Deckbuilding Part 1 - Basic Deckbuilding

I have noticed an issue with some players in the academy. That is lack of basic deckbuilding knowledge. Now, I'm not saying as if this is something bad, nor am I trying to insult people, this is merely a game, one that you don't have to give time to, and one that has become really complicated over time. People who start now get thrown into archetypes, synchro summoning and metagames and try to figure it out from there, which can be quite hard. In the end they'll attemp to copy others in order to succeed when they do not understand much resulting in them copying the wrong things and making decks while forgetting basic concepts, just because a card might work with another. What I will try to address here is examples of painfully basic deckbuilding, all the way to advanced deckbuilding in seperate parts. At least this is my intention. This part-and article-will go into the most basic, and unneccessary for most, deckbuilding concepts, so if you are at least rank 2 and you feel that you deserve that rank then this article is not for you. Even if you are rank 1 and you feel like you desere a higher one then again this article is not for you. This is for you who aknowledge you lack understanding of basic concepts so if you are all too familiar with them the baby steps this part will take may seem anoying to you, while I will try to address ALL the extremely basic aspects of deckbuilding in this part. Furthermore the decks demonstrated in this part will not be of much use in not only the metagame, but the game in general. If you have suggestions, you can post them. So long as that is clear let us begin.

Let us assume for the beggining that we do not have the luxury of KCVDS giving us all cards in the game, we are just beggining this game and we are just bringing together our random cards that are lying around to make a deck. Those cards include basic level 4 beatsticks, some other monsters with seemingly helpful effects and some basic disruption spells/traps or cards that give simple advantage. The deck we are going to be making is a simple aggro/stun deck, so the terms should be easy to grasp.

Beatsticks: This is what we call monsters whose purpose is to beat other monsters by battle or inflict high direct battle damage to your opponent's life points. Level 4 beatsticks can currently be considered to be those who have 1800 ATK or higher, however that is including effects, so when mentioning basic level 4 beatsticks I mean those which have 1900 ATK or higher. Beatsticks of a higher level are supposed to have a higher ATK, so a monster which requires 2 tributes and has 1950 ATK is not considered to be a beatstick.

Disruption spells/traps should be easy to get. They are those who affect the opponent's actions, by destroying a monster/spell/trap, making him lose cards in hand, preventing him from taking certain actions (like stopping him from attacking for the turn), etc. Whether the card itself is good or not is an entirely different matter.

Cards that give simple advantage should be self-explanatory again. Monster Reborn will not disrupt your opponent directly, and is likely to not give you an actual card advantage, but it will certainly give you an edge.

Now, how do we go at it? How many cards we use and which? At which numbers? Let's refer to something painfully basic now, deck count:


First of all how many cards will your deck have. Let's start by aknowledging a basic concept. A card is better than another card for a certain purpose. That means that if I have 2 different cards in from me, they are not equal, one of them does the job I need it to do better than the other. There are of course exceptions, so if I don't need to max out my E-Emergency Call in my Hero Beat deck then its value is equal to a Reinforcement of the Army, but that is only because they serve the exact same purpose. We will also aknowledge at this point that the deck we are making right now, the simple aggro/stun deck, does only 1 thing, that is beating the opponent down. So if I have in front of me a Smashing Ground and a Fissure, one of them is better than the other. Smashing Ground will hit the monster with the highest DEF, so it will usually hit the opponent's stronger monster. Fissure will hit the monster with the lowest ATK, so it will always hit the opponent's weakest monster. Usually, if I want to have 1 of the 2 cards in my hand I'd rather have Smashing Ground. Now, by simple math we can say that the same concept applies to 3 cards that I may have in front of me. If there are 3 cards in front of me, then only 1 of them is the one I'd want to have in my hand the most. In the same way, again with simple math, we can expand this concept to 60 cards, which is the highest deck count. If I have 60 cards in front of me, between them, there are 40 cards which are the best. We can rank those cards and see, that there are 20 cards, that when compared to the other 40 I'd rather I did not have in my hand instead of any of the 40 cards. By understanding this the answer to how many cards we want in our deck for this deck type should be simple.

40
The 40 cards which I'd rather have. By reducing the number to 40, which is the minimum deck count, we can be sure we will draw into only the better cards and so heighten our chances of victory. That is the deck to its strongest. However the total number of cards is not our only concern when making a deck. How many of them will be monsters, how many spells and how many traps?


First I'll assume you are accustomed with the basic rules of the game. You are only allowed 1 normal summon a turn. When attacking you can attack an opponent's monster and in case the monster is in attack the one with the highest attack will win and deal an appropriate amount of damage, if the monster is in defense... well, you know the drill. Furthermore, if there is no monster on the opponent's side of the field the monster is able to attack directly, which is something you'd generally want to avoid. So let's see our goals and restrictions:
1 normal summon per turn
Beating opponent's monsters by battle, destroying the opponent's monsters with the goal of attacking directly
Always have a monster on the field so that you won't get attacked directly.
So you would want to have at least 1 monster in your hand at the beggining of every turn to take full advantage of your normal summon right. Well, generally it's not entirely true, but let us begin with this assumption as we are dealing with simple concepts. Now as to the reason you want to take advantage of that right. You are playing against an opponent, and it is unlikely your opponent will leave you alone to do what you want. You are to assume that your common beaters will be somehow taken care of by your opponent every turn. So at every given turn you may be left with no monster on the field. Should that happen then you'd have no monster and be open to a direct attack, which you'd want to avoid unless you have a plan due to the Life Point cost. Therefore you should be able to refresh your field with new monsters every turn. Since you are making a simple aggro/stun deck you want those monsters to be able to beat your opponent's monsters by battle, so you want them to have a high ATK amount. Even though defenders will do a good job of protecting your life points, your job is to win, so you'll prefer ATK and damage. Now off the top of my head I'll tell you that if you exclude weird/epic cases duels will take, when they are long about 20 turns, that is 10 turns for each of you, so if you want to be prepared you'll want at least 10 monsters, but with 10 you are pushing it real close, you are simply assuming perfect draws , which let me tell you will never happen. Also games may take longer than that, this count is simply by my latest experiences and my stun experience. You can also say that you can manage with 1 monster in your starting hand of 5+1 cards in your starting hand, but then you are assuming that you'll be drawing monsters every turn, which is not possible. For now we will go with a generic number that may work and fix it later. 20 monsters, half of your deck. That amount should be enough to keep you with a normal summon each turn, while not clogging your hand way too much. While the hand will be clogged a bit, note that not all of them will be beatsticks. We will be throwing in some monsters with seemingly beneficial effects.

So now let's move to the spell/trap count. Remember, before I told you that cards are better than others, so since spells and traps work differently, isn't one kind better than the other? Can't we just use both? This is where turns and phases come in. Generally know that normal spells have the strongest effects, or the same effects with less requirements than a trap card. However a trap card (spell speed 2 card in general) can be used during your opponent's turn, battle phase etc. Also remember that you need balance, I didn't say that cards are just better than others, I said that cards are better than others for a specific job. So in a game you will want something to destroy your opponent's monsters and you will want something to destroy your opponent's spells/traps. From that point onward the difference between the 2 and the criteria as to which cards should be used are not the cards themselves but what you want to do with them. So let us compare 2 cards that do different things to get it.

Smashing Ground and Dimensional Prison

Smashing Ground will work during your turn, and when you choose you will take out an opponent's monster, no requirements, no strings attached.
Dimensional Prison will work only in your opponent's battle phase and on an attacking monster, that already means that it is harder to use. It will however remove that monster from the game, during the opponent's turn.

If you only use cards like Dimensional Prison, during your turn your opponent will usually have a monster, one that he summoned during his previous turn, stopping you from attacking, while he will lose his monster during your turn because of your trap.
If you only use cards like Smashing Ground, during your turn you will be able to deal with your opponent's monsters, allowing you to attack directly, but during your opponent's turn he will be able to move freely and nothing will stop him from attacking.

So if you have 2 copies of Dimensional Prison on the field, your opponent will not be able to attack in his turn, but one of the dimensional prisons will be left unused until your opponent's next turn and there will be nothing you can do during your turn if he has another monster you cannot run over.
If you have 2 copies of Smashing Ground in your hand, you will be able to destroy your opponent's monsters in your turn, but will be able to do nothing on your opponent's turn since you will have a Smashing Ground you cannot use.
However if you have 1 Smashing Ground in your hand and 1 Dimensional Prison on the field you will be able to both destroy your opponent's monster in your turn and fend off an attack during your opponent's turn, giving you better control over the game.

Expanding that to all spell and traps, and without taking into account yet cards like royal decree or even broken cards we will start with a very simple balance for spells and traps. 10 spells, 10 traps, seperating the rest of the deck in half. That is again an arbitary number, based on very little observation that conflicts with the primary statement of "one card is better than another" in a way, but we will fix later, so let's start with that.

20 monsters. 10 spells. 10 traps

Now, let's drop together the cards that we found lying around (warning: this is in no way a good deck, I aknowledge that there are much better choices, but that much we are going to skip for now) by what we know until now (warning #2: we have not gone into card advantage yet, that will be evident in this deck).

3 Gene-Warped Warwolf. - This monster is a normal level 4 monster with 2000 ATK. In other words a perfect beatstick.
3 Slate Warrior – a 1900 ATK level 4 monster which has 2 beneficial effects
3 Evocator Chevalier – an effect that could be beneficial? Nah, maybe in some other deck, for now it's a beatstick
2 Power Giant – 2200 monster which can be special summoned. This will serve as an example
2 Big Piece Golem – 2100 monster that can be normal summoned without tributes
2 Penguin Soldier – returns 2 monsters your opponent controls to the opponent's hand when flipped
2 Snowman Eater – 1900 wall the will destroy a monster when flipped face up, even by battle
2 Berserk Gorilla – level 4 2000 ATK with the only drawback that it must attack. That's what you want it for anyway.

3 Smashing Ground – We already talked about it so you should be accustomed to it
2 Tribute to the Doomed – Will destroy 1 monster you select regardless of it being face-up or down, it will cost you one card from your hand
1 Offering to the Doomed – Will destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, while not losing a card from your hand by you will not draw next turn. It is a Quick Spell so it can be used during your opponent's turn as well.
2 Lightning Vortex – Will destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls, it will cost you 1 card
1 Swords of Revealing Light – Allows only you to attack for 3 turns
1 Pot of Avarice – Will allow you to draw 2 cards while reffiling your deck with monsters

2 Dimensional Prison – We talked about this one too...
2 Raigeki Break – It will destroy any 1 card your opponent controls at the cost of 1 card from your hand
2 Trap Hole – It will destroy 1 monster your opponent normal summons
2 Threatening Roar – It will stop all attacks from the opponent for 1 turn (and kill Gbs!!)
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device – It will bounce a monster back to your opponent's hand, no requirements, no strings attached.

Now that is our decklist now. Random as hell, right? Don't blame me for the quality, it was just the cards we had lying around. Now, apart from the bad choices, let's see something else first. You should have all noticed, right? Where are the limited stuff? So let's move on to the next section before discussing terms like card advantage. Power cards.


As all of you know in this game there are some cards which generate easy, instant advantage. Some cards so good that they had to be restricted by konami in this list http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/limited/index.html . The one that are the most commonly used right now are Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Mirror Force, Solemn Judgment, Torrential Tribute. I will go more in depth on those cards when I will explain card advantage but for now I will explain 1 card.

Solemn Judgment: At the cost of half your life points you can negate the activation of a spell/trap card or the summon of a monster and destroy it. The cost is indeed heavy, half your life points are a lot. However the fact that it is half your life points also means that there is not 1 moment in the game where you will not have enough life points to activate it. Yes, even if you have only 1 Life Point you will be able to activate the card (and in that case the card will activate by you paying 0 life points and then proceed to resolve normaly). Apart from wild exceptions like magical merchant there is only 1 kind of deck that cannot use Solemn Judgment. That is the deck used by someone who doesn't know how to use it. Not only because this card has a high cost but also because this card is your universal out. It is the card which when it is on the field will let you know that your opponent cannot make a big play to overthrow you. It is the card that, when your opponent has 1 or 2 set cards and you try to make your play, will tell you that you can go ahead because whatever they have, you have something better. Like all other power cards this card can give you control of the game alone, by hitting that key play right in the core. As for the time to use it, for that you have to know your opponent, or rather your opponent's deck, and that is something for another time.

Before moving on we can see an obvious upgrade to Trap Hole in the semi list, Bottomless Trap Hole. While Trap Hole can only respond to normal summons, Bottomless Trap Hole can respond to all summons and remove the monster from play instead of sending it to the graveyard. In addition, in cases of an effect which summons multiple monsters at once, like Double-Edged Sword Technique, Bottomless Trap Hole will hit all of those monsters. And because of that it doesn't target as a bonus. The only downside to Trap Hole is that the monsters must have 500 more ATK, meaning 1500 ATK, but that much is easily outbalanced by the benefits. For now let's replace the trap hole.

Our new decklist looks like this

Hmm power cards can give a boost. So how does this deck run? If you test it you will come across a very specific problem quite a lot. That is running out of cards while your opponent is fine in that aspect. So, this deck runs quite horribly, and that is the problem for now. Now that I mentioned it, is this a problem you come across too? You miraculously having too little cards on the hand and field combined while you are starring down your opponent's backrow of 4 cards with 3 monsters on field, or your opponent's 5 card hand while you have the same field but you have no hand? Or just looking like you have 2 less cards than your opponent without being able to explain how this happened and feeling like you are loosing? Well, it is a common problem I've found around here, and actually to many players that do not really grasp the importance of card advantage, how it is connected to control, and how much does it contribute to victory in the game itself, so this next part is probably the most important.


Unless you are playing an instant win or stall/brun deck, or a complete lockdown deck or a control deck based on a specific monster, like SDAM, the most important factor of victory in the game is card advantage.

Spoiler:

Let me first tell you that when calculating card presence, cards on the field and in the hand are interchanable. If you normal summon an Elemental Hero Neos Allius from your hand to the field you neither gain nor lose anything. You had 6 cards in your hand before, now you got 5 cards in your hand and 1 on the field. In terms of card presence you are in the exact same grand total of 6.
Why should you care about card presence? Let me remind you that Yu-Gi-Oh is a game which is played with 2 players. You have an opponent, and while to consider the opponent is something I will tell you later, you should understand that just like your cards equal to certain plays, the cards the opponent holds equal to plays as well. So if you got 2 cards and a super strong monster on the field with no cards in hand, and your opponent holds 7 cards in hand with no field, you are losing. That is because your opponent can now make enough plays to get rid of all your cards, assuming he is half decent a player. Card advantage is what gives you control, if you have it you will have answers to your opponent's plays, if you don't, you'll sit back when your opponent beatsticks you through the turns/OTKs you. At least I know that if you have played against me you have found yourself in a situation where you had ended up with no hand or field (or very little of either) and I was making plays unhindered just because I had cards, knowing I win. Card presence is what gives you possibilities for plays, what will allow you to go for victory, what will allow you to hinder your opponent. It is something that most players learn after they have been beaten really badly by others who understood that much. But I will put this on more solid terms to understand the significance, and that is on TWA terms. Not by the way the individuals are placed, but by the levels that implies, by the ranking TWA uses awarness of card presence is what seperates the levels of Rank 3 from Ranks 1 and 2. I am judgemental of TWA's ranking system to be honest and am usually thinking it should be more strict, just being aware of your card advantage is not what gives you the highest rank, there are many levels above that, rank 3 is more diverse than you'd think, but on the levels and lines TWA has set that is the truth. For whoever is below the level TWA considers rank 3 that is the reason, at least by what I've seen, and I don't mean that each individual rank 1 or 2 is at that level, one could be rank 2 but be in the level of rank 3 and vice versa, I'm talking about the level itself. Lastly let me tell you that one is not the highest level of duelist simply by knowing about card advantage, as I told you before. In fact it is basic and will ofter be skipped by the more experienced players, not because it is unneeded but simply because it is so basic. Similarly to how you learned to make simple additions without using your fingers to keep track, you learn what cards are good or bad for your card presence. Card presence:
1. is a means to an end, and that end is to win. You will use it to gather your winning pieces.
2. it is not something as strict as the basics make it to be. In order to set up a good Dragunity graveyard you may need to go -2, but that will produce card advantage later. Depending on how your deck works it calculates card presence differently. But
3. is not to be disregarded, or using the above to skip it. If you do not understand card presence go by the basics. Do not use 2 as an excuse to say things like "I'll use Tirbute to the Doomed because my deck is hindered by face down monsters so it is strategically meaningful to have it." You are making excuses and working against your own deck. If you want a card in your deck you'd better have a good reason for it. Card presence does constitute a good reason. "In case my opponent does this I will do this if this is true to gain this while losing this which I will get back because my deck acts like that..." is not a good reason.


That took long enough... Nontheless I believe it was neccessary, at least from what I've seen. And still I believe my explanation was insufficient, there was more I felt I should say, more important ones, but alas, that is something a player learns the hard way most of the times. With that let's move to how you see card presence and advantage. Card presence is the total number of cards in your hand and field. Really that is quite the simplistic explanation and is not completely true, as a Glow-Up Bulb in your graveyard may be boosting your card advantage as well, but that is something for a later time. For now let us focus on these facts. So
1. Card Presence is the total number of cards in your hand and field. Moving a card from your field to your hand or vice versa makes no difference in that aspect.
2. Using a Normal/Quick Spell, Normal/Counter Trap, monster which activates it's effect by returning to the deck, sending itself to the graveyard reduces your card presence by that card, that is, it reduces your card presence by one.
Let's take an example of this. You and your opponent each have 4 cards in hand with no cards on the field. You use Card Destruction. Card Destruction says

Quote :

Card Destruction
Each player discards their hand and draws the same number of cards they discarded.

So before activating the card there is no difference of card presence between you and your opponent. Neither player holds the card advantage. Then you activate Card Destruction. One could say that at this point the card presence remains the same, both players drew the same number of cards they discarded, so there is no change. That one person would be very wrong. Before activating Card Destruction you and your opponent had 4 cards in hand each. Then you played 1 card from your hand: Card Destruction. Then you had 3 cards in your hand and 1 on the field. Then Card Destruction started resolving and both players discarded their hands and drew the same amount of cards, your opponent 4, you 3. Then, after the chain resolved, the card got send to the graveyard by game mechanics. You now have a card presence of 3 while your opponent has a card presence of 4. Compared to before you lost Card Destruction which went to the graveyard.

But Card Destruction is not a weird card in that aspects, all normal spell and traps do that much. So let's look at another card. Tribute to the Doomed, a card we put in that deck. It says:

Quote :

Tribute to the Doomed
Discard 1 card. Destroy 1 monster on the field.

Sounds like fair trade to me. You discard 1 card to destroy 1 monster, one for one, no loss in card presence. Is that true? Let's see a scenario.
You have 3 cards in hand, one of them is Tribute to the Doomed. Your opponent has 2 cards in hand and 1 Berserk Gorila in face-up attack position on the field. Card presence is 3 for both players. Equal now. You want to destroy the Gorila and activate Tribute to the Doomed. You discard 1 card for the cost and destroy Berserk Gorila. Now after all is done look at your hand. You discarded 1 card and used Tribute to the Doomed, which after resolution went to the graveyard by game mechanics. Now you have 1 card in your hand. Your opponent has 2 cards in his hand. You have 1 card less than your opponent. What happened? Didn't you discard 1 to destroy 1? What happened I explained above, let me quote it for emphasis

Al-Bhed wrote:

... and used Tribute to the Doomed, which after resolution went to the graveyard by game mechanics.

This is what happened. Tribute to the Doomed sent itself to the graveyad in the process, and now you got 1 card to make your plays while starring up at your opponent's 2 cards, which will probably be better than yours. Did I mention that this is your turn and when you end it your opponent will draw into his 3rd card? That is true as well.

Now let us compare Tribute to the Doomed with another card we put in our deck, Smashing Ground. It says

Quote :

Smashing Ground
Destroy the 1 face-up monster your opponent controls that has the highest DEF. (If it's a tie, you get to choose.)

When the comparison begins we see that you do not select the monster and it can only work on face-up monsters. Well already Smashing Ground seems to be left behind. On the bright side it doesn't target (and cards like that is the reason you don't see many cards which prevent targeting or negate cards that target) and another is that you do not discard a card. Now let's see how much of a difference that makes.
Same scenario, you 3 cards in hand, opponent 2 cards in hand and Berserk Gorila on field. You activate Smashing Ground and destroy Berserk Gorila. And then you look at your hand and witness the miracle... You have 2 cards in hand, same as your opponent and neither player has a field. You lost Smashing Ground which went to the graveyard by game mechanics after being "spent" and your opponent lost Berserk Gorila. Now, not only are you not a disadvantage compared to the previous scenario, but you infect have twice the card as before, as you had 1 in the other scenario, while you have 2 now, and while that may sound like I'm twisting the words, when we talk about stun you will see how important it is. You do in fact have twice the cards you had in the other scenario.

That extra card that is in your hand does change a lot (unless it is dead ofc, but that is a matter of consistency and not card advantage). That makes Smashing Ground much superior to Tribute to the Doomed, and is the reason you see one in decks and not the other. And while you may say you can afford that 1 card loss if it's just that, let me remind you of your opponent again. When playing competitivelly, your opponent will play to win and will not lose that 1 card. If you have not made your deck the best it can be, and that is by taking care that you choose well every single card, while your opponent has, let me tell you that you are going to lose. That 1 card can make the difference. When you make a deck go all out and try to make it the best it can be right down to the card if you want to be competitive. If you don't like winning, well that's a different matter, I simply began on that assumption.


We refer to such situations of shift in card advantage with terms like
+X (+1, +2, +4 or just + sometimes)
That is when you gain advantage. When you use the effect of Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy 1 spell or trap, and that spell or trap is not chained in response, that is a +1. Your opponent lost 1 card and you lost none (you still have Breaker on your side of the field, the only drawback is that it has 300 less ATK putting him at 1600).
You use Derbis Dragon to summon back Card Trooper and Synchro summon Black Rose Dragon while your opponent has 3 monsters and 2 set spells or traps on the field and you have nothing else on the field. You use the first effect of Black Rose Dragon and destroy every card on the field while your opponent has nor response. Your opponent lost 5 cards (his entire field) you lost 1 (Debris Dragon) in that play. The difference is 4 so you had a +4. (and you probably won)
You play Pot of Greed and draw 2 cards. You used 1 card and gained 2. It's a +1.
Remember that when calculating that, you are taking your opponent's loss as your +(plus) similar to a zero sum game.

-X (same as above)
You discard 1 card from your hand as a cost to activate Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 1 face-up monster. You lost 2 cards while your opponent lost 1, that is a -1.
You special summon Cyber Dragon and tribute it to summon Caius, the Shadow Monarch and target one face down trap card with his effect. That card is Bottomless Trap Hole and is activated in response. You lose Caius and Cyber Dragon and your opponent lost Bottomless Trap Hole, you are at -1.
Use Compuslory Evacuation Device on your opponent's Gravekeeper's Assailant. -1. You lost Compulsory Evacuation Device while your opponent lost nothing (he still has that Gravekeeper's Assailant in his hand)
Use Threatening Roar during your opponent's Start Step of the Battle Phase to stop them from attacking. -1. You lost Threatening Roar, your opponent lost nothing.
You have 3 cards face down in your backrow. Your opponent activates Trap Stun and chains Gottom's Emergancy Call to special summon Darksoul and Fulhelm Knight, while having an Airbellum on the field. He special summons Faultroll from the hand. He synchro summons Hyunlei with Darksoul and Fulhelm and destroys your 3 backrows. Then he brings back Darksoul with Faultroll's effect and Synchro summons Gottoms with Hyunlei and Airbellum. He uses the effect of Gottoms by tributing the Darksoul to make you discard 1 card from your hand. In the end phase he searches twice because of the effect of Darksoul.
Your opponent used up his Emergency Call, Airbellum and Trap Stun. He got Gottoms, 2 X-sabers from Darsoul and moved Faultroll from his hand to the field. As a result he lost no cards. His card presence is exactly the same as before (lost 3, gained 3, moved 1). You lost 3 cards from your backrow and 1 from your hand. You are at a -4. (and you probably lost already but that's a story for another time).

141/one for one (To use 1 card to gain or make your opponent lose 1 card. It is also used as a wider term however, for example when you lose 2 cards and gain 2 cards, or lose 3 cards, make your opponent lose 2 cards and gain 1 card, you can say that is a 141 play.)

Use Smashing Ground to destroy 1 monster your opponent controls. 141, you lost 1 card and your opponent lost 1 card as well. Summon a Machina Gearframe, search a Machina Fortress, discard another Machina Fortress and itself to summon it. You summoned Machina Gearframe and gained 1 from searching Fortress, +1, then you summoned the Fortress on the field by discarding another Fortress, -1, combined with the other one it is a 141.
Use Compulsory Evacuation Device on Stardust Dragon. 141. The Stardust Dragon will return to the extra deck and you will lose Compuslory Evacuation Device.
Use Dimensional Prison on an attacking monster. 141. In addition to stopping that attack you removed the monster from the game. Your opponent lost 1 card, you lost none.
Use Lonefire Blossom to summon Tytannial, Princess of Camelias. You used 1 card to gain 1.
Summon Treeborn Frog from your graveyard. Special summon Fishborg Blaster from your graveyard by discarding 1 card. Tribute Fishborg Blaster to summon Raiza, The Storm Monarch and target your opponent's face down monster, the monster is returned to the top of the deck (that is a -1 for your opponent, the card is neither in his hand nor field, he will draw it in the next turn, but he could have drawn an additional card instead of that if you hadn't topdecked it), you discard 1 more card to special summon Fishborg Blaster. Synchro summon Formula Synchron using Fisborg Blaster and Treeborn Frog. Draw 1 card from its effect. Synchro summon Stardust Dragon using Raiza and Formula Synchron. 141. You lost 3 cards: The 2 you discarded for Fishborg (you summoned it twice) and Raiza. You gained 2: The one you drew for Formula Synchron and Stardust Dragon on the field. Your opponent lost 1, his face-down monster.

141 is something that you want to be doing a lot. It would be nice if all our plays would result in +1 but it is harder. Now if you score 2 +s and then you manage to make everything 141, you are simplifying the game while holding that card advantage from the +s earlier. If you manage to 141 everything like that, bringing your opponent to 0 cards while you hold that card advantage from those 2 +s earlier, then you are very close to winning. At the very least that is the concept of stun, which is closer to the deck we are making. Other decks will try to score continuous +s due to their structure, but stun follows the way of simplification, and that is what 141 usually does.


Now that we know that it will be much easier to explain power cards. Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force this format (and the next as we know). First of all let's start with Mirror Force. Mirror Force can be activated in response to an attack and will destroy all attack position monsters your opponent controls. Simple enough. If your opponent has 1 monster, it's 141, if he has 2, it's +1, if he has 3, it's +2. A +1 from Mirror Force is enough to shift the balance of the game.
Now, Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute. Both of these cards are not to be used randomly, similar to Solemn Judgment they have a time to be used, and that time is easier to tell. It may destroy your own monsters, but it won't destroy anything if you don't have any, and even if you have 1, if you are destroying more of your opponent's you are still good. There is a good time for those cards to be used and that is if it will benefit your card advantage.
So the reason these cards are usually an auto-include is that they are a simple +1, +2 etc. So they can easily turn the balance of the game around. Additionally, exactly because they are able to generate advantage under certain conditions your opponent will avoid fulfilling them simply because the cards exist and are probebly in your deck, so because Dark Hole exists in every deck, the opponent will not overextend as easy with monsters out of fear for this card which may give him a -2. Because Mirror Force exists in all decks, the opponent will not rush with all monsters in a full backrow, out of fear for the card which may give you +. That is the reason those cards are still in the advanced format, to create such a condition for the game where the player will find it harder to overextend.

So with that knowledge let's look at our deck again. In case you forgot it looked like this

the 'me' from a couple of mins ago wrote:

20 Monsters

3 Gene-Warped Warwolf.
3 Slate Warrior
3 Evocator Chevalier
2 Power Giant
2 Big Piece Golem
2 Penguin Soldier
2 Snowman Eater
2 Berserk Gorilla

10 Spells

3 Smashing Ground
2 Tribute to the Doomed
1 Offering to the Doomed
2 Lightning Vortex
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn

10 Traps

2 Dimensional Prison
1 Raigeki Break
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Threatening Roar
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment

Now armed with our newfound knowledge let's find those evil cards that will drain away your pour hand and your chances of victory little by little, starting with the most obvious.
Tribute to the Doomed is thrown to the wind, may it never come back, we talked about it already.

Offering to the doomed: Even though it is a chainable (we will cover those in a while), I just can't handle a card that stops you from drawing for the next turn just to go 141 on a monster. It's a bad -1, and a bad chainable because of its limited versatility.

Raigeki Break and Compulsory Evacuation Device: are chainables and can be used effectivelly in some decks, however, without a clear use for them (for example having a deck that needs monsters in the graveyard or a deck with monsters with trigger effects which activate on summon) they are simply -1 cards unless chained when targeted, in which scenario you should not depend upon. That being said, the deck we are using does not have a good use for them.

Threatening Roar: This card will save your life points/monsters for a turn. It is a classic -1. You may say that protecting your monsters,which would have gone minus if you hadn't activated the card, is worth it, but Dimensional Prison will protect your monster as well and go 141. That is of course if your opponent attacks only with 1 monster. Does that maybe make Threatening Roar better than Dimensional Prison in cases? Let's see.
2 attacking monsters: If your opponent attacks with 2 monsters, Dimensional Prison will 141 one of them and the other will destroy your monster making you go -1, the result is the same as a Threatening Roar at any time while you also choose which monster to remove. Still Dimensional Prison is superior against 2 monsters as well.
3+ attacking monsters: If your opponent attacks with 3+ monsters and you use Threatening Roar the monsters will still be there next turn, and unless you have Dark Hole at the ready (NEVER depend on having power cards in your hand because the possibilities of having them are low) the problem will still be there next turn. If you use Dimensional Prison you can eliminate 1 monster of your choice. Depending on your hand you have better chances of making a comeback now. The other matter is the fact itself that your opponent overextended like that. The chances that your opponent will attack with 3 monsters at once is low. If you find that your opponent is overextending a lot it either means that you went to a big event with a lot of Six Samurai decks or that you are playing a losing game and you need to take control of the game better, which is all the more reason to start caring about your card presence and use Dimensional Prison over Threatening Roar. Yes, there is that 1 game out of 20 in which Threatening Roar will save your life points from a full swarm and you are going to topdeck Dark Hole/Mirror Force/etc. , clear the field and pull a miracle, but a card like Dimensional Prison will help you win the other 19/20 games.

Power Giant: Power Giant requires of you to send 1 monster from your hand to the graveyard to special summon it. Now remember, just because it is a level 6 monster or because it is a 2200 monster does not mean getting it on the field is some kind of plus. You are still simply moving it from your hand to the field. To add to that Power Giant has no beneficial effects (except from that effect damage thingy but honestly who cares for that) so it will not give you any card advantage. So you sneding 1 other monster from your hand as well is a clear -. Do not expect to gain advantage from a monster simply because it has a higher than average ATK, you are not the only one who has trap cards, and if your opponent can go +1 with a Bottomless Trap Hole/Dimensional Prison/Smashing Ground/Book of Moon etc. Simply because you decide to waste 1 card he will be very happy. And don't even try to compare it to Machina Fortress, I will embarass you.

Penguin Soldier: ... has some uses somewhere, I am sure. But not here. Here's what happens when you use Penguin Soldier. You set it face-down, your opponent attacks it, Penguin Soldier goes to the graveyard (-1 by battle) and you return 2 monsters to the hand, result: your opponent is annoyed but has lost no card presence. Now you could use it smartly in the high tiers somehow, like in a meta where the opponent will not attack face-down monsters fearing something, or in a meta with Synchro/Fusion/Exceed spam (will not happen though, if a meta where Synchros etc where used to such an extend where Penguin Soldier would be considered existed I would use my anti-meta and be really happy with the easiest meta in my life) but here you will usually go -1, with just annoying your opponent a bit.

Now let's see what we got left.

Now we need some cards to add. First let's look at our monsters and see what we can do. We lost Power Giant, now its place as a big monster can be taken by Cyber Dragon easily. We know it, we love it. Now as for the other one... hmm... let's be risky here and grab a Greenkappa!
Greenkappa will target and destroy 2 set spells/traps when flipped. Similar to Penguin Soldier it will usually die in the process going -1, but it may make a +2. The drawbacks are 2. 1, if the card is a continuous card and it is flipped in response to Greenkappa targetting it, it will not be destroyed. 2, and most important, it is mandatory to destroy 2 set cards, not up to 2. If your opponent has only 1 set spell/trap you will be forced to destroy your own, which is -1 in the end. Greenkappa always has a right time to be used because of that. Thankfully heavy storm is gone for 2 formats straight and this looks like it will be a trap format again so there should be no shortage of set spell/traps.

The Spells and Traps. We need 6 of those. Let's start with 2 copies of everyone's favourite Mystical Space Typhoon!! 141, can be used on both turns, it is chainable, what more do you want. Hmm, what else... oh... Let's max out our Dimensional Prisons, why didn't we do that earlier, it's not like we worry about metas yet. For our last 3 spots we will use 3 copies of Pot of Duality. Now this is a controversial card, so let's explain it. First let's accept it is 141, no doubt about it. You use 1 card and pick up 1 other card. Now, remember why you need to draw cards? Don't think theory, if you don't know the use of this card it will be harder, think in a game, when it is your draw phase, why do you draw? Is it to have 1 more card in your hand? Or is it because you look for 1 of those cards that will help you?
Remember, card advantage is a means to an end, you are simply ensuring you have your winning pieces, that you have those moves, so when you are drawing a card you are looking for specific cards. If your opponent has swarmed the field you look for mass destruction, like Dark Hole or Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute, if you have no monsters you look for a monster, if your opponent has an annoying spell/trap on the field you look for spell/trap destruction, etc. So when you draw a card you are attempting to draw 1 of those cards, if you don't you make a different play, wait a turn and try again. Pot of Duality allows you to do that 3 times in a row, you check your 3 top cards and select the one which serves you best in a situation. And similarly to how, for a use 1 card is better than another, in any certain situation in the game, some cards are better than others. Pot of Duality looks through them, is 141 and thins your deck. So for the last spots 3 whole copies of Pot of Duality.

Now let's look at our deck again.


Aww, we unbalanced our spells/traps... well, ok no harm done there. So how is the deck now? I'll be frank with you and use every bit of my professionalism to explain it thoroughly. It's garbage...
But don't worry, we still have 2 stages of ironing out to go before we bring this guy into shape. First part of the 2 is Card Presence again. Yeah... shocking... I just realized but card presence may be the 1 subject I'll be bringing up the most. That is because I plan on bringing it up again in the more advanced deckbuilding chapters on different aspects of it. Anyways, for now we have some basic card presence controversies we will work through.

~Continued in post 2

I think I've brought them up even in this article enough times, chainables.
What is a "chainable"?
First of all let's look at a card that is not, Bottomless Trap Hole. Bottomless Trap Hole has a specific activation timing, it can only be activated in response to something, and that something is the summon of a monster. If Bottomless Trap Hole is targeted for destruction by Mobius The Frost Monarch it can still be activated in response, because you are responding to a summon, but if it is targeted by the effect of Mystical Space Typhoon then it cannot be activated in response, the card has become useless. In contrast a chainable card will succeed in that aspect.

A chainable card, is a card which does not need to be activated in response to something. It may have a few conditions, but so long as those conditions are easily met the card can be considered a chainable. We call them chainables because they may be chained in most cases to another effect, or start their own chain to prevent something, so a chainable may be activated to stop a play at the most beneficial time, or be chained to an effect that targets it to make the effect useless and apply its own effect at the same time while providing advantage, or be chained to counter an effect that may not affect the card itself. Usually chainables are -1 cards by definition, but they can be 141 or provide advantage (card advantage or advantage in control) with their uses.

Let's go beyond theory and provide examples. We'll use a few cards to demonstrate:
Book of Moon. Perhaps the most famous chainable. It is so good that it will hit the limited list this March, and you could argue that it is because of Exceeds, or because of the new summon response priority rule, but even though the latter does improve book of moon, it was used in 3s in most top tier decks for a reason, and no, the reason is not netdecking, to begin with it is not an easy card to use, it requires knowledge of this game and of the meta among others. So, what could book of moon do?
Let's look at the card. It is a quick spell card, threfore it can be activated from your hand as spell speed 2 during your turn, or be set and activated as a spell speed 2 during either player's turn. It does not need to activate in response to anything. It's only activation condition is that there is a face-up monster on the field. It targets and at resolution it flips a monster into face-down defense position. How is this useful? Let's see the uses in the spoiler.

Spoiler:

Compulsory Evacuation Device. It is a trap card. The condition to activate it is that there is a monster on the field, pretty easy to meet. It targets again (dammit... unfortunatelly that is the case with most chainables...) and at resolution it will return a monster back to the player's hand. Definitelly looks like a -1. Let's look at what some uses, it will definitelly be shorter than the previous one, since some uses are common for all chainables.

Spoiler:

For the 3 out of 4 I'd tell you about how wonderful Forbiden Lance can be, but since no one knows when this would get to KCVDS I'll grab another oldie and bring up Trap Stun to show you other chainables. Looking at the card we see it's a trap card. I doubt it has any activation conditions (unless a card on the field says so, but this exception always exists so it's not noteworthy). It's effect will negate all other traps on the field after it resolves. Let's go into it. This will be even faster than the last one.

Spoiler:

Moving on to the last one we have one which works only because it is a chainable. It is a monster and therefore can be considered a bordeline chainable card, but it is one. I could talk about D.D.Crow awesomness here, but since it is the newer one and players need to be accustomed to it I will bring up Effect Veiler. It is a monster, a level 1 spellcaster LIGHT tuner. I won't even bother to look up it's ATK/DEF, if you are so curious go ahead, but let me tell you, you won't be using that. It has a quick effect that can be activated from your hand only during your opponent's main phase targeting a face up effect monster. Having the "only uring your opponent's main phase" clause makes it a Bordeline chainable. It's effect is that it will negate the targetted monster's effects until the end phase. Now, how on earth do you use that? Is there some complicated reason for which you would want to negate a monster's effect during your opponent's main phase for that turn only? Sounds like a situational stall at first. Well, this card works in the latest formats only because it is a chainable, so let's look at it's uses.

Spoiler:

Want to know another chainable that we are using right now in the deck? Mystical Space Typhoon. It is a 141 chainable card. Now you know why it is that good. Since it was brought up I'll give you a couple ways to use it. Most players know those though.

Spoiler:

Well since it was about individual cards, with the extended spoilers this could be the biggest part of this article up to now. And it's only the 1/4th of it. Thankfully the other 3/4ths are smaller. I hope that with this you get chainables. They are versatile cards which may increase their uses in specific metas. Other cards like Raigeki Break and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast also belong here. But now we'll move to the exact opposite. Cards which are + by nature.


There are cards like Compuslory Evacuation Device that even though they look like – can get even +. Just like that there are cards that even though they look like + they may be hard to get that advantage off or may even be dead.
First of let's start with something from our very own deck (by very own I mean the deck we just made), Lightning Vortex. How useful Lightning Vortex may be changes between formats so excuse my use of current formats as an example later. Let's first compare it with an all too familiar card, Smashing Ground.
As we have established Smashing Ground is generally a 141 whether the opponent has 1, 2, 3 monsters etc.
How Lightning Vortex may affect one's card presence/advantage does vary, let's take situations, this will be similar to the Threatening Roar example.
1 face-up monster:
If the opponent has only 1 face-up monster monster Lightning Vortex is a -1. You discard 1 card, you lose Lightning Vortex and your opponent loses 1 monster. You may say that you can wait, but sometimes it cannot wait, if you have used Lightning Vortex in a deck you will remember several times when you were forced to use it on 1 monster. After a deck has worked with the goal of simplification, like this deck is, the player with the upper hand will be the one who has 1 monster on the field and no more. Using such a deck you do fail if there are constant swarms, you will see that 3 times max in a hard game if you do it right. At all those times that the opponent has 1 monster Smashing Ground serves better. Also don't forget that we are talking about face-up monsters. A player may have a face-up and a face-down monster on the field, it is not unusual, in fact due to cards like Mirror Force, or even Bottomless Trap Hole it is a common sight. Additionally the existence of cards like Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute and Dark Hole will keep an opponent from overextending.
2 face-up monsters monsters:
This is where Lightning Vortex matches Smashing Ground in terms of card advantage. Now if we look at the first 2 situations Smashing Ground wins hands down. The 1 monster case is obvious. In this, 2 monster case the first problem is occasions. If you compare how many times the opponent will have at least 2 face-up monsters on the field to the times the opponent will have at least 1 face-up monster on the field, you will see that the times that the opponent will have at least 1 face-up monster on the field are much more. If you have to compare a 141 that can be used almost any time and a situational 141 the answer as to which is better should be obvious.
3+ monsters: Here Lightning Vortex is a +. But here is the problem. How often do you see 3 face-up monsters on your opponent's monster of the field. And I don't mean in general, but in every duel. Let me explain why I am saying that. To my experience the opponent will not do swarm after swarm. After the opponent has done his big swarm of face-up monsters (2 face-ups and a face-down don't count for obvious reasons and 1 face-up and 3 dandy tokens don't count either, smashing ground the big guy and beat by battle the little ones. There, +) either
a. you will lose, not much you can do, sometimes the opponent will swarm x-sabers under cold wave/trap stun. That's where you use your veiler, or your seven tools on the trap stun or whatever. If you let it happen, well better luck next time, you missed your chance.
b. you take card of the swarm one way or another and win, usually if you beat the opponent after he goes all out he has little ways to come back. And this brings us to our point:

A swarm will only happen so many times in a duel. Unless the deck is like that the opponent will not risk losing a bunch of monsters to Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Dark Hole, so it can only be a decisive move. You do not main a card for rare moves. This means the purpose of this field wiper is only found in rare occasions making it a bad card the rest of the times. If instead of it you have a card which can secure your card presence more easily you can prevent a swarm from ever happening instead, so even if this card can be a +1, a 141 which you can use anytime is preferable in terms of card advantage.

Now let us make a bigger comparison. Black Rose Dragon and Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Both cards are good, really good. But looking at the banlist, Black Rose Dragon, which is the easier to summon of the 2, is unlimited, while Trishula which is harder to summon is limited. What is their difference?
Black Rose Dragon will wipe the enitre field. Now you know that like Dark Hole you won't do that when you have a full field so it is a good +. If you summon Black Rose Dragon with your 1 Debris only and wipe out an opponent's field of 5 cards you are in a good way to win. So what are the +s BRD can give? From my experience I will tell you that the big hits Black Rose will give are about 5 cards. It will usually be about 2 monsters on field and s/t behind. Remember what s/t your opponent may use, there are many that can stop the summon of Black Rose Dragon. Before March 1st there were 3 Book of Moons, 3 Solemn Warnings and 1 Solemn Judgment in most decks. So if you look at a field of 3 face downs there is a good chance one of them will be among those. That means it will be harder to do while not under the protection of Trap Stun/Cold Wave, and still it is uncertain when dealing with a large backrow. On the flip side if you aren't facing a large backrow than you aren't going to make much advantage, since you will not see that many monsters without backrows unless you are really lucky. Also don't forget that there may be face-down cards on your side of the field as well, it is something to consider. A debris deck that has not made a play probably was kept safe with backrow cards, and it is hard to wait until the run out. It is a large + card, but the + may vary greatly and will get about to a +3 at most. More at wild cases.

Trishula can be summoned with a Debris and 2 tokens. It can also be summoned with Lonefire combos and infernities can summon 2 Trishulas with a lancher/Mirage and a nice graveyard. Let's say for now it is made with 2 cards. The +s a Trishula can make are certain so long as there is 1 card in your opponent's hand and 1 on his field. That means you don't have to play into a big backrow, you can even do it with Giant Trunade and probably nothing will change. In fact Bottomless Trap Hole, Torrential Tribute and chainables don't have a chance of taking away Trishula's + since it doesn't target. That means that you select the cards at resolution, so if the opponent has a Bottomless Trap Hole he must activate it before you select the cards, and then you can select another to make your +. Remove from hand, remove from field and get 2700 beater (BRD can't do that since it kills itself) and the bonus of removing a card from the grave (cards in grave are important as well, removing a Darksoul/Dandylion,glow-up etc./Bestiari/Machina Fortress/Treeborn Frog/Vayu does have an impact). It is a clear + that can be used in any situation. Usually when you are taking control of the game to make sure your opponent cannot come back. Back when it was unlimited it was special summoned 3 times (or more!) in the same turn to take out all of the opponent's resources. Remember that it removes from the hand as well, which is a heavier blow than removal from the field (you are directly messing with your opponent's plans now).

So we can see the 2 good cards, one that can go +4, and one that cannot, but since one of them can make certain advantage, they are just as good (for me trishula is better, but maybe I am biased).

Now let's go with another one. Probably the last. Pot of Avarice. Add 5 monsters from your graveyard to your deck, draw 2. You use 1 card and draw 2. That is a good +1! Not Thunder Dragon, useless +1, you draw 2 new cards using 1, that is good +1, Pot of Greed +1! Why doesn't everyone main 3 of them, don't they like +s? For what it's worth my Chaos Debris runs 3. My Machina runs 0. Why is that? Let's see the main reason.
This card needs 5 monsters in the graveyard to activate. And while this is easy for some decks there are decks that either need their graveyard, or don't fill their grave that fast. In fact if a deck fills the grave fast it is because it needs to fill it fast, so it makes Pot of Avarice even rarer. You could say that my machina deck can fill the grave with 5 monsters that I'd in fact want in my deck by my 5th/6th turn, by utilizing my gadget engine. Here is the problem. Can I afford to hold a dead card in my hand for 5 turns just for a +1? Especially in a Machina Control deck? The answer is no. The pace of the game is fast enough, and remember what I said before? We use card presence to gain control, but if I begin the game with a card I cannot use then for those 5 turns I have a card less than my opponent, so can now establish his control over the game. If I let my opponent begin the game with one more card than me it is doubtful that by my 5th turn I'd be able to turn the game around, or that I'll even get there. It's not because card presence isn't important but exactly because it is, this is the difference 1 card can make. You can say that I may not draw it in the opening hand but I'll say that it can be a dead draw later in the game when I am topdecking and that I may not open with a gadget in turn. Bottomline is that I'd prefer cards that may immidiatelly be used in that deck.

The other reason is that it thickens the deck. Remember that I said that I use it in Chaos Debris? With 2 cards there I can fill the grave with 4 synchos while gaining card advantage, so by using pot of avarice I can choose to return only 1 card to my deck to continue drawing completely fresh cards. Sometimes though there are monsters you'd rather not see again in your hand. There are cards which can fulfil their purpose with one use. Also after having used so many monsters chances are you are looking for other cards. In fact remember what we said in Pot of Duality? You are looking for specific cards, so by loading your deck with 5 monsters you have already used you may indeed be lowering the chances of drawing those cards. Sometimes you want your monsters where you can see them, a card in the graveyard is more easily accessible than a card in deck, so by returning it to the deck you are leaving things to chance. Another reason is it is upsetting the card count of the deck, so while you may have a specific number of cards to manage your draws now you add 5 monsters there and throw the percentances completely off.

This card is a good example, it is a pure certain + of the best kind ( I value draws above all tbh), and yet it depends on the deck whether it may be used or not. So just like with Chainables there were deceptive -s there are also deceptive +s which may be harder to use or to profit from in either way.
There are cards that may give an uncertain + and cards that have hefty conditions to give a + making them dead for a part of the game, putting you effectively at 1 card less. This is where consistency comes in but it is a matter for another time. Generally you should remember that you should calculate how much advantage you can generally get consistently with a card that gives a varying advantage (like Black Rose Dragon) or find out whether you can use a card that provides immidiate advantage (like Pot of Avarice) when you need it. Dead cards are never good, and dead topdecks are dreaded.


First let me give you a taste of what this section is using my knowledge of psychology to suggest the idea to you.
Axe of Despair is garbage. If someone pointed a gun in my head and told me to put Axe of Despair in my deck I'd yell "Shove it up yours!" before spitting blood in his face. Because I am me the same goes for Mage Power. And if you ask I'll tell you that United we Stand can only win you games in these formats if you stack or have luck abilities similar to stacking. Megamorph is ok because it can OTK. The Doomdozer OTK among others says so. But only with a specific purpose.

Now, how much is attack power worth in the game. Is it worth 1 card in your hand? Let's begin from elsewere. You should get by now what the simplest + in this game after your draw phase is. Destruction by battle. Attack a monster and destroy it, your opponent loses a card, you lose none. +1. Then let me ask you who have played against top tier decks, and yes, I'm only talking about decks in the top tiers, 1, 2 maybe 3. At the very least let it be in a tier. The kiddie pool decks that you consider fair don't count, your goal is to beat any and every deck, be it X-Sabers or whatever. How ofter do you destroy a monster that your opponent does not wish you to destroy? How oter do you get a clear + from your opponent's monster. Let's see the possibilities. When a player plays a monster he will:
A. Play it in face-up attack with the intend of attacking. The opponent has at least the inteligence of a human being, he will only attemp to attack a monster with a lower stat than it. Now the possibilities are 2.
A1. You somehow stop him. Use a trap to hit it on summon (Bottomless Trap Hole etc.), use a card during attack declaration (Dimensional Prison, Mirror Force etc.), use a chainable card before the damage step/at attack declaration (book of moon etc.), use a card from your hand during damage calculation (Honest etc.). In all of those cases you used a card. If you destroyed the monster you are at 141, if you didn't you are at -1 and may make it a 141 if that was a Book of Moon for example. In none of those cases will you destroy a monster by battle next turn and go +1 with that because the monster is either not on the field anymore, or you already used a card to make it vulnerable. So battle is no + here.
A2. The attack goes through and your monster is destroyed, it happens often. Now the opponent is at +1. If you summon a stronger monster and destroy it with it next turn all you will be at is 141. Still, no + by battle.
B. Play it in face-up attack position for another purpose. Of course the opponent isn't stupid again, that face-up monster he played has a purpose, it could be a gadget and it payed for itself by going +1, so even if you destroy it by battle it's 141. It could be a breaker and it will destroy a spell/trap going +1 and have the same result. It could be a Debris like monster and go for a 1 card synchro. That is possible as well. It could summon another monster, it could affect yours like gale, generally it won't be summoned for no reason and you won't profit from it by battle without good s/t support.
C. Play it face-down. Let me tell you that unless the player is out of cards (which won't happen if you didn't cause it of course byt taking the card advantage) or had a horrible hand he won't play a face-down monster simply to defend. It will either have an effect that will activate when flipped, like Ryko or Gravekeeper's Spy, Snowman Eater etc. An effect which activates when it is destroyed/sent to the graveyard, like a recruiter/searcher, or it could just be that it is a bait or monster that the player would rather have in his graveyard, like the 3rd DARK monster for Dark Armed Dragon.

Now I'm not saying that you will never beat a monster just because you have a higher ATK, in fact some decks have superiority over others because they can utilize ATK power better, so for example, on top of everything they have, Blackwings also have high ATK so they have advantage over some other decks which they can consistently overpower in terms of ATK. However the reason they are in the toptiers constantly is that they can consistently generate advantage. Unless we are at the topdecking phase when the players have run out of resources ATK power isn't important enough to take a -1 for. Every monster in this game is expendable in fact, all it takes to lose a monster is 1 turn, and if the opponent can take a monster to which you invested 1 card already with only 1 of his own you are at -1. So what we got from here is that unless it constitutes an instant win condition (Limiter Removal otks so it is a good card) or is multipurpose (Shrink will not only allow you to run over almost every monster but can also be used in the damage step, when little things can be activated in response, and it can save your monster from Bottomless Trap Hole, among others) the use of ATK/DEF boosting cards is ultimatelly a -. That is because battle isn't as important, ask a GB player for example how difficult it is to even go through battle, let alone have a monster survive 1 of your opponent's turns. For example let's look at Colby Blomstrom's blackwing deck from the YCS Dallas top 32. We see 3 Book of Moon, 2 Bottomless Trap Hole, 3 Icarus Attacks, 3 Solemn Warning, 2 Dimensional Prison, 1 Solemn Judgment, 1 Mirror Force, 1 Royal Oppression. With a good hand those are enough to ensure that the opponent never has a successful attack in the entire game.
But of course ATK isn't to be completely disregarded, so long as you understand just how much you need to gain advantage on the game instead of just a life point difference taht will only win you the game if you get lucky. So let's look at Joshua Hunt's Machina Gadget deck from the same top 32. Even if I don't like to use that it does implement a concept common to some machina decks. 2 copies of Solidarity. We know that Machina Gadget decks can be built with only machine-type monsters so the card is usable. But isn't solidarity simply an ATK increasing card? Without monsters it is pretty much dead, a -1. The concept here is that it is combined with gadgets. Gadgets have low ATK, ranging from 1200 to 1400. But they have a beneficial effect. Whenever one is summoned another is added to your hand, so it immidiatelly has replaced itself, it has made a +1. Even if the monster is destroyed, you have lost nothing since you have the next in hand. Their problem is that they destroy way too little monsters by battle. With Solidarity they get an attack ranging from 2000 to 2200. How is that important? That is all the attack you need to get control over the lower levels. If you have solidarity Gadgets will be stronger than almost any monster the opponent can normal summon. It will get over the blackwings, over all normal summon X-Sabers, including Boggart, over Gravekeeper's even with Necrovalley on the field, etc. Even if the attack doesn't go though all you lost is a gadget. If the opponent is forced to use a Dimensional prison to stop a gadget then he is at -1, since the next gadget is in the hand ready to be subbed in. The concept here is not to gain ATK blindly, but to get to the ATK amount you need to get advantage over your opponent. And because Gadgets provide advantage, the -1 of Solidarity is acceptable.

Now we'll go on the flip side. We cannot afford to lose cards to gain ATK. Can we afford to lose something to gain cards? What if that something is Life Points, are they worth losing over control?
Let me repeat a basic concept. Unless you have a burn deck or something like that, this game is played with control. If I have seven cards on the field and I caused my opponent to have 0 cards, that is the point where I won the game, not when I reduced my opponent's LP to 0. Of course my opponent has a chance to come back, but I am much closer to winning than my opponent. And that is the goal during a game, unless you burn/otk etc. Your win condition involves control. I'll reference here something that I heard once.
What do you begin the game with? When the game starts, what are your resources?
You have 5 cards in your hand and get 1 in your draw phase, those are the basics. Another resource is the deck if you have some crazy first turn search combo. Another is the Extra Deck, those Chimeratech Fortress Dragon's can hit your opponent who uses machines, from the sky. Is that all? Aren't we forgetting something? There is one more tool you are given at the beggining of the game. 8000 Life points. It's not a puny amount like 2000, or even a bit bigger like 4000, that's 8000 and that's some hard cash. You use those to do 2 things:
A. Stand behind them and use them to defend while hoping you can do something as your opponent pummels you down.
B. Take them and use them to forcibly take control over the game.
I love opening with 3 Solemn Warnings and a Gadget, the game is pretty much over there. You set your 3 warnings summon your gadget and tell your opponent "Go! Your turn."
Turn 2, the opponent tries to summon a small monster, you pay 2000 Life points in hard cash and solemn warning him. He sets some cards in the backrow and it's your turn.
Turn 3, you summon your next Gadget and attack with both. The opponent may activate a s/t here and go -1 because the gadgets have replaced themselves.
Turn 4, the opponent tries to make a big play, you pay your 2000 LP again and throw a Solemn Warning right in the middle of it. Your turn
Turn 5, Summon the next gadget, attack, maybe set another card you drew. Your opponent's turn.
Turn 6, your opponent finaly tries a big play, again you throw Solemn Warning in the middle of it paying 2000 LP out of your deep pockets.
Turn 7, it is now obvious who holds the card advantage. By now the opponent has lost enough of his resources, remember, not his entire deck is monsters he can use, if you stopped enough he is down to topdecking and you are still setting up your gadget plays and your new s/t. Downside is the opponent is very pissed at you, but even if you have just 2000LP you are in a much better position. In fact the opponent should have about 4000LP by now and you have the advantage. Isn't that awesome?

Of course there is the chance that the opponent will make a comeback with Magic Cylinder or Dark Hole Giant Trunade and Monster Reborn, but it is most likely you win. If you have Solemn Judgment too it is pretty much the end. You have to make those calculations, using Life Points to defend is no different than using defensive decks with 2000 DEF walls and things like that, you have to calculate at least how many Life points you can afford each duel and what are the chances you will play with certain cards. Of course I know that if you have in your deck 3 Solemn Warning 1 Solemn Judgment and 1 Royal Oppression there are little possible combinations that will make all those cards be used, however remember that you won't draw all of them, in fact you use them all to make sure you will draw as many of them as possible while aknowledging that to hold all is nearly impossible. While the possibility exists your chances of victory are better with than without in certain decks (there is no foolproof deck, there are only chances).
Let me tell you that if you dodge the bullet of costs vs damage as close as possible you have the best chances of winning. A boxer won't retreat to the other side of the ring everytime an opponent throws a punch, he will try to dodge cutting it as close as possible while reducing the chances he will get hit to maintain control or be ready for a good counterattack. To put it in simpler terms, since I have heard enough times that I hide behind spell/traps, I'll tell you in return to stop hiding behind your life points, take them in your hands and use them. Cut it close, to 50 Life points even if it means to control the game. It may take some brave plays to do that but it does increase your chances.

Remember, this game isn't about random comebacks or winning the game because the difference between the attack position monster of your opponent and your huge monster happens to be the exact amount of your opponent's life points. While those are things you should always take advantage of in a game, and it is good when it happens, it is not your goal in the game, not the usual way things will happen and not a win condition you should be aiming for when deckbuilding simply because it is situational.

Hmm, this took a while... Let's see what we got now... Oh, our previous decklist first.

Me a wall'o'text ago wrote:

20Monsters

3 Gene-Warped Warwolf.
3 Slate Warrior
3 Evocator Chevalier
2 Big Piece Golem
2 Snowman Eater
2 Berserk Gorilla
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Greenkappa

12 Spells

3 Smashing Ground
2 Lightning Vortex
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Pot of Duality

8 Traps

3 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment

Hmm, now we gained quite a few cards from before (chainables and costs) and lost only a couple of them is our spell/trap line-up. That means we throw the 2 copies of Lightning Vortex away and throw in some cards we picked up in there, but there are definitelly more than 2... What to do...
Tell you what. We won't alter the line-up yet but we will wait until we go through the last part for that. It will solve that issue we have so it's good. In the meanwhile there is something else that needs fixing. Our monster line-up. There are monsters in there which apart from being beatsticks do nothing else to provide us with card advantage, so how about we find a few new monsters. Don't worry, I have some buddies to introduce to you.

Thunder King Rai-Oh: Still falls under the beater category. While he is face-up no player may add cards to the hand except by drawing them. That means if you hit Darksoul or Recruiter the opponent gets no search, no half-the-six-sam-deck search, no Duality, no E – Emergancy call and the list goes on actually. Don't forget though, it shuts down your own dualities as well. But that's not all he does. You can send him to the graveyard to negate a special summon and destroy the monster. Now those rules are something you should familiarize yourself with in its rulings. It means no DAD, no JD, no synchros, no Fortress, no Gyzarus/Heraklinos, no Cyber Dragon actually, no Chaos Sorcerer, and a couple of others. Isn't that great? Yay, for multipurpose cards.

Cyber Dragon: This guy stays. It's a 2100 beatstick that won't take your normal summon. 2100 puts him above all normal summon monsters of the meta. It will usually go 141 which is good. It can also go major + by using Chimeratech Fortress Dragon on an army of machines your opponent controls. Or even just one actually, if your opponent controls 1 machine type Cyber Dragon can go +1 with Chimeratech Fortress Dragon (your opponent lost a machine type, you lost CyDra and gained CFD, so it's +1)

D.D. Assailant: She isn't that good actually, but we need the filler before I introduce you to some other guys in the next parts (since I haven't justified them yet) so let me overhype her. This one has a 1700 ATK and she is a real cheater. She shows off her 1700 ATK threatening your average 1600- monster she's gonna beat it, and when you overpower her with a bigger monster and beat her she removes it from play... Who does that? Let's look at the effect.

that cheater wrote:

When this card is destroyed by battle with an opponent's monster, remove from play that monster and this card.

If she stronger she wins by battle, if she is weaker she wins by card effect... Also note that apart from that 1700 ATK she has 1600 DEF so those are pretty beefy stats.

Blackwing, Gale the Whirlwind: Omg a lv3 tuner!! Yeah, that doesn't even matter, what we care about is the effect. Once per turn it can halve the ATK and DEF of an opponent's monster. Pernamently. So apart from the fact that since it has 1300 ATK it can take down any monster with less than 2600 ATK on its own (yes, this kills stardust. That used to be its main use back in the day actually, killing stardust) it will halve the stats pernamently, and if it is on the field still next turn it can do that again. So if your opponent summons a monster, he won't select to destroy the other monster you have no matter how dangerous it may be. If he has a choice he will destroy Gale because it will destroy him next. Limiting your opponent's options is always good. Oh, and he is a lv3 tuner. That is the sidenote though. Grats, you can BRD the field in a tight spot now, or even summon Blackwing Armor Master to show off.

D.D. Warrior Lady: She has 200 ATK less than D.D. Assailant. So why use it? D.D. Warrior Lady is in fact the better version of D.D. Assailant because you have the choice. While it technically does the same (you are able to destroy both the weaker and the stronger) you can also remove from play troublesome cards if you want to. Remember what I told you before? The opponent will sometimes play a monster hoping that you destroy it. For example the opponent may play a Sangan, or any recruiter and base his play on that. You have the option of removing that Sangan with D.D. Warrior Lady. Let's see what you can do when facing a Sangan.

A.You destroy Sangan and let it go to the graveyard. The opponent now makes that search so even though he lost a monster it was replaced with any monster he wanted from the deck. 141.
B.You remove Sangan. On the one hand you lose D.D. Warrior Lady. -1. But you remove Sangan going 141. The difference from before is that you traded that D.D. Warrior Lady to stop that search of your opponent. You have simplified the gamestate and limited your opponent's options.

Replace Sangan with any searcher/recruiter (the danger of monsters like Darksoul who will be reused is even greater so you are securing the gamestate using D.D. Warrior Lady)
Another example would be Dandylion. The opponent wants it in the graveyard. By removing it now the opponent no longer has those Debris Dragon plays.
There are many cards which could be used instead of Dandylion in the example of course.
Above all you have the choice so you choose the best course of action.

Breaker The Magical Warrior: I left the best for last. I love this card. It is such a simple +1...
Let's look at him.

That awesome monster I love wrote:

ATK: 1600 DEF: 1000
When this card is Normal Summoned, place 1 Spell Counter on it (max. 1). This card gains 300 ATK for each Spell Counter on it. You can remove 1 Spell Counter from this card to destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field.

What does this mean? When you summon it it becomes a 1900 ATK monster. That is your regular beater, it can run over most things like that. But it doesn't end here. By removing the counter you can destroy 1 spell/trap on the field. Let me explain to you what that means. With the cost of 300 of his ATK points you can get a +1. Let me explain again, by making him a 1600 ATK monster you get a +1. Dust Tornado will send itself to the graveyard to destroy that one spell/trap and it is a 141. This guy just loses 300ATK to do so, he stays right where he was and it is a +1. And that's why I love that monster. Additionally he is a spellcaster and he can make Arcanite Magician with Gale! You can even make awesome combos by reusing his effect with Ally Genex Birdman and then synchro summoning Arcanite Magician! Of course there is one issue with Breaker. When you summon it his trigger effect activates passing priority to the opponent. That means that you have to wait before using his effect. He can be stopped by Bottomless Trap Hole, Solemn Warning, Book of Moon. But that is awesome too in it's own way. It will force the opponent to use that card which they are probably saving against him so that you don't +. I've even seen people use Solemn Judgment on his summon to stop me. I've seen people use that Bottomless Trap Hole they saved for Machina Fortress and I've seen them use Solemn Warning. It is a 141 anyways at the very least (you may lose breaker, they lose their trap/quick spell/Veiler) and while it is 141 it forces the opponent to use that card, and limiting your opponent's options or foircing them to abandon their strategy is always good. Not to mention that if you add Forbidden Lance to the mix it becomes a crazy combo. You summon Breaker, they Bottomless, you Forbidden Lance, you use Breaker's effect for that other spell/trap and make an awesome +1 combo while wiping out your opponent's backrow.

Now with those additions to the monster line-up let's move to the last interval for this article.

~ Continued in post 3

Aww... we started with card count and end with card count... isn't it beautiful when things come in full circle like that?

No more of that 20 10 10 c***, now we'll cut it close and maximize our chances of victory. Or at least we'll try. At first our point was to be safe by having at least one monster available any time. To that end we had 20 of them to be sure. Now our goal is to win. On that note, if you win you don't lose so you are still safe, no worries. On the other hand if you have excess monsters clogging in your hand while you have no actual way to come back you are not safe. So we have to calculate how many monsters/spells/traps we need exactly to bring our strategy as close to perfection as possible. There are 3 ways to do that:
1. Math
2. Playtesting
3. Both
Your method should be 2 or 3. As pro as pure math sounds it will fail alone. Usually after a certain point math is replaced by experience but if you want to be thorough take out those calculators. Of course there are no exact equations because every deck needs a different thing. Additionally I wouldn't be bothered with coming up with them at this point since I don't use math for this, I've played enough to approach this by experience, and playtesting serves better anyway. If you absolutely want to do the math, first realize your goal. In this deck you want about 1 monster in your hand or field every turn throughout the game. Remember that not every turn will your monster be destroyed, you have enough s/t support for that. Also remember that how many monsters you need varies depending on how many turns the game takes as you begin the game with 6 cards which causes the calculations to slightly vary based on how further from the beggining of the game you go. So a formula calculating the number of monsters would need to take into account your s/t support, the number of turns and even your average opponent. Even then experience would come into play a bit.

To say how much the numbers vary, a gemini beat deck will play around 12 monsters, a lightsworn variant will play around 25. That is because they have different goals. In order to figure those out I propose playtesting, start with 20/20 or a number you feel is better, play a couple of games, see what happens and make changes, either slowly or radical ones, it's up to you to find the right amount, even though something close to a universally right for a certain deck does exist. For this kind I'd say 16-17 monsters as you don't have searching abilities. 16 + an Effect Veiler sounds good. Remember that you won't be using Veiler as a monster, so it doesn't really count as one in the count, but it can be used as one if needed. But that may be just me being inexperienced with triple duality, since most of my experience comes from decks without Pot of Duality (as much as I love the card). For example from the YCS Dallas top 32 again, Alistar Albans's stun deck runs 14 monsters, however one of them is the big double monster, Gorz, and another is the wall, Spirit Reaper. As things stand, since we have triple duality, let's say 15-16 and a veiler.

Now as to spells/traps. Remember that 10/10 balance? Yeah, let's throw that away now, you have matured enough. It would be nice to keep the basic concept in the backs of our heads, but in reality, some cards are better than others. While we do say that, cards serve a purpose. So for example, even though Smashing Ground is good, 3 Smashing Ground + 3 Fissure + 1 Dark Hole is bad in my opinion, you still need cards to disrupt your opponent during his turn so if you have 7 direct destruction cards you will be helpless when your opponent plays. There is still a balance to be kept and you still need to cover some needs in your deck. For example this deck is going to be made with 3 Book of Moon even though the banlist is around the corner, because it does satisfy a need, and that is to freeze opponent's plays by being a chainable. It can stop things that other cards can't and those things are too dangerous to be left unchecked. That is of course to demonstrate, in the current meta I'd say a double veiler with other cards can make up for the need since it stops those things, but that's again a story for another time. If you feel like you need the chainables you can go back in that section and pick yourselves up some. If not you can use other good s/t support.
For now, knowing those need and balance issues we are just going to use the good cards.

Okay, now let's see what we keep from before, this was the decklist

Me, surprisingly not too long ago wrote:

20Monsters

3 Gene-Warped Warwolf.
3 Slate Warrior
3 Evocator Chevalier
2 Big Piece Golem
2 Snowman Eater
2 Berserk Gorilla
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Greenkappa

12 Spells

3 Smashing Ground
2 Lightning Vortex
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Pot of Duality

8 Traps

3 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment

And this is what we are left with


... If nothing else the monsters went through a major cleanup. We went from 20 to 2, that's a whole digit of difference. Let's see, we want 15 monsters and a veiler. From before this interval we picked up the monsters.


One more could help here, but we haven't gone through the Gorz issues yet so I haven't added him, despite how much I'd like to. We also lack basic stun cards since we haven't deep enough into meta calls yet. If you want to replace a monster, I'd say D.D. Assailant is your prime candidate.
With that let's move into spells and traps. We had 18 in total, now we want 24 so we must add 6.


There, simple additions, 3 Solemn Warning and 3 Book of Moon. They are both going to be hit by the banlist so if you want something to work with you'll have to fill those spots yourselves. As much as I'd love to go through Royal Oppression it's a talk for another time as well.

Let's quote and show it altogether

Quote :

Decklist

40 Cards

16 Monsters

3 Cyber Dragon
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Breaker The Magical Warrior
1 Gale, The Whirlwind
3 D.D. Warrior Lady
2 D.D. Assailant
1 Effect Veiler

13 Spells

3 Smashing Ground
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Pot of Duality
3 Book of Moon

11 Traps

3 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
3 Solemn Warning

With that our deck is complete, there are things I'd change but this is where our current knowledge will take us (and Kaiba's additions don't help either. Forbidden Lance would work great here in the chainables spot, especially with the triple Breaker, but we'll have to wait). I'd like to belive that at this point it works. However it does play like a stun deck so you'll have to know how to use those. This is also a matter we'll cover next time.

So, next time we'll try to make a Gemini Beat or Stun deck (depending on the format shift after March 1st) to look into one of the correct ways to use cards together, while also looking into conflicting cards, the importance of in-duel player input (aka how well you play) and meta calls, which this part unfortunatelly lacks. That should complete a stun deck.

Hope I have helped someone with this,
Al-Bhed out~

Old article of mine from twa reposted since I still think its useful, it was made late february btw.
That being said I do have some time atm so I could make the next I guess.

Wow.
Al-Bhed you actually had the time to help people out!
Anyways,this "guide"will help me a lot!
Thanks alot Al-Bhed and there were many things I learned here.
[BTW,I did not just skim through...I actually read all of it! lol ]

Man I have A LOT to live up to...

need to get my act sorted :/

Its not an hourly read more of a lecture to me.
Although,he had to include a paragraph of a "debate" between Fissure and Smashing Ground..
Was it Fissure or was it D. Prison I dont remember...
Am I going crazy or something I think I am!

Quote :

So if I have in front of me a Smashing Ground and a Fissure, one of them is better than the other. Smashing Ground will hit the monster with the highest DEF, so it will usually hit the opponent's stronger monster. Fissure will hit the monster with the lowest ATK, so it will always hit the opponent's weakest monster.

lol, yeah, this example just took too much space, I think if I remove it I can reduce the article to 1 post instead of 3. It was to say that a card is better than another. The D.Prison thing was to bring the matter of balance between spells and traps and whatnot.

Kimo Force wrote:

It's an hourly read, Roro. Nothing too hard unless you get bored pretty quickly of massive wall o' text.

Yeah but this I what I want to provide the Academy along with my weekly reviews (which have been lacking due to what happened to TWA)

Nice read and great refresher corse for cara "that it was", thanks Al-Bhed,,, :D Think i will keep this on standby that i will.

Although this is old, I'd like to thank you for spotting out the "golden ratio of yugioh" (20:20)

holy shift.

I wonder how long it takes to write something this gigantic.Dude has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on his hands,but it was pretty educational.It took me an hour just reding it.How about typing it and thinking it.