[Discussion] Yu-Gi-Oh! - Top 5 Best Tuners of all time

[Koby]

The usefulness of a Tuner isn't determined by it's ATK/DEF points, but based on their effect and splash-ability. So, as the Synchro era is slowly passing us, it is proper to discuss which of the over 100+ Tuners are the best.

So, which 5 Tuners do you think is the top 5 Tuners of all time? Please justify your post.

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There is probablybetter ones out there, but off the top of my head I'd have to go with these five:

Dragunity Phalanyx - Seriously... an entire archetype is built around that single tuner.

Delta Flyer - a level 3 tuner which can up one other monster by one level. Makes it really versatile for Synchros.

QuickDraw Synchron - Can easily be Special Summoned and it's a level 5.

Plaguespreader Zombie - Works in a lot of decks, really helpful in mill decks such as Lightsworns and easy to Special Summon to make a quick Synchro.

Black Salvo - This card is an essential tuner for any machine-based deck that uses dark attribute. Ensures an easy lvl 7 Synchro.

[Xitrons]

1.) Glow-Up Bulb

In my opinion the best Tuner is Glow-Up Bulb. It does everything right, Level 1, Plant, Earth, Special Summons itself from the Graveyard. Let's examine further. It's Level 1, so it's capable of easily making any Synchro from Formula Synchron to Trishula. It's a Plant so it's able to be Special Summoned via Lonefire Blossom and later removed from play to Special Summon Spore. It's Earth so it can be used with a Level 4 Earth monster, such as a Gadget, to Synchro Summon the powerful Naturia Beast. But what makes Glow-Up Bulb truly powerful is its effect to Special Summon itself from the Grave simply by sending the top card of your Deck to the Graveyard. Most decks these days want their cards in the Graveyard so they will have easy access to their combos. Sending a card from the top of the deck to the Graveyard costs its user no advantage, so Glow-Up Bulb's effect is a +1 in terms of card advantage. Glow-Up Bulb is a reusable Tuner with a low level and is well worth its current $50 price tag.

2.) Formula Synchron

Formula Synchron is incredibly unique. It's one of only 3 Synchro Tuner monsters and one of only 2 Level 2 Synchro Monsters. It's the original Synchro Tuner and alone has spawned several top tier decks because of its incredible ease in summoning. You can Synchro Summon Formula Synchron with Glow-Up Bulb or Spore and a Fluff Token or Fishborg Blaster and Treeborn Frog. Its effects are very simple. When you Synchro Summon it you can draw 1 card. This allows the negative card advantage usually gained by Synchro Summoning to vanish, since you're giving up two cards (The Tuner and the non-Tuner) to receive Formula Synchron and the card drawn by Formula Synchron's effect. It also has the effect to Synchro Summon with it during your opponent's Main Phase, a feature only shared with one other monster. This allows you to turn the tide of the game during your opponent's turn by Synchro Summoning a monster such as Black Rose Dragon to destroy all cards on the field or Trishula to remove 3 cards from play to cripple your opponent's plays all after they've used their Normal Summon or any other resource. Formula Synchron also has unusually high DEF for a level 2 monster, and it's not terribly uncommon for it to stick around.

3.) Fishborg Blaster

Fishborg Blaster is one of only two Tuners to be Banned. It's Level 1, Water, Fish and can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard indefinitely. Fishborg Blaster has 2 conditions that try to balance it out but it still remains incredibly powerful. You must discard a card and control a Level 3 or lower Water monster to Special Summon Fishborg Blaster from the Graveyard. And if you Synchro Summon with Fishborg Blaster, all other Synchro Material monsters must be Water. Fishborg Blaster was used in Frog Monarchs to be used with Treeborn Frog to Synchro Summon Formula Synchron or to be used as a Tribute to Tribute Summon a Monarch or Light and Darkness Dragon. It was also used in various Fish FTK decks to amazing effect since it can be Special Summoned by Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth. In that deck it was Special Summoned with Coelacanth's effect along with 3 Oyster Meister to Synchro Summon 3 Armory Arms. The Armory Arms were then equipped to one of your opponent's Attack Position monsters and Coelacanth then attacked the equipped monster resulting in Coelacanth being destroyed and the opponent taking over 8000 damage from the Armory Arm effects. The discard to Special Summon Fishborg is often offset by a draw with Formula Synchron or T.G. Hyper Librarian and it usually results in insane advantage at no cost. The last combo that was prevented by Fishborg's ban involved a Treeborn Frog, and Fishborg Blaster in the Graveyard and Rescue Rabbit. Treeborn Frog would be Special Summoned by its own effect, then Rescue Rabbit would be summoned and used for its effect to Special Summon 2 Level 4 WATER normal monsters. A card would be discarded to summon Fishborg and Fishborg would be used with one of the Normal Monsters to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian. Another card would be discarded to Special summon Fishborg again. Fishborg would then be used with the other level 4 Normal monster to Synchro Summon any Level 5 Synchro monster and a card would be drawn for T.G. Hyper Librarian's effect. Another card would be discarded to Summon Fishborg and it would be used with Treeborn Frog to Synchro Summon Formula Synchron. 2 cards would then be drawn for Formula Synchron and T.G. Hyper Librarian's effects. At this point the player could Synchro Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon by using their 3 Synchro monsters. No other deck can Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon this easily using only one Tuner and that is the testament to Fishborg Blaster's power.

4.) Plaguespreader Zombie

Plaguespreader Zombie is one of the first two Tuners to be Limited. It's a Dark, Level 2, Zombie monster that was the first Tuner with the effect to Special Summon itself from the Graveyard. Unlike Glow-Up Bulb it costs a card from your hand to the top of the deck, so you don't gain any card advantage and you ruin your next draw because you won't get any new cards. However this is often used to put a Destiny HERO - Malicious that you drew back into the deck to be Special Summoned with a Destiny HERO - Malicious in your Graveyard and then used to Synchro Summon a Level 8 Synchro Monster. Also unfortunately Plaguespreader removes itself from play after using its effect unlike Glow-Up Bulb. This is all fixed by Plaguespreader's Zombie type. Being a Zombie it can be easily searched by Goblin Zombie. It can be easily Special Summoned from the Graveyard without its own effect by Mezuki or Zombie Master. Since its Dark it can be sent from the Deck to the Graveyard by Dark Grepher or Armageddon Knight. It is also the named Tuner on Revived King Ha Des, Archfiend Zombie Skull and Doomkaiser Dragon.

5.) Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind is the other one of the first two Tuners to be Limited. It's a Blackwing which gives it access to all the Blackwing searchability and summonability, it's a Winged Beast which gives it utility because it can be used for Icarus Attack. It's Dark which means it can be used to Summon Dark Armed Dragon or brought back with cards like Dark Eruption. Like most of the other Tuners on this list Gale can Special Summon itself to be easily used for a Synchro Summon, unfortunately you must control another Blackwing first and Gale can only be summoned from the hand by its effect. However this is offset by Gale's effect and rather strange Level 3. Because it is Level 3 is can be used to summon the tricky Level 7 Synchro Monsters like Black Rose Dragon to destroy all cards on the field, or Blackwing Armor Master with its inability to be destroyed by battle. Then there's Gale's effect; it can permanantly cut the ATK and DEF of any monster in half once a turn. This effectively gives Gale the ability to destroy monsters of 2600 ATK or less by itself. Powerful Synchro monsters like Stardust Dragon are easily beaten by Gale. It's for this effect that Gale is often "teched" into non Blackwing decks just for its ability to take down large monsters then used to Synchro Summon.

Honorable mentions:

Black Salvo/Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North/Debris Dragon/Junk Synchron

Any Tuner that can Special Summon a non-Tuner from the Graveyard is incredibly powerful for an instant Synchro Summon.

[TallFry]

Honestly I can't say what five are my best so far, since my deck mainly uses the Synchron tuner monsters pretty openly. But, if I have to go by effectiveness, I'd have to say the following.

Junk Synchron: He's able to bring back the rest of the recipe for Junk Warrior easily and if you use his effect right you can get a lot of things done.

Dark/Clock Resonator: These two are tied because they allow you to maintain a good solid defense long enough to bring out the rest of your Synchro materials. Not to mention they can really annoy your opponent if you feel like it.

Quickdraw Synchron: Yeah, I gotta say this guy is an amazing Tuner, what with his ability to take the place of any of my other Synchrons when I have a Warrior in mind. He's led me to a lot of victories, so I have to say he's one of the best tuners I've ever seen.

Plaguespreader Zombie: While I've never seen this card in use, ever, I have studied it for the sake of a friend's Zombie deck, so I know that if you combine it with the right effects, you can get a seemingly endless stream of Synchro monsters to come out, allowing for a massive swarm of really good monsters like Doomkaiser Dragon, or Archfiend Zombie Skull.

Formula Synchron: Hard to get out, but extremely useful. The draw you get upon his summoning can lead to a massive game change, and he helps me to bring out my most powerful monster, Shooting Star Dragon. He's also able to team up with a large variety of other Synchro monsters to bring out things like Tech Genus Blade Blaster, Tech Genus Halberd Cannon, and someone I fully intend to eventually obtain and use, Shooting Quasar Dragon.

So, yeah, that's what you might call my "top five Tuners". Of course this is entirely based on my experience.

[Seabs]

Fabled Raven has a nice level adjustment ability that makes it splashable, and it fits the fabled them of no hand. I don't synchro too much, so this is my favorite for the rare occasion that I need to.

Quickdraw is great for reasons already stated.

Formula Synchron has been used against me way too much, but that quick draw, and then ability to tune again is excellent.

Glowup Bulb is really easy and efficient, especially with lonefire blossom.

Dragunity Phalynx is simply one of the most versatile tuners out there, even though it mainly works within its own archetype.

[Valeran]

I based my list on how splashable the cards are, primarily.

1) Glow-up Bulb

This card can really be splashed into nearly any deck. Not only can it easily be summoned with One for One, it can also be pitched to the Graveyard with Foolish Burial, mill and a card and summon itself. It's also an Earth Attribute letting it be a perfect tuner to summon the powerful Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion. It also has great synergy with many other plants.

2) Plaguespreader Zombie

Here we have get another great splashable tuner. Its main uses are primarily for summoning level 6 and level 8 synchro monsters, arguably the strongest levels in the game. It's even capable of doing both in a single turn, changing your level 6 into an 8. Brionac, Stardust, Scrap Dragon are always easily accessible with Plaguespreader around.

3)Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

We've gone through levels 1 and 2, and now we've reached level 3. Gale's main use is coming out with powerful level 7 monsters. Black Rose Dragon, Scrap Archfiend and occasionally, Arcanite Magician. In addition to this, he has a permanent Shrink effect that he can use once per turn, this allows him to attack over any monster with 2500 or fewer attack points, useful for exterminating that pesky Stardust Dragon.

4) Spore

Wherever you see Glow-up Bulb, his little brother is likely to follow. Spore's another tuner that's easily capable of being summoned with the ever-powerful One for One spell card. In addition it can easily summon level 5s and 8s. 6 and 7 are both possible, but primarily, your targets are Lonefire and Dandylion, making him either a level 1 or level 4 tuner. Perfect for bringing out a level 8 with another level 4 monster, or using up a token on the field to bring out a level 5.

5) Formula Synchron

This little fellow is not only an extremely versatile tuner, but is also capable of replacing one of the cards used to summon it. Before the limitation it was capable of easily generating advantage in combination with the previously unlimited T.G. Hyper Librarian. (Double Librarian + Formula into Shooting Quasar Dragon with no monsters on the field, a few in the Grave and you draw a bunch of cards while doing it? Yes please.)

Shoutouts to Junk Synchro, Debris Dragon and Quickdraw for being awesome but not quite so splashable.

Shoutout for Black Salvo for that amazing grin and being a personal favourite, despite having limited use.

[evils200]

From my knowledge.

1. Plaguespreader Zombie

2. Glowup Bulb

3. Formula synchron

4. Deep sea diva

5. spore.

Those are the top 5 off the top of my head that I have problems with.

[Zoomy333]

I must say I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Effect Veiler. Discard to negate your opponent's effect for a turn? Yes please.

[Koby]

I must say I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Effect Veiler. Discard to negate your opponent's effect for a turn? Yes please.

Except that's using it for it's effect, not it's ability as a tuner. The discussion was top five best 'tuners'. Sure Effect Veilers effect is great, but it's rarely used as a tuner because the reason people have it in their decks is for it's effect.

[olin555]

I'm surprised no-one has at least mentioned Genex Ally Birdman

His versatility easily allows for quick and often multiple Synchro Summons on the the turn in many different decks.

When used in conjunction with possessing cards like Mind Control, he can remove threats and create significant board control.

He makes great advantage of cards like Breaker, The Magical Warrior whose abilities trigger when they enter the field, as well as monsters whose abilities activate after being tribute-summoned, like the Monarchs (Once the Monarch is on the field, return it to your hand with Birdman, then use him as your new sacrifice).

And, when paired with Reborn Tengu, he can instantly summon a level 7 Synchro.

Give him a shot the next time you're looking to add a new flavor to your deck...

[doivid]

1.) Glow-Up Bulb

In my opinion the best Tuner is Glow-Up Bulb. It does everything right, Level 1, Plant, Earth, Special Summons itself from the Graveyard. Let's examine further. It's Level 1, so it's capable of easily making any Synchro from Formula Synchron to Trishula. It's a Plant so it's able to be Special Summoned via Lonefire Blossom and later removed from play to Special Summon Spore. It's Earth so it can be used with a Level 4 Earth monster, such as a Gadget, to Synchro Summon the powerful Naturia Beast. But what makes Glow-Up Bulb truly powerful is its effect to Special Summon itself from the Grave simply by sending the top card of your Deck to the Graveyard. Most decks these days want their cards in the Graveyard so they will have easy access to their combos. Sending a card from the top of the deck to the Graveyard costs its user no advantage, so Glow-Up Bulb's effect is a +1 in terms of card advantage. Glow-Up Bulb is a reusable Tuner with a low level and is well worth its current $50 price tag.

2.) Formula Synchron

Formula Synchron is incredibly unique. It's one of only 3 Synchro Tuner monsters and one of only 2 Level 2 Synchro Monsters. It's the original Synchro Tuner and alone has spawned several top tier decks because of its incredible ease in summoning. You can Synchro Summon Formula Synchron with Glow-Up Bulb or Spore and a Fluff Token or Fishborg Blaster and Treeborn Frog. Its effects are very simple. When you Synchro Summon it you can draw 1 card. This allows the negative card advantage usually gained by Synchro Summoning to vanish, since you're giving up two cards (The Tuner and the non-Tuner) to receive Formula Synchron and the card drawn by Formula Synchron's effect. It also has the effect to Synchro Summon with it during your opponent's Main Phase, a feature only shared with one other monster. This allows you to turn the tide of the game during your opponent's turn by Synchro Summoning a monster such as Black Rose Dragon to destroy all cards on the field or Trishula to remove 3 cards from play to cripple your opponent's plays all after they've used their Normal Summon or any other resource. Formula Synchron also has unusually high DEF for a level 2 monster, and it's not terribly uncommon for it to stick around.

3.) Fishborg Blaster

Fishborg Blaster is one of only two Tuners to be Banned. It's Level 1, Water, Fish and can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard indefinitely. Fishborg Blaster has 2 conditions that try to balance it out but it still remains incredibly powerful. You must discard a card and control a Level 3 or lower Water monster to Special Summon Fishborg Blaster from the Graveyard. And if you Synchro Summon with Fishborg Blaster, all other Synchro Material monsters must be Water. Fishborg Blaster was used in Frog Monarchs to be used with Treeborn Frog to Synchro Summon Formula Synchron or to be used as a Tribute to Tribute Summon a Monarch or Light and Darkness Dragon. It was also used in various Fish FTK decks to amazing effect since it can be Special Summoned by Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth. In that deck it was Special Summoned with Coelacanth's effect along with 3 Oyster Meister to Synchro Summon 3 Armory Arms. The Armory Arms were then equipped to one of your opponent's Attack Position monsters and Coelacanth then attacked the equipped monster resulting in Coelacanth being destroyed and the opponent taking over 8000 damage from the Armory Arm effects. The discard to Special Summon Fishborg is often offset by a draw with Formula Synchron or T.G. Hyper Librarian and it usually results in insane advantage at no cost. The last combo that was prevented by Fishborg's ban involved a Treeborn Frog, and Fishborg Blaster in the Graveyard and Rescue Rabbit. Treeborn Frog would be Special Summoned by its own effect, then Rescue Rabbit would be summoned and used for its effect to Special Summon 2 Level 4 WATER normal monsters. A card would be discarded to summon Fishborg and Fishborg would be used with one of the Normal Monsters to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian. Another card would be discarded to Special summon Fishborg again. Fishborg would then be used with the other level 4 Normal monster to Synchro Summon any Level 5 Synchro monster and a card would be drawn for T.G. Hyper Librarian's effect. Another card would be discarded to Summon Fishborg and it would be used with Treeborn Frog to Synchro Summon Formula Synchron. 2 cards would then be drawn for Formula Synchron and T.G. Hyper Librarian's effects. At this point the player could Synchro Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon by using their 3 Synchro monsters. No other deck can Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon this easily using only one Tuner and that is the testament to Fishborg Blaster's power.

4.) Plaguespreader Zombie

Plaguespreader Zombie is one of the first two Tuners to be Limited. It's a Dark, Level 2, Zombie monster that was the first Tuner with the effect to Special Summon itself from the Graveyard. Unlike Glow-Up Bulb it costs a card from your hand to the top of the deck, so you don't gain any card advantage and you ruin your next draw because you won't get any new cards. However this is often used to put a Destiny HERO - Malicious that you drew back into the deck to be Special Summoned with a Destiny HERO - Malicious in your Graveyard and then used to Synchro Summon a Level 8 Synchro Monster. Also unfortunately Plaguespreader removes itself from play after using its effect unlike Glow-Up Bulb. This is all fixed by Plaguespreader's Zombie type. Being a Zombie it can be easily searched by Goblin Zombie. It can be easily Special Summoned from the Graveyard without its own effect by Mezuki or Zombie Master. Since its Dark it can be sent from the Deck to the Graveyard by Dark Grepher or Armageddon Knight. It is also the named Tuner on Revived King Ha Des, Archfiend Zombie Skull and Doomkaiser Dragon.

5.) Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind is the other one of the first two Tuners to be Limited. It's a Blackwing which gives it access to all the Blackwing searchability and summonability, it's a Winged Beast which gives it utility because it can be used for Icarus Attack. It's Dark which means it can be used to Summon Dark Armed Dragon or brought back with cards like Dark Eruption. Like most of the other Tuners on this list Gale can Special Summon itself to be easily used for a Synchro Summon, unfortunately you must control another Blackwing first and Gale can only be summoned from the hand by its effect. However this is offset by Gale's effect and rather strange Level 3. Because it is Level 3 is can be used to summon the tricky Level 7 Synchro Monsters like Black Rose Dragon to destroy all cards on the field, or Blackwing Armor Master with its inability to be destroyed by battle. Then there's Gale's effect; it can permanantly cut the ATK and DEF of any monster in half once a turn. This effectively gives Gale the ability to destroy monsters of 2600 ATK or less by itself. Powerful Synchro monsters like Stardust Dragon are easily beaten by Gale. It's for this effect that Gale is often "teched" into non Blackwing decks just for its ability to take down large monsters then used to Synchro Summon.

Honorable mentions:

Black Salvo/Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North/Debris Dragon/Junk Synchron

Any Tuner that can Special Summon a non-Tuner from the Graveyard is incredibly powerful for an instant Synchro Summon.

Completely agree with this guy