One of
the more important parts in a trading card game is your deck. Your main deck of
40+ cards, side deck of 15 cards, and extra deck of 15 cards will determine how
all of your games are played out. Anyone who has played TCGs for any given
amount of time probably knows this already, but often people on DNG asking for
deck advice will only be talking about the main board of 40 cards. If one is to
become a good deck builder, then they would be wise to start looking at the total
70 cards as a whole instead of separate parts. In a match of Yu-Gi-Oh, the side
and extra decks are every bit as important as the main.
Any given deck has one objective:
To win the game. How each deck goes about this is different, but the goal is
always the same, to come out ahead. This is where understanding the meta comes
in. To win a game of YGO, you’ll need to beat other decks. To beat other decks,
you’ll need to accomplish your goals faster than they can accomplish theirs or
disrupt them from achieving what they need to in order to win. This may sound
simple, but often I see people just build their decks as if they were going to
be playing a game of solitaire. YGO is (or at least should be) a game of
interaction. This style of thinking should always be forefront in your mind
when building your main deck. You want to prepare it to do two things. First,
it needs to accomplish your desired objective. For instance, if you’re building
a XYZ spam deck, then it should include all the things you’ll need to successfully
use that engine the majority of the time, whether that be an archetype you feel
is strong or just generic cards that are good at making that condition easy to
meet. Second, it needs to be able to successfully deal with other decks you are
likely to play against. This part deals with both your Main and Side decks.
Let’s say you enter a tournament of 4 people, you and 3 other players. If 2 of
your opponents are running a Chaos variant and the other is running Dark
Worlds, you’d probably want to gear your board towards disrupting the opposing
grave. The sideboard could include cards that more directly hurt DWs. This kind
of planning ahead isn’t always possible, but by studying the meta you play in,
whether that is DN’s rated area, DNG tournaments, or your locals, you have to
constantly be a student of the game going on around you and build accordingly.
The side deck can be one of the
hardest decks to build for newer players, mostly because it is a tough
balancing act. Let’s say there is a format where one deck
is incredibly dominant, and that deck happens to be your only bad match-up. You
can make a side deck with 11 of your 15 cards designed to hose it, but here is
the problem: What are you going to take out of a 40 card board to include those
11 cards that won’t hurt your consistency? When a player over boards from the
side deck to stop another deck it often hurts their consistency. It doesn’t
matter if you are able to slow down the opposing deck if you slow yourself too
far down in the process. All side deck choices should come in moderation,
usually 3-9 cards is best, with 9 only being okay in extreme situations.
The Extra deck is just as tricky as
the side deck because of its limit to 15 cards. These cards matter and having
enough of your key targets to tool box is vital to winning games. Test
constantly to see what needs inclusion and what doesn’t. Gagaga Cowboy, for
example, is a great monster to burn off the last life of a defensive opponent,
but if you find you rarely go to it and you’re right for space, it may not be
worth it. This line of thinking is even important in decks that use the extra
deck. Build it for the situations where
it might matter the most, picking monsters that will help you when you do need
to go into it. By doing this, you’ll increase your odds of winning any given
game.
This all applies directly to asking
for deck help. If you want to post a deck on DNG and ask for help, don’t simply
post “Here’s my Madolche deck, thoughts?” Instead, build the full main, side,
and extra decks. Briefly explain your choices, why you took them over other
common picks, and what you hope to accomplish and what will be sided into what
match-ups and why (bonus points if you include what will come out when you do).
Doing this will allow people to actually see how your deck is going to play out
under your control, and therefore give you more direct and useful advice.
Hopefully by doing the above and considering the advice of your fellow players
critically, you can improve your overall odds of winning and keep your deck
tight and consistent, no matter what you enjoy running. - Axrest
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