Back when this world was my old Yu-Gi-Oh! Workshop world, all I did was post about card tips. One of the reasons why I stopped was because as more cards got added to the games, some of my card tips seemed to become a bit obsolete. But I’ve decided to go ahead and try posting my own brand of card tips again. And I thought I’d start by talking about one of my favorite kind of cards, Ritual monsters. Three Ritual monsters in particular probably come to the minds of those who’ve been fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise since the beginning.
Over the years, Black Luster Soldier has become my favorite out of those three. Though I am partial to Relinquished. Of course there are a lot more Ritual monsters out there than just those three. I’m actually quite fond of Ritual monsters in general. There’s something about the concept behind them that I like. Sadly, there hasn’t been a lot of good support for Ritual monsters over the years. It’s all about Synchro and Xyz nowadays. Yet it is still possible to build a good Ritual monster focused deck.
Basic Support
As I said before, there are quite a few Ritual monsters out there. And trying to use them all in the same deck might not be the best idea. So like with most decks, the key is to just pick the Ritual monsters you like the most and build the deck from there. But whatever sort of Ritual monster deck one ends up building should probably have at least some of the following cards.
- Sonic Bird
- Senju of the Thousand Hands
- Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
- Advanced Ritual Art
- Fulfillment of the Contract
- Book of Moon
- Ritual Cage
- Preparation of Rites
- Ascending Soul
- Ritual Buster
- Seven Tools of the Bandit
- Localized Tornado
Advanced Ritual Art requires Normal monsters to use, so it’s also a good idea to have a lot of powerful level three and four Normal monsters in the deck. At the very least, they can help buy time to get the cards needed for a Ritual Summon. A level eight normal monster like Blue-Eyes White Dragon might also be helpful here. Sonic Bird, Senju, and Manju, are quite necessary to any Ritual focused deck. So cards like Book of Moon and Ascending Soul can be helpful in recycling their effects. Lastly, Localized Tornado can be pretty helpful in recycling a lot of Ritual cards in the Graveyard.
Aside from the basic support cards, there are still a few other options out there. For instance, there are the following five monsters that came out during the 5D’s era.
Djinn of Rituals
- Djinn Releaser of Rituals
- Djinn Presider of Rituals
- Djinn Cursenchanter of Rituals
- Djinn Disserere of Rituals
- Djinn Prognosticator of Rituals
In addition to acting as tributes from the Graveyard, the Djinn give the Ritual monsters they summon extra effects. That makes these monsters great to use with Ritual monsters such as Black Luster Soldeir and Chakra, who have good stats but no effects of their own. And the Djinn are easy enough to dump into the Graveyard using cards such as Armageddon Knight. But because they have to be banished from the Graveyard, it’s probably a good idea to include cards like Burial from a Different Dimension to recycle them.
There are a couple of other cards aside from the Djinn that might be worth using in some Ritual decks. Those who remember the Virtual World arc from the original Yu-Gi-Oh might remember these two cards.
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki mentioned these two cards as being good for Ritual decks. And after thinking about for a bit, I do partially agree. A Deal with Dark Ruler can be used to summon Berserk Dragon when a level eight Ritual monster on the field is used as a tribute to summon another Ritual monster. And Berserk Dragon itself makes good tribute material. Plus these two cards make good companions for another favorite Ritual monster of mine.
The reason why I say these two cards are optional is because there is a danger in putting too many high level monsters into a deck. It might not be as big a danger with Ritual monsters because they can be Special Summoned. But it still probably isn’t a good idea. My advice is to just use your own judgment. It all sort of depends on what Ritual monsters you end up using.
Weaknesses
In my experience, there are two big things that can screw up a Ritual deck. The first is cards that can negate the activation of a Ritual Spell, such as Magic Jammer. That’s why I listed Seven Tools of the Bandit as one of the cards any Ritual deck should have. If the Ritual Spell gets taken out, the monster it summons becomes practically useless. The other big threat to Ritual decks is cards that return monsters to the hand, like Penguin Soldier. It’s a little hard to recover from a move like that using a Ritual deck. So it’s a good idea to have cards that can recycle any Ritual Spells being used, as well as the alternative Ritual Spell cards like Advanced Ritual Art.
That more or less covers it for this post. Unfortunately a lot of the cards I’ve mentioned are a little bit old, so some of them might be hard to find. Anyway, keep an eye out for the next card tip post. In the meantime, questions and comments are welcome.
