Something’s gonna go wrong, and you’re going to end up with your best cards in the graveyard. If you want to win then you’re going to need a way to bring those monsters back. While most archetypes have their own way of bringing back monsters, I want to take a look at some of the generic monster retrieval options in Yu-Gi-Oh, so you can splash these cards into any deck you like!
10. Monster Reincarnation
Monster Reincarnation is a revival spell that was practically ignored for most of its life. I mean, it’s just a worse Monster Reborn, right? Not quite – and here’s what it does: By discarding a card, you can target any monster in your graveyard and return it to your hand. This effect is great in modern Yu-Gi-Oh for two reasons. Firstly there are a whole bunch of cards whose effects trigger on normal summon (i.e. Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, Elemental HERO Stratos, and Salamangreat Gazelle just to name a few!). So by adding them back into your hand, you can normal summon them all over again, and reuse those amazing effects. Secondly, this card is actually great for reviving hand traps. And these days, hand traps are essential in modern Yu-Gi-Oh – having the right one at the right time can make the difference between winning and losing. Being able to recycle your own hand traps will keep you ahead of the game, and victory could be yours in no time at all.
9. Dragon Revival Rhapsody
While this card is pretty tailored to dragon decks, there are so many different dragon decks out there that this had to get a mention! Here’s what it does: If you control a Spellcaster monster, you can target 2 Dragon monsters in your graveyard (including one normal monster) and special summon them to your side of the field, with the downside being that your opponent takes no more damage for the rest of the turn. This was initially designed for Blue-Eyes decks, as it’s searchable off of King of D. But this card actually has uses in other dragon decks! For example if you’re playing an Odd-Eyes deck, then this effect can be seriously powerful. That deck natively runs spellcasters anyway, and you always have Odd-Eyes Arc Pendulum Dragon as a normal target – meaning this spell is a way of flooding your field with more dragons.
8. Graceful Revival
Who said low level monsters had to be weak? Graceful Revival is a trap card that brings back one of your lower-level monsters (specifically level 1 or level 2), special summoning them in attack position to your side of the field. This trap was initially used a lot in synchro decks to bring back low-level monsters to set-up synchro summons. But it has recently seen play in decks that focus on low-level monsters, such as Melffys. Activating this trap could immediately set up a rank 2 XYZ summon in decks with a focus on lower levels, making it an incredibly powerful revival tool for those strategies.
7. Pot of Acquisitiveness
While Pot of Acquisitiveness doesn’t necessarily bring monsters straight back to you, it does bring them back from the depths of the banished pile. And that’s definitely something worth playing! This quick-play spell returns 3 of your banished monsters to your deck – then allows you to draw one card. If you’re playing a deck that does a lot of banishing then this card is a must-have. It’s completely neutral in terms of card advantage (i.e. you don’t have a net loss or gain of cards in your hand or field). So it’s practically a free way to get cards back from being banished.
6. The Transmigration Prophecy
There are a lot of card effects that trigger when cards are sent from the deck to the graveyard – which is what makes The Transmigration Prophecy so useful. This trap allows you to shuffle two cards from your graveyard into your deck. This way you can re-send (or re-use) those cards and get them back to the graveyard all over again – allowing to get double the value of any graveyard effects. Definitely consider this card in decks like Shaddolls, which can send cards from the deck to the graveyard like nobody’s business.
5. Limit Reverse
Okay now this trap does summon weaker monsters. But that’s not always a bad thing! Limit Reverse special summons a monster with 1000 attack or less from your graveyard onto to your side of the field, in attack position. In a pinch this is great for taking just a little bit less battle damage. But the real practical use of this card is setting up extra deck summons. Loads of tuners, low level monsters, and all sorts of cards have low attack stats. Which makes Limit Reverse perfect for setting up whatever form of extra deck summon you like. You can also use this card to revive a weak monster you don’t really care about, and then immediately use it for a tribute summon to bring out a bigger creature.
4. Miracle’s Wake
It doesn’t matter how good our monsters are, we’ll always have times where we end up losing in battle. Miracle’s Wake is a helpful revival card for those moments, allowing you to revive any monster that was destroyed in battle and sent to your graveyard this turn. This trap is certainly fun to activate during your opponent’s end phase: just when they think they’ve got you on the ropes, all of a sudden your biggest monster storms right back onto the battlefield.
3. Pot of Avarice
This card is easily one of the best “Pot” cards in Yu-Gi-Oh. We all know by now that the original Pot of Greed is simply too good to exist (sadly), so Pot of Avarice is probably the best we’ll get. By shuffling 5 monsters from your graveyard into your deck, you can draw 2 cards. Easy peasy. Not only does this put 5 of your monsters back into the deck & ready to use again, but this also nets you a +1 overall in terms of card advantage. And it’s fair to say everyone loves a little draw power.
2. Call of the Haunted
When I think of monster retrieval in Yu-Gi-Oh, this is the card I think of. If you’ve played any sort of Yu-Gi-Oh in your life (whether on the playground in the early 2000s, or in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh in recent times), you’ll know this card. Call of the Haunted is a continuous trap that special summons a monster from your graveyard to your side of the field in attack position. There’s no limits to what you can summon off this card – maybe use it to summon a weak monster you can use for an extra deck summon. Or maybe use it to bring back one of your big boss monsters to smack your opponent with. No matter what you’re looking for, Call of the Haunted is a staple choice for reviving monsters.
1. Monster Reborn
It’s no surprise that this is easily the best monster reviving card in the game. It’s been around since the first booster pack, and it really does what it says on the tin! Plus, Monster Reborn has an advantage that other monster retrieval cards don’t: You can steal monsters from your opponent’s graveyard! On top of that, Monster Reborn has 0 restrictions. The monster you summon doesn’t have to be in a particular battle position. And it doesn’t have to be a particular level or attack. As long as the monster can be special summoned, it’s yours for the taking. This revival spell is incredibly powerful, and as such, it was actually banned for many years. But as of this writing, Monster Reborn has been brought back to 1 copy per deck in the TCG – and I for one couldn’t be happier! So if you’re playing any sort of deck that uses the graveyard (basically any deck but pendulums) then this spell is an absolute must-have.
