Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel is out now, bringing the legendary card game to a global audience, free of charge. Yes, the base TCG and a bunch of expansions are now available, offering the easiest and most engaging way to log on and start battling other players. Competitive TCG players will adore this.
But before you start battling with your full might and a completely customized deck, you’ll need to pick a starter deck. You’re given a starter deck at the beginning of the game and are then allowed to choose one of three more tactical decks: Power of the Dragon’ Synchro of Unity’ or Link Generation. Experienced players will be able to figure out what kind of decks these are just from the title, but if you need some context before you make your decision, just read through our breakdowns below.
Power of the Dragon
This deck is going to be the best pick for many classic players and those new to Yu-Gi-Oh. It offers a large variety of dragon monsters and focuses on building a squad of powerful creatures that can inflict a lot of damage. As the name implies, it focuses on Dragon-types and features a lot of cards that will be familiar to older players, such as The Flute of Summoning Dragon and Lord of D., in addition to the iconic Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Playing this deck doesn’t require any more information than what you are given in the early tutorial, while the rest of the strategies can be figured out simply by reading card descriptions and playing patiently. This is the most straightforward way to play Yu-Gi-Oh and will prove to be reliable in many battles, but can also be easily countered by a deck built to wipe away your monsters with trap and spell cards. As a result, this deck and the strategies it presents are a good starting place, but not something you should look to focus on long-term or in competitive play.
Synchro of Unity
As the name implies, the Synchro of Unity deck is about synchronizing the strengths of your monster units. This deck revolves around a variety of monster effects that complement one another. The individual monsters aren’t actually very powerful, but the monsters that can be summoned from the Extra Deck are. The basic monsters mostly have complex effects that will make them tough to be wiped off the battlefield, even if your opponent has formidable creatures.
This deck is ideal for players who like to frustrate their opponent and play the long game. You won’t ever be able to overwhelm your opponent early on in a match, but will instead be improving your cards on the field and in your hand until your opponent has few options left. A tough deck to defeat, but also a tough one to play.
Link Generation
All of the monsters in this deck belong to the Cyberse family, and almost all of the spell and trap cards boost the strengths of Cyberse monsters. It’s easy to see how this deck works immediately. It takes cues from both Power of the Dragon and Synchro of Unity in the sense that it has incredibly powerful monsters, in addition to a variety of buffs and effects you can use in order to make your team borderline impenetrable.
Spells like Spool Code have their effects increased dramatically by the more Cyberse monsters you’re in control of, and the most powerful monster in the deck is Dual Assembwurm, which can have its stats halved in exchange for a speedier summon. Other monsters in the deck also have affinities with other Cyberse creatures, like the Launcher Commander, which grants other Cyberse monsters on the field an extra 300 points to both ATK and DEF. Simple buffs like these are found throughout the deck, and make it formidable in the right hands.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.
