3 copies of a structure deck will give you a playset of every card in that deck, and from that you can usually make a fully-fledged deck that’s tournament ready. There have been many different structure decks released in Yu-Gi-Oh’s history, with each one bringing a new strategy to the table. This list will break down some of the best structure decks ever made, and what sort of decks you can build from them.
10. Dinosmashers Fury
Dinosaurs are an amazing deck for beginners looking to build a semi-competitive deck. The main aim of this deck is to get Ultimate Conductor Tyranno out on the field as fast as possible. This powerful dinosaur can Book of Moon every single one of your opponent’s monsters all at once, then attack each of them all by itself. The main downside of this structure deck is that to complete the full strategy you’ll need to buy a few additional cards outside of the deck, such as Animadorned Archosaur which has recently been printed in the Mega tins.
9. HERO Strike
For anyone who grew up watching Yu-Gi-Oh GX, this is an absolute gold mine of nostalgia. The aim of this deck is to fusion summon a powerful new type of HERO monster – the Masked HERO’s. Masked HERO Dark Law is one of the best this deck has to offer – it’s a one-sided Macro Cosmos, banishing every card your opponent sends to the graveyard. The deck you can build from 3 copies of HERO Strike is ludicrously fun – if you want a fusion deck where every single game is different then this deck is perfect for you.
8. Pendulum Domination
The idea behind this deck is that it involves every type of Extra-deck summoning method – Pendulum, XYZ, Synchro, Fusion, and Link monsters all play an important part in this deck’s strategy. On top of that, this deck features continuous spells and traps called ‘Dark Contracts’. These cards will allow you to access your extra deck boss monsters even quicker, at the cost of taking 1000 points of damage during the standby phase. Balancing the costs of the Dark Contracts as well as knowing the numerous combo lines this deck has to offer makes D/D/Ds a challenging deck to master, but definitely one worth doing.
7. Lair of Darkness
This deck plays a little differently to the other decks featured on this list. Lair of Darkness is all about the iconic Virus trap cards – these trap cards tribute a Dark monster with a certain amount of attack points to destroy cards in your opponents hand and field every single turn. Monsters such as Lilith, Lady of Lament can search these normal traps from your deck to your hand, and the field spell Lair of Darkness allows you tribute your opponent’s monsters for your traps.
6. Cyber Strike
The aim of this structure is to get huge Fusion monsters on the field. With cards such as Power Bond that can fusion summon a Machine monster then immediately double its original attack, this deck can reach some crazily high attack stats. Another great thing about this structure deck is that it gives you access to an essential staple card in todays format– Infinite Impermanence. This powerful trap card can negate the effects of any monster on the field, as well as negating any spells or traps in the same column.
5. Rokket Revolt
Rokket Revolt is a structure deck that can take you in many different directions. The base Rokket deck is incredibly versatile, giving you room to splash in a whole bunch of different engines and tech cards. The Rokket monsters all have effects that trigger when they’re targeted by a Link monsters effect. These effects do all sorts of things – you can burn your opponent for 2000 damage, send monsters on the field to the graveyard, or even remove cards from your opponent’s Extra deck. 3 copies of this structure deck and a few additional cards will get you a fully fledged Dragon Link deck, one of the best Link summoning decks out there.
4. Emperor of Darkness
This structure deck absolutely destroyed the meta game on release. Emperor of Darkness is a structure deck all about the Monarchs, an archetype almost as old as Yu-Gi-Oh itself. This structure deck allows you to build a Domain-Monarch deck, utilizing the powerful field spell Domain of the True Monarchs to lock your opponent entirely out of the Extra deck. If you can pull off this Extra deck lock before your opponent has a chance to react, then the game is as good as yours.
3. Soulburner
This structure deck features the Salamangreats, a series of Fire-attribute Cyberse monsters that can Link summon again and again and again. The Salamangreat Link monsters also gain additional abilities when they’re Link summoned using a copy of themselves – whilst this is normally not easy, the field spell Sanctuary of the Salamangreat allows you to summon these Link monsters using themselves as the entire material. This also deck contains Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, a powerful hand trap that is an absolute essential for any deck.
2. Albaz Strike
The latest structure deck to hit Yu-Gi-Oh, Albaz Strike gives players access to the Branded/Albaz series of monsters. This deck focuses on fusion summoning powerful monsters, using spells such as Branded Fusion to send materials straight from the deck to the graveyard. On top of having some of the best fusion monsters the game has ever seen, Albaz Strike is absolutely packed with staple cards to get you started. Albaz Strike includes staples such as Pot of Extravagance that draw you additional cards, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit that can deal with face-up cards, and Dark Ruler No More that can negate all of your opponent’s effects all at once.
1. Shaddoll Showdown
Shaddolls are a deck all about fusion summoning. All of the main deck Shaddolls have effects that trigger when they’re sent to the graveyard by card effect, which is exactly what happens when they’re used as materials for a fusion summon. Their fusion spell, Shaddoll Fusion, is notoriously powerful – allowing you to fusion summon using monsters from the deck as fusion material. This deck has some powerful fusion monsters to pick from – El Shaddoll Construct can best any special summoned monster in battle, El Shaddoll Apkallone can negate the effects of any face-up card on the field, and El Shaddoll Winda is a floodgate that prevents either player from special summoning more than once per turn.
