Just like the regular game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links has its share of weak decks and cards, although some fared worse than usual due to not having key cards or the format not being too kind to their playstyle.
- Flamvell fall on the lower tiers here like they did in the real life game, with almost all monsters having only 200 DEF leaving them vulnerable to Enemy Controller/Pulse Mines. Furthermore, they have no access to their boss monsters or ace cards like Rekindling (they eventually got this, but quite a few years down the line and by then they just Can't Catch Up), Flamvell Firedog or even Flamvell Counter and Flamvell Commando.
- Ghostricks relied on Main Phase 2, which is absent in Duel Links, to use their effects to flip themselves face-down, meaning that if they want to use those effects they have to give up their attack, so their only real option is to mill the enemy's Deck with Ghostrick Skeleton (or attempt beatdown with Ghoul).
- Cubics hit the low end only because there's no way to get Vijam
, the cornerstone card of the deck outside of Aigami's skill which adds three to the deck and locks you into only using Cubic monsters, Spells, and Traps. However, later on the Vijam skill was buffed to allow you to play non-Cubic Spells and Traps (up to 6), making the deck work much better, although still not a meta deck due to their horribly clunky playstyle (because most of the Cubics are extremely bricky, the deck was basically railroaded into attempting to turbo out Buster Gundil and OTK with it) and lack of backrow removal. Cubics got another shot in the arm in December 2022 when the DSOD character level cap was raised to 40 and Aigami's new level-up rewards included 1 copy each of Vijam and Crimson Nova, giving the deck some muscle and allowing it to play an actual Skill (such as Dimension Summon to unleash a Buster Gundil without having to put up with its summoning condition, or the new Emperor Advent to run an Extra Deck and allow some outside tech cards while having Indiora Doom Volt as an extra power play), and the re-run of the DSOD Duelist Road gave them Cubic Causality for some disruption. While still not a great deck since the archetype has no means of dealing with Spell and Trap cards and must be played mostly or entirely pure, making it extremely vulnerable to enemy disruption, these additions were enough to elevate them to a playable state. - Consensus on Gimmick Puppets upon their release (in a main box dedicated to them, to boot) is that they are on the lower end of the tier list. Despite Quattro's skills for the archetype seeming powerful on paper, they carry heavy restrictions and even with the consistency boost, they still have a high tendency to brick. In addition, their effectiveness tends to decrease the longer a match goes on, as there are many ways to play around their effects while also disrupting them if they are not set up well, and depleting their resources only increases their chances of bricking. Support for the archetype eventually did come, alleviating some but not all of the deck's problems.
- Evil HEROes ended up on the lower end due to being far too power crept by the time they were finally released. Not to mention, they were released in a Structure Deck format that came with several reprints of existing Elemental Hero cards while leaving out much of their good support. It's theorized that even if their good support does eventually get released, it will be too little, too late. Pendulum Genesis and the October 2021 D.D. Castle event rectifies this somewhat by giving the rest of their support barring Malicious Bane, Evil Mind, and Sinister Necrom (technically, since it is only available through the Sinister Calling skill), although they ended up cutting Infernal Sniper’s burn damage in half. The jury is still out as to whether or not they have an actual place in the metagame, with the most successful builds from the new support (a Dark Gaia-focused deck involving the Supreme King's Castle Revelation skill or decks utilizing the Domination of Darkness skill) being considered decent rogue strategies. Eventually, HERO decks as a whole gained significant support with the Shining Sunrise main box, as well as additional skills for all 3 versions of Jaden, including Supreme King Jaden. His new skill, The Power Leads to Destiny, finally grants Evil HEROes the aforementioned Malicious Bane, as well as much more build variety, making them a viable rogue deck with two distinct ways to play: a more straightforward beatstick version involving Malicious Edge, and a Rank 4 Xyz variant which eschews Malicious Edge in favor of Elemental HERO Solid Soldier and Liquid Soldier.
- Yang Zing appear to have hit the lower end of the tier spectrum upon their release. They are generally considered to be a weaker, more stall-heavy variant of Tech Genus that carry the same major weakness of many other turbo Synchro decks (having to essentially climb a ladder with little to no defense against disruption), with none of the positive qualities. The only established way to make it somewhat competitive is to splash in the Invoked engine, which only barely allows it to scrape rogue deck status, although they eventually received a viable hybrid build with Rose Dragons by way of Yazi.
- Meklords are a tragically depressing low tier case due to the changing times and being released too late in the game's lifespan to matter. Much like in the real life card game, they are fairly bricky and have a major flaw in that they are only designed to counter Synchros. Unfortunately, they were released at a time when Xyz monsters were prevalent and received further support only when Pendulums were barely starting to be released. Because of their inherent flaws, it is widely believed that they will never be a viable competitive deck. Even after receiving another minibox dedicated to them and even skills for both Primo and Aporia (including Meklord Refinement, which essentially gives the deck infinite consistency at the cost of making them unable to run non-Meklord main deck monsters), they are still considered very rogue... at least until Meklord Refinement and Meklord Astro Dragon Triskelion, which shot them into the opposite end of the power scale until they warranted a nerf, dropping them back into rogue status.
- While Kozmo aren't considered completely unplayable, they do stand out for how underwhelming they ended up being compared to their status in the real-life game at the time of their release. While most of their cards made it to Duel Links, their lineup is missing a few key cards such as Dark Destroyer and their Field Spell Kozmotown, putting a serious crimp in the deck's power and consistency and leaving them at a disadvantage against the beatdown-heavy format of Duel Links. They did eventually get both (Dark Destroyer as a level up reward from Quinton and Kozmotown from Phoenix Blaze), but by then they were too power-crept to really do anything against the likes of Mayakashi, Tenyi, and Constellar, all of which had better versatility and/or grind games.
- Rokkets, like Kozmo, are a rather strange case in that while they are a good archetype with a strong engine in the real life game, they are missing key support cards and boss monsters that severely cripple and limit their potential to be strong right out of the gate. Their current build has a very lackluster Turn 1, and they are mostly about turboing out Extra Deck summons on Turn 2 in an attempt to OTK. The longer the duel goes on, the less potent they become. Making matters worse is that they were introduced into a metagame dominated by decks that have very strong Turn 1 plays as well as the ability to either endure or create grind situations. They were eventually salvaged by a buff to Varis' Borrel Launch skill, removing the cost of shuffling a card back into your Deck and just letting him search Boot Sector Launch for free, as well as getting Void Ogre Dragon as a decent monster to make when going first (since the deck almost always empties its hand on turn 1).
- Battlewasps, although not as prevalent in the TCG metagame as others, were screwed over big time when they made their way into Duel Links. They first debuted in Witch's Sorcery in June 2020, but lacked their key cards (Sting the Poison, Dart the Hunter, Azusa the Ghost Bow, Ballista the Armageddon, and Battlewasp – Nest) to make them a viable deck, with only Hama the Conquering Bow seeing competitive use as a generic Synchro Monster. It wasn’t until November 2022 that they finally got the other half of their members in Braver Victory, but by that point they were too power-crept to do anything with (not that it stops some people from trying anyway).
- Raidraptors. Imagine one of the most hyped archetypes in the entire history of the franchise finally getting added to Duel Links, only to find that their support amounts to only the absolute bare minimum required for them to be playable, with none of the support that actually makes them threatening in the real life game. Not even Blackwings, their predecessor, received this sort of treatment upon their introduction. Their optimal playstyle, even with their first wave of additional support, effectively consists of making a pair of Xyz Monsters that aren't even part of the archetype (one of which requires paying half your LP with Soul Shave Force in order to summon) and praying they can disrupt the opponent's plays until you win, while also hoping they don't break your board with a Spell like Dark Hole or Book of Moon and/or have enough resources to overwhelm you regardless. On top of this, the skill that enables the deck to be played disallows the use of non-Raidraptor monsters as Xyz material, making the issues with the card pool even more evident by forcing them to be played pure, and using its effect to search a Rank-Up Magic also returns your Rank 4 Raidraptors to your Extra Deck at the end of the turn (although this is rarely a detriment since, as previously mentioned, the deck rarely ends its turn on a Rank 4 Raidraptor anyway).
- Dracoslayers were released in Braver Victory along with a Special Set that includes Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer. With the deck's real-life track record, Luster Pendulum was placed on Limited 1 upon release like other Special Set cards such as Trishula and Reinforcement of the Army... only for the archetype to receive absolutely no fanfare. In addition to requiring multiple very high-rarity cards to become cohesive, Pendulum support in Duel Links just wasn't good enough to enable a wholly Pendulum-focused archetype like Dracoslayers (aside from Dinomists, which see some ladder play due to having respectable protection, consistency, and damage output), especially since the archetype was released after the changes that came with the Extra Monster Zone. Archetypes like D/D/D (as a Pendulum variant) and Odd-Eyes, for instance, are almost never played without a Skill that sets up their Pendulum Scales for them, and Dracoslayers certainly did not have one. The deck's lack of impact led to Luster Pendulum becoming the first Special Set-exclusive card to be taken off Limited 1, and the deck is still barely (if ever) played.
- Very few archetypes were as blatantly dead on arrival as Flower Cardians. The deck's basic playstyle requires putting at least 4 monsters on the field to make a decent play... yet they were deemed to be worth putting into a game where you only get 3 Monster Zones, meaning that the biggest thing they can possibly make is the underwhelming Boardefly. As such, the Flower Cardians that made it into the game are little more than pack filler.
- Utopia-focused Onomat builds. That is to say, any variant of an Onomat deck that is built around summoning Utopia and its Rank-Ups, as well as equipping Zexal Weapons to them. They are generally seen as not worth the trouble compared to running pure Onomats as a means to turbo out multiple Rank 4 and Rank 6 Xyz monsters or Synchros. Even the various skills added to Yuma to facilitate this strategy have ended up being subpar.
- Toons. Initially moderately viable once upon a time, even with support they still suffer from major weaknesses, especially in metagames with a lot of backrow hate cards like Mystical Space Typhoon and Cosmic Cyclone. Toon Kingdom would normally help solve a lot of the deck's problems, but unfortunately it is limited to being a very high level up reward for Pegasus (Level 40), and he only has access to exactly one copy, so once it gets disposed of, the deck can become irrevocably crippled. The Toonvitation Skill and support cards from World of Barian like Toon Briefcase, Toon Bookmark, Comic Hand, and Toon Black Luster Soldier helped improve the deck's standing, but they still failed to climb past rogue tier.
- Black Luster Soldier. No matter how much support they release for it or how many new skills they give to Yugi and his counterparts to enable the deck, nothing ever seems to work to make them strong enough. This longstanding history, however, would finally change with the release of the skill The Soul of Light and Darkness.
- Battlin' Boxers. Their playstyle revolves around countering your opponent’s moves using effects and Trap Cards with "Counter" in their names. Problem is, most of them can only be used during the Battle Phase and when opposing monsters attack, leaving you wide open to effects that specialize in board clearing during the Main Phases, which in the current meta are numerous. It's because of this that Battlin' Boxers are just unable to hold their own in PvP, even with the debut of Alito and the rest of their boss monsters (especially since they desperately needed a good Skill to become halfway playable and Alito didn't get one, leaving them high and dry without their legacy support).
- The best Evilswarms could boast for their tenure was being a mediocre Rank 4 deck without many good enablers or power plays, not helped by them lacking Evilswarm Ophion, their strongest Xyz Monster, for the longest time. When they finally got Ophion for Christmas 2023 along with a brand new Skill that gave them a bunch of consistency and Graveyard setup... they still proceeded to do absolutely nothing. While Ophion was released into Limited 1 out of fear of its floodgate effect being too disruptive when paired with its ability to search Infestation Pandemic for protection, not many decks even relied on high-level monsters at the time, and the protection meant very little against monster-based removal like Knightmare Unicorn or simply flipping a Book of Moon on summon (to say nothing of Skills available to Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes to Normal Summon monsters without Tribute, completely dodging the floodgate). To add insult to injury, Constellars also got pretty much the same treatment as Evilswarms at the same time and proceeded to do far better than Evilswarms did because their newly added boss monster, Constellar Pleiades, proved much more impactful in the meta and their Skill also fixed pretty much all of their problems, while Evilswarms still struggled with consistency and power.
- In Rush Duels, while most of the unlockable SEVENS cast's signature decks have found some kind of success, Romin's Psychics are the primary exception. The type's main gimmicks in the Rush format involve paying Life Points in order to pump up monsters to massive ATK values and using low-level Normal Monsters to trigger various card effects; however, most other archetypes also got Skills to let them play beatdown styles just as well if not better without compromising their LP, often supporting their intended gimmicks as well; while Romin also has Psychic-related Skills, the effects just weren't as good, and the reliance on weak Normal Monsters vastly increased the chances of bricking. Their lack of DEF doesn't help matters either as it means Shield and Sword is a death sentence once you've paid a bunch of LP. The most action Psychics saw was Prima Guitarna and Silent Assailant being used in generic beatdown decks as a generic boss monster and high-ATK, low-level beater respectively, and said decks quickly began dying off once better Skills and cards started rolling in.
