As the darkness grows, something evil lurks in the myst…
Hey, fellow duelists, and welcome to today's lesson on how to kick some serious booty with Yubel! Hailing from back in the day, Yubel is straight from Yu-Gi-Oh GX, my era, if you wanted to know.
When Yubel was first introduced, sadly, they just didn’t shine the way that I would have hoped, and they slowly faded into memory. That’s until Phantom Nightmare came out and it was fully realised what Yubel’s main strengths were and how to put them to use finally. Now lore wise, if you stay up to date with Yu-Gi-Oh!, the whole reason Super Polymerization exists is that Yubel created the spell to fuse herself with Jaden Yuki (or Judai if you prefer)
The problem with old Yubel from Phantom Darkness is that their ability to redirect incoming damage to your opponent could have been more useful since, sadly your enemy can choose not to attack you. Another big thing is that Polymerisation was nowhere to be seen in Yubel's gameplan, so there was not much point in playing Yubel in any deck. But now that is all laid to rest as Yubel can finally do the things they should have been able to do all those years ago.
This deck is quite prevalent in the meta right now. It's currently in the top ten of all decks used (at the time of writing, of course), and that has been quite a surprise for me. I’m glad we have some nostalgia in the big leagues to compete with.
Well, everyone it’s time to get to the main event, where ghouls of every kind and psychotic star crossed lovers lay, so let's get into the meat and bones of this deck
Table of Contents
Key Monsters and Utility
Spirit of Yubel
This is the new main Yubel monster. This beautiful fiend can never die from battle, and all the damage that may come your way will be redirected to your opponent if they dare to attack you. But you may have to force their hand with Spirit of Yubel’s main effect.
When this card is Special Summoned, you can add one spell or trap card to the hand or place it onto the field. You'll want to go straight for Nightmare Pain to make sure your opponent suffers.
Finally, when this card is in your hand during your opponent's turn and they try to attack you, flip it from your hand and Special Summon it to the field via its special effect.
Samsara D Lotus
This is your combo starter, and a pretty good one at that. You can Normal Summon this card onto the field to then tribute itself to Special Summon any Yubel card of your choosing, but we all know you're going to go for Spirit of Yubel to get the ball rolling.
Its secondary usage is its quick effect; during your opponent's turn, when they’ve just activated a monster effect, and you possess a Yubel monster on the field, you can chain it and tribute Samsara D Lotus to destroy Yubel to bring out an even bigger threat.
Lastly, at the end phase, when you have a Yubel monster on the field and this card is in the graveyard, you can bring it back to your hand or special summon it back to the field to have some defence for the opponent's turn.
Phantom of Yubel
Ah, a new fusion monster for Yubel to play with. Added into the fray in the Battles of Legend: Terminal Revenge booster box. Like all Yubel monsters, they cant die from battle, but Phantom of Yubel can't redirect damage back, and instead, you just take no damage from your enemies attacks.
You Fusion Summon this monster by shuffling one Yubel monster and one Fiend type monster with 0 ATK and DEF anywhere from your board apart from the banished zone back into the graveyard.
This card can force any of your opponent's monster effects when activated into destroying Phantom of Yubel instead so that Yubel of any kind may live on to torment another day.
Nightmare Pain
The only pain you’ll have is not having this card on the field 24/7! When this card is on the field, in every Main Phase, you can destroy one DARK monster to add 1 “Yubel” or one card that mentions it except Nightmare Pain. You can only use this effect once.
Now, this is the fun part. While you control a “Yubel” monster, your opponent must attack all your “Yubel” monsters no matter what. And best of all, the damage that your opponent would take, they have to receive the damage. So, none of those pesky cards stop the attack from going through.
Nightmare Throne
Well this is the final highlight in our pot of chaos! This beautiful field spell was added in Legacy of Destruction and has quickly become a must have for the deck.
When Nightmare Throne is activated, you can add one Fiend with 0 ATK/DEF from your deck, or you can choose to destroy it instead—this combos well with Yubel.
Also, once per turn when your “Yubel” Monster leaves the field by a card effect, you can add one “Yubel” monster to your hand from the deck, graveyard or banish zone that is one level higher or one level lower than the card being sent away. Then you can Special Summon that bad boy.
Opening of the Spirit Gates
What an interesting card that was added to the game way back in 2020 for the Sacred Beasts structure deck, which has now found new life in the form of Yubel. While the card mentions the Sacred Beasts, it's not restricted by that at all—well, for the most part.
So when this continuous spell is activated, you may add one card that mentions the Sacred Beasts within its text (e.g. Dark Beckoning Beast). So once per turn, you can discard one card to Special Summon one Fiend monster from the graveyard with 0 ATK/DEF. Finally, once per turn, if you control a level ten monster on the field, you may add one continuous spell from the graveyard back to the hand.
Deck List
What I find interesting about this deck is how straightforward it is to build, with little creativity thrown into the mix. I like that because sometimes, when I want to play decks like these, I want to feel the whole theme plague the board with Yubel constantly being on the field at all times.
But I never said you can show your individuality, so you can always throw a bit of spice into the mixing bowl. I’ll present that to you in due time, but take some notes on the fundamental components for now.
Main Deck Monsters
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x Main Deck Spell/Traps
3 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
3 x 
1 x Extra Deck
2 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x 
1 x Optional Upgrades
Example Combos
This deck can be as simple as apple pie if you put some brain power into it since it revolves around getting Yubel out onto the field with a bit of extra deck pizzazz to make things interesting! To start off, we’ll want to begin with a Samsara D Lotus Combo.
Combo #1
- Normal Summon Samsara D Lotus and use its effect to Tribute itself to Special Summon Spirit of Yubel to the field.
- Once Spirit of Yubel is Special Summoned, use its special effect to set Nightmare Pain on the field.
- Now use Nightmare Pain to destroy Spirit of Yubel and add Gruesome Grave Squirmer to your hand.
- Since Spirit of Yubel was destroyed, place Yubel onto the field and then special summon Gruesome Grave Squirmer to the field via its effect.
- Once you have both monsters on the field, you can link Summon into Unchained Soul Lord of Yama, which allows you to add Unchained Soul of Sharvara to your hand.
- Now that Gruesome Grave Squirmer is in the graveyard, you can activate its effect to summon back out Spirit of Yubel, which you destroy using Unchained Soul of Sharvara's effect to summon itself.
- After the Unchained Soul of Sharvara is summoned because you destroyed the Spirit of Yubel, you can summon Yubel to the field.
- Finally, you can Link Summon Yubel and Unchained Soul of Sharvara into Unchained Soul of Rage, which then pops Unchained Soul of Sharvara's effect, meaning you can place Abominable Chamber of the Unchained onto the field.
After all is said and done, you are free to link to whatever summon you like. I would recommend Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, but the world is your oyster, so go and get creative! Oh, one little extra is that when you have both Yubel and Spirit of Yubel in the graveyard, you are accessible to Fusion Summon Phantom of Yubel to the field so your board is ready to take a fight.
Combo #2
The moves you can produce with Nightmare Throne are incredible. With just one card, you can fill your board up like crazy, and I’m about to show you what you can do:
- Play Nightmare Throne and add Samsara D Lotus to the hand.
- Then Normal Summon Samsara D Lotus and use its effect to Tribute itself to Special Summon Spirit of Yubel to the field.
- Once Spirit of Yubel is Special Summoned, you can use its special effect to set Nightmare Pain on the field.
- Now use Nightmare Pain to destroy Spirit of Yubel and add Gruesome Grave Squirmer to your hand.
- This is where things get interesting. You can Chain Link 1, Nightmare Pain, to Special Summon out Yubel - Terror Incarnate and then Chain Link 2, Spirit of Yubel to Special Summon Yubel to the field.
- Using both Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel, you can Link Summon into Unchained Soul Lord of Yama, which allows you to add Unchained Soul of Sharvara to your hand.
- Once both Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel are in the graveyard, you can then Fusion Summon Phantom of Yubel to the field.
- Since you control a field monster, you can Special Summon Gruesome Grave Squirmer and Link Summon into Unchained Soul of Rage using Gruesome Grave Squirmer and Unchained Soul Lord of Yama as a sacrifice.
- You can then banish Gruesome Grave Squirmer to special summon Spirit of Yubel to the field, which we can then use to Special Summon Unchained Soul of Sharvara by destroying Spirit of Yubel.
- Finally, banish Unchained Soul Lord of Yama to Chain Link 1 Special Summon back out Spirit of Yubel to the field, then Chain Link 2 Spirit of Yubel can then Special Summon out Yubel from your deck
Now, this one was a doozy, but the combo madness doesn't stop there. You are free to Special Summon anything from the Extra Deck to strengthen your board for the oncoming onslaught!
Splicing the Deck
Fiendsmith
This archetype is currently region locked at the time of writing this, but I’ve seen its presence heavily in the OGC with a couple of decks taking on this bunch of Devil May Cry inspired monsters for a spin.
The main cards to look out for in the future would be The Fiendsmith, a cheeky Link-1 monster called Fiendsmith's Requiem, and lastly, the big boss of the pack Fiendsmith's Desirae which is a fusion monster.
Adding this archetype to your Yubel deck will give you much greater graveyard resurrection power and some good negates for your opponent to tread carefully around. So, with that out of the way, let's rock onto the following fun combination for Yubel.
The Sacred Beasts
Now, you might be wondering why I’ve added these… Well, I did it for a bit of a laugh, but these monsters flow really well into the deck since you already have the support for the cards ready and waiting to be played.
The Beasts in question are Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. Let me say this: while these monsters are not as reliable to get out as others might be, you still get the thrill of pulling out these beasts onto the field since you put all that effort into it.
Since these cards need a little help, it’s good to bring in the help of the summoning beasts such as Chaos Summoning Beast and Dark Summoning Beast. The addition of these cards allows you to summon The Sacred Beasts much easier.
I’m hoping you find these little additions to be fun and maybe it’s something you can incorporate into your duels in the coming future to add a bit of challenge.
Final Thoughts
With my guide coming to a close it's nice to look back on how this archetype finally got the love it deserved, as a fan of the GX era it makes me glad seeing oldies return. With this deck actually putting up a fight, it’s hard to see this fiendish friend of mine fading away not quite yet. Well, not without taking a few punches at least.
But what do you guys think of the deck? I hope this has inspired you to pick this little fiend from the stars for a test spin. You can find all the tools to make this deck right here at Gathering Games so give us a browse and check out what we have to offer, I’m sure we can persuade you to get a new addiction… That being card games, I assure you!
Now I must bid you farewell but remember folks to always Get Your Game On!
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