Basic Deck Building

Ok, so everyone is going to have their own style of play. Everyone will have their own type of Monsters that they play with, especially with Satellarknight, Lightsworn, Darkworld, etc Meta around these days. I personally like to use as many different types of Monsters as I can but I normally centre around Warrior-types and Spellcaster-types. I use as many different types as I can for two reasons: 1) It keeps my opponent on their toes. If they prevent me from attacking with one type, I can replace with another type, and 2) It makes it easier to Syncro and Xyz Summon because I can throw any combination of Monsters together and use them rather than having to wait until I get a certain type of Monster on the field.

As I said, everyone is going to be different in how they play, so I can't really say which cards are good and which cards are bad because everyone will use them differently. So instead, I'm going to take you through how I build a deck. The Main Deck has to be at least 40 cards and a maximum of 60 cards. The less cards you have in your deck, the better your chances of drawing what you need. That being said, there are some very effective 60 card decks out there.

I set myself a 55 card limit and I select 25 Monsters, 15 Spells and 15 Traps and I try to pick cards that will combo well together. On the Dueling Network, you have access to every card that has ever been made (so long as it's real. Be aware, some cards you might come across in real life are fake and there are ways to tell, even though they are getting better), so if you're running Zombie-types in your deck, you can click in the description box and type "Zombie" and it will give all the cards that have the word "Zombie" in their description. If you're building in real life, it's a bit harder because you might not have access to the cards that you want or need. Once I have my 55 cards, I have a look at what I think I'm going to be using most often and what I might rarely use, if I use it at all. I then take out 5 Monster cards, 5 Spell Cards and 5 Trap cards. That then gives me a 40 card Main Deck and my 15 card Side Deck. This Side Deck you are not allowed to touch during a duel but you can between duels, but you must make sure that you keep the same number of cards in both your Main Deck and Side Deck as you did before swapping cards.

For the Extra Deck, I decide if I want Fusion Monsters, or Syncro Monsters or Xyz Monsters. You might want 5 of each, or you might want to run exclusively Syncro or exclusively Xyz. You might not want to run any Extra Deck at all, which is perfectly fine.

There are certain cards that I do advise that you put in your deck:

-Mystical Space Typhoon
-Dark Bribe
-Dust Tornado
-Mirror Force
-Negate Attack
-Swords of Revealing Light

It's up to you, which cards you use and how you use them and you can always take out cards you don't use or even change the ratios. You might not need a lot of Trap Cards, so throwing a "Royal Decree" would largely hinder your opponent while barely affecting you. And you can replace the trap cards you throw out with Monsters or Spells.

If you want to build a Meta Deck, there are plenty of builds on Google, but I think it's better to build your own and make it stronger. I think it is far more satisfying to do it that way.