Kelly Locke
11/2/2009

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There are thousands of cards in Yugioh, enough so to make it impossible to know each and every one. There are cards that are better than others, and ones that require the support of different cards to work right. Because of this, building a deck is a complex and difficult process, and there are many factors to consider. While the end goal is usually the same; reducing the opponents Life Points to zero by attacking, the method used to achieve that goal varies from deck to deck, and player to player. Some people prefer a direct summon-destroy-attack approach, while others are content to burn or set up a win condition. In any case, these decks all share some common building strategies.

Winning in Yugioh requires a well thought out approach to the game, and your deck needs to reflect that. Players who understand the most critical of concepts, as well as the state of the meta, will succeed where most others fail. When deck building, it's your first goal to take on the challenges presented by the current meta, and build a deck that is capable of taking them out. You need synergy, advantage, consistency, versatility, and power to win. What do all of these items have in common? They are the components of any good deck engine.

Deck Engines

From Blackwings to Gladiator Beasts, the top decks always have an engine that allows them to runner faster and better. It's an easy concept to understand (much like advantage) and is quickly picked up on by beginners. As they look to add advantage to their deck, they start to drop non-synergistic cards for deck searching and special summoning cards. Advanced players (if you made it to this page that means you) rely on engines to make their combos come together faster and more efficiently. They may or may or may not make up the win condition, but they always help to push the duel in your favor.

I've found that there are five major components to a deck engine: Synergy, Advantage, Consistency, Versatility, and Power. I've broken up this article in order to briefly explain each component, and then look at several high profile decks and see just how their engines compare. By the end, I hope to have given you a little more insight into how other deck engines run. (Besides ones you have an area of expertise in.)

Cards work together, there's no doubt that synergy plays a huge role in the game. Having a deck filled with cards that complement one another is critical to building a winning strategy, and really, it's the earliest form of a deck. When you start to build a deck one of the first things to consider is how your going to make your deck run. Beginning players often think that the best decks are those that run the best cards, but that isn't always true. To win, you'll have to run cards that may not be the best of cards, but are needed for the engine to run correctly. Synergy, therefore, is extremely important.

Not every card is going to work towards your engine, but they should provide some amount of synergy. And engine of Mystic Tomato leading into Armageddon Knight, and finally some dark monster that needs to hit the grave, is composed of essentially three cards. Beyond that, there may be a secondary engine to deal with the weaknesses of the first…after all, Armageddon Knight and Mystic Tomato only have 1400 attack, and are susceptible to disruption in many forms. Synergy between two deck engines would mean that the second engine should also utilize darks that can be searched by Tomato, and benefit from being dumped by Armageddon Knight.

Running synergistic cards is far more important than running straight up broken cards in most cases…Gorz and Dark Armed Dragon should never be run over a card that makes your engine work. Simple enough, but there's a lot more than just that at work in an engine.

Don't get your facts mixed up however, Power is important. Running powerful or otherwise broken cards can mean the difference between victory and defeat. No amount of synergistic cards will help if those cards, even together, cannot win a game. People run engines that provide them with as many broken cards as possible, that's practically the definition of tier 1 decks. As you'll see later, most cards in an engine are either very powerful, or aid in the play of a broken card.

When talking about powerful cards, it's impossible to not mention staples; cards that provide huge advantage and are easily added into nearly all decks. These include Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Heavy Storm, and Call Of The Haunted. Even if your engine doesn't directly support these cards, they should almost always be run. Tech cards need not always be included in the engine specifically, but they generate enough power and advantage to be must haves in a deck…which brings us to our next subject…

Advantage is hugely important in an engine. Having powerful, synergistic cards means nothing if you don't draw them. Drawing gives you more options, and special summoning lets you swarm and gain field advantage. Advantage is a subject that is talked about more than Shapesnatch's bowtie with horrible power, so I'll keep things brief (I wrote an article earlier this month talking about advantage, if you need more help, go there). Advantage lets you run you engine better by searching, summoning, and drawing, and is essential to EVERY deck.

Yugioh is a game that is based in part on luck. Drawing the right cards at the right time will almost always allow a player to win, regardless of deck type. Conversely, a bad hand or simply bad luck on a card mill can ruin any strategy, leaving the player helpless. What consistency means is that your deck flows well regardless of the situation. The ability to turn any card or cards in your hand into a strong offense or defense is essential to staying in the game. Having those same cards start building up combos and allowing you to progress through your engine means you never have to worry about ‘dead hands' crippling your strategy. Synergistic cards by nature provide some consistency, but looking at every card, and making sure it works towards your end game is the best way to add consistency.

Consistency alone is meaningless, you can be consistently putting Skull Servants on the field, but there's no end game there. However, combined with the other components of a deck talked about here, consistency means you can easily put powerful, advantage generating cards on the field that are filled with synergy.

Versatility is the last component of a deck engine, and it's one that players most often struggle with. Some deck engines, like Gladiator Beasts, are loaded with versatility. Need a monster gone? Summon Murmillo or Laquari. Spell or Trap? Bestiary. Need one last material for Heraklinos? Get Darius. It's really easy for a deck like this to respond to an always changing field, but not all engines can do this. Look at plants…they don't have a direct destruction card in their type, so outside tech cards are needed. This hurts the deck by including a non-engine card, but synchros can help change that. Adding a very synergistic Nettles would let the deck summon Brionac, and blow away threatening monsters, spells or traps. Synchros have been one of the best things to happen to the game, providing versatility through in-engine cards (tuners). It's no small wonder that the Gladiator Beast format ended at the introduction of synchros…

Engine Breakdowns

I've gone over the components, so lets take a look at several decks and analyze how each component fits in with the role of the card. To start things off, here's a look at the Blackwing Engine.

Blackwings

Black Whirlwind - Advantage, Synergy, Consistency, Versatility
The base component of the Blackwing deck is Black Whirlwind. It gives a player an instant +1 upon summoning, and grabs a weaker Blackwing monster than the one that was summoned. Summoning Shura lets you grab Bora, Kalut, Gale, or Blizzard, any of which are great cards on their own. Not to mention it lets you grab the right one for the job, lending quite a bit of versatility to the deck. Usually, once Black Whirlwind hits the field, players can expect to see a swarm of Blackwing monsters and synchros soon enough.

Allure of Darkness - Advantage

Allure of Darkness gives Blackwing players a much needed draw card, and while only at two, it's still very effective. Since all Blackwings are dark, Allure is an easy fit, providing an extra boost of speed when neccesary. While technicaly Allure is a fair two-for-two trade...your losing two worthless cards for potentialy game changing ones. At any rate, having a card that can thin you deck and dump dead cards is always appreciated, and needless to say, it's one of the major appeals of running a deck engine based on dark monsters. I would put Reckless Greed in here as well, but Allure does the job slightly better.

Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame - Advantage, Synergy, Consistency, Versatility, Power

Shura is an example of a card that fits all five components. It's a strong 1800 attacker, and when coupled with Black Whirlwind, it can generate a lot of advantage. It's an impressive opening card, forcing the opponent to expend more resources or play defensive…two options players don't like choosing. With Black Whirlwind adding Blackwings to the hand, and Shura summoning Blackwings to the field, the engine is extremely fast. Shura is an amazingly consistent monster, and is the Blackwing's deck first strike.

Blackwing - Bora the Spear - Power, Synergy, Consistency

Bora is a little less useful the Shura…and I'm sure if you ask any Blackwing player if they'd rather run some extra Shura over it, they would say yes in a heartbeat. Bora doesn't do quite as much for the engine, but does provide some synergy and beatstick power. At level four, it works with Blizzard to get Armed Wing, and after being searched by Black Whirlwind, it can drop right on to the field. A much more immediate translation of hand advantage to field advantage, Bora fits into the engine by being the consistent beatstick when you don't always draw into Shura.

Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow - Advantage, Synergy, Consistency, Power

With attacking and remaining on the field a necessity in a Blackwing deck, nothing helps more for protection than Kalut. Both an offensive and defensive card, Kalut is the perfect target for Black Whirlwind, letting Bora run over synchros, or giving Shura its effect. Kalut ties the deck together with a powerful tool for monster elimination and protection, and is vital to protecting the engine itself from disruption. It keeps monsters cycling, and Synchros churning out.

Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North - Advantage, Synergy, Power, Versatility

Speaking of synchros, Blizzard does an amazing job of summoning level six synchro monsters like Blackwing - Armed Wing, Goyo, and Brionac. Like other tuners with similar effects, you don't lose any advantage by synchro summoning with Blizzard, letting you expend you monsters for other purposes. Since the engine utilizes two major level four monsters, and both work with Black Whirlwind to search it out, Blizzard is a perfect fit for the deck.

Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind - Synergy, Versatility, Power

Gale is more of the product of the engine rather than a component, but it is a critical piece of the deck. Gale gives Blackwing players another target for Whirlwind…and one that can be immediately special summoned too. With a broken effect and amazing synergy within the deck, Gale proves it's worth each time it hit's the field. It's one of those cards that can be the key part of a game-changing strategy, and is of course easily tech-able. What makes it part of the engine, however, is the fact that Gale can be used again and again through cards like Pot of Avarice and Dark Eruption. Combining these, Gale becomes a hugely important tool for synchro summoning the engines ultimate goal: Armor Master.

As you can see, the Blackwing deck mostly centers around Black Whirlwind and Shura pulling cards out of the deck to be used on the field. The engine can easily translate hand advantage to field advantage. Hopefully, you already know this if you've played the deck before.

At any rate, this breakdown makes the five components really evident, and is a much better illustration of the point. In the end, these are all things most players already know….if not able to name them. Decks a constructed first a foremost with an engine in mind, and it's easily the most important aspect of any deck. A few primary combos, secondary combos, and then tech cards and staples. Since most decks originate as a series of card combos, it's easy to relate that to the birth of a deck engine. It defines not only what you play, but how you play it. Until next time then.