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Yu-Gi-Oh: Best Competitive Decks June 2023

By: Author Ryan McKenna

Posted on Last updated:

UPDATED FOR JUNE 2023

Yu-Gi-Oh’s competitive scene is as diverse as ever, with a wide variety of archetypes and strategies achieving victories in tournaments.

Regardless of if you have $100 or $1000 to spend, there is a deck out there that can allow you to challenge anyone in your area.

Dozens of budget decks exist but they’re only viable in casual duels against friends. Instead, this list will focus on the 10 best decks you can build in Yu-Gi-Oh right now!

Note: prices are for the deck/archetypes cores and doesn’t include prices for cards such as hand-traps, which can be expensive.

If you’re looking for competitive budget staples, I have created the best list of Yu-Gi-Oh staples on the internet.

Borrelsword Dragon, the best Link monster in Yugioh!

Arguably the most fun deck to use on this entire list, yet one of the most expensive.

Dragon Link decks utilise the fast summoning and recycling of Rokkets & Dragonmaids to summon powerful extra deck monsters.

The linked deck list is based around Borrelend Dragon which isn’t actually released in the TCG yet, but you can run that same deck without it. Simply add Borrelend when it is released.

One of the best aspects of Dragon Link is its versatility. You can edit it to include more twilight cards or more Dragonmaids, etc. You could even implement a Blue-Eyes strategy as they are soon to receive some incredible new support.

9) Virtual World

One of the craziest archetypes for summoning monsters, Virtual World cards love to spam the field with Psychic-type effect monsters.

A strong extra deck is required to make full use of such resources. Plenty of Virtual World XYZ/Synchro monsters exist but a few good staples will also be needed.

Alongside these big extra deck monsters are hand-traps for disruption, you really can’t let your opponent build up a board as that is what Virtual World cards struggle to face against.

8) Dino

Dinosaurs, one of the best budget decks in Yugioh

Still the best budget deck in the game even years after release, dinos are a remarkably fun and powerful deck to use. Most of the core cards can be found in Dinosmasher’s Fury, which is widely considered to be one of the best structure decks of all time.

While players have gotten used to dinos over time and are well aware of their drawbacks, the sheer amount of versatility offered when it comes to summoning the big dinos have forced them to stay in the competitive scene.

Ultimate Conductor Tyranno (pictured) is the main card and should be summoned as soon as possible, there it can shut down strategies before they happen.

7) Sky Striker

Sky Striker Mobilize Engage, a main card in Sky Strikers, one of the best competitive decks in Yugioh

My personal best deck, see my decklist here 🙂

Sky Strikers are all about disruption and control. You can’t really summon a bunch of monsters in one turn as the Sky Striker specific spells require no monsters in the main monster zones for their activation requirements.

Still, though, Sky Strikers have so much flexibility and tons of capabilities to deal with almost any threat. Constantly spamming Link 2 monsters to search and recover spells, as well as attack directly to whittle down HP.

Include an I:P Masquerena and one of the best Link boss monsters if you do get an opportunity to finish the duel off with a big attack.

With all that being said, Sky Strikers auto-lose against floodgates like Imperial Order so watch out for opponents who might side them in.

6) Drytron

Drytrons are the first competitive ritual-based archetype since Nekroz and that says a lot for the current competitive scene.

Most Drytron monsters are level 1 with a whopping 2000 ATK, although they can’t be normal summoned or set.

Instead, you team up with fairy cards and other powerful ritual archetypes (like Cyber Angels) for a versatile and efficient deck.

Be warned, it’s extremely difficult to use, arguably the toughest competitive deck out there to get to grips with.

5) Eldlich

Up there with the most unique and frustrating decks in Yu-Gi-Oh history, you literally have just Eldlich the Golden Lord alongside 30-37 trap cards.

Just keep summoning Eldlich using its own effect to constantly harass and berate your opponent’s life points. With some floodgates and annoying traps, they won’t be able to do anything in return.

The strength of this deck is determined by the potency of your trap collection.

4) Swordsoul Tenyi

Consistent search and summon power that goes into some of the best Synchro monsters in the entire game, backed up by powerful hand-traps and other disruption cards is too good to beat.

They have an answer for everything, regardless of the type of deck your opponent is using. However, a good degree of skill is required to run this deck, as you need to time your disruptions perfectly.

Overall, Swordsoul Tenyi is versatile and powerful enough to tackle any other deck currently in the Yu-Gi-Oh competitive scene.

3) Labrynth

Labrynth deck

Labrynth was introduced to the TCG back in August 2022 in the booster pack “Tactical Masters“, and it’s remained one of the top competitive decks ever since.

The most powerful combo in the deck allows you to play a trap card that you set in the same turn with “Labrynth Cooclock” and “Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle”. Because of this playstyle, this deck is known to play a lot of floodgate trap cards.

2) Spright

Spright Elf

Spright cards have been dominating the OCG before being officially released in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The Spright monsters are all either level, rank or link two and they can swarm the field quickly.

“Spright Blue” gives the deck a ton of consistency by allowing you to search your other Spright monster cards, while “Spright Jet” allows you to search spell cards. “Spright Starter” special summons a Spright monster directly from your deck which allows you to summon your extra deck boss monsters “Gigantic Spright” and “Spright Elf” . It’s easy to see how this deck can get out of control!

1) Kashtira

Kashtira Deck

As of June 2023, Kashtira is the best competitive deck in Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Kashtira archetype is a relatively new addition to the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game. It was first introduced in the “Darkwing Blast” and the “Photon Hypernova” booster packs. It comprises mainly of Level/Rank 7 Psychic monsters with powerful effects that allow you to banish your opponent’s cards face-down.

The basic Kashtira engine consists of:

In the current Yu-Gi-Oh meta, Kashtira is proven to be a versatile and formidable archetype capable of taking on any other deck.

Check out our related Yu-Gi-Oh! articles below:

Paul Vennard

Wednesday 23rd of March 2022

Actually there's a guy at my locals who always wins and he's using a 60 card phantom knight / combo deck. He wins a lot because he can extend through any amount of negation / hand traps and just keep combo-ing.

Sword soul yenyi is great but it can't play through interruptions as well as phantom knights / combo extender decks can.

Mike Ox Long

Monday 14th of November 2022

@Paul Vennard, branded despia does the same and you can use their big stuff to make yours so if you were looking for something to counter most of these branded despia works like a charm if its built right of course

Ryan McKenna

Thursday 24th of March 2022

What kind of decks does he face against? PK are certainly good but not as competitive as any of those on this list

Peter

Tuesday 18th of December 2018

Hello,

The latest deck link for Danger Dark Warrior redirect to a website with Burning Abyss deck and not the Danger Dark Warrior itself.

Thank you!

Arty

Wednesday 5th of September 2018

WTF... i leave Yugioh back in 2011, this looks like a whole different game