Introduction
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 Loading... and Loading... 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 Loading... and Loading... , 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 Loading... miss the timing. At the same time this also means that Yubel is an easy KoG, depending on the meta.
About the Authors
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.
Overview
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 Loading... , which is summoned from the deck or graveyard by using Loading... , Loading... , or Loading... to destroy Loading... in your hand. Loading... cannot be destroyed by battle and destroys every other monster in your end phase. Its main role is protection until you can get out Loading... and/or Loading... . Loading... is an offensive option to poke or close out the game.
Core Cards
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 Loading... , 2x Loading... and 1-2x Loading... .
Yubel (3x):
The only purpose of this card is to be destroyed in your hand to summon Loading... 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 Loading... 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 Loading... 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. Loading... has the same battle-protection as Loading... , 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 Loading... , 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.