The game of Yu-Gi-Oh! is filled with all sorts of interesting and unique interactions. With a game with so much history, there are many cards that can be combined together. One of the most interesting examples of this is in the card Waking The Dragon.

Waking The Dragon is a card that, when it is destroyed, sent to the Graveyard, or Banished by an opponent’s card effect while Set, can Special Summon any Monster from the Deck or Extra Deck. This means that Waking The Dragon has the potential to Summon almost any Monster in the game. Sometimes, this can win an entire game if the opponent isn’t expecting it.

Updated March 31, 2022 by Johnny Garcia: Yu-Gi-Oh! is in the midst of one of the most varied and accessible eras of the game’s history. The TCG is still going strong, with new Sets coming and a banlist shaking up the format. For fans of digital Yu-Gi-Oh!, Master Duel has released and offered an official simulator for the first time, making use of a unique banlist taking advantage of the TCG and OCG banlists. If traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! hasn’t been your speed lately, Speed Duels has gotten a resurgence thanks to the release of the Speed Duel GX box. It has brought in a plethora of new cards and Skills, giving the format a fresh meta to play in.

15 Baronne De Fleur

The best Waking The Dragon targets are the ones that can immediately affect the board and ones that are usually fairly difficult to summon. Baronne De Fleur fits this bill perfectly. It’s a generic Level Ten Synchro Monster that’s normally a headache to bring out.

However, Waking The Dragon cheats it out. Once on the field, Baronne De Fleur can destroy a card on the field once per turn. As a quick effect, it can also negate the activation of a card or effect for no cost. As an added bonus, Baronne De Fleur can revive a Level Nine or lower Monster from your Graveyard by sending itself back to the Extra Deck.

14 Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon

Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon normally needs a ton of work to bring out, including Synchro Summoning another Clear Wing Synchro Monster. It has a fantastic statline in both Attack and Defense, and can even easily give itself a boost to those.

When a Monster effect is activated, you can make Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon immune to Monster effects, and gains the Attack equal to the Attack of the Monster whose effect was activated. It can also negate a Spell or Trap card for no cost. When it’s sent to the Graveyard, Cyrstal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon will even let you search out for any Wind Monster.

13 PSY-Framelord Omega

PSY-Framelord Omega is widely considered to be one of the best Synchro Monsters in the entire game. It’s so good, in fact, that it’s currently limited on the current banlist. It has a decent statline, but its effects are where it shines the best.

During any Main Phase, you can banish PSY-Framelord Omega and a random card in the opponent’s hand until the next Standby Phase. In the Graveyard, PSY-Framelord Omega can recycle itself back into the Extra Deck should it wind up there, and all it has to do is shuffle another Monster in there with it back into the deck. This can recycle other Extra Deck cards as well, making for a versatile Synchro Monster.

12 Naturia Beast

Naturia Beast remains one of the strongest Synchro Monsters in the game. Spell cards are the most used type of card by a fairly significant margin, so having access to a non-once per turn Spell negate is incredibly powerful.

To use Naturia Beast’s negate, all you have to do is send the top two cards of your deck into the Graveyard. This is hardly a downside. In certain decks, it’s a positive cost that builds advantage. Naturia Beast on its own has the potential to win games, especially if the opponent is playing a Spell card-heavy deck, which many meta decks are.

11 Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is arguably one of the best Fusion Monsters ever printed, and makes for a solid Waking The Dragon target to cheat out onto the field. If summoned this way, you do lose the ability to destroy cards on the field since you did not use any Normal Monsters for its Fusion Summon.

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon still has access to its other effects though. You can still discard a card to negate any effect and give Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon a 1000 Attack boost permanently. It is still also unable to be targeted or destroyed by card effects. Since it has such a good statline, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is a pain to deal with should it hit the field.

10 Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops

Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops is a card that usually requires a lot of resources to Summon, needing three Xyz Monsters to be used as Link Materials. Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops is unaffected by the effects of Monsters and cannot be destroyed in battle by them unless they are Xyz Monsters. This makes Infinitrack Fortress Megaclops incredibly hard to get rid of, especially since it has a massive 4000 Attack Points. It can even make use of Xyz Monsters in the player’s Graveyard, reviving them and taking an opponent’s Monster to use as Xyz material for that Monster.

9 Flower Cardian Lightflare

Flower Cardian Lightflare is a Synchro Monster that normally needs a Tuner and exactly 4 non-Tuner Monsters to make. Thanks to Waking The Dragon, this insane cost can be completely ignored, at the cost of losing its effect to float into other Flower Cardians upon destruction.

What the player does get is a body on the Field with a devastating 5000 Attack Points, as well as the ability to negate any Spell or Trap Card and destroy it once a turn. In addition, Flower Cardian Lightflare will negate the effects of cards it attacks during the Battle Phase.

8 Blackwing Full Armor Master

Blackwing Full Armor Master can do a lot, and by cheating it out with Waking The Dragon, it completely avoids the commitment normally required to Summon it. Blackwing Full Armor Master is completely unaffected by any other card effects, meaning the only way to get rid of it is by battle, which is fairly difficult since it has 3000 Attack and Defense. When an opponent’s Monster effect is activated, Blackwing Full Armor Master places a Wedge Counter on them. These can be used to steal a Monster once per turn. It can also cause all cards to be destroyed during the player’s End Phase.

7 Invoked Mechaba

Invoked Mechaba is one of, if not the best Invoked Fusion Monster. Being able to cheat it out in Deck that isn’t Invoked is incredibly powerful. Invoked Mechaba can negate any kind of card once per turn, so long as you can Discard a card of the same type. Unlike other kinds of negations, Invoked Mechaba will Banish the card that gets negated. Banishing is the best kind of way to get rid of Monsters, as most Decks can not recover their cards from that area. Since most Decks play cards of each type, this makes it easier to ensure a negate is always live.

6 Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon

Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon is a fantastic Synchro Monster that any board can benefit from. Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon can negate and destroy any Monster effect and gets an Attack boost equal to the Attack of the destroyed Monster.

In addition, if Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon battles a Level 5 or higher Monster, it also gains Attack equal to the Attack of the Monster it’s battling. The ability to negate a Monster effect for free is incredibly powerful, and the Attack boosting effects ensure that Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon is going to be on the Field for a hefty amount of time.

5 Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss

Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss usually requires a hefty amount of commitment to Summon, but thanks to Waking The Dragon it can be Summoned essentially for free. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss can negate the effects of a Monster on the Field once per turn and can be done during either player’s turn. This makes it great to disrupt the opponent’s turn, and for baiting out negates during the player’s own. When it inflicts Battle Damage, it can Special Summon a Tuner. With Crystron Halqifibrax in the game, this effect is especially good.

4 Toadally Awesome

Toadally Awesome is an Omni-negate that Waking The Dragon can bring out. It requires the sending of an Aqua Monster from the Hand or Field to use its negate. It can use itself for this requirement as well. While a 1 for 1 trade isn’t usually spectacular, it’s what the card does to what it negates that’s significant. Upon destroying the card after negating, Toadally Awesome allows the player to set the card to their side of the Field. This means Toadally Awesome can take cards the opponent is using for its controller’s turn.

3 Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon

Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon is one of the best Xyz Monsters in the entire game, and one that Waking The Dragon can Summon. Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon is a card that’s completely unaffected by other card effects, meaning it can only be destroyed by Battle. This is especially hard since it has a hefty 3500 Attack.

While it doesn’t get any of its other effects, with how hard Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon is to get rid of, the giant body is sometimes more than enough to turn the game around and put it in your favor.

2 The Last Warrior From Another Planet

The Last Warrior From Another Planet is a card that when Summoned, can completely shut down the game for an easy win. On its Summon, all Monsters its controller has are destroyed, and neither player can Summon any Monsters. If Waking The Dragon is popped before the opponent starts playing, this means that unless they have a way to negate the effects of The Last Warrior From Another Planet, they’ll be stuck only being able to use Spell and Trap cards. It also puts the opponent on a timer, as if they can’t handle it quickly, their Life Points will slowly dwindle.

1 Naturia Exterio

Naturia Exterio normally requires the player to fuse two powerful Synchro Monsters to make, something that Waking The Dragon completely ignores. Naturia Exterio can negate and destroy Spell or Trap Card when they’re activated at the cost of Banishing a card from the Graveyard. It will then send the top card of the Deck to the Graveyard. This effect also isn’t once per turn, and since it dumps another card into the Graveyard to Banish, Naturia Exterio has essentially unlimited Spell and Trap negations. Being able to shut down 2/3rd of the card pool is insanely powerful, which is why Naturia Exterio is such a good Waking The Dragon target.

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