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.