Yu-Gi-Oh!: The 10 Best Ritual Monsters In The Game, Ranked

The first-ever new Monster Type added into the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! were Ritual Monsters, introduced in the third Yu-Gi-Oh! set released Magic/Spell Ruler. Ritual Monsters go in the Main Deck, and require a Ritual Spell in order to summon while tributing Monsters that equal the Level of the Ritual Monster.

While Ritual Monsters have generally been considered among the weakest of the Monster Types, over the years they have received a ton of support in order to make them stand out, generally by being able to cheat past the normal Ritual mechanics. Ritual Monster decks have greatly improved, with some standing as some of the best decks of all time.

10 Relinquished

The original Ritual Monster, Relinquished was the first Ritual Monster released with an effect, a great one at that. Relinquished allows you to steal an opponent's Monster and equip it in order to steal its statline while giving Relinquished protection.

Not only that, but Relinquished prevents you from taking combat damage, instead inflicting that damage to your opponent.

Relinquished is only a Level One Monster as well, making its tribute requirement extremely easy to meet. Relinquished is hard to get rid of once it's on the field, allowing for control strategies to shine during Goat Format.

9 Cerulean Sacred Phoenix Of Nephtys

yugioh Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys card art and text

The Nephtys Archetype is a series of Monsters that destroy themselves to help gain powerful effects while recurring their effects. Cerulean Sacred Phoenix Of Nephthys is the shining star of the Archetype. It does require some work to get out, as it's a Level Eight Ritual Monster.

Once it lands on the field, Sacred Phoenix Of Nephthys is very hard to get rid of, making the effort to bring it out worth it. If it ever gets destroyed by battle or card effect, it will return to the field during your next Standby Phase. Not only that, but it can pop multiple cards on your opponent's field by destroying Nephtys cards.

8 Evigishki Gustkraken

Evigishki Gustkraken is a part of the Giski Archetype, and a card that spent a hefty amount of time on the banlist. It's a deceptively simple effect, allowing you to look at two cards from your opponent's hand and shuffle one back into the deck. Giski has no problem with getting Ritual Monsters out on the field.

What makes Evigishki Gustkraken so good is its ability to constantly use its effect. It's not once per turn, and Evigishki Gustkraken can easily be recycled by other Giski cards. Evigishki Gustkraken has the potential to fully wipe out an opponent's hand, leaving them relying on their draw to be able to play the game.

7 Magician Of Black Chaos MAX

The counterpart to Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, Magician Of Black Chaos MAX is the modern go-to Ritual Monster for Ritual builds of Dark Magician decks. Dark Magician decks have no trouble summoning it. It has a solid statline, but its effects are where the card really shines.

Magician Of Black Chaos MAX generally wants to be summoned on the opponent's turn, as it completely prevents their Monster effects from being activated. You can even recycle your Spell cards on your turn, allowing for Magician Of Black Chaos MAX to build you a ton of advantage.

6 Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon

Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon is such a good Ritual deck, a deck that focuses solely on winning with its effect is a viable Rouge strategy. It's one of the most common modern Blue-Eyes builds, and with how much generic Ritual support has been released over the years, it's not hard to win with either.

With an incredibly high 4000 Attack stat, Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon is also one of the few Monsters that have double piercing damage. This means if it attacks a Monster with zero Defense, that one attack is enough to completely drain the opponent's Life Points.

5 Drytron Meteonis Draconids

Drytron Meteonis Draconids is one of the major reasons Drytron decks were able to stand apart as one of the best decks in the current metagame. Drytron can easily cheat out their high-Level Ritual Monsters, as they all have special conditions that are incredibly easy to meet.

Drytron Meteonis Draconids is so good due to how it interacts with the opponent's field. As a Quick Effect, it can send up to two cards on your opponent's field to the Graveyard. In the modern game, that is enough to completely shut down the opponent's play, as it gets around nearly every kind of protection.

4 Cyber Angel Benten

Cyber Angel Benten is a fantastic Ritual card for how splashable it is in just about every Ritual-focused deck. It's so generically good that it's currently limited on the banlist. Cyber Angel Benten is rarely ever summoned onto the field, and instead used as tribute fodder for other Ritual Summoned.

This allows you to search out any Light Fairy Monster in the game and add it into your hand. This immediately helps you to break even in card advantage. There are plenty of powerful Light Fairy Type Monster in the game, and having a generic searcher that helps you build a board presence is bound to be broken.

3 Nekroz Of Brionac

The Nekroz Archetype was the first time a Ritual Archetype was meta, and not only that, Nekroz was one of the best decks ever released. All the Nekroz Rituals had multiple effects that would trigger by either discarding them or while on the field. This got around Ritual Monster's biggest weakness, that being they clog your hand until you can summon them.

Nekroz Of Brionac is able to search any other Nekroz Monster, which is an effect every Archetype dreams of. Nekroz Of Brionac is a strong counter to Extra Deck focused decks, as they can shuffle two of them back into the deck, effectively making the opponent's work to summon them worthless.

2 Nekroz Of Unicore

Nekroz Of Unicore can help you to recycle Nekroz cards that were taken care of with effects you'd rather have for a certain game state. While on the field, it acts as a Floodgate for any Extra Deck Monster, as it completely negates their effects while they are on the field.

Nekroz Of Unicore is incredibly versatile, all while being a low-Level Ritual Monster. With the way Nekroz Ritual Spells work, it's not uncommon to get Nekroz Of Unicore and other Nekroz Ritual Monsters on the field at the same time, making for a nearly unbreakable board for any deck that relies on their Extra Deck.

1 Herald Of Ultimateness

Herald Of Ultimateness as the name implies is the ultimate Ritual Monster. Its typing as a Light Fairy allows it to take advantage of generic support for the Type and Attribute combination. Once it's on the field, the opponent's chance to play any card becomes zero.

By discarding a Fairy Monster, Herald Of Ultimateness can negate any effect of a Monster, Spell, or Trap card, or the Special Summon of a Monster. This isn't once per turn either, so as long as you have Fairy Monsters in your hand you can prevent your opponent from doing anything on their turn.

Source: www.thegamer.com