The making of a deck-cgman

dcphipps@academicplanet.com

Sorry that the last article turned out weird (I'm not the one who did it!). 
Also, before I begin, there is a top ten list of mine labeled "top ten shield 
triggers", however, it ended up on the YUGIOH site! What's up with that? Oh, 
well. Today I will discuss how I made my deck using the different tips of 
mine based around deck building. If you haven't read the following articles, 
it may be helpful to do so: Balancing Your Duel Masters Deck, Balancing Your 
Duel Masters Deck: Part II, Mana-Your Options, and Duel
Masters: The Cost of Playing Cards. I used each of these while making my new 
deck. While it has not been tested competitively yet, it has won all but one 
time up against my brother's deck( which I also made using the same principles.). 
The only thing that limits my ability to create these decks is the number of 
cards that I have. I don't have four of each card in my possession, so it does 
put a handicap on my game strategies and deck development. However, I used that 
best that I could get, and there are only 9 rares in the entire deck, and none 
of them are Super Rares! So, let's start the, ummm..., deck review! My deck: 
Annihilation:
Creatures(28):
Fire(10):
1 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
1 Artisan Picora
3 Immortal Baron Vorg
2 Rothus the Traveler
3 Meteosaur
Darkness(9):
2 Black Feather, Shadow of Rage
4 Bloody Squito
1 Bone Assassin the Ripper
1 Gigagiele
1 Swamp Worm
Light(9):
2 La Ura Giga Sky Guardian
3 Emerald Grass
3 Senatine Jade Tree
1 Gran Gure Space Guardian

Spells(12):
Fire(6):
1 Chaos Strike
3 Crimson Hammer
2 Tornado Flame
Darkness(2):
1 Dark Reversal
1 Terror Pit
Light(4):
1 Solar Ray
2 Laser Wing
1 Holy Awe
I have no Death Smoke(how?). This is pretty much what I've got. Now the 
first thing I did was to look at what my strategy would be. I decided that, 
in order to counter my brother's Water and Nature deck, I would need mass 
monster destruction. There are fourteen cards that I included in hopes 
that it would be enough to easily kill almost anything in his deck: 2 Rothus 
the Traveler, 3 Meteosaur, Bone Assassin the Ripper, Gigagiele, Swamp Worm, 
3 Crimson Hammer, 2 Tornado Flame, and Terror Pit. These cards have given 
me an easy path to removing creatures from the field so that my creatures 
have an opportunity to hit shields. Most of my wins come from using the 
effects of these cards, however, Gran Gure has enough power to destroy almost 
anything my opponent can pit against me. It also has blocker, and my deck 
seriously needed more than just the 4 Bloody Squito, so Light was added 
in to give me my needed blockers.  The spells and speed is what gives my 
deck the extra umph it needs to win games. My deck lacks strength, but 
strategy, speed and spells give me the upper hand in my duels. My spells 
either help with my strategy or make it easier to hit shields. Chaos Strike 
lets me hit an annoying untapped creature. All of the Light spells tap 
opponents creatures or allow me to hit shields without being blocked. 
This is the kind of a deck where there are a few major exceptions to my 
"magic numbers" for balancing. Strength isn't required as much, but it 
would add a nice touch if I had better creatures. Speed is readily available, 
and provides early shield breaking. About the only "magic number" that I 
hit was in Spells, with 12, which is between my min of 5 and max of 15. 
For mana, this deck is very versatile, allow different situations to affect 
what you can play into the mana zone. My highest costed card is at 7, and 
often you will be able to play multiple creatures and spells in the same 
turn, even if you have little mana in your mana zone. Therefore, I did have 
some planning as to what I wanted as mana, however, what I do play for mana 
depends on the situation and changes with each passing turn. Since most of 
the mana costs are so low, you need only around 7 or 8 mana in your mana 
zone, allowing you to save cards in your hand for when you need them the most. 
This gives you options, and, as I've said before, options change the duel 
drastically. The only thing that I can say is not included in this deck that 
I have written an article on is drawing/searching. This could not apply 
unless I ran the Water or Nature civilization, or ran the Light card Rayla, 
Truth Enforcer, which I do not have anyway. This is pretty much what I think 
about while making decks for my brother and I, and, if you have any questions, 
comments, or general remarks, feel free to email your opinions to me. Thanks 
for reading,
and continue to play Duel Masters and have fun!                       -cgman