"EPV: What's in your deck?!" by Dillie-O

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EPV: What's in Your Deck ?!
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[Dillie-O]

This is another article I wrote a while ago and has had some success and even plagiarism in one instance 8^D. I use this as my deck building strategy and thought you might like some food for thought...

<insert image of scruffy Viking with a double blade axe sluffed on his shoulder, a Dark Ruler Ha Des held by the bottom corner pushed close up to your face, and a menacing, yet questioning look on the Vikings face. />

Greets all!

The recent I've read around the net about Warriors and Chaos Decks led me to think about how I evaluate my decks, and cards when I build. I could personally care less if a group of Warriors have swarmed the field, because a single Tribe Infecting Virus can wipe them out.

There is too much emphasis placed on speed in the current game. Sure there are swarming monsters and first turn kill decks, but they don't really do much on a grander scale. This leads me to share a concept that I hope will help (both newbies and veterans) with their deck construction and card selection. It also validates my opinion at why Fiends are the best monster type in the game.

I like to call this the EPV Triangle (wow, the first time I don't have a clever acronym for things 8^D). I've found that once I build my deck, I look at cards, and again at the deck as a whole and evaluate the following attributes: Effeciency, Potency, and Versatility. Here's my basic definition of things:

Efficiency - How much is it going to take to get the desired outcome of the card?

You need effeciency in your deck in order to make things happen in the duel without losing too many resources to taking up too much time to make them happen.

Garnecia Elephantis is an example of an inefficient card because it is a double tribute monster with 2400 ATK. Summoned Skull is an example of an effiicient monster because it is a single tribute monster with 2500 ATK.

Potency - How much "bang for the buck" are you going to get out of the card?

You need potency in your deck in order to take the upper hand in a duel. Making small knicks in your opponents life points consistenly is helpful, but one swift blow from your opponent makes it all meaningless.

Fiend Calligrapher has no potency because it has no effect and a low ATK value. Fiber Jar has high potency because it can reset both decks on the field, essentially restarting with LP changes.

Versatility - How well does the card work in various situations?

You need versatility in your deck in order to survive the variety of decks you will encounter during your dueling history. Versatility allows you to survive if your opponent has locked down your primary approach to victory. It also allows you to use your cards to attack your opponent from various angles, eliminating their "primary defense" strategy.

Summoned Skull does not have much versatility because it is slated to a be a "beat down" card. Newdoria, on the other hand has a large amount of versatility. It can used to scare your opponent into stalling. It can be used as a "trap" face down to sucker your opponent into losing a prized monster. It can also be suicided into your opponent to open the field for you.

Putting it Together
These three concepts can be applied over and over to your deck and cards in question. These concepts are also applicable to spell and trap cards. Let's look at a few cards and see how these concepts apply.

Mefist the Infernal General is a great card when it comes to efficiency and potency. While it isn't the strongest card when it comes to ATK, it has great potency with its trample and hand disruption effects. It is quite efficient too because it only costs a single tribute to make this happen. Mefist is lacking in the versatility department, in the it functions best as an attacker.

Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan is a card with high potency and versatility. It is versatile in that it can serve for drawing power, hand disruption, mass monster, or mass spell/trap removal. Its potency is high in that clearing out the monsters or spell/traps can easily spell instant death for your opponent. Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan is lacking in the efficiency department. Getting the 4 attribute monsters on the field is usually quite labor intensive to achieve.

Dark Jeroid, is a card with high efficiency and versatility. Dark Jeroid requires no tributes, nor is its effect a flip effect, requiring it to be set for a turn. It is also versatile in that Jeroid can be used to lower an opponent's monster to be smashed, or lower one of its own monsters to bypass a Message of Peace barrier. Dark Jeroid is lacking in potency considering that its effect is used once and usually to bump an ATK over a small barrier.

Arguably enough, Dark Ruler Ha Des could be considered close to the perfection of all of these attributes. It is efficient in that it is a single tribute. It is potent in that effect negation is so critical in this game. It is versatile in that its effect is continuous, instead of just a single time negation, and its effect spans to all other fiends on your side of the field, opening the door to plenty of possibilties.

With these concepts in mind, how do they apply to your cards and deck?

The goal for your deck should not be to have each monster with high levels in each aspect of the triangle, but better yet, make sure your deck contains a relative balance of these three aspects which match the goal of your deck.

As you add and remove cards from your deck, the EPV of the entire deck is going to change. Adding more tribute monsters to your deck is going to add potency to it, but it will most likely lower the efficiency of it untill you can offset the cost somehow, say through the use of Skull Knight #2. Similarly, adding multiples of the same monster to the deck will increase the efficiency and potency of that monster, but it might lower the versatility of the deck because you become focused on a particular aspect for your deck.

A classic example of how EPV is affecting my deck is the removal of two Skull Lairs in my RFP style deck for the Soul Demolition / Soul Absorption combo. Skull Lair is potent in removing monsters, but it is not as efficient or versatile because you typcially have to wait until you have 4+ monsters in your grave to begin removal. With the above mentioned combo, I only need to sacrifice lifepoints to remove a monster, which is far more efficient. I also gain double the life points each time the combo works, which is more potent. I also can use Soul Absorption's effect with my other cards that are removing monsters from play, which provided added versatility.

So how does your deck stack up? More importantly, how do the cards within your deck fit the EPV profile to your deck objective? Hopefully this is helpful for you in evaluating your deck and taking it to the next level. Please let me know if this comes in handy for you. I'm no deck guru, but I think the concepts are solid enough to warrant sharing. 8^D

Using EPV Ratings
How to translate EPV ratings...

Q: What is this EPV number I see in the archive of a card?
A: This is the EPV rating of the card. It identifies the efficiency, potency, and versatility of a given card.

Q: So how do I make sense of that number?
A: Each digit in the number corresponds to a different attribute of the card.

The first digit corresponds to efficiency.
The second digit corresponds to potency.
The third digit corresponds to versatility.

Each digit can range for 1 (low) to 5 (high) with 3 being an average.

Q: Okay, that makes sense now, but can I get a quick example just to make sure?
A: Not a problem....

Summoned Skull has an EPV rating of 453. This means he has medium-high efficiency, high potency, and average versatility.

Dark Jeroid has an EPV rating of 345. This means he has average efficiency, medium-high potency, and high versatility.

Please note:
EPV revolves around the card AND the deck. The EPV rating of a card could go up or down depending on the deck it was used in.

Quantifying your Deck using EPV
With the general 3 card limit to a given deck, you can kind of identify a deck strategy (and potentially EPV) around it:

1 Card in Deck: Usually a versatility play. If I'm focusing on Fiends, I add 1 Puppet Magic of Dark Ruler to give me a few options to revive spent tribute monster and add more use for the Jeroids that are pretty much spent after summoning.

2 Cards in Deck: Usually an emphasis play. If I add 2 Axe of Despairs, I'm really gearing to bumping up some of my monsters. This will typically give me more Potency and potentially more versatility depending on the card in question.

3 Cards in Deck: Usually a reliability play. If I add 3 Gren Maju Da Eizas, I'm looking to use this card as a primary strategy in my deck. This will give me more efficiency in my deck since I have really good odds of drawing it and it also gives me plenty of potency with its effect. But versatility may suffer since I'm not locked into this strategy and a solid defense could spoil things.

Now how does this effect your deck? When initially building your deck, thing of the strategies that you want to incorporate. Which strategies are going to be a focus? Which ones are going to be more of a versatility play? Are you going to put a reliance on a certain strategy?

Once you answer these questions, you can better identify if your cards are going to help the efficiency of these strategies or not.

[whomaster]

BRAVO! very well written and so very very well detailed and true.  EPV is a very good system and I don't mean to down on your parade (quite the contrary I love your article) but you are forgetting that every card has a weakness. So, although EPV is great, you must also consider a cards weaknesses. to quote a famous person I don't know " A team is only as strong as its weakest member. In some cards it really doesn't matter, take the monarchs for example, they only have 1000 deF and tsukiyomi was the monarch killer, but with her gone that doesn't matter much. and even when she was around monarchs were played for the fact that there effects outdid there weakness. lets look at some of the most common points of weakness

Jinzo- Shuts down your traps as well as your opponents
Dark Ruler Ha Des- Cant come back from the grave
Kycoo The Ghost Destroyer- if they snatch you cant remove
Any Removal from your grave (Ex. Bazoo)- what happens when you draw a premature burial with no gy left?
Cyber stein- one of those hit or miss kinda things, if it doesn't work your dead.
Injection Fairy Lily-Bye Bye 2000 LP

Thats just some of them. Now all those cards still see alot of play (except stein) because there weakness, no matter how big, is usually outweighed by there strength.

Now yes fiends are AMAZING. they have huge support, devastating effects, and alot of power, but warriors tend to be the bigger man. Warriors have even more support, they are bigger, recruit faster, and alot of warriors have better effects then any and all fiends. DDWL for example is a 555 to your standards with a little to none weakness. DDW has a bigger weakness but is still amazing and DDA is still, less of a weakness then DDW but still more then DDWL. Another warrior with an amazing effect is (my favorite) Strike Ninja. He pops in and out, can dodge any bullet, has a decent atk, and is a Major target to get rid of asap.Dark Ruler cant negate Strike and strike is normally played with alot of big beefy dark monsters to take care of him when he zips out. Just because I have to there is also Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning. hes an unstoppable monster so yea hes there cause he has to be.

Other then that aside Great Article and cant wait to see more

-whomaster-

[Maruno]

take the monarchs for example, they only have 1000 atk

Oh, if only that was the case!  How many people would use Monarchs then?

[whomaster]

Oh, if only that was the case!  How many people would use Monarchs then?

meant def:P and everyone would play them cause they would most likely be 4 stars...normal summon zaborg no sac and u lose a monster ftw??? do i hear broken???

[Maruno]

I resent that comment.  Mind on Air is a 6 Star monster, with 1000/1600, and all it does is show you your opponent's cards.

I know you meant DEF there.  I was just saying that if the Monarchs were weaker than they are (still the same Level, but a lower ATK), how many people would still use them?  I don't think the Monarchs would become non-Tribute monsters just because their ATK was reduced, because their effects are strong.  And that's the whole reason why people play them so darned much.

I'm thinking the cut-off point between people using them and people not doing would be 2000 ATK.  That or above would keep them playable, but lower than that, people wouldn't be interested.

All hypothetical, of course.  It's a shame Konami doesn't like to edit their cards to bring balance.

[whomaster]

I resent that comment.  Mind on Air is a 6 Star monster, with 1000/1600, and all it does is show you your opponent's cards.

I know you meant DEF there.  I was just saying that if the Monarchs were weaker than they are (still the same Level, but a lower ATK), how many people would still use them?  I don't think the Monarchs would become non-Tribute monsters just because their ATK was reduced, because their effects are strong.  And that's the whole reason why people play them so darned much.

I'm thinking the cut-off point between people using them and people not doing would be 2000 ATK.  That or above would keep them playable, but lower than that, people wouldn't be interested.

All hypothetical, of course.  It's a shame Konami doesn't like to edit their cards to bring balance.

I agree that 2000 atk would be the cut off point, and I take back what I said. Your right when you said they would most likely still be a tribute monster. DARN YOU KONAMI!!!!

as for mind on air. she may be a 6 star but she is easily summoned by mystic tomato. In my hand destruction deck that was constantly the case.

[Dillie-O]

Case in point for 2000 ATK: Helpoemer. 'Pomie has been a tough nut for me to crack for a long time now. It has a GREAT effect of being able to disrupt your opponents hand if they still choose to do their battle phase. However, you want to get at least 1 attack with him, but is it worth tributing off the field for that level?

[whomaster]

I say yes play him he is amazing. By your EPV scale he is  554 and by weakness his only one is his sac rate, and even that is not a high price to pay for his amazing effect. I say yes play him.

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