Ladies and gentlemen and whatever gender Servant of Catabolism is, Shaddy here again. And today I’m proposing a method to easily describe how quickly a deck runs. Firstly, I will explain what I mean by thinning a deck, and briefly cite some examples. Then I will show how to properly use this method for everyday dueling. I hope you will find this to be worth while and meaningful for your deck.

 

“Alright,â€� you’re saying to yourself, “what the heck is this guy on? We already know about deck thinning; it’s a crucial part of a good deck. TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW! And what’s up with this guy quoting the reader so much. GET OFF IT!â€� Well, if you’re educated in the arts of how to thin a deck, please skip this paragraph. Otherwise, I’ll define deck thinning as any way of taking cards out of your deck and putting them into your hand, your graveyard, on your side of the field, or removed from play. This is the technique that Exodia decks utilize in order to draw those 5 little pieces we’ve all come to know and love. This was also the technique used by those two Hand Destruction decks that were pitted against each other in that big tournament (Sorry, don’t know the details…I was…doing…stuff). Anyway, the point is that deck thinning is is an effective way of pulling the cards you need when you need them. This tactic is only second to cheating…don’t cheat.<

 

Ok. So, now that we’ve established the idea of deck thinning, let’s talk turkey. Turkey=cards. Some cards that help to thin the deck can be seen almost everywhere; Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Painful Choice, and Mirage of Nightmare. Now, I’m not a magician (or a Fiend…or a Zombie), but I’m guessiing that you, personally, have at least 4 out of 6 of these cards just mentioned. Heck, you probably have 3 out of 6 of them in your deck. I don’t have to tell you how helpful these turkey can be when you need to draw a miracle. What I’m going to do is take a look at an Exodia deck because they can be considered to have the most deck thinning capability around. Assuming a 40 card deck we’ll have:

 

Witch of the Black Forest

Sangan

Pot of Greed

Graceful Charity

Painful Choice

Jar of Greed * 3

Gather Your Mind * 3

Mystic Tomato * 3

Troop Dragon * 3

and lastly Nimble Momonga * 3

 

The other 20 cards can be considered “filler� and not part of the deck thinning we’re looking for. For all intensive purposes we’ll assume that all effects go through, all cards that are obtained with the deck thinning cards are “filler� cards and not other “thinners,� and each effect works only once. For example: with Witch we can thin the deck by taking one “filler,� Right Arm of the Forbidden One. This provides us with a ratio of 1:1, “thinner� to “filler.� For one Witch of the Black Forest we’re able to get one Right Arm of the Forbidden One. With Mystic Tomato we’ll assume that you get all three Mystic Tomatos through the chain effect of the first one. The first Mystic Tomato will get out the second, the second will get out the third and the third will get out a “filler� card. The first Mystic Tomato was able to get out three other cards. Mystic Tomato’s “thinner� to “filler� ratio is 1:3. You can imagine that Painful Choice’s ratio is quite high at 1:5. So, what I’ll do now is take our 20 card “thinner� deck and put their “thinner� to “filler� ratios next to them.

 

1:1   Witch of the Black Forest

1:1   Sangan

1:2   Pot of Greed

1:3   Graceful Charity

1:5   Painful Choice

1:3   Jar of Greed * 3

1:2   Gather Your Mind * 3

1:3   Mystic Tomato * 3

1:2   Troop Dragon * 3

1:2   Nimble Momonga * 3

 

If we add the ratios up vertically, we’ll see a “thinner ratio� of 10:22. This means that 10 cards can pull 22 cards from the deck. The “total drawing power� in this particular deck is 22 cards (That’s a lot of turkey). Notice that this doesn’t equate out evenly since this leaves 8 cards unaccounted for (The 40 card deck with 10 “thinners� and 22 “fillers� is missing 8 “fillers� (40-10-22)). This missing 8 would be accounted for in randomness since you would randomly draw one of these cards in place of a “thinner.� The deck could be said to have a “randomness� of 8, a pretty good number for an Exodia deck. Lastly, you can take the “total drawing power� and divide it by the total number of cards in the deck minus the “thinner� cards to get the “real drawing power� (22/(40-10)) This Exodia deck would get 22/30, or about .7333. This means that the most this deck can thin itself is by 73%, a very high rate compared to most decks.

From the looks of it, it would seem that drawing Exodia would be a synch (you even see that the "total drawing power" outmatches the number of "fillers" in the deck), but remember we’re looking at the best situation possible. Effects get negated, you get “thinners� from other “thinners� instead of “filler�, and no one pays attention to your Pojo post. Crap happens, deal with it, SOLDIER!

Quick quiz to test what you’ve learned: your friend named Bones who has a glandular problem and doesn’t bath a lot is making a play deck of 10 cards. He puts in a Graceful Charity, a Pot of Greed, a Painful Choice, and some other crap no one gives a hoot about. What’s his “real drawing power,� STAT!? (Dramatic Jeopardy waiting music that they play during Final Jeopardy) If you said (d) all of the above, you’re wrong! This isn’t a multiple choice question. Graceful’s pulling in 3, Pot 2, and Painful 5, three cards taking out 10 cards total from his deck. This crazy kid’s got a deck with a “total drawing power� of 10 and three “thinner� cards in a 10 card deck. We’ll get 10/(10-3) or 10/7. This (expletive deleted) kid’s got a “real drawing power� of 143%!!! He’s goin’ to deck himself out!

            Anyway, that’s all for this post, but try it out in your deck and see where it stands on the drawing scale. Well, I’m going to go and have some cards for dinner. You can e-mail me at shaddymaze@aol.com or go outside; I’m already at the door (suspenseful music).

 

P.S.-This can also work in reverse if you’re using hand disruption. Turkey like Confiscation and Time Seal would be used to deny your opponent drawing power. I guess it would make a deck have a “total denying power,� but that’s for another time, another place, and another poster.

P.S.S.-If you’re using Mirage of Nightmare we can assume that you get to draw all 4 cards once (three “fillersâ€� and a MST (also “fillerâ€�) to destroy the Mirage).  Mirage of Nightmare’s “thinnerâ€� to “fillerâ€� ratio is 1:4.

 Zombie’s!