Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Advice and Rating

[Wiseman108]

Greetings everyone.

I have joined this forum for the sole purpose of getting help with my main Yu-Gi-Oh Deck.

I would like to note a few things before I begin listing my cards.

1. I play Yu-Gi-Oh using the traditional format, the only time I use the Advanced format is when I play in tournaments. I haven't played in a tournament in years, in the past I have both played in and hosted a few unofficial tournaments, and played in a couple regional tournaments. However I'm just picking the game back up and dusting off my old decks after about 4 years of no dueling. I'm not sure if I will give the tournament scene another try or not, for me it's not a matter of wanting or not wanting to, I just don't have the resources to travel around looking for them.

2. What I'm asking for is a regular rating of my deck, I'll accept ratings from 1 to 10 or % ratings from 1% to 100%. As for advice, currently I have 60 cards in my deck, partly cause I wanted to see if I could run a successful 60 card deck, and partly cause I wasn't sure what to remove. I would accept any advice geared toward compacting my deck to a more professional size (40 cards) assuming I agree with the suggested reasons. I would also like to know the best current cards to replace the banned cards in my deck with, in case I find myself signing up for a tournament (please keep the effects similar in style if possible). As for my dueling style, I prefer to control the duel by preventing my opponent from keeping cards on the field, preventing them from attacking, and reflecting damage back at them.

3. I do not like to have duplicates of the same cards in my decks, unless multiples improve their effect in some way. I don't mind having cards with similar effects, as long as they aren't the same cards, however I will use multiples if there's no other option.

4. I don't like fusions because they require polymerization, I prefer to avoid cards that rely on other cards to be effective, which is why I don't use common theme decks very often. I have used Elemental Hero and Destiny Hero decks effectively in the past, but I never enjoyed using them very much, I used to have an Exodia deck as well, however I never liked relying on one specific combo to win a duel, so I sold the deck to a friend.

5. I know next to nothing about Synchro or XYZs cards, I've been reading up on Synchro monsters a bit, and looked up the most effective tuner monsters (I particularly liked "Mist Valley Soldier"), but I don't really know how to summon a Synchro monster. As for XYZs monsters, I only found out they exist a couple days ago, so I know nothing about them at all.

In any case I'm willing to adjust my deck to include Synchro or XYZs cards if: A. The cards are effective on their own and don't require too much extra fluff and B. They aren't too difficult to intertwine with my current play style.

I think that covers all of the information needed to help me improve my current deck. Sorry if I typed too much unneeded information, I tend to go into to much detail when I describe things, anyway here's my deck.

Monsters

4 Stars or Below

-Injection Fairy Lily
-Pilgrim Of The Ice Barrier
-Goblin Elite Attack Force
-Hanewata
-Sangan
-Witch Of The Black Forest
-Mask Of Darkness
-Magician Of Faith
-Penguin Soldier
-Exiled Force
-Blast Sphere
-Neo Spacian Air Hummingbird
-Breaker The Magical Warrior
-Slate Warrior
-Reflect Bounder
-Tribe Infecting Virus
-Cyber Jar
-Marshmallon
-Amazoness Swords Woman
-Yata Garasu
-Night Assailant

5 Stars or Above

-Dark Ruler Ha Des
-The End Of Anubis
-Kaiser Glider
-Guardian Sphinx
-The Wicked Eraser
-Mystical Beast Of Serket
-Horus The Black Flame Dragon LV6
-Horus The Black Flame Dragon LV8
-Cyber Dragon

Extra Deck

-Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Spells

Normal Spells

-Dark Hole
-Giant Trunade
-Heavy Storm
-Monster Reborn
-Reigeki
-Harpie's Feather Duster
-Pot Of Greed
-Painful Choice
-Graceful Charity
-Swords of Revealing Light

Continuous Spells

-Temple Of The Kings
-Mirage Of Nightmare
-Messenger Of Peace

Equip Spells

-United We Stand
-Snatch Steal

Traps

Normal Traps

-Magic Cylinder
-Mirror Force
-Ceasefire
-Exchange Of The Spirit
-Ring Of Destruction
-Torrential Tribute
-Waboku
-Draining Shield

Continuous Traps

-Royal Decree
-Imperial Order
-Mask Of Restrict
-Call Of The Haunted

Counter Traps

-Barrel Behind The Door
-Negate Attack
-Judgement Of Anubis


I know I have a ton of banned cards in my deck, like I said before I play by the traditional rules during the majority of my duels. However I do have some cards (like lighting vortex) that I swap in during official tournaments.

I recently had "Jinzo" and "Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer" in my main deck, but after a ton of begging and a pile of nice cards, I traded them to the same friend I sold my Exodia deck to.

Lastly I would appreciate a list of useful side deck cards, I never use side decks unless I enter tournaments, but I like to be prepared just in case.

Thanks for reading.

 

[dragon0010]

...So after being a member here for a looooooong time, this is actually the first time i've been motivated enough to actually post, i'm a long time yugioh player, i used to play in traditional tournaments(back before advanced even existed) so i know what i'm talking about usually. depending on what you physically have there are a plethora of decks you can actually make in traditional and have them really dominate. in terms of general use, back in the day the best combos were using chaos emporer dragon's effect with sangan on the field to search out yata garasu and lock them out and pretty much insta win. now since then there have been many many cards that could potetially make it much faster, i could talk about those later if you like.

....anyway, onto your deck. you've got a lot of really good cards in here or at least were really good back then, but it's kinda changed since then. as for a rating, at this point it doesn't look too great. some small changes would be dropping most of the 5 star of higher monsters you have, i know their effects can be useful, but you can't honestly say that every time you've drawn them you were able to play them. or at leasst i know i can't back when i used to. if you really want to you could continue to use the horuses because they are really fun to play with however you would have to centralize it a little more around them. other lower monsters i would suggest dropping are: air hummingbird, amazoness swords woman, hanewata,and possibly mask of darkness. your spells look good actually, although it's pretty hard to go wrong there. for traps exchange of the spirit you could do withoutas well as draining shield(other better alternatives available). there's also a bit of a discrepancy between royal decree and imperial order, and in terms of usefulness i would keep imperial and drop decree for a trap stun(which is a pretty good alternative but only lasts for the turn). some other traps to think about are bottomless trap hole and solemn judgement.

So i just realized i neglected to answer some of your questions in regards to summoning a synchro monster:
you send from your side of the field to your graveyard one tuner monster and another monster(s) and add up their total stars, you can then synchro summon a monster with the same amount of stars. So let's say you send a krebons(2 stars and a tuner) and a witch of the black forest(4 stars) you can then special summon a goyo guardian(6 stars)

Now for XYZ monsters, i haven't really played with them much, but from what i understand you send two monsters from your side of the field to your spell/trap area that are the same level to special summon a xyz monster of their total level.

 

[Terminator02]

inb4Schlupi

and i have no idea how to help u

 

[1234turtles]

whats the main strategy for your deck or is it just random good cards

 

[B3astinSnipes]

Have u tried asking on Pojo aswell? there are usually like between 400-1000 people on 24/7 u will get way more help there. but its just a suggestion sorry to be random xD

 

[Schlupi]

I will be completely honest. It sucks. Ill keep it short and sweet:

1. It has too many cards. They are all good cards, but there is no central focus to the deck. It seems as if you'll just keep searching monsters and it's doubtful you'll overpower any meta-deck nowadays; most decks are focused on swarming and speed. Having 60 cards is inconsitant and won't allow you to draw what you need in time when you need it.

2. I know you said you wanna play traditional... if you are, go for one of the old-school OTK or lockdown strategies. Yata-lock is the easiest thing to do; empty decking with stuff like Morphing Jar and Needle Worm at 3 is also abusable.

3. Oh man. Any monster you try to rely on will be crushed into todays meta. All somebody has to do is Dark Hole. Swarm, game. So many people run Solemn Warning and Judgement you have little chance of pulling out any of your Big monsters. Also, plenty of Dark Bribes, Seven Tools, etc.


You should google "Yugioh OTK/FTK" and see what comes up. Just go for an old lockdown strat if you're playing Traditional, or you won't stand a chance.

I don't wanna be mean, I am just being blunt. I'm sorry if I seem mean. >_>

 

[Wiseman108]

@dragon0010:

I added Royal Decree as a substitution for Jinzo, but I'll look into trap stun and see what I think.

I've actually managed to get Horus LV8 out quite often, and they are indeed fun to play, Imperial Order I don't use too much but I keep it in case someone decides to use an important field spell (like Necrovally or Sanctuary in the Sky).

As for the high level monsters, I'll admit I'm not a fan of monsters that require tributes (which is why I use "Mask Of Restrict"), I prefer cards like Cyber Dragon that can be special summoned, I will consider lowering the number of high level monsters. Keep in mind I do have a good number of cards that stall my opponent and after I've flipped cards like Magician of Faith I think it would be best to use them as tributes. "Cyber Jar" also helps when it comes to getting enough monsters on the field to tribute summon the high level monsters, especially "The Wicked Eraser" since it requires 3 tributes.

"Air Hummingbird" is hard to use at times, and could probably be replaced. "Amazoness Swords Woman" is a pretty good card, but there are probably better options.

"Hanewata" is like a "Kariboh" that stops effect damage except it stops all effect damage for the entire turn, which I could combo with "Ring Of Destruction" and/or "Solemn Judgement" (if I decide to add it) because I don't like paying half my life points for any card.

I'll most likely remove "Mask Of Darkness" if I can find a good replacement, then again since my current deck is 60 cards I could probably just remove it without adding any new ones.

I've considered adding "Bottomless Trap Hole" before, I just wish it worked on more than one monster (like "Dark Mirror Force"), but perhaps it would be a good replacement for "Draining Shield".

If I remove "Exchange Of The Spirit" I'll most likely remove "Mirage Of Nightmare" and "Painful Choice" as well, since I use them to get enough cards in my graveyard to make "Exchange Of The Spirit's" effect useful.

As for the "Chaos Emperor Dragon"/"Sangan"/"Yata Garasu" combo you listed, I most likely add CED to my deck for that combo (I'm guessing that's why both cards are forbidden). As for cards that could make that combo faster, feel free to list them, because I'll most likely use this combo at some point.

Thanks for the advice, I'm looking forward to reading other opinions.

@1234turtles:

The deck started as random good cards years ago, but I've changed it many times over the years, now I can usually keep my opponents field clean while protecting my life points. The main issue of my deck is that it may have too many cards, and I'll most likely weed it down over time. I'm just looking for good suggestions of what to remove if it comes to that, as well as possible replacements for some of the forbidden cards and/or less useful cards.

As for my strategy, like I said, I try to prevent my opponent from getting anything on their field, while protecting my life points and countering their damage. I like to experiment with different types of decks, and back when I was actively dueling I used many of the popular deck types for fun, so I have a general knowledge of how/when to use most types of cards. However like I said, I know little about the newer card sets that have been released. I'm currently reading the full card guide in order to brush up on what I've missed over the years.

@B3astinSnipes:

Thanks for the tip about Pojo, I checked it out and it looks promising.

@Schlupi:

It's not a problem, I see where your coming from.

As I said before this is my first attempt at using a 60 card deck, I prefer 40 card decks, and have only used 40 card decks till now. I know that 40 card decks are usually better, however I want to see if I can run a successful 60 card deck based off my old main deck. Most speed decks require tributes of some sort, and mask of restrict stops those, I also have quite a few cards that clear the field, which makes it hard for an opponent to get a combo going, unless it's something like a draw loop like I used with my old Exodia deck.

However after what you said I will consider adding Solemn Judgement again, as I stated I do not like paying life points for cards which is why I don't want to use it.

 

[Schlupi]

Bottomless DOES work on more than one monster. If you read the new wording of the card, if more than one monster with 1500 mor more ATK is summoned at once, all of them are destroyed and removed from play.

Also, just so you know, Ultimate Offering has now been changed in ruling; it works only for the player who played it. Just a fun fact to keep in mind.

Also. Xyz work as the following:

You take the two monsters of the same level to summon a monster of that rank. So two level 3 monsters make a rank 3 Xyz, and so forth.

You take the two material monsters and "stack them", and put the Xyz on top of them. Then the effects they have involve sending those materials to the grave. ALSO NOTE: sending a Xyz material to the grave DOES NOT count as "sending from the field to the grave". They are "lost in deep space".

ALSO, a new ruling is coming out saying that Traps have priority over monster effects. In otherwords... Botomless works JUST LIKE Solemn Judgement, without the cost. Bottomless is sure to become a staple in every deck again...

 

[Wiseman108]

@Schlupi:

Thanks for the clarification, in that case I'll most likely avoid Solemn Judgement, and replace Draining Shield with Bottomless Trap Hole.

 

[tomrev]

What's your deck theme, main strategy?
The major problem of your deck is having too much cards. Over 60 cards will suffer from dilution. Keep only the best 40 cards or near 40 cards as possible which have synergetic effect to each others.
The expensive sacrificial cards like "the Wicked Eraser" should not have in any deck except for the deck that intent to use strategy and support cards to gain benefit from these hard to use cards. I thought these cards should be get rid of your deck first.


It has many rooms to improve your deck but it's too long for me to explain.

Edit: It looks like you need to build 60 cards deck but I have no idea and I don't believe high number cards decks could be efficient

 

[Wiseman108]

^ I agree with what you said about The Wicked Eraser, and I'll most likely remove it for Chaos Emperor Dragon, since they have similar effects. As for the 60 cards, while I agree there are some monsters I could remove to reach 40 cards, It's hard to narrow down my spells and traps. While my deck may seem like it has no Synergy it actually flows rather well since most of the cards are easy to activate and are useful in many situations.

 

[Sterling]

@Shlupi: That new ruling is likely because of The Six Samurai Shi-en's effect.

I'm also going to agree with Shlupi's analysis. 60 cards is way too inconsistant. I'm not a traditional format player. I'm into advanced, and I let my friends use their over powered cards. The amount of tribute cards versus fodder cards is indeed too imbalanced. I find that for every tribute card you have, you'll also need the tributes plus one in fodder as well.

One offs also seem like a good plan. However, I play field presence and I keep a good few negations to protect and preserve the prescence.

 

[Schlupi]

@Shlupi: That new ruling is likely because of The Six Samurai Shi-en's effect.

I'm also going to agree with Shlupi's analysis. 60 cards is way too inconsistant. I'm not a traditional format player. I'm into advanced, and I let my friends use their over powered cards. The amount of tribute cards versus fodder cards is indeed too imbalanced. I find that for every tribute card you have, you'll also need the tributes plus one in fodder as well.

One offs also seem like a good plan. However, I play field presence and I keep a good few negations to protect and preserve the prescence.

Yeah, I figured as much. Shi En is an asshole. >_> But it also is gonna effect a looooot of other monsters too, like Bamboo Shoot, Judgement Dragon, etc. I think Bottomless should be at 1 when the new ruling hits.

Thing about Traditional is EVEN THOUGH you can use those banned cards, it doesn't mean much. Most meta decks in Advanced format nowadays are Swarm/field presence/negation. Your deck, being so big with minimal search power, would be DEVASTATED by a simple combo of

Bottomless your tribute monster,
then royal decree.
You try to MST? They dark bribe/solemn/etc. your ass.
Opponent swarms, game.


I will look over your deck again and try to thin it out; I DO NOT blame you. when making my decks, even though I get it down to 40-42 cads (I TRY not to EVER go over 45), I start with 90+ cards to consider. The trick to making an efficient deck is plenty of playtesting and seeing what has synergy and what is unnecessary. A nice trick is lay ALLLLL your cards on the floor, table, etc. and group them by monsters, magic, traps; then by effects. See how much negation you have, how many beaters, how many destruction, etc. And see what the heart of the deck is. for example, I wouldn't need a Heavy Storm AND a HFD because with MofF in the deck I can recycle one, for two uses, so I would just put HFD in and leave HS out. Then if I see, say, 3 Curse of Darkness I would take 1-2 out. If you just shorten the amount of cards it allows you to get what you need faster, for a smoother deck.

If you want tips, PM me sometime. I play competitively a lot, I won't mind helping you out.

 

[Sterling]

The balance of my deck is incredibly thought out. To the point of OCD in fact. I playtest in the 2011 DS game as well. The nice thing about the game is that there aren't any ruling discrephencies. I found that 1 or two battle restricting cards like a Swords, or Negate Attack are just fine while 2 Magic Drains might take the place of 2 MSTs, or atleast one.

My deck itself is a Amazoness Beatdown. On a good day, it beat the pants off my friend's perfectly balanced Samurai Swarm deck. This was before the limiting of the Gates. It has 10 spells, and 10 traps, and 20 monsters. 3 of which are one sacrifice Amazoness Queens. I get them when I need them, and I extensively playtest and I use a side deck as well. My favourite deck so far is an insulting Ojama deck.

 

[Wiseman108]

@Schlupi: Nice point about the Heavy Storm/HFD/MofF, I must admit I never really thought about it that way, it makes sense. I'll try what you said and see how it goes, I've also downloaded an online yu-gi-oh game for some practice. There isn't very many duelist around here so playing online is my best option to get used to the new cards/rulings I suppose. When I finally get my deck thinned down to 40 cards again, I'll re-post it here, should be easier to work with afterword. I might post some of my other decks as well, they all have themes and are 40 cards, so it should be easier to help with them.

Thanks again for the advice!