Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is the awesome new entry to the series of mobile CCGs, giving players access to an absolutely huge number of cards (over 10 thousand!) with which to create their decks, as well as a variety of interesting game modes, including a solo mode where they can challenge the CPU, and the ever-popular PvP duels against other players around the world.

As you can guess, as is the case with any popular collectible card game worth its salt, the challenge in Master Duel, aside from winning your matches, is assembling good decks with proper synergies. And with a roster of thousands of cards, settling for your initial 40 can be quite difficult. And this is without mentioning the game mechanics which, if you’re new to card games in general, can be quite confusing. Luckily, we’ve prepared a beginner’s guide for Yu-Gi-Oh! where you can check out basic elements like a term glossary, the match mechanics, as well as find an introduction to the starter decks in Master Duel. Feel free to check it out if you want to brush up on the basics of this card game.

This time around, however, we want to talk about how to build effective decks as a beginner, including how to properly spend your gems in the most efficient manner, while guaranteeing that you’ll at least get a few cards for your desired archetype or deck type.

How to Get More Gems

First and foremost, if you want to get anywhere in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, you need to know how to get gems. After all, the game’s premium currency is used for virtually everything; from purchasing cosmetics and other fun items to decorate your board, to actual cards, packs, bundles, and other important items that you’ll use for building your decks.

Of course, the most straightforward way to get gems is by purchasing them with real money. This effectively could make Master Duel pay2win, if it weren’t for the fact that you can get plenty of gems for free, and can also build highly competitive decks with a relatively low investment. However, those who want to create and keep multiple meta decks will either need to farm gems for a long period, or simply invest real money on this currency. Though you could also play Master Duel on PC with BlueStacks and run multiple instances, which will easily let you keep multiple decks without the money or time investment

The main methods of obtaining gems for free are by completing missions, both limited and unlimited, as well as through rewards from completing solo chapters. A couple of other methods also include login bonuses, as well as duel pass rewards. In other words, you can get gems simply by playing the game. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to check up on your missions to know the specific things you can do to score a few extra gems.

Card Rarities

One of the fundamental aspects of building decks in Master Duel is that cards come in four different rarities: Normal (N), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), and Ultra Rare (UR). Though this doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual quality and usefulness of the card in the current meta, rarer cards are significantly harder to obtain than their more common counterparts. Luckily, you can build good decks with relatively few SR and UR cards, with the bulk of your cards consisting of N and R variants. 

How to Obtain New Cards

The very first thing most users want to do as soon as they begin a new card game, especially one with so many cards as Master Duel, is to start building their own decks. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to obtain new cards in this game, even ones that guarantee to get the specific cards you’re aiming for.

To find new cards in Master Duel, you can either buy card packs or bundles or craft them. Additionally, you also get a ton of different cards as rewards for playing the solo mode, as well as for leveling up your Duelist Rank. All in all, you’ll be swimming in cards after playing a bit of Master Duel, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the ones you want. Nevertheless, it’s important that you try to get as many cards as you can since this feeds directly into the crafting system.

In order to craft cards, you need crafting points of the corresponding rarity which, as we mentioned above, cards come in four different variants. In this sense, if you’d want to craft an SR card, you’d need SR crafting points. And in order to get these crafting points, you’d need to dismantle cards of the same rarity. This is why it’s so important to bolster your roster with as many cards as you can, even if you don’t actually plan on making a deck with the cards that you’re getting.

Every card requires 30 crafting points, while every card you dismantle gives you 10. In other words, you need to burn 3 cards for every card that you want to craft, which is definitely a small price to pay if it means obtaining that one card that can make or break your strategy. Particularly when it comes to UR cards, crafting is the most reliable way to obtain the ones that you want, considering that they’re prohibitively expensive to find with any other method. Nevertheless, due to this very same scarcity, we strongly suggest spending your UR crafting points wisely—only on cards that you actually plan to use for your decks.

How to Dismantle and Craft Cards

Both the crafting and dismantling of cards are achieved through the deck editor menu. On this screen, you can find a list of all the cards you own. And by clicking on the burger menu on the top right, you’ll find functions for selecting and dismantling cards, which you can do simply by clicking on the card you want to dismantle. As we mentioned just now, each card gives you 10 crafting points of their corresponding rarity.

Crafting cards are a bit more committed since you need to actually know the name of the card you want to craft. Once you’ve identified the target card, all you need to do is type its name in the search box above the card list in the deck editor, click on the card in question, and then click on “Generate” in the card details screen. Keep in mind that this button will be grayed out if you don’t have the required crafting points.

Regarding Secret Packs

Purchasing cards from the store is pretty straightforward: Once you have enough gems, all you need to do is go to the store, choose the bundle or pack that you want, and purchase it. However, it’s worth pointing out the distinction between the different pack types, particularly as far as the Secret Packs are involved.

There are currently a few types of packs in the game, among which we can find the Master Packs, Selection Packs, Secret Packs, and Limited Time Packs. All except the Secret Packs are pretty self-explanatory: They contain boosters with the cards indicated in their description. 

Play on BlueStacks

Play on BlueStacks

The Secret Packs, however, are some of the most important since they only give cards of a specific archetype. Moreover, Secret Packs become available ONLY after you obtain a corresponding SR or UR card of the said archetype. Whether you obtain the prerequisite card from packs or crafting makes no difference, the relevant part is that you actually have it on hand. Unfortunately, Secret Packs are only available in the store during the next 24 hours after you receive the corresponding UR or SR card of the specific archetype. This effectively means that you have a limited time to purchase these packs, and in order to see them again in the store, you’ll need to get another SR or UR of the same archetype.

Spending Gems to Build Your Ideal Deck

With what we know about crafting and packs, so far, we can draw a few conclusions about the best way to proceed as a beginner in Master Duel. Of course, these only apply if you actually want to build a specific deck. Otherwise, you can easily play with the decks you get after completing the tutorial, and will probably have some success when dueling against other players. However, if you want to stay competitive, you’ll definitely want to go full meta.

The best way to spend your gems to build meta decks in Master Duel is, without a doubt, by purchasing Secret Packs of the desired archetype. This effectively means that, before getting started, you first need to figure out your preferred playstyle, as well as the archetype that can give you the said play style.

Most decks in this game revolve around your SR or UR cards, which are the most difficult to obtain. For this reason, the very first step in building a new deck is to actually craft the SR or UR card around which the deck will revolve—It’s actually more cost-effective to craft them than it is to roll for them through packs and bundles. And once you have the respective card on hand, you can spend all your gems on Secret Packs of the corresponding archetype, which will ensure that you get at least a few of the cards needed to start building your deck.

Now, while this method doesn’t necessarily guarantee to be able to put together a complete deck, it’s definitely a good start. And if anything, the cards that you don’t plan on using can still be dismantled for crafting points, which you can use to actually craft your desired cards.

Optimal Start Step-by-Step

We know that all that we’ve mentioned so far can be a bit overwhelming. So, for the sake of simplicity, we want to close this guide with a simple breakdown of what you should do if you’re just starting and want to build an effective deck:

1. Start your game by choosing any starter deck, and get to work on completing the solo levels and missions, which will give you plenty of gems.

2. Once you have enough gems—at least 4,000 or more—go to the store and purchase the three bundles from the “Special” tab. These contain three staple cards, “Lightning Storm”; “Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring”, and “Solemn Judgment”, which are great to have. Each bundle costs 750 gems and also gives you 10 master packs each.

3. Open all your master packs and check to see if you get any SR or UR staples of a specific archetype.

• If you have the staples of your target archetype: Go ahead and spend the rest of your gems on secret packs of the corresponding archetype.
• If you don’t have the staples of your target archetype: Burn three unwanted
  SR or UR cards to get enough crafting points and craft the staple card you need. Afterward, spend the rest of your gems on secret packs of the said archetype.

It’s worth mentioning here that, in order to know which cards belong to a specific archetype, you can always search for them in the deck editor, by typing their name in the search box. Once you find the card, you can check its corresponding secret pack archetype from the “How to Obtain” menu. Above all else, we strongly suggest NOT buying master packs if you’re looking to build a deck of a specific archetype, since these can contain cards from a wide variety of archetypes. Moreover, the best way to maximize your odds of getting good cards (SR of above) is by buying secret packs in increments of 10, since this will ensure that you’ll get at least one SR card.

It goes without saying that knowing which staples to look for, as well as learning about the current meta decks, requires some extra research on your end, particularly since there are too many variations to mention in this article. Nevertheless, if you already know what to look for, the steps we mentioned above are the absolute most efficient ways to spend your gems and crafting points to get a good start in Master Duel.