Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Blackback

Hey. For today, instead of giving mad props to some random card, im going to be an ***hole and ***** about a bad card instead. And my victim for today is Blackback.

Now, this card was one of the worst wastes of a super rare that ive seen in a long time. The other Super rare traps "D2 shield" and "Tyrant's Temper" has actual uses.

It was better in the anime.

Its effect: "Activate only during your turn. Select and special summon 1 Blackwing monster with 2000 attack or less from your graveyard. You cannot normal summon or set this turn."

I really dont see why they had to place those restrictions on it. Only during your turn? What use is that to anyone? I can understand special summoning a Blackwing - Sirocco the dawn (the highest attack monster you can fetch with this card) then special summoning a Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind and synchro summoning a level 8. But it begs the question:

Why not just run Call of the haunted instead?

Call of the haunted does everything blackback can do, but so much more. You can use it on your opponent's turn, you can fetch nearly ANY monster you wish (except Nomis) and you dont have to give up your normal summon.

But the reason why im making this tiny review is because Konami decided it would be a good idea to make this card a Super rare. It was a TERRIBLE idea. You should see the look on people's faces when they fan through the 9 cards of a booster pack and see this.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Wattdragonfly

Greetings Yu-Gi-Oh peoples!

I probably wont do another review until after christmas, so i want to wish you all a merry christmas. I hope you get whatever yu-gi-oh related presents you wanted.

I dreamt that santa gave me a playset of Pot of Duality. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, up for review today is Wattdragonfly. Watts have been getting some pretty bad support, and only a few ever make it into the deck. If you look at Wattgiraffe, Wattcube and Wattwoodpecker, you can see that they have some potential to be explosive when they have the right cards.

Wattdragonfly says "Merry Christmas!"

This card gives the deck some consistency and should be played. when destroyed (by either battle or card effect), you can special summon one watt monster from your deck.

It's as simple as that. It searches, it keeps monsters on the field, and its reliable. If your opponent does not want you to search, they have to rely on cards that bypass its requirements like dimensional prison or compulsory evacuation device.

Its a really good topdeck to push for damage late game. Since you can special summon any watt monster, you can ram this into a monster with higher attack (since this card has only 900 attack, that shouldn't be a problem) and get a wattgiraffe or wattpheasant. Then attack for at least 1k.

Simply put, if you play watts, or thinking of playing watts. Definately play this in 3s.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Karakuri Shogun MDL 00 "Burei"

With Starstrike blast comes a new archtype called the Karakuri. They are a bunch of interesting japanese-themed machine types which in the most part have the same clause at the start of the effect:

"This card must attack if possible. When this card is attacked, switch it into defence mode"

Also, i have to note that the transition from the OCG to the TCG has caused their names to become excessively long and difficult to remember. If you happen to want to make a Karakuri deck, you might have to refer to them as "the one that special summons stuff" or "the one that sends stuff to the graveyard" instead of their names.

Now, Karakuris also have their first synchro monster too. Which is what todays review is about: Karakuri Shogun MDL 00 "Burei"! (which i will just call Burei from now on).

The Karakuri General.

Burei has 2600 attack points and 1900 defence points. 2600 is a respectable attack for a level 7, which can get over stardust dragon and other used synchro monsters.

Burei has a cool effect. When this card is Synchro summoned, you can special summon a Karakuri from your deck. Also, once per turn, you can select a monster on the field and change its battle position.

These effects are amazing for Karakuris, and yet, its completely balanced for a archetype synchro monster. Special summoning a Karakuri from your deck is a gorgeous +1 for you, and you are most likely to get Muzichiha for an extra 1800 beatstick and a potential 4400 direct damage. Its second effect can be used offensively and defensively. Combined with the spell card karakuri anatomy, you can easily accumulate the 2 counters needed to literally pot of greed!

Fortunately, if you dont play Karakuris and you happen to pull this card, there's no need to despair. To synchro summon it, you only need a machine type tuner while the non tuners can be anything. This means that morphtronics and other machine type archetypes can synchro into this with ease. Also, with the release of Formula Synchron, you can synchro into Burei on your Opponents turn! How cool is that?

If this card doesn't warrant playing Karakuris, i dont know what will (Until the next synchro comes out in Storm of Ragnarok!)

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Scrap Mind Reader

One of the more expensive cards to come out in Starstrike Blast is an exclusive for the recent scrap archetype. It has been said by some to be junk (no pun intended) while some have given it praise and therefore, has got itself a $50 pricetag.

The card i'm reviewing today is Scrap Mind Reader.

Scraps look like machines, yet this is the only one.

Now this card has a pretty good effect. Scraps were never known to have an agressive approach so its effect fits well.

Once per turn, while this card is in your graveyard during your main phase 2, you can select 1 face-up scrap monster you control, except a scrap mind reader. Destroy that monster and special summon this card from the graveyard. If you do, remove this card from play when its removed from the field. Also, if this card is used for a syncho summon, all other monsters used for the synchro summon must be scraps too.

Wow. What a mouthful. Now let me break each part down and explain its uses/limitations for you.

Now, you can destroy a scrap and summon it. Your targets to destroy here are going to be Scrap beast, scrap goblin and scrap soldier since when they are destroyed by the effect of a scrap monster, you can return a scrap from your graveyard to your hand. That means no loss of advantage for you. Next, when this card is removed from the field, remove it from play. That stops it being abused of course, so thats fine. And lastly, you need to use scraps to synchro with it, which is also ok since a good scrap deck will have at least 12 scrap monsters.

So, what else can you do with this? Well firstly, you can synchro this and Scrap Searcher and make a Formula Synchron. You can also synchro this with a Scrap chimera and a Scrap hunter for a Scrap dragon. OR you can swap the Scrap Hunter for a 2nd Chimera and go into a Twin Dragon instead!

this card opens up alot of synchro monsters that weren't previously avaliable for scraps.

But this card has been rediculed and critisized, and with good reason:

- Counting the compulsory 3 Scrap beasts, 3 Scrap Goblins and perhaps the Scrap soldier there too. There is enough tuners in the deck already. Mind reader seems a little redundant to me.
- You can only activate it in main phase 2. Thats not good if you prefer a more agressive approach or prefer to make your plays before you attack.
- Drawing this card is TERRIBLE. This card warrants playing a Foolish burial just to get this card in the graveyard.

But its not all bad, it can still save you at times.

And there you go. Its up to you if you want to pay 50 dollars for one, but i personally wouldnt.

Starstrike Blast Sneak Peek: Cards to look out for

Right. A new post which isn't a review. I thought that i would show a collection of new cards which you might want to look out for at the sneak peek. here is my top 6:

6 - Tuning
A card which yusei used a few times in the anime. you add a card with "synchron" in its name from your deck to your hand, then send 1 card from your deck to the graveyard.
With about 10 monsters with Synchron in its name, you have a good pool of cards to search to deal with any situation. Notable cards to search are Quickdraw synchron, junk synchron and Synchron Explorer. The second effect means that you might be lucky enough to mill a dandylion and load your field with 2 non-tuners so your synchron can come in and synchro summon right away. In my opinion, with quickdraw being a very strong deck already, this card will break them.

5 - Large Heat Wave
A cold wave for monsters. Its absolutely broken and should have never been made. until your next draw phase, you and your opponent cannot normal summon or special summon (but you can flip summon) effect monsters. Nobody plays vanillas anymore (except for a certain few cards) so this card hurts any deck right now. The most broken part of this card is that it ends on your next draw phase. That means that if you manage a way to skip your next draw phase, the effect continues for another 2 turns! So with reckless greed, you can stop your opponent from summoning monsters face up for 3 turns.
Trust me, its broken.

4 - Red Nova Dragon
Being printed in a tin, this card is a powerhouse that jack uses with a "burning soul". its summoning requirements are somewhat a pain, but if you can get it out, you can run over anything. It can protect itself from any effect by removing itself and that means one attack is negated too. It comes back in the end phase after that effect. It gains 500 attack for each tuner in your graveyard, which means with 3 tuners needed to summon it, it usually comes onto the field with a whopping 5000 attack points. With decks like flamvell, you can use rekindling to summon Flamvell baby, Flamvell Archer, Flamvell Magician and a Flamvell Firedog/Grunika from your graveyard and synchro it all into Red nova dragon. And it only costs you one card.

3 - Psi-Blocker
Recently announced on the konami strategy website, this TCG exclusive has a great effect which definitely see play once this set is released. Once per turn, you can declare a card name and its effects are negated and cannot be activated until your opponents next turn. this means you can declare your opponent's face down cards, and if you're lucky to have declared one of them, you can attack without fear. This card can also hit cards that activate in the hand, like Battle Fader and Gorz, the emmisary of darkness. Be sure to look out for anyone who pulls one of these at the sneak!

2 - Glow up bulb
This card laughs at spores playability. If this card is in your graveyard, once per duel, you can send the top card from your deck to the graveyard to special summon this card from the graveyard. I believe that this card rivals the playability of plaguespreader, and it doesn't mess up your next draw if the play you were going to make does not turn out the way you wanted. Want an example of an epic play? Special summon cyber dragon, special summon this card, special summon dandylion tokens if it gets milled, then synchro into stardust dragon or goyo guardian. This card can also help with the summoning of formula synchron which is also debuting in this set. It needs a level 1 tuner and a level 1 non tuner so this card helps its summoning perfectly.

But what's the number one card to look out for this set? Well im undecisive between swift-attacking scarecrow and other cards. I'll let you decide...

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Scrap Chimera

Next up for review is another scrap monster (the first was scrap dragon). Scraps have debuted in The Duelist Revolution and have already claimed a YCS. But there is one scrap monster that makes it the amazing archetype that it is: Scrap Chimera.

While Scrap dragon is more splashable, scrap chimera is a brilliant card for its own deck. Its effect fits into its deck perfectly.

Beep Beep RAWRRRR!

When you normal summon this card, you can select (that means it targets!) one Scrap tuner monster in your graveyard and special summon it. But this card cannot be used as a synchro material except for a Scrap synchro monster AND all the other monsters used for that synchro summon have to be Scraps, too.

Thats a mouthful right there, but even though it can only used for a scrap monster synchro summon, it special summons its own scrap monster to tune with! The best card to special summon with Scrap Chimera's effect would be Scrap Beast so you can synchro summon straight into Scrap Dragon.

But Scrap Dragon is not the only synchro monsters avaliable to Scrap Chimera. The Duelist revolution sneak peek card Scrap Archfiend is a level 7, so you can special summon Scrap Goblin and tune straight into him. When the next set, Starstrike Blast is released, Scraps will get a level 9 synchro monster called Scrap Twin Dragon (when its in the TCG). You can use Scrap Chimera to special summon Scrap Soldier (Which is also coming out in Starstrike Blast) and synchro into that.

But enough about what it can synchro into (which is why its so good). With 1700 attack and 500 defence, it is the beater of the deck right now and does not have the drawback of being destroyed at the end of the battle phase like the other scrap monsters do. With Scrap Chimera, you can special summon scrap beast or scrap goblin, and attack and destroy them. Their effects will activate and destroy themselves, which lets you get a scrap monster back to your hand (Like another scrap chimera!) whichever way you look at it, scrap chimera will easily give you at least a +1.

And thats that. If you play a scrap deck, you need to have 3 of this card. Its just simply too good not to. And since its not very splashable, do not expect this card to be seen on the ban list.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Now for a little bit of nostalgia, Konami have decided to release the legendary collection. Comprising of 6 cards that everyone will recognise, as well as six packs: one of each of the first 6 sets (In the UK, we got 2 packs of the first 3 sets instead), it gives duelists another chance at pulling some old favourites that were until now, difficult to get hold of.

The Legendary Collection comes with the 3 god cards (In the new card format) as well as an alternate art Dark Magician, Red-Eyes Black Dragon and today's card, the all powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

My Favourite Blue-Eyes artwork!

This card was first used by Seto Kaiba in the very first episode (excluding season 0 of yu-gi-oh) and he likes it so much, he has 3 of them in his deck! He could fuse them together to create the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, with an impressive 4500 attack points.

It has 3000 attack points and 2500 defence points, which is 500 more attack and defence points than Yugi's ace card, the Dark Magician, respectively. Kaiba relied on Blue Eyes's powerful strength to take any monster down.

Alone, this card could not survive the evolving metagame we have today. It's not a card you can splash into a deck for some extra power and expect to get it out. Monster effects and mass destruction cards play more of a part in todays yu-gi-oh than ever, and Blue-Eyes white dragon wouldnt last a turn on the field if left unprotected.

But there are many support cards that make Blue-Eyes playable, and i will list a few of the best ones.

First up are the ways of getting him out onto the field without wasting tonnes of resources. Cards like Ancient Rules and Kaibaman can help summon him as easy as the first turn! But thats not all, you can also use Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to special summon him from your hand or graveyard once a turn!

You will need to search him from your deck too. You can use cards like The White Stone Of Legend to add a Blue-Eyes to your hand whenever it is sent to the graveyard (Future Fusion can help with this!) or Summoner's Art, to add a level 5 or higher normal monster straight from your deck to your hand. You can go one step further and use Paladin of White Dragon to special summon him straight from your deck!

Lastly, you want to be able to special summon it from the graveyard (It has no special summoning restrictions and it can swing for 3000 attack. You dont see that very often anymore, just look at Judgment Dragon!). Monster reborn, Call of the Haunted and to a lesser extent, birthright and silent doom can bring him back over and over again.

But now that he is on the field, what can you do to keep him there? If by some chance that your opponent wants to take your precious dragon down in battle, you can drop an Honest since Blue-Eyes is a light attribute.
Alternatively, you can use Justi-Break to destroy all effect monsters on you and your opponents side of the field (sorry Sangan and Dandylion... oh, whats this?).

So as you can see, Blue-Eyes may not be able to hang around for long, but there are effective and near-costless ways to keep bringing it back and ploughing through your opponents resources, and if you happen to have your Blue-Eyes removed from play, you can always run 2 or 3!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Summoning Curse

The next card up for review is another common card from The Duelist Revolution. I believe it was worth a rarity upgrade, but nobody's complaining. Presenting: Summoning Curse!

Oh look, Dark Armed Dragon!

Now it has a very good effect. Whenever a player special summons a monster, the cards controller has to remove from play one card in their hand. But to keep it on the field, you have to pay 500 life points at each of your end phases.

This card is best used in decks that do not special summon, such as gadgets or watt decks. But it can still be used in other decks too. This card basically stops special summons in the same way as Royal oppression. Your opponent will have to be willing to sacrifice cards in their hand to swarm the field. And since the cards sacrificed will be REMOVED from the game, your opponent wont be able to trigger cards like dandylion or any dark world monsters.

But compared to Royal oppression, Summoning curse does not get rid of the monster, and 500 life points a turn can accumulate to quite a lot. If you manage to get both of them out though, then you can destroy the big monsters, and make them remove cards when they summon weaker ones.

This card can also work in infernities. Since they play with no hand, they have no cards to remove when they special summon monsters!

Try it out sometime, its surprisingly effective!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Cursed Armaments

Today, i decided to review a card that you might not have heard, but probably pulled it from a pack and did not bother to read it. If that's the case, then look through your pile of commons and look for it. The card i'm reviewing for today is Cursed Armaments.

What is your mom's face doing on a Yu-Gi-Oh card?

This card has a very good effect, and is worth putting in many decks. You equip it to a monster your opponent controls and it loses 600 atk for every monster you control. When it is sent from the field to the graveyard, you can equip it back onto any monster your opponent controls.

2 very good effects right there. The first effect means the monster equipped with the card will lose a good amount of attack points as long as you keep your monster card zones filled up with your minions. With 5 monsters on your side of the field, your opponents monster will lose 3000 ATTACK. Thats enough to reduce a Blue Eyes White Dragon all the way to nothing. And with a card that relies on the amount of monsters you control, spamming tokens via Dandylion, Phantom Skyblaster or Scapegoat is a quick way to bring their big monsters down.

Its second effect is what makes it an amazing card. if its sent from the field to the graveyard, it equips itself back to another monster. Whether it be by destroying the equipped monster by battle, or by effect, the card can just equip itself onto another monster. That way, if your opponent has 2 or more giant beatsticks to your slightly weaker monster, you can attack and destroy one without worrying about being beaten by the second monster on their turn. And since it comes back every time, mystical space typhoon and dust tornado are wasted on it.

With it being an equip card, it can be retrieved from the deck or graveyard by Hidden Armory or from your graveyard by Fairy of the Spring. And since it is a spell card, its faster than a trap.

But this card does have a few downsides. If you destroy the opponents monster equipped with the card, and it was the only monster your opponent controls, it will stay in the graveyard and you wont be able to get it back on the field by its effect. Secondly, there is a lot of removal around which limits you to 1 or 2 monsters on the field at once before the next removal. This can make getting the monsters needed to reduce the opponent monster's attack low a difficulty.

But in a deck that relies on equip cards, this card is a staple. In other decks, this card can still be a devastating tech.

Try it. You will be pleasantly surprised!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Scrap Dragon

Hey. With the DuelistRevolution, we have been introduced to the new Scrap Archetype. This archetype specialises around bringing back its comrades from the graveyard when they are destroyed, so you never run out of them!

But one monster stands out above the rest. It does not even need to be kept in its own archetype. Im talking of course about Scrap Dragon

So thats where my dishwasher went...

Its effect is something quite special. Once a turn, you can select and destroy one card you control and one card your opponent controls. when its destroyed, you can special summon one non-synchro scrap monster from your graveyard.

Now these effects are both good. With scrap chimera, this card is extremely easy to bring out. Its first effect and the fact that it does not require any specific tuners or non-tuners means that you can put it into your extra deck regardless of what deck you play.

With cards like dandylion, card trooper or hero's medal, you can destroy your own cards without losing advantage!

Its second effect ties in perfectly with the scrap theme. You can use its first effect to destroy your opponents monster and this card, then special summon another scrap and attack directly.

This card will see more play in the next few months. Look out for this card in extra decks near you!

The New September 2010 Ban List: How Well Did Konami Do? Part 2

Continuing on from part one, we have the limited list

Limited:

Infernity Launcher
Black Whirlwind
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Royal Oppression

I personally think these additions to the limited list are reasonable. This list reflects the recent outburst of anti-meta and blackwing decks that were at the world championship last week.

Black whirlwind being limited was probably not necessary at all. blackwings have not been a threat at all as of late. It seemed fine at 2 as there was no way to add it to your hand except by drawing it.

Infernity Launcher was a well needed limiting. Its effect was so outright broken and gave the user instant advantage. Its effect also meant that you could bring out 3 to 4 high level synchro monsters in one turn. That alone is reason enough to have limited it.

Monster reborn coming off the forbidden list has been done before. Since the game has gone a certain direction over time since the beginning, Monster revival seems to be a little less important than other game mechanics that are abused by some decks today. Call of the haunted was limited (from forbidden) a couple of formats ago and players rarely play it. Monster reborn is a little more splashable than Call of the haunted, but it does not fit into every deck believe it or not.

Dark hole becoming limited was a real shock in my opinion. Its effect is basically a raigeki since players are often clearing eachothers field every turn. Its effect has no cost and as long as you destroy more than one of your opponents monsters, you have generated advantage for yourself. With Heavy storm out of the picture this format, players are becoming more trap heavy and have no good reason to run starlight road anymore. this means that dark hole has nearly zero resistance when played. The only possible card being used these days to negate monster destruction would be My Body as a Shield.

Lastly, Royal Oppression limited hurt many decks and was not needed. there are not many cards that can prevent special summons like Oppression does (reliably and usable many times), so it left a gap in the game for decks to abuse. With Oppression at one, players know now that if it is in their opponents grave, they are pretty sure they can special summon with a little less resistance. I'm glad they decided to limit this card over something like Bottomless Trap Hole though. That would have been a HUGE mistake.

The semi limiting and unlimiting of the other cards on the list were pretty self explanatory, but i would have liked to have seen stardust dragon on the list somewhere, as well as XX-Saber Darksoul (Which would not happen for a long time since the OCG does not have it yet).

Now, back to the card reviews!

The New September 2010 Ban List: How Well Did Konami Do? Part 1

The new ban list for the TCG has just been announced, and will be in effect on september 1st, 2010. There has been some major changes, mostly in the staple area. While also there were some long coming additions to the forbidden list, as well as some "what the hell..." additions to the list in general. Lets take a look at the list shall we?

Here is a list of the cards that have been MOVED since the last ban list:

Banned:

Substitoad
Rescue Cat
Heavy Storm
Brain Control

Limited:

Infernity Launcher
Black Whirlwind
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Royal Oppression

Semi-Limited:

Chaos Sorcerer
Snipe Hinter
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
Mystical Space Typhoon
Ojama Trio
Magic Cylinder

No Longer on List:

Goblin Zombie
Cyber Dragon
Black Rose Dragon
Treeborn Frog
United We Stand
Royal Decree


There are some cards on this list that are not worth talking about (treeborn frog, for example), but most of them will recieve my two cents.

Now lets start from the forbidden. Each card here deserves to be banned.
Rescue cat was defining the meta, and should have been banned a long time ago. It made X-Sabers too powerful, and with konami releasing the TCG exclusive XX-Saber Darksoul, it could be tuned with X-Saber Airbellum for a level 6 (prefably XX-Saber Hyunlei). but inherently, rescue cat's ability to summon 2 monsters from your deck is clearly unbalanced and hurts the game. it also limited what beast types konami could release in future booster sets.

The next card is Substitoad. This card was the best card to ban to stop the frog FTK decks running rampant in every tournament. With this card gone, the deck no longer has an efficient and consistent way to dump frogs into the graveyard. I feel like this card was the best choice to ban, rather than Mass driver and Ronintoadin (the other 2 key parts to frog FTK).

The other two newly forbidden cards are Heavy Storm and Brain Control. Heavy storm was the only way to keep stall decks and burn decks at bay. But with it banned, players are no longer punished for overextending their backrow on the first turn. I think that konami made a huge mistake here, and they tried to compensate by semi-limiting Mystical Space Typhoon, which does not replace it by a long shot.

Brain control being banned was a long time coming. This card requires no skill to play, and the 800 life point payment is almost always payable. There is not much else to say here, but dont expect this card to come off the list. EVER.


Coming up in part 2: The limited list.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Pot of Duality

With a new set of cards, comes a bunch of fun new reviews!

The duelist revolution is the latest set, and by far the most hyped and discussed card in the set is the Pot of Duality

Pot of Greed and Pot of Generosity in one card!

Its effect is simple, balanced and generally quite useful regardless of what deck you play. You reveal the top 3 cards from your deck to you and your opponent, then you select one and add it to your hand. Then send the other 2 back into your deck and shuffle it.

Now on the outside, it seems like a fair 1-for-1 (you trade in this card for another), but it goes much deeper than that. Being able to dig 3 cards deep in your deck means that pot of duality becomes a card that you want right this second from your deck, and not 1,2 or 3 turns later.

That alone is why its so good. It takes some of the luck out of the deck, makes it more consistent (meaning you pull off the same combos more often) and there is no discard cost or a life point cost either!

BUT, all powerful cards needs a drawback, and to some decks, its a very harsh one. the turn you activate Pot of Duality, you cannot special summon OR activate another pot of duality. that drawback means it might not fit in EVERY deck, like Infernities which special summon many times within a couple of turns.

So there you have it. This card is a perfect example of balanced draw power, and its guaranteed to make your deck better!

Right now Pot of Duality is worth about £60 ($100) so if you want a playset for your deck, be prepared to fish out at least £150 ($250) for them.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Herald of Perfection

Sorry its been a while. but heres the next review.

In the last 3 booster sets, Konami has given us a decent amount of Ritual support and the newest addition is the Herald of Perfection.

If it could negate summons too, then it would be perfection.

Like all ritual monsters, this one can only be summoned by its own ritual spell card Dawn of the Herald. To summon it this way, you must tribute monsters from your field or hand whos levels equal Exactly 6. This might sound tricky to do consistently, but its effect really does make up for it.

Whenever your opponent activates a spell, trap or monster effect. You can send one fairy type monster from your hand to the graveyard to negate and destroy that card!

Now with 2800 defence, this monster is better suited in defence mode to serve as a inpenetrable wall. And with its effect, your opponent will have trouble getting a monster with high enough attack on the field to get rid of it.
With cards like Beckoning light, dark factory of mass production ,archlord kristya and the ritual spell card itself, maintaining a hand full of fairies to discard is easier than it sounds. This means your opponent has to use many useful cards in his hand until you run out of fairies.
Its effect also means that your opponent will be powerless against the other monsters you summon. While Herald of Perfection is on the field, your other monsters can attack while Herald negates the traps your opponent attemps to use.

This card has become its own tier 1 deck in the current meta. Its strategy involves the use of Manju of the ten thousand hands, Senju of the thousand hands and Sonic bird as well as Preperation of Rites and Advanced Ritual Art to facilitate its summon as quick as possible. Some variants also use Royal decree so that you only need to worry about discarding for monster effects and spells.

So if you like the idea of a competitive ritual monster which negates pretty much anything, give Herald of Perfection a try this meta!

The Field Spell Zone, How useful is it?

I have decided to talk about, possibly, the least used zone on the field. The reason i want to talk about it is because it is extremely underrated. Many decks revolve around a field spell but tier 1 decks do not. But why is that?

Field spells have the amazing ability to be placed on the field and affect both players simultaneously. Because of that it can sometimes be considered more powerful than most normal and continuous spells. Some of their effects can completely devastating while some are easy to play around. Lets have a look at some of the better field spells.

Black Garden: With the power to cut your opponents summoned monsters in half, while giving you tokens, its a useful field spell for plant players. A few plant type monsters benefit when your opponent has plant types on the field, and they get extra attacks or other effects. This card also allows you to summon Black Rose Dragon from your graveyard (as long as you use 3 tokens for it).

Necrovalley: Gravekeepers have had their archetype reborn with additional cards in the Absolute Powerforce booster set. Necrovalley has to be on the field for some of their effects to work, as well as some of their support cards (Like Royal Tribute, one of the main reasons to play gravekeepers). And with the ability to stop graveyard shenanigans, its a powerful field spell this format, and in many formats to come.

Skyscraper: While not as popular, it takes the weak elemental heroes and turns them into 2000+ attack when attacking. This can take down many high beaters your opponent summons. There is also Skyscraper 2 - Hero City, which lets the cards controller special summon a level 4 or lower elemental hero from your graveyard that has been destroyed in battle previously. This lets you swarm Elemental Hero Stratos everytime its destroyed, and keep adding cards to your hand.

Geartown: If not, the BEST field spell currently avaliable. Currently being used in a the Machina Geartown variant, its effect lets you special summon huge monsters extremely easy, allowing for a quick swarm. The best part of all, its special summoning happens when its destroyed. so your opponent better think before using his heavy storm.

Now, apart from Geartown, field spells are prone to destruction more than your average trap card. Its vulnerable to cards that destroy face up cards (e.g. Twister) as well as your average spell/trap destroyers, like Heavy storm. And when the cards gone, the effect is no longer there, which means the deck that relies on that field spell is now in trouble. With many decks this format wanting to be as fast as possible, they pack many cards that destroy spells and traps. So they do not have to deal with them when attacking. Thankfully, there are cards that can protect your field spells. The rarely used Field Barrier protects your field spell while its on the field, but you would need to have it while your field spell is on the field, otherwise its a dead card.

Another card thats recently been released in the Shonen jump magazine is Malefic Stardust Dragon. Its effect lets you special summon it from your hand by removing a Stardust Dragon from your extra deck from play. But what makes it better than the other Malefic monsters is that it comes with its own ability, which is that field spells cannot be destroyed by card effects! With Malefic Stardust Dragon on the field, as well as your field spell, you are in a great position.

So you see. Field spells might be tough to keep on the field, but more and more support is being released, as well as more field spells to use. So why not try one today?

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Ronintoadin

Frogs have been given one of the most notable additions in The Shining Darkness. Since its release it has pushed them over the edge and made them tier 1. The card i am talking about of course is Ronintoadin!

Now its effect is extremely useful. On its own, its useless. But combined with the capabilities of the other frogs, its banworthy. You can remove one frog monster to special summon it from the graveyard, but it cannot be used as synchro material. And while its face up on the field, its treated as "des frog"

With 2000 Def, this card serves as a decent wall which can special summon itself when destroyed. That makes it better than you're average high defence wall!

Lets break its effect down. You can use its effect as many times as you want per turn. That means cards that tribute monsters for something benefits from this card. And thats exactly what frog players have done. Frog FTK involves dumping 20 monsters to the graveyard via Swap Frog and Substitoad, then using mass driver to tribute Ronintoadin 20 times to deal 8000 damage!

Also, since it is treated as Des frog while on the field, it can be used in conjunction with the real des frog, as well as dupe frog (Which is also treated as des frog) with the spell card des croaking to blow up your opponents entire field.

And even though it cannot be used as a synchro material, it has been used in Frog monarchs. By using Ronintoadin and treeborn frog, you can easy provide the fodder to tribute summon a monarch each turn! (as long as you keep drawing monarchs, of course).

Both of these decks have proven to be as competitive and as strong as the best decks of this format, and all because of Ronintoadin.

Expect this card to be limited or banned come september, and with most of the cards easy to get (most of them are common or rare), theres no excuse to try frogs out right now!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Infernity Doom Dragon

Hey. The next card i've decided to review is another infernity card. But this one is the high attacker of the archetype. Say hello to Infernity Doom Dragon!

Quite possibly the ugliest dragon in the entire game.

While not the nicest looking dragon in terms of art, it has a cool effect that hurts your opponent for a nice amount of burn damage.
While you control this face up card and have no cards in your hand, you can select and destroy 1 face up monster your opponent controls and deal damage equal to half of its attack. But if you use this effect, it cannot attack this turn.

Now this effect can be very handy. Its best to use it when your opponents monster has over 2000 attack points, so you deal more damage with the effect rather than attacking it. And if your opponent has a large number of traps on the field, its a safe way to take out your opponents cards without worrying about their potential Mirror force/Dimensional prison if you were to attack instead.

As for its stats, its powerful 3000 attack is enough to get over most things, and go toe to toe with the big bosses. Its 2400 defence is good to. If it somehow gets forced into defence mode, Monarchs, jinzo etc. cant get over it.

Now as for its requirements to synchro summon it, thankfully the only specific tuner it needs is a Dark one. That means it can be synchro summoned using the popular Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind or a Dark resonator. But the most suitable way would be to synchro using the Infernity Tuners; Infernity Beetle and Infernity Avenger.

But what makes this dragon so good? Its the first word in its name: Infernity.

With the special summoning capabilities of Infernities, its extremely easy to keep special summoning it over and over. You can use Infernity Launcher to special summon Doom Dragon and Infernity Archfiend. Or you can use Infernity mirage instead to special summon it.

So if you're playing infernities this format, put 1 or 2 of these into your extra deck. You wont be disappointed!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr

Blackwings have been updated with The Shining Darkness booster set, and even though they did not make much of an impact on blackwing players, one card has proven to be of some use. And that card is Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr.

Not a black feather in sight...

This card is thought of by some players as a 2nd Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind. Which is one of, if not, the most important blackwing monster in the archetype. Because of its amazing ability to cut the attack of your opponents monsters in half permanently, it was a staple in Blackwing Decks and used in many other decks too. But soon after its release, it was made limited on the ban list and severely damaged the swarm power of the deck.

Breeze's effect might not be able to cut your opponents attack points, but it can help swarm the field and synchro just as fast. When its added from your deck to your hand by means of a spell, trap or monster effect, you can special summon it. Also, it can only be used for a synchro summon of a Blackwing synchro monster.

Its first effect is easy to pull off. With 1100 attack points and the amazing support card Black Whirlwind, it is searchable by normal summoning any blackwing monster with 1200 or more attack. That means you can summon Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame, Blackwing - Bora the Spear, Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind etc. and get free Breeze the Zephyr.

Its second makes it a balanced card. With only 3 Blackwing synchro monsters currently avaliable (Black Winged Dragon does not count as a Blackwing monster), you are limited as to what combos you can do. The easiest would be to summon Shura or Bora, search out Breeze the Zephyr through Black Whirlwind, and then synchro summon Blackwing - Armor Master. Or you can summon Gale or Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow, and synchro summon into Blackwing - Armed wing.

But a big problem with this card is when you draw it. Its effect does not activate when you normally draw it, and it has too low attack power to do sufficient damage.

So there we have it. I would give this card a 3/5. Its a nice way to replace the missing gales, but it just seems like its lacking the same awesome factor that its older brother had.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: XX-Saber Darksoul

With The Shining Darkness, X-Saber players have been given some new and powerful monsters to work with. While 2 of them are OCG exclusives (Palomuro and Pashuul), there are 2 others which are brand new. And one of them is the XX-Saber Darksoul.


Darksoul was a well recieved addition to an already great archetype, and its not hard to see why. Its effect lets you search for another "X-Saber" at the end phase when its sent from the field to the graveyard during that turn. But firstly i want to talk about the other parts of this card that make it so good.

Its a level 3 Beast-type. Which means its searchable by Rescue cat. Rescue cat has proven to be an amazing card in X-Sabers, with its capability to summon airbellum and another level 3 beast-type for a quick level 6 synchro. But now you can summon Airbellum and Darksoul, synchro into a level 6 (Like XX-Saber Hyunlei so you can destroy 3 spell/traps), and then search out an X-Saber at the end of the turn!

Or you can synchro into Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, search for a monster, then next turn you can discard the card you searched out. And because Darksoul's attribute is earth, if you have 1 level 3 earth monster on the field, you can normal summon Rescue cat, use its effect to special summon airbellum and darksoul, and synchro into XX-Saber Gottoms! And with XX-Saber Gottoms, you can discard your opponents cards by tributing another Darksoul, and search at the end of your turn!

But thats not all, if you somehow manage to send darksoul to the graveyard multiple times in the same turn, you get to search an equal amount of times! With this in mind, its essential to use 3 copies of XX-Saber Faultroll.

But at 100 attack and defence points, you wont be using this card offensively, so you might not want to use 3 copies incase you draw multiples in your starting hand. But at least you can use its effect to search for something with a bit more power, like the other The Shining Darkness TCG exclusive, XX-Saber Boggart Knight.

So if you're using an X-Saber deck and want more speed, then get your hands on an XX-Saber Darksoul!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Wattgiraffe

Today i've decided to review a cool card from a brand new archetype from the shining darkness. The watt archetype is a set of thunder type monsters with some pretty nice effects. So i present to you, Wattgiraffe!

It stomps down your opponents life points. What more could you want?

For a level 4, this cards stats (1200 attack and 100 defence) are quite lacking, but its effect makes up for it. Firstly, this card can attack directly. And at 1200 damage each attack, your opponents will want to do something about it as quick as possible.

Next, after Wattgiraffe deals the damage, your opponent cannot activate spells, traps, spell/trap effects (like royal oppression) or monster effects until their turn. That means you can attack with this card, then in your main phase 2, you can use any cards without fear (Heavy storm his potential starlight road anyone?).

Now, if you feel like 1200 attack points is easy to deal with, then Watt players have Wattcube, an equip spell that you can equip to a thunder type monster and boosts the equipped monster by 100 attack points for each thunder type in the graveyard. Or you can send wattcube to the graveyard from the field to increase the attack of one thunder monster on your field by 1000atk until the monster leaves the field.

With Wattcube used on wattgiraffe, you have got yourself a 2200 attack direct attacker with only two cards! And thats with only one wattcube. If you use 3 wattcubes, thats 4200 attack points! Thats enough to beat your opponent in only 2 turns!

In conclusion, if you like the idea of a potentially powerful direct attacker that shuts down your opponent, then Wattgiraffe is for you!

Look out for the other Watt monsters in The Shining Darkness, Wattwoodpecker and Wattfox. And if they caught your interest too, then watch out for the next set of Watt cards in The Duelist Revolution and Starstrike Blast sets!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Synchron Explorer

With the release of the Starter Deck: Duelist Toolbox in the week or two, there has been a few noticable new cards that had been added. One of them is Junk Destroyer, a huge destructive beatstick that can clear your opponents field (If you want to read more, you should read my review about it).

But another, not so popular card has been welcomed by players called Synchron Explorer. This card is what many Junk and quickdraw decks are placing into their decks and they are seeing better results instantly.

Incase you didn't realise, the tuner monster comes out of its belly.

This card might not have the Attack power to destroy anything, but its level and its effect is what makes it unique and powerful.

When this card is normal summoned, you can special summon from your graveyard a monster that includes "Synchron" in its name. But its effect is negated.

Now how many monsters can you think of that have Synchron in their name? A few at least. But heres the great part: All the cards you can summon with this card are Tuners. When you summon this card, you get your tuner monster with this cards effect, and now you have the components to synchro summon. But what can this card special summon and eventually synchro into?

Junk synchron ---> Junk warrior
Quickdraw synchron ---> Nitro warrior
Drill synchron ---> Any level 5 synchro monster
Road synchron ---> Any level 6 synchro monster (of if you had a level 2 monster on the field already, then Road Warrior.)
Nitro synchron ---> Armory Arm
Hyper synchron ---> Any level 6 synchro monster

While there are other cards Synchron Explorer can summon, these are the best ones. But the synchro monsters summoned by this card only required you to normal summon Synchro explorer. And you dont need to worry about trap hole, bottomless trap hole or any similar traps because it has 0 attack points!

This card is also useful because players use a synchron monster to synchro summon, then it goes to the graveyard, rarely ever to be used again that game. Well this card lets you bring it back with no cost. Its practically a reverse Junk synchron!

So if you use any synchron monsters, love to synchro summon with just 1 card, or if you just like shiny cards. Then Synchron Explorer is the card for you!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Infernity Barrier

Shining Darkness has proven itself to be one of the best booster sets in the last couple of years (The last two good ones were Light of Destruction and Phantom Darkness. All the others after that have been slighty anticlimactic with their impact on the game.) and with the shining darkness comes the full force of Infernity Archetype.

Infernities have become a powerful One turn killing force since the TCG release at the start of may. The rarity of each card had been increased to make them harder to aquire. But that didn't stop many players fishing out large amounts of money to buy boxes in the hopes of getting a set of each infernity card.

And the Infernity card that is pretty difficult (And the most expensive on the secondary market) to pull from a Shining Darkness booster pack is the all powerful Infernity Barrier.

Perhaps the ultimate barrier...

Released as a TCG exclusive secret rare, this card is a staple in any professional infernity deck. It is currently priced at around £40 ($60) and people who cannot afford them are trading vast amounts of their accumulated rare cards to get them.


Its effect is simple but powerful. While you control a face up attack position infernity monster, while you control no cards you can negate the activation of a spell, trap or monster effect and destroy it.

This card is capable of shutting down your opponent completely when played at the right time. And since its a trap card, it will not stay in your hand for long. It is also a counter trap, so it is very difficult to negate by your opponent. This combination means that it fits the infernities style of play perfectly: Fast and Dominating.

There are a few flaws in this card that can be worked to your opponents advantage:
- You need to have an attack position infernity monster to activate this card. If you dont have one on the field and you draw this card, its dead in your hand and you had wish you had drawn a solumn judgement instead (which has almost the same effect). With this in mind, it makes sense to run 2 infernity barriers in the deck instead of 3.
- Also, infernity players prefer to put their monsters in defence position since there is no reason for them to be in attack mode most of the time (Like Infernity necromancer, which switches itself to defence when its summoned)
- Its a trap, which means its prone to dust tornado, mystical space typhoon, heavy storm and to a lesser extent, bait doll. But the same applies to any other trap in the game.

In conclusion, this card is an essential piece of the Infernity arsenal. It fits its play style, it negates whatever your opponent wants to throw at you, and theres essentially no cost (except for the no hand condition, but infernities usually have no hand anyway).

Would i recommend this card? yes i would. But if you happen to pull it out of a booster pack and you dont have an infernity deck, then i suggest you sell/trade it while its still high!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Reasoning

An old card with a very crazy effect. Lets take a look:

Floating cards? It makes me wonder what is in that pipe of his...

"Your opponent declares a monster Level. Then pick up cards from the top of your Deck until a monster that can be Normal Summoned is picked up. If that monster is the same Level as the one declared by your opponent, send all picked up cards to the Graveyard. If not, Special Summon the picked up monster and send the remaining cards to the Graveyard."

A somewhat underrated card that can be extremely handy to many decks currently out there right now. With many decks that love putting monsters into the graveyard, this card can be extremely beneficial.

There are a few good decks that can use this card and pull off an easy one turn kill:

- Evil hero dark gaia deck: Dump the cards you need. Play dark calling and summon Dark gaia, all with 2 cards in your hand.
- Hopeless Dragon: Once again, dump all the high level dragons that cannot be normal summoned with reasonings effect, then use Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to Special summon them to the field. Also, if your opponent does not declare the right card and you special summon a dragon with reasoning's effect, then you have the monster to remove for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's Summoning condition!
- Zombies: Put lots of zombies in your graveyard, where you can use book of life, zombie master and call of the haunted to bring them back.

Most players will agree that thinning your deck is extremely important to get to the cards you want in your deck. Which is why players currently run cards such as Ryko, lightsworn hunter, Card trooper, and also cards that search other cards like XX-Saber Emmersblade and Mystic Tomato. So this card is a brilliant way to help get the cards you want.

However, this card does have its cons:
- If you run a very spell/trap heavy deck, you will probably end up sending many useful cards to your graveyard.
- It picks up the cards, then sends them to the graveyard. So Monster effects like Wulf, Lightsworn beast will not activate, rendering them useless.
- While it can do a lot for you, it is slightly luck reliant. You might accidently special summon a card like Junk synchron; a card that would rather be normal summoned so you can get its effect.

So if you have the space in your deck, love monsters in your graveyard, and like an almost free monster put onto your field with no drawbacks, then consider putting this card into your next deck. Or at least, your side deck!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Junk Destroyer

Hey once again. Today im going to review a recent love of mine, Junk destroyer.

Ive always been intrigued with the Junk monsters, and this card is a welcome and competitive addition to the family. If the archetype was an actual family, this would be the big daddy.

I think he wants a hug...

It has 2600 Attack power and 2500 defence, which is not too shabby for what it is. It requires Junk synchron (Or Quickdraw Synchron) as the tuner and 1 or more non-tuner monsters. But its effect means if you use more than 1 non-tuner, you'll be rewarded for it.

When its synchro summoned, you can destroy a number of your opponents cards up to the number of non-tuner monsters used for the synchro summon of this card!
Incase anyone reading this has not noticed yet, thats a potential of up to 4 cards you can destroy, whether you want to blow up your opponents back row, or his swarm of blackwings, or a bit of both.

This card is incredible. Since you're opponent will only have a few cards on the field, you can usually clear it and attack for a painful 2600 points.

There are lots of combos that can be done with this card. Here's my favourite:
You could synchro this card using a Junk synchron/Quickdraw synchron + 3 tuningwares. you get to destroy 3 cards and draw 3!. Thats a net advantage of +6 in total!
And whats more amazing, is that you can play de-synchro and +6 again! And with machine duplication, foolish burial and reinforcement of the army in your deck too, you can use this combo consistently nearly every game!


Now this card does have some drawbacks, while not on the card text itself, is worth considering while using this card:

- Its 2600 atk is quite easy to get over. but you should blow up the higher attack monsters with this effect when its summoned.
- After its effect has been used, its essentially a normal monster after that.
- When you clear the field, your opponent might have a gorz in hand, which has 100 attack more than junk destroyer and can get over it next turn.
- STARLIGHT ROAD. This card is easy to negate with it. Fortunately if you only destroy one card using its effect, starlight road cant be activated.

And there you have it, its mean, its new, it blows stuff up. What more can you want?

Conclusion? If you're running junk synchron or quickdraw, you should put at least one of these in your extra deck!

Nuff said!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Dandylion

Hey. This is going to be my first card review. with hopefully many more to come. I want to share my experiences with cards that ive used and cards that i feel i should share my two cents about. Now some of you might not agree with what i say about the card i review, or have an interesting story about it. I'd love to hear it! If i can say how i feel about a card, then im sure you can too.

Now lets get started. With the release of ABPF special edition a few months ago, and the recent ban list updated in march. We have dandylion, a newly semi-limited cute flower-lion thing with 300 attack and 300 defence. Its effect is whenever it is sent to the graveyard, it gives you a couple of "fluff tokens" (how cute!) in defence position. But these two tokens cannot be used for a tribute summon that turn.

Dandylion's got attitude!

Now let me tell you why its good. Dandylion effect can trigger when its sent to the graveyard in ANY way. Whether it be by discarding from your hard, being destroyed by battle, or the most popular way, sent from your deck. And heres another great part, its effect is MANDATORY. You dont get the choice to summon the tokens, its effect triggers by itself. that means just like Wulf, it cannot miss the timing.
And when you get the tokens, you cant tribute them. BUT you can send them for a synchro summon. This means another 1 or two levels onto any monster you wish to synchro summon.

A good monster to use this card with is Quickdraw Synchron. Use its effect to send DandyLion to the graveyard, special summon itself and the two tokens, and now you have a selection of monsters you can synchro into:

- Nitro warrior, for getting over high attack monsters
- Turbo warrior, for taking down other synchro monsters
- Drill warrior (See jeff jones deck down below)

and with the recent release of Junk destroyer (Which i will do a review on), the tokens will help contribute towards that, and net field advantage at the same time.

Simply put, if you send cards to your graveyard a lot and you like to synchro, im sure theres room for one or two of these cute flower-things in your deck.

Its recent shine in the spotlight has come from a new deck made by a many time shonen jump winner Jeff Jones, called Quickdraw Dandywarrior. The deck is based around the use of Quickdraw Synchron, Dandylion, Drill warrior and other cards to recycle dandylion and synchro summon monsters like crazy.

Konami's take on the deck: Here

How to make a good Yu-Gi-Oh Deck.

Hello. My Name is Kyle. And ive been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for many years. I wanted to make a blog to help you, whether you're a new player or a veteran, get some information on how to make a good Yu-Gi-Oh! deck to play. I will tell you the fundamentals necessary to making sure your deck can compete with the best. Here is a list of steps (and tips) you should take to become a Yu-Gi-Oh! Master!

Step one: What do you want?
Yes thats right. The first step is one of the most obvious. Before you even think of making the deck, what do you want your deck to do? Do you want your deck to beat your opponent with powerful monsters? Do you want to play some spells that deal effect damage and just sit back while your opponent suffers? Or how about controlling your opponent slowly and countering his every move?

Well let me tell you right now. The best decks that win tournaments can beat ALL of them. For your deck to be the best, you need to be able to beat anything that decks throw at you.

I dont mean that the best decks are super powerful. I mean that the professionals have designed their 40-card deck with so much in mind with every card.

Lets take an example deck thats winning Tournaments right now. Called Machina gadgets.
Machina gadgets uses the control aspect of gadgets, with the searchability of machina gearframe, and the brute force of its boss monster, Machina Fortress.

here is a link to a typical deck: Here

Im using this example because it is a perfect example of a deck that has next to NO weaknesses. If you focus on the strengths of your deck too much, you will lose sight of its weaknesses and thats what your opponent will use to beat you over and over, and over.



Step two: The basic "staples"

Before you decide what kind of monsters you want to use, its best to understand the staples of most decks that win.

Staples basically means the spells and traps that work in most decks and have extremely good effects.

An example of a staple would be brain control. If you dont know what that card does, you pay 800 life points to take control of a face-up monster your opponent controls until the end of the turn.

But why is this card a "staple"? I'll tell you:
- It only needs 800 life points.
- You take control of your monster and can attack with it. Not only have you rid their field of their monster, you can attack with it and use its effect for yourself.

Thats it, thats exactly why its a staple. If you dont use staples, you are putting yourself at an extremely big disadvantage. So i suggest you use about 10.




Step 3: The Archetype you wish to use.

An archetype is a collection of monsters that either share a name, type, attribute, etc.
Gone are the days where you can get a bunch of random high attack power monsters and run down your opponent. You wont last long if you do this.

As stated above, an example of an archetype is "machina". Each machina monster has "machina" in its card name. Usually they can interact and synergize with eachother. But in the video in step one, he also uses monsters that work with the main goal of the deck. An example of that in his deck would be "Cyber dragon", an easy to summon but powerful monster.

With this combination, your deck will be much better already.

And the final, and one of the most important steps: Knowing how to use your deck.

"Its one thing having a good deck, but knowing how it works and how to apply it is what seperates the good from the noob." - Jesus

If you dont know how to apply the cards in your deck, then people will enjoy beating you over and over again.

Heres an example starting hand of cards:
Brain Control
Smashing Ground
Dimensional Prison
Starlight Road
Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
Red Gadget

And lets say that your opponent has a 1600 attack monster on the field with no spell or traps set.

Now here are your options:
1. You can set ryko and set starlight road and Dimensional prison.
2. Summon red gadget and set starlight road and Dimensional prison.
3. Use brain control on his monster then summon red gadget, then attack with both.

While they all look like good options. The best option would be the first one. Why? Because in setting ryko, your opponent will get his monster destroyed when he attacks it. And if he had summoned a second monster, then your dimensional prison will be waiting for him.

But why not the other 2 options? The 2nd option will leave your monster easy to be destroyed unlike a face down Ryko. the 3rd option will deal the most possible damage. But your opponent will get his monster back and most like regain control of the game.

As you can see, knowing how to plan and use each card effectively can mean the difference between Winning epically and losing disgustingly.

With these 4 steps in mind, you can make a deck that you feel confident about. You can watch as you counter your opponents moves, beat their monsters senseless, and maintain complete control over the game at all times.