Shining Sarcophagus is a Control deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, featuring retrains of Yugi Muto's most iconic cards in Duel Monsters! Check out the core deck list and key combos, as well as tips on how to play, alternative card options & counters against this specific Deck!

Shining Sarcophagus Deck List

Main Deck: 40 cards
x3	x3	x3	x2	x2
x2	x2	x1	x1	x1
x1	x3	x3	x2	x2
x2	x1	x1	x1	x3
x1
Extra Deck: 15 cards
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1
x1	x1	x1	x1	x1

Shining Sarcophagus Breakdown

Shining Sarcophagus Deck Guide: How to Play

Playstyle and Win Condition

For fans of the original cards held by Yugi Muto, the Shining Sarcophagus archetype reimaginins what was originally a hodgepodge of cards into a cohesive group of cards that does not even need to rely on the Extra Deck for strength.

Shining Sarcophagus Cards

The titular card for this Deck is the most crucial one, where the Deck's entire strategy lies. Shining Sarcophagus cannot be destroyed by monster effects, and once per turn, it can provide a free search of a card that mentions this card.

Protect this card at all costs; the moment it gets removed off of your side ofthe field, all the monsters affiliated with it have their effects simply turned off.

Gadget Trio acts as a secondary searcher for the Deck since it only looks for Spells or Traps that mention Shining Sarcophagus. Often times, it's either that card or Ties That Bind that you add to your hand, which in turn is an easy way to bring out monsters with negates: Silent Magician Zero and Silent Swordsman Zero.

The rest of the monsters are meant to support and control the field, making them situational. Archfiend's Advent boosts your monsters' ATK during your turn, and can steal one of your opponent's monsters for the turn. Dark Magician the Magician of Black Magic getting destroyed can help setting up Dark Magic Mirror Force on the field easily.

Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction serves as the Main Deck's main boss monster, as at the cost of half of your LP, it can destroy every other card on the field. That's where Shining Sarcophagus's immunity to card destruction from monster effects come into play--it protects itself from Gandora-G's effect!

Core Combos and Interactions

Gadget Trio One-Card Combo

A single Gadget Trio is enough to enact the Deck's most basic combo. This results in the titualr Continuous Spell, and two crucial powerful Main Deck monsters with conditional negate effects.

Card on Hand
Step	Description
1	Normal Summon Gadget Trio. On summon, activate its effect to add Shining Sarcophagus from the Deck to the hand.
2	Activate Shining Sarcophagus onto the field. Use its effect; add a copy of Ties That Bind from the Deck to the hand.
3	Activate Ties That Bind; Special Summon Silent Magician Zero and Silent Swordsman Zero from the Deck simultaneously.

No Field Spell Active
	X		X
-	-	-	-	-

Boss Monsters

	Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction
	Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction is the easiest nuke in the entire Deck. Special Summonable with relative ease, and all it takes is paying half your own LP to destroy everything on the Field, and have a Shining Sarcophagus monster immediately afterwards is quite a game-ending play, if the opponent cannot respond accordingly.
	Dark Magician the Dragon Knight
	Theoretically, this is where Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon should be, but because that Fusion Monster is still Forbidden, Dark Magician the Dragon Knight will be the stand-in. It's not that bad of a choice, considering it protects your backrow from card destruction, which means further protection to the titular card Shining Sarcophagus.
	Chaos Angel
	Chaos Angel is actually pretty to access, considering the Deck doesn't have a Tuner monster anwhere other than PSY-Framegear Gamma. It automatically treats any LIGHT or DARK monster as a Tuner, so to activate best results you would want to have Archfiend's Advent and either Silent Swordsman Zero or Silent Magician Zero as materials.
	Accesscode Talker
	If a Deck can Link Climb into a LINK-4 monster with relative ease, always expect them to run Accesscode Talker and the Shining Sarcophagus Deck is no option. While its main strength is more on the Main Deck with its bevy of control and swarming abilities, it is stil nice to be able to summon this boss monster that enjoys an ATK boost, and has a card destruction effect that the opponent cannot respond to.

Shining Sarcophagus Counters: How to Beat

Best Decks to Use Against Shining Sarcophagus

Tenpai Dragon

Arguably the best Deck in the Meta as of writing, and one that prefers to go second. If a Tenpai Dragon Duelist manages to go second, be prepared to handle their plethora of hand traps, and their ability to turn things around once they reach their Battle Phase. Your best shot against this Deck is to go second yourself.

If you get forced to go first, set up as much as you can--with negates from Silent Magician Zero and Silent Swordsman Zero. With Super Polymerization and Dark Magician the Magician of Black Magic on your field, this is a good way to take away their monsters to summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight!

Tenpai Dragon Deck List & Card Guide

Voiceless Voice

Voiceless Voice has such a simple playstyle, but its resource loop and imposing boss monsters make them quite a very difficult Deck to deal with, even as a Shining Sarcophagus Deck. If it manages to go first, expect a powerful negate from Skull Guardian, Protector of the Voiceless Voice.

It doesn't help that their Continous Spells and Traps are easy to get on the field, and once they are they provide immense protection. Barrier of the Voiceless Voice renders all LIGHT monsters immune to targeted effects and Radiance of the Voiceless Voice destroys cards based on the number of LIGHT Ritual monsters on their field.

Voiceless Voice Deck List & Card Guide

Yubel

Yubel feels like an even match up for Shining Sarcophagus, but the only downside is that it's going to take advantage of Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction's field-wiping effects. Even without Phantom of Yubel's ability to change effects, so long as Nightmare Pain and a "Yubel" monster is on the field, they can take advantage and reflect battle damage back easily.

It only gets worse with the help of the Unchained Engine, as Unchained Soul of Rage can make use of one of your monsters as Link Material for a Link Summon during your turn. Escape of the Unchained being a Trap Card makes it a great way to take out the titular Shining Sarcophagus.

Yubel Deck List & Card Guide

Ice Barrier

A match-up against Ice Barriers will rely on this archetype bricking enough that they cannot get to Lancea, Ancestral Dragon of the Ice Mountain as fast as possible. This is crucial as the monster's effect to Special Summon other "Ice Barrier" monsters is a once-per-Chain clause. Every time an effect triggers, it gets to summon more bodies on the floor, with each one having a different floodgate effect.

Worse is the access to Adamancipator Risen - Dragite which can negate Spell Card activations, and Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier which banishes Spell Cards, not destroy.

Ice Barrier Deck List & Card Guide

Best Cards to Tech Against Shining Sarcophagus

	Droll & Lock Bird
	Droll & Lock Bird is a good hand trap to run against Shining Sarcophagus, as much of the Deck's power relies on getting cards from the Deck as soon as possible. Even the titular Continuous Spell Card has a search effect to get monsters mentioning it by name to the hand during their turn.
	Forbidden Droplet
	Easily the best hand trap to run when going second against Shining Sarcophagus, Forbidden Droplet can negate cards up to the number of discards you make to use its effect. Most of the time, the opponent cannot respond to this Quick-Play Spell's activation, especially if they discard a Monster Card as cost.
	Evenly Matched
	If Shining Sarcophagus is immune to card destruction by monster effects, and there's more layers of protection like Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, a good way to wipe the player's field is with Evenly Matched. This works best if you go second and you manage to bait out the negate from Silent Magician Zero.

Related Packs to Shining Sarcophagus

Cosmic Mechanical Entities	Darkest Magics
Geas of the Light	Illusion Beast's Roar
Inevitability of Chaos	Knowledge of the Mythlords
Legacy Pack	Master Pack
Soldiers from the Storm	Space-Time Transcendents
Transfigured Heroes	Tricky Reception

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Related Guides

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Deck Archetypes

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Decks

Deck Tier List: Best Decks for Season 35

List of All Covered Decks

World Champion Decks

2024 World Champions: Team 7
Horus Tearlaments	Yubel	Fire King Snake-Eyes
Salamangreat	Purrely	Vanquish Soul

Decks Used in Worlds 2024

Decks Used By All Teams in Worlds 2024
snipehunters	CER	Hero's Future
BOTB	MYYGO	Thank Love
CER 2 x FCG	BRAZ IL	Maxx “Yee”
Double Noir	Rogue Ruler

Aggro Decks

List of All Aggro Decks
D/D/D Aggro	Code Talker / Prank Kids	Zoodiac
Blue-Eyes	Virtual World	SPYRAL Control
Toon Kingdom	Red-Eyes	Blue-Eyes
Zoodiac	Prank-Kids	Zoodiac Tri-Brigade
Pure Tri-Brigade	Ancient Gear	Dragonmaid
Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc (Bird Up)	Dinosaur	Raidraptor
HERO	Dragon Link	Despia
Magikey	Adamancipator	Black Luster Soldier
Pendulum Magician	Stardust Dragon	Tenyi Swordsoul
Cyberdark	@Ignister	Cyber Dragon
The Winged Dragon of Ra	Despian Predaplant	Despia Darklord
Odd-Eyes Performapal	Numeron FTK	Six Samurai
ABC	Trickstar Windwitch	Blackwings
Fluffal	Cupid Pitch Turbo	Lunalight
Vampire	Ultra Athletes	Thunder Dragon
Z-ARC Pendulum Magician	Adventurer Rose Dragon Tenyi	Adventurer P.U.N.K.
Suship	Pure D/D/D	Numeron Egyptian Gods
Galaxy Eyes OTK	Borrelend Dragon Link	Vaylantz
Beetrooper	Icejade Ra	Therion ABC
Libromancer	Mathmech	Spright Evil☆Twin
Spright Tri-Brigade	Ishizu Chaos	Slifer Arcana Knights
Gaia OTK	Vernusylph	Ancient Warriors
Ghoti	Springans	8-Axis Gizmek Orochi
Danger! Dark World	Mikanko	Scareclaw Kashtira
Zombie World P.U.N.K.	Hungry Burger Nouvelles	Obelisk the Tormentor
Mannadium	Gate Guardian	Gold Pride P.U.N.K.
Superheavy Samurai	Nemleria	Dragon Rulers
Snake-Eye	T.G. Diabellstar	Skull Servant
Kaiju	Resonators	Earthbound
Malefic	Kozmo	Armored Xyz Shark
Unchained	Battlin' Boxer	Chimera Illusion
Fire King Snake-Eyes	Vaalmonica	Memento
Horus Tearlaments	Centur-Ion	Dragon Master Magia
Ice Barrier	Infernoid	Lightsworn
Ogdoadic Ragnaraika	Genex	Tenpai Dragon
Goblin Biker	Infernoble	Armed Dragon
Flame Swordsman	Melodious

Control Decks

List of All Control Decks
Invoked Shaddoll	Eldlich Control	Drytron Fairy
True Draco	Dark Magician	Traptrix
Phantom Knights	Madolche	Relinquished
P.U.N.K.	DPE Scythe	Evil★Twin
Paleozoic Frog	Salamangreat	Gravekeepers
Monarch	Tellarknight	Agent
Exosisters	Darklord	Plunder Patrol
Rikka	Floowandereeze	Adventurer Phantom Knights
Dinomoprhia	Tri-Brigade Gladiator Beast	Adventurer Witchcrafter
Dark Magician Gravekeeper	Branded Tri-Brigade	Branded Despia
Zombie Vampire	Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon	Spellbook
Branded Cyber Dragon	Branded Zombies	Pure Scareclaw
Dinomorphia	Runick	Labrynth
Harpies	Buster Blader	Umi Control
Endymion	Nekroz	Spright
Spright Runick	Ishizu Runick	Branded Ishizu
Crystal Beasts	Orcust	Altergeist
Witchcrafter	Subterror Krawler	Mayakashi
Ishizu Tearlaments	Evilswarm	Melffy Spright
Bystial Branded	Dogmatika Bystial	Naturia Runick
Generaiders	Kashtira	Purrely
Ninja	Rescue-ACE	Gishki Spright
Prediction Princess	Vanquish Soul	Jinzo
Egyptian God	Ojama Control	Aromage
Ghostrick	Kuriboh	Anti-Meta Stun
Runick Spright Fur Hire	Horus Control	Toy Box Dark Magician
Yubel	Voiceless Voice	Rikka Ragnraika
Ritual Beast	Shining Sarcophagus

Burn Decks

List of All Burn Decks
Red-Eyes Burn	Timelord Burn	Chain Burn
D.D. Dynamite	Igknight OTK	Cubic
Dinosaur Bishbaalkin FTK	Volcanic Snake-Eyes	Transaction Rollback Burn

Alt-Win Decks

List of All Alternate Win Decks
Crooked Cook Exodia	Flower Cardian Exodia	Treasure Panda Exodia
Suicide	Defense OTK

All Budget Decks

List of All Budget Deck Guides
Budget Shark Xyz	Budget Eldlich	Budget Hippo Turbo
Budget Despia	Budget F.A. Metalfoes	Budget Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Budget Chain Burn	Budget Majespecter	Budget Yosenju
Budget Flower Cardian	Budget True Draco	Budget Amorphage
Budget Ishizu Tearlaments

Best Cards for Decks

Lists of Best Cards for Deck Building
Best Staple Cards		Best Searchers		Best Hand Traps
Best Board Wipes		Best Negates		Best Fusion Monsters
Best Synchro Monsters		Best Xyz Monsters		Best Link Monsters
Best Structure Decks			Best Decks to Go 1st or 2nd