Ritual Monster Ritual Monsters ( Japanese : モンスター " Gishiki Monsutā " ) , colored blue , are monsters that must be Special Summon ed 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 monster s . This means that they cannot be Special Summon ed from the hand or Deck except by Ritual Summon and the card " Ritual Foregone " , and cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard or while banish ed 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 Monster s 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 Card s 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 . Playing style . Because Ritual Monsters are not stored in the Extra Deck , they don ' t have the benefit of being immediately available to be Summoned as soon as the player has the necessary monsters . Likewise , needing specific Spell Cards for each Ritual Monster ( with some exceptions ) can also limit the player ' s ability to Ritual Summon should they be missing the Ritual Spell Card or Ritual Monster . As a result , Decks focused on Ritual Summoning tend include ways to search Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spell Cards . 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 . Ritual Summoning can cost the player a large amount of cards in hand / field so ways to generate hand advantage and recycle Ritual Spell cards are also important . With the introduction of the New Master Rules , Ritual Monsters now have the advantage of being able to be Summoned in any Main Monster Zone , unlike Extra Deck monsters . In the anime . Ritual Monsters have never been one of the major mechanics in the anime . A few prominent characters used Ritual Monsters in " Yu - Gi - Oh " and " Yu - Gi - Oh ! GX " , including Yugi Muto , Joey Wheeler , Seto Kaiba , Maximillion Pegasus , and Alexis Rhodes , but they were never featured as prominently as Fusion Monsters in " GX " . Kite Tenjo used a Ritual Monster in " Yu - Gi - Oh ! ZEXAL " , but that was the only time Ritual Monsters were featured in the entirety of " ZEXAL " . Even in " Yu - Gi - Oh ! ARC - V " , which tried to show off all of the Summoning methods , Ritual Monsters were only used by two characters , Alexis Rhodes and Aura Sentia , neither of whom were featured significantly in the anime , but they did make a splendid appearance .