Yugioh is one of my favorite games, which is unfortuante because it usually sucks to play. Frequently I will play the game nonstop for weeks at a time, then get mad at something in the current format and drop the game for months before eventually, invetably, coming back to the game. (Sidebar: when I say "the game" here, I mean exclusively Yugioh Master Duel. Paper play is something I am conceptually interested in but which I am too scared of strangers to properly engage with) Point being, when I come back to the game, I end up building a new deck because deckbuilding in yugioh is exciting and engaging in a way that's hard to explain in words, and the most recent iteration of this loop has seen me building Dinosaurs, and I figured I'd break down my deckbuilding decisions.
This is the decklist. It's pretty standard as far as these things go, but there's a couple specific choices I'd like to go over. First, the hand trap ratios. 3 Maxx C, 3 Ash, 2 Called by is called "the masterduel tax" for a reason. I also always run a nibiru and an imperm rather than a featherduster and a crossout designator. I'm also currently running a fun of triple tact, but I'm probably gonna swap it out for Harpies Featherduster at some point. The more interesting note is the ratio on Dinos.
The funny thing about Dinos as a deck is they almost have too many cards you want to open, which is what makes Fossil Dig a necessary 3 of. Almost all the deck's combos are 1.5 card combos where one card pops another for effect, and you can do this with suboptimal targets, but it feels so bad to do it when you know Babycersaurus could be plusing you. Speaking of, the three Guys Who Pop are an obvious three of, those being Ground Xenos, which starts up your rank 6 plays, Animadorned Archasaur, which basically reads "summon your boss monster from deck," and Oviraptor, who can start either one off in addition to being able to resummon a popped baby to let your engines keep running at full speed. These ratios are normal and basically well understood, including the 1 Xeno Meteorus and 2 UCT because as much as you want to summon him off of double evolution pill, you can also just. Summon him using his effect. Really the only weird choice in terms of ratios is the level 6 vanilla dinosaur I picked for the transcendrake engine, Sword Arm Dragon. I picked that guy for one very simple reason: funny.
Really, the list is pretty normal aside from the Special Spice in the form of Kaipotera, Fusion Substitute, Horned Sarus, and Summon Breaker. This collection of one-ofs fill a slot that used to be taken up by Giant Rex, with kaitopera being a body that specials itself when banished. When Giant Rex had the slot, you'd then make one of the rank 4 evolzar, but Kaitopera searches poly and is then 1/2 of horned saurs, which places a field spell into your field zone. Most lists I saw were running Lost World as the field spell target, but idk! I played the deck with Lost World and I never felt like it was doing much, especially in a format where the best deck in the room is running Diabellestar. So instead, I decided I'd run a very silly psuedo-floodgate in the slot. Arguably Magical Mid-breaker field foots the bill just as fine if not better (seeing as UCT doesn't target and doesn't destroy), but summon limit at home is still pretty good into a snake eyes format, where historically Real Summon Limit was a huge determining factor in the mirror match, doubly so if the summon limit is something you are setting up as part of your main combo.
I guess I should talk about the extra deck a little. Its mostly kinda what you'd expect from a deck capable of rank 6's and 4's that locks itself into wyrms and dragons often enough. You can make Tzolkin with the material you usually use to make Lars, and Lars is typically the better choice since 2 psuedo-omni negates is generally preferrable to 1 monster negate, but it's pretty funny the deck can just do it, so whatever. Barronne and Chengying can be made with Xeno and Ovi, and sometimes that's all that you've got left on field. Gardna and his weird dog is what turns archosaur from a set up card to a 1.5 card combo to make UCT, and IP and SP are here just because sometimes you've got two Dudes hanging around. Grenosaurs is what you make with Kaitoptera and Oviraptor going second because it turns UCT into a card that's pretty good at clearing boards into an OTK machine.