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| Sidedecking. | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 17 2009, 12:18 PM (137 Views) | |
| Mark | Sep 17 2009, 12:18 PM Post #1 |
Caterpie!
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Understanding How To Sidedeck Properly One of the biggest issues we have as duelist is truly knowing how to stop a deck while trying not to disrupt the flow and synergy of your own deck. You go to a tournament maybe a large scale tournament like Regionals or Nationals and chances are your going to be having 7-9 rounds of very competitive players all itching to do the same thing you are there to do, win. In order to do this you've probably invested a lot of time into your deck of choice preparing for every possible match-up that comes your way, but let me be yet another person to tell you, there is no possible way for your deck to be prepared against ALL the decks you are going to have to play through those 7-9 rounds, unless of course your running Lightsworns. So we often find ourselves staying up late at night before the tournament starts preparing even more, and just when you think you've found the perfect card choices for your deck you get stuck with another big burden, the side deck. The side deck is the BIGGEST asset you have apart from your main deck, I can't stress enough how much your side deck can help you win a duel, especially if your already down the first match, that kind of pressure can be frustrating and it can also make you deathly nervous, trust me, I've been in those situations where the outcome of what I chose to side in and out can determine EVERYTHING. With that being said I would like to take the time to discuss how important the side deck really is and how important it can effect your duels. The hardest thing about a side deck is actually making one. To make a fully functioning side deck you have to have done your homework, you have to have read over countless decklists three to four to even five times figuring out what makes that particular deck work so well, why are cards like Waboku in Gladiator Beasts, or why are cards like Beckoning Light in Lightsworns deck, why does TeleDaD decks rely so heavily on their draw cards like Allure Of Darkness and Destiny Draw, what are the cards that can disrupt the flow of those kinds of decks? To truly understand how to beat and properly side for a deck you need to know it's crucial plays, you need to know when to act and how to go about it. For example, Lightsworns decks rely heavily on milling cards (discarding cards from their deck to the graveyard) to get their swarming going and to also set-up for their big “boss” monster, Judgment Dragon, they also need to draw the cards they need in order to start milling, so you'll often see them use a Charge Of The Light Brigade to search for a Lumina/Garoth, the reason they do that is often because those are the cards that are crucial to getting the deck started. It's also very easy to read what they are going to do, if they search for a Garoth they have a Solar Recharge in their hand to discard him setting up the Lumina play that will shortly follow, if they are getting a Lumina then most likely they need to get their milling going and have an Honest in hand, or a Necro Gardna in hand so that she may discard him. What ONE card alone can mess up that whole play? There is actually many, cards like Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Light Imprisoning Mirror, D.D. Crow, Gladiator Beast Retiari all control what LS can do, and most importantly they control what cards are going to be sent to the graveyard if any. So obviously if you predict that there are going to be mostly Lightsworn decks at your Regionals or local tournaments then it would be a good idea to side a few of those cards just for them. In order to fully utilize your side deck you will need to have done research on all the type of decks you expect to be playing. All of them. That is a very important key to success, truly understanding how every deck works. What happens if you go to a tournament and you play a Koa'ki Meiru deck? Chances are you aren't going to know what the heck half the monsters in that deck do, so how do you know how to side for them? Good thing is, I highly doubt you'll be having any trouble with a fully dedicated Koa'ki Meiru deck any time soon though, so your safe on that one. The point is you will not know what to side against decks unless you devote time to know how they work, finding out what the deck relies one, determining when they are making those key plays, when they are trying to set-up so that they may do key plays, and overall finding out how the deck functions overall and it's win condition. Do that, and you will be on your way to a successful dueling career. Ok, now I understand how these decks work, I know what cards disrupt the flow of them, and I know how to beat them, but what do I side out without messing up my own deck? That is one of the hardest questions one can accurately answer 100% there is no such thing as a perfect side deck, at least not when the limit is 15 cards. The best piece of advice I can give you is this: In order to do the best you can possibly do, build your deck to where your hardest match-up becomes a breeze to side for. For example, build your deck to where you have certain cards that are for that specific deck but also help you in other duels as well. Understanding the own weaknesses of your deck is another important part of being a successful duelist. Let's say you can do great against other top decks but have trouble with Lightsworns, a simple way of helping your win ratio against that deck is to slightly build your deck around disrupting Lightsworns but without cutting down the win ratio against the other decks. What cards are good against Lightsworns that are ALSO helpful in other match-ups? That is for you to determine. The last part I want to talk about is stuff that I have only scratched the surface of in my last paragraph. You finally understand what cards to side in, but what cards do you side out?! This can be quite tricky indeed, but things that can make this easier for you is just simple knowledge and if you've done your homework than it becomes even easier. I'll give you an example that should give you some ideas of what I'm talking about when I say “without disrupting the synergy of your own deck”. For those of you who don't know what the word “Synergy” stands for it simply means things/cards cooperating together to create the best possible outcome. Now let's say you play Gladiator Beasts and your paired up against Lightsworns, you've managed to take the first game thanks to your cunning War Chariot loops with Equeste, you head to your side deck so that you may finish off your opponent without letting them drop 1-2 Judgment Dragon's on you. What do you side? I'm just going to assume you have a basic Gladiator Beast deck, you should all know what one looks like by now. What cards are semi-useless to you against that match-up? We're just going to say that in your side deck you have multiple copies of Dimensional Fissure, so cards like Elemental Hero Prisma, Rescue Cat, and even a copy of Samnite are no longer needed seeing as how those cards won't be as effective when you have Dimensional Fissure on the field and Dimensional Fissure can be more crippling to Lightsworns than a couple of Prisma/Rescue Cat plays. Why Dimensional Fissure you say? Think about it, Dimensional Fissure says only MONSTERS that would be sent to the graveyard are removed from play. What do Lightsworns depend on doing? Sending monsters to the graveyard, are Gladiator Beasts that reliant on getting monsters in their graveyard? No, and since Dimensional Fissure only sends monsters to the graveyard Gladiator Beast War Chariot will still be able to be brought back by Gladiator Beast Equeste, that is a crippling play indeed, having a War Chariot and Dimensional Fissure on the field with a Gladiator Beast Monster, there is almost nothing the Lightsworn player can do to get around that, besides Heavy Storm. That is the end of this article, I hope you've all enjoyed it and I hope it was informative for you all, please share your comments and concerns by telling me how I did and how you think I can get better at writing them. In future articles I will be discussing individual deck types, so I'll be taking votes shortly on what deck you would like to see me do an article on. Until then I hope these articles continue to help. |
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We The Unwanted. Do That The Unforgettable, For Those The Ungrateful. You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother. nyjetsrulz87 (7:24:41 PM): actually screw the ladies | |
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| Ender86 | Sep 17 2009, 03:38 PM Post #2 |
Ender86
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Wow, I'm liking this whole article thread. Well done DK. One of the biggest problems I have is that I don't understand many different deck types. When someone says "TeleDAD" I know it involves a Dark Armed Dragon, and that's about it. I don't know ANYTHING else about that kind of deck. The only reason I know a little bit about GB Decks is because I dueled you lol. Lloyd has a GB deck now, so I can kind of study up on how to play them as well. But yea, great job on this article. I honestly don't have a side deck right now, something I plan on fixing before my next tournement. Thanks again. 
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My Trade Materials My References Online Dueling Info: AIM: brickson86 Hotmail: various_86@hotmail.com YVD: Ender86 
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| Mark | Sep 17 2009, 04:03 PM Post #3 |
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Caterpie!
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No problem, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Probably some time today I'll post a topic having y'all vote for what deck article y'all would like to see me write. 
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We The Unwanted. Do That The Unforgettable, For Those The Ungrateful. You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother. nyjetsrulz87 (7:24:41 PM): actually screw the ladies | |
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| nyjetsrulz | Sep 17 2009, 04:31 PM Post #4 |
 
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An excellent article DK, an enjoyable and helpful read |
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My Trade Thread My FanFic | |
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| Ender86 | Sep 17 2009, 04:42 PM Post #5 |
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Ender86
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y'all????? |
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My Trade Materials My References Online Dueling Info: AIM: brickson86 Hotmail: various_86@hotmail.com YVD: Ender86
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| Mark | Sep 17 2009, 04:43 PM Post #6 |
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Caterpie!
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What about it? Like y'all the members =P |
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We The Unwanted. Do That The Unforgettable, For Those The Ungrateful. You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother. nyjetsrulz87 (7:24:41 PM): actually screw the ladies | |
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| Dan | Sep 17 2009, 06:37 PM Post #7 |
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ohh...very nice, DK. how long did that take to write? -Dan |
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Having a problem that's site related? Want to duel via AIM? Contact me @.... AIM - anakin2872 email - anakin2872@gmail.com (I'm a simple person, same 5 year old screen name all around....except youtube, somebody took it...) Yu-Gi-Oh! Decks: Cyber Junk, Elemental Heroes Card of the Day Writer, occasionally. | |
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| Mark | Sep 18 2009, 01:48 AM Post #8 |
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Caterpie!
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Thanks Dan. Took like about 20-30 minutes, not that long really. |
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We The Unwanted. Do That The Unforgettable, For Those The Ungrateful. You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother. nyjetsrulz87 (7:24:41 PM): actually screw the ladies | |
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| DeckMaster17 | Sep 18 2009, 02:58 AM Post #9 |
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wow nice topic and thread. Very Interesting. Yeah, side decking can be a challenge, but I kinda find it fun testing out different cards and combos. Good work DK
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 My Trades My Refs [4] My Youtube | |
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