Subject: An 8-page article I wrote that I would like to have featured.

Hi. I wrote an article I would like to have featured, so that the 
maximum amount of people read it. I'm not sure whether you would like 
it just on the email or attached, so I'm doing both.

Now the article:
	Hi. Welcome to my token introductory paragraph where I give you 
irrelevant information that in no way pertains to the info you’ve come 
seeking in this article. My name is Glenn Jones. I started playing 
Yu- Gi-Oh when it came out. I am the top ranked duelist in my area, and I 
would be ranked quite high nationwide were it not for the fact that I 
have had to constantly miss tournaments for other real life 
commitments. As such, my tournament rating has taken a hit. But the 
most interesting fact about my Yu-Gi-Oh career is that I have only lost 
two matches, matches being best 2 out of 3 competitions. In total I 
have lost only 7 games. And whether that is based on the player 
competency of my area or on my own skill, I have decided to write this 
article in order to offer a guide to winning and deck construction.
	The largest concern in Yu-Gi-Oh is that your deck be as good as 
it can be. It has to have one specific ideal. These are the deck 
concepts I have seen: destroy an opponents LP by quick beatings 
(beatdown), get a certain notorious 5 cards in hand (exodia), stall an 
opponent long enough to run them out of cards or take all their life 
points by a hard to destroy damage source (control), keep control of 
the table while using efficient monsters to demolish the opponent 
(aggressive control), quickly play good fusions (fusion), or lay down 
some kind of combo (combo). Each deck has its strengths and weaknesses, 
which I will examine in depth.
I. The Different Kinds of Decks
	Beatdown. The single goal of a beatdown deck is to overrun the 
opponent using a force of aggressive creatures. This is strong because 
this deck can punish opponent’s bad draw. In Yu-Gi-Oh there is no way 
to improve a bad starting hand other than wait; you can’t send it back. 
As such, a bad draw can leave a large gap for beatdown. Its also 
effective because the attack powers of level 4 monsters have with the 
newer sets become better than the defense stats of level 4s. There are 
also much better equip cards such as Axe of Despair and even Malevolent 
Nuzzler. One of the weaknesses of this deck is its notoriety. Anyone 
who comes to a tourney not expecting beatdown should learn some very 
fast lessons. As such, many people design decks especially to take 
advantage of the cards beatdown relies on. One of these decks is the 
Gravity Bind deck, for obvious reasons.
	Exodia. Stall, search, and draw until you get the five parts of 
Exodia, whereupon you win unless you’re really stupid. I did actually 
see a guy hold the exodia combo til his opponents turn, and his 
opponents draw was the last part allowing him to declare a draw. Pretty 
pathetic. But anyway, the staples here are the parts, Sangan and Witch 
of the Black Forest, Mystic Tomato, Painful Choice, and Backup Soldier. 
The weaknesses are of course discard and really overwhelming beatdown. 
One of the double-edged swords of this deck is Exodia the Forbidden One 
(the head). This piece has an effect (the “win the game” one), and as 
such can’t be used in the Painful Choice/backup Soldier combo, or in 
fact discarded at all. It’s one of the parts you need to find first, 
and it’s the weakest, meaning the most vulnerable to early disruption. 
That kind of sucks. Anything that can take out an Exodia deck’s 
defenses will stand a good chance also.
	Control. While I haven’t seen one that worked consistently yet, 
I have seen them tried, mostly as fruity “all magic and trap” decks. I 
personally think any deck shut down by Jinzo and/or Imperial Order is 
going to have lotsa problems with the environment post-PSV. One control 
deck that is viable is the old Catapult Turtle-Shield and Sword deck, 
which can do all right. It has some decent beatdown matches, but has 
trouble vs. slower more consistent decks. Good luck all you stall 
players out there; it’s an uphill battle. The weakness of control in 
today’s environment is that it doesn’t have an unstoppable kill 
strategy, and that it sucks, once again with perhaps the exception of 
Turtle. Sorry, but that’s the truth.
	Aggressive Control. This is one of my current favorites in the 
environment. Depending upon your hand you can play fast beats or stall 
until you take the field. It’s a well-rounded archetype with a very 
situational play style, and many variations (Gravity Bind, Velocity 
Prime, Mid-Range, etc. Sorry if I used names you’re not familiar with). 
It’s weaknesse lie on times when some of the faster decks get 
goodhands, and you just can’t cope. Sometimes the cards aren’t there. 
Sometimes you wish some of your offensive monsters were defensive 
monsters. While a very solid choice, typically bad plays or draws can 
steal games away from you.
	Fusion. A deck relying on a bunch of 3-card combos that all 
suck with the sole exception of Black Skull Dragon is no deck at all. 
Unless you can draw Polymerization, Summoned Skull and Red Eyes Black 
Dragon 2 out of every 3 games, don’t bother. Fusion suxors. Combo. If 
any of you find a deck with a non-Exodia combo in it that 
reliably kills and isn’t restricted, email me. I don’t consider the 
whole Shield and Sword Turtle bit a combo, just a form of control. I’m 
not holding my breath though.
	So those are the different archetypes. Whew. Whichever you 
play, and I’m almost positive you play one, you now know a little more, 
hopefully, about it, and about its enemies. Now I’m going to move on to 
actual deck theory and construction.
II. Card Theory
	One of the prime reasons I wrote this is because people kept 
asking me “Why do you win? How do you do it? Was it something I did?” 
So I’m going to answer them. Most of these are really simple, but 
people just don’t hink about them. My most important rules of deck- 
building are as follows: use good cards only, use card advantage as 
much as possible, and keep your deck size to a minimum.
	Good cards. This wouldn’t seem so hard, but this is something I 
see people messing up over and over. Let’s evaluate some common 
misconceptions about good and bad cards. Dian Keto is a bad card. It 
gives you 1000 life, which is less than any offensive monster in the 
game’s attack power. This means it can’t even reliably deny death for a 
single turn. It is NOT a two-card combo with Dark Elf. By the way Dark 
Elf is a good example of a “good card”. Dark Elf’s low level combined 
with its high attack stats make it, in my opinion, a staple of 
beatdown, and I personally love etleast one in my stall decks. It can 
take out almost every level 4 or lower monster in the game, and at a 
reasonable cost. I don’t activate more than five times a game, but 
let’s face it: If there was a card that said “Pay half your life 
points: Win.” I think we’d all play it. I’m happy to trade 1000 of my 
life points for 2000 of yours, or aone of your even more dangerous 
monsters. Rather than take 1800 from La Jinn, pay 1000 to destroy it. 
Solemn Judgment is also a good card (though I don’t play it; I don’t 
have room, and haven’t found a need to drop the cash for it). It 
provides a potentially game-breaking effect for an exorbitant, but not 
impossible, payment.
	Card advantage ties into what makes a card good. Effects that 
get you two for one, like Pot of Greed, are examples of card advantage. 
Raigeki is another. More “situational” examples are Card Destruction 
and Dark Hole, which can allow you to trade “worthless” or “bad” 
resources for better ones in Card Destruction’s case, and for the 
opponent’s better cards in both cases. Cards like Two-Pronged Attack 
suck because it’s a three for one. There are some cards that walk the 
line. The most notable are Tribute to the Doomed and Relinquished. 
Tribute to the Doomed’s effect is very good: the destruction of one 
monster, regardless of its power level or its status on the field or 
whatever. This can win games. It’s decided two of the games I lost 
because they were able to destroy face down monsters I had with game- 
winning effects. I respect the card. Relinquished is a little 
different. I’ve faced turn one Relinquished four times, and the card 
itself eight times. It’s etleast a three for one (Relinquished, Black 
Illusion Ritual, and the monster for one of your opponent’s monsters) 
which is pretty iffy, but its continuous board presence is strong and 
it can become indomitable. If it weren’t for magics, traps, and flip 
effects, I’d say he was one of the best cards in the game. But as is, I 
personally feel he can’t cut it.
	Keeping a tight deck is one of the most disobeyed rules. There 
are a select number of broken cards (i.e. the staple magics, traps, 
Jinzo, etc.) that are restricted because they are so powerful. A 40 
card deck has a better shot at drawing those than a 41 card deck, or a 
50 card deck, or a…you catch on fast. Also, it’s very important for 
decks strategizing around one card to be at a minimum, like the Gravity 
Bind deck. This is a simple rule, but an important one.
III. Building a Deck
	Now for some deck construction. The Upper Deck rules book says 
that you should run one monster for every one magic or trap card that 
you run. I don’t like this. Too often I found myself monsterless using 
that ratio. Since I use a 40-card deck, here is the patented Glenn 
Jones ratio: 23:17. I run 23 monsters, traditionally, though it may 
vary from deck to deck, depending on theme. I find that I can play a 
game if I’m a little light on magics or traps because sheer hate for 
them almost makes it negligible (not really, but you know…). But you 
flat out can NOT stay in a game without some kind of monster, and 
that’s why I upped the ratio. It may not seem like a large change, but 
it is a small addition to consistency.

“Deck building is in the details.”
-Jay Schneider

	He’s right. The smallest alterations, such as the ratio I just 
mentioned, are the culminative differences between being a good duelist 
and a great one. Since there are few win conditions and many ways to 
achieve them, I’m going to be giving a few examples of beatdown, aggro- 
control, Exodia, and Catapult Turtle. These are all with Pharoah’s 
Servant restrictions. I will be excluding tournament pack cards, but if 
you have Mech Chasers or Morphing Jars, toss them in. Or better yet 
send them to me. You’ll notice I’ve excluded the crappier decks. Before 
going on I’d like to clearly state that these decklists and even my 
opinion of “suckage” are all mine and while I believe them to be right, 
you shouldn’t take them as the Gospel.

Here’s my list for beatdown, all-out style.

A. Beatdown
1x Jinzo
3x La Jinn
3x 7-Colored Fish
3x Harpie’s Brother
2x Goblin Attack Force
2x Dark Elf
3x Magician of Faith
1x Cyber Jar
1x Witch of the Black Forest
1x 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom
3x Hayabusa Knight

3x Axe of Despair
1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Change of Heart
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Swords of Revealing Light
2x Heavy Storm
1x Premature Burial

2x Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Imperial Order
1x Call of the Haunted

I personally wonder often if I should drop 2 Fish for a Maha Vailo. 
Every now and then I do, but there’s usually no real change in play, 
and Vailo requires an Axe, so I’ll leave it as is now.

The 1800 Attack Peeps: they are standard beatdown.
Jinzo: Too Godly. Also allows shutting down of Imperial Order 
(including yours)
Dark Elf and GAF: they beat the standard beatdown.
Magician of Faith: Allows easy reuse of the standard broke magics. 
Staple.
Cyber Jar: Destroys their defenses, allows you to gain a massive board 
advantage or recover from a bad one.
Witch of the Black Forest: Dash those Pharoah’s Servant restrictions! 
Thins deck, consistency, searches for….
4 Starred Ladybug of Doom: One of these will be in every deck I create. 
Just one. Witch or Sangan allows to search, and it can glean some 
massive card advantage…side out when useless (Bind, Exodia, etc.)(More 
on side deck later)
Hayabusa Knight: I really like this guy. What with three axes and all 
he can be a powerhouse, and even without, he allows massive early 
damage. Did I mention I really like him?
5 Staple Magics (6 with SoRL): Staples.
Heavy Storm: Take away opponent’s tricky stuff, ensure a win. Premature 
Burial and Call of the Haunted: Brings them back for seconds. Trap Hole: 
I enjoy baiting opponents into Trap Holes by flipping Bugs, 
Knights, Witches, Mages, etc. They think they’ll get some LP damage by 
hitting these low attack dudes, and end up wasting a turn. Mirror Force: 
Duh. Imperial Order: insurance against magic-wielders. Very annoying to play 
against. Just be careful with the LP. Until I’ve heard otherwise, you 
HAVE to pay 700.

Now here’s some Aggro Control; 3 decks: Bind, Mid-Range, and Velocity 
(courtesy of Aeroblade).

B. Gravity Bind
3x Hayabusa Knight
3x White Magical Hat
3x Magician of Faith
2x Jinzo #7
3x Man-Eater Bug
2x Sangan
1x 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom
1x Cyber Jar
2x Mask of Darkness

1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Change of Heart
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Swords of Revealing Light
1x Premature Burial
3x Axe of Despair

3x Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Imperial Order
3x Gravity Bind
1x Magic Jammer
1x Call of the Haunted

This is my current bind list. I’m only covering cards I haven’t already 
covered, or that need revisiting.
White Magical Hat: One of the better 3 stars, he provides disruption 
cheap and quick. Lethal with Axe.
Jinzo #7: Poke. Poke. This + Axe = Chop! Very annoying, and wins games 
more often than you’d think.
Man-Eater Bug: Get rid of…anything in the way. Including face-down. 
Nice.
Sangan: Gets…everything in the deck.
Mask of Darkness: Most commonly gets lost Binds…sometimes Mirror Force 
or others.
Axe of Despair: ABSOLUTELY necessary. Without it, you are unable to 
deal enough damage, and can be stopped eventually by simple La Jinn, 
relying on Raigeki to win. Not a good plan.
Trap Hole: More necessary here because you have to stop the early 
beatdown.
Imperial Order and Magic Jammer: Order does negate Axe, but both are 
necessary to stop Heavy Storm. A poking Jinzo #7 has won many a game 
with Imperial Order backing him up.
Gravity Bind: Yeah…any unrestricted card that stops several decks cold 
in their tracks has got to have some merit…Right?

C. Mid-Range Beatdown
1x Sangan
2x 7-Colored Fish
3x La Jinn
3x Harpie’s Brother
1x Witch of Black Forest
3x Wall of Ilusion
2x Dark Elf
1x Goblin Attack Force
3x Magician of Faith
1x 4 Starred Ladybug of Doom
2x Man-Eater Bug
1x Cyber Jar

1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Change of Heart
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Swords of Revealing Light
1x Snatch Steal
1x Premature Burial
3x Axe of Despair
2x Heavy Storm

2x Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted

This deck runs a couple of more defensive dudes and is better designed 
for administering easier card advantage battles against aggressive 
decks. This sheer strength can put it in the lead quickly, and stuff 
like Wall of Illusion gives it strong comeback capabilities. This and 
Man-Eater Bug are the only notable cards changed in the deck, but their 
presence is a flux in play style, and changes the more finesse points 
of the deck.

Here’s Velocity, courtesy of Aer0blade

D. Velocity Prime
Monsters
3x Dark Elf
3x Magician of Faith
3x Jirai Gumo
2x Goblin Attack Force
1x Witch of the Black Forest
1x Morphing Jar
1x Morphing Jar #2
1x Cyber Jar

Magic
3x Megamorph
2x Tribute to the Doomed
2x Heavy Storm
2x Fissure
1x Card Destruction
1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Change of Heart
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Giant Trunade
1x Delinquent Duo
1x Nobleman of Crossout

Traps
2x Trap Hole
2x Solemn Judgement
1x Imperial Order
1x Minor Goblin Official
1x Mirror Force

Side Deck
2x Monster Recovery
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Magic Drain
1x Giant Trunade
1x Confiscation
1x The Forceful Sentry
1x Trap Hole
1x Goblin Attack Force
1x Solemn Judgement
1x Morphing Jar #2
1x Magic Jammer
1x Nobleman of Crossout

First off, mad props to Aer0blade for his skillz. I hope he doesn’t 
mine my posting his deck in this article… he already made it public 
knowledge on the boards, so I figure it’s all right. I personally have 
a helluva lot to say about that monster to mt ratio, but it is his deck 
so I’m posting it as is. One of the fundamental problems of equip 
magic, a kind of card his deck relies on and many of my decks use, is 
that often they yield card disadvantage, because if the mon dies, you 
lose the equip too and that’s sad. This deck, though I consider it 
Aggro-Control, can get faster starts than even the beatdown. I prefer 
its controlling elements, considering all those level 18s can’t go 
through any of your offensive monsters, but sometimes it has to sit 
back, like when you’re at a low life and have no Morph to push through 
with. Since its play style relies on the cards it has at its disposal, 
I decided to call it Aggro Control. But make no mistake, this deck can 
kill. Fast. There are a select few equips that are effective enough to 
get past this: Megamorph, Axe, Premature, and Snatch Steal. In Aer0’s 
deck I would personally want to add in another Goblin Attack Force, and 
etleast another four monsters, perhaps Hayabusa Knights or something 
else that allows for such lightning fast starts. But to each their own; 
and this deck is a beating (as long as it draws mons =/).

Here’s Exodia, for all you rich people *sigh*

E. Exodia
5x Parts of Exodia
1x 4 Starred Ladybug of Doom
2x Sangan
1x Witch of the Black Forest
3x Mystic Tomato
3x Magician of Faith
3x Wall of Illusion
3x Man-Eater Bug

1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Swords of Revealing Light
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Painful Choice

1x Mirror Force
2x Backup Soldier
3x Gravity Bind
3x Waboku
2x Trap Hole

This is my standard Exodia. Not a whole lot of testing has gone into 
tuning it, so these are just raw numbers. It’s based on the principle 
of saying “Stop hitting me, so I can win!” It’s sound principle. I’m 
sure you can figure Painful Choice and Backup Solider, and the rest is 
pretty much stall and search…Nothing that really needs any in-depth 
exploration, so I’ll skip that.

And last…Catapult Turtle

F. Catapult Turtle
3x Catapult Turtle
2x Sangan
1x Witch of the Black Forest
3x Giant Soldier of Stone
3x Wall of Illusion
3x Magician of Faith
1x 4 Starred Ladybug of Doom
1x Cyber Jar
3x Man-Eater Bug

1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Pot of Greed
1x Change of Heart
1x Monster Reborn
1x Swords of Revealing light
1x Snatch Steal
2x Soul Exchange
3x Shield and Sword
2x Heavy Storm

1x Mirror Force
2x Waboku
2x Trap Hole

This deck runs more Magics than most, which is appropriate due to its 
control structure. It runs stall tactics as main defense, but the true 
power of the deck lies in Magician of Faith, which it relies upon in 
order to gain a foothold in the game through sheer power. An Imperial 
Order will cause a lot of problems for this deck. Nothing bears a whole 
lot of talking here… Once again, this is a more rough idea than the 
previous; untuned, with simple consistency. I personally don’t play 
this deck, but a friend of mine does. This deck has a lot of room for 
variation; I’ve seen some decks go beatdown with Axes and turtle, just 
disregarding turtle… That is just another interesting take on the deck.
	Now onto a portion of deck construction almost everyone 
neglects: the Side Deck. I have read many misconceptions about the Side 
Deck, and would like to state the tournament rules now. Whatever deck 
you register, or in less formal settings play game one of round one 
with, is your Main Deck. After playing Game 1, you are free to swap up 
to 15 cards from the Main with up to 15 from the Side Deck. No more or 
less than 15 cards may be included in a Side Deck. You must then return 
your deck to its original state after that match. You may not play any 
Game Ones with an altered Main Deck. If you know your next round 
opponenet is playing Exodia, you are not allowed to just put some 
discard stuff in your deck before you play Game One. After Game One, 
you may place any of the 15 cards in Side Deck…so on. Now to Side Deck 
construction.
IV. Side Deck
	Side Decks will vary from area to area. I trust in your 
tournaments there are people who consistently make the top rank or 
ranks; simply put cards thee designed to beat them Discard for Exodia. 
Stuff that kills face-down cards is good against Turtle. Against 
beatdown you run some stuff to stall them out. Here’s the Side Deck I 
use:

2x Nobleman of Crossout
3x Robbin Goblin
1x Card Destruction
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Tribute to the Doomed
1x Tremendous Fire
2x Waboku
2x Fissure

Crossout wrecks Turtle and Exodia, or etleast hurts it, Goblin and Card 
Destruction good on Exodia, Typhoon is classic anti Magic/Trap, tribute 
is good on those effect reliant people, Waboku and Fissure are good on 
beatdown, and Tremendous Fire… Let’s just say I’ve managed to use that 
on a few people with Magician and take a win right out from under them. 
It’s my oddball card.

	This is the conclusion of my article, for those of you who made 
it this far. I hope my treatises into the world of Duel Monsters have 
been helpful or etleast moderately enlightening for you and that you 
will be better prepared for your next duel. Until next time, valete!

Sayonara,
Glenn Jones
Also known as the Magic Weasel, or variances of that alias
Send comments to magicweasel@comcast.net