From: Anteaus44@aol.com
[mailto:Anteaus44@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 1:18 AM
To: yugiohcrew@pojo.com
Subject: The Basic Principles of Yu-Gi-Oh!-Anteaus
Hello, all you pojoers out there, and welcome to
another rousing edition of Anteaus' [insert cool
name here]!
Today I am here to talk about the two most basic
principles of Yu-Gi-Oh!: teaching and learning. In
this format, learning is everything. We learn how to
handle any and every situation any and every time we
see it, and it's a lesson that we do not soon
forget. We teach our opponents how we play and how
we feel about different situations, another thing
that is crucial. But more on that later.
First, how do we teach? Well, it's simple: we teach
how we play the game to whoever wants to learn. This
sounds simple, in theory, but in truth it
encompasses a whole range of ideas. We can teach and
learn game theory, deck theory, advantage,
disadvantage, when to set, when to activate
this/that card, when to do basically whatever. But
there is also the other side of things: we can teach
how we play, how we react, our emotions, how we use
those emotions in our duels. In essence, Yu-Gi-Oh!
is almost like poker. We play our hands the best we
can and rely on other cards to strengthen our
position and weaken others. The Yu-Gi-Oh! opening
hands can essentially be seen as the initial bets
before the flop (Texas Hold'em, you know). We see
what people do and how they react to, say, a
check-raise or a fold. And it's the same in Yi-Gi-Oh!
An opening set to both zones indicates a strong
opening hand early game, and it could be anything
from a Dekoichi to a Spirit Reaper. This is where
the strategy comes into play: we read our opponent.
And we read our opponent because we must. We need to
feed off of what our opponent is doing, how they
react to a situation--much like in poker, right? We
use signals to indicate what has taken place; subtle
yet basic signals. Like a hesitation, a call-back, a
set to each zone, a previous bluff that could mean a
myriad of things. This is how we teach. We teach our
opponent how to play us, not the game. But we also
learn from them, because once we teach the opponent
how we play, we can then assess how they play, and
this trick is a lot harder to master.
The easiest way to learn from your opponent is to
let them be fooled into a false sense of victory, a
technique that is often used. Based on the
opponent's reaction to their presumably advantageous
position we can decipher several things: a) the
opponent hastily jumps to conclusions; b) the
opponent does not jump too soon. How the opponent
reacts is key: if they react too soon in their
position, they are hasty and liable to make
exploitable mistakes. If they are too cautious, then
we can learn from that and play their game by
pressing the advantage in our favor. So we learn how
to read people from our opponents.
But there is an even more basic principle of
learning/teaching: the game itself. We are
constantly learning the game: new rulings, new
cards, new ideas, new decks, and with all of these
we must learn how to cope. But when we teach is when
we really shine. Teaching the actual game is more
fun than actually playing the game because you can
not only see your weaknesses as a duelist (and learn
from them) but you can also see your strengths and
use your strengths as a duelist to help younger
duelists pick up the game. And thus you keep the
game alive.
So really, what this article is all about is keeping
Yu-Gi-Oh! alive. Teach it, for you will learn;
learn, so you may teach. Teach, so you can teach,
and learn so you can learn. Think about it.
Cheers,
Anteaus
E-mail: Anteaus44@aol.com
