Side-Decking & Preparing for SJC Edison 2010 by IAMSIXXY

In the seventh installment of his "Pro Tip For BKs", dubkdad1 gave you a brief overview of some of the best cards to consider when making your side deck. The cards he mentioned were, "Jinzo", "Breaker the Magical Warrior", "D.D. Crow", "Legendary Jujitsu Master", "Nobleman of Crossout", "Soul Release", "My Body As A Shield", "Soul Release", "My Body As A Shield", "Trap Stun", "Mirror Of Oaths", "Trap Hole", "Starlight Road", "Dust Tornado", and "Royal Oppression". In this article,
 I'll mention a few more cards to consider, expand on the transformation side, talk about siding for the Mirror Match and how to prepare your Side Deck for SHONEN JUMP Edison 2010.

Your Side Deck and Main Deck for that matter should be a reflection of the meta you are in and your Side should compliment your Main Deck in a way that will best prepare it for every match-up. Going into SJC Edison, you may not know what the meta is going to be. It's a new format and that usually causes players a lot of stress. Don't worry, making Meta Predictions isn't as hard as you may think. If you look around at the decks that are Topping Regionals and large non-official Tournaments throughout the States and all over the World, you'd notice that Synchro Cat and it's various variant, Hamster United Gosus, Oracle Cat and Flamvell Cat, is the deck that is coming out on Top. You can expect to see the majority of the field at Edison consisting of this deck. You can also expect to see a lot of Lightsworn, Gladiator Beast, X-Saber, Machina Gadgets and Blackwings still strong going into Round 3 - Round 4. You may see also still see Zombies, Geminis and Quickdraw Synchron floating around at that time.

Another thing I find that comes with going into SHONENs is a lot of Tier 2 and below decks in the field as well as a handful of Day 2-level competitor's have this genius ideas and a magical "break the format" deck. I'll be honest, the majority of those decks are going to flop and won't make it past the right few Rounds. The deck you bring should be competitive enough that it has no trouble running over magical "break the format", Tier 2 and below decks with little to no siding.

Lightsworn, X-Saber, Zombies, Geminis, Quickdraw Synchron and even Dragons and Gravekeeper's for that matter are all heavy dependent on their graveyards. If you have cards in your side deck that can hinder their ability to utilize the cards in their graveyard, you'll have a great chance at shutting those decks down and winning that match-up. Cards are good against graveyard oriented decks are "Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer", "D.D. Crow", "Soul Release" and "Dimensional Fissure". Gladiator Beasts and Blackwings are decks that can easily utilize "Dimensional Fissure" without it hurting them too much. If your deck has a bad match-up against Lightsworn, you may want to consider utilizing a lone copy of "Light-Imprisoning Mirror" or "Starlight Road". Starlight Road is also great at shutting down a power card in the Blackwing deck, "Icarus Attack" as well as their "Delta Crow - Anti-Reverse", "Mirror Force", "Torrential Tribute" and "Heavy Storm". If your deck has problems against X-Sabers, you may want to side a few copies of "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World" to punish them when they make you discard from hand.

Synchro Cat also relies on recycling its Arcanite Beat engine via "Pot of Avarice", so "D.D. Crow", "Soul Release" and "Dimensional Fissure" comes in handy in that scenario as well. Synchro Cat is a deck that sets a lot so copies of "Nobleman of Crossout" really hurt that deck as it has the potential to remove their "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter"s as well as a key card in their Gravekeeper-engine, "Gravekeeper's Spy". However, if you're running a variant of Synchro Cat, you would want to use extreme caution in utilizing "Nobleman of Crossout". For the Synchro Cat Mirror Match, you'd want your Rykos and Spies in the graveyard /a copy in hand or your Gravekeeper engine sided out before you drop "Nobleman of Crossout". Another way to get around this is to use "Shield Crush", it may not remove the rest from their deck but it takes out their set monster and allows you to set up. Or you could use "Mind Control" to snatch their facedown and use their own card's effect against them. "Mirror of Oaths" is an easy pick for this match-up, mirror or otherwise. I don't think I have to go into depth about this one. Finally, for the Synchro Cat Mirror, if your opponent is starting the only way to power over your set up is through "Cyber Dragon". If you aren't maining "Cyber Dragon", I advise you utilize 2 copies in your Side Deck, as well as one copy of "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon" in your Extra Deck. "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon" is harsh on your opponent if they have "Cyber Dragon" out as well as being an absolute nightmare for Machina Gagdets.

Now, lets talk about Gladiator Beasts. This toolbox is an auto-default deck for a lot of players going into a new formats and is always floating around in SHONENs. Some ideal cards for this Match-Up, as dubkdad1 mentioned are "Royal Oppression", "Legendary Jujistu Master", "Dust Tornado" and "Mirror of Oaths", which pretty much sums up what you'll need against this deck. A well-timed, well-protected "Stardust Dragon" also really hurts this deck. A card that is great for the Gladiator Mirror is "Jowls of Dark Demise". This card can not only prevent your opponent from tagging into new Gladiator Beasts, but it also allows you to tag; contact into your own Gladiator Beasts, using your opponents monsters. Brilliant!

Next up, we have Blackwings. They don't need to Side much for the Mirror that other decks won't. Cards like "Trap Hole" and "Dust Tornado" are all you really need to set down their "Black Whirlwinds". "My Body As A Shield" may be an added bonus if want to force out their "Icarus Attack"s and shut them down. In my opinion, "Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn" is the most important card in the Blackwing Mirror, as you can utilize its pump effect to gain the attack of all Blackwings in play, even your opponents. However, a card to consider in the future Blackwing Mirror after the release The Shining Darkness is to use "The Selection" over "Trap Hole". "The Selection" is a Counter Trap that will negate the summon of your opponent's Blackwing monster if you have a Blackwing in play.

Finally, the Transformation Side Deck. Back in the Golden Age of Yu-Gi-Oh!, during and before Goat Format, Transformation Side Decks were everywhere and you nor your opponent had any clue what to expect for Game 2 ; Game 3. Nowadays, in our archetype-dominated Formats, the only viable transformation side decks are Monarchs and Drain. The Monarch transformation usually contains "Gravekeeper's Spy" & two copies of a Monarch, either "Caius the Shadow Monarch" or "Mobius the Frost Monarch". The Drain transformation Side is highly dependant on the deck you are running, you only want to use this in a deck that can support, gain pluses or isn't hurt by Drain. You don't want to side in "Destiny Hero - Defender" if you aren't using a Destiny-engine. An interesting deck this format would have to be Zombies that sided into "Skill Drain" and "Beast King Barbaros"

One more thing to remember and this is possibly the most important part of the article, timing is everything, that's why you see decks that run a lot of Special Summons maining cards like "Royal Oppression". Good luck at SHONEN JUMP Edison, I look forward to seeing your name on the list of Top 16 competitors.

- Kyle Schrader