From Harpies in the original series, which had consistently high attack stats and some great ways to consistently special summon, to Blackwings in the 5ds era, which broke synchro summoning as we know it! If you’re running a Winged Beast deck and you’re looking to add some power to your strategy, then this list will help to give your deck that boost.
15. Vortex the Whirlwind
While a 2100 attack synchro monster may not sound too flashy, it’s actually an ideal way of getting your combos going! When it’s destroyed in battle you can special summon any level 4 or lower Winged-beast monster straight from the deck. This means that all you need to do to get the exact cards you need on the field is attack a monster stronger than this one. Special summoning monsters from the deck is a powerful tool for any play style. It means you don’t have to wait around, hoping you draw the right cards, you get them right on the battlefield whenever you need them.
14. Fire King High Avatar Garunix
This guy is like a phoenix: When he’s destroyed by card effect, he comes back stronger, and with a vengeance! When it’s destroyed this way it returns to the field during the next standby phase, and when it does, it blows up every other monster on the field. This is a fantastic way of getting some removal in your deck. It can remove a bunch of monsters all at once, leaving your opponent entirely defenseless. While this does destroy your other monsters too, this actually plays into the Fire King strategy. All of the Fire King monsters gain various effects when they’re destroyed by card effect, and so this destruction can actually be the start of a vicious combo chain!
13. The Atmosphere
By card effects and strength alone, this card sounds powerful, and it’s a good thing its effect backs this claim up too. It can’t be normal summoned but must instead be special summoned by banishing 2 monsters you control, and 1 monster from your graveyard. You’re losing the same number of monsters as a tribute summon would (plus an extra card from the grave), so it’s not hard to pull off. And while it’s on the field, you can equip a monster your opponent controls to this card as an equip spell. If you do, this card gains attack/defense equal to that monster’s, effectively absorbing that card into itself. With this effect there really is no mountain too high: by absorbing the right monsters, you can get some insanely high attack stats with this guy.
12. Mist Valley Apex Avian
This was a staple in pendulum decks for a while (especially while Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon was one of the best pendulum monsters around) due to its handy level and amazing ability: When any card of effect was activated, you could return this card (or any other Mist Valley card) from your field to your hand to negate and destroy the activated card. This was insanely powerful with pendulum monsters around. All you’d need to do is pendulum summon this guy next turn and boom, you’ve got a free negate card on your field every single turn.
11. Raidraptor – Final Fortress Falcon
Raidraptors are an XYZ focused Winged Beast deck, which make use of a lot of the Rank-up mechanics introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal! They have some crazily powerful boss monsters, and this is just one of them. It’s a rank 12 monster, but don’t fret, you won’t have to actually get three level 12 monsters out to summon this guy. That would be a feat in itself! You summon it with the Rank-up cards built into this archetype, and with those this guy is super easy to summon. With a whopping 3800 attack, when this guy destroys a monster in battle, you can detach a material from this card to let it attack again. You can do this up to twice per turn, which is a lot of attack for your opponent to have to defend.
10. Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow
If you played Yu-Gi-Oh in the era that these guys came out, then you’ll know exactly how powerful they were. Blackwings were so good that they had multiple cards on the banlist at one point. And to this day there’s still some cards that are just too good to be allowed in competitive play! Kalut saw it’s time on the ban list but has since been freed. It’s easily one of the best Blackwing cards out there, for the simple fact that your opponent has very few options to overcome it! During the damage step, you can discard this card to make a Blackwing monster gain 1400 attack. At this point of the battle phase, your opponent can’t activate cards that will negate the attack, and so once you drop a Kalut on them they’ll be taking the damage no matter what. This extra bit of attack can be game winning in so many different scenarios – and is perfect for any Blackwing build!
9. Caligo Claw Crow
Caligo Claw Crow doesn’t synergize with all Winged-beast decks. And it’s actually pretty great in any deck that plays dark monsters, not just Winged-beasts! When you control a dark monster, you can special summon this guy from your hand for free. This is a hard once per turn effect, meaning if you have another Caligo Claw Crow in your hand, you can’t activate both of them. But this is a fantastic way of getting more monsters on your field to summon with, be it tribute, link, synchro, or whatever type of summon you feel like. The more monsters from the extra deck you can summon, the better your monsters will be, and hence the better your odds of demolishing your opponent are.
8. Earthbound Immortal Aslla Piscu
The Earthbound Immortals are a love or a hate kind of archetype. While they are incredibly powerful, being able to attack your opponent directly and having some seriously high attack stats, they’re also pretty fragile: The moment there isn’t a field spell on the field, they automatically blow themselves up. Aslla Piscu is my favorite Earthbound Immortal – when it leaves the field, except by its own effect, you can destroy every monster your opponent controls, then inflict 800 damage for each one. If your opponent has a full board (assuming they’ve also use one extra monster zone) you’re looking at 4800 damage right then and there! Considering that this guy can already sink some serious damage in by attacking directly, this alone can finish games in a flash. And if your winged beast deck has room for a tribute summon, I’d make it this one.
7. Mist Valley Soldier
Level 4 tuners are incredibly valuable in Yu-Gi-Oh. Level 4 is the most common level for a non-tuner monster in the game, so having these level 4 tuners provides an incredibly easy way to synchro summon for level 8. And some of the best synchro monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh are level 8: Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Thought Ruler Archfiend are all fantastic candidates, all of which can easily win you games. But this card’s effect is also pretty good, allowing any monster that battled this card and wasn’t destroyed by battle to be returned to the hand. This is great for getting rid of monsters that can’t be destroyed by battle like Spirit Reaper, which would otherwise be a defensive wall for your opponent.
6. D.D. Crow
The role of the graveyard has really changed as Yu-Gi-Oh has progressed. It used to be a place to put cards that had either been spent, like spells and traps, or to put monsters who had been defeated in battle. It now acts like a second hand, with players being able to access cards and effects in it pretty regularly. This isn’t due to a rule change or anything – it’s just that there are way more cards that can special summon stuff from the graveyard now. D.D. Crow puts a stop to your opponent utilizing their graveyard. You can discard it at quick effect speed to banish a card from your opponent’s graveyard, meaning they won’t be able to special summon it back any time soon. I’d put this card in any side deck, Winged-Beast or otherwise. If your opponent is running a graveyard-heavy strategy, D.D. Crow is the perfect card to completely shut down their strategies in a flash.
5. Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds
Floodgates are a great way of keeping your opponent in check. A floodgate is any continuous card effect that stops either one or both players from doing a certain type of action throughout the game. This could be special summoning, drawing, there really is a floodgate for everything in Yu-Gi-Oh! Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds prevents both players from special summoning monsters, with exception to wind monsters. Most winged beast monsters are Wind type. And so this Barrier Statue is a fantastic way of shutting down your opponent’s special summons while leaving your deck free to pop off as much as possible. If you’re a budget player like me, these Barrier Statues are also a highly affordable way of adding floodgates to your deck. They all recently got reprinted in the Maximum Gold set as rares, and so they’re pretty cheap to pick up as of this writing.
4. Shinobaron Peacock
Shinobirds are one of the most peculiar archetypes Yu-Gi-Oh has seen in recent years. They’re an archetype of spirit monsters that focus on ritual summoning, which is something that has never been done before! Spirit monsters are monsters that all return to their controllers’ hand during the end phase that they’re normal summoned. The payoff for this is usually some insanely broken effects, and this is no exception! When this card is ritual summoned, you can return 3 monsters your opponent controls to their hand – this is 3 Compulsory Evacuation Devices all packed onto one powerful monster! If you get rid of some extra deck monsters like this, you’ll get some crazy value, as your opponent will have to go to the effort of summoning them all over again. You can then summon a spirit monster from your hand for free, regardless of its summoning conditions, setting you up perfectly to sweep your opponent for game.
3. Genex Ally Birdman
This guy isn’t just one of the best Winged Beasts out there – he’s also one of the best tuner monsters out there! And this is incredibly easy to summon: All you need to do is return one other monster you control to your hand, then you can special summon this guy for free. Combine this with the fact he’s a hand level 3, and you’ve got some serious power on your hands. In fact, Genex Ally Birdman is such a powerful tuner monster that it’s actually been limited to one copy per deck in both the OCG and the TCG. If you’re looking to add some synchro strategies into your Winged Beast deck then I’d highly recommend using this guy as your tuner.
2. Raiza the Storm Monarch
Monarchs have been powerful cards in Yu-Gi-Oh for as long as they’ve been around. They dominated the meta game in 2016 when the Monarch structure deck was initially released, and from around 2007-2010 you didn’t see a single competitive deck that didn’t try and harness their power. Raiza is one of the most powerful of the bunch. When it’s normal summoned, you can target any card on the field and put that on the top of its owner’s deck. So not only does this effect remove some powerful cards from the field, it also ensures that your opponent’s next draw isn’t going to be something surprising. You know exactly what they’ll be drawing, and you can use the rest of your turn to plan for it! The fact that this guy only costs 1 tribute to summon makes him a worthwhile addition to any Winged Beast deck.
1. Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
The best monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh are the ones that have crazy effects, and are incredibly easy to summon. And Castel the Skyblaster Musketeer ticks both of those boxes! It’s a generic rank 4 XYZ monster, meaning all you need to summon this guy is two level 4 monsters on the field. This is so easy to accomplish for so many decks, it literally needs one normal summon and one special summon. It couldn’t be easier. And to its effect: By detaching 2 materials from this card, you can shuffle any face-up card on the field into the deck. This is amazing for getting rid of powerful monsters your opponent has. Unlike other removal effects which will often destroy that monster, Castel put them right back into the deck, so they can’t be accessed until they’re drawn again. And Castel can also flip any face-up monsters into face-down defense position, which is great if your opponent has big attack monsters with small defense stats. This makes them easy to run over (even with your weak monsters), leaving your opponent defenseless – all thanks to Castel!
