Zombie

Zombie monsters represent undead beings, mostly mummies or apparitions. They are perhaps the best sub-type at Swarming the field. Zombie monsters are known for having many cards that revive other zombies, most notable Zombie Master, Il Blud, Mezuki and Book of Life. Because of that most players add 2 copies of Card of Safe Return to Zombie Decks. They are usually Dark monsters, although a noticable number are Earth. Zombie monsters often have low DEF, a factor that works in their favor, since Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie can search out high-level monsters with low DEF quickly. Aside from being able to be summoned or revived quickly, a common theme among them are card effects that mill the opponent's deck, and a few of them counter mill or Hand destruction tactics themselves (such as Despair from the Dark). They also have field control abilities from Zombie-Type Synchro monsters, focusing on tuning with Plaguespreader Zombie.

Zombies also have two of their own Structure Decks, Structure Deck 2: Zombie Madness and Structure Deck 15: Zombie World. Bonz, from the anime also uses a Zombie Deck.

A recurring aesthetic theme among many Zombies and Zombie support cards is that of Ancient Egypt, such as Pyramid Turtle, Tutan Mask, and Spirit of the Pharaoh. Though the Ancient Egyptian theme occurs elsewhere in OCG/TCG cards, it tends to be the most prevalent among Zombies. There are also several Zombie Counterparts, notably the recently released Revived King Ha Des and Doomkaiser Dragon. A common theme among Zombie Counterparts is that the Zombie would have no DEF, but would otherwise be statistically identical to the monster (in the case of Dark Ruler, even having a similar effect tailored to suit the monster's new type). Exodia Necross, while not technically a zombie, is considered the undead version of Exodia, notably because the method of summoning it, as well as it's appearance and name hints at it. Exodia Necross also possess no DEF, a trait of Zombie Counterparts. A recent aesthetic theme that has emerged can be found in the new Burning Skull Archetype which include monsters such as "Burning Skull Head" and "Skull Flames" used by Hunter Pace in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime.

In the OCG, Zombies are called Undead, although close examination shows that it is actually Undeat. This probably resulted from staff from Konami mistakingly printing 「アンデット」 instead of 「アンデッド」 on every Zombie card in Vol.1, and came into the spotlight when Undeat Warrior was released in Vol.2.

While this stirred confusion back then, it is now treated as a long running joke by the OCG community.