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Yugioh: Staples Every Duelist Should Own 2023

No matter what deck you run, every archetype and strategy needs some staples backing them up.

These cards are incredible, able to fit into almost any deck and instantly upgrading them after doing so.

A list of generic cards takes a long, long time to make.

I’ve done it though, in the hope that new and/or returning players know exactly which cards they can afford.

Overall, every player should own every card on this list. Budget-wise, I’ve made it easy to know what to get if you’re short on money.

Or if you’re an experienced player looking to separate your staples from your useless commons, this list contains every staple of every card type to make your life easier!

If you acquire every budget staple on this list, you’ll be right as rain to start dueling casually and being successful.

If you acquire literally every card on this list, you’ll just need a meta archetype and you’ll be winning tournaments!

Updated for 2023. Cards with (B) next to them signify cheap budget options

Also, check out the Ultimate List of Budget Decks!


Engines/Toolboxes

Engines/Toolboxes are a series of cards you can tech into almost any deck.

They work independently to boost the power of your deck, even if the rest of the deck is unrelated to the engine in terms of archetype/attribute/type etc.

The Brilliant Engine for example gets you a Fusion monster easily and an extra Normal Summon, allowing you to make your Link plays a lot faster and/or tribute summon if needed!

  • Danger!
  1. 2 x Danger! Bigfoot!
  2. 1 x Danger! Nessie!
  3. 2 x Danger!? Jackalope?
  4. 2 x Danger!? Tsuchinoko?
  • Interrupted Kaiju Slumber Package
  1. Interrupted Kaiju Slumber
  2. 4 Kaiju monsters
  • Brilliant Engine
  1. Brilliant Fusion (currently banned but may return in future)
  2. Gem-Knight Garnet
  3. Gem-Knight Seraphinite
  • (B) Predaplants
  1. Lonefire Blossom
  2. Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio
  3. Predaplant Darlingtonian Cobra
  • Toon Chimeratech
  1. Toon Table of Contents
  2. Toon Cyber Dragon
  3. Chimeratech Megafleet Drago
  • Spellbook
  1. Spellbook Magician of Prophecy
  2. Spellbook of Secrets
  3. Spellbook of Knowledge
  • Windwitch
  1. Windwitch Ice Bell
  2. Windwitch Glass Bell
  3. Windwitch Snow Bell
  4. Level 7 WIND Synchro
  5. Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon
  • Lightsworn Mill
  1. Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn
  2. Charge of the Light Brigade
  3. Solar Recharge
  • (B) Symphonic Warriors (for an extra Normal Summon and nice pendulum scales)
  1. Symphonic Warrior Guitar x 3
  2. Symphonic Warrior Miccs x 2
  • Frog Level 2 Engine
  1. Swap Frog x 3
  2. Ronintoadin x 2
  3. Dupe Frog x 3
  • Bamboo (extra draw power)
  1. Cursed Bamboo Sword x 3
  2. Golden Bamboo Sword x 3
  3. Broken Bamboo Sword x 1
  4. Foolish Burial Goods x 3
  • Artifacts
  1. Artifact Sanctum x 3
  2. Artifact Scythe x 1-2
  • Super Polymerisation & targets
  1. Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
  2. Mudragon of the Swamp
  • Invoked (Very strong. Which cards you choose depend on the deck you’re putting them in, look up Invoked engines for your archetype)

Monsters

Hand-Traps

Other


Spells


Traps


XYZ

Rank 1

Rank 2

Rank 3

Rank 4

Rank 5

Rank 6

Rank 7

Rank 8

Rank 9

Rank 10


Synchro

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Level 11

Level 12


Link

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4


Fusion

Elias

Saturday 27th of January 2024

Is an update for 2024 planned?

Filip Lescan

Wednesday 6th of March 2024

Coming soon!

Frederik Erskov Krogh

Monday 30th of October 2023

Pot of prosperity should be added

Blaukay

Wednesday 8th of March 2023

Love the list! One small package that I'm seeing a lot is the mini frightfur package:

2x Edge Imp Chain 2x Frightfur Patchwork

Really good for grabbing a normal poly in branded, but I'm not super sure if that would be considered a staple set

Kaen

Saturday 23rd of July 2022

Good Work. I would recommend adding the punk and adventure engines Also Miradora, Kshatri-la fenrir(when it comes to TCG), Fairy tail - snow, Change of heart, Ultimate Slayer and Icy Dragon's Prison Would also be nice to clean up and remove some of the older staples which have been powercrept (like grand mole).

among us man

Saturday 4th of June 2022

most of these cards are either banned or not staples anymore lmao

Ryan McKenna

Thursday 7th of July 2022

They're always still good to have :)

Any banned/outdated cards will be remarkably cheap to acquire and could very well reach relevance in the future.