With the upcoming Xyz Decks-Only event coming to YuGiOh Master Duel, there’s a potential for a lot to be gained by building your own deck of cool monsters around this core mechanic of the game.

If you’re a Yugi Boomer, you may be asking “what is an Xyz?”. Xyz cards are identified by their black borders, and are extra deck monsters that are formed by meeting their rank requirements and using them as materials for various effects. Think of it like a free fusion, but if you then loaded the fusion materials like bullets into a gun.

They’re much less math-intensive than Synchro summons, and don’t require main deck cards like Rituals or Fusions to activate, so don’t be surprised if even non-Xyz decks tend to sport the occasional Xyz monster.

Thanks to the flexible nature of Xyz decks, there’s also some cards that are just must-haves for any deck. Chief among this is Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus- Sky Thunder. While it’s pricey- you’ll want to use your UR dust to make him- this card is at home in any Xyz deck since he can be summoned for practically free as long as one of your Xyz monsters attacks.

On top of that at the cost of two materials (which you’ll have presuming your Xyz monster wasn’t running on empty) Zeus gets to nuke the entire board, making him really frustrating for anyone not expecting Zeus. The secret, you see, is to always expect Zeus. For all of these decks the Zeus is implied.

Recommended XYZ Decks

While we don’t know the exact twists the upcoming XYZ Festival will bring in YuGiOh Master Duel, we do know that there are many good archetypes built around XYZ summoning that you can use. Here’s just a sample of them:

Zoodiacs

Zoodiacs probably get some of the best mileage out of any XYZ deck. Their effect monsters all give their XYZ monsters additional abilities, while the XYZ monsters themselves can ignore their own summoning conditions by just letting you use one Zoodiac as a material, even if they’re other Zoodiac XYZ monsters. This also transfers materials to each new monster, meaning you can daisy chain each zoodiac into the big Zoodiac, who then has a wealth of materials.

In terms of YuGiOh Master Duel, Zoodiacs are also great Xyz decks since they’re incredibly cost effective. Outside of the mandatory AA-Zeus, Zoodiac Drident is your only UR extra deck monster, since all the other Zoodiacs are R rarity (except Zoodiac Thoroughblade who’s an SR). As long as you have Ramram and Bunnyblast in your materials, you also get a pretty powerful monster, since their transitive effects let you negate spell and trap cards by detaching materials.

Here’s a list of notable cards for your Zoodiac deck:

Main Deck:

• Zoodiac Thoroughblade (SR)
• Zoodiac Ramram (R)
• Zoodiac Whiptail (R)
• Zoodiac Bunnyblast (R)
• Fire Formation – Tenki (SR)

Extra Deck:

• Zoodiac Chakanine (N)
• Zoodiac Tiger Mortar (R)
• Zoodiac Boarbow (R)
• Zoodiac Tiger Mortar (R)
• Zoodiac Drident (UR)

Paleo Frog

A combination of the Paleozoic and Frog archetypes, since both are centered on Level 2 Aqua type monsters and Xyz summoning. On one hand, the frogs are a great self-sustaining engine, with Swap Frog letting you load your Graveyard with frogs and also letting you summon additional frogs from your hand by swapping them out.

Meanwhile the Paleozoic cards don’t have main deck monsters, instead using trap cards whose graveyard effects allow them to be summoned as level 2 monsters. Their trap card effects are great too, acting as a source of board removal for the most annoying of cards.

On the extra deck front, frogs will get you the aptly-named Toadally Awesome. Toadally Awesome is a great card to setup the Paleozoic monsters because of its effects- first off, by detaching materials you can summon more monsters to the board from the deck, which is always great for Xyz decks. Alternatively, you can also use these cards as fuel for its second, more lethal abilty- by sending Aqua monsters to the Graveyard, this toad gets to negate a spell or trap card. Note that you can remove the monster either from your hand or field, so as long as you have the materials you can guarantee having one bullet in the chamber that turn.

On the Paleozoic side, your main focus would be Paleozoic Anomalocaris. This prehistoric creep from the deep can fill out your graveyard or bolster its own materials with its ability, as well as letting you snipe your opponents cards by detaching its own materials.

Here’s the notable cards for this deck:

Main Deck:

• Swap Frog (SR)
• Dupe Frog (R)
• Ronintoadin (R)
• Paleozoic Dinomischus (R)
• Paleozoic Canadia (R)
• Paleozoic Olenoides (R)

Extra Deck:

• Paleozoic Anomalocaris (SR)
• Toadally Awesome (UR)
• Paleozoic Opabinia (SR)

Burning Abyss

An oppressively powerful archetype that’s familiar to anyone who reads banlist updates, Burning Abyss monsters are all about sending key Fiend monsters to the graveyard, triggering their effects. They can do this even better with the power of Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss who can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck, creating a veritable wildfire of abilities that can pop off in doing so.

Meanwhile, the demons of the Burning Abyss all have a variety of effects, like Cir and Graff who can get Dante out faster by special summoning materials from the Graveyard to the field. On the other hand you also have cards like Farfa, Alich and Calcab, who can all clear a path for you by negating or removing your opponent’s key cards.

Here are the notable cards for the Burning Abyss:

Main Deck:

• Graff, Malebranche Of the Burning Abyss (SR)
• Cir, Malebranch of the Burning Abyss (R)
• Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss (SR)
• Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss (SR)
• Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss (N)
• Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss (N)

Extra Deck:

• Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss (UR)
• Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal (UR)
• While not necessarily some of the best decks in the

Admittedly, there are far more Xyz decks out there, from the fun trains to the powerful Utopia series,. But if you’re rushing to put together a deck in time for the Xyz event in YuGiOh Master Duel, this will definitely be some of the best Xyz decks you can use to win some duels.

If you want a more generic list of good low-cost decks, don’t forget to check out our other guide here.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Release Date: 2022-01-19

Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

The definitive digital edition of the competitive card game that has been evolving for over 20 years! Duel at the highest level against Duelists all over the world.