basic deck strategies

8/8/2019 Basic Deck Strategies

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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 Spy


2 Mystic Tomato

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Sangan

2 Caius the Shadow Monarch

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells - 13


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


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 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


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 Spy


2 Gravekeeper's Guard

2 Gravekeeper's Vassel

3 Gravekeeper's Curse

1 Gravekeeper's Cannonholder

Spells - 13


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


3 Rite of Spirit


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 Spy


2 Mystic Tomato

1 Marshmallon

1 Sangan

2 Caius the Shadow Monarch

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells - 13


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


3 Rite of Spirit


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 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Smashing Ground

1 Fissure


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3 A Legendary Ocean

Traps - 2

1 Mirror Force


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 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


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

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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.

basic deck strategies

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