I’ve not been involved with the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG for roughly 10 years, but after writing about the upcoming decks and booster packs, I decided I wanted to give the game another go. This lead me to take my Warrior deck and go to a free Thursday night tournament at one of my local game stores. I knew there were changes made to the game and new things like Link Monsters and Pendulums, but I was determined to have fun and win a couple of matches. I won 1 out of 7 rounds. Needless to say, I was a bit humbled, so I asked some of the people there if they had suggestions for getting back into the game. They recommended I purchase 3 copies of a structure deck like the new Wave of Light that had come out in January to mix and match key cards for a deck closer to competitive level play. I decided to buy one and see if I liked it first.

When I first got the deck, I started looking through the cards to see how well I could understand the Counter Fairy strategy before trying to use it in a duel. Then, it was time to test drive it. I asked my wife to use what is probably my second-best deck, a Dragon deck, for the test. It is important to note that this Dragon deck would probably not be good in a competitive scenario, but I deemed it appropriate for an initial test to learn how Wave of Light works and get comfortable with its strategy. Round 1 went really smoothly for me as I was able to draw a lot of key cards that let me get my strong monsters out and stopped magic and trap cards from getting in my way. I started Round 2 off well, but then I was unable to use the core strategy of the deck since I couldn’t draw any of my Counter Trap cards. This meant that most of my monsters effects wouldn't work since they rely on me using these traps.

As is, this deck alone would not do well in competitive play. Depending on who you’re playing against and how well you draw, you may be able to win a match, but I don’t think you’d win a tournament. However, if you’re wanting to get back into the game like me, this deck seems to be a great point of return. As I played the two rounds with my wife, I was understanding more and more why people were recommending I buy three copies of the deck. Just like decks of old, this deck is a foundation for a player to start with. There are cards that you won’t see the point of having in your deck (like D.D. Sprite) and others that you’ll wish you had multiples of (like Guiding Ariadne). However, while using the deck, you learn how the strategy is supposed to work which will help inform you in how to shape the deck given three copies. I learned that as the name suggests, Counter Trap cards are key to a Counter Fairy deck. That makes cards like Minerva, Scholar of the Sky invaluable in the deck since she can get your traps back from the Graveyard and gets a boost whenever you use one.

My one major complaint with this deck is the lack of any cards for the Extra Deck. I feel like many of the cards are included to be used to bring out Synchro, Xyz, or Link monsters, but they don’t give you any to summon. Of course, this then pushes you to go out and buy booster packs and card singles, but I still feel like it’s a bit low to not include even one Extra Deck monster.

Overall, if you’ve been out of the game a while, or are brand new, I think that this deck is a great entry point into the current meta. I would recommend buying three copies if you want to be competitive, but use only one copy for the first one or two matches to get a feel for which cards to take out and put in. Then, as you learn more about the best way to use the strategies, you can start adding other cards from booster packs or singles to really ramp up your game. If you don’t want to run a Counter Fairy deck, I have heard good things about the Dinosmasher’s Fury Structure Deck as well. I want to take this deck to a tournament and see how well it does on its own, and hopefully, I’ll be able to afford two more copies soon to kick it up a notch.