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Ritual monsters are probably one of the hardest monster types to summon in Yu-Gi-Oh.
Unlike extra deck monsters which you can access whenever you like, with Ritual monsters you have to have a ritual monster card, the correct ritual spell, andthe monsters from your hand/field to tribute.
Talk about convoluted!
However, that’s not to say ritual monsters are bad – far from it. In fact, there are multiple ritual-based decks that have taken the meta game by storm in previous years, with some seriously powerful monsters in their arsenal!.
So if you’re looking to give this underrated summoning mechanic a try, check out our ranking below to pick up some ideas.
15. Evigishki Gustkraken
Ritual Spell: Any “Gishki” Ritual Spell
Gishki’s are one of the most powerful ritual decks in all of Yu-Gi-Oh’s history – and this guy is living proof of that.
At level 7, this guy is pretty easy to summon as far as ritual monsters go.
And with 2400 attack it’s worth the cost.
Plus here’s its effect:
When this card is ritual summoned you can look at up to 2 cards in your opponent’s hand, and shuffle one of those back into their deck.
This type of hand removal is more important than ever in modern Yu-Gi-Oh. Pretty much every deck will be playing multiple hand traps.
And if you can get rid of these with Evigishki Gustkraken, the rest of the duel will be smooth sailing… for you, at least!
14. Megalith Ophiel
Ritual Spell: None
Megaliths are one of the weirdest ritual decks out there.
Unlike most ritual monsters which need a ritual spell to summon them, Megaliths use themselves as their ritual spells.
Cards like Megalith Ophiel allow you to ritual summon any ritual monster (including non-Megalith monsters) during your main phase using this card (and others from your hand and field) as the tribute.
This gives Megalith decks a huge advantage over other ritual strategies, where they have to find a way of drawing their ritual spell at the right time.
What’s more, when Megalith Ophiel is ritual summoned, you can search and bring out Megalith monster from your deck to your hand – setting you up perfectly to summon seriously powerful monsters in the blink of an eye.
And Relinquished is definitely an example of this.
Relinquished is one of the best ways of stealing your opponent’s monsters. Once per turn, you can target a monster your opponent controls and equip it to this card – practically turning your opponent’s monster into an equip spell.
Then Relinquished’s attack and defense become equal to that of the equipped monster, making this a great way to turn your opponent’s strongest monsters into their own downfall.
As if that effect wasn’t broken enough, there’s more:
Any time Relinquished would be destroyed in battle you can simply destroy the equipped monster instead, leaving this guy on the board & free to steal your opponent’s monsters again and again.
12. Nekroz of Trishula
Ritual Spell: Any Nekroz Ritual Spell
Nekroz are without a doubt the best ritual deck of all time.
They’re so good that they’ve had multiple cards on the ban list – some of which have only recently come off!
If you’re looking for a ritual deck that can truly stand up to the modern meta game, then Nekroz are your best bet.
Nekroz of Trishula is the ritual version of Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (you know, that monster so good it’s still limited to 1 copy per deck to this day?)
When this card is ritual summoned you can banish 3 of your opponent’s cards, one each from their hand, field, and graveyard.
On top of that, Nekroz of Trishula has a great effect while it’s in your hand too:
You can discard it any time your Nekroz monsters would be targeted by a card effect, to then negate and destroy the activated card – which provides your monsters with some amazing protection!
11. Shinobaron Peacock
Ritual Spell: Shinobird’s Calling
If you thought Megaliths were weird for not having a ritual spell, just wait till you see what Shinobirds can do.
They’re a set of monsters that return themselves to the hand at the end of the turn they’re summoned. This is usually offset by some seriously powerful effects, and this is definitely true for Shinobirds!
When Shinobaron Peacock is ritual summoned, you can return 3 monsters your opponent controls (that’s right, non-targeting removal) to the hand, and special summon any level 4 or lower Spirit monster from your hand – ignoring its summoning conditions.
This sets you up perfectly to sink some serious damage into your opponent.
10. Gishki Zielgigas
Ritual Spell: Any Gishki Ritual Spell
At level 10, this guy is one of the most expensive ritual monsters out there.
But boy is this card worth the tributes.
First of all, Gishki Zielgigas comes in at a whopping 3200 attack – more than enough to bowl over any monster your opponent throws at you.
Secondly, this card comes with a great way of drawing cards and messing your opponent up at the same time.
By paying 1000 life points, you can draw a card from your deck.
If this card happens to be a Gishki card (and in a Gishki deck this is incredibly likely) then you can non-targeting shuffle away any card on the field back into the deck.
You can do this every single turn, meaning your opponents board with be swept clean before you know it.
9. Herald of Ultimateness
Ritual Spell: Oracle of the Herald
If you’re looking to add some good-ol’ negating power in your ritual deck, then Herald of Ultimateness is worth a try.
Unlike most negating monster effects which deal with spells, traps, and monster effects, Herald of Ultimateness does all of that while also negating special summons!
To activate this effect, all you need to do is discard a fairy monster.
A ludicrously cheap price to straight-up negate a special summon.
Most trap cards that would achieve this (e.g. Solemn Strike) would set you back a few thousand life points.
So this ritual card worth its weight in gold – well, in a duel, at least!
8. Drytron Meteonis Draconids
Ritual Spell: Meteonis Drytron
Drytrons have taken the world of Yu-Gi-Oh by storm.
They’re the latest ritual deck to be released by Konami, and boy are they overpowered!
By adding a few Drytron cards into your ritual deck, you can turn it into an unstoppable killing machine!
This card is the boss monster of the deck, coming in at a ludicrously high 4000 attack.
And if all the materials used for this cards summon had levels of 2 or less (while that doesn’t really make sense for a level 12 ritual monster, Drytrons have a way of working round this) then it can attack every single monster your opponent controls, once each!
With 4000 attack by default, that’s definitely not the kind of damage they could survive easily.
On top of that, you can even banish monsters from your graveyard with 2000 attack (again, a Drytron thing) to send monsters from the field to the graveyard – meaning your opponent’s board could be absolutely slaughtered by the time this guy’s done with it, no matter what protection they’ve got up.
7. Megalith Phul
Ritual Spell: None
Megalith Phul has an ability unlike no other:
You can ritual summon monsters straight from the deck!
Once per turn, during either player’s main phase, you can ritual summon a Megalith monster from your deck using this card and cards in your hand/field as materials.
But how am I meant to something anything good with a level 2 monster as tribute?
Well, when Megalith Phul is initially summoned, you can return a ritual monster from your graveyard to your hand to have this card become that level.
Not only is this a great way of reusing your best monsters, but this also sets you up perfectly to ritual summon some powerful high-level monsters too.
6. Magician of Black Chaos MAX
Ritual Spell: Chaos Form
This card splashes amazingly into any deck that can ritual summon during your opponent’s turn (looking at you, Megaliths).
And it’s equally amazing in other ritual decks too.
When this card is special summoned, you can tribute a monster you control to prevent your opponent for activating monster effects for the rest of the turn.
You can see why this is so potent if you can summon it during your opponent’s main phase… but equally, summoning this during your turn prevents your game plan from being messed up by various hand traps.
What’s more, whenever this card destroys another monster in battle, you can add any spell card from your graveyard to your hand.
In ritual decks where having access to the right ritual spells can make or break your game, this is the perfect way of ensuring that your ritual summons just keep coming.
5. Demise, Supreme King of Armageddon
Ritual Spell: Cycle of the World
The original Demise, King of Armageddon was one of the most powerful ritual monsters of its time.
In fact, there was a seriously popular OTK deck involving this guy that could consistently beat your opponent in a single turn.
So it’s no surprise then that this guy is amazingly strong.
You can pay 2000 life points to destroy as many other cards on the field (leaving you with a 3000 attack beater to smack your opponent with!), while also burning your opponent for 200 damage for each card destroyed.
What’s more, if you ritual summoned this card using a ritual monster (a.k.a using the original Demise, King of Armageddon) then you don’t even have to pay any life points to activate this effect.
4. Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon
Ritual Spell: Chaos Form
In terms of attack power, Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon takes the cake with a whopping 4000 attack – making it one of the strongest ritual monsters ever made.
So this guy can rack up some serious damage with just one attack.
When it attacks a defense position monster, you can also inflict double piercing damage!
Crazy stuff, I know.
So if you attack a monster with 0 defense, you’re basically direct attacking.
And a lot of players will set a monster with 0 defense to provide some protection for a turn, especially when they’re in a pinch.
3. Nekroz of Unicore
Ritual Spell: Any Nekroz Ritual Spell
One of the best ways to completely stop your opponent in their tracks is to make their extra deck monsters useless – and Nekroz of Unicore does just that!
While this card is one the field, any monster that was special summoned from the extra deck has its effects completely negated.
This’ll force your opponent to use the monsters in their main deck to overcome this oppressive floodgate.
And if they don’t have anything strong enough?
Well, the game is practically yours for the taking.
2. Nekroz of Sophia
Ritual Spell: Any Nekroz Ritual Spell
Just when you think the Nekroz archetype can’t get any more broken, this card comes along and blows them out of the water.
During your opponent’s turn, you can discard this card along with a Nekroz spell to completely shut your opponent off from summoning from the extra deck for the rest of the phase.
Most people keep their best and strongest monsters in the extra deck.
And with this kind of stopping power, they won’t stand a chance at winning!
If you can get Nekroz of Sophia on the field then you’ve got some seriously destructive power on your hands.
When it’s summoned, you can even banish every other card on the field and graveyard – there’s basically no way your opponent can survive that kind of on onslaught.
Nekroz of Sophia is the perfect game finisher – and easily the best card in the Nekroz arsenal.
1. Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord
Ritual Spell: Amorphous Persona
Amorphages are a seriously scary archetype.
They can lock down anything and everything your opponent does. So you can imagine what kind of power the boss monster of this deck wields.
We’ve seen how some of the most powerful ritual monsters on this list stop your opponent summoning during the main phase.
Well what if we took that a step further and took away your opponent’s entire main phase?
When this card is ritual summoned, your opponent completely skips their next main phase. This means they’ll have to go into the battle phase completely unprepared.
And I can’t imagine they’ll be causing much damage that turn.
On top of that, Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord negates the effects of all Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz monsters while it’s on the field!
This leaves your opponent with 3 options:
Use their main deck monsters, use Link monsters, or rituals.
This seriously limits your opponent’s game plan. And chances are while this guy is on the field, they’ll be completely cut off from their win condition too – leaving you free to take the victory.
Rob Myers is a physics student from England, who spends his time looking at space and turning it into numbers. In his free time he enjoys playing card games, reading the Discworld series, and working his way through his never ending video game library.
