Ritual Monster

Ritual Monsters are Monsters that can only be Special Summoned with its corresponding Ritual Spell Card. Such Examples include Relinquished, Black Luster Soldier, Magician of Black Chaos, and The Masked Beast.

When a Ritual Monster Card is Special Summoned via its Ritual Spell Card, Tributes must be offered either from your side of the field, or from your hand, that either meet or exceed the number of stars present on the Ritual Monster Card. This Special Summon is treated as a Ritual Summon.

So, for example, if Relinquished was Special Summoned via the Black Illusion Ritual Card, Only 1 Monster Star is required, so any Monster could be offered as a Tribute, since you cannot have a monster with 0 stars. However, with Black Luster Soldier or The Masked Beast, 8 Stars are required, so you either need to Tribute a few low-level mosters (With around 3 or 4 stars), or one powerful card with 8 or more stars, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

If a Ritual Monster Card is discarded to the Graveyard (with cards like Delinquent Duo, or Graceful Charity), without it being Ritual Summoned with the appropriate Ritual Spell Card beforehard, it cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard with cards such as Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, or Monster Reborn. However, that card can still be returned to the Hand, with cards like Monster Reincarnation, and/or with a card like Magician of Faith or Dark Magician of Chaos to return its corresponding Ritual Spell Card to your hand, if present in the Graveyard.

If a Ritual Monster was Ritual Summoned successfully and destroyed in any way, or removed from play, it may be Special Summoned by cards like Monster Reborn or Return from the Different Dimension, unless it has restrictions that prevent it from being Special Summoned.

In a sense, Ritual Monsters are easier to summon than Normal or Effect Monsters of the same Level, since all you need is:


 * The Ritual Monster, its corresponding Ritual Spell Card in your hand
 * The required monsters needed for Tributes, either in your hand and/or on your side of the field
 * A free Monster Card Zone to Special Summon the Ritual Monster to.

This can be useful in getting a powerful monster onto the field very quickly, without needing to have monsters on the field to Tribute. It does, however, take a heavy toll on your hand.

Also see: Ritual Monster List.