basic deck strategies
TRANSCRIPT
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Basic Deck Strategies [#BDS]
=======================================
There are several different types of stategies a deck can implement.
These
strategies are basically how a deck will play, and how a deck plans to
win.
a. Swarm or Aggressive
This type of strategy is pretty straightforward. The goal of this type
of deck
is to swarm your opponent with more monsters than they can handle. This
type
of deck often has many ways of special summoning monsters, or getting
more
monsters from the deck. A swarm deck will usually pack some removal
spells
to clear away anything that is stopping your monsters from running over
the
opponent. The main goal is to win as quickly as possible, giving youropponent very little time to do anything.
b. Control
This type of deck likes to win by card advantage, or basically having
more
cards than the opponent. Control decks will usually pack a lot of
removal
cards, and quite often some form of making the opponent discard. Once
the
control player has gained enough card advantage, it's basically a walk
in
the park to win a duel. If you have 4 cards in your hand, while your
opponent
only has 1, chances are you are going to win, even if your opponent
still has
8000 life points, just due to the fact that you have more cards. More
cards
give you more options while playing, and having more options than your
opponent can really put your opponent in an uphill battle.
c. OTK (One Turn Kill)
OTK decks aim to use a certain combination of cards that will let them
winin a single turn by dealing 8000 or more points of damage. A great
example of
this is to use Advanced Ritual Art (sending a couple of
Mechanicalchasers to
the graveyard) to summon Demise, King of Armageddon, and using his
effect to
clear the field. Then, normal summon Black Salvo to bring back a
Mechanicalchaser from the graveyard, and sychro summon a Dark Strike
Fighter.
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Attack directly with both Demise and DSF (5000 damage), then use DSF's
effect
twice, tributing the Demise and the DSF himself (dealing the remaining
3000
damage).
d. Stall or Low-Level
Stall decks will use cards like Level Limit-Area B, Gravity Bind, and
Messenger
of Peace in an attempt to stop the opponent from attacking. From there,
a stall
deck can use a number of methods to winning, including low-level
monsters that
can still attack, burn, deck-out, or an alternative winning method
(such as
Final Countdown).
e. Burn
Usually combined with stall cards, burn decks will use cards that
inflict
direct damage to the opponent. One of the most popular win cards for a
burn
deck is Wave-Motion Cannon, but there are a variety of other burn cards
as
well. There are also monster that have effects to inflict direct
damage, such
as Des Koala and Stealth Bird.
f. Deck-Out
If you try to draw a card, but there are no cards left in your deck,
you lose
the game. A deck-out strategy tries to make that happen to your
opponent.
Necroface, Morphing Jar, Needle Worm, and Morphing Jar #2 are all
popular
choices for this type of deck. It is also not uncommon that a few stall
cards
show up in this type of deck either.
g. Alternative Winning Methods
There are a handfull of cards that will let you win the game when
certain
conditions are met. These cards will have the entire deck based around
meeting
those conditions in order to win. Here's a list of the alternative win
cards:
Destiny Board
Exodia, the Forbidden One
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Exodius, the Ultimate Forbidden Lord
Final Countdown
Last Turn (this card is currently banned)
Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes
==================================================
3. The Deck Building Process - Archetype [#DBPA]
==================================================
a. Selecting a Theme
The first thing you should do when building a new deck is to select the
theme
for the deck. A theme can be almost anything. A theme could be based
around a
single card, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, a type of monster such as
Warrior,
a specific attribute such as Light, or even a group of specific
monsters such
as the Crystal Beasts. A theme can also be a general strategy such asstall or
deck-out.
In this section, I'll use an archetype, or a group of cards with
something in
common, as the theme. Some examples of archetypes include Elemental
Heros,
Crystal Beasts, and Six Samurai. For this example, I'll use
Gravekeeper's.
b. Staples
Ok, now that we have our theme picked out, it's time to add the staple
cards.
What are the staples? The staples are generally good cards that can
easily
fit into almost every deck. Opinions may vary, but I find the cards
listed
below to be very splashable and are strong supportive cards to add into
nearly
all of my decks.
Mystical Space Typhoon
Heavy Storm
Monster Reborn
Mirror Force
Torrential TributeSmashing Ground
Fissure
c. Card Selection
Now that we have our theme and staples, we need to add the main cards
for
our theme. Listed below are all the cards related to gravekeeper's:
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Gravekeeper's Assailant
Gravekeeper's Cannonholder
Gravekeeper's Chief
Gravekeeper's Commandant
Gravekeeper's Curse
Gravekeeper's Guard
Gravekeeper's Spy
Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
Gravekeeper's Watcher
Gravekeeper's Vassal
Charm of Shabti
Necrovalley
Rite of Spirit
Royal Tribute
As you can see, there are quite a lot of gravekeeper's. We will not
just be
able to add 3 of every card to the deck, because we will want to keep
our deck
as close to 40 cards as possible. So, we will have to eliminate cards byevaluating them and determining which ones are good for our deck, and
which
ones are not.
First, let's take Necrovalley, the main field spell of gravekeeper's.
Necrovalley increases our gravekeeper's attack and defense by 500,
stops cards
that affect or remove cards from the graveyard (such as Monster
Reborn), and
also allows us to use effects such as the effect of Gravekeeper's
Assailant.
Gravekeeper's Commandant allows us to search our deck for Necrovalley,
so that
should be included as well. Rite of Spirit allows us to revive
Gravekeeper's
from the graveyard, and is not affected by Necrovalley, so that's
another easy
card to include.
Gravekeeper's Spy let's us special summon other gravekeeper's from the
deck.
Being able to search your deck for a monster to bring to the field is
an
excellent effect and will add some much needed speed to our deck. Both
Gravekeeper's Assailant and Spear Soldier can be searched by Spy, and
both
of them have effects that will be useful in a deck that can summon somany
monsters to the field in a short time. Finally, Gravekeeper's Chief is
essentially a "free" tribute monster, and also allows us
access to our own
graveyard.
Any battle damage delt by Gravekeeper's Vassal is treated as effect
damage
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instead. This effect will rarely, if ever, be of use to us, and
Vassal's
attack power is too low to get much use out of him. Gravekeeper's Curse
deals
500 damage each time it's summoned to the field, which can be nice with
all of
the ways to special summon monsters to the field, but again, with low
attack
power, Gravekeeper's Curse will not be doing much else. Therefore,
Vassel and
Curse will not be making it into the deck.
In the previous paragraphs I evaluated several cards to determine which
ones
to include in the deck and which ones just weren't good enough to make
the cut.
The cards I evaluated above were relatively straightforward examples of
card
evaluation. However, sometimes card evaluation is not so easy. Take for
instance Gravekeeper's Guard. It has 1900 Defense (2400 with
Necrovalley) andhas a flip effect that returns an opponent's monster to their hand. You
will
run into these situations frequently in deck building, where you have a
card
that you're not sure if it should be in your deck or not. So, what do
you do
in a situation like this? For now, add the card to your deck, then play
a
handful of games with your deck, and try out the card in question. After
several games you should be able to see how useful the card in question
was
to the main goal of your deck, and you will be able to evaluate the
card more
accurately.
Here is our deck so far:
-------------------------------------------
Gravekeeper's Deck
Monsters - 14
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
2 Gravekeeper's Chief
3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
Spells - 8
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
3 Necrovalley
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Traps - 5
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Rite of Spirit
Total so far - 27
-------------------------------------------
d. Theme Support
Ok, so we still have room for some more cards in the deck. Now we need
to start
looking outside of the Gravekeeper cards to finish the deck. But where
do we
look? Well, most of the gravekeeper's are dark attribute and
spellcasters, so
we can add some dark support and spellcaster support, as well as some
othergeneral support cards. Here's a list of some cards that could fit into
this
deck.
Mystic Tomato
Magician's Circle
Magical Dimension
Allure of Darkness
Spirit Reaper
Caius the Shadow Monarch
Book of Moon
Shrink
Solemn Judgment
Sangan
Brain Control
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Bottemless Trap Hole
Now certainly this list does not contain all of the possible support
cards for
our deck, these are just some of the cards I would consisder. When it
comes to
evaluating the other theme support cards, it becomes even more
difficult to
determine off hand which cards will work out great, and which cards
won't work
out at all. Also, with such a wide variety of cards at our disposal,there
are many possibilities for finishing up the deck. Most of the cards
choices
here will come down to personal preferences, which will vary from
player to
player, so there is no single correct combination of cards to add here.
With
that in mind, here's how I chose to finish the gravekeeper deck.
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-------------------------------------------
Gravekeeper's Deck
Monsters - 21
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
2 Gravekeeper's Chief
3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells - 13
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
1 Brain Control
3 Necrovalley
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Book of Moon
Traps - 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Rite of Spirit
1 Bottemless Trap Hole
Total - 40
-------------------------------------------
I always try to keep my deck as close to 40 cards as possible. This is
the
minimum card limit, so I recommend you take advantage of it. Having less
cards in your deck gives you a higher chance of drawing the card you
want
when you want it.
e. Finishing the Deck
Ok, we have our 40 card deck, so are we finished? The answer is no. The
next
step is to take the newly made deck and play a handful of duels with it.
After playing several games, make adjustments you feel are necessary. I
would
recommend that you ask yourself the following questions:
Did I win or lose most of my games?
If I lost, what caused me to lose?
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If I won, what were the main cards that lead to the victory?
Were there any cards that sat in my hand doing nothing, for whatever
reason?
Were there any cards that did not have as large of an impact on a duel
as
expected?
Are there any cards previously excluded that I'd like to try out?
By answers those questions, you can now make adjustments to your deck.
The
next step is... you guessed it, play another handful of games with your
deck,
and repeat this process again. Deck building is a continuous process of
making
minor adjustments based on your duel results and personal preferences
until
you are satisfied with the deck.
==========================================
4. Common Deck Building Pitfalls [#CDBP]==========================================
I have critiqued many decks on the message boards over the years, and I
have
noticed some recurring patterns when it comes to some of the deck
building
pitfalls. In this section, I will discuss these pitfalls and how to
avoid
them.
a. Having too many cards in your deck
The minimum number of cards required in your deck is 40. Take advantage
of
this. Having less cards in your deck gives you a higher chance of
drawing the
cards you need, when you need them. Also, if your deck has 50 or even
60 cards
the chances of being able to focus strongly enough on your central theme
because you won't be able to draw the specific cards you need. So try
and
keep your deck as close to 40 cards as possible. Personaly, I do just
about
whatever it takes to keep my deck at 40 cards. I'd say 99% of my decks
are
exactly 40 cards, and as a result, I'm able to consistently draw the
cardsI need to make the deck's theme work.
b. No theme
A deck with no theme is just that, a themeless deck. A deck with no
theme
will have monsters that have no synergy with each other, and no specific
support cards to take advantage of. Meanwhile, if your deck has a theme,
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you will be able to take advantage of the synergies between your
monsters
and your other theme support cards. The result is a themed deck that is
much
stronger.
c. Theme is not focused enough
This pitfall can be best illustrated with a deck.
-------------------------------------------
Dragon Deck
Monsters - 29
2 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Black Dragon
1 Armed Dragon lv7
2 Armed Dragon lv5
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon lv82 Horus the Black Flame Dragon lv6
2 Red-Eyes B. Chick
2 Paladin of White Dragon
3 Horus the Black Flame Dragon lv4
3 Armed Dragon lv3
3 Masked Dragon
2 Kaibaman
3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
Spells - 15
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
2 White Dragon Ritual
2 Ancient Rules
3 Level Up!
2 Inferno Fire Blast
2 Burst Stream of Destruction
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps - 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Dragon's Rage2 Dragon's Bead
Total - 50
-------------------------------------------
Do you see the issue here? This deck has too much going on all at once.
You have a deck that is trying to summon Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, Armed
Dragon,
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and Horus. The result is a deck that can't do any of these things very
well.
For starters the deck has too many cards, so it will be much less
likely to
draw the specific cards you need when they are needed. Furthermore,
none of
the 4 main monsters has enough support, and what's worse is that the
support that is present, doesn't work with the other monsters. For
instance,
Red Eyes B. Chick can summon Red-Eyes, but it does nothing to help
Blue-Eyes
or the level monsters. Likewise Level Up! is only useful for the level
monsters, and does nothing to help Red-Eyes or Blue-Eyes.
To avoid this pitfall, make sure your deck has a specific theme, and
that
the theme is well supported.
d. Overdoing the theme
This is best exemplified by another sample deck.
-------------------------------------------
Gravekeeper's Deck
Monsters - 22
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
2 Gravekeeper's Chief
3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
2 Gravekeeper's Guard
2 Gravekeeper's Vassel
3 Gravekeeper's Curse
1 Gravekeeper's Cannonholder
Spells - 13
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
3 Necrovalley
3 Royal Tribute
2 Book of Moon
Traps - 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Rite of Spirit
1 Bottemless Trap Hole
Total - 40
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-------------------------------------------
See the issue with this deck? Every card with gravekeeper in it has been
thrown in the deck, regardless of if the card is good or not. To avoid
this
problem, make sure you take the time to evaluate the cards before
adding them
to your deck. Not sure if a card is good enough? No problem, just add
it to
your deck for the time being, and try it out in a few duels. Then you
should
be able to determine if the card in question is worthy of remaining in
your
deck.
e. Normal Monsters
Normal monsters are generally not good to have in your deck because
they are
just that, normal. They have no effect for you to take advantage of,and no
effect that your opponent has to worry about. Normal Monsters can
attack,
defend, and that's it. Effect monsters can do that too, but they also
come
with a bonus effect to help you even further. There are times when using
normal monsters is appropriate. For instance, if your deck is based
around
summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon, then of course you'll have to use the
normal
monster Blue-Eyes. Also, if you're using support for normal monsters
such as
Advanced Ritual Art or Heart of the Underdog, then it is also
appropriate to
use normal monsters.
f. Equip Spells
Equip spells, such as Axe of Despair and Mage Power, are generally not
a good
idea to add to your deck, simply because all they do is increase your
attack
power. Let's take the following senario:
You and your opponent each have 1 monster on the field, and your
opponent hasa face-down card. You equip your monster with Axe of Despair and
attack. Your
opponent activates their face-down Mirror Force. You lose both your
monster
and your equip spell. Meanwhile, your oppoent only used up their Mirror
Force.
You lost 2 cards while your opponent has only lost 1 card. Your
opponent has
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now gained card advantage. Having more cards available to you means you
have
more options, and more options is better. In this situation, your
oppoent now
has more options then you, which increases their chances of winning and
your
chances of losing. Using equip spells just opens the door for your
opponent
to gain easy card advantage.
Another drawback to using equip spells is that you need a monster to
equip
them to. This may seem obvious, but look at it this way. Both you and
your
opponent are in top-deck mode, meaning you both have nothing on the
field
and nothing currently usable in your hand. Basically, you are both
hoping
to draw a card that will be better then what the other draws. You happen
to draw an equip spell, and with no monster to equip it with, your equip
spell has just become a dead draw, or a card you cannot currently use.Essentially, you have just lost your turn.
g. Reload, Magical Mallet, and Card Trader
I frequently see these cards appearing in the decks of newer players,
and I
can understand why. Reload and Magical Mallet allow you to exchange
your hand
back with your deck in an atempt to draw a better hand. However, the
price you
pay for using these cards is far too steep. Say you have 5 cards in
your hand
and then you play Reload. You put your hand back into your deck, and
you get
to draw only 4 cards. You went from 5 cards down to 4 cards. You now
have less
options in your hand, and you have given your opponent the all
important card
advantage. Meanwhile, Reload has done nothing to disrupt the strategy
of your
opponent. Bottom line, avoid Reload and Magical Mallet.
Card Trader, while it is a continuous spell, does still fall under the
same
category as Reload and Magical Mallet. Card Trader does nothing to
disruptthe opponent's strategy. Card Trader is a card your opponent can safely
ignore.
h. Cards that don't fit the theme
I'll illustrate this with another sample deck.
-------------------------------------------
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Gravekeeper's Deck
Monsters - 21
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
2 Gravekeeper's Chief
3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Marshmallon
1 Sangan
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells - 13
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground1 Fissure
1 Brain Control
3 Necrovalley
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Wave-Motion Cannon
Traps - 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Rite of Spirit
1 Bottemless Trap Hole
Total - 40
-------------------------------------------
Now, in this deck, there are a couple of cards that are out of place.
For
starters, Wave-Motion Cannon does not belong in this deck. That is not
to say
that Wave-Motion Cannon is a bad card, it is just out of place in this
deck.
The theme is gravekeeper's, not burn, and that card slot is better used
for
something that would support gravekeepers.
Marshmallon is another out of place card. Sure, it can't be destroyed inbattle, which makes it decent tribute fodder for Chief and Caius.
However,
Marshmallon does not fit with the dark support cards of Mystic Tomato
and
Allure of Darkness. Furthermore, Gravekeepers are an aggressive swarm
deck,
and Marshmallon adds nothing to the offense.
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The lesson here: some cards may be good cards, but if they don't fit
with your
theme, then they are best left out of your deck.
i. Situational Cards
Some ca
ac8
edalus. First, let's get acquainted with
our central card and analyze it a bit further.
---------------------------------
Levia-Dragon Daedalus
Water/Sea Serpent/Effect/7 Stars
2600/1500
Send "Umi" on your side of the field to the graveyard to
destroy all cards on
the field except this card.
---------------------------------
Ok, so what does this tell us? First, we'll need Umi. A Legendary Ocean
counts
as Umi, and also reduces our water monsters by 1 star, meaning our key
card
here now only takes 1 tribute to bring out. Since we're playing A
Legendary
Ocean, we can search for it using Warrior of Atlantis. Second, Levia-
Dragon's
effect requires us to send Umi to the graveyard, meaning our field spell
won't be lasting for too long. So, we will want to exclude cards that
are
dependant on having Umi on the field. Finally, since Levia-Dragon
destroys
all other cards on the field, we'll want to avoid using a lot of
continuous
spells and traps.
Now, with our central theme cards and our staples, our deck looks like
this
so far.
-------------------------------------------
Levia-Dragon deck
Monsters - 6
3 Levia-Dragon - Daedalus3 Warrior of Atlantis
Spells - 8
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
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3 A Legendary Ocean
Traps - 2
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
Total so far - 16
-------------------------------------------
b. Adding the support
That leaves us quite a bit of room leftover to finish the deck. Now
certainly,
there's more than one way to finish building the deck, and no path is
going
to be wrong, as long as our main focus remains on Levia-Dragon.
However, what we don't want is a deck that is completely dependant on
Levia-Dragon in order to win. This deck should be able to hold its own
even ifwe happen to not draw Levia-Dragon. The other thing we need is some way
of
bringing him to the field, and with A Legendary Ocean, it only costs us
one
tribute. Let's take a look at some other water monsters that might fit
in this
deck.
Abyss Soldier
Deep Diver
Hydrogeddon
Mother Grizzly
Nightmare Penguin
Treeborn Frog
Unshaven Angler
Yomi Ship
There are a few cards here that stand out to me. Hydrogeddon can
provide more
monsters on the field for us. Treeborn frog can revive itself if
there's no
spell or trap cards on our field (and there won't be after activating
Levia-
Dragon's effect). Mother Grizzly and Deep Diver can be used to find our
main
monster faster, and also work wonders with Creature Swap.
Now, once we clear the field, the opponent will be open for direct
attacks.
Levia-Dragon is allready a 2600 beatstick, so let's look at something
that
can make the oppone
ac8
nt discard cards. Spirit Reaper can force a discard if he
attacks directly, and he can't be destoryed in battle, making him a
decent
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choice for tribute fodder. X-Saber Airbellum can also force the
opponent to
discard, and also gives us a tuner monster, so we can add some synchros
in the
deck as well.
With X-Saber Airbellum, we can also add Rescue Cat to search for it.
Summoner
Monk also has synergy with this Rescue Cat synchro strategy, and can put
any extra spells in our hand to good use. Speaking of having extra
spells,
terraforming gives us more ways to find A Legendary Ocean, and gives
Summoner
Monk some fuel when I allready have the field spell.
Finally, if our opponent does destroy Levia-Dragon after using his
effect,
Cyber Dragon can give us a quick 2100 beatstick. Brain Control also
gives us
a monster to tribute for Levia-Dragon, because it's always fun
tributing youropponent's monsters. With rescue cat and all this synchro summoning, our
graveyard is bound to be full of monsters, so Pot of Avarice makes for
some
fairly easy to use card draw. And, you guessed it, if Pot of Avarice
comes at
an inopportune time, it can still be used with Summoner Monk.
Using the ideas above, he's an updated list:
-------------------------------------------
Levia-Dragon deck
Monsters - 23
3 Levia-Dragon - Daedalus
1 Cyber Dragon
3 Mother Grizzly
2 Deep Diver
3 Warrior of Atlantis
2 Rescue Cat
2 Neo-Spacian Dark Panther
2 Summoner Monk
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Treeborn Frog
3 X-Saber Airbellum
Spells - 15
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground
1 Gold Sarcophagus
3 A Legendary Ocean
2 Creature Swap
2 Terraforming
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1 Brain Control
2 Pot of Avarice
Traps - 2
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
Total - 40
Extra Deck - 15
1 Ally of Justice - Catastor
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionic, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Colossal Fighter
3 Dark Strike Fighter
1 Goyo Guardian
2 Red Dragon Archfiend
2 Stardust Dragon1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 X-Saber Urbellum
-------------------------------------------
c. Follow up Analysis
Now that the deck is made, it is time to test it in a handfull of duels.
Afterwards, I would recommend asking yourself the same questions from
the
previous deck building sample. In addition, there are some more follow
up
questions specific for this type of deck.
Is this deck able to win without the central card?
If not, are there ways to get the central card into play faster?
Is the deck still focused on the central card or combo you originally
selected,
or have the other support cards taken over the spotlight?
Is there a different direction you could take the deck in and wou
1027
ld like to
test out?
d. Determining the Number of Copies of Each Card
A common issue in deck building is figuring out how many of each cardyou
should add to your deck. There's no clear cut answer for this, and
sometimes
the only way to determine this is to play a handful of games. Even
then, the
difference between having 2 copies of a given card versus having 3
copies may
all come down to a personal preference between different players, and
neither
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is right or wrong. However, if you are struggling to determine how many
copies
of a card to have, try asking yourself the following questions:
How important is the card to the central theme?
How often do you want to draw the card?
What are the conditions to playing the card, and how easy are these
conditions
met? (A condition can be anything required to take place before you
play the
card. For instance, Mystical Space Typhoon has the condition of having
another
spell/trap card on the field that you want destroyed.)
How often will the card be a dead card?
After answering those questions, if you are still unsure, I would
recommend
starting with 2 copies. This should be enough where you will draw it on
a
regular basis, so at least the card will be in your hand, but won't
overwhelmyou. Then play a handful of games and evaluate the card in question
again. Be
sure to pay attention to how much the card supported your main theme,
and how
often you were able to play the card when you drew it.
Building a deck is a continuous process, so don't be afraid of tweaking
your
deck time and time again. Having a card with 2 copies may seem to work
out
great, so you may want to try 3. Then, after testing the deck again,
you find
that 3 is too much, and the card is sometimes a dead draw. Or maybe
your deck
has changed so much that 2 copies is now too many, so you want to bring
it
down to 1 or even remove it from your deck completely.
e. Paths not Taken
That last question in the follow up analysis refers to something I like
to
refer to as the paths not taken. Now certainly, this is not the only
way to
build a deck for Levia-Dragon Daedalus. In this section, I'll describe
someother things I could have done to build the rest of this deck.
First, there could be more of a focus on the Water monsters. As you can
see
from the water cards I had listed above, most of them didn't make it to
the
final deck. In fact, I chose to cut out the Hydrogeddons at the end to
make the
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deck 40 cards, and because there were a lot of monsters. I could also
see
Abyss Soldier and Salvage fitting in this deck along with a few more
targets
for Salvage.
Don Zaloog is another monster that can force a discard. Had I chosen
Zaloog
instead of the X-Saber Airbellum, the deck could then have access to
dark
support, since spirit reaper is also a dark monster. Cards like Mystic
Tomato
and Sangan would fit right in, as would Crush Card Virus and Allure of
Darkness. With Don Zaloog, you could also add in more warrior support.
Speaking of warrior support, the Destiny Hero monsters are not only
dark and
warrior monsters, they also provide the deck with more draw power in
the form
of Destiny Draw. Destiny Hero - Dasher can give the deck some more
specialsummoning power, which is especially useful after you clear the field
with
Levia Dragon. You could also combine Dasher with Deep Diver to pretty
much
ensure you get to special summon a Levia-Dragon. Destiny Hero -
Malicious
also provides more tribute fodder.
As you can see, there are many paths not taken, and these are not the
only
alternatives. The rest is up to your imagination. Certainly, some ideas
may
work, and others may not, but that's the adventure of deckbuilding,
sometimes
you never know where it's going to take you.
=======================================
6. Introduction to Side Decks
=======================================
Another big thank you to 84Mantines, who wrote this section.
A side deck of 15 cards is optional, but should always be used when
playing
match duels. Building a good side deck is often difficult and c
bdconfusing for
duelists. This is mostly because they aren't sure what kind of cards
should be
used. However, swapping between your deck and a side deck is a key
component of
what sets a pro duelist apart from others. There are three things one
can do
with side deck selections. I'll first mention the two lesser used
concepts.
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If you can't fit all the generally versatile and main deck worthy cards
you
want to use in your main deck, you can consider placing some of them in
the
side deck if there is enough room. If you're debating whether or not
you have
room for three Solemn Judgments, Brain Control, or one or more
Bottomless Trap
Holes, they can be solid, potential candidates for your side deck. You
can also
place, within your side deck, a set of cards or additional theme that
functions
well with your deck. A good, recent example would be adding a few dark
cards
and Chaos Sorcerer to a Lightsworn deck.
Most importantly, however, your side deck is the key to countering what
you're
going to be up against. Making a side deck requires a different
mentality andapproach to initial deck building. The side deck is no longer about
your deck,
how to make it faster, or how to get your monsters out. It can be more
situational now, because you need to add cards that counter the various
decks
you will be playing against. If your deck is going to be used at a
tournament,
or against a certain group of friends, you need to have an idea of what
kind of
decks they will be using. Additionally, every deck has poor match-ups.
Most
likely, you'll need to practice with your deck before you have an idea
of its
weaknesses, and which side deck choices can strengthen them.
Before beginning a section of good cards, here's an exercise I've tried
to
help me understand the concept of side decks. Imagine building a deck,
now
imagine building a deck while knowing this deck you're building will
only be
used against one specific deck theme. There are suddenly more options
that you
probably wouldn't consider before. It's probably easy to imagine
building your
deck differently.That's what you need to do, consider how your deck
would bedifferent against a certain deck theme, for all the most popular decks
(and if
yours is one, mirror matches), then combine them in your 15 card side
deck.
Examples of Side Deck Choices:
To start things off, an extremely general card that can be helpful is
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Prohibition. By the time it's in your deck, you'll have a good idea of
which
cards your opponent needs and favors. Skill Drain deserves a general
mention
too, as it can be used against any top tier deck, however, most decks
will not
be very compatible with it. Lightning Vortex(es) can provide additional
monster removal against swarming which is the dominant strategy. Most
decks
might want a cushion of extra spell and trap removal in their side
deck. The
following are even more important if you're up against stall or burn.
Dust
Tornado is the most popular choice. There's also Nobleman of E
bd1
xtermination,
Twister, Mobius the Frost Monarch, and Breaker the Magical Warrior.
Additionally, you might want to consider Royal Decree and Trap Stun.
The Graveyard: The graveyard is a very favorable place for a lot of
cardsfor a lot of reasons. Disturbing the graveyard hurts almost all decks
except
macro decks. I'll mention it later whenever it comes up more
specifically.
Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer can do this, as well as prevent your opponent
from
doing anything of the sort, and with the added bonus of a strong
attack, he's
one of the most popular side deck choices for the game. In addition to
Kycoo,
D.D. Crow and Dimensional Fissure can help weaken the graveyard.
Special Summoning: Every top tier deck enjoys special summoning.
Additions
to your side deck that can take advantage of this can become very
versatile.
It's the foundation of several anti-metagame decks, but the cards are
potentially useful enough to be general side deck choices. Royal
Oppression
and Mirror of Oaths are therefore two extremely popular side deck
choices.
Thunder King Rai-Oh and Phantom Dragon are also sometimes used in side
decks.
=======================================
7. General Support Cards [#GSC]
=======================================
In this section, I'll discuss some of the general support cards. I find
that
the following cards fit in with a variety of decks, but not nearly
enough to
consider them staples. In fact, I wasn't really sure how group these
cards,
because their effects also vary. So instead, I'll just list them here,
and
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explain the types of decks that they support the best.
Book of Moon
This is a very versitile quick-play spell. You can use it to save your
monster
from your opponent's attack by flipping the opposing monster into face-
down
defense. You can also use this opportunity to attack a monster with a
low
defense. Book of Moon can also be used on your monster to save it from
Brain
Control, Lightning Vortex, Smashing Ground, Mirror Force, etc. You can
also use
it to re-use the flip effects of your monsters. Flipping a monster
face-down
will also make all equipment cards attached to it fall off. Book of
Moon is
a very versitile card, and one of my personal favorites.
Bottomless Trap Hole
A great 1 for 1 removal trap that also works on special summoned
monsters as
well. Furthermore, removing the monster from play mean you won't have
to worry
about any monster reborn shenanigans that would just revive the fallen
monster.
Bottomless Trap Hole also does not suffer the restriction of having to
wait for
the monster to attack. This can be a huge benefit compared to other 1
for 1
removal traps such as Dimensional Prison. For example, if your opponent
summons
Judgment Dragon and activates its effect, you Dimensional Prison will be
destroyed before you get the chance to use it. With Bottomless Trap
Hole, your
opponent will still have the opportunity to activate JD's effect, but
you will
be able to activate your BTH,
65f
removing the 3000 attack dragon from the game
before it can come for your life points.
Brain Control
Any deck that has a handfull of tribute monsters can find a great use
for this
card. For a mere 800 life points, you can use one of your opponent's
monsters
as a tribute for your monster.
Card of Safe Return
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This card let's you draw a card every time a monster is special
summoned from
your graveyard. After you draw one from this effect, you've allready
made up
for the cost of using Card of Safe Return (which is just playing the
card
itself). Any more summoning from your graveyard will start to give you
great
card advantage.
Card Trooper
Any deck that wants to fill up their graveyard with cards can probably
find
a spot for Card Trooper. This guy let's you put up to 3 cards from the
top
of your deck into the graveyard. Also, when Card Trooper is destroyed,
you get
to draw a card, he essentially replaces himself.
Creature Swap
Any monster whose effect activates when it's destroyed in battle can
make use
of creature swap. Say you have a Mystic Tomato in your hand, and your
opponent
has a strong monster on their side of the field. Summon your tomato,
and give
it to your opponent with Creature Swap. They're forced to give you
their great
monster. But wait, it gets better. Now attack the tomato, and since the
Mystic
Tomato goes to your graveyard (since it is your card to begin with),
you get
the effect of Mystic Tomato. The creature swap is also a permanent
switch, so
you still get to keep your opponent's monster. What a great deal.
Cyber Dragon
Cyber Drag
bbf
on is very easy to special summon and comes with a nice 2100 attack.
He is also great Synchro material. Comming in with 5 stars means you
can pairhim with a 3 star or 2 star tuner monster (which are much more common
than 4
star tuners) and bring out an easy 7 or 8 star Synchro monster.
Dark Bribe
Stopping your opponent's key spell or trap card has the potential of
winning
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you the game, or at least swinging the game more into your favor.
Letting your
opponent draw a card may seem like a bad idea, but with any luck the
card your
opponent drew won't be as threatening to you as the card you just
negated.
Giant Trunade
Much like Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade clears the field of spell/trap
cards.
However, instead of being destroyed, the s/t cards return to the
players'
hands. Not having to worry about any s/t cards will pretty much leave
you free
to play whatever other cards you desire. Giant Trunade really benefits
swarm
and OTK decks, allowing each deck to set up their field of monsters or
their
OTK combo, respectively. Giant Trunade can also help on the defense bycomboing
with a Swords of Revealing Light to get you some extra turns with the
Swords.
Lighting Vortex
This card is useful for stopping swarm strategies, but beyond that, you
can
use the discard cost as an advantage. You can discard a high level
monster
to the graveyard and special summon it with a Monster Reborn type of
effect.
Lightning Vortex is also a great way of getting other cards you don't
want
in your hand, into your graveyard. If your deck can turn a discard into
an
advantage, Lightning Vortex becomes an appealing card to have.
Pot of Avarice
Any deck in which you can fill up your graveyard quickly with monsters,
consider Pot of Avarice. You have to put 5 monsters back in your deck,
but
in return you get to draw 2 cards, giving you instant card advantage.
Royal Decree
Any deck with a low number of traps should consider Royal Decree,
because
chances are it will hurt your opponent a lot more than it will hurt
you. Royal
Decree will also allow you to play without fear of your opponent's
Mirror Force
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or Torrential Tribute messing up your plans. Another neat trick is that
you can
chain Royal Decree to the activation of your opponent's Mirror Force,
and your
opponent's card will be negated, while your decree will still be on the
field
stopping other traps.
Sangan
Any deck with a handful of monsters with 1500 attack or less should
consider
using Sangan. Sangan also makes a great monster to use for a tribute
summon,
because you will still get to use its effect. Since it's a dark monster
with
1000 attack, it fits right in with a deck that wants to use Crush Card
Virus.
Solemn Judgment
Solemn Judgment is a card that can make or break you. It has the power
to stop
almost anything at the cost of half your life points. Half your lp may
seems
like a big cost (especially on the first couple turns of a game), but
on the
ebc
bright side, it's a cost you will always be able to pay. Solemn
Judgment can
be used to stop your opponent's key play, preventing them from winning.
It can
also be used to stop an opponent's trap card that would otherwise wreck
your
strategy (ex. Mirror Force). However, using Solemn Judgment at a bad
time
could cost you the game, so be sure to use it wisely.
Threatening Roar / Waboku
Both of these are chainable traps that can protect your monsters and
your life
points from your opponent's monsters' attacks. What do I mean by
chainabletraps? Say your opponent plays Heavy Storm. You can activate your
Threatening
Roar in response, and you still get the effect of Threatening Roar
since you
chained it to the activation of Heavy Storm.
Trade - in
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If your deck has a handfull of level 8 monsters, Trade - in will give
you
some draw power, while also dumping the level 8 monsters in your
graveyard,
where you can then special summon them back to the field with Monster
Reborn
type of effects.