Introduction
Welcome to this guide! If you've found it, you likely stumbled across it through a YouTube or Twitch Duel Links channel, or through some other Duel Links community. While players are free to experiment and theorycraft their own decks, resources such as this website are helpful in gaining an early competitive edge in the game. This guide is intended to introduce you to the resources and examples that you can find to help you on your journey as a duelist.
How do I spend my time and money wisely in this game?
This game is free to play (F2P), and can be downloaded from the App Store, Google Play Store and Steam. In the game are there two currencies.
The first is Gold, which is readily available to obtain all over duel world and is commonly used for the Card Trader. It is often considered a worthless currency, as its usage is quite limited and it is excessively distributed.
The second are gems, used to purchase card packs and structure decks from the in-game shop (your main source of new cards). These are also obtainable by simply playing the game, but are more sparsely distributed. In order to obtain gems, you will likely need to grind in-game events as well as level up Legendary Duelists. Cards can also be purchased through spending money, but it's important to know how to wisely acquire new cards.
Overview
Before you go crazy with your money and gems, listen to a budget player that has a significant amount of experience. First off, I have a six-step process of general investment in this game. After that, I will present a couple of examples of smart investments. Finally, I'll give you some tips and tricks to become a better player.
Step One – Do I need a new deck?
The first step in the process is to look at the Tier List and the Gem Guide. Ask yourself these two questions:
Do I have a competitive deck?
In Duel Links, like many competitive card games, decks will often be given a label that defines their power within the current "meta". The Metagame, or meta for short, can be commonly understood as the "Most Effective Tactics Available" (although it's not actually an acronym). In the context of Duel Links, the meta would consist of the most commonly used decks at a given time, which can be a week a month or a year. To stay up to date with meta shifts and changes, you can look at the DuelLinksMeta tier list, which is updated weekly by the Duel Links community's top players.
The tier list outlines the current meta, And decks are added to or removed from tiers based on their volume and performance in tournaments*. A deck's strength is typically defined by a number - Tier 1, 2 or 3 - or some other designation such as "King of Games Worthy" or "Rogue", which dictates that, while still good, it is outside of the main group of competitive decks. The following three definitions represent the criteria of each tier.
Tier 1 - “Expected to be a large percentage of the top cut** in a competitive tournament."
Tier 2 - “Expected to be in the top cut of a competitive tournament, but not a large percentage."