Basic Tactics Station

Here you can trade and exchange basic level dueling tactics with other players. You can use this forum to learn from others on the fundamentals of dueling from basic summoning tactics to the use of spells and traps as well as the use of monster effects.

I have some extremely simple deckbuilding advice here.

When building a deck one should start by thinking up one's win condition or the goal of the deck. For example a Quasar deck's win condition is to bring out Quasar. Pretty straightforward.

The next step is to add all cards necessary for your win condition to the deck. Now you add as many of the staples to your deck as you can fit. There are staples for almost the entire format, like monster reborn, and MST, (just examples, there are more) and there are staples for the type of deck you are using, like the zombie staple, Zombie Master.

Next is support. When you are adding support to your deck, you are adding cards that help pull off your win condition more easily. There is a huge variety of support for ANY type of deck. So in this stage you are adding any cards in your deck that will help you pull off your win condition. At this point the size of your deck is not important, so add whatever cards you think that you will need.

This is the point where you lower your deck to forty cards, or as close as you can get. The reason for this is you chances of drawing a certain card you need in a forty card deck is much higher than drawing that card in a sixty card deck. Continueing on this, and getting a bit off topic, this is a good time to add multiples of your best cards, as drawing a card you have three copies of is much more likely than drawing a ard that you only have one copy of. Now, back on topic, you want to eliminate any cards in your deck that seem like they are too situational, or are not very useful now that you have seen all the cards you plan to include in the deck.
Remember not to stick too closely to this paragraph as certain decks are better off with more cards, however I am not getting into that now.

This paragraph, just like the one above, is not true in certain decks, however for most decks both of these paragraphs should be followed. This step is simple. In this step, edit your deck until your spell/trap card to monster card ratio is as close to 1:1 as possible.

This is normally where I would talk about side-deck building, however there are a huge amount of people who can explain this better than I, so I,ll leave it to the experts.

This final sttep should be repeated over and over untill your deck isn't improving anymore, the it should be repeated some more. Seriously. This step is playtesting. You must test how your deck runs, and pay close attention to any flaws you can find, write them down even. Then go back and edit your deck according to it's flaws. Repeat this step as many times as possible.



I am not the most skilled person at guides and there are liky many flaws to this. Post qny questions here, or PM me.

Honestly Evilpath this is awesome advise for new and upcoming duelists. Great work bro I think everyone can learn from your posting.

Another bit of advise to take into account when building a deck. Make sure you are going somewhere with it and also make sure that it is set to when even you cannot get to your main win condition that there is another way to either win or at least your able to defend what you have until you are able to reach your main goal. Just make sure to follow Evilpath's advise and everyone should do fine.

Also when dueling make sure you understand how your deck runs. That is most important.

Yes, these are great points that I forgot to mention Chill, thanks.

When dueling in a single one on one duels. Always make sure that you use everything that you have in the best way possible. Don't plan your strategies in advance as that may cause you to lose because there is an unlikely chance you will draw what you need in your first hand to carry out that plan in full. Strategize as you go in a game because there maybe something that your opponent may have that could stop you. This is not to say that you should not plan ahead but do not do this before a duel. During the game if you see that your opponent may have a threat in their backrow (Spell/Trap Zone) you might want to wait a bit to make sure you are ready to deal with the threats your opponent may have out.

Example: Your first turn you summon a low level monster and play a spell that will aid in setting up for your next turn. Your opponent, on their turn, does not play any monsters but places three face downs in their spell/trap zone to keep you guessing. On your next turn you might want to take these into consideration and decide whether or not to take care of that problem first. Sometimes it is a stall tactic or bluff to keep you from playing but other times it could be a legitimate threat against your strategy that your opponent may have spotted. This is where a duelist must make a decision (I.E. Take out the possible threat somehow, or let it go and move on with your strategy and take the risk.). Remember this, sometimes it is better to take the risk because you maybe able to go with an alternate strategy later on and take them out. Other times it is best to take out the possible threat as quickly as possible. That is a decision that you as a duelist in a duel must make on the spot.

Make sure you have the right cards set up where you need them, when you need them at the times you need them set up in those places. And always be ready to change things up to keep your opponent guessing at anytime necessary and even be ready when it is not necessary. This game can be like chess. Always try and think some set of moves ahead and have contingencies in place in case something fails. Have every possibility figured out and have a way to make it work. It falls all into knowing your own deck and how it runs. If you know this then you will certainly succeed in not only keeping your opponent suppressed but also maybe even winning the duel itself. This same tip can be used in match duels (best 2 out of 3) but this is an addition to it. If you have a Sidedeck...have it handy in case you need to tech in/out certain cards to help combat certain strategies your opponent may have as well as keeping certain cards either off the field or making sure you can send them away quickly.