UNLIKE some of the other Yu-Gi-Oh! video games – looking at you Forbidden Memories – Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel follows the rules of the actual TCG.
This means that fans of the card game can transfer their real-life skills over to the game with ease.
We’ve taken a look at the decks, archetypes, and engines the best Yu-Gi-Oh! players use, and have ranked them by how well they work in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel.
So if you’re a fan of online duelling take a look at our list below and see if any of these sets blow your mind.
10. Sky Strikers
While Sky Strikers was a popular engine in the TCG, it has become even more popular in Master Duel as certain cards were buffed from limited to semi-limited.
Sky Strikers decks make limited use of trap cards – except Infinite Impermanence and focus more on spells for gathering resources.
This build only places Raye and Roze on the field in terms of main deck monsters and focuses on Link cards such as Hayate, Kagari, Shizuku, and Kagari to push the engine forward.
A Sky Striker’s deck builds up spells in the player’s graveyard so that more effects activate.
9. Eldlich
Named after the main monster in the deck – Eldlich The Golden Lord – an Eldlich deck is designed to prevent your opponent from activating card effects, or destroying the cards on your field.
Eldlich is a Zombie, and under the right conditions, this card can rise from its death in the graveyard and return to the field.
This is not a deck for those who like quick and dirty battles, as you focus on steadily draining your opponent’s resources.
Finishing off your lineup with numerous trap cards, you are bound to earn the disdain of all your enemies.
8. Prank-Kids
The Prank-Kids deck feels like a complete meme, but when it’s pulled off correctly it can be devastating.
With this deck, you use the level 1-4 Prank Kids monsters to Fusion, Link, and Special Summon other cards while gathering resources to create devastating combos.
While you will be fusing cards such as Dodo-Doodle-Doo, Bow-Wow-Bark, and Meow-Meow-Mu the effects of this build are no joke.
What is great about this deck is it is easy to build and so perfect for beginners, while also giving a lot of variety of play.
It may not seem like the coolest deck, but it’s efficient, and that’s what really matters.
7. Tri-Brigade
If you’re a fan of beasts then Tri-Brigade is the deck for you, mixing together Beast, Winged Beast, and Beast-Warrior cards.
This build relies heavily on repeated combo attacks as even after the beasts move to the graveyard further effects are activated from there.
This build link summons boss monsters such as Shuraig, combined with banishing strategies.
What makes this deck especially dangerous is adding Zoodiac monsters into the mix.
Combine Xyz Zoodiac beasts with Link Tri-Brigade monsters to see the power of this deck for yourself.
6. Virtual World
If you need a build to counter the Sky Strikers and Prank Kids decks mentioned above then Virtual World is for you.
As the name suggests, there is a focus on Virtual World main deck monsters, banishing them for their bonuses and the summoning Synchro monsters.
Shenshen is great for this deck as it is able to banish all cards on the field at once.
Using the effects of Ultimaya Tzolkin and then summoning Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon will completely nullify the opponent’s effects for a devastating combination.
5. Phantom Knights Raidraptor
Activating the banishing effects of the Phantom Knights in the graveyard and Special Summoning same-level monsters to the field allows you to quickly Xyz Summon powerful Dark monsters.
This engine has united archetypes and uses Raider’s Knight for better consistency.
If you manage to summon Ultimate Falcon using Rank-Up Magic, then your opponent will be forced to quickly admit defeat.
4. Dragonmaid
Inspired by the anime Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Dragonmaids can switch between their dragon and human forms.
By switching forms throughout the duel they provide a variety of benefits including better protections, and the main boss monster Dragonmaid Sheou is able to negate any effects.
The best part of Dragonmaid decks is that if House Dragonmaid is on the field then any Dragonmaid returned to your hand means one monster destroyed on the opponent’s side.
Cute and destructive, just like a dragon maid.
3. Invoked Shaddoll
This is another build that is based on effects that activate when banished to the graveyard, with the added bonus of a number of flip effects.
By using Aleister of Invoker, you can add Invocation into your hand and then create El Shaddoll Construct.
This beast effectively deals with special summoned monsters, and you can gather more resources using other Shaddoll monsters in the main deck.
You can also use Invocation to fuse Invoked Extra Deck monsters which allow you to use cards from your opponent’s graveyard as fusion materials. One not to be overlooked.
2. Toon
Toon monsters are a force to be reckoned with due to their versatility.
They can attack the opponent directly, as long as they aren’t also packing a Toon deck, and powerful cards like Toon Dark Magician can provide extra Toon summons and add spell or trap cards into your hand.
On top of this, the core card of the deck is Toon Kingdom which protects your Toon cards from being destroyed.
With this protection, you can prepare your Toon army to absolutely stampede through your opponent.
1. Drytron Fairy
This build is a Ritual deck that relies on the Fairy monsters to quickly shut down anything your opponent tries to pull off.
Discarding a Fairy using the boss monster, Herald of Ultimateness’ effect, negates anything which the opponent has planned.
It doesn’t matter whether that’s a trap or a spell card, it’s no use against a Drytron Fairy deck.
Cyber Angel monsters can be used as Ritual materials to summon more resources from your deck, and using Dryton combo allows you to do this on the first turn.
It may be a defensive deck but it is also unstoppable.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
