Staples & You

Hello again, decided to make a short article on the concept of "staple" cards and why it is these cards are regarded as such

* Disclaimer: This is generally meant for duelists who are new, or have been around but never quite knew what exactly staples are and wanted a quick read while browsing DGA

While I may have started this article if there are any other. mod staff who wis to further elaborate, by all means.

-The Concept of Staple-

Well the concept staple is that there are certain cards that regardless of the deck choice, are generally regarded as card choices that will always be beneficial towards your deck. Generally these cards have been abused in previous formats and have reach the point of being limited or semi limited. A good example is

It's obvious why this card has reached a point where almost every deck will utilize such a card. This card allows you to create a plethora of plays at no cost. There is a reason this bad boy is limited


-What to consider when adding staples-
The key is always ensure that your deck can take full advantage of the card. Take for example

While he's known for being a card that punishes overextending. If your deck is a Malefic skill drain deck which is very reliant on a field spell and a face up skill drain. Even though gorz is Great for what he does. Your deck will not always have the conditions ready to get him out.

Same could be said if you running a pure macro deck, necroface, whathaveyou. Monster reborn, may not be as viable as it would seem, if your plan is to set up the banishing cards throughout the duel.


-For the Hipsters of yugioh-

When i say Hipster, its moreso for those who, say " I'm not going to use a card because it popular/everyone is using it." While i may agree to that when it comes to netdecking. There is no reason to add a handicap on yourself in this game. There is a reason why Solemn warning has become a card that many duelists have come to love, because it does something that can stop a very good variety of plays.

With that said, here is a list of generally regarded staples in a regular deck. Not saying you'll be using all of these, its you looking at your deck and seeing what you can add that will not only disrupt you opponent, but will allow you to benefit from it as well. As well as these cards vary from format to format, banlist to banlist to please adjust accordingly

Monsters
Black luster solder- eotb
Gorz, emissary of darkness
effect veiler
Maxx C

Spells
book of moon
Monster reborn
Dark hole
Heavy storm
Mystical space typhoon
mind control

Traps:
the solemn brigade (warning and judgment)
torrential tribute
trap dustshoot/mind crush
bottomless trap hole


There are always deck specific staples, but that's when our article makes do deck profiles haha!

So, I hope this read was beneficial to at least one person. Quincy99 out! [/color]

& i approve this article.

good short read, many new players do not know this so great!

+1 for sure, the beginners need to know about staples. Especially considering the fact that a lot of them only run cards based around a theme deck, which most people (as in their friends that already play Yu-Gi-Oh and are a little better than they are but don't know any better) tell them to run a deck with a theme.

Based on that, we can conclude that they miss the concept of always having a backup plan if their original engine cards fail. Which brings me to my one and only suggestion. I think you should add a part in this article to explain why making a deck BASED around staples is a bad idea, especially the limited ones like Monster Reborn. Other than that, its pretty awesome you thought of this very overlooked article :3 Bigups to you Quincy!

mirror force>bottomless. other than that, nice. it'll go well with my new series of articles about making a competitive deck

Dprison is also better than BTH this format, and that's why neither is really a staple. As you said in your article a staple is a card that every deck needs to run because without it they're making bad card choices. The only cards that ever were true staples were Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity, everything else are just really really good almost staples.

He made the point that not everything is always a staple in everything though. Also dprison over BTH is debatable.

mm good points all ,,, however staples in genral I would have to say are dependent on each individual person and their play style rather then cards that youneed to have in a deck to be competitive. I do however see the benefits to always including certain cards in a deck for consistency deck flow and the like.

very nice job by the way Quincy99

RYOKO wrote:

mm good points all ,,, however staples in genral I would have to say are dependent on each individual person and their play style rather then cards that youneed to have in a deck to be competitive. I do however see the benefits to always including certain cards in a deck for consistency deck flow and the like.

If it was dependent on each individual than it's not really consider a staple which in itself means a must have in the majority of decks. j/s
#logic

Only staples you'll ever need.

Sir Alex Lucard wrote:

If it was dependent on each individual than it's not really consider a staple which in itself means a must have in the majority of decks. j/s
#logic

Their is quite a bit of Truth to what you said Sir Alex that there is. However what I was reffering to was the fact that not all considered staples are viable for every deck type, as they are dependent on the over all goal of said deck and the play style of each person "at least that is what I believe"
(for example while reinforcement of the army is a great card in a warrior themed deck it would not be viable to run it in a plant deck ETC unless of corse you needed it to search out something) and like I said " I do however see the benefits to always including certain cards in a deck for consistency deck flow and the like" IE monster reborn heavy ETC.

The cards that are best in a deck aren't dependent on that players play style, they are wholly dependent on the deck type itself. It doesn't matter how you prefer to play a game, if you're running a Control deck like say, T.G. STUN, it is in fact a bad decision to run cards that are for an aggro deck, such as Royal Decree. It doesn't matter if the player wants to run an agressive version of TG STUN or not, if they're running the required large trap line-up AND Royal Decree, they're asking for a loss. Some cards are just inherently better than others in certain decks, and that's why as a whole most top tier decks when being compared to other decks of the same strategy the main deck and side deck are typically almost identical only slight variations in tech cards really vary. This isn't due to a lack of originality, it's because of the fact that some cards are just straight up better.

ROTA isn't a staple. Monster Reborn & Heavy Storm are, your argument is invalid...

I don't think you're really understanding the concept being presented. A staple is a card the MOST if not ALL decks can use. If ROTA can't be used outside of a warrior heavy deck then obviously it's not a staple card although it is an extremely potent tech card for that specific situation. Monster Reborn in it's magnified glory can be used in any & every deck bar instant win.

Sir Alex Lucard wrote:

I don't think you're really understanding the concept being presented. A staple is a card the MOST if not ALL decks can use. If ROTA can't be used outside of a warrior heavy deck then obviously it's not a staple card although it is an extremely potent tech card for that specific situation. Monster Reborn in it's magnified glory can be used in any & every deck bar instant win.

as you say Sir Alex

I would argue that there are enough decks that don't want to run Monster Reborn in order for it not to be considered a staple.

Here's how I view it.

You have staple cards.

They are:
Pot of Greed
Graceful Charity

There is never a reason not to run these cards. Period.

Then you have really good cards that you should probably consider running. What most of you are throwing around as staple cards. There is enough variety in deck making that I don't think you can consider these staples.

I remember when someone said that Pot of Greed isn't a staple.He said that Infernities shouldn't play Pot of Greed because they play with no cards in hand.

I lol'd