What's up everybody!

The World Championship 2026 in Tokyo is fast approaching and I decided to write an introduction to all 12 teams and 36 duelists competing in the tournament.

The idea is to put a spotlight on some of the best players in the world, help you make a decision in the "Cheer for your Champion" campaign (which started today) and maybe get you a little more excited to follow the tournament. This year, there are a whopping six Japanese teams and I imagine most people don't know a whole lot about them. Plus, the ingame team profiles don't exactly help, as Konami decided to remove the interviews from previous years in favor of radar charts that don't really mean anything.

Some general thoughts about the format and tournament:

I don't think it's controversial to say that last year's iteration of the Master Duel World Championship was the worst one yet. Not only were Maliss and Ryzeal the best decks by a wide margin, they were also doing very unfun things, with Maliss ending on Apollousa boards and Ryzeal forgoing their own boss monster in favor of an untargetable, indestructible Bagooska. The data also backs this up, as the player going first won in about 70% of games. It was pretty rough to watch and, I imagine, play.

But there's reason to be optimistic! Many floodgates have hit the dust in the past year and the format is looking a lot more diverse. Likely, the defining decks this time will be some combination of Kewl Tune, (Zoodiac) Radiant Typhoon and Branded (Dracotail). But there's many other playable options, like Sky Striker, K9 Vanquish Soul, (Solfachord) Yummy etc.

Another interesting thing this year will be the shared cards. So far, at all three World Championships, every single team has shared Ash, Maxx C and some third card. Now however, each team is able to bring five cards, possibly as a response to the absurdly high going-first winrate of last year. It's gonna be interesting to see how that new flexibility will be used.

In a way, it also feels like the start of a new era, as many mainstays from previous years are not attending this time around. No Team 7 (well, kind of), no snipehunters, no Judeu. But let's take a look at those who will be there instead!

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Group A

Ragnarok – Sweden, Italy & Croatia

Mist

As the reigning Champions, Ragnarok were the first team to qualify. And once again, their captain will be Herman Hansson aka Mist(ilteinn), Scandinavia's top Yu-Gi-Oh! player.

Herman has had a very successful career in the TCG, being a three-time National Champion as well as a YCS finalist, and making it to the Top 8 of Worlds in 2019. In Master Duel, he qualified for last year's World Championship by winning the March Duelist Cup with Snake-Eye. He chose N3sh and Luka as his teammates and the rest is history.

Even though he qualified with Snake-Eye, Herman actually has a fairly unique deck taste. He will typically pick a deck somewhat outside the main meta contenders and then play it as long as possible. First it was Melodious, then Ritual Beast, then Vanquish Soul, and most recently, he picked up Elfnote, which I assume will be in his lineup for Worlds. But is it good enough as a primary choice? 

N3shTCG

N3sh is probably the most well-known member of his team, as he is a content creator who also has regular guest appearances on TeamSamuraiX1's channel, often alongside Pak (who are also both at Worlds this year!)

Even though he plays the TCG and has had success there (He made second place at the 3v3 YCS in Vegas earlier this year), N3sh seems to prefer playing online, so it made sense for him to get into Master Duel about two years ago.

He will almost certainly be playing some version of Branded at Worlds, as he has a long history with the deck and Dracotail has been his pick in the TCG recently. It was also the deck he played in Vegas.

Luka

Luka is probably the most overlooked member of this team, but he had a crazy performance at last year's World Championship, managing a 72% winrate with Maliss despite only winning 39% of his coin tosses. You might remember his game against Pak in the finals, where he played through a Crystron board with Metaltronus and three copies of Allure.

So, can he repeat that performance this time? While he has attended some YCSs this past season, he's mostly been busy dominating the One Piece TCG. And that, I think, is the biggest question mark with Ragnarok this time around: Are they locked in enough? While N3sh and Herman in particular have been doing well on the ladder in recent weeks, none of them have topped any of the Duelist Cups this season, and I would assume most of the other teams have played more Yu-Gi-Oh! in the past year. Other than that though, Ragnarok does have everything: They're great player and deck builders, and they possibly have the best chemistry of any team at this tournament.

Deck-wise, I think Luka will be on Kewl Tune, by simple process of elimination.

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Fly 2 Fly – Japan

酔象角 "Suizokaku"

He secured his invite all the way back in September by winning the season's first Duelist Cup. Even though most people probably remember this as the full-power Maliss Cup, Suizokaku chose Magistus Ryzeal.

This will be his third World Championship participation, after already qualifying via Season Points in both 2024 and 2025. Knowing that, it's no surprise he has a very long and impressive list of Duelist Cup results. If you were to rank the most successful Duelist Cup players of all time, Suizokaku would have to be very high on that list, I would say around Top 5.

He is also a very good deck builder with a willingness to try out unusual decks and techs. Recently, he played Heavy Slump in Onomat Ryzeal, which could be searched with Mathmech Alembertian and provide a win condition under Maxx C. In June, he briefly made it to first place in Rating Duels with Ennecreaft.

While this all sounds super impressive, his first two World Championships were quite disappointing, with his teams finishing in last place of their respective groups both times. Last year in particular, Suizokaku had a nightmare run, going 1-12 in games, making for an 8% winrate, the lowest of any player in Master Duel World Championship history. To be fair, he also went 1-8 in coinflips with his Maliss deck. Needless to say, things can only go up from here.

During the last two World Championships, I was also a bit disappointed by the lack of "spice" on his teams in terms of deck choices and lists. Maybe things will be different this year, as he was able to freely choose his teammates for the first time.

ゴウヨク "Goyoku"

Just like his team captain, Goyoku will become a three-time Worlds Competitor this year. You might remember him as the long-haired and bearded teammate of Tasuku from 2024, where they made it to the semifinals alongside magu6o, with Goyoku in particular having a very strong winrate with Yubel. In 2025, he returned to Worlds as a teammate of Kinokoko, though they didn't make it out of the group stage this time. Now he's back for a third time, once again being invited. This past season, he only topped one of the Duelist Cups, finishing in 34^(th) place in September with Fiendsmith Gem-Knight.

えんであ "Endea"

Endea is another familiar face when it comes to Worlds, as he qualified through the WCQ last year, choosing Arata and Goyoku as his teammates. What's a bit confusing is that back then, he went by キノココ (Kinokoko). Now he's back with a new name and a (somewhat) new team.

In addition to a few Duelist Cup tops throughout this season, he's also been very actively grinding Rating Duels recently, making Top 10 in May and June. His social media has mostly been screenshots of the leaderboard titled "Master Duel effort tweet". A few weeks ago, he posted about having played Ranked for 15 hours, so if this team doesn't succeed, it's not gonna be for a lack of trying.

In terms of decks, I find this entire team pretty hard to predict. If I had to lock in a guess, I would guess: Suizokaku on Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon, Goyoku on Branded and Kinokoko on Kewl Tune.

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Chaiba Corp – Canada & USA

Ryan

If real-world Yu-Gi-Oh! worked like the anime, Ryan would be the protagonist. His surname is literally "Yu", it's almost too on the nose.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, he qualified once again by winning one of the Duelist Cups, something he had already done twice before. Instead of going with Jesse and Ray, his Team 7 mates from 2023-2025, he is bringing Joey and Enzo this time around. In a way, it's fitting that the two teams that defined the first two World Championships, Team 7 and snipehunters, would come to an end at the same time.

Back to Ryan: Instead of being satisfied with his qualification, he also played in and won the Regional Qualifiers, finishing in first place globally. And if THAT wasn't enough, he then also went on to win the WCQ North America by going 18-0 in matches, finally getting his first major TCG win after three runner-up performances.

I assume he will be on Sky Striker and/or Radiant Typhoon for Worlds, as these were the decks he used in the WCQ. That or Lunalight, which is another deck he is very good at.

After winning Dragon Duel Worlds in 2017 and Master Duel Worlds in 2024, he has the opportunity to become the first-ever three-time World Champion. Can anyone stop him?

Joey

Joey originally started out as a TCG player, where he won UDS Las Vegas 2017 and has topped a dozen other events. However, he gradually shifted his focus towards Master Duel starting around 2024. Last season, he was the best-performing North American player at the WCQ, earning his invite with Blue-Eyes in a format mostly dominated by Snake-Eye, Mermail and Crystron. He chose Pak and Enzo as his teammates and they made it all the way to the finals. Joey himself was the Maliss player of the team and achieved a very impressive 68% winrate, one of the highest in the tournament.

In recent months, Joey has practically been a Dracotail one-trick, so that should be his deck for Worlds too.

Enzo

This will be Enzo's fourth World Championship participation. After qualifying for the TCG in 2023, he was invited to Master Duel three years in a row: First by Josh Kip in 2024, then by Joey in 2025, and now by Ryan in 2026.

I'm pretty sure he has announced his retirement from the TCG in favor of Master Duel at least two times, but he keeps returning and topping events. In total, he has around a dozen tops, most recently making Top 8 at YCS Columbus in May. Just like his team captain Ryan, Enzo is sometimes called a "prodigy", which is a bit funny to me because he's been a very well-established player for multiple years now.

The only question mark with Enzo is that he doesn't play as much Master Duel as most of the other competitors. So far, he hasn't topped a single Duelist Cup-style event. But that didn't stop him from making it to the finals last year, so it shouldn't be that big of a problem.

Enzo will probably be the Kewl Tune player. That's what he used at YCS Columbus, and it's also the deck he has been playing at recent T2 Trials, a tournament league that uses Worlds rules and that I'll reference a few more times.

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The New Suns – Japan

あらた "Arata"

Arata is one of several Japanese players who are returning for their third World Championship this year. The past two years, he was invited by the Japanese representative from the WCQ (Stellar in 2024 and Kinokoko/Endea in 2025). Interestingly, he brought the same deck lineup in both years, Tearlaments and Voiceless Voice. That's probably not gonna be an option for the third time, unless he wants to be really spicy.

Despite being a two-time Worlds Competitor, his Duelist Cup performances weren't as impressive, only having a couple Top 100s here and there. At the WCQ this season, that changed, as he made it all the way to second place globally, with just Ryan ahead of him.

His teammates will be Airman Suzuki and Salmon, two Worlds debutants. Their team was formed at the start of the season, so they should be familiar with each other.

I don't know what decks he has been messing around with lately, but Kewl Tune seems like a solid guess for his Worlds deck. After all, he was the best performing Kewl Tune player in the world at the WCQ. Though he also a history with other decks, for example getting Top 32 at YCS Nagoya 2025 (the one that Tasuku won) with Branded Dracotail.

エアーマン鈴木 "Airman Suzuki"

As mentioned, Suzuki is a first-time Worlds Competitor, and there's not a whole lot to go on here as he's fairly private on social media. From what I can tell, he seems to be a combo enjoyer: In late 2024, he had a very good Duelist Cup run and made Top 10 of Rating Duels playing Dracoslayer. At the Duelist Cup last September, he almost made Top 10 with Fiendsmith Gem-Knight and at the Fusion Cup last weekend, he claimed 5^(th) place with Artmage, his best result so far.

So what does that mean for his deck choice for Worlds? I would say Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon is probably the meta deck that fits his playstyle the best. It's also a deck he has been playing in Rating Duels recently, so that seems like a solid bet. Without the Power Patron stuff, Artmage probably isn't quite there yet.

サーモン "Salmon"

Another Worlds debutant, and arguably one of the most deserving ones, seeing how consistently he has been performing for the past two years. He has made it to the Top 10 four times, two of them in this season alone.

With Salmon, there is also a bit more to go on as he does blog posts summarizing his thoughts on Duelist Cup runs, which are quite fun to read. For example, this was his comment on the Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon deck which was very popular at the WCQ: "Unbanning Marmorat [Ratpier] was a terrible idea; please get rid of it ASAP 😡😡😡"

Deck-wise, this is hard to predict because both him and Arata played Kewl Tune at the WCQ. Salmon himself has acknowledged not really enjoying the playstyle of Kewl Tune, so I could see him picking up something else for Worlds.

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Called By Army – South Korea

Sana

Last year, I felt like the lineup at Worlds was almost perfect, but one thing missing was a Korean team. Now he have one again, and it's a really good one!

Team captain Sana (named after K-pop artist Sana Minatozaki) has been to Worlds two times before, getting invited by Gimlet in 2023 and qualifying via Season Points in 2024 alongside RJay and tiras. This time around, he earned his invite at the WCQ. After being first place in Asia for a while, he was overtaken at the very end, and his ranking post said "I'm going to work harder next year. So sad this year". Luckily for Sana, the player ahead of him was Chinese, so the invite got passed down.

Apart from Master Duel, he also opens a lot of OCG product and sells/collects cards. Back in May, he posted about trying to collect all Grand Master Rares and already owning eleven different ones.

His deck choice I find hard to predict. I believe his teammates will be on Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon and Kewl Tune, so that could leave something like Branded, K9 Vanquish Soul or Sky Striker for him.

cutesnail

Unlike his teammates, cutesnail is more of a newcomer, and this will be his first World Championship. His rise to prominence was a very quick one: He achieved his first major top at the Synchro Cup one year ago, followed by his first Top 10 in December. At the March Duelist Cup, he finished in third place, barely losing out to Tasuku and Cristian Urena at the end. While his two teammates are members of Team Cerberus (Which is why they have "CER." In their name), cutesnail is the founder of a team called All 1N or A1. Combined, these two teams basically include every notable Korean Master Duel player, so I'm sure they'll have a lot of help with testing.

Deck-wise, I assume he will be the Kewl Tune duelist of the team, as that has been his main deck recently. At one of the T2 Trial matches, he combined Kewl Tune with Magnet Warrior, maybe that will be his lineup?

subaduck

Just like Sana, subaduck made his Worlds debut back in 2023 when he was invited by Gimlet, though back then, he went by "genhuukei", a name he still uses on Twitter. At some point after the tournament, he changed his ingame name to "subaduck", a reference to a meme based on VTuber Subaru Oozora.

He would return to the Worlds stage one year later, alongside Greed (who is competing in Rush Duel Links this year) and Nackwall. Together, they made first place in the group stage and barely lost their semifinals match against the eventual winners, Team 7.

While subaduck's Duelist Cup record isn't as impressive as Sana's, he did make 8^(th) place at the first Duelist Cup of this season with Fiendsmith Gem-Knight, his best result so far.

At a recent T2 Trial match, he played Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon, so that could also be his Worlds deck.

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Be 2 Beat – Japan

rabirebi

Out of all the Japanese teams this year, this is the only one made up entirely of Worlds debutants. Another thing they have in common is that they are very active ladder grinders and mostly keep a low profile on social media.

rabirebi's first big showing was at the WCQ two years ago, where he made third place globally, a result that would have earned him an invite in any region not named Japan. Since then, he's been putting up results, and for this season, he formed the team with Yamano and Nanadaime.
The best word to describe this team is probably "consistency": While none of them achieved any Top 10 finishes this season, all three of them topped every single Duelist Cup and the WCQ, with only one exception, as rabirebi fell just short in March.

He's also an artist who will occasionally post Yu-Gi-Oh!-related drawings, which is pretty cool.

In terms of decks, they are super hard to predict.

華の決闘者 山野 "Hana no Kettosha Yamano"

The second player on the team is Yamano, whose full username translates to something like "Yamano the Magnificent Duelist". Funnily enough, he usually goes by Yamano Hitonari (山野仁成), which is inspired by the protagonist of the manga series "Matagi Gunner", where an old mountain hunter becomes an esports pro in an FPS game. I wonder if he had to change his name to avoid referencing a different franchise?

Whatever the case may be, Yamano has made it to the Top 10 of Rating Duels eight times. Out of all the Worlds competitors this year, that is the second highest amount, with only Bogin having more. His Duelist Cup record is also very consistent, with eleven Top 100s in the past three years.

I could see him being the Branded player of the team, since he has played that deck in the past, although he doesn't seem as much of a Brandy as someone like N3sh, Abo or Yuki.

七代目 "Nanadaime"

Just like with his teammate Yamano, there's a bit of weirdness going on with the username here. Usually, he goes by Nanadaime Hokage (七代目火影), meaning "The Seventh Hokage", a Naruto reference. Now, he has shortened the name to just Nanadaime, meaning "The Seventh One".

He is easily one of the most accomplished Master Duel players who has yet to attend a World Championship, with two Top 10s and at least eleven Top 100s to his name. He was already topping Duelist Cups before they even awarded World Championship invites, including the very first one back in August 2022 (aka the Xbox Cup). Additionally, he has also made it to the Top 10 of Rating Duels seven times.

It's hard to get a read on him as he keeps a very low profile on social media. Despite that, his Master Duel account has over 3,000 followers, more than some World Champions. If you can become this well-known by just being good at the game, that speaks for itself. Easily one of the most deserving Worlds competitors, I'm excited to finally get a face to the name!

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Group B

Glory Future – Japan

たすく "Tasuku"

If you have any interest in competitive Master Duel, you know who this is. This season, Tasuku qualified, as usual, by making first place at one of the Duelist Cups. It was his ninth (!) time winning one of these tournaments. Even though Branded Dracotail and Solfachord Yummy were the standout decks of that Cup, he used K9 Vanquish Soul.

Funnily enough, despite his win, this past season was Tasuku's worst one yet, as he didn't make Top 100 at the December Duelist Cup and the WCQ. Prior to that, he had topped every single one since the game's release. To make up for it, he had some crazy performances in the OCG: Last November, he won YCSJ Nagoya, a Best-Of-1 tournament with 5,000 players. In July, he made Top 8 at the Japan Championship, almost earning his second Worlds invite in the same season.

This will be Tasuku's fourth time at Worlds, and for the first time, his team is not entirely new. Let's see if it will be enough and he finally gets that Worlds title, the last thing still missing on his resume.

Deck-wise, I could see him being on Sky Striker, as that is the deck he brought to the Japan Championship, and also one of the decks he used at the Master Duel WCQ. It would be fitting if he ended up playing the same deck as Ryan, as they have an interesting dichotomy: They are easily the most successful Duelist Cup players in the world, Ryan is the most well-known TCG player in the OCG while Tasuku is the most well-known OCG player in the TCG, and both of them had their first big win in the physical card game this season. Wouldn't that be the perfect story for a final?

フリーダム "Freedume"

Freedume is the first player to be part of multiple Tasuku teams. 2024-2025 was his breakout season where he absolutely dominated, having the highest amount of Season Points out of any player and attending Worlds for the first time. This season, he continued where he left off, topping the three Duelist Cups and the WCQ as well as making third place at the Fusion Cup this past weekend.

Other than that, he's also a very good deck builder. While he achieved his Duelist Cup results with Tier 1 decks, he also experiments a lot. Last month, he made it to Master 1 with Millennium Magistus Fairy Tail of all things. He also played Fairy Tail at the Fusion Cup, so maybe he'll actually bring that deck to Worlds. I could also see him being on Kewl Tune though, as neither Tasuku nor Yuki strike me as Kewl Tune players.

ゆき。 "Yuki"

Yuki (who also goes by 8322 Nekana) is the new face to the team, but he isn't new to Worlds, as he already attended last year, teaming up with Bogin and Suizokaku for one of the Season Points teams. This came after he had an incredible season that included two Top 10 finishes. The past season was a little slower, and he's actually the only Japanese player at Worlds this year who didn't make Top 100 once during the season. Nevertheless, I believe he can have a good run at Worlds.

In Master Duel, he's one of the Branded OGs, and has been playing various different versions of the deck (including Dracotail) for the past months. He even competed in some OCG tournaments for the first time, following the release of the new support. Branded seems like a strong pick for Worlds, and I'd be surprised if he wasn't on it.

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ONTAMA GUNDAN – Japan

Stellar

Stellar isn't just the captain of this team on paper, he's also the most prominent player by far. This will be his third time at Worlds, after qualifying via the WCQ in 2024 and getting invited by Tasuku in 2025. In total, he has seven Top 10 finishes, the third highest among this year's competitors (behind Tasuku and Bogin, tied with Ryan). This season, he already got very close to qualifying in December when he maintained first place for a while, but was ultimately overtaken by both Ryan and Pak. In the end, he secured his invite at the WCQ, where he made second place for Japan and fourth place globally.

In terms of decks, I find this to be one of the hardest teams to predict, because I'm not sure what Stellar and his teammate Jako have been playing recently. Maybe Stellar will be on Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon, by process of elimination?

おんたまなっ豆 "Ontama natto"

Even though he isn't the team captain, the team name "Ontama Gundan" is evidently based on his username. "Ontama natto" is a Japanese dish made up of soy beans and eggs, which he also uses as his Twitter profile picture. "Gundan" means something "Corps" or "Army". So basically, they are the egg army.

Apart from his silly name, Ontama has been a very consistent DC competitor for the past two years, with eight Top 100s so far. In recent months, he has also been actively grinding Rating Duels, finishing in first place in May and second place in July. He's been playing Kewl Tune almost exclusively since its release from what I can tell, so I would assume that that will be his choice for Worlds as well.

Jako1910

With Jako, it's a very similar story to Ontama: A Worlds debutant who hasn't had a crazy run yet, but has been putting in the work very consistently. And just like Ontama, he topped every single Duelist Cup/WCQ this season.

Apparently, even though he doesn't have the name recognition of his captain, he is actually the mastermind of this team. In a recent (and not 100% serious) post, Jako himself described the team dynamic as follows:

"In the basement of the Ontama Gundan, the captured Jako1910 is being forced to do the work of building decks and strategies. Jako1910's salary is just one Legacy Pack per day."

If I had to guess what his own deck will be at Worlds, I would probably say Branded or Dracotail. He has a history with both Ritual Beast and Blue-Eyes, and purely based on vibes, I could see Branded fitting that mold. But he might also bring something else entirely, we will see.

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Supreme Pro – USA & Canada

Pak

This is probably the biggest "celebrity" team, made up of three very prominent players and content creators. The first of them is Pak, a name you will be familiar with if you've paid any attention to the Yu-Gi-Oh! scene in the past five years.

Ever since the Remote Duel era, he's been one of the most consistent TCG players in the world, with three YCS wins and over 20 tops to his name.

In terms of Master Duel, Pak had his breakout last year, when he was chosen as a teammate by Joey. Together with Enzo, they made it all the way to the finals, where Pak lost a Memento mirror match against his friend N3sh that decided the Worlds title. After the tournament, Pak started to play Master Duel more actively. At the Duelist Cup in December, he reached an incredible score of over 80,000 DP and was only overtaken in the last hour by Ryan. He finally secured his invite at the WCQ in June. Ryan once again finished ahead of him, but this time, it didn't matter.

Deck-wise, Pak will probably be on Kewl Tune, as it's the deck he has been playing the most in recent months. While he also has a history with Dracotail, that deck is certainly going to be used by someone else on this team…

Jesse Kotton

If you have followed competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! in any way during the past nine years, you should know who Jesse Kotton is. At this point, he is pretty objectively the most accomplished Yu-Gi-Oh! player of all time. 16 YCS finals and 9 wins (at least one in every TCG region), two UDS wins, and winner of the Master Duel World Championship 2024 with Ryan and Ray. This year, he will also tie the record of Josh for most Worlds appearances, at 7.

This past season, he has basically played nothing but Dracotail. Even after the May banlist, when every other pro had given up on the deck in favor of things like Kewl Tune, DoomZ or Branded, Jesse piloted it all the way to a YCS win. It seems like a given that he will also bring Dracotail to Worlds, the only question might be the exact build he will go for. At the Fusion Cup last weekend, he used an interesting Dracotail Fairy Tail hybrid and made Top 100 while barely even trying. Could that be an option for the real format too?

TSX1

Yes, it's THE TeamSamuraiX1 from YouTube, the most prominent Yu-Gi-Oh! content creator in the world with almost 1,000,000 subscribers. While people might critize him for clickbait-y titles and his over-the-top persona, you can't deny that, in terms of quality and effort, his channel is the gold standard of Yu-Gi-Oh! content creation.

Make no mistake though, he wasn't just chosen to be the mascot of the team. Even though Sam likes to play up the "clueless casual" character for content, he is very much a skilled player. He actually got very close to qualifying for the first ever Master Duel Worlds in his own right back in 2023, being the fourth highest player in North America. Since then, he's also become a YCS Champion, winning YCS Cancun 2024 by going 14-0 with Yubel. I think it's also worth noting that these three have known eachother very well for years. Just this weekend, Pak and Jesse went to Sam's engagement party, so clearly, they are more than just Master Duel teammates, and that kind of chemistry shouldn't be underestimated.

As far as deck go, Sam seems like the hardest to predict. While he topped YCS Columbus with DoomZ in May, that deck still isn't out in Master Duel. I suppose that could leave something like Radiant Typhoon by process of elimination. Don't count on him showing up with TIER ZERO BLUE-EYES.

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Satisfaction – Brazil & Dominican Republic

Shoma Yusa

This will be Shoma's second time at Worlds. Last year, he qualified through a Duelist Cup, picked two fairly unknown teammates and went to Worlds as a major underdog. Despite that, their team managed to win the first three rounds of the group stage, and it looked like they were about to pull off a miracle. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off at the end and they lost the last two rounds, failing to make the semifinals.

Now though, he will get his chance at redemption. He is once again bringing his Brazilian friend Bernardo, but the second teammate will be Cristian Urena this time, an absolute powerhouse of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

I think this is a very interesting team to watch out for, and if you're looking for a compelling underdog story, this might be it. Shoma is not your typical pro player, since he's also a huge fan of the manga and anime, as evident by his username, which is the name of the protagonist from the OCG Structures manga. The team name "Satisfaction" is probably an anime reference, as it's the Japanese name of the Enforcers from 5D's (Kalin, Yusei, Jack and Crow).

At the December DC, Shoma was suffering major connection issues. But instead of letting that stop him, he kept going, even trying mobile data and gas station Wi-Fi, and ultimately finished in 14^(th) place. He clearly loves the game, and maybe, teaming up with a veteran like Cristian Urena will be what he needs to unlock his full potential.

Despite qualifying with K9 Vanquish Soul, it looks very likely that Shoma will be on Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon at Worlds, as that's been his deck of choice during the past weeks.

.G.

Admittedly, it feels weird to call a team an "underdog" when it has G aka Cristian Urena on it, one of the most accomplished TCG players of all time. Six YCS wins, including back-to-back ones in early Snake-Eye format, and over 40 tops.

You might be confused as to why he is representing Latin America. To be honest, I don't know the entire story, but it seems like he currently is (or at least briefly was) living in the Dominican Republic. In the TCG,he also played the WCQ for Central America instead of North America this season.

This will be his second Master Duel World Championship, as he already participated in 2024 after him and Cameron Neal were invited by Denis Nadas. Since they represented North America, Cristian will now become the third player in Yu-Gi-Oh! history to have represented different regions at Worlds, after Charles Loo and Gabriel Netz.

Despite being to Worlds already, he only started actively tryharding the Duelist Cups this season. Very quickly, he established himself as one of the game's most consistent players, making at least 22^(nd) place at every single Cup of the season. In March, he finished in 2^(nd) place, just barely being beaten by Tasuku at the very end. Ultimately, he ended up with the second highest Season Points worldwide, with just Bogin having more.

For Worlds, Cristian will likely be on some Branded version. He almost exclusively played Dracotail throughout the TCG season and has recently been on Branded in the T2 Trials. I also wouldn't be surprised if he did some testing with N3sh, his teammate from the recent TEAM YCS Las Vegas where they made it to the finals together.

Bernardo

As far as individual players go, Bernardo might be the biggest question mark of this entire tournament. And that is despite him already attending Worlds last year, where he was the Maliss player of the team. Other than that, there's basically no record of him performing in any other major Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament ever. Apparently, him and Shoma met online during the Covid years and became friends.

At all the T2 Trial matches recently, he has been on Kewl Tune, so that's probably gonna be his deck.

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Ruination – Palestine, Germany & Morocco

Abdullah

In the context of the Master Duel WCQ, Area E is "Europe/Middle East/Oceania/Africa". Despite that, this region is typically just called "Europe". There has been one Australian player representing this region in 2023 (Bohdan), but other than that, all the Worlds Competitors from here have been Europeans. With Abdullah though, we have a player from the Middle East qualifying for the first time. Interestingly, despite being the captain, he is the least well-known player on this team, as he decided to invite the two arguably most prominent Arab Yu-Gi-Oh! players, Abohmod and Toast.

What I do know about Abdullah is that he qualified with Kewl Tune after already having topped two Duelist Cups in the past. In recent T2 Trials, he has mainly been playing Zoodiac Radiant Typhoon paired up with K9 Vanquish Soul, so that could be his lineup for Worlds too.

T2 Abohmod

If you're invested in the competitive Master Duel scene in any way, the name Abohmod should ring a bell. He's been one of the most prominent faces in the Challenger Cup and Meta Weekly scenes for years at this point, and also has one of the most impressive Duelist Cup track records of any Western player. Last year, Abo already got very close to qualifying on his own, almost overtaking Quantal in the last hour of the WCQ. He's also gonna be the first member of the very prominent team T2 to represent Europe on the Worlds stage.

Deck-wise, this should be easy: Abo is one of the most prominent Branded players out there. So I would genuinely be shocked if his lineup didn't contain any copies of Albaz, either in the form of Dracotail or pure Branded. Fittingly, just this past weekend, he made 7^(th) place at the Fusion Cup with Dracotail, his best performance so far. According to his own words, he "put 0 thought or testing into it".

During last winter, he also got into an online argument with TCG player Danilo Siracusa over who was the better Branded Dracotail player. Since Danilo is qualified for TCG/OCG Worlds this year, they'll have plenty of time to settle their beef in Tokyo.

Toast

Toast isn't as widely known as Abo, but despite that, he is very respected among the best players in the world. Before the WCQ, N3sh gave his predictions for who would qualify from each region, his comment for Area E was: "Eu: Toast (and it's not even close tbh, iron mental time to shine)". Danilo Siracusa remarked about him "top of the game for ages but north Africa doesn’t have events".
After being known in the DB and Remote Duel scenes for a while, he started competing in Master Duel this season. At the Maliss Duelist Cup in September, he peaked at around 69,000 DP, a score that would have put him in third place globally, but he ended up dropping towards the end. At the recent WCQ, he had a similar problem: After being 1st place of his region for most of the weekend, he ultimately dropped and didn't even finish in the Top 100. But none of that matters anymore, as he will go to Worlds with Abdullah and Abo, making him the second African player in Yu-Gi-Oh! history to attend a World Championship. Toast mostly played Kewl Tune and Magnet Warrior at the T2 Trials recently.

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BOGITY – Japan

ぼーぎん "Bogin"

Last but not least, we have BOGITY with team captain and namesake Bogin. Out of all the people on this list, there's a good chance that he plays the most Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is saying something. He is basically the CEO of Rating Duels, having finished within the Top 10 in 21 (!) of the 24 seasons, no other player has done this more than 11 times. He used to post a lot of screenshots of his winstreaks, which led to the term "Bogin Challenge" being coined, referring to 10+ consecutive wins.

Unsurprisingly, he also has an incredible Duelist Cup record, arguably the best one behind Tasuku and Ryan, with eight Top 10s and the same amount of Top 100s. This season, his "worst" performance was an 8^(th) place finish, and he ended up with the most Season Points in the world by far.

As far as World Championships go, this will be his fourth tournament, making him one of the four players who have attended every single Master Duel Worlds. But so far, Bogin's runs haven't been very successful, and his teams have finished in last place of their respective group every single time.

In both 2024 and 2025, his teams were formed via points at the very end of the season. This time around, Konami changed the rules to incentivize players to form their teams early. Therefore, this team in theory should be more "organic" than previous ones. Let's see if it will be enough to finally break his World Championship curse!

Deck-wise, this is another very hard one. I could maybe see Bogin being on Branded, as that is a deck he has been messing around with on-and-off.

Rain

Rain is a returning Worlds Competitor, having already attended last year. Back then, his teammates were Sakuma (who is also on the team this year) and mugi. They were the best-performing Asian team at the tournament, just barely falling short of making the semifinals. Their team was called MUGITY. This year, they replaced mugi with Bogin, and the team went from MUGITY to BOGITY.

Rain is another one of those players who often does well at Duelist Cups, but doesn't quite make it to the very top. So far, he has eleven Top 100s to his name, his best placement being a 15^(th) place finish from last year. On the side, he also plays Shadowverse, the OCG and Duel Links, so he's a busy guy.

さくま "Sakuma"

Sakuma will become a three-time Worlds Competitor this year: Back in 2023, he went with Bogin and Mirror Force, and in 2025, Rain and mugi. So he knows both of his teammates well already.

For this season, he contributed to the Season Points total with three Top 100s. So far, his best result was an 8^(th) place finish at the Xyz Cup two years ago.

Apart from Master Duel, he also made Top 4 at the Japan Championship 2022 in the OCG, which would have qualified him for Worlds in any non-Covid year. He no longer seems to play a lot of OCG, and instead regularly competes in a format similar to Edison, where he usually plays Chaos Plant Synchro.

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And that's all the teams for this year! Some closing thoughts:

I do think we have another pretty interesting lineup this year. While all 36 competitors are obviously great players, there are some clear favorites and underdogs, which should make for a fun dynamic. Personally, I'm not sure who to vote for yet…

The tournament will also be pretty heavy on Japanese teams this year (6/12 teams), which I suppose is on brand with the tournament taking place in Tokyo. So far, every single Master Duel World Championship came down to a match between North America and Europe. Will we finally see that streak being broken? The chances for a winning team from Asia certainly seem higher than ever before.