How to make a Deck or How to feel like making a Deck Part 1

Long time since my last post, Writer's Block and Worlds Qualifier can do this to your head sometimes.

Hello and welcome to a new fearture length Article that you may or may not feel like reading if you have the following effects:

- Feel bored reading this
- Don't want to make your 'own' deck , would rather netdeck
- Im too lazy, Nomad suffer from Writer's block,i suffer from Reader's block!

If so go smack yourself on the head and start re reading from the top.

Today we are going to analyse how to make a deck and why we shouldn't simply Netdeck.

What is a Deck?? Is it something that we use to play a card game?

Or is it something we can call our own? Our Own creation.

Lets see,

A funny thing about decks is that they then be judged differently by different players but 1 kind of deck any player or most of any player would be Competitive decks.

A scale of a Player's judgement of Decks


Poorly made deck >>>> Obviously not well received.
v
v
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The 'I tried to use my Brain to make one' Deck>>> If poorly made then it can end up like the above or if well made look below
v
v
v
Well designed and Structured Decks>>> Can be Tournament Worthy.
v
v
v
Ok Confirm can Top 2 Deck>>> Has been field tested properly with good results.
v
v
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Everyone wants to play this deck!>>>At this level Deck can 'convert' more users to build its kind.
v
v
v
Everyone Plays this>>>> Level whereby it is now Meta breaking and everyone is making this deck for themselves!


However, lets look at the phases a Deck goes through before being made:

Owner's Playing Style [ Slow paced,Fast paced,swarmer,Aggro ]

Owner's Preference [ eg. i prefer to run Gale over Armageddon knight etc]

Owner's Budget [ Getting Boosters or single cards ]

and Overall Skill level of the Duelist.

After much research and thought, the deck must run by the following:

- Theme: A symbol and style of what the deck will become

- Strategy: 1 or more Strategies available to the player fixed into the deck.

-Synergy:How well the deck will run.

Notice that these factors are the things ASSUMED to be in top form in the mindset of a Netdecker.

Lets talk About Netdecking.

Netdecking: Copying a Deck from an online source ( eg. Forums like Pojo,TCGPlayer.com)

Now its easy to Netdeck, this has been proven as we all see the same deck being used but with a slight 1 or 2 card change.

Lets do something and pretend we are in Netdecking mode ( its in all of us .)
Find a deck you LIKE , something you ve never made but are now seeing in front of you.

As you are 'Copying' the Deck,card for card, think for a minute.

"After i DO make the deck can i get it to work or even can i use it successfully"

People Netdeck because they Either:

-Want to be strong but don't know how to.
- New to the game and want to make a new for themselves
- Wants to 'archive' the deck
- Driven to this because of an upcoming Tourney or event and has been losing with his creation

Note: I don't Hate or look down on Netdecking , but i have friends who Netdeck and it is sometimes because their 'fun' Factor in Yugioh is lost to them, Now theres only :

1.Copy Deck,change abit then use

2. Win or lose
-if lose go back to 1.

It repeats.

After doing this multiple times, the mindset sets in and we have a case whereby Yugioh becomes a Game for Netdeckers.

However, Decks like Black Feather/BlackWing would have a standard of cards that will be a must to use like 3 Gale ,3 Qualat/Kalut etc.
Building a Deck like this only needs common sense for some parts then player deckskill for the remainder.

I guess this is the part where i leave you to Your thoughts

-Nomad

Hmmmm

Thinking about originality in Yugioh is hard if you don’t have an idea of what you want to achieve in the game.
You can easily just netdeck a top tier deck if you want and feel empty winning with it or enjoy flaunting its power out.
Yugioh , a game where everyone wants to win. A game where people want to have fun.

Thing is, Competition and Fun have never been friends.
If thats the case how can originality be top in the meta?

Have we ever noticed the creator of Tele-DaD or OTK combos or even decks that have topped in previous formats.

Do we even acknowledge the Yugitubers on Youtube who make vids hoping to share their knowledge on the game to the public, only to be shunned by the potential subscribers who compare their works to other Yugituber with hundreds more subscribers then them.

Hmmmm interesting logic , Forget those who try and glorify those who are.

The Deck for this post is for those who try.
The fallen had tried too.
Monsters- 18
1 Dark armed
3 Asomodeus
2 Darklord Zerato
2 vandalgon
1 Desire
1 Chaos socerer
2 bountiful artemis
2 hecatice
2 herald of creation
1 Morphing jar
1 Dark creator

Spells-10
1 Monster reborn
2 Allure of darkness
3 Valhalla
3 Trade in
1 D.D.R.

Traps- 12

3 solemn
2 Dark bribe
2 epidemic virus
2 Deck destruction virus
2 escape from the dark dimension
1 Mirror force

Fallen angels, Twilight Fairies, Twilight counter fairies.
Theme deck...... an expensive one. Are they Meta? Or are they Theme?
Even a Fallen angel deck can lie on the line that divides Meta and Theme.
Originality , is another story for another format.

Comments on the Meta

Meta, why was it called Meta in the first place>>???
i remember a time where having 2 to 3 Blue eyes white dragon was a must which then changed to a period where:

i remove 1 light 1 dark to bring out chaos emperor dragon!!!! Blow up whole field! and my sangan on the field blows up to search yata garatsu now i win by locking you down with constant directs from both monsters!

That was called the Chaos era before a certain list helped prevent Yugioh from becoming an empty money game: Ban list.

Multiple reactions along the years and soon we figure out patterns and predict which decks could get hit and when to stock up on a certain kind of deck and what not to buy near the next list.

As Yugioh became more fast paced we slowly forget the good times, in THIS meta even a Frickin kitty can do serious damage in the meta, whats next watapon????

Past: Big monsters+ broken cards [ Raigeki, Harpie F. duster] boom and pwn.Combos that give the name chaos a place in Yugioh History.

Now: Little monsters [ rescue cat, gale] can do game breaking stunts like shrinking a 3000 atk monster to 1500 [ not so strong now huh Kaiba?]
then do epic combos to win.


Past: Chaos era

Now: Cat era

Difference?????

hmmm

Chaos dragon and Black luster Soldier : foils and hard to get

Rescue cat and Airbellum and summo priest: commons .

Chaos cards: solo solo can win!

Cat cards: combos to win!

hmmmm

now that we think about it the meta there was more chaotic that the innocent Kitty era down here 0.0 !

Bellcanics

'A Duelist isnt just dictated by the deck he uses but by both skill and deck as one.'- Some guy.

First lets look at a deck that is the fusion between Flamvell and Volcanics.

vellcanics-

40

Monsters-19
3 Flamvell Helldoggy
3 Volcanic rocket
3 Volcanic scattershot
3 Flamvell gurnika
2 Flamvell Magician
1 Morphing jar.


Spell-9

3 Trueflame eruption
2 Blaze accelerator
1 Brain control
1 Heavy storm
1 MST
1 Monster reborn


Traps-12

3 Flamvell Counter
3 solemn
3 Bottomless trap hole
1 Ceasefire
1 Magic cylinder
1 Mirror force

This deck's element of burn comes mostly from the trap cards but you may ask why Volcanics, isnt Flamvell alone good enough!!?
True but The advantage of adding in Volcanics is for the synergy like Rockets searching for Blaze . Also the deck is strong as a beatdown deck as the deck has 9 main beatsticks.
Flamvell magicial is there as a tuner, thus making lvl 8 synchros like stardust be able to see play.

The MAIN aim is to Finiah the opponent off with Explosion of true flames which can make apossible OTK given the right monsters.

2 Gurnika+ 2 Magicial+ 1 Helldog= 8100 atk damage

With an F. Counter or 2 set you can prevent anything except gors or tragoedia.

AKB: an analysis

Today, im reviewing the AKB [ Arcanite Beat]

Firstly lets look at the deck taken from the shriek OCG blog

http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/5575576/

Monsters [ 21 ]

1 Tragoedia
1 Gorz
1 chaos socerer
3 X-Saber airbellum
2 rescue cat
2 summon priest
1 Gravekeeper Guard
2 Gravekeeper Spy
1 cyber dragon
1 sangan
1 N.S. Dark panther
1 Ryko
1 D.D. crow
1 BF Gale
1 Sea koala
1 Dark Armed Dragon

Spells:15

2 Pot of Avarice
1 Gold sac
2 mind control
2 cold wave
1 Brain control
1 Heavy storm
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster reborn
1 Forbidden chalice
2 book of moon
1 MST

Traps: 5

2 Bottomless trap hole
1 CCV
1 Mirror force
1 Trap dustshoot

Side deck:15

1 Ryko
1 Fissure
1 Smashing ground
2 Caius
2 Summon limit
1 Trap stun
2 Dimensional prison
1 Raiou
1 Breaker
1 King tiger Wanghu
2 Dust tornado


Now whats so different between this deck and a regular Beast synchro deck??

As u can see, the difference is that AKB focuses more on fitting the requirements for Dark Armed to come out and has multiple targets for CCV like dark panther, GK Guard and others.
With 2 pot of avarice, chaos sorcerer, ryko and tragoedia this deck could control the graveyard.Combne this control with the usual Beast synchro tactics to gain immense field presence with cards like Natural beast, DDB
and Arcanite Magician, the grave should fill up with Darks soon enough.
Gold sac was added inside to ensure a needed card in hand like DaD, Summon Priest,Pot or Rescue cat.

Beast synchro have always been a very strong decktype, given the fact that even 1 Dark Armed can make the deck competitive with enough Graveyard control then it s possible!

Another thing to note is the amount of field and hand control cards that are present in the deck.

Trap dustshoot,CCV,GK spy and Guard,Book of moon, Cold wave, Gold Sac, Mind control, Brain control.

These cards just makes t feel like a control deck waiting for the right moment to unleash havoc on your opponent!!!

However this is still to be considered a prototype meta deck despite its success as more effective variants could crop up based on this deck.

But it is fair to note that this is a very unique type of Beast synchro deck.

Why call t AKB? because Arcanite Magician cant be bottomless-ed and can blow the field, Maybe.

Thinking

The Thought may sound funny but what if i didnt write an article UNTIL i did a deck that can work? i mean sure it ll prove that im a lazy bum but it also means i ll be having a new deck to use!

So i decided to make 3 decks

First deck is

Armoured Deformers[ Light ]

Monsters-18

3 D. Videon
3 Honest
3 Shining angel
2 Scopen
2 boomboxen
2 boardon
2 pacchin
1 Sangan

spells-17

3 D&C
3 Junk box
2 creature swap [ for shining angel or sangan]
2 Mage power
1 Limiter removal
1 Heavy storm
1 Axe of despair
1 pot of avarice
1 Lightning vortex
1 Monster reborn
1 United we stand

Traps-5

3 Solemn judgement
1 Mirror force
1 Beckoning light [ recycles Scopen and honest! ]

Total: 40 cards

Extra deck:9

2 Power tool dragon
2 BRD
2 Stardust
1 Goyo [ very rare case ]

This deck's synchros are usually lvl 7 and with all those equip spells, Power tool can really shine!

There are alot of cards that can help maximise this cards power like Arms hole but this current version works quite well, Videon was not really the main Deformer in Raging battle, i thought of making this to show that even he can play a part.
Honest is just Great in this deck! Even the 800 Atk Scopen can defeat something with the help of Honest!

Shining angel? he helps search out videon and scopen, works wonders with creature swap!

Even though Power tool dragon isnt a Light Attribute he can still be used with all these equp cards lying around in the deck.

Weakness: BF. They just swarm too much, however be assured that Delta crow will pose little threat as you only have 5 traps to set!

Thanks for reading !

Card to Note 2

This card has a Very rare and Unique effect. Too unique to be a Common !


Bone Temple Block

Effect:Discard 1 card. Both players select 1 monster from their opponent's Graveyard and Special Summon it to ther own side of the field. The monsters Special Summoned by this effect are destroyed during the End Phase of the next turn.

Effectwise This card enables you to Special summon a Monster from your opponents Graveyard at the cost of a Hand card. Your opponent can also use this effect and turn your ace monster against you so the Decks that can benefit the most from this card are:


Decks with low atk Monsters:Ojama decks
Decks that have alot of Nomi Monsters: Sacred Beast deck
Decks that have effects that work for you and not your opponent:
Crystal Beast and Volcanic


However the thought of using your opponents Stardust can be alluring but one must never use this card in decks like BEWD or even High Levelled Dragon decks.


Turn-wise: This effect destroys the summoned Monsters at the end of the next turn so it is recommended to be used only on Your opponents turn,preferably during their end phase so as to prevent them from using any of your monster effects against you.

During your turn however you wil have to get through you own monster who is now on your opponents side.

Duelists have commented that this card has good situational purposes as you can find yourself using it to get through something like:

Special sumon opponent's Stardust

Battle phase attack, Opponent uses Mirror force , counter with SD effect.

or

Bone block at opponents end phase
Main phase Brain control Your Boned monster ,
tribute for RAIZA to topdeck opponent monster



Senario 2 is highly possible now that Raiza's at 2.

So think about this card as it may suit your deck if your the type that loves cards that are situational!