If you’re a true gamer like myself, you always jump straight into the ranked gamemode in whatever game you’re playing. Expediting random noobs to the shadow realm with your superior game sense and skills, working your way up the rankings to the top, and sparing no one is the most enjoyable way to play video games. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, it’s a difficult feat to win duels with only a Harpie Lady and Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
Many of us wish we could duel with the classic decks and be able to actually win with them. Sadly, that’s not the case in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links; you have to adhere to the current meta in order to triumph over the other duelists. You’ve come here because you have some questions about the current meta so sit back and relax and let’s dive into the top 10 best decks for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links in the 2024 meta.
10. Trickstar
While lacking a powerful boss monster, the broken skills, and consistency that other decks boast, Trickstars remain a viable option in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links meta for those stubborn enough to run them. Some of us can’t get past our love for the Trickstar girls (coughs in Blue Angel), and continuously find ourselves running them to King of Games repeatedly. I’ve personally reached KoG five times while using these anime-girl looking cuties; which must count for something.
Trickstars rely on constant combinations that make you feel like you’re playing the game with a transcendent intellect. They provide a rather fun way to play the game for many duelists and really feed the ego; for better or for worse. You get to slowly whittle down your opponents using your trusty Trickstars over the course of multiple turns instead of finishing things quickly with a big boss monster.
Many times you’ll even win duels because people don’t even know how your Trickstars work. But, they’re definitely a meta deck that you can play if your heart desires; just a bit tricky in the sense that you almost need to draw a Candina or Light Stage in the first hand to stand a fighting chance.
Key Features
Fun to play: As mentioned previously, the Trickstars “anime deck” is fun to play and insanely cool for different reasons. If you’re into the anime scene and a proponent of cutesy anime girls, this deck may make you spend all of your gems here and now. If you’re into hand-emptying combos and lots of battle-focused effects then you will be in for a fun time playing this deck.
Pain to Play against: You might go up against a Trickstar player one out of ten times in PvP, that’s about the ratio that I see. In the rare case that you do, you probably don’t know what’s going on unless you’ve played Trickstars before. Sometimes you’ll lose because you interrupt the wrong card or you simply run out of cards to draw! Trickstars can definitely be a bit tricky in this regard.
Trickstar deck list:
Main Deck:
- Trickstar Corobane (x3)
- D.D. Crow (x2)
- Trickstar Candina (x3)
- Trickstar Lycoris (x1)
- Trickstar Light Stage (x1)
- Dark Hole (x2)
- Trickstar Festival (x3)
- Ice Dragon’s Prison (x1)
- Crackdown (x2)
- Needle Ceiling (x2)
Extra Deck:
- Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale (x1)
- Knightmare Unicorn (x1)
- Trickstar Foxglove Witch (x1)
- Trickstar Crimson Heart (x2)
- Trickstar Holly Angel (x1)
- Trickstar Bella Madonna (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
9. Salamangreat
You’ve just downloaded Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel links, are sat in a fuzzy chair with your Cheetos, and are about to relive your childhood all over again. Salamangreats are one of the best starter decks that you can choose to play. Not only is it a very low cost deck for new players, it’s fun to play with its many combo chains available and can be transitioned into a powerful Cyberse Mathmech deck later into your duelist career.
If you add cards like Update Jammer, Transcode Talker, and Accesscode Talker into your Salamangreat deck, you’ll greatly increase your chances of winning. Just make sure that you use Accesscode Talker when you’re sure to win because you can only use it once per duel (usually). As you become better at learning when to use Salamangreat Roar, your win percentage will go up; because it’s a very situational card and relies on your own game knowledge.
The cards that are required in a Salamangreat deck are relatively easy to come across. Sometimes you just obtain them from the game giving them to you in the beginning, or from opening the required packs for other decks.
Key Features
Good starter deck: Unlike Trickstars and their slightly annoying inconsistency, the great thing about Salamangreats is that they are consistent and you can pretty much rely on drawing useful cards at all times. Not only that, all of the cards work well and combo together nicely. Something to be wary of is that there are quite a few combos to remember, but once you get them down you’ll be chilling.
A lot of the time in Yu-Gi-Oh, you can’t bounce back from sour situations where you’re getting overwhelmed. With this deck, you can use “Salamangreat Roar” and “Salamangreat Sanctuary” to bring yourself back from the brink of defeat and revive yourself.
Can be transitioned to stronger decks: Mathmechs are an extremely fun deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links that can hold their own in competitive play against even the very best decks.
Very affordable: This deck sits at an affordable 22.5k gems price. This is quite affordable compared to other decks in the meta, and is exactly why a new player would be able to run Salamangreats relatively quickly without grinding gems for too long.
Salamangreats deck list:
Main Deck:
- Gizmek Kaku, the Supreme Shining Sky Stag (x1)
- Salamangreat Gazelle (x1)
- Salamangreat Jack Jaguar (x1)
- Salamangreat Foxy (x3)
- Salamangreat Falco (x1)
- Salamangreat Fowl (x2)
- Salamangreat Meer (x1)
- Cynet Mining (x2)
- Dark Hole (x3)
- Cynet Crosswipe (x1)
- Salamangreat Circle (x3)
- Salamangreat Sanctuary (x1)
Extra Deck:
- Abyss Dweller (x1)
- Ningursu the World Chalice Warrior (x1)
- Update Jammer (x1)
- Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf (x2)
- Salamangreat Balelynx (x2)
- Security Dragon (x1)
8. S-Force
The S-Force deck is currently a viable deck in the Duel Links meta and many people are sleeping on it. It really does help that people seem to have zero idea what this deck does. They simply do not want to learn and aren’t able to grasp what is happening to them in game and you might as well be dueling against a newborn baby.
Obviously, you don’t want to rely on such unreliable things in order to win duels, but it is true that people will allow you to banish their cards with the S-Force deck without putting up much of a fight; which is very nice of them!
To win with S-Force, you’ll be grateful to have a S-Force Gravitino in your first hand. The general idea for using the S-Force deck to annihilate your enemy is to draw Gravitino and put him and two other S-Force monsters onto your side of the board. Once you do that you can use S-Force Chase to banish all of your enemy’s monsters into nothingness.
You should have three S-Force Gravitino in your deck as well as three S-Force Rappa Chiyomaru. This is because you want to see both of these cards in your first hand.
Key Features
Opponent Control: One of the key things about the S-Force deck is how you’re able to control what your opponent’s monsters do. It’s a bit of a disrespectful advantage that you have at your disposal when playing this deck and it makes things quite fun.
High skill ceiling: This is a great perk of the deck in the sense that even if you’re one of the best S-Force players on the server you still might learn a thing or two sometimes. To scrape out victories you need to have so much knowledge on everyone else’s decks and archetypes in the game. Some people see this is a hassle but to people like myself and other true gamers it is a welcome challenge.
S-Force deck list:
Main Deck:
- S-Force Rappa Chiyomaru (x3)
- S-Force Lapswell (x1)
- S-Force Platina (x1)
- S-Force Gravitino (x3)
- S-Force Edge Razor (x1)
- S-Force Retroactive (x1)
- S-Force Bridgehead (x3)
- Terraforming (x1)
- S-Force Showdown (x1)
- Ice Dragon’s Prison (x2)
- Reinforce Truth (x2)
- S-Force Chase (x2)
- S-Force Specimen (x1)
Extra Deck:
- Chronomaly Vimana (x1)
- Crusadia Equimax (x1)
- Knightmare Unicorn (x1)
- Rasterliger (x1)
- S-Force Justify (x1)
- Underlock Taker (x1)
- Knightmare Cerberus (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
7. Rokket
Rokkets are one way to go if you’re looking for a deck that has the marbles to beat most of the meta decks while simultaneously making your opponent feel like they’re chopping down a tree with a butterknife. Playing against Rokkets is quite the uphill battle, and it doesn’t help that Koonami hasn’t released many resources to deal with the backline in recent times.
The best thing about Rokkets in the current meta is that they’re unlikely to get nerfed in the near future as it is with Koonami when something stands out too much. The deck is very solid and will likely improve in the future as it receives more support from another boss monster or the like. They’re a good investment because of how dang reliable they are, probably the most reliable deck that you can build.
They can mold to any meta as they have in the past and probably will in the future. It does really well currently in all of the KC leaderboards, and it’s pretty widely agreed upon that it can only become a better deck from here even though it has been around for so long.
Key Features
Under radar: They are a good investment because they’re PvP viable and tournament viable while not being good to the point where we can expect nerfs from Koonami.
Adaptable: Rokkets are adaptable to whatever the meta throws at them. That’s why they have stood the test of time for so long and are one of the most reliable decks.
Rokket deck list:
Main deck:
- Rokket Tracer (x3)
- Magnarokket Dragon (x3)
- Silverrokket Dragon (x1)
- Metalrokket Dragon (x2)
- Rapid Trigger (x1)
- Book of Moon (x3)
- Quick Launch (x3)
- Boot Sector Launch (x1)
- Crackdown (x2)
- Warning Point (x3)
- Necro Fusion (x1)
Extra Deck:
- Borreload Furious Dragon (x1)
- Draco Berserker of the Tenyi (x1)
- Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend (x1)
- Void Ogre Dragon (x1)
- Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (x1)
- Evilswarm Nightmare (x1)
- Borreload Dragon (x1)
- Booster Dragon (x1)
6. Earth Machine
To some players' great delight, Earth Machines gained some recent support from the Koonami overlords and are actually playable. Thanks to the machina support, it’s easier than before to summon Machina Citadel which is a main component to this deck’s playstyle. You really need to get Citadel into your graveyard as fast as possible which is another thing that the new support does.
Machina Fortress is your deck’s main juicer, he’s the buff man that allows you to go from sad to rad with one card draw. Using his attack power and effect will put you in a good spot if you manage to draw him in the first hand. He also puts your Machina Citadel in the graveyard which is one of your most important combos.
Another thing that this deck excels in is pumping out XYZ monsters quickly and overwhelming your opponent with offensive capabilities. Comboing Infinitrack Anchor Drill and the spell card Heavy Forward to summon something like Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Gustav Max will bury your opponent six feet under with a direct attack to their measly life points.
Key Features
Resource management: When you lose your precious monsters, spells, and traps in some Yu-Gi-Oh! decks you have to say goodbye to them until the next game. But Earth Machines allows you to recycle your cards very efficiently and easily so that you can reuse many of your cards.
Board presence: Unlike some decks that set and forget cards in the first couple turns, this deck allows you to whip out your intimidating monsters quickly with Infinitrack Anchor Drill and Machina Fortress.
Disruption: Earth Machines have a noteworthy ability to mess up your opponent’s plan which can always be a good thing. The best thing is that while you’re screwing up their combo your board gets into an even better position at the same time!
Earth Machine deck list:
Main Deck:
- Machina Fortress (x2)
- D.D. Crow (x2)
- Machina Citadel (x2)
- Infinitrack Brutal Dozer (x1)
- Infinitrack Anchor Drill (x1)
- Infinitrack Harvester (x3)
- Machina Air Raider (x1)
- Infinitrack Trencher (x1)
- Infinitrack Crab Crane (x1)
- Infinitrack Tunneller (x1)
- Machina Redeployment (x2)
- Book of Moon (x2)
- Heavy Forward (x3)
- Outrigger Extension (x1)
- Treacherous Trap Hole (x1)
Extra deck:
- Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Juggernaut Liebe (x1)
- Infinitrack Earth Slicer (x2)
- Infinitrack River Stormer (x1)
- Infinitrack Mountain Smasher (x1)
- Infinitrack Goliath (x3)
5. Mayakashi
It’s difficult to get bored playing Mayakashi, the deck has such a unique playstyle that is hard to come by these days. This is another pretty deck for anime fans such as myself, especially if you’re into Japanese culture, history, and folklore.Interesting lore lies behind the cards that you should totally look into.
The monsters appear to be yokai which are supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore and the monsters in the main deck have a respective counterpart in the extra deck which is honestly the coolest thing ever.
You want to synchro-climb as fast as you can with Dakki, the Graceful Mayakashi plus one level one between Winged Mayakashi, Hajun and Yuki Musume, the Ice Mayakashi. We are also given an archive skill that we can use to make this whole process so much easier, thanks Koonami. We don’t have to synchro climb because we can just put the cards straight into the graveyard from the extra with the archive skill and also free up extra deck slots to run more synchros.
Key Features
Unique playstyle: This deck has a very different playstyle because of its synchro-climbing aspects. Synchro-climbing is when you just keep bringing out a thicker and thicker synchro monster using the previous one before it. It’s a very satisfying and powerful strategy that lets you bring out the strongest synchro monster that you’ve got.
Beautiful design: The artstyle on these cards is absolutely stunning in my opinion. Yoko, the Graceful Mayakashi is probably the most beautiful card in the game and it makes it worth playing to KoG with this deck over and over again.
Earth Machine deck list:
Main deck:
- Hajun, the Winged Mayakashi (x3)
- D.D. Crow (x3)
- Dakki, the Graceful Mayakashi (x2)
- Yuki-Musume, the Ice Mayakashi (x3)
- Yasha, the Skeletal Mayakashi (x1)
- Forbidden Droplet (x2)
- Mayakashi Return (x3)
- Mayakashi Winter (x1)
- Enemy Controller (x1)
- Mayakashi Mayhem (x1)
Extra Deck:
- Yoko, the Graceful Mayakashi (x1)
- Tsuchigumo, the Poisonous Mayakashi (x1)
- Yuki-Onna, the icicle Mayakashi (x3)
- Yuki-Onna, the Ice Mayakashi (3)
4. Fire King
OTKing your opponent who is playing Fire Kings is usually but a dream. I absolutely love playing this deck because most of the time I don’t even need my extra deck to win! Some decks have the ability to lock you out of your extra deck and whenever I run into that it’s not really a problem.
Right now the Fire King deck is an actual option if you’re looking to climb the ladder and place in tournaments. The insane recycling makes it hard to deal with because you can just keep bringing out new cards when something bad happens.
Key Features
Grind game: As long as you can keep yourself from losing in the first or second turns, you should be cruising with Fire Kings. The grind game is so great with these cards that if you can extend the game long enough there’s hardly a chance that you’re going to lose.
Disruptions: The Fire King High Avatar Garunix and Fire King Avatar Yaksha combo is a main disruptive combo that you will be using a lot with Fire King. You get to delete one of your opponent’s cards if your Yaksha is destroyed. Garunix himself is also just going to keep bringing himself back to life like Marco the Phoenix. Please forgive me for forcing a One Piece reference into this.
Difficult to face: I would sum up the Fire King deck by telling you this: they bring themselves back to life while taking many things down with them in the process.
Fire King deck list:
Main deck:
- True King Agnimazud, the Vanisher (x3)
- Fire King High Avatar Garunix (x3)
- Fire King Avatar Arvata (x3)
- Fire King Avatar Garunix (x3)
- Kiteroid (x2)
- Battlin’ Boxer Veil (x3)
- Fire King Avatar Barong (x3)
- Wightprincess (x3)
- Monster Reborn (x1)
- Rekindling (x1)
- Onslaught of the Fire Kings (x2)
- Fire King Island (x3)
Extra Deck:
- Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (x1)
- Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King (x1)
- Number C39: Utopia Ray (x1)
- Number 39: Utopia (x1)
- Number S39: Utopia the Lightning (x1)
- Number 70: Malevolent Sin (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
- Duelittle Chimera (x1)
3. Constellar
Imagine you’ve been stubbornly sticking to your Yubel or your Shaddol for months, because you’re just against change. You might be finding it difficult to climb. If you want to feel the sweet relief of victory for a change, think about giving Constellar a try as they offer one of the easiest climbs you’ve had in a long while.
Even Tenyi duelists, which we’ll get to in a bit, need to actually open their eyes and play the game when faced against Constellar. This deck is great because you can use your boss monsters to return your opponent's cards right back to their hand. I’m sure they’ll love that! This is also called bouncing in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links lingo.
You can thankfully stop your opponent’s hand traps and Book of Moon plays with this deck and summon up to four monsters quite easily on the very first turn. Who doesn’t enjoy the sound of this stellar deck?
Key Features
Xyz Summoning: The speed in which you can summon your xyz boss monsters such as Constellar Ptolemy M7 and Constellar Pleiades is one of this deck’s best assets.
Opponent Control: The bounce effects are a great way to control your opponent’s cards and not every deck has these capabilities. Similar to how Constellar Pleiades allows you to return your opponent’s card to their hand, it is a super useful disruption technique that will most likely mess up whatever plan they were brewing up.
Flexibility: Constellar is not fun to play against because of how flexible of a deck it is. Sometimes you think you’ve done something good against them but then they go on to bury your cards and the game is over before you know it.
Constellar deck list:
Main Deck:
- D.D. Crow (x3)
- Constellar Zubenesschamali (x3)
- Constellar Caduceus (x2)
- Constellar Pollux (x1)
- Constellar Sombre (x3)
- Constellar Sheratan (x2)
- Constellar Alrescha (x1)
- Constellar Leonis (x1)
- Constellar Rasalhague (x2)
- Forbidden Droplet (x2)
- Ayers Rock Sunrise (x3)
- Living Fossil (x1)
- Constellar Star Cradle (x1)
- Constellar Star Chart (x1)
- Crackdown (x2)
- Warning Point (x2)
Extra Deck:
- Constellar Ptolemy M7 (x2)
- Constellar Pleiades (x1)
- Abyss Dweller (x1)
- Constellar Omega (x2)
- Bujinki Ahashima (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
2. Live Twin
The Live Twin deck basically consists of the two twin girls for your main monsters and then stuffing the rest of your deck with as many staples as you can. You will want to run three of each twin so chances are you’ll open with one or two of them. When one of these cards comes out to play you can use the other one to summon the other.
You’ll have to roll through the box three whole times before you get yourself enough of the cards to run the deck but to some it is very much worth it for these rambunctious twins.
This deck is ruled by the, dare I say, stunningly beautiful link monsters (the artwork) Evil Twin Ki-sikil and Evil Twin Lil-la. Aside from these cards being absolute eye-candy to someone such as myself, they makeup the deck’s core strategy and give your board that quick board presence early on.
Key Features
Consistency: The twins work very well together, as they should! I mean, they’re literal twins and all. Not only that, this consistency connects the entire deck, including the link monsters together in a very smooth way.
Swarming: One of these best things about the Live Twin deck is how easy it is to swarm the board right off the bat with your monsters like Lil-la and Ki-sikil and get yourself that early game domination.
Live Twin deck list:
Main Deck:
- Gizmek Kaku, the Supreme Shining Sky Stag (x1)
- Live Twin Ki-sikil (x3)
- Live Twin Lil-la (x3)
- D.D. Crow (x1)
- Forbidden Droplet (x1)
- Mystical Space Typhoon (x2)
- Enemy Controller (x1)
- Live Twin Home (x1)
- Secret Password (x1)
- Ice Dragon’s Prison (x2)
- Crackdown (x1)
- Warning Point (x1)
- Ballista Squad (x1)
- Evil Twin Present (x1)
Extra Deck:
- Knightmare Unicorn (x1)
- Evil Twin Ki-sikil (x3)
- Evil Twin Lil-la (x2)
- Knightmare Cerberus (x1)
- Knightmare Phoenix (x1)
1. Tenyi
Tenyi is the best deck in the current Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links meta. It is generally agreed upon right now that Tenyi just works so well inside of Duel Links at the moment that it’s the most ideal deck. You also don’t have to look very far to see the dozens of complaints coming from people on the internet calling for a Tenyi nerf from Koonami.
Don’t get me wrong, the deck is not broken or busted or anything like that. It is simply fine and dandy, and many decks just cannot keep up with it without the player having a good amount of skill. Tenyi will banish many duelists to the shadow realm but it’s not because of some broken skill or cheesy backrow tactics, it relies solely on the archetype and the way that the deck is designed to cleanly and fairly rise in the ranks.
Key Features
Beginner friendly: With Tenyi, there is a very clear strategy laid right out in front of your clueless beginner eyes. This is just assuming that you’re a beginner and if you’re not then you could still opt for Tenyi or something a little more crazy like S-Force. Tenyi Spirit - Shthana and Tenyi Spirit - Vishuda can both be special summoned to the field when you control no effect monsters which is quite straightforward and simple.
Affordable: As a new player who has just been handed a bunch of free gems and are probably about to go blow your whole fortune on Red Eyes Black Dragons and Dark Magician Girls; you should probably build Tenyi. They are a 20 card deck that you can get for just 10k-20k gems only and are easily understandable and a good engine to learn the game with.
Graveyard usage: The Tenyi deck is amazing for utilizing that pile of dead resources on your board that is known as the graveyard. You would think that it is a useless pile most of the time, but Tenyi adds an extra layer of fun with cards like Vessel for the Dragon Cycle that allow you to use the graveyard to cycle cards to your hand and win duels.
Tenyi deck list:
Main deck:
- Tenyi Spirit Ashuna (x3)
- D.D Crow (x2)
- Tenyi Spirit Vishuda (x2)
- Tenyi Spirit Adhara (x3)
- Tenyi Spirit Mapura (x1)
- Tenyi Spirit Nahata (x1)
- Tenyi Spirit Shthana (x2)
- Flawless Perfection of the Tenyi (x1)
- Vessel for the Dragon Cycle (x2)
- Heavenly Dragon Circle (x3)
Extra Deck:
- Draco Berserker of the Tenyi (x1)
- Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing (x1)
- Shaman of the Tenyi (x2)
- Monk of the Tenyi (x3)
- Berserker of the Tenyi (x1)
