Do you guys remember when the Fusion deck was a bit of a novelty?
Fusion monsters were kind of a joke at one point, since Polymerization let you combine two monsters into one.
It never really caught on in terms of competitive play, though. Yu-Gi-Oh, because it was almost impossible to draw all the right parts.
Cut to present Yu-Gi-Oh, and the whole point of the game is the extra deck.
We now have synchro monsters, XYZ monsters, pendulum monsters, and link monsters that can all use the extra deck. Having a good extra deck is now the difference between winning and losing.
If your Extra Deck Staples needs a little tweaking, you don’t have to look any further. In this list, we break down some extra deck basics that are worth checking out.
21. Destiny HERO – Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer
Destiny HERO – Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer, or D.P.E. for short, is a dark warrior-type fusion monster at level 8 that is also a fusion.
This fusion monster can only be called by fusing together 1 “Destiny Hero” monster and a “Hero” monster of level 6 or higher.
This card can be fusion called using the spell card Fusion Destiny, which sends fusion materials from your hand or deck to the graveyard.
The main effect of D.P.E. is to destroy one card on both players’ fields once per turn. If D.P.E. is killed in battle or by a card effect, the user can special summon one Destiny Hero monster from their graveyard during the standby phase of the next turn. D.P.E. can win games by slowly taking away the resources of the other person over time.
20. Black Rose Dragon
In Yu-Gi-Oh, sometimes you need a new start.
And that’s exactly what Black Rose Dragon does!
When you bring out the Black Rose Dragon, you can get rid of every card on the field. That means both players lose monsters, traps, and spells at the same time.
This is a great choice for going second if you have an extra deck.
If your opponent sets up a hard-to-beat board on the first turn, Black Rose Dragon can deal with a lot of threats at once, setting you up to make the comeback of the century.
19. Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier was a big part of what the synchro age of Yu-Gi-Oh was all about.
No deck didn’t try to use this card, along with other great Ice Barrier cards like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.
Trishula is very amazing because it can deal with a lot of threats at once.
When it’s called, you can get rid of one card from your opponent’s hand, field, and graveyard.
This means that with one synchro monster, you can get rid of annoying effects on the field, possible threats in your opponent’s hand, and keep good monsters from coming back to life.
18. Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is only a standard when it is used with a certain card: Polymerization on steroids.
With Super Polymerization, you can use monsters from either field to fuse summon a monster from your extra deck.
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon needs two dark monsters, which is one of the most common requirements for a fusion summon.
Having this guy in your extra deck makes it much more likely that Super Polymerization will work.
If your opponent is using Dark monsters as part of their plan, you could use Super Polymerization to get rid of two monsters at once and get a free Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
This really is a combo that can be used in any deck, since it depends on your opponent’s field.
17. Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon
This is one of my all-time favorite XYZ monsters.
I loved the pendulum age of Yu-Gi-Oh so much, and this guy makes me think of that time.
The best way to beat your opponent’s big monsters, no matter how tough they are, is with Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon.
By removing 2 XYZ materials from this card, you can select an opponent’s monster and cut its attack in half.
The Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon gains the attack that was taken away from the opponent’s monster.
The Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon gets stronger the better your opponent’s monsters are. This makes it a great card for a surprise comeback.
16. Abyss Dweller
In current Yu-Gi-Oh, the graveyard is used so often that it’s almost like a second hand at this point.
Abyss Dweller lets you direct how your opponent uses their graveyard, which is important if you want to win at Yu-Gi-Oh.
By removing an XYZ material from this card, you can stop your opponent’s graveyard effects for the rest of the turn.
This means that Abyss Dweller will destroy most of their graveyard plans.
The best part about this effect is that it only takes 1 XYZ material to use, so you can use it more than once. This gives you two turns of protection from graveyard tricks.
15. Knightmare Phoenix
In Yu-Gi-Oh, getting rid of spells and traps is becoming more and more important.
There are a lot of strong floodgate cards out there that can totally ruin your plan. If you want to win, you’ll need to get rid of these floodgates.
Knightmare Phoenix lets you get rid of spells and traps whenever you need to, and it only costs 2 monsters to link call.
When it is link summoned, you can throw away a card to remove any spell or trap your opponent controls.
Also, if you have a deck that focuses on link monsters and Knightmare Phoenix is co-linked (when the arrows of two link monsters point at each other), your co-linked monsters are protected from destruction and you draw a card when you use Knightmare Phoenix’s effect.
14. Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir
Fun fact: this card’s art looked very different in the OCG.
Our very tired tapir friend was holding empty bottles of alcohol instead of blankets.
It’s not surprising that we got the version that was edited.
Bagooska cancels out so many effects at once that it’s crazy.
While he is face-up and in defense position on the field, all other monsters are also turned to defense position and their effects are cancelled.
The only monsters that can’t be stopped by this guy are link monsters that can’t be turned into defense position.
Bagooska only lasts 2 turns before he is destroyed by his own ability.
But 2 turns of full widespread negation is definitely worth it, and this guy should be in any deck that can make rank 4 XYZ plays.
13. Number 101: Silent Honor Ark
This card is kind of like Relinquished from the XYZ era.
It takes your opponent’s monsters, and if you want to get rid of the card, you can just get rid of the monsters it took.
Silent Honor Ark does this by connecting as an XYZ material special-summoned monsters that your opponent controls.
Whenever Number 101 would be killed by a battle or a card effect, you can just detach an XYZ material to stop it from being destroyed.
This lets Number 101 keep being used to absorb monsters on the next turn.
12. Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend
Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend is one of those rare cases where the sequel is a million times better than the first one.
Once per turn, you can kill every effect monster on the field whose attack is less than or equal to this card’s.
For each monster you kill, your opponent takes 500 damage.
This not only gets rid of most or all of your opponent’s cards, but it also does a lot of damage to them.
This is even better if you have a lot of small monsters on your side of the field to kill as well. That way, you can do as much damage as possible.
11. Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer
The trap card Complimentary Evacuation Device is very good.
But it seems like you never have it when you need it, right?
Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer is like a Compulsory Evacuation Device that you can use whenever you need to.
By removing 1 XYZ material from this card, you can turn a face-up monster into a face-down defense position.
This is a great way to stop a monster’s affect from happening over and over, or to get rid of a monster with a very high attack but a very low defense.
You can also remove 2 XYZ materials from this card to put back into the deck any face-up card on the field.
This gets rid of risks for a long time, since your opponent will have to wait and draw that card again before it can come back.
10. Borreload Dragon
This guy is the Goyo Guardian of Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains, and boy, is that better in every way!
Its first effect is pretty good. You can take 500 attack and defense away from any monster on the field.
This is great for making your opponents’ monsters weaker, and if you’re playing a Rokket deck (which is what Borreload Dragon was made for), you can use it to make Rokket monsters’ effects happen.
More importantly, whenever you attack a monster with this card, you can take that monster for yourself and put it in any zone this card points to.
This means that you can use your opponent’s best monsters to hurt them, turning their strengths into their weaknesses.
9. Saryuja Skull Dread
Saryuja Skull Dread is one of the two link monsters that should be in every deck. The other is Borreload Dragon.
Depending on how many monsters were used for its link call, Saryuja gets new skills.
When you call a monster with 4 monsters, you can draw 4 cards and put 3 cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck.
This is a great way to make your hand as good as possible because it lets you choose which cards you want.
Saryuja also lets you send a monster from your hand to any zone this card points to as a special summon.
This means that if you drew a good monster from the Saryuja Skull Dread, you could put it on the field right away without having to use normal or special summoning.
8. Number 11: Big Eye
Number 11: Big Eye might be the best Numbers monster.
You can take control of any monster your opponent controls by removing an XYZ material from this card once per turn.
Unlike most effects that steal a monster from your opponent, this one doesn’t just take the monster for a short time:
Once you take it, it’s yours as long as it’s on the field.
This makes it more fun to steal strong monsters from your opponents, since they won’t be able to get them back for a while.
7. Evilswarm Exciton Knight
Cards that help you get back on your feet should be easy to find.
And a rank 4 XYZ monster is the easiest to get.
If your opponent has more cards in their hand and on the field than you do, you can remove an XYZ material from this card to destroy every card on the field except this one.
Since it only takes 1 material to activate, you can actually do this twice, destroying your opponent’s field twice.
In a fight, this card is a great choice for going second.
You can let your opponent set up a big board with a lot of different monsters. Then, as soon as possible, you can summon Evilswarm Exciton Knight and do whatever you want on the board.
6. Predaplant Verte Anaconda
Fusion summoning is one of the coolest ways to call a creature from an extra deck.
But I think we can all agree that the whole thing is so boring because we have to wait for the right fusion spell.
This problem is solved by Predaplant Verte Anaconda, which can turn into any “Fusion” or “Polymerization” card by sending it from the deck to the graveyard.
Yes, you can literally look for Super Polymerization whenever you need it. This spell can steal your opponent’s monsters for a fusion summon.
You can even choose a monster on the field and turn it into a Dark monster until the end of the turn. This makes it easy to summon Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
5. I.P. Masquerena
A lot of good Link monsters have affects that start when they are summoned.
Just to name a few, there’s Saryuja Skull Dread and Knightmare Phoenix… but the list is very long.
When it’s your opponent’s turn, being able to use these effects can give you a big edge.
I.P. Masquerena lets you do just that by letting you do a quick link call during your opponent’s turn.
If that wasn’t enough, the monster that is summoned by I.P. Masquerena’s effect can’t be killed by card effects.
This means that your opponent won’t be able to stop any plans you have for their main phase.
4. Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus – Sky Thunder
This card is without a question the best XYZ monster that Yu-Gi-Oh has ever seen.
If a modern deck has any kind of XYZ monster in its extra deck, this guy is a sure thing to be there, too.
What it does is:
If an XYZ monster you control fights, you can use the fighting XYZ monster as a material to XYZ summon this card.
This makes it ridiculously easy to call Sky Thunder. Unlike other XYZ monsters, you don’t have to worry about matching levels or finding a rank-up magic spell. Instead, all you have to do is fight another XYZ.
You can send every other card on the field to the graveyard by removing two materials from this card.
The word “send” is important here because it means that any card that can’t be killed by other cards’ effects is still sent. This lets you get around most cards that are otherwise unbeatable.
This guy is the best board wipe in current Yu-Gi-Oh by a long shot.
And I think it would be good for any deck.
3. Accesscode Talker
Remember when the main character of Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains used the Code Talkers as a joke?
I do, too, which is why I was so surprised when Accesscode Talker blew up the meta game.
When this card is link summoned, you can choose one of the link monsters used for Accesscode Talker’s call and give this card an attack equal to its link rating times 1000.
This means that Accesscode Talker could have a huge 5300 attack at its most powerful level.
Lastly, you can send any Link monster from your field or graveyard to the graveyard to remove any card your opponent has.
You can use this ability more than once, as long as each time you get rid of monsters with different abilities.
If you put this guy in the right field or graveyard, you can totally wipe out your opponent.
2. Borreload Savage Dragon
The Borreload Savage Dragon may be the best synchro monster ever made. It is a very strong card for any link summoning deck.
When this card is synchro summoned, you can choose a link monster in your graveyard and equip it to Borreload Savage Dragon.
This card gets half of that link monster’s attack, and it also gets as many “Borrel counters” as its link rating.
For each Borrel counter on this card, you can stop any effect card from going off by taking off that counter.
When a Link 4 monster is equipped, its cancel power lasts for 4 turns. That’s a force to be reckoned with!
1. Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess
Negate power is the one thing you need in your deck to win at Yu-Gi-Oh.
If you look at any current meta deck, you’ll see that there are a lot of negate cards in the main deck, extra deck, and side deck.
All of Apollousa’s cancel powers are on one card, which is crazy.
This card gets 800 attack for each monster used in its link summon, and you can stop any monster effect from happening once per chain by taking 800 attack from this card.
The cool thing about this card is that, unlike most Yu-Gi-Oh cards that cancel effects, you can use this ability more than once per turn.
You might be able to stop four different monsters in one turn.
This amount of rejection is so bad that it’s almost impossible to get over it.
So, if you can do this to your opponent, the game is probably already as good as yours.
