Wow I suck, in other news Control in Yu-Gi-Oh

First an Apology

So I haven't posted anything since early Feburary and that was the new Forbidden and Limited List. I wanted to post more but I simply haven't had any content that I thought was relevant as I've hit a wall with Deckbuilding as I haven't been considering small things as new or interesting. With the coming release of FLOD, Dark Saviors, and Lair of Darkness I needed to be playing with and testing the changes to the game in a relevant manner. YGOPro I realize isn't the answer if playing with randoms as there is no actual practice or Game 2 Considerations in the more efficient game modes. I got a little testing in with Sky Strikers, Vampires and Lair of Darkness and you seriously cannot test decks with interaction on YGOPro people will just surrender. So I am sorry I haven't had any new ideas or builds due to that disenchantment. I'm going to try my best to post about Meta Shifts in the TCG and possible future shifts based on releases no more than 2 months out. This means I can play around with everything that comes out up until June. Read More for the next part focusing on the idea of Control decks in Yu-Gi-Oh and what I believe that means in the context of the game.

Control Exists?

In keeping up with OCG results as of late due to their recent banlists there was a huge drop off in FTK potential (There is still some of it but way less). I think this is something that will be extending to the TCG soon even with our Maxx "C" ban due to the resurgence of True Draco and the falling off of Pendulum as a result.

Yu-Gi-Oh tends to have three play styles of deck: OTK, Lock, and Control. OTK decks tend to want to go second for maximum potential and their game plans involve ending the game through 1 or 2 negates from a Lock or Control deck. The Lock decks have some OTK potential but their OTK's are generally far less consistent and easier to disrupt but when going first they can present upwards of 2 major interactions not counting hand-traps while the OTK deck can present 1 or 2 at most. Finally there is what to me is the most powerful play style of Control.

Control used to be the default of most decks before Locks and OTKs were easier. To explain what I mean by control lets look at some examples.

• Trickstar
• Altergeist
• Weather Painter
• True Draco
• Demise Kozmo
• Hand Artifact Traptrix
• Gadgets

Trickstar simply do not have easy OTKs or Lock scenarios as their best OTK is hope your opponent has no monster or a specific Firewall combo. Their only real lock requires Droll & Lock Bird and only then is just a soft lock (It's enough to just win but can be played around and played out of in some cases.) What Trickstar does have is hyper-consistency, extremely potent interruption and the capacity to play an obscene amount of interactive cards such as upwards of 12 Hand Traps and more than 10 Traps if you really want to. The deck often won't OTK or Lock but it creates unwinnable situations that your opponent really can't do anything about even though they have options.

Altergeist are like Trickstars but with 0 OTK Potential but so much Interaction that the game becomes unwinnable even though your opponent may only be taking 500 damage per turn.

True Draco with the existence of Amano-Iwato get to ignore the interaction of Lock and other Control Decks and beat out the other Control decks with Master Peace to assert some dominance there.

Gadgets while once powerful are now effectively worse than every deck with a similar level of consistency but are one of the early examples of Control where the deck was basically just Gadgets + 36 cards that Interact. (5th Gadget builds).

These decks are often the most powerful decks in any given format. To give a more solid delineation between Lock and Control, I believe a Lock deck is something like Utopic ZeXal Magicians or D/D/D where the most powerful play is a going first lock out with more than 2 reusable negates. A Control deck often can get 1 or 2 negates but cannot reasonably win the game on the next turn but can through attrition and selective negating effectively turn off any deck.

Currently in the OCG the new Control Deck on the block is Sky Striker Ace which literally only has 1 normal summonable monster. It is very strong though because of the searchable recurrable interaction. 

I believe this change is due to a new design policy for Konami of decks having very compact engines with the rest of the archetype being effectively tech cards that are generally searchable (Not to mention searching interactive S/Ts to pair with your Hand Traps making unwinnable situations.)