Current Tier 1 Decks

[TheGreaterGood]

Hey everyone, I know the title to this topic reveals it to be another newb "what is the best deck" discussion but I am hoping people will set aside the trolling and give a whole bunch of useful information and deck ideas. I used to be an avid YGO player up until the ban list after Dark Crisis. After that I stopped playing, only to pick up the YGO 5D's arcade game for Xbox 360. I have been addicted to that game for months now, I love how I was able to make and play almost all of the top tier 1 decks and play competitively against other players even if I wasn't getting the real life experience. Sadly though the games does not include X-Sabers at all and is now out of date on the ban list. That said, I have decided to make a deck and begin playing again in real life. Looking at the new ban list X-Sabers didn't really get hit, while Blackwings did and Six Samurai seems to rule the format. So I was wondering what information you would give to someone who wanted to get into the game in real life? I am willing to spend $250 - $500 (Tax Return FTW) on a new deck and hopefully be able to make a YCS/Regional in real life. The current deck I was thinking of trying to get was a generic X-Sabers that recently placed:

Monsters: 19

3 XX-Saber Dark Soul
3 XX-Saber Emmersblade
3 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
2 XX-Saber Boggart Knight
2 XX-Saber Faultroll
2 X-Saber Parshuul
2 Effect Veiler
1 X-Saber Airbellum
1 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster


Spells: 11

2 Pot of Duality (I will make a separate budget just for these darn things -_-)
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Enemy Controller
1 Book of Moon
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Reinforcement of the Army (might trade for Reinforce Truth)


Traps: 10

2 Solemn Warning
2 Trap Stun
1 Gottom's Emergency Call
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call Of The Haunted
1 Trap Dustshoot

Pretty generic for X-Sabers, I know they can be super expensive but I am a fan of their effects and I want to play something new. I have played Glads, Blackwings, Zombies, Lightsworn, and Plants for a LONG time online and while I know first hand how good they are I am flat out tired of seeing/playing them. L6S might be another option, but I am liking sabers at this moment. So my question still stands, what are the best looking decks in this format as of April 2011? Feel free to comment and if you are lookign to trade away Saber stuff for old school cards let me know as I still have all of my old stuff in NM/M condition.

[Hasan11]

well, you could jump the o'l bandwagon and play legendary six samurai :P

[Gummygum45]

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=4125

[TheGreaterGood]

Originally Posted by Gummygum45

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=4125

I had read about that, and props to the guy for winning with an innovative deck. But let's be realistic here, California has their own Meta game it seems. A fairy stun deck swept day one at 9-0 so, I kind of decided to look at the other YCS this year and see what they were going with which led me to think of Six Sams and X-Sabers. I also read about the guy who won a few tournaments ago with an LS deck running Oppressions???? But thanks for the link man, I hadn't seen the updated post!

[Gummygum45]

Originally Posted by TheGreaterGood

I had read about that, and props to the guy for winning with an innovative deck. But let's be realistic here, California has their own Meta game it seems. A fairy stun deck swept day one at 9-0 so, I kind of decided to look at the other YCS this year and see what they were going with which led me to think of Six Sams and X-Sabers. I also read about the guy who won a few tournaments ago with an LS deck running Oppressions???? But thanks for the link man, I hadn't seen the updated post!

There's this guy at my locals who plays LS and consistantley... in fact every time i've seen him play tops the locals... beating samurai, GK's, Fish OTK... Everything... It's crazy.

[forbidden101]

Sams
Sabers
Gravekeepers
Hero Gemini beat
Chaos plant


Some better than others but all of em has potential to beat the other...

Also a very well put together malefic deck.

[TheGreaterGood]

Originally Posted by forbidden101

Sams
Sabers
Gravekeepers
Hero Gemini beat
Chaos plant


Some better than others but all of em has potential to beat the other...

Also a very well put together malefic deck.

I attempted a Chaos Plant online, and I like to think I got it to a pretty competitive level. While it can spam Synchro and has decent removal against stuff including Stardust with Caius and Sorcerer, the deck seemed to be a little too slow to keep up with Blackwings and Lightsworn which are still pretty common. It seemed to handle Glads alright and Zombies too by stopping the big pushes, could you perhaps link me to a YCS version of the deck or PM me a list you use yourself? I would consider running Chaos Plant if it was a solid Tier 1. I was a HUGE fan of Quickdraw Dandywarrior, Plant Synchro, and Plant Supervise decks. I also LOVE Chaos as I still have my first edition Emperor Dragon, Yata, Black Luster, and Sacred Pheonix.

[Twisted Keyblade]

Originally Posted by Hasan11

well, you could jump the o'l bandwagon and play legendary six samurai :P

Wrong bandwagon, the one your talking about is Gravekeepers & That hero/shinging crap. >___>

[TheGreaterGood]

To be perfectly honest, I have not been able to play with or against gravekeeper's and don't know the power of the deck yet. This is the newby in me talking, I am sure in my time to come I will play my fair share of GK decks. At the same time because I don't know the deck, I am not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it. At the same time I appreciate the ideas, because I want to make sure that spending money on the X-Sabers deck is the way to go. Also please rate/fix the deck. I couldn't tell you how it plays... like I mentioned before this is a net deck so :[

[Twisted Keyblade]

Originally Posted by TheGreaterGood

To be perfectly honest, I have not been able to play with or against gravekeeper's and don't know the power of the deck yet. This is the newby in me talking, I am sure in my time to come I will play my fair share of GK decks. At the same time because I don't know the deck, I am not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it.

You..WILL be bored. Either against it or playing with them. It's a REALLY boring deck. :| WHY do people play them? I don't understand.

[TheGreaterGood]

The only exciting deck I have played is the variety of Plants. Glads are boring, Blackwings, and Lightsworn too. Zombies can be fun from time to time, when you drp out 5 synchro's in one turn. I think Sabers will be more exciting for me than other tier 1 variants. Though I never really thought of that as a concern, it is kind of sad to think that if I dedicate myself to one deck... I will become bored. How exciting is Dragunity, I heard it made its splash, did it go Tier 1?

[Endymion the champ]

try the rfg glads its karood control kinda its fun as hell

[airbourne123]

Miracle Geminis are one of the best decks this format. Sams, GKs, and eventually Plants are Tier 1. Plants won't be that great until Trishula and Hyper Librarian are released.

[Endymion the champ]

overdrive monarchs will be broken with the release of trish

[TheGreaterGood]

Originally Posted by airbourne123

Miracle Geminis are one of the best decks this format. Sams, GKs, and eventually Plants are Tier 1. Plants won't be that great until Trishula and Hyper Librarian are released.

Thanks for this info I really appreciate that, with the coming of the new sets do you think it would be better to hold out for the new plant support and look into that route, or do you see X-Sabers prices going down at all with the new Tier 1 support? I am looking into some of these cards prices for X-Sabers... and in reality getting 3x Emmersblade and 2x Pot of Duality alone is going to eat my budget. Little own the synchro deck and the rest of the deck itself. L6S seem to be a little more reasonable.

Basically I have a modest budget but, I want to be able to get the right cards to compete even if that means I am going to run an archetype that is not my first choice.

[Yuuto-san]

You don't need duality. In all honesty you should look at standard x-sabers and other x-sabers. It will help than just looking at one.

[TheGreaterGood]

I have looked at a few tournament builds of X-Sabers, and if there is anything to say about them it is unoriginal. Most of the deck builds I have seen are basically like this, this one is actually 3 different ones with minor changes to each (different multiples of monsters, spells added, traps removed). I agree that duality is not "needed" and for its price I highly doubt I will pick one up, but when is Duality not "nice" to have in any Sabers Deck. :P

[rabman_gold]

What about Dragnuities? Don't they deserve some credit?

You basically get inventive with how you play them, either going from destruction or high beaters with the help of Phalanx.

But either way, there is a lot of different decks you can try out and see which one works best for you.

If you prefer mass swarm, then Blackwings, Samurais, and type of Plants or Chaos would work. If you want slow, but sure momentum, Miracle Geminis work. They aren't great, but they use the Meta in the format, just like Anti-Meta. Gravekeepers are another form of Anti-Meta. Because it's such an automatic deck, getting that first turn Royal Tribute either wins you the game or loses it for you (they get a fist full of spells and traps, but at least you know what they have so you aren't completely at a loss). Necrovalley stop a hell of a lot of current plays this format.

X-Sabers speak for themselves. They swarm. You get rid of them. They come back, you rid of them again. They come back. You can't recover. But you have to set up against them to get it working. But once there's movement, they are deadly.

Don't forget... there's plenty of rouge decks, but most of the true tier ones are very limited. Disaster Dragon deserves honorable mention, you know.

Right now, Sams, GKs, maybe X-Sabers are the true Tier 1 decks. They're the only ones hitting tops in everything in at least 2-3. Chaos and/or Plants, Formula Monarchs, Gladiator Beasts get Tier 1.5 for creating havoc within the tops. I think Dragnuities are also Tier 1 or 1.5 because they're getting some steam. After that, it's a **** shoot. There are so many decks that deserve some praise, even Fish OTK and what not, but it's still based on what you enjoy (slowly crushing opponents, beating them with a one shot hammer, or tipping away at their life) and what style you prefer in a deck.

Hope that helps.

[TheGreaterGood]

I had done some reading on Disaster Dragon and Hopeless Dragon, both variants seemed pretty cool and innovative for Dragon decks when you get tired of looking at the same ole REDMD and Five Headed Dragon OTK deck. I have played a lot of variants of plants and never had an issue with them, at the same time I just want to try something different.

I think after everything that has been said and the overwhelming prices of X-Sabers I am starting to lean more towards L6S deck variants. I have yet to look at the new coming sets, is there going to be anymore Six Samurai support in the new sets or is it leaning heavily to plants?

[Yu Yevin]

Duality shouldn't be ran in Sabers

[Fardy0]

Originally Posted by Gummygum45

There's this guy at my locals who plays LS and consistantley... in fact every time i've seen him play tops the locals... beating samurai, GK's, Fish OTK... Everything... It's crazy.

So many people write off LS as old news, unable to keep up with todays standards. I played with them last format and I won, alot. I don't know how limiting Honest will affect Ls, but with a small bit of innovation, they can be unbeatable. Cyber Dragon, Effect Veiler, QD Synchron, you'd be surprised by some of the tech that actually works.

[R3d3mpti0n]

What constitutes a tier 1 deck? How do we define a deck to be tier 1? In OCG, Agents are tier 1 but they don't win as many tourneys as Sams, BWs and Chaos Plants even though they make the top 16 a lot.

Dragunities are unclear atm. It's hard to say that a deck which revolves so much around the Graveyard and just one main tuner can be very competitive. Lacking the sheer swarming power of LSS and the versatility of plants, all Dragunities really have is their consistency to crank out synchros every turn as long as Ravine's out on the field. Lock Ravine and Phalanx and the whole system tumbles down.

@TheGreaterGood: EXVC has Shien's dojo but it's not as good as people make it out to be.

[StrappingYoungLaDD]

You probably shouldn't start off buying a whole x saber deck. Its pretty much the most expensive deck by far if you include dualities. And x sabers are just as boring as any of the other decks you mentioned. I guess that can be debated, but my opinion is that it all depends on your opponent. If you find a solid opponent and play well sometimes you can have some pretty intense games. But anyways.. back to x sabers. Even if you cut dualities, which is perfectly fine to be honest, you will still be spending probably over 500. Not only do you have the 3 emmersblades and darksouls, but you seem to be forgetting all the synchros. Not only that but solemn warnings are crazy expensive and you really can't play high level events without warnings and expect to do well.

[Carpe_Noctem]

Originally Posted by TheGreaterGood

To be perfectly honest, I have not been able to play with or against gravekeeper's and don't know the power of the deck yet. This is the newby in me talking, I am sure in my time to come I will play my fair share of GK decks. At the same time because I don't know the deck, I am not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it. At the same time I appreciate the ideas, because I want to make sure that spending money on the X-Sabers deck is the way to go. Also please rate/fix the deck. I couldn't tell you how it plays... like I mentioned before this is a net deck so :[

Gravekeepers are good because they have Necrovalley, which pretty much locks down the grave. Want to Debris that Lonefire and Black Rose Nuke? No can do. Faultroll to ss? Nada. Monster Reborn? Nope.
Anything that targets cards in the grave/ removes cards from the grave are instantly dead the moment Necrovalley comes into play, and if you've never faced it before, you won't know just how truly annoying this is until you've played against it. And of course, Gravekeepers have a couple of loopholes that they can exploit, so they're not too worried.

Heroes are also fairly interesting, you have your standard Hero Beat which revolves around Neos Alius, Gemini Spark and (usually) Hero Blast, allowing you to recycle Alius as you draw more cards and destroy your opponent's. Then there's a new variant on the rise with the release of The Shining, this time abusing the effect of The Shining (+300 atk for every rfg hero, when sent to grave returns 2 rfg heroes to hand) and beating the opponent into submission. Check this thread http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=853913 for more detailed info on how broken this can be.

[vilainn6]

If you want to play a fun deck, that can win again the other good deck, play fish otk. It's very good