consists of it firing electricity into the sky, from which a bolt of lightning then strikes the attack target.
• Bowdlerise:
  • They were known as the "Three Phantom Demons" in Japan. The English translators chose to refer to them as the "Sacred Beasts".
  • Uria's moniker in Japanese was "Lord of Divine Flames". The TCG languages changed this to "Lord of Searing Flames".
• Breath Weapon: Uria's Hyper Blaze is a massive steam of fire that it shoots from its mouth at the attack target.
• Cannibalism Superpower: One of Raviel's effects allows its controller to Tribute another monster they control to have it gain ATK equal to the Tributed monster's ATK until the end of the turn. Crosses into Devour the Dragon if the controller Tributes Phantasm Tokens, which are Special Summoned through another of Raviel's effects, for this purpose.
• Death or Glory Attack: Armityle has an effect that lets it gain 10,000 ATK, but it is only applied on its controller's turn, in which it will return to an attack of zero.
• Dem Bones: Hamon is a winged demonic skeleton.
• Ditto Fighter: Phantom of Chaos' effect allows the controller to banish an Effect Monster from their Graveyard, with Phantom of Chaos gaining the name, attack and effects of that monster.
• Draw Aggro: If Hamon is in face-up Defense Position, the opponent cannot target any of the controller's other monsters for attacks.
• Dub Name Change: From the "Three Phantom Demons" in Japanese, to the "Sacred Beasts" in the TCG languages. As a result of this, they go from having a Meaningful Name to an ironic one.
• Evil Counterpart: The Sacred Beasts are this to the Egyptian Gods, as Divine (in the anime) monsters that need you to send 3 cards you control to the GY to summon them.
  • Raviel is the counterpart to Obelisk, as both are blue-colored humanoid monsters and have 4000 ATK and DEF.
  • Hamon is the counterpart of Ra, as both are yellow, vaguely mechanized beasts.
  • Uria is the counterpart to Slifer, who are both red snake-like dragons with two mouths. Their ATK and DEF is also variable.
  • Armityle is the counterpart to Horakhty, since both are combinations of the respective trios. They're also both meant to be the Instant-Win Condition of their respective archetypes (Armityle by being able to One-Hit Kill, while Horakhty just straight up wins the duel when it hits the field).
• Field Power Effect: Fallen Paradise prevents the opponent from targeting or destroying any of the Sacred Beasts with card effects.
• Flunky Boss: Along with bolstering its own ATK, Special Summoning Tokens to fill the field is Raviel's shtick, as one of its effects entails Special Summoning a Phantasm Token each time the opponent Normal Summons a monster.
• Fog of Doom: Armityle's Phantom of Fury effect has it spewing purple miasma from its mouth onto the other monsters on its controller's field, dissolving them as they are banished.
• Fusion Dance: Armityle, as well as Phantom of Fury, uses the three Sacred Beasts as Fusion Materials, and visually resembles a horrendous amalgamation of the three.
• Garden of Eden: Fallen Paradise is implied to be the biblical Garden of Eden or a reference to it, as its artwork depicts a dead tree with an Tempting Apple on the ground in front of it.
• Glass Cannon: Despite being indestructible by battle, Armityle is this, due to having 0 ATK during the opponent's turn. This turns it into a free path right to your LP if you don't finish off the opponent right away with it.
• Ironic Name: Their English moniker, the Sacred Beasts, doesn't really jive with the fact that these are evil demonic beings.
• Light Is Not Good: Hamon is a Light monster, but also an evil demonic creature.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Uria and Hamon have this dynamic, as the former is a Pyro-Type monster while the latter is Thunder-Type.
• Monster Lord: All three of them are this through their names. However, Raviel is the most pronounced example, as unlike the Uria and Hamon, it has Token monsters associated with it, ostensibly its servants or vassals.
• Monster Progenitor: Raviel's effect can Special Summon Phantasm Tokens, which visually look like miniature versions of Raviel itself.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Each of the Sacred Beasts and Armityle had a named Signature Move in the anime, and all of them later had cards named for said attacks. Hyper Blaze for Uria, Cerulean Skyfire for Hamon, Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper for Raviel, and Armityle the Chaos Phantasm - Phantom of Fury for Armityle. Each of those cards is also referential to the type of card necessary to Special Summon their respective supported Sacred Beast.
  • The artwork of Opening of the Spirit Gates depicts the Spirit Gates at Duel Academy, in which the Sacred Beasts were sealed in the anime.
  • The artwork of Awakening of the Sacred Beasts depicts the Sacred Beasts draining the duel energy of Duel Monster spirits, eventually killing them, in order to fulfill Kagemaru's goal of restoring his youth.
  • Phantom of Chaos' artwork features vague silhouettes of the Sacred Beasts in the background, which is a reference to the fact that Marcel used its effect in the anime to copy their effects and ATK.
• Nested Mouths: Uria has two mouths, with armored red outer jaws surrounding its face.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Armityle practically becomes this if it is Special Summoned with Dimension Fusion Destruction, and the controller has Fallen Paradise on their field.
• No-Sell: Fallen Paradise protects the Sacred Beasts and Armityle from being targeted and destroyed by the opponent's card effects.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Dimension Fusion Destruction has a line of text allowing it to ignore the Summoning conditions of the monster it Special Summoned. This is because the monster it Summoned in the anime, Armityle, was released in the OCG nearly thirteen years before it. As such, when this card was finally printed, it had to explicitly ignore Armityle's Summoning conditions for the sake of Gameplay and Story Integration.
• Odd Name Out: Trilojig ostensibly deviates from the Religious and Mythological Theme Naming of the Sacred Beasts and Armityle, as its name is a portmanteau of "trilogy" and "logic". However, it can also be derived from the Holy Trinity, which may be reinforced by the fact that Eve Fusion Summoned it with monsters named for the Biblical Magi who visited the infant Jesus, a member of the Trinity as God the Son.
• One-Hit Kill: Armityle is designed to inflict these, since it can have 10,000 ATK during its controller's turn, which excesses the 8000 LP that players start a Duel with.
• Power Nullifier: Awakening of the Sacred Beasts has an effect wherein the activated effects of monsters the opponent controls are negated as long as the controller controls at least two Sacred Beasts with different names.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Armityle ostensibly evokes this trope, as its effect allows it to instantly gain 10,000 ATK during its controller's turn, which used to be the highest defined ATK gain via a card effect in the game.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Sacred Beasts are named after characters in Judeo-Christianity.
  • Raviel's name is an alternate spelling of the name of Raziel, the angel of mysteries.
  • Hamon's name originates from the Book of Esther. Hamon is considered an alternate spelling of Haman, a villain who tried to depose the King of Persia and kill all the Jews in Persia. Also, the word Hamon means blade pattern, referring to the wave like patterns found on Japan's iconic weapon.
  • Uria's name is an alternate spelling of the name of Uriah, a man who was murdered by King David because David had an affair with Uriah's wife^note also known as the Trope Namer for Uriah Gambit. Uria may also be a reference to the archangel, Urial.
  • Armityle, the fusion of all three Sacred Beasts, is named after Amitiel, an angel of truth in Judeo-Christianity, who some consider to be an archangel.
• Rule of Three:
  • There are three Sacred Beasts, each one has Summoning conditions that require three of a specific type of card to be sent from the field to the Graveyard to Special Summon it from the hand, each one having a specific support card of said type.
  • The Phantasm Fusion Monsters also each require three Fusion Materials, the three Sacred Beasts for Armityle and Phantom of Fury, and three Level 10 monsters for Trilojig.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: In the GX anime, the Sacred Beasts were sealed under Duel Academy. Opening of the Spirit Gates depicts the gate that held them, and the moment when said gate was unlocked, allowing Kagemaru to obtain the cards.
• Set Bonus: Awakening of the Sacred Beasts has three effects that it applies progressively the more Sacred Beasts with different names that the controller has on the field. To gain access to all three of those effects, the controller has to control all three Sacred Beasts.
• Shout-Out:
  • Fallen Paradise's Japanese OCG name, 失楽園, which translates to Paradise Lost, directly references the epic poem by John Milton, which recounted the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
  • The Japanses OCG name of Hamon's Signature Attack based support card, Cerulean Skyfire, is 失楽の霹靂, which translates to "Lost Paradise Thunderclap", likely also referencing the aforementioned poem.
• Signature Move: Each of the Sacred Beasts has a named attack in the anime, and cards named after each of them were introduced in Structure Deck: Sacred Beasts of Chaos.
  • Uria: Hyper Blaze
  • Hamon: Cerulean Skyfire
  • Raviel: Shimmering Scraper
  • Armityle: Phantom of Fury
• Stance System: Hamon's two effects are applied based on which battle position it currently is in. If it destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, it inflicts 1000 damage to the opponent, and it would almost certainly be in Attack Position while doing so. If it is in face-up Defense Position, however, the opponent can only target Hamon for attacks. This is invoked by Cerulean Skyfire, as it allows its controller to negate the resolution of an opponent's Spell or Trap Card or effect while they control Hamon in Attack Position, then switch Hamon to Defense Position.
• Status Buff: Most of them have effects that bolster their own ATK.
  • Uria gains 1000 ATK for each Continuous Trap Card in its controller's Graveyard. Hyper Blaze also allows Uria to gain even more ATK.
  • Raviel's effect allows its controller to Tribute a monster in order for it to gain ATK equal to the Tributed monster's ATK.
  • Armityle gains 10,000 ATK during its controller's turn only.
  • A player can discard Shimmering Scraper in order to double the ATK of a Raviel they control and allow it to attack all of the opponent's monsters once each that turn.
• Stone Wall: Dimension Fusion Destruction, if used to Special Summon Armityle, turns the latter into this in a sense during the opponent's turn. Although Armityle has 0 ATK, it cannot be destroyed by battle and the former's effect also prevents the latter's controller from taking battle damage from attacks involving it.
• Taking You with Me: Phantom of Fury's controller can give control of it to the opponent, and during the End Phase of a turn in which its control was switched, it banishes all cards on its current controller's field, including itself.
• Terrible Trio: The Sacred Beasts are all evil demonic creatures and in the anime, they nearly enabled their users to wipe all other Duel Monsters from existence.
• Trojan Horse: Phantom of Fury has an effect to switch control to the opponent, after which it will banish in the End Phase along with all the opponent's cards.

Salamangreat

Rise again from the valley of flames!

Salamangreat is an archetype of FIRE Cyberse monsters with the special gimmick of "Reincarnation Link Summoning," a Link Summoning method that grants summoned Link Monsters additional effects if they've used monsters with their same name as material, which is supported and enabled by their field spell Salamangreat Sanctuary. They are used by Takeru Homura/Soulburner in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.

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• Anti-Magic: Getting rid of the opponent's Spell/Trap cards appear to be a small focus for this archetype:
  • Heatleo can bounce back one spell or trap card on the opponent's field once Link Summoned, two cards if reincarnated.
  • Foxy can revive itself from the GY and destroy one face-up Spell or Trap card on the field.
  • Foxer can discard itself to return one Salamangreat Link monster to the Extra Deck and destroy one spell or trap card in the opponent's zone.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Jack Jaguar has the ability to inflict piercing damage. Salamangreat Claw allows one equipped monster to inflict piercing damage.
• Arc Number: The strongest members have 2800 ATK. The remaining two boss monsters have 2300 ATK, matching the Code Talkers' 2300 ATK.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Several of their regular effect monsters have the ability to revive themselves from the GY.
  • Many of its support cards also allow a monster to be revived, i.e. Will Of The Salamangreat allows one Salamangreat monster to revive once per turn.
• Cybernetic Mythical Beast: Violet Chimera, which was inspired by the mythical Chimera itself.
• Fusion Dance: Fusing a Salamangreat monster with a Link Monster results in Salamangreat Violet Chimera. Thanks to the Spell Card Fusion of Fire, you can also use your opponent's card to summon it, which is most likely a Link Monster.
• Half-Identical Twins: Foxer and Foxy are identical, except the former is pink and the latter is blue. Salamangreat Recureance even shows them together.
• Heal Thyself: A few cards from the archetype, including the Field Spell Salamangreat Sanctuary, have effects that increase the player's life points.
  • Salamangreat Sanctuary's effect lets the player pay 1000 LP, target and change a Link Monster's ATK to 0, and gain LP equal to its ATK.
  • Parro can tribute itself in exchange for 2000 LP.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Salamanders are animals which in legends are often associated with fire to the point of being considered its corresponding elemental, which explains the FIRE attribute. Although the monsters itself are based on a variety of animals and creatures.
  • Salamangreat is a portmanteau of the words "Salamandra" and "Great". Their kanji translates as "Reincarnated Flame Beast", which is linked to the archetypes' style and philosophy.
• Mi'raj: Almiraj is inspired by the mythical rabbit itself, horn and all.
• Mythology Gag: The archetype's reincarnation gimmick is reminiscent of Gemini summoning as both involve summoning a monster twice in order to use all of its effects.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Salamangreat Kernel prevents a monster from getting switched, is unaffected by card or monster effects from non-Link Monsters, cannot be destroyed or banished by card effects, and can't be destroyed in battle by returning 1 Link-2 or higher "Salamangreat" monster from your GY to the Extra Deck once per turn, as shown in Soulburner's fight with Revolver.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Emerald Eagle, which is inspired by an eagle. Its effect allows one to tribute one Link Monster they control in order to destroy the opponent's monster and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's original ATK.
• No-Sell:
  • Balelynx can banish itself in order to prevent a Salamangreat card from being destroyed by battle or card effects.
  • Blaze Dragon can detach an Xyz Material from itself to negate its own destruction by battle or card effect.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Salamangreat Blaze Dragon is one of the archetype's two Xyz Monster. It's a Cyberse-Type, not Dragon-Type, but it has the appearance of a dark blue dragon with red flaming wings. If it has no Xyz Material, it can use its Quick Effect during the Battle Phase to use itself as an Xyz Material to summon another Salamangreat Xyz Monster, which logically would be another copy of itself (Reincarnation Xyz Summon). If summoned via a Reincarnation Xyz Summon, its flaming wings are black instead.
• Panthera Awesome: Some of them are cat-based, but the prime example is Salamangreat Heatleo. While it looks more dragonic overall than cat-like, it's supposed to be a lion monster with a flaming mane. Heatleo serves as Soulburner's Signature Mon, and therefore is the archetype's first boss monster before the others were introduced.
• The Phoenix: Referenced with the aptly-named Salamangreat Pyro Phoenix. However, the monster itself, while retaining bird-like elements in its design, is humanoid in appearance and unlike previous monsters in the game inspired by this trope, lacks a self-reviving effect to represent its namesake's ability to be reborn with the archetype's Reincarnation Link Summon being used instead. It does, however, have the effect to revive one of the opponent's Link Monster to the opponent's field.
• Purple Is Powerful: The Fusion Monster Violet Chimera, which is one of the archetype's more powerful monsters.
• Reincarnation: The playstyle of the Salamangreat revolves around "reincarnating" their own monsters by summoning them using another copy of the same monsters, unlocking new abilities in the process. This is even called "Reincarnation Link Summon" in the anime when done using Link monsters. "Reincarnation Xyz Summon" is also mentioned once (with Salamangreat Blaze Dragon), and since Violet Chimera and Emerald Eagle have reincarnation effects, "Reincarnation Fusion Summon" and "Reincarnation Ritual Summon" exist in theory, too.
• Status Buff:
  • Violet Chimera can gain half the total ATK of the monsters used to summon it. And if it attacks a monster that has different ATK than its original one, Violet Chimera's ATK doubles during damage calculation.
  • Spinny can discard itself to boost one monster on the field by 500 attack points.
  • If used as an Xyz Material to summon an Xyz monster, Zebroid X can boost the monster's ATK by 300 for each material attached.
• Status Effects:
  • Heatleo's reincarnated effect is making a monster equal to the ATK of a monster in your GY. Good for lowering an opponent's monster ATK or boost a player's own if done right.
  • If Fusion summoned using a monster that shares its name, Violet Chimera can drop a battling opponent's monster to 0 ATK during damage calculation.
• Weak, but Skilled: The archetype is filled with low ATK, except for its Special Summoned boss monsters, and thus have to rely on its monster effects to control the board and weaken the opponent monsters or to swarm the field. Even their strongest members have only 2800 original ATK at most.
• Woodland Creatures: Most of the monster cards based on small and average-sized animals, the Extra Deck members are based on the largest and most majestic of the animal kingdom.

Scrap

Build 'em up, break 'em down.

Scrap is an archetype of EARTH monsters that are variably typed. Their gimmick is that they either destroy your own cards, or have effects that activate upon their destruction, allowing creative and unforeseen plays because of the ways their effects play off of each other. Their strongest member are their Synchros — Scrap Dragon, Scrap Twin Dragon, and Atomic Scrap Dragon, who all share the effect that they can remove an opponent's resources by destroying a card on your side of the field.

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• Giant Scrap Robot: They're automata of various shapes composed of scrap metal. The Scrap Dragons fit this the best, though, being mechanical dragons.
• Homage: The thumbs up in Scrap Factory's artwork is a reference to the ending scene of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where the Terminator gives a thumbs-up as he is lowered into a vat of molten steel.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Scrap monsters are all piles of animated scrap metal, but despite their mechanical appearances, only a handful of them are Machines.
• Made of Explodium: This is their main gimmick; their effects either force the player to destroy them or other cards they control. The most prevelant is Scrap Shark — it self-destructs when any card effect is activated.
• Power at a Price: Scrap Kong and Scrap Shark have very high ATK for Level 4 monsters. But Scrap Kong destroys itself if it is Normal Summoned and Scrap Shark destroys itself the moment any other card effect is activated, so getting use out of them as beatsticks is difficult.
• Weak, but Skilled: Aside from their Extra Deck monsters, Scraps don't have much to offer in the way of field control or high ATK. Their main deck monsters are more focused on comboing their effects with each other to swarm the field and set up the summoning of their Extra Deck monsters.

Sevens Road / Road Magic

Sevens Road is a series of DARK Spellcaster-Type monsters used by Yuga Ohdo in the Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS anime. In particular, the most notable monster in the series, Sevens Road Magician, serves as Yuga's signature monster. Yuga's deck focuses on Summoning Sevens Road Magician, whilst also filling his Graveyard with monsters of multiple Attributes to boost his ATK. This is relatively easy to accomplish by exploiting the rules of the Rush Duel format, which places no limitations on how many times a player can Normal Summon per turn. The controller can thus Normal Summon the necessary Tribute fodder for Sevens Road Magician, and then immediately Tribute Summon him, loading the Graveyard with different Attributes to fuel Sevens Road Magician's ATK gaining effect.

Sevens Road Magician is also related to the Road Magic series, a series of Normal Spell Cards that require the controller to control a Level 7 or higher Spellcaster-Type monster (which Sevens Road Magician is) and send a monster of a given Attribute as a cost to use their effects. Paying the cost of these cards further helps the controller to accumulate monsters of different Attributes in the Graveyard to boost Sevens Road Magician's ATK.

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• Cool Mask: Sevens Road Magician wears one over the left side of his face, with orange flames streaming out of the eyehole.
• Flaming Hair: Sevens Road Magician has bright orange flames streaming out the top of his head.
• Magical Eye Streamers: Sevens Road Magician wears a mask over the left side of his face, with orange flames streaming out the eyehole.
• Making a Splash: Road Magic - Backflow depicts Sevens Road Magician casting a bunch of water to "push" the enemy back.
• Rainbow Motif: There are seven "Sevens Road" monsters, each representing one color of the rainbow (with blue replacing indigo, while blue's spot is filled by cyan), plus the Master that represents Rainbow itself.
  • Red: Sevens Road Witch
  • Orange: Sevens Road Magician
  • Yellow: Sevens Road Wiz
  • Green: Sevens Road Mage
  • Cyan: Sevens Road Enchanter
  • Blue: Sevens Road Sorcerer
  • Violet: Sevens Road Warlock
  • Rainbow: Master of Sevens Road
• Shockwave Stomp: Road Magic - Diastrophism depicts Sevens Road Magician rupturing the ground with one of these.
• Signature Move: The Road Magic cards are this for Sevens Road Magician, as each one depicts him casting the eponymous spell. Each one also requires that the controller control a Level 7 or higher Spellcaster-Type monster to be activated, which Sevens Road Magician is.
• Status Buff:
  • If the controller sends the top card of their Deck to the Graveyard as a cost, Sevens Road Magician gains 300 ATK for each different Attribute in their Graveyard until the end of the turn.
  • If the effect of Sevens Road Witch is used to Special Summon Sevens Road Magician, she gains 400 ATK until the end of the turn.
• Status Effects:
  • The effect of Sevens Road Mage causes an opposing Level 7 or higher monster to lose 400 ATK until the end of the turn. Then, if the controller controls Sevens Road Magician, that monster loses 100 ATK for each Spellcaster-Type monster in the controller's Graveyard until the end of the turn.
  • Road Magic - Diastrophism causes an opposing monster to lose ATK equal to the ATK of the monster in the controller's Graveyard with the highest ATK.
• Stuff Blowing Up: As its name suggests, Road Magic - Explosion depicts Sevens Road Magician creating a massive explosion.
• Tornado Move: Road Magic - Tempest depicts Seven Road Magician generating several twisters.

Shining Sarcophagus

Shining Sarcophagus is a Continuous Spell card and retrain of "Gold Sarcophagus" that also comprises a series of monsters that specifically revolve around controlling it, all of which are retrains of iconic cards wielded by Yugi Muto during his final duel against Yami Yugi in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime series.

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• No-Sell: Shining Sarcophagus cannot be destroyed by monster effects. This protects it from being destroyed by "Geas Gandora the Dragon of Destruction"'s effect, which would otherwise destroy all other cards on the field.

Shinobird

The Shinobirds, or Esprit in the OCG, are a series of WIND Winged Beast-Type Spirit Monsters. Their ace monsters, the barons—known in the OCG as the Esprit Lords—are Ritual Monsters that are also Spirit Monsters, the first such monsters ever seen in the franchise. They have a Tanabata motif, with Shinobaroness and Shinobaron as Orihime and Hikoboshi.

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• Gold-Colored Superiority: Most Spirit monsters are depicted against a halo-like background in their card artwork. The vast majority of them are in shades of blue, including for the Shinobirds themselves. The Barons, however, have their backgrounds in gold instead, underscoring their ubiquity within both the series and the game itself.
• Meaningful Name: The Japanese name of the archetype means "spirit" in French.

Shiranui

The Shiranui are an archetype of a clan of yōkai-slaying samurais who wield the Spectralsword, an enchanted sword that holds the soul of the clan's founder. The archetype's lore is directly connected to the Mayakashi archetype, whom they've ceaselessly battled with for several generations.

Gameplay-wise, their monsters are all FIRE Zombie-Type monsters, and their gimmick revolves around banishing their own monsters to trigger their effects and recycling those banished cards by returning them to the Graveyard or the deck. They also make use of Synchro Monsters.

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• Alliterative Name: In the TCG, the Shiranui cards all have names beginning with the letter "S".
• Action Girl: "Shiranui Squire" is the one to confront the Mayakashi. She even gets upgrades in the form of "Shiranui Squiresaga" and "Shiranui Skillsaga Supremacy".
• Ancestral Weapon: The Spectralsword is passed down from Shiranui Swordmaster to Shiranui Squire.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Ironically enough, despite Zombie decks being known for their ability to summon monsters from the Graveyard, the only card with such an effect in the Shiranui is their Field Spell card, Shiranui Style - Synthesis.
  • Shiranui Sunsaga in the card's lore is the temporarily revived form of the Shiranui founder, who was summoned through the Samsara formation.
• The Blacksmith: Shiranui Smith is the blacksmith who forges the enchanted weapons used by the Shiranui clan. One of his relatives was slain by the Mayakashi, and as such he dedicates himself to forging weapons that can defeat them.
• Canon Welding: Shiranui was introduced in late 2015, while the Mayakashi were introduced in 2018, meaning that the Shiranui lore wasn't fully developed into its yōkai-hunter clan form for a couple of years. Even after the Mayakashi were introduced (in Deck Build Pack: Hidden Summoners), they weren't formally connected to the Shiranui lore until Ghost Meets Girl - A Shiranui's Story, which was released a few months after the Mayakashi were released (in Savage Strike).
• Demon Slayer: The Shiranui members are all yōkai hunters dedicated to fighting the Mayakashi.
• The Dreaded: The samurai whose soul is inside the Spectralsword founded the Shiranui clan, and the Mayakashi fear him accordingly. His temporary re-emergence as Shiranui Sunsaga at the whim of the modern Shiranui is enough to strike fear into the Mayakashi and allow him to seal them away, ending the conflict... for a while.
• Dual Wielding: It seems that wielders of the Shiranui Spectralsword tend to wield an additional weapon alongside it. Shiranui Samurai, as well as his older self Swordmaster, wields a Flaming Sword along with the Spectralsword. Samurai's fusions with the Shiranui spirit, Shogunsaga and Sunsaga also share this trait. Samurai's successor, Shiranui Squire, wields the Shiranui Spectralsword Shade alongside a Naginata.
• Enemy Mine: The artwork of Ghost Meets Girl – A Mayakashi and Shiranui’s Tale shows Yoko and Squire teaming up to beat Yuki-Onna. Whether this is a case of them having a common enemy or due to Yoko Becoming the Mask is unclear.
• Flaming Sword: Two of them. The Shiranui Spectralsword Shade, which is wielded by Shiranui Squiresaga and an unnamed sword wielded by Shiranui Samurai and his older self Shiranui Swordmaster in addition to the Shiranui Spectralsword. It's implied that Spectralsword Shade is actually the product of Samurai's sword eventually fusing with the Spectralsword.
• Fusion Dance: Shiranui Shogunsaga is implied to be the result of Shiranui Samurai temporarily fusing with the spirit of the Shiranui Spectralsword. It's further implied that at the end of his life, Samurai (now Shiranui Swordmaster) allowed his spirit to fully fuse with the spirit, causing his Flaming Sword to fuse with the Spectralsword and create the Shiranui Spectralsword Shade.
• Meaningful Name: The archetype is named after a phenomenon from Japanese folklore.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: Shiranui Squire, the female successor to the Shiranui clan, wields a Naginata as her main weapon.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Shiranui Smith prevents all Zombie-Type monsters from being destroyed by battle during the turn it was banished.
• Old Master: Shiranui Swordmaster is an aged Shiranui Samurai, and he appears to still be just as strong as ever in the art of Shiranui Swordsaga.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The Shiranuis are Zombies In Name Only, as most of the monsters are living human beings; the only real undead here is the undead soul of the clan's founder inside the Spectralsword.
• Sealed Good in a Can: According to Master Duel, the Mayakashi sealed the yokai-slaying warrior's soul into the Shiranui Spectralsword.
• Status Buff:
  • Shiranui Samurai can increase his own ATK by 600 by banishing a Zombie-Type monster from the Graveyard.
  • Shiranui Shogunsaga has a stronger version of Samurai's effect that increases his ATK by the original ATK of the banished monster. However, it can only be done when he's Special Summoned.
  • Shiranui Squiresaga can banish a Zombie-Type monster from the field or graveyard to permanently buff both her own ATK and all other Zombie-Type monsters the player controls by 300. In addition, depending on whether the banished monster has the FIRE element and/or is a Synchro monster, she can destroy an opponent's Spell/Trap card and/or a Monster.
• Super Mode: Unlike other archetypes, the various Synchro monsters aren't really separate entities, but rather represent the Shiranui wielders, Samurai/Swordmaster and Squire, tapping into the power of the Spectralsword they wield to gain a great boost in power. In the case of Shiranui Samurai, the Shogunsaga and Sunsaga monsters represent successive Super Modes where Samurai merges more and more with the spirit of the Shiranui founder within the Spectralsword.
• Superior Successor: Played with in regards to Shiranui Squire/Squiresaga in towards her mentor Shiranui Samurai/Samuraisaga, in that she has less straightforward power but a far wider range of abilities and greater potential power.
  • When comparing their base forms, Squire is weaker than Samurai in terms of base ATK and lacks any way of boosting her ATK. However, her ability to summon one of the Spectralsword tuner monsters upon being normal summoned means she can often immediately transition into her synchro-monster form, whereas Samurai cannot.
  • Squiresaga has less base ATK than either Samuraisaga or Shogunsaga, and her Status Buff only increases ATK by 300, compared to Samurai's aforementioned 600 or Shogunsaga's potential of gaining the ATK of any Shiranui monster in the graveyard. However, unlike Samurai or Shogunsaga, Squiresaga's ATK buffs are permanent, meaning they can be stacked over succesive turns. The buff also extends to all Zombie-type monsters the player controls, and can potentially destroy an opponents spell, trap or monster cards depending on the monster Squiresaga banishes to activate her effect.
• Symbiotic Possession: This seems to have been the relationship between Shiranui Samurai and the spirit of the Shiranui founder within the Shiranui Spectralsword. Shiranui Shogunsaga appears to be the result of the two fusing, while Shiranui Sunsaga appears to represent Samurai surrendering his body entirely to allow the spirit to temporarily return to life via the Samsara Formation.
• Took a Level in Badass: Shiranui Samurai became the Synchro Monster Shiranui Samuraisaga by uniting with the spirit within the Shiranui Spectralsword. Shiranui Squire does the same to become Shiranui Squiresaga and Shiranui Skillsaga Supremacy.
• We Used to Be Friends: "Shiranui Squire" and "Dakki, the Graceful Mayakashi" used to be friends, as seen in the artwork of Ghost Meets Girl - A Shiranui's Story. They clash with each other as "Shiranui Skillsaga Supremacy" and "Yoko, the Graceful Mayakashi", respectively. However, lore states that Dakki only approached Squire to learn the secrets of the Shiranui clan.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Shiranui Skillsaga Supremacy is Shiranui Squire after combining the Shiranui style with yokai magic from Dakki/Yoko. This would turn out to be a trap, as shown in Ghost Meets Girl - A Mayakashi Manuscript, as the yokai magic allows Yuki-Onna to steal her power.

Silent Magician / Silent Swordsman

Silent Magician

Silent Swordsman

The Silent series consists of Silent Magicians and Silent Swordsmen, and are used by Yugi Muto in the anime. The original Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman are LV monsters that summon stronger, higher-level forms of themselves as they stay on the field, but later support for them makes "Silent Magician" and "Silent Swordsman" monsters without the LV suffix, and they support the two archetypes as a whole. The two series have various effects to restrict the usage of Spell cards.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: The card game versions of Silent Swordsman all have green skin.
• Anti-Magic: Their shared effect is to negate Spell cards in various manners.
• BFS: Silent Swordsman's sword grows to be bigger than he is at higher levels.
• Composite Character: The design aesthetics of Silent Paladin combines aspects from both Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician, wearing similar armor to Swordsman as well as having a similar hair color, and having a similar hairstyle and eye color to Magician.
• Foil: Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician can be seen as counterparts to Buster Blader and Dark Magician. The former two start out small and weak but get stronger over time, while the latter are strong to begin with. The Silent monsters have a brighter theme, while Buster Blader and Dark Magician take the Darker and Edgier approach. They also have a related "Paladin" card, but whereas Silent Paladin is a relatively weak support card for the main monsters, Dark Paladin is a stronger Fusion of its related monsters. Finally, Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician are the trademark monsters of regular Yugi, while Buster Blader and Dark Magician are iconic monsters played by Yami Yugi.
• From Bad to Worse: The normal Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman share the effect that, when destroyed by battle or an opponent's card effect, you can summon any monster of their archetype (except another copy of themselves) from the hand or deck. An opponent that gets rid of them prematurely is now going to have to deal with an even stronger version of them taking the original's place.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The male Silent Swordsman wields a sword for melee, while the female Silent Magician uses magic to strike from afar.
• Hotter and Sexier: Silent Magician LV 8 is this to her LV 4 counterpart, naturally. Her non-level version strikes a more provocative pose than her LV counterparts and has more revealing outfit that has a slit in the robe that shows her thighs. Silent Swordsman also went from a cute child to a top-grade bishonen.
• Ironic Name: The anime incarnations of these monsters let out Kiais just like any other card.
• Light 'em Up: Silent Magician's attack in the anime is portrayed as a Holy Hand Grenade. Averted with Silent Swordsman, who attacks with basic sword slashes.
• Light Is Good: They are LIGHT monsters, wear silver, white, and blue clothing, and are the signature cards of the hero.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Typical for LV monsters, they start out fairly weak in their base forms but become quite formidable when they reach their final levels.
  • The non-LV cards start out with just 1000 ATK, but grow stronger every turn thanks to their effects. Silent Swordsman gains an extra 500 ATK every Standby Phase, while Silent Magician gets the same boost for every card the player has on his/her hand.
  • "Silent Swordsman Zero" and "Silent Magician Zero" gain Levels (actual Levels, rather than upgrading LV forms) when their conditions are met. Appropriately, they are given their manga effects, where "Silent Swordsman Zero" gains a Level during each Standby Phase and "Silent Magician Zero" gains a Level for every card the opponent draws, with both of them gaining an additional 500 ATK for every Level they have higher than their base Level of 4. To speed up the process of getting their boosts, other cards from the "Gold Sarcophagus of Light" series, such as "Geas Gandora the Dragon of Destruction", "Turn Silence", and "Silence Towards the Future", modulate levels when they are used, letting the Silent Zero monsters hit the ground running with an immediate bonus.
• Meaningful Name: "Silence" is often a status effect in RPGs that prevents the character afflicted from using magic. The Silent monsters variably have the power to negate Spell cards.
• Ms. Fanservice: The non-LV Silent Magician has a much more feminine appearance than her LV counterparts, and her artwork takes full advantage of it. Impressively, her artwork was somehow not censored in the TCG, considering that other, far less risqué artworks were changed.
• Required Secondary Powers: Silent Swordsman LV 7 and Silent Magician LV 8 state in their card text they cannot be summoned except by the effects of their lower-leveled forms. Support cards for them thus specify you can summon a "Silent Swordsman" or "Silent Magician" monster while ignoring its summoning conditions.
• Support Party Member: Silent Paladin. Her name and type (Fairy) means she doesn't synergize well with the Magician or Swordsman, but she has support effects to add their LV 4 and LV 3 versions to the player's hand.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician form this dynamic.
• You Don't Look Like You: In the anime, Silent Magician wore a red and black outfit and looked more androgynous, while the real life card is white ands blue and is distinctly female.

Simorgh

The original Lord of the Storm; Simorgh, Bird of Divinity

Simorgh is an archetype of WIND and DARK Winged-Beasts. The archetype originated as a single boss monster card, Simorgh, Bird of Divinity, introduced way back in 2006. It received a few alternate versions in the years after before suddenly getting a glut of support in 2019, upgrading it to a full blown archetype. The archetype's main focus is Tribute Summoning their boss monsters and emptying the opponent's Spell/Trap zones.

The original Simorgh, Bird of Divinity made an appearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX where it was used by the Duel Monster spirit Sky Scout and had a brief cameo in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. The archetype was used by Strong Jukyu in the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Structures manga.

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• Anti-Magic: The Simorgh cards have several ways of dealing with the opponent's Spell and Trap cards. This became part of their playstyle as their Level 4 and lower monsters require the opponent to have no cards in their Spell/Trap zone to be summoned from the Graveyard.
  • Dark Simorgh outright prevents from the opponent from setting cards on the field.
  • Bird of Protection can return a card in the opponent's Spell/Trap zone to the hand when Normal summoned.
  • Lord of the Storm cannot be targeted by the opponent's Spell/Trap cards and effects so long as it was tribute summoned.
  • Darkness Simorgh can negate the activation of a Spell/Trap card and destroy it at the cost of tributing 1 WIND monster.
  • The spell Simorgh Rejection can return all cards the opponent have in their Spell/Trap zone to the hand at the cost of discarding 1 Winged-Beast monster.
• Back from the Dead: Many of the Simorgh monsters have the ability to summon themselves from the graveyard.
  • The Level 4 and lower Simorghs all share an effect that allows them to special summon themselves from the Graveyard if the opponent has an empty Spell/Trap Zone.
  • Dark Simogh can be special summoned from the graveyard by banishing 1 DARK monster and 1 WIND monster from the hand.
  • Darkness Simorgh can special summon itself from the Graveyard if a DARK or WIND monster was tribute summoned.
• Divine Birds: The original Simorgh was called Simorgh, Bird of Divinity and the OCG names of the archetype's WIND monsters usually contains "Divine Bird".
• Evil Counterpart: Dark Simorgh is the DARK counterpart to the original Simorgh, Bird of Divinity. Similarly, Darkness Simorgh is one to Simorgh, Lord of the Storms.
• Giant Flyer: The higher-leveled Simorghs are depicted as being huge in card artworks.
• Meaningful Name: Simorgh is one spelling of the name of a mythical bird from Persian mythology.

Sky Striker

Raye in her unarmored form.

Sky Striker, known as Sentō—either Flash Sword or Brandish—in the OCG, is an archetype that revolves around its Aces^note Princesses or Maidens in the OCG. Sky Striker Ace includes two Main Deck Warrior monsters, Raye and Roze, and four Machine Link 1 Link Monsters (Kagari, Shizuku, Hayate, and Kaina) that require an Ace as material.

Lore-wise, Raye is the pilot of a new type of weapon, the Sky Striker Mecha, developed by a nation under the invasion of a powerful empire. Raye's sword "Sky Striker" is the Mecha's ignition device, and the Mecha has access to multiple combat modes (the Link Monsters), many powerful abilities (the Sky Strike Maneuver spells), and an arsenal of weapons (the Sky Striker Mecha spells). However, she is opposed by Roze, the invaders' own secret weapon, who pilots a similar weapon known as Zeke.

The archetype possesses a large number of Spell Cards, most of which have the shared requirement of controlling no monsters in the Main Monster Zones in order to be activated, along with an additional effect that can be used if there are 3 or more different Spells in the Graveyard. The archetype's general playstyle involves fighting with a single Sky Striker Ace Link monster, and using lots of Spells and swapping between the Link 1s to rapidly generate card advantage.

The first arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories introduced an expanded plotline based on the Sky Striker lore. Accompanying this was the "second wave" of Sky Striker cards, based on characters featured in the manga. Unlike previous Sky Striker support, many of the manga cards are Main Deck monsters (like Raye and Roze) whose effects revolve around banishing Spell Cards from the Graveyard to provide backup to the Sky Striker Aces in lieu of the Sky Striker Spells and recurring banished Sky Striker Spells if they leave the field. In addition, the repertoire of Sky Striker Aces expanded with the addition of two additional Aces: Sky Striker Ace - Azalea and Sky Striker Ace - Camellia, who are DARK LINK-2 Machine Link Monsters with generic materials.

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• Action Girl: Oh yeah. While most decks need a variety of monsters to function, the Sky Striker archetype is little more than Raye using a variety of gadgets and Powered Armor to single-handedly destroy anything that comes her way.
• Anti-Magic: Two Spells, Afterburners! and Jamming Waves!, both have the ability to destroy 1 Spell or Trap on the field, but while Jamming Waves! can do this as its first effect, Afterburners! can only do it for its second, i.e. when there are 3+ different Spells in the Graveyard. There is a plus side, however, as Afterburners!' second effect does not target.
• Assist Character: Raye's own unarmored form is purely a support card for her armored forms, i.e. the Link monsters. She can be summoned from the Graveyard (which the archetype has many ways to set up) if a Sky Striker Ace Link monster gets destroyed or leaves the field, and she has a Quick Effect to tribute herself and Special Summon another Sky Striker Ace Link 1; this gameplay process likely conceptually represents Raye's armor getting temporarily destroyed and her immediately re-entering another one.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Kaina's first effect can prevent an opponent's monster from attacking for a turn the moment it's Special Summoned. The enormous claws that constitute her Powered Armor may have something to do with that.
• Breakout Character: The Sky Strikers, and Raye in particular, became popular enough that an official manga was released in April 2022, with her as the protagonist.
• BFG: Hayate wields one as her default weapon; her associated Spell, Vectoring Blast!, shows it transforming into a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Combat Medic: Kaina's second effect heals you for 100 LP every time an archetypal Spell's effect is resolved.
• Dark Action Girl: Roze, if her outfit in Scissors Cross is anything to go by. She even appears in the alternate artwork of "Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!", indicating she is meant to fight against Raye.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Raye is a DARK attribute monster, but she is the hero in the lore.
• Death or Glory Attack: Lore depicts each of Raye's armors as possessing their own "Sky Striker Maneuver", used as an "ultimate attack … unleashed without regard for her own safety."
• Deflector Shields: The alternate artwork of "Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku" does not actually feature the Shizuku armor in its artwork, instead being represented as Raye manifesting the armor as a barrier to protect herself and an injured Roze.
• Equippable Ally: Aileron can be equipped to a Sky Striker monster to give her 400 more ATK. He has a quick effect to let himself get equipped from the hand or field to a Sky Striker monster. Once destroyed, Aileron lets his controller mill a Sky Striker spell card to the graveyard, continuing their plays. In lore, Aileron is one of Raye's adoptive brothers, hence his effects are meant to support Raye completely.
• Finishing Move: "Combination Maneuver - Engage Zero", befitting its appearance in the manga as the final attack that Raye and Roze perform, is designed to be a big finisher for the deck. It is the only LINK-2 "Sky Striker Ace" monster that can be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck via either the effect of "Linkage!" or "Raye", negates an opponent's monster with 2500+ ATK on Special Summon, and if it attacks while "Raye" and "Roze" are in the Graveyard, it can destroy all of the opponent's monsters. The big caveat is that it cannot be used as Link Material, meaning that if the player does not have a "Linkage!" in hand and cannot finish off the opponent, it will simply sit in the Extra Monster Zone uselessly once it serves its purpose.
• Floral Theme Naming: In addition to having Vehicular Theme Naming, Roze shares a secondary theme with her clones, Sky Striker Ace - Azalea and Camellia.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In lore, Raye is a One-Woman Army deployed into enemy territory with an armory of support weapons and Powered Armor. In game, all of the Sky Striker Spells require the controller to control no monsters in the Main Monster Zone, typically meaning that in a pure Sky Striker deck, their only monster will be one of the Sky Striker Links.
  • Zeke and Roze, Raye's rivals in the lore, have effects that perfectly counter Raye in a mirror match. Zeke, when Link Summoned, can temporarily banish the opponent's lone Sky Striker monster. After that, if Roze is in Zeke's GY, and Raye is in the opponent's GY, this interaction can make both Roze and Raye Special Summon themselves from their respective GYs; however, because the turn player has priority, Roze would summon herself after Raye, and Roze can then negate Raye's effects in the same chain, before Raye has a chance to activate her effects.
• Gathering Steam: The other main mechanic of the archetype besides Raye and Roze's Powered Armor shenanigans is the boost effects of their Spell Cards. Each of the Sky Striker Spells have decent, but otherwise plain effects by default. However, once the player gets 3 Spell Cards in their Graveyard, all of their secondary effects become live, making them significantly stronger and far more annoying and disruptive. In addition to playing a lot of Spell Cards (both archetypal and generic) to facilitate this, Sky Striker Ace - Hayate can accelerate this process by acting as an archetypal Foolish Burial Goods for the Sky Striker cards, having the ability to mill any Sky Striker card from Deck to Graveyard if an attack is declared involving it. Just as well, other Sky Striker Ace cards also gain additional effects that scale to the number of Spell Cards the user has in their Graveyard: Shizuku decreases the ATK of opposing monsters by 100 for each Spell Card, Kagari boosts her own ATK by 100 for each Spell Card, and Azalea only blows herself up by her own effect if the player has 3 or fewer Spell Cards in their Graveyard.
• Human Shield:
  • Normally, Shark Cannon can simply banish a monster from the Graveyard. However, its second effect can let you Special Summon that monster instead, with the downside of preventing it from attacking.
  • The aforementioned Widow Anchor's second effect gives you control of the monster whose effects it had already negated (assuming it wasn't already under your control by that point).
• Humongous Mecha: A quick look at the artwork of Zeke shows that it's a lot bigger than any of Raye's Aces. According to OCG Stories, Zeke is a creation of the Spectra nation.
• Idiot Hair: Raye sports an ahoge on her head, indicating her kind heart and her naivety to the world at large.
• Lady of War: War Magus - Arcus has a respectable ATK and she knows how to use a staff quite well. She can be summoned by discarding a spell card and can protect LINK monsters with one of her effects.
• Light Is Not Good: Roze is a LIGHT attribute monster, but she is almost certainly part of the enemy according to the lore.
• Mama Bear: Ciela has a special effect that lets her special summon herself to the field at the cost of a Spell, hinting at her devotion to protecting Raye. Her effect of switching to the enemy's side, yet reviving a Sky Striker continues her love motif.
• Mentor Archetype: Wisdom Magus – Himmel acts as Raye's mentor. Like the other Magi of Karma, he can be summoned by discarding a spell card. Despite looking frail, he's got impressive DEF. He can negate an effect aimed at a LINK monster at the cost of banishing two spell cards.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Each Link Ace has one that references its Attribute, but none are more so than Raye and Roze. Both names are derived from "zero"—referencing their basic, armor-less forms—with Raye being a corruption of the Japanese direct translation "rei", while Roze is a simple swap of the syllables that make up the word.
  • Azaleas are flowers that reproduce by cutting off the branches and planting elsewhere, hinting at how she's Roze's clone.
• Ninja Maid: Love Magus – Ciela may look like a maid, but she's stronger than the Sky Striker Ace monsters, with the exception of HAMP.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Kaina's armor consists of four heavy, mechanical claws sprouting from Raye's back.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Not only can Eagle Booster render any face-up monster on the field immune to any card effects save its own for a turn, but its additional ability can prevent that monster from being destroyed by battle as well.
• Powered Armor: Most of the Link Monsters take the form of different suits of armor worn by Raye.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Roze wears these in her artwork.
• Punny Name: The entire archetype is named after a pun in Japanese, "閃刀姫" (Sentoki) literally meaning "flash(ing) katana maiden", which is a homophone for "戦闘機" or fighter plane.
• Quality over Quantity: The Link Monsters' arrows are terrible for setting up further Extra Deck summons and most of the archetype's support cards require no monsters in your Main Monster Zones. As such, you'll be relying pretty much exclusively on a single monster at any given time.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Kagari and Shizuku can come off as this; their armors are red and blue, respectively, and have opposing Attributes as well (FIRE and WATER) that correspond to their color schemes. They also possess opposing effects: Kagari boosts her own ATK and is meant as an attacker, while Shizuku reduces enemies' ATK and is more of a defensive monster.
  • Raye and Roze might qualify as well; their backgrounds are mostly blue and red, respectively, along with their eye colors. Both are the archetype's sole Main Deck monsters, and can Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard. Raye's effect, however, is able to give the player access to the Link Aces during the opponent's turn, while Roze can negate the effects of an enemy monster for the rest of the turn when it's Special Summoned thus.
• Status Buff: Kagari can gain 100 ATK for each Spell in your Graveyard.
• Status Effects: Shizuku can drain the opponent's monsters ATK/DEF by 100 for each Spell in its controller's Graveyard.
• Swiss-Army Hero: As the Link Monsters only need 1 Sky Striker of a different attribute as Link Material, effectively representing Raye swapping between armor suits at will. The Spells of the archetype also give her quite the extensive arsenal, letting her take on just about anything.
• Vehicular Theme Naming: Fitting for an archetype based on aerial combat, the monsters and support are named after combat aircraft.

Slime / Revival Jam

^{Revival Jam} 

Slimes are WATER Aqua-Type monsters who specialize in swarming the field, reviving themselves from the graveyard, and providing support and tributes for Egyptian Gods and other high-level monsters. The WATER Aqua-Type monster Revival Jam and its associated cards are also usually included in the series. They are used by Yami Marik and Strings in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series and Inukai/Mad Dog in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

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• Assist Character: Reactor Slime and Guardian Slime directly support the Egyptian Gods. The series in general is largely used to support higher-level monsters and make them easier to summon to the field.
• Attack Reflector: Magical Reflect Slime can make your opponent take all battle damage from battles involving it.
• Back from the Dead: When Revival Jam is destroyed by battle, you can pay 1000 life points to Special Summon it from the graveyard in face-up defense position during your Standby Phase.
• Draw Aggro: Egyptian God Slime renders all monsters you control other than itself unable to be attacked or be targeted by card effects.
• Fusion Dance:
  • Humanoid Slime + Worm Drake = Humanoid Worm Drake.
  • An Aqua-Type monster + a Level 10 WATER monster = Egyptian God Slime. Lore-wise, it's the combination of Metal Reflect Slime (assuming Obelisk's form) and Revival Jam.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Humanoid Slime's flavor text suggests that its appearance implies it to have some human genes in its genetic makeup.
• Mook Maker:
  • Jam Breeding Machine allows you to Special Summon one Slime Token during each of your Standby Phases. However, you are unable to summon other monsters, but you are able to set them.
  • Reactor Slime allows you to Special Summon two Slime Tokens during your Main Phase, but you are unable to Normal or Special Summon monsters other than Divine-Beast-Types for the rest of the turn.
• No-Sell: Egyptian God Slime cannot be destroyed by battle and renders all monsters you control other than itself unable to be targeted for attacks or by card effects.
• Palette Swap: Gruesome Goo and Change Slime, the former being Level 3 with 1300 ATK and 700 DEF while the latter is Level 1 with 400 ATK and 300 DEF.
• Stone Wall:
  • Humanoid Slime has an ATK of only 800 but has a DEF of 2000.
  • Humanoid Worm Drake inherits Humanoid Slime's DEF, but backs it up with 2200 ATK, making it a viable choice offensively or defensively.
  • Guardian Slime's original DEF is 0, but when in battle it gains DEF equal to the ATK of the monster it battles with, resulting in no damage to either side.
  • Metal Reflect Slime possesses 3000 DEF and 0 ATK.
  • Egyptian God Slime possesses 3000 ATK and DEF and cannot be destroyed by battle.
• Taking the Bullet: Jam Defender allows you to redirect an opposing monster's attack towards a monster you control to a Revival Jam that you control instead.
• Weak, but Skilled: What the majority of them lack in strength, they make up for in unique abilities that help them support each other, Egyptian Gods, and other high-level monsters.

Snake-Eye

Snake-Eye is an archetype first introduced in the first Series 12 core booster, Duelist Nexus, with the subsequent archetype being revealed in Age of Overlord. They primarily consist of Level 1 FIRE Pyro monsters whose effects revolve around placing face-up monsters in the Spell/Trap Zone as Continuous Spell Cards and then Special Summoning them to their side of the field. Their boss monster is Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon, a Level 8 FIRE Dragon monster with 3000 ATK/2500 DEF.

The "Snake-Eye" archetype is connected to "Diabellstar the Black Witch" and the overarching "Sinful Spoils" storyline, where the titular Snake-Eye is one of the fated Sinful Spoils that Diabellstar seeks to hunt and contain.

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• Death-Activated Superpower: Flamberge Dragon has the ability to summon two Level 1 FIRE monsters from the GY back to the field should it be sent from the hand or field to the GY.
• Fairy Companion: "Snake-Eyes Populus" is implied to be a tamed version of "Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon" that accompanies Diabellstar on her journey after she defeats the Original Sinful Spoil, only to be subsequently kidnapped by the Goblin Bikers who are interested in Diabellstar's bounty.
• Floral Theme Naming: The archetype's level 1 monsters are all named after a type of tree—more specifically, the trees into which many of the characters in the folk tale Eglė the Queen of Serpents are transformed.
• Mythology Gag: Much like how its counterpart archetype "Diabellstar" is based on the ace monsters of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime/manga protagonists, Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon is likewise based on the ace monsters of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime/manga rivals, sharing the "X-Eyes Y Dragon" naming scheme and common attributes, including the Level 8, Dragon typing (in an otherwise non-Dragon archetype), and 3000 ATK/2500 DEF statline.
• Power Copying: Snake-Eyes Populus consumes the magical energy of Goblin's Crazy Beast in "Battle of the Sinful Spoils", causing it to gain its form for itself. Diabellstar gains control of Populus and they become "Snake-Eyes Diabellstar".
• Summon Bigger Fish: Ash, Oak and Birch all have the ability to send themselves and one other card on the controller's field to summon a Snake-Eye monster from the hand or deck. Birch is able to do so during the opponent's turn.

Solemn / Forbidden

Upon your Magic, upon your Traps, upon the Monsters on your Field, into your Hand, into your Deck, until you break, until you yield.

The Solemn series is a series of Trap cards focusing on the negation and destruction of cards through the payment of Life Points. The cards all depict a divine-looking figure (outright stated to be God by the OCG naming of the cards) delivering a divine condemnation.^note Metaphorically, towards the effect that your opponent just activated.

They are related to the Forbidden series via story. One of the followers of the divine figure began to make use of objects forbidden to them, like the Forbidden Chalice and Forbidden Lance. As punishment the man cast her out and disfigured her, turning her into the Condemned Maiden. Gameplay-wise, the Forbidden cards are all Quick-Play Spell Cards that grant a negating effect alongside an ATK changing effect.

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• Anti-Magic: All the Solemn cards negate other cards in some manner, while the Forbidden cards grant monsters variable immunity to effects.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Solemn cards all have a hefty Life Point cost attached to them.
• Counterspell: The Solemn cards, being Counter Traps, are based entirely around preventing the opponent's actions.
• Expy: The Forbidden cards are based on the four major holy relics in Christianity: Chalice is the Holy Grail, Lance is the Spear of Longinus, Dress is the Seamless Robe of Jesus, and Scripture is The Bible.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Condemned Maiden from the series, as depicted later on.
  • She eventually becomes the Condemned Witch, who's depicted as attacking god in turn in Witch's Strike. And given how things turn out, she apparently gets away with it.
  • Then, she descends further, becoming the Condemned Darklord, a powerful Fallen Angel that corrupts the figure's followers and the Forbidden Chalice while he seems unable to stop her.
• God: It is implied the robed figure in the cards is God.
• Power at a Price: All of the Forbidden cards provide both a benefit and a drawback, allowing them to be used variably to help your monsters or hinder those of your opponent.
  • Chalice increases a monster's ATK but negates its effect.
  • Lance decreases a monster's ATK but makes it immune to other effects.
  • Dress reduces a monster's ATK but prevents it from being targeted or destroyed by other effects.
  • Scripture forces two monsters to battle using their original ATK and DEF and negates all other effects on the field.
• Shout-Out: Solemn Judgment is apparently based on the Judgment of Solomon.

Solfachord

"Let's see if I can make it easier … "

Solfachord, known as Doremichord in the OCG, is an archetype of Fairy-Type Pendulum Monsters, with each member having a Level in ascending order from 1 to 8, while also having a Pendulum Scale that descends in the same order. Each monster is a conductor that commands her own little Familiar that visually resembles her. While inside a Pendulum Zone, the higher Leveled monsters are able to prevent the opponent from responding to any Pendulum Summon of a Solfachord with card effects, while the lower Leveled monsters can prevent those same Pendulum Summons from being negated. As monsters, they can apply various effects depending on whether any Solfachord in their Pendulum Zones has an odd or even Scale.

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• Amazon Brigade: The archetype is completely comprised of female monsters, including their little familiars.
• Anti-Magic:
  • If Eliteia is Normal or Special Summoned, the controller can return a Spell or Trap Card the opponent controls to the hand.
  • If the controller has an even Pendulum Scale in their Pendulum Zone, they can use Beautia's effect to target a Spell or Trap Card the opponent controls. If the target would leave the field that turn, it is banished instead.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: SolSolfachord Gracia often has a dreamy look on her face and gives off an air of mystery. She can get serious when the time comes.
• Cool Big Sis: Many angels and fairies often look up to MiSolfachord Eliteia due to her mature and serious personality.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Every member of the archetype is this, though they do not actually play their instruments directly. Rather, they each command a familiar to do so.
• Familiar: Each member of the archetype has one of these, which visually resembles her and plays a unique musical instrument.
• The Leader: DoSolfachord Coolia acts as the leader of the group. Cutia often admires her for it.
• Musical Assassin: All of the archetype's monsters are conductors that command little familiars which play musical instruments, ostensibly their way of attacking.
• No Item Use for You:
  • Gracia, Angelia, Beautia, and Coolia all have a common Pendulum Effect that prevents the opponent from activating Spell or Trap Cards, or monster effects, when the controller Pendulum Summons a Solfachord Pendulum Monster.
  • If the controller's Solfachord Pendulum Monster attacks while they have an even Pendulum Scale in their Pendulum Zone, Gracia's effect prevents the opponent from activating monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.
  • If the controller's Solfachord Pendulum Monster attacks while they have an odd Pendulum Scale in your Pendulum Zone, Angelia's effect prevents the opponent from activating any Spell or Trap Cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.
• No-Sell: If the opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card, or monster effect, while the controller has a Solfachord card in their Pendulum Zone, the controller can shuffle a face-up Pendulum Monster from their Extra Deck into the Main Deck. Then, Pendulum Monsters the controller controls are conferred immunity from that activated effect, while their cards in the Pendulum Zones cannot be destroyed or banished by that activated effect.
• Power Nullifier: The controller can use Coolia's effect to negate the effects of a face-up card the opponent controls until the end of the opponent's turn. However, if the controller has an odd Pendulum Scale in their Pendulum Zone, they can negate the effects of two such cards instead.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • ReSolfachord Dreamia acts high and mighty in front of Cutia, but she often acts like a fangirl around her superiors.
  • LaSolfachord Angelia often shows off and calls herself the idol of the Solfa world.
• Status Buff: Cutia's effect increases the ATK of all Solfachord Pendulum Monsters the controller controls by their respective Pendulum Scales x 100, provided that the controller has an even Pendulum Scale in their Pendulum Zone.
• Sweet Tooth: DoSolfachord Cutia loves sweets to the point where she has no restraint around them.
• Team Mom: TiSolfachord Beautia often acts as the team mom, but she doesn't like it when others call her mom.
• Theme Naming: A threefold example: as a whole, they are derived from the Solfège system and its famous "Do-Re-Mi" progression. Then each syllable of that system is tacked on to a monster (e.g. DoSolfachord, ReSolfachord, etc.), with their individual names finally corresponding to the note assigned to that syllable, with a Level denoting its place on the scale (e.g. Level 1 Cutia, Level 2 Dreamia, etc.). The archetype spans the full octave, which means Do gets both the smallest and the biggest monsters, Cutia and Coolia.
• Tomboy: FaSolfachord Fancia is explicitly called a tomboy in the lore and often argues with the fairies. Despite this, she will cooperate with them when the time comes.

Sparrow Family

The Sparrow Family, or Robin Family in the OCG, are a series of high-level cards themed on superheroes. Centered on D.D. Esper Star Sparrow, the archetype swarms the field and rely on each other to use their effects. Used by Fuya Okudaira/Nelson Andrews, the guy who also acts as the Robin/Sparrow in a in-series TV show, in the ZeXal anime series.

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• Badass Family: Of the non-blood-related kind.
• Cool Plane: D.D. Jet Iron.
• Fusion Dance: Mira the Star Bearer appears to be a "grown-up" version of "Triple-Star Trion". It possibly meant to be Xyz Summoned with three copies of "Triple-Star Trion", as "Trion" is Level 1 and this card needs three Level 1 monsters.
• Homage:
  • These monsters and Nelson's television show "The Sparrow" seem to reference a 1971 manga series named Babel II. Both feature a junior high schooler turned alien hero and three servants, a black cat servant, a flying servant and a loyal humanoid robot. It also features an evil monarch relative conspiring to take over the world, similar to "Galaxy Queen".
  • Ironhammer the Giant appears to be similar to Old mecha anime such as Tetsujin #28 (known as Gigantor in America).
  • The Triple-Star Trion trio bears a rather significant resemblance to Alvin & the Chipmunks in the following manners: There are three chipmunks (excluding the trio female chipmunk singing group in the franchise known as The Chipettes) and three of this monster. Both the chipmunks and this monster are of small stature. Both the three chipmunks and these three monsters wear red, blue and green attire respectively. Additionally, these monsters wear hats. Alvin of the Chipmunks often wears one too (it resembling a baseball cap.) To add to that, this monster has yellow stars on their shirts. Alvin of the Chipmunks has a big "A" on his shirt (also colored yellow.) What's on their shirts also alludes to something. The stars reference the three monsters on the artwork whereas the "A" is the first letter in Alvin's name.
• Human Alien: D.D. Esper Star Sparrow and Galaxy Queen look human, in comparison to the rest of the series which has mechanical and animal-themed members.
• Humongous Mecha: Super Dimensional Robot Galaxy Destroyer is a giant robot.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Phoenix Beast Gairuda is based on a phoenix and named for the mythical being Garuda.
• Panthera Awesome: Beast Warrior Puma is a black panther humanoid.
• The Phoenix: Phoenix Beast Gairuda's name is based off of "Garuda" and "Phoenix", but according to legends these two creatures are the same in different cultures or related species.
• Robot Buddy: Ironhammer the Giant is a humandoid robot and one of the core five of the Family.
• Status Buff: Galaxy Queen, Ironhammer the Giant and Mira the Star Bearer can all grant beneficial effects to their allies.
• Stone Wall: Ironhammer the Giant has only 900 ATK, but a massive 3500 DEF.

Speedroid

Speedroid is an archetype of WIND Machine monsters styled after weaponized toys. They were introduced in ARC-V, and were are used by Yugo. The Speedroids focus on rapid Synchro Summoning, and synergize well with Yugo's ace monster, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.

Though technically a sub-archetype of the -roids, the Speedroids are gameplay and theme-wise fully separate from the -roids and is in fact specifically excluded by -roid support cards.

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• Armor-Piercing Attack: Hi-Speedroid Kendama can inflict piercing damage.
• Back from the Dead: Several of the Speedroids can summon other monsters from the graveyard and two of their synchro monsters, Kendama and Hagoita, can even return to the field from the graveyard with its own effect.
• Cool Bike: Hi-Speedroid Clear Wing Rider is not only an awesome-looking bike themed after Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, but it is currently the archetype's strongest Synchro Monster.
• Draw Aggro: Passinglider's effect prevents the opponent from attacking Speedroid monsters the controller controls, except for copies of Passinglider.
• Fragile Speedster: As their name probably tipped you off the Speedroids are all about summoning a bunch of low level monsters, rushing the field and then busting out their bigger Synchro boss monsters as quickly as possible.
• Glass Cannon: Some of their more heavily offensive based cards have much higher attack than their normal roster does, but sacrifice defense to do so and sometimes come with a drawback effect. Speedroid Pachingo-Kart and Speedroid Razorang are both good examples of this.
• Living Toy: All of the Speedroids are based on toys and games that children commonly play with, such as marbles, yo-yos or kites. Intrestingly, a few of their support cards are based on more adult oriented forms of gaming such as lottery scratch cards or roulette wheels.
• Stone Wall: The Speedroid Skull Marbles card is one. Unlike most of the other Speedroids which heavily skew towards higher offense than defense it instead prioritizes a strong DEF score of 3000 and an ATK of 0 along with some battle destruction immunity and the ability to force an opponent to take damage from fighting it.
• Theme Naming: The names of the Speedroid all refer to various toys or games.
• Weak, but Skilled: The majority of their basic monsters tend to have 1000 or less ATK/DEF on average and even most of their Hi-Speedroid boss monsters are closer to mid tier instead rather than high tier in terms of raw power, but their quick summoning abilities, potent effects and powerful support cards can make them a force to be reckoned with in the hands of a skilled player.

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