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The mental intimidation factor in any serious strategic environment
by rokman
Sept. 26, 2005

Introduction
This is a vast game. There are multiple ways to take advantage of your opponent. But what about the part where you can intimidate a player? Make them scared to play you. Were you are above them with your state of mind. A few simple ways to do this could be done in your number of misplays, your speed of play, how you shuffle, your posterity and your stamina, keeping your opponent guessing, and even the clothes on you. It seems stereotypical, but it isn't. It is the cold, hard, sad truth.

Intimidating a player can be broken down into these general categories:

How you portray yourself and your play style You might be thinking, How I Portray myself? Yes, think of it like this. You are a very rich man; you have every reverse holo card and gold sleeves.
You’re wearing a gold suit and platinum shoes. You are a baller. And you whip out your deck. You sit down to play a boy. This boy is wearing a dirty brown torn shirt and his jeans are covered in mud. His deck is torn and ruffled and some of his sleeves are ripped. Do you not think that this boy is shaking in his space boots? He is terrified to play you because obviously you have the money and resources to obtain any card and any deck. I know people will say, the heart of the cards and if the boy is strong and believes in himself he can win. This is very true, but we are not talking about luck, we are talking about intimidation, two very different things.

- Number of Misplays
When you were playing a game, whether it be now or when you started, have you ever said, "I never thought of that!" or "Man, if I just would of done..." When this happens and you could of done something different for the better, it is called a misplay. If you play a friend 50 times a day, and during each match make 5 big misplays and your opponent benefits from it and eventually takes the win, do you believe your friend is scared of you? or does your friend believe you are not a good player and you are still a n00b?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your a n00b. After time and practice players will see further in the game and see the benefits they can take advantage of and how they should play. After this happens they should have less misplays and be a stronger confident player. If you have no misplays in any of your games, your opponent should play carefully, you could take advantage of a hand for the win if you have no misplays. Now, do you think your friend will be on his toes all match if you have no misplays?

- Your Speed of Play
A friend of mine who goes by Whicker on the gym, is crazy. He shuffles his deck so fast, it's like a monkey tearing through a cupcake. No offense Jordan. =D When I play him and see how fast he draws and shuffles, my mind starts racing. How is he this fast? Does he want to hurry? Is he wanting to get to something quicker? I am on edge all match because I know he is fast, but I don't know why he is. If a person plays quickly the opponent will realize this person must play a lot to be this quick and focused. This is one of the key aspects to a player and how dominating and intimidating he/she is.

- How You Shuffle
I am playing you. After I play Energy Search I lay my deck on the table. I put both hands on the pile and start mixing it up, like I would if we were playing Dominoes. Wouldn't you be thinking, This is ridiculous, He shuffles like a kid... probably plays like one also? An experienced player will shuffle his deck quickly and with ease and grace. Swiftly he drops his deck, "cut?" An inexperienced player will pick his/her deck up, start to shuffle like Dominoes. Later dropping the deck and continuously apologizing as he/she picks it up and tries again. I would be furious, and swiftly end the game to get away from the player. I am not ragging on how people shuffle, but I, like most people, will not be intimidated by a "Dominoes shuffler"

- Your Posterity and Stamina
If you slouch over mid-game and act like you don't care of the outcome, your opponent will not be intimidated and feel like he/she is overpowering you. A great player will keep sitting straight up, focused and full attention on the game, not being distracted by anyone or anything around him or her.
Great posterity and stamina is what separates the n00bs form the gods. If you played through one hundred games and are not at all affected by drowsiness or losing attention and if your misplay count isn't increasing at an exponential rate, you would be considered a fantastic player. A great example of this type of player is Yamato of Japan. Many of you may or may not know this, but Yamato was up for hours and hours playing and playing challengers at the World Championship 05. After hundreds of games, was he affected drastically? No. Maybe one or two more misplays, but that alone is an amazing feat. An accomplishment many of the greatest players could not achieve to this day.

- Keeping Your Opponent Guessing
If I use Magcargo's Smooth Over and you are positive to what the card is, the exact card I would need to win. Say, Warp Point. And then on your turn you purposely place your main attacker on the bench to benefit from the Warp Point But then, it was an Ancient technical machine: Rock. And your opponent plays it for the win. A player can easily and quickly take an enormous lead by keeping your opponent thinking they know what your doing, but doing quite the opposite.

Conclusion
The funny thing is, many great players usually follow these guidelines, but a small handful do the opposite. They do this so that during the match, you believe your better and more experienced then them, and then they annihilate you. Only to make it hurt worse. That is what a lot of people call, "getting pwned." But being a conservative, focused, humble player, and intimidate any foe, is what most will strive to achieve...

I hope someone can benefit from my Article. Thank You

<>< rokman