From: Mark Dowd
[mailto:mastersniper999@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 10:59 AM
To: yugiohcrew@pojo.com
Subject: Mark's Guide to Competetive Deck Building
(For the tips section)
This guide is for those people who have trouble
building a good deck. It will detail the processes I
go through when building one of my decks.
Before you begin: I highly recommend that before you
begin deckbuilding, you
do two things. 1) Read and know the current
Forbidden/Restricted List for whichever format you
are building a deck for. 2) Download the program
called
RONIN (Rulings Online Networked Information Node)
onto your computer. It can
be found on either www.netrep.net or
www.download.com. It has the card text and rulings
for every card in the TCG listed. It is extremely if
you need to
find a card with a particular effect, are wondering
if the combo you though t of is legal, etc. It also
has an easy-to-use search function for speedy
reference. I have this program, and I use it very
often. It's too useful.
NOTE: If you are connected to the internet when you
open RONIN, it will automatically scan for any
updates.
Section A) The Staples
The list of Staples is highly debatable, and some
argue that there are no real staples. However, the
cards on this list will generally benefit 95% of all
decks they are put in, which is why they are
considered Staples. The current Staples as I see
them are:
Monsters
Sangan
Spells
Snatch Steal
Graceful Charity
Mystical Space Typhoon
Heavy Storm
Swords of Revealing Light
Traps
Call of the Haunted
Mirror Force
Torrential Tribute
Honorable Mention: Premature Burial, Scapegoat,
Breaker the Magical Warrior,
Magician of Faith, Nobleman of Crossout, Exiled
Force, and D.D. Warrior Lady
These cards will generally be the skeleton for any
deck you will build. Keep
in mind though that this list is not definitive, and
some cards may have to be dropped if they do not
perform well.
Section B) Pre-Build
This is the first part of the actual deckbuilding
process, and can be broken
down into two steps.
Step 1) Choose a Theme
This is by far one of the two most important steps
you will have to take in the entire deckbuilding
process. The theme is the most important aspect of
your deck.
1a) Why is a theme so important?
Themes give your deck what is known as "synergy". If
you do not know what this term means, here is the
defenition:
syn.er.gy
n. pl. syn.er.gies
The interaction of two or more agents or forces so
that their combined effect is greater than the sum
of their individual effects.
Themes are precisely that---the interaction between
the cards in your deck so that the combined effort
is greater than the sum of their parts. Take
Megarock Dragon for example. To summon it, you must
Remove from Play (RFG) monsters in your Graveyard.
This makes it highly synergistic with Return from
the Different Dimension, a powerful Trap that can
end the game if played at the right moment.
1b) What qualifies as a theme?
I define a theme as the synergistic relationship
between the key cards of your deck. Under this
defenition, that can be a key combo, an overall
strategy, etc. Your theme can be anything from the
well-established (Strike Ninja, Macro Cosmos,
Zombies) to one of your own creation.
NOTE: Themes are not just some common aspect the
cards in your deck share.
If you cram a bunch of LIGHT monsters together and
call it a LIGHT deck, you
are misleading yourself. It is not a LIGHT deck, for
there will be no synergy. An example of synergy with
LIGHTs is using Freed the Brave Wanderer/Soul of
Purity and Light to control the field and Fuel
Return from the Different Dimension.
1c) How can I make my own theme?
Dig through your crap box of cards that everyone
says suck. Just start reading effects and imagining
what you would need to abuse them. Let you're mind
wander. If you think of something, search RONIN to
see if there is any card like the one you thought
of. There are 1662 cards in the TCG (not counting
Vanillas, effectless Rituals, and effectless
Fusions), all boasting
a wide range of effects. Odds are that there will be
SOMETHING resembling what you need. Keep in mind
that themes are based upon as few as 1 and as many
as 4 cards. The rest of the deck is either to
support the theme or take
advantage of it.
1d) How many themes can I run in a deck?
Ideally, just one. You can run more than one, but
ONLY---and I would like to
stress ONLY---if the themes either compliment each
other or at least work well together. Don't try to
run an Exodia/Final Countdown/Last Turn/Destiny
Board/Burn/Beastdown deck.Those themes have nothing
in common, and trying to
put all of them in one deck will just clog it up. If
you run more than one theme, they should have some
form of overlap between their support, like Chaos
Burn. There are some good Burn monsters that are
LIGHT/DARK, and Chaos
can fit right in with them.
Step 2) Start thinking
Don't go digging through your cards just yet. Now is
the time to stop and think about it. Ask yourself
sme questions like these:
What can I do to support my theme?
How can I take advantage of my theme?
What are my theme's strengths?
What are its weaknesses?
How can I use my theme to win?
The last one is very important. A theme is nothing
if it cannot win. For some themes, like Beastdown,
the win condition will be easy to spot. For others,
like Clocktower Control, it will not be so easy.
Section C) The Build
Step 3) Mind Dump
This is the simplest and often the quickest of all
the steps. Grab a writing
utensil and a pad of paper and find a quiet,
comfortable place to sit down.
Loosen up your mind. Bring your theme and everything
you have thought of about it to the front of your
mind. Then, just start writing down a decklist
as it comes to you. Start with the very first cards
that come to your mind and continue from there.
Don't make any special attempt to organize
Monsters/Spells/Traps yet, that will come later. A
sample mind dump for a Strike Ninja deck might look
something like this:
2 Strike Ninja
2 Reinforcement of the Army
3 DD Scout Plane
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Blowback Dragon
1 Dark Ruler HA Des
1 Deck Devastation Virus
It's a good idea to keep track of how many card you
have written down in the
margin of your paper. Once you reach 40, stop. Don't
go any further, no matter how much the train of
though wants to wisk you away.
Step 4) Organize
Take you mind dump, and rewrite it on a new sheet of
paper, this time organizing it into Monsters,
Spells, and Traps. Then, take a second to just look
it over. Is there too much of this? Too little of
that? Do I really need this card in there? Can I
find something better to replace this? Start
crossing stuff out and adding stuff in. Once you are
either satified with your edits or have clogged up
the paper with cuts and additions, rewrite it on
another sheet of paper and look it over. If you see
any more issues, repeat the process. Once the deck
looks as good as it can get on paper, it is time to
move to the final phase of the deck building
process.
Section D) The long road ahead.
This might be the last phase of the process, but
don't think you're home free yet. This is the
longest and most tedious phase: playtesting.
Everything you have done with your deck up until now
has been largely theoretical. Now, you must actually
duel a person with your deck. This is very important
in guaging exactly what your deck needs to function.
While you are dueling, take note of whatever issues
your deck is having. are you drawing something too
much? Drop some copies. Not drawing something
enough?
Either add more copies or find a way to tutor
(search) it. Something not helping you at all? Cut
it.
The biggest thing to remember while playtesting is
that you deck has gone from theoretics to
engineering. Do not be discouraged if your deck
fails miserably during the beginning stages of
testing. If you analyze those failiures to find out
why your deck failed when it did, you can make your
deck much better for the next round of testing. To
keep your spirits up in the midst of all this
initial failiure, all you have to do is remember my
deckbuilding philosophies:
"I am not discouraged. Each failed attempt is the
next step towards progress"---Thomas Edison.
"Failiure is success if you learn from it"---Malcolm
Forbes
If you keep those in mind, you should have a lot of
fun making your own decks. It might not be as easy
as making a Cookie deck, but you can catch some
people off-guard with a Flip-Flop Rock deck. If you
know what you are doing, you can take almost any
deck and have success with it.
Questions, comments, and concerns (no flames) can be
directed here:
mastersniper999@hotmail.com