Ranking Every Duel Monsters Era Starter Deck In YGO!

Structure decks in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG have evolved over the years. Some of the earliest releases feature a smorgasbord of cards mostly seen from the anime, mostly themed after the most popular characters. As the game started to take on a more definite shape, players were treated to a series of premade decks themed after a specific archetype or playstyle.

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The Duel Monsters era decks may be some of the least playable, but there were plenty of reasons to choose one over the other. Some were great for giving you access to specific cards that you want to get three off. Other decks also have a charm due to the popularity of their featured monsters. So, which starter decks were the best?

6

Starter Deck Kaiba

The Power Of Seto Kaiba’s Original Deck

At the start of Yu-Gi-Oh! two starter decks were made available. These were Starter Deck Kaiba and Starter Deck Yugi. Starter Deck Kaiba had some neat selections for the time. This includes a copy of La Jinn, Ultimate Offering, and the anime-accurate Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This made it a great deck to pick up if you were impressed by the cards Kaiba played during the first episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

However, just like in the anime, Kaiba’s deck doesn’t stand up to Yugi’s deck. Luckily, the deck also included some useful generic cards for the time. This includes a copy of Trap Hole, Dark Hole, and Monster Reborn. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help it beat Yugi in terms of value, since those same cards can be found in both decks.

Regardless, whether you want to make a deck using these cards or simply want to move some of the better ones into another deck, then this was a good one to start off with.

5

Starter Deck Yugi

Putting Your Faith In The Heart Of The Cards

If you had to pick Kaiba or Yugi as your first deck, Yugi is usually the way to go. This starter deck just had too many important cards for the early meta. Giant Soldier of Stone was often the go-to defender of the day. Meanwhile, Man-Eater Bug worked as a great way to remove monsters from the field. Other notable cards include Card Destruction, Soul Exchange, Wall of Illusion, Change of Heart, and the incredible Summoned Skull.

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Aside from having a better selection of cards than the Kaiba counterpart, it has plenty of monsters that were frequently used by Yugi in the anime. This includes the anime art of the legendary Dark Magician. It only makes sense that the protagonist’s deck has all the goodies. With three of these decks combined, you could rule the playground.

4

Starter Deck Pegasus

A Closer Look At Rituals And Toons

Starter Deck Joey and Starter Deck Pegasus released on the same day, and Pegasus’ deck includes some pretty good cards that would continue to be played for years to come. These cards are Mythical Space Typhoon, Graceful Charity, and Soul Release. Pegasus’s deck also contained some pretty dirty tactics, with Robbing Goblin making hand rips easier.

What makes the Pegasus deck unique is that it has a minor focus on the Ritual Summoning mechanic while also having one of the earlier organized archetypes. Sonic Bird could fetch Ritual Spells directly from the deck if you wanted to build a semi-coherent Relinquished deck. Like Pegasus’ deck in the anime, you also get access to various Toon Monsters, making it fairly easy to put together an early build of the archetype.

3

Starter Deck Joey

A Duelist Full Of Potential

Starter Deck Joey could be considered the better of the two starter decks of the time. This deck just had so much value to offer, and it dealt with the much better Summoning mechanic, Fusion Summoning. You get a copy of Polymerization, as well as some targets to bring out, including Flame Swordsman and Thousand Dragon. You also get access to Scapegoat, which not only got more bodies on the board, but can defend your life points in a pinch.

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Another great card to be included in this deck is Giant Trunade which can reset both backrows. Magician of Faith, while slow by today’s standards, could allow players to recycle Spells they already used. The featured card for the deck is one of the less useful ones as Red-Eyes Black Dragon is often overlooked.

However, this deck also contained plenty more useable Effect Monsters than Pegasus that weren’t tied down to the Toon archetype. Now if only it contained more of Joey’s luck cards from the anime.

2

Starter Deck Kaiba Evolution

Can Kaiba Beat Yugi?

The original Kaiba deck got an upgrade with Starter Deck Kaiba Evolution. This adds a few significant cards that made it worth picking up. You could still have your anime Blue-Eyes White Dragon, as well as some additional goodies. This includes Shadow Spell, which was great at locking down monsters before their effects outweighed their usefulness as beatsticks.

Megamorph could make your monsters twice as powerful when your life points were lower. Meanwhile, Mystic Tomato could float into other copies of itself to help you maintain the number of bodies on your board. Since Flip Monsters could still pose a threat, Nobleman of Crossout could make easy work of them while also eliminating them from the deck.

This makes Kaiba Evolution a neat improvement over the original deck with a good mix of generic cards as well as others specifically made to help Blue-Eyes White Dragon see more play.

1

Starter Deck Yugi Evolution

Can Luck Save Yugi This Time?

Starter Deck Yugi Evolution gets a few upgrades over its original counterpart. It also mixed in the Ritual Summoning mechanic through Black Luster Soldier. This isn’t particularly a great card, but the deck makes up for it through its common selections. This makes it the best starter deck to pick up before the GX structure decks started changing the game completely.

This deck includes cards such as Royal Magical Library, Pot of Greed, Sangan, Backup Soldier, and even Swords of Revealing Light. Despite not including copies of Exodia, all the cards found within could be combined to form a strategy to help you get to those forbidden pieces. Everything could be used to either buy you more time or draw through your deck faster. If this was your entry into Yu-Gi-Oh!, then it was a fantastic place to start.

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