Final Darkness
04-30-2011, 04:33 AM
How do you tell if a deck is good or bad and what separates tier 1 decks from tier 5 without having to see the results? In this thread, I will present a two-dimensional model to evaluate any decks, so you won't have to waste valuable resources trying to find cards to build crappy decks again.
1. The two dimensions: "Power" and "utility"
In order for a deck to be good, it needs power cards. You may be saying "duh, I already know that", but power cards usually comes at the price of utility.
The First Law: Adding power to a deck by including power cards comes at the cost of utility. Adding utility cards to the deck comes at the cost of power.
Power cards are those that have the potential to greatly effect the game, but the usually comes with condition or need other cards to bring their effects live. Any cards that are exceptions to this rule are usually banned. In contrast high utility cards are those whose effects are always live, but they usually change the game in less drastic ways. In other words, power cards are strong but usually situational and utility cards are weaker but less situational. An example of a power card would be Starlight Road, a highly situational card but will usually win you the game when it goes off. A high utility card would be D.D. Warrior Lady, it always does something whether it be attacking or removing an unsuspecting attacking monster from the game, it is playable the moment it is drawn.
Like I said, very few cards are both high in power and utility. The few that are high in both are either banned or are staples. Examples for such cards are Monster Reborn and Dark Hole, both are nearly always playable and you can improve a deck's performance by herping derping adding them to your deck.
The Second Law: Themed cards are usually lower in utility and higher in power.
Most theme cards don't do anything by themselves. They need other cards to make their effects live. Flamvell Firedog may be a good beater, but by itself it is just a beater, only when you include other cards that it works well with would you make its effect live. In contrast, Thunder King Rai-Oh may not be making you level 8 synchros, but it has higher utility than Flamvell Firedog because it is good in more situations. If you add Flamvell Firedog and its buddies to your deck you increase the deck's power level but if you add Thunder King Rai-Oh to your deck, you increase its utility level.
2. The good deck equation
Good decks try to maximize both power and utility. As The First Law stated, you can't have everything, but you want to have as much of both as possible.
Equation 1: D = P + U, where D stands for Deck Effectiveness, P is its power level and U is its utility level
Because power and utility is inversely related, you can try to maximize a deck's power, maximize its utility, or try to balance both. Say deck 1 with P = 50 and U = 1 has a D of 51. Deck 2 with P = 28 and U = 25 has a D of 53. So Deck 2 will usually outperform Deck 1 in the field (although it may not in a head to head match due to match-up related variables).
An example of a deck maximizing on power is an Exodia deck. The deck has a potential to have a "Turn 0 win" but none of its cards do anything by themselves. A deck that maximizes on utility would be Anti-Meta, with every single one of its cards either beat faces or destroy stuff, it rarely gets a dead draw but most of its cards only have marginal effects on the game. While every other deck falls somewhere in between.
The more you can push both power and utility the better your deck will perform. An example of a deck that are both high in power and utility is Tele-DAD. Most of its cards do something by themselves: Krebons and hold the fort, PWWB can remove most threads, Diamond Dude can randomly plus you. But even the great Tele-DAD needs to make utility for power. Its name sake monster Dark Armed Dragon is a low utility but high power card. Its a card that is dead in your hands during most of the turns, but when it becomes live, can single-handedly win you the duel.
To use a more recent example, let us consider two decks that are neck to neck in the current meta: Six Samurai and X-Saber. Six Samurai is a higher in power compared to X-Saber, its cards are designed to put the opponent in an unwinnable situation as early as turn one. All its cards work together for that single goal. At the same time, many of its cards simply do not do anything by itself: Kagemusha is just a 1800 DEF wall, Kageki's butt is a little bit bigger, and Kizan is just a vanilla beatstick. No wonder Six Sam never wins a topdecking war. X-Saber is a little less powerful than Six Sam (but still considerable more powerful than most other decks), it has power plays, but usually comes much slower compared to Six Sam, but its makes up for this against Six Sam by simply been higher in utility. Many of its monsters function to search others out while others are consistent attack blockers. Converting this into arbitrary numbers:
Six Samurai: P = 50, U = 30, D = 80
X-Saber: P = 40, U = 40, D = 80
Timmy's Phantom Beast Deck: P = 3, U = 4, D = 7
No wonder Six Samurai and X-Saber are neck to neck but both do considerably well compared to Timmy's deck!
3. Power and utility management
The Third Law: A card's utility is more malleable but a card's power is more rigid
Modern power cards are usually combo cards, and thus their utility can be increased if you can find a shorter route to reach the combo. For example, Royal Tribute is undoubtly a power card, but it needs Necrovalley to be activated. Although the effect of Royal Tribute stays the same no matter how you play it (i.e. it wins you the duel), you can increase its utility by making Necrovalley more accessable, hence the inclusion of both Pot of Duality and Gravekeeper's Recruiter. Still you are making a trade-off. By including an utility card like Pot of Duality, you are forfeiting room for power cards such as Malefic Cyber End Dragon. But the main point is: YOU ARE NOT SIMPLY TRYING TO INCREASE THE DECK'S UTILITY (U) OR POWER (P), YOU ARE TRYING TO MAXIMIZE DECK PERFORMANCE (D)!!!! If adding Malefic Cyber End Dragon increases P by 5 and decreases U by 3, but adding Pot of Duality increases U by 6 and decreases P by 2, then you add Pot of Duality!
But of course the numbers I used are arbitrary. It is up to the player's intuition to decide the power and utility level of each card. By doing so, you deck's performance will be maximized!
The Fourth Law: Synergy between cards increases utility
Although power cards are usually characterized by low utility, but adding support cards can increase overall utility, provided the support cards are not low utility themselves. Adding Gravekeeper's Recruiter to support Royal Tribute = good idea, adding Owl of Luck to support Royal Tribute = bad idea.
4. Power and utility ceiling
Power of cards and decks are preset. Lightsworn can blow up opponent's field, but it is unlike to also discard their hands. Thus each deck has a power ceiling on what it can do. One typically way to increase power is to increase the deck's speed. If you can do something faster, then the deck is more powerful. But increasing speed also hurts utility: those Trade-In in your Krystiasworn may help you get to your JD faster, but they can also be dead-draws.
A better way to improve a deck is by improving is utility. For most decks you can improve utility as much as you can (sacrificing power, of course). Playing a single copy of Swap Frog in Genex Monarch increases the things you can do, and doesn't hurt the power of the deck too much either.
5. Why some decks suck
Ever wonder why your Crystal Beast deck can't win? A power/utility analysis might answer the question! What are some power cards in the deck? Rainbow Ruins and Crystal Abundance. High utility card? Sapphire Pegasus, and every other card literally does nothing by itself! Now you know why it sux.
Batteryman? High power cards are plenty: Short Circuit, Industrial Strength, Inferno Reckless Summon, Batteryman Charger. Utility card? Just Micro-cell. Now we know where the problem is. Since its power ceiling is pretty high, you are unlike to increase it by much more, add some high utility card suck as Thunder King Rai-Oh and now your deck is better.
Dark World, has literally no high power cards. Get to work.
In closing, find the right balance of power and utility and your deck will be the strongest it can possibly be!
1. The two dimensions: "Power" and "utility"
In order for a deck to be good, it needs power cards. You may be saying "duh, I already know that", but power cards usually comes at the price of utility.
The First Law: Adding power to a deck by including power cards comes at the cost of utility. Adding utility cards to the deck comes at the cost of power.
Power cards are those that have the potential to greatly effect the game, but the usually comes with condition or need other cards to bring their effects live. Any cards that are exceptions to this rule are usually banned. In contrast high utility cards are those whose effects are always live, but they usually change the game in less drastic ways. In other words, power cards are strong but usually situational and utility cards are weaker but less situational. An example of a power card would be Starlight Road, a highly situational card but will usually win you the game when it goes off. A high utility card would be D.D. Warrior Lady, it always does something whether it be attacking or removing an unsuspecting attacking monster from the game, it is playable the moment it is drawn.
Like I said, very few cards are both high in power and utility. The few that are high in both are either banned or are staples. Examples for such cards are Monster Reborn and Dark Hole, both are nearly always playable and you can improve a deck's performance by herping derping adding them to your deck.
The Second Law: Themed cards are usually lower in utility and higher in power.
Most theme cards don't do anything by themselves. They need other cards to make their effects live. Flamvell Firedog may be a good beater, but by itself it is just a beater, only when you include other cards that it works well with would you make its effect live. In contrast, Thunder King Rai-Oh may not be making you level 8 synchros, but it has higher utility than Flamvell Firedog because it is good in more situations. If you add Flamvell Firedog and its buddies to your deck you increase the deck's power level but if you add Thunder King Rai-Oh to your deck, you increase its utility level.
2. The good deck equation
Good decks try to maximize both power and utility. As The First Law stated, you can't have everything, but you want to have as much of both as possible.
Equation 1: D = P + U, where D stands for Deck Effectiveness, P is its power level and U is its utility level
Because power and utility is inversely related, you can try to maximize a deck's power, maximize its utility, or try to balance both. Say deck 1 with P = 50 and U = 1 has a D of 51. Deck 2 with P = 28 and U = 25 has a D of 53. So Deck 2 will usually outperform Deck 1 in the field (although it may not in a head to head match due to match-up related variables).
An example of a deck maximizing on power is an Exodia deck. The deck has a potential to have a "Turn 0 win" but none of its cards do anything by themselves. A deck that maximizes on utility would be Anti-Meta, with every single one of its cards either beat faces or destroy stuff, it rarely gets a dead draw but most of its cards only have marginal effects on the game. While every other deck falls somewhere in between.
The more you can push both power and utility the better your deck will perform. An example of a deck that are both high in power and utility is Tele-DAD. Most of its cards do something by themselves: Krebons and hold the fort, PWWB can remove most threads, Diamond Dude can randomly plus you. But even the great Tele-DAD needs to make utility for power. Its name sake monster Dark Armed Dragon is a low utility but high power card. Its a card that is dead in your hands during most of the turns, but when it becomes live, can single-handedly win you the duel.
To use a more recent example, let us consider two decks that are neck to neck in the current meta: Six Samurai and X-Saber. Six Samurai is a higher in power compared to X-Saber, its cards are designed to put the opponent in an unwinnable situation as early as turn one. All its cards work together for that single goal. At the same time, many of its cards simply do not do anything by itself: Kagemusha is just a 1800 DEF wall, Kageki's butt is a little bit bigger, and Kizan is just a vanilla beatstick. No wonder Six Sam never wins a topdecking war. X-Saber is a little less powerful than Six Sam (but still considerable more powerful than most other decks), it has power plays, but usually comes much slower compared to Six Sam, but its makes up for this against Six Sam by simply been higher in utility. Many of its monsters function to search others out while others are consistent attack blockers. Converting this into arbitrary numbers:
Six Samurai: P = 50, U = 30, D = 80
X-Saber: P = 40, U = 40, D = 80
Timmy's Phantom Beast Deck: P = 3, U = 4, D = 7
No wonder Six Samurai and X-Saber are neck to neck but both do considerably well compared to Timmy's deck!
3. Power and utility management
The Third Law: A card's utility is more malleable but a card's power is more rigid
Modern power cards are usually combo cards, and thus their utility can be increased if you can find a shorter route to reach the combo. For example, Royal Tribute is undoubtly a power card, but it needs Necrovalley to be activated. Although the effect of Royal Tribute stays the same no matter how you play it (i.e. it wins you the duel), you can increase its utility by making Necrovalley more accessable, hence the inclusion of both Pot of Duality and Gravekeeper's Recruiter. Still you are making a trade-off. By including an utility card like Pot of Duality, you are forfeiting room for power cards such as Malefic Cyber End Dragon. But the main point is: YOU ARE NOT SIMPLY TRYING TO INCREASE THE DECK'S UTILITY (U) OR POWER (P), YOU ARE TRYING TO MAXIMIZE DECK PERFORMANCE (D)!!!! If adding Malefic Cyber End Dragon increases P by 5 and decreases U by 3, but adding Pot of Duality increases U by 6 and decreases P by 2, then you add Pot of Duality!
But of course the numbers I used are arbitrary. It is up to the player's intuition to decide the power and utility level of each card. By doing so, you deck's performance will be maximized!
The Fourth Law: Synergy between cards increases utility
Although power cards are usually characterized by low utility, but adding support cards can increase overall utility, provided the support cards are not low utility themselves. Adding Gravekeeper's Recruiter to support Royal Tribute = good idea, adding Owl of Luck to support Royal Tribute = bad idea.
4. Power and utility ceiling
Power of cards and decks are preset. Lightsworn can blow up opponent's field, but it is unlike to also discard their hands. Thus each deck has a power ceiling on what it can do. One typically way to increase power is to increase the deck's speed. If you can do something faster, then the deck is more powerful. But increasing speed also hurts utility: those Trade-In in your Krystiasworn may help you get to your JD faster, but they can also be dead-draws.
A better way to improve a deck is by improving is utility. For most decks you can improve utility as much as you can (sacrificing power, of course). Playing a single copy of Swap Frog in Genex Monarch increases the things you can do, and doesn't hurt the power of the deck too much either.
5. Why some decks suck
Ever wonder why your Crystal Beast deck can't win? A power/utility analysis might answer the question! What are some power cards in the deck? Rainbow Ruins and Crystal Abundance. High utility card? Sapphire Pegasus, and every other card literally does nothing by itself! Now you know why it sux.
Batteryman? High power cards are plenty: Short Circuit, Industrial Strength, Inferno Reckless Summon, Batteryman Charger. Utility card? Just Micro-cell. Now we know where the problem is. Since its power ceiling is pretty high, you are unlike to increase it by much more, add some high utility card suck as Thunder King Rai-Oh and now your deck is better.
Dark World, has literally no high power cards. Get to work.
In closing, find the right balance of power and utility and your deck will be the strongest it can possibly be!