Lesson 1: What is an engine and why 40 cards

Hello all, today i'll be explaining what the engine of a deck is and why running the minimal amount of cards in a deck is ideal...

So first off, what is an engine? To put it simply, it's what makes the deck move, kind of like a car, which is why the name "engine" is used. Without an engine, a deck would be comprised merely of staple traps and big beaters... which is exactly what the early early days of yugioh looked like.

An engine is typically a series of cards that work together to accomplish a goal during the duel much like the parts of a real engine. Whether it be to gain Advantage over the opponent or mill cards or search cards... or whatever. I'll give a couple simple examples of engines in a deck.

Dragunity Engine:
3x Dragon Ravine (RIP my sweet)
3x Dragunity Dux
3x Dragunity Phalanx
2x Dragunity Arma Mystletainn

Gadget Engine:
2-3x Green Gadget
2-3x Red Gadget
2-3x Yellow Gadget

The first engine is a synchro engine while the second is a more simple xyz/advantage engine. Engines can be mashed together of course... for example.

Dragunity Ruler Hybrid engine:
3x Dragon Ravine
3x Dragunity Dux
2x Dragunity Phalanx
1x Dragunity Arma Mystletainn
3x Blaster Dragon Ruler of Infernos
3x Tempest Dragon Ruler of Storms
3x Redox Dragon Ruler of Boulders

Machina Gadget Hybrid Engine:
2x Green Gadget
2x Yellow Gadget
2x Red Gadget
3x Machina Gearframe
3x Machina Fortress
1-2x Machina Force

sometimes, combining two engines can create a stronger deck, but not always. Often, people will try to mix and mash decks, but will only succeed in making the deck weaker than it would have with just one of the engines. Why? because the parts of each engine start to get in each other's way.. which drives me to my next point.

Why 40 cards in a deck? Well i'm not saying that 42 or 43 is terrible, but if your deck is running 50-60 cards, it's very much likely that the deck needs some refining and simplification.

Think of it this way...

Player A has a 40 card deck.
Player B has a 60 card deck.
Both players have a deck that requires only 2 cards to get their engine going.

Just doing some simple math here will tell us that Player A has a far better chance of getting his engine started before Player B does. Player B obviously needs to whittle his deck down closer to 40 cards so he can get his deck going.

That's it for now. Thanks guys, for reading. Ask me if you have any questions at all.

Also, as for homework, it's simple. Observe what engine('s) your deck or decks run on and then tell me what they are in response to this lesson.

Masked Goblin Deck:
3x Toon Table of Contents
3x Toon Goblin Attack Force
3x Masked Chameleon
2x Reinforcement of the Army
1-2x King of the Feral Imps

I do have other things in this deck like Naturia Cherries, T.G. Striker and Kagetokage, but this is my main engine.

agree with dingle. in decks, less is more. the less cards you have, the more likely you will draw the key cards you need for a win. you're not building an army on the field. you're only getting out 5 key members max to end the game.

this helped alot

I prefer 8 cylinders. VROOM!

In summation, the engine brings players (that's you!) to what's known as a Win Condition. Think Exodia in the hand, or Jackpot 7 banished. In some decks the win condition is a little murkier, because you still have to get around the opponents obstacles. A good deck has a flexible win condition, which means there is more than one, and it can adapt to the situation at hand. Replace the "e" in deck with a certain letter and you get a special prize! Teehee