JUNE 2008

Not-very-well-known side decking tips for casual players, Part 1 - Whyareall

 

You may have read my recent article about a Crystal Beast deck made specifically to counter the top ranked decks in the current metagame. You may have also noticed that apart from 1 or 2 cards, the side deck would help many casual to medium decks against top ranked decks. When I say 'casual to medium', I'm talking about decks that cost less than about $60 or so. What many people don't realize is that top ranked decks, like all others, have weaknesses. There is no such thing as a 'perfect deck'. You can turn many decks' greatest strengths into their greatest weaknesses. What this means is, decks rely only on their strengths, such as a Dark Armed Dragon deck relying on drawing many cards each turn, or Gladiator Beasts tagging in and out each Battle Phase. In this guide, I will give some cards that will counter these type of deck strategies.

 

General cards:

Fake Trap [Normal Trap Card]

Effect: You can only activate this card when your opponent uses an effect of a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster to destroy Trap Card(s) on your side of the field. Destroy this card as a substitute of those Trap Card(s) and the other Trap Card(s) are not destroyed. If a Set card(s) would have been destroyed, pick up and see the Set card(s).

 

Seeing as many cards in this list are continuous trap cards, you would do well to protect them from your opponent's Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon.

 

 

Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell [Counter Trap Card]

Effect: Discard 1 Spell Card. Negate the activation and the effect of a Spell Card and destroy it. Your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards with that name during the rest of this Duel.

 

I personally hate this card, as I use a Crystal Beast deck focused on Crystal Abundance, and if my opponent uses this against my Abundance, I have very little chance of winning the Duel. Good against cards that you do not want to see ever again.

 

Many top-of-the-range decks draw many cards per turn, the reasoning behind this being that if you have access to many cards from your deck, you can pick and fight with the ones you want. I decided not to counter this as such, but rather to use it to your advantage with 1 of two cards.

 

Appropriate [Trap Card/Continuous]

Effect: You can activate this card when your opponent draws a card outside his/her Draw Phase. Each time your opponent draws cards outside his/her Draw Phase, you draw 2 cards.

 

What this does, is every time your opponent uses an Allure of Darkness or other card to draw cards, you get two cards, ABSOLUTELY FREE. The reason I say it is free is because usually, when your opponent plays a card to draw 2 cards, it has a cost of discarding a card, and added to the actual card, this means they use two cards to draw two cards, but you use one card, (and then only once) to draw cards over and over.

 

 

Skull Invitation [Trap Card/Continuous]

Effect: Each time a card is sent to the Graveyard, inflict 300 points of damage to its owner's Life Points per card.

 

This card is tremendously helpful against decks that discard cards to draw cards, usually inflicting 600 damage every time your opponent draws with an effect, and works wonders against Lightsworn decks, who discard many cards every turn from the top of the deck, letting you do around 1000 damage each turn.

 

 

Next up are the first deck to beat Dark Armed Dragon in a Shonen Jump Championship: the Gladiator Beasts. These cards' strengths (and therefore weaknesses) are the ability to return themselves to the deck to Special Summon another from the deck if they battled a monster that turn. The weakness here is that they must battle in order to tag out and in. To stop this, you must either stop the battle, or prevent the summoning of new Beasts. Generic cards here are Mirror Force or Radiant Mirror force as a cheaper alternative.

 

Threatening Roar [Normal Trap Card]

Effect: Your opponent cannot declare an attack this turn.

 

Simple as that, you have stopped their summoning engine for a whole turn. Very cheap, easy to get your hands on.

 

Guard Dog [Monster/3 Stars/EARTH/Beast/Flip Effect/1500 ATK/500 DEF]

FLIP: Your opponent cannot Special Summon for the rest of this turn.

 

This card takes advantage of the fact that your opponent will always want to battle, to activate the Beasts' effects, so they will run charge into this card without thinking, and give you an extra turn, which may not seem like much, but may mean the difference between victory and defeat.

 

 

Finally, my arch-enemies, the Six Samurai. You have no idea how much I hate them. I think that whenever someone wins a match against them, the world becomes just that little bit better, which is why I'm writing this list.

 

Needle Ceiling [Normal Trap Card]

Effect: Activate only when there are 4 or more monsters on the field. Destroy all face-up monsters.

 

This card will save your butt when your opponent summons 2 Great Shogun Shiens and a Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, as well as one of the original 6, and you are defending. Your opponent keeps destroying your face-down monsters with Irou, and generally leaving you helpless. This card gives you help. Not only will it destroy all your opponent's monsters, it leaves your face down monster unharmed. The best part about it is that even face down monsters and Tokens count towards the 4 monster requirement.

 

 

Need tips on how to beat a certain deck, or have ideas for decks to include in Part 2? Email me, Adrian Cooper, at whyareall2@hotmail.com

 

Well, that's all for now. 'Til next time!