My Top 10 Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! Archetypes

It's been a while since I've talked about Yu-Gi-Oh! on this blog, hasn't it? Well, better make up for that by doing a new Yu-Gi-Oh! post!

The Yu-Gi-Oh! card game has given us millions if not billions of cards to collect ever since the card game first started all the way back in 1999. From your various Monster, Spell and Trap Cards out there, there's all kinds of cards to build all kinds of decks with and many Yu-Gi-Oh! players have constructed some of the best and strongest decks you can find to win big in card game tournaments and prove themselves as the King of Games like Yugi himself.

And for this post, I'll be talking about one aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh! that plays a factor in making a strong deck and what makes the game so highly collectible...the archetypes. Back in the day, Yu-Gi-Oh! didn't really have playable archetypes and most decks you built up would be a random hodgepodge of monsters with not much of a theme tying them together. So yeah, kinda like Yugi's trademark deck when you think about it. But as time went on, archetypes became more of a thing with Harpie Lady being one of the earliest examples of such a thing and nowadays, a Yu-Gi-Oh deck is determined by what archetype you want to play. You can't duel like Yugi did back in the early days of the anime, you need to have a consistent theme with your deck to get a truly synergized playstyle that'll carry you to victory. Whether it's a Dragon-themed deck or a Plant-themed deck or whatever, the best duelling decks are ones with a consistent theme and ones that work well with your chosen archetype.

And as someone who collects the cards and plays with a variety of different decks with friends and family, here's a list of my personal Top 10 Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! archetypes. These are the ones I either have the most fun playing with or ones I enjoy using the most because of how powerful they are. So which archetypes have duelled their way to earn a spot on this countdown? Let's find out. It's time to d-d-d-d-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DUEL with My Top 10 Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! Archetypes...

Number 10: Elemental HERO

I'm sure some players may look at me funny because this archetype is not very popular and is often considered pretty meh overall but I personally quite enjoy the Elemental HERO cards.

First of all, they have a superhero theme going on with their monsters. That's already an instant win for me. Second of all, their playstyle is focused heavily on Fusion Summoning which is another win for me as Fusion Summoning is my favourite summoning style. So a superhero based archetype with a Fusion based playing style is going to appeal to me. While some Elemental HERO monsters are pretty weak, they're often worth keeping around for the Fusion Monsters they merge together to form such as Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, Elemental HERO Neos Knight and much more and a lot of these Fusion Monsters have pretty powerful effects so they're pretty daunting to deal with once they hit the field. The archetype includes a lot of Fusion support to make Fusion Summoning easier and give you more ways to bring the Extra Deck Monsters out than just "Two monsters + Polymerization" all the time. Miracle Fusion is especially a useful card as it can Fusion Summon using monsters from the hand or Graveyard. Most of the Fusion Monsters do have a side-effect of requiring specific materials but there are ways around that and some like Elemental HERO Core have more generic materials for easier summoning (in this case, only needing three Elemental HERO monsters).

As a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan and a superhero fan, this archetype is a lot of fun for me and it's no wonder Jaden Yuki from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX had this as his archetype because it can be pretty good if you play your cards right and pull off the right combos. The amount of Fusions that are possible with this archetype lead to endless possibilities, the Fusion Monsters often have great effects, some Elemental HERO monsters also have useful effects, the support they have can help in swarming the field and providing alternative ways of Fusion Summoning and many of the monsters like Elemental HERO Neos and most of the Fusion Monsters have some damn awesome designs that make collecting this archetype all the more enjoyable. It may not be a favourite for many, but this is an archetype that makes me feel like a hero whenever I play it...

Number 9: The Three Musketeers of Face Cards

Who knew Queen's Knight, King's Knight and Jack's Knight would end up creating an awesome archetype?

Originally used by Yugi during the Battle City saga, this archetype originally started as just three monsters named "King's Knight", "Queen's Knight" and "Jack's Knight"...and that was it. They were more or less just Egyptian God card fodder as they had an ability where King's Knight could summon Jack's Knight to the field if Queen's Knight was in play. But years later, they would expand these three cards into an archetype that is actually really damn powerful and awesome to play. Their playstyle revolves around swarm tactics and Fusion Summoning their ace monster, Arcana Knight Joker, with many Spells and Traps built around getting King, Queen and Jack's Knight on the field to use their effects, build up your forces and set up your Fusion Summons. They also spawned some new monsters too with Joker's Knight being one of the best for this archetype as it lets you send either King, Queen or Jack's Knight to the Graveyard in order to Special Summon it from your hand and then its name becomes the name of the monster you just sent, thus making it easier to use King's Knight's effect by sending Queen's Knight to the Graveyard so Joker's Knight's name becomes "Queen's Knight".

There are also Spell and Trap cards that can help with getting the respective monsters on the field or provide alternative ways of Fusion Summoning such as Face Card fusion which lets you Fusion Summon using monsters from your deck if you have either King, Queen or Jack's Knight in play. The archetype also plays well with monsters outside of the archetype like Guardian of Order whose Special Summoning condition requires two or more Light attribute monsters on the field (which this archetype mostly consists of) and generic warrior-based cards like Reinforcement of the Army and The Warrior Returning Alive also combo well with it, making for a versatile archetype to play with. This archetype is a strong one thanks to its swarm and Fusion based playstyle, great support that helps pull off some of these tactics, strong boss monsters and a fun playing card theme that gives us some cool and memorable monster designs. This is a theme where you really don't need an ace up your sleeve to win for this archetype is strong enough without it...

Number 8: Egyptian God

Nostalgia might be a big factor for why this archetype's on the list but I swear it's not the main reason.

The Egyptian God archetype is one we'll always remember thanks to the huge role it played in the legendary Battle City arc and the three boss monsters, Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor and The Winged Dragon of Ra remain some of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most iconic monsters ever created. While competitive players may turn their nose up at this archetype for the god's meaty summon requirements (three monsters to Tribute Summon either of them) and Ra outright has detrimental effects that make it unviable to play, I think this archetype's still fun to play and can be pretty rewarding if you play your cards right. All three of the monsters have gained their own support in recent years and Slifer and Obelisk even have their own structure decks (both of which I own). Due to their summoning conditions, a lot of cards that focus on Token summoning such as Scapeghost combo brilliantly with them and some of the Spells and Traps they have can make using them much easier. The Revived Sky God is one such example with it being a Trap Card that lets you summon Slifer from the Graveyard and then both plays draw until they're holding six cards in their hands (y'know, like how Card of Sanctity works in the anime? Pity the real one doesn't work like that...). There's also cards outside of the archetype that work well with the gods too like Dimension Guardian which prevents a monster it's equipped to from being destroyed by card effects or battle and March of the Monarchs which prevents Tribute Summoned monsters from being destroyed by card effects, giving these gods some much needed protection to make them stronger and harder to defeat.

Slifer, Obelisk and Ra are all awesome in their own right from their designs to their effects that allows for different playing styles to be used. Slifer's is all about having cards in hand to power it up and anyone trying to attack it will often find themselves 2000 ATK points weaker, Obelisk is about having monsters on the field to sacrifice to nuke the opponent's field and Ra can big itself up depending on the number of Life Points you have or you can sacrifice Life Points to destroy your opponent's monsters and if you summon it through the effects of The Winged Dragon of Ra Sphere Mode, you can get over Ra's weakness of its contradictory effects by having Ra at 4000 ATK points if summoned that way. The Egyptian Gods are iconic and I always enjoy getting to use them whenever possible. Their support makes them more usable in this current age of Yu-Gi-Oh! and the archetype is pretty versatile with how you can use a lot of different monsters with them to make Tribute Summoning them easier. They may not be as powerful as they are in the anime, but these cards will make any player feel like a god when using them...

Number 7: Crystal Beasts

This is another archetype that is often overlooked but I personally find it really fun to play.

This archetype was made famous by Jesse Anderson in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and is rather unique amongst the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game in terms of its playing style. This archetype is centred around filling the field or GY with Crystal Beast monsters in order to summon its boss monster, Rainbow Dragon. Crystal Beasts can be placed in your backrow as Continuous Spells instead of going to the Graveyard and placing them there can often activate a bunch of effects that will come in handy for this archetype, especially if the Field Spell "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins" is in play. The Field Spell has a variety of effects that activate depending on how many Crystal Beasts you have in your backrow. The more you have, the more effects you can activate, which is always fun for me. The Crystal Beasts themselves have unique appearances and are varied in species with a Pegasus, a cat, a mammoth, an eagle, a tortoise, a tiger and a seventh one that they call "Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle". They all have a gem theme going on with them and the fact there's seven of them all with their own gems and colours fits the rainbow theme of the archetype and their boss monster. Rainbow Dragon itself stands as among the most beautiful and elegant looking Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters ever created and I love getting it on the field with how grand and powerful it looks.

The archetype is easy to use and is done in ways that can avoid frustration and making it hard to use effectively since Rainbow Dragon can be Special Summoned whether you have seven Crystal Beasts on the field and/or in the Graveyard. Not all seven have to be on the field or in the Graveyard, if you have some on the field and some in the Graveyard, it's still able to be summoned which is very handy. The archetype also has other boss monsters such as Rainbow Dark Dragon (though you can use that with any Dark-themed deck) and a couple of Fusion monsters that can be summoned without Polymerization. Much of the support is based around getting all the Crystal Beasts out or summoning their boss monsters in quick and easy ways and as many players have found out, the Sacred Beast Hamon Lord of Striking Thunder also combos perfectly with this archetype given its summoning condition of needing to send three Continuous Spells to the Graveyard so the archetype even has an unofficial extra boss monster you can use. It's an archetype that makes the most out of its weak monsters and is really fun to play for its unique playing style and the collectible nature of getting all seven monsters out to summon your bosses.

This is an archetype that will have your opponents tasting the rainbow when you're done with it...

Number 6: Dark World

I bought the recently released Dark World Structure Deck at the start of this year and it didn't take me long to enjoy this archetype.

Dark World is an archetype consisting of Fiend-type monsters all with "Dark World" in their names and their playstyle relies on discarding cards to activate effects, some of which can be quite devastating. The archetype is really fun to play for me as you can pull off some pretty insane combinations with the cards you have and swarm the field with powerful beatsticks that have devastating effects if you have cards in hand to discard or if you can force your opponent to discard. One particularly useful strategy is to use the Trap Card "Dark World Brainwashing" in which if an opponent activates an effect and you have at least 3 cards or more in your hand, you can target a Dark World monster on the field, return it to the hand and the opponent's monster effect changes to "Your opponent randomly discards one card". It's a crafty way of forcing your opponent to doing the work for you by making you discard so you can activate a Dark World monster's effect and screw them over some more. And if that's not insane enough, some Dark World Monsters have effects that activate if your opponent causes them to be discarded, thus essentially punishing them for making you lose cards in your hand. This playstyle also allows cards outside the archetype like Foolish Burial and Card Destruction to play very well with it and Guarded Treasure is also very useful for this type as it causes you to discard your hand if you have five cards or more and you get to draw two cards instead of one at the start of each turn, so you get to exploit your monster's discard effects and also maintain hand advantage.

The archetype also plays well with the "Danger!" archetype as those monsters have effects that activate upon being discarded too. So as you can see, Dark World is a surprisingly versatile archetype too. The monsters have very cool, dark, gothic and threatening designs to them especially their boss monsters, and many of them can be pretty devastating to deal with if you're against them. Some boss monsters like "Reign-Beaux, Overking of Dark World" and "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World" can even be Special Summoned by returning monsters to the hand while they're in the Graveyard, thus making it possible to get really beefy monsters out by returning weaker ones to the hand. There's also a Fusion Monster in this archetype that can be troublesome for the opponent as it can negate Monster, Normal Spells and Normal Trap effects if you have cards in your hand and again, the activated effect becomes "Your opponent randomly discards one card" so you can force the opponent to do the work for you again. This archetype is very strong, very versatile, very fun to play and is full of really awesome monsters to use. Dark World is certainly a world that brings darkness to your foes with every card you discard from your hand...

Number 5: Harpie

One of the earliest, if not THE earliest examples of an archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Harpie archetype arguably was a sign of things to come later in the game for many and that there would be far more archetypes to come.

Famously used by the beautiful Mai Valentine in the anime and manga, Harpie consists of "Harpie Lady" monsters of varying types and abilities and their playstyle is centred around swarm tactics with many of their effects and support being about filling the field with Harpie Lady monsters. It's possibly to pull off a lot of big combos that can fill your field with this archetype and Konami cleverly provided a loophole around the three copies only rule by making it so these cards can have different names from one another but their names are treated as "Harpie Lady" once they hit the field, allowing for a consistent playstyle that goes well with many of the archetypes support that allows for more swarming, searching and pulling off effects. One of my favourite moves is to summon Harpie Channeler and then use its effect to bring out Harpie's Pet Dragon or another Harpie card in Defence mode. I also enjoy bringing out Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon and exploiting its many effects that are dependent on how many Harpies are on the field. That's always fun.

The archetype sadly lacks a lot of powerful beatsticks with only really Harpie's Pet Dragon being that powerful but the archetype has become stronger in recent years with some Synchro and XYZ monsters that go well with the type's swarm tactics and allows for some stronger monsters to be used such as Cyber Slash Harpie and Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon. Also the archetype has a lot of Spells and Traps that can make up for their relatively weak attack power such as Harpie's Feather Duster, a reliable Spell card that ANY deck can use to wipe out the opponent's backrow, Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation which can destroy monsters depending on how many Harpies you have and Hysteric Party which can Special Summon as many copies of Harpie Lady from your graveyard as possible. This archetype has a lot to offer and has grown so much since it first started back in the day. Harpies have gone from being pretty weak to pretty strong and it's all thanks to the new support and the current playstyle of modern Yu-Gi-Oh! that allows for a more efficient way to use your monsters. If your opponent's field is full of these winged bird ladies, chances are your days are numbered...

Number 4: Blue-Eyes

Of course Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most iconic monsters would develop archetypes of their own from Dark Magician to Red-Eyes Black Dragon and of course, Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Based on Seto Kaiba's iconic boss monster, the Blue-Eyes archetype is based around Blue-Eyes White Dragon and its many different variants out there including Blue-Eyes AByss Dragon, Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon and more. The archetype is based around a beatdown strategy in which you use effects of monsters, Spells or Traps to get Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field and use its mighty attack stats to obliterate the opponent. Blue-Eyes White Dragon itself is a Normal-type monster requiring two tributes to summon it but the archetype gives you a variety of handy ways to summon it without such a costly set-up. There are effect monsters like Maiden with Eyes of Blue that can summon the dragon from your hand, deck or Graveyard and some like The White Stone of Ancients that summon it from your hand, deck or Graveyard by being sent to the Graveyard itself. Maiden with Eyes of Blue is especially a damn good card to use with it because it punishes your opponent for daring to attack it by not only negating the attack, but also summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon so your opponent ends up with a 3000ATK monster to deal with. Its effect also triggers when targeted by a card effect so you yourself can even exploit this ability without needing your opponent to attack. It's so fun pulling these combos off and having an easier, more practical means of getting the mighty Blue-Eyes on the field.

The archetype also includes Tuner monsters for Synchro Summoning Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon and also has Fusion Monsters that are either powerful beatsticks or powerful beatsticks with equally as powerful effects so they're also fun to use and bring to the field. The archetype even has its own Ritual Monster to play around with in the form of Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon. The archetype includes a lot of support with Spells and Traps that can aid in bringing Blue-Eyes onto the field or destroying monsters on the field and many Dragon related cards also play well with this archetype, which allows for even more playstyles and combos to play around with. I already love the Blue-Eyes White Dragon for its powerful stats and awesome design but the archetype made it even more awesome and allows for this already powerful monster to have more toys to play with to further increase its power. I love the designs of its alternative forms, I love playing around with the combos this archetype presents, I love exploiting effects that bring out Blue-Eyes White Dragon so I can start wrecking my opponent with it, I just love playing this archetype! I may not like Seto Kaiba much, but his ace monster sure gave us a great archetype to play with. Not many want to be in your path as the mighty Blue-Eyes launches its White Lightning attack...

Number 3: Albaz

Easily one of the strongest and most powerful archetypes out there, Albaz is an archetype that allows for insane powerplays and great monsters to swarm the field when you get going.

The archetype tells its own story about a boy named Albaz and a girl named Ecclisia where one's unaware of who he is and the other's in exile but taking care of him. It's interesting to have an archetype with actual lore behind it but the type itself is where it REALLY gets interesting. Albaz is a Fusion based archetype with heavy emphasis on Fusion Summoning and swarm tactics. No joke, the combos this type allows you to pull off can give you a field full of very powerful Fusion Monsters in a single turn and EASILY set up one-turn-kills if you draw a good hand! I've even one-turn-killed my opponent with my own Albaz deck a few times when playing with it! One especially busted card this theme uses is "Branded Fusion", a Spell Card that allows you to Fusion Summon using monsters from the deck so you can Fusion Summon without needing the materials in your hand. Heck, a lot of the cards in this archetype allow for Fusion Summoning outside of the field or hand and there's one Fusion Monster who's effect lets you Fusion Summon another monster once it's been Fusion Summoned! Even Fallen of Albaz itself is pretty broken with how it can Fusion Summon using itself and another monster on the opponent's field so you can clear your opponent's field and leave them open for an attack or at least leave them one monster shorter. Of course, this archetype's entire strategy can be shut down by a simple Imperial Order but hey, that's what Heavy Storm Duster, Dust Tornado or any Trap Cards that can destroy backrow cards are for. I always include Heavy Storm Duster in my Albaz deck for such occasions. ;)

The monsters themselves have some really awesome designs with Titaniklad the Ash Dragon being my favourite of them all and many of them have great effects that either go with the Fusion Summoning swarm tactics or can even destroy opponent's monsters or even recycle monsters from the Graveyard. Mirrorjade the Ice Blade Dragon especially punishes your opponent for destroying it by wiping out their field once the turn's over. These monsters are also pretty powerful beatsticks too with many of them having 2500 ATK but some like Titaniklad can become even stronger with their effects. The archetype also combos well with the Despia archetype and other Fusion cards like Necro Fusion can help with the many combinations you can pull off with these archetype. Even monsters who require banishing Light and Dark monsters in order to summon them can be used well in a deck like this. This is an archetype that is insanely enjoyable to use and if I was ever to enter an actual Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament, I'd likely bring my Albaz deck to it because I think it'd be the likeliest one to win. It's insanely powerful, well-synergized, gives us some really awesome Fusion Monsters to use and can really grind your opponent into the dirt. Albaz may have fallen, but he rose up again to give us one solid archetype...

Number 2: Cyber Dragons

Boy do I love these guys! What's not to love about an archetype based around robot dragons! I love robots, and I love dragons! Ergo, I love Cyber Dragon! :D

Famously used by Zane Trusedale in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Cyber Dragon is the archetpye that changed EVERYTHING. You want the exact moment the card game changed and became what it is today? The moment Cyber Dragon entered the scene, that's when. Fans and players everywhere remember this card for being a sign of things to come thanks to its quick and easy summoning condition of being Special Summoned if your field is empty of monsters and your opponent's isn't. It was pretty powerful during the Tribute Summon era and as the archetype evolved, it only got more powerful. Cyber Dragon combines beatdown and Fusion Summoning tactics with many of its support allowing for swarming the field by Special Summoning other Cyber Dragons, effects that treat their names as "Cyber Dragon" on the field to allow for a further synergized playstyle, cards that can search Cyber Dragon monsters and add them to your hand or summon them to the field, Fusion Summoning powerful monsters like Cyber End Dragon or XYZ summoning powerful monsters like Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity to really crush the opponent into dust. This archetype has it all and it's so awesome to play as a result. Nothing feels more satisfying than getting to use these mechanical monsters to bring out their big boss monsters and doing a heap of damage as a result.

Being Machine-type monsters, they also combo well with Machine-support cards like Clockwork Night, Limiter Removal and of course, Power Bond. A common playstyle especially is to Fusion Summon a powerful monster with Power Bond and whale on the opponent with a huge attack stat. Cyber End Dragon and Cyber Twin Dragon are especially good monsters to use with Power Bond. There are also support cards that allow Cyber Dragon to be brought back from the Graveyard or effects that can be activated while Cyber Dragon is in the Graveyard to spring a surprise or two. Cyber Revsystem especially is a great Spell Card for this archetype. Cyber Dragon also combos with the Cyberdark and Chimeratech archetypes too, allowing for even more variety of Fusion Monsters to bring out and attack with. I just can't sum it up enough. This archetype is just awesome and I love using it whenever I play the card game. The monsters are awesome, there's a lot of variety to the Fusion Monsters you can bring out, it's powerful, well-synergized and allows for a lot of powerful plays to be made with it. The Cyber Dragon is a well-oiled machine that is every bit the sum of its parts in this game...

And my Number 1 Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! Archetype is...Ancient Gear

There's plenty of reasons to love this archetype and those reasons are why it's my Number 1.

Famously used by Dr. Crowler in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the Ancient Gear archetype has remained a viable, reliable and powerful archetype since its inception back in the day. Its main playstyle is around summoning powerful beatsticks that once they start swinging, it's near impossible to stop them thanks to their trademark ability of being able to stop Spells and Traps being activated while they're attacking. So yeah, that Mirror Force or magic Cylinder you thought would save your life? Not gonna work on them! The monsters themselves have this Roman centurion look to them and look appropriately ancient with their steampunk-ish designs and rusting appearances which gives us many cool and creative looking monsters to collect and put in our decks like Ancient Gear Golem, Ancient Gear Wyvern, Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon and much more. The monsters are strong enough as they are with Spells and Traps being unable to stop them attacking once they attack but some take it further with other effects like Ancient Gear Wyvern allowing you to search your deck for anything Ancient Gear related, Ancient Gear Hunting Hound allowing for a Fusion Summon once it hits the field and the Gadjiltron archetype allowing you to use different effects depending on which Gadget monsters you tribute to summon the monsters.

But then you get what REALLY makes this archetype a powerhouse...the support. There are insane combinations you can pull off with these cards such as Geartown and Ancient Gear Catapult in where using the latter to destroy the former can bring you two powerful Ancient Gears at once with Catapult even ignoring summoning conditions so you can Special Summon monsters that can't usually be Special Summoned like Ancient Gear Golem. Geartown's destruction even lets you bring out a monster as strong as Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon for free, which is awesome, there's a Trap Card called Ancient Gear Reborn in where anytime your field's empty, you can Special Summon Ancient Gear monsters from the Graveyard and it's a Continuous trap so you can do it as many times as you want and the archetype even combos brilliantly with Urgent Schedule. And of course, there's the Fusion Summoning tactics. If you have Ancient Gear Fusion and the right number of Ancient Gear monsters, you're set to do some real damage, especially if you summon THIS juggernaut:

I have won SO many duels both in real life and in the Legacy of the Duellist Switch game because of this card. It's insane how busted the Chaos Ancient Gear Giant is! Not only is it incredibly easy to Fusion Summon but it can't be stopped by Spells and Traps, monster effects can't be activated when it attacks, it inflicts piercing battle damage so you can't defend yourself and it can attack all monsters your opponent controls at once?! How is this thing NOT on the ban list?! You better believe I was all too happy to buy at least two copies of this card for my Ancient Gear deck and I have a ridiculously fun time just beating the crap out of my opponents with it! So a good reason why I love the Ancient Gear archetype is because of Chaos Ancient Gear Giant. I feel borderline invincible when I use it and it's such a blast to use.

With powerful monsters that are hard to stop once they get going, fantastic support, awesome designs and an utterly broken juggernaut of a boss monster that can pretty much end duels once it starts swinging, it's no contest here. The Ancient Gear archetype is my Number 1 Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! archetype...

And that's it for this list. I hope you enjoyed reading about my favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! archetypes and invite you all to share your own favourites below. Which archetypes do you love to play as? What are your favourites? I'd love to hear all about it.

Next week I'll be talking about, and deconstructing, some unwarranted discourse surrounding Liko from Pokémon Horizons and why I feel some of the criticisms she's getting are ridiculous. See you then media fans!

Honourable Mentions: Dark Magician, Dragon Archfiend, Ice Barrier, Gate Guardian, Roid and Synchron