In the TCG Yu-Gi-Oh you have monsters with their type and attribute. You also have archetypes which aren’t an official ‘stat’ of the card but many cards belong to an archetype. There are so many of them right now that you will be able to pick one that is perfect for you, or you might discover some hidden ones!

I’ve compiled a list of the 10 most overlooked archetypes in the game, I took into account effectiveness in a duel, how the cards play/look and generally how awesome they are!

10. Ancient Gears

I’m sure you remember these from the Gx days. If you don’t, they were powerful machines that even had a structure deck based around them. Their main abilities were to stop your opponent from preventing your attacks and using the abilities of Ancient Gear Soldier and Ancient Gear Golem to deal piercing damage against your opponent’s helpless monsters. They are also pretty awesome to look at, well worth creating a deck for!

9. Archfiends

These are really awesome cards that have been overlooked because of the sheer luck you need for them to be effective. Many of the cards require dice roll luck for their effects to even take effect and they also cost you life points at the end of each turn. Sure you can add cards like Pandemonium and dice roll support cards but why would you substitute spaces for more useful spells/traps, just to have a chance of using mediocre effects? If you’re into dark monsters then these would be up your alley!

8. Roids

I talked about them here but I have to mention them again as I love them. The Roids actually have a lot of good effects, Drillroid can destroy defense position monsters instantly, Submarineroid can attack your opponent directly before changing to defense position and Gyroid can negate being destroyed once per turn. However, they simply can’t keep up with the sheer swarming power of the stronger decks and so they get demolished. If 3 of your Roids get destroyed then it will be a few turns until you have 3 Roids again. A great combo is between Ambulanceroid, Rescueroid and Decoyroid whereby your opponent can only target Decoyroid and as soon as it is destroyed, the other 2 bring it straight back! There are also tons of fusions to play with, they can be a hugely fun deck but don’t expect to win competitions with them.

7. Gem-Knights

I know these aren’t exactly overlooked but they aren’t exactly not-overlooked either. I think the biggest problem with their release is that they had a lot of awesome looking cards in awesome rarities, but their underwhelming effects and ATK/DEF stats didn’t justify having to spend so much money. The normal/effect monsters are actually quite good and allow a lot of versatility. However, their main cards are fusions and require their own version of Polymerisation. The bad thing about this is it’s very difficult to get the fusions on. You have to activate the spell, have the correct cards then summon the monster to the field; all that and you think your opponent can’t negate one of them? Even if they don’t, the cards that are summoned are good but nothing special, your opponent only needs to get one XYZ monster on the field using 1 or 2 cards and it will likely destroy your fusion. Compare this against 3+ cards to get the fusion and you have an awesome deck that is simply outclassed.

6. Ojama

For the purposes of the list I will only be counting the 3 Ojamas, Ojama Knight and Ojama King for this entry. The Ojamas are very weak monsters but can be devastating if used correctly. If you can get all 3 of the normal monsters on the field you can use Ojama Delta Hurricane and obliterate your opponent. You can use all kinds of support cards too as they are weak monsters, so cards like Over Limit are very helpful. You can fusion summon for Ojama King and Ojama Knight and prevent your opponent from summoning monsters, combine this with Royal Decree and some kind of spell-negating cards and you can get your opponent in a huge lockdown!

5. /Assault Mode

When I first saw the “/” in a card name I was very confused but looking back I can say they were quite awesome cards. First of all they improve the look of our favourite Synchros, making them more badass. They also give more ATK/DEF points and power-up their effects. Once an /Assault Mode card has been destroyed, the original Synchro is special summoned. As you can see they are very powerful cards but they also have huge disadvantages. For one, the card needs to be in your deck so if you draw an /Assault Mode card, it’s useless. This might be rectified by putting a few Magical Mallets in your deck but honestly the /Assault Mode cards take up enough deck space already so taking up more puts you at even more of a disadvantage. I think they would have been better as Synchros in your extra deck.

4. Morphtronic

Another Archetype that was used quite a bit but have fell down the pecking order since their release. I think they deserve a spot on this list because they can be effective in battle, look cool, are not difficult to obtain and are a massively overlooked type; Machine. I believe they can be extremely effective, the monsters allow you to have a different effect depending on their battle position so your opponent can never know what you’re going to do next. Some increase ATK/DEF points, some allow you to re-arrange the cards in your deck and support spells/traps allow you to destroy your opponent’s cards at the same time. I think the lack of powerful XYZ/Synchros caused the downfall.

3. Alien

Alien cards are really interesting, they’re all Reptiles and as such can take advantage of Reptile support cards but their own support cards are very good too. They distribute counters around the field and apply their effects based on the counters. Each monster loses 300 ATK/DEF for each counter (supposing there is a card on the field with this effect), they can use the counters to destroy, negate effects and even take control of your opponent’s monsters. You can also use cards like Evil Dragon Ananta as backup. There are a lot of cards that distribute A-counters but I think if a few more were released, Aliens could become viable.

2. Destiny Heroes

I have seen these many times in the anime and have faced them plenty of times myself, they are powerful cards but have a lot of weaknesses. The more powerful cards like Destiny Hero Plasma are renowned for their power and Plasma is probably still used today. You also have cards like Clock Tower Prison which can prevent any battle damage and then summons a powerful Hero when destroyed. All the other monsters can provide a solid base for you to summon some XYZ monsters too!

1. Batteryman

Man I hate facing these cards, they’re extremely powerful even without the aid of Synchros or XYZ monsters. They swarm the field with cards like Batteryman AA which have 1000 ATK for each other AA, and they’re very easy to get on. Batteryman Charger and Industrial Strength can demolish you and their support cards like Portable Battery Pack keep them coming back constantly. If this isn’t enough power they also have the extremely powerful card called Short Circuit, which in my opinion is one of the most broken cards in the game. Just 3 Batteryman monsters are required and you get to destroy every card on your opponent’s side of the field, just 3 monsters in a deck that can easily get 3-4 monsters on per turn. This makes the Batteryman the most overlooked archetype in my opinion.

Thanks for reading!