Side deck choices for the WCQ Malaysia // Nationals format

WCQ Malaysia is next Sunday, to the duelist participating, I wish you the best of luck (of cause, my main goal is to take the title for myself, not gonna lie). Also, it should be a given that you have already decide upon your decklist and strategies as last minute work usually doesn’t go well. You also need enough time for practicing, no matter how good you think you are with your deck, your contenders are some of the best duelist in the whole country , take no short cuts, play test with good players. This weekend would most likely be your last chance to play test, so, unless you have something really important you HAVE to attend to (ie, life…), please make use of this last play test session.

Now, some of the guys out there may still have doubts on the side deck you should be preparing. This isn’t uncommon, as most players here tend to focus too much on their main deck. But you play 2 or you 3 matches with your side, knowing and not knowing how to utilize this usually determines the winner. I’ve repeated the importance of the side deck numerous times before, and I shall do it again now. Please, understand and build a good side deck, IT IS IMPORTANT! And again, don’t take short cuts, play test with the side decks as well, I know many who just prepare a side deck that has the outs to all the decks he/she might face, but face a difficult decision on what to take out for the swap-ins.

Personally, if you run a deck that can play Skill Drain, you should definitely play Skill Drain. Decks that could run Skill Drain include Dark Worlds, T.G (uncommon here though), Hieratics (yes, Hieratics is a deck that could do well under Skill Drain), Chaos Dragons (BUT, the main reason why you wanna play Skill Drain is Inzektors; Chaos Dragons have no problem for Inzektors, so I don’t think you need to run it, but theres always this option) and arguably, Rabbits. Having Skill Drain in the deck lets you play some of the more powerful but non-chainable traps, Mirror Force and Dimension Prison (more so for the latter) comes into mind. Prison is a very powerful card, the main reason it doesn’t see plays is because of Inzektors, but it is very effective against rogue decks like Dark Worlds, Gravekeepers and Chaos Dragons; it also does well against more established decks like Rabbits and Machina. Having Skill Drain also means you can side this in even against decks like Hieratics. Although it’s still not that good against Inzektors, but hey, a card that can do damage to all decks aside of 1 is good side deck material.

Next, you MUST have cards in your side that deals with the graveyard. Be it DD Crow, Macro Cosmos or Transmigration Prophecy. These cards will be of use this format, half the decks in the format needs constant utilization with their graveyard. Cut that off, and you’ve already in the winning side. Inzektors could look into Dimension Fissure once more, and when I say “could”, I meant, put serious consideration into it. Dimension Fissure was a card that Inzektors played when they were introduced into the game, then dropped out of favor for other cards. Now, I think this is a good time to revisit this card. Firstly, this card stops Veiler, an Inzektor’s number 1 annoyance while not affecting your game play at all. Secondly, Dark Worlds backed with Skill Drain can really do a lot of damage to Inzektors, and this card does more damage to them; also, Chaos Dragons, which have a fairly good matchup against Inzektors (which I know the TCG guys reading this would disagree) also dies to this card. While lacking the element of surprise like the ones shown with DD Crow, this card (and Cosmos) back itself up with raw power.

Extra bit of spell and trap removal is encouraged, not necessary depending on your build. The best side deck cards at the moment are majority continuous spells and traps. If your deck dies to one of these, an extra copy or two of Dust Tornado, Night Beam won’t hurt. It will, if you don’t have these and your opponent side in a hate. Personally, I prefer Dust Tornado over Night Beam because of my playstyle, and I trust my ability in reading face downs. I don’t like my opponent flipping the face down Continuous Trap or play Necrovalley when I’m holding Night Beam either. While considerably slower, it suits my play style a lot more than Night Beam, but this choice is player’s preference.

To summarize things, in your side deck, you’ll need (1) Outs to popular decks, (2) Outs to bad match ups, (3) Outs to hates, and if possible, (4) Something effective with the element of surprise. Thanks for reading, this blog post is majorly targeted towards duelist that has troubles with side decking (obviously); feel free to drop a comment regarding interesting side deck choices, especially if that something isn’t controversial, additional choices and information is always good.