Good Side Deck cards for this format

Hey. It seems that there are a lot of people who may be having trouble understanding what cards you should be putting in your side deck this format, due to the increased diversity and many side deck cards not being able to hit a broad range of decks. While you can just look up pros on google and see what they have been siding, there is never a really good explanation for those cards. But there are other cards that may not be used right now. I'll go over some of them and talk a bit about each one.

Nobleman of Crossout

Strong Against: Geargias, Gravekeepers and Ryko

Nobleman has slowly started creeping up in side decks. Geargia's main search card, Geargiarmor has proven to be one of the best flip effect monsters ever made. It's inherent spamability with stuff like Book of moon and Karakuri Strategist means you can get it's effect off multiple times a turn. While Nobleman of Crossout only banishes monsters from the deck if they have the "FLIP:" effect, the fact that it kills it and banishes it means it can't be retrieved with Geargiaccelerator. And it's better than shield crush since if you hit a face down Geargiaccelerator, then you will have probably helped them more than you would have liked. Aside from Geargia, Gravekeepers creep up and Ryko in Chaos Dragons is one of their main dumping methods. If you hit the Ryko, they are forced to rely on drawing Lyla (Which is way slower) or Card Trooper.

Needle Ceiling

Strong Against: Wind-Ups, Six Samurai 

A few of the pro players have started playing 2-3 of these in their sides. If you analyse the most optimal wind-up play currently being used, you'll realize that before any xyz summons happen, the wind-up player will have 1 Wind-Up Shark, 2 Wind-Up Magicians and another Wind-Up (Either another Shark or Rat). That play will always put 4 monsters on their field and Needle Ceiling can clear the board. It's a really good example of a bad card suddenly becoming good just because of a player's tendencies when playing a certain deck. Six Samurai are not really likely to put 4 monsters on the board without making Shi En first, but after a resolved Double Edged Sword Technique, it may suddenly become live and generally, if you summon 3 monsters and your opponent has not activated their face down, it's most likely something that triggers in the battle phase or a bluff. You can imagine their surprise when they overextend by one more card and suddenly they lose it all.

Super Polymerization

Strong Against: HEROs, Gladiator Beast or any deck if you're playing HEROs

Every Omni HERO is out so no attribute is off limits for this card anymore. If your extra deck can fit 3-4 HERO Monsters, then it can really pay off running this card. It's no response ability against HEROs hurts them so hard. Chainable traps and spells are so good right now and to take their Gemini Spark target away or forcing them to Compulsory an Absolute Zero (you may see this once Atlanteans come out) is too good not to pass up. I mentioned Gladiator Beast because people still play that deck and when it works, it works very well. Super Poly on their Prisma takes their precious normal summon away.

Gemini Imps

Strong Against: Dark World, Gravekeeper's

This card can put in so much work. Cards like Dark World Dealings always sound like it's going to be a fair trade off. Well it never is and negating their card while replacing the imps is the best way to deal with their retarded Discard/Draw power. It's worth remembering that Sides like this are only to deal with those rogue Tier 2 decks you see on day 1 of a YCS. They will most likely only take 1 spot in the top 32, but if you let your guard down and don't have any sides against them, they will be just as potent as any of the Tier 1 decks. Losing to a Tier 1 deck now and again is fine, but losing to anything else and using "I was not prepared since it's not Tier 1" is not a valid excuse and it all shows up the same on the leader board.

Snowman Eater

Strong Against: HERO, Thunder King, Rock Stun

Another card worth having sided just in case of those random matchups you're not expecting. It's 1900 defense means against HERO, they will more often than not have to waste cards like Gemini Spark to get over it. Miracle Fusion will help them out, but not if they make anything other than The Shining. I put rock stun because they focus around 1900 beaters and their Xyz monsters will generally not be able to handle it either. Even Guardian has to send itself to negate snowman so at the very least it's a 1-for-1.

Maxx "C"

Strong Against: Wind-Ups, Dark World (Kind of), Samurai, Hieratics, Chaos Dragons, Agents

Any extra copies you are not running in your main might as well be in your side deck. It's been a great card for a year now. It hits a wide range of decks and combining it with Tragoedia is now the most effective way of dealing with OTKs. Slamming a 4000+ Tragoedia down after they have gone for broke will probably be enough to win right there. There are so many opportunities to chain it's effect that it's worth maining just as much as Effect Veiler.



These are just a few of the many good Side Deck cards of this format. Whatever takes Precedence in Rhode Island will determine how many spots in your side deck you need to cater to stop a certain deck. It's pretty common sense really, yet people are still putting crap like Warrior Elimination to stop HERO. It just doesn't do enough to warrant the space.

Until next time, The TCG Lover out!