Willexia Rennar
(?)Community Member
Mythical Rare
Offline
- Posted: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:45:03 +0000
Every now and then, I see a deck posted by someone just getting into this game, and more often than not, it has the appearance of...well, there's no nice way of putting this....a pile of cards. No cohesion, no overall strategy, just a random mish-mash of cards thrown together and called a Deck.
I put this guide together in the hopes of helping these players have a better idea of how to make a much better Deck.
I - Decide on a style or theme, first and foremost.
This is essential to making a deck that's cohesive, functional, and fun; after all, it's rather difficult to have fun with a deck that doesn't work worth a darn.
Some basic ideas to go with when choosing a style or theme:
-ARCHETYPE: These are the easiest to work with. You choose a group of monsters, such as Harpie Ladies, Elemental HERO, Koa'ki Meiru, or whatnot, and have them be the central theme of the deck. Archetypes are easy to work with due to having a lot of monsters that work together, as well as a lot of support for those monsters.
-TYPE OR ATTRIBUTE: These can be a little harder to work with,but still well supported, such as building a Warrior-type deck or a DARK deck.
-WIN CONDITION: If you don't want to go with the "attack until your opponent's Life Points are 0" option, there are other options to build your deck around, such as Exodia or effect damage.
II - Abide by the Limited/Forbidden Lists
While there is nothing wrong with casual play amongst friends, there are quite a few benefits of playing by the rules of tournament play, such as building your Deck so that it fits within the confines of the Limited/Forbidden Lists.
-More people play by these rules, giving you a wider range of people to play against and get advice to improve your game from.
-It improves your ability to play the game by forcing you to become a more strategic player.
-It keeps your Deck and the game in general from becoming stagnant for you due to how it changes every few months, taking away some options and bringing others in.
-It's required to play in tournament events, which can be quite a lot of fun and tend to have prizes.
III - Keep the card count as low as you can.
Your deck must include a minimum of 40 cards, and a maximum of 60. Going above the minimum, however, is often a bad idea, because it lowers the odds of you drawing a card you need when you need it. There are some decks, such as Lightsworn, that can work better with a slightly higher count since they run through themselves so quickly, but for the most part, using the smallest number of cards you can is a good way to go about it.
For example, say you need your one copy of a Limited card at a given point in a Duel, and you've already drawn, milled, or otherwise gone through 33 cards. If you started with 40, then there are 7 cards left in your Deck, and you have a 1-in-7 chance of drawing it; if you started with the maximum of 60, however, then there are 27 cards left in your deck, and your odds of drawing it are much worse.
IV - Work with more of less, rather than less of more.
You may feel tempted to load your deck with 1 copy of a huge variety of cards to give it more options. This is especially true of fans of the anime, who are used to seeing their favorite Duelists make these one-of-everything decks work miracles and try to do so themselves; the truth is, however, that this is going to cause you nothing but problems, simply because the chances of you accessing any of those options at the time you need them, quite simply, suck. On top of the fact that you're less likely to draw one of those options when you need it, if something happens with it, that option is lost entirely to you.
You're much better off building your deck with more copies of a smaller number of cards that work well together; this increases the odds of whichever card you draw being useful to you. If a card is essential to your Deck, the only reason you should be running less than 3 copies of it is if it is somewhere on the Limited/Forbidden List.
For example, let's say you run 1 copy of Knight's Title, Thousand Knives, Dark Magic Attack,and all those other cards that require Dark Magician for you to use. It took half the duel, but you finally drew him. You go to summon your Dark Magician, ready to do all this cool stuff and win the Duel in a manner that would make Yugi proud...and your opponent uses Bottomless Trap Hole. POOF, goodbye Dark Magician.
Suddenly, a lot of cards in your deck (and your hand!) just became completely useless, to the point that they may as well be blank. If you had 3 copies of Dark Magician, however, not only would you have probably drawn a copy a lot sooner, but even if one gets banished, you've got 2 more to work with, meaning that Bottomless Trap Hole would've been an inconvenience rather than your downfall.
V - Be flexible and keep your options open.
Like it or not, you're not going to build a perfect deck on your first go; nobody does. It's going to have flaws the first time you try it out, and the only way to find them out is to play it a few times to see what works and what doesn't. Then, you can find out what you need to take out, and get a good idea of what to replace it with.
VI - Save up your allowance and the cards you don't want.
There's no avoiding this; getting the cards you want for your Deck is going to cost you. Buying pack after pack may seem like a good idea to you, but this is quite simply the most expensive means of doing things. It is much better to go directly after the cards you want/need, and there are 2 ways to do this: Buying individual cards at hobby stores, or trading with other players, exchanging stuff you don't want for stuff you need.
That's not to say you should swear off buying packs entirely. Even if it doesn't have anything you want for your deck, you may get something that gives you some new ideas, or you may pull something that one of your friends wants; if they have something you need for your deck, maybe a trade is in order. If it's just an occasional thing rather than your primary means of trying to get cards you want, then by all means, have at!
VII - Know the value of your cards.
Trading is a good way to turn cards you don't need into cards you need, but be careful; not knowing how much your cards are worth could get you the short end of a trade. After all, just because you really need that Blue-Eyes White Dragon doesn't mean you should trade a Clear Wing Synchro Dragon away for it, especially when you could get so much more out of that deal!
The best way to be sure is to do your research. Use sites like TCGPlayer and eBay to get an idea of how much everything on both sides of the trade is worth, so that you can make sure both players are getting a fair deal. And make sure you do this for every trade; decks making surprise tournament wins and banlist changes can alter the value of a card heavily. What was worth $50 one day could be worth $5 the next!
Stick to these basic principles, and, over time, you'll work out the quirks in your Deck and fine-tune it to be something you'll really enjoy playing with; if you decide to give up Yu-Gi-Oh! and take up another game, like Magic: the Gathering, you'll find these principles will serve you well with them as well. Good luck, and have fun!
I put this guide together in the hopes of helping these players have a better idea of how to make a much better Deck.
I - Decide on a style or theme, first and foremost.
This is essential to making a deck that's cohesive, functional, and fun; after all, it's rather difficult to have fun with a deck that doesn't work worth a darn.
Some basic ideas to go with when choosing a style or theme:
-ARCHETYPE: These are the easiest to work with. You choose a group of monsters, such as Harpie Ladies, Elemental HERO, Koa'ki Meiru, or whatnot, and have them be the central theme of the deck. Archetypes are easy to work with due to having a lot of monsters that work together, as well as a lot of support for those monsters.
-TYPE OR ATTRIBUTE: These can be a little harder to work with,but still well supported, such as building a Warrior-type deck or a DARK deck.
-WIN CONDITION: If you don't want to go with the "attack until your opponent's Life Points are 0" option, there are other options to build your deck around, such as Exodia or effect damage.
II - Abide by the Limited/Forbidden Lists
While there is nothing wrong with casual play amongst friends, there are quite a few benefits of playing by the rules of tournament play, such as building your Deck so that it fits within the confines of the Limited/Forbidden Lists.
-More people play by these rules, giving you a wider range of people to play against and get advice to improve your game from.
-It improves your ability to play the game by forcing you to become a more strategic player.
-It keeps your Deck and the game in general from becoming stagnant for you due to how it changes every few months, taking away some options and bringing others in.
-It's required to play in tournament events, which can be quite a lot of fun and tend to have prizes.
III - Keep the card count as low as you can.
Your deck must include a minimum of 40 cards, and a maximum of 60. Going above the minimum, however, is often a bad idea, because it lowers the odds of you drawing a card you need when you need it. There are some decks, such as Lightsworn, that can work better with a slightly higher count since they run through themselves so quickly, but for the most part, using the smallest number of cards you can is a good way to go about it.
For example, say you need your one copy of a Limited card at a given point in a Duel, and you've already drawn, milled, or otherwise gone through 33 cards. If you started with 40, then there are 7 cards left in your Deck, and you have a 1-in-7 chance of drawing it; if you started with the maximum of 60, however, then there are 27 cards left in your deck, and your odds of drawing it are much worse.
IV - Work with more of less, rather than less of more.
You may feel tempted to load your deck with 1 copy of a huge variety of cards to give it more options. This is especially true of fans of the anime, who are used to seeing their favorite Duelists make these one-of-everything decks work miracles and try to do so themselves; the truth is, however, that this is going to cause you nothing but problems, simply because the chances of you accessing any of those options at the time you need them, quite simply, suck. On top of the fact that you're less likely to draw one of those options when you need it, if something happens with it, that option is lost entirely to you.
You're much better off building your deck with more copies of a smaller number of cards that work well together; this increases the odds of whichever card you draw being useful to you. If a card is essential to your Deck, the only reason you should be running less than 3 copies of it is if it is somewhere on the Limited/Forbidden List.
For example, let's say you run 1 copy of Knight's Title, Thousand Knives, Dark Magic Attack,and all those other cards that require Dark Magician for you to use. It took half the duel, but you finally drew him. You go to summon your Dark Magician, ready to do all this cool stuff and win the Duel in a manner that would make Yugi proud...and your opponent uses Bottomless Trap Hole. POOF, goodbye Dark Magician.
Suddenly, a lot of cards in your deck (and your hand!) just became completely useless, to the point that they may as well be blank. If you had 3 copies of Dark Magician, however, not only would you have probably drawn a copy a lot sooner, but even if one gets banished, you've got 2 more to work with, meaning that Bottomless Trap Hole would've been an inconvenience rather than your downfall.
V - Be flexible and keep your options open.
Like it or not, you're not going to build a perfect deck on your first go; nobody does. It's going to have flaws the first time you try it out, and the only way to find them out is to play it a few times to see what works and what doesn't. Then, you can find out what you need to take out, and get a good idea of what to replace it with.
VI - Save up your allowance and the cards you don't want.
There's no avoiding this; getting the cards you want for your Deck is going to cost you. Buying pack after pack may seem like a good idea to you, but this is quite simply the most expensive means of doing things. It is much better to go directly after the cards you want/need, and there are 2 ways to do this: Buying individual cards at hobby stores, or trading with other players, exchanging stuff you don't want for stuff you need.
That's not to say you should swear off buying packs entirely. Even if it doesn't have anything you want for your deck, you may get something that gives you some new ideas, or you may pull something that one of your friends wants; if they have something you need for your deck, maybe a trade is in order. If it's just an occasional thing rather than your primary means of trying to get cards you want, then by all means, have at!
VII - Know the value of your cards.
Trading is a good way to turn cards you don't need into cards you need, but be careful; not knowing how much your cards are worth could get you the short end of a trade. After all, just because you really need that Blue-Eyes White Dragon doesn't mean you should trade a Clear Wing Synchro Dragon away for it, especially when you could get so much more out of that deal!
The best way to be sure is to do your research. Use sites like TCGPlayer and eBay to get an idea of how much everything on both sides of the trade is worth, so that you can make sure both players are getting a fair deal. And make sure you do this for every trade; decks making surprise tournament wins and banlist changes can alter the value of a card heavily. What was worth $50 one day could be worth $5 the next!
Stick to these basic principles, and, over time, you'll work out the quirks in your Deck and fine-tune it to be something you'll really enjoy playing with; if you decide to give up Yu-Gi-Oh! and take up another game, like Magic: the Gathering, you'll find these principles will serve you well with them as well. Good luck, and have fun!
