If I asked what the best way to win a duel was, what would you say? Luck? Well yes Yu-Gi-Oh could be described as a game of rock paper scissors on twenty different levels and luck plays a big role in the outcome of matches, but what if you could make your opponent lose the ability to pick rock? You'd instantly gain the upper hand over them because you know they'll pick either paper or scissors and this knowledge will dramatically increase your chances of winning. This can be done in Yu-Gi-Oh, but it can either be the easiest or most difficult thing to accomplish for a duelist; especially if they are beginners. Now if I asked how to accomplish such a feat, what would you say? Most would probably say to throw in overpowered cards like Dark Armed Dragon and build a deck around them, and most people would be 100 percent wrong. You see, the key to success isn’t found by top decking Dark Armed Dragon and hoping there are three DARK monsters in your grave. As a matter of fact, the key to success isn’t even found in your deck; it can be found in your side deck.
::What is the side deck?::
I have heard people say things like “I don’t use a side deck because my main deck is so good” and I have never seen these people win tournaments in real life or in KCVDS. What these people really mean is that they are either too lazy to create a side deck or they simply do not know how to create one. In order to create a side deck we must first understand what the side deck is and the purpose it serves.
The side deck is a selection of up to fifteen cards that a player can use to replace cards in their main decks. The replacing obviously can’t happen in the middle of a duel, it can only take place prior to a match or during a match. The side deck is most commonly used after the first duel of a match once a player has a good idea of what their opponent is using. The purpose of taking out cards from your main deck and replacing them with cards from your side deck is to gain the advantage over your opponent’s deck by taking out the cards that have minimal to zero effect on your opponent and replacing them with cards that will make your opponent’s deck, field, and hand presence fall apart.
::How to Build a Good Side Deck::
Building a good side deck can be easy for some people and incredibly difficult for others. There are several steps you must take when you’re building a side deck. I will build a 10 card side deck for a deck and explain the process as you read on. The remaining five cards should be put together by you, the reader, to see if you’ve got the hang of properly building a side deck.
:: Step One: Examining Your Main Deck::
Before you build a side deck you must build a competitive main deck, and once that’s done you can begin the process of creating a side deck. You must first examine your main deck and then you begin making card choices to compliment your deck. If you’re running Blackwings and want to add cards to counter other Blackwing decks then you will obviously refrain from adding cards like Concentrated Light or Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror because although they are good against Blackwings these cards would also screw you over. For this article I will be working with a basic Machina deck, and I must warn that this deck and side deck are probably not the most competitive. I am doing this on purpose in order to encourage readers to actually learn how to create a side deck by getting the basic idea of how to do so instead of having them net deck something I post so please don’t make comments about fixing the deck.
Here is the deck we will be working with:
::Monsters:: [15]
[3] Machina Fortress
[3] Machina Gearframe
[3] Green Gadget
[3] Yellow Gadget
[3] Red Gadget
::Spells:: [15]
[1] Heavy Storm
[1] Mystical Space Typhoon
[1] Limiter Removal
[3] Solidarity
[3] Smashing Ground
[3] Fissure
[3] Pot of Avarice
::Traps:: [10]
[1] Call of the Haunted
[1] Solemn Judgment
[1] Trap Dustshoot
[1] Mirror Force
[1] Torrential Tribute
[2] Bottomless Trap Hole
[3] Dimensional Prison
To begin analyzing this deck we have to take a look at what the deck it, what the to win strategy is, its flow and so on.
- In this deck the Machinas are supported by Gadgets to keep field and hand presence with plenty of destruction spells and traps to clear your opponent’s field and gain the upper hand. Pot of Avarice will allow you to recycle your cards while Solidarity will boost up your weak gadgets by 800 ATK points.
- The way this deck wins is by getting Machina Fortress out to deal big damage to your opponent and keep bringing it back from the grave with the help of your gadgets.
- The deck flows with Gadgets as the main engine to thin out the deck making it easier for you to reach either Machina Fortress or Machina Gearframe. It also has lots of monster destruction to help you defend yourself in case you don’t get your Machinas as soon as you’d like.
:: Step Two:: Know Where You’ll be Competing.::
One of the most important steps is to know where you’re going to compete. This information will allow you to predict what you are likely to face. This is the human side of dueling which cannot be taught, cannot be net decked, and cannot be learned. You must make an educated guess regarding your competition. For example, if you were to compete in a KCVDS tournament where a ban list that prohibits the use Blackwings and Lightsworns then you must speculate what the most common decks in this tournament will be.
For the side deck we are creating we will pretend we are attending an upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series (YCS). With this information we can get a good idea of what we will be facing because the last two YCS top 32 decks have all been pretty consistent:
-Infernities
-Sabers
-Blackwings
-Heralds
-Dandywarriors
-Gladiator Beasts
-Machinas
-Froggy Monarchs
Make sure to see how many of each deck have been in the top 32. For example, in the last two YCSs the top two decks, in terms of how many players used them, were Infernities and Sabers so these two decks are the ones you should worry about the most.
:: Step Three:: See what already works in your main deck.::
If you know what you’re very likely to face then step three becomes finding out what already works in your main deck against the decks you’ll face. In this situation the following cards work against the following decks:
Fissure, Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison, Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole would all be good against Sabers, Blackwings, DandyWarriors, Machinas, and Froggy Monarchs, but may not be so effective against Infernities, and Heralds because of Infernity Barrier’s and Herald of Perfection’s ability to negate spells, and traps. Most of your cards are already good against most of the decks so you’re off to a good start.
:: Step Four:: Find cards that can work against multiple decks.::
The amount of cards allowed in a side deck are 15 meaning you have to pick the best 15 cards for the job at hand and picking cards that can work against several decks instead of focusing on just one deck is the key to making the most of your 15 card limit. The way you do this is by analyzing the possible decks your opponent will use the same way you analyzed your own deck.
Consecrated Light is not on the ban list so then you must make a decision when it comes to how many copies of the card you will add. This process is aided by Step Two. If you know you will face a lot of Infernities and Blackwings then it’s probably a good idea to add two copies of the card, but if Blackwings and Infernities were not so popular then you’d probably just want to add one copy.
:: Step Five:: Find cards that will work on individual decks.::
Some decks can be crippled easily with a single card, but some times this card will most likely not work against other decks. Once you have gotten enough cards in your side deck that will allow you to deal with multiple decks at once you can start choosing cards that will help you deal with opposing decks individually. You will then repeat the process of analyzing the potential decks you will face, but unlike before you will now be focusing strictly on a single deck instead of finding a common weakness for all of them. Let’s start out with Blackwings.
::Finishing your Side Deck::
So far we’ve put together a ten card side deck that will take care of most of the meta you are likely to encounter. It is your job to finish the job and add cards that you think are best for the upcoming tournament. You must also remember that some duelists may surprise you with a deck that is completely unexpected so don’t dedicate your entire side deck to the meta. You are likely to encounter stun decks, burn decks, mill decks, and all sort of decks throughout the tournament. If you will be running the same deck for a while then you have to adapt with the changes Konami throws at you. Every two to three months Konami will release new sets all containing new archtypes with different attributes, different effects, and different ways to overpower your deck and it is your job to adapt properly to these new cards using the steps listed above.
I’d love to see what you guys come up with for the remaining five cards needed for this Machina side deck. You may do so by replying to this post with the five cards you picked to gain the upper hand over some of the decks not covered and some of the surprise decks you may encounter. I’d also love to hear about side decks you guys build for other decks in this post or via PM. For those of you who made it this far into this long grueling article without falling asleep I hope the information will allow you to become better side deckers and ultimately better duelists.
::What is the side deck?::
I have heard people say things like “I don’t use a side deck because my main deck is so good” and I have never seen these people win tournaments in real life or in KCVDS. What these people really mean is that they are either too lazy to create a side deck or they simply do not know how to create one. In order to create a side deck we must first understand what the side deck is and the purpose it serves.
The side deck is a selection of up to fifteen cards that a player can use to replace cards in their main decks. The replacing obviously can’t happen in the middle of a duel, it can only take place prior to a match or during a match. The side deck is most commonly used after the first duel of a match once a player has a good idea of what their opponent is using. The purpose of taking out cards from your main deck and replacing them with cards from your side deck is to gain the advantage over your opponent’s deck by taking out the cards that have minimal to zero effect on your opponent and replacing them with cards that will make your opponent’s deck, field, and hand presence fall apart.
::How to Build a Good Side Deck::
Building a good side deck can be easy for some people and incredibly difficult for others. There are several steps you must take when you’re building a side deck. I will build a 10 card side deck for a deck and explain the process as you read on. The remaining five cards should be put together by you, the reader, to see if you’ve got the hang of properly building a side deck.
:: Step One: Examining Your Main Deck::
Before you build a side deck you must build a competitive main deck, and once that’s done you can begin the process of creating a side deck. You must first examine your main deck and then you begin making card choices to compliment your deck. If you’re running Blackwings and want to add cards to counter other Blackwing decks then you will obviously refrain from adding cards like Concentrated Light or Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror because although they are good against Blackwings these cards would also screw you over. For this article I will be working with a basic Machina deck, and I must warn that this deck and side deck are probably not the most competitive. I am doing this on purpose in order to encourage readers to actually learn how to create a side deck by getting the basic idea of how to do so instead of having them net deck something I post so please don’t make comments about fixing the deck.
Here is the deck we will be working with:
::Monsters:: [15]
[3] Machina Fortress
[3] Machina Gearframe
[3] Green Gadget
[3] Yellow Gadget
[3] Red Gadget
::Spells:: [15]
[1] Heavy Storm
[1] Mystical Space Typhoon
[1] Limiter Removal
[3] Solidarity
[3] Smashing Ground
[3] Fissure
[3] Pot of Avarice
::Traps:: [10]
[1] Call of the Haunted
[1] Solemn Judgment
[1] Trap Dustshoot
[1] Mirror Force
[1] Torrential Tribute
[2] Bottomless Trap Hole
[3] Dimensional Prison
To begin analyzing this deck we have to take a look at what the deck it, what the to win strategy is, its flow and so on.
- In this deck the Machinas are supported by Gadgets to keep field and hand presence with plenty of destruction spells and traps to clear your opponent’s field and gain the upper hand. Pot of Avarice will allow you to recycle your cards while Solidarity will boost up your weak gadgets by 800 ATK points.
- The way this deck wins is by getting Machina Fortress out to deal big damage to your opponent and keep bringing it back from the grave with the help of your gadgets.
- The deck flows with Gadgets as the main engine to thin out the deck making it easier for you to reach either Machina Fortress or Machina Gearframe. It also has lots of monster destruction to help you defend yourself in case you don’t get your Machinas as soon as you’d like.
:: Step Two:: Know Where You’ll be Competing.::
One of the most important steps is to know where you’re going to compete. This information will allow you to predict what you are likely to face. This is the human side of dueling which cannot be taught, cannot be net decked, and cannot be learned. You must make an educated guess regarding your competition. For example, if you were to compete in a KCVDS tournament where a ban list that prohibits the use Blackwings and Lightsworns then you must speculate what the most common decks in this tournament will be.
For the side deck we are creating we will pretend we are attending an upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series (YCS). With this information we can get a good idea of what we will be facing because the last two YCS top 32 decks have all been pretty consistent:
-Infernities
-Sabers
-Blackwings
-Heralds
-Dandywarriors
-Gladiator Beasts
-Machinas
-Froggy Monarchs
Make sure to see how many of each deck have been in the top 32. For example, in the last two YCSs the top two decks, in terms of how many players used them, were Infernities and Sabers so these two decks are the ones you should worry about the most.
:: Step Three:: See what already works in your main deck.::
If you know what you’re very likely to face then step three becomes finding out what already works in your main deck against the decks you’ll face. In this situation the following cards work against the following decks:
Fissure, Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison, Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole would all be good against Sabers, Blackwings, DandyWarriors, Machinas, and Froggy Monarchs, but may not be so effective against Infernities, and Heralds because of Infernity Barrier’s and Herald of Perfection’s ability to negate spells, and traps. Most of your cards are already good against most of the decks so you’re off to a good start.
:: Step Four:: Find cards that can work against multiple decks.::
The amount of cards allowed in a side deck are 15 meaning you have to pick the best 15 cards for the job at hand and picking cards that can work against several decks instead of focusing on just one deck is the key to making the most of your 15 card limit. The way you do this is by analyzing the possible decks your opponent will use the same way you analyzed your own deck.
:: Current Side Deck: [02/15]::
[2] Royal Oppression
One thing all the decks have in common is the way they gain field advantage by special summoning, and the best way to stop special summoning would be Royal Oppression. Royal Oppression will be a common enemy to pretty much every deck, but you must also see if Royal Oppression will harm you as your opponent will also be able to use its effect. The only cards you special summon in your deck are Machina Fortresses while most of the decks you’re likely to face special summon monsters, tuners and synchro monsters meaning that you will be doing more damage to your opponent with Royal Oppression than he will be doing to you.[2] Royal Oppression
:: Current Side Deck: [04/15]::
[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
Royal Oppression can be a crippling blow to your opponent, but you can only have two in your side deck since it is semi-limited and you want to be able to get to the cards that will devastate your opponent as soon as possible. You got the special summoning thing out of the way and it appears they have nothing else in common. You must then proceed to analyzing other aspects of the decks. For example, Blackwings and Infernities are both DARK attribute so you can work with this by using cards that will cripple DARK attribute monsters. The most common cards that come to mind when you are trying to stop DARK attribute decks are Consecrated Light and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. I personally prefer Consecrated Light because Mirror will negate Blackwing’s effects, but they will still have access to cards like Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn and others that are big beat sticks, and Consecrated Light will stop your opponent from getting these cards on the field without setting them and even when they are on the field they won’t be able to attack. However, before you decide which you will use you must go back to revising your deck and check how it would run with Consecrated Light in it and how it would run with Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Will either one of these cards slow your deck down if you were to side them in? If so which one would slow you down the least? Will having a monster face up on the field benefit you when the time to special summon comes? Or will a trap card serve the purpose better? In this deck you are running a really low amount of monsters so adding in another monster that will cripple your opponent further than a trap card should benefit you more in the long run so Consecrated Light would be the best option.[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
Consecrated Light is not on the ban list so then you must make a decision when it comes to how many copies of the card you will add. This process is aided by Step Two. If you know you will face a lot of Infernities and Blackwings then it’s probably a good idea to add two copies of the card, but if Blackwings and Infernities were not so popular then you’d probably just want to add one copy.
:: Current Side Deck: [06/15]::
[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
You now have four cards in your side deck that will deal with special summoning and dark decks. You must repeat the process of analyzing the potential decks you will play and find out more about how they get their rolling, how they special summon, etc. One thing that most of the decks have in common is their ability to use the graveyard in order to special summon; Infernities, Sabers, Blackwings, Dandywarriors, Machinas, and Froggy Monarchs all do this. To slow these decks down you must disrupt their graveyards and there are plenty of cards to choose from to do so. Some cards include D.D. Crow The Transmigration Prophecy, and Dimensional Fissure, however you can’t just add any of these cards to your side deck since some of them might end up screwing your deck over as well or slowing it down. One of the most commonly used cards for grave disruption in side decks is Crevice into the Different Dimension a card that, unfortunately, is not yet available in KCVDS with the following effect: Declare 1 Attribute and select up to 2 monsters with that Attribute from both Graveyards. Remove those monsters from play. This card can allow you to disrupt the graves of Infernities and Blackwings since they are both of DARK attribute, the graves of Machinas and Sabers are all of EARTH attribute, and the graves of Froggy Monarchs since frogs are all of AQUA attribute. Disrupting the grave can be a critical blow to some decks so it’s a god idea to run crevice at two. Since Crevice is not available in KCVDS you could try alternatives like the ones mentioned above.[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
:: Step Five:: Find cards that will work on individual decks.::
Some decks can be crippled easily with a single card, but some times this card will most likely not work against other decks. Once you have gotten enough cards in your side deck that will allow you to deal with multiple decks at once you can start choosing cards that will help you deal with opposing decks individually. You will then repeat the process of analyzing the potential decks you will face, but unlike before you will now be focusing strictly on a single deck instead of finding a common weakness for all of them. Let’s start out with Blackwings.
:: Current Side Deck: [08/15]::
[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
[2] Trap Hole
Bws thrive on their ability to swarm and synchro summon incredibly fast and the backbone of this ability is the card Black Whirlwind which requires your opponent to normal summon a Blackwing monster for it to activate. If you can disrupt this notion you can break the backbone of Blackwing decks and they will eventually fall apart. Dust Tornado and Trap Hole can both take care of Black Whirlwind, but the best choice would be Trap Hole because your opponent must normal summon in order to abuse Black Whirlwind’s effect. Once activated, your opponent will lose the ability to search their deck as well as lose a monster on the field giving you an advantage. You can choose to add one or two copies depending on how many Blackwing decks you think you will face. I will add two copies because I know Blackwings are still popular and are more accessible after the release of Gold Series 3. Now that we’ve got Blackwings covered let’s take a look at Sabers[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
[2] Trap Hole
:: Current Side Deck: [10/15]::
[2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
[2] Trap Hole
[2] Gottoms’ Emergency Call
Much like Blackwings, Sabers get the upper hand on opponents with their ability to swarm the field and synchro summon. Some of the most common cards Saber players use are XX-Saber Darksoul, X-Saber Airbellum, XX-Saber Fullhelmknight, and XX-Saber Emmersblade. All these monsters are commonly used to synchro summon as Fullhelmknight and Airbellum are tuners and often end up in the graveyard allowing you to use the trap Gottoms’ Emergency Call to gain the upper hand. If you are unfamiliar with Gottoms’ Emengency Call it is a normal trap with the following effect: Activate only if there is a face-up "X-Saber" monster(s) on the field. Select 2 "X-Saber" monsters in either player's Graveyard(s). Special Summon those monsters to your side of the field. . This card will allow you to steal two of your opponent’s sabers like Fullhelmknight and Airbellum and tune for a synchro monster with your own monsters or steal a tuner and non-tuner from their grave to get a synchro monster without losing field advantage. You can also run XX-Saber Hyunlei in your extra deck and use the tuning material you steal with Gottoms’ Emergency Call to destroy your opponent’s back row which could contain Saber Hole and keep your Machina Fortress safe. This trap can be a tide changer when you are facing Sabers and you are very likely to come across many saber decks since they are very popular in this format which is why I’m adding two copies. [2] Royal Oppression
[2] Consecrated Light
[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension
[2] Trap Hole
[2] Gottoms’ Emergency Call
::Finishing your Side Deck::
So far we’ve put together a ten card side deck that will take care of most of the meta you are likely to encounter. It is your job to finish the job and add cards that you think are best for the upcoming tournament. You must also remember that some duelists may surprise you with a deck that is completely unexpected so don’t dedicate your entire side deck to the meta. You are likely to encounter stun decks, burn decks, mill decks, and all sort of decks throughout the tournament. If you will be running the same deck for a while then you have to adapt with the changes Konami throws at you. Every two to three months Konami will release new sets all containing new archtypes with different attributes, different effects, and different ways to overpower your deck and it is your job to adapt properly to these new cards using the steps listed above.
I’d love to see what you guys come up with for the remaining five cards needed for this Machina side deck. You may do so by replying to this post with the five cards you picked to gain the upper hand over some of the decks not covered and some of the surprise decks you may encounter. I’d also love to hear about side decks you guys build for other decks in this post or via PM. For those of you who made it this far into this long grueling article without falling asleep I hope the information will allow you to become better side deckers and ultimately better duelists.