by Ever wanted to take your dueling experience to the next level? Want to try out some new archetypes and/or switch out from the casual decks you know and love for a good challenge? Look no further because I’m going to give you the goods on five archetypes that will take your dueling skills to the next level while staying in the meta!
Kashtira
Unarguably one of the most-played, easiest, and most efficient decks in the game right now – Kashtira will leave your opponents stumped by its incredible engine and board-breaking combos. A supposed answer to Tearlaments that fell from grace around the last ban list after its incredible play rate in YCS, but has become a monster in its own right.
To say the least, it’s a very frustrating deck to play against but very easy to learn and play for yourself. With an entire engine that’s able to zone-lock both your monster and spell/trap zones, mill cards multiple times per turn, and on top of that, its permanent Macro-Cosmos on the field almost make going second almost impossible.
The most important cards in the deck are Kashtira Shangri-Ira, the “Zone-Locker,” and Kashtira Arise Heart, the “Miller.” Basically, with both of these cards on the field, along with others like Kashtira Birth and Number 89: Diablosis The Mind Hacker, you’re opponents (or you) are basically at the mercy of either having your entire field become unplayable or running out of cards before you can say, “When are these cards getting limited?“
Marincess
A super and easy deck that involves aggressive plays and link plays for several negations for your opponents to have to counter. It came into discussion during the VRAINS era and after making a splash during the YCS 2022, going up against the likes of Swordsoul and Floowandereeze. After some support cards were released in the following Legendary Duelist pack, it became a reasonable deck to play in the future.
If you enjoy link-laddering or ever wanted to get into link monsters, this is the perfect deck for you! It has a pretty standard and easy follow-up link-summoning process that leads up to its boss monster Marincess Aqua Argonaut on the field, which can negate any effects your opponents use. And if you utilize cards like Marincess Wave and Crystal Heart, you can become virtually unstoppable with these beautiful sea queens!
Scareclaw
Another fun and easy deck to learn that follows a pretty standard setup while leaving room for other engines/archetypes to run under your deck. Out of all the decks on this list, I believe Scareclaw to be the most beginner friendly when it comes to learning how to create a decent board and counter-react to your opponent in different ways.
Scareclaw Tri-Heart is going to be the main monster you want out on the field at all times. It has three incredible effects, with the best two being that it changes all face-up monsters to Defense, then it’s unaffected by the effects of Defense Position monsters. It also has the effect to special summon “Scareclaw” monsters from your grave and then search for one from your deck. To give you an idea, cards like Scareclaw Acro give “Scareclaw” monsters 300 ATK for each DEF monster you control, and Belone inflicts piercing damage to your opponent.
These allow your boss monster to get even more powerful while utilizing its continuous traps like Scareclaw Sclash, which negate effects, and Scareclaw Trinsaw, which bounces two cards off the field for tributing a “Scareclaw” monster. Spells like Scareclaw Defanging banish any monster that battles your link “Scareclaw” monster (which, in this day in age, isn’t a hindrance) and make your link “Scareclaw” monsters untargetable and unable to be destroyed by card effects.
Floowandereeze
Floowandereeze is another easy archetype to learn, especially if you’re new to combo decks or want something relatively simple due to it revolving around normal summoning. Because most of its monsters banish themselves anyway, cards like Dimension Shift and Called by the Grave won’t be a problem.
The deck is really fun and simple, with plays that can run continously with barely any interruptions that can cause it to fail (except for Niburu, of course). With Robina searching, Eglen adding Lvl7 Winged-Beasts, and Empen adding handy cards like Dreaming Town and Unexplored Winds, you’re getting an all-around experience of tributing that will decimate your opponent. Tributing into cards like Mist Valley Apex Avian hat chains and negates effects, Raiza the Mega Monarch that pops several cards on the field, or Simorgh, Bird of Divinity that burns players for 1000 DMG on each of their end phases, it’s a pretty tough deck to beat. Just watch out for Ash Blossoms and Infinite Impermanences!
Labrynth
Another great deck that focuses on control over the field using normal trap cards for disruptions. I found this deck easy to pick up due to my fondness for Traptrix (another Deck Spotlight soon to be covered). With decks that utilize the Labrynth engine comprising mostly trap cards, you can understand how dreadful it is to play against (and how delightful it’ll be for you).
The main boss monster is its ace Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle, with other cards being able to retrieve Normal Trap Cards from the GY and set them on the field. Most of the other cards in this deck focus on setting spells/traps like Ariana and Arianna, the Labrynth Servants who can summon themselves off of each other.
However, this deck is a bit slow to pick up compared to most combo-heavy Decks on this list since it needs traps to control the game over time. Though most combos are straightforward, it needs precise cards for specific interactions, so a bit of brain power is needed if you plan to use this deck. Anyways I hope this helped! Please check out the Dueling Nexus Public Decks to see if anyone has uploaded these decks for you to try out!