Top 10 Dragons in Yu-Gi-Oh

"Dragons tend to be the strongest or key boss monster in numerous deck types, in addition, one of the most established and powerful monster types in the entire franchise." —Quote from the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki

Even more so than machine and spellcaster monsters, dragon-type cards reign supreme, seeing a steady release of new and impressive members. Of the 25 monster types, dragons tend to have the highest ATK, powerful effects, and numerous Extra Deck options.

10 Best Dragon Cards

With hundreds of dragons to browse, which showcase the most power? Factoring in both ease of use plus strength, here are the top ten dragons in Yu-Gi-Oh!

• Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode
• Chaos Emperor Dragon—Envoy of the End
• Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
• Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
• Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
• Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon
• Supreme King Z-ARC
• Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
• Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
• Blue-Eyes White Dragon

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ATK: 3000
DEF: 2500

An advanced form of the popular Synchro card "Stardust Dragon," summoning this behemoth requires the Trap card "Assault Mode Activate" to be used while Stardust is on the field (it cannot be Tribute Summoned).

Sure, calling it out takes a little effort, but none can deny Assault Mode's boons. Besides impressive battle attributes, it can tribute itself on either turn to negate any effect—and revive at the End Phase! This essentially means your opponent will have one effect negated every turn, rapidly diminishing their plays. Finally, even if they do manage to destroy Assault Mode, it will summon regular Stardust from the Graveyard, refusing to leave its master empty-handed.

ATK: 3000
DEF: 2500

One of the oldest cards on today's list, Chaos Emperor matches Assault Mode's fantastic 3000 ATK, and shares the inability to be Normal Summoned. To Special Summon it, you simply need to banish one light and one dark-attributed monster from your Graveyard, an easy task considering their abundance. Chaos's effect is like a failsafe: If you're losing, activate it by paying 1000 Life Points to send all cards in each player's hand and field to the Graveyard, inflicting 300 damage to your opponent for each.

If the thousands of damage you'll likely with this inflict doesn't finish your opponent off, you'll have turned the match into an "empty field, luck of the draw" situation, making Chaos a superb backup plan. Regrettably, this awesome effect has long since banned the card from official play.

ATK: 2700
DEF: 2000

Trishula isn't banned, but (as of this writing) it's limited, meaning you can only place one in your deck. Not hard to see why with such a fantastic ability: when Synchro Summoned, you can banish a card from your opponent's field, Graveyard, and a random one from their hand! Losing three cards should devastate almost any foe, shifting the match to your favor. And because this ability triggers upon entry, you don't have to particularly worry about keeping Trishula safe since you'll have already made good use of its effect.

If Trishula has a downside, it's that it needs a tuner and at least two non-tuners (rather than the usual one) to Synchro Summon. Nonetheless, despite belonging to the Ice Barrier archetype, Trishula combos excellently with any tuner deck, and it wields strong ATK, too.

ATK: 2800
DEF: 2400

A card with high ATK and DEF that skirts up and down the limited list, Darkness Metal is another oldie but goldie. As usual with Level 10 monsters, you can Tribute Summon the card by sacrificing two monsters; however, Darkness Metal brandishes a much easier Special Summon by simply banishing a dragon you control. After that, you can (once per turn) Special Summon any dragon from your hand or Graveyard, a fantastic way to gimmick your high-level monsters onto the field.

The Red-Eyes series never achieved quite the popularity of the Blue-Eyes, but variants like Darkness Metal prove they're still prime contenders competitively.

ATK: 2500
DEF: 2000

Arc-V protagonist Yuya's signature monster, Odd-Eyes impresses both on its own and with its myriad support list. As a Pendulum Monster, Odd-Eyes can be continuously resummoned with the right Pendulum Scales, it has decent ATK, and it inflicts double battle damage to opponents when battling a monster!

Additionally, if placed in the Pendulum Zone, not only can you negate any battle damage to your Pendulum monsters, at your End Phase you can destroy Odd-Eyes to add any Pendulum monster with 1500 or less ATK from your deck to your hand!

Card advantage, doubled battle damage, battle protection, Odd-Eyes has something for everyone, including powerful Fusion forms . . .

ATK: 2500
DEF: 3000

Vortex Dragon descends onto the field by fusing Odd-Eyes with any Pendulum monster (possibly a second Odd-Eyes). Vortex Dragon has solid ATK, but you may want to keep it safe in Defense Position considering its great DEF and reusable effect: once per turn, you can shuffle a Pendulum monster from your Extra Deck into your deck to negate and destroy an opposing effect!

RELATED: Yu-Gi-Oh!: 10 Coolest Monsters In The Series

Like Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode, you can continuously negate effects as long as you have cards in your Extra Deck, which isn't hard considering Odd-Eyes' Pendulum ability. Finally, be sure to run the card "Odd-Eyes Fusion," which easily places Vortex onto the field by accessing cards in your Extra Deck.

ATK: 4000
DEF: 4000

As befitting its name, Z-ARC has fantastic ATK, DEF, and effects. However, summoning it may prove tricky, as it requires one Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum dragon as materials. However, when it's out, the game may very well be over. Check out Z-ARC's impressive abilities:

• When summoned, destroys all your opponent's cards.
• Immune to being targeted or destroyed by effects from opponents.
• When Z-ARC destroys a monster by battle, you can summon a Supreme King Dragon monster from your Extra Deck.
• If Z-ARC is destroyed, you can place it in your Pendulum Zone.

If Z-ARC ends up in the Pendulum Zone, not only is it a desirable Scale 1, it prevents opposing Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz monsters from using their effects, and you can destroy cards attained outside of the normal draw each turn. Geez, Konami, do you think you gave Z-ARC enough abilities?

ATK: 2500
DEF: 2000

Yugo from Arc-V made good use of this impressive beast. Unlike Trishula, it's happy to accept a tuner alongside only one non-tuner for its summon. Clear Wing can negate and destroy a Level 5 or higher monster when they activate their effect, and it can do the same for lower level monsters if their effect targets only one level 5 or higher monster. Additionally, when Clear Wing negates and destroys a monster, it gains that monster's ATK for the turn!

For a simple explanation of the above jargon, Clear Wing essentially shuts down opposing monsters from using their abilities. If your adversary doesn't have a Spell or Trap removal handy when Clear Wing arrives, they'll soon find themselves unable to counter its potent lockdown.

ATK: 2800
DEF: 2000

Yet another dragon popularized in Arc-V, this time from villain Yuri. Fusion monster Starving Venom enters with great ATK and accepts any two dark monsters as material, lending its usage to many builds. It also joins the fray with plenty of handy traits:

• When Fusion Summoned, Venom can gain the ATK of one opposing Special Summoned monster until the end of the current turn
• Once per turn, you can target an opposing Special Summoned monster; Venom takes on its name and effects
• When this Fusion Summoned card is destroyed, you can destroy all opposing Special Summoned monsters

Wow. Starving Venom's effects add to its already-stellar ATK, steal opponents' abilities, and destroy their Special Summoned cards. Combined with Venom's ease of summoning, don't be surprised if you regularly see it in the meta community.

ATK: 3000
DEF: 2500

Admittedly, on its own, this dragon isn't the best, as it has no effects. However, (especially with Seto Kaiba), Blue-Eyes has long represented the pinnacle of power, possessing the highest ATK of any original normal monster. Additionally, it's stayed surprisingly relevant thanks to a plethora of Fusion and Synchro variants plus strong supporting cards.

Blue-Eyes is not only the iconic dragon of Yu-Gi-Oh, it's also the cornerstone of quite-viable Blue-Eyes decks. Considering its popularity, it will likely see consistent support in the future.

Today's entries represent the cream of the crop, but with so many lethal dragons around, we're bound to cover more impressive winged reptiles in the future, especially with the advent of powerful link monsters like Firewall Dragon.

Did you find your favorite dragon in this list? You might also check for more dragon cards on our store.

Source: hobbylark.com