Link 3s are a great set of extra deck monsters that are often ignored.
They don’t have the high cost of summoning that Link 4 monsters do, but their affects are often just as strong, if not stronger.
If you want to use Link summoning as part of your plan but don’t know where to start.
let’s take a look at some of the best Link 3 monsters you might want to check out.
12. Bellcat Fighter
When this card fights and kills an opponent’s monster: In Defense Position, you can Special Summon 1 “Bellcat Token” (Machine/Wind/Level 4/ATTK 2000/DEF 2000)
11. Altergeist Primebanshee
During the Main Phase, you can sacrifice 1 other “Altergeist” monster and Special Summon 1 “Altergeist” monster from your Deck to the zone this card points to.
If this card is moved from the field to the graveyard, you can add one “Altergeist” card from your graveyard to your hand by targeting it and adding it.
Each result of “Altergeist Primebanshee” can only be used once per turn.
10. Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon
The Mecha Phantom Beast cards were all about making tokens, which made them a popular choice for decks in the Link era, when tokens could be used to call Link monsters.
After you summon this card, you can’t link summon for the rest of the turn, but you can save those tokens for the next turn or sacrifice them for different effects.
You can get rid of any one card on the field by removing 1 token.
This still gives you two tokens to use in your next turn’s link summon, but it also gets rid of any risks your opponent may have on their board.
You can also destroy 2 tokens to special summon any Mecha Phantom Beast from your deck (this is great for setting up XYZ calls), or 3 tokens to add any trap card from your graveyard to your hand.
9. Zefra Metaltron
When Link summoning came out, I never thought Zefra decks would still be around.
They have a pendulum deck that relies heavily on stacking up the extra deck with pendulum monsters, so being able to call less of them at once was a huge blow to the deck.
But Zefra Metaltron saved the deck, and boy, has it made the plan better!
It has three lines that point down, which means you can call up three pendulum monsters from the extra deck at once instead of just one at a time.
This reminds me of the good old days of pendulum summoning, when you could fill a board with pendulum monsters and keep bringing them back.
In fact, Zefra Metaltron is a great choice for any link-summoning deck because these lines that point down make your field so much bigger.
You can also get rid of threats that come from the extra deck if you have Zefra Metaltron.
You can send both copies of a monster that was special summoned from the extra deck to the graveyard until the end of the turn.
8. Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians
Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians is a must-have card for your extra deck if you plan to use spellcasters.
You can put as many spell counters on this card as there are spell cards on the field and in the graveyard when it is special called.
Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is all about using strong spells, so this number can grow very quickly.
You can special summon a spellcaster monster from your hand or graveyard to any zone this card points to once per turn by removing 3 spell counters from your side of the field.
With 3 lines that point down, you have a lot of ways to play around with it.
7. Knightmare Unicorn
If you are new to link calling and don’t know where to start, Salamangreats is a great place to start.
They are a Cyberse deck with fire-type monsters, and they are one of the best Link summoning decks.
Their boss monsters, like this one, get special abilities if you link call them by using them. For example, if you use one Salamangreat Heatleo to summon another, both of them will have special abilities.
In Yu-Gi-Oh, this isn’t a legal move most of the time, but it is when their field spell is out!
When this card is link called in either way, you can choose a spell or trap card from your opponent’s zone and put it back into their deck. Then, you can target 1 monster on the field once per turn and make its attack equal to the attack of a monster in your graveyard if this card was used to link summon it.
You can either use this to turn your weaker monsters into super-strong goliaths by matching it to the weakest ATK card in your graveyard, or you can use it to weaken your opponent’s best monsters by matching it to the weakest ATK card in your graveyard.
No matter what, your opponent is going to take some pretty big damage in fight.
6. Salamangreat Heatleo
The first Decode Talker is a lot of fun.
But Decode Talker – Extended is better than it in every way.
Just like the original, this card gives each monster it points to 500 attack.
With three link shots (one up and two down), that’s a maximum gain of 1500, which brings this guy’s attack up to 3800.
And during your battle phase, you can use Decode Talker – Extended attack again if a monster that this card points to is killed or sent to the graveyard (preferably the card that the up arrow on this card points to).
5. Decode Talker Extended
The first Decode Talker is a lot of fun.
But Decode Talker – Extended is better than it in every way.
Just like the original, this card gives each monster it points to 500 attack.
With three link shots (one up and two down), that’s a maximum gain of 1500, which brings this guy’s attack up to 3800.
And during your battle phase, you can use Decode Talker – Extended attack again if a monster that this card points to is killed or sent to the graveyard (preferably the card that the up arrow on this card points to).
4. Topologic Trisbaena
The word “topologic” means the study of curves, which makes sense since I have no idea what shape this guy is trying to be.
Definitely something weird.
But the results of it aren’t so vague:
If a monster is special summoned to a zone this card points to, you can remove as many of those monsters as possible, along with every spell and trap card on the field.
This not only gets rid of your opponent’s monster (if they called it into this card’s top arrow), but it also lets you get rid of their whole backrow at once.
Then, Topologic Trisbaena does 500 damage to your opponent for each of their discarded cards. This is a great way to deal a lot of damage to your opponent.
3. Tri-Gate Wizard
Tri-Gate is a very flexible link monster that gets better as you add more monsters to it.
With 2 side arrows and 1 up arrow, this card makes it pretty easy to get to 3 co-links, as long as your opponent is running at least 1 link monster.
With one or more co-links, your monsters will do twice as much damage to your opponent in fight as they would normally.
This is a great way to do a lot of damage to your opponent quickly, since two monsters each doing double damage will add up quickly.
If you have two or more co-links, you can choose a card on the field and get rid of it every turn.
This is a very reliable way to get rid of monsters that you can use every turn as long as you have some link monsters on the field.
Lastly, if you have three or more co-links, you can cancel any card or effect once per turn and have it go away quickly.
This ability works with the last one, so you can pretty much get rid of two of your opponent’s cards every turn.
2. The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche
Phantom Knights wanted to be the best at raising XYZ monsters, and they also managed to get one of the best Link monsters out there.
During your main phase, you can send any Phantom Knight monster from your deck to the graveyard or set any Phantom Knight spell or trap from your deck.
The Phantom Knights’ Rank Up Magic skills are some of the most powerful in the game, and Rusty Bardiche is the best way to use them whenever you want.
On the XYZ side, you can remove any card on the field if a dark XYZ monster is summoned to a zone that this card points to (once per turn).
Phantom Knights is one of the few decks that can deal with XYZ monsters. So you will definitely use this second effect a lot.
1. Black Luster Soldier – Soldier of Chaos
Black Luster Soldier: Soldier of Chaos is not just the best Link 3 monster…
Also, it’s one of the best link monsters ever.
With 3000 attack, this guy has the most powerful attack number of any link 3 monster. He can also fight most link 4 monsters head-on.
When this card kills a monster in battle, you can choose between 3 amazing effects:
You can either give this card 1500 attack, which is a constant increase, or have it attack twice during your next battle phase, or you can just get rid of any one card on the field.
There really is an effect for everything. If you want to beat monsters with a lot of attack, the first effect of this card is great for making an unbeatable war machine.
On the other hand, being able to get rid of any card on the field without it being a target is a great way to mess with your opponent. And you can stop all kinds of strong cards, no matter what kind they are.
The meta game has definitely taken notice of this guy’s flexibility, and as of this writing, it’s hard to find a copy of him for less than $100. And that’s not even taking into account the ghost rare boost this guy got!
