Basics of deck building

In this lesson we will be going over the basics on how to build a deck from scratch by following these simple steps.

Step 1: Determining you’re playing style: This is important as it determines what kind of deck you should build for yourself. Do you like a fast pace game with a lot of rapid summoning of monsters to attack and activating cards that would support such a tactic? Do you like to slow the pace of the game down so you can control the aspects of the duel? Or would you rather sit behind a wall of monsters and let your spells, traps and effects do the damage for you?

Step 2: Choosing your deck type: A themed deck (a deck that goes along with a chosen style of card or monsters E.g. spiders) or one that follows a specific mechanic of cards or archetype. Never have a deck with too many random cards in it because if you do you won’t be drawing into the card you may need Also you want to make sure you have around 40 cards in your main deck (40 is the minimum amount of cards required in a main deck for Yu-Gi-Oh). The most you should have is 42-45 this of course depends on the deck you are building.

Step 3: Your monsters: Each deck should have around 12-18 monsters (depending on the deck) you will mostly want to use low-level effect monsters that support your theme/archetype and such have useful effects that mesh well with the decks playing style. Most decks tend not to use normal monsters as they don’t do anything on their own (unless in a deck built around them) but normal monsters can be a decent addition to a deck and as such should never be over looked. Once you have chosen your monsters you will need to think about the number of certain monsters you are going to need/want this will depend on 2 things the monsters level and its effective ness within the deck.

Level: Depending on the deck you are building you can have a various amount of monsters with different levels thou this is the rule you should genially follow.

LVL 1-4 12-15 cards: most decks will consist of lower level monsters as they are usually the easiest to summon. (depending on the deck)

LVL 5-6 2-4 cards: there are a few decks out there that utilize cards around these levels and given such they are usually easy to summon either with effect or by tribute. (depending on the deck)

LVL 7 and above: you usually don’t want any more than 2 cards in a deck as unless they can be special summoned they can be quite a bit harder to summon than a level 5-6. (again this depends on the deck you are making)

Step 4: Choosing your spells: Most decks will have 10-15 spells and about 1/3 or more of these will be supporting you chosen deck type/archetype the rest will be staples (a card that is considered so versatile and able to be used in so many decks that it is almost always included) and tech cards (cards you like to use in the deck/s because the way they synergies within said deck/s) you will also want to make sure that you have a good amount of spells that handle spell/trap destruction/negation, monster protection, and monster destruction.

Step 5: Choosing your traps: Most decks have 6-10 traps some decks will need more and some will need less again it all depends on the deck about 2-5 should be support for your chosen deck type/archetype and the rest should again be staples and but this is not always the case with traps you should take into consideration the weaknesses of your deck for example if you have monsters with low attack/defense cards like mirror force/s and dimensional prison work well to protect your monsters or if your deck is weak to traps cards like trap stun and royal decree will help you a lot (note royal decree should only be used in decks that have a low trap count).

Step 6: Choosing monsters for your Extra deck: Most decks can have access to Xyz monsters and if your deck has a few easily summon-able monsters of the same level you should definitely have a few Xyz monsters in your extra deck. Synchro and fusion monsters are a bit more specialized synchro monsters can be included if you have at least 1 tuner monster in your deck whereas fusion monsters usually but not always need a deck that is based around them.

Step 7: Choosing cards for your side deck: 1st of all what is a side deck you may ask well simply put it is a place for extra cards that would not usually be included in your main deck but would/could be helpful against other decks and different opponents these cards can be swapped with cards in your deck in between duels. A side deck typically is 15 cards that will help you either VS the top decks of the format or just useful cards in general that you didn’t include main you main deck (you should update your side deck accordingly the best way to do this is keep and eye on yugioh tournaments and events look at the top decks as well as decks that did well in the tournaments/events and adjust your side to help you deal with them you will also want to keep up to date with the most current ban list because if you have a side that is built to deal with say monarchs and they get hit in a future list your not really gonna need all the protection from them.)

Step 8: Go over your deck: once you have built your deck go over the cards to see if they work together because if your cards don’t work together your deck won’t work either and take out and replace the cards that you think don’t/won’t work.

Step 9: Play test your deck: once you have built your deck and are happy with how it looks you need to duel with it to test it out (this is the only way to see how you deck plays and improve it) if you find a card isn’t working to well take it out and replace it with something else or if you find that a card is working really well but you don’t have many of them in there you may want to make room for more copy’s. It is important to test your deck/s again and again to ensure you get the most out of your deck/s it is also important to try new things as what works for others might not work for you and hey you might just make the next great discovery of a card that works really well for a deck.

Step 10: Keep your deck updated: What I mean by this is always keep an eye on new cards being released if your deck/archetype gets new support it is a good idea to test out this new support to see if you like it or not.


In conclusion with these few basic steps you should be able to get a better understanding of how to build your deck/s keep in mind that there is no shame in asking people for help or even looking for deck profiles that others have used to get ideas for your own deck keep in mind if you find a deck profile you like you shouldn’t copy it although a lot of decks may look the same they may not be and to that matter just because you copied a “pros” deck doesn’t mean it’s going to instantly win because you don’t/won’t know how to use it you should always strive to build and test your own deck/s but again looking at others profiles and asking for help is not a bad thing.

If anyone would like a specific lesson say on a game mechanic (fusion summoning, effect timing Etc.) or a specific deck please don't hesitate to ask me either on 1 of my lessons or message me. feel free to do the same with any questions you may have about this lessons or about anything you may want to know.

I have a few suggestions.

1. Why not make a thread where users can vote on mechanics you would teach on. Alternatively you can also perhaps post a schedule of ehen you will be covering certains topics. Just an idea i had earlier.

2. Should we have a stickied thread on everyday Yugioh vocabulary. When explain mechanics and effects not everyone will know what +1 means and consistency vs power.

i like both suggestions i most likely will do a poll for the week to see what our dorm members want me to teach but i cant have a schedule type post because my own schedule is quite hectic atm as for the stickied thread for yugioh vocabulary i think that would be a very good idea cause as you said not every1 is going to know what certain terms may mean

I see i understand my schedule is hectic too haha. Keep up the good work though :]

I've got two questions about the game in general:
1) When multiple efs, from both players, are triggered at the same time, how do you figure out witch one was activated "first"
2) When multiple effects are triggered during the resolution of a chain, is a secondary chain formed, which is resolved immediately after the first? Can additional spell speed 2 (or 3) effects be piled onto this secondary chain before it resolves?

Twisted Reality can probably explain it better but your first question I can answer.

When multiple effects happen at the same time effects that are mandatory happen first. If both are mandatory then the turn players effect has priority. If both effects are yours I believe you get to choose the order in which they resolve.

@GeffTW wrote:2) When multiple effects are triggered during the resolution of a chain, is a secondary chain formed, which is resolved immediately after the first? Can additional spell speed 2 (or 3) effects be piled onto this secondary chain before it resolves?

2) When multiple effects are triggered during the resolution of a chain, is a secondary chain formed, which is resolved immediately after the first? Can additional spell speed 2 (or 3) effects be piled onto this secondary chain before it resolves?

To answer numero dos, let's say you activate an MST targeting a facedown artifact moraltach and then your opponent chains another MST targetting another spell/trap. Because moraltachs eff is worded in such a way that the eff must go off it has to activate in a seperate chain set. And because moraltach starts a new chain (After both MST's have resolved) anyone can chain any appropriate card effect in this new chain. So effects that can be activated in a new chain are allowed to do so only after the first set of chain links resolves and spell speed 2 and up cards can chain in the new chain.

Thanks! So optional trigger effects which meet their conditions during a chain's resolution won't go off at all?

Well that's a tricky one because wording can make or break that one. Generally if the card says "If this card" then it can activate in a new chain but if it says "when this card" then it misses timing.

Thanks!

Any chance I could get some advice on this --> https://i.imgur.com/LYvERkW.png ?
Trying to up the consistency just a bit more, but I really need to keep my 2nd forerunner

You could try trimming Soartroopers to 1 for another 2 slots, and probably switch MST for Twin Twisters and take the useless cards out of your extra deck
EDIT: you could also trim down the wickedwitches
Adding in copies of Kozmojo and one copy of Strawnan might help you a little bit with consistency, and a third copy of Kozmotown if it's a problem getting into it when you need it

I actually ended up doing most of that before getting the response I'm trying to stay at only 2 field spells, so that I never have 2 in my hand at once.
I'mexperimenting with the seal of orichalcos - it's effectively a win condition in a mirror match, and pretty powerful in othewr match-ups
I can't get on DN ATM, but I'll post a screenshot once I can!

Field spell at three is a must really. It's your best recycle and essentially a free magical mallet.

Here's my current build
https://i.imgur.com/W7Fbcrv.png
Basically standard kozmos at this point, I guess, except for the seal

I know the seal doesn't give me as much consistency power as a 3rd town, but I run it for a few reaons:

1) If I have a ship out, the SS from my deck will be more powerful (or equally, if it was a runner) than was the ship before I played the seal.
2) If I DO have a runner out when I play it, I get to pop a S/T for free
3) It makes OTKs ridiculously easy (farmgirl doesn't have much trouble dealing damage when she has 2000 ATK ^_^)
4) It's hard to kill - they need to pop it twice in the same turn
5) I rarely make extra deck plays
6) It makes it much easier to conserve cards, and even LP if I have to sit on an attack position wickedwitch
7) This card is MURDER in a mirror match - if ever we both have the same ship, or even if I have a ship one tier weaker than theirs, I have a ridiculous advantage
IT GIVES ME SOULS! <3
9) I've had players play prohibition and declare Kozmotown. Really annoying if I can't get rid of prohibition quickly ti un-clog my hand, especially if they get an MST or Twin Twisters ready before I play Kozmotown

Wow... ok I retract everything; Orichalacos is not worth it except maybe as a side.

Ok, after a bit of thought (specifically, toning down the traps in the deck, as well as switcing upstarts for maxx "c"s, because more than enough decks special summon enough to make them worth it) I decided to go at 2 Kozmotown, and 1 Seal.

https://i.imgur.com/Z8o8Ubq.png

I've been testing like this, and it's been quite consistent. I'm considering pulling the Dark eclipser out, because I only really side it in against dumb, trolly decks like trap/exodia, chicken explosion, monarch explosion, destiny board, 20-countdown, stall/mill or stall/banish/mill