New player guide: What packs to buy first? [Sept 3]

• Main Box and Mini Box Investment are added.
• Recommended Start Decklist Notes Updated.

If you have just started playing Duel Links or you simply haven’t opened the game in a while, you are probably looking at the Shop, wondering where to start. After all, this game has been out for over two years, and the amount of options available at this point is quite overwhelming. You do, however, have a limited amount of resources, so I am going to try and direct you towards what’s relevant at the moment.

For starters, let’s talk about some of the most popular cards in the game like right now—mostly Spell and Trap Cards that can fit in pretty much any deck. These cards have proven to be a great investment for many players by remaining relevant for a very long time and should be one of your primary foci, if you have just started playing the game.

Available from the very first main box, Sphere Kuriboh has remained relevant as a pretty strong hand trap to stop attacks. However, most of the cards from the first box aren't all that good anymore, so it's important to take that into consideration.

If you're willing to spend some real money, you can buy 1 copy of this in the shop section under "Special" tab. Otherwise, you can get it from the Selection Box Vol. 01 when they come back, or use a UR Dream Ticket.

Abyss Dweller is used like a monster version of Necrovalley that's accessible to any Rank-4 spam Deck. Another benefit of running Abyss Dweller is, unlike Necrovalley, it does not affect your own graveyard so you're still able to activate graveyard effects.

Make sure to toggle your chain from "Auto" to "On" so you can use Abyss Dweller at the start of the opponent's turn where it is most effective. Chaining Abyss Dweller to an effect activation would not negate that effect.

Malevolent Sin is a great anti-Xyz tech. Xyz monsters temporarily banished by Malevolent Sin come back with no materials, so they become unable to use their effects.

A decent generic rank 4 XYZ that you can put in any deck. It can prevent your opponent from summoning a strong high level monster, making this a pretty decent turn 1 monster to summon.

There are many powerful spells and traps in the game, so having a quick and easy removal card like this helps a lot. It can be used in just about any deck, but it's not actually crucial. If you're not sure about which UR to get when you have something like a UR Dream Ticket, this is one of the safest choice out there at the moment, and might potentially last quite a long time.

The Antinomic Theory box provides some T.G. archetype, so you can roll the main box if you're interested. Otherwise, the selection box vol.03 mini provides many other good options.

Pretty similar to Mystical Space Typhoon, but banishing a spell/trap card is a stronger form of removal compared to MST. This prevents certain spells/traps from activating in the grave when destroyed. It comes at a cost of 1000 LP, but this can actually be beneficial since some character skills require low LP.

Similar to Sphere Kuriboh, this is available in an old box with many cards that aren't that relevant anymore. You can buy 1 copy of this with real money from the shop's "Special" tab, or go with the Selection Box Vol. 01 Mini if you're a new player.

Normal monsters are rarely ever used anymore, so the odds of this being useful in a duel are usually pretty high. Monsters effects used in the early turns are what allows them to extend to long combos that can lead to a full board, having Chalice to stop their combos can be a game winning factor.

Being a quick-play spell also makes this quite good since you can use it both offensively or defensively.

Chalice is used to prevent combos, while Lance is the card to ensure that you can perform those combos uninterrupted.

Can be used offensively or defensively depending on whose monster you target. Firstly, you can use Forbidden Lance to protect a monster from removal and other harmful effects. Alternatively, you can use it as a significant 800 ATK debuff on an opponent's monster.

Highly versatile for defense and control purposes. For example, you can flip a newly summoned monster face-down so that your opponent can't follow up with a Synchro or Xyz play.

Versatile Quick-Play Spell that can be used to protect your monsters and/or your Life Points, or to take control of an opponent’s monster. Enemy Controller is currently Semi-Limited.

Quick monster effect negation is extremely useful in a monster-heavy meta; useful for shutting down searchers and combo starting effects.

Trap Card that’s generally used to slow down the opponent by locking a monster that has just been Summoned in face-down Defense Position.

Similar to Floodgate Trap Hole, Paleozoic Canadia can flip monsters face-down, but it’s more versatile and it has an additional effect that allows you to Special Summon it from the Graveyard as Level 2 monster.

Banishing is a great form of removal since it's usually harder to recover banished cards. Also, the added effect of banishing similar copies from the graveyard can occasionally be useful to disrupt graveyard setup. The discard effect can actually be helpful in some Decks that need the graveyard setup.

A Trap Card with a minor activation requirement and the ability to destroy two monsters on the field. Treacherous Trap Hole is currently Semi-Limited.

To any Deck that can make Level-7 Synchros on demand, Black Rose Dragon is a great addition to your toolbox. Summon it when you want to get rid of the opponent's entire board. And if you can follow up with summoning a powerful monster, you can hit the opponent with a huge direct attack.

Another amazing low-Level monster that can allow you to survive an OTK. Kiteroid has been Semi-Limited pretty much right after its release.

Compared to Forbidden Chalice, being a trap card makes it slower to use, but this one will destroy the affected monster and can also negate effects outside of your opponent's field. The cost of discard can be good in certain decks that makes use of the graveyard.

These are the Decklists we recommended for new players to start investing.

Triamid

• You should have at least 1 copy of Sphinx as the deck's boss monster. Special Summon Sphinx with its own effect or when Kingolem is swapped out. While on the field Sphinx offers powerful damage output and essentially prevents the opponent from attacking.
  
  
• All the low-level Triamid monsters share the effect of letting you cycle your Field Spell. This is highly useful in protecting your monsters from effect destruction by fetching Triamid Fortress.
  
  
• Hunter is essential to your field Swarming ability, so summon him first when possible. Remember, more Triamid monsters on the field means more opportunities to cycle through your Field Spells.
  
  
• Dancer gives a permanent stat boost and also recovers your Triamid Field Spells and sometimes monsters. Her presence on the field is also important to your beatdown potential.
  
  
• You can have two Dancers on the field for double the boost every turn.
  
  
• Get Cruiser out during the start of your turn for draw power. This helps you get Sphinx onhand quicker incase you don't have it yet. Don't worry about decking out as long as you have Dancer.
  
  
• Kingolem is the Field Spell you want present most of the time because ATK boost is generally useful. However, you also want to cycle it out for its swarming effect. The solution is to use search effects twice to go from Kingolem>Fortress>Kingolem again.
  
  
• The in-archetype Quick Effect of Triamid monsters lets you pull Fortress out of the deck in response to your opponent's destruction removal.

• Since Triamid Pulse is a continuous trap and the deck isn't trap heavy, you can use Treacherous Trap Hole since it's quite a powerful card in general. You only need to put 1 copy of it to prevent potential bricking, but putting 2 can help get it faster.
  
  
• Since Triamid monsters can activate their effects even during your opponent's turn, you can effectively control Powersink Stone's effect to negate all of your opponent's face-up monsters. It's an incredibly powerful form of control, but it can also backfire on you if you don't use it properly.
  
  
• It may take some turns to build up your monsters' attacks in the early turns, so having Wall of Disruption helps deal with higher attack enemy monsters. It can be a game-winning card if your opponent summons multiple monsters, and it's strong since the attack reduction is permanent.

You can make use of some generic rank 3 or 4 monsters to help with various situations such as dealing with difficult boss monsters, backrow, or clear up your monster space.

• Nightmare Shark and Malevolent Sin are good examples of generic monsters that are worth getting since you can put them on most decks. Against monsters that you can't destroy, you can simply get over them by banishing with Malevolent Sin or attack directly with Nightmare Shark.
  
  
• Against heavy back row opponents, you can bring out Ghostrick Alucard, or Soul of Silvermountain.
  
  
• Gorgonic Guardian is a pretty strong monster that can stop enemy combos, or be used offensively to deal some damage.

Aromage Synchro

Most of the staple cards in this deck are found in the Card Trader Inventory making this deck extremely cheap. The rest of the Aroma cards, including the R rarity Dried Winds, are found in the Fortress of Gears mini box. Play it as a control deck with healing effect to trigger the control effects.

• Aromage Rosemary can change the battle position of your opponent' monster potentially exploiting a weak defense stat. She will also prevent your opponent from activating monster effects during battle.
  
  
• Aromage Jasmine provides draw power. The additional Normal Summon can lead you to Synchro Summoning.
  
  
• Aroma Garden is a continual source of healing, which does two things for this deck. Firstly the healing itself triggers the effects of many of your Aroma cards. Second, the constant healing keeps your LP higher than your opponent which activates your Aromage monster's effects. Healing when an Aromage monster is destroyed can let you trigger your effects during your opponent's turn. To top it off Aroma Garden provides a significant ATK and DEF boost.
  
  
• Aroma Gardening heals you a lot when you summon an Aromage monster. Its second effect can save you from lethal damage if you Special Summon Aromage Marjoram.
  
  
• Dried Winds essentially lets you get rid of one of your opponent's monsters for free every turn. The second effect can be used when you want to make use of excess LP, or you have a way to immediately make your LP higher than your opponent again.
  
  
• Aromage Marjoram is good for controlling your opponent's graveyard. Her first effect also lets you maintain field presence.
  
  
• Blessed Winds and Humid Winds gives you heals to trigger your Aroma card effects. Blessed Winds and Humid Winds also let you gain resources from your graveyard and deck respectively.
  
  
• Aromaseraphy Rosemary gives your Plant monsters a 500 ATK and DEF boost, which can be quite strong when combined with Aroma Garden's boost. It can also shut down one of your opponent's effects for a turn.

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