From the old-school decks that would set 2 cards and end the turn, up to the newer decks that can play most of their extra deck cards in a single turn… there really is a deck for everyone. But first and foremost, any deck you play should be fun. I mean, if the game’s not fun to play, what’s the point? So if you’re looking for new fun deck ideas to try out then keep on scrolling! This ranking includes decks from the GOAT format, all the way up to modern day decks, so no matter what sort of Yu-Gi-Oh you like there’s bound to be something here for you.
15. Superheavy Samurai
I absolutely love decks with a gimmick, and Superheavy Samurai are just that. These are an incredibly synchro deck that have the unique ability to attack while in defense position. However, this ability comes at a cost – you can’t have any spells or traps in your graveyard, or else all of your monster effects get negated. This makes deck building a unique challenge. Most of the time when you’re building a deck, you’ll put together the core deck, chuck in a few powerful spells and traps, and then you’re done. With Superheavy Samurai you’ve got to be a little clever about how you approach your build. You’ll still need to include cards that can remove spells and traps, deal with monster effects, and to mess up your opponent’s battle phase… but without using a single spell/trap in the mix. Si if you’re looking for a deck that’s a breath of fresh air (and a bit of a challenge), I’d highly recommend checking these guys out.
14. Noble Knights
As someone actually from England, I love seeing a deck based entirely around English folklore. The Noble Knights are based around the tales of the Knights of the Round Table, and honestly this deck couldn’t have done the stories more justice. The strategy of this deck is to bring out your “King” XYZ monsters, and power them up with a bunch of Noble Arms equip spells. Each Noble Arms spell represents a mystical swords from the tales of the noble knights, and each one powers up your monsters like you wouldn’t believe. This is a great deck if you don’t mind slightly slower game play. It’s definitely not as fast as most modern combo decks, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.
13. Earthbound Immortals
There’s nothing quite as awesome as playing the God cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! It just so happens that these are the gods belonging to the bad guys… The Earthbound Immortals are a series of level 10 monsters that have incredibly powerful effects. On top of that, every Earthbound Immortal can attack your opponent directly regardless of whether they have monsters or not. And with ~3000 attack a piece, this is some serious damage! While you do have to tribute summon these guys to get them on the field, you can use field-spell cards like Mausoleum of the Emperor to get them on the field insanely quickly – or monsters such as Double Coston to make tribute summoning them a breeze. Being able to beat down your opponent in 2/3 turns is a hilariously fun way of winning the duel. And I’d definitely recommend giving these guys a shot if you’re curious enough to try ‘em out.
12. Performapals
Performapals were one of the very first decks I ever built when I first got back into playing Yu-Gi-Oh, and boy were they an amazing deck to start with. They’re a pendulum summon based deck that revolves around beefing up your monsters attack stats. For example, Performapal Partnaga makes your monsters stronger for each Performapal card you control while it’s in the pendulum zone. And cards like Performapal Whipsnake can flip your opponents attack and defense stats around. With nearly 100 cards in their arsenal there are so many different strategies you can carry out with this deck. They have powerful fusion monsters, tribute summonable monsters, and so much more… so you can really play Performapals however you like. If you’ve never seen a pendulum summon before and you’re not sure where to even start, then Performapals are worth a look.
11. Ojama Beatdown
Ojamas are one of the goofiest decks out there, both in art style and in gameplay. While basing a deck around 3 normal monsters with 0 attack may not seem like the best plan, they’ve got some ludicrously powerful spells that activate when they’re all on the field together. Their field spell lets you special summon Ojama monsters from your graveyard by discarding Ojamas, and while it’s on the field, it switches the attack and defense of all monsters. This means your Ojamas can actually attack for damage! But the real gem of this deck is Ojama Delta Hurricane. Here’s how it works: If you have Ojama Green, Ojama Yellow, and Ojama Black on your side of the field, you can destroy every single card your opponent controls! This makes for some amazingly fun OTK decks – absolutely dumb, but seriously good fun.
10. Megalith
I’ll admit, until I played this deck I really wasn’t a fan of ritual decks. I hated having to run multiple searchers just to get the deck functioning, and waiting around for the right ritual monster and ritual spell was just kind of tedious. Then Megaliths came along and completely changed everything. With Megaliths you don’t even need a ritual spell. You can ritual summon your monsters by discarding other Megalith monsters, as well as using the monster effects of Megalith Ophiel and Megalith Och! This deck opens up some crazy combos with other ritual monsters. Cards like Megalith Och allow you to ritual summon any ritual monster at quick effect speed, during either player’s main phase. This means you can just drop a Magician of Black Chaos MAX on your opponent during their turn! And this powerful ritual monster prevents your opponent from activating any monster effects during their turn – basically shutting down your opponent’s plays all at once. If you’re looking to get a taste of ritual summoning then I’d definitely check this deck out. I personally play this deck alongside an Impcantation engine to speed things up, but even as a pure-build, this deck is utterly fantastic.
9. Deskbots
Deskbots are an OTK deck that make use of pendulum summoning, producing monsters with ludicrously high attack stats. Each Deskbot has a measly 500 attack. As you get more and more Deskbots out onto the field, they all get more powerful for each Deskbot you control. For example, Deskbot 009 (the main boss-monster of the deck) gains attack equal to every Deskbot monster on the field combined! Considering that each Deskbot monster boosts its own attack, you can easily get into the realm of 8000+ attack on a single card.
8. Lightsworn
These guys have seen play ever since they were released back in the days of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. And it’s no wonder why. They’re an incredibly powerful deck that relies on milling your own deck while you play, where you send the top few cards of your deck to the graveyard. While getting rid of half your deck doesn’t exactly sound beneficial… Lightsworns have a whole bunch of effects that trigger when they’re sent to the graveyard. Some cards even benefit from other cards being in the graveyard. The most notable card in this deck is Judgment Dragon. While you have 4 or more Lightsworn monsters in your graveyard with different names, you can special summon a Judgment Dragon from your hand for free. On top of having a brutal 3000 attack, Judgment Dragon also has an effect where you can pay 1000 life points to destroy every other card on the field. This leaves your opponent completely defenseless – and sets you up perfectly for victory.
7. Phantasm Spiral
It’s not often that you see a deck run normal monsters in modern Yu-Gi-Oh. But Phantasm Spiral is an exception to the rule. This deck focuses on summoning a whole bunch of normal monsters, equipping them with powerful equip spells, and setting up loads of flood gates. If your opponent is running exactly normal monster beatdown too, then you’ll have them locked down and unable to play in a flash. And if you’re a player who likes a classic control deck, this is right up your alley.
6. D/D/D
D/D/D (or Different Dimension Demons) are an archetype that truly utilizes every summoning mechanic (except Ritual, annoyingly enough). This means if you’re looking for a deck that encompasses a whole bunch of strategies then you’re in the right place. While the main deck uses pendulum summoning to bring big monsters out onto the field, the extra deck contains synchro, fusion, XYZ, and link monsters. And the best cards in this deck really stand out. One example is D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kaliyuga, an amazingly powerful rank 8 XYZ monster that can destroy all spells and traps on the field. Plus there’s D/D/D Abyss King Gilgamesh, one of the best Link monsters ever printed, which lets you to set up your pendulum scales using two D/D monsters straight from your deck.
5. Blue-Eyes
It’s no surprise that one of the most nostalgic and powerful cards in Yu-Gi-Oh’s history is still just as powerful all these years later. The deck now makes use of two new summoning mechanics – synchro and fusion summoning. So if you thought Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was the best fusion monster ever printed, just wait till you check out its bigger brother: Neo Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Neo has the exact same stats as the original Blue-Eyes Ultimate, coming in at a whopping 4500 attack, but with the added bonus of an effect: By sending “Blue-Eyes” fusion monsters from your deck to the graveyard, this card can repeatedly attack your opponent, making up to 3 attacks in a single turn! Now that is some game winning power!
4. Blackwing
Blackwings absolutely dominated the meta game during the 5Ds era of Yu-Gi-Oh. They’re an incredibly consistent synchro summoning deck, with the power to bring out an insane amount of synchro monsters every single turn. Anyone who’s ever played against Blackwings should fear the words “Damage Step?”. The deck’s most powerful card is Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow, which allows you to give any Blackwing monster a 1400 attack boost during the damage step by discarding it from your hand – making pretty much any Blackwing monster unstoppable in combat. While they don’t hold up as well in modern Yu-Gi-Oh, they’re still an incredibly fun deck. And they’ve received quite a bit of support since the end of 5Ds! If you’re looking to relive a bit of the synchro-era magic then nothing does it quite like Blackwings.
3. Salamangreat
Link summoning can get a little confusing to grasp at times. Unlike the previous forms of extra deck summon where you just summon a monster anywhere you like, Link monsters have arrows that point to different monster zones, opening up a whole new style of playing. If you’re looking to get a grasp of Link summoning then the best place to start is Salamangreat. They’re a fire-attribute Cyberse-type deck that has a powerful gimmick up its sleeve – their link monsters get more powerful if they’re link summoned using themselves. While this is normally not possible, Salamangreats have a powerful field spell that makes it so! Just take a look at their biggest boss monster: Salamangreat Pyro Phoenix is a link 4 monster and when it’s summoned using another Salamangreat Pyro Phoenix, it can destroy every single card your opponent controls. With that kind of power, this deck is an amazingly fun introduction to Link summoning. It’s also extremely powerful, meaning if you’re looking to get started with competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! then here ya go. We’ve also listed some of the top cards for this deck, just to help get you started.
2. Frog Monarch
Frogs have always been an incredibly powerful archetype. In 2010 frogs absolutely dominated the meta game in a bizarre hybrid deck known as Frog Monarch. This involved using the special summoning ability from cards like Treeborn Frog to make tribute summoning Monarch cards incredibly easy. This deck is certainly not as powerful now (with Treeborn Frog being smacked by the ban list). But even today they’re definitely still just as fun. In fact, since 2010 we’ve seen quite a bit of frog support! We now have amazingly powerful frogs such as Ronintoadin, a samurai frog who can special summon itself from the graveyard by banishing another frog. Aand who could forget the unstoppable rank 2 XYZ monster Toadally Awesome?! Whether you’re looking to relive the golden days of Yu-Gi-Oh, or maybe you’re looking to play something a little different at locals this week… either way Frog Monarch is worth coming back to.
1. Shaddolls
Shaddolls have been an amazing choice ever since their release in 2014. Doesn’t matter whether you’re looking to play casually or competitively – this is one fun deck to try out. They’re a fusion based deck that work around archetypes – to fusion summon a monster from their extra deck you’ll need to fuse one “Shaddoll” monster with a monster of a particular attribute. This deck has 2 incredibly powerful fusion monsters you’ll want to go into. Firstly you’ve got El Shaddoll Construct, a fusion monster so powerful it spent quite some time on the ban list! Not only does this card send a Shaddoll monster from your deck to the graveyard, but it also destroys any special summoned monster instantly when it battles. And then you’ve got El Shaddoll Winda, an amazingly powerful floodgate that prevents either player from special summoning more than once per turn. The main deck monsters are also really fun to use here, since they use a long-forgotten mechanic in Yu-Gi-Oh’s history: flip effects! While most decks wouldn’t dream of running flip effect monsters given how slow they are to activate, Shaddolls is packed with flip effects – each more powerful than the last. And honestly, this deck is incredibly fun to play. It’s not a linear deck either, where you have one exact combo route to go down. So you can make a whole range of different monsters work to suit your needs. If you need a board wipe, this deck can get you one. If you need to negate your opponent’s monster effects, this deck has that too. Whatever you need to win, Shaddolls have it somewhere in their arsenal.
