Red-Eyes Black Dragon

" The White dragon represents victory, while the Red-Eyes represents only the potential, however when you have courage, that potential will always shine through."

– The Narrator of the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie.

Dragon Beatstick #2 but with the power of friends.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon, (alternatively known as Red-Eyes B. Dragon, to avoid connotations with black magic) is the second of the Eyes-type dragon monsters and one of the oldest cards in the game, appearing in the Legend of Blue-Eyes booster pack alongside it's rival. As said in the quote above, Blue-Eyes is a powerful card, capable of taking pretty nearly challengers in a straight battle and being able to have even more powerful forms that can win you the game if summoned. Red-Eyes represents the other side of the coin, having the same need for two tributes for a measly 2400 ATK 2000 DEF, worse than the 1 tribute Summoned Skull (also superior to Dark Magician). However, what makes Red-Eyes different from Blue-Eyes is the wealth of support it possesses, enabling tons of combinations in terms of traps, spells, and monsters to defeat your opponent.

Archetype

Due to being a member of the OG card pool, Red-Eyes remains an archetype relatively devoid of Synchro (beyond a very specific card that doesn't even work with its archetype) and XYZ summoning (again, with only 1 card of the type, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon). Relying instead on Fusion and special summoning straight from the deck. Because of this, Red-Eyes relies on having a good hand and know-how for getting the most out of each card. Much like its sister monster Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes has support cards focused mainly on getting the titular monster onto the field and keeping it there, leading to many of its summons and combos.

Notable Cards

Black Dragon's Chick

I'm telling my mom!

Can send itself from the field to summon a Red-Eyes B. Dragon, quick and simple. Can lead to funny happenings with the right cards in hand, such as special summoning Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon for an instant 3000 ATK monster. Needn't be said but watch out for special summoning negations.

Red-Eyes Wyvern

Pedantics

Special summon a Red-Eyes monster at the cost of a banishment. Highly versatile for returning Red-Eyes monsters such as Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning to the field during the End Phase, to normal summon it as a Gemini Monster and wipe out the monsters on the opposing field. Cards that can discard or send monsters to the graveyard can make this card shine through.

The Black Stone of Legend

"I got a Rock but it's red"

If on the field, you get a free level 7 Red-Eyes monster to special summon, if in the graveyard you get a recycling effect, allowing you to not only put a destroyed Red-Eyes monster back into the deck but also summon this card again and repeat. A very different effect from its Blue-Eyes counterpart, representing the flexibility and comeback potential of a good Red-Eyes deck.

Red-Eyes Fusion

This card art is just a more detailed version of Polymerization/Fusion, Joey you lazy fuck.

Fusion summon a monster that has a Red-Eyes monster as a requirement but also changes the name of that fusion-summoned monster to Red-Eyes Black Dragon, allowing you to use support cards that require that card. The Normal/Special summon restriction does put a damper on things but Fusion summoning is usually an end of Phase action so if you are using the right sequence of cards, it shouldn't matter much. Very fun when combined with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon allowing you to use "Inferno Fire Blast" to inflict massive damage to your opponent using Red-Eyes Slash Dragon's ATK raising effect.

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon

No, no, you don't get to have fun today.

The Boss monster of boss monsters, this guy is insane. While a BEWD-type stat-line is relatively impressive for a fusion monster, being able to completely say NO to any and all effects that can target this card is huge. In addition, depending on if you purely summoned this card with Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon you get a two-use card destroying effect, as well as a discard based negate. Of course, this warrants if you can summon this card at all, meaning you'll have to fine-tune your deck to get the most out of this card and keeping it on the field.