If your monster requires two or more level 7 monsters to summon (monsters you’d normally have to tribute summon to access), then you bet that XYZ monster has some serious power behind it! If you’ve got some level 7 monsters in your strategy, then you’d be mad not to include a few of these cards in your extra deck. So let’s get right into it:
12. Dark Armed, the Dragon of Annihilation
This guy is the sequel to the infamous Dark Armed Dragon, a card so powerful it changed the way we played Yu-Gi-Oh forever. Much like the original, this card is easy to summon when you have an exact number of dark monsters in your graveyard. In this case, if you have 5 dark monsters in your graveyard, you can XYZ summon this card using 1 level 5 or higher dark Dragon you control. Most XYZ monsters require a minimum of 2 monsters, making this guy an absolute bargain in terms of card advantage. And you can detach an XYZ material from this card to target and destroy any card your opponent controls, while also banishing one card from your graveyard. This ensures that you have 5 monsters in the graveyard at all times, meaning you can summon a copy of this card every single turn.
11. Orea, the Sylvan High Arbiter
Whilst Orea, the Sylvan High Arbiter is intended for Sylvan decks, you can make use of this guy in pretty much any plant-based deck. By sending a plant monster from your hand or field to the graveyard, you can pretty much stack your deck exactly how you want it – by looking at the top X cards of your deck, where X is the level of the monster you sent. If that wasn’t broken enough, you can then detach an XYZ material from this card to send 1-3 cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard, while returning that many cards from the field to the hand. That’s like 3 Compulsory Evacuation Device’s all at once. This effect is particularly potent in Sylvan decks, where each Sylvan monster gains a different ability when it’s sent to the graveyard from the deck. But honestly, this effect is insanely good in any plant deck.
10. Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon
One of the few XYZ-pendulum monsters. What this guy lacks in being easy to summon, he makes up for in card effect. You can summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon with two level 7s like any other XYZ monster, but to bring out this monster’s full potential you’ll want one of those monsters to be an XYZ monsters. There are a couple of ways to do this – namely with Xiangsheng Magician and Xiangke Magician’s pendulum effects. But the long and short of it is that it’s pretty tricky to pull off. If you do, however, you can destroy every single level 7 or lower monster your opponent controls, inflict 1000 damage for each monster destroyed, and then this 3000-attack beast can attack your opponent 3 times in a single turn. This card is truly the meaning of overkill. And the odds of your opponent surviving this onslaught are pretty damn slim.
9. Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon
Raidraptors were one of the best XYZ archetypes to come out of the ARC-V era of Yu-Gi-Oh. This winged-beast deck focuses on spamming the field with monsters, making low-rank XYZ summons, then using rank up magic spells to summon some insanely powerful high-rank XYZ summons. Raidraptor Arsenal Falcon is just one of the many powerful options you can summon. Firstly, by detaching an XYZ material you can special summon any level 4 or lower Raidraptor monster from your deck. This is an amazing way of setting up those XYZ summons, giving you a whole range of ranks to summon with to boot. Plus if you feel like a more offensive option, this guy also has you covered. Raidraptor Arsenal Falcon can attack multiple times during the battle phase, up to the number of Raidraptor monsters attached to it as XYZ material!
8. Number 76: Harmonizer Gradielle
Number 76 plays off of one of those mechanics we all forget about in Yu-Gi-Oh: attributes. While it’s on the field, Number 76 is a multi-attribute monster – meaning it can be both a light and a dark type monster at the same time. This card becomes the attribute of the monsters attached to it as XYZ material, in addition to its original attribute. If this card battles an opponent’s monster with the same attribute as this card, it’s not destroyed. If it’s targeted by a monster effect with the same attribute – yep, not destroyed! To really tip the scales in your favor, Number 76 allows you to detach an XYZ material from it to attach one card from your opponent’s graveyard as XYZ material. That way your monster can be whatever attribute you need it to be, whenever you need it, making this card a real threat to be reckoned with.
7. Ebon High Magician
If Yugi Muto knew what an XYZ summon even was, you bet he’d have played this guy in his deck. Based off of the original nostalgia king Dark Magician, Ebon High Magician is a fantastic piece of support for spellcaster decks far and wide. By detaching an XYZ material from this card, Ebon High Magician grants you the ability all Yu-Gi-Oh players have dreamed of: Playing trap cards straight from the hand! Waiting around a turn for your trap cards to activate is so frustrating, and this guy takes that problem away entirely. And when Ebon High Magician leaves the field, he leaves you a monster to defend with by special summoning any dark spellcaster of your choice from your hand or deck – while also destroying a card on the field. Who knew your own monsters getting destroyed could be so beneficial?
6. Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon
If you thought Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon was broken, just wait till you see this guy. Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon is the bigger, stronger version of Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon. It requires the same awkward conditions to summon it at full power, but boy is this card worth it. And you can detach an XYZ material from this card to destroy every single card your opponent controls, while burning them for 200 LP damage for each card you destroyed. Combine this with the fact that Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon can attack with a whopping 3000 attack twice every single turn, and you’ve got an unstoppable destruction machine on your hands.
5. Mermail Abyssgaios
Mermails were one of the first XYZ archetypes that truly showed us the power of XYZ summoning. Based around various mythical creatures of the sea, Mermail Abyssgaios channels the energy of Poseidon himself! (And not the bald one from the SpongeBob movie…) This guy is one of the key floodgates for the deck: While it’s face up on the field, neither player can attack with level 5 or higher monsters. While this may be a hindrance for some decks, it’s no problem for Mermails, who use XYZ monsters with ranks instead of levels. If that wasn’t enough stopping power for your liking, you can also detach an XYZ material to negate the effect of every single monster your opponent controls (providing they have attack less than Mermail Abyssgaios). With a sizeable 2800 attack here, you’ve got some serious negating power on your hands with this king of the oceans.
4. Number C6: Chronomaly Chaos Atlandis
The C Numbers are like the original Number cards, except way more broken. They’ll typically be one rank higher than their original counterpart and have similar effects – but on a much larger scale. To summon them, you’ll need to use a Rank Up Magic card: a spell card that allows you to XYZ summon monsters one rank higher than the ones you control. Then you can detach an XYZ material from this card to send all Numbers cards attached as XYZ material to the graveyard to reduce your opponent’s life points to 100! That is a ludicrous amount of burn damage. And at that point your opponent will be incredibly fragile – the game is as good as yours. Combine this effect with a card that inflicts some burn damage like Gagaga Cowboy, and you’ve got a recipe for some serious salt.
3. Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon
Speaking of monsters that inflict burn damage, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is one of the best burn cards in the entirety of Yu-Gi-Oh! While this card has XYZ material, your opponent takes 500 burn damage for every single card or effect they activate. In modern Yu-Gi-Oh where combos can go on longer than a Lord of the Rings marathon, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is an incredibly easy way to burn your opponent for a lot of damage. If you’re playing this card in a Red-Eyes build, then you can also detach an XYZ material from this card to special summon any Red-Eyes normal monster from your graveyard. This includes some of the powerful Gemini monsters Red-Eyes have at their disposal, as these guys count as normal monsters while they’re in the graveyard.
2. Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
With the introduction of link monsters, this card went from great to exceptional. By detaching an XYZ material from this card, you can special summon 2 Mecha Phantom Beast tokens, with 0 attack and defense. And while you control any token (Mecha Phantom Beast or otherwise) this card can’t be touched by battle or card effect. You can also tribute one of these tokens once per turn to destroy a card on the field, the caveat being that Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack can’t attack the turn you activate this effect. The fact that you can use these tokens to link summon is what makes this card so damn good – you’re effectively turning 2 monsters into 3, giving you a free extra material to Link summon with! If you’re in a pinch, this guy is also great at removing threats from the field with his destruction effect. So this card is a great all-rounder for any deck with level 7 monsters in it.
1. Number 11: Big Eye
Without a shadow of a doubt, Number 11: Big Eye is the best rank 7 XYZ monster out there. Here’s what it does: You can detach an XYZ material to steal a monster from your opponent’s side of the field, with the drawback that Big Eye can’t attack the turn you activate this effect. This really isn’t a problem if you can steal your opponent’s strongest monsters, as you can just use these to hit your opponent with instead. Unlike most cards that steal your opponent’s monsters, Big Eye is unique in that you get to keep them! (I mean, not beyond the duel…) There’s nothing more satisfying than beating your opponent down with their own monsters.
