Hello Yugioh Community! I am back and ready to let all of you duelist out there in on exactly what I have been working on in this game! It is the end of the year and so far there have been no announcements about the next YCS dates/locations for the year of 2013 thus resulting in a little bit of a down period for competitive play. Luckily, there are still a few regionals being held and while they might not be as prestigious as a Yugioh Championship Series, they remain quite competitive and fun to play in. This past weekend I attended a regional in Houston, Texas that had just over 350 players and I decided to run with an idea that I had. For those of you who read my last article on here I went over the Water deck that I took to YCS Seattle and some of my interesting side deck choices. After having some time to actually fool around with a couple of different ideas I came up with a unique concept that really to for the side deck, taking it in a different direction that I have not seen before. Many of you know when it comes to regional tournaments I like to get creative and try some innovative stuff out and this past weekend was no exception.
Question of the article: Have you ever tried to take a main stream deck and take it in a unique direction?
Feel free to leave your answer in the comments below!
-The Backround-
The Mermail/Atlantean deck, which I will always refer to as the Water deck, is easily one of the most popular decks in the game right and one of my favorite to play of all time. When I really enjoy using a certain deck I try and go a million different directions with it so I can find out which version I feel will bring the most positive results. Since I have been playing with this deck upon its release I have now had time to try a few different ideas and I was fond of many of them. On the Thursday before the regional I came up with this thought about how cool it would be if I could somehow make a conversion side deck like there used to be in the old days, but since Archetypes are the name of the game now that idea has almost completely fallen by the wayside. I knew at the past couple of events there were a few players who were trying their luck with anti-meta an HERO deck that would side into Wind-Ups trying to catch their opponent off guard and that has always been the idea behind a 15-card conversion side. In fact, I topped my first Shonen Jump Championship doing this very thing back in 2007 at SJC Phoenix. Here is an example of my deck list to demonstrate what I am talking about.
Billy Brake
Monsters: 21
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Snipe Hunter
2 Raiza the Storm Monarch
3 Gravekeeper’s Spy
3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
1 Treeborn Frog
3 Card Trooper
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Sangan
1 Gravekeeper’s Guard
1 Jinzo
Spells: 11
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Machine Duplication
3 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Scapegoat
1 Limiter Removal
Traps: 8
1 Mind Crush
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Trap Dustshoot
1 Ring of Destruction
Fusion:
1 Dark Balter the Terrible
1 Ryu Senshi
1 Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill
1 Steam Gyroid
2 Cyber End Dragon
3 Cyber Twin Dragon
2 Chimeratech Overdragon
Side: 15
2 Royal Decree
2 Des Wombat
1 Overload Fusion
3 Cyber Phoenix
3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
1 Future Fusion
1 Machine Duplication
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 D.D. Survivor
Here is a basic example of what a conversion side could look like. At this event I only used 10-12 (pending if I put Royal Decree in or not) cards to convert my Trooper-Monarch deck into a Machine OTK backed behind Future Fusion and Overload Fusion. Pulling the Rug was one of the most relevant side deck cards due to the massive amount of popularity of Monarchs and it was also quite useful against the ever hated Demise decks. I wanted to try and make my opponent’s attempt to side deck to counter my deck a wasted effort and then take advantage of the dead cards they had and the fact they probably wouldn’t side into any hate for machines since all I used were Troopers and Cyber Dragons, allowing me to finish them quickly. Conversion sides used to be quite popular and many duelists attempted to take advantage of this. I liked this idea so much as a younger player I even did it again the very next month and used my conversion side to get my second top with Green Baboon.
Billy Brake
Monsters
3 Giant Rat
3 Card Trooper
3 Nimble Momonga
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest
1 Morphing Jar
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Sangan
3 Raiza of the Storm Monarch
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
Spells
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
2 Machine Duplication
1 Confiscation
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Scapegoat
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control
1 Snatch Steal
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Book of Moon
Traps
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
3 Trap Dustshoot
1 Mind Crush
1 Mirror Force
Side Deck
3 Gravekeeper’s Spy
1 Cyber Dragon
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
1 Brain Control
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Jinzo
2 Royal Decree
2 Pulling The Rug
2 D.D. Crow
Fusion Deck
1 Chimeratech Overdragon
1 Cyber Twin Dragon
1 Ryu Senshi
1 Cyber End Dragon
1 Dark Balter the Terrible
1 Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill
As you can see the similarities in the numbers I used to convert, but still had room for the rouge match-ups that I might run into throughout the tournament. In this case my opponent’s would side in their D.D. Crow and Banisher of Radiance to try and stop my Green Baboon from being a habitual problem. I remember multiple opponent’s attacking into my face-down monster with their Banishers expecting to hit a Nimble, Giant Rat, or Card Trooper hoping to put me in a bad position, but instead they would hit my Gravekeeper’s Spy netting me an instant plus one. Then I would drop a Raiza the Storm Monarch putting their dead Banisher back on top of their deck and all but sealing the duel in my favor.
As you can see in the past I had my first success utilizing the conversion side aspect of the game, but as Yugioh evolved and the game changed this concept seemed to disappear for the most part, save a couple of random decks here and there. I remembered how much I enjoyed doing this and how effective it could be so I was set on trying to do it again with the water deck! As discussed in my previous article, I shared how I included Skill Drain in my side as it shut down a lot of decks in the current meta and did relatively no harm to my own deck. At my regional this past weekend I took siding Skill Drain to a whole new level and changed what the goal of my deck was completely. Let’s take a look at the deck I used and then I will go ahead and explain why it proved to be effective.
Monsters: 23
3 Deep Sea Diva
3 Genex Undine
3 Genex Controller
3 Atlantean Dragoon
2 Atlantean Heavy Infantry
2 Atlantean Marksman
2 Mermail Abysslinde
2 Mermail Abysspike
2 Mermail Abyssmegalo
1 Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord
Spells: 7
3 Salvage
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
Traps:10
2 Raigeki Break
2 Abyss-sphere
2 Mirror Force
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Ultimate Offering
1 Solemn Judgment
Side Deck: 15
3 Beast King Barbaros
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Pot of Duality
2 Soul Taker
3 Skill Drain
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
-Get The Idea?-
If you couldn’t figure it out from looking at my side deck, I am using a conversion side deck to change my Water deck into more of an anti-meta beatdown to take advantage of the massive amount of cards duelist side in to try and stop my ever powerful Mermails and Atlanteans. I don’t really want to go too deep into my main deck choices, but I will at least give a brief synopsis for my reasoning behind certain card choices since it is directly related to the side deck which is what I want to focus on. Most Water deck focus on strength on power and end up using very few traps, but as you noticed in this version I built, I use more traps than spells even. This came about due to the fact I wanted to be able to make the conversion successfully and the traps actually work quite well in the Water deck in general. Players generally side in cards like Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Soul Drain, and even Maxx “C”, all cards in which are completely ineffective against a giant Beast King Barbaros backed up by a Skill Drain. The main focus of my deck is to use my Genex Undine to take out my opponent’s cards by sending Infantry or Marksman and if I have Skill Drain face-up his effect can be use unlimited times since you don’t have to add Genex Controller to your hand due to Undine’s effect being negated. Then I simply start throwing out my beaters and grind the game out and take the win! Here is what my deck usually looks like after I side deck, keep in mind there is room for variation pending on the match-up.
Monsters: 17
3 Beast King Barbaros
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Genex Undine
2 Genex Controller
2 Deep Sea Diva
2 Atlantean Heavy Infantry
2 Atlantean Marksman
1 Atlantean Dragoons
Spells: 9
2 Pot of Duality
2 Soul Taker
2 Salvage
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
Traps: 14
3 Skill Drain
3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Raigeki Break
2 Mirror Force
1 Ultimate Offering
1 Solemn Judgment
Side Deck: 15
2 Mermail Abyssmegalo
2 Mermail Abysslinde
2 Abyss-sphere
2 Atlantean Dragoons
2 Mermail Abysspike
1 Genex Controller
1 Deep Sea Diva
1 Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord
1 Salvage
1 Pot of Avarice
-Reasoning Behind Certain Choices-
Why do I leave in one Atlantean Dragoons and a couple copies Deep Sea Diva despite putting in three copies of Skill Drain? My thought process behind the Dragoons is while I take out his main search target (Abyssmegalo), I still want to be able to take advantage of a turn 1 Genex Undine to search out a Deep Sea Diva if I go first, if my opponent has no cards and I have no Dragoons, there is really no point in summoning him so I leave him in for options. He also has a decent body and when backed by some good traps and Soul Taker to rid my opponent of their bigger monsters he isn’t too bad to draw. The main reason I leave the Deep Sea Diva in is because I don’t always draw Skill Drain and even if I do, I just have to make sure I get it off before I activate it and play carefully. The only situation in which they conflict is if I draw the Diva after I have already activated Skill Drain, but in most cases if I chose to activate Skill Drain it will be hurting my opponent until they find a way to deal with it and I will have Deep Sea Diva for the follow-up play.
Essentially, I am trading speed and power for a more slow and controlled game in order to help combat whatever side deck cards my opponent may try and throw at me. Yes, Macro Cosmos will still render my Genex Undine useless, but with all of the other removal cards and beaters packed into the deck, hopefully I can nullify this and just beat my opponent down.
There are many different ways to side and maybe you would find it more beneficial to leave in the Mermails instead of the Atlanteans, only testing and player preference will determine this, but I wanted to show you duelist the route that I had decided to take this past weekend.
Conclusion: Conversion side decks used to be quite popular in this game and I saw my first glimpse of success utilizing this concept. In an attempt to bring it back I decided to test it out at a regional I attended in Houston this past weekend and was quite pleased with how it worked. Although I did not get the top 8 finish I had hoped for, I finished 7-2 losing to Dino-Rabbit in round 2 because I made an error when siding and left all of the wrong cards in and in the ninth round to a Dino-Rabbit player whose onslaught of two Rescue Rabbits, Tour Guide, Jurrac Guiba, Heavy Storm, and Monster Reborn, proved to be too much for me to handle, landing me in 12th place. I did play against six Macro Rabbit decks throughout the nine round tournament and was very happy with how well my side deck preformed against them. I like to always try new things out at regionals and sometimes these creative adventures actually turn out to work quite well. Remember, it’s not always about winning or losing, just make sure you are having fun dueling!
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or just want to answer the question of the article, do so in the comments down below!
-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and Columbus Champion
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