Come on people. We've all got side decks, some more pathetic than others. I know mine is a bit lacking, so I figured we'd go over some good side decks for the decks we all play. For example, we might go over what the perfect Exodia side deck is, based around changing up the forbidden one's strategies. An Exodia deck might want to have the Manticore of Darkness Infinite draw combo in there, or it might want to switch up to beat down. Chaos (grrrrrr……) might have some cards like Mataza the Zapper to get around stall decks and keep the light and dark theme going.

The side deck, in my opinion, is a great resource that I’ve never been able to take that great an advantage of. My side deck skills are quite lacking, for I usually make my decks as efficiently as possible. Each time I make a deck, I make it to counter all possible strategies, and this it usually pulls out a good advantage over other decks. My folly in this of course, is that’s what the side deck is THERE for. The main deck is a large overly powerful sword, made to cut through anything it sees. The side deck is there to be a Swiss army knife, because a sword can’t screw in a screw or tighten a bolt.

This will be another open discussion article, and I’ll edit this post with the side decks we’ve come together as a community to perfect. Let’s get started!

Side decks created:

I agree, my side deck contains a lot of cards to combat other types of decks, but when I want to use mine against someone else, I can really put in a lot to make a difference to the second round. The only time a side deck helped was against a burn deck. I Creature Swapped my Lava Golem for his Stealth Bird and burnt him down to the ground.

The side deck is a live-saver in most games, if used properly. I like the comparison of it to a swiss-army knife, it can get you out of most jams with the flick of a wrist, or in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, the change of weapons used(cards).

side decks in my opinion are comprised of those situational cards that would be very cool to use but you don't think you can risk the chances involved in main decking them. this is mine:


1x monster reincarnation
1x sakuretsu armor
2x wave motion cannon
1x 7 tools of the bandit
1x blast with chain
3x apprentice magician
1x big bang shot
1x dekoichi the battlechanted locomotive
1x witch doctor of chaos
2x magic drain
1x magic reflector

just magic tech most of my monsters are well covered so I went with these support cards

a side deck made to counter all deck


1 Electric Snake/Penguin Knight
2 Lightning Vortex/ SORL/ Abbysall Designator
3 Chain destruction/GGH
4 Prohibition/GGH
5 Necrovalley/ Royal Tribute
6 Mobius the frosted flake
7 Thestalos the fire starter
8 Lava Golem
9 Lava Golem
10 Lava Golem
11 Newdoria
12 Newdoria
13 Solemn Judgment
14 Solemn Judgment
15 Morphing jar 1/Dice jar

this is just quick and standard side deck and can be used with a standard noobie deck and be able to work

I think you need to build your side deck to suit the meta you are playing in. In ours, there are alot of various types of deck, and a couple good zombie decks. My deck can handle almost all of those other types, it can have problems with the Zombies sometimes. So I have card in my side deck to help with the Zombie issue. I also have cards in there to help with burn decks. Because phase it, that mirror force, sakuretsu armor, etc. is not going to do any good if they never attack. And if you can't get under G-bind, LLAB, then you will never get to their LPs.

The biggest problem with a side deck is that you can only have 15 cards. So that makes each slot a difficult choice.

1 Mobius The Frost Monarch
2 Mataza The Zapper
1 United We Stand
1 Dust Tornado
1 Solemn Judgement
1 End of Anubis
2 Getsu Fuhma
1 Nobleman Of Crossout
1 Wave-Motion Cannon
1 Airknight Parshath
1 Deck Devastation Virus
2 Metamorphosis

Here is my side deck. i run a deck that removes my cards from play so that i can power up my Gren Maju Da Eizas. My side deck is there basicly so that i can keep the people i play with the most guessing because they know my deck by heart and everything that it can do. See what you can do with it:

Dark Necrofear
Chaos Sorcerer
Goblin King
Card Destruction
Chaos End
Chaos Greed
Inferno Tempest
Different Dimension Capsule
Dimension Distortion
Primal Seed
Judgmen of Anubis
Return From the Different Dimension
Ring of Destruction
Skull Lair
Trap Hole

i know it sucks but that is because i dont us it much and i put everything good in my deck.

I create several types of deck, from burn to hand disruption to Zombie, etc, then I test them against my own deck, and for the most part, here is my side deck that will work against all decks:

Mobious the Frost Monarch
Chiron the Mage
Mystic Swordsman LV2 x2
Swarm of Locusts
Swam of Scarabs
Ceasefire
Swords of Concealing Light
Divine Wrath x2
Raigeki Break x2
Chain Destruction (Pyramids, VLord, Berserk, etc...all GONE)
Chain Dissapearence (Stealth, MoF, Sangan, etc...GONE)
DDV

This side deck has helped me a great deal.

this side deck has saved my butt more than once....

Mobius the frost monarch
2x kinetic soldier
mattaza the zapper
Gaurdian Sphinx
Sakaritsu Armor (spelling)
Ceasefire
Divine Wrath
Barrle Behind the Door
Pikaru EC
Lightning Vortex
Creature Swap
Enemy Controler
dd Designator
D. Duo

It is well rounded and helped finish atleast in the top 20 of the past few regionals

The one thing I always remember with side decks is not only try to counter other popular decks but also add cards to counter deck types of your own. I realized that mistake at Regionals and now I make sure my side deck can stop even my own deck.

My phoenix deck has plenty of M/T destruction built in, between phoenix, chiron, and Breaker alone, so I dont need all that much in the way of M/T destruction. My side deck SHOULD look something more like this.


[1] scapegoat
[2] Metamorphisis
[1] card destruction
[1] Angel Injection Lily
[1] Cyber Jar
[1] Royal Oppression
[1] Mobius the Frost Monarch
[2] Pikeru's Magic Circle
[2] Catnipped Kitty
[2] DD Crazy Beast
[1] Rescue Cat

i fear last turn like nothing else so i side deck 3 offerings 2 the doomed a thrd book of moon some regenerating mummys 3 king tiger wanghus and cliffs and matazas(some of the stuff works against burn and last turn)

Here is my Side Board that goes with my Phoenix Chaos Deck:

Side Board:

Monster Board:

001: Mobius the Frost Monarch
002: Berserk Gorilla
003: Berserk Gorilla
004: Berserk Gorilla
005: Enraged Battle Ox
006: Enraged Battle Ox
007: Exiled Force

Magic Board:

008: United We Stand
009: Nobleman of Crossout
010: Book of Moon
011: Book of Moon
012: Metamorphosis
013: Metamorphosis

Trap Board:

014: Solemn Judgment
015: Solemn Judgment

There ya go. o.O

I generally never run a side deck myself, I usually have a hard enough time making decisions.

Here is my side deck, its compatible with most of my decks:

-Nobleman of Crossout (decks heavy on flip effects)
-Cold Wave (can be good)
-Messenger of Peace (extra stall)
-Messenger of Peace (again)
-Giant Trunade (burn/stall decks)
-Kycoo (chaos decks and the like)
-Kycoo
-Kinetic Soldier (warriors)
-Cyber Jar (dont main deck it for some reason)
-Mobius (burn decks)
-Divine Wrath (I just like this one)
-Divine Wrath
-Magic Drain (pretty good card)
-Magic Drain
-Ceasefire (burn/heavy flip effects)

I usually don't use a side deck, but its a just in case deal.