The side deck is the most under-utilized and misunderstood mechanic in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. When properly used, it forms a natural extension of your deck. When poorly built, it can be the weight that pulls you down during your tournament day.

Why is it so important to have a properly built side deck? Most players discount the importance of it, and some players even show up to tournaments without one. The general consensus is that, “The side deck is an extra fifteen cards that you can’t put into your main deck.” It’s not that simple. I view it as a tool to defeat strategies that you normally cannot overcome. It can make your deck that much stronger or just as weak. It’s a lot like the proverbial double-edged sword. It can hurt you or help you. You want it to do the latter. I went to a tournament recently and found that I could have performed better if I had a proper side deck.

There are many ways to build a side deck, but most strategies follow three general paths: Transformational, Utility, and Enhancement.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the three types of side deck, it’s important to know how you create one. A properly built side deck starts by recognizing that your deck is not invincible. It has weaknesses and it has strengths. You should focus on your strengths, and if your deck is weak against a certain deck or strategy, then you should find out how to beat that deck or strategy. That’s the second order of business: find your deck’s weaknesses.

Lastly, the cards you include in your side deck should not conflict with your main deck. If you’re playing a Zombie deck, then you shouldn’t have Banisher of the Radiance in the side.

Transformational Side Decks

This type is very easy to understand. It’s the classic “stall/burn to Monarch switcheroo” type of side deck. It works well for surprising a metagame every once in a while, but once the cover is blown, it rarely stays competitive for long. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to surprise opponents. Generally, you can spot it instantly because it favors the “smokescreen” style of siding after a duel. Your opponent generally shuffles the entire side deck into the main deck and then takes out fifteen supposedly random cards. Transformation works superbly in metagames where it is least expected. Also, another great opportunity to use this strategy comes when the metagame is at its most predictable and stale.

If you want to pull this off, then your main deck should be nearly impossible for your opponent to deal with without the aid of a side deck. This works great for decks like stall/burn and the late Cyber-Stein strategy. You then side into a game plan that differs from what your opponent is siding against so that he or she has the wrong cards for the real matchup. Simple, yet brilliant.

Tech

This type is my personal favorite, but also the most prone to mistakes. Most players like to turn their side deck into a “utility belt” and include cards that have no business in their main deck. That’s very foolish. To build a side deck properly with tech in mind, you must be keenly aware of your deck’s weaknesses. Let’s look at a personal example. I use a Zombie deck as my main deck. I know, without a doubt, that a deck specializing in remove-from-play effects will dismantle my deck by using cards like Return from the Different Dimension or D.D. Survivor.

To counter it, I include cards that weaken the opposing strategy while not disrupting my own. Instead of playing Return from the Different Dimension, why not play cards that hurt those decks, such as Twister, Chiron the Mage, or Prohibition? Since a remove-from-play deck relies on Dimensional Fissure, Banisher of the Radiance, and/or Macro Cosmos, I can use the aforementioned cards to hit the opponent where it hurts. As the old axiom says, “The best defense is a good offense.” You want to augment your deck so that it is stronger offensively against decks that attack your weak points. The faster and more efficiently you can strike, the easier it is to deal with a strategy that can hurt you.

Enhancement

I like this type as well. In theory, it is a lot like the tech type, but it focuses on enhancing the strengths of your deck against another deck you may face. Hector Heras’s side deck from the Top 16 of the latest Shonen Jump Championship at Durham makes a good example. Notice how he  plays the typical aggressive Perfect Circle build. It’s nothing special—I can name ten other people off the top of my head who play the same deck. The genius is in his side deck, specifically the three copies of Dark Bribe he has in there. Dark Bribe is the favored weapon of the recent stall/burn decks, but it is not limited to that archetype. It fits with Hector’s build for several reasons:

1.      Perfect Circle will, nine times out of ten, generate more card presence per play than the opposing player’s deck. Thus, the “opponent draws one card” drawback is mitigated.

2.      Dark Bribe is essentially a Solemn Judgment. It cannot stop monsters, but who cares? Playing powerful negation like the above cards is enormously effective in a Monarch-based build. To most players, it is excessive. I don’t agree. A lot of European duelists love negation within carbon-copy builds like Perfect Circle or Monarchs.

3.      Making a powerful deck even stronger than it already is is not excessive. It’s just tilting things in your favor, which is what you want.

The theme of Enhancement is deception, and it works very well with mainstream decks. You play the average strategy and your opponent will naturally side in the typical counter measures. Meanwhile, you silently augment the strengths of your deck to nullify the opponent’s attempts at exploiting your weak points.

Next week, we’ll discuss the subject of teching and its importance. It also fits in the category of misunderstood gaming concepts and can lead to inconsistencies and bad decisions. Thanks for reading and talk to you next week!