Who needs a Side-Deck?
Andrew MuellerURjustSOL
It’s not often that I get the question “What is a Side-Deck?” anymore. Most players in the tournament scene understand what a side-deck is. Unfortunately, many duelists either haven’t properly prepared their Side Deck or they’re not properly utilizing it. In this article I’m going to tell you what a Side Deck is, how to use it and what you should put into it.
What is a Side Deck?
Here’s the official language from the Upper Deck Yu-Gi-Oh! booklet (or website) concerning the Side-Deck:
- In addition to your dueling Deck, you can also have 15 additional cards in a separate pile known as the Side Deck. The Side Deck allows you to modify your Deck to better suit your strategy during a Match.
- Between Duels, you can exchange any card from your Side Deck with any card in your Deck - as long as you end up with the same number of cards that your Deck began the Match with.
- The Side Deck you create must contain exactly 15 cards at the beginning of a Match. In other words, if you don't have enough cards to create a 15 card Side Deck, you cannot use one at all.
- In any Match, the Deck and Side Deck combined cannot contain more than 3 copies of the same card. Also, be aware of Forbidden and Limited Cards.
I had to chuckle a few years ago when I played a young boy who would draw one card from his Dueling Deck, then one from his Side Deck every draw phase. It wasn’t an important game so I really didn’t notice till his 3rd turn when he had a full field AND a full hand. I watched to see where he was getting all his cards from.
I think it’s extremely important to remind everyone that the Side Deck is for use in-between duels. That is, you cannot alter your Dueling Deck until after the first duel. What this also means is that after each match, you need to return your Dueling Deck to its original condition. That is, remove any cards from your Side Deck from your Dueling Deck.
How do you use your Side Deck?
You can design your Side Deck to perform a few different things. Here’s a few of them:
- Counter your opponent’s Dueling Deck.
- Change your entire Dueling Deck’s focus.
- Replace specific cards in your Dueling Deck that you’re positive your opponents will Side Deck to defeat.
I personally ONLY use my Side Deck to defeat specific deck types my opponents may play that my Dueling Deck may be weak(er) against. While some of the other Side Deck uses have *some* validity, I firmly believe that my current Advanced Format Regionals deck matches up spectacularly against all but 2 other deck types. I have 5 cards in my Side Deck to combat one of those decks and 13 cards in my Side Deck to combat the other. Yes, there is a 3 card overlap. Don’t you just LOVE multi-purpose cards?
One of the other Side Deck types changes the focus of the deck. I once had an Exodia deck that I could turn into a Beatdown deck. While this sounds like an awesome idea, and amazingly it did work a long time ago, it is not a viable option in today’s environment. Why? Because there are so many more quality cards and so many more quality decks being run in tournaments. Burn, Hand-Control, Warrior Beatdown, Warrior/Chaos, Exodia and Field Control decks have all made Top-8 and Top-4 in Regionals held since October 1, 2004.
Replacing specific cards in your Dueling Deck that you are sure your opponent will Side Deck to defeat is actually a good idea. Let’s say you had a random Wave Motion Cannon or two in your Beatdown deck. Let’s assume you even got to fire each one off for a few thousand points of damage. What about game 2? I can assure you that your opponent will bring in cards like Dust Tornado, Mobius, Magic Drain and maybe a few other Spell/Trap removal cards. If your deck doesn’t depend on Wave Motion Cannon, and you’re sure your opponent will side cards in to defeat it, a smart move would be to replace those two wave Motion Cannon’s with two Jar of Greed Trap cards. This won’t change your Monster to Spell/Trap ratio, and may trick your opponent into wasting his removal on a card you’ll be able to chain and get the effect of anyway.
What should you put into your Side Deck?
I’m going to approach this with the assumption that everyone is going to approach their Side Deck the one way with the promise of the biggest payoff: Side Deck to defeat specific deck types my opponents may play that my Dueling Deck may be weak(er) against.
Of course, this all depends on what you’re running, and what you’re playing against. Here’s a list of some of the Top deck’s getting run at Premiere Events like Regionals, Nationals, Worlds and Shonen Jump Championship tournaments.
- Warrior and Warrior/Chaos: Even if you play a Warrior deck, it’s a fair bet you have a few Kinetic Soldier’s in your Side Deck.
- Burn: Spell/Trap Removal cards like Mobius, Dust Tornado are top choices. Also popular is a pair of cards from PGD: Swarm of scarabs and Swarm of Locusts. One removes Spell/Trap cards, the other is monster removal. One fantastic little card to run against any Stall/Burn deck is Cliff the Trap remover. He’s a 3-Star, 1200 attacker that can destroy a Spell or Trap card when he inflicts battle damage.
- Morph: These decks rely on many small monsters and the Spell card Metamorphosis. Magic Jammer, Magic Drain and King Tiger Wanghu are good cards against this deck.
- Hand Disruption: Although not as dominate as it once was, some of the core cards like Confiscation and The Forceful Sentry are still run. Magic Jammer, Magic Drain and Sinister Serpent are still good cards to combat hand-D. Quick Play Spell Cards like Scapegoat can be activated during the Draw Phase when hit by Drop Off and can provide defense.
- Exodia: Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Nobleman of Crossout and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer can easily shut this deck type down.
- Beatdown/Extreme Beatdown: Waboku, Negate Attack, Book of Moon, Scapegoat and Enemy Controller are all good answers to a Beatdown deck. Monster removal in the form of Smashing Ground, Offerings to the Doomed and Fissure will also need to be employed in some combination.
It comes down to testing and more testing to identify which deck types you’re Dueling Deck is weak against and what you need to put into your Side Deck to fortify it.
Proper use of the Side Deck can be as complex and sophisticated as building and running your Dueling Deck. My last bit of advice is to have a list of cards you would bring in from your Side Deck to your Dueling deck for 4 or 5 of the most played deck types. This way you won’t have to burn a lot of brain cycles in-between duels when you’re stressed and short on time.
Enjoy!
Original Document: http://synecdoche.net:32001/yugioh/docs/Side-deck.html
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