JAELOVE's Smooth Journey

Article 23: A Public Service Announcement

1.14.05  This article will address a few points I felt key to enumerate before we enter hardcore deck construction, including Dark Paladin, Spellcasters, Exodia, and any other deck types that strike my fancy. Today, we'll have TWO polls, and an article regarding common misconceptions of the game. So let's start.

Here are some of the biggest misconceptions shared amongst novices and experts alike.

Number One by a wide, wide margin: "My Deck Has to Contain 40 Cards."

I see many problems with this mode of thinking. In fact, it fits quite neatly with the cookie cutter mentality that many duelists have (unfortunately) chosen to adopt. It reminds me almost of women spreading old wives' tales, and everyone starts believing that carrots prevent blindness and all that. Well I want everyone to start addressing the magic number of 40 cards, and the faulty reasoning behind it.

Since we're limited to a minimum of 40 cards, many people want to play the bare minimum because certain restricted cards are better than others. Well that might have held true when 50% of the cards pre-ban were broken such as Graceful, Delinquent, CED, Mirror Force, Raigeki, and such, but the same does not hold true any more.

The environment has changed. Mass removal is gone. Most cards are now even one for one trades, and there is far more deck thinning through Apprentice Magician, Card Destruction, Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, RoTArmy and others present. If you feel the need to add a few extra cards over the "40 card limit", feel free to go ahead. There's no problem running extra needed cards.

However, try to keep your deck between 40-44 cards; anything more will mathematically hurt you. Also keep in mind that certain archetypes, including those that need either Field Spells ala Gravekeepers, or need reliable draw power, i.e Exodia, should keep 40 card limits.

Number Two: "I need 'Consistency" in my Deck."

A lot of the board members have espoused this theory, but it's one of the most ridiculous concepts I've ever heard. The idea is that decks with a helter-skelter set of cards, which feature no discernible theme or collection of spell traps, is somehow intrinsically inferior to decks that pack "consistent" gatherings of cards, say 3 Berserk Gorilla, 3 D.D Warrior Lady, 3 Blade Knight, 3 Sakuretsu Armor, 3 Dust Tornado, 3 Smashing Ground, and such. To paraphrase one "expert", anyone who runs single copies of a card is only relying on "luck", and the "luck" will eventually run out and the player will lose.

I have a newsflash to those who espouse the concept of consistency. It's called the Restricted List, and it consists of cards that are restricted to either one copy, or two copies in each deck. I can take a deck with Reflect Bounder, Ceasefire, and other single copies and defeat "consistent" decks because running 3 copies of every card in your deck, regardless of themes or synergy, will lead to clogged hands.

In fact, most people seem to confuse consistency with synergy, a far more important concept that's the basis of any good deck. Synergy means that your deck's elements should all work cohesively together. Here's a rather simple example, followed by a very complex example.

SIMPLE SYNERGY: If you run Scapegoat, you should probably pack Metamorphosis, Enemy Controller, and Creature Swap to take advantage of the tokens.

COMPLEX SYNERGY: If you run Change of Heart, period, you should probably pack at least 2-4 tribute monsters to take advantage of that fact. You should most likely NOT run Change of Heart if you have no tribute monsters….. *UNLESS* you focus on rapid aggression that dominates your opponents life points.

INSANELY COMPLEX SYNERGY: For my Zombie deck, I planned out every single card in my deck perfectly. It came down to running Fiber Jar because of its synergy with Book of Life, Compulsory Evacuation Device with its synergy with Mind Crush, and no Torrential Tribute because of its lack of synergy with Pyramid Turtle.

You might not notice such actions, but you'll have to if you want to build near perfect decks. Think of synergy before consistency in building your decks. If your deck's cards lack synergy with each other, for example running Jinzo in a deck with lots of traps, or even running Jinzo in a deck that has no Scapegoats/Book of Moons/Enemy Controllers, is an example of a lack of synergy hurting the deck.

Number Three: "(Insert Card's Name Here) is a STAPLE, anyone who doesn't run it is a n00b omg omg rox0rz (lame "leet" blather).

Here's a rule served up Cochran Style: "If you talk in leet, you must a queet (quit)"

Anyways, the third misconception focuses on those close-minded folks who refuse to run cards that aren't standard cookie-cutter fodder. I'm talking about those who feel that Magical Scientist, Tribe Infecting Virus, Black Luster Soldier, D.D Warrior Lady, Ring of Destruction, Torrential Tribute and others belong in EVERY SINGLE DECK. Noticeably conspicuous in their absence from this list are the following.

Pot of Greed, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Painful Choice.

Period, that's it. Those are the only cards that belong in every deck that's focused on attacking the opponent. Pot is not debatable. Painful Choice's main power doesn't come from the card you DO get from it, it comes from the power that the thinning out factor does. It actually makes every single draw from that point on better, leading to better draws and hopefully victory.

TIP: This came up with a friend of mine at an informal game today. If you get Painful Choice, PLAY IT IMMEDIATELY. It's never a proper play to hold on to it, mostly because

1) It might get discarded.

2) Infinitely more important: Thinning your deck out of tributes, worthless monsters at the moment, and other less useful cards at the time makes EVERY DRAW FROM THAT POINT ON BETTER.

Finally, Breaker the Magical Warrior is a staple in a beatdown deck because spell/trap removal in SUCH A VERSATILE FORM is highly prized. MST, Heavy Storm, and Breaker are the best spell/trap removers in the game, plus he's a DARK. Don't ignore Breaker, ever. You always need him, period.

RANT: There are those who will accuse me of "overrating Breaker", and accuse me of the heinous twin crimes of undercutting originality and promoting cookie-cutterism. I'm talk to you, Mr. Critic, yes you. Take a look at the environment. What are the spell/trap removers around. There's Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Mobius, Dust Tornado, Nobleman of Extermination, and Breaker the Magical Warrior. Good players aren't setting their MST's any more in the early game because of the probability of Heavy Storm/Breaker owning it.

MST and Heavy Storm are versatile, but the other S/T removers are ALL limited in their use and liabilities. That leaves Breaker as the 3rd best s/t removing option, AND it's a DARK 1900 monster. This isn't cookie-cutterism, it's pure fact.  /RANT

That's it. Nothing else is a staple. If your deck is starved for room and you have enough monster removal, take out the Sinister Serpent and Tribe. In fact, if you're not running Creature Swap/Metamorphosis/Enemy Controller/Card Destruction, it might not even be recommended to run Sinister at ALL! If you have cards with high life point payments, including Ring and Confiscation, and you don't have viable means of protecting it (Waboku), FORGO MAGICAL SCIENTIST. Black Luster Soldier does not belong in every deck, neither does DDWLady. In fact, if you don't have board presence with Scapegoats/Sak Armors, don't run DDWLady at ALL! It's basically a Yomi Ship!

Number Four: "I have to use a Cookie Cutter deck to win"

You sir, I hope, are a true fan of the game. Not a fan of winning, or collecting, or cheating at tournaments with the help of your parents to boost your UDE rating, but rather a diehard fan of the GAME ITSELF. The beauty of the themes, the cohesiveness of a well run deck, and the fleeting concept of originality.

If you are a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! itself, if playing the game just to have fun gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, then maybe you should do what I do. Dig through the common bin, dig through the underused holos from every set like Strike Ninja, or Levia Dragon, or even Dark Paladin, and make a deck around it! Have fun playing the game.

But most of all, strive to get better. Take that original deck and actually try to win top tier tournaments with it! I met a studly Cal graduate named Alvin at Gencon (I attend UC Berkeley), and he's a doctor who decided to attend the tournament for fun! He wasn't even going to PLAY THE ENTIRE THING OUT, he just decided to take a Horus Deck and compete and have fun.

Now that's what I'm talking about. See I personally love Dark Paladin and Exodia. I make decks based around them, take them around, and get whupped. However, I test the decks, make them competitive, and come back and beat all the cookie cutters soundly! You don't have to run Uber Warrior Meltdown v 1.04 -- A L33T CReW PRoDuCTION to have a good time and win! Be original, it'll be a lot more fun that way.

Number Five: "It wasn't JAELOVE's Birthday on January 9th, Sunday."

Well you're wrong, it WAS. I turned twenty this past Sunday, here's a nice picture of me with a birthday ice cream cone, even though the picture itself wasn't taken on my birthday :P. A bit misleading, but here goes. Happy birthday to me!

That does it for this article, send all e-mails to JAELOVE@gmail.com. I'm still answering every e-mail!

Poll #1: Should we continue fixing you guys's decks in my articles?

I used to run both a Constructing the X Deck, and The X Deck Constructed, where the latter article would take a fan's deck submission and fix it on the very pages of this site. We would visit themes and only finish them after both constructing the theories of the theme, AND showing the theories in action. Should we continue this practice? Or should I simply focus on making as many themes as possible.

Poll #2: What Deck Should We Construct Next? This one is pretty straight-forward.