How to Side Deck

A lot of people have thought about what to put in their side deck and this is one of the things that is constantly changing with the meta. However, it isn't necessary for a side deck to stop the opponent's deck constantly. Today, we will talk about different ways of siding into game 2 and game 3.

The first way some people side is to side against the opponents. What I'm saying is that you guess what your opponent might be running and you throw in a few cards that may hurt your opponent. An example is Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror or Fossil Dyna. These cards stop specific decks from gaining their effects or stopping them from continuing their push.

Another way to side, which is my favorite, is to figure out your deck's weakness and how you can accommodate to it. An example is from the first style of siding. Your opponent sides in Shadow-Imp. Mirror, what do you side in? Dust Tornado and MST. Not only is it good that it destroys those cards, but it can clear their back row cards and save your monsters or your back rows. Basically, we can stop their prevention so that you can continue with your plays as you would normally.

One of the last ways that I will mention that is quite potent is siding into a different deck completely. This may surprise your opponent very easily. An example would be like Gravekeeper's siding out into Malefic Skill Drain. This gives your opponent an element of surprise because your opponent would not have the necessary components to deal with such heavy hitters and also they sided in the Shadow Mirrors just to help you.

When do you side in certain cards? I've had some talk with some other players and they've told me that it really depends on if you're going first or not. What I felt to that was a lot of "what ifs". What if you don't draw them? What happens if your opponent doesn't draw those cards? That's really normal when your opponent sides. They could even go into the third method, a completely new deck, rendering your side completely useless. So I won't go into too much details about this siding method. Only if your deck is really versatile can you do this *cough* Plant Synchro *cough*.

Just remember, try to make a side deck that does not hurt you more than your opponent. From a personal experience, I sided in Dimensional Fissure in my GK deck and it hurt me more than it did my opponent. As we know, Recruiter and Commandant needs to hit the grave before its effect activates. As I was too into thinking about how to stop my opponents cards (Dark World and Plant Synchro) rather than trying to help my deck's weakness.

Dark World Deck

Hi there YuGiOh! fans and players! This is my first post on my new blog today and it's my first attempt to share some of my thoughts and ideas of decks out in the meta (most played). I will tell you what deck I'm analyzing, some history of the deck & the cards, what the idea of the deck is supposed to be, and then show you my build (with side and extra) with my reasoning. Of course, links will be provided for your purposes and for mine because I do not want to type out the card effects myself.

Today, I will be sharing with you my Dark World deck build. Yes, *sigh*, Dark World. With the new structure deck that came out, Gates of the Underworld, the Dark World deck now has expanded their uses and their capabilities. A few new cards in the structure deck to name are, Grapha, Snoww, Ceruli, and Gates make this deck have more "power" I guess you can say.

I wasn't around for a few years (2006-2009) because I left YuGiOh to focus more on school and a lot of the people I played with were not the most pleasant of folks. But from the amount of information I collected from the internet and from other players, Dark World wasn't the best deck at that time. It was reasonable with the amount of drawing and special summoning that occurred, but that was it. Now with a few more cards left and right, Gates, Grapha, and Snoww, it made the deck much more consistent and less reliant on miscellaneous support cards.

For those who do not know what Dark World is, it's basically DW monsters that needs to be discarded through an effect so that DW monster can get its effect. What I mean be "discarded through an effect" is that it cannot be a cost. To tell the difference is to see whether is says "to" or "and" and whether it was the first sentence to discard and then the resolution. An example of the "to" is: Brionac. Notice the effect says,

You can discard any number of cards to the Graveyard to target the same number of cards from the field; return them to the hand.

This is what we call a "cost". Another "cost" is just a plain and simple sentence that tells you to discard a card. And then the resolution of the effect. An example of this is: Darkness Approaches. (I know, it's a classic)

Discard 2 cards from your hand. Select 1 face-up monster and flip it face-down, but do not change its battle position.

Now, what we want for the DW deck to work properly is having cards that has the effect (or the resolution) of the card as a discard effect rather than a cost for the card. A few to name off from the top of my head are Dark World Dealings, Dragged Down Into The Grave, Morphing Jar. These cards are quite pivotal within this deck. A lot of the cards in the structure are reintroduced from older sets that were already out. However, with the new ones, it has more potential than it ever had.

There are a lot of builds out there, but I want to share mine. I can list all those other builds out there, but I will tell you the reasoning behind my choice of cards and why I didn't select certain cards for my build. First off, the list:

MONSTER:


2 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
1 Fabled Raven
3 Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World
2 Malefic Stardust Dragon
1 Sangan
3 Snoww, Unlight of Dark World
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

MAGIC:

1 Allure of Darkness
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark Hole
2 Dark World Dealings
2 Dragged Down Into The Grave
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
3 The Gates of Dark World
3 Upstart Goblin

TRAP:

2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Mirror Force
3 Reckless Greed
1 Torrential Tribute

EXTRA:

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, the Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Orient Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
2 Stardust Dragon
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia

SIDE:

2 Cyber Dragon
1 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Debunk
1 Eradicator Epidemic Virus
2 Royal Decree

The main monster lineup is pretty standard, 3 Snoww, 3 Broww, 3 Grapha, and 3 Tour Guide (if you have them). These are the MUST HAVE in this deck. I chose Beiige over Sillva or Goldd because I'd rather have the capability of normal summoning without having to tribute in a certain case I have no discard outlet.

The Malefic SD is for a few reasons. As many of you know, Gates removal is a cost, therefore my opponent can use MST on my Gates and I would not be able to discard my card nor draw. So I would typically drop my MSD, using its effect to protect my field. Then I can proceed to draw my cards. Not only that, it uses it to bait out my opponents backrows (Warning or BTH) creating a safer field for my potential Grapha. ANOTHER amazing thing is that it's a target for my DDV and my EEV! AMAZING! I actually thought another step further into thinking about the side deck people use, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. This being main decked, I don't need to side into it nor do I have to side it out. However, I have noticed that it does stop me from spamming the field and attacking for game, I usually have a DDV set in that case.

I opted out of the Ceruli/Sillva build because I was thinking one step ahead of the game, Skill Drain and Shadow Mirror. Some people in my locals run Skill Drain main decked and Shadow Mirror sided for their dreaded match up, Dark World. Therefore, I don't want to have to side them out and side in cards that can already be useful in the main. Small technicalities here, but yes. Let's continue.

The magic and trap lineup was basically something to make the deck a little more turbo-y. I could draw more monsters and more cards for discarding my DW cards. Some protection (torrential, mirror force) I thought was needed in this deck in case I didn't draw some kind of outlet to my DW cards.

Extra deck, plain and simple, although, I do wish I had a Wind-up Zenmaines, a Leviathan can do as well as that for now. I can go into rank 3s easily with TGUs (grabbing Broww, Sangan, or another TGU).

Side Deck, here are my reasons for side deck. I figured that the side deck isn't about how to use cards to push my opponent into a corner, it's about how to improve your weaknesses in the deck and how you can respond to your opponent's cards that they might side in.

Cyber Dragon = karakuri/gadgets
Fossil Dyna = Plant Synchro/special summon heavy
TKing = search/inherent summon heavy (rabbits)
MST = I know my opponent will go trap heavy to kill me (shadow mirrors, debunk, D. Prisons, BTH, etc)
BTH = Rabbits, slower decks with one normal summon after another
Debunk = mirror match or other hand/grave activation decks
EEV = magic/trap heavy also knowing that they side heavy traps against me, I can use it against them
Royal Decree = knowing that they go trap heavy, I can use it against them. Also focuses his MSTs towards this rather than my field

Well, that's all the info for my deck and some tips about Dark Worlds. Hope you enjoyed this information. Some feedback on my first post would be really nice! Thanks for your time!