The best deck

another discussion topic for you, bitches.

Let's talk about deck choices for a while.
generally there are 2 popular mindsets:

1. Play the best deck.

2. Play what you like.

When I started playing I was using the second mindset. I'd always play what I liked and hated every top tier strategy. I'd play the most garbage  cards without using any reasoning.

Next as I got a bit better, I was only using tier 2 decks. They were better than garbage decks but not as boring as top tier. I'd still lose a lot of games to tier 1 strategies, but refused to get better.

After I realized that my past mindsets didn't work, I finally started to acknowledge tier 1 decks and only used the first mindset. I thought I had the perfect answer. I'd always just use "the best deck" and thought that would give me the edge, at least deck choice wise.

But I would still lose to tier 2 decks, even when playing "perfectly". I couldn't get it. Why is this guy beating me, even though he is playing an inferior deck?

My philosophy changed to the following (it's kinda a mix of both mindsets):

There is no best deck, there is only a best deck choice for a particular event.

Usually the best deck is considered to be the one has won the most events. But is it truly the best deck?

Let's take a flashback to YCS Atlanta 2010, where Frazier Smith and his boys captured the first 3 places with Gravekeeper's.

If someone asked me prior to the event , what "the best deck" was, I would have said Plant Synchro or X-Sabers. I would not have dreamed about mentioning Gravekeeper's. Plants/Sabers might have been "the best decks" before, but Gravekeeper's where the best choice for that particular event.

See what I mean? Falling into the pattern of  "just play Dragons/Prophecy"  makes you vulnerable to meta calls and tech choices. If you disregard tier 2 completely, you fall victim to the surprise factor. (same goes the other way round)

You are basically always one step behind. You would play the best deck from X-event at Y-event and the best deck from Y-event at Z-event.

YGO is moving forward , not backwards. New cards and strategies get released to give you and edge over your opponent. Even in a one deck format , 1 card can make the difference. (Royal Oppression in Tele-DAD)

One might say that playing tier 2 is a cop-out. But is it really? It's only a cop-out if it's a bad meta call. Like mentioned in the playstyle article ,everyone has different attributes. What if Evilswarms fits my current attributes better than E-Dragons. No matter how much I would practice with Dragons, I would always be better with Evilswarms. Should I still run Dragons?

If I play the tier 2 deck at a much higher level than the tier 1 deck, I might just as well play the tier 2 deck.

There is a difference between cop-out and using what fits your abilities.

We are humans and not robots after all.

YGO is way more complicated than "just run Dragons/Prophecy" or "just run what you like"....

What are your guys opinions?

TL;DR version:

gutsberserk wrote:

Let's talk about deck choices for a while.
generally there are 2 popular mindsets:

1. Play the best deck.

2. Play what you like.

Lol but seriously, cool topic. Seems like more of an article even though it is meant for discussion too. What you said is my thoughts exactly. Something can be the best on paper but we play in the real world, against real people. If you can surprise the opponent or know their deck well enough to be able to read their every play and counter it, you have a better chance of winning with your "inferior" deck. On the same hand, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will win if said best deck is piloted by a player as skilled or more skilled than you are. The game constantly changes. After the GK domination you spoke of, more people were ready for GK after that. It was still meta, sure. But like you said, it's event to event.