Hello Duelist Kingdom! Okay, so I've been working on this.... idea. This system. This.... new secret method that's going to save troubled duelists forever! You want to know? Yeah? I mean I guess I could share it with everyone...
Oh! How could I forget?! First I wanted to thank everybody who read my last article, and shared their opinions on it. I wrote that article knowing what I was getting myself into. "Anthony! How could you even put Black Luster Soldier on there? It's so obvious!" And then there were some, "I'm not so sure Black Luster Soldier goes in every deck, it's not too fitting for them all." I got plenty of mixed reviews, some in love with the ideas, some very against. But I did this all for a reason.... diversity. I hear all the time how the game is turning into people copying decks online, people becoming so uncreative that all they need to do is get their hands on the right cards and they can just win. Well I disagree. This game is filled with different ideas, expressed opinions, strong feelings towards certain cards or decks or just how to play the game altogether. Diversity! It's what the game needs and with all of these different deck types being so powerful this format, there's no better time for it.
Let's review (what I believe to be) the top 15 decks right now, in no particular order.
Geargia
Wind-ups
Agents
Dark World
Dragons
Heroes
Atlanteans
Gravekeepers
Six Samurai
Rescue Rabbit
Inzektors
Prophecies
Burn
Frogs
and I suppose Gladiator Beasts
Now with all of these decks to choose from... how do you pick one?
That's where my system comes in! I call it.... Anthony Raioh Pascariello's Master Deck Choosing Device! Or ARPMDCD for short. Last article we talked about card selection, but what good is that if you can't decide what deck to play? The three main components to the game are Deck Selection, Card Selection, and How To Play. Now before we discuss any more cards or how to play, let's pick a deck.
There are four dimensions to a deck.
Main Deck Strength- How powerful the deck is when getting off it's main play(s).
Consistency- How good a deck is at getting off it's main play(s). Also how often the deck draws playable hands.
Ability To Side/ Versus The Side- How well a deck can side deck into beating an opponent's main deck, and side deck, while still being able to have synergy with itself. Also how badly a deck gets hurt by the opponent's side deck.
Versus The Meta- How well a deck plays against the most popular decks.
I like to give each of these dimensions their own scale, numbered one through ten, with ten being the highest. Then you pick a deck, and fill out the chart. Whichever deck has the highest number would seem to be the winner. Let's try one.
Dark World
Main Deck Stength- 8. Let's face it, this deck is nothing to look past. With Grapha being so easy to get on the field repeatedly, while also destroying cards with his effect, he's currently one of the most powerful cards in the game. Gates of the Dark World allows a quick discard outlet which is reusable every turn, and with so many other draw cards to speed it up, this main deck's strength is easily an 8 out of 10.
Consistency- 5. Here's the problem: As amazing as this deck is when it does it's job, it may have a bit of trouble doing it's job all the time. This deck likes to draw either too many spell cards with the wrongs monsters at the wrong time, or too many monsters, with nothing to really do. If a deck isn't consistent, it probably won't be able to go through a two-day tournament without some of those bad hands, most of which will result in an easy win for your opponent. Don't think I forgot about YCS Long Beach, I just have trouble believing that it could be done again.
Ability To Side/ Versus The Side- 6. The tale of the tape seems to always be the same. The Dark World player puts in some combination of Gozen Match, Royal Decree, Ryko the Lightsworn Hunter, The Cheerful Coffin, and/or maybe some other deck-specific cards, while the other player puts in something like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Dimenional Fissure, Macros Cosmos, and Gemini Imps. To play the deck, I believe you need to be one step ahead of your opponent, and your side deck has to be perfectly matched to stop their side deck.
Versus The Meta- 7. I believe this deck has some amazing match-ups. It typically has advantages over Heroes, Gravekeepers, and Geargias, but gets completely shut down by a turn-one Wind-Up Shock Master play. With Wind-Ups being so prevalent in the game right now because of that play, Dark Worlds lost a lot of potential in my eyes. The deck has absolutely no room for hand traps (and no synergy with them), and is completely vulnerable to your opponent getting off any powerful combo that they may have.
Overall: 26 out of 40. So 65%. That's a D in school terms, for all of you Slifer-Reds. My parents wouldn't be happy with me bringing home a "D", which is why I won't be playing Dark Worlds next event.
This isn't an easy task to do. It takes much thinking, contemplations as to how each and every deck is run and how they tick. Not to mention with so many different decks out there you may be crunching numbers for a while. But in the end, I'm sure you'll find the deck that is best for your style, while also being strong against other decks that are popular. But to try and save you all some time, I've ranked the 15 decks previously mentioned and this is what i came up with.
15: Gladiator Beasts with 19 points
14: Frogs with 20 points
All tied for 11: Inzektors, Burn, and Six Samurai with 24 points
All tied for 8: Dark World, Gravekeepers, and Rescue Rabbit with 26 points
All tied for 5: Dragons, Prophecies, and Geargia with 30 points
4: Agents with 31 points
3: Wind-Ups with 32 points
2: Heroes with 33 points
1: Atlanteans with 35 points
There you have it! Atlanteans taking the number one spot with 35 out of 40 points! Now I am almost 100% sure that everybody will get different results when trying this formula. I'm also pretty sure that there are decks that I havn't mentioned that some of you will add to the list, maybe Malefics and Maldoches beat out Gladiator Beasts for that 15th spot?
Just my opinion, and I hope yours are different because without diversity this game wouldn't be as fun and exciting as it is. We need different opinions to help each other out and even to prove who's the best out there!
If you have any questions about anything at all, don't hesitate to add me on facebook! And soon I'll be making new yugioh songs and parodies so stay on the lookout for that!
And once again, thank you all so much for your support. The readers, the friends that I've made, the fans, and a special thanks to ARG for including me in their family.
Latest posts by Anthony Pascariello (see all)
- It’s All About The Deck Selection Baby! - November 20, 2012
- Controversial Cards- Perfecting Card Selection - November 7, 2012
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