Hypothetical Two-Player Starter Kit Deck (S-Force Time Thief)

Time Thief and S-Force have lore that entertwines, and appear on some generic staples. Additionally, Redoer has a lot of protagonist potential. So I think that a fusion of the two serve as a good deck for a two-player starter kit. It's always bothered me that Time Thief and S-Force have never seem their time in the sun. They seem to have a lot of potential casual appeal with their interesting mechanics and gameplay. So this deck attempts to take s-force's care about columns and run with it into a full deck. In addition, the Time Thief cards are thrown in to go into rank-4's. Unfortunately, there's an issue in that there isn't much inherent synergy between the two, despite their lore connections. So the player would be instructed to decide which strategy they'll be playing on their first turn, and make their choice based on what they believe their opponent will be doing, and what exists in their hand. If they're going second, they can use the opponent's chosen positioning to proc s-force abilities. If they're going first, they can make redoer and start ripping their opponent's cards. The non-engine here is a bit odd. There are quite a lot of traps because we're attempting to support both the time thieves and the column gameplay.

The intended feeling that the player should have when staring down the other player of this starter kit (the other player has a zombie-vendred deck) is that the opponent's monsters won't stay dead, but their monsters can still control the pace of play by causing the opponent to contort their startegy to escape toxic zones and prevent their cards from being sucked up or banished. So the counterpart deck is intended to be aggressive and on the attack while this one is intended to feel tricky and evasive. They should feel like a roguish underdog who has an answer to everything, which is fitting for Time Thief.

This is another one that's somewhat dubious as a teaching tool. You wouldn't construct a real deck this way. But you also wouldn't play S-Force or Time Thief in a real deck if you planned on winning. I've prioritized aura and vibes over competiive viability and introduction to a competitive mindset for the sake of attach-rate over skill incubation. It's not necessarily the correct choice, but I think that it's appropriate for a starter set, which will mostly be purchased for children and people who know nothing about the game. If we want them to keep playing, they don't need to be optimal. They need to feel really cool. And optimial YGO is extremely boring if you're not already really good at YGO.

Rarities

Secret Overframe:

• Time Thief Redoer (There's a very good argument to be made that this should be an S-Force monster instead. But when thinking about the demographics of new ygo players ("he just like me fr fr"), I think that it would be best to front Redoer, even though at best he's just a minor annoyance to the opponent. Nightchaser is also a good choice in my opinion, but I've chosen Redoer here.)

Secret Rare:

• Nightchaser
• Bouble Barrel
• I:P

Ultra Rare:

• Little Knight
• Signify
• Perpetua

Super Rare:

• Mystify
• Justify
• Origin

All others commons.

In this case, in addition to the obvious trinkets that should be included with any 2-player starter kit (dice, deck boxes, playmat, etc) this one would require a bit more... explaination. Vendred and S-Force are not easily recognizable faces the way that Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes are. It would definitely be stretching the production costs of the product, but it would be extremely important, in my opinion, to bundle it with 2 short manga booklets that explain the story or lore of the archetypes in question. We want to build a connection between the players and the characters. They should be made to feel that their choice of one of the decks in this box reflects something about who they are as a person. Casual players seldom choose decks because of raw power. They latch on to decks that aren't competitively viable because something about that deck speaks to them as a person. We need to give both decks a chance to do that. We shouldn't treat them like they're just game pieces. Redoer and Slayer should be thought of as representations of the people playing them.

Counterpart deck: https://ygoprodeck.com/deck/hypothetical-two-player-starter-kit-deck-vendred-723207