Can I Play 3 of a Flip?

Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Goat Format has a lot of minor deckbuilding decisions that are seemingly inconsequential but can make a substancial difference in terms of a player's long-term winrate. While the consensus current format deckbuilding theory dictates that one should play three of all the good cards in order to maximize the chances of seeing them quickly, that rule of thumb does not apply especially well to Goat Format. Why? The fact that Goat Format games can last 20 turns rather than a few changes things a lot. This can be confusing to less experienced players in the format. Playing 3 copies of a flip effect monster in Goat Format presents a significant risk: Nobleman of Crossout.

Nobleman of Crossout vs Pot of Desires

Those who come from current format Yu-Gi-Oh! likely understand the risk/reward associated with Pot of Desires, a card that was initially released to great controversy. Depending on the circumstances, Pot of Desires is either free draw-2 or a card that loses you games. Although card advantage is not really a "fundamental" for current format, there was a great deal of silly debate regarding whether Pot of Desires was card advantage. While resolving Pot of Desires results in an increased hand size, your deck will also be depleted of 10 resources that cannot be accessed for the remainder of the game. This is huge. Recall from my "Who's Winning?" article that every game element can be considered a resource. The relative value of each of these resources is directly related to how that game actually plays out. Longer games that involve lots of searching will likely result in Pot of Desires hurting your chances of winning. Nobleman of Crossout presents a similar dilemma. While Nobleman of Crossout will always be a 1-for-1 trade in terms of raw card advantage, there are certainly some Nobleman of Crossouts that can be much more painful than others. Consider the following scenario: Your opponent activates Pot of Greed and sets a monster on the first turn of the game. Next turn, you activate Nobleman of Crossout. It's a Magician of Faith. Your opponent banishes a second Magician of Faith from his deck. You banish 3 copies of your own Magician of Faith. On the one hand, you are certainly relieved that your opponent will not be recycling Pot of Greed. However, you have had to banish three key threats from your own deck, which could definitely impact your ability to play the late game. This is the risk of running 3-of flip effects. ​

Viable 3-Of Flip Effects

Other than Morphing Jar, Cyber Jar, and Night Assailant, every flip effect in Goat Format can be played as a 3-of, if you want to. These flip effects that are commonly played in the format are the following (in no particular order):

• Magician of Faith