Ok, you check out the Shonen Jump Championship coverage, read other players’ Regionals reports, review the winning deck lists, and discuss them with your peers, and you’ve thought to yourself, “What is it that sets these players apart from everyone else?” There are several answers to that question, but one of the most important is something you can take advantage of yourself. Players who consistently make the Top 8 test decks like crazy, and you can do it too.
The easiest way to keep yourself informed about the current format (and well-balanced enough to face off against a variety of opponents), is to maintain what’s called a testing gauntlet: a group of decks intended to give you matchup experience and help you understand the game better. Alternating the decks that you play isn’t just a break from your normal routine—it’s a reliable way to gain insight into the current format. If you’re a duelist on your own, a testing gauntlet will give you firsthand experience with different strategies (and we’re all on our own sometimes, even if we’re on a team or have a casual group of friends who play).
If you belong a group or team, your testing gauntlet will let you play out different matchups from the perspective of either side. Pair off with a teammate, and you’re ready to roll. Your teammate gets experience with the deck, you get experience against it, and you both have fun playing something other than a straight Chaos match. Maintaining four to six decks gives you a nice blend of testing options, and when you want to take one of those decks into sanctioned play, you won’t have to worry about shuffling around proxy cards to make it tournament-legal. If you’ve got the time, gauntlet testing can be a rewarding, fun, and relatively inexpensive way to improve your game! Here are some steps you can take to build your own gauntlet.
Getting the Cards:
The most imposing part about building a decent-sized testing gauntlet is the sheer number of cards you’ll need. You’ll probably need five Heavy Storm cards, six Graceful Charitys, ten Sakuretsu Armors, etc. With the variety of decks you’ll be building, you actually won’t need as many copies of high-value cards as you might fear. When you start hitting your third deck or so, you’ll start to realize that not everything needs Cyber Dragon, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, or even Mirror Force. Sometimes, finding that twelfth Bottomless Trap Hole or seventh Mystic Tomato can be a bit difficult though.
In short, Structure decks and reprint sets are your new best friends. Need four Breakers? Use the common ones from Spellcaster’s Judgment. Hunting down a fifth Torrential Tribute? Fury from the Deep has got your hookup. Your gauntlet doesn’t need to be full of holos or ultimates—it certainly can be, but it’s not a must. (You can always keep your main deck foiled out if you like.)
In short, collect playable cards. Don’t throw away common cards that you figure you already have enough of, and when you trade with other players or collectors, ask for throw-ins to seal a deal. Most people will willingly toss in a couple of playable non-holos to finish up a trade. Even if you already have ten Mystical Space Typhoon cards, keep them around anyway. Often you’ll find someone who has the common or rare you need, but is just looking for one more Call of the Haunted or Snatch Steal in return.
Organize Your Deck Fodder:
You’re probably going to change the cards you use a lot. Imagine how often you tweak the one or two decks you have now, and then multiply that by three or four. Carefully organizing the playable cards that you don’t intend to trade is going to save you a lot of time. Do yourself a favor and make a play binder for all the cards you want to keep for yourself and your gauntlet. Then take a few hours and organize them all by deck—not by set or rarity, but by where they might likely see play. Many of your categories will be influenced by monster type: a section for Machines, one for Zombies, one for Beasts, and so on. You’ll also want a section for burn cards, Chaos cards, Monarch control, and other broad categories. Make one for side deck tech and another for general-use stuff too.
Put everything in a binder, not a card box. It’s going to be a little bulky, but your cards will be easily visible in themed clumps, which makes deck-building decisions a lot easier. If you decide one of the decks in your gauntlet needs a tweak, you can just flip through to that deck’s section and start appraising your options. Alternatively, if you feel like building a new deck, you can just go to your general use section and/or the specialized theme section that matches your intent. A well-structured play binder makes deck building a snap. It’s much easier for inspiration to strike when you can actually see your different options laid out in front of you. It’ll eat up an evening of your life, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.*
Selecting the Decks You’ll Use:
Okay, so you’ve resolved to build a gauntlet, and you’ve blocked off some time to reorganize your cards. Now you’ll need to actually choose what decks you’ll want to build. It’s usually a good idea to keep a mix of decks at various levels of proven viability. To start, you always want to have a copy of whatever the current “cookie cutter” deck is. Even if you never intend on using it in a tournament yourself, you definitely want to practice with so that you can understand how it works. You’ll also want to test everything else against it, since it’s going to be your most likely matchup.
From there, look for other decks that do well in your area, and build those. In addition, check out Shonen Jump Championship coverage for interesting decks that made Top 8 or came close and got a deck feature. Those can be great to build yourself, develop, and take to tournaments. Plus, it’s fun to say that you’re proficient with a Tundo Life Equalizer deck, or that you know all the ins and outs of Reversal Quiz. When you come up against those decks, you’ll know how to handle them! Believe me, once a deck list has been posted and proves at least moderately successful, players are going to duplicate and experiment with it. You’ll run into it eventually.
Two popular decks, one or two promising ones, and one or two creations of your own devising make a very good balance for a complete gauntlet.
Deck Building Tips:
You want to keep all of the decks in your gauntlet competitive, but when you’re managing five or six different decks, that can be hard. While your testing gauntlets should include some of your own creations, netdecking is perfectly excusable when you’re juggling half a dozen different strategies. There are four major information sources for deck lists.
The first is Metagame.com! Want to know what a tournament-winning Chaos Recruiter looks like? Just hit up the Top 8 deck lists from a recent Shonen Jump Championship and you’ve got an up-to-date list right there. With that as your basic template, you can then make any preliminary changes you want in order to ensure that the build fits your basic style. In addition, the weekly deck columns can be a great source of random additions for your testing gauntlet. The decks that get posted here have been carefully built and finely tuned, so some of the testing has already been done for you.
Trawling message boards can be a good way to find some interesting ideas too. Some of the game’s best deck builders maintain galleries of deck lists that you can check out. Quality here can vary, but there are some real gems to be had if you know where to look and take the proper time.
Does your local Premier Tournament Organizer (the person who runs your Regionals and Sneak Previews) maintain an online listing of top deck lists? Many do, and you can find those lists on your PTO’s website. If something wins a Regional, you’ll be able to download the list for study and (if you wish to add it to your gauntlet) mimic and tweak it. It’s as easy as enquiring with the PTO, and if they don’t offer this service, suggest it to them. Most are happy to do it: it’s a relatively low time investment for them that can bring tons of people to their website. That keeps their attendees (customers) aware of their upcoming events.
Finally, just asking to see decks used locally will usually result in access to some good material. While you might run into the occasional person who doesn’t want to share information, most will be happy to let you admire their hard work when it pays off with a good tournament placing. After all, if someone’s a serious duelist they’ll have their sights set on Shonen Jump and Regional victories, rather than merely dominating their local store. The worst thing another local player can say to you is no, in which case you can just thank them and move on.
Build yourself a decent testing gauntlet, work with it, and you’ll see improvement in your tournament performance. Decisions become easier to make when you understand what’s going through your opponent’s head, and when it comes time to build your own decks, you’ll know all the little weaknesses of the decks you’ve been testing. It’s not nearly as expensive or daunting a task as it might seem, and multiple testing decks will also provide more variety for your play experience. It’s fun, it’s efficient, and it helps make you a better duelist. It’s also gratifying to open up your bag and reveal an imposing row of choices when you head to league or sit down for some casual duels among friends. You don’t have to take my word for it—go ahead and try it for yourself! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
*To be totally frank with you, I didn’t assemble any of my binders. I let Jason do it because he loves to sort cards. In return, I cooked a beef roast. If you just can’t stand the thought of dragging out all your cards and sorting them, see if you’ve got a friend or two (or four) who will help you with it. Then do something nice for them. I get all my card sorting done this way. Incidentally, the smell of dinner cooking makes people sort very, very fast.