Deck Construction: Tips, Tricks, and Practices Discussion

This can be pretty hard to do at times. At some point, everyone wants to build a new deck, but they can't always figure out right away what it is they want that deck to do. Do you want it to annoy the opponent? Do you want to take the opponent's Life Points (referred to from now on as LP) down to 0 in battle or by card effects? Do you want to force the opponent to deck out? These are all questions to ask when building a new deck. You want to make sure you have a clear understanding of how you want your deck to win before you start building it so you don't waste money on cards you don't need for your deck, whether it be in the game or in real life.

This is one of the most crucial aspects of deck construction. If you reach this phase, be prepared for some frustration. There are many different archetypes out there for Yu-Gi-Oh! decks and there are bound to be more than one that fits what you want to do. It's at this point that you want to look at possible deck ideas by searching around on the Internet. Look at articles, forum posts, and talk with people about what you want to build. If you like what you hear or read, then it's worth investigating further to see if it's a deck you think is worth building. If not, then look up information on another archetype. It's important to know exactly how you want to do what you want to do in a deck before you start getting cards for it so you know what you're looking for. You wouldn't want to go out and get a Blue-Eyes White Dragon monster when you're trying to make a Warrior type beatdown deck, would you? I know I certainly wouldn't!

"Oh no, more reading!" I'm sure that's what many of you are thinking by now. You do enough reading at school and/or work as it is, so why read when you're trying to do something you enjoy, right?! The fact of the matter is that reading is a part of everyday life, regardless of whether it's required or optional. However, I digress. Now that you've passed the first two steps of deck construction, you'll want to look up card effects. Use search engines like Google or use a program like Yu-Gi-Oh! Virtual Desktop to look up card effects and attack/defense/level information for monsters if you can't find the card in the game for some reason. I would recommend that you research quite a few cards before actually starting to select any because you never know when you might overlook something that could have made your deck great if it was there from the start!

Now we're starting to get into the meat and potatoes of deck construction. It's at this stage where you start selecting monsters, spells, and traps for your deck and put together a preliminary deck list. Continue to keep your eyes open for possible cards you might be overlooking here as well; it's never too late to add that last piece of Exodia or that last fusion material monster to your deck. You'll also want to look at your card ratio as well. By ratio, I mean the number of monsters, spells, and traps you have in your deck. On average, you should keep around 15-20 monster cards and 10-20 spell cards in your deck, with the rest being allocated for trap cards. However, some deck types may require more or fewer monsters, spells, or traps to be effective. You also want to make sure your deck is a respectable size at this stage. The minimum number of cards you may have in your deck at any time in order to duel is 40. Although there is no maximum limit set by Upper Deck Entertainment, many games have a limit set due to memory restrictions. The more cards you have, the less likely you are to draw what you need to draw when you need it. On the other hand, the fewer cards you have, the more of a victim you are to a deck destruction deck or to decking out first when you're in a long duel. I try to keep my decks at or below 50 cards, but find what works for you and stick with it.

So you've actually got a list of cards available? That's great! It's at this point that you can go ahead and start buying cards safely. However, while you're getting your deck put together in the game or in real life, take some time to get feedback on it from other people. Make a new thread in this forum here on neoseeker, talk with your friends in real life, go to other sites if you want. Just go get some advice! If someone offers you some insight to the deck that you didn't think of before, it's not too late to think about adding it.

Congratulations, you're almost there! Now that you've got your deck planned out and put together, it's time to start testing it, so go out there and duel! Duel against as many opponents as possible. Go duel your friends, the AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the game, your parents, Deep Blue, people on the Internet, anyone. Don't be afraid of defeat; it builds character and gives you a chance to see where you went wrong with either how you played your cards or in the deck's construction. If you can pinpoint the exact changes that need to be made and you can make them, great, go ahead. If not, then jump back to step five for a while and get some advice.

quote GuestKen

Winning proves your deck is strong.

quote Avalith

quote]

Not necessarily. I've won duels with pretty weak decks before through sheer luck and/or stupidity on my opponent's part. If you can win consistently against other people, then yes, your deck does have a certain strength to it, but that doesn't mean you should stop working on it because you win a lot with it. Skill as a duelist is required, not just being skilled at deck construction. Even the strongest deck in the world can easily be defeated when in the hands of a novice.

quote Diamond Master

The best thing you can do is theme your deck around one card, say Dark Magician.

Example:

Monsters:
Dark Magician x 2
Dark Sage
Time Wizard
Buster Blader
Dark Paladin
Dark Magician Girl
Dreamsprite (you'll see why ;))

Magic
Yami
Spirit Elimination
Precious Cards From beyond
Spell Reproduction
Double Spell
Spell Absorption
Tribute Dol
Terraforiming
Sword of the soul Eater
Question
Polirymazation (sp?)

Just an example, This is my tournament deck IRL.