The villain of Yugioh GX's "Dimension World" arc is finally here to make their splash in Masterduel! Played as a highly tiered competitive deck, Yubel is typically combined with other fiend archetypes and support cards to form an amalgamation known as "fiend link," with the Yubel cards as the centrepiece.
Yubel as a strategy is link spam strategy which revolves around fiends, very much like Dragon Link and Plant Link. The unique flavour Yubel offers is that its main Yubel boss monster "Phantom of Yubel" contact fuse from the GY, giving the pilot a monster negate and insulates plays from interruption. Phantom's "negate" isn't really a negate, it generates more advantage for the duelist by converting your opponent's effect into destroy any Yubel monster from deck instead!
Played together with Unchained, generic fiend support, S:P Little Knight, Apollousa and a healthy amount of lot of staples, Yubel's Fiend Link forms a very competent strategy tier 1 Masterduel strategy!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
ARCHETYPES, ENGINES AND DECKBUILDING
This strategy is primarily of the YUBEL cards. A SACRED BEAST engine is used because of their synergy with Yubel, and a tiny Unchained package is used.
The YUBEL cards form the majority of this deck. 3 Samsara D Lotus and 3 Nightmare Throne are used, since they are all 1 card starters. 2 Nightmare Pain and and 2 Gruesome Grave Squirmer are used since they aren't starters but still pack a lot of utility as combo pieces. As for the maindeck "Yubels," 3 Spirit of Yubels, 1 Yubel - Terror Incarnate and 1 OG Yubel are used. While they are garnets, they aren't too bad to draw since they can be contact fused in hand to summon Phantom of Yubel or they can be used as a combo piece. A singular One for One also leads to Samsara D Lotus, and it counts as a starter.
A complementary SACRED BEAST engine is used to assist the main Yubel strategy. Not only are the Sacred Beasts part of GX's storyline, they can synergize extremely well with the Yubel cards since they are all fiends and share the 0 ATK/0 DEF statline. It is composed of x3 Opening of the Spirit Gates, x3 Dark Beckoning Beast and x1 Chaos Summoning Beasts. This engine contributes up to 3 extra fiend bodies on field, and more 0/0 fiend monsters to contact fuse Phantom of Yubel with.
The STAPLES featured in this deck are the usual suspects in Masterduel - the 12 card "Maxx C" package (3 Ash, 3 Maxx, 2 Called By, 1 Crossout and 2 Gamma + 1 Driver) so that you can come out on top of the "Maxx C Minigame." 1 Imperm are popular staples and Crossout targets to negate.
COMBOS AND GAMEPLAN
Yubel is a powerful combo deck that can link spam fiend monsters like no tomorrow. A full board of link material is very easy to achieve, and link climbing with Cross-Sheep triggered by Phantom of Yubel can make a board with powerful generic monsters Apollousa and S:P Little Knight.
The unique strategy that Yubel offers is that it doesn't necessarily need to clear boards to win, another win condition is made possible with the archetype's spell card, Nightmare Pain! This allows all your Yubel monsters to reflect damage similar to the infamous Mikanko archetype, turning your opponent's powerful cards into their greatest weakness. With this game mechanic, Voiceless Voice and Centur-Ion's 4000ATK/DEF beatsticks are basically freewins!
As you progress towards whatever win condition you want, your combo lines are typically insulated by Phantom of Yubel's "monster negate," which generates you more advantage. You effectively punish your opponent for handtrapping you!
Here is the optimal combo for Yubel Fiend Link:
Nightmare Throne + Opening of the Spirit Gates = x2 Phantom of Yubels (Change opponent's monster effect to generate advantage) + Unchained Soul of Rage (Link away your opponent's monster -> S:P Little Knight's double banish) + 3 material Apollousa (x3 monster negates) + Unchained Soul of Yama in GY (reborn any fiend if your card get destroyed) + Escape of the Unchained (target destroy) + follow-up
Activate Opening of the Spirit Gates to search for Dark Beckoning Beast.
Normal summon Dark Beckoning Beast to search for another Opening of the Spirit Gates.
Activate Nightmare Throne to search for Samsara D Lotus.
Use Dark Beckoning Beast's additional normal summon to summon Samsara D Lotus.
Activate Samsara D Lotus' effect to special summon Spirit of Yubel from deck.
Activate Spirit of Yubel's on-summon effect to set from deck Nightmare Pain (if you already have it set Mature Chronicle instead).
Activate Nightmare Pain. Activate Knightmare Pain's effect to destroy Spirit of Yubel and add Gruesome Grave Squirmer.
Activate in CL1 Spirit of Yubel's effect to summon from deck the original Yubel, activate in CL2 Nightmare Throne to summon Terror Incarnate from deck.
Activate Gruesome Grave Squirmer's effect to summon from hand.
Link away Terror Incarnate + Gruesome Grave Squirmer to link summon Cross-Sheep.
Contact fuse Phantom of Yubel using Terror Incarnate + Spirit of Yubel in the GY, shuffling the materials into the deck. Summon it to a zone Cross-Sheep points to.
Activate Cross-Sheep's effect to summon Gruesome Grave Squirmer from the GY.
Activate Opening of the Spirit Gate's effect discarding your other Opening of the Spirit Gates to summon Yubel from the GY.
Activate Opening of the Spirit Gate's effect (since you control a level 10 now with Yubel) to add Opening of the Spirit Gates from the GY (follow-up for next turn).
Link away Yubel + Gruesome Grave Squirmer to summon Unchained Soul Lord of Yama.
Activate Yama's effect to search for Unchained Soul of Sharvara.
Banish Gruesome Grave Squirmer in the GY to summon Yubel.
Activate Sharvara's effect to summon itself from hand, destroying Yubel.
Activate Yubels' effect in the GY to summon from deck Terror Incarnate.
Link away Terror Incarnate + Sharvara to link summon Unchained Soul of Rage.
Activate Sharvara's effect in the GY to set Escape of the Unchained from deck.
Link away Sharvara + Cross-Sheep + Dark Beckoning Beast to link summon a 3 material Apollousa.
Contact fuse another Phantom of Yubel using Yubel + Dark Beckoning Beast. Also you can also just leave these material in the GY as follow-up for next turn, since it may be a bit redundant to have another Phantom of Yubel on the field (you already have 4 monster negates by this point).
Yubel combos can also be non-linear and adapt to the everchanging gamestate, so combos many not be as neat and tidy as shown above. Regardless, Yubel combos end on any combination of Phantom of Yubel, Soul of Rage, Apollousa, and S:P Little Knight.
GOING FIRST, Yubel Fiend Link grants you many resources, materials and interruptions. You get several monster negates, link aways, banishes, and you get an insane resource loop that constantly feeds your hand, field and GY with a lot of resources. With that, you should be able to get ahead of your opponent and win in a grindgame or quickly OTK with overwhelming next turn.
GOING SECOND, the Yubel strategy features a ton of staples to weaken your opponent's gamestate and alot of gas to enable the duelist to power through interruption. As you combo up, you can contact fuse for Phantom of Yubel to insulate your combo lines. You can link your opponent's cards away with Unchained Soul of Anguish, then banish with S:P Little Knight. Finally, you can leave one of your opponent's high ATK/DEF monsters alive to OTK your opponent with Yubel's Nightmare Pain damage reflection.
GENERAL TIPS
Yubel does a lot of actions that involves having no monsters on the field - meaning that Psy-Frame Gamma is almost always live! Be sure to try to bait your opponents into handtrapping you so you can say GOTCHA when you get them Gamma!
If you lose out on the Maxx "C" minigame, try to end your board with at least Phantom of Yubel. For the price of allowing your opponent to draw 1-2 more cards, you can end on a negate that generates resources so you can have follow-up on the crackback.
Currently, Yubel folds to boardbreakers like Evenly Matched and Triple Tactics Talent. When Varudras comes out, Yubel will finally have a proper spell/trap negate!
Intentionally leave your opponent's high ATK/DEF monsters on the field so you can reflect damage with Nightmare Pain. It'll truly be painful for your opponent when their strongest monsters high stats get turned against them!
It's gimmicky, but Super Polymerization obliterates established boards, especially when used to summon Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever!
If you think your opponent packs a handtrap in their hand and you want to play it safe, contact fuse two cards in your hand for Phantom of Yubel, then go for combo. This will shrug off any Maxx C, Ash, Droll, Veiler, etc. that your opponent may throw at you!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
I can really see now why Yubel is Jaden's eternal favourite and why Yubel is Yugioh's most notorious yandere. They're so freakin' strong! The neverending stream of fiend monsters that Yubel generates rivals the power of similar link strategies like Snake-Eye and Cyberse! The absolute power of Yubel makes playing Masterduel ladder almost a walk in a park, since it plays well into handtraps, established boards and even Maxx "C!"
Enjoy superpolying, fiend linking, and inflicting nightmare pain on your opponents in Masterduel ladder with Yubel!
GLHF Duelists!
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