If you’ve played any ranked games on Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel over the last month, you’ve likely run into the formidable Yubel deck. Here’s our best deck list for the Yubel archetype right now in Master Duel.
Best Master Duel Yubel deck list (August 2024)
Monsters
- 3 Samsara D Lotus
- 2 Gruesome Grave Squirmer
- 3 Maxx “C”
- 3 Dark Beckoning Beast
- 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
- 1 Unchained Soul of Sharvara
- 1 Yubel
- 3 Spirit of Yubel
- 1 Yuber – Terror Incarnate
Spells
- 1 One for One
- 2 Triple Tactics Talent
- 3 Nightmare Throne
- 3 Opening of the Spirit Gates
- 2 Nightmare Pain
- 2 Super Polymerization
- 2 Called by the Grave
- 1 Crossout Designator
Traps
- 3 Infinite Impermanence
- 1 Escape of the Unchained
- 1 Mudragon of the Swamp
- 1 Garura, Wings of Resonant Life
- 3 Phantom of Yubel
- 1 Yubel – The Loving Defender Forever
- 1 Chaos Angel
- 1 Salamangreat Almiraj
- 1 Unchained Soul of Rage
- 1 Cross-Sheep
- 1 Unchained Soul Lord of Yama
- 1 S:P Little Knight
- 1 Knightmare Unicorn
- 1 Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess
- 1 Accesscode Talker
This is the Yubel deck I’ve been using to great success in Diamond and Master ranked games on Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel since July. Admittedly, though, it took me a lot of practice games in solo mode before I felt comfortable enough with the basic combos to take the deck into ranked. I’m certainly no Yubel expert at this point, but it’s become my go-to deck once I started getting the hang of the playstyle and combos.
Anyone familiar with the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (particularly Yu-Gi-Oh! GX) should at least recognize the name Yubel as one of the show’s main antagonists. But now, many years after GX last aired, Yubel has received some new support cards in 2024 that have allowed the archetype to take over Master Duel.
The Yubel archetype mostly consists of Dark-attribute Fiend monsters with no attack (ATK) or defense (DEF) stats. The Yubel monsters—like Spirit of Yubel, Phantom of Yubel, and Yubel – Terror Incarnate—can’t be destroyed by battle and you don’t take any damage from battles involving them. Other monsters like Samsara D Lotus and Gruesome Grave Squirmer look to help you summon your Yubel monsters and trigger their effects.
If you’re unfamiliar with the strategy, you might be asking yourself “what am I going to do with a bunch of 0 ATK/DEF monsters?” Well, that’s where the combos and Extra Deck come in. If you throw in a small Unchained package (at least two Main Deck cards and one Link monster), you can add some extra forms of interruption to your endboard. And that’s not even factoring in the powerful Spell card Nightmare Pain, which deals any damage you would’ve taken from battles with Yubel monsters to your opponent. That can really hurt—and even end games—if you have multiple Yubel monsters and your opponent has a big body on their field.
The screenshot above shows a look at my preferred endboard when I’m going first with the Yubel deck in Master Duel—and if my opponent had no hand traps to stop my full combo. That board may not look super intimidating to some people, but it actually represents at least eight forms of interruption for your opponent to deal with.
Samsara D Lotus is your go-to starter to get into your Yubel engine. The Nightmare Throne Field Spell is one of the best ways to search for a copy of Samsara D Lotus if it’s not already in your hand. Tribute Samsara D Lotus to Special Summon Spirit of Yubel, which will let you set a copy of Nightmare Pain. Then, use Nightmare Pain to destroy Spirit of Yubel to summon the OG Yubel and add Gruesome Grave Squirmer to your hand. You can then use Gruesome Grave Squirmer’s effect to Special Summon itself and destroy the original Yubel to bring out Yubel – Terror Incarnate.
From here, you can branch out into a couple of different combo lines, but I like to go into Cross-Sheep and use the Yubel and Yubel – Terror Incarnate in my Graveyard (GY) to bring out a Phantom of Yubel to one of the zones Cross-Sheep has a Link Arrow pointing to. This will let you Special Summon a Level 4 or lower monster from your GY, giving you an extra body to further combo with. And Phantom of Yubel is a form of interruption because when your opponent activates a monster effect, you can Tribute Phantom of Yubel and change that effect to “destroy one Yubel monster in your hand, Deck, or field” instead.
At this point, you can use cards like Opening of the Spirit Gates and Gruesome Grave Squirmer’s GY effect to once again Special Summon Spirit of Yubel and re-trigger its destruction effect to bring the OG Yubel and Yubel – Terror Incarnate (which were shuffled into your Deck to summon Phantom of Yubel) back out for more combo shenanigans. This will allow you to go into a powerhouse Extra Deck monster like Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess or the Unchained package of Unchained Soul Lord of Yama, Unchained Soul of Sharvara, and Unchained Soul of Rage (plus the Escape of the Unchained Trap card).
The endboard pictured above has a lot of monster effect negates and interruptions, but it can struggle against board-breaker Spells and Traps like Raigeki, Lightning Storm, Dark Ruler No More, Evenly Matched, and more. A key tip to deal with that is to save your Yama’s GY effect for your opponent’s turn. If you do and your Unchained Soul of Rage gets destroyed, you can Special Summon it back out by banishing Yama and you’ll at least have some form of interruption on your board still.
One aspect of my deck list that you might opt to take in a different direction is the use of Super Polymerization. I like to have it as a going-second option, especially in the Yubel mirror match. But if you’d rather play other hand traps, you can sub in cards like Effect Veiler, Nibiru, the Primal Being, or PSY-Framegear Gamma.
Overall, I’ve had a lot of fun playing this Yubel deck in Master Duel once I got the hang of it. It’s probably the deck I’ll be using for the foreseeable future—unless it gets nuked by an upcoming Forbidden and Limited ban list.
