Yu-Gi-Oh! Core
Deck Essentials
By Joshua E. Northcutt
August 2006
This article was written pre banned
list and as such will not reflect all currently
banned, limited, and semi-limited cards. A more
updated list is currently being worked on and will
be published shortly.
Monsters
Airknight Parshath
Sangan
Magician of Faith
Cyber Dragon
Spirit Reaper
Winged Kuriboh (or regular Kuriboh)
Jinzo
Exiled Force
Spells
Lightning Vortex
Scapegoat
Heavy Storm
Premature Burial
Swords of Revealing Light
Mystical Space Typhoon
Smashing Ground
Dark Hole
United We Stand
Fairy Meteor Crush
Traps
Bottomless Trap Hole
Magic Cylinder
Dust Tornado
Call of the Haunted
Shadow Spell
Torrential Tribute
Royal Decree
Ring of Destruction
As I have seen in recent
tournaments and events, there are certain cards that
are common in almost every winning deck (at least
that I have lost to). Here I will look at the top
25 most common cards and their use in a deck.
Let’s start by looking at
the 7 most common Monster cards.
First on the list is
Airknight Parshath. Airknight, despite being a five
star monster, is a powerhouse attacker with 1900 ATK.
But its attack is not why it is used in so many
decks. First, whenever it attacks a defense
position monster with less than 1900 DEF, Airknight
does damage to your opponent’s LP equal to the
difference. And to top it off, whenever Airknight
Parshath does damage to your opponent’s LP, you get
to draw a card. These two effects make Airknight
especially devastating against decks that utilize
token monsters with little or no defensive power.
The second monster on the
list is one that has come to be popular just
recently, Cyber Dragon. At 2100 ATK, this is yet
again a formidable 6 star monster. In addition to
the two fusion monsters and plethora of ritual
monsters and support cards from the new Shadows of
Infinity booster set that utilize this monster, the
reason it has become so popular is its effect. As
long as your opponent has at least one monster on
the field (even if it is a token monster) and you
have none, Cyber Dragon can be special summoned to
the field. This makes it a good monster to pull in
the first round, especially if you go second. The
only down side is that once you have one Cyber
Dragon out, you cannot special summon another one.
The third monster on the
list is one that everyone (especially those who
watch the television show) should know, Jinzo. At
2400 ATK and only six stars, Jinzo rounds out the
core deck powerhouses. As long as he remains on the
field (preferably not your opponent’s side of it!),
the effects of all trap cards on the field are
negated, and no other traps may be activated. This
can be both a blessing and a curse in that Jinzo’s
effect includes your own traps (unless you have
Amplifier equipped to Jinzo, but I would seriously
not recommend running Amplifier under any
circumstances due to its secondary effect of
destroying the monster it is equipped to).
Some low level monsters
that made the list include Sangan, which lets you
search your deck for (and add to your hand) a
monster with 1500 or less ATK when it goes from the
field to the graveyard, Magician of Faith which lets
you search for and add to your hand one spell card
from the graveyard when she is flip-summoned or
flipped face up, and Spirit Reaper which cannot be
destroyed except by the effect of another card and
discards one random card from your opponents hand
whenever he attacks your opponent’s LP directly.
You can run either Kuriboh or Winged Kuriboh, both
of which negate damage (Winged Kuriboh by being
attacked on the field and Kuriboh by being discarded
from your hand to the graveyard, regular Kuriboh
only negating damage dealt by a single monster) but
I would not suggest running both. And as for the
last monster on the list, Exiled Force, there isn’t
much to say except it’s a 1 for 1 monster remover
that can come in real handy on occasion, especially
now that it is semi-limited.
The 1 spell cards that
should be in every deck include Lightning Vortex
which destroys all face up monsters on your
opponents side of the field by discarding one card
from your hand, Scapegoat which gives you 4 Lvl 1
token monsters with 0 ATK and 0DEF that cannot be
tributed for normal tribute summons, Heavy Storm
which destroys all spell and trap cards on the
field, Premature Burial which allows you to special
summon one monster card from the graveyard that can
be special summoned at the cost of 800 LPs, Swords
of Revealing Light which flips all your opponents
facedown defense position monsters face up and
prevents your opponent from attacking for three of
his/her turns, Mystical Space Typhoon which destroys
one of your opponents trap/spell cards, Smashing
Ground which destroys one monster on your opponents
side of the field with the highest DEF, and Dark
Hole which destroys all monsters on both sides of
the field.
Two spell cards I have
added to the list are United We Stand and Fairy
Meteor Crush. United We Stand is an equip spell
card that increases the ATK of the equipped monster
by 800 for every face up monster on your side of the
field (including the equipped monster). Fairy
Meteor Crush is another equip spell card that allows
the equipped monster to do battle damage to your
opponent’s LP equal to the difference between the
equipped monsters ATK and a defense position monster
the equipped monster does battle with. These two
cards, when used together, make one nasty monster
and that is why I had to add them to the list,
despite not really being some of the most used cards
in the game.
Despite the large number
of trap cards in the game that have useful effects,
there really are only seven that should be in every
deck (or at least every side deck). These include
Bottomless Trap Hole, Magic Cylinder, Dust Tornado,
Call of the Haunted, Shadow Spell, Torrential
Tribute, and Royal Decree.
Bottomless Trap Hole has
been a deck staple ever since the card was
released. When your opponent summons or special
summons a monster whose original ATK is 1500 or
more, activating BTH removes that monster from
play. There is, however, a card out of Shadows of
Infinity that may soon replace BTH, but that is a
subject better left to my next article.
The next great trap card is Magic
Cylinder. This card negates the attack of one of
your opponent’s monsters and redirects the damage
back to his/her LP.
Dust Tornado is a good spell/trap
card destroyer in that it also allows you to set one
spell or trap card on the field. This becomes an
advantage especially during your opponents turn.
Call of the Haunted is a good card to
put into any deck because it allows you to garb a
monster from the graveyard and special summon it to
the field.
Shadow Spell is a trap card that, as
far as I know, has just recently come to light as
the next best thing to Spellbinding Circle in that
it not only locks the affected monster in place but
also decreases its ATK by 700. This can really help
in getting that one tank monster down low enough to
attack and get rid of.
Torrential Tribute, although not one
of my personal favorites(and certainly not a card I
would ever normally recommend running in a
deck) is a good stall card for those occasions when
your opponent gets field control. When the next
monster is summoned, in any way, all monsters on the
field are destroyed.
Royal Decree is a great card in that
it acts as a second Jinzo in trap form, allowing you
to continue to block the activation and effect of
all trap cards even when Jinzo gets destroyed.
And of course Ring of Destruction,
destroying one monster (preferably one of your
opponent’s) to hit each player with damage equal to
the destroyed monsters attack. I can honestly say I
speak for everyone on the planet who plays the game
that it is about time they brought this bad boy of a
trap back to life.
All the cards on this list made it
through extensive research and poll taking. Don’t
be upset if your favorite cards didn’t make the list
for I will be redoing this article on a periodic
basis so as to keep up with all the hottest new
cards. In closing, just remember to have fun and
play fair.
