Dullahan's Top 5 Decks To Recommend To Beginners

I'm pretty sure we've all had that time where we're just chillin' with our friends at a table, throwin down some Duel Monsters, when all of a sudden, we catch the fancy of a passing-by stranger.  The stranger asks you to teach them how to play, you duel them, then sure enough, you've grown the community of Duelists by 1.  The stranger then asks for your recommendations on what deck he should start out with first, to get a better grip of the game.  My list is mostly about "player-friendly", not "budget-friendly"( cuz ya know, you can also tell them about DN and DevPro and all those good sites), decks that I would recommend to said beginner.  It's not about the speed of these decks that I'm worried about- it's the learning curve.

5. Structure Decks: They're cheap.  They're everywhere.  It's how I learned how to play at first.  Plus, It also gives you a decent way to add to your collection.

4. Counter Fairies:A good way to learn how to defense IMO.  Summon a fairy-->stick a counter trap behind it-->watch yourself plus as each time a counter trap activates.  You can't get any more simpler than that.  Except, well, for...

3. Exodia: as much as I hate this deck, I don't see it as negatively in the hands of a beginner; it's actually pretty fun watching them- to watch them learn how to pull off that legendary win condition.  Plus, there's several ways going about it, my favorite being Appropriate Exodia (for the simple fact it actually gives your opponent a fighting chance, which I like).  I ain't even mad.

2. Final Countdown/Burn: some other deck types I hate with a passion, but not so much in the hands of newcomers.  stick a couple Magic Cylinders, Secret Barrels, and Just Desserts in your backrow, then you're golden.  Or if you feel like watching your opponent struggle by prolonging the game outside of their comfort zone, you can't go wrong with Final Countdown.

1. Steelswarms: hear me out on this: IMO these are one of the only few archetypes left unaffected by a growingly unbalanced power creep ( in fact, I think they were actually made to COUNTER the power creep, in a way).  Their strategy primarily consists of "play me, blow up the field, return me to hand", with no gimmicky, confusing summon methods (unless they choose to play the XYZ monsters).  They have such a good balance of power and control, I just can't NOT consider them using these.

So, how about you guys?  What would you recommend to newcoming players?

Personally I'd recommend Gladiator beasts to them, purely because there is no deck which teaches you the importance of knowing all the phases of the Battle phase than Gladiator beasts, further more they don't really have any long and hard to remember combos, the deck mainly is summon a GB, attack, return to deck, summon another one and get effect. While they have contact fusion cards they can go into the deck doesn't really need them to function correctly.

GBs are a good one to recommend, though the perspective I was writing towards at the time was "recommend a deck that doesn't really need to rely on extra deck summoning", since I thought it was important for them to learn the main deck first, and then the extra.

I would recommend a LV deck for a beginner to play in yugioh cuz it teaches the fundementals on how to use high level monsters and the reward it delivers when it gets out. On the plus side there are various combinations to suit various needs which is something that new players need in a game. Finally it's one of the oldest decks out there making it super easy to use

1. Crystal Beasts: While it's not the most competitive deck out there it teaches the importance of use of effects and understanding the different locations on the field. With the use of spells, traps, field spells, and pendulums all in one deck it can really show someone where everything should go.

2. Six Samurai: As stereotypical as it sounds Six Samurai is a great deck to use when starting out into the game. Not only can it compete on a basic competitive level but it can also teach the importance of planning and strategy as well as the difference between spell speeds. As well it teaches different summoning mechanics within the game.

3. Bujin: Although not the most wallet friendly deck of my list Bujin is quite easy to use and the commons are quite usual to pull in basic boosters. As well it teaches graveyard and field management and usually doesn't require a complete extra deck but it does help.

4. HERO Decks: HERO based decks usually are very easy to run and quite cheap to use especially as of recently with the release of the HERO structure deck introducing the new Masked HERO monsters. Not only does it have the full capability of competing on the competitive level but it's extremely easy to play as it has 12 searchers in the deck allowing you to easily pull the cards you need and compared to most extra decks available it's actually pretty cheap.

Dullahan wrote:GBs are a good one to recommend, though the perspective I was writing towards at the time was "recommend a deck that doesn't really need to rely on extra deck summoning", since I thought it was important for them to learn the main deck first, and then the extra.

IF that is such a case than I recommend a zombie/wicked God Deck. They teach you the important of remembering effects, Strategy, Teach you how to use the main deck, And in over all has a good outcome.