Your ideal Yu-Gi-Oh! deck

[Nightingale]

I have been playing a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! again after a long hiatus and also trying my -admittedly rusty- hand at deck building. It's fun, a lot of fun, but I think I have settled with an all-purpose deck I can be satisfied with.

Here are my cards:

Spoiler

• Blackland Fire Dragon - Standard monster card
  
• Horn of the Unicorn - Neat equip card with a bit of an annoying effect, but helpful otherwise
  
• Serpent Night Dragon - On my deck because of nostalgic reasons, not really worth the summoning cost
  
• Heavy Storm - Great magic card against AI opponents and trap-lying friends
  
• Trap Hole - useful trap card
  
• Giant Soldier of Stone - great defensive monster for stalling
  
• Goddess of Whim - A bit gimmicky, but may get you out of pickles
  
• Witch of the Black Forest - Very useful, I use it to get Jinzo from my deck to my hand
  
• Gazelle: King of Mythical Beast - standard monster card
  
• Pot of Greed - Standard (banned?) drawing magic card
  
• Change of Heart - very diabolical in a way, nice for free hits and summonings
  
• Goblin Attack Force - Gimmicky to a fault, but useful
  
• Thunder Dragon - Kinda useless, on my deck for nostalgic reasons
  
• Raigeki - The most infuriating magic card on the game. Very useful, though
  
• Crawling Dragon #2 - Standard monster card
  
• Monster Reborn - Very useful magic card
  
• Queen's Double - Fun for free direct hits
  
• Empress Mantis - A favorite of mine, good attack power for a low summoning cost
  
• Silver Fang - Kinda weak, but serviceable
  
• Jinzo - Probably the best monster card on the game. It really wrecks all-traps opponents and its summoning cost makes it very attractive
  
• Mirror Force - The most standard trap card ever devised. Everyone has this one
  
• Total Defense Shogun - Pretty excellent, only. Can attack from the defense position, and has a ton of defense points
  
• Zombyra the Dark - Four stars, great attack power but ultimately only for stalling. Gets weaker every time you use it and cannot attack directly
  
• Gemini Elf - Great attack power and four stars
  
• Maiden of Moonlight - Standard monster card
  
• Lunar Queen Elzaim - On my deck only for nostalgic reasons
  
• Axe of Despair - Great equip card
  
• Summoned Skull - Among monsters with low summoning cost, a really good one
  
• Gearfried the Iron Knight - Very gimmicky, forgetting its effect may prove costly
  
• Koumori Dragon - Standard monster card
  
• Cyber-Stein - costly to use, but overwhelming effects
  
• Dunames Dark Witch - Great basic monster card
  
• Graceful Charity - useful draw magic card
  
• Time Wizard - Have it only for desperate situation and to fusion it with Baby Dragon
  
• Two-Headed King Rex - Standard monster card
  
• Harpie's Feather Duster - Great for using against trap-lying opponents
  
• Spirit of the Harp - Great defensive monster
  
• Graverobber - Not that useful, but may get you out of jams
  
• Premature Burial - Nice to revive monsters
  
• Swords of Revealing Light - Stalling, the card
  
• Man-Eater Bug - Great for destroying a troublesome monster
  
• Black Pendant - Good equip card with a nice side-effect to it
  
• Dark Hole - To basically kick the board
  
• Vorse Rider - Great attack power for a standard monster
  
• Prevent Rat - Great defensive monster
  
• Baby Dragon - Have it on my deck to fusion it with Time Wizard
  
• Penguin Soldier - Awesome card, whose effect causes a lot of rage quits xD
  
• Beta the Magnet Warrior - Standard monster card
  
• Magic Jammer - Ideal for using against those addicted to Raigeki
  
• Battle Ox - Standard monster card
  
• Mad Sword Beat - Nice, useful effect monster
  
• Copycat - May get you out of jams frequently
  
• Polymerization - Have it to combine Time Wizard and Baby Dragon - never been able to draw all three, though
  
• Fortress Whale - The only ritual monster I have ever used. Decent
  
• Fortress Whale Oath - To summon the above monster
  
• La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp - Standard monster card
  
• Call of the Haunted - Great for reviving a monster
  
• 7 Colored Fish - Buffed standard monster card
  
• Rocket Warrior - Very good side-effect. May get you out jams
  
• Waboku - Damage-cancelling trap. Useful
  

So, that's my lot.

There's probably something to be improved there, and I'd like to hear it... but in the meantime, what's YOUR ideal card/deck? Tell us!

[Dragon Lord]

I haven't played Yu-Gi-Oh! in 10-12 years and even I know that all of those cards are horribly outdated (not to mention some are on the banned list), and good luck winning against any current decks. Most of those cards were bad even back in the day. I would suggest doing some research into the current meta and look up some more recent cards if you want to get back into Yu-Gi-Oh! and build a deck.

[Kazan X. Lemuris]

Err... I assume that's for a non-standard/old-school format. Five of your cards listed (Harpies' Feather Duster, Pot of Greed, Change of Heart, Heavy Storm, Premature Burial) are banned, and the majority of the rest do basically nothing in the current game. It has progressed far beyond the days of straight normal summon beatdown strategies. Normal monsters with 1500 attack (Blackland Fire Dragon, Koumori Dragon etc) aren't even going to survive a turn. Cards like Jinzo cost too much in terms of card investment for what it does (i.e. there's a card named Denko Sekka, a 1700 attack level 4 monster that prevents set cards from being activated, which is better than Jinzo by far)

I think you'd definitely benefit from reading up on the new rules and mechanics, because... I have nothing good to say about this deck. It was bad twenty years ago, and it absolutely hasn't gained any kind of traction since.

I have two decks I play irl for tournaments and such, which I'll post below. I also play an absolute ton of decks online.

Deck 1: Traptrix

Spoiler

Monsters: 15

3x Traptrix Atrax
3x Traptrix Dionaea
3x Traptrix Myrmeleo
3x Traptrix Mantis
1x Traptrix Nepenthes
2x Glow-Up Bulb

Spells: 2

1x Soul Charge
1x Monster Reborn

Traps: 23

2x Void Trap Hole
2x Time-Space Trap Hole
2x Heavy Dust Storm
3x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare
3x Back to the Front
3x Floodgate Trap Hole
2x Trap Hole of Spikes
1x Giant Trap Hole
1x Treacherous Trap Hole
3x Naturia Sacred Tree

Extra Deck: 15

Synchro: 3
x1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
x1 Naturia Barkion
x1 Naturia Beast

Xyz: 6
x1 Tornado Dragon
x1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
x1 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
x3 Traptrix Rafflesia

Link: 6
x1 Borreload Dragon
x1 Saryuja Skull Dread
x1 Decode Talker
x1 Aromaseraphy Jasmine
x1 Inzektor Picofalena
x1 Linkuriboh

Side: 15

x1 Void Trap Hole
x1 Time-Space Trap Hole
x1 D.D. Trap Hole
x2 Deep Dark Trap Hole
x2 Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare
x1 Double Trap Hole
x2 Breakdown Trap Hole
x1 Trap Hole of Spikes
x1 Giant Trap Hole
x3 Network Trap Hole

This is my more "casual" deck, with the sole focus being on going first and setting up excessive amounts of monster hate via backrow choices, as well as using the Traptrix girls to create a wall of sorts, as most of them enable you to either use Trap Holes without fear of negation/prevention, or let you return them to the hand (in Mantis' case) to avoid destruction. It's a very thematic deck, as you can see from the lack of "staple" cards like the Solemn package (Warning, Strike, and Judgment) and handtraps.

Deck 2: Trickstars

Spoiler

Monsters: 16

3x Trickstar Candina
3x Trickstar Lycoris
2x Trickstar Mandrake
1x Trickstar Rhodode
1x Trickstar Lilybell
3x Honest
3x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit

Spells: 16

2x Pot of Desires
1x Raigeki
3x Terraforming
1x Monster Reborn
3x Twin Twisters
3x Scapegoat
3x Trickstar Lightstage

Traps: 8

3x Trickstar Reincarnation
1x Present Card
3x Solemn Strike
1x Solemn Warning

Extra Deck: 15

Link: 15

1x Knightmare Gryphon
1x Knightmare Unicorn
1x Decode Talker
2x Trickstar Holly Angel
2x Trickstar Crimson Heart
2x Trickstar Black Catbat
1x Knightmare Phoenix
1x Knightmare Cerberus
1x Missus Radiant
1x Knightmare Mermaid
2x Link Spider

Side: 15

Spells: 3

3x System Down

Traps: 12

3x Mask of Restrict
3x Imperial Iron Wall
3x Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3x Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell

This is a much stronger deck in terms of the "meta". It's a burn/hand control focused deck that revolves around using Present Card and Trickstar Reincarnation to annihilate the opponent's hand by discarding and banishing it multiple times, while the Trickstar monsters inflict burn damage for each card discarded, as well as inflicting damage when the opponent draws cards, uses monster effects, etc. The extra deck is much more focused on screwing the opponent over, and the side deck is much more serious (at least in terms of my local area). Trickstars are currently considered tier 2/tier 3, though there's a mixed variant using Sky Striker cards that is the absolute best deck in the game right now. Unfortunately I can't justify spending $500 on cards to acquire that setup.

[Nightingale]

Woah, are you guys serious? I used a very similar deck in tourneys fifteen years ago and it gathered some wins, but seems the game has spun far beyond my control. I'll read into your suggestions, since I just got a new game with a larger card database and I probably could apply all of the above to it.

I guess I should mention I have it for casual play, though.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions!