Nearly two years of Branded has existed in Masterduel, and we still get cool new ways to play the archetype! Yubel remains the best way to play Branded, and its powerups is an indirect buff to Albaz and friends. In addition to the regular playstyle of Branded, Yubel can now be used as a monster negate engine - effectively granting the deck an extra 3 copies of Called by the Grave. The Yubel cards are fairly minimal and it is composed of 5 cards. It is comprised of 3 Nightmare Throne, 1 Spirit of Yubel and 1 OG Yubel. Upon activation, Nightmare Throne destroys in deck Spirit of Yubel, which floats into the OG Yubel from deck. From there, a Phantom of Yubel can be summoned, granting Branded another way to deal with handtraps like Ash Blossom! Phantom of Yubel grants a higher success rate for Branded Fusion to successfully resolve - thus winning you more games!
Yubel can also break boards and bait handtraps, since most gamestates are monster interaction based nowadays, the opposing player will be forced to prematurely use their interruption in an effort to stop Phantom of Yubel from coming out! After Yubel has sufficiently used up your opponent's interruption, you can go for your regular Branded plays unimpeded, without fear of Ash Blossom or Nibiru!
The Yubel cards also aren't really "bricks" since they can be discarded to the GY as part of your Branded combos. If you happen to have both Yubels in the GY (through Branded Fusion, Grass Grows Greener, etc.) you can also make Phantom of Yubel relatively free!
While not entirely game changing and it doesn't largely change the strategy, the "Yubel engine" grants another layer of protection of Branded. I highly recommend my fellow Branded bros to try out this next evolution of Albaz and friends!
Want to see the deck in action? Scroll to the very bottom for the Youtube video!
GLHF Duelists!
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