Ritual Monster

Ritual Monsters (Japanese: モンスター Gishiki Monsutā), colored blue, are monsters that must be Special Summoned with a Ritual Spell Card. Examples include "Magician of Black Chaos", "Demise, King of Armageddon", and "Nekroz of Trishula".

Ritual Monsters are Special Summon-only monsters. This means that they cannot be Special Summoned from the hand or Deck except by Ritual Summon, and cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard or while banished unless they were first Ritual Summoned (even with a card like "Fulfillment of the Contract").

Ritual Summoning
In some ways, Level 5 or higher Ritual Monsters are easier to Summon than Normal or Effect Monsters of the same Level, since their Tributes do not need to be on the field. However, they do require a number of specific cards to be in the hand at once, which can be quite difficult to achieve. Some Ritual Spell Cards such as "Advanced Ritual Art" can ameliorate this by using monsters from the Main Deck instead, as opposed to using monsters from your hand and/or side of the field. Cards such as "Preparation of Rites" and "Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands" help the player to assemble the necessary components for a Ritual Summon, while cards such as "Ascending Soul" and "Ritual Buster" help alleviate the costs of Ritual Summoning. The "Djinn of Rituals" monsters can serve dual purposes, as they make the Ritual Spell Card's monster requirement easier to fulfill by banishing themselves from the Graveyard, as well as granting an additional effect when used for the Ritual Summon of a Ritual Monster.

Play style
Ritual Summoning is supported by a number of Spell Cards, including "Ritual Foregone", which allows for the instant Summon of a Ritual Monster from the hand, though such a monster cannot attack and will be destroyed during the End Phase.

In addition, "Advanced Ritual Art" can be used should you have a sufficient amount of Normal Monsters.

No other Tributes are required if using "Ritual Raven" for the Summoning of a DARK Ritual Monster. Two of the "Gishki" archetype monsters, "Gishki Shadow" and "Gishki Vision" allow them to be the entire Tribute for any WATER monster, not just a "Gishki" Ritual Monster.

Ritual-reliant Decks benefit the most from having multiple copies of Ritual Spell Cards and Ritual Monsters, as the chances of drawing both the Ritual Spell and the Ritual Monster increases greatly.

Trivia

 * There are currently no WIND-Attribute Ritual Monsters, with the exception of "Elemental Mistress Doriado" that has an effect that treats it as WIND, among other Attributes.


 * The "Black Luster Soldier", "Cyber Angel", "Gishki", "Nekroz", and "Prediction Princess" archetypes are the only archetypes focused on Ritual Monsters.


 * There are no Level 2 Ritual Monsters.


 * Ritual Monsters have the fewest number of anti-support cards of all Monster Card groups, with only three cards specifically designed to stop them: "Steelswarm Sting", "Ritual Sealing" and "Dimension Barrier".


 * "Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon" has the highest ATK for any Ritual Monster.