From: DM7 [SolitaryMan@mail.pojo.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:40 AM
To: staffer@pojo.com
Subject: FWD: Article #11: Tha Taxonomy of Yu-Gi-Oh! - SiphonX
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Siphon X" <pyroboy72@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 08:38:23 -0500
Hello all,
I am SiphonX and I am here to talk with you today about an often times confusing topic. Quite often, people mistake "archetype" with "theme" and vice-versa. This is here to sort all the confusion out and standardize some stuff.
Article #11: The Taxonomy of Yu-Gi-Oh!
For those of you who are not vocabulary-proficient, "taxonomy" simply means the way of categorizing something. It is evident, therefore, what is to be catergorized.
This is simply to standardize what people call their decks. There are three main categories: Way-of-Winning, Archetype, and Theme. Each one has deliberate specifications.
Way-of-Winning - This can be compared to the kingdom in a living organism taxonomy; it is the first link. This is simply how someone wins a duel.
There are only two ways of winning, never any more:
-Automatic Win (Exodia, Deck-Out)
-Life Point Deduction (Beatdown, Burner)
Archetype - The archetype is a little more complex. It is the strategy implemented to gain advantage in the duel. There are a set amount of Archetypes, so please do not confuse them with Themes. It may be a hard concept to learn, but once you see the examples, you will probably get the
picture:
-Automatic Win:
-Exodia/F-I-N-A-L/Last Turn/Final Countdown -Deck-Out
-Life Point Deduction:
-Beatdown
-Hand Disruption (believe it or not, Hand D. IS in the same WOW as Beatdown) -Stall/Weenie Rush -Burner -Control
Theme - This concept is an easier one to grasp. It is what the deck is based around, the cards in the deck, not the strategy. It is the last link in the chain of YGO taxonomy. Usually, decks of the same theme will still have some major differences. However, due to the overwhelming popularity of some themes, decks are often times exactly alike. The "automatic win" decks hardly have any themes available to them at the moment, partially due to the fact that they are unpopular. I will briefly go over the themes that I cover.
Exodia/F-I-N-A-L/Last Turn/Final Countdown:
-Turbo Exodia - This deck is based around obtaining Exodia in your hand, but in this deck, speed is emphasized and is often combined with OTK combos like Elma and Manticore of Darkness.
-Traditional Exodia - Again, this deck is based around Exodia, but the difference in this deck is the objective of deck thinning rather than pulling off a combo by using multiple summon monsters, stalling spells and traps, as well as several powerful drawing cards.
-Stall Destiny Board - This deck is EXTREMELY effective. It uses 1 star monsters and Metamorphosi (plural for Metamorphosis?) to bring out the all-powerful Thousand Eyes Restrict, while allowing Spell Canceller to hit the field, in an almost impenatrable lock. Props to Lord Tranorix for assembling this deck idea. This is a Control (explanation at bottom, where Control is).
-Speed Destiny Board - This deck works more like Exodia, where the user tries to obtain Destiny Board pieces in their hand, and with one turn with a Destiny Board set, they can throw all five out. Also works very well with OTK comboes.
-Traditional Last Turn - This deck uses Jowgen the Spiritualist to its fullest potential. It also uses cards that dramatically decrease their LP until they hit below 1000, then Last Turn comes out. Very effective with cards like Waboku, D. D. Warrior Lady, Newdoria, etc to get a draw.
-Stall/Final Countdown - There truly is one form of Final Countdown, and that is Stall/Final Countdown, which uses a multitude of stalling creatures and techniques, like the infamously famous Spell Canceller/Gravity Bind lock and others as well.
Deck-Out:
-Flipper Deck-Out - This deck can be so very lethal, but you need to make sure a Nobleman doesn't come your way. It emphasizes importance on Needle Worm, Morphing Jar, and other deck-destroying flippers. Unique among deks, because it contrasts the usual forty cards per deck, often going past fifty so as not to deck-out themselves.
-Direct Damage Deck-Out - This deck is much less costly, but also much less effective. It uses cards that allow, upon Battle Damage, to discard cards from the top of the opponent's deck, like Don Zaloog, Cliff the Trap Remover, Robbin Zombie, and more.
Beatdown:
There are so many themes for Beatdown it is unreal. I will only cover five.
-Type/Attribute Beatdown - All this deck is is an assembly of many cards of one type or attribute and some support cards to help them as well as a few protective spells. Decks like this include Warriors, Dragons, Dark, Light, Machines, etc...
-Gravekeeper Beatdown - I love this deck so much. It is a great deck at combatting the new and ever so popular Chaos decks. It focuses on monster swarms and not allowing any cards referring to the Graveyard to be played.
Though only 3-4 Gravekeepers are good, put together, they are all awesome.
-Chaos Beatdown - Do NOT confuse this deck with Chaos Control. This deck does not use Yata or any of the Hand Disrupters, but instead, focuses on Dark and Light beaststick monsters to provide fodder for the all-powerful Chaos monsters. Favors Chaos Soldier rather than the Dragon.
-Scientist/Dark Flare - Another controversial deck, its brother is a Burner, but this one is most definitely a Beatdown. Focuses on retrieving one of the greatest attackers in the game, Mirage Knight, to attack directly. Uses Magical Scientist and Creature Swap compulsively. This deck is on the borderline of being a Control.
-XYZ - This is absolutely my favorite type of Beatdown. It focuses on using the XYZ monsters to unionize and deunionize for mass damage (there is even a OTK, too!). NEVER play this deck trying to get out XYZ as fast as you can.
It will destroy your hand. An excellent pick for a moderate or experienced player.
Hand Disruption:
-Swarm Hand D. - This deck focuses on attribute and specified summoning monsters to swarm the field with their own and take control of hand and field advantage FAST. Often times cards like Mystic Tomato and Pyramid Turtle are used. This IS a Control.
-Beatdown/Hand Disruption (Hybrid) - Focuses on using hard attackers like Archfiend Soldier, Skilled Dark Magician and bigger Hand Disrupters like Don Zaloog. Quite possibly the most played deck in the entire game. Sometimes uses unconventional beaststicks to gain field advantage. Very strong, but has major weaknesses.
-Hardcore Hand Control - This deck is not often favored by the Hand Disruption players, but it won the World Championship 2003, so go figure. It uses the biggest amount of hand disruption available. Runs cards like Drop Off, Confiscation, Time Seal, and many more hand disrupters. Pays LP copiously. This is also definitely a Control.
-The Moderate Hand Disruption - This is not a deck I made up, but I run it.
It is simplya combination of all of the Hand Disruptions, with a bit of Control, some power, and enough Hand Disruption to keep the advantage. No obvious problems, but it is weak against some types of decks. Dont get me wrong, HAND DISRUPTION > CHAOS CONTROL.
Stall/Weenie Rush:
-The Earthen Stall - Basically, Earth monsters have a lot of stall potential going for them, with Dream Clown and Giant Rat providing the bulk of the attacking, as well as Hayabusa Knight being able to get past Gravity Bind.
One of the better stalling decks, this deck can win the duel in 6-10 turns.
-Insect/Swarm Stall - Swarm of Scarabs and Swarm of Locusts enhance this deck to its full potential. While Scarabs are busy destroying monsters, Locusts can destroy those facedown cards. A very great deck, but the monsters require extra protection, seeing that they are NOT flip effects, but Flip Summon effects.
-Canceller/G. Bind - This is just a strategy used in multiple decks, including Exodia, regular stall, and Final Countdown. Works very well with the aid of TER.
-Relinquished - This deck was bigger in the pre-LON days when 1800 monsters were a danger. It was certainly a great theme, as most duelists didn't run past 1 Heavy Storm. Now, the decked has almost been completely stopped, with every duelist running 3 MST, 1 HFD, and Breaker. Of course, there are protective traps, but often times, it doesn't cut it.
-Direct Attackers - Yes, we all remember those PSV days when you could see every other duelist running one of these. It uses monsters with the ability to attack direct as well as some protective spells + traps to evade attacks.
Worked fine until people started realizing that Gravity Bind wasn't effective when coupled against cards like Jinzo and Breaker.
Burner:
-Lava Burner - This incorporates multiple copies of the PGD retail secret rare, Lava Golem, to burn away the opponent's Life Points as quickly as possible. Stalling techniques are often used in this deck, and if one is lucky enough, they can get the opponent into a Lava-lock: no spells, no tributing, and no attacking.
-Fire Princess - The main objective in this deck is to gain as much LP as you can while FP is on the field. Cards like Solemn Wishes, Marie the Fallen One, and Poison of the Old Man aid in doing this. Though there is a OTK with this deck, it is rather hard to pull off.
-Token Burner - Don't you just love burning those fluffy goats? Coupled with some nice hard tribute burn like Amazon Archer, it can be quite deadly.
Having three Scapegoats is essential.
-Scientist - Ah yes, the ever popular deck. This truly was the only burner I have seen played so much. It incorporates Catapult Turtle and Magical Scientist to pull off a FTK (first turn kill). Of course, sometimes the FTK cannot be pulled off, so the Scientist deck must rely upon saving their arse by use of protective traps (one thing I saw Scientist decks lacking...).
Now, since they restricted Scientist, it is MUCH harder to pull off the combo.
Control:
First, I would like to give you all a description of what I think a Control is. Most people associate Control with Hand Disruption. Often times, this can be true, but sometimes, it isn't. Hand Disruption is no more than winning through complete hand advantage. Control, on the other hand, is winning by controlling an aspect of the game so dominantly that the opponent cannot gain control of it ever again. Of course, hand size is an aspect of the game, but often times, Hand Disruptions are NOT able to control it so.
The aspect of the game can range from Life Points to field advantage. Here are some examples of Control:
-Stall/Destiny Board - I told you previously WHAT this deck is like, now I am going to tell you why it is like that. This deck incorporates cards that can get the opponent into an effective bind by the use of TWO cards. Even though it may take a bit more effort to get either of the two cards out, the fact remains that they will remain out until one of these four main cards comes along: Jinzo, Breaker, Ring of Destruction, and Tribe-Infecting Virus.
I realize that there are other cards that can be played, but they are not often played. FOUR CARDS! And even IF Jinzo hits the field, Destiny Board may be negated but Thousand-Eyes Restrict won't be! That means...I have complete control of the game = CONTROL.
-Klown Kontrol - Incorporates the use of Dream Clown very well. Also uses Crass Clown effectively. Very closely related to Earthen Stall. Has great manipulative powers. Full field advantage = CONTROL.
-Multiple Monster Summon - Use in decks where the attributors (Tomato, Angel, etc..) or other summoning monsters (Pyramid Turtle) are used in full potential. Dominates field competely. Often times is used in conjunction with hand disruption to form an MMS Hand Disruption. Works very well. It is also a CONTROL.
-Chaos Control - I hate saying it, but yes, this is a Control as well. Using MMS monsters like Angel and Tomato as well as cards like Reflect Bounder to gain field advantage as well as LP advantage. Once the opponent is in a bind, bring out one of the Chaos monsters to finish em off. Has lock potential with CED. Alas, it too is a CONTROL.
-Graveyard Control - This is my absolute favorite type of Control. Apart from being able to dominate the Graveyard, it combats Chaos decks very well.
This deck is also referred to as a Fiber Cycle. It uses removal monsters like Kycoo, D. D. Crazy Beast and Lesser Fiend in conjuction with Soul Release and Disappear to form an excellent stop to opponent's Graveyard recursion.
I hope you all may have learned something from my eleventh article, and if you didn't, then sucks to be you.
Thanks for reading!
~SiphonX~
AIM: mrfilbertiert
Email: pyroboy72@hotmail.com
Note: There are MANY more themes I just didn't include. I don't have enough time to cover them all!
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