It's not every day you see an archetype with the versatility to mix with multiple engines and archetypes. Typically there would be some lock on several of the cards in an archetype that doesn't allow for any other generic options to be run alongside them, or their effects don't offer the room to synergize with anything else as well as some other archetypes would. One of the archetypes that, since release, has been able to mix well with several different strategies to any level of success is the Phantom Knight archetype. This archetype mainly focuses on Level 3 monsters with useful effects to get bodies on the board and offer value in the graveyard with multiple effects to banish themselves to do certain things. It is a versatile toolbox that opens up the entire generic Rank 3 pool while getting you to several toolbox options in your Deck. From the early days when you turbo out multiple Rank 3 monsters to the modern versions using other engines to mix different toolboxes today for the best endboard possible, Phantom Knights have had a strong ride in the competitive history of the game, so today I will break down that history and the most popular variants of Phantom Knights along with any other mixes that have found success.

A Burning Start

The story of the Phantom Knight archetype starts with the release of Wing Raiders, which minus a few cards would release the entirety of the Phantom Knight archetype to the game, which were most of the cards that would see play in the Phantom Knight strategy to begin with. Despite coming with Level 4 monsters, the main focus for this archetype would go entirely to the Level 3s in the Deck, since The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots would be able to Special Summon itself while you control another Phantom Knight, meaning Rank 3s were the easiest to make with the archetype. Silent Boots also comes with a graveyard effect to banish itself to search for any of your Phantom Knights Spells and Traps, with the best option being Phantom Knights' Fog Blade since it was a searchable Fiendish Chain that could also banish itself from the graveyard to revive a Phantom Knight monster. You could also use Phantom Knights' Wing and Phantom Knights' Sword for the same graveyard effect while also being able to protect your monsters from destruction, but Fog Blade would be the most popular target. 

The Level 3 monsters you would summon first to get your Silent Boots out would be either The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak or The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves. Neither monster might have an impressive effect on the field, Ancient Cloak swaps its battle position from Attack to Defense Position to give a DARK monster an 800 ATK/DEF boost til the end of the opponent's turn and Ragged Gloves gives a DARK Xyz that uses it as material for its summon a 1000 ATK boost, but the graveyard effects were far more useful since Ancient Cloak can banish itself to search for any The Phantom Knights card while Ragged Gloves banishes itself to send a Phantom Knights card from your Deck to the graveyard. Ancient Cloak mainly got to your monsters like Ragged Gloves or Silent Boots since the Spell and Trap targets you could use for this would come later, and Silent Boots can put one of your Traps in the graveyard to revive a monster or any of the other monsters you would want to use the graveyard effect for.

Being an archetype of mostly Level 3 monsters, they of course come with their own Rank 3 in the form of The Phantom Knights of Break Sword. For 2 Level 3 monsters, Break Sword gives you the ability to detach a material itself to destroy a card you control and the opponent controls, giving the Deck some form of removal. You could justifiably target Break Sword with his effect, since his destruction if he is an Xyz Summoned card would let you revive 2 The Phantom Knights monsters with their Levels increased each by 1, which would turn the Level 3s you use to make this into Level 4s. Your Extra Deck plays would then be limited to DARK monsters, the only lock in the archetype, but there are decent Rank 4s. The intended target for anime reasons is Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon to boost his ATK while making an opponent's monster weaker, but you also got common targets like Number 66: Master Key Beetle or Evilswarm Nightmare at the time of this archetype's release to protect other cards from destruction or to be able to Book of Moon a monster the opponent Special Summons respectively.

Lucien Hauer Top 32 YCS Prague March 2016 Phantom Knights uploaded by Crunch$G

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Rob Loa Top 32 YCS Minneapolis Oct 2016 Phantom Knights uploaded by Crunch$G

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Phantom Knights at the beginning were decent on their own merits. It was never Tier 1 on its own, but players were able to find success focusing mainly on Phantom Knight monsters and some other good Rank 3 enablers like the combo of Speedroid Terrortop and Speedroid Taketomborg. The best use for Phantom Knights during its release year was a mix with the Burning Abyss archetype, however. Burning Abyss was already hit by the time Phantom Knights came out, with Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss being Limited and Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss being Semi-Limited as your best ways to get Level 3s on the board for the Deck, and they got Tour Guide From the Underworld indirectly Limited since it synergized perfectly with Burning Abyss, but Phantom Knights helped give Burning Abyss a revival along with the release of Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal, who could send your Phantom Knight cards to the graveyard or some of your more useful Burning Abyss names like Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, or Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss. Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss being a Rank 3 that can mill 3 cards helps with getting both Phantom Knights and Burning Abyss monsters into the graveyard for their effects, so the synergy with making Rank 3s and using graveyard effects was there between both archetypes and the Burning Abyss Phantom Knight Deck, commonly known at the time as PK Fire, was a good meta contender that could keep up with strategies at the time like Monarchs, Dracopals, and Kozmo. Eventually, Cir would go to Limited status alongside Graff and Tour Guide, and after that, it mainly became a factor of time that forced this Deck out of being a consistent meta threat.

Jake Phinney 1st Place YCS Columbus June 2016 PK Fire uploaded by Crunch$G

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Rusty Bardiche Rides with Dark Friends

There wasn't much from Phantom Knights after the peak of PK Fire. There were some signs of the Deck still existing from time to time, and they would get some extra support. The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine helped to make Rank 4 monsters but it wasn't always seen with Phantom Knights at the start. Besides that, The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch came out to try to help the Deck by letting you take Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and turn it into Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon for monster negation, which saw a little play, but it was never anything to write home about due to certain restrictions with Rank-Up-Magic Launch and Dark Requiem. The revival of Phantom Knights came mostly with the release of their own Link Monster, The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche. Bardiche is a Link-3 that takes 2+ DARK Monsters to summon, and after some of the early Link Monsters, Konami learned to put a restriction where you cannot use this card as Link Material to try and balance it. The balance was for the powerful effect this card offered to send a The Phantom Knights monster from the Deck to the graveyard to set a Phantom Knights Spell or Trap from the Deck. Combined with Silent Boots, you could get to 2 Phantom Knights Spells and Traps with great ease, which you would often see when DARK Decks would set up double Fog Blade. You could also get to Shade Brigandine for combo extension, or you could search for Rank-Up-Magic Launch since by this time the TCG would have Outer Entity Azathot, which Launch would let you summon on the opponent's turn. The no material requirement was also simple to achieve on a monster to target with Launch with Time Thief Redoer detaching a monster to banish itself til the End Phase, so it comes back with no Xyz Materials and you can target it with Launch to summon Azathot on the opponent's turn.

Thomas Rose 1st Place YCS Dusselorf Feb 2019 Danger! Orcust uploaded by Crunch$G

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Eventually, this play would get Rank-Up-Magic Launch banned since the banning of Outer Entity Azathot would come later for its ability to stop the opponent from hand-trapping you, but even then you didn't have to use this combo. Players were able to find success splashing Phantom Knights into their DARK strategies without going into Azathot and focusing on the double Fog Blade or having extension options with Shade Brigandine or Silent Boots by being able to also send Ancient Cloak from Deck to grave. The best Deck to use the Phantom Knight stuff, without doubt, was Orcust since the Deck would put out multiple DARK monsters via effects like Orcust Harp Horror or Orcust Cymbal Skeleton and they could Link climb thanks to their Link-2 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton. Orcust could also make use of Rusty Bardiche's second effect to destroy an opponent's card when you summoned a DARK Xyz to a zone it points to since Orcustrated Babel would let you use Cymbal Skeleton on the opponent's turn to summon Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star, who on summon could reattach the Cymbal Skeleton to himself or send an opponent's card to the graveyard, meaning this play could remove up to 2 of the opponent's cards. This was also at a time Orcust had Knightmare Mermaid, which allowed anything that could put out 2 monsters access to Orcust via Orcust Knightmare, so Orcust Phantom Knights was commonly seen, sometimes with the Danger! Monsters or Lunalight archetype as well to get more DARK monsters on the board.

Imran Khan Jadoon 1st Place Poland National Championship May 2019 Danger! Orcust uploaded by Crunch$G

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Giovanni Zerbo Top 32 European WCQ June 2019 Lunalight Orcust uploaded by Crunch$G

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Jake Quinsee Top 4 European WCQ June 2019 Orcust uploaded by Crunch$G

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Whether Konami intended for the generic use of Rusty Bardiche in DARK archetypes or not, it was a very powerful option that led to Rusty Bardiche getting banned in July 2019, but Orcust taking so many other hits after and new Phantom Knight support would allow for Rusty Bardiche to safely return to the game in September 2020. I will get to the Phantom Knight-specific support in a second, but the 2020 support also bridged with the Raidraptor archetype. This could help allow Rusty Bardiche to have a role in the Raidraptor Deck. Rusty Bardiche can send Raider's Wing from the Deck to the graveyard for its effect since it is both treated as a Raidraptor and The Phantom Knights card that assists the Deck in making their Rank 4 monsters, along with Shade Brigandine to get into Raidraptor - Force Strix, and Raidraptors do come with their own Link-2 in the form of Raidraptor - Wise Strix to help climb into Rusty Bardiche. You can also access Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Force to Rank Up your Raidraptors into Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon by using your DARK monsters in the grave for the Rank Up or you can go with the old play of using Dark Rebellion to summon Dark Requiem without having to get no materials on your Rebellion.

Phantom Knight Raidraptor uploaded by Renren

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Raidraptor uploaded by Renren

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An Adventure Into the Modern Era

The return of Rusty Bardiche to the TCG coincided with the new Phantom Knight support designed to update the Deck's Rank 3 strategy and offer a bridge to the Raidraptor archetype. However, I've already mentioned the mix with Raidraptors, so how did the new wave of support fare for pure Phantom Knights? The support offered two brand new Main Deck monsters for the archetype, with the first and best being The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales. Torn Scales can let you discard a card to send a Phantom Knights card from the Deck to the graveyard, and it can summon itself from the graveyard if you banish another Phantom Knights card from there, which gives the Deck more ways to set up their plays and have an option for extension with Torn Scales being able to come back. The part where it would banish itself after it leaves the field if it was revived off its effect is null and void when you're making Rank 3 monsters as well. The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves is your second new monster who Special Summons itself from the hand if you Special Summon any The Phantom Knights monster along with the option to increase his Level by 1, also he can banish himself from the graveyard to summon any other The Phantom Knights monster from your hand with, once again, the option to increase its Level by 1. 

The Xyz toolbox also grows for Phantom Knights in the Rank 4 department, as you now have Raider's Knight as an option. This monster is always treated as both a Raidraptor and a The Phantom Knights monster, and he can detach a material from himself to summon any The Phantom Knights, Raidraptor, or Xyz Dragon monster with 1 Rank higher or lower by using him as material, though the monster is destroyed at the end of the opponent's turn. You can bypass that destruction effect if you summon Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon since he can't be destroyed by card effects while he has an Xyz Monster as material, and he comes with the effect to detach a material from himself to negate the effects of all other monsters on the field and gain all their ATK, giving the Deck a massive OTK option to finish the game with a single attack. 

The Phantom Knight support was strong enough to revive the Deck in 2020 to some degree. It wasn't a massive threat in tournaments, but it for sure had the capability to top events still. They were able to use a new tool in the form of Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss very effectively since it could put more of your Phantom Knights monsters into the graveyard, plus its protection of destruction via card effects for the monsters it pointed to helped assist the Deck in being able to run a small Burning Abyss package still. They could still make use of Break Sword to get to Rank 4s as well like the previously mentioned Evilswarm Nightmare or Time Thief Redoer. You could also get multiple Rank 3 monsters on the field to summon Number F0: Utopic Future and go into Number F0: Utopic Draco Future as well as have the bodies to perform Link Summons to end on monsters like Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess. The Deck was also able to efficiently summon Predaplant Verte Anaconda, which gave you access to the powerful Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. 

Phantom Knight uploaded by Renren

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Isolde Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Dragoon Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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 Phantom Knights were also given an indirect boost thanks to the release of the Adventurer Token engine. Water Enchantress of the Temple being a Level 3 with a graveyard effect similar to all the Phantom Knights monsters certainly helped, but not the only reason you could run the Adventurer stuff. Phantom Knights didn't need to Normal Summon monsters to use their effects, with the closest exception being Torn Scales, who could just revive itself with its graveyard effect when it ends up there, or if you have a Trap like Fog Blade already in the grave. This meant you didn't care for the restriction on Rite of Aramesir turning off the effects of Normal Summoned monsters for the turn. The copy of Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon you get off of Fateful Adventure is also solid discard fodder for Torn Scales, and all your Phantom Knights are fine discards for Fateful Adventure searching for Wandering Gryphon Rider to secure your plays with an omni-negation before you start your Phantom Knights combos.

The Verte Anaconda side of the Deck also got a slight boost by swapping a Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon package for a Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer package since Fusion Destiny is much better to draw than Red-Eyes Fusion and both Destiny HERO - Dasher and Destiny HERO - Celestial have solid graveyard effects. Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer helped the Deck run both Artifact Dagda and Artifact Scythe to lock the opponent from the Extra Deck on their turn. You could also run a small P.U.N.K. package since Noh-P.U.N.K. Ze Amin gets you to Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune to summon another Ze Amin from the Deck to make a fast Rank 3 or Cherubini, which gives room for Emergency Teleport in the Deck along with other targets like Psychic Wheeleder, Psychic Tracker, and even Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. The Ishizu cards were also viable with Keldo the Sacred Protector and Agido the Ancient Sentinel getting Phantom Knights into your graveyard. Phantom Knights didn't become a major tier 1 Deck in the TCG like it was expected once we got the Adventurer cards, but it for sure saw play and had success still.

Adventurer Enforcer Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Adventurer P.U.N.K Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Ishizu Kashtira Adventurer Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Another strong engine for Phantom Knights is the Horus engine. Imsety, Glory of Horus can discard itself and a Phantom Knight card for its cost to search you for King's Sarcophagus, which itself can also discard more Phantom Knight cards for more Horus names in the graveyard you can revive for controlling the King's Sarcophagus. You would use the 2 Level 8s you'd revive off the Horus engine to go into The Zombie Vampire to mill 4 cards from your Deck to get even more Phantom Knight names in your graveyard while being able to revive any of the milled cards from your side or the opponent's. Zombie Vampire also being a DARK monster means you can use it as Link Material to summon your Rusty Bardiche as well. If you don't need mills and have enough to combo without it, you can also protect your combo from Nibiru, the Primal Being by making Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord. Horus has worked well in Phantom Knights to give the Deck even more tops, either with the Adventurer engine or as of March 2025 at YCS Sydney, a Horus Fiendsmith Phantom Knights strategy was able to Top 16 in the event. Phantom Knights could do what they did to summon Verte Anaconda to instead summon Moon of the Closed Heaven to bridge into Fiendsmith's Requiem to access the entire Fiendsmith engine to end on either D/D/D Wave High King Caesar for more Nibiru defense or Fiendsmith's Desirae.

Horus Adventurer Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Horus Fiendsmith Phantom Knights uploaded by milliezone

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Besides Horus and Adventurer, there are more engines Phantom Knights can run to assist in what they do best, which is making Rank 3 monsters. You can always go back to a Burning Abyss build to maximize the use of Cherubini and have access to Beatrice before she got banned due to her power with Fiendsmith. Burning Abyss has also been released to full power, but power creep to the archetype has made it to where you don't want to run a massive Burning Abyss engine, focusing on just enough to get value from playing Burning Abyss and Phantom Knights together. You can also run a small Mikanko package with Ha-Re the Sword Mikanko, Mikanko Water Arabesque, and Mikanko Fire Dance to use Ha-Re as many times as possible to make Rank 3 and Link Monsters while Water Arabesque also being able to bounce an opponent's monster to summon your Ha-Re. Finally, there's the Goblin Biker archetype, which while neither Phantom Knights nor Goblin Bikers need to be run together to succeed, it's an option to maximize your Rank 3 making with all the Goblin Bikers detaching from Xyz Monsters to summon themselves and having Goblin Biker Big Gabonga be able to attach the opponent's monster to it as material.

Burning Abyss Phantom Knights uploaded by Renren

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Mikanko Phantom Knights uploaded by milliezone

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Fiendsmith Phantom Knights Goblin Biker uploaded by milliezone

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The OCG Ride

Before I conclude the history of Phantom Knights, I do want to mention their time in the OCG. This is due to the Adventurer Phantom Knight strategy being far more successful in the OCG format compared to the TCG, where it was the best Deck for an entire format in the OCG while the TCG instead chose to play Adventurer Prank-Kids. Phantom Knights can put up a better endboard with far fewer summons compared to Prank-Kids, which helped Phantom Knights be the preferred Adventurer Deck in a format where Maxx "C" is legal. Adventurer Phantom Knights were so strong, that it took far more harsh hits on their Forbidden & Limited List in the OCG while the TCG ignored hitting this version of the Deck in any capacity. Torn Scales was Limited in the OCG in January 2022 while both Water Enchantress and Rite of Aramesir got Semi-Limited, with access to Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer dying with the ban of Fusion Destiny, meaning you could run neither Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer in the OCG or Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon since the latter was previously banned.

Over time, the OCG would continue to hit the Adventurer package with Water Enchahtress and Rite eventually going to 1 each before they finally decided to just ban Wandering Gryphon Rider instead and eventually bring the other two cards back to Unliminted status alongside Torrn Scales. As of 2025, you can still play Adventurer Phantom Knights in the OCG, only instead of Wandering Gryphon Rider you have to settle with the weaker, but still powerful Illegal Knight for an endboard piece. The OCG also has no Verte Anaconda, meaning they do not have easy access to Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer and the later returning Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon in their format. 

Yutaman 2nd Place 5th Tierra Cup Dec 2021 Adventurer Phantom Knights uploaded by Crunch$G

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Phantom Knight Horus Adventurer uploaded by IUgioh team

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OCG has also experimented with Phantom Knights with different strategies as well. You have similar options the TCG has tried like Horus, Mikanko, and Goblin Bikers of course. There is also some success with an Armored Xyz package since Phantom Knights can summon Xyz Armor Torpedo to bridge into Xyz Armor Fortress to make the play with Full Armored Dark Knight Lancer and Full-Armored Xyz live on the opponent's turn. The Mikanko variant in the OCG could also run a small Infernoble Knight package to get value off of Isolde and add monsters to the end board like Emperor Charles the Great and Baronne de Fleur. Orcust and Raidraptor have been visited together to get the simple Orcust combo live with Rusty Bardiche while also having potential access to Raidraptor - Rising Rebellion Falcon. There's also an Azamina version since Azamina Ilia Silvia serves the same purpose Wandering Gryphon Rider previously did for the Deck and a Fiendsmith Phantom Knight Deck with a small Goblin Biker package that can access A Bao A Qu, the Lightless Shadow. M-X-Saber Invoker being legal in the OCG opens a ton of doors the TCG hasn't been able to explore as well. Phantom Knights have had variants and success in the OCG, with Adventurer Phantom Knights being a far bigger success in their format, so their history in the OCG format is also fairly rich with variants.

Horus Armored Xyz Phantom Knights uploaded by IUgioh team

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Orcust Phantom Knights Raidraptor uploaded by IUgioh team

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Mikanko Phantom Knights Infernoble Knight uploaded by IUgioh team

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Goblin Biker Phantom Knights uploaded by IUgioh team

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Azamina Phantom Knights uploaded by IUgioh team

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Fiendsmith Phantom Knights uploaded by IUgioh team

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Conclusion

Overall, Phantom Knights have been a highly successful archetype when it comes to competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, and while a lot of it might not have been pure variants, Phantom Knights make up for with the amount of variants that have been explored with the archetype. The TCG has been lucky the Deck never took too many hits directly, except for Rank-Up-Magic Launch and Rusty Bardiche both being banned for a short time, but thankfully they were never locked up long, which allowed for maximum exploration with the archetype at full power. PK Fire was a great Deck in 2016, and both Adventurer and Horus variants of the Deck have been great. I'm honestly happy with the history of Phantom Knights and that it can still find a way to top big events in 2025 because I loved the design of the archetype and all of its effects since its release. They have access to a nice toolbox on their own with Break Sword, Fog Blade, and all the Rank-Up stuff they can do with DARK Xyzs. With the hiatus Phantom Knights have seen since their last support, I can see more cards added to the archetype soon. I wouldn't even be shocked if Konami tried to fit Pendulums into this Deck considering the connection to the Performapal Odd-Eyes Magician pile, along with the Speedroid and Predaplant archetypes and indirectly related cards like all the Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon forms and Dark Anthelion Dragon. I look forward to what Phantom Knights get in the future in terms of support, just like I look forward to how many more variants can be cooked up with this archetype.