The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game's long-standing appeal is due in large part to the degree to which players can customize their experience. Duelists get to choose every card in their Deck from the game's vast cardpool, which now exceeds over 10,000 unique cards. Through this process, players can prioritize archetypes they find visually appealing, playstyles they enjoy, or simply the builds they believe will be most competitive.

For newer players, building a personalized Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck from scratch can be daunting. Thankfully, with a little guidance, budding Duelists can be well on their way to crafting their perfect Deck. First, players should decide the theme of their Deck, whether that includes a particular archetype or simply a general idea of the win condition. Next, players will need to identify the cards that further their strategy, and there are some powerful tools at their disposal on this front. Finally, Duelists will want to organize their ideas and choose ratios before moving on to playtesting.

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Players Should Select a Theme to Guide Their Deckbuilding

yu gi oh desk bot

To begin, players should decide what they want to accomplish with their Deck. Is the goal to beat the opponent with strong monsters, control the boardstate with powerful floodgates, or some alternative win condition, such as milling an opponent's entire Deck or gathering all five pieces of Exodia in the hand? Once players know what they want to accomplish, they should do some Googling to see which existing archetypes already fall into their preferred playstyle. For example, players interested in control could explore Floowandereeze, which impedes opponents' Special Summons, while mill-focused players could test the newly-released Runick, which banishes cards from the top of the opponent's Deck. Players can also eschew established archetypes entirely and build something completely new.

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Identifying the Perfect Cards Is Easier Than Ever

Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! drawing a card

Once players have their game plan in mind, it's time to find the cards that advance it. Of course, reviewing other players' Decklists online is a reasonable and efficient place to start. Still, many players enjoy first scouring the cardpool themselves. Those wishing to do so can take advantage of Konami's Card Database, which allows players to search by any card characteristic as well as actual card text. For example, clicking the appropriate boxes shows the entire universe of FIRE Cyberse monsters that could complement a Salamangreat Deck. However, the card text search sometimes requires players to be more creative. For example, if searching for cards that trigger Gusto Griffin (which triggers on being "sent" from the hand to the GY), players would want to find cards that discard, send, fuse, or even destroy cards in hand.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki goes one step further by allowing players to search by the exact type of effect for which they're looking. For instance, if a player wants cards that discard their cards for effect (rather than cost), they could go to the Wiki page for Dark World Dealings, scroll down to "Card Search Categories," and then click on the "Discards for Effect" tag to see a list. To see which other cards can search Dark World Dealings directly to the hand, players could instead click on "Tips."

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Players Should Organize Their Research and Decide on Card Ratios

Deck editing screen from Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator EDOpro

One efficient method to keep track of potentially useful cards is to create -- either in DuelingNexus, EDOPro, Duelingbook, or some other simulator -- a "digital binder." A digital binder is a dummy Deck that is filled with only the cards of interest for a particular Deck. If doing card research for a Dark World Deck, for example, the first 60 cards would be in a decklist named something like "Dark World Cards of Interest 1," with additional binders created as necessary. Cards that players want to highlight in these dummy Decks can be placed in the Side Deck slots for easy viewing.

Once players know which cards they want to include in their Deck, they'll need to decide how many of each. Cards that players want to see in their opening hand should be played at the maximum of three copies, while easily-searchable combo pieces and "bricks" (cards dead on draw) should be minimized. Most players recommend a 40-card Deck to maximize the chances of seeing the best cards. For those interested in statistics, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Probability Calculator can provide the exact chances of opening a particular hand.

After the labor of Deckbuilding love, Duelists should be ready to start playtesting their creations. Automated simulators are ideal for early testing, as they will correct any faulty assumptions about card effects and interactions. Players may realize they need to adjust card ratios or include outs to things like backrow floodgates or unaffected monsters. They may also just get an idea for a new Deck and decide to start the process all over again.