With Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, Konami introduced yet another summoning type to the game. Known as Pendulum Summoning, it involved the usage of Pendulum Monsters, a new type of monsters were that were both spell and monster.

Pendulum Monsters could be placed in the back row as Pendulum scales, and once per turn a player could Pendulum Summon as many monsters from their hand that fit between the scale numbers as they wanted. In other words, if a player’s Pendulum Scales were 3 and 6, the player could special summon any monsters in their hand between 4 and 5.

Though one might believe this would have broken the game (and at least once it certainly did), the truth is most Pendulum monsters were fairly tame. This list won’t be discussing any of those though, as we examine the most powerful Pendulum monsters that have been introduced to the game!

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10 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon

The ace monster of the main character for Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, Odd-Eyes has the usually incredible stat line of 2500 ATK / 2100 DEF every ace monster has. It also has an incredible Pendulum Effect, reducing the damage from any battle with a Pendulum monster to zero. Then, in the End Phase, Odd-Eyes can destroy itself to add a Pendulum monster with 1500 or less ATK, which is several of the Performapal monsters.

Even used as a Monster, it can inflict twice the battle damage it would normally deal, making it somewhat useful as a one-turn kill tool for players willing to risk summoning him.

9 Astrograph Sorcerer

With card art this epic, this monster should be impressive—and it is, as the card is limited in the OCG and outright banned in the TCG, one of the few Pendulum Monsters to grace the list. Astrograph’s Pendulum Effect lets a player destroy this card to grab a Stargazer Magician from the hand or deck and either use it as a pendulum monster or special summon it.

Its monster effect allows it to special summon itself if a card the player controls is destroyed, then pick a monster from the grave, extra deck, or banish zone and add another copy of it from the deck to the hand. This is amazing as it is, nevermind it’s 2500 ATK and how it facilitated Pendulum Magician, making them near invincible.

8 Luster Pendulum The Dracoslayer

Luster Pendulum is a big, beefy 1850 level 4 monster, so it’s already a decent-sized threat. But it also has a Pendulum Effect that allows it to destroy a monster in the other Pendulum Zone, adding another card with the same name from the deck to the hand.

This basically worked with any Pendulum deck since it placed no restrictions. It made Performage/Performapal even more consistent than it already was, but had no problem boosting countless other decks. It also worked as synchro material and fodder for Ignister Prominence, one of the most powerful Synchro Monsters at the time.

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7 Timebreaker Magician

One of the cutest monsters on this list, Timebreaker grants immunity to the destruction of a Pendulum Monster once per turn. Also, if it’s Pendulum Summoned by itself, it can double its ATK from 1400 to 2800.

But, more importantly, it can target a monster on the field and banish both it and itself from the field until the player’s next Standby Phase. This means Timebreaker can eliminate the most dangerous effect on the field for an entire turn, and continue to do so every following turn.

6 Oafdragon Magician

Performapal Performage went out of style pretty quickly thanks to Konami banning it, but Pendulum Magician came along quick enough to make everyone forget it. Oafdragon’s Monster Effect retrieved any “Magician” Pendulum or “Odd-Eyes” monster from the grave, while it’s Pendulum Effect added a Magician or Odd-Eyes from the Extra Deck to the hand if the player had another pendulum scale set.

Pendulum monsters going to the grave is meant to be the end for them, but Oafdragon helps the deck recur them and it can grab monsters from the Extra Deck for additional resources in hand. A solid card which added consistency to an already powerful deck.

5 Wisdom-Eye Magician

A card which works alongside Oafdragon, Wisdom-Eye’s Pendulum Effect is if there’s a Magician/Performapal in the other scale, it can destroy itself then place another Magician Pendulum from the deck into the scales. It also has a Monster Effect, but it’s vastly less important than the Pendulum Effect. Frankly, so much of what makes Pendulum Magicians so good is they can grab whatever they want whenever they want, and Wisdom-Eye’s ability helps with that.

4 Guiding Airadne

Guiding Ariadne is a card that is designed for abuse. When used for a pendulum scale, Ariadne allows the player not to pay LP or discard cards for counter traps. When on the field as a monster, if it's destroyed at all, the player can reveal three counter traps from the deck and make the opponent pick one while the others are added to the deck.

This card should keep Konami from boosting up Fairies too much, as it means they can run this and avoid paying for anything. Solemn Judgment, Warning, Strike? All the best ways to negate summoning, spell, monster, and trap effects? Now free? That’s absurd, but sooner or later Konami will give fans a way to use this again.

3 Performapal Skullcrobat Joker

Joker is one of a handful of Pendulum monsters that wound up getting banned. For that, surprisingly it’s Pendulum Effect actually isn’t all that great, and is in fact rather limiting: it stops the player from Pendulum Summoning aside from Performapal, Magician, or Odd-Eyes monsters.

But it’s really only ever used for it’s Monster Effect: adding one Performapal, Magician, or Odd-Eyes to the hand. This single effect kicks the rest of the deck off, allowing for Performapal/Performage to search for a missing combo piece, overwhelming the opponent through the absurd card advantage.

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2 Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer

Despite being one of the better cards in Performage/Performapal, Pendulum Sorcerer never actually got hit with the banhammer. In the Pendulum zone, it offers all Peformapal monsters Pendulum Summoned an additional 1000ATK until the end of the turn. As a monster, when special summoned it can target up to two cards the player controls, destroy them both, and add Performapal monsters from the deck to the hand equal to the cards destroyed.

Essentially, it created new fodder for a Pendulum summon the following turn while continuing the combos for the current turn. It’s still pretty abusive and a star card for any Pendulum deck.

1 Majespector Unicorn - Kirin

Kirin is one of the few Pendulum monsters banned not because his effect contributed to making other monsters better or decks more consistent. It wasn’t a facilitator, it was the thing to be facilitated.

During either player’s turn, Kirin could target a Pendulum Monster it controlled and a monster on the field and return them both to hand. Add that to being 2000 ATK, and it already made it almost impossible to get rid of the card by battle since it would bounce monsters big enough to kill it. But then it could also avoid being targeted or destroyed by card effects, which meant battle was the only way to get rid of it.

NEXT: Yu-Gi-Oh!: The 10 Most Powerful Xyz Monsters