Side Decking Optimally

[Vincent_L]

I Think something that ends up deciding over half of most matches is Side Decking (the hard part being siding in/out), making a side deck is relatively easy, it's just putting in 15 cards to counter what is hyped and/or good. The real "science" to it is what you side in/out to have the optimal matchups in games 2 & 3. The basics like siding out things with bad matchups (i.e side out Monster Reborn .vs. macro), more or so the point of this thread is when it isn't so obvious what to side out and you have the optimal cards to side in.

Here's another thing to mention: how should you really go about siding? Should you take out cards and expect your opponent to side heavily and suprise them with your own? Or go more convential and side less cards keeping most of your deck in tact? (Example being siding out tour guides and plant engine in plants for stun, he tries to make maxx c/crow dead while putting in optimal choices .vs. his matchup, but it would hurt his consistency.)

In all essence, my point of this thread is to ask opinions of you all.

How do you all side "optimally" in your minds?

[Yu Yevin]

Always side out Dustshoot if you're going second




Unless you're using Mind Crush

[stjberserker]

Always side out Dustshoot if you're going second




Unless you're using Mind Crush

This ^


Before you even make a sidedeck you should answer yourself these questions:

1. What is my deck themed about?
2. What are its weaknesses and what cards disrupt my decksynergy?
3. Are these cards pretty popular in side decks nowadays?

4. Against what match ups am I at a disadvantage?
5. What can I do to get advantage/ disrupt the bad match up (cards)?

In my opinion there are 3 strategies:

1. You put into your sidedeck just cards that work against the other decks main theme.
2. You change your own deck theme so that the side of the opp doesnt work.
3. You side in cards that stop the cards that the opponent will likely side against you. (The ones that hurt most)

According to that you create your sidedeck.

A very good thing to have is a box filled with playsets of common/staple side deck cards.

I have such a box everything arranged according to types, what it can be sided against etc.

TBH always before a big tourney or at locals I go around for some time and see what people are playing. I sum everything up and create my side against the most popular ones or if I don't have a bad match up I rather have side cards against my bad matchup in.

Good players usually have their decklist prepared and don't test thier deck right before the tourney so everyone can see what they are playing. At least I don't do that.

I changed my side, since I saw a lot of Agents, though I thought there wouldnt be much. After all I played against 3 Agent decks in a row so that was pretty good.


Some people also while siding add cards to their deck shuffle it and test how they draw to get a feeling if their sides doesnt disrupt their deck synergy.

Its also rather important speedwise to have your side deck in the same sleeves as your deck. Changing sleeves takes too much time, important time to consider what to side.

When siding you should also consider that you are going 2nd or first. This is important for cards like Trap Dustshoot.

You should also consider and remember what cards your opp will likely side against you. Some people will think that you will side out MST and stuff out because they didnt play any traps or only a few (Agents f. e. ).
That would be right, but if you know that the most cards that hurt your deck are actually Trap cards or even continuos trap cards that he will likely side in, you should keep your ST Destruction in deck.

Some decks are also easy themed changed. Like Monarchs can side in into Macro Monarchs and screw you up with your sided removal for Treeborn Frog. It is up to your feeling what to do.

While siding also don't be focused on your side alone. It can be a help to see how many cards your opp sides out sides in ... though some good players do it so you actually won't keep count or see it directly.

You also shouldnt sort cards for this matter. Like putting 4 cards face down on your right knowing that these are the monsters you want to side out and up to it is another pile with the ST that you want to side out. Try to side in out in singles, or one piles.

This one is a bit of a mind trick that probs only works against some players:

You could accidently while siding in and out show him single cards or a pile so he can expect either that you sided it out or in, while you actually didnt or show him just the top card of the pile something like Dfiss f. e. and he thinks you sided out the playset of Dfiss, while you still have 2 in your maindeck. He probs side back in cards like Veiler, Maxx C, since he thinks its out.


Last thing before ending the siding is obviously counting your deck and side deck. Its really important to do since you don't want to get a gameloss or whatever.


I hope this helps a bit.

[Vincent_L]

UH I think you guys are kinda missing the entire point of this thread.

This is not me asking for help on how to build a side deck, this is for a discussion on how you all side out optimally in game 2/3 when you have the optimal side in cards.

[Itachi-Uchiha]

UH I think you guys are kinda missing the entire point of this thread.

This is not me asking for help on how to build a side deck, this is for a discussion on how you all side out optimally in game 2/3 when you have the optimal side in cards.

That's hard to explain without analyzing what cards you run that are weaker in x match up

One way of looking at this is if every deck was weak to a certain card you main deck it

But lets say you side shadow imprisoning mirrors and imps youl take out Max c or vieler as well as another card that doesn't do as much in the match up

You take out 1 pod if your opponent runs thunderking but side in a card that may put that match in your favor against plants maybe Gozen Match etc...

[The_Dark_Monarch]

It depends on what you are facing.

For example, if I am facing Stall/Burn, I'll side out my Battle Faders, Gorz, Mirror Force and all that and side in Trap Stuns, Dark Bribes etc.

[Afrodactyl]

If your local meta is completely random (i.e. the vast majority of the decks are different), you could try siding in a "smokescreen" if you're having difficulty covering all of their decks.

For example, my meta has sams, agents, darkworld, rabbit, macro, ice barrier, sabers, chaos, plant synchro, worms, aliens, jurracs, etc. It's hard to cover for all of this, so one half of my side for my Dragunity is full of generic stun (black horns, compulses, etc.), whereas the other half is an assault mode engine if I want to side out the more control based elements for aggro.

Rather similar to how some Frog Monarch players will play Frogs game 1, then Macro game 2.

[ASOBITAI]

I love the transforming side decks.

T.G. Agents into T.G. Stun
Burn into Skill Drain
Frogs into Macro

Also, Prohibition is often an overlooked card and can stop many decks in the meta if you drop it at the right moment.

[Asterisk]

I usually side:
- Chaos Hunter
- Effect Veiler
- Thunder King Rai-Oh
- D.D Crow
- Macro and DFissure I side them at non-graveyard reliant decks.
- Imperial Iron Wall.
- Numbers 39 and 17. (I use both in main, but I side another copy in case I need them.)
- Stardust Dragon
- Black-Winged Dragon (Stupid burners...)

And that's it.