Musings on Deck Types
I usually look at Magic: the Gathering for information on how a card game works because it is much more developed as a game. It has a comprehensive ruling system as well as large monetary tournaments for players. There are also clear established strategies, and these strategies apply to Yugioh as well. In Yugioh there are 3 main deck types: aggro, control and combo. Although most players know of these deck types, I'll give a quick recap here. Aggro seeks to beat the opponent quickly through early pressure before the opponent can stabilize. The aggro deck wins by tempo. Control tries to stabilize while eventually gaining enough card advantage to overwhelm the opponent. Combo tries to assemble a certain set of cards which usually lead to a win.
The thing about Yugioh is that tempo isn't very important and hence aggro decks are far weaker than those in Magic: the Gathering. In Magic, the number of playable cards in a turn is limited by something called mana. In Yugioh, no such restriction is in place. This means even if an aggro player applies much pressure to his opponent, his opponent can easily reverse the game state by playing a series of cards. Cards like Brain Control and Lightning Vortex have a tendency to do this, and Yugioh by its nature discourages aggro. The aggro deck then must evolve to overcome this problem. It must deal 8000 damage in a single turn. This essentially turns aggro decks in Yugioh into a combo deck.
Of course, there is an exception which is Six Samurai. It's almost impossible for Six Samurai to perform an OTK on the opponent, but it has two aspects that allow it to overcome aggro's natural weakness. First, it has Grandmaster of the Six Samurai. The Grandmaster is a 2100 ATK that replaces itself when destroyed. The self-replacement is certainly important, but the 2100 ATK is arguably more so. Gadgets replace themselves, but their low ATK makes them be classified as a control deck rather than aggro. 2100 ATK on the other hand is large enough to apply a lot of pressure. The second aspect is Great Shogun Shien. The Shien's effect makes Yugioh more like Magic: the Gathering, where a limited number of cards can be played in a turn. This dampens the "reverse game state" nature of Yugioh and gives aggro more of an edge. Six Samurais still need a lot of good draws to summon both Grandmaster and the Shien quickly though.
But Six Samurai aside, there are no successful aggro decks. In essence they have become OTK decks. DDT for example, has the strategy of an aggro deck in terms of it seeking to overwhelm the opponent in one turn, but plays like a combo deck by setting up the removed from play zone and winning with Dimension Fusion. Hence, Yugioh essentially has 2 different deck types: control and combo. Control decks have reigned supreme for a long time thanks to the wide array of Monarchs and so people complain about them. Combo decks end the game within a few turns so people complain about them. The sole decent aggro deck requires luck to do well in a tournament, and so people complain about them when they win. This is why people will always complain about deck types. There are three options and all of them have flaws.
However, most players complain about the combo deck more than the control deck (and little people even mention about the aggro deck because there's only one) because apparently combo decks requires no skill whereas control decks do. I disagree with this argument because it seems to me that these people are assuming a large number plays requires more skill. I do not think this is the case. A combo deck operates at its optimum only if each play is done well. In fact, a wrong play can change a combo deck's win to a loss. Every move is crucial in a combo deck. In a control deck however, its pilot can make a mistake, evne a terrible one, but can frequently still end up winning the game. The large number of plays results in a lower value to each play. If a player never misplays, then both decks are equally good. If a player misplays, then he is better off with a control deck, because a misplaying combo deck pilot won't last along in any tournament.
The last thing is that I find the large number of complaints about OTK comical. "It's no fun when the game ends in 3 turns". Well in Magic: the Gathering Extended format, there is a deck called Dredge. This deck frequently wins on turn 2, sometimes turn 3 and almost always by turn 4. This is fast in Yugioh standards, and extremely super-duper fast in Magic: the Gathering standards. It is so fast that most deeck simply cannot win game 1 of the match. In order to have decent chance of beating it, a deck must have about 6-8 out of 15 cards to deal with it. that's half the sidedeck to beat one deck, and it's not even a guaranteed win. Yet, there's still no whining on how the key cards should be banned in the Magic: the Gathering community whereas some Yugioh players are complaining about decks that have yet to make a significant impact in any major tournaments.
Customary Optimistic Anti-DAD Section:
Anyway, it's the "counter DAD" part if the blog, so let's shift to a completely new topic: Protector of the Sanctuary. It's effect was garbage in the past but now it has a decent, even great use. There are enough draw effects now to make it playable. Here's the card text for reference:
Protector of the Sanctuary
Level 4 / 1100 ATK / 1900 DEF
Earth / Fiend
As long as this card remains face-up on the field, your opponent cannot draw a card(s) except during Draw Phases.
The effect is nasty for the opponent, but it's weak 1100 ATK sure isn't. This means we can't just throw this into any deck because any mosnter short of Sangan will just attack right through this thing, at least on the turn it's summoned. We can always summon it via Giant Rat, but it loses effectiveness because assuming it is the opponent who will attack Giant Rat, he will already have played all the draw effect in hand prior to attacking. So how do we run this card? One approach is
3 Des Koala
3 Protector of the Sanctuary
2 Exiled Force
2 Giant Rat
1 Maryokutai
1 Sangan
1 Stealth Bird
3 Wave-Motion Cannon
2 Hammer Shot
1 Level Limit Area B
1 Book of Moon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Smashing Ground
1 Scapegoat
3 Dark Bribe
3 Magic Drain
3 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3 Solemn Judgment
1 Ceasefire
1 Gravity Bind
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Mind Crush
1 Threatening Roar
1 Trap Dustshoot
It's pretty much a Burn deck wtih Protector of the Sanctuary stuck in, but the cool thing about Protector of the Sanctuary stops the opponent from drawing from Dark Bribe. [EDIT: It turns out that Dark Bribe can only be activated during the draw phase with Protector of the Sanctuary on the field, making this a horrible interaction!] The Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror should stop pretty much everything in Dark Armed Draon Return decks except for Jinzo, which is where Hammer Shot comes in. The opponent might try to summon Jinzo then play Heavy Storm. Pretty much all stall Burn decks suffer from this weakness but just pray you facedown Solemn Judgment then Dark Bribe saves you. One interesting t hing to note is if Protector the Sanctuary is face down and the opponent plays Allure of Darkness or something similar and then Ceasefire is chained, the opponent will end up removing a Dark monster form their hand for nothing.
The second deck to stuff Protector of the Sanctuary into is Gadgets. The large amount of protection should obviously protect Protector of the Sanctuary.
2 Cyber Dragon
3 Banisher of the Light
3 Protector of the Sanctuary
2 Green Gadget
2 Red Gadget
2 Yellow Gadget
1 Giant Rat
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.
3 Enemy Controller
2 Hammer Shot
2 Shrink
1 Heavy Storm
1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
1 Limiter Removal
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Scapegoat
3 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3 Solemn Judgment
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mind Crush
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
The lack of Trap Dustshoot but Mind Crush is because I personally love Mind Crush. Trap Dustshoot can be a dead draw but Mind Crush is good even by itself as long the player running it can guess well. Anyways, Giant Rat conveniently searchs out Protector of the Sanctuary. The list is pretty generic, but the main decked Shadow-Imprisoning Mirrors aren't that bad since many deck run Dark monsters and so if it doesn't hurt you, I think it can be ran in three copies. There's no Royal Oppression here because I think Roayl Oppression doesn't stop a whole lot of cards compared to Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror.
That's kind of it for this blog, and now I'm screwed for my essay because I wrote this bloody blog. Anyway ciao!
Related to:
Yu-Gi-Oh!
