August 2006

Welcome everyone to Melos’s Tactics. Although I had originally intended to write up a Deck Analysis on the Zombie Beatdown Deck I had been working over the last few months, I decided to delay it until I was absolutely certain that the Deck was working properly. A little more play testing is required, but I should have the Deck Analysis up next week if everything goes according to plan. Today’s article may not be a Deck Analysis, but it ties in with Deck building theory and can possibly help some of you guys/gals with your game. Whether you’re a beginner or a Shonen Jump Champion, hopefully everyone can learn something from this article.

Aggro, Chaos, and Cyber-Stein One Turn Kill Decks currently run rampart in Regional and Shonen Jump Championship events. The current U.S. Champion, Austin Kulman, is also running an Aggro/Chaos Deck and it’s really no surprise that the majority of the Dueling community is also playing this type of Deck. With the enormous increase in popularity of this theme, players have given it the nickname Cookie-Cutter. This type of Deck is so nicknamed because it’s so commonly played and each Deck has very little difference between them that they can be compared to cookies made by a cookie cutter. These Decks have become so popular that you expect to be paired with a couple of players using it at local tournament and anticipate the vast majority to be playing it in major events. Playing the same Deck over and over can get boring, especially if both you and your opponent are using the exact same Deck. With the overwhelming popularity of this type of Deck, players have begun to complain feverishly and even quit the game. Players are talking about the game dieing thanks to Cookie-Cutter, but is this Deck type really the problem? No, it goes far deeper than just that.

Why are so many players playing the same type of Deck? Is it the lack of cards available? No, there are over 2000 different cards in the current card pool. Even considering the cards that are banned, we still have quite a lot of cards that have untapped potential. Is it the lack of themes? Dragons, Zombies, Beatdown, Skill Drain, Gravekeepers, Control, Chaos, Spellcaster, Beast, Burn, Exodia, Warrior, Final Countdown, Cyber-Stein, etc. are all out there. There are many different themes available and players can even combine different themes together to play hybrids. The lack of themes is not really the problem. Is it the lack of tested competitive Decks? Yes, it is the lack of tested competitive Decks!

This may be a fairly general statement, but human beings are competitive in nature. You see it everywhere you go. In sports games, players try to win regardless if they are playing for prizes or just bragging rights. Fans of those sports teams sometimes clash and physically fight with each other for varies reasons, often sparked by competition. Gas stations and different shops raise and lower prices based on what their competitors charge so they can make the most profit. Even governments compete with one another. The Cold War can be called a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. If people are competitive, they try to get some sort of advantage over the competition to reach a goal. Wither this advantage be better cards, more experience, or even cheating, players of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG seek a way to emerge victorious over their opposition. One such way to get an advantage is by using the most competitive Decks and cards available. Typically, competitive Decks are easy to use, powerful, and have as few situational cards as possible. They are often created with some of the most powerful cards in the game and are built so they are forgiving to players who would make mistakes.

When players win, others take note. When players win tournament after tournament, others notice it and try to find the secret to their success. If a player rises victorious at a major event, he or she must have some sort of advantage over the competition. Whether it is skill, luck, or their Deck, they are victorious due to having something different than everyone else. Practicing and playing a lot can increase a player’s skill, but it’s not something that can be easily copied. Improving your game can take a lot of time, which many people don’t have. You may not even notice any improvements once you reach a certain level. Players cannot rely on luck for victory. If someone wins due to luck only, chances are that they won’t win a major event again. Also, there is really no proven way to improve your luck, so you really can’t change it. This leaves us with the Deck.

The Deck can actually influence both skill and luck. If you run a lot of situational cards, you can expect that you will have unlucky draws. For instance, a Deck running “The Flute of Summoning Dragon” may have it drawn when the player does not want it. If you have a Deck with very few situational cards, you can expect to draw what you need more often than not. If you don’t run “The Flute of Summoning Dragon” or “Anti Raigeki” in your Deck, then you will never draw it. If you run “Smashing Ground” in your Deck, you can expect to draw it. Since “Smashing Ground” is almost always useful, you can expect to get good draws, or draw it when you need it.

If you run a Deck that’s easy to use, it won’t require a lot of skill to play and win. With it, you can beat players that have more experience if they play an unforgiving Deck. If you make a mistake, it won’t be nearly as damaging as if your opponent had made a mistake. For instance, a player might play “Lord of D.” with “The Flute of Summoning Dragon” to call out two “Tyrant Dragon”. If the opponent plays “Torrential Tribute”, that player will be at a serious loss of card advantage. With the simple mistake of not waiting until “Torrential Tribute” is gone, that player is almost ensured the loss of that Duel. If a player plays “Mirror Force” on a “Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive” when it attacks directly instead of waiting until the opponent had brought out more monsters on the field to maximize the effectiveness of the Trap Card can also be called a bad play on the players part if they still had an abundance of Life Points. However, it is not nearly as devastating a mistake as the former example, which would have been a game ending play.

Since the Deck can actually give the most advantage over the competition, players will try to copy a proven winning Deck to increase their odds of victory. If someone wins tournament after tournament because of their Deck, others will try to use the same Deck to also win. Copying another players Deck is also a lot less time-consuming than practicing to improve your skills and a lot more realistic that making yourself luckier. It’s also a lot less time consuming that trying out different Decks to find the best one to fit you and much faster than trying to make an original competitive Deck.

I know that some of you may ask, “Why don’t more players come up with new competitive Decks?” Well, why should they? It’s easy to say that about other players, but why don’t you come up with a new competitive Deck? You may answer with “I tried and the Deck failed. I tested it for weeks or even months and it just didn’t turn out.” You may answer, “I just don’t have the time to seriously test out and create a new competitive Deck.” You may even answer, “I’m happy with my Cookie-Cutter Deck. I don’t really care to see new competitive Decks in major events. It’s easy enough facing what I know and I would rather not lose against something I’m not ready for.” If you answered with any of these statements, then you must now realize that other people will say the same. For various reasons, players will not construct new competitive Decks and there really isn’t much you can do to change that.

At the start of every new format, we see original Decks emerging into play and hoping to make a lasting impact on the Meta. Eventually they diminish and dwindle as the new Cookie-Cutter builds begin to root themselves and spread. Players will often give up when two or three competitive Decks become popular. We have seen it in the past and we will see it in the future. In the Traditional Format, we have the ever-popular Magical Scientist One-Turn Kill, multiple variations of Chaos, and variations of Control. In our current season, we have Cyber-Stein One-Turn Kill, variations of Aggro or Return from the Different Dimension, and variations of Chaos. Two or three competitive themes may not seem like much, but most players disagree through their actions.

Some players may believe that all of the themes have been exhausted and only those Cookie-Cutter themes are really playable. I think otherwise. In my opinion, most players just give up due to lack of time, dedication, or patience before actually they could actually make a successful competitive Deck. It takes a lot of experience, testing, and tweaking to turn their spark of originality into a reality. It takes a lot more than a couple of weeks to perfect your Deck, even if you spend many hours a day on the task. It has taken me over three months in the current format, as well as a lot of experience from playing in previous formats, to arrange my Zombie Deck into the truly competitive form it is today. Just to give you an idea on how long it took, I spent half of the current season play testing my Zombie Deck to get it competitive. You should expect it to take multiple months to perfect a Deck.

Not all themes can be competitive. One of the biggest flaws I see in Deck building is the lack of synergy people have just so you can have a specific theme. Character Decks that do not sacrifice their theme will never be competitive. It goes for Female Decks as well. There is no advantage of making a Deck of only female cards. I sometimes see LIGHT Decks without anything that contributes to the LIGHT theme. Simply having all monsters that are LIGHT without anything that actually gives an advantage of running the theme does not make it competitive. This is simply adding limitations on your Deck without any positive benefit for doing so. You cannot expect to be competitive by playing handicaps on yourself.

If you want to see more competitive Decks, your really have to take the initiative in your own hands. Try building a Deck from a theme with potential and synergy. Don’t be put down if your Deck fails. Continue working on it with dedication and vigor and it may become truly competitive in the future. It may take months with many obstacles along the way, but it’s well worth it in the end.

Want to give me feedback? Just post it here.

Have fun with the ideas, and until next time…
-Melos Woodlanders