No matter what deck you run, every archetype and strategy needs some staples backing them up. These cards are incredible, able to fit into almost any deck and instantly upgrading them after doing so. A list of generic cards takes a long, long time to make. I’ve done it though, in the hope that new and/or returning players know exactly which cards they can afford.

Overall, every player should own every card on this list. Budget-wise, I’ve made it easy to know what to get if you’re short on money.

Or if you’re an experienced player looking to separate your staples from your useless commons, this list contains every staple of every card type to make your life easier!

If you acquire every budget staple on this list, you’ll be right as rain to start dueling casually and being successful.

If you acquire literally every card on this list, you’ll just need a meta archetype and you’ll be winning tournaments!

Cards with (B) next to them signify cheap budget options

Also, check out the Ultimate List of Budget Decks!

Engines/Toolboxes

Engines/Toolboxes are a series of cards you can tech into almost any deck.

They work independently to boost the power of your deck, even if the rest of the deck is unrelated to the engine in terms of archetype/attribute/type etc.

The Brilliant Engine for example gets you a Fusion monster easily and an extra Normal Summon, allowing you to make your Link plays a lot faster and/or tribute summon if needed!

Interrupted Kaiju Slumber Package

Brilliant Engine

(B) Predaplants

Toon Chimeratech

Spellbook

Windwitch

Lightsworn Mill

(B) Symphonic Warriors (for an extra Normal Summon and nice pendulum scales)

Frog Level 2 Engine

Swap Frog x 3 Ronintoadin x 2 Dupe Frog x 3

Bamboo (extra draw power)

Artifacts

Artifact Sanctum x 3 Artifact Scythe x 1-2

Super Polymerisation & targets

Invoked (Very strong. Which cards you choose depend on the deck you’re putting them in, look up Invoked engines for your archetype)

Monsters

Hand-Traps

Other

Spells

Traps

XYZ

Rank 1

Rank 2

Rank 3

Rank 4

Rank 5

Rank 6

Rank 7

Rank 8

Rank 9

Rank 10

Synchro

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Level 11

Level 12

Link

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Fusion