by 
All Yugioh! fans should be familiar with the classic monster Summoned Skull, but not everyone knows about its significance in the game and lore. Among some of the first cards in the game, Summoned Skull is an old monster that has been retained into several other forms of the fearsome fiend. So, who is Summoned Skull, and why is he such a recognizable Yugioh! icon?
Early Appearances
Summoned Skull (SdS) is arguably one of the most iconic early Yugioh! monsters, right up there with Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and Exodia. This is in part because SdS was actually Yugi Muto’s ace monster before he used his grandfather’s deck and inherited Dark Magician. In the original manga, SdS was actually shown as a Level 7 monster, not Level 6. Yami Yugi used this fiend against Kaiba in an impressive show of power. During the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yugi would go on to use SdS in duels against Joey Wheeler, Mai Valentine, the Paradox Brothers, Weevil Underwood, Rebecca Hawkins, and Pegasus. SdS continues to appear later on in Battle City, Virtual World, Waking the Dragons, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and more.
alternate Arts
SdS has had a few alternative arts. Its first card art is based on its first manga appearance. It has another art based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Duel 56: “The Beautiful Trap!” A third art was released showing the fiend using his signature “Lightning Strike” attack. Then, there is actually a fourth SdS art that features an illustration by by Kazuki Takahashi himself, the creator of Yugioh! In addition to these alternate arts, SdS has several other forms and retrains including a Synchro version, Xyz, Ritual, and more! Below is a list of some of these retained SdS cards.
- Cyber Archfiend
- Archfiend Commander
- Archfiend Zombie-Skull
- Archfiend’s Advent
- Archfiend’s Ascent
- Archfiend’s Manifestation
- Archfiend’s Awakening
- Archfiend’s Call
- Toon Summoned Skull
- Skull Archfiend of Lightning
- Skull Archfiend of Chaos
- Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning
- Black Skull Dragon
- Archfiend Black Skull Dragon
The OG Archfiend
There is little known lore behind SdS, but we do know that he is the first Archfiend monster, one of the earliest archetypes in the game. In the Japanese game, the Archfiends are known as Daemons or Demons. Due to censorship, the name was changed to Archfiends in the English translation. There are many different monsters that are part of the Archfiend archetype, but it could be argued that SdS is THE OG Archfiend, and possibly the supreme leader of all Archfiends. While SdS hasn’t seen competitive play in many, many, many years, it is still an iconic monster, and its many different forms are fun to use and interesting evolutions of this classic field!