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If you’re looking to take your deck to the next level then you’ll definitely need to look at including staples in your build.
Staples are cards that are generically good – they slot perfectly into any strategy and have incredibly powerful effects that can make the difference between winning and losing!
However, powerful cards can come with a hefty price tag. If you’re looking to build a deck and don’t want to break the bank, then we’ve got you covered with this ranking.
10. Torrential Tribute
If you’re looking for a way to get rid of a whole bunch of monsters all at once, Torrential Tribute is perfect for your deck.
This trap card triggers when any monster is summoned, and when it does you can destroy every single monster on the field!
Whilst destroying your own monsters may sound like an awful idea, it can actually be incredibly powerful. For example, Shaddoll monsters all have effects that trigger when they’re sent to the graveyard, and Torrential Tribute is a great way of triggering these.
Alternatively, you can just wait until you’ve got no monsters left on the field to fire this card off – in which case it becomes a 1-sided board wipe.
9. Twin Twisters
Spells and traps are getting more powerful with each set released. If you want to stand a chance at winning, you’ll need a way of dealing with these pesky cards.
Twin Twisters is easily one of the best spell/trap removal cards in the game – at quick effect speed you can discard a card to pop two spells or traps from anywhere on the field.
This deals with face-up and face-down spells/traps, as well as field spells. This makes Twin Twisters an incredibly powerful tool that deserves a slot (or three) in any side deck.
8. Pot of Extravagance
Yu-Gi-Oh is a game all about card advantage – chances are if you’ve got more cards in hand than your opponent, you’ll be winning the duel.
The best way to get more cards in your hand is with draw spells, and Pot of Extravagance is easily the best one for players on a budget – having received multiple reprints in structure decks and side sets.
By banishing either 3 or 6 random cards from your extra deck, you can draw 1 card for each 3 cards banished.
If you’re playing a deck that doesn’t care much about the Extra deck (e.g. Dinosaurs, Drytron, and Eldlich just to name a few) then this card has no drawbacks – it’s practically Pot of Greed!
7. There Can Be Only One
Floodgates are powerful tools that we all know by now.
This continuous trap allows each player to only control 1 monster of each type. Loads of decks work off of synergy between a single monster type, making this card ludicrously powerful against the right deck!
There Can Be Only One also restricts you, though. So you’ll have to be playing the right sort of deck to truly make this card shine.
I’d say this card works best in decks that tend to rely on 1 monster at a time, such as Sky Striker, or in decks that use a whole bunch of monster types such as generic pendulum decks.
6. Solemn Judgement
I can’t believe we’re in a day and age where I can happily call Solemn Judgement a budget staple!
Solemn Judgement is one of the best trap cards ever printed, and it’s easy to see why. While paying half of your life points sounds cheap, it’s more than worth it for this card. Solemn Judgement allows you to negate any summon, any spell effect, or any trap effect.
This stops pretty much any threat you can think of.
And the fact that it costs half of your life points means you can activate it no matter how low your life points get.
5. Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju
Some monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh are incredibly tough to get rid of.
They’ll either be unable to be targeted by card effects, or in some cases, completely unaffected by all card effects.
This is where Kaiju’s come in.
They’re some of the best monster removal around, as they tribute monsters on your opponent’s side of the field to summon themselves.
While this card does summon itself to your opponent’s field, Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju is the weakest of the Kaijus – making it incredibly easy to beat with your own monsters. Who knew having a weak stat could actually be a strength?
4. Effect Veiler
Ever since this card got printed way back in 5Ds, Effect Veiler has seen play in most competitive decks as one of the first ever hand traps to hit the game.
By discarding this card from your hand during your opponent’s main phase, you can target one monster they control and negate their effects for the rest of the turn.
This effect is at quick effect speed too, meaning you can use it in response to all sorts of things.
You can negate effects that trigger on summon, effects that are activated at will, and even negate continuous effects such as Jinzo’s continuous ability to negate trap cards.
3. Super Polymerization
Fusion summoning has absolutely dominated the game for years now.
And with the introduction of Branded-Despia to the format, it looks like fusion decks are going nowhere.
That’s why Super Polymerization is an amazing staple for any deck, even if you don’t typically fusion summon. This card allows you to fusion summon at quick effect speed, using monsters on either side of the field as material.
As if that wasn’t strong enough, Super Polymerization can’t be responded to by any card effects – which makes stopping your super poly fusion summon virtually impossible.
There are a bunch of fusion monsters released in recent years with generic material requirements (such as Guardian Chimera who simply requires 3 monsters with different names), so you can run this powerful spell card in practically any deck.
2. Dark Ruler No More
What’s better than negating one monster’s effect?
How about negating your opponent’s entire board all at once?!
Dark Ruler No More allows you to negate the effects of every single monster your opponent controls. And furthermore, your opponent can’t activate monster effects in response to this card’s activation.
The payoff is that for the rest of the turn, your opponent takes no damage.
This is more than worth it when it means you can play an entire turn without being interrupted by your opponent’s monsters.
And thanks to the release of Structure Deck: Albaz Strike, this card is now a mere common, and a powerful addition to any budget player’s toolbox.
1. Book of Moon
Book of Moon has been a staple in Yu-Gi-Oh since release.
It’s been reprinted countless times throughout the years as a common, rare, and even secret rare.
This card is beyond versatile. It allows you to flip one monster on the field from face-up to face-down position at quick effect speed. So you can fizzle away card effects with ease.
If your opponent targets one of your monsters with a card effect, all you need to do is activate Book of Moon targeting your own monster. This will mean your opponent’s card effect will no longer have a valid face-up target on the field, nothing happens!
You can also use Book of Moon as a neat battle trick.
You can flip your opponent’s attacking monsters to defense position to stop attacks from going through, or you can flip your own monsters to defense position to stop you taking any battle damage.
The things you can do with Book of Moon are practically endless – which is why I’d recommend this card to any player looking to beef up their deck on a budget.
Rob Myers is a physics student from England, who spends his time looking at space and turning it into numbers. In his free time he enjoys playing card games, reading the Discworld series, and working his way through his never ending video game library.
