The Best Yu-Gi-Oh! Decks that released in 2023

One of the best thing I love about Trading Card Games is how the balance among decks shifts every season with the release of new archetypes and additional support for older ones. Players usually have to constantly hunt the cards you need, review your decks and duel as much as possible to see which decks potentially play more consistently than others. It also means that interesting decks constantly rise to the top with each new release creating an ever-changing environment that is an amazing aspect of this hobby.

Looking back to what happened this year, I think all duellists have an idea which of the decks emerged this year may be considered the best Yu-Gi-Oh! decks 2023. Scrolling through the lists used in tournaments and the ranking they achieved, we think three of them in particular can be considered the main ones that shaped 2023 duelling journey and we wanted to look more deeply into them to see how these decks play and how they may evolve in 2024.

Overview of 2023 Yu-Gi-Oh! released Set and Deck Archetypes

First thing first, let's start from the two main items that shaped the metagame (competitive) scene this year: the release of Photon Hypernova set in February and the banlist that came into effect almost at the same time (and then again later in the year). Among the cards released in the set, we first saw a lot of very useful support to strengthen “Kashtira”, an archetype first released in 2022 Darkwing Blast set which focuses on summoning high level Xyz Monsters while disrupting the opponent strategy by blocking their field zones. The new support made the strategy of this deck so effective that Kashtira archetype kept dominating the meta till the most recent banlist in September.

In addition to Kashtyra, “Labrynth”, another control-focused archetype first released in 2022 also received excellent support in Photon Hypernova, including the very well know card “Big Welcome Labrynth”. The “Dragon Link” decks also became a very strong contender to Kashtira and Labrynth archetype due to their very high consistency and the added flexibility of the Bystial monsters.

A few other decks and archetypes gained more support across the year including for example Branded Despia whose strategy was strengthen by the addition of a few new cards like “Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon”. However, as most of these decks were dominating the tournaments last year, we would like to focus on the main three that dominated the tournaments in 2023.

Best Yu-gi-oh! decks 2023: Kashtira

Kashtira is a quite recent archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! that mainly focuses in summoning level seven Psychic monsters, and then banishing your cards to power its engine or opponent’s to block their strategy. The first three cards to have in your Yu-Gi-Oh! deck list are Kashtira Fenrir, Kashtira Unicorn, and Kashtira Ogre. All these cards can be summoned directly from hand if you control no monsters and they all allow to search for a "Kashtira" monster or spell or trap respectively. Moreover, they can banish cards face-down once per turn if they declare an attack, or if any opponent's monster activates their effect.

Kashtira Riseheart is the forth key card for this deck. It can be Special Summoned if the player controls at least one "Kashtira" monster to then banish the top 3 cards of your opponent's Deck face-down by banishing one "Kashtira" card from the player's Deck.

The engine of the deck usually starts with Kashtira Unicorn that should be searched if possible using the Field Spell Card “Pressured Planet Wraitsoth”. Unicorn's effect can be used to search for “Kashtiratheosis” to then special summon Kashtira Fenrir to then search and Special Summon Kashtira Riseheart. Once Unicorn and Fenrir are on the field, the XYZ monster Kashtira Shangri-Ira can then be summoned to complete the setup of Kashtyra offence.

Once setup completed, Riseheart's effect can banish a “Kashtira Big Bang” from the player deck together with the top three cards from your opponent’s deck. Removing these cards trigger Big Bang effect blocking up to three of your opponent not used Monster Zones. Shangri-Ira effect will also trigger allowing the player to detach Fenrir and summon it again to the field.  

The base combo of Kashtira deck can be extended further by adding to the deck Scareclaw Kashtira, Tearlament Kashtira, Prime Planet Paraisos, Kashtira Papiyas and Kashtira preparations.

Although the Kashtyra control-focused deck is quite efficient, the latest banlist has substantially reduced his tremendous ability to destroy the opponent's strategy making it a less dramatic deck to face. In particular it should be reminded that all Kashira effects need the cards to be face-up in order to activate thus cards as simple as “Book of the Moon” or similar monster effects can block a Kashtira combo quite early in the game. Moreover, the deck strategy requires cards to be banned constantly making it very susceptible to cards like “Iron Wall of Defence”. Finally, as the deck aims to Special Summon a number of monster each turn, “Nibiru, the Primal Being” can be a very efficient way to remove all Kashtira monsters at once. Classic counter cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Ghost Mourner & Moonlit Chill and Infinite Impermanence are also quite good to stop Kashtira combos if you can play them at the right time.

Best Yu-gi-oh! decks 2023: Labrynth card

Labrynth was first introduced in “Tactical Masters“ (August 2022), and it's another strong control deck that remained on top of 2023 competitions. The deck strategy is centred around trap cards, and Dark Fiend effects monsters that trigger when an opponent's monster is removed by one of your Traps. As a result, half of a Labrynth Deck can easily be made up by Trap Cards.

“Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle” is the main key card of the Deck due to its ability to retrieve Normal Trap Cards from the graveyard and to set them on the field. As a bonus, it can also destroy one of your opponent's card in the field or in their hand. “Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle” is the other key card of the deck as it can be Special Summoned once a Trap is set and it also gains immunity from targeted effects if you have a Set card.

The most common Labrynth strategy requires the player to discard “Labrynth Stovie Torbie” to set “Welcome Labrynth” and activate it together with the Field Spell card “Labrynth Labyrinth” to Special Summon Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle from the Deck. Lovely Labrynth will not only destroy one card on the field but it also allows you to set a trap card to slow down your opponent: for example Dimensional Barrier to prevent the opponent to Special Summon a type of monster from the Extra Deck. Labrynth Labyrinth can also be used to Special Summon one Fiend-type monsters from hand or Graveyard as needed.

The deck engine will then progress by summoning traps, Fiend and Extra deck monster to constantly stall and treat your opponent. Among them, “Chaos Angel”, “Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder” and “Underworld Goddess of the Closed World” are all good standard choices.

Labrynth slow setup and the ability to retrieve cards from the graveyard can be considered the main weaknesses of the deck. The worst match-ups for Labrynth are in fact against decks that focus on milling out the deck or banishing the cards. In addition, cards that also lock the graveyard like “Necrovalley” can massively impact the deck. The Branded Fusion Engine or Skill Drain can also deal with Lovely Labrynth quite efficiently. Finally, considering the Trap-heavy nature of the deck, another great strategy to beat Labrynth is to use trap removing cards like “Eradicator Epidemic Virus” or “Jinzo”, for added bonus nostalgic effect .  

Best Yu-gi-oh! decks 2023: Dragon Link/ Bystial

Dragon Link, the last of the three decks that ranked more frequently at the top of 2023 competitive events, is a bit of an odd one in this list. Strongly based on the “Dragon” archetype, this combo heavy Deck is often regarded as a “rogue deck” as it has been around for a few years, constantly adapting to newer formats by exploiting different Dragon-type support cards released throughout the years. In 2023, Dragon-link can benefit from the addition of “Bystial” monsters, an 2022 archetype composed by Dragon monster that banish resources from either graveyard to summon themselves and interrupt opponent gameplay.

Whatever you prefer to include or not the Bystial monster, a Dragon Link deck engine usually starts with “Striker Dragon”. “Quick launch” is commonly a good opening as it allows to Special Summon “Rokket Tracer” from the deck to then Link Summon Striker Dragon. Striker allows you to get another Rokket monster to hand together with the Field card “Boot Sector launch” that can easily flood the field with Dragons. These are key to the strategy of the deck as they are needed to use the effects of “Guardragon Elpy” and/or “Guardragon Pisty” to conitnue the combo. “Starliege Seyfert” is also useful as it can search for Rokket monster and smaller chaos dragon monsters like “White Dragon Wyverburster” and “Black Dragon Collapserpent”.

The end strategy of this deck aims to summon “Borreload Savage Dragon”, “Unchained Abomination” and “Borrelsword Dragon” that are all powerful defensive and offensive options.

As mentioned, one of the main strengths of this deck is its high flexibility and the possibility to create various type of strategies depending on how it is built. The deck, however, strongly rely on chain Summoning for its combos thus any control-summoning strategy can work well against it. Eldlich Control Deck for example can be a good match against Dragon Link. “Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion” or the always useful “Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring” can be good quick effect options to break your opponent strategy while cards like “Summon Limit” or the lv4 monster “Vanity's Fiend” can be provide more long term disruption to their chains. As mentioned for Kashtyra, Nibiru can also be a very good way to take away multiple Dragon monsters at once.

Yu-gi-oh! 2024: New Ban list and what to expect in the new season

As we finish to review the best decks we played and faced in 2023, Konami Claus just dropped the newer ban list under our tree to start preparing for a new year of great duels. First change that immediately jumped our for me is Kashtira Unicorn that is now back to 3 per deck after been limited to 2 previously. This is a great change and will keep Kashtira a very viable deck in 2024.

As one deck is raising again, another one, Tearlaments will instead likely fall as a result of “Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard” and “Agido the Ancient Sentinel” being now banned in the TGC as they were already in the OCG.

With Teralements, Warriors and a few other Archetypes going back to the shelves, we think 2024 will likely see more of Runick, Unchained, Labrynth, Dragon Link, Branded and Floowandereeze been played at least at the beginning of the year. Fun fact, the newer list also released the ban on “Snatch Steal”, a card that was on the list from 2015 due to its effect being be used to massively alter the game. In the current format, this cards is likely to be less overpowering than it was in 2015 but I am curious to see if this will now been re-printed as part of newer products later in the year.