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![[IfD] October 2009 - “Scanning the Area”: Understanding "relevant support" Empty](https://2img.net/i/empty.gif)
Yes, I didn't write an article for last month. The Pokemon Open Day was taking up most of my time, and so I chose not to do an article that would be 'rushed' or of a poor quality. I had this article as a basis for that month, so I worked on improving it to a standard I 'might' expect from this kind of thing.
I remember in my article “For the EMPRAH!” I mentioned that I like to analyse ‘relevant support’ for a particular card. The only thing was that I didn’t really explain ‘relevant support’ as a term for Yu-Gi-Oh! Here’s hoping to explain it somewhat.
INTRODUCTION
When a card is created in a game it may find itself the recipient of a benefit from another card. This is especially true in Yu-Gi-Oh!, where no card rotation exists and archetypes can receive support many sets later after their initial release (eg. Harpies, Geminis, and Gravekeepers). In general, a received benefit has two points surrounding it (in short, there are two simple rules to the concept):
RULE 1: A card can receive a benefit from another card or archetype.
1. The benefit the card receives may not have been originally designed for that specific card, but rather for an archetype that card can access. Some cards will confer a benefit on a particular archetype (eg. Reinforcement of the Army supporting Warriors) but will also confer a benefit on a later archetype (Elemental Heroes). The reverse can be applied, where a later released card (eg. Falchion Beta) can support an earlier archetype (Cyber Dragons – I bet you didn’t expect that one!).
RULE 2: A card can create a benefit for another card or archetype.
2. The benefit a card provides may enable cards that it support to provide further benefits to other deck types, thus empowering those deck types even further. A classic example of this is Icarus Attack, whose role was to support Winged Beasts. When it was released in Rise of Destiny the only true Winged-Beast archetype was the Harpie Ladies, which also received support in the set. Later on though the Blackwings were released, and as their name befitted were all Winged-Beasts. This allowed them access to Icarus Attack as a defensive or offensive card to overcome their natural weakness – that being an in-built lack of card destruction effects.
See, it wasn't so hard now. This can work both ways, with a card creating and receiving benefits at the same time from numerous cards and archetypes. These are often monsters that can function in multiple decktypes, and benefit from decktypes in return. An example of this is Sangan, whose searching can benefit a large number of decktypes, but can receive benefits from Fiend-dedicated decks.
I think that really covers the basics of ‘relevant support’ so I’ll give an example to demonstrate this.
EXAMPLE: Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
Released in Ancient Prophecy, this all-purpose searcher is clearly designed for Koa’ki Meiru decks. Being the only card that can actually search Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru or a specific monster, Boulder fits in very well with the deck type. The following deck comes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG’s ‘Valuable Book 12’, which has example deck lists for many of the current deck types in the OCG. The deck is also translated with the English names of the cards:
Sparkles of the Steel Core
22 Monsters
1x Gorz, Emmisary of Darkness
1x Sangan
1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
2x Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
2x Koa’ki Meiru Crusader
3x Koa’ki Meiru Drago
2x Koa’ki Meiru Valafar
3x Koa’ki Meiru Powerhand
2x Koa’ki Meiru Rooklord
3x Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
1x Summoner Monk
1x Morphing Jar
9 Spells
1x Heavy Storm
3x Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru
3x Pot of Avarice
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
9 Traps
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Nega-Ton Corepanel
2x Magical Hats
As expected of a full-on Koa'ki Meiru build there are 3 Boulders in the deck. Most Koa’ki Meiru monsters are too powerful to search normally, so Boulder fills this role in perfectly. Secondly Boulder can search for the Iron Core itself - this elimiates the need for Iron Core Disposal and other such search cards. It also acts as Tribute fodder for Valafar or Rooklord, or even to help fulfil the conditions of Nega-Ton Corepanel. Finally, one of its other roles is to act as a Reveal card for Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, which requires the controller to reveal a Rock-type monster. Since this deck has 3 Guardians and Boulders, and Grand Mole and Morphing Jar there are plenty of Rocks for its End Phase effect. Get the idea now?
On the other hand, Koa'ki Meirus are almost designed to be splashed into other decks, and this increases the level of "relevant support" for a decktype. The following is an edited ‘Rock Stun’ deck; I don’t normally deal in Stun so the basis is taken from a template on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia. ‘Stun’ as a concept is an anti-meta deck designed to rely on 4 Star or lower monsters and provide multiple ways to stop the various Effects, Special Summons, and Combos a Tier 1 deck can ordinarily produce. The ‘Rock’ in this case comes from Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, which substitutes as an Effect negating card in place of Doomcalibur Knight.
Rock Wrecker
21 Monsters
3x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
3x Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
1x Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
1x Morphing Jar
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Banisher of the Radiance
3x D.D. Warrior Lady
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Mormolith
9 Spells
2x Book of Moon
2x Enemy Controller
2x Burden of the Mighty
1x Smashing Ground
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
10 Traps
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
2x Royal Oppression
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Solemn Judgment
3x Dark Bribe
Being an anti-meta deck Koaki-Meiru Guardian is used primarily for its effect. Being able to shut down any Effect it wants, whilst acting as a 1900 beater to muscle over most other Lv4's in the game is a useful skill. The deck support Guardian with Fossil Dyna and its anti-Special Summon, Kycoo and its anti/pro RFG, and Banisher for further support. In this deck Koa’ki Meiru Boulder acts as a "relevant support" card instead of a key card in a Koa'ki Meiru build. The card acts as support by searching Guardian, whom is one of the main cards of the deck. However, as Guardian is the only target for Boulder’s effect it runs at 1 copy. The one copy adds speed to the deck wihout being overly restrictive or a potentially dead card, and is a good alternative for a reveal if you want to hold your other Rocks a secret - one of the ways "relevant support" works.
CONCLUSION
I don't really want to go into too much more with the example of Koa'ki Meiru Boulder, but I hope that this explains a little more in building decks. The point is, if you want to find something new for your deck, try to find a connecting link somewhere between your deck and another. It could a an Attribute or Type, a specific effect, or a similarity in summoning conditions. Whatever it may be, it could be worth your while to test it out. In this manner, you not only improve your deck building skills, but you obtain new ideas and prevent your deck becoming 'stagnant' with a certain set of ideas.
Look at the Tier 1 decks - if you read the decklists of 10, 20, or even 50 of these decks, you can notice a variance of 6 cards on average, including extra deck and side deck. "Relevant Support" is a method to avoid stalemates like this - by expanding a deck idea with other support cards, multiple archetypes can be born (LS can expand to include Zombies or Flamvells, Blackwings can shift to control builds revolving around Winged Beasts, and GB's can expand on Beast ideas ivolving Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon). But regardless of whether its a top deck or "lol, casuals" understanding "relevant support" is a process which you need to consider as part of your deck-building process. Being able to identify and take advantage or "relevant support" will help you improve your skills as both deck builders and competitive players.
I remember in my article “For the EMPRAH!” I mentioned that I like to analyse ‘relevant support’ for a particular card. The only thing was that I didn’t really explain ‘relevant support’ as a term for Yu-Gi-Oh! Here’s hoping to explain it somewhat.
INTRODUCTION
When a card is created in a game it may find itself the recipient of a benefit from another card. This is especially true in Yu-Gi-Oh!, where no card rotation exists and archetypes can receive support many sets later after their initial release (eg. Harpies, Geminis, and Gravekeepers). In general, a received benefit has two points surrounding it (in short, there are two simple rules to the concept):
RULE 1: A card can receive a benefit from another card or archetype.
1. The benefit the card receives may not have been originally designed for that specific card, but rather for an archetype that card can access. Some cards will confer a benefit on a particular archetype (eg. Reinforcement of the Army supporting Warriors) but will also confer a benefit on a later archetype (Elemental Heroes). The reverse can be applied, where a later released card (eg. Falchion Beta) can support an earlier archetype (Cyber Dragons – I bet you didn’t expect that one!).
RULE 2: A card can create a benefit for another card or archetype.
2. The benefit a card provides may enable cards that it support to provide further benefits to other deck types, thus empowering those deck types even further. A classic example of this is Icarus Attack, whose role was to support Winged Beasts. When it was released in Rise of Destiny the only true Winged-Beast archetype was the Harpie Ladies, which also received support in the set. Later on though the Blackwings were released, and as their name befitted were all Winged-Beasts. This allowed them access to Icarus Attack as a defensive or offensive card to overcome their natural weakness – that being an in-built lack of card destruction effects.
See, it wasn't so hard now. This can work both ways, with a card creating and receiving benefits at the same time from numerous cards and archetypes. These are often monsters that can function in multiple decktypes, and benefit from decktypes in return. An example of this is Sangan, whose searching can benefit a large number of decktypes, but can receive benefits from Fiend-dedicated decks.
I think that really covers the basics of ‘relevant support’ so I’ll give an example to demonstrate this.
EXAMPLE: Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
Released in Ancient Prophecy, this all-purpose searcher is clearly designed for Koa’ki Meiru decks. Being the only card that can actually search Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru or a specific monster, Boulder fits in very well with the deck type. The following deck comes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG’s ‘Valuable Book 12’, which has example deck lists for many of the current deck types in the OCG. The deck is also translated with the English names of the cards:
Sparkles of the Steel Core
22 Monsters
1x Gorz, Emmisary of Darkness
1x Sangan
1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
2x Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
2x Koa’ki Meiru Crusader
3x Koa’ki Meiru Drago
2x Koa’ki Meiru Valafar
3x Koa’ki Meiru Powerhand
2x Koa’ki Meiru Rooklord
3x Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
1x Summoner Monk
1x Morphing Jar
9 Spells
1x Heavy Storm
3x Iron Core of Koa’ki Meiru
3x Pot of Avarice
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
9 Traps
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Nega-Ton Corepanel
2x Magical Hats
As expected of a full-on Koa'ki Meiru build there are 3 Boulders in the deck. Most Koa’ki Meiru monsters are too powerful to search normally, so Boulder fills this role in perfectly. Secondly Boulder can search for the Iron Core itself - this elimiates the need for Iron Core Disposal and other such search cards. It also acts as Tribute fodder for Valafar or Rooklord, or even to help fulfil the conditions of Nega-Ton Corepanel. Finally, one of its other roles is to act as a Reveal card for Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, which requires the controller to reveal a Rock-type monster. Since this deck has 3 Guardians and Boulders, and Grand Mole and Morphing Jar there are plenty of Rocks for its End Phase effect. Get the idea now?
On the other hand, Koa'ki Meirus are almost designed to be splashed into other decks, and this increases the level of "relevant support" for a decktype. The following is an edited ‘Rock Stun’ deck; I don’t normally deal in Stun so the basis is taken from a template on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia. ‘Stun’ as a concept is an anti-meta deck designed to rely on 4 Star or lower monsters and provide multiple ways to stop the various Effects, Special Summons, and Combos a Tier 1 deck can ordinarily produce. The ‘Rock’ in this case comes from Koa’ki Meiru Guardian, which substitutes as an Effect negating card in place of Doomcalibur Knight.
Rock Wrecker
21 Monsters
3x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
3x Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
1x Koa’ki Meiru Boulder
1x Morphing Jar
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Banisher of the Radiance
3x D.D. Warrior Lady
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Mormolith
9 Spells
2x Book of Moon
2x Enemy Controller
2x Burden of the Mighty
1x Smashing Ground
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
10 Traps
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
2x Royal Oppression
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Solemn Judgment
3x Dark Bribe
Being an anti-meta deck Koaki-Meiru Guardian is used primarily for its effect. Being able to shut down any Effect it wants, whilst acting as a 1900 beater to muscle over most other Lv4's in the game is a useful skill. The deck support Guardian with Fossil Dyna and its anti-Special Summon, Kycoo and its anti/pro RFG, and Banisher for further support. In this deck Koa’ki Meiru Boulder acts as a "relevant support" card instead of a key card in a Koa'ki Meiru build. The card acts as support by searching Guardian, whom is one of the main cards of the deck. However, as Guardian is the only target for Boulder’s effect it runs at 1 copy. The one copy adds speed to the deck wihout being overly restrictive or a potentially dead card, and is a good alternative for a reveal if you want to hold your other Rocks a secret - one of the ways "relevant support" works.
CONCLUSION
I don't really want to go into too much more with the example of Koa'ki Meiru Boulder, but I hope that this explains a little more in building decks. The point is, if you want to find something new for your deck, try to find a connecting link somewhere between your deck and another. It could a an Attribute or Type, a specific effect, or a similarity in summoning conditions. Whatever it may be, it could be worth your while to test it out. In this manner, you not only improve your deck building skills, but you obtain new ideas and prevent your deck becoming 'stagnant' with a certain set of ideas.
Look at the Tier 1 decks - if you read the decklists of 10, 20, or even 50 of these decks, you can notice a variance of 6 cards on average, including extra deck and side deck. "Relevant Support" is a method to avoid stalemates like this - by expanding a deck idea with other support cards, multiple archetypes can be born (LS can expand to include Zombies or Flamvells, Blackwings can shift to control builds revolving around Winged Beasts, and GB's can expand on Beast ideas ivolving Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon). But regardless of whether its a top deck or "lol, casuals" understanding "relevant support" is a process which you need to consider as part of your deck-building process. Being able to identify and take advantage or "relevant support" will help you improve your skills as both deck builders and competitive players.
