When it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, competitive players constantly optimize their Decks to increase their victory ratio as much as possible and boost the chances that their Deck flows steadily. It is also important that a Deck has a decent match up versus the other popular ones in the meta. Of course, it’s not impossible that a Deck that’s worse than the other prevails due to a good draw and a bad draw of their opponent, but what matters here is a larger sample. We deem that most competitive players would rather take a close-to 60% win rate deck to a tournament rather than one that barely passes the 50% mark or is under it.
So what are the best Decks in the game? Take a look at our Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Deck Tier List for December 2022.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Tier System Explained
- Tier 0 is a Deck that would be simply explained with “Play this Deck, or do not play competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! at all” due to its huge power disbalance and the inability of other Decks to deal with it.
- Tier 1 is the meta-defining Tier. Most competitive players in higher ranks will be piloting these, and expect to see more of them the higher you raise your own rank.
- Tier 2 Decks are decent and are, for some reason, not as consistent as the ones in Tiers above or have a tough time dealing with the current higher Tier Decks due to a bad matchup, conflicting mechanics, etc. Usually, these need to wait for a new card to be released that would add a different dimension to their strategy and push them in the Tier 1 section, or for Konami to issue a ban list that nerfs Tier 1 Decks.
- Tier 3 Decks are the weakest of the bunch. On paper, they work well but they’re not as effective as the Decks in Tier 2 and Tier 1. Depending on what the future brings, they might explode in popularity and consistency, or fade into obscurity, never to be seen again. Who knows.
- Rogue Decks are decks that are unexpected. They are a Tier of their own because there are a lot of them in any card game. Most of the time, it’s a type of that that no one would even consider playing ever due to the lack of consistency, but they play it basically for fun.
There is another side of a Rogue Deck. It often happens that a creative Duelist manages to make something new that nobody is prepared for and goes on to win a lot of matches and tournaments, which raises the popularity of the Deck in question and leads other Duelists to copy it and add their own personal touch. And voila, a successful Rogue deck is now a Tier 1 deck.
Back when Yu-Gi-Oh! was mostly just a card game, there were many popular players that pioneered their creations at major tournaments and brought a breath of fresh air into the meta (notable examples being Jeff Jones, Billy Brake, Roy St. Clair, and Adam Corn) so do not be afraid to try something new and analyze the current card pool and possible strategies. Who knows? You might bring the next best thing into the meta.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Deck Tier List (January 2023)
The new banlist came out and there have been some changes!
Tier 0:
- Luckily, no decks exist here. Or else Konami would bring out the ban hammer!
Tier 1:
- Branded
- Branded Despia
- Drytron
- Eldlich
- Runic
- Runic Swordsoul
- Swordsoul
- Tri-Brigade Zoo Deck
Tier 2:
- Adamancipator (borderline Tier 1)
- Dragon Link (borderline Tier 1)
- Ignister
- Invoked Shaddoll
- Kairyu Shin
- Lunar Access
- Lyrilusc Tri-Brigade
- Numeron
- Phantom Knights
- Prank Kids
- Sky Strikers
- Tri Brigade
- Twin
- Zombie World Eldlich
Tier 3:
- Ancient Gear
- Blackwings
- Branded Thunder Dragon
- Dinosaurs
- Salamangreat
- Traptrix
- Yang Zing
Rogue Decks:
- ABC
- Aroma
- Black Luster Soldier
- Blue-Eyes Variants
- Burn
- Cubic
- Cyber Dragons
- D/D/D
- Dark Magician
- Empty Jar
- Endymion
- Exodia
- Fluffal
- Ghostrick
- Gimmick Puppet
- Gravekeepers
- HERO
- Infernity
- Junk
- Melffy
- Monarch
- Noble Knights
- Numeron
- Ojama
- Phantasm Spiral
- Red-Eyes
- Solfachord
- Toon
- Trains
- Utopia OTK
That’s it for this Tier List! By now you should know what the best decks in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel are! We’ll make sure to update it as the meta changes. Make sure to visit our other Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel articles, and may the Heart of the Cards never let you down.
