An archetype of Zombie monsters introduced in 2018 set Hidden Summoners, the Mayakashi have an interesting place in Yu-Gi-Oh lore. They’re a deck made up of yokai from Japanese folklore, but in proper card lore, they’re a collection of beings locked into combat with the Shiranui. The Mayakashi seek to wield their incredible Yokai Magic, but it can only be used at night, so they seek to destroy the day and create a night wherein they can rule forever.
A collection of samurai known as the Shiranui battle to keep humanity safe, but the Mayakashi are constantly searching for the secret to the Shiranui Style power. The deck itself centers around synchro summoning monsters with increasingly high levels, while the ones in the grave can be special summoned if the bigger ones get destroyed. Here are the ten best cards of this collection of dangerous monsters.
10 HAJUN, THE WINGED MAYAKASHI
Hajun’s a monster with an effect that activates no matter how he’s summoned—the player can special summon any other Mayakashi monster from the deck. However, once he gets on the field though, the player can’t summon any monsters from the Extra Deck besides Mayakashi.
Hajun feels like a key card in the deck, as he can pull out any other monster, like going for a tuner to get a synchro monster and start the Mayakashi set up for making larger monsters.
9 YUKI-MUSUME, THE ICE MAYAKASHI
One of the better monsters in the deck, Yuki-Musume can be special summoned from the hand or graveyard if the player already has a Mayakashi monster on the field.
Then the player has to send a Zombie-type monster from their deck to the graveyard, which helps with the set up for summoning other monsters later on. Yuki-Musume is a one-star monster, which means the card is capable of working to make almost any level synchro.
8 DAKKI, THE GRACEFUL MAYAKASHI
The primary tuner monster of the deck, Dakki is crucial for a deck that relies on synchro summoning like this one. The player can only control one Dakki at a time, which is noteworthy, but if a Mayakashi is special summoned from the extra deck to the field while Dakki is in the graveyard, Dakki can be special summoned from the graveyard.
It’s best to pull this card out through other cards like Hajun though since otherwise she’s just a waste of a normal summon.
7 MAYAKASHI METAMORPHOSIS
The lone trap for the deck, Metamorphosis is a pretty legit card. The player can discard a card in their hand to target a Mayakashi that’s been banished or in the graveyard and special summon it. If it hits the field, the card can’t be targeted by the opponent’s card effects for the turn.
The key part of this card is it works with all the Mayakashi Synchros that banish from the graveyard, helping to rebuild the board after laddering down. Of course, it can also work with something like Mayakashi Winter to help bring back the monster the player banished to special summon a Mayakashi.
6 MAYAKASHI RETURN
One of a handful of solid spell and trap cards, Mayakashi Return allows the player to take a Mayakashi card from their deck and either add it to their hand or send it to the graveyard. What’s interesting about this is that it says “card”, which means Mayakashi Return can easily search out other spells and traps in the deck.
But failing that, it’s always capable of searching out any monster necessary, like Hajun for a quick special summon from the deck or Dakki for the tuner.
5 MAYAKASHI WINTER
A continuous spell card, Mayakashi Winter causes monsters the opponent controls to lose 100 ATK and DEF for each Mayakashi with a different name in the graveyard, which can add up fairly quickly.
The second effect allows the player to either send both Winter and a Mayakashi monster on the field to the graveyard to draw a card or banish the card and a Zombie monster from the graveyard to special summon a Mayakashi from the graveyard. The player can’t do both on the same turn, but that’s still powerful.
4 YOKO, THE GRACEFUL MAYAKASHI
The level 9 monster, Yoko has 2900 ATK which makes it rather difficult to get over most bosses at 3000 ATK...but it also has it’s tricks to not necessarily need to. If a level 11 synchro monster is destroyed by battle or card effect, Yoko can special summon itself from the graveyard by banishing a Zombie monster from the graveyard.
When the card is special summoned from the graveyard, it can destroy a monster the opponent controls, clearing the field of any threat that is stronger than it while maintaining the ability to attack.
3 GASHADOKURO, THE SKELETAL MAYAKASHI
The largest Mayakashi monster of them all, Gashadokuro is a level 11 monster with 3300 ATK, meaning it can run right over most other boss monsters. The card can still ladder, as it can special summon itself from the graveyard by banishing a Zombie monster from the graveyard if the player’s Link monster is destroyed by battle or card effect.
Then, if the card is special summoned from the graveyard, Gashadokuro can make itself unaffected by other card effects for the turn. That’s actually pretty terrifying, as there aren’t many other solutions to this card once it hits the field.
2 OBORO-GURUMA, THE WHEELED MAYAKASHI
The smallest of the Synchro monsters in the deck, you need this to really get started. It doesn’t have an effect while it’s on the field, but if a synchro monster that was originally level 5 is destroyed by battle or card effect, the player can banish a Zombie monster from the graveyard and special summon this from the graveyard.
Then, if the card was special summoned from the graveyard, the player can have all monsters they control unable to be destroyed by battle for the entire turn. That can easily slow the game down if it gets out of hand, allowing the player to mount an offense the following turn and ladder back up.
1 YUKI-ONNA, THE ABSOLUTE ZERO MAYAKASHI
The big boss Link monster, it’s a Link-4 that requires at least two Zombie monsters to make, though realistically it’s going to require four. With 2900 ATK, it’s fairly beefy, but realistically there’s nothing Yuki-Onna can’t get over thanks to its effects.
Like most Mayakashi extra deck monsters, the player can only control one copy of it at a time. If a monster is special summoned from the graveyard or if the effect of a monster in the graveyard activates, the player can target a face-up monster on the field, change it attacks to 0, then negate its effects.