Yu-Gi-Oh is a complex game no matter what way you look at it. There are so many different cards that can make a lot of different deck types. The majority of decks don't cost that much money wise, but it may not seem like this because people tend to run expensive all holo decks all around you. Those are the kind of decks that can win tournaments, but won't always will (despite what the masses say). I've seen Pure Grass Pokémon Decks beat straight forward Haymakers and Fire Princess beat Beatdown. A good deck isn't always popular.      In the Yu-Gi-Oh metagame currently (Post Dark Crisis, Pre-Invasion of Chaos), Beatdowns, Fiends, and Spellcasters generally see the most play. I myself play a Fiend deck and I have since LON, so I fall under the "Plays Popular" category. Everyone has their own favorite deck type and play it as a result of that. It's always fun to build fun decks, but to actually play them in a tournament is a completely different thing. I have a friend who played a Gravekeeper deck for fun, until I encouraged him to bring it to a tournament. He beat me for first place. Darn Necrovalley. -_-; Anyway, he played what he wanted to play and it worked out.      There is absolutely no such thing as a useless card. Even if the card is used as a bluff (i.e. Skull Servant; playing a fusion deck without any way to bring it out), that's still a use (nota good use, but a thought). If you look through your library of cards, you can find a possible deck if you look hard enough. That possible deck can a most likely will become a fun deck. The fun deck over time becomes a tournament worthy deck. The tournament worth deck, if very successful becomes an archetype. The archetype becomes another pile of cards again as sets go on. That is the cycle of decks. This is why I love this game- no deck type will live throughout a whole bunch of sets without being dramatically or even being taken apart. ALL decks go through that cycle with the exception of the archetype part. Deck types catch on and spread very easily, which is how even before a set comes out someone already could have your idea.      Side Board or Side Deck (depends on if you play/played Magic or not) is a huge factor that isn't used to its full potential. 15 cards is a lot. Take 15 cards out of your deck and you'll notice how much just 1 single card counts. Putting cards people wouldn't expect in your side deck/board is a good strategy. Fairy Meteor Crush/Big Bang Shot and trample monsters are good side deck/board material as you'll more than likely run into a newer player that runs 3 GAF, 3 Spear Dragon, and 3 Orcs. In fact, I've seen very good players over stack their deck with "goes to defense position at the end of the battle phase" monsters. I wouldn't main deck them all the time, unless you play a trample deck. Other cards like Magic Drain against a burner for example should be in a side deck because you'll never what your opponent could throw at you.      You should never be afraid of thinking outside the box. Take Drop off- it barely saw the light of day until the World Championship participants used three. If you posted 3 Drop Offs on the Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Discussion Forum before that, the majority of the members would call it "a waste of space." To some it may be, but everybody has their own opinion on things. If you really want to impress your friends, come up with something new and stick with it for a while. People respect originality- for example Reasoning wasn't even thought of in a Magical Scientist some until some folks posted them on the Forums. That earned them respect of their internet peers.      Originality refers to the player as well as the deck. Every player is original in their own way. Player 1 and Player 2 can have the same exact cards in their deck, but the way Player 1 plays and thinks can change the way the game goes. You, the player has to use your brain in order change how and when you play your cards in a situation where you don't know the opposing deck or the opposing player for that matter too well. This comes up very often in Duel #1 when you know absolutely nothing about who your facing. How you perform under the pressure of big sanctioned tournaments can make you different from any other player out there.      Concerning originality at regionals... well, according to TrippingBillies23, there wasn't any. ^_^; That's a pretty sad thing, and I don't think it'll change in big tournaments very soon. The only thing we can do is to encourage newer players to play what they like to play, while not being hypocritical and going with the bandwagon ourselves.      Doing things differently is never a bad thing to do, as long as you like it. If you don't like to lose, you're playing the wrong game. You WILL lose no matter what level of skill you have.

This and some of my other articles I will update as time goes on.

*Closing Comments* This is my first Pojo Yu-Gi-Oh! Article that actually going on the website. I did the Error Card portion of the Pokémon site, but now I no longer collect Pokémon so I'm pretty much useless. You can still send me E-mails regarding newer cards and I'll look into it. I hope you liked my article and more will come. Vote for the next topic below. I'll do an article bi-weekly at the very least. I'm only 12 so I still have to do a lot of homework folks. ^_~;

If you have and other questions comments, ideas, or article ideas E-mail me at Suicune@optonline.net. I accept criticism too.