Articles by MapleBlade

Game designers have to keep in mind the tolerance of their player base. Card designers run the risk of making a combo that lasts for several minutes, or ones that gain an insane amount of advantage. To prevent unintentional interactions, they need to keep in mind cards that limit the design of other cards.

Just recently, Yishan McNabb shocked the competitive scene with his top two finish at YCS Portland with Gren Maju Beatdown. While the concept of this deck is not new, its explosive finish has garnered the attention of many. What does the deck aim to do and will it continue to do well in future tournaments?

Traptrix is a small archetype of effect monsters that revolve around the manipulation of “Hole” Normal Trap cards. While Traptrix has been splashed into decks as an engine for decks like H.A.T in 2014, they have not seen any success as a standalone deck. However, with the release of Traptrix Sera, will Traptrix become a viable deck on its own? First, let’s analyze what Sera requires to function and what it adds to the deck.

Scouring Reddit for interesting deck ideas one day, a thread caught my eye: Irbricksceo’s regional top with Noble Knights. Reading his tournament report was quite enlightening, and they seemed to really know their way around the deck. Curious, I asked to interview them and they have politely given their time to answer some questions!

Prank-Kids are an archetype that has been released for about five months in TCG that revolve around Link and Fusion Summoning. There have been only a few tops to the deck, all with differing cards outside of its core. Prank-Kids have a unique mechanic, in which their Main Deck monsters reward the duelist in more Prank-Kids from the deck when used as material, while the Link and Fusion monsters provide resources and protection. Prank-Kids boast consistency and easily come back from board clears. However, it is weak to negation and may have trouble breaking boards. It has a lot of space outside of its core, and can simultaneously draw and deck thin.

As a duelist, you make hundreds of tiny choices that describe your “playstyle.” Not just the decision of which cards to play, but the way your mind works when committing fully to making a board, holding back, or when to go for game. I am going to make the argument that the best kinds of play are those that have a chance of victory, rather than preventing a loss.

Pendulum monsters are some of the oddest cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, boasting multiple effects and applications. There are a ton of moving parts, such as maintaining scales and knowing which combo pieces can survive disruption. Due to this, Pendulum-based decks can be disrupted easily. Additionally, because of their need for a mix of combo pieces and scales, the room in their deck to counteract disruption is limited. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to refer to Pendulum Magicians as currently they are the most relevant Pendulum deck.

Speed Dueling is a new format that is similar to Duel Links, in that the Deck and playing field is smaller, starting LP is 4000, and players have access to skills. Only “speed duel” cards can be used in this format, which are going to available in Starter Deck: Destiny Masters and Starter Deck: Duelists of Tomorrow. Before we look at the meta-relevant cards in the format and skills, let’s look at what the rules are and how they change from Advanced format.

If you’ve begun your grand venture of competitive trading card games, one of the first phrases you’re likely to hear is “card advantage.” There’s loads of terms associated with card advantage, like “plusses,” “minuses,” and so on. However, card advantage is not so static that every card gained is equal. Let’s analyze the differences between the types of card advantage.

Today’s deck is a Harpie deck by Skyscout! Our goal is to make the deck less slow, with emphasis on combos rather than its outdated, slow-paced game plan.