When you play Yu-Gi-Oh, a monster with its back to you can mean one of two things.
First, your opponent has a bad hand and is doing everything they can to stay alive. Or two, as soon as that monster is turned over, something bad will happen to you.
At least you can see a monster’s attack, defense, and effect when you call it with a special spell.
But seeing a face-down card can be scary because there are some face-down monsters that are very powerful and do crazy things.
What Are Flip-Effect Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh?
Flip monsters are easy to spot because they say “flip” in their rules text, and when they are turned face-up on the field after being set face-down, they do something special.
This happens either when you move them to attack position on your next turn or when your opponent’s monsters attack them.
At either condition, your card is turned over so that its DEF score can be used to calculate damage, and its flip effect is activated.
This can hurt your opponent or help your units in a variety of ways, almost like a trap card in monster form that you don’t know about.
Since the classic Man-Eater Bug, duelists have caused trouble with their face-down skills they don’t know about, and flip effects still have a lot of ways to help them today.
But with so many cards to choose from, which animals are the best?
So, if you’re just curious about some of these crazy card effects, here’s a list of some really powerful flip monsters to watch out for.
18. Magician of Faith
From being permanently banned to being free to use, Magician of Faith is a great card.
It lets you put any spell card from your graveyard into your hand.
This is great for decks like Spellcasters that want to reuse cards.
Even though it was unbanned because a lot of groups have about 5 other cards that let them get things from the graveyard, it’s still a great card.
17. Marshmallon
Even though it’s not a monster with the Flip effect, it has an effect that only works when it’s face up.
It costs your opponent 1000 life points and can’t be killed in fight.
It’s a great card to slow down your opponent and keep them from attacking, and it can also be a good choice for a tribute summon.
16. Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
This card is probably the flip monster that has been used the most in the last couple of years.
It has been a mainstay in many decks because it lets you send cards to your graveyard and remove any one card, whether it’s a spell, trap, monster, or something else.
15. Greenkappa
Greenkappa is as simple as it gets, but it’s still a good card, especially given how old it is.
When this card is turned over, it can destroy two set spells or traps on the field.
If you want to use this card, you can combine it with Anti-Spell Fragrance to force your opponent to set cards on the field before using them.
This increases your chances of killing their better cards.
With this ability, you can only choose between two spells or traps. Which means you can use your own spells or traps if your opponent only has one set on their field.
If this requirement didn’t exist, Greenkappa would be higher on this list.
14. Shaddoll Dragon
Flip-effect monsters are what make the Shaddoll archetype famous.
So, it’s not a big surprise that some of those monsters ended up on this list.
When the Shaddoll Dragon is turned over, you can choose a card your opponent controls and put it back into your hand.
But if a card effect sends the Shaddoll Dragon to the graveyard, you can also remove a spell or trap card on the field.
This means that if your opponent uses a card effect to destroy your flip effect monster, you can still use the flip effect to destroy a spell.
Also, if you use a card like Foolish Burial, you can also remove a spell or trap card on the field. This makes this card very useful because it can be used in a lot of different ways.
13. Shaddoll Beast
As the name says, Shaddoll Beast is another Shaddoll monster. In terms of how useful it is, it is pretty much the same as the Shaddoll Dragon.
When you flip this card over, you can draw two cards and then throw away one.
If this card is also sent to the graveyard by an effect of another card, you can draw a card.
Like Shaddoll Dragon, you can use a card like Foolish Burial to send this to the graveyard and draw another card from the deck.
This lets you clear your deck quickly if that’s your goal.
12. Guard Dog
When used right, Guard Dog can cause a lot of trouble for your opponent. Even more so if most of their deck is made up of special summons from the extra deck.
When Guard Dog is flipped, its ability stops your opponent from special summoning for the rest of that turn.
Most of the time, you can only use this ability when it’s your opponent’s turn.
I’d suggest using this card with World Legacy Pawns, which lets you flip your monster while your opponent’s turn is up.
To get the most out of Guard Dog, you would flip it when your opponent normal summons a weak monster in order to special summon another.
In either case, Guard Dog will lock up your opponent’s field and leave them very exposed.
11. Flip Flop Frog
Flip Flop Frog is one of the few cards on this list that can only be used with a certain set of cards.
But if you choose to build a deck around it, it works very well.
Once Flip Flop Frog’s ability is used, you can return up to the number of Frog monsters you control that your opponent controls.
For example, if you control three Frog monsters and your opponent attacks Flip Flop Frog, you can return three monsters that your opponent controls, which could leave them with an empty field.
And, like World Legacy Pawns, you can combine any of these flip monsters with a card like Desert Sunlight, which can possibly activate even more flip effects (if you have any).
10. Scapeghost
The well-known card Scapegoat has a Zombie form called Scapeghost.
But in terms of what you can do with the coins, this is a much more flexible card.
When this card is opened, you can call any number of level-1 Black Sheep Tokens with 0 attack and defense.
When Link monsters come into play, this card can become ridiculously strong. But the catch is that a lot of Link monsters can’t be made without effect monsters or monsters that aren’t tokens.
Still, you can still summon strong cards like Firewall Dragon and clear the field because it could have more than one link.
9. Prediction Princess Coinorma
As long as you have the right setting, Prediction Princess Coinorma can work with a lot of the very powerful monsters on this list, so keep that in mind as you read.
When Prediction Princess Coinorma is turned face-up, you can special summon a face-down defense position flip monster of level 3 or higher from your hand or deck.
This effect is crazy, especially given how easy it makes it to summon flip monsters.
Even though you can’t use monster effects, you can easily get around this problem by turning this card face up at the end of your turn (or your opponent’s turn) to make the monster effect work right away.
You can use cards like Book of Taiyou or monsters like Prediction Princess Tarotrei to actually turn a monster face-up.
8. Morphing Jar
Even though this might not seem like much at first, if your opponent has the right cards, they might not be able to do anything.
When the effect of the Morphing Jar is used on a flip, each player throws away their hand and gets back the same number of cards.
This is very helpful if you draw a bad first hand, so Morphing Jar could be a big help.
But if you play a card like “Forced Requisition,” you can basically get rid of your opponent’s whole hand.
At that point, I’d be very pleased if your opponent had no cards in their hand but still managed to set up their board.
7. Deus X-Krawler
The first monster on this list that isn’t level 4 or lower is the Deus X-Krawler.
Deus X-Krawler is actually a level 9 monster. That means you have to pay two sacrifices to call it.
The effects of the monsters on your opponent’s side of the field are cancelled when this card is flipped.
But if this card is the target of an effect from another card, you can cancel that effect and then use the flip effect.
Lastly, when this card is killed, you can add a Level 9 monster with a different Type and Attribute than Deus X-Krawler.
It’s also important to know that this card is easy to summon with Prediction Princess Coinorma, has two negates, and when it’s killed, gives you a free search for a level 9 monster.
6. Morphing Jar #2
Morphing Jar #2 has the same effect as its sister Morphing Jar, and it can be used with Forced Requisition in a ridiculous way just like Morphing Jar and Forced Requisition.
When this card’s flip effect is used, each player’s monsters on the field are put back into their decks and shuffled.
Then, each person digs up cards until they have found as many monsters as they put into the deck when they started.
The level 4 or lower monsters are special called in defense position, while the rest of the cards are sent to the graveyard.
For a fun way to beat your opponent in one turn, you’ll need Morphing Jar #2, a monster like Poison Mummy (which does 500 damage to your opponent when it’s turned over), All-Out Attack, and spell or trap cards to slow them down.
If you get Poison Mummy, All-Out Attack, and Morphing Jar #2 onto the field, you can keep calling the two monsters by using Morphing Jar #2 over and over again.
Since they are the only monsters in the deck, they will always be called. Then, you can use All-Out Attack to flip them to use their powers.
5. Apprentice Piper
The Apprentice Piper is a great card for setting up powerful monsters’ special calls.
If you flip the Apprentice Piper, you can call any monster from your hand.
And if you remove this card, you can bring another monster from your hand into play.
The fact that you can call up any monster you want is a very strong thing.
For example, during your opponent’s turn, you can summon World of Prophecy and, if you have the right cards, you can destroy all the monsters on your opponent’s side of the field.
4. Night Assailant
Night Assailant is a great card that works well in a lot of decks. In the TCG, it is a rare card.
So it should be pretty good, right?
If you flip over Night Assailant, you can kill a monster on the field. But the really cool thing about this card is that when it goes to the graveyard, you can add a flip monster from the graveyard to your hand.
If you have a card like Knightmare Unicorn, you can throw away Night Assailant, then use Night Assailant to get a card back.
This lets you use Nightmare Unicorn without paying for it.
3. Pot of The Forbidden
Pot of the Forbidden might show up on a regular list of the “Best Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh” because it can kill your opponent.
On the flip, you can either draw two cards, return all spell and trap cards on the field to your hand, destroy all monsters your opponent controls, or put a card from your opponent’s hand back into their deck.
This card is easy to create with cards like Prediction Princess Coinorma or Tindangle Angel.
You can also use a card like Acid Trap Hole to use this card more than once, which means you can kill all monsters your opponent controls more than once.
2. Penguin Soldier
Penguin Soldier is definitely one of the best books on this list.
People who have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh since the beginning are likely to remember it.
And it’s still very good, which is a surprise.
When the Penguin Soldier is turned, you can bring back to your hand two monsters from the field.
This effect is very simple, but it has a lot of power. And because this card is so old, your opponent probably won’t be ready for it.
And if you flip the Penguin Soldier and it doesn’t get killed, you can put this card back into your hand and use it again.
1. Subterror Behemoth Umastryx
Lastly, Subterror Behemoth Umastryx is at the top of our flip list.
This card gets more dangerous the longer it stays on the field.
If this card is face up, you can send a monster your opponent controls to the graveyard. The next turn, you can turn this card face down again to use its effect.
This thing is also very easy to bring into play because you can special summon it from your hand in face-down defense position if you don’t control any face-up monsters.
It’s also important to note that this card’s protection is no joke at 2700 DEF.
So you can be sure that Umastryx will survive most strikes from an opponent who isn’t paying attention.
