February 2009

 

Winning in Yugioh part three: Draw Power, Speed and Versatility

 

     Welcome to part three of my seven part article about about winning in Yugioh. As you can see, I'm going to cover draw power, speed and versatility this time: the seventh, eighth, and ninth most important factors in this game, respectively. In part two I mistakenly said that Heavy Storm can destroy five other cards, but it's actually six, so it's even better. I see a lot of decks taking advantage of speed nowadays. People use cards like Foolish Burial, the MRL searchers, Sangan, Pyramid Turtle, and all that other stuff that speeds up their deck. Speed isn't a problem for most people. It's the same with versatility. You've got warrior toolbox, gravekeepers, zombies, lightsworn, spellcasters (sometimes they're playable), and I think even DAD decks are fairly versatile. Personally, I haven't always played the most versatile decks in the past. Even though my cards had good synergy, the lack of variety limited my options. I had to learn to limit the number of double and triple card copies I used. The thing, though, that I think more players should take advantage of is draw power. Some of the toughest players I've faced fit the good drawing cards that aren't banned into their decks. I'm going to address these subjects individually now.

     Draw Power. This factor was integrated in many Yugioh decks back in the day before the Advanced Format. Pojo's writers repeatedly encouraged players to take advantage of it, and rightfully so. The more cards you have, and the faster you get them, the greater chance of you winning. You and your opponent can have the same exact deck, but if you get your cards faster, you're going to win. The good ones that are still around are Pot Of Avarice, Airknight Parshath (in the right deck), Morphing Jar, Magical Merchant, and Dekoichi (the pain train). There really aren't a whole lot anymore. I used Merchants in a Strike Ninja deck for a while and they worked well. They gave me faster access to spells and traps while simultanously dumping monsters in the grave. I think Magical Merchant is an underused card, so try it out. Airknight can give you a few turns of single draws. He's normally weak, but in a light deck or bounce deck, he works (it is a he, right?). The decktypes around nowadays are too often hampered by poor Draw Power. I play against decks that have good cards but are way too slow, like Monarchs, E-heroes, Frogs, and Synchro varients. The whole time I'm thinking "What is the point if the deck is too slow?" Give some more drawing cards a shot. It might work better than you think.

     As for Speed, it's similar to Draw Power but not exactly the same. Draw power deals with the ability to put cards directly in your hand to use; Speed encopasses accomplishing all of your goals faster. It involves cards in your hand, field, graveyard, rfg zone, and extra deck. Some cards let you accomplish effects faster (Breaker, Old Vindictive Magician, Exiled Force). Other cards get you cards you need faster (Mystic Tomato, Rescue Cat, Emergency Teleport). Draw power deserves it's own section because it is underused. But let's talk about speed. I used to run three Reasonings and three Cyber Dragons in my deck before these cards were limited. Why was that? They were fast. Reasoning was an instant monster on the field, or dumped in the grave. Cyber Dragon let me plow through monsters a lot faster to do more damage, and hit with a Don Zaloog or Spirit Reaper. It tore apart the player's hand faster. I still run Tomatoes, Sangan, Merchants (sometimes), Pot of Avarice, Airknight, and other speed cards. I also focus on fast decktypes like Warriors, Zombies, and Speed Hand Control. It's hard for stall decks to be effective nowadays, unless they're carefully built. Foolish Burial is fast becoming the speed card of choice. It had great potential right away. It seems to work especially well in Lightsworn and Zombie decks. I'd conventionally use something like this in a deck to promote faster access to cards: 2 Magical Merchants, 1 Airknight Parshath, 1 Dekoichi The Battlechanted Locomotive, 2 Shining Angel, 1 Sangan, 3 Nimble Momonga, 2 Foolish Burial, 1 Pot Of Avarice, 1 Reasoning, 2 Reinforcement Of The Army (throw in some Warriors), etc. etc. etc. Some of these are drawing cards I know. Speed and Draw Power go hand in hand. The game was more interesting when Pot Of Greed, Graceful Charity, and Painful Choice were around. They didn't give a disproportinate advantage to a player. They just made games faster. I want them back, personally, so matches aren't so drawn out and boring. For now, we have to use alternate methods to speed up our strategies.

     Versatility really is the ability of your cards to come together as a whole to accomplish a lot of different tasks, as well as the ability of an individual card to get a variety of tasks accomplished. This can include both the variety of effects and the situations in which they can be used. Don't put a card in your deck just because it does a lot of things. Consider the things that it does, specifically, and how they come together as a whole. Snatch Steal is versatile (when it isn't banned) because your opponent has at least one monster face-up much of the time, and taking it can give you a big advantage. Other ones are Monster Reborn, Don Zaloog, Enemy Controller, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Snipe Hunter. I like versatile cards. A card that is conditional is not versatile. Examples of these cards are Double Snare, Dream Clown, Final Destiny, and 4-Starred Ladybug Of Doom. These cards are rarely effective, due to thier poor design that is too conditional in nature. It's not that hard to tell when a card is too conditional. Ask yourself "When can this card be useful?" and contemplate which situations you might be able to use it in. A universally versatile card is Reinforcement Of The Army. It can search out a variety of warriors and is a big reason for why some warrior decks are "toolboxes". Another thing: besides versatile cards, versatile decks often employ a limited amount of double and triple copies of cards. You can have cards that are versatile, but if you use multiple copies too much, the lack of variety will hurt the overall versatility. I would recommend using a cap of four monsters, three or four spells, and two traps in multiples, but it also depends on the deck. I have found that exceeding those limits, with any type of cards, generally hurts versatility too much. Think it through and be careful, and you'll find the balance.

     So, that's it for discussing Draw Power, Speed, and Versatility. I'm trying to give people the most comprehensive advice that I can about this game. The next article, part four, will cover synergy, hand control, and life point advantage. Thank you everyone!

 

BTW: Years ago I used to play Worldwide Edition for GBA and I really wanted Yata to be in the game, but he wasn't. I started thinking of an alternate Yata-lock and came up with Tsukuyomi, Time-Seal, and Mask Of Darkness. I couldn't believe it! It was cool, even though those cards weren't in the game.  I scoured the web to see if anyone else had found it, and I found... nothing. I asked people... no one knew about it! I emailed people about it before I even tried it, and soon it was used in Japan. Everyone knew about it! Now some of those cards are banned. Whether I definitively originated it or not I am unsure of. Someone would likely have uncovered it over time anyhow. Nonetheless, it's a cool combo and I'm glad that a draw lock got a chance to reign a litttle bit longer, even after the death of Yata.

 
-Seth          

Email me. I'm taproot484@gmail.com

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