Wight

"Wight" (ワイト waito) or "Skull Servant" (limited TCG usage) is an archetype of Zombie-Type monsters.

The most famous "Wight" monster is "Skull Servant". The archetype was originally created in response to the popular perception that "Skull Servant" was among the worst Monster Cards in the game. "Skull Servant" appears in several card artworks.

Playing style
Cards like "Armageddon Knight" and "Dark Grepher" are used to populate the Graveyard with Wights to increase the attack points of "King of the Skull Servants". Powerful Zombie support such as "Zombie Master", "Goblin Zombie", and "Mezuki" are required. "Wightmare" can be used to get back banished cards by discarding himself, either into the Graveyard for "King of the Skull Servants" or Special Summoning "The Lady in Wight" or "King of the Skull Servants". The archetype has continued to receive support cards since the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's era with the addition of numerous Spell and Trap Cards that involve Level 2 or lower monsters, such as "Graceful Revival" and "One for One".

Some "Wight" Monsters appear in Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. This archetype appears in some Video Games as well such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force, Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour and more.

This Deck's main strategy is to populate the Graveyard with "Skull Servant", "The Lady in Wight", "Wightmare" and "King of the Skull Servants" to summon a "King of the Skull Servants" with up to 11000 ATK. However, with the addition of "Wightmare", ironically, many "Skull Servant"s Decks have stopped including "Skull Servant".

The advantages of this Deck include its ability to produce extremely high-ATK monsters very quickly (which may not be affected by Spells or Traps if "The Lady in Wight" is on the field), as well as its resilience in summoning said monsters repeatedly. A major weakness is its total reliance on the Graveyard. If "Macro Cosmos" or "Dimensional Fissure" is in play, it can easily ruin your ability to power up "King of the Skull Servants". This was partially solved thanks to "Wightmare", which is capable of returning "Wight" Monsters that are banished back to either the Graveyard or summoning them onto the field in exchange for discarding itself - especially helpful as it does not need to reach the Graveyard itself to work.

Getting "Wights" from the Deck
"Wights" are numerous in the Deck. With many copies available, Removing them quickly and placing them in the Graveyard is key. Multiple ways have been made to remove them quickly.

Direct Deck to Graveyard

 * Armageddon Knight - Capable of milling a "Wight" Monster with no cost. When using it, you may want to consider it after "Dark Grepher", however.
 * Chain Destruction - Can send up to two "Wights" to the Graveyard, from any Summon. It is even capable of activating from the Special Summoning from "Zombie Master", "One for One", "Book of Life", or "Graceful Revival". Particularly useful for "The Lady in Wight" because there are few ways to search it out of the Deck. Cannot be used on "King of the Skull Servants" if there are already more than two "Wights" in the Graveyard.
 * Dark Grepher - Though it creates a disadvantage of 1 DARK Monster, it can effectively richen your Graveyard with ease.
 * Elemental Hero Prisma - Only sends Skull Servant, but can send 1 every turn by revealing Flame Ghost or Zombie Warrior from your Extra Deck.
 * "Exodius, the Ultimate Forbidden Lord" can be used in conjunction with "Skull Servant" Decks. "Exodius" can send "Skull Servants" to the Graveyard, powering itself up at the same time it powers up "King of the Skull Servants".
 * Foolish Burial - Can send any one "Wight" to the Graveyard.
 * Koa'ki Meiru Gravirose - Can send one Level 3 or lower Monster from your Deck to the Graveyard each of your Standby Phases. Have a second in your Hand to prevent its Self-destruction.
 * Lavalval Chain - A Rank 4 XYZ Monster capable of sending a "Wight" Monster from you Deck to your Graveyard each turn in exchange for one of its materials.
 * Painful Choice (Traditional Only) - A god-send for this Deck, choose 5 "Wights" and let your opponent have it soon enough. Avoid "Skull Servant" or your opponent will likely choose for you to keep that one. Choose as many "The Lady in Wights" as possible because they are hard to search out of the Deck.

Indirect (Milling) Deck to Graveyard
Milling the cards from your Deck can be useful when you do not have enough ways to remove the "Wights" from your Deck alone. Caution should be used to prevent useful cards from being lost.


 * Advanced Ritual Art - Sends a Normal Monster to the Graveyard to summon a Ritual Monster. "Relinquished" can work well.
 * Card Trooper
 * Fiend Comedian
 * Hidden Armory - Can be used to get "Opti-Camouflage Armor"
 * Jain, Lightsworn Paladin and other "Lightsworns"
 * Magical Merchant - Use a high ratio of Monsters to Mill lots of cards at once.
 * Needlebug Nest - Mills five cards from your Deck.
 * Veil of Darkness - While this is not a true mill card, this acts similarly. You can send a drawn DARK monster to the Graveyard during your Draw Phase to draw another.

Deck to Hand
By adding the "Wights" to your Hand, the cards can be discarded for card costs as well as allow you to easily use "Wightmare" to its fullest capacity.


 * Generation Shift
 * Goblin Zombie - Can add "Skull Servant", "King of the Skull Servants", and "Wightmare". Other options include "Zombie Master" or another 'Goblin Zombie".
 * Sangan - Can search for any "Wight", except "King" (it has "?" ATK).

Special Summons from Deck
Special Summoning from the Deck will allow "Wights" to be used for tributes as well as be used as a defense shield. This also allows using "Chain Destruction" or "Inferno Reckless Summon" to pull up to two more out.


 * One for One - Also has a discard of one Monster from the Hand. Easily can search out "King of the Skull Servants" with another "Wight" added to the Graveyard.
 * Pyramid Turtle - Can search out "Skull Servant", "Wightmare" and "King of the Skull Servants" plus many other Zombies such as "Zombie Master" and "Shutendoji".

Sending "Wights" from the Hand to the Graveyard
With twelve copies of "Wight" cards in your Deck, some will inevitably find their way into your Hand. These make ideal fodder for cards with discard costs, thereby letting you populate your Graveyard with "Wights" while taking advantage of other cards' effects. Cards like "One for One" and "Zombie Master" will even let you discard a "Wight" from your Hand to Special Summon one from your Deck or Graveyard, respectively. It is a good idea to use other cards which benefit from being discarded or otherwise sent to Graveyard so that if you have to mill or discard them due to lack of "Wights", you can still benefit. Some such cards include "Mezuki", "Necro Gardna", "Plaguespreader Zombie", and even "Night Assailant", who will return a "Magical Merchant" to your hand when it is discarded (or even sent by the effect of "Veil of Darkness").

Some cards that are good for sending "Wights" from your Hand to the Graveyard are:
 * Card Destruction
 * Lightning Vortex
 * One for One
 * Raigeki Break
 * Snipe Hunter
 * Zombie Master
 * Dark Crusader

Other helpful strategies
The "Skull Servant" Deck uses lots of effects to mill, discard, and send "Wights" from the Deck to the Graveyard. Naturally, it is beneficial to have cards that take advantage of the Graveyard and/or protect it from the opponent's attempts to remove your "Wights". The following cards are generally good to include in "Skull Servant" Decks, which help them adapt to various opponents.


 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Chaos Hunter - This is useful when dueling Macro Decks. It prevents your opponent from banishing their or your Monsters.
 * Dark Armed Dragon - A highly usable card in any DARK Deck. Though it is harder in this Deck to use its effect than in other DARK variants, it is extremely recommended.
 * Debris Dragon - Can be used with "Lady" or "Beast of the Pharaoh" to nuke the field with "Black Rose Dragon". You can use "Beast of the Pharaoh" afterward to Special Summon the "King" for the kill.
 * Leviair the Sea Dragon - This can be summoned with two "Lady in Wight"s or "Spirit Reaper"s (or any other 2 level 3 monsters). You can use it to send a "Lady" (as an Xyz Material) to the Graveyard to Special Summon a "King of the Skull Servants" (and additionally power him up), "The Lady in Wight", "Mezuki", "Plaguespreader Zombie", or any other banished Monster (even your opponent's) to your side of the Field.
 * Glow-Up Bulb - A level 1 Tuner that can be Special Summoned by "One for One" that is usually used in this Deck. This card Mills one when it is Special Summoned by its own effect. Also, you can use it to bring out Formula Synchron for card advantage and that Synchro is a Tuner as well (only traditional).
 * Gold Sarcophagus - This card can be used to search out key cards like your "Burial from a Different Dimension", "Soul Release", or you can banish a "King", "Lady", "Skull", or "Wightmare" to then use "Wightmare's" effect to Special Summon the "King" or"Lady" to the field or power up an existing "King of the Skull Servants" on the field by returning a "Skull Servant" or "Wightmare" to the Graveyard.
 * Gravity Bind - Stops your opponent from attacking, but lets you still attack freely since most of your Monsters will be level 3 or lower.
 * Xyz Gift lets you use the Xyz materials of Baby Tiragon or Number 83: Galaxy Queen to draw 2 cards, at the same time, putting Skull Servants in the grave, the only drawback is that you need 2 Xyz Monsters to use Xyz Gift.
 * Inferno Reckless Summon - Can Special Summon many different monsters from your Deck including any "Wight" (aside "King" if there is more than 1 "Wight" in the Graveyard) which can allow Xyz Summons of Rank 1 and 3 quite easily.
 * Mezuki - Helps to speed up the process of summoning a "Wight" Monster.
 * Opti-Camouflage Armor - lets "King of the Skull Servants" attack directly, even if "The Lady in Wight" is in play. This is because "Opti-Camouflage Armor" does not affect the Monster Card, but affects the rule that monsters cannot attack directly if the opponent controls a Monster.
 * Pain Painter - This card is a substitute "Plaguespreader Zombie". It makes Special Summoning "Archfiend Zombie-Skull" much easier. It makes up to 2 other Zombies level 2 for the remainder of the turn. This enables you to use those three Monsters for any of the three Zombie Synchros or XYZ Summoning as well as allowing all three Zombies to be protected by "Lady"
 * Phalanx Pike - An interesting optional card for "Skull Servant". Good chance for a possible OTK, even higher if paired with "Opti-Camouflage Armor". Will NOT work if "The Lady in Wight" is active.
 * Plaguespreader Zombie - if it gets milled, just revive it with its own effect. Also adds the possibility to Mill a "Wight" from the Hand by replacing it onto the Deck at a certain time. This card will additionally allow you to use the Zombie Synchro Monsters.
 * Recurring Nightmare - This is a great card to recover two Monsters with 0 Defense. Examples include "Zombie Master" and "King of the Skull Servants".
 * Sangan - search for "Wightmare", "Snipe Hunter", or "Armageddon Knight".
 * Shutendoji - This card helps set up "Wightmare" plays and provides a +1 by banishing two Zombies (usually "King" and "Lady") in order to allow you to Draw a card. Then, "Wightmare" is used to Special Summon one of them back. It can also recycle banished Zombies by returning them to the top of your Deck. Good targets for this include "Mezuki", "Plaguespreader", or "Wightmare" (for another use). It can be searched out by "Goblin Zombie" and "Pyramid Turtle". If you are using "Dark Armed Dragon", it provides much needed Graveyard control.
 * Soul Release - Can be used with "Wightmare". You can not only banish key cards from your opponents Graveyard, but also banish a "King" or a Lady" to then be Special Summoned by "Wightmare's" effect. This tech card can disrupt your opponents strategy and give you the edge.
 * The Dark Creator - This works well with "Skull Servant" mill engines or DARK heavy "Wight" Decks. If you don't control any Monsters, you can Special Summon this card. Then, you can banish a DARK Monster ("King" or "Lady") to Special Summon a "King" to the Field. You can later discard a "Wightmare" to Special Summon the banished "King" or "Lady" to the Field. He also provides great Graveyard control. For example you have 5 DARK Monsters in your Graveyard, you then banish one to Special Summon one from the Graveyard which leaves you with three. The exact amount needed to Special Summon DAD.
 * Dark Crusader - This lets you drop a Wight for an instant attack increase that stays until the card is gone.
 * Doomsday Horror - Works as a Burial from a Different Dimension but can also get a boost if your Wights are Removed.
 * Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower - A nasty card whenever you Special Summon a zombie (with Mezuki,Book of Life,Zombie Master and King of the Skull Servants) cost your opponent the top of his deck, which can be very frustrating. Also if you control a Lady in Wight can produce little stall.
 * Mask of Restrict - You probably won't tribute in this Deck Type, while alot of others do. At least Sidedeck material.
 * Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - On your second turn or after a wipe, show any wight except Lady in Wight and you get another one from the deck. This can provide you an instant Defence with two Kings with both 4000.
 * Megamorph - Tricky but very usable in a deck where king must Attack directly, Because then if you only have 4 wights in the Grave it's still 8000.

Wightsworns
This Deck utilizes the milling effects of the 'Lightsworns' to drop multiple "Wight" Monsters. Given all 'Lightsworns' are LIGHT, you can also use "Chaos Sorcerer" and "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning" with ease. You may want to lessen the number of Spells and Traps to about 3 to 8 in order to use "Magical Merchant" as a very abuse-able Deck engine. In this case, it is highly recommended to only use "Royal Decree" in Traps, in order to stop possible counters against your moves. Many common Spells and Traps will have to be taken out in this case, leaving only those such as "One for One", "Monster Reborn", "Dark Hole", and "Giant Trunade" (Traditional Only).