Top 10 Best Xyz Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

After the synchro era, it was time for xyz monsters to shine in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. These new extra deck monsters became popular after the Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime series, which was released on April 11th, 2011.

Recently, xyz monsters have reached the top of the charts, and were popular during practically all of 2023 when Kashtira dominated the metagame. The most relevant xyz monster deck is still Kashtira, but it isn't as dominant as it once was, and now works as a sort of "anti-meta" deck.

Currently, the most popular xyz monsters are the ones that "go around" the xyz summon mechanic, as they are more generic.

Check out below the top 10 best xyz monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

10 - Infernal Flame Banshee

Even though most Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG fans and players don't know it, this card, Infernal Flame Banshee, which searches for Pyro-type monsters, is relatively important nowadays, considering the Snake-Eye engine is still dominating the format.

However, it is even more relevant because it enables a combo that allows Snake-Eye to play around Dimension Shifter. This card is predicted to grow in popularity because many players want to try and counter the Snake-Eye engine even if they have to resort to drastic measures.

9 - Number F0: Utopic Draco Future

This card has been away from the metagame for a while now, but it is still excellent. Even though it isn't as generic as we'd want it to be, Number F0: Utopic Draco Future gives us a pretty safe way to negate and interact with our opponent because, besides negating a monster effect, it can take control of it, and like so remove a precious resource from our opponent's hands.

8 - Expurrely Noir

Expurrely Noir is Purrely's boss monster, currently considered a tier 2 deck. Additionally, it represents the towers in this list, once the goal with this deck is to summon it with more than 5 materials, making it "unaffected by the opponent's activated effects". Its Quick Effect is also quite efficient to remove from the board, or the graveyard, monsters that will threaten you in any way.

7 - Toadally Awesome

Rumored to be banned when it was Spright's "boss monster", Toadally Awesome escaped the banlist, which instead hit Ronintoadin, which then lowered the popularity of the Frog engine. Currently, Toadally Awesome is used in Tearlaments, in which, besides being a strong omni-negate resource, it is also responsible for guaranteeing its follow-up.

Additionally, if Number F0: Utopic Draco Future is strong because it "steals" from your opponent the monster it negated, Toadally Awesome is even better because it can both negate and "steal" all 3 card types in the game: monsters, spells, and traps.

6 - Gigantic Spright

Gigantic Spright is incredibly powerful, and is almost a bit unbalanced, even though it doesn't have any effect that interacts with your opponent. Besides bringing consistency to its archetype, Gigantic Spright can summon, from your deck, any level 2 monster in the game, which makes it essential to connect other engines to Spright.

And, furthermore, as if an absurdly strong, consistent effect wasn't enough, after resolving it, Gigantic Spright only allows both duelists to special summon level 2, class 2, or link 2 monsters, which prevents your opponent from activating cards like Nibiru, the Primal Being, for instance.

5 - Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal

Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal is another card used in Tearlaments nowadays, but it has a long history in the game, besides being a historically controversial card, and, as a result, limited currently.

Even though it is simple, its effect, which sends any card in your deck to the graveyard, is quite powerful and generic, and allows "Beatrice" to serve as a combo piece or just interact with your opponent, depending on the card you sent to the graveyard.

4 - Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir

Even though it is a bit unpopular nowadays, Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir has been, historically, powerful, particularly in formats in which the main decks don't use link monsters. The main reason why we use "Bagooska" is its "floodgate" effect, which forces all monsters on the board to stay in the defense position, while it negates activated effects of monsters that were in the defense position when they activated their effects. As a result, "Bagooska" is really a nightmare for decks that don't have an accessible "out" to deal with it.

3 - Abyss Dweller

Abyss Dweller is another card that was important for the history of the game, but it also has some value in the current format. Once again, this card is a floodgate, but, unlike "Bagooska", this card has a "lingering effect" (an effect that remains active even after the main effect resolved, and even if the card that activated it has left the board, or was negated later on), which prevents your opponent from activating effects from their graveyard during that turn. It is quite oppressive against decks that depend on the graveyard to play.

2 - Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis

Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis, nicknamed by players as "anti-zeus", has a continuous effect that "disables" activated effects of monsters with more than 3000 ATK, which is incredibly useful to deal with a Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder in the enemy board, or some of the main generic "boss monsters" in the game, such as Baronne de Fleur.

After disabling your opponent's entire board, you'll extract the best out of this card if you have a single monster that is affected by it, considering you'll be able to remove it from the board if you use its effect to return 1 monster from the board to your hand.

Besides its effects, another reason that makes this card so strong is how easy it is to summon it, and its summon is considered equivalent to a link-1 summon by many players.

1 - Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder

To finish our list, we have Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder, which also goes around the xyz mechanic to be summoned. Even though it isn't in the main meta decks nowadays, it was once vital for previous formats, and can be an efficient weapon against the best decks in the current game because of its effect, which clears boards without activating "destruction triggers".

Another strong feature "Zeus" has that some players forget is that, as long as you have materials to detach, it can activate its effect as many times as you need in the same turn, which is relevant to go over interactions that prevent you from clearing the board.

Do you agree with our list? Do you use any of these cards in your decks? Tell us in the comment section.

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