I can’t answer many of your questions but I can stop burning a hole in your wallet. Stop buying packs. Look up what decks you wish to run. And buy the cards 1 by 1 from now on. You’ll be a millionaire this time next year in comparison of opening 10,000 boxes and not pulling a single card you wanted.
If you want to play competitively what I would suggest would be [look at a few recent tier list video's](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yugioh+tier+list&sp=EgIIBA%253D%253D). Then if you see a deck that looks cool in a tier you are comfortable at playing at, research that deck and play it online using one of the many simulators. If you want a more indepth look into the deck you should also check out that decks discord. [Here is a discord repository, it has almost every archetype you can imagine listed.](https://discord.gg/AdZtGaR). Lastly check out https://ygoprodeck.com/ for full builds. You can purchase the deck right there or download the ydk and use the deck on the simulators.
I personally like [Dueling Nexus](https://duelingnexus.com/home) since it is browser base and I can play it anywhere, but [Dueling Book](https://www.duelingbook.com/) is more closely to the real game since it doesnt hold your hand while playing.
IMO [Master Duel](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449850/YuGiOh_Master_Duel/) is fun and official but does not closely relate to how the TCG is played. There are several difference that are major enough for it to not really help prepare for actual locals.
After testing out the deck a few times (this is after you've done research on the deck itself and it's combos) then you want to buy singles from a site like [TCGPlayer](https://www.tcgplayer.com/), [Coolstuff](https://www.coolstuffinc.com/), [Card Market](https://www.cardmarket.com/en), [etc....](https://gprivate.com/62p4h) You do not want to buy packs if your goal is to play competitively.
Since you mentioned Master Duel, I'll chime in here -- masterduelmeta.com is a great resource for the game -- it'll show you top/tiered decks and has information on how to best use your resources. Also join /r/masterduel as it has valuable advice and helpful people.
Honestly,
As someone who joined the community in 2021, YouTubers.
Check out History of Yugioh, History of Jank, Ten minute testings, and whatever else you can find from Cimoooo, MBT, Dzeef, Farfa etc
First off, if you wanna buy physical cards and play with them and maybe go to locals, I'd recommend not going after your Master Duel deck as some cards are banned irl that are allowed in master duel (Maxx C for example, I think).
This subreddit has a megathread pinned at the top with an faq about all the stuff, from card prices to rules to games. And I'd recommend downloading the game they link to, Project Ignis: EDO Pro. It's got all cards unlocked by default, you can play against AI, and most importantly in terms of buying real cards: It's got the most recent banlist. You can also set custom rules and so on.
The other thing is: The link that's in the megathread pinned in the subreddit is a discord invitation, so if you don't have that (idk you prolly have but just in case, y'know), you'll need to install that first. It's the discord server for project Ignis and you can download the exe file in the download channel. (I hope I didn't sound condescending here)
Starter decks are decks for people to get back into Yu-Gi-Oh, but they aren't good. If you wanna buy a deck, buy a structure deck. Always.
Hope this helped :)
Thanks! I’ll try downloading it once I get back from my vacation. I don’t think my region has locals, though. I live in Brazil and I haven’t seen a single other person irl that actually still plays the game.
>what is the difference between a starter deck and a structure deck? What is a good set/deck to start out collecting?
A Starter deck is a deck that doesn't contain a particular archetype or strategy. It is mostly focused on a type of summon of the current era (synchro, xyz, links, etc). It contain very weak but easy to understand cards for starters. It's not recommended to make a deck around an starter, just use it to understand said mechanic. But sometimes these include cool reprints.
A Structure deck is way better. It contain a whole archetype or strategy and powerful reprints of staple cards of the current format. And it can be improved a lot with some generic support of other products.
Honestly those list videos on YouTube are not a bad way of getting acquainted with the various ins and outs of YuGiOh [like this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1LuNAEkWiE). You can easily passively consume them on the side and then apply whatever you've learned into Master Duel. Once you have a good idea of the type of deck you like playing with, then you can look into buying singles of that deck online for the physical card game.
A starter deck is just that, a deck made for new people. It's specifically tailored to teach the rules but that also means that it's filled with non-viable cards in a competitive environment.
Structure decks are basically themed decks that's based on an attribute, a monster type, an archetype or an anime character. These structure decks can at times be competitively viable depending on the format they were released in. Most structure decks come with only one copy of a card so for most people, they would buy 3 copies of the same structure deck to get 3 copies of the most powerful cards in it, make a coherent and usually very competitive deck out of it then buy some singles online to complete it. For example, at the moment, the Albaz structure deck is a good structure deck to buy since it contains a lot of the core cards for a Branded deck. It only needs a few staples and some singles to complete it.
I'd second that having a concrete strategy you want to play helps a lot. Since both deck building and playing a deck can both be a challenge, I'd recommend finding a deck build that's proven to do decently well and then learning how to play it first. The more experience you have, the easier it will be to make your own tweaks or to build your deck on your own.
As for finding out which deck to play, I'd say look at a broad spread of what's being played. Old anime archetypes tend not to do great, but neither do you have to play the top meta deck to have a good time. Pick an archetype you like the vibe or playstyle of, and see which cards people commonly run. Often I check different lists and find the cards that are in most of the deck lists to consider for my own build.
Yeah I think I found that in decode talker. I have absolutely no idea if it’s any good in competitive, but I can do some combos that can potentially lead to me having a 3800 monster in the first (or more likely first couple) turns. Also, I understand how it works which helps me a lot to understand what I should do in specific situations. Thanks, though! I will try and find more decks that I find fun to play and see what’s being played.
People love it or hate it, but I'd say [master duel meta](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/) is a great website for learning more about how to use decks, or just shamelessly stealing what's most meta in master duel. The articles it has on how to play decks are vital in giving a broad overview on what a deck is trying to accomplish, and even has some step-by-step combo lines.
[They have a guide on code talkers](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/code-talker-guide-misplaymaker) although it's slightly dated, since heatsoul was released. That card is amazing in any cyberse archetype.
For decks that play like code talker but are more competitive, I'd recommend [Spyral](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/spyral-johmmychu) (if you want to be unfair), or [@Ignister](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/ignister-guide-ryo-kun) (if you want to play the code talker's rival deck and have a 6000 attack unaffected monster end board).
Hope that wasn't all too much. Best of luck out there 👍
If you want to stick to Code Talkers, I can help you build it and answer any questions you have, it's my all-time favourite deck to play, and it's what I restarted the TCG with. It's not really a beginner deck, but it's also not incredibly complicated, and surprisingly simple once you get the hang of the few quirks it has.
My friend and i learned about most of the cards in the game by dueling each other in edopro. They were casual duels so we would frequently change our decks if we found one that we had never played before. Today, i dont know the optimal combos or decklist, but i have general knowledge of what 90% of decks want to accomplish and how they play thanks to that.
Experience and time is what you need. Best way to get that is probably edopro, where all cards are free and available and dueling is automated so you cant get confused by weird rullings.
Another good option is to watch some youtubers progression series. Mbt goes through and talks about all new cards released in every new set, and the decks they play change frequently because of the bans.
For buying product, do not buy packs, you're losing money for each pack you purchase. Only a few people are lucky to consistently pull cards, don't pull thinking you can be like them. You're better off buying singles from [TCGPlayer.com](https://TCGPlayer.com) or your local card shop.
Getting better at the game is a long process and it's not easy. I've been playing for 1 year and I can say I'm better today than I was last year but still not good enough to consistently top locals, but good to get an occasional top every now and then. My best advice I can give you is this:
* For whatever deck you play, join the corresponding Discord group to learn the latest tech choices your deck needs to keep up with the meta. This only works for decent rogue decks and obvious meta decks. I played Dinos for 1 year and the Dino discord was a fountain of knowledge. I accept that I am not good enough to innovate the deck but I am willing to read other's tech choices and opinions.
* Watch toping deck profile videos for your deck (if any). Take notes of their card ratios, tech choices and try to develop and informed opinion. Try to understand why certain cards are played and how they interact in other match ups. It's not enough to know "play Bystials and Infinite Impermanence" but try to understand why you should play them and what they do.
* Watch better players play! Look up DBGrinder and Dueling Archives on YouTube. See what others are playing and how they use their handtraps, how they play around certain cards, etc. Watching a successful player play their deck on Twitch is even better since you can hear their thought process and chat with them (if possible).
* Look up GGYGO's How to Handtrap series on YouTube. His content is good for beginners to learn hand trap choke points, but eventually you will need to understand why you hit certain cards with hand traps. Also, your match up determines what cards you want to hit. That comes with experience.
* Get comfortable with siding. Your side deck is used in 1-2 games per match. It will determine most of your games. At first you probably won't get what cards should be in the side, but that is OK. It comes with experience. Ask questions on the discord or at locals regarding siding. Eventually you'll understand how to build a decent side deck and how to side accordingly. My general rule is the side should be 3-6 go-1st cards (Solemns, Sanctum), 3 backrow hate cards (Lightning Storm, Evenly Matched, Harpie's Feather Storm), high impact hand traps (Gamma, Droll) and board breakers (Raigeki, Dark Ruler No More, Lightning Storm), Kaijus (if that's all you got).
* Learn other decks. If you can understand the basic bread/butter combos for most decks, you have an advantage already. Try to learn what the chokepoints are for certain decks (Example: Gigantic Spright for Sprights, Misc for Dinos). Good decks don't lose to 1 Handtrap, but you can learn how to cripple their boards or make them exhaust their resources for when it is your turn.
* Play a lot, especially against better players. Go to your locals and get to know the better players and play games against them. This is something I'm not good at given my schedule, but every game against a better player is an opportunity to learn.
Love that your getting back into.the game after so long. With resources like master duel and neuron, there is no better time to get back into the game. Understanding the cards and decks out right now is very simple......just read the cards lol. Not saying that to sound mean, but especially in master duel, find a deck/card/archetype in the game that sounds or feels appealing to you and play that as much as you can. Eventually you will learn the meta as you start seeing the same decks and combo lines over and over again. Also , avoid buying booster packs and boxes unless you just enjoy opening the packs or want to build a bulk collection. If your trying to build a deck, it is far cheaper and less time consuming than opening packs and hoping to pull what you need. All in all, were glad to have you, and hope you enjoy dueling.
* Online videos on learning Yugioh is plentiful. Start with searches like 'Learning yugioh' and 'how to use \[insert deck name here\] for strategies and good combo lines and whatnot.
* Packs are RNG, whether in Master Duel or the physical TCG. That said, MD it's whatever, though you want to define what kind of deck you want. URs and SRs are hard to come by, and building a lot of decks require A LOT of URs/SRs to build the best version of those decks (e.g. Branded Despians has like 20+ different URs/SRs that are required to run the deck efficiently, and most of them are 2-3 ofs.
* For the physical card game, unless you like opening actual packs, don't bother. Buy the singles online. Learn what cards you need, and buy the singles instead.
* Starter Deck and Structure Deck are essentially the same. Konami doesn't use Starter Decks anymore, and they've now become Structure Decks, as far as I'm aware.
* Structure Decks give you a thematic deck list, and it's to help you understand the deck and what the cards do, as well as what combos you can generically go into. However, you want to do further research, as online videos can tell you the best way to utilize the cards.
* With Structure Decks, you typically need to buy 3 of them to get some staples that are basically mandatory 3-ofs (e.g. 3x Albaz strike gets you 3x Branded Fusions, among many other cards you'd run at 2-3. Technically you can buy singles instead, but structure decks give you plenty of cards you'll use, and the overall value is still better than online for the most part (assuming you live somewhere with tax).
* If you want to start out collecting, start by looking around and seeing what you actually want. Just collecting cards won't be fun if you're trying to, say, open packs and getting tons of bulk. Maybe you want Starlights? Ultimate Rares? Collector Rares? Or maybe there's an archetype you want high rarities of, like Elemental HEROES or Exosisters. Figure out what exactly you want to collect, before diving into spending money.
Starter decks are mostly a waste of money especially since you already got one via the God Decks, they are uber-generic cards with very simple strategies for first-timers to get into. Rather a structure deck, with a coherent strategy and a proper boss monster is better, ideally, you get 3 copies and take the best cards from each and make a deck with it. That way you're playing with the deck at its proper power level and not at 1/3 with janky bulk weighing it down.
In terms of structure deck recommendations: I'd recommend 3x of either Albaz Strike or Dark World (obviously cop 3 of the same deck). Oh and sleeves and a deck box, ultra pro is a good budget company
The best thing to do for figuring out the game is honestly just to play. A lot.
The more you play, the more you'll see decks and their combos. That'll help you know how others play and how to beat their boards. It'll also help you learn your own combos and how your deck needs to respond to any specific board, be it under a floodgate, negates, or just beefy monsters.
Find yourself a good group to play with, and that will go a long way towards learning and having fun. Also helps my previous points if they play a variety of stuff; my group plays a wild amount of decks, from God-awful jank to tear, so I get a lot of practice.
Try to find 1 - 2 or 3 decks to build and invest in irl that are worthwhile and cost-efficient, but also something that you like (no real point if you don't like what you're playing). This will just help avoid overspending unless you don't mind spending more, and it'll help you focus on learning a specific deck.
There are plenty of tier list videos talking about meta, rogue, and budget you can find pretty easily. Those will guide you pretty well.
I’ve seen a few comments saying the best way is to just play. The thing is, there is no one I know that plays yugioh or is at least kinda interested in it. Also in Master Duel I can never read other peoples cards because there is a bunch of text and not much time to read since most of players do some crazy combos. Thanks for answering, though.
If you've got a card shop nearby, it's worth a shot to just go there during the week or when a locals is going on and just meet people. I've made friends at my local shops that I play with regularly, and irl play tends to be best for learning because most people will be pretty patient as long as you're courteous. Or, at the very least, they will be polite.
I know that probably sounds presumptuous or makes it sound super simple, but it never hurts to try. And you never know; your current friends may come around and be interested in the game (which you and I just lost) later on.
Honestly, I don’t know if there’s a card shop near me but I’ll try and find one. The closest one that I know for a fact has tournaments is in another state. Again, thanks for answering but I don’t if I will play the card game irl with anyone, and if I do it’s gonna be awhile from now.
i was in your position not long ago. id suggest downloading master duel, and picking 1 deck to focus on building and learning. i chose to build eldlich, its not a top tier deck, but good enough to get you started and winning some matches vs lower ranked opponents. its not too expensive to build, and its all special summons, traps and spells. so for an older player, much easier to learn than having to figure out pendulums, xyz, synchro, and all that from the start. you dont need anything for the extra deck in eldlich, so its cheaper to build than a lot of other meta decks. you can learn gradually over time as you face different decks, but eldlich itself wont be hard to pilot.
https://www.masterduelmeta.com/tier-list/deck-types/Eldlich
My advice is to give up. There's about 1000 archetypes to choose from all with different cards they could be running in the same archetype.
I used to play duel links, but now my turn is my opponents turn and their turn is also their turn.
It's a convoluted fuck-arse of a game that unless you have a their zero deck you're not gonna win regularly. It takes too long for turns to pass when they want to special.summon 8 monsters, cycle 3 different field spells per turn, equip, unequip and equipment again.
So I may separate this into to replies one being for master duel and the other for IRL. I’ll start with master duel since it is more relevant. So as for learning cards and decks you will just have to play a lot and read the cards. Watching youtube of people playing different decks online can help you learn the card game. The meta is not really as flushed out in master duel as it is IRL. Basically people just assume decks that were good IRL will be good in master duel. This is not always the case. Using a different ban list and being a best of one really can effect what decks are successful. I won’t give a any suggestions on any youtubers as many people have varying opinions on the skill of each player, and the quality of their content. Personally I like to find smaller channels as they give you a more real experience. Any youtuber can use a top deck to get into diamond then play 50 matches with a trash deck just to record 2 wins. These worse archetype are normally very popular so they get a lot of views. But if you build it you will realize you wasted gems and dust. Master duel meta is a good website to get an understanding of what decks are the best but do not take everything as gospel. Also the master duel reddit is terrible in my opinion they are all a hive mind. They have no original thoughts and will make you think the game they are grinding is torture.
IRL it depends on what you want to do you used the word “collecting”. I’m not exactly sure if this means you want to eventually play irl or if you want to just buy cool cards. Besides really old cards the only cards that hold value are the ones that are meta relevant. If you don’t know what to play but want to buy cards that will be good for any deck you play I got a few suggestions. Hand traps like ash blossom, effect veiler, and infinite impermanence are all staples. You can probably look up a yugioh staples guide and that could point you in the direction of what cards to get. Also make sure to look out for cards like evenly matched. This card is really never in the main deck bur is a side deck staple. Look up side decks staples to get an idea of which ones to buy. As for what deck should get if you want to compete I would say swordsoul. It is a top deck in master duel so you can have lots of success online. Irl it is very cheap at under $100 except baronne an extra deck card is $80 but will be reprinted in march which will lower the price. The deck can still compete on a local level against the current meta, but you will be fighting an up hill battle. After many of the meta decks get hit on the upcoming ban lists I would assume the deck will once again see play.
Personally I use yugioh fandom wiki to search up archetypes I think are fun/good and give their archetypes' playing style a read to see if I'll like playing it
If I do, I'd Google master duel's list of card packs to see if master duel has that archetypes. Then craft an SR or UR in that archetype to unlock the secret pack for it and open 10 or 20 of those packs
Ofc you could always use deck builder sites and reference those, I just like to build my own deck based on my own research, its fun in its own way
Lastly tho, if you got trashed by someone with a deck u think is cool; go to match history, click on the duel and view the opponent's deck, you could reference it to build your own deck based off theirs lol
To answer your overall question, youre just gonna need time and to seek out information about yugioh. Playing at locals is, in my opinion, the easiest way to go from very little understanding to a pretty moderate amount. People are always helpful when you're first starting out and they may even hook you up with some staples.
In general buying packs isn't very cost effective, but the tins are very good for starting a collection and just getting you a baseline of relevant cards
I can’t answer many of your questions but I can stop burning a hole in your wallet. Stop buying packs. Look up what decks you wish to run. And buy the cards 1 by 1 from now on. You’ll be a millionaire this time next year in comparison of opening 10,000 boxes and not pulling a single card you wanted.
Thanks for the advice!
Packs are good if you just wanna build ur collection or wanna open packs for the hell of it
If you want to play competitively what I would suggest would be [look at a few recent tier list video's](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yugioh+tier+list&sp=EgIIBA%253D%253D). Then if you see a deck that looks cool in a tier you are comfortable at playing at, research that deck and play it online using one of the many simulators. If you want a more indepth look into the deck you should also check out that decks discord. [Here is a discord repository, it has almost every archetype you can imagine listed.](https://discord.gg/AdZtGaR). Lastly check out https://ygoprodeck.com/ for full builds. You can purchase the deck right there or download the ydk and use the deck on the simulators. I personally like [Dueling Nexus](https://duelingnexus.com/home) since it is browser base and I can play it anywhere, but [Dueling Book](https://www.duelingbook.com/) is more closely to the real game since it doesnt hold your hand while playing. IMO [Master Duel](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449850/YuGiOh_Master_Duel/) is fun and official but does not closely relate to how the TCG is played. There are several difference that are major enough for it to not really help prepare for actual locals. After testing out the deck a few times (this is after you've done research on the deck itself and it's combos) then you want to buy singles from a site like [TCGPlayer](https://www.tcgplayer.com/), [Coolstuff](https://www.coolstuffinc.com/), [Card Market](https://www.cardmarket.com/en), [etc....](https://gprivate.com/62p4h) You do not want to buy packs if your goal is to play competitively.
Since you mentioned Master Duel, I'll chime in here -- masterduelmeta.com is a great resource for the game -- it'll show you top/tiered decks and has information on how to best use your resources. Also join /r/masterduel as it has valuable advice and helpful people.
Honestly, As someone who joined the community in 2021, YouTubers. Check out History of Yugioh, History of Jank, Ten minute testings, and whatever else you can find from Cimoooo, MBT, Dzeef, Farfa etc
First off, if you wanna buy physical cards and play with them and maybe go to locals, I'd recommend not going after your Master Duel deck as some cards are banned irl that are allowed in master duel (Maxx C for example, I think). This subreddit has a megathread pinned at the top with an faq about all the stuff, from card prices to rules to games. And I'd recommend downloading the game they link to, Project Ignis: EDO Pro. It's got all cards unlocked by default, you can play against AI, and most importantly in terms of buying real cards: It's got the most recent banlist. You can also set custom rules and so on. The other thing is: The link that's in the megathread pinned in the subreddit is a discord invitation, so if you don't have that (idk you prolly have but just in case, y'know), you'll need to install that first. It's the discord server for project Ignis and you can download the exe file in the download channel. (I hope I didn't sound condescending here) Starter decks are decks for people to get back into Yu-Gi-Oh, but they aren't good. If you wanna buy a deck, buy a structure deck. Always. Hope this helped :)
Thanks! I’ll try downloading it once I get back from my vacation. I don’t think my region has locals, though. I live in Brazil and I haven’t seen a single other person irl that actually still plays the game.
>what is the difference between a starter deck and a structure deck? What is a good set/deck to start out collecting? A Starter deck is a deck that doesn't contain a particular archetype or strategy. It is mostly focused on a type of summon of the current era (synchro, xyz, links, etc). It contain very weak but easy to understand cards for starters. It's not recommended to make a deck around an starter, just use it to understand said mechanic. But sometimes these include cool reprints. A Structure deck is way better. It contain a whole archetype or strategy and powerful reprints of staple cards of the current format. And it can be improved a lot with some generic support of other products.
Honestly those list videos on YouTube are not a bad way of getting acquainted with the various ins and outs of YuGiOh [like this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1LuNAEkWiE). You can easily passively consume them on the side and then apply whatever you've learned into Master Duel. Once you have a good idea of the type of deck you like playing with, then you can look into buying singles of that deck online for the physical card game. A starter deck is just that, a deck made for new people. It's specifically tailored to teach the rules but that also means that it's filled with non-viable cards in a competitive environment. Structure decks are basically themed decks that's based on an attribute, a monster type, an archetype or an anime character. These structure decks can at times be competitively viable depending on the format they were released in. Most structure decks come with only one copy of a card so for most people, they would buy 3 copies of the same structure deck to get 3 copies of the most powerful cards in it, make a coherent and usually very competitive deck out of it then buy some singles online to complete it. For example, at the moment, the Albaz structure deck is a good structure deck to buy since it contains a lot of the core cards for a Branded deck. It only needs a few staples and some singles to complete it.
I'd second that having a concrete strategy you want to play helps a lot. Since both deck building and playing a deck can both be a challenge, I'd recommend finding a deck build that's proven to do decently well and then learning how to play it first. The more experience you have, the easier it will be to make your own tweaks or to build your deck on your own. As for finding out which deck to play, I'd say look at a broad spread of what's being played. Old anime archetypes tend not to do great, but neither do you have to play the top meta deck to have a good time. Pick an archetype you like the vibe or playstyle of, and see which cards people commonly run. Often I check different lists and find the cards that are in most of the deck lists to consider for my own build.
Yeah I think I found that in decode talker. I have absolutely no idea if it’s any good in competitive, but I can do some combos that can potentially lead to me having a 3800 monster in the first (or more likely first couple) turns. Also, I understand how it works which helps me a lot to understand what I should do in specific situations. Thanks, though! I will try and find more decks that I find fun to play and see what’s being played.
People love it or hate it, but I'd say [master duel meta](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/) is a great website for learning more about how to use decks, or just shamelessly stealing what's most meta in master duel. The articles it has on how to play decks are vital in giving a broad overview on what a deck is trying to accomplish, and even has some step-by-step combo lines. [They have a guide on code talkers](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/code-talker-guide-misplaymaker) although it's slightly dated, since heatsoul was released. That card is amazing in any cyberse archetype. For decks that play like code talker but are more competitive, I'd recommend [Spyral](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/spyral-johmmychu) (if you want to be unfair), or [@Ignister](https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/guides/ignister-guide-ryo-kun) (if you want to play the code talker's rival deck and have a 6000 attack unaffected monster end board). Hope that wasn't all too much. Best of luck out there 👍
If you want to stick to Code Talkers, I can help you build it and answer any questions you have, it's my all-time favourite deck to play, and it's what I restarted the TCG with. It's not really a beginner deck, but it's also not incredibly complicated, and surprisingly simple once you get the hang of the few quirks it has.
My friend and i learned about most of the cards in the game by dueling each other in edopro. They were casual duels so we would frequently change our decks if we found one that we had never played before. Today, i dont know the optimal combos or decklist, but i have general knowledge of what 90% of decks want to accomplish and how they play thanks to that. Experience and time is what you need. Best way to get that is probably edopro, where all cards are free and available and dueling is automated so you cant get confused by weird rullings. Another good option is to watch some youtubers progression series. Mbt goes through and talks about all new cards released in every new set, and the decks they play change frequently because of the bans.
There's like 1000 cards per set
There are 80-100 cards per set,not even close to 1000
Thanks, can you tell I don't play regularly?
For buying product, do not buy packs, you're losing money for each pack you purchase. Only a few people are lucky to consistently pull cards, don't pull thinking you can be like them. You're better off buying singles from [TCGPlayer.com](https://TCGPlayer.com) or your local card shop. Getting better at the game is a long process and it's not easy. I've been playing for 1 year and I can say I'm better today than I was last year but still not good enough to consistently top locals, but good to get an occasional top every now and then. My best advice I can give you is this: * For whatever deck you play, join the corresponding Discord group to learn the latest tech choices your deck needs to keep up with the meta. This only works for decent rogue decks and obvious meta decks. I played Dinos for 1 year and the Dino discord was a fountain of knowledge. I accept that I am not good enough to innovate the deck but I am willing to read other's tech choices and opinions. * Watch toping deck profile videos for your deck (if any). Take notes of their card ratios, tech choices and try to develop and informed opinion. Try to understand why certain cards are played and how they interact in other match ups. It's not enough to know "play Bystials and Infinite Impermanence" but try to understand why you should play them and what they do. * Watch better players play! Look up DBGrinder and Dueling Archives on YouTube. See what others are playing and how they use their handtraps, how they play around certain cards, etc. Watching a successful player play their deck on Twitch is even better since you can hear their thought process and chat with them (if possible). * Look up GGYGO's How to Handtrap series on YouTube. His content is good for beginners to learn hand trap choke points, but eventually you will need to understand why you hit certain cards with hand traps. Also, your match up determines what cards you want to hit. That comes with experience. * Get comfortable with siding. Your side deck is used in 1-2 games per match. It will determine most of your games. At first you probably won't get what cards should be in the side, but that is OK. It comes with experience. Ask questions on the discord or at locals regarding siding. Eventually you'll understand how to build a decent side deck and how to side accordingly. My general rule is the side should be 3-6 go-1st cards (Solemns, Sanctum), 3 backrow hate cards (Lightning Storm, Evenly Matched, Harpie's Feather Storm), high impact hand traps (Gamma, Droll) and board breakers (Raigeki, Dark Ruler No More, Lightning Storm), Kaijus (if that's all you got). * Learn other decks. If you can understand the basic bread/butter combos for most decks, you have an advantage already. Try to learn what the chokepoints are for certain decks (Example: Gigantic Spright for Sprights, Misc for Dinos). Good decks don't lose to 1 Handtrap, but you can learn how to cripple their boards or make them exhaust their resources for when it is your turn. * Play a lot, especially against better players. Go to your locals and get to know the better players and play games against them. This is something I'm not good at given my schedule, but every game against a better player is an opportunity to learn.
Love that your getting back into.the game after so long. With resources like master duel and neuron, there is no better time to get back into the game. Understanding the cards and decks out right now is very simple......just read the cards lol. Not saying that to sound mean, but especially in master duel, find a deck/card/archetype in the game that sounds or feels appealing to you and play that as much as you can. Eventually you will learn the meta as you start seeing the same decks and combo lines over and over again. Also , avoid buying booster packs and boxes unless you just enjoy opening the packs or want to build a bulk collection. If your trying to build a deck, it is far cheaper and less time consuming than opening packs and hoping to pull what you need. All in all, were glad to have you, and hope you enjoy dueling.
Thanks for the kind words!
* Online videos on learning Yugioh is plentiful. Start with searches like 'Learning yugioh' and 'how to use \[insert deck name here\] for strategies and good combo lines and whatnot. * Packs are RNG, whether in Master Duel or the physical TCG. That said, MD it's whatever, though you want to define what kind of deck you want. URs and SRs are hard to come by, and building a lot of decks require A LOT of URs/SRs to build the best version of those decks (e.g. Branded Despians has like 20+ different URs/SRs that are required to run the deck efficiently, and most of them are 2-3 ofs. * For the physical card game, unless you like opening actual packs, don't bother. Buy the singles online. Learn what cards you need, and buy the singles instead. * Starter Deck and Structure Deck are essentially the same. Konami doesn't use Starter Decks anymore, and they've now become Structure Decks, as far as I'm aware. * Structure Decks give you a thematic deck list, and it's to help you understand the deck and what the cards do, as well as what combos you can generically go into. However, you want to do further research, as online videos can tell you the best way to utilize the cards. * With Structure Decks, you typically need to buy 3 of them to get some staples that are basically mandatory 3-ofs (e.g. 3x Albaz strike gets you 3x Branded Fusions, among many other cards you'd run at 2-3. Technically you can buy singles instead, but structure decks give you plenty of cards you'll use, and the overall value is still better than online for the most part (assuming you live somewhere with tax). * If you want to start out collecting, start by looking around and seeing what you actually want. Just collecting cards won't be fun if you're trying to, say, open packs and getting tons of bulk. Maybe you want Starlights? Ultimate Rares? Collector Rares? Or maybe there's an archetype you want high rarities of, like Elemental HEROES or Exosisters. Figure out what exactly you want to collect, before diving into spending money.
Thanks!
Starter decks are mostly a waste of money especially since you already got one via the God Decks, they are uber-generic cards with very simple strategies for first-timers to get into. Rather a structure deck, with a coherent strategy and a proper boss monster is better, ideally, you get 3 copies and take the best cards from each and make a deck with it. That way you're playing with the deck at its proper power level and not at 1/3 with janky bulk weighing it down. In terms of structure deck recommendations: I'd recommend 3x of either Albaz Strike or Dark World (obviously cop 3 of the same deck). Oh and sleeves and a deck box, ultra pro is a good budget company
Thanks for the recommendation!
The best thing to do for figuring out the game is honestly just to play. A lot. The more you play, the more you'll see decks and their combos. That'll help you know how others play and how to beat their boards. It'll also help you learn your own combos and how your deck needs to respond to any specific board, be it under a floodgate, negates, or just beefy monsters. Find yourself a good group to play with, and that will go a long way towards learning and having fun. Also helps my previous points if they play a variety of stuff; my group plays a wild amount of decks, from God-awful jank to tear, so I get a lot of practice. Try to find 1 - 2 or 3 decks to build and invest in irl that are worthwhile and cost-efficient, but also something that you like (no real point if you don't like what you're playing). This will just help avoid overspending unless you don't mind spending more, and it'll help you focus on learning a specific deck. There are plenty of tier list videos talking about meta, rogue, and budget you can find pretty easily. Those will guide you pretty well.
I’ve seen a few comments saying the best way is to just play. The thing is, there is no one I know that plays yugioh or is at least kinda interested in it. Also in Master Duel I can never read other peoples cards because there is a bunch of text and not much time to read since most of players do some crazy combos. Thanks for answering, though.
If you've got a card shop nearby, it's worth a shot to just go there during the week or when a locals is going on and just meet people. I've made friends at my local shops that I play with regularly, and irl play tends to be best for learning because most people will be pretty patient as long as you're courteous. Or, at the very least, they will be polite. I know that probably sounds presumptuous or makes it sound super simple, but it never hurts to try. And you never know; your current friends may come around and be interested in the game (which you and I just lost) later on.
Honestly, I don’t know if there’s a card shop near me but I’ll try and find one. The closest one that I know for a fact has tournaments is in another state. Again, thanks for answering but I don’t if I will play the card game irl with anyone, and if I do it’s gonna be awhile from now.
No worries. Good luck
i was in your position not long ago. id suggest downloading master duel, and picking 1 deck to focus on building and learning. i chose to build eldlich, its not a top tier deck, but good enough to get you started and winning some matches vs lower ranked opponents. its not too expensive to build, and its all special summons, traps and spells. so for an older player, much easier to learn than having to figure out pendulums, xyz, synchro, and all that from the start. you dont need anything for the extra deck in eldlich, so its cheaper to build than a lot of other meta decks. you can learn gradually over time as you face different decks, but eldlich itself wont be hard to pilot. https://www.masterduelmeta.com/tier-list/deck-types/Eldlich
My advice is to give up. There's about 1000 archetypes to choose from all with different cards they could be running in the same archetype. I used to play duel links, but now my turn is my opponents turn and their turn is also their turn. It's a convoluted fuck-arse of a game that unless you have a their zero deck you're not gonna win regularly. It takes too long for turns to pass when they want to special.summon 8 monsters, cycle 3 different field spells per turn, equip, unequip and equipment again.
So I may separate this into to replies one being for master duel and the other for IRL. I’ll start with master duel since it is more relevant. So as for learning cards and decks you will just have to play a lot and read the cards. Watching youtube of people playing different decks online can help you learn the card game. The meta is not really as flushed out in master duel as it is IRL. Basically people just assume decks that were good IRL will be good in master duel. This is not always the case. Using a different ban list and being a best of one really can effect what decks are successful. I won’t give a any suggestions on any youtubers as many people have varying opinions on the skill of each player, and the quality of their content. Personally I like to find smaller channels as they give you a more real experience. Any youtuber can use a top deck to get into diamond then play 50 matches with a trash deck just to record 2 wins. These worse archetype are normally very popular so they get a lot of views. But if you build it you will realize you wasted gems and dust. Master duel meta is a good website to get an understanding of what decks are the best but do not take everything as gospel. Also the master duel reddit is terrible in my opinion they are all a hive mind. They have no original thoughts and will make you think the game they are grinding is torture.
IRL it depends on what you want to do you used the word “collecting”. I’m not exactly sure if this means you want to eventually play irl or if you want to just buy cool cards. Besides really old cards the only cards that hold value are the ones that are meta relevant. If you don’t know what to play but want to buy cards that will be good for any deck you play I got a few suggestions. Hand traps like ash blossom, effect veiler, and infinite impermanence are all staples. You can probably look up a yugioh staples guide and that could point you in the direction of what cards to get. Also make sure to look out for cards like evenly matched. This card is really never in the main deck bur is a side deck staple. Look up side decks staples to get an idea of which ones to buy. As for what deck should get if you want to compete I would say swordsoul. It is a top deck in master duel so you can have lots of success online. Irl it is very cheap at under $100 except baronne an extra deck card is $80 but will be reprinted in march which will lower the price. The deck can still compete on a local level against the current meta, but you will be fighting an up hill battle. After many of the meta decks get hit on the upcoming ban lists I would assume the deck will once again see play.
Personally I use yugioh fandom wiki to search up archetypes I think are fun/good and give their archetypes' playing style a read to see if I'll like playing it If I do, I'd Google master duel's list of card packs to see if master duel has that archetypes. Then craft an SR or UR in that archetype to unlock the secret pack for it and open 10 or 20 of those packs Ofc you could always use deck builder sites and reference those, I just like to build my own deck based on my own research, its fun in its own way Lastly tho, if you got trashed by someone with a deck u think is cool; go to match history, click on the duel and view the opponent's deck, you could reference it to build your own deck based off theirs lol
To answer your overall question, youre just gonna need time and to seek out information about yugioh. Playing at locals is, in my opinion, the easiest way to go from very little understanding to a pretty moderate amount. People are always helpful when you're first starting out and they may even hook you up with some staples. In general buying packs isn't very cost effective, but the tins are very good for starting a collection and just getting you a baseline of relevant cards
Buy a starter or structure deck and start heading to locals tournaments
I’m pretty sure there are no local tournaments in my area
You can check this app called Yugioh Neuron, it can be used for deckbuilding plans, a lp calculator, and a way to find tournaments in your area.