Advantage. The Article. Jason "dietseto" Dishong
WARNING!!! If you don't want
to read a long article on Yu-Gi-Oh! Do not read this. This is intended for the
hard-core Yu-Gi-Oh gamer. Anyone intending to enter any Premier Event this
season, take a look at this.
Advantage.
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The game of
Yu-Gi-Oh began as a simple power game. The strongest monsters won. The best
Magic cards ruled all. Traps were abused. Advantage was in the field. Trap Hole,
La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp, Raigeki, and Blue Eyes White Dragon were
the best cards.
Now…
With more than 1000 English cards currently
in circulation, the game has shifted into a strategy game. A duel of the brains.
Hand advantage affects how the duel progresses. Field advantage can change hand
advantage. The two are intertwined. How does one affect the other? Are both
needed? What if I do not have one type of advantage? Which type of advantage is
better? Well dissect these two types of advantage.
Hand
Advantage.
Both duelists start with five cards. Equal advantage. From
there, anything can happen. Veteran duelists then focus on the hand. Destroy the
hand as fast as possible. With no hand, you have no way of replenishing your
field, thus you will lose field advantage. Hand advantage is the safest type of
advantage. There are less ways to get rid of the hand then the field. However,
cards in your hand are of no use unless played on the field. How do you get the
most out of the cards in your hand?
Trade-offs.
A fairly popular
subject, duelists talk about trade-offs. For example….
Exiled Force is a
1 for 1 trade-off.
It is the number of cards you give up compared to how
many they give up. Many former “staples” like Tribute to the Doomed and Magic
Jammer became obsolete because of the trade-off. Both required you two get rid
of two cards for one of your opponent’s cards. They did not promote hand
advantage.
Some “staples” can vary in trade-offs.
Example…
Raigeki.
This card can be, at most, a 1 to 5 trade-off.
On average, it is a 1 to 2 trade-off. Although, at times, it can only be a 1 to
1 trade-off. Is that worth it? It has the capability to do much more. Why play
it when you gain no hand advantage? Actually, you lose hand advantage with
Raigeki. That doesn’t mean Raigeki is useless. It gains field advantage for you.
With trade-offs, always try to get the most out of the cards you have. Spend the
1 for 1 trade-offs first, then go for the big guns (Raigeki, Dark Hole, Heavy
Storm, Harpie’s Feather Duster).
Field Advantage.
The more cards
on your side of the field, the better your field advantage. Whoever has more
cards on the field holds field advantage. Field advantage, however, can be
easily taken (and given up). The field is the most vulnerable part of the game.
How can you keep it? Many ways…
· Monster Removal (Raigeki, Nobleman of
Crossout, Exiled Force, Mirror Force
· M/T Removal (Mystical Space
Typhoon)
· Battle
· Monster Recursion (Monster Reborn)
· Special
Summon (Mystic Tomato)
· Stall (Spirit Reaper)
· Negation (Imperial
Order, Jinzo, Royal Decree)
· Beatsticks
If you can keep field
advantage, there is a lesser chance that you will lose hand advantage. Cards
like Don Zaloog and The Forceful Sentry can be stopped provided you have the
right cards. Don Zaloog must deal Battle Damage to you. If you can hold the
field with a beatstick or defense monster, Don Zaloog can’t deal damage to your
life points. If the Pre-Negators (Delinquent Duo, The Forceful Sentry,
Confiscation) cannot be activated, you can keep hand advantage (if you already
have it). Sometimes, the cost to maintain field advantage is life points. Field
advantage is temporary. Field advantage changes so many times during the course
of a duel. Ultimately, if you can control the field long enough, you can control
the hand, which will lead to life point
advantage.
But now that Chaos has engulfed
the metagame, people are trying to find ways to control the chaos. Huge
beatsticks can be summoned just by playing Painful Choice correctly. How can it
be stopped?
Graveyard Advantage
A new type of advantage. With so
many Chaos decks around, mirror matches between them happen ALL the time. Out of
all the matches I’ve seen in Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds, it really helps
to control the graveyard. Particually, your opponent’s,
The
key to summoning the Envoys is to remove one DARK and one LIGHT attribute
monster. Here’s a simple concept.
If your opponent does not
have at least one DARK and one LIGHT monster in his graveyard, he cannot summon
an envoy. Thus, you reduce his chances of winning the duel.
Chaos decks focus so much on summoning the envoys. So much
that if you deny them the opportunity to summon one, their options decrease
dramatically.
It is like in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker; say you
have a pair of sixes. Your opponent has a King and a Six. In order to get a set
of sixes (three-of-a-kind), you need a six to appear on the board. However,
since your opponent has one six, and you have two, there is only one more six
left in the deck. Your options have decreased because of that. Your opponent
could catch one of three Kings left in the deck to out-pair you.
Cards such as Kycoo, Soul Release, Big Burn, Nobleman of
Crossout, and D.D. Warrior Lady all control your opponent’s graveyard in one way
or another. I saw an overview of the finals at the World Championship. The
winner, from Japan, had at least one Nobleman of Crossout. Sure, it is a
one-for-one trade-off, but instead of a monster going to the graveyard, it is
going out-of-play.
What do you
think? How does one advantage affect the other (In your opinion)? Which is more
important? What cards can offer the best hand and field advantage?
Any questions/comments? email me at darktitan@comcast.net, AIM me at
d1sh0ng, or YIM me at yourworstnightmare_27. If you see me around the Pojo
boards, I'm dietseto. This is Jason "dietseto" Dishong signing
off.