Yubel was first introduced about a year ago with the first “Rise of Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare” event. Back then xb8 wrote the Yubel and Nephthys Lockdown guide, but much has changed since then. We got access to more Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare in two more Yubel events and since Yubel is a widely used farm deck everyone should have the cards by now. In February the Main Box Absolute Inferno was released, giving us Nephthys support with Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Disciple of Nephthys, raising the power level of this deck significantly. Since then the deck has only changed in terms of ratios and which tech cards are used to adapt to the meta. Yubel’s weaknesses mean that it’s not a competitive deck. Since you rely on Yubel you’re prone to bricks and good players often know how to make Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing. At the same time this also means that Yubel is an easy KoG, depending on the meta.

Lavamat

I’ve played Duel Links since its release, but took a one year break and came back last year in may. Ever since Yubel was released I’ve gotten KoG with it every month, most of the times in the first few days. By now I’m probably at more than 5000 games played with Yubel and I know I can still improve. In this guide I want to include everything I’ve learned from my experiences with Yubel, but even though it’s already this long, not everything can be said here. I’m probably the main reason the Yubel channel is still active, so if you have any questions or replays to analyze, I’ll always respond to them. My competitive Yubel achievements include top 100 Europe in the WCS qualifiers, top 32 in Dkayed’s 2000 player tourney and some tops in small tournaments, including a first place in a tag team tournament with Migan (who also played Yubel ofc).

Migan

I used to play the TCG casually in my childhood and I picked up Duel Links shortly after its release, but lost interest relatively quickly as I had to focus on other things at the time. I then got back into Duel Links about half a year ago and have been playing Yubel ever since. As to be expected with my short playtime, I do not have many notable tournament placings besides the tag team tournament win with Lavamat and a 2nd place at a smaller tournament. However, I have gotten multiple very early KoGs with Yubel and am always looking for ways to up my game.

Yubel is the definition of a “ladder deck”, since it benefits from your opponent not knowing how to deal with it more than any other deck. It is one of the most passive decks in Duel Links and its success often depends on your opponent not drawing their outs and correctly using them to OTK you. Some of your losses will be from bricks, but that’s something you’ll just have to live with. Because you almost never see Yubel in tournaments and the Yubel players on the ladder usually don’t know how to play the deck optimally, it is to no surprise that most people don’t know about Yubel’s aggressive plays, which should be your main takeaway from this guide. Many games will be a “spot the lethal”, which is why we made the special section “OTK Puzzles” to show you that. The main purpose of the deck is to get out Yubel - Terror Incarnate, which is summoned from the deck or graveyard by using Disciple of Nephthys, Fire King Avatar Yaksha, or Fire King Island to destroy Yubel in your hand. Yubel - Terror Incarnate cannot be destroyed by battle and destroys every other monster in your end phase. Its main role is protection until you can get out Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and/or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare is an offensive option to poke or close out the game.

The main engine of this deck consists of Yubels and Triggers. My Name is Yubel is the only playable skill as it basically lets you play up to 9 Yubels.

Yubels

It is commonly agreed upon that the optimal number of Yubels is 6-7, broken up into 3x Yubel, 2x Yubel - Terror Incarnate and 1-2x Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.

Yubel (3x):

The only purpose of this card is to be destroyed in your hand to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate from the deck or graveyard and you obviously play it at 3.

Yubel - Terror Incarnate (1-3x)

This is the main card of the deck. Since you can summon it from the graveyard you don’t need to play it at 3. The optimal amount is 2 for if one of them gets banished, to summon a second one in certain situations and to increase the chances to get a Yubel with My Name is Yubel. It has 0 ATK and 0 DEF, but its effects more than make up for that. It can’t be destroyed by battle, your opponent receives all the battle damage as effect damage when attacking into it while it is in attack position, and when it leaves the field by either getting destroyed, banished, sent to the grave or returned to the hand you can summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare from your hand, deck or graveyard. The last effect can miss the timing (more in the “Missing the Timing” section).

Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare (1-3x)

As if one Yubel that can’t be destroyed by battle wasn’t enough, if you deal with the first one it summons a second one, like a multi-stage boss battle. Most people play this at 1 or 2, depending on preference. Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare has the same battle-protection as Yubel - Terror Incarnate, but the “destroy every other monster in the end phase” is replaced by “destroy the monster that battles with this card and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK”, which means that this card, unlike Yubel - Terror Incarnate, can attack into your opponent’s monster to trigger its effect. This only works in attack position and of course you also take no battle damage from that.

Triggers

Most people play 7-9 of the Triggers, broken up into 3x Disciple of Nephthys, 3x Fire King Avatar Yaksha and 1-3x Fire King Island.

Disciple of Nephthys (3x)

This is by far the best Trigger, and you obviously play it at 3. It has 0 ATK and 2000 DEF, which won’t matter anyway, if Yubel - Terror Incarnate destroys it in the end phase. With it you can destroy a card in your hand to add a different Nephthys monster from your deck, usually either Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Keep in mind that it is once per turn and that a search target has to be in the deck for it to be able to activate its effect. If it gets destroyed by a card effect, you can add a Nephthys spell or trap from the deck to your hand during your next standby phase, your only target being Rebirth of Nephthys, as Last Hope of Nephthys and Awakening of Nephthys aren’t played. Both of these effects synergize extremely well with Yubel. The first effect can destroy Yubel in your hand and the summoned Yubel - Terror Incarnate will destroy the Disciple of Nephthys in the end phase, triggering its second effect.

Fire King Avatar Yaksha (3x)

This card can destroy any card in your hand or that you control, when itself gets destroyed, either by battle or by card effect and even if it gets destroyed in your hand. Like Disciple of Nephthys, it is only once per turn. There are some situations, where Yaksha is better than Disciple: when Disciple would be flipped face down, negated or destroyed on summon, as an extra layer of protection, or when you don’t want 2 targets on your field for Treacherous Trap Hole or Six Style - Dual Wield. Its other effect of special summoning itself, if a face up “Fire King” monster you control(an other Yaksha in this deck, since we don’t play any other) gets destroyed by a card effect, only has niche uses, but can come in clutch sometimes.

Fire King Island (1-3x)

This card has its up- and downsides, but provides the main form of skill expression in this deck, since it enables the most combos. With it you can destroy a monster in your hand or on your field and add a “Fire King” monster to your hand, the only target being Fire King Avatar Yaksha. Same as Disciple of Nephthys, it is once per turn and there has to be a target in the deck to activate the effect. The downside is that it destroys every monster on your side of the field, if it gets sent to the graveyard or banished while being face up. This means that this effect will also trigger, if you play a second Island from your hand while you already control one, which can enable some crazy combos. Definitely the most underrated aspect of this deck is being able to destroy your own Yubel - Terror Incarnate to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and go on the offense, and this card provides 2 ways to do that. It also has a second effect, which almost never gets used. It can special summon a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from your hand, if you have no monsters on the field, but this counts towards the once per turn total, so you can’t use the first effect in the same turn.

Here are some statistics that show how likely it is to open at least 1 Yubel and 1 Trigger for different ratios:

• 6 Yubels, 7 Triggers, 4 cards: 65%
• 6 Yubels, 7 Triggers, 5 cards: 79%
• 6 Yubels, 8 Triggers, 4 cards: 69%
• 6 Yubels, 8 Triggers, 5 cards: 82%
• 6 Yubels, 9 Triggers, 4 cards: 73%
• 6 Yubels, 9 Triggers, 5 cards: 84%
• 7 Yubels, 7 Triggers, 4 cards: 71%
• 7 Yubels, 7 Triggers, 5 cards: 83%
• 7 Yubels, 8 Triggers, 4 cards: 75%
• 7 Yubels, 8 Triggers, 5 cards: 87%
• 7 Yubels, 9 Triggers, 4 cards: 78%
• 7 Yubels, 9 Triggers, 5 cards: 89%

Going first your chances vary from 65% to 78% and going second they’re 79% to 89%, depending on the ratios.

Without a doubt the best way to play this deck is with Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Other variants are playable, since many decks already struggle with just Yubel, but are just memes.

Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys (1-3x)

This card in itself is quite overloaded, but held in check by the fact that it has to be ritual summoned. If it gets destroyed you can just summon it back in your next standby phase for free (note that it has to be ritual summoned before) and during your main phase you can destroy any number of Nephthys cards in your hand or face up on your field (even itself) to destroy the same number of monsters on the opponent’s side. Keep in mind that this effect does not target and the effect will still go through, if a removal is chained to it (as long as you have Nephthys cards to destroy when the effect resolves). Yubel synergizes extremely well with this card, since you can use Yubels as a ritual tribute for it (Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare don’t care about being in the graveyard) and Cerulean comes back every turn, when destroyed by Yubel - Terror Incarnate. Destroying Yubel with Disciple means that you can have Cerulean + Rebirth of Nephthys next turn.

Rebirth of Nephthys (1-2x)

This card is used to ritual summon Cerulean and is the reason why many prefer playing at least 2 Cerulean. When you use a Cerulean as tribute to summon Cerulean you can destroy 1 card on the field. The amazing thing is that this does not target and because of the “Then” cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the ritual summon, which means that cards like Treacherous Trap Hole, Enemy Controller, Floodgate Trap Hole, Paleozoic Canadia,… will be destroyed before they can do anything to Cerulean. Playing it at 1 leaves more space for your other cards and techs, as it’s added when Disciple of Nephthys gets destroyed anyways and you’ll use it only once most of the time, especially if you do a Ritual Destruction. If you want more value you can play it at 2, as it can also be used with Cerulean’s effect to destroy a monster.

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys (1-2x)

This is the backrow removal of this deck and used to be the main focus before Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys came out. If this card gets destroyed by a card effect (even in your hand), it will summon itself to the field in your next standby phase and destroy all spell/trap cards on the field. This combined with Yubel - Terror Incarnate forms the Phoenix-Loop, destroying spells/traps in your standby phase and monsters in your end phase.

Because most of the 20 cards are occupied by the core cards, there are usually only 1-3 spaces left for the tech cards, and these 2 are by far the most popular.

Treacherous Trap Hole

It’s TTH, what more is there to say? But seriously, you might think that TTH is a bit counterintuitive, since Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys destroys your backrow and your deck clears the field anyways. All those things make it a bit worse than in other decks, but first of all, if you get Phoenix going you’ve already won most of the time, second, you can still disrupt your opponents attempts at getting rid of the Yubels, third, it’s a great defense for if you don’t open a Yubel and last but not least, it still synergizes with the deck by being able to destroy Fire King Avatar Yaksha or Disciple of Nephthys to trigger their effects or Yubel - Terror Incarnate to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys will just come back next turn, if destroyed by it.

Sphere Kuriboh

Imagine your opponent finally manages to break through your defense and is about to OTK you, but you just pull out a Sphere to stop him and build a wall again next turn. Apart from making your opponent rage quit, it’s also useful in case you brick, to block an attack and live for another turn and sometimes to protect Yubel - Terror Incarnate, Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, Disciple of Nephthys, Fire King Avatar Yaksha or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from an attack. The reason you play this instead of spells/traps with better effects, is that it can’t be destroyed by spell/trap removal or Phoenix, to destroy it with Fire King Island, because people overcommit and get wiped next turn, because using other traps could make Treacherous Trap Hole useless and sometimes an extra 300 ATK are just what you need.

These are techs that have been used in KoG/Tournament decks before.

Paleozoic Canadia

This was mainly used against Koa’ki Meiru Ice and Snipe Hunter, so to stop monsters that can single handedly deal with Yubel - Terror Incarnate. This means that with Vendreads in the meta this is a viable option again. Canadia can also stall the game, in case you brick, and be summoned from the graveyard to your field, where it can’t get destroyed by Yubel - Terror Incarnate.

Floodgate Trap Hole

Its use it the same as Paleozoic Canadia, the main difference being that you have to use Floodgate on summon and the monster stays flipped down. Canadia is generally better, because the flipped monster is usually destroyed next turn anyway.

Enemy Controller

Econ is just a straight up better Sphere Kuriboh, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s susceptible to spell/trap removal and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Sadly, it will make Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing if you tribute it, but can still provide some crazy OTKs.

Arcana Force XIV - Temperance

The budget version of Sphere Kuriboh. It can’t protect your monsters from attacks, but unlike Sphere it can be used as ritual fodder together with Disciple of Nephthys/Fire King Avatar Yaksha, to tribute off a Lava Golem, or to just summon it for its 2400 ATK.

Forbidden Dress

This makes a monster untargetable and indestructible by card effects until the end phase, but makes it lose 600 ATK (which Yubel doesn’t care about). This was mainly used before Cerulean, as it can protect Yubel - Terror Incarnate from the Fire King Island effect when Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys returns, thus completing the Yubel-Phoenix-Loop. It’s a counter to Yubel’s counters, but unlike the hand traps it usually doesn’t make your opponent overcommit, since you have to use it early to protect Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and chaining it to a targeting effect won’t stop it.

Forbidden Lance

This will make a monster unaffected by other spells/traps until the end phase, but makes it lose 800 ATK. It is the perfect counter to any deck that relies on backrow to deal with Yubel or Disciple and can also protect your monsters from Island’s destruction. The good thing about this is that you can chain it to any backrow to basically negate it.

Power of the Guardians

A fun card that shuts down every deck that can’t easily get rid of it and only has destruction effects. You shouldn’t play Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, if you use it.

Lava Golem

While usually more of a gimmick, Lava Golem can help a lot in very specific matchups and scenarios, as it is able to instantly remove problematic monsters you normally wouldn’t be able to get rid of. In some matchups, for example vs Vendreads, this can single-handedly win you the game. However, since you can’t normal summon/set the turn it is summoned, using it with an empty field will often get you killed next turn, unless you can summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys or you have some other form of protection like Sphere Kuriboh.

Lavamat September KoG

willarthil August KoG

Lavamat August KoG

Yubel only has a few single-turn combos, most of the plays you’ll make can only be done after setting them up the turn before and usually require a Yubel - Terror Incarnate already on the field. This is because all the Triggers are once per turn and Yaksha and Disciple can’t be summoned in the same turn. With My Name is Yubel, Yubel can be any of the Yubel forms.

Summoning Terror Incarnate

• Combo #1

Summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys/Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

This is by far the best opening you can get. Just going by card advantage it’s already a +1, because Disciple adds Rebirth of Nephthys in your next standby phase. That is also why you should add a Cerulean most of the time. It is weak to interruptions though, especially flip-downs and Treacherous Trap Hole.

• Combo #2

Summon/set Fire King Avatar Yaksha > wait for it to get destroyed > destroy Yubel in your hand > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

It’s an extra layer of protection, but unless you crash Yaksha yourself, you’ll give your opponent control over when Yubel - Terror Incarnate will be summoned. You should only summon it in attack, if you intend to crash it. Otherwise setting it is generally safer, unless your opponent can negate it or get rid of it without destroying it.

• Combo #3

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Yubel in your hand and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

This gets countered by spell/trap removal, especially since Island will wipe your board, if it gets removed. But if it stays on the field, you can use it again next turn to make further plays.

All of these can also be used to destroy Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Disciple of Nephthys and Fire King Island won’t leave you with protection though and should only be used with Yubel - Terror Incarnate already on the field or if you have to get Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys out asap.

No Setup

• Fast Phoenix

Summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Fire King Avatar Yaksha in hand and add a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy Phoenix

This should only be used if you already have a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field, or you will be left with an attack position Disciple on the field. Despite this you often have to do this over destroying Yubel when against backrow reliant decks and you have no Fire King Island. Having Treacherous Trap Hole set or a Sphere Kuriboh in the hand can protect Disciple until the next turn, where you can use it again to destroy a Yubel in your hand. If you have Island, but no Yubel, you can use it after the combo to destroy the Disciple. Doing this will give you a Fire King Avatar Yaksha, a Rebirth of Nephthys next turn and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys will summon from the gy, destroy Island and get destroyed again, which counters Paleozoic Canadia/Floodgate Trap Hole and will give you another turn of backrow destruction. Against many backrow reliant decks (like Subterrors or Triamids) you might run into a problem at this point though, because even if you draw into a Yubel you won’t be able to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate, if there’s nothing to crash the Yaksha you got from Island into. So if you don’t have an additional Disciple or Island you should often rather save the Island.

• Safe Phoenix

summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > play Fire King Island and use its effect to destroy Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys in hand and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha

In your next standby phase Phoenix will return and destroy Island, which will destroy the Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Phoenix, summoning Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Since this will destroy the enemy’s spell/trap cards Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare will not have to worry about any battle traps when attacking an enemy monster. Your opponent will be forced to activate their traps, but the only ones that are problematic are those that destroy Yubel - Terror Incarnate (like Treacherous Trap Hole) or flip it face-down (like Paleozoic Canadia). You should do this combo, if the enemy plays important or dangerous backrow and to be safe you should have another Yubel in hand. With just Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare on the field your opponent only needs 1 removal to potentially OTK you, but with the Yaksha you get from Island and another Yubel in hand you can just summon another Yubel - Terror Incarnate, if Yaksha gets destroyed, which means your opponent will have to get through Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, Yaksha, Yubel - Terror Incarnate and another Ultimate Nightmare, if they don’t make Terror Incarnate miss the timing. The downside of this combo is that you won’t get a Cerulean from your Disciple, which is better than Phoenix in most matchups, and when Phoenix returns to a field of Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and Yaksha it won’t get destroyed again in the end phase, letting your opponent set up their backrow, if they survive that turn (for example by flipping down Phoenix).

• Phoenix-Loop setup

play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon/set Yaksha > next turn Phoenix returns and destroys Island > Island destroys Yaksha > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy Yubel > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

This was the main combo before Disciple of Nephthys and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, but is almost never used nowadays. The Yaksha is an extra layer of protection on the opponent’s turn, but if it gets destroyed (by battle most of the time), you won’t have the Phoenix-Loop, because you’ll probably have to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate with the Yaksha and then Phoenix will destroy the Island, which will destroy Yubel - Terror Incarnate, summoning Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. This is the same outcome as with the Safe Phoenix combo, which is still a very good board. This gets countered by Treacherous Trap Hole and flip-downs. TTH will make Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing, when chained to Phoenix. Even if Yaksha stays alive it will make Yubel miss the timing when destroying Yaksha and Phoenix (explanation in “Missing the Timing”). Flip-downs only counter it, if Yaksha was destroyed and Yubel - Terror Incarnate summoned. Some opponents might even destroy Island themselves, which actually helps us (unless they have TTH), because it will lead to the same outcome, but Phoenix can attack a turn earlier.

• Fast Poke

play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > set second Island over the first one > Yubel - Terror Incarnate gets destroyed > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > summon Yaksha

This is the one turn setup for the Poke field (better explained further down), with the added benefit of not having a face-up Fire King Island on the field, that could wipe your board. That means with another Yubel in hand this is one of the safest board you can have.

Teror Incarnate Already on the Field

• Poke

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy your Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field and add Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > summon Yaksha

This is used to force a play from your opponent, or just to OTK them, if their field consists of a single monster with 2200 or more ATK. It is perfect for when there is no backrow and your opponent just played or set a single monster, after their board got wiped by Yubel - Terror Incarnate the turn before. Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare can attack and destroy their monster, letting Yaksha go face. However, this play should only be done, if you have another Yubel in your hand, since simply getting rid of the Island will leave you with an empty board, if there is no Yubel - Terror Incarnate to summon when Yaksha gets destroyed. A good opponent can also destroy Yaksha first and then the Island, leaving you with only Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.

• Double Destruction

Play/set Fire King Avatar Yaksha > Yubel - Terror Incarnate activates and destroy Yaksha in the end phase > destroy Yubel in your hand > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > the second Yubel - Terror Incarnate will activate and destroy the first one > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare

Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect is not once per turn, letting you deal with floaters or monsters that are immune to destruction once. Depending on their field you can attack with Yaksha or set it to keep them guessing and prevent it from being targetable by some things. This will also give you extra protection with Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, which you can also attack with next turn. You will give your opponent 2 targets for Treacherous Trap Hole in Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yaksha, but even if they chain it to Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect you can still summon the second one and will still wipe their field 2 times. If they use TTH early you’ll also still have a Yubel - Terror Incarnate.

• Double Terror Incarnate

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy a Yubel in hand and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

Summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy a Yubel in hand > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

Summon Fire King Avatar Yaksha > crash it into an enemy monster > destroy Yubel in hand > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate

You can do this, if the enemy has a card that can deal with a single Yubel - Terror Incarnate, but not 2, like Subterror Behemoth Umastryx, Paleozoic Canadia or Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, and you have to wipe their field. If both stay on the field, only the leftmost will trigger and destroy the other one, summoning Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Be careful about Treacherous Trap Hole, as it can easily shut this down.

• Double Ultimate Nightmare

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy a Yubel in hand and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > set the second Island over the first one > the first Island will destroy both Terror Incarnates > summon 2 Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare

This is like the ultimate finisher move, but of course you can only do this if you play 2 Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Both of them can attack the opponent’s monsters, letting you OTK many difficult boards. After this combo you even have a normal summon still left, so you can play the Yaksha for even more damage. You have to be extremely careful about backrow, since you’re using up many resources for this.

• Ultimate Defense

Summon Fire King Avatar Yaksha > Yubel - Terror Incarnate will destroy the Yaksha in the end phase > don’t activate Yaksha’s effect > special summon the Yaksha from the hand

Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Fire King Avatar Yaksha on the field with Yubel in the hand offers 5 layers of defense, unless they make Terror Incarnate miss the timing or deal with Yaksha without it being able to summon another Terror Incarnate. You can also still use Yaksha’s effect to destroy a Phoenix in hand, just don’t summon another Terror Incarnate with it. IMPORTANT: If Yubel - Terror Incarnate and the Yaksha get destroyed at the same time, for example if Island was on the field and gets removed, Yaksha has to be to the left of the Terror Incarnate or else you’ll make Yubel miss the timing, when Terror Incarnate summons Ultimate Nightmare and pushes the Yaksha destruction to Chain Link 2 (detailed explanation in “Missing the Timing”). So you either have to have summoned Terror Incarnate to the rightmost field (with Disciple for example), summon Yaksha to the leftmost field (if Cerulean is on the field for example) or not summon Ultimate Nightmare / not destroy the Yubel.

Disciple added Cerulean + Rebirth

“It’s just summoning Cerulean why is this a combo”

Activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use ritual fodder in your hand or on the field to summon Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

Besides Cerulean of course, you should always try to use Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare as ritual fodder, so you don’t waste a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys or Yubel, which is why you shouldn’t use the skill and put them back into the deck mindlessly. Having Cerulean out pressures your opponent and makes them have to protect themselves with cards that they might need to deal with Yubel - Terror Incarnate or to OTK you. Because Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys gets destroyed in your end phase this will not give you more safety, only offense and pressure.

• Ritual Destruction

Activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys to summon Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > destroy a card on the field

Play Disciple of Nephthys > activate its effect to destroy any card in your hand and add a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use Cerulean to summon Cerulean > destroy a card on the field > (use Cerulean to destroy Disciple and an enemy monster)

The Ritual Destruction is the most powerful move of this deck and should usually be used on backrow, as it won’t be able to respond to Cerulean’s summon. Having Cerulean on the board is the easiest way to get out Phoenix too, since you can use Cerulean’s effect to destroy the Phoenix in hand and an enemy monster. The best card to destroy with Disciple here is Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, apart from that it depends on the circumstances. Destroying a Yubel and summoning Yubel - Terror Incarnate will block your field, if you already have one on the field, which will not let you summon Cerulean, but is often the second best option, since it will give you extra protection. You’ll just have to wait a turn with summoning Cerulean.

• Empty Board OTK

Activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field to summon Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Fire King Avatar Yaksha

play Fire King Island > destroy Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use the Ultimate Nightmare on the field to summon Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yaksha

Cerulean + Yaksha is 4800 damage, letting you OTK your opponent, but this only happens when your opponent underestimates the offensive capabilities of Yubel and just passes to wait for cards to deal with Yubel - Terror Incarnate. You shouldn’t do this, if they set a backrow, unless you have another Yubel in hand.

Perfect Start

• Opening:

• any 2 of these by your second turn:

Summon Disciple of Nephthys > use skill if necessary > destroy Yubel and add Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > Yubel - Terror Incarnate destroys Disciple of Nephthys

Next turn:

This is the perfect start, as you’ll get a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field, a Ritual Destruction and a Phoenix and Cerulean looping.

When you Brick

The only way to reduce bricking is playing more Triggers and Yubels. Like you saw in the “Math” section, you’ll get to summon a Yubel in more than 80% of the games, especially if you don’t get OTKd instantly. When you only draw Yubels there’s literally nothing you can do, but that’s only around a 1% chance. On the other hand, when you only draw Triggers and Nephthys cards and no Yubels you won’t be able to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate, but still have some ways to survive and stall, until you get one. In general you always want to have at least one Trigger for when you finally draw into a Yubel, or you’ll lose. Disciple of Nephthys offers some good protection with its 2000 DEF and will often even stay on the field, when you set it. Apart from just blocking an attack, Fire King Avatar Yaksha can be used as a bluff, which is why you should summon it in attack. Many players will be hesitant to destroy it in the fear of summoning a Yubel - Terror Incarnate, before they can deal with it.

Here are some plays you can do without Yubel:

Summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys with Fire King Island

This will still leave you with a normal summon left for extra protection, or aggression with Fire King Avatar Yaksha, which presents 4200 damage. Since you need an open field, you can’t summon Disciple of Nephthys to add the Phoenix first. Against backrow reliant decks you shouldn’t do this, if you only play 1 Phoenix, as it’ll be useless, if destroyed by battle.

Destroy Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys against backrow-reliant decks

Against most decks with a lot of backrow you can get away with an open board, which is often what turboing out Phoenix entails, especially if you still want a trigger for when you finally draw into a Yubel.

• Setting up a Cerulean

Summon Disciple of Nephthys > destroy a card in your hand to add Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > use Fire King Island to destroy the Disciple and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha

This way you will be able to ritual summon Cerulean, if you survive until the next turn and have enough ritual fodder. Don’t do this against decks that can easily OTK.

• Only use My Name is Yubel when you need to, to not reveal that you have a Yubel in your hand and to keep a Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare in your hand to use as ritual fodder. You only need to use it when you don’t have Yubel in hand and intend to use a Trigger, or if you have all your Terror Incarnates or Ultimate Nightmares in your hand to shuffle one back into the deck to avoid having to summon it from your hand. If you summon Terror Incarnate with Disciple, play only 1 Ultimate Nightmare and have that in your hand, you can gamble with not shuffling it back into the deck to use it as fodder for Cerulean next turn, if you think they won’t destroy the Terror Incarnate on their turn.
• Always remember how many Disciple of Nephthys and Fire King Island targets are still in your deck, since you can’t use them if there are no targets left.
• If there’s a set monster you should just use Cerulean’s effect to pop itself and the enemy monster, instead of attacking (if you don’t have any other Nephthys cards to destroy). This will not only deal with flip effects and battle traps, but also floaters, if Yubel - Terror Incarnate wipes the field in the end phase.
• Usually you want to summon the Yubels from the graveyard if you can, but if you already have another Yubel in your hand you should summon it from the deck, so you reduce the chances of drawing more.
• Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare won’t destroy monsters with 0 ATK or if the effect damage gets negated (like with Destiny HERO - Decider).
• If Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare destroys a monster with a modified attack it will deal damage equal to that modified attack, not the original attack.
• If Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys both return during the standby phase, Phoenix will summon first and clear all the spells/traps, making it safe for Cerulean.
• Usually you want to add Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys with Disciple of Nephthys, unless you’re playing against a backrow reliant deck or can do a play with Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys.
• You can use face-down monsters on the field as ritual fodder.
• If Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field is used for a ritual summon, or tributed over, it will miss the timing.
• Always summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate in defense, except when your opponent is using Power of the Guardians, Red-Eyes Slash Dragon or other similar decks, where the monsters activate an effect on attack. Other decks would never attack an attack position Yubel - Terror Incarnate and when it’s in defense your LP will be protected, if its effects get negated.
• Interactions with negations: If Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effects get negated, it will just be a usual 0/0 monster as expected, but if they are only negated while it is face-up on the field, like with most negate effects, it will still summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare when it leaves the field. Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare’s interaction with face-up negations is pretty unexpected, if you’ve never seen it before. It is still a 0/0 on the field, but when it’s in attack position and gets destroyed by an enemy by battle, its effect to destroy the monster and deal damage equal to its attack will still trigger, making you both take the damage. This won’t lead to a draw if you’d both die from it, you will lose.
• Interactions with monsters not being able to activate their effects: Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare’s effects that make them indestructible by battle and prevent battle damage are permanent effects, which stay even if they are not able to activate their effects. It will however make the attacker not take damage and if Yubel - Terror Incarnate is destroyed, it won’t summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.
• World Legacy Clash can’t be used on Yubels, because since they’re 0/0 they wouldn’t reduce the enemy monster’s stats.
• If your enemy plays on Auto, they’ll not be asked to use their effects after a Ritual Destruction, letting you activate Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys before they can deal with it.
• Always be careful about giving your opponent an effect to chain their removal to. For example, attack with Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys instead of using its effect.

You’re probably here because of this section. Most people on the ladder have no idea how to play against Yubel, but after this you shouldn’t lose against Yubel ever again, as long as you draw the cards to deal with it. Apart from making Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing you’ll have to understand how Yubel decks work and what their options are, to be able to counter them optimally (just like with any deck).

• Missing the Timing

By far the biggest thing to learn is how to make Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing, so prepare for a little lesson in Yu-Gi-Oh! rulings. Yubel - Terror Incarnate says “when this face-up card leaves the field: you can special summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare”. The important part here is the “when” and the “can”. The “can” makes it an optional effect and the “when” means that what follows after that (the card leaving the field) has to be the last thing to happen, or the card will miss the timing. Chains get resolved last to first, so if Yubel - Terror Incarnate leaves the field at Chain Link 2 or higher, it isn’t the last thing to happen. So basically, chain your removal to any effect and Yubel - Terror Incarnate won’t summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Treacherous Trap Hole is (currently) the most used card in Duel Links and the perfect counter to Yubel - Terror Incarnate. In general, any deck that has chainable removal can easily counter Yubel. For it to be chainable it has to be at least Spell Speed 2, so normal spells and monster effects (unless they specify that it’s a quick effect) won’t work. Any cards that negate the activation of Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect and destroy it will still summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, even if they are Chain Link 2. This is because the first chain link will be negated, so the destruction of Yubel - Terror Incarnate will still be the last thing to happen. If you don’t already, you should definitely play with Self Chain ON. The same can be done with Yubel, although a bit differently. The only way for Yubel to miss the timing is when Fire King Avatar Yaksha’s destruction effect gets pushed to Chain Link 2 or higher. Not many people know how to do this, but it actually occurs when Yaksha gets destroyed by (currently) one of the most used monster in Duel Links, Elemental HERO Brave Neos. Sadly, it happens even if the opponent has no idea why it happened. Let’s take another look at Yu-Gi-Oh! rulings, shall we? Yaksha says “if this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you can destroy 1 card in your hand”. “If, you can”. The “can” means that an optional effect happens, if it gets destroyed. So how can this get pushed to Chain Link 2? If another effect with higher priority triggers at the same time. Any mandatory effect has a higher priority and if they’re both optional, the turn player’s has the higher priority. That means, if Brave Neos attacks, destroys Yaksha and activates its optional effect to add a Neos Fusion from the deck to the hand, Yaksha’s effect will get pushed to Chain Link 2 and if you destroy Yubel with it, it will miss the timing. If you suicide with Yaksha into Neos, that won’t happen, because then it’s on your turn and Yaksha will have priority. When Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yaksha on the field get destroyed at the same time the effects will resolve from left to right, meaning the left one has a higher priority. So if Yaksha is to the right of Yubel - Terror Incarnate its effect will get pushed to Chain Link 2. If the Yubel - Terror Incarnate was summoned by Disciple on an empty board it will be on the rightmost field, so no opportunity for that to happen. But if it was summoned by Island or Yaksha onto an empty board, it will be in the middle and a Yaksha would be summoned to the right of it. Another situation where Yaksha can get pushed to Chain Link 2 is with the optimal Phoenix-Lock setup. When Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys returns, destroys Fire King Island and the opponent chains Treacherous Trap Hole to destroy Yaksha and Phoenix, Island and Yaksha will be destroyed in the same chain, so both “on destruction” effects trigger at the same time, but Island’s effect to destroy every monster on your field is mandatory, so it will be Chain Link 1, pushing Yaksha to Chain Link 2. The second way to make Yubel - Terror Incarnate miss the timing is a lot more uncommon and can occur with single cards. If a card has an effect that removes Yubel - Terror Incarnate, followed by a “then” or “also, after that” and another effect, it will miss the timing. This is because the removal won’t be the last thing to happen. The most prevalent card in the meta with such an effect is Desperado Barrel Dragon, but it will only happen when all 3 coins land on head, because that’s the requirement for the effect after the “then” to happen (in this case drawing a card). Yubel and Yubel - Terror Incarnate will also miss the timing, if there’s a period before the “Then”. With the other conjunctives “and”, “and if you do” and “also” they won’t miss the timing, as the effect after the conjunctives will happen at the same time as the removal. We can be glad (or sad, if you hate Yubel) that Disciple of Nephthys and Fire King Island use “and if you do”, otherwise this deck wouldn’t be a thing.

Prevent the Summon

By far the best way to counter Yubel is to not let Yubel - Terror Incarnate be summoned. Here are some ways to deal with the Triggers:

• Countering Disciple

If Disciple of Nephthys is played you should deal with it immediately. Effect negations and flip-downs are the best counters, because they don’t usually require a cost and don’t destroy Disciple, which would add a Rebirth of Nephthys. Chaining removal to it won’t stop the effect. Even if you don’t know if the Yubel player has Yubel in their hand, you should assume so, because there aren’t many other reasons to summon Disciple in attack otherwise. If you hesitate and the Yubel player is smart they’ll wait to use their skill after summoning Disciple and you won’t be able to respond to that, even with your Toggle ON. Using Treacherous Trap Hole immediately is kind of a gamble. If they have a Fire King Island left it would be better to wait of course, but then you probably won’t have an effect to chain TTH to until Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect, meaning your monsters will get destroyed anyway, unless you’re fine with not chaining it and letting a Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare survive.

• Countering Yaksha

If you’re facing a set monster when playing against Yubel, you should always assume that it’s Fire King Avatar Yaksha and that they have a Yubel in the hand. You usually can’t afford destroying it and letting your opponent summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate, when you don’t already have the tools to deal with it. The easiest way to deal with a set Yaksha is to destroy it with Armades, Keeper of Boundaries or similar monsters, that make Yaksha unable to activate its effect (if a card negates, it also has to negate Yaksha in the graveyard, not only on the field). Always remember how to push Yaksha to Chain Link 2, with your deck there might be other ways than just Elemental HERO Brave Neos like destroying the Yaksha and a card of yours, that also activates an effect on destruction, simultaneously. If you have no way to do any of those things you should just not destroy it and try to stall until you draw the cards needed to OTK through Yubel - Terror Incarnate or at least to deal with it. You always have to be careful about summoning your monsters in attack, especially when trying to stall. If they have 1800 DEF or more you should put them into defense so Yaksha can’t crash into them and summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate or destroy Yubel - Terror Incarnate to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, which can often be lethal.

• Countering Island

Cosmic Cyclone is currently the only meta option to deal with Fire King Island, but the following applies to any chainable spell/trap removal. You don’t want to activate the removal as soon as Island is played, because if they have another one they will still be able to use that. That won’t be the case if you wait for its effect to activate and then chain your removal to that. The effect won’t resolve and because Island is only once per turn they won’t be able to use a second one. If there are monsters on the field and you have to choose between destroying them or Island, you should destroy Island, because it will destroy all the monsters anyways. The exact opposite is the case, when Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys will return next turn. Since it will destroy Island anyways you’re just doing the Yubel player a favor by letting the Phoenix stay on the field. Instead you should go for the monster in that case, or just save the destruction.

Flipping Terror Incarnate Face-Down

Yubel - Terror Incarnate has to be face-up when it leaves the field to be able to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. So you can simply flip it down and then use your removal on it. Attacking it face-down won’t destroy it, it will just flip it up. Some decks, like Desperado, run into a dilemma here, if their removal can only target face-up cards.

Tips

• Put your toggle to ON when Rebirth of Nephthys is activated, or you won’t be prompted to use your cards after a Ritual Destruction.
• Always remember what they added to their hand. Knowing that they have a Cerulean on the hand should make you set up more defense, if you can.

Yubel is probably the deck with the most unexpected OTKs and nothing helps with understanding the deck like solving some lethal puzzles. These cover pretty much every offensive combo and truly show what this deck is capable of. Most of these are situations that can happen on the ladder, but of course the enemy cards are replaceable and sometimes not all the cards are needed. The puzzles will begin with the most common situations and will get more and more complicated. The enemy always has 4000 LP.

All of the puzzles are using this deck:

Puzzle #1

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy your Yubel - Terror Incarnate and add Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > summon Yaksha > attack Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon with Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare to destroy it and deal 3000 damage > attack directly with Yaksha to deal 1800 damage.

Puzzle #2

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy your Yubel and add Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > summon Yaksha > put Yaksha into attack > crash one Yaksha into Revendread Slayer > use its effect to destroy the Terror Incarnate > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > attack Slayer with it to deal 2400 damage and destroy it > attack directly with the other Yaksha to deal 1800 damage.

Puzzle #3

Enemy Board:

No Cards.

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > destroy Yubel - Terror Incarnate and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use Ultimate Nightmare on the field to summon Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yaksha > attack directly with Cerulean and Yaksha to deal 4800 damage.

Puzzle #4

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use a Cerulean to summon the other Cerulean > destroy your own Terror Incarnate > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > use Cerulean’s effect to destroy Disciple and Koa’ki Meiru Ice > attack Koa’ki Meiru Urnight with Ultimate Nightmare to deal 2000 damage > attack directly with Cerulean to deal 3000 damage.

Puzzle #5

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > don’t summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use a Cerulean to summon Cerulean > destroy the Drowning Mirror Force > use Cerulean’s effect to destroy the Disciple and the Desperado Barrel Dragon > put Fire King Avatar Yaksha into attack > attack directly with Yaksha and Cerulean to deal 4800 damage.

Puzzle #6

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > summon Yaksha > crash Yaksha into Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy Island > Island will destroy both Terror Incarnates > summon 2 Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > use them to attack Enishi and Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan to deal 4000 damage.

Puzzle #7

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Summon the Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy the Fire King Avatar Yaksha and add a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy the Yubel - Terror Incarnate > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > activate Rebirth of Nephthys > use Cerulean to summon the other Cerulean > destroy the Drowning Mirror Force > attack the Ancient Gear Wyvern with Ultimate Nightmare to destroy it and deal 2000 damage > attack directly with Cerulean to deal 3000 damage.

Puzzle #8

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yaksha > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy the Island > Island will destroy both Terror Incarnates and the Disciple > summon 2 Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > use them to attack Darklord Ixchel and Darklord Nasten to deal 5100 damage.

Puzzle #9

Enemy Board:

No Cards.

Your Board:

• Solution:

Flip Disciple of Nephthys up > use its effect to destroy Fire King Avatar Yaksha and add a Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy the Disciple > play Fire King Island > use its second effect to summon the Phoenix > summon Yaksha > attack directly with Phoenix and Yaksha to deal 4200 damage.

Puzzle #10

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island over the other Island > the Island will destroy Fire King Avatar Yaksha > don’t activate Yaksha’s effect > use Island’s second effect to summon Phoenix > summon Yaksha > crash Yaksha into Cyberdark Edge > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy Yubel > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > use Treacherous Trap Hole to destroy your Terror Incarnate and the Elemental HERO Brave Neos (doesn’t matter if they protect it or not) > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > attack the Edge with Ultimate Nightmare to deal 2500 damage and destroy the Leng Ling > attack the Edge with Phoenix to deal 1600 damage.

Puzzle #11

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Island > use its effect to destroy Yubel and add a Fire King Avatar Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > summon Disciple of Nephthys > use its effect to destroy Yaksha and add a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy the Island > Island will destroy both Terror Incarnates and the Disciple > summon 2 Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > activate Rebirth > use a Cerulean to summon the other Cerulean > destroy Dimensional Prison > use Cerulean’s effect to destroy itself and the Desperado Barrel Dragon > use both Ultimate Nightmares to attack the Elemental HERO Brave Neos and the Twin-Barrel Dragon to deal 4300 damage.

Puzzle #12

Enemy Board:

Your Board:

• Solution:

Play Fire King Avatar Yaksha > use Fire King Island to destroy a Yubel and add a Yaksha > summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate > play/set the second Island over the first one > the first Island will destroy the Yaksha and Terror Incarnate > use Yaksha’s effect to destroy the second Yubel in your hand > summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare > use the second Yaksha’s effect to special summon itself > summon Terror Incarnate > use Treacherous Trap Hole to destroy your own Terror Incarnate and their Legendary Secret of the Six Samurai > summon Ultimate Nightmare > use your Ultimate Nightmares to attack Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki first, then Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru, to destroy them and deal 3600 damage > attack directly with Yaksha to deal 1800 damage.

Note: Using Island first is a mistake! If you first summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate with Island, the Yaksha will be to the right of the Terror Incarnate. This means that if you destroy both of them at the same time Yaksha’s effect will get pushed to Chain Link 2, making Yubel miss the timing (detailed explanation in “Missing the Timing”).

Here we’ll cover common tech cards used in the meta, that can be a problem.

Treacherous Trap Hole

Since TTH is the most used card in the meta you should always watch the delays to determine if your opponent could’ve set one. With the possibility of it being set everything becomes a gamble. You’ll have to decide between doing suboptimal plays to play around it, or the value play. For example setting or crashing Fire King Avatar Yaksha instead of playing Disciple of Nephthys. TTH is even used in decks with other traps, but the good thing about that is that you’re safe from it, if the enemy has a trap in the graveyard. A simple way of playing around TTH with a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field would be by playing Yaksha with another Yubel in hand. During the end phase, if your opponent chains TTH to Yubel - Terror Incarnate, you can summon another Yubel - Terror Incarnate with the Yaksha. If they activate it early you can also just summon another Yubel - Terror Incarnate and after that you don’t have to worry about TTH again. Of course this only works if your opponent is forced to activate it to protect their monsters. The best way to deal with TTH is by a Ritual Destruction, as your opponent won’t be able to respond to it.

Enemy Controller

When the enemy econ takes Yubel - Terror Incarnate and tributes over it, it will miss the timing and you won’t get to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, but cards that use Yubel - Terror Incarnate as a cost will still summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare to your field. This card is only dangerous if used on Disciple of Nephthys or if the enemy can OTK you after taking the Yubel. If Yubel - Terror Incarnate gets econ taken, its effect will always trigger in the end phase, no matter if it was taken during your or your opponent’s turn.

World Legacy Clash

The infuriating thing about this card is that the banished target always returns after the Yubel - Terror Incarnate destruction, letting your opponent save a monster. It can also prevent Fire King Avatar Yaksha from crashing, because if used on the attack target in the damage step the attack will simply be negated. If Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, that had their ATK/DEF reduced, get destroyed and return, they will have their original stats again.

Cosmic Cyclone

This card can easily disrupt any plays with Island, so when going for those you should have a backup plan, if it could be set.

Paleozoic Canadia

Like with Treacherous Trap Hole you can play around it by summoning or setting Fire King Avatar Yaksha. If you already have a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on field and suspect your opponent will want to flip it down to protect their field you can set a Yaksha for protection or summon another Yubel - Terror Incarnate, so their field will get wiped even if they flip down one of them.

Elemental HERO Brave Neos

While not a problem for Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare it can still stall the game and make Yubel miss the timing, if it destroys Fire King Avatar Yaksha. Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare is a great way to just eat it right up, if you can afford summoning it.

Drowning Mirror Force

This card is another reason why you should always put your Yubels into defense, especially if you attack directly, as Yubel - Terror Incarnate won’t be able to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare when shuffled into the deck. It is devastating against Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, since you’ll have to ritual summon it again, if you even have another Rebirth of Nephthys. That’s why you should usually wait for Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys against decks that run this card.

Sphere Kuriboh

This can block any attack and works against Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Playing around it is nothing special to Yubel decks, you just have to power through it. Overcommitting into a Sphere, for example by using a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field as tribute for Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, can be devastating though.

Floodgate Trap Hole

This can permanently lock one of your monsters into face-down defense position, which is a big threat to Disciple of Nephthys and annoying for the Yubels. An important thing to note is that if you know your opponent has a Floodgate there’s no need to destroy it with Rebirth of Nephthys when doing a Ritual Destruction, as Floodgate will miss the timing. This is because the destruction effect happens after the summon of Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, so Floodgate can’t respond to it.

Dimensional Prison

While rarely played, Dimensional Prison can sometimes catch you off guard, for example when trying to crash Fire King Avatar Yaksha. Since it banishes it is a great counter to Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and if you only play one Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, you won’t be able to summon it again. You might want to wait for Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, if you suspect it being set.

Forbidden Chalice

With this your opponent will be able to negate Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare in order to get rid of them or Disciple of Nephthys which will leave you vulnerable without Island.

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror

This makes the Yubels unable to activate their effects. On the field this just means they won’t destroy anything, but you also won’t be able to even summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is the easiest way to get rid of it, but a Ritual Destruction also works. Getting out Cerulean is a good way to stall when you can’t summon Yubels, but you’ll usually want to add a Phoenix with Disciple.

Synchro Monsters

Vermillion Dragon Mech

Vermillion can destroy a card on the field by banishing a tuner from the graveyard. This is only once per turn and only on the enemy’s turn, so it’s not a big threat, but still has to be dealt with. The simplest way is when it destroys Yubel - Terror Incarnate, but not the Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare that will be summoned, since you can just use that to kill it. If it’s destroyed by a card effect they can add a banished tuner back to their hand, so you might consider destroying Vermillion by battle with Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, if that tuner would be a problem.

Black Rose Dragon

While a field wipe is certainly a strong effect, this is not much of a threat if you have Yubel - Terror Incarnate on your field, as your opponent used a lot of resources to make this and most likely won’t be able to get rid of the Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare afterwards.

Armades, Keeper of Boundaries

This card is only dangerous to Fire King Avatar Yaksha, as it prevents its effect to destroy Yubel. Swinging into Armades is not an option either, as it also prevents effect activations when being attacked.

Stardust Dragon

This card is easier to out than you think. It will prevent the Yubel - Terror Incarnate destruction, but will still summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, which you absolutely have to put into defense. This way it will still act as a wall, as attacking monsters won’t get destroyed, which would trigger Stardust’s effect to negate and destroy it. Stardust will return after the Yubel - Terror Incarnate effect in the end phase and its effect is not once per turn so destroying it with Treacherous Trap Hole after it returned will not work. The easiest way to deal with it is Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, as it can just swing over it. The second way is Rebirth of Nephthys. Since the destruction effect isn’t part of the activation Stardust isn’t able to negate it, letting you destroy it with that. The third way is to kill the enemy through it, if they have another monster with more ATK than their LP on the field. With a Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare on the field you can use Fire King Island to summon a Yubel - Terror Incarnate and a Fire King Avatar Yaksha. Attack the Stardust with the Ultimate Nightmare, which they will negate of course, then crash Yaksha and destroy the Terror Incarnate, summon Ultimate Nightmare and attack the other monster. If they don’t have a second monster on the field you can also just attack directly with Fire King Avatar Yaksha.

Scrap Dragon

A generic synchro monster that is very easy to summon and poses a threat to Yubel is never good, and Scrap Dragon is no exception. The good thing is that its effect is only once per turn, it can’t miss-time Yubel - Terror Incarnate and its owner has to destroy one card as well.

Crystron Quariongandrax

While being almost impossible to summon outside of the Crystron archetype or with Deep Sea Divas and a Level 5 Monster, for example a Labyrinth Wall summoned by Labyrinth Builder, it is still a big threat to pretty much every monster in your deck, as it can simply banish them when summoned, even a Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys in the graveyard. On top of this, when it is destroyed it can summon any banished monster to its field, including one of yours.

Skills

This can stop Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare from summoning from the graveyard and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from coming back. Never get Cerulean and Phoenix into the grave at the same time, before they use Sealed Tombs. Try to bait it with Phoenix, since Cerulean is usually more important.

This Skill is basically a better version of Sealed Tombs against Yubel, if it weren’t for the LP requirement. There’s little ways you can play around this besides not sending your monsters to the graveyard and making sure to deny your opponent the chance to get their LP low so that they can’t use the skill.

Darklords

Difficulty: 5/10

Tl;dr: Cheese them with Ultimate Nightmare. Avoid setting Yaksha.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

The Sanctified Darklord

This card can negate a monster once per turn at the cost of 1 Darklord monster. The biggest targets are Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys to stop them from wiping the field. However, since this card is also the main way that Darklords gain LP, they can’t constantly negate Yubel - Terror Incarnate with it, as they will eventually run out of LP. You can use this to your advantage by flooding the board with Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. Ultimate Nightmare is the main way to deal with it, because Sanctified only negates on the field, meaning Ultimate Nightmare’s effect will still activate, if it gets destroyed by battle. This wins you a lot of games, especially on the ladder.

Darklord Desire

By lowering its own attack by 1000, Darklord Desire can send one of your monsters to the graveyard, which includes face-down monsters. Not only is this a problem for your Yubels, it also permanently gets rid of Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Fire King Avatar Yaksha also won’t be able to activate its effect, as it is not destroyed. Keep in mind that unlike the other Darklord cards, Darklord Desire can’t copy spells/traps in the graveyard. On top of this, Desire must be tribute summoned by tributing 1 Fairy-type monster and cannot be special summoned otherwise, which means your opponent will only get to summon this once, as most decks currently only play 1 copy of this and no Darklord Amdusc.

Other Problematic Cards:

Darklord Tezcatlipoca

This card can protect one or multiple Darklord monsters from being destroyed by discarding itself instead, which is another reason why playing defensively is bad in this matchup, as your opponent will just use this to protect their monsters from Yubel - Terror Incarnate and then proceed to OTK you next turn.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

Darklords is by far the funniest matchup, because absolutely no one expects the interaction of Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and negates on their first game against Yubel. More often than not they will use at least 2000 LP to set up their plays and then suicide into a negated Ultimate Nightmare. If you’ve already taken damage it is really difficult though, since you will get the damage first and lose before Ultimate Nightmare’s effect triggers. However, even if your opponent knows about this, they still don’t have a good answer to Ultimate Nightmare during your turn, unless they put all their monsters into defense. Their best play in this situation is to either pass to save the negate or to negate one of their own monsters to gain a little LP back. Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is a double-edged sword in this matchup, as it can be used to bait out a negate and is pretty good as a 3000 atk beater on the field, but gives your opponent 3000 LP when they negate its effect, which allows them to constantly recycle their spell/trap cards and survive a negated Ultimate Nightmare.

Desperado

Difficulty: 7/10

Tl;dr: Have another destruction ready when destroying face-up machines. Cerulean is the MVP.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Desperado Barrel Dragon

This is the reason why you always have to be careful about destroying face-up machine monsters, since it will summon itself if you do. It’s monster destruction effect is quite powerful, but the good thing about it is that it can only target face-up cards, can’t attack when it uses the effect and can only use its effect in the battle phase, which means that even though it’s a quick effect there isn’t usually any effect to chain to. However, there’s still another way for it to miss-time Yubel - Terror Incarnate. If all 3 coins land on heads your opponent will draw a card and because of that Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s destruction won’t be the last thing to happen, making it miss the timing (detailed explanation in “Missing the Timing”). Because of Master of Destiny this can be guaranteed, if they haven’t used a coin-flip before. Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys can both easily deal with this card, since you don’t have to go into the battle phase with them, but Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare is basically useless against it. Destroying machine monsters with attacks when you already have Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field is risky, since Desperado can use its effect immediately after it’s summoned, but if it destroys the Yubel - Terror Incarnate, you can summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and kill it (except if the effect is used during the end of the battle phase).

BM-4 Blast Spider

This card can destroy a machine monster (usually itself) and a face-up card of yours. That means it can not only destroy Yubels, but also Fire King Island. Its second effect, of dealing damage to our LP of half the ATK of a monster that got destroyed by a machine, is useless against Yubels, but can be a problem for Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. This effect also means that Yubel will miss the timing, if a machine destroys Fire King Avatar Yaksha. If this card destroys itself and Yaksha it won’t miss the timing, if they summon Desperado Barrel Dragon, but you also won’t get to see if they will even summon it, before you have to decide if you want to destroy Yubel. If they do, it is quite bad for you, because they can destroy the Yubel - Terror Incarnate in their battle phase, basically having you waste it. So you shouldn’t destroy Yubel in that case, if you can afford 2800 LP and can summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate next turn to destroy the Desperado. Unless you have a second Yubel, in which case you should destroy it, because you can summon another one next turn any way.

Twin-Barrel Dragon

Twin-Barrel Dragon can destroy one of your cards on summon, if it hits 2 heads. This can be beneficial for us, because it uses up 2 of the 3 guaranteed heads, but it’s still another destruction you have to worry about.

Time Wizard

This card will destroy all your monsters, if your opponent predicts a coin toss. While still being annoying for Yubel, there usually is just Yubel - Terror Incarnate on your field and they have no way to summon a second threat to deal with Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. It’s also not a machine, which means you can safely destroy it.

Fiend Comedian

For predicting a coin toss your opponent can banish all cards in your graveyard, which can shut down Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

The thing that makes this matchup so hard isn’t really the strength of the cards, but the sheer amount of threats to Yubel. Because of Desperado Barrel Dragon you always have to be careful about destroying face-up machines. Remember that attacking face-down monsters with anything, even Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare will flip them up, before destroying them. If you have a Yubel in hand you should still swing with Fire King Avatar Yaksha, because if they summon Desperado and destroy the Yaksha, Yubel - Terror Incarnate will destroy the Desperado in the end phase. The opponent’s best play would be to not destroy it with the Desperado, but wait for the Terror Incarnate. Many players will still do that of course, so it’s worth the risk if it’s your only option. If you have an Ultimate Nightmare on the field because of a Desperado, a Yubel in the hand and Yaksha is your only trigger you can summon the Yaksha, swing into the Desperado with Ultimate Nightmare to force an activation and if they don’t destroy Yaksha you can crash it yourself to summon a Yubel - Terror Incarnate. Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is the MVP in this matchup, as it offers a destruction during your main phase. Combined with Yubel - Terror Incarnate you can destroy a face-up machine and if the opponent summons Desperado, Yubel - Terror Incarnate will destroy it in the end phase. Their backrows aren’t usually something you have to play around, as they can’t run Treacherous Trap Hole, and if a Paleozoic Canadia flips your Yubels down they can’t destroy it with Desperado or BM-4 Blast Spider. Keep in mind that Desperado miss-times Yubel - Terror Incarnate when it gets 3 Heads.

Amano Stun

Note: There currently are too few decklist for statistics so this will only cover this deck.

Difficulty: 8/10

Tl;dr: Destroy Amano with a Ritual Destruction or TTH. Terror Incarnate can stall if you get to summon it before Amano, otherwise stall with Disciple.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Amano-Iwato

This card makes monsters unable to activate their effects, which means while the Yubels still have battle protection they won’t be able to destroy the Amano. What’s really bad about Amano is that you can’t even summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare. So if they summon it turn 1 you’re gonna have a bad time, since it will stay on the field thanks to Duel, standby!. The other ways to keep it on the field are to use Forbidden Chalice in their end phase or World Legacy Clash when you attack into a set Amano. The latter one should never happen against Yubel.

Other Problematic Cards:

Beast King Barbaros

This is their beater to finish you off. They can clash it or use Forbidden Chalice on it to get it to its original ATK of 3000, but before that it’ll just sit on the field at 1900 ATK, same as Amano. This makes Disciple of Nephthys with its 2000 DEF a great stall card against them. It can also break through a Yubel - Terror Incarnate with its effect to destroy all your cards when it was tribute summoned using 3 monsters.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

There are two versions, one with counter traps and the other with as many tech cards as you can fit. Against counter traps negating your Treacherous Trap Hole or Rebirth of Nephthys you really can’t do anything, but thankfully the tech cards version is the more popular one. Yubel doesn’t care about battle traps until you go for game and their Canadias and Floodgates are also quite useless, since they have no easy way of destroying face-down Yubels. If you get to summon a Yubel - Terror Incarnate you can stall until they can get out 3 monsters to tribute Beast King Barbaros over. To get over a set Disciple they need Clash or Chalice. The best play is to destroy Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys with Fire King Island and then use Treacherous Trap Hole in you draw or standby phase before the Phoenix gets summoned to surprise them and clear the backrow. If you can clear their backrow the Amano they might summon after that is vulnerable to Cerulean and Phoenix. A Ritual Destruction is your other way of getting rid of the Amano and against a single backrow you can even destroy that and then just kill the Amano with the 3000 ATK.

Ancient Gears

Difficulty: 2/10

Tl;dr: Get Terror Incarnate up. Summon Phoenix to get rid of traps and stop them from setting up. Don’t leave Island on the field.

Good Techs:

Yubel counters:

None

Other Problematic Cards:

Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon & AG Wyvern

These cards will prevent Fire King Avatar Yaksha’s effect to destroy Yubel, but only when they attack. This means that you can still crash Yaksha into them. So if Yaksha is your only Trigger you should probably just not set it and hope you won’t get OTK’d. If you use Fire King Island to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate you should play Yaksha and use its effect to destroy the Island, so your opponent can’t attack with Reactor Dragon to destroy it and in turn Yubel - Terror Incarnate, without you being able to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.

Double Cyclone & Twister

These cards can destroy Fire King Island during your turn. If used during a Reactor Dragon or Wyvern attack you won’t be able to summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, when Island destroys Yubel - Terror Incarnate.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

As soon as you get Yubel - Terror Incarnate out you’ve basically won, as only their tech cards can save them. Going second can be difficult, as most of them play Paleozoic Canadia and Floodgate Trap Hole, that can stop Disciple of Nephthys and Fire King Avatar Yaksha, and Fire King Island can be countered by their Double Cyclone. Flipping Yubel - Terror Incarnate face down and destroying Island is what you’ll have to be the most careful about, which can be prevented by destroying Fire King Island yourself. Be careful though, since they can simply chain their flip-downs to Island’s destruction. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys has a higher priority than Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, since you’ll stop them from setting up a board to OTK you as soon as they draw Treacherous Trap Hole or Enemy Controller, and to get rid of battle traps.

Fortune Lady

Difficulty: 6/10

Tl;dr: Clear the backrow with Phoenix, then OTK with Ultimate Nightmare.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Fortune Lady Every

This card is the main way that Fortune Ladies will be dealing with Yubel and it really does its job quite well. It can return during your end phase after Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s destruction effect by banishing a spellcaster from their graveyard and in their standby phase it can banish a face up monster you control.

Other Problematic Cards:

Fortune Lady Wind

On summon she can destroy spells/traps up to the number of Fortune Ladies, which can destroy Fire King Island.

Arcanite Magician

What makes this card troublesome is that it can destroy 2 cards on the field, which means it can get rid of a Yubel - Terror Incarnate in one turn, leaving you vulnerable to an OTK. As Fortune Ladies do not run any additional Spell Counter cards, this card is not a threat after your opponent used both of its destructions.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

This is another deck that can play many different tech cards, so you’ll never know what to expect. That’s why Phoenix is very helpful in this matchup, as not having to worry about backrow lets you easily OTK through a Fortune Lady Every, often with the Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare that got summoned by Every the turn before. If you can’t get a Phoenix you often won’t be able to OTK them, so you should always have a Yubel - Terror Incarnate as protection for the Every effect, but if they manage to get a second removal after Every banished your Terror Incarnate, you lose. If your opponent flips your Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare face down, you can simply leave it face down, which usually forces your opponent to attack into it as their only removal options to destroy a face down monster are their other synchro monsters, like Arcanite Magician.

Neos

Note: There are many very different variations of this deck and its dangers are 100% techs.

Difficulty: 5/10

Tl;dr: Don’t overcommit.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

None

Other Problematic Cards:

Lava Golem

This is the reason why you shouldn’t overcommit by leaving more than one monster on your board, but as long as Yubel - Terror Incarnate clears your field at the end of your turn Lava Golem is pretty much useless.

Creature Seizure

This card can steal one of our monster, which will be Yubel -Terror Incarnate most of the time.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

This deck purely relies on techs and synchro monsters to defeat Yubel. The only way for them to actually OTK is Enemy Controller or Creature Seizure. Even if they take your Yubel - Terror Incarnate there’s nothing for them to synchro into with it as it is LV11 and if they don’t OTK after using this, our Terror Incarnate will wipe their field in the end phase. You always have to be careful about putting two or more monsters on the field, as a Sphere Kuriboh will often stop your lethal attempt and then you’ll get Lava Golemed. Always prioritize resummoning Yubel - Terror Incarnate as soon as they somehow deal with it in order to constantly clear your and their board.

Six Samurai

Difficulty: 5/10

Tl;dr: Play around Dual Wield with Yaksha and by crashing Disciple. Clear the backrow with Phoenix. Flood the board (especially against Enishi). Try to not give them effects to chain to and force early activations of Enishi and Dual Wield.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi

Enishi provides chainable removal, the bane of our existence. To return a face-up monster of yours back to the hand it needs another Six Samurai on the field and has to banish 2 Six Samurais from the graveyard. Keep in mind that Enishi can return itself or another monster they control to the hand to enable Dual Wield. Enishi’s effect is once per turn, so overloading your board with targets can deal with it. Making them banish Fuma from the graveyard to protect one of their monsters will use Enishi’s ammo and is often the best way to disable its effect.

Six Style - Dual Wield

Dual Wield is their other option to miss-time Yubel - Terror Incarnate. It needs exactly one attack position Six Samurai and at least 2 targets on your side of the field and cannot activate, if there’s only 1 target. Dual Wield means that Fire King Island is a bad Trigger, as it will leave you with 2 cards on the field after you’ve summoned Yubel - Terror Incarnate. The same is the case for Disciple of Nephthys, but you can simply crash it into the Six Samurai and force your opponent to activate the Dual Wield without chaining it to Terror Incarnate’s effect, letting you summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare and attack the Six Samurai. Most commonly this will be Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and they will protect it by banishing Secret Six Samurai - Fuma, meaning when they summon their easy out to Ultimate Nightmare next turn, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, it won’t have 2 Six Samurai in the grave to banish, letting you win the turn after that most of the time. Their easiest out to this is another Fuma, which they can crash into Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, summon Enishi and then return the Ultimate Nightmare. If you already have Terror Incarnate on the field Dual Wield usually forces you to simply pass, unless you have a way to summon another one and force an early activation of the Dual Wield to prevent your Terror Incarnates from being miss-timed. Even if your opponent controls 2 Six Samurai monsters you always have to be aware of the possibility of World Legacy Clash removing one of those monsters to activate Dual Wield. So overall Fire King Avatar Yaksha is by far the easiest way to play around Dual Wield, as you can either set it against a potential Enishi, or crash it to summon Terror Incarnate to clear the board or force him to use Fuma’s protection. Sphere Kuriboh will put an attacking monster into defense, disabling Dual Wield, so you won’t have to worry about it next turn. Destroying a Fuma will let them summon a Six Samurai in attack, letting them use Dual Wield. Similar to Enishi you generally play around Dual Wield by flooding the board and forcing an early activation of it by attacking the only Six Samurai monster on the field, if you can’t destroy a Phoenix without playing into Dual Wield. This is usually done by summoning another Yubel - Terror Incarnate when you already have a Terror Incarnate or Ultimate Nightmare on the field and then playing Fire King Avatar Yaksha and attacking with it. You could also crash a Yaksha into it to poke with Ultimate Nightmare, which will leave you more vulnerable though.

Secret Six Samurai - Rihan

The only scary part about Rihan is that it banishes its targets, instead of returning them to the hand, so you can’t use My Name is Yubel to get a fresh Yubel into your hand. Compared to Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and Six Style - Dual Wield, Rihan is really not all that troublesome, if you run 6 or 7 Yubels and can get rid of it quickly. This is because of a couple of things: Rihan is quite costly to summon, it banishes one of its owner’s cards as a cost, it can only activate its effect during their turn and since its effect is not a quick effect like Enishi’s it can’t miss-time Yubel - Terror Incarnate. Like every Secret Six Samurai monster Rihan can banish itself from the graveyard to protect a Six Samurai monster on the field, but unlike the other Secret Six Samurai monsters it can protect multiple monsters not only from effect destruction, but from battle destruction as well. As summoning Rihan is usually a desperate play, due to all of its cons listed earlier, the best way to play around it is to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Other Problematic Cards:

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

Shi En is annoying for being able to negate Fire King Island, Rebirth of Nephthys, Treacherous Trap Hole and whatever other spell/trap cards you might run and completely shuts down certain hands and plays. At least Island won’t wipe your field, if it is negated by Shi En. When Shi En would be destroyed it can destroy any other face up Six Samurai monster instead, but Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, that destroy multiple targets at once, can still easily deal with that. If you have multiple spells/traps that you can activate in one turn you can try to bait out the Shi En negate with one and then activate the other. When doing this you have to make sure that your first spell would also be useful, because your opponent might call the bluff and not negate that.

Tech cards to look out for:

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

Six Samurais is the most skill intensive matchup and Dkayed has even made a Video on it Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is generally better to search with Disciple of Nephthys, since Shi En can negate Rebirth of Nephthys. Both will give your opponent 2 targets on the field (with Yubel - Terror Incarnate) for Dual Wield, but Phoenix of Nephthys will clear the backrow while forcing early activations and is easily summoned again, after getting returned to the hand. If you can get a Cerulean out though it can also play in your favour, since it will summon without activating an effect, so you can just attack the enemy monster and force them to use Dual Wield early without miss-timing Yubel - Terror Incarnate. If you have a Sphere Kuriboh, or just wanna take the risk, you can also clear the spells/traps with Phoenix before you summon Terror Incarnate. If you have Yubel - Terror Incarnate out and Fire King Avatar Yaksha or Disciple of Nephthys in hand and the enemy has many set spells/traps and Dual Wield not enabled, you should try to get Phoenix out, even if that can give them 2 targets for Dual Wield when it returns. After that it’s much easier to clear their board by summoning the returned Yubel - Terror Incarnate with another Trigger or even OTK them, when you don’t have to worry about World Legacy Clash or Dual Wield. If you get no options to destroy Phoenix, often because of a constant threat of Dual Wield, or Enishi is on the board (which doesn’t care about Phoenix), you are generally looking to flood the board with at least 2 Terror Incarnates and something that can swing to force an early activation of the Enishi/Dual Wield to guarantee a board wipe and then win from there. Setting Yaksha forces your opponent to summon Armades, Keeper of Boundaries or they will allow you to summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate, when they destroy the Yaksha. This is actually good for us, if we have a Disciple or Island, as the Armades disables Dual Wield and they most likely won’t have an Enishi + other Six Samurai. In rare cases they might get Enishi + Shi En + Fuma and swing into a set Yaksha with Fuma, flipping it up, then return it to the hand with Enishi for an OTK. Always keep in mind that Secret Six Samurai monsters can protect a monster from single target removal, which includes Yubel - Terror Incarnate destroying a single monster. If Yubel - Terror Incarnate destroys more than one, for example Disciple, they won’t be able to use that protection. When they have Shi En + Dual Wield and they chain Dual Wield to Terror Incarnate’s effect to return Disciple and the Terror Incarnate in the end phase they can still use Secret Six Samurai- Fuma’s protection, because Disciple will be returned before Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect goes through. Be careful about leaving your monsters, especially Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, in attack position, as Fuma can crash and summon Enishi. If you see a set monster it’s Fuma most of the times and if you destroy it you should also try to destroy the Six Samurai it floats into as well. Sadly Yaksha can’t swing and destroy it, as they have 1800 ATK and DEF respectively.

Spellbooks

Difficulty: 7/10

Tl;dr: Swarm the board. Summon Phoenix.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Spellbook of Fate

Spellbook of Fate is a big threat to Yubel for multiple reasons. It banishes, it is chainable and it could even flip Yubel - Terror Incarnate face down and banish it the following turn, which prevents a field wipe and a Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare summon.

Other Problematic Cards:

Silent Magician

Somewhat similar to Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, Silent Magician can negate one spell card activation per turn, so Rebirth of Nephthys and Fire King Island. Because of this you should try to use your spell cards early, while it’s not on the field. Silent Magician floats into Silent Magician LV8, which is a lot less problematic, as it is only unaffected by spell cards and can’t negate them and Yubel doesn’t care about its high ATK, but you still have to remember that Rebirth of Nephthys can’t destroy it.

Breaker the Magical Warrior

Breaker can destroy Fire King Island and your other spell/trap cards.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

While not being able to banish cards is no problem for Yubel, if Kycoo inflicts battle damage to you it can banish up to 2 monsters in your graveyard, which can get rid of Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. So you should try to not leave your board open with any of these cards in your graveyard.

Tech cards to look out for:

None

• Tips:

Since Spellbook of Fate is only once per turn, presenting multiple threats is the best way to deal with it. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys forces them to activate it early and summoning Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Yubel - Terror Incarnate forces them to choose between them. Even a Fire King Avatar Yaksha can help, as attacking the only Spellcaster will often make them use Fate early, instead of chaining it to Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect. You should try to not give them any effects to chain Fate to in general. When going against 2 set spells/traps, usually Spellbook Organization and Spellbook of Fate, with a Spellcaster and you can pop a card with Rebirth of Nephthys, destroy the Spellcaster, since this disables the Fate without risking a 50:50. Otherwise destroying the Fate is usually the better option.

Vendreads

Difficulty: 9/10

Tl;dr: Hope they don’t ritual with Revenants. Kill them before they do.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Vendread Revenants

This card is literally the only reason this matchup is almost unwinnable for us. Any ritual monster summoned with this card on the field as tribute will get the quick effect to banish one special summoned monster per turn. Not only can they use this during either player’s turn, but they can also chain it. On top of that, Revenants can return to the board once after being destroyed, making even itself hard to deal with.

Other Problematic Cards and Skills

Revendread Origin

This card can protect Revendread Slayer and Revendread Executor from a destruction once by banishing itself.

Vendread Houndhorde

Any ritual monster summoned with this card on the field as tribute will get the quick effect to banish one spell/trap card per turn, which counters Fire King Island.

This makes them start with Ritual Cage on the field, which will protect their ritual monsters from our monster’s destruction. If they play this you can basically concede already, unless they brick or misplay. A possible out is Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, because it will still deal damage, even if it doesn’t destroy the monsters. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and a Ritual Destruction can also destroy it, but getting them out usually requires too many resources, to have any chance against a Revenants Ritual after that.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

If they can summon Revendread Slayer or Revendread Executor with Revendread Origin and Vendread Revenants effect it’s pretty much over. The only out is summoning Yubel - Terror Incarnate and doing a Cerulean Destruction in the same turn, to get rid of the Origin protection (if they only have 1). They’ll have to banish the Cerulean, letting Terror Incarnate destroy the monster. If you go first and summon a Yubel - Terror Incarnate and they banish it during their turn, leaving you with a Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare on your second turn, it can also work together with the Cerulean Destruction to break their board. Sometimes you can OTK them when they are setting up with Revendread Evolution, a simple Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare + Fire King Avatar Yaksha are enough. If they don’t get a Revenants effect there’s still hope, but if you can’t OTK them, destroying their ritual monsters will often let them add the cards needed to get it in their next turn so you might wanna consider passing. A double Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare setup is also an effective way to OTK through 2 ritual monsters or 1 with Origin protection.

Cyberdarks

Difficulty: 6/10

Tl;dr: Have another destruction ready when destroying face-up machines. Cerulean is the MVP. Avoid setting Yaksha. Kill them fast.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

See “Desperado” Matchup

Other Problematic Cards:

Cyberdark Edge

This is what really sets this matchup apart from the pure Desperado one. Edge is a battle against time, since it can simply attack directly, ignoring the Yubels. Leng-Ling makes it even more dangerous, dealing 2500 LP in one turn, making them only need 2 instead of 4 Edge attacks. It also protects it from one destruction, which can prove lethal for them though.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

There are a lot of OTKs you can do with Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare vs Cyberdarks, as they have lots of high attack monsters and not much to stop a Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare attack, except Desperado Barrel Dragon should you destroy a machine, which is why that’ll have to be the lethal attack. The most common one is attacking Cyberdark Edge equipped with Leng-Ling with Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare, dealing 2500 damage and destroying Leng Ling, then attacking it with Cerulean, dealing 2200 damage. Because of Cyberdark Edge you have to play very aggressively, since Yubel - Terror Incarnate doesn’t provide protection against it. Like with pure Desperados you always have to be careful about destroying destroying face-up machines, which is why Cerulean is an absolute priority, since it provides another way to destroy machines and Desperado in the main phase.

Triamids

Difficulty: 4/10

Tl;dr: Stall with Terror Incarnate until you can get Phoenix. Setting up a Phoenix-Loop is gg.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Triamid Pulse

Triamid Pulse, while offering chainable removal, is not as bad of a Yubel counter as it may seem, since it takes a while to get it going, letting you set up freely. You need to get rid of it quickly though, since once it gets going it can be very hard to stop. Also keep in mind that Pulse has a second effect that can summon a Rock monster from the graveyard in defense position.

Other Problematic Cards:

Triamid Master

This card can be very problematic, if combined with Paleozoic Canadia to flip down and destroy your Yubels.

Triamid Kingolem

Kingolem turns all their Triamid monster into an Armades, Keeper of Boundaries, which means Fire King Avatar Yaksha can‘t activate its effect when destroyed.

Triamid Fortress

Triamid Fortress protects Triamid monsters from effect destructions. Since they can simply chain any of their monsters to a destruction effect to swap to this field spell, Yubel - Terror Incarnate just has to sit there and be a wall against them.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

As soon as you get Phoenix out, it’s basically over, because they 100% rely on their backrow and field spells. If you can’t get Phoenix, stall with Yubel - Terror Incarnate, as they can’t usually get rid of it quickly. Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is also a good option to stall, but you really want to add Phoenix first with Disciple of Nephthys.

Blue-Eyes

Difficulty: 7/10

Tl;dr: Bait out Sealed Tombs. Use Yaksha as an extra layer of protection against Snipe Hunter. OTK fast with Ultimate Nightmare.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Snipe Hunter

Snipe Hunter is the main way of removal that Blue-Eyes have to get rid of Yubels and when combined with luck and Cosmo Brain or Silver’s Cry, the result is usually an OTK. Because of this, having Fire King Avatar Yaksha on the field and Yubel in hand instead of Yubel - Terror Incarnate adds an extra monster, that Snipe Hunter has to destroy to clear your field, which can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Other Problematic Cards:

Dragon Spirit of White

This is the one card that prevents Treacherous Trap Hole from being amazing in this matchup, as it banishes a spell/trap on summon. It can also banish Fire King Island to wipe your field. That’s why you should avoid using Island unless you are prepared. Make sure to not set backrow if your opponent can summon Spirit when your Yubel - Terror Incarnate destroys The White Stone of Ancients or Dawn Knight during the end phase.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

Try to keep Fire King Avatar Yaksha on the field whenever possible to add an extra layer of protection. Also try to set it to play around Enemy Controller. Look for quick ways to end the game, but be careful about Sphere Kuriboh. Since Blue-Eyes is not a backrow reliant deck, Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is usually not needed in this matchup and can be used to bait out Sealed Tombs for Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. If you haven’t baited it out already you should only summon Cerulean when you can go for an OTK. The high ATK of their monsters combined with not much defense means that Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare can deal heavy damage to their LP.

Magnets

Difficulty: 6/10

Tl;dr: Use Yaksha as an extra layer of protection against Berserkion. OTK them before they OTK you.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior

Berserkion is the boss monster of the Deck and a real threat to Yubel as its destruction effect isn’t once per turn. If there are enough Magnet Warriors in the grave to banish it can easily clear your board and go for lethal with another Magnet Warrior on board. The best way to prevent this is to put as many targets on the board as possible and hope your opponent doesn’t have enough destructions to clear everything, which makes Fire King Avatar Yaksha on the field with Yubel in hand a must. Cerulean and Phoenix are also good extra bodies. If it doesn’t OTK you and stays on the field, you‘ll have to deal with it and the Magnets it summons when destroyed. If there are other monsters on the board when it dies, it won’t summon the banished Magnets.

Other Problematic Cards:

Block Dragon

Block Dragon will make their rock type monsters indestructible by card effects. Combined with it’s 3000 DEF this means that there’s no way for us to get over it. It’s still very easy to deal with, because the resources needed to summon it mean Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare has more than enough turns to attack it, dealing 2500 damage each turn.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

Always attack their Electromagnet Warriors to make them summon a Delta the Magnet Warrior, but be careful about destroying that, since leaving it on the field is usually a good idea as this takes away one potential destruction from Berserkion.

Subterrors

Difficulty: 7/10

Tl;dr: Get Phoenix out asap. Summon multiple Terror Incarnates against full boards and swing into their Umastryx so you can attack with the Ultimate Nightmare.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Subterror Behemoth Umastryx

Umastryx’s flip effect is to banish any monster you control. While not chainable this is still a big threat to Yubel, since you can’t summon your Yubels from the banished pile. Subterror Final Battle is the one thing that makes this a threat to Yubel, because they can flip it up on your turn without you having to attack it.

Golem Sentry & Flip Flop Frog

Golem Sentry and Flip Flop Frog can both return monsters on your side of the field to your hand. They won’t do anything on your turn, but are still a threat to Yubel if you can’t get rid of them. Also keep in mind that the effect of Flip Flop Frog activates if you attack into it, which is not the case for Golem Sentry.

Other Problematic Cards:

Statue of Anguish Pattern

When your opponent plays Subterror Nemesis Warrior in attack position and passes with a set card, you can usually assume that that set card is Statue of Anguish Pattern, which your opponent will summon to then tribute it off with Nemesis Warrior. While it usually can’t get it’s destruction effect off, it can be devastating if it does so, as it can get rid of your Yubel - Terror incarnate and then be tributed off with Subterror Nemesis Warrior for an Umastryx, which can then banish the Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare during your opponent’s turn and potentially otk you.

Subterror Final Battle

Without this Subterrors wouldn’t be a problem, but this card lets them flip up their monsters on your turn, activating their flip effects. If that wasn’t enough, it also enables easy OTKs, as it can give a Subterror monster ATK equal to its DEF.

Subterror Behemoth Stygokraken

Stygokraken, while not dangerous on its own, can provide another out to Yubel when paired with Paleozoic Canadia or any other card that can flip Yubel face down. Aside from that it can also destroy your set spell/trap cards.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

If you can get rid of their backrow, especially Subterror Final Battle, you have basically won, so Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is an absolute priority. Subterrors can’t OTK you turn 2 so when going first you should always destroy Sacred if you can, as this allows you to freely set up Yubel - Terror Incarnate next turn to wipe the board. You should generally try to summon as many targets for Umastryx as you can to ensure a field wipe, specifically Terror Incarnates and Cerulean, both of which Subterrors absolutely have to banish before they would wipe their field. With Disciple and Island you can first bait out a potential Paleozoic Canadia or Floodgate Traphole with the Disciple and then summon Yubel - Terror Incarnate with Island. If they have at least one flip-down and an Umastryx with Final Battle only Phoenix or Cerulean can save you. A neat trick against only Final Battle with Umastryx is to summon Terror Incarnate and swing into Umastryx. They’ll have to banish the Terror Incarnate and you can kill the Umastryx with the Ultimate Nightmare.

Crystrons

Difficulty: 4/10

Tl;dr: Keep Terror Incarnate on the field. Win quickly with Cerulean, or it will be banished.

Good Techs:

Yubel Counters:

Crystron Quariongandrax

This is the archetype’s boss monster and while not being able to get rid of Yubel - Terror Incarnate entirely, it can banish your monsters on the field and even in the graveyard, which is a big problem for Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. When it is destroyed it can summon any banished monster to its field, including one of yours. However, usually they will summon back one of their banished Tuner monsters to go into more synchros. Although it has 3000 ATK your opponent usually won’t be able to OTK you when they manage to summon this.

Other Problematic Cards:

White Aura Dolphin

What makes this card really annoying are the basically Infinite lives, as it just keeps coming back by banishing a WATER monster from their graveyard. Aside from that this card isn’t really a threat if you have Yubel - Terror Incarnate or Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare on the field. Ultimate Nightmare is also a really good option to force your opponent to not resummon it, as this will lose them the game if they can’t get rid of your Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.

Crystron Ametrix

The only thing this card really does is stall by preventing your special summoned monsters from attacking by switching them into defense position. But this isn’t that big of a problem as Crystrons can’t capitalize on this, because the only threats they have are Black Rose Dragon and Crystron Quariongandrax, neither of which can otk you if you have Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field.

Tech cards to look out for:

• Tips:

Always keep in mind where the monster that your opponent’s crystron tuner summons is coming from. This way you can plan ahead as you know what Synchro Monsters they can summon. Crystron Citree summons from the graveyard, Crystron Quan from the hand and Crystron Rion summons a banished monster to the field. Using the destruction effect of Rebirth of Nephthys or Cerulean Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys can be an effective way to get rid of their Tuner, since they don’t target you can simply destroy the Tuner or the monster they synchro summon. Try to bait out the Quariongandrax banish with

While not being competitively viable, Yubel is still an extremely fun deck to play on the ladder. Clearing the enemy’s board with Yubel - Terror Incarnate and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is as satisfying as Rebirth of Nephthys’ non-targeting destruction and almost every game is a “spot the lethal” puzzle, if you don’t brick of course. Its success will always depend on the removal cards currently in the meta, so it will probably be still playable in the future, especially as more and more players will forget how to play against it and new players come, that haven’t faced it before.

Special thanks to RandomPl0x for help with the guide and of course Jadehex, both are doing an amazing job on this website. Shoutouts to everyone from the Yubel and Nephthys channel, especially Baconmaster, Seb and fkntorres. If you have any further questions that’s the place to ask.

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