Side Deck Theory for the March 2013 Format

Teacher **Posts** : 42 **Age** : 29 **Rank** : 0

Side decking is one of those things that undoubtedly makes Yugioh as complex as it is. In a match format game, what one sides in for games 2 and 3 can completely change their decks, to the point where the opponents deck becomes unable to hinder their decks at all, or their deck is able to block everything their opponent would look to do. That said, here are, from my personal experience, the best side deck cards against most of the currently circulating decks. A few notes, though. Obviously, not all of these cards can be included in all decks, so make sure the cards you pick don't interfere with your own strategy. Also, some of these cards are main deck worthy, but that doesn't mean I don't consider it a side card too, and for the sake of sheer repetition, I will not be mentioning cards like Effect Veiler or Gorz. That all said, let's begin.

Atlantean/Mermails:

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure: This one should be self explanatory. The big cards they rely on to pop the field, like Megalo, need to have the monsters sent to the graveyard to activate their effects and to summon Megalo. With one of those two up, they can't summon Megalo, and they don't get their Atlantean effects. On top of that, it turns Moulinglacia into a dead draw, and makes cards like Salvage useless.

Soul Drain: This is effective, although not so much as Macro. This card will stop your opponent getting the effects of their Atlanteans when sent to the graveyard, preventing the quick destruction Atlanteans are known for.

Deck Lockdown/Thunder King Rai-Oh - Considering this card has been knocked down to 2, it's still good. Rai-oh is effective at stopping searches with cards such as Megalo, and can kill any XYZ like Abyssgaios. Deck Lockdown, however, might be seen as a better choice, as although it sacrifices the special summon negation of Rai-oh, it prevent monsters being special summoned from the deck, hence rendering the Abyss-sphere/Linde play useless.

Prophecy/Spellbook:

Gozen Match: Considering all prophecy monsters have different attributes - Magician being water, Priestess being Light, and so on, this is an excellent card. Many Prophecy players will start out with a spellbook magician to get secrets to their hand, and you can capitalize on this by flipping this card and stopping them from summoning High Priestess.

Eradicator Epidemic Virus/Spell Canceller/Secret Village of the Spellcasters - The first and last only work in specific decks, unfortunately, but if you can get one of these on the field against Prophecy, it can buy you some time to set up, because of how dependent on spell cards the deck is.

Mind Crush - This is a personal choice, and one I find quite interesting. Considering the amount of Searching prophecies do, and the fact that the summon of High Priestess is an ignition effect that this card can be chained to, mind crush can often let you hit a key card they need right out of their hand.

Thunder King Rai-oh/Droll & Lock Bird - Though he can't stop High Priestess' summon, he renders spellbook magician and spellbook of secrets useless, and stops the searching the prophecies rely on overall, and none of the monsters that can be normal summoned in a turn (With the exception of Strength of Prophecy) can beat over him without help. Droll and Lock bird works the same way, but is slightly slower - needed a card to be searched first. That said, it does have the advantage of being a hand trap, so can't be beaten over.

Last Day of Witch - An old card, and one with quite funny effects against an overextending prophecy player, considering all their monsters are spellcasters.

Elemental Heroes:

Gozen Match - Once again, a killer. Considering the variety of attributes in a hero deck - Stratos as a wind, Bubbleman as a water, Neos Alius as a light, this card quickly shuts down plays and can give you the time you need to set up while they try and get around it.

Kinetic Soldier - Another Personal preference. All Heroes are warrior type, so this card, at its 3350 attack when battling a warrior, can even beat over a Shining with 2 banished heroes.

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional fissure - Miracle fusion requires targets on the field or in the graveyard - With these cards you can quickly empty a hero player's resources and make Hero Blast useless. Beware with this one, however, as it will make The Shining VERY powerful, and give a good hero player ample targets for its effect.

Fire Fist:

Maxx "C" - While technically not doing much to stop the fire fist deck itself, if you can drop this on a turn where they go explosive, you will either a) end up with a large hand or b) force them to waste their turn so as to not give you said hand.

Overworked - This card is brilliant. Considering most of the fire fist spell and traps increase the attack of all fire fist monsters, a well timed overworked will wipe their field. Works well when combo'd with Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure.

Anti-spell fragrance - Another personal preference, this slows the deck down considerably by not allowing them to use spell cards just set by a fire fist monster. Xing Zien hu works as well.

Dark Worlds:

Soul Drain/Abyss Dweller/The End of Anubis - These cards could effectively be seen as the bane of a dark world deck. All Dark World monster effects activate when sent to the graveyard, so they will all will cut out Snoww's search, Broww's draw and Grapha's destruction, effectively slowing this deck down considerably and only leaving them with a 3k beater at best, due to Grapha's summoning "effect" not being an effect, but rather an inherent summoning condition - meaning it still woks under soul drain.

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror - Pretty much the same deal as Soul Drain, with the added bonus of negating on field monster effects, so it also stops cards like Fabled Raven and Trance archfiend some Dark Worlds use as a discard engine for their Dark World effects.

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure - Dark Worlds rely on their graveyard. With Dimensional Fissure or Macro cosmos up, the dark worlds will not be discarded the graveyard, meaning their effects will not trigger. As well as this, It stops them from summoning Grapha from the graveyard, and gives the no targets for their field spell to banish.

Macro Rabbit/Dino Rabbit:

Imperial Iron wall - Seriously. No Banishing? That kills the big rabbit plays into Dolkka/Laggia, and pretty much makes Macro useless, leaving the deck reliant on their normal summons. As long as you have a method of dealing with the beatsticks and the occasional Laggia/Dolkka (because of Guaiba and the occasional two Dinos on the field), this card could win you the game by itself.

Gozen Match - Now they can't make Laggia or Dollka unless they use Guaiba, and they can't have Saber/Kabazauls/Guiaba on the field at the same time.

Rivalry of Warlords - This won't stop them from getting out Sabersaurus and the other Dinos at once, but it makes Rabbit useless, unless they run other beasts, and means they can't make Laggia/Dolkka, as they are both Dragons.

Wind-ups:

Gozen Match/Rivalry of Warlords - Magician is an Spellcaster/Fire, Shark is a Fish/water, Rabbit and rat are Beast-Warrior/Earth and Beast/Earth respectively - so you have the main combo pieces of the deck being hit right off the bat with a well timed Gozen match or Rivalry of Warlords.

King Tiger Wanghu - Kills Magician/Rat/Rabbit straight away, and stops their comboing dead. Not to mention it activates right off and doesn't use the chain, so rabbit can't save itself.

Needle Ceiling/Torrential Tribute - Wind ups swarm a fair bit. Not as much as they used to back when they had Carrier, admittedly, but still plenty to warrant these mass field wipes that hit them in the face.

Mystical Fairy Elfuria - As someone who plays Gusto, this is my favourite. XYZ summoning are something Wind-ups are quite reliant on, and revealing an Egul, or another annoying level with her will definitely slow Wind-ups down. She can be beaten over, however, so watch out if using her.

Fire Kings:

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure/Bottomless Trap Hole/Dimensional Prison - The fire king effects only trigger if the Fire Kings go to the graveyard when destroyed. Send them to the banished zone instead, and watch as Fire Kings are left with nothing but beatsticks.

Deck Lockdown - This card, early game, can really be a thorn in the side of any fire King Deck. It makes Onslaught of the Fire Kings useless and stops cards like Barong and Tenki in their tracks, giving you time to prepare for Garunix or to overwhelm them before that happens.

Soul Drain - All of the Fire kings big effects trigger in the Graveyard, so use this, and you can use Mirror force and Dark hole to kill the fire Kings dead without a sweat.

I will be updating this regularly with more decks, but if there are any decks you want to know how to side against, drop me a pm or post beneath.

Member **Posts** : 847 **Age** : 30 **Rank** : 0

Awesome work Shyam , nicely done .

Obelisk Blue **Posts** : 15 **Rank** : 0

what about of forbidden seal of spell

it can't stop fire fist and spellbooks

Teacher **Posts** : 42 **Age** : 29 **Rank** : 0

The problem with Cursed seal, as I see it, is that those decks are both so versatile you don't know what to hit. I mean, the obvious calls would be Secrets/Spellbook tower and Tenki, but consider. Both decks can search out the spells - and when judgement day comes out, it's even harder to hit the right cards. On top of that, you need to wait for them to play it, meaning you run the risk of not having Cursed seal in place in time, and you need to discard a spell card, which I really dislike, as it may sometimes force you to either discard a powerful spell card (Dark hole/Heavy) to negate, or not negate and let them go until you draw a new spell.

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Side Deck Theory for the March 2013 Format

Side Deck Theory for the March 2013 Format

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