Compared toMagic: The Gathering,Yu-Gi-Oh!is a very circuitous trading card game thanks to its tendency of introducing new mechanics with every new major release. Ane manner to learn this complex, merely popular TCG is through its various Starter Decks. These Starter Decks come with a total Deck of cards designed to teach new players either a certain game mechanic or strategy to utilize. These Starter Decks also tends to be based on the decks used past the principal character of various Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

This article will examine the ten best Starter Decks for players wanting to get into Yu-Gi-Oh! and rank them on their potential power. This ranking will be based on the rare cards in the deck and the force of their master mechanic.

Updated Nov 3rd, 2020 by Johnny Garcia:Yu-Gi-Oh! is constantly calculation new Starter and Structure Decks to the game, and has recently appear both a Charmer and Dragunity deck. Not only that, but more pre-synthetic decks are on the way thanks to a recent OCG poll. These themes are Cyber Style (Cyber Dragons and Cyberdarks) and Ice Barrier. Other new products have been announced such as Maximum Gold with many cards revealed that'll give these Starter Decks a big boost. Phantom Rage is also going to exist upon usa before long, a Set releasing plenty of powerful cards for onetime and new strategies.

fifteen Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

junk warrior and junk synhcron

A function of the annual Starter Deck series, Starter Deck: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's was released aslope the anime of the aforementioned name. It includes plenty of cards used past Yusei Fudo in the anime. The deck has many ways to aid players with the then-new mechanic of Synchro Summoning. In addition, Starter Deck: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's includes plenty of fantastic staple cards like Exiled Forcefulness, Not bad Ground, and Lightning Vortex. Junk Synchron is still a great Synchron Monster by today's standards, and can turbo out Synchro Monsters also as Link in the current game.

14 Syrus Truesdale

expressroid and heavy storm

Starter Deck - Syrus Truesdale doesn't offer likewise much when it comes to its Monster line-up. A good chunk of them are Normal Monsters afterwards all. The "Roid" Monsters included are solid for the archetype, just what makes Starter Deck - Syrus good is the Spell and Trap card line-up information technology provides. Behemothic Trunade, Heavy Storm, and Book of Moon were all fantastic staples at the fourth dimension, so much and so the onetime two have been banned for quite some time. Information technology has practiced cards that tin can however exist used today, such as Sakuretsu Armor and the aforementioned Book of Moon.

thirteen Nighttime Legion

exploder dragon and d/d/d pendragon

Dark Legion includes enough of crawly cards, with only 3 useless Normal Monsters included in the deck. Its comprehend carte, D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon is a great card, with an piece of cake to special summon condition and the power to destroy Spell and Trap cards while boosting upwards its already dandy Attack stat. Dark Legion included a few cards that deal piercing damage, as well as cards that fix upwards the graveyard. Staple cards such every bit Monster Reincarnation and Smashing Ground are nifty additions to the deck also.

12 Dawn Of The Xyz

number 39 utopia and raigeki break

Starter Deck: Dawn of the Syz, as the title implies, came out right beforeYu-Gi-Oh! Zexalcame out and served as an introduction to the then-new Xyz mechanic. Its cover card was Number 39: Utopia, a card which is still used in modernistic decks to this day thanks to Utopia: The Lightning and Double or Nil. In addition, it comes with groovy staple cards like Dust Tornado, Raigeki Break, and The Warrior Returning Alive. Starter Deck: Dawn of the Syz served every bit a great starting off point for Xyz summoning, with cards in it being used to this day.

11 Saber Strength

odd eyes saber dragon and cyber dragon

Saber Force has enough of useful cards, with Odd-Optics Saber Dragon being its embrace carte. It's a fantastic one besides, as it's easy to special summon and build up advantage thank you to its effect. Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon can destroy a Monster an opponent controls (without targetting) whenever it destroys a Monster by battle. Saber Strength comes with great Spell and Trap cards, including Night Hole, Dust Tornado, and Smashing Ground. The Computer is also a very fun Monster to build around, and Cyber Dragon is an e'er-fantastic bill of fare for any deck to have advantage of.

10 Kaiba Reloaded

soul exchange and blue eyes white dragon

Based off of Seto Kaiba'south bill of fare deck from the first episode from the original anime. The deck is built around two strategies. one strategy is to tribute summon the Blueish-Eye White Dragon. The other strategy being to summon every bit many monsters as possible. The deck is designed for quick tribute summoning or keeping as little monster cards in your mitt.

The problem with the simplicity of this deck'south strategy is that information technology is easy to counter once your opponent knows how you are using this deck. The deck is likewise vulnerable to decks based around anti-Dragon monsters similar the Buster Blader.

9 Yugi Reloaded

dark magician and swords of revealing light

Based off of Yugi Moto's deck from the first episode from the original anime. This deck has two purposes one is to utilise a lot of spell cards and to easily counter the Kaiba Reloaded deck. This purpose is fulfilled thanks to the fact that many of the deck'due south monsters come with spell counters and several monsters existence boosted by the presence of dragon and machine-type enemies.

While more versatile than Kaiba Reloaded, with an incentive to utilise a lot of Spell cards, is never a bad affair. The reason why it is low on this list is that this deck is in trouble if opponent have expert counter to spell castings and has no good counter for non-dragon/machine focused decks.

eight Jaden Yuki

elemental hero sparkman and Compulsory Evacuation Device art

Inspired by Jaden Yuki's commencement deck fromYu-Gi-Oh! GX,this starter deck is an interesting mishmash of monsters inspired past American Superheroes and Japanese History. The Deck's strategy is about either circumventing an opponent's defence force or doing a lot of harm to an opponent in a single plough.

While this deck is built effectually two basic strategies, these strategies are both strong regardless of your opponent's deck composition. The only affair going against it is the fact that it both excels at zip, but has no major weakness.

seven V for Victory

double or nothing and utopia ray

Five for Victory is a starter set built effectually utilizing Xyz summons. This deck in item is about chop-chop being able to Xyz summon Number C39: Utopia Ray. This tin exist seen past the number of card designs to allow players to summons Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Daughter, who can quite easily Xyz summon Utopia Ray.

Despite being built around one core strategy, the deck is surprisingly versatile. This is thanks to both the deck featuring a ton of monsters that can be summoned or inverse in response to an opponent's action and that Utopia Ray can hands exist a boost to unsafe levels of attack points.

junk destroyer and quickdraw synchron

While not advertised as such, this Starter Deck is based on Yusei Fudo's Deck fromYu-Gi-Oh! 5D.The deck is built effectually the concept of Synchro Summoning, specifically Synchro Summoning the powerful Junk Destroyer Monster. A Monster that destroys an equal number of Monsters to the Monsters used to summon it.

Similarly to 5 for Victory, this deck is based around summoning a powerful Monster. Too similar to Five for Victory, this deck avoids the potential problem of being a one-trick pony. That thanks to most of the deck's Turner Monsters having furnishings that allow players to summon a lot of Monsters in a short amount of time.

5 Codebreaker

linkuriboh and transcode talker

A deck inspired byYu-Gi-Oh! Vrainsis all about Link Monsters and Cyberse type Monsters. The deck is congenital around summoning as many Cyberse Monsters as possible thanks to both cards that let Monsters of this type to exist special summoned and cards that boost Monsters of this type.

The deck is more versatile than but Cyberse Monsters, it also includes some nice Link Monsters and several Monsters that allows a histrion to catch up with their opponents. Its only weakness is that it is weak to any deck that counters Cyberse-based decks.

link spider and decode talker

The predecessor to the Codebreaker deck, this deck is designed around Link Monsters and Cyberse type Monsters. The primary difference betwixt Link Strike and Codebreaker is that Link Strike is less reliant on Cyberse type monsters. It besides goes all-in on the Monster and Spell cards that allow a histrion to take hold of upwards with their opponents.

Overall Link Strike is better than is the successor in that it's more than flexible and versatile. The deck also has a larger body of catch-upwards cards allowing the player to craft a stronger strategy based on this tactic.

iii Xyz Symphony

yugioh djins

The Xyz Symphony deck plays like a more versatile version of V for Victory. While it based around Xyz Summoning monsters, it features a lot more flexibility than  V for Victory. This is due to existence based around 4 Djin monsters that are Xyz summoned instead of a single monster. Like for V for Victory is also comes with a Monster design to make Xyz Summoning easier to due past allowing changes to be fabricated to a Monster's level.

Xyz Symphony's versatility comes from the fact that four Djin Monster is meant to work in tandem as they all can cede Xyz material to provide boosts for other Monster cards. This tactic combined with a nice multifariousness of Effect Monsters makes it a powerful starter deck.

2 Infinite-Time Showdown

yugioh gazer magicians

The Infinite-Fourth dimension Showdown Starter Deck is designed to take advantage of the Pendulum Summon organisation. This is thanks to the deck's two Pendulum Monsters that allow all Monsters in the deck to be Pendulum Summoned. This works with a lot of the deck's Monsters being able to summon other Monsters to allow for a role player to fill their battlefield.

Beyond Pendulum Summoning, the deck is besides great with negating an opponent's potential actions. Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician work in tandem to limit the number of phases that an opponent can use Spell and Trap cards.

1 Yuya

odd eyes pendulum dragon and performapal hippo

The Yuya Starter Deck is inspired by the deck used by Yuya fromYu-Gi-Oh Arc-V. It also designed to teach the players how to utilize the Pendulum Summon system. Beyond that, the deck is versatile in the types of strategy it can conduct. From using the Gazer Magicians' limits on your opponent to a diverseness of special summons that a actor tin can use.

This variety in a strategy that a player can be used with this deck makes 1 of the strongest Starter Decks out there. Information technology avoids the trouble nigh Starter Decks take in being built around ane or two sure strategies, giving the player flexibility in how they bear their duels.

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