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Megaman

By The Numbers
by Sith Dragon
September 26, 2005

I'm back! Sorry I haven't gotten this out sooner, but it has been a very hectic couple of weeks. Okay, you now have your cards, but for newer people you may not know quite how to effectively build a deck. The next few articles will help you. Tech decks like Teen Titans and sentinels require different forms of building, so for these articles we are going to look at straight curve, and today we shall start with a breakdown of the drops slot by slot.

In Vs I run 30-34 characters depending on the effects in the deck. A normal deck you want 30/31 characters, if you have a lot of 'discard character' cards then you may want to run around 34. In the game of yugioh you can survive not having monsters for at least awhile, but in Vs if you don't have characters you are screwed, so at least 30 cards must be characters.

The trick to this game is 'hitting the curve' as it's called. In other games you can make a comeback if you fall behind early, but in Vs. its much harder to stage a comeback once you fall too far behind, but likewise, you may have a nice lead, but missing one of the latter drops (4-7) can often mean you are going to lose not only the lead but the game as you will be missing the much needed firepower to hang with your opponent. ***WARNING*** You WILL miss drops. No deck is so stable that you won't miss important drops.

Searchers and tech decks make it a bit easier to cover holes, but every deck will backfire eventually. So here we go drop by drop.

1 drop (avg size 1/1): If you have read my reviews, you know by now that I really do not like 1 drops unless they have really good effects. Most teams do not have 1 drops that are worth running, but there are a few out there depending on your team. 1 drops are pretty much worthless as they wont do more than a couple points damage and then leave you open to an attack later for an almost guaranteed 4 or more points. If you think you like a 1 drop then feel free to run a couple, but I would run no more than 2 unless they are a key gimmick to your deck.

2 drop (avg size 2/2): the two drop gets a bit more important, and missing this drop isn't the end of the world, but if you opponent hits and you don't it could begin to give your opponent the beginnings of a numbers advantage. If you can help it you want to hit this drop, yet pulling a 2 drop late in the game won't do you much good, unless you run a 5 or 6 drop of the same character, which I will go into in a an article about character diversity. Depending on how deep your character pool is at this drop I would run 4-6 cards.
You need enough 2 drops to make sure you can draw it early, yet not so many that you will draw a lot of them late in the game. This drop is also early enough that you can add in some unaffiliated characters and get away with it - most popular are cards like puppet master.

3 drop (avg size 4/4): From this point on you need to hit the curve. Some decks can survive missing a drop, but you better hope your opponent doesn't curve or you're in for an uphill fight. I generally run 6 cards on this drop. Depending on how your deck runs, you may +/-1. This is the drop where character advantage begins to take hold and the drops can start to do some real damage to endurance totals.

4 drop (avg size 7/7): The four drop is probably the first of the drops where you really don't want to miss. Characters here can start to get up to 8-10 attack, 11 in the case of feral rage Sabertooth.
Again here you want to run about 6 cards. You need to draw it, yet you don't quite have enough time to draw into it.

5 drop (avg size 9/9): This drop is one you need to hit, yet now we are to the point in the game that the odds have gotten descent enough that you can draw into it. I run 5 cards here. In some decks I still run six, but generally I will stick with five. You don't want to be tripping over this drop early in the game.

6 drop (avg size 12/12): Now you are late enough in the game that you can hopefully draw into your big drops. I only run 4 of this drop. Also, from here on out if you miss a drop and your opponent does not, you will be missing some serious firepower without something like a savage beatdown.

7 drop (avg size 15/15): on turn seven I run 3. This is a very important drop as this is the drop where an evenly matched game will usually end. Three generally gives you a fairly good chance to draw into this drop.
If the team you are running does not have a good 7 drop, then, like on the 2 drop, you can start running whatever character you wish here on out, whether it be unaffiliated or another team. Power is power and I doubt you are generally going to team attack or reinforce your 7 drop.

8 drop (avg size 17/17 but size really varies here):
On the eight drop, most games wont reach this drop, but enough games will see this drop that you need to run it. Here I only run one card. Again, any team can work here.

Okay that's the basics on numbers. My next article I'll cover character diversity and things like search cards. Certain teams modify the curve a bit, but I hope this helps you get started. The best advice no matter what you build is to practice, practice, practice. You will have bad draws. Everybody does, so play, shuffle and play again. If you are drawing all small drops and you are sure it isn't a shuffling issue then take out a 2,3, or 4 drop, and either add a
+5 drop or leave the deck minus the character if you
are drawing too heavy on characters.

Send questions, comments, rants and raves to Sithdragon13@yahoo.com. I love to hear from people who read my articles and what you guys need to hear. Until the next time..BATTLE ON!

"Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?"