Sidedecking Against Alt-Win, Burn, Combo in Goat Format

​Alt-win, burn, and combo, collectively known as the ABCs, maintain a significant presence in the online Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format meta. In most control decks, a large portion of the sidedeck, typically about 10 cards, is dedicated to countering these ABC decks. Having the tools to beat the ABC decks are essential to achieving a high winrate in the format. All of the best counters to each of these hazardous decks are listed below.

Sidedeck Cards for Reasoning Gate Combo

​Reasoning Gate Combo is a spell-heavy deck that seeks to summon a field full of monsters using cards like Reasoning, Monster Gate, and Dimension Fusion with chaos monsters. Spell Canceler: Spell Canceler is one of the few cards that can shutdown Reasoning Gate Combo single-handedly, as more than half of their deck is spell cards. Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell: Using Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell on their Reasoning, Monster Gate, or Dimension Fusion can potentially stop them from effectively comboing. However, results may vary. Scapegoat, Waboku, and Threatening Roar: Siding in any of these cards gives you something to chain to Giant Trunade in order to survive another turn. If timed well, they can be useful. Trap Dustshoot, Mind Crush, and Drop Off: Trap Dustshoot is great for sending back chaos monsters or Sacred Crane before it can be tributed to Monster Gate. Mind Crush can counter Dark Magician of Chaos or Monster Reincarnation and is devastating when paired with Trap Dustshoot. Drop Off can be used to limit their options even further. Jowgen the Spiritualist: Both of Jowgen the Spiritualist’s effects are surprisingly relevant, serving as either a floodgate or a Raigeki for specials summons. It can also be searched with Sangan or Shining Angel. Royal Oppression: Like Jowgen, it shuts off all special summons. That is, until your opponent draws a Giant Trunade to clear it. Anti-Spell Fragrance: This shuts down all of their spells, at least for a turn. Ideally, you'll want to pair it with something like Dust Tornado to get rid of them for good. Cyber-Stein: Special summon Last Warrior from Another Planet, win the game. Reasoning Gate Combo doesn't have a lot of outs to it. ​

Sidedeck Cards for Burn and PACMAN

Although there are many different variants of Burn, most of the sidedeck cards cover all them. PACMAN, while not technically a Burn deck, operates in a similar way by relying on its trap cards in combination with Des Lacooda, Swarm of Scarabs, and Swarm of Locusts to lockdown the opponent. Jinzo and Royal Decree: Nearly all variants of Burn are trap heavy, meaning that Jinzo and Royal Decree can beat them single-handedly. Seven Tools of the Bandit: Great for negating Solemn Judgment and Fake Trap, although the fact that it costs 1000 lifepoints can mean that it’s counterproductive against Speed Burn variants. Giant Trunade: Good against the lockdown variants of Burn (and to an extent PACMAN) so that you can make a big push. However, it's not as good against the Speed Burn decks that focus more on chainable sources of burn damage. Mobius the Frost Monarch, Chiron the Mage, and Dust Tornado: Any kind of spell/trap removal is helpful against Burn. The former two can be negated by Skill Drain, unless you chain a card like Book of Moon to force them through. Wave-Motion Cannon: This can be used to beat Burn at their own game. They usually have few ways to stop it, and if you can bait out a Solemn Judgment first, they will succumb to it in four turns or less. Des Wombat: This really only stops the Speed Burn variants, as the other burn decks have a variety of different outs for it. However, it is quite powerful against Speed Burn. ​