Ritual monsters are likely one of the hardest types of Yu-Gi-Oh monsters to call forth.
Ritual monsters aren’t like extra deck monsters, which you can use whenever you want.
Instead, you need a Ritual monster card, the right Ritual spell, and monsters from your hand or field to perform a ritual.
That’s a real mess!
That doesn’t mean, though, that sacred monsters are bad.
In fact, there are several ritual-based decks that have dominated the metagame in the past, and they have some very strong monsters in their arsenal!
So, if you want to try out this underrated summoning feature, you can get some ideas from our list below.
18. Garlandolf, King of Destruction
Garlandolf is a great Ritual monster that can change the course of the game.
When he is called, he can nuke the field.
You can use the monsters you sacrificed for other monster effects, like Dark Necrofear or Dark Armed Dragon, so it works well with most Dark/Fiend decks.
17. Paladin of Photon Dragon
Yes, the Paladin of Dark Dragon and the Paladin of Photon Dragon are the new versions of the Paladin of White Dragon.
All three are good, but this one is the best because it lets you draw a card when it fights and kills a monster.
Even though that effect is good on its own, being able to sacrifice it for a Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon makes this card better than the other two.
16. Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier
The Super Soldier is a modernized version of the classic Black Luster Soldier. It has the same fighting stats as a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, with 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF.
Also, when it kills a monster in battle and sends it to the graveyard, you deal your opponent damage equal to that monster’s original ATK.
This is like adding insult to injury when your opponent’s monsters die. Not only that, but whenever Super Soldier is destroyed in battle or by an effect and sent to the graveyard, you can call “Gaia the Fierce Knight” from your hand, deck, or graveyard!
Even if you don’t add any Gaias to your deck (they are, after all, an old unit), the ATK and burn damage of Super Soldier are more than enough to include this fighter in your ritual build.
Just remember that you can only call up one copy per turn, which is a small limit for such a strong hero.
15. Evigishki Gustkraken
This guy is live proof that Gishki’s are one of the most powerful ritual decks in all of Yu-Gi-Oh’s history.
As far as ritual monsters go, this guy is pretty easy to call up at level 7.
And 2400 attack makes it worth the price.
Plus, here’s what it means:
When this card is ritually created, you can look at up to two cards in your opponent’s hand and put one of them back into their deck.
In current Yu-Gi-Oh, this kind of hand removal is more important than ever. Almost every deck will have more than one hand trap.
And if you can get rid of these with Evigishki Gustkraken, the rest of the fight will go smoothly… for you, at least.
14. Megalith Ophiel
Megaliths are one of the most unusual ceremony decks.
Megaliths are different from most ritual monsters because they don’t need a ritual spell to call them. Instead, they are their own ritual spells.
Cards like Megalith Ophiel let you ritually call any ritual monster (even one that isn’t a Megalith monster) during your main phase by using this card and others from your hand and field as the tribute.
This gives Megalith decks a huge edge over other ritual strategies, which have to figure out how to draw their ritual spell at the right time.
Also, when Megalith Ophiel is ritually called, you can search your deck for a Megalith monster and add it to your hand. This makes it easy to quickly summon some very powerful monsters.
13. Relinquished
Sometimes the best cards are the old ones.
The book Relinquished is a good example of this.
One of the best ways to steal your opponent’s monsters is to use the card “Relinquished.” You can select a monster your opponent controls once per turn and equip it to this card. This turns your opponent’s monster into a spell that lets you equip cards.
Then, Relinquished’s attack and defense are the same as the monster it is equipped with. This is a great way to make your opponent’s best monsters work against them.
As if that didn’t ruin the image enough, there’s more:
When Relinquished would be killed in battle, you can just destroy the monster it is equipped with instead, leaving this guy on the board and able to steal your opponent’s monsters again and again.
12. Nekroz of Trishula
Nekroz are definitely the best ritual deck ever.
They’re so good that many of their cards have been banned, and some of them have only just been taken off.
Nekroz are your best bet if you want a ritual deck that can really compete in the current metagame.
Nekroz of Trishula is the ritual version of Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, which is so good that you can only have one copy per deck.
When this card is ritually created, you can get rid of 3 of your opponent’s cards: one from their hand, one from their field, and one from their graveyard.
Nekroz of Trishula also has a great effect while you have it in your hand:
You can throw it away whenever one of your Nekroz monsters would be targeted by a card effect. This will stop the effect and destroy the triggered card, which is a great way to protect your monsters.
11. Shinobaron Peacock
If you thought Megaliths were strange because they didn’t have a rite spell, you should see what Shinobirds can do.
These people are a traditional spirit deck.
Spirits are an old part of Yu-Gi-Oh’s story, in case you didn’t know.
They are a group of monsters that go back to your hand at the end of the turn you call them. This is generally made up for by some very powerful effects, and Shinobirds is no different.
When Shinobaron Peacock is ritually summoned, you can return 3 monsters your opponent controls to their owners’ hands (this is called “non-targeting removal”) and special summon any level 4 or lower Spirit monster from your hand, even if it doesn’t meet the conditions for summoning.
This makes it easy for you to do a lot of damage to your opponent.
10. Gishki Zielgigas
This guy is one of the most expensive ritual monsters out there at level 10.
But this card sure is worth the honors.
First of all, Gishki Zielgigas has a huge 3200 attack, which is more than enough to beat any monster your opponent sends your way.
Second, this card has a great way to draw cards and make things hard for your opponent.
You can draw a card from your deck if you pay 1000 life points.
If this card is a Gishki card, which is very likely in a Gishki deck, you can put any card from the field back into the deck without selecting it.
You can do this every turn, so before you know it, your opponent’s board will be empty.
9. Herald of Ultimateness
Herald of Ultimateness is a good card to try if you want to add some good old-fashioned negation power to your ritual deck.
Most effects that cancel monster effects deal with spells, traps, or monster effects, but Herald of Ultimateness does all of those things and also cancels special calls.
To use this affect, you only have to get rid of a fairy monster.
A ridiculously low price to completely cancel out a special call.
Most trap cards like Solemn Strike that could do this would cost you a few thousand life points.
So this ritual card is worth its weight in gold—well, at least in a fight!
8. Drytron Meteonis Draconids
Drytrons have taken over the Yu-Gi-Oh world like a hurricane.
They are Konami’s newest ritual deck, and boy, do they have a lot of power.
You can make your ritual deck an unbeatable killing machine by adding a few Drytron cards to it.
This card is the deck’s boss monster, and its 4000 damage is ridiculously high.
And if all the materials used to call this card had levels of 2 or less (which doesn’t make much sense for a level 12 ritual monster, but Drytrons have a way around this), it can attack every monster your opponent controls once.
They already have 4000 attack, so that’s not the kind of damage they could easily handle.
On top of that, you can remove monsters from your graveyard with 2000 attack (again, a Drytron thing) to send monsters from the field to the graveyard. This means that your opponent’s board could be completely destroyed by the time this guy is done, no matter what protections they have up.
7. Megalith Phul
Megalith Phul has a skill that no one else has:
You can use rituals to call monsters from the deck.
During the main phase of either player’s turn, you can use this card and cards from your hand or field to summon a Megalith monster from your deck once per turn.
But how am I supposed to do anything useful with a level 2 monster?
Well, when you first call Megalith Phul, you can bring a ritual monster from your graveyard back to your hand to make this card level up by that amount.
This is a great way to use your best monsters again, and it also puts you in a great position to ritually call some powerful high-level monsters.
6. Magician of Black Chaos MAX
This card looks great in any deck that can ritually create creatures during your opponent’s turn, like Megaliths.
And it works just as well in other ritual decks.
You can sacrifice a monster you control when this card is special summoned to stop your opponent from using monster effects for the rest of the turn.
You can see how powerful this is if you can call it out during your opponent’s main phase… But at the same time, calling this during your turn keeps hand traps from messing up your game plan.
Also, whenever this card kills another monster in battle, you can add any spell card from your graveyard to your hand.
In ritual decks, where having the right ritual spells can make or break your game, this is the best way to make sure that your ritual calls keep coming.
5. Demise, Supreme King of Armageddon
The first Demise, King of Armageddon was one of the most powerful ritual monsters of its time.
In fact, this guy was part of a very famous One-Turn-Kill (OTK) deck that could always beat your opponent in a single turn.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that this guy is so strong.
You can pay 2000 life points to destroy as many other cards on the field as you want, giving you a card with 3000 attack to use against your opponent. Each card you remove also does 200 damage to your opponent.
Also, you don’t have to pay any life points to use this ability if you ritually summoned this card using a ritual monster, which is the same as using the original Demise, King of Armageddon.
4. Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon
Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon has a huge 4000 attack, making it one of the biggest ritual monsters ever made.
So with just one move, this guy can do a lot of damage.
You can also do double piercing damage when it hits a monster that is in defense position.
I know it’s crazy.
So, if you attack a monster with no defense, you are essentially hitting directly.
And a lot of players will set a monster with 0 defense to protect them for a turn, especially when they are in a tight spot.
3. Nekroz of Unicore
Nekroz of Unicore is one of the best ways to stop your opponent dead in their tracks. It does this by making their extra deck monsters useless.
Any monster that was special summoned from the extra deck loses all of its effects while this card is on the field.
This will make your opponent to use monsters from their main deck to beat this hard-to-get-through floodgate.
And what if they don’t have anything strong enough?
So, the game is pretty much yours to win.
2. Nekroz of Sophia
Just when you thought the Nekroz archetype couldn’t get any worse, this card comes along and blows them all out of the water.
During your opponent’s turn, you can get rid of this card and a Nekroz spell to stop your opponent from calling any more creatures from the extra deck for the rest of the phase.
The best and biggest monsters are usually kept in the extra deck.
And with this much power to stop them, they have no chance of winning.
If you can get Nekroz of Sophia onto the field, you have a very powerful card that can do a lot of damage.
When you summon it, you can even get rid of every other card on the field and in the graveyard. Your opponent won’t be able to handle that kind of attack.
Nekroz of Sophia is the best way to end a game and is by far the best card in Nekroz’s deck.
1. Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord
Amorphages are a character that is very scary.
They can stop your opponent from doing anything they want. So you can guess what kind of power this deck’s boss monster has.
We’ve seen how some of the most powerful ritual monsters on this list stop your opponent from summoning during the main phase.
Well, what if we went one step further and took away your opponent’s full main phase?
When this card is ritually called, your opponent’s next main phase is skipped. This means that they will have to go into the fight phase with no plans at all.
I don’t think they’ll do much damage that turn, either.
On top of that, while it is on the field, Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord cancels out the effects of all Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz monsters!
This means that your opponent has three choices:
Use monsters from their main deck, Link monsters, or rituals.
This makes it much harder for your opponent to play. And while this guy is on the field, it’s likely that they won’t be able to do anything to win, leaving you free to take the win.
Ritual Monster FAQs
How Do I Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster?
Ritual monsters are summoned from your hand with a unique ritual spell, which should be listed in the monster’s text. Most of the time, you’ll sacrifice monsters from your hand or field whose total levels are equal to or higher than the level of the monster you called.
Can I Revive Ritual Monsters From the Graveyard?
Sometimes. Let’s say you put a card into your graveyard that has an effect that makes you throw it away, like Lightning Vortex. If your ritual monster was never called, like in this case, you won’t be able to bring it back to life with graveyard-special summoning effects like Call of the Haunted or Monster Reborn. But if your ritual monster is sent from the field to the graves, you can bring it back to life. In other words, you have to cast your ritual beast properly before you can bring it back.
Do Ritual Monsters Use the Extra Monster Zone?
No, ritual monsters go in your regular deck, not your extra deck. This means that when you summon them, they don’t take up one of your limited extra deck zones. Ritual creatures have aged well since then, and unlike extra deck monsters, you don’t need extra deck spots from link monsters to play more than one.
Why Did Konami Use a Blue Background Twice? Aren’t Link Monsters Also Blue?
Their tricks are never-ending. Link monsters don’t have levels or DEF scores, but ritual monsters do. You can tell this by looking at the orange stars in the top right corner. The cards will also say “ritual” or “link” next to the type of monster they are.
