Duel Links

I finally joined.

I intitally wanted to form a deck like this, but Big Shield Gardna wasn't that easy to get. Inspired by an AI deck in the 20+ Stages if I recall.

Created using Duelinks.gamepress

Personally I am a fan of the following Kaiba deck, which I got from Reddit.

The path to collecting these cards have been quite fine. Been farming by battling and converting the additional copies of cards got me plenty of gems. Gold seems to be the biggest issue, and Kaibaman always appears when I don't have enough gold.

Might also be adding Champion Vigilance in.

If I am going to play a 'Yugi' like deck, it will be likely be something like the following 'Swift Gaia'  deck

I am currently leveling up Rex Raptor. With 1600ATK beaters and buffed 300ATK by Jurrasic World his deck makes for a good Auto-play deck. The new Crimson Kingdom also has Mr Sneezing Hippo Kabazauls, which will make you wonder why you tried so hard to get Axe Raider in the first place.

To his credit, there are plenty of newly released Warrior support so....
Anyway~

Kabazauls can get to 2000ATK with Jurrasic World and with the help of Earth monsters, Elemental Saurus is an effective answer to Yomi Ship, Hane-hane and other irritating monsters. Furthermore, Black Tyranno is the new big boss of the Dino family. Level 7 means it can be brought out by Tribute Doll.

Sesmic Instincts make it easer for Black Tyranno to attack directly while Hunting Instincts, Fossil Excavation and Super Evolution Pill makes summoning it easier.

Swords of Concealing Light will greatly facilitate the strategy if it ever gets released.

While purely my personal opinion, I feel that Champion Vigilance Blue-Eyes may face a powercreep with the challenge by Buster Blader archetype. Dinos look to be doing pretty well which is why I am currently investing gems in the latest pack to get the new Dino cards.

Zombie is looking good too but the true gamechanger will be Book of Life, as Bakura would have probably demonstrated by now.

The Ultimate Rising is the only pack which I finished purchasing an entire box worth of packs. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon eludes me to the very end. 3rd last pack if I recall....

I got lucky with Union Attack. I didn't have Unhappy Girl to farm Yugi Muto but I managed to get one from a drop. Then the second one I got was from the Qualifers Prize from making it to Plat 1. That was the furthest I went. Job committments prevented me from dedicating more time to make it to King of Games, but I am happy to be at least able to get a free SR card.

So with two Union Attacks , the rest was easy. Blue-Eyes Ultimate + Gate Guardian using Paradox Brother's Element Unite.

This are my pulls from the packs. I spent the 1000gems I saved before the release and got 20 packs at one go. I probably got lucky, Dark Paladin was in the third pack. In my opinion this is a pretty value-for-money product. You have a common 1700ATK beater and Blazing Inpachi, 1850 attack monster which basically powercreeps the other normal monsters.

Full card list can be found here.

I really like the Buster Blader archetype support. Looking forward to build one myself. I am a fan of Dark Paladin as a kid, seeing how it countered Blue-Eyes. It was only recently during Dark Side of Dimensions that I started becoming Team Kaiba.

Conclusion

For new players, Duel Links provide a comprehensive guide to introduce new players into the game, while not overwhelming or scaring them with the aggressiveness of the competitive format.

For older and experienced players, it is a slower pace and a whole different format. I feel that even in a game like this, it presents a challenge for this demographic as well. Cards such as Twister and De-Spell are the main removal options.

Most importantly, the controlled environment allow players to know of, and allows cards to flourish and be of some use. Cards such as non-Nekroz Ritual Monsters, Magical Arm Shield, Nutrient Z. Yugioh seemed to have returned to the past, with a few new cards added to the mix. Duel Links, I feel, is the perfect oppurtunity to include and add the new support to the old themes after they failed to make an impact in the competitive aspect.

I am currently at Stage 47. Threw my entire Gem collection into the Beast pack when I started. It was recently released back then. Then it got me to Stage 20+, and Auto-Play started to fail me. From there on double-fusion decks like Thunder Dragon + (another two fusion materials-Fusion) became my main multi-purpose deck.

It was first Snake Head + Zombie Dragon, then it became the Dinos after I farmed Rex Raptor. With no Vorse Raider, the Dinos with Jurrasic World became my psuedo 1900ATK beatsticks.