Zombie

Zombie (Japanese: アンデット Andetto, "Undead") is a Type of monster representing undead beings, including mummies, skeletons, and ghosts. Initially, their focus was on swarming the field from the Graveyard with cards such as "Mezuki", "Zombie Master", and "Book of Life". Since most Zombie monsters have low DEF (frequently 0), many high-Level Zombie monsters could be Summoned with "Pyramid Turtle". However, with the release of "Plaguespreader Zombie", one of the first Tuner monsters that could Special Summon themself and several Synchro Monsters that required "Plaguespreader" as Synchro Material, Zombies began to focus on Synchro Summoning, culminating in the "Shiranui" archetype in Breakers of Shadow.

Zombies also have two of their own Structure Decks: Zombie Madness and Undead World/Zombie World.

There are also several Zombie counterparts of other cards, notably "Revived King Ha Des", "Doomkaiser Dragon", and "Archfiend Zombie-Skull". A common theme among Zombie counterparts is that they have the same stats as the original monster (in the case of "Dark Ruler", even having a similar effect tailored to suit the monster's new Type).Most early Zombie Synchros need "Plaguespreader Zombie" as their Tuner. With the release of Generation Force, "Pain Painter" can be used as a substitute for "Plaguespreader Zombie", and can sometimes be more powerful.

Also released in Generation Force was "Blue-Blooded Oni", which goes hand-in-hand with "Red-Blooded Oni" from Galactic Overlord. These two monsters work with Xyz Monsters, detaching Xyz Material from Xyz Monsters both you and your opponent controls when they are Summoned. Based on their own effects, they could be run as a pair in any deck by themselves if the focus is Xyz Monsters.

"Number 22: Zombiestein" was the first Zombie Xyz Monster to be released in the OCG. It packs a large ATK, 4500, the largest original ATK of all Zombies, and currently the strongest member of the very large "Number" archetype in terms of ATK value. However, it is also a Nomi monster, unable to be Summoned other ways aside from Xyz Summon, so it cannot be easily revived like all the other Zombies.

As mentioned at the beginning, in the OCG Zombies are called simply Undead, although close examination shows that it is actually spelled as Undeat. This probably resulted from staff from Konami mistakenly printing 「アンデット」 instead of 「アンデッド」 on every Zombie card in Vol.1, and was settled as so when "Undeat Warrior" was later released in Vol.2.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, Zombies are treated as Fiend monsters.

Zombie monsters are used by Bonz in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Camula in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Hunter Pace and Haley in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Flip Turner (as part of a Flip monster Deck) in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Tony Zomboni in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Clarissa Turner/Baira (as fodder for a Virus Deck) in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, and Ushiro Omaeno in Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS.