ABBREVIATED SUMMARY OF ROUTE: - Start with Raigeki - Farm Rex or DMK until you have 3 Thunders - Farm Pegasus BCDs/A-TECS until you have 6 equips (MM counts as 2) - A-TEC Kaiba - Do mages in this order: Ocean --> Mountain --> Desert --> Meadow --> (Meadow farming) --> Forest - Farm Meadow Mage until you have 4 monsters with 2500+ ATK (MBD counts as 3) - Skip Seto 2 ----- - Acceptable starting decks: > Any deck with Raigeki and a THTD equip > Most decks with Raigeki and a non-THTD equip > Any deck with Dark Hole, 1 Thunder and Dark Energy/Beast Fangs > Any deck with Dark Hole, 2 Thunders and Invigoration/Dragon Treasure/Horn of Light > Some decks with Dark Hole, 0 Thunders and Dark Energy/Beast Fangs > Some decks with Dark Hole, 1 Thunder and Invigoration/Dragon Treasure/Horn of Light Saving strategy: - Never save for Rex - Always save for Weevil - Save for Keith if your win rate is <98.5% (depending on quality of Weevil/Mai drops) - Save for Bakura if you have 0 cards that can beat Wall/Shield, or 1 card if you skipped saving for Keith - Always save for Pegasus - Always save for Isis - Always save for Kaiba - If buying a Thunder before Ocean, save for Ocean (and always skip saving for Atenza) - Save for Atenza if your win rate is <98% (depending on quality of drops) - If buying a Thunder before Desert and didn't save for Atenza, save for Desert - Always save for Meadow - Always save for Forest - Always save for Final 7 Farming strategy: - As a very general rule, increasing your win rate on Final 7 by 10% saves 3 minutes. So if you have a 35% chance of beating Final 7 and can increase that to 38.5% in less than 3 minutes of farming, that farm is worth it. Note that this does not consider 1) the time you save on Final 7 by having better decks, and 2) your position in the race relative to your opponents. - Get ~2 Dragons and ~3 Thunders from Rex/DMK (and decent Fusion material) > If 0-1 Thunders: Farm DMK > If 0/2: Farm Rex > If 1/2: Farm Rex > If 2/2: Farm DMK > If 3/2: Farm DMK > If 4/2: Farm DMK or duel Weevil > If 5/2: Duel Weevil > If 0/3: Farm Rex > If 1/3: Farm Rex > If 2/3: Farm DMK or duel Weevil > If 3/3: Duel Weevil - BCD Weevil - Go for A-POW on Mai and Keith, but don't force it unless you already have a trap - BCD Shadi - BCD Bakura unless you already have a trap - BCD Pegasus - BCD Isis - If no trap or very low monster count, BCD Pegasus until. Otherwise, A-TEC Pegasus - Go to Kaiba once you have: > (As a general rule, 6 equips, with Megamorph counting as 2 equips) > 3 Megamorphs > 3 Bright Castles and 3 Dragon Treasures > 3 Bright Castles and 2 Megamorphs > 3 Bright Castles, 1 Megamorph and 1 other THTD equip > 2 Bright Castles, 2 Megamorphs and 1 other THTD equip > 1 Bright Castle, 2 Megamorphs and 2 other THTD equips > IF YOU HAVE GOOD MONSTER REMOVAL: 3 Bright Castles and 3 other THTD equips > IF YOU HAVE GOOD MONSTER REMOVAL: 2 Bright Castle, 1 Megamorph and 2 other THTD equips > IF YOU HAVE GOOD MONSTER REMOVAL: 1 Bright Castle, 2 Megamorphs and 1 other THTD equips - A-TEC Kaiba or Kepura if all conditions are met: > Reasonably fast and safe setup for getting the A-TEC > Deck benefits significantly from removal, BC or DE > Less than 3 Bright Castles > Less than 3 Dark Energy - Even if your equips are very strong, consider farming Meadow Mage before Final 6/7 if you are weak in the following card types: > 10+ Thunders > Thunder Dragons > Big dragons > GOOD big dragons (Curse of Dragon, Sea King Dragon, etc.) > Kaminari Attacks > MBDs > Skull Knights/Dark Magicians/Zoas - Also consider the synergy of your deck: > Equips and Yamis for Skull Knight/Dark Magician/Zoa > Ability to SA-POW Sebek, Neku and Heishin for Yami-boosted monsters > Ability to get MBD to 4500 > Big Dragons/Thunders that get boosted by Umi (if running <3 MMs and no MBDs) > Equips for big dragons - Do not do Meadow before Ocean/Mountain/Desert MEADOW FARM NOTES: - 1 duel gives: > 0.34 Dark Magicians > 0.15 Skull Knights > 0.15 MBDs > 0.78 big dragons > 0.15 Kaminari Attacks > 1.57 useful cards - 3 duels give (approximately): > 1 Dark Magician > 1 Skull Knight OR MBD > 2 big dragons > 1 Thunder (Kaminari Attack + star chips) - Decision to farm can be simplified to 2 questions: 1. Is it worth spending 4.5 minutes to get 1 Dark Magician, 1 SK/MBD, 2 big dragons and 1 Thunder? 2. Do I have a narrow lead that I will lose if I spend any time farming Meadow?