Tuner monster

"Assault Synchron", a Tuner monster.

Tuner monsters (Japanese: チューナー Chūnā "Tuner") are monsters with "Tuner" listed on the Type line. They are required for the Synchro Summon of a Synchro Monster.

Normal, Effect, Fusion, Ritual, Pendulum, Token, and Synchro Monsters can all be Tuner monsters. Because Tuner is not an Ability, Tuner monsters can also have an Ability, such as Flip or Union. Special Summon Monsters can also be Tuner monsters. Some card effects can also treat non-Tuner monsters as Tuners, including the effects of Trap Monsters to Special Summon themselves.

Characteristics

As a broad category of monsters, Tuner monsters have no central shared effect or special mechanical traits. However, Tuner monsters have some commonalities with regards to their card effects or properties:

• Most Tuner monsters are low-Level, usually 1-3.
• The rarer Level 5+ Tuner monsters typically have effects that change Levels (e.g. "Flower Cardian Willow with Calligrapher", "Mare Mare") or have an alternative playstyle (e.g. "Ursarctic Megapolar").
• Older Level 4 Tuner monsters often have negative effects or conditions that limit their use.
• Tuner monsters typically have effects that support Synchro Summoning, such as:
  • Special Summoning another monster (e.g. "Deep Sea Diva", "Masked Chameleon")
  • Special Summoning themselves when a condition is met (e.g. "Lady of the Lake", "Fishborg Archer")
  • Changing monsters' Level, Type, or Attribute (e.g. "Delta Flyer", "Genomix Fighter", "Genex Ally Chemistrer")
• Some Tuner monsters can treat themselves as non-Tuner monsters for a Synchro Summon (e.g. "Phantom King Hydride")
• Some Tuner monsters can only be used as Synchro Material for a limited set of Synchro Monsters (e.g. "Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Spirit", "Mystic Macrocarpa Seed", "Scrap Soldier")
• Older Tuner Pendulum Monsters typically have restrictive effects or conditions (e.g. "Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer", "White Wing Magician"), as they can be easily recovered by Pendulum Summoning after being used in Synchro Summons.

Count by properties

By Level

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
#	123	132	127	83	28	21	8	9	0	0	1	0

By monster card type

	Normal	Effect	Ritual	Fusion	Synchro	Pendulum	Token
#	15	515	2	3	39	13	3

Due to the usage of Levels in Synchro Summoning, there are no Xyz or Link Tuner monsters.

By ability

	Toon	Spirit	Union	Gemini	Flip
#	0	0	1	0	3

In addition, there are 24 cards that can treat themselves as Tuner monsters, and 32 cards that can treat other monsters as Tuners.

Design

As implied by the name, many Tuner monsters have designs related to sound, like "Frequency Magician", "Phonon Pulse Dragon", and the "Resonator" monsters. Many Tuner support cards have references to music or wavelengths, like "Natural Tune", "Resonator Call", and "Tuning".

Examples

• 

  Tuner Normal Monster ("Galaxy Serpent")

• 

  Tuner Effect Monster ("Junk Synchron")

• 

  Tuner Ritual Monster ("Magikey Mechmusket - Batosbuster")

• 

  Tuner Fusion Monster ("Sea Monster of Theseus")

• 

  Tuner Synchro Monster ("Formula Synchron")

• 

  Tuner Pendulum Monster ("D/D Orthros")

• 

  Tuner Token Monster ("Swordsoul Token")

Trivia

• While there are no Tuner Gemini monsters, the Gemini monster "Tuned Magician" treats itself as a Tuner after being Normal Summoned while already on the field.
• "Torque Tune Gear" is the only Tuner Union monster.
• While there are no Tuner monsters in Rush Duel, the Tuner monster "Black Salvo" appears in the artwork of "Counter Cannonball."

In other languages

"Tuner monster" in languages other than English

Language	Name	Romanized	Translated
French	monstre Syntoniseur
German	Empfänger-Monster
Italian	mostro Tuner
Portuguese	monstro Regulador
Spanish	monstruo Cantante
Japanese	チューナー	Chūnā	Tuner
Korean	튜너	Tyuneo	Tuner
Chinese (Traditional)	協調怪獸	Xiétiáo guàishòu
Chinese (Simplified)	协调怪兽	Xiétiáo guàishòu

See also

• List of Tuner monsters
• List of Tuner monster support cards
• List of Tuner monster anti-support cards