Dark Blue Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards: Link Monsters

What a Dark blue Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Is

Dark blue, or navy, is the frame of a Link Monster, and it is easy to tell from a Ritual Monster's light blue once you know where to look. A Link Monster has red arrows, called Link Arrows, around the edge of its artwork, and LINK followed by a number at the bottom right where DEF would be. That number is its Link Rating, and it always equals the number of arrows.

The first line of the text box is its Link Material, such as "2+ Effect Monsters". A Link Monster has no Level and no DEF.

How Link Monsters Play

A Link Summon needs no Spell. During your Main Phase, send face-up monsters you control that match the Material line to the Graveyard, and Special Summon the Link Monster from your Extra Deck. You need as many materials as its Link Rating, except that a Link Monster used as material can count as one monster or as its own Link Rating. Two Link-2s, or a Link-2 and two other monsters, can make a Link-4.

The arrows are the point. A zone a Link Arrow points to is a zone the Link Monster points to, and a monster Summoned from the Extra Deck that is not a Fusion, Synchro or Xyz Monster, which means another Link Monster or a face-up Pendulum, must go to an Extra Monster Zone or one of those zones. Many effects also care which monsters a Link Monster points to, as Decode Talker does.

What to Know About Dark blue Cards

• Dark blue cards go in the Extra Deck, never the Main Deck.
• Always in Attack Position: an effect that would change it to Defense Position does nothing.
• No Level, so it cannot be Synchro or Xyz Material.
• Light blue is a Ritual Monster, a Main Deck card. Do not mix the two up when you sort.

Dark blue Cards by the Numbers

Counted from YGOPRODeck's card database, the source of TurnZero HQ's Yu-Gi-Oh! catalog, as of November 2, 2026: every card with a TCG release, each counted once however many times it was reprinted. 470 of the 14,012 cards released in the TCG have the dark blue frame.

Dark blue Card Examples

5 cards that show what a dark blue frame means, chosen to explain the color rather than to rank the best ones. Each links to its card page with every printing and its price.

Decode Talker

DUDE-EN023

Signature Link

Accesscode Talker

BLCR-EN093

Link-4 finisher

I:P Masquerena

CHIM-EN049

Link on their turn

Knightmare Phoenix

BLMM-EN091

Co-linked

Linkuriboh

AC19-EN011

Link-1

• Decode Talker: Link-3, 2 or more Effect Monsters. It gains 500 ATK for each monster it points to, and can Tribute one of them to negate an effect that targets your cards.
• Accesscode Talker: Your opponent cannot respond to its effects. It gains ATK from the Link Rating of a Link Material and banishes Link Monsters to destroy your opponent's cards.
• I:P Masquerena: Link-2. During your opponent's Main Phase it can Link Summon using itself as material, and the Link Monster it made cannot be destroyed by their card effects.
• Knightmare Phoenix: Link-2, 2 monsters with different names. When Link Summoned it destroys a Spell or Trap, and draws a card if it is co-linked.
• Linkuriboh: Link-1, made from one Level 1 monster. Tribute it to set an attacker's ATK to 0, and it can come back from the Graveyard.

Every Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Color

The other frame colors, each with its own page. Main Deck colors come first, then the Extra Deck, Tokens and the two-tone Pendulum frames.

Frequently Asked Questions