I'm going to be doing a series of articles on how to improve deck building skills.

I’ve noticed during testing, that many of our members have crap side decks or none at all. And we, as an academy, are obliged to teach y’all newbies how to get better at yugioh. A huge part of this is deck building and this article will discuss a critical part of that; the side deck.

WHY you should side: The side deck is a huge part of competitive dueling and not having one means you are bound to get stomped in any match. Siding gives you the edge over other decks during your second and possibly third game of matches.  The ability to swap in cards that tell your opponent “you cannot play yugioh” is extremely powerful and should be utilized to its maximum potential.

Now let’s go over the basics of siding:
       A.) Side decks are NOT for you to just stick extra cards in that you think would work in your main deck. For example, you want to play that extra pot of duality, but you’re not sure where to put it? WELL NOT IN THE SIDE DECK! It’s for cards that would hurt your opponent in situational matchups, but don’t belong in the main deck. For example, let’s take Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, one of the more prominent side deck cards in the game.  Not every deck is dark attribute and those that are not are not affected by SIM, but the ones that are dark are crippled by it, therefore earning it a place in the SIDE DECK.
       B.) You should always side for decks that are relevant in the Meta. I know this is pretty obvious, but many people keep outdated cards in the side. Certain cards fall in and out of favor from format to format. For example, let’s take Maxx C, an extremely powerful card that was rampant during past formats. However, during the last couple ones, it has fallen out of favor due to the fact that there are cards that are simply better against the Meta game.


How to side: As I stated before, the side deck is for cards that would cripple your weakest match-ups and/or prominent decks in the Meta. The general idea is side cards that hurt your opponent and doesn’t hurt you as much. Many side deck cards stop a certain aspect of the game and you need a basic understanding of decks to know how to use these cards correctly. Let’s say you know your opponent’s deck relies heavily on the graveyard, you would side in D-Fissure, d.d. crow, debunk, etc. However you can’t side on a single deck alone. You need to take a consensus of popular decks in the meta, and build your side deck around them. Let’s use the current meta for example. Many decks at the moment rely heavily on the graveyard therefore making soul drain a popular side card. The top 3 (excluding qliphorts) are shaddolls, burning abyss, and satellaknight, all which are light of dark attributed decks. Obviously, light and shadow imprisoning mirror and popular choices right now.

Now that we have gone over how to side and the importance of it, I’ll make a list of side deck cards effective in the current metagame. NOTE: This part anybody can contribute to, just say the card and provide a small reason why it’s a good choice if it’s not listed.

Shadow/Light-Imprisoning Mirror- As stated, many strong decks at the moment are one of these 2 attributes making these a strong side deck choice

Mind Crush- Everything and its mother searches these days.  Shaddolls search their fusion, satellaknights the altair, BA tour guide, and Qliphorts… well everything. This card also has many practical applications, such as getting rid of combo pieces or game winning topdecks.

Chain Disappearance: Burning Abyss is a bitch

Spell Shattering Arrow/Extra S/T Destruction: Qliphorts are a problem and currently this and the card I’m going to mention after are the only ways we have to deal with it.

Mask of Restrict: Restricts Qliphorts and certain Burning Abyss variants

Anti-Spell Fragrance: Qliphorts

Deep Dark Trap Hole: Shaddolls and various Synchro decks

Soul Drain: Hurts Shaddolls, Burning Abyss, and other grave whore decks

Dimensional Fissure/ Macro Cosmos: Read Above

Stygian Dirge: Hurts most xyz oriented decks

De-Fusion: Shaddolls
 
D.D. Crow: like i mentioned above... grave whores

Debunk: ^

System Down: Qliphorts and Geargia

Now Kudos to B@TMAN for teaching me what a side deck was and to anyone who contributes to the list. ~WowThatsPrettySad

Needle Ceiling

cease fire, flip with no effect! (+ burn damage )

You should really stop using inappropriate words as it is against the rules. Also to be on topic Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell. Great to stop Qliphort Scout and if used on Shaddoll Fusion you can pretty much say gg. It is even a card I am main decking in my qliphort deck.

Alrighty just to add to this.
This is something that is not considered often when making a side deck.


Try to use cards that hurts your opponents deck but keeps yours in flow.
Look at burning abyss for example, they side cards like Majesty's Fiend and Mobius. These cards hurt your opponents decks but also helps Burning Abyss.
Also these cards don't really affect the flow of BA because they can either use Monarchs Stormforth or just special summon a BA monster from the hand and summon it that way. There is a lot of possibilities from this.
Don't always think about what is the best card that is played in meta decks to anti your opponents because maybe for that certain deck, it could be the worst card.

Also DO NOT OVER SIDE.
This is one of the worst things you can do, over siding just kills your own deck a lot. over siding with ease kills your own decks consistency. Side only like 1-5 things. Not half your side deck. Over siding is just bad and in the end it hurts you more than your actual opponent.

Hope I helped.

PS Debunk sucks

Some side deck cards to consider:

Black Horn of Heaven: Pendulum summons.
Fire / Ice Hand: Great cards lol
And The Band Played On: I use this in decks like Batteryman. It stops special summons on monsters of the same level that are currently on the field. So its pretty good lel.
Puppet Plant: Takes control of opponents monster and you make use of it

I just noticed...No Vanity'd Emptiness

Dead PhoenixFX wrote:

I just noticed...No Vanity'd Emptiness

MOST people main it.
But there is the few those who do side it.

Dead PhoenixFX wrote:

I just noticed...No Vanity'd Emptiness

Most people Main Deck Vanity's Emptiness though.

Doesn't mean it can't be a good side...

Never said it couldn't be. Only stating people main deck it.

Dead PhoenixFX wrote:

Doesn't mean it can't be a good side...

Vanity's is more of a maindeck card now

Why do you people keep repeating each other... -.- If I wanted to hear the same stuff over and over again I'd go by a Parrot

Sadly Phoenix.....there is a lot of people who won't read replies....