New player guide: What packs to buy first?

If you have just started playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and you are looking at the Shop, wondering where to start, you might be overwhelmed by how many different packs are currently available. This game is approaching its 2nd anniversary and right now the Shop features 15 Mini BOXes and 17 Main BOXes; investing into every single one of these is definitely not advised as the vast majority contain outdated cards and/or archetypes that are not viable anymore, so in this guide I will try and direct you towards the ones that feature cards that are currently relevant.

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.

Generic backrow removal; Cosmic Cyclone’s activation cost has great synergy with a lot of Skills.

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.

Spell Card that bounces Set Spell/Trap Cards back into both players’ hands; Hey, Trunade! can enable a lot of OTKs. This card is currently Semi-Limited.

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.

With Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Cosmo Brain and Masked HERO Anki around, Mirror Wall has proven to be, once again, a very efficient Battle Trap that doesn’t rely on the opponent having multiple monsters on the field in order to be effective.

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.

A powerful Battle Trap that can punish the opponent for swarming the field.

Koaki Meiru

“Koa'ki Meiru” has recently received the best piece of support it could have ever asked for: Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru. Having significantly improved in both consistency and durability, this deck has completely taken over the ladder and we honestly think it’s a good investment for any new player. You can start by investing in Gaia Genesis—that’s where you will find most of the cards you need to build this deck—and then move on to Revolution Beginning to get a set of Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru.

• Koa'ki Meiru Maximus can pretty much be considered the main card of the deck: it’s a 3000 ATK monster that can be Special Summoned from your hand and that has the ability to, once per turn, destroy a card on the field;
• Koa'ki Meiru Urnight allows you to swarm the field and Special Summon exactly what you need from your Deck;
• Koa'ki Meiru Sandman is a great card in the current meta because of how reliant certain decks are on Trap Cards;
• Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru gives you access to any of your monsters and even to Iron Core;
• Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is the Spell Card your Deck revolves around: most of your monsters require it in order to activate their effects and/or be Summoned.

• The deck lacks a reliable Turn 1 play, so Sphere Kuriboh is generally a great card to keep in your Deck, unless you want to run the Balance version;
• Koa'ki Meiru Ice is a very interesting monster that can destroy Special Summoned monsters on the field;
• Hey, Trunade! is a quick form of backrow removal that can be used before Summoning your monsters.

Vampire

Despite the rise of Koa'ki Meirus, Vampires are still one of the best decks around: they are fast and consistent, they have searchers in the form of Vampire Retainer and Vampire Familiar that can give them access to pretty much the entirety of archetype, they have removal in the form of Vampire Kingdom and they can take advantage of Treacherous Trap Hole, Enemy Controller and/or Hey, Trunade! without having to take out key cards, unlike Masked HEROes

One of the things that really sets Vampires apart from other decks is how well they are able to handle removal thanks to Gozuki and Samurai Skull: these two monsters can potentially float into another one when they are destroyed and leave the field respectively, taking out a lot of value from cards like Treacherous Trap Hole and Spellbook of Fate.

As I said at the beginning, Vampires were “nearly” untouched by the Banlist and that is because all decks suffered from Treacherous Trap Hole and Hey, Trunade! being Semi-Limited, except for Spellbook, but that shouldn’t take anything away from this deck.

• Vampire Retainer and Vampire Familiar are the two searchers of the deck, they are pretty much a necessity, but it’s still possible to play the deck without two copies of each.
• Vampire Vamp, considering how often you’ll have to face Blue-Eyes and Masked HERO decks, is highly advised.
• Vampire Grace is the easiest way to trigger Vampire Kingdom’s effect. It’s unfortunate that you will have to dig through a Mini BOX that currently holds little value in order to get it.
• Samurai Skull is the fastest and most consistent way to get Retainer and Familiar into the Graveyard, it’s not subject to Paleozoic Canadia and Floodgate Trap Hole and, even if it’s banished by a Spellbook of Fate, it can still Special Summon something from your Deck.
• Vampire Kingdom increases your monsters’ ATK while also giving more value to Vampire Grace’s “bleed” effect;
• Vampire's Domain allows you to get a full board with a Level 5 or higher “Vampire” monster on your first turn and it can also get back some of the Life Points you have spent to activate your monsters’ effects.
• Vampire Takeover puts Vampire Kingdom on the field straight from your Deck and it can also Special Summon one of your “Vampire” monsters from the Graveyard.

• Gozuki is not necessary to play the deck, but it can’t be denied that it can make it more consistent.
• Backrow removal is sort of a controversial topic: it’s pretty much useless against Blue-Eyes, but it’s very good against other decks such as Gladiator. Cosmic Cyclone has synergy with a certain popular Skill that is being used at the moment with this deck, but Hey, Trunade! definitely offers more against backrow-heavy decks since it’s very easy to generate OTKs with Vampires.
• Enemy Controller is versatile and it has added synergy with Gozuki, Retainer and Familiar, but you will only be able to run two copies of it.
• Mirror Wall helps you deal with Masked HEROes, it may avoid by itself an OTK on turn 2, but it not advised to invest in Neo-Impact as a new player with a limited amount of Gems.
• Treacherous Trap Hole is now Semi-Limited, which definitely hurts it; you can run one or two copies of this card or go for Enemy Controller and/or Hey, Trunade! and use Paleozoic Canadia and/or Mirror Wall as protection.

Blue-Eyes Cosmo Brain

Blue-Eyes didn’t make the cut for the previous version of the New Player Guide, but that was before The White Dragon of Legend Structure Deck was released; Blue-Eyes is very strong and consistent, being able to get out on the field multiple 2500+ ATK monsters on the board very quickly, so we don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be recommended to new players.

• Dragon Spirit of White offers backrow removal and a pretty big body on the board. This card can take advantage of support for both “Blue-Eyes” and Normal Monsters.
• Cosmo Brain can be Special Summoned quite easily in this deck and it allows to get a Blue-Eyes on the field straight from the Deck; Cosmo Brain has synergy with monsters such as Psychic Ace. Thanks to A Trick Up the Sleeve, you can start the Duel with Cosmo Brain in your hand.
• Silver's Cry can Special Summon your Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dragon Spirit of White from the Graveyard, together with Cosmo Brain, it enables early OTKs.
• Bingo Machine, Go!!! allows you to add Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Dragon Spirit of White to your hand from the Deck, making it even easier to Special Summon Cosmo Brain.
• Birthright serves a similar purpose to Silver's Cry, the only issue is that it's a Trap Card and it's also bound to the monster.

• The White Stone of Legend searches Blue-Eyes White Dragon and has some synergy with Cosmo Brain.
• Protector with Eyes of Blue can Special Summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Dragon Spirit of White from the hand.
• Majesty with Eyes of Blue is an interesting card that can send a “Blue-Eyes” monster from the Deck to the Graveyard.
• Enemy Controller, Paleozoic Canadia and Treacherous Trap Hole are great cards in general you can add to your Deck for protection.

Which packs should a new player open first? This is the question I want to answer in this section.

While there are certainly a lot of great cards in almost every single one of these BOXes, not all of them are currently relevant: a certain card or even a whole archetype might become very good in the future, but what I will mention here are mostly the ones that are staples in current meta decks and cards that are extremely versatile in general.

In order to properly understand how important these cards are, I will assign each one of them a number that represents the priority a player should give to them from 1 to 3 (1 being high priority and likely relevant in the current meta and 3 low priority and not currently relevant, but worth mentioning because of its versatility).

SD: (Standard Duelist) Generic duelists that spawn in both Duel World and Duel World GX; you beat them to obtain mainly Gold, Jewels, some low rarity cards and Gate Keys.

LD: (Legendary Duelist) Duelists you can face at the Gate using Gate Keys that can also spawn randomly in Duel World one at a time; you beat them to obtain their unique cards.

Farm(ing): The act of repeatedly beating a Legendary Duelist with a specific deck aimed towards achieving higher scores in order to obtain more and better drops.

PvE: (Player vs Environment) Any type of content in which the player faces an AI.

PvP: (Player vs Player) Any type of content in which the player has to face another player.

KoG: (King of Games) The highest rank you can obtain in PvP.

Card Trader: The character that stands in front of the shop: you can interact with him to exchange materials (Gold, Jewels) for the cards he offers. The cards change every 8 hours, but some of them are always available.

UR: An Ultra Rare card, the highest rarity currently in Duel Links. In each box only one copy of each UR is included.

SR: A Super Rare card. In a main box (180 packs), each SR will have 2 copies included, while in a mini box (100 packs) there will only be one copy of each SR in that box.

Resetting a box: If you are looking to get multiple copies of a UR/SR card from a box, you might want to reset the box when you get it in the first couple of packs, which will put the amount of packs back at 180 or 100 (depending on the box) so you can pull it again.

Skill: In Duel Links you can link a skill to a deck, which will add some sort of advantage. Each character has their own unique exclusive skills that they can learn from levelling up, but they can also obtain skills through a random drop when you duel against Legendary Duelists or PvP.

Legendary Duelist: A legendary duelist is a character from the TV show, these duelists can drop more precious rewards than standard duelists.

Backrow: Term that refers to defensive Spell and Traps.

Backrow removal: Cards that can destroy or banish your opponent’s backrow; an example of a backrow removal card is Cosmic Cyclone.

Beatdown Deck: A deck that focuses on applying pressure with high ATK monsters.

Beatstick: A monster likely used just for its ATK value and not for its effect.

Brick: A card that you essentially do not want to draw (but seemingly love to be in your starting hand); examples are Bacon Saver in a Red-Eyes Zombie deck and Wulf, Lightsworn Beast in a Lightsworn deck.

Burn: A strategy centered around repeatedly damaging your opponent with cards’ effects.

Burn Deck: A deck that focuses on burning the opponent.

Deck out: When you run out of cards in your deck and can’t conduct your Draw Phase.

Deck thinning: Generic term that refers in general to decreasing the number of cards in your main deck by adding a card(s) to your hand, sending card(s) from the deck to the Graveyard, Special Summoning a monster(s) from the deck or placing a card(s) in your Spell/Trap Zone from the deck.

Engine: A minimum of two cards in a deck that have good synergy.

Floater: A card that is able to replace itself; an example can be Crystal Seersince the card adds a card to your hand when flipped face-up, essentially replacing itself in your hand.

Handtrap: A card that can be activate from your hand in response to a specific action by your opponent; an example is Sphere Kuriboh, a monster that can be discarded in order to avoid an attack and switch the attacking monster into Defense position.

META: (Most Effective Tactic Available) A term that refers to the current situation in PvP; a META deck is a deck that is a deck that is successful at the current moment.

Mill: Terms that refers to lowering the number of cards in the deck by sending a card(s) from the deck to the Graveyard or banishing a card(s) from the deck.

Mill Deck: A type of deck that focuses on decking out the opponent.

Nerf: Nerfing a card means altering its effect or ruling or limiting its usage.

Recycling: A term that usually refers to utilizing cards that were sent to the Graveyard again; an example can be Sphere Kuriboh since, after being discarded by its effect, it can still be used as tribute for a Ritual monster.

Scoop: Forfeiting a match.

Searcher: A card that can add a specific card or type of cards from your deck to your hand; an example is Gravekeeper's Recruiter, a monster that can add another Gravekeeper’s monster from your deck to your hand when sent from the field to the Graveyard.

Stall: A strategy usually centered around avoiding damage from the opponent.

Stall Deck: A deck that focuses on avoiding damage from the opponent, likely utilizing cards that can slow them down like Floodgate Trap Hole, Paleozoic Canadia or Massivemorph.

Splashable Card: A splashable card is a card that can be used in different decks and boost their consistency; an example is Enemy Controller.

Swarm: A strategy centered around summoning multiple monsters on the field at once; a “Swarm Deck” that’s currently very relevant is Fur Hire.

Tech: Normally refers to cards put in the Side Deck in order to have a better matchup against a certain type of deck, but in Duel Links this use doesn’t exist so it usually refers to single cards placed in a deck to face a certain deck. Example sentence:“Paleozoic Canadia is a good tech against Fur Hire”.

Top-decking: In a very critical situation, drawing the exact you needed is referred to as “top-decking”.

Pick-a-Gift Campaign!

2nd Anniversary Campaign

Swordbound Silence

Selection Box Vol. 02

Epic Yami Event

Tag Duel Event

New Week Campaign!

Revolution Beginning

Train Your Kuriboh! Campaign