New player guide: What packs to buy first? [June 2019 Updated]

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 has recently celebrated its 2nd anniversary and right now the Shop features 18 Mini BOXes and 20 Main BOXes; investing into every single one of these is definitely not advised as the vast majority contain outdated cards and/or archetypes that are not viable anymore, so in this guide I will try and direct you towards the ones that feature cards that are currently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.

Sazank is able to get rid of many problematic monsters such as Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and Elemental HERO Brave Neos, sending them straight to the Graveyard and bypassing various types of protection.

Just like Karakuri Ninja mdl 339 “Sazank”, Gale Lizard is primarily used to get rid of monsters that would otherwise be difficult to remove from the field.

A Hand Trap that is used primarily to prevent OTKs and protect your monsters; Sphere Kuriboh has managed to stay mostly relevant ever since its introduction.

Generic back row removal; Cosmic Cyclone’s activation cost has synergy with a lot of Skills like KaibaCorp Bling.

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.

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.

Six Samurai Synchro

Warriors Unite, the 19th Main Box, has greatly improved the “Six Samurai” archetype, giving it a powerful Synchro Monster that can be Summoned with ease thanks to a variety of Tuners and non-Tuners that can be Special Summoned from the hand or directly from the Deck.

The fact that we are advising both new and returning players to build this deck should come as no surprise: Six Samurai Synchro is strong, consistent and also relatively cheap to build.

• Secret Six Samurai - Fuma can be Special Summoned directly from your Deck via Shien’s Dojo and be used as Synchro Material together with any Level 4 “Six Samurai” monster to Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. Any Six Samurai Synchro Deck should run three copies of this card.
• Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan can be Special Summoned from your hand if you control another “Six Samurai” monster.
• Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi can return a monster your opponent controls to their hand and/or be used as Synchro Material for Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.
• Six Samurai United is used to replenish the resources spent to Synchro Summon and draw into Six Style - Dual Wield and Enemy Controller.
• Asceticism of the Six Samuraican be used in combination with Legendary Six Samurai - Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, Kagemusha of the Six Samurai, and the Skill The Tie that Binds to easily Summon a second copy of Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En or to get a Secret Six Samurai - Fuma on the field, destroy it and Special Summon whatever you may need.
• Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En can negate the activation of Spell/Trap Cards such as Hey, Trunade!, preventing your opponent from getting rid of your back row.

• Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai can be Special Summoned from your hand when you Normal or Special Summon a “Secret Six Samurai” monster (Secret Six Samurai - Fuma).
• Six Style - Dual Wield has fallen a lot in popularity, but now that Six Samurai decks don’t have access to Treacherous Trap Hole anymore and a lot of decks include Lava Golem to punish swarming, it may rise back up. Six Style - Dual Wield allows you to disrupt your opponent’s plays and can act both as backrow and monster removal, enabling early OTKs.
• Armades, Keeper of Boundaries is used as an answer to Karakuri Ninja mdl 339 "Sazank" and Cipher Soldier.
• Giganticastle is used to get rid of Lava Golem. Since you can obtain it from the Card Trader and we now have more space in the Extra Deck, I would advise running at least one.

Dino Survivals End

It has certainly been a while since the last we’ve had an event that was actually worth farming, but it’s nice to know that now, thanks to Tyranno Hassleberry, there’s a brand new competitive deck around that is also fairly easy to build for any player.

If you got your hands on at least two copies of Survivals End, you might want to give this deck a try before diving into Gaia Genesis or purchasing Ancient Gear Awakening.

• Evilswarm Salamandra has great synergy with Giant Rex: its effect allows you to increase its ATK by banishing a monster from your Graveyard, which will trigger Giant Rex’s effect and Special Summon it. This card is used to quickly establish a presence on the board.
• If Babycerasaurus is destroyed by Survival’s End, it will allow you to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Dinosaur-Type monsters from your Deck. Take advantage of this effect to get more value from your main Trap Card.
• Megalosmasher X is the Level 4 Normal Dinosaur with the highest ATK, it ties with Koa'ki Meiru Urnight and Ancient Gear Wyvern under Ancient Gear Castle and it can get over Koa'ki Meiru Sandman, Koa'ki Meiru Wall and Koa'ki Meiru Ice.
• Fossil Dig gives you direct access to any of your Dinosaur-Type monsters.
• Paleozoic Marrella can send Survival’s End from the Deck to the Graveyard: it thins your deck and it also gets your main Trap Card exactly where you want it. “Paleozoic” Trap Cards have additional synergy with Survival’s End because, when they are Special Summoned from the Graveyard by their own effects, they are treated as Normal Monsters.

• Enemy Controller gives you an alternative way of dealing with high ATK monsters, it can be used to stall or to make an aggressive play. You can combine Enemy Controller with Survival’s End Graveyard effect to take control of an opponent’s monster while also destroying another card on their side of the field.
• Canadia and Hallucigenia can disrupt the opponent’s plays and allow your monsters to get over Koa'ki Meiru Maximus and Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon.
• Leanchoilia allows you to recycle Survival’s End or any of your “Paleozoic” Trap Cards, giving the deck a bit more durability and/or an additional destruction effect.
• Swamp Mirror can be used to Special Summon one of your “Paleozoic” Trap Cards from the Graveyard, it can be used to activate Survival’s End since it is considered a Normal Monster and it can also be used for its Graveyard effect if you make it a Dinosaur.

Darklord

Darklord is a brand new powerful deck that is also relatively easy to build due to the fact that all of the cards needed to play it come from the same Box.

The “Darklord” archetype consists of mostly DARK Fairy-Type monsters and its main strategy revolves around setting up the Graveyard and then swarming the field with various high ATK monsters that can take advantage of the effects of Spell/Trap Cards in your Graveyard to disrupt your opponent’s plays and quickly overwhelm them.

• Darklord Ixchel allows you to quickly go through your Deck while also setting up the Graveyard without decreasing the number of cards in your hand. Adding more copies of Ixchel will drastically increase the consistency of your deck.
• Darklord Amdusc works really well in combination with Darklord Ukoback and an argument could be made for running even three copies of it.

Now that Six Samurai decks do not have access to Treacherous Trap Hole anymore, Darklord Tezcatlipoca has definitely lost quite a lot of value. You can still play one or even two copies of this card since it does prevent your monsters from being destroyed by battle and not just by card effect.

Geartown Turbo

Ancient Gear Awakening, the recently released Structure Deck EX, has had a huge impact on the meta: a brand new competitive deck has entered the scene, quickly overpowering the competition.

Building a Geartown Turbo Deck without purchasing at least a second copy of Ancient Gear Awakening is unfortunately pretty difficult, but the value you are going to get from it is undeniably pretty high, especially if you are a new player. Stacking up Gems takes time, but purchasing packs, even during a sale, is ridiculously expensive; Ancient Gear Awakening offers an almost already playable deck for a much lower price.

• Pulse Mines is used to prevent OTKs. A few decklists run Enemy Controller instead because it synergizes well with Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon’s effect and Geartown/Ancient Gear Fortress.
• Ancient Gear Wyvern can search any “Ancient Gear” card: it will give you access to Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon when you only have Fortress out.
• Planet Pathfinder is used to search Geartown and, since it’s a Machine-Type monster, it also enables Pulse Mines.
• Double Cyclone is used to destroy Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress and trigger their effects.

• Galaxy Cyclone, Twister and Uending Nightmare represent more consistent ways to destroying Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress. These cards are not included in the Structure Deck.
• Floodgate Trap Hole and Paleozoic Canadia are particularly valuable in the mirror match and against Koa'ki Meiru.

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).

Alluring Alexis Roaming Event

Card Flipper Campaign

Duelist Chronicles GX: Welcome to Duel Academy!

Cybernetic Rebellion

Train Your Kuriboh! Campaign

2nd Anniversary Campaign