I'm not really sure where to post this, so it is going in announcements for now. :/
Anyway, today we will be talking about side decks, because I notice a lot of players don't use side decks effectively (or at all) when I know there is a card they could use that would give them a win, or at least a huge advantage.
Before reading the rest of the lesson, read this, but ignore the section about suggested cards, just the general advice:
http://www.yugiohcardguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=24194That was the best link I could find for the subject that did not go into too many details, and he explains it way better than I ever could. If you don't recognize something in there, either google it or ask one of the higher ranking players that are on, I'm sure we can tell you what it does.
In today's yugioh world, most decks do one of two things:
1. Swarm the field in some form or fashion, while clearing enemy field and readying for the OTK, or near-OTK
2. Formulate a deck specifically to prevent this type of deck (
Evilswarm Ophion is the prime example of this) He has an entire archetype that has become viable and tier 2 because of him, along with the Evilswarm's propensity to spam the field with level 4 dark monsters, which is never a bad thing.
In the September 2013 banlist, Spellbooks (sometimes called Prophecy) got hit very hard, and I almost never see it anymore. Dragon rulers lost the dragon babies, but are still a very viable deck. Mermails got decimated, and I have yet to see someone playing a Mermail deck.
When building your side deck, you want to consider the following:
A: What kind of deck to you play? If it sticks to one attribute, can you afford to negate your own effects to negate those of your opponents?
B: What kind of decks do well against your own? What cards do you always wish you had when you play one of those decks?
C: What staple cards do you not have a replacement for in your main deck, and do you need them enough to side in after 1 duel?
I have been playing Blackwings lately, so I am going to go through the process of building a side deck for Blackwings to show you guys how to do it.
When I play Blackwings, the hardest thing for me to get over is an opponent's 2800-3000 atk beater, especially if he has a way to negate Icarus attack, otherwise it becomes trivial. The deck that makes this the easiest is dragon rulers, Blaster is just barely above the kind of stuff I can synchro on turn one, so we need to find a way to prevent him from getting on the field. This card also works on any kind of deck that really loves special summoning, but beware the penalties your own field incurs from it.
Vanity's fiendUnfortunately, Blackwings rely on special summoning to do anything, so I find myself gimped with that on the field. Dragon Rulers rely on banishing to summon their monsters, so negating banishment is the obvious solution. The answer lies here:
Imperial Iron WallThis card will make dragon rulers almost impossible to play until your opponent can destroy it by discarding a pair of Blasters. Moving on, the next biggest threat to my deck is stuff that stops special summoning, or nukes my field. I use Fiendish Chain in my main deck, so that deals with Black Rose Dragon. Dark hole is unavoidable most of the time, so that leaves cards like Vanity's fiend and Evilswarm Ophion. Fiend can be dealt with by stalling until I pull Icarus attack, but Ophion is a problem, as he can set Infestation Pandemic to prevent me from hitting him with Icarus.
To deal with Ophion, and most Dark decks in general, use
Shadow Imprisoning Mirror, which negates effects on the field or in the grave. This does not hurt me very much, because most of my effects activate in my hand.
The other deck type I absolutely hate playing against is Cyber/Machina. They have fairly good swarm capabilities, and their easy summon,
Machina Fortress, can beat down most of my cards. After research, I found this card:
System DownThis clears their grave and field of machine types (almost their whole deck) for a mere 1000 life points.
If I assume I have Fiendish in my side deck, and I side 3 of each of the cards we have mentioned, we are at 9 cards. Consider adding the staples, such as Mystical Space Typhoon, Fiendish Chain if you do not use it in your main deck, Thunder King Rai-oh, Effect Veiler, Maxx "C", etc.
As you can see, this side deck covers the largest weaknesses in a Blackwing deck, which lets you come back and win duel 2 and 3. Even if you normally prefer singles, consider formulating a side deck just to figure out the major weaknesses in your own deck, and how to counter them.
This concludes our lesson on Side decks, after a side note (get it?) about decks with grave control. There are quite a few decks out there whose entire focus is resummoning monsters from the graveyard, so destroying them with traps such as Mirror Force does nothing but to buy you a turn. For these decks, consider siding in Dimensional Prison instead of Mirror Force, so that your opponent actually loses something by the trap.
Homework Assignment:
Post your deck type, playstyle, and the side deck you formulated AFTER reading this lesson. After doing that, log onto DN and play at least one match where you side in a MINIMUM of 2 cards per duel, and post screenshots of you doing so. (A good way to do this is highlight the cards you plan to swap, take the picture, then swap them and continue the duel.) Feel free to make suggestions, and remember, no one is the perfect yugioh player, please don't take offense if someone suggests you change something about your side deck.
Subject: Lesson I: Side Decks 
Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:56 am
