Deck Building: Keep Lists

It’s very common for me to make a mental note of cards I like, ones that go well together, and ones that may become useful in the future. But, there are those times where I’ll be forgetful of those cards, or unaware of ones I have that could gel with the current deck I’m building. There has to be a better way.

As I was working on a Crashbug deck, I realized that there would be some very obvious good cards to go with them. They’re level 3 fiends, and dark. That brings cards like Tour Guide from the Underworld, Sangan, Allure of Darkness, and Ultimate Offering to mind. Adding Tour Guide to Crashbugs, a monster set whose deck should be inexpensive, is like adding gold-flakes to hot chocolate. I decided that I would try to hold off on Tour Guide for as long as possible.

Crashbugs want to summon their Rank 3 XYZ monster Number 34: Terror-Byte, and he requires 3 level three monsters (aka Crashbug X, Y, and Z). This is pretty card (ha…ha) to accomplish, considering the under-0powered nature of the archetype. But, Konami obviously expected someone to do it, so I set out to figure out how. This is when I realized I had to make a list.

I started writing down all the cards that could support Crashbugs. The number one goal was thinking about a type of strategy, in this case the Ultimate Offering strategy, and then listing all the cards I could find. Here’s what I came up with:

Genex Ally Bird Man

Barrier Resonator

Resonator Engine

Chaos Sorcerer

Magical Merchant
Stygian Street Patrol
Mystic TomatoDark Necrofear
Darkness Neosphere
Dark Armed DragonAllure of Darkness
Pot of Avarice
Pot of Duality
Dark EruptionUltimate Offering
Soul Demolition

Leviair The Sea Dragon
Number 39: Terror-Byte
Greno-Saurus
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

I saved this list, and now I can refer to it every time I have something to add to Crashbugs, or when I need to think about other LV3 fiends. There’s not really a particular outline or format. Cards are ordered with the “Far Left” being the most playable and in the “Middle” section are cards that support the ones they branch from, and so on.

This may sound very similar to the way Yugioh Wikia displays tips, but it required me to do some card research and think outside the box. The whole process is effectively brainstorming (with research) and keeping track. Since Crashbugs had no “Standard” deck, I was able to focus entirely on the search for deck options. Based on this card list, I came up with a usable (albiet, very casual) Crashbug deck.

I believe that starting a few of these lists, adding to them over time, and sharing them with friends will allow you to see the big picture of a single card, archetype, or theme.