Subject: Re: HELP ME BUILD A DECK!!! I hope this helps you get started. There are A LOT of deck types, especially now with so many Yu-Gi-Oh sets out. I'll give you a brief rundown of some of the basics: Beatdown: Relies on getting big monsters (1800+Atk) on the board, beefing them up, and beating through to your opponent's life. Helped by major equip magics like United We Stand, Axe of Despair, etc. This deck alone has dozens of variants; Gravekeeper Beatdown (thanks to the new Pharaonic Guardian set), Fiend/Warrior/Deragon/Zombie/Fish Beatdown (choose one), Ritual Beatdown (stocked with Sonic Birds and Senju of the Thousand Hands and the Ritual Monster of your choice; often Relinquished or Masked Beast), Fusion (to get the beefy Fusion monsters like B. Skull Dragon or Thousand-Eyes Restrict out), etc. Pros: Can get monsters on the field fast and hold field superiority. Cons: Weak against Stall decks, since they prevent you from using said monsters. Disruption: The strategy is centered on forcing your opponent to discard so that he/she will not have anything to play. Obvious necessities are White Magical Hat, Robbin' Goblin, Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Delinquent Duo, etc. Many of these decks now sport Yata-Garasu (a Spirit monster that returns to your hand at the end of your turn; if he attacks your opponent, they cannot draw on their next turn), which in the right situation (nothing on field or almost nothing in hand) can spell a guaranteed win. Others now sport the Mystical Knight of Jackal; similar to Yata, the monsters he attacks go back on top of the opponent's deck, making them draw and play the same thing over and over again... Strengths: KILLS Exodia decks dead, and other decks that rely on strict multi-card combos. Weaknesses: If you can't disrupt your opponent ASAP, as in you get a bad draw, stick your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye. Exodia: This strategy is based on getting the 5 pieces of Exodia into your hand as soon as possible, since doing this calls for an automatic victory. Variants might include Speed Exodia or Stall Exodia; the former using any means necessary to get Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest on the field and killed repeatedly to hunt Exodia straight from deck to hand, to include lots of draw and thinner (Painful Choice, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, etc.); the latter using Gravity Bind, Swords of Revealing Light and/or Messenger of Peace to keep your opponent's attacks at bay. Good Exodia decks can hunt all the pieces in four or five turns, making short work of duels. Strengths: Fast. Beatdown and burn decks beware. Weaknesses: Disruption, graveyard manipulation (remove a piece of Exodia from the game and it's game over), and CO$T. Those pieces of Exodia are worth a small f***ing FORTUNE. Destiny Board: Like Exodia, to get the Destiny Board out and all the Spirit Messages assembled for the win. Hard deck to plan; few have succeeded, since you can count on the Board taking away all your Magic and Trap zones. You will need extremely good defensive monsters with a lot of effects to make up for continuous magic/traps that you will not have room to use. Pros: Cheap deck. Easy strategy, since the board assembles itself after the first piece (F) is played. And since they aren't Limited... you can stack the deck (unlike Exodia: only one of each piece allowed). Cons: Easy to shut down the assembly of the board, since if one piece gets nuked they all get trashed. Can help to team this with another strategy, within the same deck. Burn: Direct damage. Screw combat, let's go straight to the bone! Relies on creatures such as Cannon Soldier, traps like Just Desserts, Ring of Destruction, Magic Cylinder, or even Attack and Receive; magics like Ookazi, Tremendous Fire, Chain Energy, or Mask of Dispel, and so on to send massive amounts of Direct Damage through to your opponents Life without the middleman of attacking. Stall variants involve cards that prevent your opponent from attacking whilst you do this, buying you time (Re: Exodia Stall). A Stall and Burn was my first tourney deck. Cheap as hell, and it worked well too.Pros: Can be done pretty cheap. Good against many beatdowns; can also hurt Exodia if done right. Cons: Disruption might hurt a bit, since you will need to make the most of every card for the win. Careful planning must be made to maximize card advantage efficiency (not having cards in your hand in Yu-Gi-Oh SUCKS) and make the deck run fast enough to take out other decks. Toon: Cross between Beatdown and Burn, so either type of strategy will work. Basically, using Toon World and Toon-type monsters, you carve a path straight to your opponent's Life using the unblockable Toons. Just be sure to protect your Toon World card -- without it on the field, your plans are squished. Pros: Fun to play. Fast and has the best of both Beatdown and Burn. Cons: Easily conquered by Anti-Magic, since losing Toon World itself is your prime weakness. A FEW GOOD STARTING DECK IDEAS: RELINQUISHED: Here's a killer Ritual Beatdown that I won some tourneys with. Anyone can do this with a few Pegasus Decks and some cheesy trades. Start with 3 Relinquished and 3 Black Illusion Rituals (from Pegasus decks). 3 Sonic Birds from your local cardshop's common bin, and 3 Senju of the Thousand Hands (it's a regular rare; usually you can get them for only a few dollars each, or cheaper on E-Bay). Then just drop in whatever the hell else you want; some Magic Jammers, maybe a 7-Tools of the Bandit. Definitely Mystical Space Typhoons; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Add other stuff to taste; definitely some of the Staples. Relinquished uses your opponent's monsters against them, and is damn hard to kill. It's a confusing deck to be up against, but fast and a lot of fun to run. TOONS: Also can be built with a few Pegasus decks and some easy trades. Clincher: Get a Magic Reflector (Rare) to protect Toon World with... DRAGON BEATDOWN: A few Kaiba decks can put those Blue Eyes White Dragons to work with the help of the Lord of D. and the Flutes of Summoning Dragons that come in them. Drop some commons in from LOD, since there's so much Dragon-based stuff in there, and you're ready to roll. STAPLES: With every set, a few cards join the set that can be called Staples, though admittedly, depending on your design, some can be lived without. Many of them are in the starter decks; Monster Reborn, Change of Heart, Dark Hole, Graceful Charity. Others are Pot of Greed, Imperial Order, Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, Swords of Revealing Light, and Heavy Storm, to name a few of the more popular ones.Look them up by name to see what they do -- you'll see why they're Staples. Admittedly, they are not absolutely necessary (thank God; they're all pretty expensive cards!), but you'll notice that for the most part, most of them (not ALL) can go well in any deck. So they're worth the investment. GUIDELINES: Stay away from most Tribute monsters. A lot aren't worth the sacrifice, so use extreme prejudice. Don't incorporate more than 2 to 4 tribute Monsters in any deck, or you'll regret it in the longrun when you can't get them on the board. Don't use many monsters without an effect whose ATK is less than 1800 or whose DEF is less than 2000. DO use a lot of effect monsters; especially if the effect is potent (Elite Force, Penguin Soldier, Cyber Jar, etc.). Keep your deck at about half monsters. God forbid you didn't have one whilst your opponent did. In a tournament environment, though, keep your use of Traps to a minimum (not more than a quarter of your deck; less if possible) since most players make good use of trap removal cards or even Jinzo, who nullifies them. Pick a strategy, whether a conventional one or your own idea, and STICK WITH IT. Decks need to be as small as possible (as close to 40 cards as possible) so you maximize the chances of drawing what you need, when you need it. To have a deck with two or three separate strategies can make each one harder to pull off, and also harder to keep down in size. Try different decks and find the style you like. If you get bored of it, try another. It's a game, not a day job. Trade like mad. If you must buy, PLEASE dear GOD use eBay. Card shops are inflated as hell. But eBay auctions... you can find ANY card you want right on eBay. And likely a hell of a lot cheaper, if you can keep up with auctions. Apparently, to have gotten my E-Mail addy, you're familiar with www.pojo.com/yu-gi-oh so check out the Cards of the Day and the Tips and Strategies sections for ideas and to get more familiar with the cards that Yu-Gi-Oh has to offer. Any more questions I can help you answer? Just write back -- I'd be happy to go into more details. But for now, if I don't stop, I'll just be writing another Yu-Gi-Oh! Strategy guide, and I don't feel like publishing novels at the moment. Thanks for all the feedback on my posts to date, though, and I hope I've helped you somewhat. John E. Redmond JovenShadowcaster@msn.com) P.S.: I think I'll forward this to Pojo too... he might like to post it. Hell, why not... "Evil men take all their lives' mistaken intentions and misguided dreams, lump it all together, and then call it their destiny." -- The Sorceress, "Masters of the Universe" (1987) >From: "hang moua" >To: JovenShadowcaster >Subject: HELP ME BUILD A DECK!!! >Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 02:13:19 -1100 > >Just read your post concerning your battle w/ur 8 yr old nephew. I >have never played magic, never played yugioh..need i say more. I'd >like to learn this game as my nephews too are yugioh junkies, as are >some of my peers. I've read posts after posts and have really not >gotten any useful information. I've also asked around but people >don't seem to understand when i say..i am a beginner. I've read the >rule books, understand the concept and all, however I feel I'm >learning at a snails pace. I've only dueled for fun once..and don't >get to do it that much either. I downloaded the gameboy version but >it seems to easy..not a lot of strategy involved. I'd like to ask >if you for your input on how I should start building a deck, >possibly pro's and con's of different types of decks and absolute >staples you should have. Actually, anything would be helpful. Just >listening to you explain how ur nephew combo'd the heck out of ya >was really interesting. That's what I'd like to be able to do. So >if you have the time..please help.. > > > >john >