New player guide: What packs to buy first? [August 2020]

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 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.

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

Quick-Play Spell used for backrow removal; Cosmic Cyclone’s activation cost gives it synergy with a lot of Skills (like Sorcery Conduit).

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.

Another Quick-Play Spell that is currently Semi-Limited; World Legacy Clash is used to decrease the stats of the opponent’s monsters, stall, or to trigger certain effects.

Removal effect that can get rid of any card in your opponent's field. Tributing your monster can also be useful for triggering effects whose activation involve "when sent to graveyard" or "when this card is tributed"

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.

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.

Here are the decks that we recommend to invest.

The Weather

Gouki

Gouki is a beater deck you can build by pulling from Flames of the Heart. If you want an effective deck that requires minimal combos, this deck is for you. The floating effect inherent to all Goukis, allows you to maintain resources and keep up with more combo-oriented decks.

• The current Gouki playstyle is beatdown. However, they distinguish themselves by having an archetype-wide search effect on all their monsters. This not only makes them quite consistent, but also allows them to be cost effective tribute engines.
  
  
• Normal Summon Gouki Suprex for field presence. His effect lets you Special Summon any Gouki from your hand so use this to Special Summon Riscopio as a beater or Twistcobra for a potential ATK boost and search effect trigger.
  
  
• Gouki Riscorpio is a beater, not much to be said about him. He has his own effect that eases his Normal Summoning, but you usually want to Special Summon him with Suprex. He also provides the largest boost when tributed by Twistcobra.
  
  
• Gouki Twistcobra can be a beater like your other Gouki monsters, but his effect does have some nuance to its use. You will need 2 Gouki on the field to use Twistcobra's effect, one to tribute and one to receive the ATK boost, so it is ideal to Special Summon him with Suprex. Twistcobra can even tribute himself to give another Gouki monster an ATK boost, this means no matter what your opponent targets for removal, you can make use of it for Twistcobra's effect. Lastly, Twistcobra is the easiest in-archetype way of triggering search effects in a Gouki deck.
  
  
• Keep Gouki Iron Claw in your hand to respond to your opponent's battle traps while also giving your Gouki a slight ATK boost. If you brick and Iron Claw is the only monster in your hand, you can set it and get a search when it gets destroyed.

• Spell/Traps with control effects work well with beatstick monsters to create a simple to use yet effective strategy. The idea to a beater deck is to fill your deck with cards having strong effects that work well individually. Since beaters do not have much in terms of powerful combos, the control cards will serve to prevent your opponent from performing their powerful combos. These control cards include Fiendish Chain and Floodgate Trap Hole.
  
  
• Goukis themselves do not interact with the graveyard so Necrovalley will only be a nuisance to your opponent. However, if you plan to use support that interacts with the graveyard they will conflict with your Field Spell.
  
  
• Cards with that uses a monster on the field as cost (i.e. Enemy Controller) work in a Gouki deck, taking advantage of Gouki's utility as a tribute engine.
  
  
• Silent Swordsman can be used in any Warrior-type deck like Gouki, to give the deck a Spell negater that gets stronger every turn. A variant of Silent Swordsman deck can be made with a mix of Gouki to use as beaters and tribute engine.
  
  
• More monsters on the field means more damage potential for a beater deck, so cards that let you Special Summon your Gouki are useful. Super Team Buddy Force Unite! is essentially a free Special Summon from your hand or graveyard, and Powerful Rebirth is a free revive that gives a slight ATK boost.

Mayakashi Synchro

A bit more expensive compared to other starter decks because it requires you to pull from 2 different mini boxes, Flames of the Heart and Soul of Resurrection. Shiranui's are needed because they work exceptionally well with Mayakashi for both consistency and comeback ability.

• The main combo to start your plays is to summon Dakki, the Graceful Mayakashi and Special Summon Yuki-Musume, the Ice Mayakashi. Dakki can be Normal Summoned or Special Summoned with Solitaire. Start your synchro climb from here.
  
  
• You will need at least one copy of each Mayakashi Synchro monster in your Extra Deck to create the synchro ladder.
  
  
• Mayakashi Return is an excellent consistency booster, allowing you to search Dakki or Yuki-Musume. You can also pitch Yuki-Musume to the graveyard if your opponent does not have any graveyard disruption, but adding to hand is safer.
  
  
• Shiranui Spectralsword lets you Synchro climb from the graveyard. But since Mayakashi do not have much interaction with the banish zone, it is best to also add Shiranui Sunsaga for recovery.
  
  
• Summoning Shiranui Sunsaga usually wins you the duel. return every monster you used for your synchro climb back to the Extra Deck and destroy most, if not all, of your opponent's field.
  
  
• For a more in-depth explanation click here.

• Mayakashi do not have much interaction with the Banish Zone so it would be unfortunate if one of your stronger Synchros were banished. Chaos Hunter prevents that while also having good stats on a fairly easy Special Summoning condition. She also locks your opponent from using graveyard effects that banish. However, she does not work well with your Shiranui especially when trying to make use of Spectralsword.
  
  
• Nine-Tailed Fox can be Special Summoned by tributing extra Dakki and Yuki-Musume after you have already done your synchro climb. It also makes a great pair with Spectralsword in the graveyard to make Shiranui Shogunsaga.
  
  
• Mayakashi Metamorphosis can be used to revive and make the revived monster immune to targeting, it is also one of the ways you can retrieve a banished Synchro.
  
  
• Super Team Buddy Force Unite! is essentially a free revive in a deck using only one type of monster. Revival effects are very welcome in Mayakashi, especially ones that can revive their high-level Synchros to trigger their effects.

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.
  
  
• 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.

• Add more Synchro monsters to turn your Extra Deck into an effective toolbox. Other level-5 Synchro monsters, preferably with control effects, can just as easily be summoned as Aromaseraphy Jasmine.
  
  
• Black Rose Dragon can use its second effect because this is a Plant based deck, but this only works on defense position monsters. Splendid Rose can debuff an attack position monster for the same cost.
  
  
• Plant-type Tuners are preferred so they can work with your Aroma card effect. Particularly with Aromage Jasmine giving you an extra Normal Summon.
  
  
• In terms of skills, LP Boost α works well because it immediately makes your LP higher than your opponent, activating some of your Aromage monsters' effects. You can also use What Grows in the Graveyard in builds that don't use self Special Summoning Tuners.
  
  
• Because Aromage decks rely on their face-up Spell/Traps a lot, you will want to protect said cards. Mana Dragon Zirnitron can be kept in your hand to immediately bring back a Spell/Trap removed from your field while also increasing field presence.
  
  
• Aromage Bergamot has good stats and a large self boost. He can be considered the Aromage Main Deck boss monster, however he lacks the control effects most of his archetype has.
  
  
• 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.

Superheavy Samurai Synchro

This example assumes you pulled the full Future Horizon box once or at least pulled the Superheavy Samurai SR and UR cards. Most of the cards in this deck are R and all cards are found in a single box making the deck fairly cheap to build. The unique tactic used by Superheavy Samurais mean you will not need any of the staple Spell/Traps in your deck, adding to this card's cheapness.
In terms of power, The DEF of your Synchro monsters equipped with Superheavy Samurai Soulshield Wall can easily reach the level of Blue-Eyes decks' ATK.

• Superheavy Samurai Wagon searches for Superheavy Samurai Soul monsters which you can equip and gain various effects. Combo this with Superheavy Samurai Soulpeacemaker to Special Summon any Superheavy Samurai from your deck.
  
  
• To use Superheavy Samurai Soulpeacemaker defensively, it should be attached to one of your Synchro monsters with high defense so your opponent will have nothing to attack.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer gives the equipped monster piercing damage. But more importantly it lets you search a Superheavy Samurai monster when it sent to the graveyard. Some of the quickest ways to send Soulpiercer from your field to the graveyard include using it as Synchro Material, or tributing it for Superheavy Samurai Soulpeacemaker's effect.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Soulshield Wall gives the equipped monster a large DEF boost. Considering that Superheavy Samurai monsters battle using their DEF stat, this makes the equipped monster a powerful beater. Soulshield Wall's second effect can be used to stall, letting your monster survive but with all of its defense gone.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter is a self Special Summoning Tuner you can easily pair with level-4 monsters to make Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji. Anything higher than level-6 however will usually need 3 synchro materials.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Soulhorns should be equipped to your Synchro monsters, letting your powerhouse monster attack twice per turn.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Stealth Ninja can OTK your opponent with its direct attack effect when equipped with both Soulshield Wall and Soulhorns.

• No Spell/Trap cards. The first rule of making a Superheavy Samurai deck is not to use any Spell/Trap cards. This is required so that you won't cripple your own monsters' effects.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Flutist is more valuable while in the graveyard. This lets him protect the more important Superheavy Samurai monster from targeting effects.
  
  
• Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves acts as a battle trap while in the graveyard. In a pure Superheavy Samurai deck, you will always excavate a Superheavy Samurai monster with his effect. Reducing your opponent's attack to 0 while it attacks your defense position monster can let you deal a considerable amount of damage. And since the debuffed monster will not be destroyed by battle, you can keep dealing damage through it during your turn.
  
  
• Because you cannot use Spell/Trap cards, Sphere Kuriboh and Kiteroid are the closest thing you have to battle traps. A single Kiteroid can prevent 2 lethal direct attacks when you get caught in a bad spot.

Shiranui Synchro

Not long after its debut in the 24th Mini Box Soul of Resurrection, the “Shiranui” archetype has proven itself to be an extremely strong contender in the current meta, being able to compete with both Invoked Elementsabers and Blackwings. Shiranui Synchro is an extremely solid deck that can be built with a relatively small investment of resources, it’s not particularly difficult to pilot, and it still has the potential to grow.

Leo & Luna Duel Carnival Event

Infernity Destruction

Mini Event: Mission Circuit

Return of the Fire Kings