So how do you build Yugioh decks RIGHT?

[@cameronfarrell9076]

My personal play style is "being poor"

[@plabcentral630]

Same here.

[@Skittlez_apex]

Yeah i spent about $150 when i first started playing again during kash format and i have been keeping track of what im spending and selling the equivalent or trading for what i need. Excluding local entry fees im actually up on my initial amount spent from pulling and selling expensive cards and could take my inital investment out of my budget and essentially be playing for about $20/month

[@HIMMBelljuvo]

Same

[@Shizaessen]

Deck building is the most fun part of the game for me

[@Nyarlartt]

It is for me too! A friend of mine wanted to play vampires. The only problem is that they are really bad. So, I added a couple of engines and tweeked some of the ratios and it's now a competent deck!

[@wesmoorer3638]

Yeah I find myself spending more time deck building than playing 😂

[@welp_dang]

Sameee, I'll smoke a fat bowl, put some good ass music on and go to town on deck building like a mad scientist

[@wesmoorer3638]

@@welp_dang hell yeah! That is dope dude. 👌 I don't smoke but I for sure play good music and get into my own little world deck building. It is really fun.

[@pulseobsidian]

You are by far one of the most motivating, educating, and funny yugioh players around. thank you for sharing your thoughts and many ideas that have for Sure helped as well inspired me and many others. keep up the amazing work, Mark! You are Slaying it! :):)

[@MarkThePage]

yaaas queen slay!

[@emeraldeyes5319]

I absolutely appreciate your angle of "You should build the deck yourself to understand it". I love the process of building a deck from the ground up and trying it over and over to identify strengths and weaknesses until I can actually get it to work. Nothing feels better than getting regular wins against broken meta decks with something that you know is jank, but it's YOUR jank xD

[@Ley371.]

I’ve said for a while that I would love to sit down and talk to someone else who actually builds their deck. Especially if I’m playing my version or the cookie version of a deck. I usually start with the cookie and slowly branch out but I feel like that’s way to slow when it comes to my own mastery of the deck…maybe I’ll try doing it like this for my Ashened build I’m working on.

[@gaymare6236]

An important addendum, as long as you don't play in high stakes competitive environments; it is absolutely fine to play sub-optimal decks that are more fun for you. I rarely if ever play any omni negates or floodgates in my deck, because I usually just play casually against friends, and I don't want it to turn into a game of solitaire that ends in the opponent not being able to do anything. At the end of the day, if you're having fun, you're playing the game "the right way"

[@MarkThePage]

With a very skilled friend I actually do enjoy showing off with 10-minute lockdown combos, or seeing if I can break his board. Sometimes we'll redraw or fudge things to increase the challenge. Rather than a competition, we're seeing how far we can push each deck. Just wanted to add how even the most competitive strategies can still make for fun, casual duels! Attitude matters more than the cards and there are infinite ways to play this game.

[@DylanDoyle-r2i]

Honestly the other YugiTubers should feel very lucky that you don’t want 100% of your focus on the game. Great videos

[@Kaikyou519]

I really like how your videos bring attention to conceptual stuff that I probably would have taken for granted otherwise. And big respect for continuing to rep Crystal Beasts 🤝

[@DadJokeExpert]

Vaylantz my beloved! Love the amount of different shenanigans you can do. I remember looking for a deck list only to realize there’s too many. Everyone builds it for different things and I love it!

[@setiawan2791]

Yo big Thanks for the vid. It really hard to find the video for a beginner in the game. Your video, along with previous one really give me insight on how deck works

[@ehokumas]

Thank you so much for both of your vídeos, I've never had so much fun playing yugioh than now making a crazy mono-rock deck without any lists

[@kazookid34]

Another banger video from the GOAT. Keep it up g, I’m taking my own version of your Sapphire Surprise to my local today 💪 Haven’t had this much fun in Yugioh for a long time

[@MarkThePage]

I don't play goat format. Good luck with whatever version of Sapphire Surprise you're playing! Let me know the looks on your opponents' faces when you drop a Crystal Beast ten steps into a Branded play.

[@israeldelarosa5461]

I know the algorithm probably won’t boost this video as much as your last. But it should. This is really good,

[@johnnywu8708]

1:40 is by far the biggest thing I learned about YGO. Even back when my friends and I would just netdeck or build random garbage on DuelingNetwork, we would see Teledad lists and go "Emergency Teleport, Krebons? In MY Dark Armed build? Garbage, we're gonna slot in 3 Mirror Force, because that's just better." But of course, once you learn why those cards are there, it makes perfect sense.

[@Timmyberkowitz]

I love your videos so much. I came for the yugioh content but your personality and jokes have made me a fan of your entire channel!

[@MarkThePage]

Wow, someone who actually shares my eclectic tastes!

[@chrisdhespollari4815]

rainbow dragon has a secret effect to magnet to your opener if you play 1 copy

[@MarkThePage]

This is true.

[@alchemistarcher02]

Must have shared that technique with Vision Hero Increase

[@asharpiesniffer7553]

i am so happy i discovered this guy

[@sol575]

It's so vindicating to see someone feel similar to myself! I personally like to use popular/"authoritative" deck lists to check out what cards are popular, and then I start playing around by seeing what cards are in the same archetype which didn't make their deck list, and I then proceed to wonder how certain bridges and synergies were missed during testing. Then I remember this game's ridiculous comprehensive card list. Edit: grammar

[@Turian_Primarch]

Just finding your content. I'm really enjoying it!!

[@TemporalDelusion]

I used to love deckbuilding way back when... kaiba structure deck all the way to like 2014-15. Quit for quite a while and coming back I constantly felt like I was not "good enough" to build my own decks in modern. Modern decks are just too complex, combos included and I didn't trust myself to even change decks up a little bit. Your crystal beast video, and the pinned comment was both a wake up call and great motivator. Since then I messed around with some ratios in the decks I already pilot competently and I actually started winning more with more "bricks" in the deck. For the exact reason you mention about the 2 copies of the Rainbow Dragon. It gives me a second chance when I screw up, and I do so under pressure quite often to this day. It also helps to have backups in so many random scenarios that come up at locals that never would happen at a serious "pro" event. Thanks for sticking to your guns on this one and not just providing a list like others.

[@MarkThePage]

Wow, it really works! Even if the cards you choose don't make for what's potentially the strongest version of the deck, with so many viable strategies these days, it's like a 10-way tie for 2nd place. And yeah, don't force yourself through those slightly more powerful combos if they're too overwhelming to actually play. Even I need a break from that some days.

[@SomeIdiotOnAMac]

Great video which just shows that the best thing about ygo is and always will be the deck-building and discovery aspect! (even though the shinra bansho bounce always scares me from a stray imperm ruining my day haha)

[@MarkThePage]

Usually I wait to bounce the Vaylantz World until I've put down a loaded Rainbow Ruins. Here I just wanted to show what's possible.

[@mediocreboi]

Doing a prog has really taught me how to experiment and properly test stuff. Last week I was playing Uria Simochi burn and rain of mercy genuinely did more damage than Uria. I picked it by looking for every card available that gives my opponent life points.

[@MarkThePage]

Locked beneath Duel Academy are three cards of terrifying power: Raviel, Lord of Phantasms; Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder; and Rain of Mercy.

[@mrbubbles6468]

To be fair, the reason Edison decks look different is because we aren’t playing in that format as it was. The time constraints of this game are a huge part of any format, woe are no longer behold to those for older formats. The decks people were actually using are as well.

[@solobugg5087]

What's interesting about Jesse is that despite people claiming his deck is the "solved" deck and that there's no more room for inspiration, he HIMSELF has been continuing to experiment with the deck way after that video was released. I believe just recently he posted a video of Crystal Beasts in MD where he plays Snake-Eye cards as free bodies for Saryuja, and Yubel cards to weave Phantom into the combo for extra disruption and insulation. Even the masters continue to experiment with their decks, which is what makes them the masters in the first place.

[@MarkThePage]

Last I heard, people finally moved on from the ACB list in that video... by declaring ACBs trash altogether when Golden Rule released. I haven't kept up with the discourse since.

[@ClarkieReidri]

The “objection” on Appo summon was foreshadowing her ban

[@VanillaScoopYGO]

Videos like this exactly show why you are one of my favorite yugioh dudes

[@spyro2002]

I'd be interested in seeing how you play advanced crystal beasts. If nothing else your videos always give me something to think about.

[@MarkThePage]

I'm rethinking the regular Crystal Beasts now too. I'd been going full turbo these past few months, so now I have to relearn combo control.

[@PotatoVariety]

I got into yugioh with master duel a month ago and I'm enjoying my journey of tweaking my pendulum magicians deck every time I feel like I'm stuck or have some interesting idea. So far I made it to diamond 2 and still climbing :)

[@MarkThePage]

Your first MONTH and you're already using Pendulum Magicians, a deck so complex even I don't have the patience to learn it!? How has your experience been? I'm very interested in hearing what it's like to get into high-level Yugioh for the first time.

[@timfaulkner5010]

Can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to see Vaylantz world in your combos! But yes very well said, experimenting with deck building is the most fun part of Yu gi oh, and tailoring it to your locals and personal playstyle is key. Like with my fav Vaylantz, I’m always looking out for new tech to make it more consistent/ resilient, like literally any time a new card gets announced my reaction is “can this work in Vaylantz…” Most of the time it’s a no, other times it completely changes how I build the deck - pendulum witch and Varudras being the most recent game changers.

[@MarkThePage]

An actual Vaylantz player!? I've messed around with the cards to see what they do, but once I realized I'd need to learn about the wide, wide world of generic pendulum support, my brain shut down. I was recently trying for quite some time with some huge piles of Draco stuff and Yuya stuff... I'm just gonna use your field spells and try not to think that hard again.

[@timfaulkner5010]

@@MarkThePage indeed! No other deck really scratches the same itch for me that Vaylantz does. And honestly, compared to other pendulum decks, it’s genuinely not as complicated as it initially looks! 😅 I recommend the deck all day, it’s obviously not the best, but it’s so so fun when it clicks

[@doubl2480]

KZbin ate my first comment, but I wanted to say I love your spirit, love your crystal beast combo, we need more people like you who wants to have fun deckbuilding and experiment a bunch of things!

[@MarkThePage]

Your first comment was delicious.

[@navarrito96]

I’m a nostalgia guy, all the cards and archetypes you mention flew over my head. Time to make random decks online, thanks for the fun video.

[@NotControlledByMillipedes]

Basically, don't steal decks because they'll not fit your playstyle.

[@jameelr5244]

Thank you, this video really hit home for me as I deck build in ways you mentioned. Even the whole your playing ninjas wrong cuz jesse played them this way. I was consistantly losing in my friend group as i was trying either ninjas or water decks both of which were not the best and I was playing Agnist meta decks like lab, runick, and mannadium.

[@MarkThePage]

Ninjas became popular around the same time as Advanced, and for the same reason, but I didn't say anything more about them because I don't know what effect that had on "the Ninja community". I built Ninja and Ocean control decks recently and they are somewhat viable. Tricky to build, but keep trying new things and keeping track of what helps.

[@Mage_Nichlas_]

With your own Deckbuilding, you can be *THE* player your friends must test against. You don't even have to be overly """creative""" to be a threat as long as your ideas and your play are solid. I play a 58 card Skull Servant Deck that goes first to avoid my opponent's board, ends on no Negates aside from a drawn Solemn Strike or Ash(the only handtrap I play), plays Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, Monster Reborn, Change of Heart, and Snatch Steal, has no Extra Deck "Boss" Monsters like Apollousa, Accesscode, etc., and I still can and *WILL* have a good chance of beating you in a regular game or grind game even after having my entire Graveyard Banished with the Purest Skull Servant Deck you can make(even before Wightlord was conceived for being printed). Never count yourself out.

[@mauer1]

What do you do when they just otk you on their turn?

[@Mage_Nichlas_]

Well I usually keep at least 1 Wightprincess in my hand which can send herself to lower all Monsters' ATK and DEF by 300 times their Level/Rank. I mean if my opponent's hand is cracked then it's cracked. You gotta accept that bad matchups happen.

[@mauer1]

@@Mage_Nichlas_ sneks do enough with a one card combo. Depending on your monsters stats yubel just needs to get into 2-4 versions. The reason why Maxx C is such a problem on master duel is that you can't skip turn 1 on no negates if you wanna survive.

[@JamesontheThird]

Honestly after a ten year break in the game your videos inspired me to build crystal beasts and play them as my main

[@MarkThePage]

Oh no, you got away but I pulled you back!

[@hiddendrake6283]

My main problem is I don't know where to begin to find cards that bridge the gaps that I need to fill, which is why I always look for deck lists as they give me more info to work with

[@MarkThePage]

Yeah, when I'm ready to find more ideas I pull up a whole bunch of deck lists and just scan them for off-theme cards I hadn't thought of yet. I don't pay attention to any one list in particular, or what the ratios were.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

"When you have a good turn in MtG" by ProZD energy.

[@SilveOfisial]

This video is already a while old but I don't care, I want to contribute with this comment XD. I love your contribution to both the Yu-Gi-Oh community and specifically to the Crystal Beasts community. Personally I've always been a person who, unless I understood the deck I was playing quite well, followed the lists, and I still do, as I'm talking about what I was doing yesterday xd, But the thing is that I find your video very interesting and it's true! For example, I hadn't thought about using the crystal beast field before seeing one of your videos using it and I thought it was a great idea! I'm not a professional after all, but I don't need to be one to make interesting and entertaining decks and have a good time. Thank you very much for this video, which I know is difficult to record, and for encouraging us all to think a little and have critical thinking when creating our own Decks. I send you a hug

[@MarkThePage]

Hey, it's good to know that people can still have fun even if they don't build their own decks! I'm glad you saw how much more fun it can be to put even one unconventional card in a deck. I like to always have at least one weird pick.

[@mickjaegar2379]

I'm really lucky that the small Master Duel Fur Hire community I frequent didn't just throw their hands up and called the deck solved once the Runick/Spright variant caught on. A couple weeks before LEDE dropped I conceptualized and showed off a few Vaalmonica/FH combo lines there that could end on a basic Folgo board without needing to actually open any cards Fur Hire or Fossil Digs, something unheard of with prior strategys. It was a 3 card combo, but that's Just Pend Things. Once Vaalmonica dropped in MD one person in that community (who wrote the MDM guide on fur hire and it's one of the best primers for the deck out there) took the idea and absolutely ran away with it and refined the strategy. Even though kinda got bored with it after a couple months at locals (and partially due to winning more matches to time than i was comfortable with) I'm really glad I don't live in the alternate reality where I just get called dumb for not playing Runick instead.

[@MarkThePage]

Each Yugioh deck has its own isolated little community. It's interesting to hear what goes on in someone else's! It makes sense that you furries fur hire are open to trying just about anything! My only experience with them is when they were dominating Duel Links. Actually, your story is really surprising because someone commented on my previous Yugioh video that the Vaalmonica community had a very narrow idea that Exosister was its only acceptable hybrid.

[@sleepwellmychild]

Make more videos like this please. You're awesome. You just might get me back into ygo.

[@Dragonmist19X]

You know it'd be crazy if a entire format was named after a deck only for experimentation to push that deck out of the meta for the most part. Totally unrelated but have you lot ever played goat?

[@Scorpion404100]

Very good points. Not a single decklist is the definitive one, you can make a better deck with enough effort! Also different formats, locals and playstyle changes a lot.

[@JorguinTorpedo-ff5vk]

Mark, Without you I whould never get good at the game, english is not my first language but this phrase can be understood by all peoples in the World; U ARE 🔥

[@MarkThePage]

How wonderful to play a game that can be enjoyed across different languages! (Hopefully KZbin's captioning and translation is accurate enough for viewers like you.)

[@mewhen-q2d]

My personal playstyle in question: branded deck without a branded fusion or aluber

[@carstan62]

Haven't seen the modern crystal beast combos before, but I'm noticing a similarity with the Dragunity decks that I am familiar with. This crystal beast combo revolves around accruing advantage by looping Sapphire Pegasus, which doesn't have a hard opt. Modern Dragunity decks are similar in that we load up our gy with dragons by abusing the soft opt on Gae Dearg.

[@MarkThePage]

All I knew about Dragunity was the classic Dux for a level 8 synchro--that sounds tempting! It does feel good to get rewarded every time a monster is summoned, and not have to worry about once-per-turn activation limits.

[@carstan62]

@MarkThePage I'd be interested to see what you came up with if you crafted a combo for it since the later stages of the combo allow for a ton of individuality off the back of having access to pretty much any dragons you want. I could write out an entire example combo, but I don't know if you'd prefer to try to figure it out on your own. Instead, some key cards are: Dragunity Knight Gae Dearg, Dragunity Glow, Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, and either Samsara Dragon or Blackwing - Steam the Cloak, which are used to tribute Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres on your turn. And everything there and more can be searched out off of a 1.5 card combo.

[@MarkThePage]

I'll have to add Dragunity to my list of decks to check out. Dragons have one of the biggest toolboxes out there and I know very little about them. With decks like that, I think I'd have to sink many long hours of research before having anything to contribute which hasn't already been done.

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

Yep, deck building is all about trial and retrial, and retrial. New cards means having to try out new things for testing synergies, play arounds, and janky "for fun" shenanigans.

[@Addywastaken621]

Oh my god, I had something similar happen on an odd-eyes discord. Someone asked me why i was running a card at 1 as opposed to 3. And I’m just here like “because it’s not part of my game plan.” And bro kept going back to “but the spreadsheet says-“ and it drove me up a wall. I have something like an absurd win rate on master duel with the deck, but lower at locals. I even told him “the spreadsheet isn’t gospel” and I swear as I watched “username is typing” I half expected him to say “but the spreadsheet says-“

[@ferrohazard]

Brawndo has what plants crave.

[@salvadorsanchez5057]

i feel you because im the only person insane enough to play going 2nd psyframes with a bunch of board breakers. it used to work decently fine before ygo went completely off the rails.

[@Leibniz_28]

I’ll try to apply your advice for Speed Duel deck building

[@MarkThePage]

Speed Duel is the most fun to build for!!!

[@Nyarlartt]

Your videos are great. I advice people to use the archetype discords not as the ultimate word but as a way to ask for an opinion in a tech piece. People there have a lot of preconceived notions on what you should play and more often than not word their subjective takes as objective truth. I remember once when I said to a person uploading a decklist to rethink their ratios bc of your previous video (lots of hopt at 3 that can be searched). The person then goes to say how what I said was "bad logic" for multiple paragraphs, only for the discord owner to come and say "they are kind of right tho" (refering to my message). The ranter then says to the owner "thank you for your input, it's really appreciated ^-^"

[@Nawer_Rapter]

Funny enough I have the exact same way of theorycraft of yours and at some point I said "Bro, traphands are the best" and discovered a general counter to albaz and tearlaments with a taking control of the enemy deck with around 50 cards. I have to see if today It still works, as purrley destroyed my ass and I didn't want to play anymore for a year.

[@Nawer_Rapter]

Must add, man-eater insect mimetic is an absolute demigod and some times a lot of people just have to sit and wait for several turns until they find a removal. Now that barone is banned I have to check if there's something that can cancel it fast enough, after activating +4 handtraps that they have to cancel already.

[@MarkThePage]

Can't blame you for the Purrely incident. It's a very bad design, to have a card which outright says "either you have the unconventional out for this or you have to surrender."

[@giraffedragon6110]

"To give you a decklist implies it's finished" that... wow, that's a mood I relate to. my Zombie deck is frequently changing to see what works best for me. Edit here: admittedly when my zombie deck was slower, I ran Woboku and gravity bind. gravity bind saved me so much because who would EVER anticipate 1 silly card saying you don't get to attack.

[@MarkThePage]

It always feels great to catch an opponent with a classic card everyone's forgotten about. I prefer Storming/Quaking Mirror Force for this because it's not just a passive defense.

[@asharpiesniffer7553]

i know the whole point of this video was to build your own deck, but i don't even have a starting point. anyone know what that crystal beast decklist was?

[@MarkThePage]

The video description includes all the cards mentioned; I don't give deck lists on my channel. This video is building off of my previous guides which discuss ratios more. The simplest start is to max out all the search spells, pick your CB lineup, then add every tech that looked vaguely interesting to you. Mash out test hands until you start noticing the patterns of combos. Crystal Beasts also have a structure deck you can build from, though it doesn't have Advanced or Golden Rule yet.

[@christopherteague3142]

I've been experimenting with Simorghs a lot lately, spurred by Swallow's Cowrie releasing in Master Duel, and while I think Onslaught is too devastating a chokepoint for the deck to be really competitive, I did find some fun stuff Most notably, running Gustos can kind of unbrick the hand. Normally after resolving Onslaught, you have Perfection and some Wind Simorgh in your hand, but no way to summon a Winged Beast to then trigger Perfection's extra normal if the turn normal summon was already used, i.e. on Bringing to search the Onslaught in the first place. You would have to link the Bringing off into Almiraj and then reborn it using its own effect, which locks you into Winged Beasts. However, if Gusto Griffin was discarded for Onslaught, it can summon a Gusto from deck, triggering Perfection and opening up Synchro plays for the deck without locking. Bringing and Griffin also happen to both be 2s, which is why my mind jumped to them when I read Cowrie I've developed the deck a decent amount from there, messing with Avian Lock and Clear Wings and Dragunities, but in the end both Sovereignty and Baronne being banned in the TCG means there's nothing for Simorghs to invest their reborns into and for Gustos to synchro into after Wind locking, respectively; extra deck Winged Beasts are more or less restricted to the Blackwings, which themselves don't lack the extra Synchro material that Simorgh offers Elborz's extra normal and tribute reduction combined with Onslaught's banish effect to reduce the level of a Winged Beast have some surprising potential (my favorite example being Dragunity Primus Pilus), but I don't think the conditions are right for Simorghs to enable anything truly viable atm

[@MarkThePage]

Wow, a Simorgh player! Those cards pop up in my searches for Shinobirds but I've never seen the deck in action. Dragunities also pop up when I'm trying to make Knight of Armor Dragon playable. When you mentioned Gusto I expected just Pilica + Emergency Teleport. Surely there must be some way you can work Apex Avian into this stuff. I totally feel your frustration with losing that one good protective card that your restrictions could still reach.

[@christopherteague3142]

​@@MarkThePage Yeah, I play on Master Duel primarily, where the Simorgh Link-3 is still unbanned, so summoning Apex Avian in the end phase is still part of the expected board. That's part of what makes the TCG ban so devastating, not only missing the targeting protection but also the search. Without it, you probably have to search Apex Avian using Floo, and last I checked in with anyone else about the Simorghs they seemed to think splashing Floo was the deck's best bet, but I personally can't stand that archetype, so I've been working to find anything else they can do When I first had the idea, I did tack on Pilica and E-Telly, and the basic combo still extends through Pilica to make a board, but I found lines that climb through Power Tool Dragon to search Tailwind of Gusto, which when equipped to another Gusto does essentially the same thing as E-Telly. I don't think that's something other Gusto builds can usually do because they play so comfortably into Wind-locking early with tools like Wynn the Wind Channeler or Taketomborg or even Windwitch Snow Bell. Simorghs don't have that luxury - they have to resolve Bird of Perfection's effect in order to get going - so I'm glad they still have a way forward

[@cawrhy]

This video makes me want to start testing Crystal Beast 😂

[@YouEsqEnt]

Wonderful video. You are so Pegasus...bravo. I actually started reading my cards. Bravo!!!

[@MarkThePage]

I made you read your cards? How!? I promise I didn't mean to!

[@Engraver99]

I resonate alot with your videos. I’m an avid adamanciptor/rock enjoyer if I say so myself. I’m always trying to Make the deck viable. My most recent build makes use of mannadium and white forest cards since all monsters in the main deck are lvl 2/4.

[@MarkThePage]

Oh wow, and I thought pure Rocks already had enough options. Blending in Adamancipators will be tough though, since their reliability depends on running as many rocks as possible. The looks on your opponents' faces when you get all those themes working together must be worth it!

[@Engraver99]

@@MarkThePage my trick is to thin my deck at the start of the combo by using the non-rock engine first. Keep up the good work your videos are great!

[@arthurhilgert2707]

14:31 I don't know why didn't you make one earlier

[@Akial2935]

Unspoken advantage of using abmormal cards too. Opponet doesn't know the strat you're doing cause they don't know the effects/synergy. So easier for them to interrupt at a recoverable point, negate the irrelevant (relative) effect, etc

[@MarkThePage]

Yeah, I've talked about that in my guides! Find your own unique strategy and getting it near the power level of top decks grants a huge advantage there. It's a lot more work, but it's fun and pays off in the end.

[@PooleLerfer]

I am very new to yu-gi-oh, my son wanted to play so i got us some structure decks so we could play together, I went with crystal beasts and have learned a lot from your videos so thank you! I couldn't agree more with how enjoyable building and testing decks can be, im running crystal tree as a 2 of in my deck and i really like it is that something you have tested? I also run crystal raigeki in my side deck.

[@MarkThePage]

It's so cool that you're playing this game with your son! Crystal Tree used to be great for setting up big combos, but these days we have more plays which don't require it. But depending on your play style it can still help, especially if you use Vaylantz Worlds. Running 2 is nice because using one Crystal Tree can put a counter on the other. I still often use it with Advanced Crystal Beasts! As for Crystal Raigeki, I tried that recently but never ended up searching for it. Miracle or Conclave will almost always be stronger and more versatile. It is a 3x staple in the Speed Duel format, though! If you told me that the only Crystal Beast card to ever see a ban list would be Crystal Raigeki (briefly in a previous Speed list), I would think you're insane.

[@DanteCrowlley]

I want to play Shaddoll, but I don't have enough negation or non targeting options against anti target powerhouses, just to clarify I don't play the TCG since vanilla era, now I just play the games instead, its actually cheaper

[@MarkThePage]

Shaddolls are good at Losing Less; not so good at actually going for the win. They're not meant to be played pure, but they've always had so many options for additional themes to mix with that I've never known where to start. Seems like the kind of deck you can really commit to like I do with Crystal Beasts.

[@Benzinilinguine]

People be like, "I dont understand why I keep losing matches! I open 5 handtraps every game!" I genuinely change my deck daily by copying it on MD and playing with a few new cards and different ratios. That chess point is legendary lmao I cant wait to XYZ summon my rooks

[@deletedaccount7]

Personally i like to make all my decks have six cards at three of, one card at two of, and then every other card must be a one of. Why? It feels anime like and has led me to have some awesome moments i wouldn't have otherwise had. As long as the three of slots are able to search/start stuff, then typically dead drawing isn't that big of an issue either in my experience. Having to be creative for combos and think about which cards can help with different situations leads to such varieties that even if the end boards you make going first are generally the same, as the duel goes on you actually have different lines of play available you otherwise wouldn't. An example is ZW - Ultimate Shield. I absolutely love utopia so i use zexal stuff. Back then i would never run ultimate shield because it couldn't equip from hand and typically my cards wouldn't be banished enough for me to get use from it. After changing to my new deck building rules i needed something as a one of monster so i did ZW - Ultimate Shield because i might as well since i can search it anyways and it fits the archetype... ZW - Ultimate Shield ended up SINGLE HANDEDLY keeping me in games where i otherwise would have lost sooner and even got me some wins i otherwise wouldn't have had.

[@cameronfarrell9076]

Moar Crystal beasts! Advanced crystal beasts! Moar! Moar!

[@bradleytaylor9712]

Put away the bran flakes I'm cereal

[@sarapkinggan]

Can you make a video How to survive to hand traps And going second against a flood gate decks

[@MarkThePage]

Those are great lesson ideas. Every deck has its own ways of playing around disruption, but if I think long enough, maybe I can find some universal advice.

[@dreamisover9813]

awesome video. Would be nice to see Jesse react to this too

[@Jesse-ef2qf]

So im just wondering, is there any advice for formats where certain decks are more restricted? For example I play in character tournaments where characters only get cards they played (that exist in TCG and OCG) and any listed extra support. Does that change the deck building or just make it quicker?

[@yurisei6732]

Same principles, just a smaller card pool. You still want to be playtesting a bunch and figuring out your combos and the optimal ratios for those combos, but with limited or no access to generic interaction, the combos that are valuable in the format will be different.

[@MarkThePage]

I've made a lot of anime-accurate Speed Duel decks without compromising much power. Focus on the moves which only this deck can make. If the strategy isn't working, play more in-engine cards which support it--and try them all at once, because they may require big combos to really shine. At the worst, you'll end up with a deck that's still different from everything else.

[@danydady6851]

The electoral college is not the problem. The problem is the electoral college loophole. We don't vote for the President and we NEVER have. We are supposed to vote for people who vote for President (kinda like if a community talks to a KZbinr and said KZbinr talks to a company on behalf of the people since he can give more clear and decisive feedback), but now we don't even get to do that much. The Presidential election is just a glorified opinion poll that States MIGHT consider when appointing electors.

[@conalthomas-mcginnis6148]

I have embodied this spirit recently with building F.A. Just kept doing test hands and seeing what I was doing and what could work. Realized that with the P.U.N.K. engine I was using I happened to make 2 level 8s regularly that weren't very useful going first, and if I could just get 1 more level 8 I'd have a giantrainer... so here I am with a Horus F.A. P.U.N.K. build that ends on crystal wing, dangerous gabu, and whip crosser at level 11, hang on mach at level 13, and motorhome transport at level 15. not to mention an extra F.A. dead heat set 😂

[@MarkThePage]

FA!? I actually have a Metalfoes blend that would be cute if an opponent would give me 3 free turns to set up a combo. Instead it's usually Dark Law or bust. Man those new Metalfoes cards are bad. (We may have chatted about this during a stream.) What do the PUNKs do for them?

[@conalthomas-mcginnis6148]

@@MarkThePage as of right now, all punks really do is exist as a draw 2 and put up 2 level 8s and a level 3. A lot of the gameplan of the F.A.s comes out by being drawn into and then summoned out by Saryuja and Ancient Fairy Dragon. The new Cosmo Queen the Queen of Prayers is INSANE for the deck as well, it's basically 3 main deck copies of Ancient Fairy Dragon and is another level 8 that can go into Giantrainer as well.

[@MarkThePage]

How did I not think of FA when I saw the new Cosmo Queen!? I wish the PUNKs had more synergy with their field spells like Metalfoes do, but the possibility of draws and Saryuja without a normal summon sounds tempting. I'll be tinkering with these!

[@conalthomas-mcginnis6148]

@@MarkThePage I have been tinkering even further and it has been extremely rewarding to see what happens and find weaknesses or new possibilities. I've make various tweaks to the extra deck, and done some trimming here and there so I could include 3 crossout and 1 droll 1 nib. It's not always going to work out... but sometimes you draw into the crossout just in time for the nibiru (because your opponent will have no idea the right time to nibiru). Also, with the horus engine included I slotted in a hope harbinger that can end up as an additional piece of interruption at the end of the combo if you got into the horus stuff and have some extra cards left over to pitch for a couple more 8s. and yeah, the new cosmo queen feels GREAT. It's true that the punk engine only LOOSELY synergizes, but it does a good job of getting the draws and bodies, and they feel good as an additional psychic archetype that you can go into with emergency teleport along with the assault mode stuff. Also, the punk bodies do sometimes match nicely for making some of our other synchros, like a psi reflector or an auto navigator plus any of the 8s can put up the shenshen or a motorhome transport, and the level threes can synch with either a dark dragster that's used its pop or either of the 4s to make dawn dragster or AFD. good luck on your tinkering, I'd love to see a video if you make some breakthroughs :D

[@MarkThePage]

I can't believe how many of your words I had to read through before you casually dropped that you've also stuck an Assault engine in there. How do you fit FA at all!? I was playing lots of fields to cycle through, plus Machine Duplication. Metalfoes were also a big engine and I liked that the deck accessed every type of summon except ritual... in theory, if the Metalfoes ever actually worked.

[@Jimokc]

What's your opinion of the greatest cracklin miracle that is Cracklin Oat Bran?

[@MarkThePage]

I've never seen it before! The label shows a ton of sugar. It's hard to find anything that's not loaded with sugar...

[@matthewholland2816]

I can’t tell if the slight of hand is real or quick edits lol :)

[@MarkThePage]

This entire video is actually CGI!

[@ThatsSoGiorgio]

Voting doesn’t matter and it never has, not as long as we have the electoral college. On a side note, I edit my deck after every major locals and I’m constantly cycling out cards depending on what weaknesses my strategy had that week. Some of the cards won’t work but it’s fun to try :)

[@MarkThePage]

If voting didn't matter, there wouldn't be so many people trying so hard to prevent you from doing it. Also, state & local elections (which don't use an electoral college) affect your life more than the big, presidential ones! I want to start bringing some sillier cards to weekly locals, but at the last minute I always boomerang back to wanting to win with my main CB deck. Maybe next ban list, we always say...

[@angelcandelaria6728]

Couldn’t agree more

[@brontii5769]

11:04 i don´t think you can activate dugares without a monster in the grave

[@yurisei6732]

That is correct. You can use Dugares to summon one of the detached monsters, because they'll be in the graveyard when it resolves, but you can't activate the effect in the first place if there are no valid monsters in GY when you try to activate it.

[@MarkThePage]

Actually, you can! Dugares says to "Detach, THEN activate..." So as long as you are able to use any of the 3 effects, you can activate and then choose. I didn't realize this myself until recently (and yes I do wonder how many losses that could've flipped).

[@brontii5769]

@@MarkThePage tested it in md just now and yeah you´re right mb.

[@doubl2480]

That ruling changed very recently. I remember testing it on Master Duel in 2022 with Daigusto Emeral (who is a similar deal).

[@yurisei6732]

@@MarkThePage Yugioh's rulings aren't consistent enough to be able to say that, and you can't do it on Edopro. It would be up to the event judges to make a decision, so this combo is not reliable.

[@elbuenchamp]

Loved it!

[@unholyphish]

this video made me feel better about the people who laugh at my threatening thrust move my opponent activated a monster effect in my first turn? ok, watch me tactics thrust into threatening roar. Have fun with no battle phase. which is usually funny because i'm a naturia player

[@MarkThePage]

Wow! My threatening thrust move just gets me banned from the store.

[@unholyphish]

@@MarkThePage that gave me a good giggle lmao

[@andrewmejia9331]

Do you play dark world?? And how do you build it??? I want to win my locals sooo baddd!!

[@MarkThePage]

You'll find much better Dark World players elsewhere--I only know it as a silly solitaire deck for YGOPRO, with Ken & Gen. I'm bothered that it's dirt cheap now EXCEPT for the Triple Tactics spells... It's one of the most lopsided decks ever, so I don't enjoy it. I wonder if a control build would work, with Neko Mane King, searched by Melffy Catty. But maybe that requires resolving the same cards as a Sillva Loop. Up the consistency with more Melffies and Nimbles to discard to make Gigantic Spright... but now it's a big mess.

[@drvegapunk3299]

You’re funny af 😂 easy subscribe

[@aetherwolf9288]

Idk if you already answered this question but how do you find archetypes that can work well together? I assume you have a funny idea (like all ally Albaz decks together in one deck) and then brute force it until it makes click. Because if this is the case I have another question How do you have this much time to do it?

[@MarkThePage]

The Albaz thing came about from the synergy of a bigger engine pile focusing on Tri-Brigade. It was a backup combo, which became the main focus after Verte was banned. You can find complementary archetypes by looking at cards which mention types, attributes, etc. Like if you use Dragon Ravine for Destrudo, you could also look up other dragons with graveyard effects. As for the time to come up with these... Have you considered not having friends or other hobbies? :P

[@aetherwolf9288]

@@MarkThePage So basically you saw Branded Tri and thought: Hold my beer? 😂 Okay that makes a lot more sense Thanks for the quick response Keep up the good work!

[@ChrisEdgeSXE]

Pls go over my Cyber Dragons ❤️

[@MagXZaru]

I love this video

[@theimpostorafungus1213]

Wait, is cross-sheep supposed to be pronounced like crochet because it's doing crochet!?

[@MarkThePage]

"Cross" is 100% a mistranslation and it just wounds my soul too much to not pronounce as intended. Still not as offensive as "Giant Trunade" though. TRUNADE!?

[@lillycline1414]

no but for real i've had people tell me that fake hero is a bad card but i honestly have never had it brick me as a hero player its always just oop shadow mist now deadass pure masked heros works if you it right

[@MarkThePage]

Fake Hero! What a great idea! And here I was fumbling for more ways to search a once-per-turn Cross Keeper. I can think of a lot of hands that could've been improved with that quick special summon.

[@lillycline1414]

@@MarkThePage exactly honestly I would love you opinion on how I play masked heros

[@MarkThePage]

I have some 100-card Hero piles on YGOPRO and I know most of the plays, but I'm a long way from understanding them on an optimized level. I can't resist playing the silly anime references.

[@lillycline1414]

@@MarkThePage neither can I what I like to do is I have 7 different hero decks and aside from some starters they all have wildly different construction

[@aMindSetFree]

So true when it comes to Ice Barriers. No one plays Defender of the Ice Barrier. But it turns out playing him is amazing. Pairing him with Warlock of The Ice barrier insta-wins me games. I play a water pile deck with huge creativity, other brain rot water players only focus on 3 things 1. mE MAKe tOAd 2. ME mAkE BArrIER sTATue 3. me HAnd RIP

[@josephrandisi6416]

Well made video, as someone more into mtg where theorycrafting deck lists and themes is one of my favorite parts, I look at yugioh and its complexity and just kind of assumed most lists were solved or peaked for the most part. Though relaistically thinking about it obviously thats not fully the case and making sure people actually try and learn their decks and cards whole playtestinh would probably help yugioh's solitare reputation. stopped watching around 620 though. I dont really want a politics and government lecture in a yugioh video.

[@catcocaine9698]

I like all the aggressive card-chucking I saw in this video. Imma sub, keep chuckin' 'em cards 👍

[@MarkThePage]

I promise it's gentler than it looks!

[@Louloutte-b7b]

Micheal Jackson

[@kaydll]

Ok I laughed at the Gay (Good at yugioh) thing

[@MarkThePage]

iactivatepotofgreed on Tumblr has so much amazing and hilarious GX fan art!

[@Nelex5000]

all that combo just to get nibiru'd by some weirdo metachild player

[@MarkThePage]

like, eww who even plays that card

[@Nelex5000]

@@MarkThePage really? no one plays nibiru?

[@Telados]

>voting matters lol lmao even

[@MarkThePage]

There are a lot of powerful people who spend a lot of money on media campaigns to discourage you from voting to remove them from power!

[@Telados]

@@MarkThePage If voting matters those powerful people wouldn't let you vote, also every candidate you can vote for is already compromised so the system gets what it wants anyway

[@MarkThePage]

One of this country's two main political parties does advocate for the removal of voting rights, defunding election security measures, and overturning election results.

[@Telados]

@@MarkThePage Life was easier when you could just form a mob and get at your local lord

[@LexAnarchy]

Good vid. I've never seen a community that has such a sheep mentality. The typical Yugioh-cycle goes like this: Pro player takes the time to experiment and present a decklist. Big content creator makes video about said deck list. 99% of people copying said decklist without thinking. If you play even 1 different card or ratio, your decklist sucks because it's not pro players EXPERIMENTAL decklist. It's funny but also sad in a way. People simply do not use their brains. Why do you think Jesse and Josh are topping every time? Because they're the only ones putting in the work. 90% of "competitive players" are just copying them but they are also worse at the game than them. Copying someone's topping deck doesn't make you good at the game, in fact I would argue it makes you worse.

[@MarkThePage]

If someone wants to assume that a popular player's every deck is better than anything they could make, fine. What really gets to me is when they also insist that nobody else can build a deck either, dragging others down. That's not fun at all... or a winning strategy.

[@SoftyDR]

Three whole decks for the gays? What are the other two?

[@MarkThePage]

😆 Live Twins probably, and uh... well, I assume there's gotta be at least one more somewhere, right?

[@0DeathTheKid15]

​@@MarkThePage Probably Libromancer. I mean it has "Bromance" in the name and you cant tell me that Fire and Geek Boy dont have something going on 😂

[@starlord6662]

Как же он шарит, посмотрел спусти 3 дня

[@autumnrosewood2001]

This dude is smart. :0

[@brycecavelier7627]

ok dude for the first time EVER i'm gonna comment on youtube your video is what makes yugioh my FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME FOREVER: nothing is set, we can learn from eachother while learning from ourselves, no one has THE truth truly a great video 🫶🏻 (pls stop using comic sans ms tho)

[@MarkThePage]

I feel honored to be your first! The comic sans captions come from my vlogs, which were inspired by a vlogger named Grace Helbig. I've switched to standard fonts for some of my Yugioh videos, but I don't want to come off too serious here! At the end of the day this is a silly, dumb game for having fun. I know that when I forget to have fun playing Yugioh, I have a bad time and regret it.