Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel’s Xyz Festival Has Arrived! Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Master Duel's very first event, the Xyz Festival, is finally here! In this special event, players are only allowed to use Xyz Monsters in their Extra Decks. Competing in the event will grant you medals, which can be exchanged for Gems and Reward Tickets. The event also brings a brand new Structure Deck in the shop, and offers players a few Gems just for logging in. Let's get into it!

Free Stuff in the Xyz Festival

To celebrate the launch of the Xyz Festival, everyone is getting 500 Gems! This update also gives everyone the 300 Gems form the Twitter promotion from a while back. You can claim them from the daily rewards menu.

In addition, there's also limited timed missions that award Gems when completed. Managing to complete all of them will result in 1170 Gems. Here's a breakdown (the missions refer to the Xyz Festival as an 'Exhibition'):

• Duel in Exhibition:
  • 2 Duels: 30 Gems.
  • 3 Duels : 40 Gems.
  • 5, 7, 10 Duels: 50 Gems each.
• Special Summon a Monster: 
  • 3, 5 times: 30 Gems each.
  • 10 times: 40 Gems each.
  • 20, 30, 50 times: 50 Gems each.
• Activate a Spell, Activate a Trap, Destroy a card:
  • Same breakdown as Summoning a Monster.

How the Xyz Festival Works

You can access the Festival by going into Duels -> Xyz Festival under the Event Duel tab.

Each duel you play will grant you Medals, 100 if you win, 50 if you lose (or end in a draw). Those Medals are used to unlock rewards on the reward track, depending on the amount earned. You can also play with Loaner Decks (detailed bellow), but your earnings are halved if you do.

The rewards alternate between a certain amount of Gems and 2 Xyz or Legacy Reward Tickets. The rewards are greatest up to around 3200 Medals, and start to go down from there, while the required amount of medals needed to claim them rises. Here's a detailed breakdown:

Xyz Reward Pack

As mentioned in the section above, about half the rewards from the Event are Xyz Reward Tickets. These are used to claim packs in the Bonus Packs section of the shop. If you go and look for this pack while not having any Tickets, you won't find it, as they are available only when you have the corresponding ticket. Some facts about the packs:

• Each Ticket equates to one Pack.
• Each Pack contains 2 cards.
• Those cards cannot be dismantled.
• Packs expire in 66 days (around the later half of April).

Cards in this pack come from the following pool:

• Ultra Rare

Tiras, Keeper of Genesis 
Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon

• Super Rare

Photon Strike Bounzer 
Number 59: Crooked Cook 
Archfiend's Ascent 
Mind Crush

• Rare

Grenosaurus 
Number 91: Thunder Spark Dragon 
Pahunder 
Mahunder 
Sishunder 
Spirit Converter

• Normal

Overlay Owl 
Overlay Eater 
Mimimic 
Xyz-Raypierce 
Harmonic Waves
Resonance Device 
Space Cyclone
Reinforced Space

Banned Cards in the Xyz Festival

In addition to the regular Forbidden and and Limited list, the Xyz Festival also has its own cards that are not allowed during the event. Every Extra Deck Monster that isn't an Xyz is not allowed here, so no Fusions, no Synchros, and no Links. There are also a few other cards of note on this list.

The first is Exodia the Forbidden One. While this card is normally Limited, it is outright Banned during the Festival, so you sadly can't Obliterate your opponent.

Another interesting ban is Eldlich the Golden Lord. This is currently one of the strongest archetypes in Master Duel, and it doesn't really use the Extra Deck except as fodder for Pot of Extravagance, so it would technically be legal if it only had Xyz Monsters. With the Golden Lord being Forbidden, though, the deck is more or less unplayable.

A number of powerful Ritual Monsters are also Fobidden, of note being Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, Evigishki Gustkraken and Gishki Zielgigas, Herald of Ultimateness and Herald of Perfection, Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord, Nekroz of Unicore, and Drytron Meteonis Draconids. Those cards either have protection and power above what a lot of Xyz decks can deal with, or they are part of OTK decks.

Some Spells and Traps are also Forbidden. Of note are Pot of Extravagance and Pot of Prosperity, both of which banish cards from the Extra Deck in order to draw from the Main Deck. Looks like Konami didn't want players to destroy their Xyz Monsters during this event.

You can check the full Ban List in the game.

NOPE!

Xyz Festival Loaner Decks

You can play in the Festival using a number of Loaner Decks. Those are premade decks provided by Konami, and you don't need to own the cards to play with them. However, keep in mind that you only earn half the medals you would if you played your own original decks. There are 3 pre-made decks for you to use:

Light's Simulacrum

3x	Cipher Etranger
3x	Radius, the Half-Moon Dragon
3x	Cipher Wing
3x	Cipher Twin Raptor
3x	Cipher Mirror Knight
3x	Storm Cipher
3x	Cipher Biplane
2x	Dark Hole
1x	Lightning Storm
2x	Double Exposure
2x	Twin Twisters
2x	Rank-Up-Magic Cipher Ascension
2x	Mirror Force
2x	Bottomless Trap Hole
2x	Xyz Reborn
2x	Cipher Bit
2x	Back to the Front
3x	Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon
1x	Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon
3x	Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon
1x	Galaxy-Eyes Cipher X Dragon

Dark Fangs of Rebellion

3x	The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak
3x	The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots
3x	The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves
3x	D.D. Survivor
3x	Dark Crusader
3x	Dark Blade the Captain of the Evil World
2x	Dark Hole
2x	Overlay Regen
1x	Lightning Storm
2x	Twin Twisters
2x	The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch
2x	Mirror Force
2x	Bottomless Trap Hole
2x	Xyz Reborn
2x	The Phantom Knights of Shadow Veil
2x	Back to the Front
3x	Phantom Knights' Sword
3x	The Phantom Knights of Break Sword
3x	Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon
3x	Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon

Raptor Evolution

3x	Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius
3x	Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius
3x	Raidraptor - Singing Lanius
3x	Raidraptor - Necro Vulture
3x	Raidraptor - Avenge Vulture
3x	Raidraptor - Booster Strix
3x	Raidraptor - Rudder Strix
2x	Dark Hole
2x	Rank-Up-Magic Raid Force
2x	Raidraptor - Call
2x	Rank-Up-Magic Skip Force
1x	Lightning Storm
2x	Twin Twisters
2x	Mirror Force
2x	Bottomless Trap Hole
2x	Xyz Reborn
2x	Back to the Front
2x	Raidraptor - Rise Falcon
2x	Raidraptor - Force Strix
2x	Raidraptor - Blaze Falcon
2x	Raidraptor - Revolution Falcon
2x	Raidraptor - Satellite Cannon Falcon

Structure Deck

The festival introduces a new Structure Deck that revolves around the Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon cards. The Structure Deck costs 500 Gems, and can be purchased up to 3 times. As with the other Structure Decks, the cards cannot be dismantled.

The deck contains the following cards:

• Ultra Rare

1x Honest 
1x Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon 
1x Galaxy-Eyes Cipher X Dragon

• Super Rare

1x Galaxy Wizard 
1x Starliege Seyfert 
1x Galaxy Cyclone 
1x Xyz Unit 
1x Rank-Up-Magic Cipher Ascension
1x Back to the Front
2x Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon

• Rare

2x Cipher Wing
1x Cipher Twin Raptor
1x Cipher Biplane
1x Galactic Spiral Dragon
1x Draconnection
1x Dragon Shield
1x Galaxy Wave
1x Double Exposure
1x Shrink
1x Xyz Reborn
1x Dimension Slice

• Normal

1x Cipher Etranger
1x Cipher Soldier
1x Galaxy Mirror Sage
1x Radius, the Half-Moon Dragon
1x Galaxy Dragon
1x Heliosphere Dragon
1x Cipher Mirror Knight
1x Storm Cipher
1x Galaxy Cleric
1x Parsec, the Interstellar Dragon
1x Schwarzschild Limit Dragon
1x Nebula Dragon
1x Galaxy Queen's Light
1x Galactic Charity
1x Constellar Belt
1x Cipher Interference
1x Galaxy Storm
1x Double Cipher
1x Cipher Bit
1x Cipher Spectrum