Yubel (Master Duel July 2024)

Yubel is a nutty deck, one of the most fun I've played in a while. Not much more to say, so let's get into the deck breakdown:

Yubel Engine

• Yubel, the original, is a soft garnet that you generally don't want to draw on its own. There's benefits to opening it, but it's generally not ideal. Generally just run 1, we have methods of recovering Yubel if things go awry (even if banished face-down).
• Spirit of Yubel is one of our most important combo pieces, and a spot of protection to avoid getting randomly obliterated by an OTK in the grind. Run 3 copies, it's not ideal to draw on its own but a lot of our 2 card combos are centered around using Spirit to either pop it or discard it to later revive.
• Yubel - Terror Incarnate is to be summoned off Yubel's effect to continue extending, run 1 copy. It's by far the worst of the Yubels to open, and generally is best off being shuffled off for Phantom at the soonest convenience.
• Samsara D Lotus is one of our 1 card starters, tributing itself to summon a Yubel from deck. This will usually be Spirit of Yubel, and resolving Samsara without getting negated/Maxx C'd usually means you're able to do basically whatever you want because this deck is wild. Run 3 copies.
• Gruesome Grave Squirmer is an extender and occasional targeting dodge tech for Spirit. It specials itself for free if you control a Fiend then allows you to destroy a monster on field that mentions 'Yubel'. This is second part is only useful if you have Yubel on field, since Samsara gains nothing from being destroyed and the situations where you need to specifically blow up GGS to get it into the GY are fairly narrow (if you're in the grind and don't have Links but you can kill if you get a Yubel onto the field is the only situation I can think of). The other effect to banish it then revive a 0/0 Fiend is also very useful, though it hasn't come up as often as you'd think for me. Run 2 copies, it's a nice balance to avoid bricking on an extra while still being able to take advantage of it.
• We don't run Geistgrinder Golem because it doesn't help us combo and there's more effective methods of OTKing on empty boards for the deck.
• Nightmare Throne is a 1 card starter field spell with a lot of different options. If you didn't draw any other Fiends to normal summon, you can search Samsara D Lotus to start your combo, or if you do have a Fiend you destroy a Spirit of Yubel in your deck to summon a Yubel (which can then be converted in a Phantom of Yubel if need be, or you can revive the Spirit first for its S/T search).
• Nightmare Pain is a very important card for the strategy, though we search it as part of our combo if we're into the proper Yubel engine. It pops a DARK in your hand/field to search a card that mentions Yubel, and also forces your opponent to attack Yubel monsters we control (and gives all Yubel monsters a damage reflect, meaning you can ram any Yubel into something to do damage, even the ones that don't have a damage-dealing effect normally). This makes us very frustrating to kill, and occasionally results in silly situations where your opponent ends up killing themselves because they made too many big monsters but couldn't out Nightmare Pain. I run 2 because I didn't want to brick on drawing it with no DARKs, but 3 is a perfectly viable option.
• Mature Chronicle is a toolbox of useful effects in one card, though on turn 1 you'll almost exclusively use the first effect to revive Yubel for extension. The rest of the effects (barring the 3 effect, I have no clue what you'd actually use that one for outside some mash-up with Branded) are good, though mostly for recovery/board-busting. Run 2, since you can't do anything with it unless you have access to your combo already.
• Eternal Favorite is a little toy for your end-board as recovery and disruptor. If you have Yubel on the field and want to use the psuedo-Super Polymerization effect, you have to flip Eternal Favorite face-up then activate its effect on a separate chain, just so you know. Run 1 if any.
• Phantom of Yubel is a Fusion made by shuffling a "Yubel" monster and a 0/0 Fiend from your hand/field/GY, and is a monster negate that plusses you by turning whatever effect you 'negated' into destroying a Yubel in your hand/deck/field. I run 2 copies because of Extra Deck size limitations, but just run as many as you can fit.
• Yubel - The Loving Defender Forever is one of the best Super Polymerization targets in the game, fusing a Yubel monster (excluding Phantom bc it can't be used as Fusion mat) with as many effect monsters on the field as you want. Then it burns for 500 for each material (so at least 1000, since you need two minimum), and also has the strongest variant of Yubel's effect by doing the expected damage to your opponent then banishes the monster you attacked. Run 1 copy, the ED is a little tight and you should only ever need the one.

Other Fiends

• 2x Dark Beckoning Beast, 2x Opening of the Spirit Gates, and 1x Chaos Summoning Beast are our primary non-Yubel Fiend engine, giving us easy access to a Link-2 of choice (usually Yama) and a revive of any 0/0 Fiend for the cost of a discard. Which includes Yubel and Spirit of Yubel.
• 1x Unchained Soul Lord of Yama, 1x Unchained Soul of Sharvara, 1x Unchained Soul of Shyama, 1x Unchained Soul of Rage and 1x Abominable Chamber of the Unchained form the supplementary Unchained engine, giving us a Link-2 that immediately translates into further card advantage, material for more Links, and two different disruption cards. We also run a D/D/D Wave High King Caesar, a card you are going to become very familiar with when Fiendsmith comes out, as an especially potent pay-off when we can get both Unchained Souls on field together.

Other non-engine includes 3 copies of Super Polymerization and assorted hand-traps and a Harpie's Feather Duster for S/T removal. Pick and choose according to your preference and the meta that you're dealing with.

Other Extra Deck

• Cross-Sheep, because we're able to fuse for free and have access to monsters to revive off its effect.
• S:P Little Knight because we need something to make off Rage and it's the best choice.
• Muckraker is a good extender/recovery tool in case Cross-Sheep isn't workable, though it's rarely my first choice on turn 1.
• Garura+Mudragon are Super Poly targets, since we natively run the card anyway and it lets us break down problem boards
• Appolousa is one of our targets for the end-board, though I haven't ended on it that often recently. It's really good when you can get into it, and Nightmare Pain can prevent the opponent from trying to run Appo over by battle, though.
• Gustav Max+Liebe allow us to kill on an empty board, by overlaying Yubel+Spirit (or two Spirits). 2K from Gustav, then Liebe uses its effect then rams into the opponent for 6K. Yubel otherwise can't really kill on an empty board, since they all have 0/0 and the Unchained cards we use don't add up to that much damage.
• TY-PHON is a back-up plan, and a pretty potent one. Probably the most cuttable of our extra deck, but when it does come up it can turn a game that was otherwise unwinnable into something you have chance at.

This deck is really good, even without Varudras, and it's a genuine competitor to Snake-Eyes in this format. I also find it really fun, which is also important to me.