Forum:How would one construct a Side Deck?

What exactly should be considered when building a side deck? I know that obviously the strategy of your deck and the current/local metagame are part of it, but considering how many kinds of decks there are and how many types of counter cards one can use against them, how would you know what the best combination would be?

For instance, I run a Tiger Stun deck, my roommate runs a Gladiator Beast deck, and the main meta in our area is mostly Six Sams. Given that, what kinds of things should we consider when making a side deck? SynjoDeonecros (talk • contribs) 22:49, June 15, 2011 (UTC)

If you have a copy of "Gozen Match", I would suggest you to include at least 1 or 2 copies. Other good opinion is to add some bounce back (not destroying) effect of cards (Compulsory Evacuation Device, Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, etc. if you have any in your Trunk) to help control your opponent's Six Samurai. "Book of Moon" can help you by controlling their summoning and position change easily. Since there are couple of Structure Decks released in the shop, go get at least Marik or Dragunity version to get "Mirror Force" so you could blast their face if you don't get the strategy right. --FredCat 23:01, June 15, 2011 (UTC)

Well, that's a start, but I was speaking more generally; What exactly should be considered when making a side deck? Should the deck be more for strategy support or anti-meta tech? SynjoDeonecros (talk • contribs) 23:08, June 15, 2011 (UTC)

Two main side deck types are:

A) Deck Change Surprise: A full 15 card side to change deck from one thing to another (IE: Magical Explosion FTK -> Self-Destruct Button Tie-Out Deck to stop loss from them siding against the Explosion)

B) Anti-Meta Tech: cards which work well against specific decks commonly fought, or hard machups, D.D. Crow, Gozen Match, Closed Forest, Forum:List of cards to side in against common decks etc

The latter is more common, as both main & side have to be carefully made for the former to work well

-Resk (✩) 00:32, June 16, 2011 (UTC)

Ah, I know of side deck A; that's originally what I had my side deck as, when the game starts out, and honestly, it seems like the kind of side deck I prefer; for some reason, I can't seem to wrap my mind around the kind of cards for a type-B side deck. SynjoDeonecros (talk • contribs) 00:38, June 16, 2011 (UTC)

I will run a Six Samourai for the European Championship and my current side (it will be changed a little bit) since a few weeks now is the following:

• X1 Cyber Dragon : Against Mechabot. Spe Summon it and use it with all his little toy to clear his field + having a nice Chimeratech Fortress Dragon on your side
• X1 Kinetic Soldier: Against 6S, it can help (a lot!)
• X1 D.D. Warrior Lady: Mostly against 6S but it can help with anything (+ it's a warrior so It goes well in my deck)
• X1 Puppet Plant: Against 6S AND GK since it also targets magicians. "Oh yeah, you start turn 1 with 2 Shi'en? I discard my puppet, take one of them, attack with him and reborn one of them. Now who's the boss?"
• X2 Dimensional Fissure Against almost everything, especially Fish OTK and Monarch (and Lightsworns but it's not a meta deck anymore...) (it literally ruins their strategy)
• X2 Nobleman of Crossout: Yeah bye bye Ryko, it was nice meeting you. (So fun with Book of Moon, you can say byebye to anything!)
• X3 Chain Disappearance: If I'm the one starting the Duel, I side all 3, if not, only 2. It's THE card of the side. You summon kagemusha? Yeah now banish it (and the 2 others in your deck, and in your hand too. That's right, no more Synchro!
• X2 Rivalry of Warlords: Against Plant and GB mostly. I love it!
• X2 Debunk: Too many veilers have killed my Shi'ens... + Plant uses a lot the graveyard.

Wilimut ^Talk_Mail Paris, 00:47, June 16, 2011 (UTC)

Ask yourself these questions when making a side deck:

• Where are you using this deck?
• Are these people who have expensive, top-tier decks or cheaper and easier decks?
• What are the most common deck types used at the places you plan to use this deck?

Good cards to side include: Cyber Dragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon (against Gadget-based decks as well as others), Kinetic Soldier (Six Samurai, Miracle Gemini to some extent), Electric Virus (Steals Stardust/Scrap/Black Rose/Iron Chain Dragon, works against Dragunity and Disaster Dragon as well), Puppet Plant (Same as above except for Samurai/GK), Chain Disappearance (You could main this and it's the best way to stop a lot of decks), D.D. Crow (Stops Frognarchs and Dragunities early in the game), G.B. Hunter (Gladiator Beasts).BobaFett2 (talk)

If your Deck has clear weaknesses, sided material should be able to cover said weakness. Even better if the card can also further your strategy. For example, my Chain Strike Deck gets burnt out the moment something like Black-Winged Dragon comes out, so I side Compulsory Evacuation Device to remove pesky monsters like these while still being chainable. --Gadjiltron (talk • contribs) 05:50, June 18, 2011 (UTC)

But, thanks to how the nature of resolving a chain is, wouldn't Blackwing Dragon negate any damage from Chain Strikes activated in chain to CED? This is kinda what I'm talking about when I said building a side deck was difficult for me; how do I balance these kinds of issues? And wouldn't it be easier to just do the strategy switch side deck, in the long run? SynjoDeonecros (talk • contribs) 14:31, June 18, 2011 (UTC)