Right behind Dragons, Warriors, and Spellcasters in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Konami’s fourth favorite Type is easily Machine. It makes sense when approached from the right perspective. Despite what the audience might say, originally this was a game meant for children, and what do children enjoy as much as warriors and dragons? Giant robots and vehicles.

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It helps that adults are pretty fond of these two things as well, and so Konami frequently churns out a bunch of archetypes based on machines. Typically, they wind up being EARTH based for some reason and, more often than not, they’re also incredibly powerful. This list looks at some of the best machine decks ever made.

10 ANCIENT GEAR

One of the oldest archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh, Ancient Gear was introduced at the same time as Elemental Heroes, with Jaden facing off against Crowler in episode one. Ancient Gear had one of the earliest field spells that had no drawbacks for using it in Geartown, as it allowed “both” players to summon Ancient Gear monsters for one less tribute. Even though, realistically, only one would have Ancient Gear monsters.

They also have a habit of having monsters that don’t let the other player use spells or traps until after the monster has attacked, which is all the more helpful when they have something like Ancient Gear Golem with 3000 ATK.

9 INFINITRACK

Yet another Earth-based Machine archetype, Infinitrack is about as straightforward as possible in terms of design. It's based on having the biggest, largest construction machines.  The deck works well at making gigantic boss monsters that are either high ranked Xyz or powerful Link monsters, usually boasting incredibly high ATK.

Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops, their simple Rank 3 Link, has 4000 ATK. Of course, it takes three different Xyz monsters to make, so it had to be worth it.  Their biggest monsters also have the ability to take monsters from the opponent and use them as materials for their own Xyz.

8 CYBER DRAGON

For a long time, Cyber Dragon wasn’t seen as a deck, just as the best Level 5 in the game. Out of nowhere a player could freely Special Summon Cyber Dragon, a monster with 2100 ATK, for no reason other than their opponent controlled a monster.

But eventually, Konami added on to the deck, adding a number of fusion monsters, even a few main deck monsters. However, what really pushed things over into being a real deck was getting Cyber Dragon Infinity. A powerful new Xyz Monster, Cyber Dragon Infinity could simply take the opponent’s monsters and use them as materials. Then, it could detach materials to negate cards or effects, granting them a boss monster they could aim for, and turning them into a proper deck.

7 GADGET

Another extremely old archetype, Gadgets for a long time weren’t really considered a deck of their own. In a much slower Yu-Gi-Oh, the trick to the deck was they were capable of adding other Gadgets to the hand upon being summoned, creating a consistently new set of resources for the player.

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This was usually combined with the trap card Ultimate Offering, which allowed more normal summons at the cost of only 500 Life Points. Since the addition of Platinum Gadget into the Extra Deck - while Gold and Silver have joined Red, Yellow, and Green for the Main Deck - Gadgets are an unending resource generator that’s still decent even in this quicker era.

6 GEARGIA

One of a number of elemental archetypes introduced at the beginning of the Xyz era, Geargia had a special mix of focusing on searching and swarming at the right times. Their key card was Gear Gigant X, an Xyz monster that lets players add to hand Level 4 or lower Machine monsters from the deck or graveyard by detaching a single material.

Then if it was destroyed, it could Special Summon a Level 3 or lower Geargia monster from the grave. Though it didn’t see much use at the start of that era, in the later years it would go on to become deadly, even when much more powerful decks were around. This was mostly because of Geargia's smaller core of monsters that effectively kept the player’s hand full and with monsters on the field, while also helping them run traps for every situation.

5 QLIPHORT

One of only a few decks during the Pendulum era that was actually...y’know...a Pendulum deck that saw any success on the competitive scene. They could Pendulum Summon out a number of lower-Level monsters that allowed them to Tribute Summon monsters at the same time, which still let them recur monsters back to the field on the following turn.

The big threat in the deck was Apoqliphort Towers, a 3000 ATK beat stick that couldn’t be affected by a monster with a lower Level or Rank than it’s own. Apoqliphort Towers was a Level ten, so most monsters couldn’t touch it, and it forced Special Summoned monsters to lose 500 ATK and DEF while on the field.

4 MECHA PHANTOM BEAST

A rare occasion where Machines were a different attribute rather than being purely Earth-based. The Mecha Phantom Beast archetype centers around monsters named after a combination of animals and flying vehicles. Their special ability involved generating Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens which allowed them to activate the effects of their monsters.

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Their most threatening monster was Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack, a Rank 7 Xyz which could detach materials from itself to summon tokens. This made it unable to be destroyed by battle or card effect and it could tribute tokens to destroy cards on the field.

3 SUPERHEAVY SAMURAI

Superheavy Samurai have one of the most unique abilities in Yu-Gi-Oh. Making their first appearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, they were Gongenzaka’s deck. Again an Earth Machine deck, Superheavy Samurai were a bunch of monsters that all had the ability to attack while in Defense position.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Superheavy Samurai could use their DEF as attack points, which were almost always obscenely high. They also got more effects when they only had monsters in the graveyard, turning them into quite the effective monster mash deck.

2 MACHINA

Konami’s favorite archetype for machines by far. The Machina is again a group of Earth Machine monsters, most of which resembling factory or construction machines. The deck centers around summoning monsters by discarding them and is responsible for Machina Fortress, one of the most powerful boss monsters introduced to the game.

Machina Fortress can summon itself by discarding Machine monsters, and even if it’s destroyed by battle, the player can still destroy a card controlled by the opponent. Once outpaced by the game, this deck is supposed to make a comeback this April with the structure deck, Mechanized Madness.

1 KARAKURI

The Earth Machine cards make a return with Karakuri, an archetype of monsters that are based on wooden Japanese puppets. Unable to control themselves, all Karakuri have an effect that forces them to attack if able during battle.

Fortunately, their bigger monsters also have the ability to switch monsters into another battle position, stopping the smaller monsters from having to attack. Karakuri, like most machine types, are absurdly consistent, with the cards focusing on search, drawing, and swarming the field. Though the deck has been around since 2012, it most recently got some support in the January Yu-Gi-Oh set, Ignition Assault.

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