The Deck Architect's Bible 1.0
The Deck Architect's Bible 1.0
by Metalzoav2
No more roaming on this planet like scavengers
Scientists broke the code of the Gregorian calendar
Defying laws of space and time, trying to trace my lines
Hold up, respect the architect - Lil Sci
Next Levels - Take Me To Your Leader (MF DOOM)
Yes .... Unique Deck Architects rejoice! Metalzoa has decided to get off his lazy ass and show you how it's done! There's more than one correct way to go about building a competitive unique deck but most people seem clueless as to how to go about doing it. This deck scientist has broken the code of construction, defied the constraints and rules of typical deck architecture and compiled it into a categorical format for those seeking aid with their creations.
Unfortunately I do not have the time to list all the methods I know so this bible will be amended when I have scripted up more styles. The first (and arguably the most potent) method of construction is the Architectonic Construction.
What is Architectonic Construction?
Dictionary.com provides us with these definitions for the words:
Architectonic
Ar`chi*tec*ton"ic\, Architectonical \Ar`chi*tec*ton"ic*al\, a. [L. architectonicus, Gr. ?. See Architect.]
1. Pertaining to a master builder, or to architecture; evincing skill in designing or construction; constructive. "Architectonic wisdom." --Boyle.
2. Relating to the systemizing of knowledge.
con·struc·tion
Audio Help (k?n-struk'sh?n) Pronunciation Key
1. The act or process of constructing.
2. The art, trade, or work of building: an engineer trained in highway construction; worked in construction for seven years.
3. A structure, such as a building, framework, or model.
4. Something fashioned or devised systematically: a nation that was glorious in its historical construction.
5. An artistic composition using various materials; an assemblage or a collage.
Architectonic Construction is the compilation of every knowledge of the game in the aspect of construction at every step, every time.
This method can be used with too many approaches, but I'd guide you through one of my more recent efforts so you get the idea. I'll try to point out popular pitfalls, so you take mental notes to try avoiding such traps in the near future.
Someone approached me yesterday on how to build a Limit Reverse Deck. First thing that came to him was Destiny Hero - Disk Commander.
FIRST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
The first step to making a deck is to make sure that there is not only one trigger / target for anything. Disk Commander is a nice start, but you'd need a couple more triggers to make sure your Limit Reverses are never dead. Especially since its Crow season these days. That is the essence of architectonic construction. You need to consider popular meta cards that will put a hurting on your main deck. Most people just build without consideration of popular threats to their theme / idea and how prevalent they are in the meta. That's where a lot of original decks fail. Lack of consideration for the meta in construction. Pay attention to what everyone else is playing. It is the first step to making your deck much more successful.
To avoid getting stymied by typical Grave to RFG or Grave to Deck tricks your opponent would pack, as well as increase your chances of using Limit Reverse you would need more than one target besides that Disk Commander. To bring variety to your Limit Reverse options, identify more cards that meet its requirement, but do different things than Disk does. Exiled Force can bring nice removal, Injection Fairy Lily for knocking down muscle (makes a great extra 3400 after Exiled mows down the defender) and Card Trooper for less suicidal muscle, free dumping (more Limit Reversal targets) and Lily for a cheap quick hit / knockdown of fatties when needed.
So far:
Limit Reverse
Disk Commander
Card Trooper
Exiled Force
Injection Fairy Lily
SYNERGY CHECK
With some some of this skeletal structure, you want to identify similarities and review your list, so as to achieve a more smooth flow with any support cards you would use. It's very important you do this so as not to have your deck splitting hairs right from the start. Skipping this step could lead to the hasty addition of cards that seem helpful but in reality have no real synergy with the overall construction. Architectonic means everything is properly structured and as such you would need to review your choices many times over and identify common patterns (outside the primary reason for addition in the first place) inbetween them all before proceeding.
Disk Commander - Dark Warrior
Card Trooper - Earth Machine
Exiled Force - Earth Warrior
IFL - Earth Spellcaster
3 Earth Monsters, 2 Warrior.
BACKGROUND CHECK
This is the point the deck starts deciding which direction it will end up taking. Warriors have a lot of support, so do Earth type monsters. Identifying support for either side would help give a layout of what tools and tricks would be available to you ... and which one would better suit your playstyle. I can not tell you what sort of playstyle each of you have and how you would react in every scenario so I'll show you a hands on example of mine in order to provide a hands-on lesson on doing so.
Earth Support:
Giant Rat: Will place any 1500 atk or less earth monster on the field after getting attacked. This means you get to search any earth monster that is reversible. Powerful enabler.
Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane: Any level 4 and under earth monster can be special summoned from the grave with a tribute of an earth type monster. Excellent support, being able to trade an earth type with any other one in the grave, no timing constraints too.
Barrier Statue of the Drought / Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo: Both earth, both prevent special summoning. If you wanna break it down more here for the fast learners ... Dyna has the possibility of comboing with Book of Moon ... let those monsters run into it: SS bomb. The argument for Barrier is that Limit Reversal can also use it, making it easier to access. I chose speed: Barrier ftw.
Dark Dust Spirit: Here is the big tribute. I never got why this card didn't get appeal. Granmarg was bad. And we all knew it was because the face-down destruction sucked. Pick a biased black-hole monarch. A bit short in the attack numbers, but be guaranteed there will be no-one bigger standing in his way. The only survivors would be face-down quivering. Hit them hard, then Kurogane morph and bring that Lily or Rat or Card Trooper you tributed and bring them back in the Battle Phase).
Warrior Support:
Marauding Captain: quick swarming speed ... jumps in there and brings in his buddy Exiled or his crazy ex girlfriend, IFL. She's known to slap really big problems away for a small cost. Much cheaper than Solemn :)
Reinforcement of the Army: Already a must have in any small warrior gathering. He can quickly pull that Marauding so you can get to rushing ... or get Marauding an Exiled to get things going. But for those first turn plays you know its mostly facedowns so get an earth that stays after doing the job. MSlv2. (**in my meta it is ... which is why I said I can't help you from here. You need to know what your environment. But I assume you do, which is why this is a sub-note here).
Mystic Swordsman LV2: Exiled on crack for those passive opponents. Not so good for bold first turn plays though. That's why you get to save that Exiled for when it really hits the fan. Bring MSlv2 to handle that face-down searcher or Nimble or Gladiator beasts. No need for damage. Save your Waboku, Gladiator Beasts :)
Elemental Hero Wildheart: Torrential and Mirror Force proof ... this guy has been rumored to have shrugged off many of Gadget's Dimensional Prisons and Sakuretsus and Bottomless'.
As you can see ... two very distinct sorts of teams.
EARTH BREAKDOWN
Going Earth would mean more cycling and some crafty negation tricks, like using your monsters in Grave as a free anti-rush. No Premature Burial, no Monster Reborn, escape or monsters returning from any RFG method. Dimension summoning (be it D.D. Survivor or Scout Plans) or dimension rushing (Escape from the Dark Dimension, Return from the Different Dimension) can be brought against you ... at the flip of a Limiter or Kurogane.
+ Special summoning from grave
+ Technical combos.
- Weak individual pieces
- Tends to overextend by requiring more than one card per set-up either by Rat or by Kurogane.
WARRIOR BREAKDOWN
Blitzkreig. Go in there and tackle what is on field with pitbull aggression. Pull Exileds and MSlv2 from the deck with Reinforcement of the Army (RotA), or go bungee jump in with Marauding Captain, your 1200 ATK wingman. At least you got damage out of Exiled, 1200 is better than zero.
+ Precise destruction.
+ Precision searching.
- Needs baby-sitting.
Both sides fairly dependent, but it is obvious the Earth route is more for the passive safe combo player, Warrior for the more aggressive player.
I sorta wanted the best for my deck ... the best of both worlds.
Re-go over the core monsters once more, just to make sure we are still all meshing together.
INITIAL RE-EVALUATION
Rat searches all but Disk. Disk can not be Kurogane'd ... he only has a purpose with 5 cards in the deck, all 5 demanding attention from monsters with better promises than "one more card than Trooper".
Despite being the founder, other cards have found much better homes in the deck. Disk gets the boot.
Barrier takes it's place, adding some level of negation at your finger tips.
Limit Reversal, Exiled Force, Injection Fairy Lily, Card Trooper, Barrier Statue.
With Disk Commander cut, there's no need to devote deckslots like Arma to cater to it.
No need to use Fearmongers or any other similar support. Perhaps those slots can cater to the other sub-direction.
+ Kurogane
+ Barrier
+ Rat
+ Dark Dust Spirit
+ Reinforcement of the Army
+ Marauding Captain
+ MSlv2
Both warriors are Earth types so they work with Kurogane. Both RotA-able. RotA also adds these speed and control to the mix. Dark Dust adds a nuke factor.
CONCLUSORY RE-EVALUATION
You have added that much more cards to the mix, go back and keep re-evaluating. Look at the general style and trends and support it or give it access to more possibilities.
Eg. Repeated Special Summoning from the grave means you can take advantage of Card of Safe Returns. Add Monster Reborn and Premature to further support the general grave utility and so on.
You would notice I've not assigned a single number to any card. I don't believe in fixed ratios ... each player has their own tendencies and as such these are individual decisions the architect needs to make in his own best judgement.
Keep Re-evaluating, looking at the overall selection and what you lack. Add what you feel you might be missing. Some might add an Engineer to tackle back-row problems, or a Chiron (Kurogane-able).
FINISHING TOUCHES / SIDE- DECK CONSTRUCTION
Keep re-evaluating till you hit about a balanced mid 30s card count. I prefer 34, that way I can use 2 sets of x3 solutions or 3 sets of x2. Ranging from Bottomless Trap Holes to Divine Wraths, Dark Bribes to Solemn Judgements , Dust Tornadoes to Twisters ... you can easily side these 6 cards that are not critical for deck function besides external support.
The 6 I keep are the solutions to the more popular decks: Divine Wraths, Compulsory Evacuation Devices and Book of Moons.
ACTIVE RE-EVALUATION
Creating your 40 is just the beginning. This is your thesis statement as a deck-maker. The real deck-making process is playing through with the deck, adjusting every little tidbit until you have the perfect ratios that complement your own playstyle.
For those that are curious, this is the ratios and decisions I made for the Limit Reverse deck.
1 Sangan
1 Mormolith
1 Exiled Force
1 Card Trooper
1 Chiron the Mage
1 Hyper Hammerhead
1 Dark Dust Spirit
1 Mystic Swordsman LV2
1 Barrier Statue of Drought
2 Injection Fairy Lily
2 Marauding Captain
3 Giant Rat
1 Scapegoat
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade
1 Heavy Storm
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Card of Safe Return
2 Lightning Vortex
2 Book of Moon
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Dark Bribe
3 Limit Reversal
3 Spiritual Earth Art - Kurogane
Those are the numbers I felt comfortable with.
This is just a brief guide on how to build a deck with an initial focus using an architectonic, constantly backtracking and review system to ensure everything works together and works very well.
ARCHITECTONIC AT A GLANCE
+ High synergy levels (if done right)
+ Very adaptive
- Slow construction
- Requires external tools (www.netrep.net) and extremely high knowledge of many metagames.
Architectonic is not for everyone. To perfect a deck takes a long time, and as such you can not just slap together a deck quickly and have made all the necessary checks and balances and get all the ratios perfect to your playstyle.
The next addendum will address a quicker deck construction method, for sealed pack tourneys or situations where you have to make a deck as speedily as possible.
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