Normal Monster

Normal Monsters (Japanese: モンスター Tsūjō Monsutā), colored yellow, are Main Deck monsters with no monster effects. In the card description box (which contains the effect on Effect Monsters), Normal Monsters include a brief description of its lore.

Only Monster Cards with "yellow" backgrounds are Normal Monsters. There are Tuner and Pendulum Normal Monsters, such as "Tune Warrior" and "Flash Knight". Non-Effect Fusion, Ritual, Synchro and Xyz Monsters are not Normal Monsters. Some non-Normal Monsters can be treated as Normal Monsters with card effects, most notably Gemini monsters and some Trap Monsters.

The card text (or flavor text) on Normal Monsters is for illustrative purposes only, and has no effect on gameplay (except "Summoned Skull" and "Beast of Talwar", which have an archetype condition that includes them in the "Archfiend" archetype). These texts provide lore on how the monster related to other cards in the game, such as the flavor text of "Opticlops" which explicitly states that it serves "Dark Ruler Ha Des".

Play style
Though they do not have inherent effects, there are often Spell, Trap, or Monster effects associated with specific Normal Monsters. For example, "Dark Magic Attack" can only be used with "Dark Magician", "Huge Revolution" can only be activated with 3 specific Normal Monsters on the field, and "X-Head Cannon", "V-Tiger Jet" and "Dark Blade" are the specific targets for three specific Union monsters.

Normal Monsters have received some very powerful support cards for general use, such as "Birthright", "Summoner's Art", "Knight of the Red Lotus", "Princess Cologne", "Terratiger" and "Ventdra, the Empowered Warrior", "White Tiger" and "Blue Dragon Summoner", "Dark Factory of Mass Production", and "Creepy Coney". The Normal Pendulum Monsters "Dragon Horn Hunter" and "Lancephorhynchus" support Normal Monsters. "Thunder End Dragon" has a powerful effect, but requires 2 Normal Monsters in order to be Xyz Summoned.

"Rescue Rabbit" can Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters from the Deck, providing quick access to Xyz Monsters; this effect is so useful that Dino Rabbit Decks are built entirely around it.

Some Normal Monster support focuses on low-Level Normal Monsters (typically Level 3 or lower). There are cards that allow the Special Summon of large numbers of low-Level Normal Monsters from the Deck (such as "Human-Wave Tactics" and "Enchanting Fitting Room"), to then be powered up with cards like "Triangle Power", "Amulet of Ambition", and "Sword of the Soul-Eater", or used to get rid of the opponent's cards with "The Law of the Normal".

Trivia

 * Normal Monsters were the most common monsters when the Duel Monsters card game was introduced in the manga and released in the OCG and TCG, but as the game's strategies evolved, Effect Monsters became more common and fewer Normal Monsters were released or reprinted. Now, very few Booster Packs contain Normal Monsters, and even those that do contain very few.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's - Episode 121, Jack Atlas mentioned this.
 * Exodia's Arm and Leg pieces are the only Normal Monsters ever to appear on the Forbidden/Limited/Semi-Limited lists
 * However on the 1 April 2015 list Qliphort Scout was added in both the OCG and TCG. But, it is a normal Pendulum Monster and not a normal monster.
 * This is also the first Normal Pendulum Monster on the fobidden list.
 * The Normal Monster with the highest ATK is "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", at 3000. "Labyrinth Wall", "Neo Aqua Madoor" and "Millennium Shield" have the highest DEF, at 3000. "Rabidragon" has the highest combined ATK and DEF, with 2950 ATK and 2900 DEF.
 * "Thousand-Eyes Idol" is the Normal Monster with the lowest stats, being Level 1 monster with 0 ATK and 0 DEF.
 * "Noble Knight Artorigus" has the longest flavor text of all Normal Monsters and is the only Normal Monster that has a poem for its flavor text.
 * "White Duston" has the shortest flavor text of all Normal Monsters.
 * "Foucault's Cannon" was the first Normal Monster to have an effect, due to having a Pendulum Effect.
 * "First of the Dragons" is the first Fusion Monster to list non-specific Normal Monsters as its Fusion Materials.
 * "Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon" is the first Synchro Monster to require Normal Monster(s) as Synchro Material.
 * "Thunder End Dragon" is the first Xyz Monster to require Normal Monsters as its Xyz Materials.