Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Debut: Yubel Unchained ft. Dark Time Wizard

When Ruben Peneranda won the Yugioh World Championship in 2024, he did so with a deck very much in its prime, Fiendsmith Yubel. This was a flexible combination of various Fiends which all crossed over with one another, allowing him to bridge seamlessly between packages and basically just out-grind each opponent. The year is now 2026, and while Fiendsmith still pops up (largely for reasons of making an early D/D/D Wave King High Caesar) Yubel has been laying dormant since the Limiting of its main playmaker, Phantom of Yubel. In spite of this taking away a bit of the ceiling and resilience that the strategy was famed for, Yubel’s core of cards is still otherwise fully legal, and unhit. Moreover, since it fell from the limelight, it’s received a number of cards which synergize with the strategy, such as the brand-new Joey cards in Beyond the Brave. In spite of Fiendsmith (and broadly, Fiend piles’) demise at the hands of the recent forbidden list, I still have hope there’s something here for those who enjoy the devilish side of Yugioh. By combining Yubel with Dark Time Wizard, one of the game’s most unsolved, underrated engines, as well as the new Unchained cards, we might find a way to salvage a strategy which is otherwise deceased.

I buried the lede a bit in the intro, but this list is meant both as a revival to Yubel (which is honestly underplayed at present) and a showcase of the strength that Dark Time Wizard has as an engine. Given it comprises only 4 Main Deck cards, and 2 Extra Deck cards, we’ll talk about it first. Similar to LaDR/RoLaD, this is a series of cards tied by one they mention, being Dark Time Wizard (henceforth abbreviated as DTW). The Wizard itself is a Quick-Play Spell with two modes: It either adds another of the archetype from Deck to hand, and then itself from GY in the End Phase, or flips a coin and destroys a random player’s monsters, inflicting damage if it’s your opponent. That first effect is pretty fantastic, as one of the cards you can search for is Foolish Graverobber, which is basically a Trap Monster Reborn that then either resets DTW or a backrow from the opponent’s yard. Finally, if a monster was destroyed by DTW, you can Kaiju from the Extra Deck into Red-Eyes Black Dragon Exceed, which in turn gets a body back. For how small this package is, it’s quite compelling if you meet any of the following criteria: 1. You want to go second a bit more easily, 2. You can put monsters on both fields, or 3. You want your monsters to occasionally be destroyed. Yubel fulfills...all three.

The thing keeping DTW and by extension Red-Eyes Exceed from being seen in more places is the fact that, if it’s activated and one player controls no monsters, it won’t only do nothing...but also because nothing was destroyed, you’re precluded from Summoning Exceed. Going first, Yubel has access to Geistgrinder Golem, which we play as only one out of 60 cards in the case we see DTW, and going second we have Yubel itself as well as its Spirit counterpart, which each yearn to be destroyed in order to float into stronger versions. In fact, basically all of the Yubel support cards do some manner of recursion or floating when destroyed, meaning that you can (by virtue of DTW being a Quick-Play) threaten your opponent with a quick wipe or protection from targeted interaction, by holding it in hand. If they got rid of, say, your Samsara D. Lotus, their board is probably wiped, but if you got rid of it, you can go into Exceed via their monster and revive it to try and activate its ignition effect once more. The synergy comes naturally, and DTW doesn’t even need to be sided going second like most board breakers because it at worst replaces itself and gets you Graverobber.

On the topic of Exceed reviving a Level 8 or lower monster, let’s talk about our secondary engine. Formerly, this was Fiendsmith, but now, it’s Unchained. The strength of Fiendsmith has been stripped for parts, going from a potent deck in its own right, to an engine for Caesar, to…nothing, after the banlist. In fact, this whole strategy article was going to be scrapped for a time, until I realized Unchained can fulfill a similar role. By way of Unchained Soul Lord of Yama, which is semi-generic, we can access the Unchained line by way of Yubel—though critically, we can’t do the reverse. This means that going deeper on cards like Unchained Oni of Shara makes a ton of sense, as a way to get Soul of Yubel out of our hand at worst, and perform the entire Unchained gameplan at best. It’s a bit funny, but having these Unchained cards at a greater density than Yubel cards still leaves it feeling more like a Yubel strategy, because Unchained pieces are so interchangeable.

The core combo of the deck remain the same, where you aim to open either Throne for a standard Yubel line, or Unchained Oni of Shyma for the Unchained half of the deck. We used to line through things like Varudras, Phantom, & Caesar, but now we’re ending on just Soul and the Unchained package, ideally with a resummoned Samsara D. Lotus. The benefit of not only doing this with DTW, but also as 60-card, is that we can feel safer in the fact that our garnets will remain in the deck and not in our hand, so we can add additional interaction by sending something like a Graceful & Skull Dice with our Graverobber, or flex Unchained Soul of Shyama as another body we loathe to draw. After you pop OG Yubel with Phantom, Foolish Graverobber can revive them to turn back on Lotus, and prepare a DTW for the next turn. Ultimately, as you’ll see many decks experimenting with it, DTW is a board breaker that still “works” going first. Some people will prefer Graverobber, others one of the Main Deck monsters as a form of extension, but the crux of it is that you can flex your opening monster’s effects through targeted interaction, and at the very worst then have access to a huge Extra Deck Kaiju. This all speaks to the power of DTW, because for 4-5 cards in Main, frankly, that’s a steal.

Given Magnificent Maestros has already had its sneak peek by the time this is published, I wanted to take a moment and talk about how this strategy has changed, now that we have Unchained as an option. After the banlist, basically all Fiend piles were dead in the water, and I mean dead dead. Things like Aerial Eater & Caesar being fully banned just prevented a ton of flexibility between various Fiend archetypes, and as I stated earlier, this article was almost left to rot in the vault. Unchained has received a swath of new cards which do a ton for the deck, and while many of your starters do Fiend-lock you, they only do that…if uninterrupted. See, the benefit of DTW is that a Quick Effect means to pop one player’s board either floats everything you control, or obviously nukes the opponent; you can think of it like another style of Unchained Soul of Sharvara, where it insulates your plays by allowing you to pop your own cards. Sometimes you’ll find yourself unable to go into Exceed due to the fiend lock on Unchained Ogre Shma, but even so just having access to DTW (and Graverobber, which is absolutely phenomenal in that deck) is great. Just flex DTW before you lock yourself, and use it more to insulate Yubel plays. If you find yourself unhappy with the Yubel-heavy variation, the more purely Unchained version might be even better, even if it’s a mite less consistent.

So, what’s in our Side Deck? Ruben ran a couple of interesting cards, such as an additional Unchained Link and Varudras for going first, and Purulias for going second. Rest in peace Varudras, we hardly knew ye. I feel that, with the help of DTW, it makes less sense to be so all-in on either going first or second; there’s also less pressure on our Extra Deck, with Phantom being Limited, and Beatrice/Moon being banned. With Artmage Power Patron looking to be one of two top decks, with Toon looming, I’m far more interested in running things like Forbidden Droplet/Crown, especially with Droplet being able to chain to our own DTW and send it as part of the cost. Handtraps we can’t fire immediately basically no longer work, thanks to Artmage Non-Finito, so maxing on Mulcharmies and breakers seems sound for going second. For first, Solemns never hurt, and even something like Crossout could be worthwhile, with a few errant targets in Side such as Nibiru. Finally, don’t forget The Great Gallant Bandit as an answer going second.

Between DTW and the new The Great Gallant Bandit—also debuting in Beyond the Brave—this list manages to pack a shocking amount of tools to go second. We are over the standard 40, due to the benefit it affords in reducing our odds to open soft garnets, and I value the consistency present between both engines in terms of getting the Unchained engine online. Moreover, with so many soft garnets, such as both original forms of Yubel, Shyama, & Foolish Graverobber, it actually helps us to skew all the way to 60, such that we open these cards a bit less.

One casualty of switching to the Unchained engine was the loss of the former DARK Fiend/Sacred Beast package, with cards like the Summoning Beasts. To some extent I think we’ll miss them, especially the Continuous Spell Opening of the Spirit Gates, but ultimately they lack the necessary synergy with Unchained to really get us excited. They can make Yama off of a Normal, but not through even a modicum of disruption. That’s just not good enough anymore.

It’s an interesting thing to see how decks fare after their day in the sun. Something like Purrely is only now seeing their core pieces taken off of the banlist, and one must question if Yubel could be close behind. Even if it isn’t, a single Phantom doesn’t outright kill the deck, but rather reduces its final endboard by 2 Link Material, or 1 Xyz. The strengths of the deck remain, and coupled with the brand-new Unchained cards coming soon, and the support from Dark Time Wizard as an included package, there’s hope for this strategy yet.

How have you been enjoying the DTW package? Has it helped you go second more consistently? Is there any hope for the other Main Deck cards? Are there hidden gems in Beyond the Brave you want to see me cover? Let me know in the comments below!