Alex's Beginner's Guide to Deck Building ----> Suggest Improvements

[Cyberdog]

[big]Alex’s guide to basic deck building.[/big]

 

O did I mention this is the hardest type of article to write because of the vagueness.

 

 

So we all know a deck consists of between 40 and 60 cards including Monsters, Spells and Traps yes? Most players will tell a person to stick between 40 and 45. The reasoning behind this is the fact that it will allow you to draw the right cards quicker. Here is an example:

You want Monster Reborn from your deck in your first hand. With 40 cards the chances are 1/40 + 1/39 + 1/38 + 1/37 + 1/36 + 1/35 of drawing it in your first turn.

 

Now here’s a math lesson for you: you can only add fractions if the bottom number is the same. So I’m going to go ahead and open up my calculator.

79/ 1560 + 75/1406 + 71/1260 + 2/70

= 0.050641025641 + 0.053342816501 + 0.28571428571

=0.13255270713

 

This is about 13%

 

However imagine your deck had 60 cards and you still need that Monster Reborn in your hand during the first turn. 1/60 + 1/59 + 1/58 + 1/57 + 1/56 + 1/55.

That is the same as:

0.016(reoccurring 6s) + 0.016949152542 = about 0.03

0.017 + 3(0.018) + 0.03 = 7.4%

 

So I got a little lazy and rounded a few numbers but you see the point it’s a lot of difference in get a single card.

 

Now the first step in making a deck is deciding what deck you wish to make, Warrior Toolbox, Plague Spreader OTK or even Tele-Dad, Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts. Each deck requires a different way of thinking.

 

Toolboxes

 

 

In this type of deck search ability and range of effects are key. Let’s say it’s a warrior toolbox with a bunch of Warriors.

 

Monsters

 

Exiled Force

Rose Warrior of Revenge / Jutte Fighter

Spell Striker

Elemental Hero Stratos

Elemental Hero Wildheart

D.D Assialant

D.D. Warrior Lady

 

Let us say those are our monsters We need to find ways to effectively search and use them. Typically this is a searcher monster like Giant Rat or a search spell like Reinforcement of the Army.

 

In this example either Reinforcement of the Army or a combination of E-Emergency Call would be used to search out the right warrior for the situation.

 

“That’s all very well but how do I chose the monsters?”

 

You chose some good ones. Select a few monsters from the following categories that fit your theme.

 

Staple Monsters

This includes Breaker the Magical Warrior, Sangan and Snipe Hunter.

 

Searcher Monsters

In our above example this is Elemental Hero Stratos.

 

Beat Sticks

In our above example this is DDA, Wildheart, Stratos and Rose.

Tuners

In our above example these are Rose or Jutte Fighter

 

Monster Destruction

I see DDA, DDWL and Exiled Force

 

Spell or Trap Destruction

In our above example we only have Stratos although Wildheart’s effect basically shuts your opponents traps that would stop it from working.

 

Usefulness

Spell Striker and Wildheart fill these slots in our example. Spell Striker is a free special summon when combined with RoTa and helps with Synchro summons.

 

“The Spells, which ones?”

 

 

 

Chose from these categories:

 

Staple

This is basically Monster Reborn, Brain Control and Heavy Storm

 

Searchers

Reinforcement of the Army, E- Emergency Call and Charge of the Light Brigade are good examples of these.

 

Destruction

Lightning Vortex, Smashing Ground, Fissure, Mystical Space Typhoon are examples.

 

Other Tech

This really depends on the deck. Creature Swap would be used in searcher based boxes while this could be filled with Card Destruction and Warrior Returning Alive in a Warrior box this is really just what you want.

 

“Trap Time”

 

Ah, yes the traps sometimes the hardest part of deck. Typically you want to either protect an investment, slow the game down or abuse something with these.

 

Draw

Reckless Greed and Jar of Greed come to mind

 

Mass Destruction

Crush Card Virus and Torrential Tribute are commonly used examples.

 

Hand Control

Trap Dust shoot, Mind Crush and Crush Card Virus are examples and to a lesser extent Phoenix Wing Wind Blast.

 

Field Control

Karma Cut, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast etc. These all keep monsters off the field - although Dust Tornado fits in here for Spell and Traps – and allow you to dump a useless card; these often form a back bone of a deck.

 

Shutdown

Can I use these cards to stop an opponent’s move? This is what you should be asking yourself. Examples are Royal Decree and Royal Oppression along side Counter Traps like Solemn Judgement.

 

Other

Can I perform a broken combo with this trap? If you can it fits in here.

 

It is important to evaluate how well the cards perform together, let’s say for a moment we have 9 special summoning monsters* in our deck then we don’t want to run Royal Oppression.

 

*Unless these monsters activate in the damage step. Royal Oppression misses the timing for Giant Rat, Mystic Tomato, Blue Thunder, Green Baboon and Gorz.

 

 

 

Plague Spreader OTK

 

 

Since we are trying to achieve a one turn kill we only want monsters that fit into 1 of the following categories:

 

Monsters

 

OTK Material

In this particular OTK these are Plague Spreader Zombie and Quillbolt Hedgehog. *

 

Speed Uppers

Most of the time in this OTK it is the Lightsworns* but it could be Thunder Dragon’s, Volcanic Shells or even Searchers.

 

 

* And Optionally Toon Cannon Solider.

* Lumina are used in particular because it can perform a similar loop to win game.

 

Easy to choose our monsters for an OTK like this isn’t it.

 

“But what about our spells?”

 

These fit into the same categories as our monsters.

 

Material

Card of Safe Return and Mass Driver can be used in this one. But it could be anything that can contribute to the one turn kill.

 

Speed Uppers

These are mill or draw cards. Destiny Draw when using a D-Hero engine, Solar Recharge with the dumping power of Lightsworns. Foolish Burial and Hand Destruction are good all use examples.

 

Staple

OTK often don’t need the common 3 spell staples in this one however I recommend the use of Monster Reborn as it furthers the OTK.

 

Fairly Simple yes?

 

“Our Traps please Mr.”

 

Again the same categories.

 

Material

Most OTK don’t really want to use a trap as part of the OTK but this one does Imperial Iron Wall. All Out Attacks is used in a Milling – Burn loop.

 

Speed Uppers

This would be Reckless Greed mainly.

 

Brokenness

Simply Crush Card Virus, Royal Decree and possibly Torrential Tribute.

 

Okay its important to figure out how often you will open with the OTK. Now we have 13% of drawing a Plague spreader if we run 1 copy, that’s 39% if we run the max copies, the same with Quillbolt and the Wall. Card of safe Return only has 26% chance, since the Wall and Safe Return are the ones we would want to draw we have to work out the probability of drawing both of them. Unfittingly this is only around 10% but when we factor in the amount of draw we have. This soon rises a fair bit.

 

 

 

Explosiveness

 

 

This is the final type of deck with a unique way of thinking about it. We have put t ourselves into the mentally that we want to draw and special summon a lot. Tele-Dad and Lightsworns are very good at this.

 

Monsters

 

Staple

Breaker, Sangan, Snipe Hunter fit in here nicly.

 

Draw Fodder

Destiny Heroes for D-Draw and Lightsworns for Solar Recharge.

 

Tuners

In Tele-Dad it is often Krebons while in Lightsworns it is more often Plague Spreader, figure out which one works best in your deck and give it a shot.

 

Special Summons

Lumina, Zombie Master, Wulf, Mezuki, Plague Spreader, Dark Armed Dragon , Judgment Dragon, Cyber Dragon to name but a few. In this category we want what ever will generate the most advantage the quickest.*

 

 

* The theory of advantage in yugioh can be derived by a few factors most commonly it counts the amount of cards on the field and the amount of cards in your hand. By method of Calculating advantage is:

 

Number of cards controlled – the number of cards opponent controls. This is an over simplified method but it helps for those starting out to grasp the concept of card advantage.

 

Broken Effects

This is often the backbone of the deck. Dark Armed Dragon and Judgement Dragon come to mind.

 

Power Card

Something that helps the deck explode into action. Mezuki and Zombie Master in Zombies. Destiny Hero Malicious in Tele-Dad. Wulf and Lumina in Lightsworn.

 

Supporting Cast

These are monsters that help but aren’t really vital an example of this is the use of Necro Gardna to slow the pace down in Lightsworn builds. Other examples of this are monsters that can search or dump monsters in the deck like Stratos, Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight these are used because the progress the decks goal while increasing the probability of getting a much needed card.

 

 

 

Spell

 

In general the spells should either win games, provide advantage or draw.

 

Winners

These are the same as staples really.

 

Advantage Gainers

See Winners…this may also include generic destruction and cards that contribute to a combo such as Charge of the Light, Reinforcement of the Army and Burial from a Different Dimension in some builds.

 

Drawers

D-Draw, Solar Recharge, Hand Destruction, Allure of Darkness, Card Destruction and Dark World Dealings all help you draw as does Card of Safe Return in the correct deck.

 

 

So we’ve chosen our spells to fit with our monster line-up. I.E using more Normal Spells with Diamond Dude, using Dark World Dealings with a Dark World Monster and using Card of Safe Return in Zombies.

Our Traps

 

Speed Uppers

This would be Reckless Greed mainly.

 

Brokenness

Simply Crush Card Virus, Royal Decree and possibly Torrential Tribute.

 

Hand Control

Trap Dust shoot, Mind Crush and Crush Card Virus are examples and to a lesser extent Phoenix Wing Wind Blast.

 

Field Control

Karma Cut, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast etc. These all keep monsters off the field - although Dust Tornado fits in here for Spell and Traps – and allow you to dump a useless card; these often form a back bone of a deck.

 

Shutdown

Can I use these cards to stop an opponent’s move? This is what you should be asking yourself. Examples are Royal Decree and Royal Oppression along side Counter Traps like Solemn Judgement.

 

Other

Can I perform a broken combo with this trap? If you can it fits in here.

 

 

Did I just copy and paste part of the OTK and Toolbox trap sections? Yes, Yes I did it’s exactly the same here. All we want to do is do it faster and better here. Most builds of this nature will run between 1 and 9 traps.

[/poiler]

 

General

How do I choose my Extra deck?

 

First Remember the Extra deck contains both Extra and Fusion monsters ONLY and can only contain up to 15 cards.

 

Then ask yourself:

 

What Synchros are the best?

What Synchros can I summon?

What Levels can I make easily?

What Tuner do I expect to be able to take via a method such as Reborn?

 

 

Most of the time it will be answered like this:

 

1: Goyo, Stardust, Black Rose, Thought Ruler, Colossal Fighter

2: Goyo, Stardust, Black Rose, Thought Ruler, Colossal Fighter, Magical Android

3: 4,6,8

4: Krebons, Rose and Plague Spreader

 

So with this answered we can safely assume a generic extra deck would be

 

3Goyo Guardian

3Stardust Dragon

2Black Rose Dragon

2 Thought Ruler Archfiend,

1Colossal Fighter

1Magical Android

 

That’s only 12 cards; the other 3 would be filled with personal preferences such as Nitro Warrior, Turbo Warrior, Queen of Thorns or Doom Kaiser Dragon.

 

 

 

 

So there you go, a basic guide to deck building in general, I barely touched the subject of synergy which is an important aspect in every deck, evaluate how each card works with each other and its general usefulness against other similar cards. E.G Dust Tornado is better than Twister as it is more versatile.

 

So there you go a nice little guide to get you thinking. I thought this wasn't great but i've only got good replies on another Forum.

 

Suggest Any Improvements Please.

[CrabHelmet]

The probability of drawing a given Limited card in the opening 5-card hand of a 40-card deck is exactly 12.5%. The probability of drawing a given Limited card in the opening 5-card hand of a 60-card deck is exactly 8.333...%.

 

Learn basic probability before tossing numbers around.

[Cyberdog]

Points out my numbers are based on 6 cards in the opening hand.

Second of all 12.5% would still be about 13%

 

It would appear you have used 5/40 and 5/60 for your numbers which is actually incorrect if i know my probability which admittly i'm not great on. Since each card you pick would reduce the bottom number by 1 and the top number would always be the total number of the given card in the deck.

 

If you care to prove me wrong please do show me something that would lead me to beleive my maths is a bit dodgey.

[CrabHelmet]

Points out my numbers are based on 6 cards in the opening hand.

 

Then the numbers are actually precisely 15% and 10%' date=' respectively.

 

Second of all 12.5% would still be about 13%

 

But is it about 15%? It's not close to that.

 

It would appear you have used 5/40 and 5/60 for your numbers which is actually incorrect if i know my probability which admittly i'm not great on. Since each card you pick would reduce the bottom number by 1 and the top number would always be the total number of the given card in the deck.

 

If you care to prove me wrong please do show me something that would lead me to beleive my maths is a bit dodgey.

 

There are forty cards in the deck. The chance of a given card being in the top six is simply 6/40. Since the event of each card being Monster Reborn is disjoint, you can simply add up the 1/40's. It's basic probability.

[GenzoTheHarpist]

You draw your first card, it's a 1/40 chance of being monster reborn. Draw the second card, it's 1/39 (unless you drew it on the first card, in which case it is zero.) Next comes the 1/38, 1/37, 1/36, 1/35, and 1/34 chances.

 

1/40 + 1/39 + 1/38 + 1/37 + 1/36 + 1/35 + = i'm getting 13.4%

[CrabHelmet]

You draw your first card' date=' it's a 1/40 chance of being monster reborn. Draw the second card, it's 1/39 [b'](unless you drew it on the first card, in which case it is zero.)[/b] Next comes the 1/38, 1/37, 1/36, 1/35, and 1/34 chances.

 

1/40 + 1/39 + 1/38 + 1/37 + 1/36 + 1/35 + = i'm getting 13.4%

 

First of all, the bolded portion is why your method doesn't work.

 

Second of all, the six numbers you have listed add up to about 16.0%, so apparently you're not even competent enough to type your numbers into your calculator properly.

 

Learn what disjoint events are, people.

[GenzoTheHarpist]

Yeah, my mistake. Actually it was 16% I should have gotten with that method.

 

Well, time to bust out the heavy-duty stuff: combinations. In a six card hand, out of a forty card deck, the number of combinations is 40C6. Now, there's only one card that is that card we're looking for, so that is 1C1, or 1. Without that,t he remaining hand is 39C5.

 

So, this is the following: 2C2 x 39C5 / 40C6.

 

That is, 39!6! / 40!5!.

 

Which is: 1.47 x 10^49 / 9.79 x 10^49 = .15

 

That is, the probability of there being a combination of six cards out of forty with the required one card in it is 15%. So you were correct.

[Azure]

I new all of this already but for someone who dosen't know these basic things then this is alot of help.

[CrabHelmet]

I love how the TC's description of Toolboxes lists CCV as a good example of mass destruction to run, despite only mentioning a single CCV target - Sangan.

 

Now we have 13% of drawing a Plague spreader if we run 1 copy' date=' that’s 39% if we run the max copies, the same with Quillbolt and the Wall.[/quote']

 

You suck at math. Stop posting this nonsense. Even if 13% was the right number, 26% would still be wrong. I'm not even going to ask where the "10%" mentioned later on came from, since it's a false probability derived from other false probabilities with a method that itself is probably illogical.

[Megaworm]

You forget the beginners that will be reading this thread will probably not even know what a Plaguespreader Zombie is because of how expensive and rare it is. Evaluate and Emphasize on it's awesomeness.

 

They will probably want to build Dragon Decks or Run-o-da-mill Beatstick Decks anyway if you don't let them know, so help PERSUADE them from the darkness and inconsistency of that decktype.

 

and, crunch down some of the big numbers. That might scare people away.

[「tea.leaf」]

This article is useless and already exists in a superior incarnation.