What rarely gets a mention is the monsters required to actually synchro summon in the first place – tuner monsters. There are so many different tuner monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh, with each one offering its own advantages and strategies. If you want to include synchro monsters as part of your game plan, you’ll need to include a few tuners in your deck, across a range of different levels. So which ones do you pick? This list will break down our top picks and give some tips and tricks to maximize their potential!
15. X-Saber Airbellum
If you were like me and your first introduction to synchro summoning was with one of the 5Ds starter decks, then you’ll know this guy well. X-Saber Airbellum is a level 3 tuner: generally most decks will run a lot of level 4 monsters, making this guy great for level 7 synchro plays such as Black Rose Dragon. When you attack your opponent directly with this card, they have to discard one random card from their hand. If your opponent’s at the stage where they’re taking direct attacks, chances are they’ll need all the cards they can get to recover – and X-Saber Airbellum is the perfect way to make sure that doesn’t happen.
14. Quickdraw Synchron
The problem with synchron decks is that half of the time you never have the right synchron to synchro summon with. Junk Warrior requires Junk Synchron, Road Warrior requires Road Synchron, you just never seem to be able to draw the right one at the right time. Quickdraw Synchron puts a stop to that problem, as it can be used in place of any synchron monster you want! This guy is also incredibly easy to summon – all you need to do is discard a card. This is actually a great way to load up your graveyard with good monsters, such as Quillbolt Hedgehog, who can just special summon himself right back to the field. The only drawback is that this card can only be used for the synchro summon of monsters that specifically list a synchron monster as a material. However, there are so many great “Warrior” synchro monsters to choose from, that there’s bound to be one that’s perfect for your decks play style.
13. Deep Sea Diva
Water decks have always been a force to be reckoned with. I mean, Umi was probably the first field spell to actually have an impact on Yu-Gi-Oh! (Seriously, I don’t see any competitive decks playing Mountain any time soon!) When synchro monsters were introduced, this type of deck only got stronger. Deep Sea Diva allows you to special summon any level 3 or lower Sea Serpent monster from your deck, giving you all the materials you need to perform a synchro summon. Or if you’d rather, just bring out some strong Sea Serpents to attack your opponent with. My favorite combo with this card is to special summon a level 1 Sea Serpent, so that I can synchro summon Tatsunoko. This nifty little synchro monster lets you synchro summon using monsters in your hand as materials, making synchro summoning big monsters even easier than it was already.
12. Sea Monster of Theseus
You may be wondering how a level 5 fusion monster with literally no effect is somehow on this list. And the answer is simple: Instant Fusion! Instant Fusion lets you pay 1000 life points to special summon a level 5 or lower fusion monster from the extra deck. This makes Sea Monster of Theseus insanely easy to access, and turns instant fusion into a free level 5 tuner monster. It’s great for summoning those high-level synchro monsters like Star Eater, which would otherwise require you to summon a whole bunch of smaller monsters.
11. Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind
Blackwings were the best synchro deck to come out of the Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds era. In their prime, they had a fair few cards that were outright banned, and to this day a few Blackwings are still forbidden from competitive play. Gale the Whirlwind makes synchro summoning so easy. If you control a Blackwing monster, you can special summon it from your hand for free. This effect isn’t once per turn either – meaning if you can get this card back into your hand from the graveyard, you can special summon it all over again! Gale is also fantastic at dealing with high attack monsters. Its effect lets you halve the attack and defense of any monster your opponent controls – permanently! This means even if you send Gale to the graveyard for a synchro summon, your opponent’s monster is still left weakened, leaving you free to demolish it with your newly-summoned synchro.
10. Krebons
One of the hardest things about synchro summoning is keeping a tuner on the board long enough to summon with it next turn. With Krebons, this isn’t a problem. Any time it would be targeted for an attack, you can pay 800 life points to negate that attack. And this isn’t just once per turn. So if your opponent attacks you with multiple monsters, you can keep negating them, as long as you’ve got the life points to spare. This ensures that when you start your next turn, you’ll definitely have a tuner monster on your side of the field – leaving you primed to synchro summon to your heart’s content.
9. Harmonizing Magician
Level 4 tuners are incredibly powerful. The most common level for a monster in the main deck is 4, making level 4 tuners fantastic for synchro summoning a level 8 monster. This could be a Stardust Dragon, a Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, or even a Thought Ruler Archfiend – there are so many great level 8 synchro monsters to choose from! When Harmonizing Magician is pendulum summoned from the hand, you can special summon one pendulum “Magician” monster straight from your deck in defense position. This immediately gives you another level 4 monster to synchro summon with, turning Harmonizing Magician into a one-card synchro monster. While this card can’t be pendulum summoned from the extra deck, you can use cards like Oafdragon Magician to return it to your hand every turn – meaning this combo is truly endless.
8. Debris Dragon
Much like Krebons, Debris Dragon is so powerful because it keeps itself on the board. This guy has a whopping 2000 defense, which is hard to overcome even in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! And when this card is normal summoned, you can special summon any monster from your graveyard with 500 or less attack, providing that it has its effects negated. This is fantastic for giving you more materials to synchro summon with. Sadly, this has a couple of restrictions. You can only use it for the synchro summon of dragon type monsters, and the other monster you synchro summon with can’t be level 4. This pretty much locks you out of level 8 synchro summoning (unless you control multiple monsters, e.g. a level 1 and a level 3). But there are so many great Dragon synchro monsters that you’ll definitely be able to play something powerful off of this card!
7. Junk Synchron
When I think “tuner monster”, this guy is the first thing to pop into my head. Junk Synchron was the signature tuner of Yusei Fudo, the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds. If there was an opportunity to synchro summon in the anime, you bet it was done with this card. When Junk Synchron is summoned, you can special summon a level 2 monster from your graveyard, but its effects are negated. This sets you up perfectly to summon Junk Warrior, the level 5 synchro monster that accompanies this card. There are plenty of better level 5 synchro monsters to go into however (Sorry, Junk Warrior). I’d recommend TG Hyper Librarian, a powerful monster that lets you draw an additional card every time you synchro summon.
6. Tatsunoko
Synchro summoning can be quite frustrating when you just can’t get the right level monsters on board. There will be times where you’ll be literally one or two levels away from summoning that powerful boss monster in your extra deck, so instead you have to settle for a weaker monster. With Tatsunoko, this won’t be a problem anymore. When you synchro summon with this card, you can actually use cards from your hand as synchro materials. This makes synchro summoning incredibly easy, as you don’t actually have to worry about summoning all the materials you need first.
5. Rokket Tracer
Rokket decks (and dragon link as a whole) are completely dominating the meta game in Yu-Gi-Oh right now. These cards can bring out an insane number of dragons in no time at all, making them great for filling the board with monsters you can summon with. Rokket Tracer allows you to destroy any card you control (at quick effect speed) to special summon a Rokket monster straight from the deck. If you chain this effect to a quick play spell or trap card (which would destroy themselves once they resolve anyway) then you can special summon a free monster at no cost whatsoever! And Rokket decks have a great level 8 synchro monster in their arsenal – Borreload Savage Dragon, a card so powerful that many people have called for it to be banned. Rokket Tracer is perfect for summoning just that!
4. Plaguespreader Zombie
The best tuner monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh are the ones that are incredibly easy to summon – that way, you have access to them whenever you like. To special summon Plaguespreader Zombie from the graveyard, all you need to do is put one card from your hand on the top of your deck. This may seem like a huge disadvantage – I mean, you are losing valuable cards from your hand, right? Not necessarily! If you activate an effect that in some way shuffles the deck, then you can actually use this effect to ditch cards that aren’t helpful to your strategy. All you need to do is put back that useless card, get that deck shuffled, and you’ll get a brand new (and hopefully better) card next turn.
3. Genex Ally Birdman
Sometimes you’ll have a useless monster on the board. Maybe you had a flip monster on board that’s activated its effect, and now it’s just kind of sitting there. Genex Ally Birdman solves this issue while also giving you an incredibly handy tuner. You can return a monster you control to your hand to special summon this guy. If that returned monster also happened to be a wind monster, then this card gains 300 attack! So not only does this set you up perfectly for a synchro summon, but you can reuse monster effects over and over again with this guy. For example, if you have an effect that activates when a monster is normal summoned, Genex Ally Birdman allows you to normal summon it all over again by returning it to your hand.
2. Formula Synchron
Formula Synchron changed how synchro decks were played entirely. I can’t think of a single synchro deck that doesn’t run this card. When it’s summoned, you can draw 1 card. This allows you to replenish your resources a little, as synchro summoning can take a lot of materials. Yet the real beauty of this card is that you can use it to synchro summon during your opponent’s turn. This gives you some serious disruptive power: You could summon Trishula Dragon of the Ice Barrier during your opponent’s turn, banishing 3 cards right then and there, or maybe a Black Rose Dragon to blow up the entire board. The possibilities are truly endless!
1. Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
While this card isn’t too often used for its synchro summoning capabilities, it is without a doubt the best tuner monster in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! Whenever your opponent would move cards from the deck, either by searching cards, sending cards from the deck to the graveyard, or special summoning from the deck, you can discard Ash Blossom to negate it straight away. Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is all about getting as many resources as you can from your deck, which is what makes Ash Blossom so powerful. It puts a stop to all sorts of plays your opponent may have up their sleeve, which is why this card is played at 3 copies in most competitive decks. Once this card has been discarded, you could potentially use it for synchro summoning: it’s a level 3, which is a great level for all sorts of summons, and it’s kept safe in your graveyard for you to summon whenever you like.
