Can someone give me some advice as to how to build a Tournament worthy 1st-class Yu-Gi-Oh! deck?

Question

Here's the low-down, I've been playng the YGO TCG for 6 years now and have basically mastered the game and its content. I'm a deck analyst who always tries to figure out what the best strategy, cards, and balance is needed for a deck.

Throughout my experience, the top decks I've come to face with are Monarch-based decks, Dark Armed Dragon-based decks, and Effect Negation (Horus & Jinzo) / Destiny Hero (Quicksearch) decks.

I usually fair pretty well at tournaments but cannot cut it when it comes to winning big and getting up there. The decks above are the ones I've had trouble with dueling against and the best decks I've played with myself are Monarch, Destiny Hero, and Remove from play-based decks (Necroface).

The typical deck-size I use range from 40-48 cards based on the deck with 20-24 monsters, 15-17 spells, 5-7 traps, and no fusion cards.

I just want advice on what cards to put in what deck as STAPLE-cards (cards all decks need and what cards that TYPE of deck needs).

Answer 1

Hey I might not have played this game for as long, but I'm like to think of myself as a deck analyst too. I assume you want to know the staple cards for the decks you run. I don't see much wrong with your deck draft, but I usually use 40 cards divided up like this: 18-20 monsters, 13-14 spells, and 7-8 traps. Anyway, it sounds like you want to know the best cards for a Monarch deck, a Destiny Hero deck, and a Necroface deck.

To be honest there is not a single card I use in every deck idea. Anyway, not ALL the cards I list might not be necessary, and I might miss some.

Macro Monarch deck:

Any or all of these

-Mobius

-Thestalos

-Zaborg

-Caius

-Raiza

(I don't care much for Granmarg)

-D.D. Survivor

-Dimensional Fissure

-Macro Cosmos

-Return from the Different Dimension

-possibly By Order of The Emperor

-if you want, Brain Control

-MST

-Banisher of the Light / Radiance

Soul Control Monarch deck:

-Brain Control

-Soul Exchange

-Gravekeeper's Spy

-Apprentice Magician

-Old Vindictive Magician

-Any of the Monarchs

-By Order of the Emperor

Destiny Hero:

-Elemental Hero Stratos

-DH - Dasher

-DH - Dogma

-DH - Plasma

-if you want, Polymerization and Destiny End Dragoon

-if you want, and if you're using Destiny End, Chain Material

-DH - Malicious

-Clock Tower Prison

-DH - Dreadmaster

-DH - Fear Monger

-DH - Disk Commander

-DH - Dread Servant

-DH - Diamond Dude

(I don't care much for the other weaker Destiny Heroes)

-Cyclone Blade

-Dark City (can get rid of Clock Tower when you want)

-D-Spirit

-Over Destiny

-Destiny Draw

-D - Formation

-Eternal Dread

-Destiny Signal

-Heavy Storm

-MST

There are some people with Diamond Dude Turbo decks. You could ask them what they use in their decks.

Necroface deck:

-Necroface (Now semi-limited)

-Gold Sarcophagus

-Macro Cosmos

-Dimensional Fissure

-D.D. Survivor

-Other D.D. monsters

I don't know much about Necroface decks since Necroface has been Semi-Limited.

Although this is a lot and you probably knew a lot of this, I hope this helps.

Answer 2

It's good to answer for a fellow veteran. I'll address by saying that most deck types that win consistantly have high attack monsters in which the summoning requirements are met quickly (i.e. when people mill their decks to get Dark Armed out, or the new Lightsworn monsters). Monarch itself isn't really a decktype, or it shouldn't be, because Monarchs are the "splashable monsters;" they go well in practically all decks.

There are few cards to be considered "staples" these days due to the conflict of the varying deck types, but definitely the most seen cards are:

-Crush Card Virus

-Heavy Storm

-Dust Tornado/MST ( I say Dust as well here because people use it to counter the Return concepts that have been so frequent)

-Return from a different dimension (and for good reason too, it's even run in non-Cosmos decks).

-Sangan (Although much less of one now, see below)

Remove from play has become so common, Treeborn Frog and Sangan are hardly seen anymore. As for elements, Dark, Light and Earth are the ones most seen lately, due to Dark Gaia, Dark Armed Dragon, and Judgment Dragon mainly. All three are a matter of choice; it just comes down to how you'd prefer to mill your deck. Although Cosmos Mill does fit in there, obscurely, although it tends to fall to the Dark Armed but prevails over the Judgment Dragon. And the Lightsworn decks tend to prevail over the Dark Armed Return strategy. It all comes down to opponent prediction in this format I believe, and what decks your opponent uses really affects how well you'll do.

Answer 3

To be fair Most of the decks above are either light or dark so as an analyst you've probably realised this. light and dark imprisoning mirrors have become popular to counter this. I dont consider these to be staple but more sided. I think at the moment if you wanted to counter the biggest decks in the game (lightswarm, DAD, Destiny Hero based decks) then remove from play is 1 of the best bets. It counters a lot of strategies these decks use.

DAD- three darks in grave.

Lightswarm- Anything milled goes from play

Destiny Hero- Rely on being in grave for effects (Dasher, Malicious, Disc Commander)

Horus/Jinzo- Horus is unable to level up as it needs the grave to do so.

I'm sure you kno whats staple in these deck types but in case your unsure.

Macro Cosmos

Dimension Fissure

DD Scout Plane

DD Survivor

Solemn Judgement/Dark Bribe

As you also probz kno Monarchs work well in these decks as Tributes are always available to u as ur DD monsters keep coming back.

If you'd Like a deck list then here goes

Dark Magician of Chaos x1

Cauis The Shadow Monarch x3

Mobius the Frost Monarch x3

DD Survivor x3

DD Scout Plane x3

Spells

Dimensional Fissure x3

Reinforcement of the Army x2

Soul Exchange x2

Allure of Darkness x2

Traps

Macro Cosmos x3

Torrential Tribute x1

Dark Bribe x3

Escape From the Dark Dimension x1

30 acrds in this deck so far. The rest would be up to u and your personal preferences.

Hope this has helped.

Sam