Introduced in the 2016 Yu-Gi-Oh set "The Dark Illusion", Spyrals are another archetype that got their beginnings in the TCG, meaning they were exclusive to Western countries for some time. As the name might suggest, the deck is is spy themed in nature, with a few references to the world’s most popular spy, James Bond.
The entire deck is based around summoning a single key card, Spyral Super Agent, and keeping it on the field to take advantage of the effects of other cards that require him. Aside from having some of the more creative art in the game, Spyrals were also the best deck in the game for quite some time. Though their time at that level is done, they’re still one of the best themes made. Everyone wants to be a secret agent.
10 SPYRAL GEAR - LAST RESORT
Basically Super Agent finally had it and went out and found a big, Alien style mech to pilot. Last Resort is a monster that can equip itself to a Spyral monster the player controls either from the hand or the field. While equipped, that monster becomes immune to destruction by battle or card effects, and it can’t be targeted.
This essentially makes the monster almost impossible to kill. Even better though is that once per turn the player can send a card they control to the graveyard to make whatever monster is equipped with Last Resort able to attack directly, bypassing any pesky monsters on the field.
9 SPYRAL GEAR - BIG RED
Every super spy needs a cool car. It’s as much a part of the job as saving the world. Big Red has a pretty straightforward ability: it can target a Spyral monster in the grave, special summon it, then equip itself to that card, making it unable to be destroyed by battle.
Big Red is like if Call of the Haunted had no drawbacks. It doesn’t destroy the monster if it gets destroyed, and while it’s on the field a monster can survive attacks for as long as the player needs it. This makes it easier to bring back Spyral Super Agent to keep the deck going.
8 SPYRAL MISSION - RESCUE
This card art is what happens when your super spy mad scientist does a little too much experimenting. A continuous trap, Spyral Mission Rescue has to be destroyed after the third End Phase after it’s been activated.
A recursion tool, Mission Rescue returns a Spyral in the graveyard to the hand. But even after it gets destroyed, it can banish itself from the grave to target a Spyral monster in the graveyard to special summon it.
7 SPYRAL MASTER PLAN
As the name would suggest, Master Plan is literally the boss in charge of all the Spyral forces. Unsurprisingly then, once per turn she can add a Spyral Mission from the deck to the hand, dealing out assignments to her secret agents.
Then if she’s sent from the field to the graveyard, perhaps by Last Resort’s effect, the player can add one Spyral Resort and one Spyral Monster to the hand from the deck. Basically, she’s just endless card advantage that happens to have a great fashion sense and enjoys a spot of tea.
6 SPYRAL TOUGH
Boasting a pretty good statline at 1900 ATK and 1500 DEF for a normal summonable monster, Spyral Tough is a great addition to the deck. To start, it’s name is treated as Spyral Super Agent while on the field or in the grave, feeding all the monsters who require a Super Agent.
Once per turn, Tough allows its player to guess the card type of the next card at the top of the opponent’s deck, and if they’re correct they can target and destroy a monster on the field. An all-around solid card most decks wouldn’t be caught without.
5 SPYRAL DOUBLE HELIX
Spyrals were fortunate enough to be introduced when Link summoning first began, meaning they were a top tier deck that were aided by receiving a Link monster. Made up of 2 Spyral monsters, Double Helix is treated as Super Agent while on the field or in grave.
Like Super Agent and Tough, Double Helix lets the player declare a card type, and if guessed correctly, they can add a Spyral monster from their deck or grave to their hand, or special summon it to a zone Double Helix points to.
4 SPYRAL RESORT
It’s a little odd to refer to the field spell (in other words, the home base) of a spy organization as the “Resort”, but there have been stranger names before. Spyral Resort is an excellent card that makes every other Spyral card on the field completely unable to be targeted by card effects. Even better? Every turn it can add a Spyral monster from the deck to the hand.
Its only drawback is during the End Phase the player must shuffle back a monster from the grave into the deck, and if they can’t satisfy that effect, they have to destroy the card. This still wasn’t enough to stop the card from getting limited to one in the TCG.
3 SPYRAL QUIK-FIX
The scientist of the Spyral agency, Spyral Quik-Fix is a key card to the deck. If it’s normal or special summoned, the player can add a Spyral Gear from the deck to the hand. This grants access to a minimum of five cards in the archetype.
Even better, if this card is in the grave while the player controls Spyral Super Agent, the player can discard a card to special summon Quik-Fix back to the field. It banishes itself when it leaves the field, but the most notable part is that this isn’t a once per turn effect, meaning it can be used via multiple copies...which is why the card is limited in the TCG.
2 SPYRAL GEAR - DRONE
Spyral GEAR – Drone basically does all the super spy intelligence work the player needs to make Super Agent’s effect work. If normal or special summoned, Drone can look at the top three cards of the opponent’s deck, placing them on top of the deck in any order. Then, during either player’s turn it can be tributed to give a Spyral monster on the field 500 ATK for each card the opponent controls.
Finally, Drone can be banished from graveyard to target and add a Spyral Super Agent from the grave to the hand. There’s literally nothing bad about this card, it’s entirely excellent, and that’s why currently it’s limited to a single copy in the TCG.
1 SPYRAL SUPER AGENT
Super Agent can special summon itself from the hand if the player can guess the card type of the next card at the top of their opponent’s deck. If it’s special summoned by a Spyral monster, it can also target and destroy a spell or trap controlled by the opponent. Though both are a hard once per turn effect, they’re both still easy ways to summon Super Agent and pop cards on the field.
By no means is Super Agent the best card in the deck—players can still have three of it, so Konami wasn’t concerned about it. But it makes the deck work, which makes it the most important.
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