Competitive in nature, a YuGiOh Master Duel deck tier list will become a staple resource as the game and its player base matures. Being a free-to-play game, you can't just unlock every card from the start, making a priority system the key to growing in strength as you gather up top-tier cards before aiming for less important ones.
The current YuGiOh Master Duel decks tier list will change rapidly as more and more cards are made available and resources become more sparse. Right now, there aren't too many starting decks to gather up, but you'll want to know which of the bunch tends to offer the highest win-rate against the game's dizzying amount of strategic options.
YuGiOh Master Duel deck tier list - Best decks for April 2023
| Deck | Tier | Reason | How to Obtain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synchro of Unity | S | Syncho of Unity strikes a fine balance between old and new mechanics and should suit past players willing to ease themselves into newer mechanics. | Starter selection |
| Spellbook of Prophecy | S | Uses Xyz summons for the most part, but can pull out some scary Syncro and Link monsters if you're willing to put in the effort. It's an advanced deck for sure. | Shop |
| Power of the Dragon | B | Power of the Dragon is the best deck for those who maybe haven't dueled since around 2008. It keeps things simple with high-attack monsters and light fusions, but it can get quickly overpowered by decks that use less familiar tactics. It also has a few too many spells and traps to be consistent in battle, with our first match getting us only a single low-attack monster in seven turns. | Starter selection |
| Link Generation | A | This deck uses monster titles as a mechanic, building itself around the "Cyberse" subset of creatures. It'll be easy to understand for past players who used to use decks themed around things like Harpie Lady without being overwhelming. | Starter selection |
| Magicial of Pendulum | A | Classic players will find a lot of card designs they love here, but the Pendulum mechanic, while incredibly powerful, can take some time to properly learn | Shop |
| Re-Contract Universe | B | Combining monster titles with XYZ summons will equate to a steep learning curve for anyone but well-established duelists, but in the right hands, the Re-Contract Universe has a lot to offer. You just need to really think ahead. | Shop |
| Rage of Cipher | A | The new Rage of Cipher deck is incredibly strong, but the XYZ mechanic it focuses on can cause some confusion. | Shop |
YuGiOh Master Duel gives you your first deck during the tutorial - which you can skip right through if you're an experienced player.
Consisting of "easy to use cards", it even acknowledges the fact that you'll want to use more advanced tactics like Synchro Summons against harder opponents, which suggests later decks will become more or less mandatory against real-world opponents.
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Thankfully, you're given the option to pick one of three decks right at the end of the tutorial. All three of these use more advanced cards tactics than in the tutorial, but which is the best deck for kicking off your Master Duel career? It depends on your own skillset, but mostly on that of the cards in question.
YuGiOh Master Duel best Synchro x Xyz Festival decks
With the Synchro x Xyz Festival event now active, we'll be adding a few of the best Synchro x Xyz Festival decks to this list as time goes on. Check back again soon.
YuGiOh Master Duel deck tier list - best N/R decks
For the recent in-game event, we've pulled some of the best YuGiOh Master Duel N/R decks from around the web into this handy little list.
It isn't really feasible for us to list out whole entire card lists, so we're just going to list the name of the deck, the idea behind it, and a link to our sources so you can clone their recommendations for yourself.
The first five of these come courtesy of YouTuber Lithium2300, who has a great track record when it comes to worthwhile decks.
Best YuGiOh Master Duel N/R decks for the N/R festival
- Gadgets (card list)
- Want to channel a little bit of Yugi or Leo? These cute cards are great at swarming the field, which can then facilitate loads of extra deck summons. Spells and traps focus on destroying any threats.
- Yosenju Tenyi (card list)
- This deck features loads of cards than can be special summoned when your field is empty, with lots of banish effects coming into play as well.
- Metalfoes (card list)
- So long as you can hack Pendulum monsters, these fusion-heavy Metalfoe monsters are all a gateway into bringing out the dreaded Metalfoes Orichalc.
- Megalith (card list)
- The Megalith cards are primarily fusion summons, which is why you'll see cards like Senju and Manju in here. The extra deck is, as always, stacked, but the ritual monsters themselves make up the core strategy.
- Cyber Dragon (card list)
- Everybody's favourite meta monster returns with a slight twist. Grabbing other Cyber Dragon cards from the extra deck is, as ever, a major part of this one, but DNA Surgery is there to help ensure the whole field is full of machines.
Now the N/R event is over, these decks may not be quite as attuned to general combat, but could still serve you well regardless. There hasn't been another event in YuGiOh Master Duel since May's Fusion Festival, so a new one should arrive soon.
click to enlargeYuGiOh Master Duel tier list - best packs
| Pack | Tier | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Valiant Wings | S | The Exosister archtype is set to change things up for the foreseeable. |
| The Beyond Speed | A | This one brings some of the latest physical cards to the game. Confusion is a great strategy, and building a deck most won't have seen before will always gain an advantage. |
| The Ruler's Master | B | This one works in much the same way as the one above. |
| Stalwart Force | B | Stalwart Force picks out some of the most well-used cards in recent memory and stuffs them into a single set. If you're looking for a card to theme your deck around, you'll find it here. |
| Revival of Legends | C | Revive of Legends it built on pure nostalgia. The cards inside are hit-and-miss in terms of competitive viability, but players from any part of YuGiOh's past will get a kick out of opening them. |
| Master Pack | F | Feeling lost or just have everything you could want from the other two packs? The generalized Master Pack is the way to go. It's just a smorgasbord of cards from across the catalogue. |
Of course, Master Duel isn't all about using pre-built decks. It's a great way to jump straight into the action, but anyone knows that a custom-built deck designed and honed with a particular player-made strategy in mind is not only more fun but generally more powerful as well.
To do that, you'll need to open packs and get lucky with the cards that you pull. For that, we've rounded up the best packs in the Master Duel tier list right now. With new cards constantly launching, old packs will make way for the new packs. And, with any new cards, the element of surprise is sure to create an advantage for those who can quickly learn their tricks.
click to enlargeYuGiOh Master Duel decks - meta decks tier list
| Deck Name/Theme | Featured Card | Strategy | Secret Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunalight | Coming soon | Coming soon | Moonlit Avian Dance |
| Madolche | Coming soon | Coming soon | Beloved Dolls |
| Virtual World | Coming soon | Coming soon | Cyber City Guardians |
| Zodiac Tri-Bridgade | Coming soon | Coming soon | Echo Chamber Nation |
| Adamancipater | Coming soon | Coming soon | Pyroxene Relinquished |
Now that we're officially into the launch of YuGiOh Master Duel, decks and the meta deck tier list are starting to take shape. With over 10k cards available through the game's packs and other means, there's truly no end to the decks you can create. Above, we've listed the names of a few of the best decks around.
Over time, we'll flesh each card type out on their own individual pages and link to them from the table. For now, just search for the key cards mentioned in-game and you'll find a bunch of deck lists used by other players - to unknown levels of success.
If you like what you see, either copy the list to your own game for a like-for-like deck or merely use it as a foundation for your own.
click to enlargeYuGiOh Master Duel decks - best retro decks
| Deck Set/Theme | Featured Card | Strategy | Secret Packs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sphinx | Theinen the Great Sphinx | Remember the promo cards that came with the first YuGiOh movie? So does Master Duel. Search for Theinen the Great Sphinx in the public deck search and you'll find one using all those powerful promo cards. | N/A |
| Elemental Hero | Elemental Hero Flame Wingman | Though the Elemental Hero theme is still going strong with newer mechanics, you can make a deck that's identical to Jaden Yuki's from the YuGiOh GX anime, complete with Flame Wingman as its main damage dealer. | Neo Space Comrades, The First Heroes |
| Marik's Deck | The Winged Dragon of Ra / Lava Golem | This deck uses whatever means necessary to summon the iconic Egyptian God card, including sacrificing the other player's monsters, pinning them with Lava Golem, or using cards like Guardian Slime. | The Great Olds, Beasts of the Inferno |
| Cyber Dragon | Cyber Dragon | Popular during the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online: Duel Evolution days, the Cyber Dragon deck focuses on putting the powerful monster down without a sacrifice and chaining it into more and more powerful fusion summons. | Pearlescent Cyber Dragons |
| Ancient Gear | Ancient Gear Golem | Also stemming from the YuGiOh GX days, the Ancient Gear Golem, which can deny the use of spells and traps, serves as a solid foundation for a bunch of other summons. | Gargantuan Gears |
| Volcanic | Doomfire Doomfire | Hailing from the Duel Revolution days also, Volcanic Doomfire leads the charge with similar monsters designed to melt the opponent's life points with effects. | Beasts of the Inferno |
| Gravekeeper | Necrovalley | Ishizu put these cards to good use last during season 2. For those who fell in love with Egyptian history from the show, this is a deck worth looking into. | Guardian of Kings |
| Destiny Hero | Destiny Hero Plasma | Aster used one of the only decks that was able to defeat Jade, the main character of the YuGiOh GX story. It's a similar deck to the Elemental Heroes, only a little more edgy. | Shrouded Heroes |
If you've come to YuGiOh Master Duel looking to relive your childhood obsession, you'll be glad to know you totally can.
Though the game wastes no time in mentioning newer, complicated mechanics like XYX, Link, and Pendulum summons, tons of classic cards from the first few seasons of the YuGiOh anime and TCG sets exist here; from Elemental Heroes and Sphinx, to Gravekeeper sets and Mako Tsunami's powerful Tornado Wall setup.
Above, we've listed the names of decks using these retro cards, the signature card you'll want to search for to find deck ideas in-game, and the general strategies the decks use in battle.
What are YuGiOh Master Duel secret packs?
YuGiOh Master Duel secret packs are just that: secret. They're unlocked by pulling or crafting SR or UR cards. You can read all about them on our YuGiOh Master Duel Secret Packs page, which includes every pack, the card sets they feature, and how best to unlock them.
click to enlargeHow can I get a guaranteed YuGiOh Master Duel UR?
Unlike real YuGiOh card packs, there's a way to guarantee you get a UR card in YuGiOh Master Duel. It's the game's bad-luck detection mechanic, and it's actually more forgiving than most other games of its type.
Though you're not guaranteed to get anything beyond rares and commons in any YuGiOh Master Duel ten-pull, if you're unlucky enough to not get single UR in ten packs, your next ten-pack pull is guaranteed to have at least one UR. This only applies to the same pack you triggered the effect on, though, so you'll want to take the game up on the offer before the pack rotates out of the shop.
And that's about it for the YuGiOh Master Duel tier list guide for now. Why not consider some unrelated reading material? Our Awaken: Chaos Era tier list, League of Pantheons tier list, and Critical Legends tier list are all kicking off. For more game ideas, check out our larger OMG code guide hub for a bunch of freebies in tons of other big mobile games.
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