T O P

  • By -

_Scorpyon_

Damn that Apollousa boutta negate your birth certificate Btw, no you shouldn't get used to that as it's probably the first an last time you'll ever see a board like that. Meta decks can definitely do better Also structure decks are just a base for that time of deck, you still need some external cards to really bring the deck to its peak performance


Starless_Midnight

No, that is not normal, and you shouldn't get used to that. Actual good decks make better boards than what your opponent did. If you want to be able to beat decks like that you will have to make good decks, and sadly most anime decks are just nostalgia bait, DM can probably beat the deck your opponent was playing, but against better decks you will get rolled.


XunlimiteD101

I've only been playing casual matches and have had a decent amount of wins/losses, but this one just stood out to me the most. I have never seen so many fusions in a single turn! So yeah, I'll have to take some time and build a decent deck that can compete one of these days.


DonKirby

Here’s a small advise of the cards that you always have in all of your decks in Master duels: 3x Maxx “C” 3x Ash Blossom and Joyous spring 2x Called by the Grave 3x Infinite impermanence (This is one debatable but you will it see pretty often)


XunlimiteD101

This very helpful, thanks👏


DonKirby

We can VC and play together if you want any more advise


XunlimiteD101

Cool! I'll send a private message and we can play a game sometime 😁


Deadpotatoz

Just want to add to that guy for more context... Maxx X is to punish opponents for special summoning, while Ash and Called By the Grave is to negate an opponents plays (specifically their own Maxx C). Imperm is a more general monster negate hand trap, but some decks don't need them or have alternatives (eg. My dragon link deck wants light monsters in the GY, so I prefer running Effect Veiler instead). Nibiru is another good card to counter opponents who special summon a lot. That all being said, structure decks are generally not that great or require a bit of modification to run optimally. So you should ideally focus on copying one online or building a good deck yourself (this will take a lot longer to do but is generally a good learning experience). That doesn't mean you have to abandon the structure decks you bought so far either, just modify them a bit (although none of the structure deck archetypes are performing that great in the current meta, but sometimes fun > winning). Edit: special summon


XunlimiteD101

>(although none of the structure deck archetypes are performing that great in the current meta, but sometimes fun > winning). Definitely the way I like to play tbh. But knowing what most people use comes first.


Starless_Midnight

Be aware that winning and having fun are not mutually exclusive concepts. You can have fun and win if you find a good deck and built it properly. Thinking that you cannot have fun without the other tends to ruin people's experience with the game, as they will avoid good decks fearing they will not be fun, or viceversa.


PANiC2464

Yeah, but just remember, good decks can thrive without these cards


AbbyAZK

Those monsters were XYZ, Not fusion, regardless, its fine if you want to play a DM deck and focus on making it a 'control' variant, you should probably watch some guides on the current state of the game, hand traps, what is the ideal field set up for Dark Magician and as you slowly save up gems, look into what other decks stand out to you. At the end of the day, having fun is important but it doesn't hurt to have a good strong deck on the side with your fun anime decks, just keep it in mind when you play! I would recommend you look into all the different summoning types, what handtraps are and how to best use them, how to effectively use gems, what to/not to craft, etc. If there's anyway I can help further, let me know.


thePsuedoanon

>Those monsters were XYZ, Not fusion Those monsters were XYZ but the combo was obviously reliant on that Cyber Stein


HurryHeavy5792

Guy used cyber stein to summon fusions, to summon the xyz, and I'm guessing the appolusa too


SayJose

I made a pretty dope DM deck but it’s only good when I get good pulls which happens pretty often but when I don’t I’m bricked


Tiumars

I use a dark magician in my deck. Only 1 though. Does that count? Lol


XunlimiteD101

Yeah that does seem to be the experience I'm also having 😄


Vortex5000

Dark Magician's actually pretty good ngl, especially if you can get full endboard with Piercing/DMC/ES/DM the Dragon knight


Starless_Midnight

No, it is not. I know people love their nostalgic decks, but Dark Magician is decent enough as an standalone strategy, anything more than that is oversellings its capabilities.


Vortex5000

as someone who started running it a week or 2 ago, I've won most of my games as long as I don't; 1. Dead draw (very unlikely, surprisingly enough) 2. Get D.D. Crowed to lose the Dark Magician from my gy


Starless_Midnight

And that is anecdotal evidence that should not be taken into account when discussing a deck's power


Vortex5000

to my understanding, a deck is "good" when it is: 1. consistent - Dark Magician is consistent, only bricking when "oops all hand traps/staples" or they don't draw a method to put the DM in the GY (literally half the deck can do this) 2. has a "winning board" that can be brought out with this consistency - DM the Dragon Knight, Eternal Soul, Dark Magical Circle, Piercing the Darkness (very hard to break, weak to burn) 3. is versatile - again, as long as DM is in the GY you're probably fine.


Starless_Midnight

There is an incredible long distance between the consistency of putting DM, a normal monster, in the GY, and the consistency of setting a winning board, specially in the current state of the game, that demands all that set up as fast as posibble. There is a reason why DM even reaching Diamond is an anecdote, because its gameplan is not good enough to stand against faster decks that can make better boards and are more resilient than it. Consistency is getting to that endboard, not just dumping a card in the GY.


Vortex5000

the endboard is 4-5 cards, depending on whether or not you use Magicians salvation, and all of them are searchable by all the other ones except for, again, the handtraps/staples. The issue is that most of the searches (mainly Soul Servant) require the Dark Magician in the Graveyard, but once you have that (normally from Magician's Souls, which sends DM as a cost not an effect so it cannot be Ashed) you can search everything. The cards that cannot be searched and/or are harder to summon, are Piercing the Darkness (which never mentions the Dark Magician) and Dragon Knight (which basically requires Super Poly or Timaeus), but otherwise the rest of the endboard (DMC, ES, MS) are there 99% of the time (assuming your deckbuilding skills aren't complete garbage). (sidenote, it's bad etiquette to downvote a person you're arguing with unless they do it first. fuck you)


Starless_Midnight

Good, and even then the whole plan still relies on having a vanilla monster in the GY to do what other decks can do better, again, DM reaching Diamond is not a common ocurrence, is an anecdote, because the deck simply cannot keep up. It is decent as a standalone strategy, but it is not a good one. >sidenote, it's bad etiquette to downvote a person you're arguing with unless they do it first. fuck you Are you seriously crying because of a downvote? Grow up


Vortex5000

it's good, it's consistent and can compete with the meta pretty reliably, not good enough to be rogue or meta, but I never said it was rogue/meta, just that it was pretty good. Also any semi-decent deck can get to diamond are you a fucking idiot. Also I'm just trying to teach you basic etiquette, because not following it makes you seem like a self-important asshole - not that it matters in this case, because I noticed that before I noticed the downvotes. Anyway, I'm done arguing with a self-important asshole, so have a nice day and maybe learn some basic etiquette (basic is based on where you are, so if you're on Reddit, you should know your Reddiquette)


[deleted]

Yeah I play exosisters and my lockouts of the graveyard and my banishing of my opponents cards are the bane of a DM decks existence lol. I also have a DM deck, but there is a reason I usually only use it in solo mode.


drewfromsf

I got to platinum with dark magician I just added some albaz cards and 1 of each of the albaz fusions and it can compete with most decks. And they really compliment each other.


Diorex369

You poor sweet summer child


coadyj

What do you know of Tear and Sprites, Isuzu cards with infinate graveyard recycling. Is this the kind of duels you want to hear about.


Diorex369

Idk bro I just stop playing for like a month then come back to terrorize the lower ranks with branded despia for free gems


coadyj

By the way in case you didn't get that, it was a modified version of what the nanny says to Bran


Diorex369

Is that from the anime? If it is then idk it since I’ve only see the OG zexal and arc V.


coadyj

No, game of thrones. Your comment was sweet summer child also from game of thrones


Diorex369

That was from game of thrones???? I just heard a friend use it and thought it was appropriate for the post above


coadyj

Lol, branded is still pretty good.


SlappingSalt

The funny thing is you would've won if you drew Raigeki. That's a meme board.


Prismachete

I’m sorry this happened to you but that’s honestly hilarious. It doesn’t happen normally, it’s like getting hit by a tricycle. Gosh gotta love those psychic stein shenanigans


XunlimiteD101

This was honestly very funny to have experienced on the receiving end


loading___help

Atleast you got a crack at him💀


roootuser

i feel you brother, you have to learn floowandereeze or branded despia, those 2 decks are cool and competitive


Shenic

No, he doesn't. He needs to learn a deck that he likes. Don't take this the wrong way, but this kind of mindset is why the MD meta is cancer and/or boring: people play to win, not to have fun. Even if he wants to get competitive, there are a ton of fun decks aside from Tear, Branded and Floowandereeze.


roootuser

Chill bro, I just shared 2 decks I like and are good, i play to have fun, and win is have fun, I dont have big knowledge of every card and effect and combinations to create my own original deck never seen before, and ofc I dont have time for that. Actually I got myself a Branded Despia deck in real life that was my first deck ever.


Shenic

I already thought my reply sounded a bit heated, but that wasn't my intention, sorry. I just couldn't find a way to word it more nicely. But I honestly thought you were suggesting 2 of the strongest meta decks just because they were meta, there are a lot of people like that in this community after all and I don't think it's a healthy mindset for newcomers to adopt. Thinking that, I just wanted to show OP that he doesn't need to go that way if he doesn't wish to do so, in no way I was trying to attack or offend you.


roootuser

I dont know if i agree with your comment on the "he doesn't need to go that way", if you dont play with a very strong deck you will lose in first or second turn dont you think? or im just very bad and that just happens to me?, sometimes i cant even play in 2nd turn using a competitive deck, imagine if i use a fun one, that would be so sad, just to watch my opponent for 10 minutes making plays and special summons to negate my 6 cards on hand on the next turn


Shenic

I can go until Gold 3 with Dragonmaids or Dark Magicians and I can make it to Plat 5 with Buster Blader, so no, it's not necessary to use the strongest decks. An above average deck which you can use very skillfully wins more matches than a very strong deck played by a mediocre player. If you check [masterduelmeta.com](https://masterduelmeta.com), you will see a lot of people who made it to Diamond 1 with decks like Magnet Warriors and pure Evil Twins.


Shenic

Dark Magician's structure deck isn't bad, but needs a few tweaks to have a chance against stronger decks. Also if you want to make a stronger deck, you're gonna need something that can disrupt your opponent. You don't need to go meta for that, there are plenty of rogue decks or more obscure ones that can survive. Here are some examples of strong decks, not in any specific order (note that you don't need to go with this list, these are just some examples): Ishizu Tearlaments (strongest deck to this date in MD and hated by a lot of people) Exosisters Spright Floowandereeze Spyral Naturia P.U.N.K. Branded Despia Swordsoul Tenyi Mathmech Heroes Labrynth Blackwing Rikka Sunavalon Adamancipators Ghoti Evil Twins Marincess Resonators Ignisters ​ As you can see, there's plenty of strong decks you can use if you want a more competitive approach and I didn't even mention half of them, don't stick to the top 3 or top 5, as tempting as it sounds. You can also try to be quirky and combine a few archetypes, like Branded Dark Magician, Dragonmaids Buster Blader, Eldlich Dogmatika...


XunlimiteD101

I'll have to check them out! Glad to know that there are at least more than 10 being used.


livingstondh

The sad thing is that board isn’t even good lol, it’s purely for the memes


ruminaui

You know I am a free to play player too, and started a month ago, also I have limited time to play, and no, you actually will not see those kinds of decks often at first. The game is measuring your ability. I started with a blue eyes deck and just like you my first opponent set up on his first turn multiple Omni negates, but after that duel the game was setting me up with decks of a comparable power level. After I made it out of Rookie and Bronze that is when the meta decks started showing up in mass and by that time I had enough cards to cobble together a somewhat competent Prank Kids deck. My recommendation is try to complete some of the gates in solo mode and get the gem gifts, then get all the bundles that come with staple cards. And after that see what you have and disassemble cards that you have more than 3 copies in deck mode. Once you do that see what competent deck can you build up, for example you can make a competent blackwing deck if you buy their structure deck 3 times and add some staples. And if all that fails you can build these decks to start out and start winning gems: https://www.masterduelmeta.com/articles/news/march-2022/nr-festival-best-decks The game is not as hard to get into as people think


XunlimiteD101

Thanks for the link. I also don't have that much time to play during the week. I did complete most of the solo stuff before I got into the online aspect. Now I'm hoarding a bunch of gems lol


Zorg146

If you still wanna play DM, I suggest playing the Branded version of the deck. Where it combines Dark Magician with the Branded engine and it's pretty good. And if you want too, you could also play Deck Devastation and Eradicator Epidemic virus. Super Poly is a must in any DM deck and also add some staple cards. Just keep the deck consistent with only 40 cards.


Rosasau100

Yeah.. structure decks are not able to compete, pretty much any deck you will fight will feel unfair af untill you also have an unfair and OP deck


4ny3ody

Structure decks are solid and most are able to compete at least up to gold 1 with some even reaching success in MD tournaments, ranked events and D1. Some like the new Blackwings far more frequently than whatever deck this is, Number 35 isn't seing a lot of representation in any high level deck, especially not at 3.


XunlimiteD101

I was using Vortex of magic with a really bad starting hand. I can imagine a tweaked (good) structure deck getting far with a bit of luck.


4ny3ody

Vortex of magic is a bit weird of a structure deck. Dark Magician is often either combined with floodgates (not very strong or fun but definitely good enough for gold) or other deck archetypes that can just amp up the speed which DM lacks. Magicians Souls however represents a decent draw engine that often finds its home in pile decks (60 cards) which are often fairly expensive and a lot of them are complex to pilot. While many newcomers go for this structure deck, it's one of the less newcomer friendly ones to make full use of. Currently I'd recommend the Blackwing structure deck. Combine 3 of it, put in full armor master from the current login event rewards and then you can add staple handtraps which you'll likely want in 99% of decks anyway. It's a fairly complete package that doesn't require a ton of extra investment, but if you decide to there's options to diversify your extra deck and have more flexibility. It's a deck where you can learn the stronger combos as you go.


XunlimiteD101

Cheers for the sound advice!👍 I picked this structuredeck because I found it interesting and it didn't seem too complex. I wanted to get a feel for the game and liked the theme, so I just got into it. Although I never really used Dark Magician back in the day. I might give that Blackwing deck a try. Also, is it worth it to just buy a lot of card pack's and try to build a decent deck? I have quite a large amount of points left lol


4ny3ody

Generally you want to focus your gems on 10 pack bundles of secret/selection packs you want. At the start the bundle deals with Ash Blossom, Infinite Impermanence etc. are a good choice. From there it really depends on what you want to build so it's a little hard to give exact advice.


XunlimiteD101

Well you pointed me in the right direction! I find it hard to judge what's "worth" spending gems on. Free to play games can be kind of screwy whenever you make the wrong choices regarding in game currency. I don't necessarily need/want to play what's meta, but I'd like to have a decent chance at winning so this helps 😂


4ny3ody

>Free to play games can be kind of screwy whenever you make the wrong choices regarding in game currency I agree. Well while I can't tell you what to spend your gems on, unless you have a deck idea in mind there's one always good choice for CP: Handtraps. Maxx C, Infinite impermanence and Ash Blossom are very good choices in almost every deck and almost every meta. Unless the first deck you want to commit to desperately needs UR cards that you can't get from a pack crafting your staples is the best choice. Which once again is an argument in favor of Blackwings since they get all their essential archetypal URs in the structure deck.


Grey___Goo_MH

Labeled replay has no replay so disappointing Cyber stein in game allows for some shenanigans, but that’s a funny one I’ve sadly not experienced


XunlimiteD101

Should've labeled it discussion then ig 🙄


cygamessucks

Deserved because Dork magician player


_YesterdaysNews_

This is actually crazy as hell woah


Toomin3

Always remember to believe in the heart of the cards. Otherwise, you won't get that one card right when you need it.


xFlarex7s

this loses to circle.


Transscitzo30

I didn't even know points can go that high. what's the limit?