Human In The Loop

A big part of a duelist’s career revolves around deck construction and play-testing. While according to some Yugioh players actually play-tests the least in comparison to other gamers (interesting food for thought), whether you are a competitive duelist or a casual one the fact that we will spend more time preparing ourselves or trying out new innovations or to outplay others is nothing new. Being contenders it is naturally to find ourselves doing all that we can to tilt the odds to our favour and create grounds where we fight best. Beyond all the technicalities and victory influencing theories, the one factor we can manipulate is our decks. Deck construction and individual card choices are a huge element of competitive play and while that may sound really obvious I am here to tell you that even now there are a lot of players who do not take it as seriously as they should. No, we are not here to talk about net-decking.

When it comes to deck construction the first question that should come to mind is to know what you want the deck to do. It is important to have a specific route to where you are headed so you do not confuse yourself with expectations instead of realistic results. A major problem with players while building their decks and strategies is that they do not truly understand what kind of results to expect. While putting a bunch of cards together and decide what to cut afterwards seems like a good idea in reality it is something every duelist should not do (I honestly don’t think that’s the best way and it does seem like a waste of time.) Having said that, there are times when we need to re-asses our goals. If your deck isn’t functioning the way it should you best go back to the drawing board. In a nutshell, know the core of your deck’s strategy and aim to bring consistency to that strategy. Solidifying your strategy early will allow you to make critical card choices that will help ensure a strong performance. From there on it will be easier to make choices that fit your central strategy.

I understand that deck construction in today’s Yugioh is rather simple due to the fact that almost every competitive top deck belongs to an archetype. However, it is still important for players to understand and think before making certain card choices. For example, is it a must to run the Solemn Brigade or do I really need every so-called “staple” in my deck. Yes, it sounds simple and all but many are still reluctant to do so. Though that is understandable due to all the success certain cards has seen in competitive plays it is even more important now to make choices that are optimal instead of suboptimal ones. We all want that “edge” in our game and sometimes going out of the common loop is the answer we are looking for. You never know when a Compulsory Evacuation Device will do you more good compared to Solemn Warning unless you give it a try before effectively kicking it out of the list. Weigh your choices in accordance to your core strategy and, again, understand what is going on in your Meta environment. Once you know how to deal with all that information it shouldn’t be hard to add versatility in consistency. Remember everything is calculated and quantified nowadays.

After all that’s been said, a large population of the competitive community has yet to understand the importance of everyone’s magic number, 40. Now I am guilty for doing this as well. The superiority of a 40-card-deck is of no comparison to decks containing 41 or 42 cards. The idea of playing that extra one or two card doesn’t make a difference is inaccurate in so many levels. Of course one can argue about theories like better ratios or adding in extra techs and so on but the truth of the matter is playing that one or two extra card changes everything when it comes to consistency. Remember those times when you lost and proceed to check your next draw only to find it is the card you need or a card that could go as far as closing the game for you? Yeah, exactly my point here. As mentioned earlier, I am a fan of playing 41 cards and there has been a lot of times when my draws are one step slower to my strategies so I have been spending time to truthfully prove myself wrong about that one extra card not making a difference. Here’s what I did, place an important piece of card to your deck’s primary strategy face up and shuffle it and check the consistency of your draws (pretty sure others have done this before.) In my case, I often find myself a couple of cards away from what I actually needed thus reducing the consistency of my deck's central winning condition.

A lot like risk management and underlining priorities, knowing how to manage your deck is key to how well it will perform. Not being able to differentiate which card is optimal and suboptimal only shows how incapable and inexperience a duelist is. So, my advice, cut the excuses and learn how to manage priorities better. Less bullshit translates to better results. Once you are able to make critical evaluations the rest is pretty much simple. I have come to the end of my first refresher post. I hope readers have enjoyed reading this article and have found it useful (or interesting.) Thank you for dropping by!