Yu-Gi-Oh: 20 Best Decks For Newcomers (Who Want To Win) (2024)

Yu-Gi-Oh! has an incredibly difficult learning curve. Coming into the game, players need to be aware of hundreds of cards and dozens of decks that are all viable, if not top-tier, in the current metagame. More than anything else, players will want to win a game even if they're new to playing Yu-Gi-Oh!

Thankfully, there are still many decks available for new players to try out. These Yu-Gi-Oh! decks are largely straightforward rather than containing complex combos that would take several hours of studying to learn. Even without that complexity, beginners will be equipped to defeat the opponent either with large boss monsters or by altering the pace of the game to fit the player.

Updated on June 19, 2024, by Antonio Samson: Yu-Gi-Oh has been enjoyed by fans for years. However, it can be hard for new players to figure out which deck is right for them. This article has been updated to include more decks and to meet CBR's editorial and formatting settings.

20 Sky Striker's Spell Mastery is Perfect for Beginners

Mastering Spell-Based Control

• Sky Striker Ace - Kagari
• Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku
• Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage!
• Sky Striker Mecha - Widow Anchor

The Sky Striker is a versatile deck archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! competition formats, renowned for its spell-based strategy and intricate control tactics. The deck revolves around the titular Sky Striker Ace monsters, which are powerful Link monsters that can manipulate the game state through various spell cards.

Sky Striker decks are great for beginners to competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! play because they rely on spells rather than complex monster combos. The key to success for new players is to learn to control the field and gain an advantage through the Sky Striker Ace monsters' effects, making it easier to learn the game's mechanics.

19 Salamangreat Masters Link Summoning and Resource Management

Cyberse Resilience and Link Mastery

• Salamangreat Gazelle
• Salamangreat Spinny
• Salamangreat Heatleo
• Salamangreat Roar

Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Salamangreat is a cyberse archetype in the game known for its robust Link Summoning strategy and resource recycling capabilities. The deck revolves around its core monsters and spells, enabling players to maintain field control and outlast opponents through persistent plays.

What makes the Salamangreat setup appealing to competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! beginners is its consistency and straightforward gameplay mechanics. The archetype's reliance on recycling resources and building up to powerful Link monsters allows players to learn essential concepts such as resource management and strategic sequencing. At the same time, it teaches these fundamentals in an accessible way to avoid overwhelming the player.

18 ABC's Fusion Summoning with Powerful Machines and Unions

Uniting Machines for Fusion Dominance

• A-Assault Core
• B-Buster Drake
• C-Crush Wyvern
• ABC-Dragon Buster

ABC is a union-based archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! competitive formats centered around assembling machine-type monsters to summon powerful fusion monsters. The deck's strategy revolves around its core monsters. They combine to form the formidable ABC-Dragon Buster, which is capable of disrupting opponent's plays and offering versatile control options.

ABC decks appeal to Yu-Gi-Oh! beginners due to their straightforward fusion summoning mechanics and powerful disruption effects. The archetype's ability to adapt to different matchups and control the game's tempo makes it a versatile choice for players seeking to learn strategic playstyles. Like other playstyles, this is a great way for players to gradually introduce themselves to more complex systems.

17 True Draco's Tribute Summoning and Control for Beginners

Methodical Tribute Summoning Mastery

• Master Peace, the True Dracoslayer
• Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior
• Dragonic Diagram
• True Draco Apocalypse

True Draco is a tribute summon-based archetype in the Yu-Gi-Oh meta known for its robust control strategy utilizing continuous spell and trap cards. This Yu-Gi-Oh! deck revolves around summoning the powerful True Draco monsters by tributing continuous spells or traps, which provide additional effects to help new players dominate the field.

True Draco decks are ideal for Yu-Gi-Oh! beginners interested in a deliberate, methodical playstyle. They're centered around tribute summoning and resource management. The archetype's reliance on continuous cards ensures consistent access to powerful effects while teaching essential gameplay concepts such as timing and resource allocation. It's another great setup for newcomers to figure out what playstyle they prefer.

16 Altergeist's Trap-Heavy Control Tactics for New Duelists

Trap-Heavy Control Tactics

• Altergeist Multifaker
• Altergeist Meluseek
• Altergeist Protocol
• Altergeist Hexstia

Altergeist is a trap-heavy control deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! renowned for its disruptive gameplay and strategic use of monster effects. The archetype focuses on maintaining board presence through traps and monster effects, allowing players to control the game's flow and frustrate opponents with its versatile play style.

Altergeist decks are ideal for Yu-Gi-Oh! beginners who enjoy a slower, control-oriented playstyle. The deck's reliance on traps and monster effects to disrupt the opponent makes it easy to learn and effective in various matchups. These additional decks offer a range of playstyles and strategies, ensuring that new Yu-Gi-Oh! players can find something that suits their preferences. This is great for helping newcomers learn the game efficiently.

15 Traptrix Uses Normal Traps and Easy Summoning

Insectile Mastery of Normal Traps

• Traptrix Rafflesia
• Traptrix Myrmeleo
• Floodgate Trap Hole
• Traptrix Sera

Traptrix is one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s older archetypes at this point, but it always remains just relevant enough to keep getting wins. The focus is on a group of insect girls known as Traptrix, who can all interact with the classic "Trap Hole" Normal Trap cards.

What makes this a great Yu-Gi-Oh! deck for beginners is that thanks to its trap-focused playstyle, the player doesn't have to keep track of too many cards shifting on and off the field to summon their monsters. With easily searchable Traps, it shouldn't be a problem for players to always keep control of the game. Traptrix even has a Structure Deck, and purchasing three of them will make it easy to build the core of the deck.

14 Spright's Level 2 Monsters Make Perfect Combos

Level 2 and Link-2 Momentum

• Spright Blue
• Spright Jet
• Spright Starter
• Gigantic Spright

In Yu-Gi-Oh!, not many decks can make themselves known as Spright did when it first released. The deck is based around Level 2, Rank 2, and Link-2 monsters. With the ability to special summon themselves from the hand, they're fairly difficult to stop once they get going.

One of the key things keeping Spright going even after it was hit by the ban list involves access to the Two-Axis Toolbox. Players can special summon out Toadally Awesome, one of the most powerful Xyz monsters, and use that to protect themselves while they build up an army of other Spright monsters. The deck is so good other beginner players might even want to know how to beat Spright in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh play.

13 Labrynth's Traps Have Control Over the Enemy

Trap-Centric Control Strategy

• Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle
• Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle
• Welcome Labrynth
• Big Welcome Labrynth

The Labrynth deck has been around long enough that people have even learned some reliable strategies to beat this Yu-Gi-Oh! setup. However, the continued support the deck has received makes it relevant even today. Like other control decks, it doesn't rely on a ton of monster summoning to get the job done. Instead, the focus with Labrynth is creating a deck with a heavy trap focus.

Each monster in Labrynth gains different effects when a Normal Trap Card is activated, allowing the player to gain an advantage. It's a fun Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, but it also encourages the use of classic Normal Trap Cards. This means even beginners will likely know what many of the cards do already. With these fundamentals, it won't take long for them to learn the rest of the deck.

12 Purrely's Adorable Cat Monsters Utilize Spells to Their Advantage

Cute Cats and Quick-Play Spells

• Purrely Delicious Memory
• Purrely Happy Memory
• Expurrely Noir
• Epurrely Beauty

The Purrely archetype isn't just one of the cutest archetypes ever made, it's also one of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! decks. The deck is built around a bunch of adorable cat-like monsters of low levels, who rely on quick-play spells to gain different effects.

The real trick to the deck is making Xyz monsters that can then use quick-play spells as materials to grant them new abilities. While the lower Ranked Epurrely Xyz monsters can't do much, enough materials allow them to "evolve" into vastly more powerful Expurrely monsters. If players can get the hang of attaching quick-play spells to Xyz monsters, the rest is straightforward: have monsters with much more ATK, and defeat all the smaller monsters.

11 Mathmech's Simple Math Operations Make Powerful Synchros

Calculated Synchro and Boss Monster Strategy

• Mathmech Addition
• Mathmech Circular
• Geomathmech Final Sigma
• Primatech Alembertian

Mathmechs in Yu-Gi-Oh! are as straightforward as they sound. They're a group of robots named after math operations. That said, people shouldn't be concerned with the "math" part, as this deck can be incredibly simple.

There's a lot this deck can do, but beginner Yu-Gi-Oh! players will want to focus on the deck's synchro boss monster, Geomathmech Final Sigma. Final Sigma, when summoned to the Extra Monster Zone, is unaffected by card effects, and inflicts double damage to the opponent's monsters. With the other cards in the deck modifying attack and defense, this can be an easy One Turn Kill.

10 Fur Hire's Special Summoning Tactics and Boss Monster Strategies

Versatile Special Summoning and Effects

• Beat, Bladesman Fur Hire
• Rafale, Champion Fur Hire
• Folgo, Justice Fur Hire
• Donner, Dagger Fur Hire

Fur Hire was, at one point, not a great Yu-Gi-Oh! deck to start with. However, given what the deck was capable of, it was only a matter of time before it turned into a respectable deck. Made up of a mix of monsters from all levels, the smaller Fur Hire works off special summoning other Fur Hire to the field either from the hand or graveyard to activate their effects. Meanwhile, the bigger ones can't special summon monsters but gain their effects upon hitting the field.

The key boss monsters for this Yu-Gi-Oh! deck are Rafale and Folgo. Rafale negates monster effects by discarding Fur Hire cards. Far more important, though, is Folgo, an Extra Deck Link monster that draws three cards whenever the player has three monsters of different Types on the field and destroys an opponent's monster. The overwhelming card advantage will seal most opponents' fates.

9 Subterrors' Flip Summoning Takes Over the Field

Flip Summoning and Field Control

• Subterror Guru
• Subterror Fiendess
• The Hidden City
• Summon Limit

Subterrors are beginner-friendly Yu-Gi-Oh! decks because, rather than memorizing many combos, the goal is to hide behind as many traps as possible. The entire deck is based around flip summoning and protecting its monsters via the use of the field spell, The Hidden City, among other tools.

This deck is a good idea for Yu-Gi-Oh! players who don’t want to spend hours trying to learn combos that take five minutes long to execute. Instead, the idea for new players is to slow the opponent down to the player’s pace and force them to figure out how to get past their back row.

8 Marincess' Combos Make it Easy to Control the Board

Aqua-themed Control and Consistency

• Marincess Dive
• Marincess Blue Tang
• Marincess Wave
• Marincess Great Bubble Reef

Though it came from a Yu-Gi-Oh! anime where nearly every deck was somehow good, Marincess wasn't a serious setup for years. It had a few neat tricks, but it ultimately couldn't stand up to some of the more powerful meta decks of the past.

However, Konami gave them a big boost with the set Legendary Duelists: Duels from the Deep, adding another boss monster option in Aqua Argonaut. They also received some more consistency tools in Marincess Springirl and Marincess Dive. There's a minor learning curve to the deck, but since most plays will look the same, it won't take too long for most Yu-Gi-Oh! players to adapt.

7 Unchained's Self-Destruction Steals Opponents Monsters

Destruction and Monster Control

• Unchained Twins – Aruha
• Unchained Twins – Rakea
• Abominable Unchained Soul
• Unchained Abomination

For those who want to frustrate their opponent in a competitive match, the Unchained deck is an excellent choice. This Yu-Gi-Oh! deck is based on destroying its own cards to gain effects, but it also involves stealing the opponent’s monsters via a plethora of effects.

Unchained Soul Of Rage and Unchained Soul Of Anguish can link summon into the deck’s Link 4 monsters by using themselves and an opponent's monster. There are very few ways around cards like that, and when combined with kaiju, this is a truly fearsome and frustrating Yu-Gi-Oh! deck that will ensure plenty of easy wins.

6 Thunder Dragons Fill the Board With Powerful Link Dragons

Dragonic Chaos and Versatility

• Thunder Dragon
• Thunder Dragondark
• Thunder Dragon Colossus
• Thunder Dragon Titan

Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Thunder Dragon is a lot better than it should be, considering the deck lost its best card in Thunder Dragon Colossus. The comeback largely comes from combining the deck with Chaos cards and the versatile Red-Eyes archetype. Originally based on a Yu-Gi-Oh! card from 2002, the archetype has grown greatly from its humble roots.

Yu-Gi-Oh! players can easily figure out how to get some impressive boards with plenty of dragons and huge link monsters without needing to spend too much time figuring out combos. Thunder Dragons are especially noteworthy in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, where Colossus is still legal to use. It also has some neat tricks to get around decks like Runick, thanks to how much it uses the banish zone.

5 Eldlich's Legendary Golden Control Brings Back Monsters

Golden Control and Zombie Strategy

• Eldlich The Golden Lord
• Cursed Eldland
• Conquistador of the Golden Land
• Eldlixer of Scarlet Sanguine

Drawing upon the legend of El Dorado, Eldlich offers an easy-to-play deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! competitive play that can control the game while also bringing out powerful threats at every turn. This deck relies upon the titular Eldlich and packs plenty of ways to search him out and bring him back again and again.

While Eldlich may be the centerpiece of this Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, the various Golden Land and Eldlixer cards also offer plenty of support for other zombie-based strategies. Vampires, in particular, are an excellent addition, as they can make great use of the monsters each Golden Land trap creates.

4 Madolche's Shuffle Mechanism Removes the Opponents' Cards

Sweet Consistency and Shuffling Tactics

• Madolche Magileine
• Madolche Salon
• Madolche Queen Tiaramisu
• Madolche Chocolat-a-la-mode

The Madolche deck has been one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most consistent decks for years. The deck is made up of adorable kids with a bunch of dessert-themed puns that shuffle back into the deck rather than going to the graveyard when destroyed. They're a special deck because they've attained the status of a deck that will always be "good," even if they're never great. That makes them perfect for newcomers, since, no matter the era, players can come back and try this deck out.

The key play with this Yu-Gi-Oh! deck is getting to Madolche Queen Tiaramisu, which can shuffle cards on the opponent's field back into the deck without targeting. Since the deck is incredibly consistent, getting to her isn't a problem, meaning the only thing new players have to worry about is making sure the opponent can't stop them.

3 Floowandereeze's Summon Flood Strategy Banishes Monsters

Banish and Tribute Control

• Floowandereeze & Empen
• Dimension Shifter
• Floowandereeze & Robina
• Raiza the Mega Monarch

For Yu-Gi-Oh! players who have always wished they had another normal summon, there's Floowandereeze. Telling the tales of three birds as they travel across the world making friends, this deck allows the player to flood the field with massive chains of normal, and tribute summons while reclaiming their banished cards at the same time.

The main goal of this deck is to stop the opponent from making plays. Dimension Shifter keeps their cards banished while Floowandereeze cards return from the banished zone. Meanwhile, Empen locks down special summoned monster effects, and Raiza bounces cards back to the opponent's hand. Floowandereeze and the Unexplored Winds also allow the deck to tribute an opponent's monsters to bring out its own.

2 HERO's Classic Warrior Archetype is the Ultimate Fusion Deck

Legendary Warrior Searches and Fusion Mastery

• A Hero Lives
• Elemental HERO Dark Law
• Elemental HERO Stratos
• Mask Change

HERO is a classic archetype, one that’s been around since the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX era and has only gotten better. Being a deck of Warriors means it’s got access to one of the best searchers in the game in Reinforcement of the Army. Focusing on HEROes also means they have access to A Hero Lives and Elemental HERO Stratos.

The hardest thing about building HEROes after figuring out which version to use – whether Elemental, Destiny, Masked, or another group – is figuring out how small the basic engine should be. Other than that, it’s a simple matter of summoning large monsters and claiming victory.

1 Kashtira's Psychic Level 7 Strategy Locks Down the Opponent

Psychic Banish Mill and Field Lock

• Kashtira Fenrir
• Kashtira Unicorn
• Kashtira Ariseheart
• Kashtira Shangri-Ira

The Kashtira deck might not be the easiest in Yu-Gi-Oh!, but the small learning curve is worth the benefit. It's based around level 7 Psychic monsters, and it focuses on two different strategies. The first strategy involves banishing the opponent's monsters through the effects of various Kashtira monsters. This "banish mill" strategy is effective, as not many decks can recover from having their cards banished face-down.

The second strategy, however, is what makes Kashtira a proper threat. The power of Kashtira Shangri-Ira renders an opponent's monster or spell and trap card zones unusable each time an opponent's card is banished. With no restriction to the effect, Shangri-Ira can quickly render the entire field unplayable.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

Experience the definitive Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game like never before in Master Duel, the free-to-play online strategy game that brings the iconic card battles to your PC and consoles!

Franchise

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Platform(s)

PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Nintendo Switch , PC , Xbox One

Released

January 18, 2022

Developer

Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment

Publisher

Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment

Genre(s)

trading card game , Strategy

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

Unity

ESRB

t

How Long To Beat

35 hours

Mode