Every collectible card game, digital or otherwise, uses packs as it's main method of distributing cards to players. However, Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, a game that is heavily focused on Archetypes, has been around for 20 years and has no set rotation so they had to get quite creative with it's packs. In this guide, we'll take a look at how the game handles this aspect, and which one is most worth your hard earned Gems.

You can find the Packs, as well as other purchasable items in the Shop, which can be accessed from the main screen.

Table of Contents

    Table of Contents

    For New Players

    If you're a new player to the game, here's a quick TL:DR of what to do:

    1. Do some Solo mission to get quite a large number of Gems.
    2. Buy the 3 10 Packs + 1 Ultra Rare Card from the Special tab, along with the Duel Pass (Gold).
    3. Open all these Packs.
    4. See what Super Rare and Ultra Rare cards you got, and find one from an Archetype you'd like to play/is viable.
    5. Open Secret Packs from that Archetype until you get some of the staples from that Archetype.
    6. Dismantle some cards you don't need and make the cards needed for the rest of your deck.
    7. Repeat steps 4-6.

    The bundles contain 10 Master Packs and one of the following 3 cards: Solemn Judgment, Lightning Storm, and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. All 3 of these cards are of the highest rarity and see play in a variety of deck.

    You can find more about what Master Packs and Secret Packs are down bellow in this guide.

    Odds of Pulling Cards - How Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel's Packs are Structured

    The odds of pulling a card of a certain rarity are fixed, and they are disclosed in the Odds screen when viewing a certain pack (does not apply to Bonus Packs, will get to that later). Here's how the packs are structured:

    • There are 8 cards in each pack.
    • At least one card in the pack is guaranteed a Rare.
    • At least one card in 10 packs is guaranteed a Super Rare.
      • This is only true if you purchase 10 packs of that kind at once.
    • If the previous 10 packs didn't include and Ultra Rare, at least one card in the following 10 packs is guaranteed an Ultra Rare.
      • This is only true if you purchase 10 packs of that kind at once both times.
    • A card has a 9% chance of being upgraded to a Glossy Finish, and a 1% chance for a Royal Finish.
      • Normal and Rare cards don't have Royal Finish, so they'd be upgraded to a Glossy if that were to happen.

    There's also a chance that your card gets upgraded to a higher rarity:

    • If the card is Normal:
      • 35% chance it becomes a Rare.
      • 7.5% chance it becomes a Super Rare.
      • 2.5% chance it becomes an Ultra Rare.
    • If the card is guaranteed Rare:
      • 7.5% chance it becomes a Super Rare.
      • 2.5% chance it becomes an Ultra Rare.
    • If the card is guaranteed Super Rare:
      • 20% chance it becomes an Ultra Rare.


    Better than average card pack.

    If you can, always buy packs in 10s. Buying a single pack doesn't guarantee that you a Secret Rare every 10 packs, or an Ultra Rare every 20.

    Normal Packs

    The first thing you'll see under the Pack menu are Normal Packs. There's 3 of them: 2 Selection Packs and Master Packs. The first two are temporary, and can't be purchased after they leave. We'll take a look at all of them.


    A typical assortment of Normal Packs.

    Let's start with the Master Pack. This is the most generic type of pack in the game. It pools from the entire collection of 6750 cards. It's really not worth diving into this type of pack.

    Outdated Information

    Revival of Legends is the pack for those nostalgic for "the good ol' days", or those want to play that one archetype from the Anime. These packs pull from a pool of 80 cards, so they're far more consistent than Master Packs, but the archetypes found here aren't particularly good. Besides, you're better off generating one card from the archetype and buying Secret Packs (see bellow).

    Finally, there's Stalwart Force, a.k.a. the pack with a bunch of staples. Cards in this pack are usually extremely good and are either archetype-defining or can be part of multiple decks. The issue is the same as with Revival of Legends, in that you can just Generate the card you want and/or buy Secret Packs.

    In essence, don't buy these packs. Unless they're part of a 10-pack bundle with an Ultra Rare card, those are worth it since they're cheap.

    The other kind of packs in the shop are Selection Packs, which contain various cards from usually at least 3 archetypes. Normally, they wouldn't be that great, since there's a lot of variance in what you can get, but these cards can't be bought from anywhere else other than Master Packs. How good they are fully dependent on what the cards in them are, so you'll need to do some research before buying.

    Secret Packs - How to Unlock Secret Packs in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel

    If you go to the Secret Packs section of the shop, there's a good chance you'll find nothing there. That's because those packs need to be unlocked before you can purchase them. There are two main ways of unlocking a Secret Pack:

    • Opening a Secret Rare or Ultra Rare from another pack.
      • Some SR and UR cards don't have a Secret Pack tied to them, so they won't unlock anything.
    • Crafting a Secret Rare or an Ultra Rare.
      • Doing so will give you a free pack from the unlocked Secret Pack if this is the first card you craft from it.

    Some of the Secret Packs currently unlocked

    But what is a Secret Pack? Those are packs themed around certain archetypes, and you're guaranteed to draw cards from these archetypes. 

    Here's how they work:

    • There's 8 cards in each pack.
    • 4 cards in each pack are taken from a pool of curated cards.
      • The guaranteed cards mentioned in the Odds of Pulling Cards section of the guide are from this pool.
      •  You can check the exact pool of cards by clicking on 'Featured Cards' when viewing a deck.
    • 4 cards are taken randomly from the same pool as the Master Packs.
    • Secret Packs are only available for 24 hours.
      • Opening or Generating a Secret or Ultra Rare will reset the timer if the 24 hours aren't up.


    The Secret Pack screen

    If you want to build a deck centered around a certain archetype, Secret Packs are the way to go. There's a very good chance of opening a good number of staples, and you'd Dismantle what you don't need to finish the deck anyway, the same way you'd do with cards from Master Packs.

    Bonus Packs - How to Unlock Bonus Packs in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel

    Like Secret Packs, Bonus Packs aren't visible initially, and must be unlocked. To do that, you'll need tickets. There's a few ways to earn tickets:

    Bonus Packs only contain 2 cards, and while the odds for each rarity aren't disclosed, we can assume they use the same odds as the Normal and Secret Packs. There also doesn't appear to be any guarantee pull of higher rarities, unlike the other packs in the game.


    As good a Bonus Pack as one can get.

    So far, there's only one type of pack here: the Legacy Pack, which has it's own pool of 3971 cards separate from the other types. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be another way of getting these cards, outside of crafting. This also means Bonus Packs can't unlock Secret Packs. Oh, and these cards can't be Dismantled.

    There's a good chance more Bonus Packs will be added later, so don't spend all your tickets right now.

    Learn More About Yu-Gi-Oh

    Beginner Guides - Card Anatomy 101 |  Summoning Xyz Monsters 

    Card Types - Monsters | Traps | Spells

    Master Duel Beginner Guides

    Card Pack Purchasing | Using the Deckbuilder | How to Craft Cards