With the release of the new Yugioh game Duel Links on the Android and Apple Store, Yugioh is as popular as ever. The aim of this instructable is to help people create a deck for either the mobile game, or for real life. It will also explore which types of cards to choose based on my opinion of the games structure. We will only be going over the first generation cards, meaning that we will not cover anything that is outside the realm of the mobile app.

Step 1: Understanding What Actually Makes a Deck

The yugioh deck is broken into two separate parts. The main deck and the side deck. The main deck can be anywhere between 40 and 60 cards. The main deck holds three types of cards: Monster Cards, Spell Cards, and Trap Cards. We will get into more detail about these cards in the later steps.

Step 2: Using Monster Cards

Monster cards are one of the necessary cards in a Yugioh deck. The goal of the game is to reduce the amount of your opponents life points to zero. The main way of doing that is to summon strong monsters to your side of the field and attacking your opponent or his monsters and draining his all his life points. The number varies for deck type, but it is usually a good idea to have around 17 to 23 monster cards in your deck. You want to be able to draw into monsters when necessary but not be flooded with them. There will be times when you need spell and trap cards and will be stuck if you draw into more monster cards. The key to making a good deck is having a good balance between your monsters, spells, and traps.

There are two main types of monster cards in your main deck, normal monsters, and effect monsters. Normal monsters do not have any effects, they just have attack and defense power. It is not usual for competitive decks to play many normal monsters because effects are usually very helpful. However, some decks utilize spell and trap cards that are beneficial to normal monsters, as well as certain effect monsters that use other normal monsters. Effect monsters have effects that usually are beneficial to their controller. For instance, a monsters effect can be like this "If this card is summoned: You can target 5 "tellarknight" monsters in your Graveyard; shuffle all 5 into the Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Satellarknight Sirius" once per turn."

This particular effect for Satellarknight Sirius is very useful in a Tellarknight deck. This is why most competitive players choose one type of deck, so that their cards can support one another. Having the right monsters in your main deck is one of the staples of the game.

I personally like using monsters that have better effects, because I believe them to be more powerful than raw strength. However, I have lost to players before whose decks main focus was to summon as many powerful monsters with high attack as they could. Granted, those monsters were well protected by spells and trap cards.

My Recommendation: Use effect heavy monsters that can get rid of your opponents high attackers. Also use effect monsters that can remove your opponents spell and trap cards that serve as protection for their strong monsters. Lastly, a pro move would be to predict what your opponents monsters could be and to try and run your own effect monsters that can counteract your OPPONENT'S effect monsters.

Step 3: Choosing the Right Spell Cards

Spells are extremely important in getting the right deck made and their are usually 10-20 in the deck. They are essentially monster effects, but are usually more powerful. Spell cards can be used to do all sorts of things, like drawing more cards, giving your monster more attack, weakening your opponents monsters' attack, destroying your opponents monsters, destroying your opponents spell and trap cards, and much much more.

There are 6 types of spell cards: Normal, Field, Quick-play, Equip, Ritual and Continuous spell cards. Because this is a how to construct a deck Instructable and not a basic Yugioh rules instructable, I will not go into too much detail about these types. One thing I will mention is that I personally like to run a lot of Quick-play spell cards such as "Forbidden Lance" and "Twin Twister" because they are good for disrupting the opponent's flow of the game.

It is important to choose spell cards that collaborate with your monsters. For example if you have a deck full of WATER attribute monsters, it might be a good idea to run a Field Spell like Umi. Umi's card description is as follows:

"Increase the ATK and DEF of all Fish, Sea Serpent, Thunder, and Aqua-Type monsters by 200 points. Decrease the ATK and DEF of all Machine and Pyro-Type monsters by 200 points."

Many Fish, Sea Serpent, and Aqua monsters are within the overall branch of WATER attribute monsters.

Another way to make your spells mesh with your deck is to have monster type specific spell cards. For example, do you remember Satellarknight Sirius from the "Understanding Monster cards" step? He is a "Tellarknight" monster. This means that he could get an advantage from the spell card "Satellarknight Skybridge", whose effect is reproduced below:

"Target 1 "tellarknight" monster you control; Special Summon 1 "tellarknight" monster with a different name from your Deck, and if you do, shuffle the targeted monster into the Deck. While the monster Special Summoned by this effect is face-up on the field, you cannot Special Summon monsters, except "tellarknight" monsters. You can only activate 1 "Satellarknight Skybridge" per turn."

There are also spell cards which are good in basically every deck. These cards are called staples. One way to think about it is, that in almost every case, monster destruction is a useful thing to have. That means spell cards like Raigeki or Dark Hole, which are cards that destroy your opponents monsters, will almost always be useful. Spell and Trap destruction is almost always useful as well, that is why cards like Mystical Space Typhoon, and Twin Twisters are staples as well.

My Recommendation: I believe that it is a good idea to have a balance between staples, and type specific cards. In terms of the 6 types of spell cards, I think that there isnt necessarily a need to incorporate all the different types of cards, but that having cards specific to your deck are more important. This means that you include Field Spells in a deck that heavily relies on one type of Field Spell, and dedicating more cards to drawing and recycling that spell. However, I do think it is a good idea to try and incorporate disrupting quick-play spell cards to keep your opponent off-balance.

Step 4: Pick Your Trap Cards

In my opinion, Trap cards have been falling off recently, with the new Meta Game traps are just too slow and can get Twin-Twistered into oblivion. Many decks in the current meta game see very little to no trap card use at all. HOWEVER, in the Yugioh Duel Links moblie app, TRAP CARDS ARE OVERPOWERED. Trap cards implementing destruction has been prevalent since the beginning of the game, and duel links reminds us what first generation yugioh is all about. You can have a field with five 3000 attack monsters, and lose all of them to one mirror force, which does this:

"When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Destroy all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls."

That is super overpowered!

There are 3 types of trap cards: Normal, Counter, and Continuous spell cards. I believe that it is a good idea to run a mixture of Normal and Counter trap cards, that focus on monster destruction, and effect/summoning negation, like mirror force, and Solemn Warning (which are both staples). You can use continuous trap cards if you like. Certain decks made really good use of Continuous Trap cards, like "Trap Monster" decks, however I wouldnt say incorporating them into your deck would be necessary.

My Recommendation:

For the current Meta Game:

Play about 5 to 10 of them, and mostly focus on monster type specific traps, or destruction/negation traps. Having too many in the hand could be harmful, especially when you may need a monster to finish off the duel.

For Duel Links:

Go crazy, I wouldnt be surprised if you were to put about 20 in there, all focused on monster destruction/effect negation, and have a winning record. Traps are OP in first generation.

Step 5: Pick What Kind of DECK Type You Want

Decks are a representation of the player, and they speak to who you are as a person. With that in mind there are three main types of decks to choose from, Strongest Monster, Lockout, and Trolling.

The strongest monster methodolgy speaks to people who want to summon the most BA goon from their entire squad to do all of their dirty work. Even in the show, Seto Kaiba got no greater enjoyment than destroying Yugi's Dark Magician with his Blue Eyes White Dragon. If this sounds like you, than you need to build a deck that has this purpose. Check out the bottom right deck, the Blue Eyes deck!

The lockout methodology speaks to people who live life in equations. They like to calculate every aspect and account for every situation. And they like to take as low of a chance as possible. As a result, they don't let their opponents play Yugioh and lock them out from doing their main strategy. If that sounds like you, you need to build a lockout deck. Check out the bottom left deck, which is my Anti-Meta deck!

The Trolling methodology speaks to people who enjoy life by watching other human being squirm. They don't follow any social constructs and like to play by their own rules. They know that there is more than one way to skin a cat, just as they know then there's more than one way to win a Yugioh match than by reducing your opponents life points to zero. They use alternate methods to stall their opponents and make them lose all their cards, or they'll inflict damage through spell cards, or some unorthodox method of torture, if this sounds like you, you need to build a troll deck. Check out the top deck, the Troll deck!

Recommendation:

My favorite deck to play is the Lockout Deck, because I enjoy locking my opponents out and giving them zero options. However, if you're new to Yugioh, I'd suggest using the strongest monster methodology. If you're a seasoned veteran, and would like to spice up your Yugioh life I would recommend having some fun and trying out a Troll deck for the laughs!