 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
| Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh! news, tips, strategies and more! | |||||
|
|
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
|
Card Game Featured Writers Releases + Spoilers Anime Video Games Other
Magic
This Space |
 |
Anteaus
on Yu-Gi-Oh!
Everyone makes mistakes - they’re a part of life. All of us
hate making them, of course, but we all make our fair share.
And that’s okay. Mistakes are a good thing in life because
they allow us to get better at things by fixing what we did
wrong. Whether it’s a mistake on homework, a mistake in a
social setting, or a mistake in a card game, being able to
recognize those mistakes, and correcting them, is a
cornerstone of our growth and development as human beings.
In Goat Format, minimizing mistakes is a major skill and one
that a lot of people struggle with. But another major skill
is also recognizing the mistakes that you make
in-game and doing your best to avoid them in the
future. With that, though, comes knowing what to look
for, and that’s the biggest obstacle for many newer players.
Knowing what mistakes you’re making and how to avoid them is
incredibly important to getting better at not just Goat
Format, but the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! as a whole.
So, let’s get started.
Getting angry
The first mistake that I want to highlight is one that
everyone has made at one point or another - getting angry at
the game. Whether you get outplayed, you brick, your
opponent opens the nuts, whatever it is, getting angry about
it isn’t going to do a thing to help you get better. It’s
natural to get upset with a brick hand, because there’s not
much you can do to play out of it regardless of skill level.
This is why the modern game relies so much on consistency -
the game is so fast that if you open poorly you will lose
before you draw out of it.
In Goat Format this is rarely the case. It’s possible to
draw a disadvantageous hand - for instance, a hand full of
aggressive Spell/Trap cards but no monsters and no attack
preventers, against an opponent’s hand of beatsticks - but
that’s relatively rare.
The rest of the time, we lose because of mistakes we make,
and then get mad as if we didn’t make mistakes. “He
had all the outs!” “If only he didn’t have that Mirror
Force!” “Of course he had BLS!”
This kind of thinking doesn’t allow us to analyze what
went wrong. It gives us an easy out, blaming other
things for our mistakes. The truth of the matter is that the
correct play is one that involves preparing for the
Mirror Force, or anticipating the BLS drop. In Goat Format,
analyzing mistakes requires us to take an objective approach
to the game. This is the best way to begin avoiding those
mistakes - always be objective about why you lost. Analyze
your gameplay and try to pinpoint where in the duel you
started to lose and what contributed to it. Getting angry
doesn’t solve your problem or make you a better player.
Analyzing mistakes does. But there are a lot of mistakes we
still make as we get better at Goat Format.
Let’s look at some more.
Not playing around backrow properly
This is pretty basic, all things considered, and a number of
other writers have talked about this before. That being
said, it’s one of the most important aspects of winning in
Goat Format. And it goes beyond just anticipating backrow -
it really encompasses playing around every potential out
your opponent may have.
Let’s get back to this in a minute, because we have to first
talk about card value and how people often undervalue or
overvalue specific cards.
Every card in a deck has a purpose - this has long been true
and is true in any format of any card game. Useless cards
don’t make sense to run in a competitive environment,
naturally. A card like D.D. Assailant, for instance, is
meant to remove threats. This includes backrow, in my
opinion, and oftentimes losing a DDA to a Sakuretsu Armor is
okay in the early game but can be detrimental in the late
game due to various circumstances, notably who is ahead in
advantage.
D.D. Assailant is a card that has high utility but variable
card value depending on the situation. Many cards are the
same way (and this is a big reason why the Trinity is so
important - each card has such high utility that it is rare
to not want to play them immediately). The value of each
card changes depending on the state of the game, and it’s up
to you to determine whether or not losing a card and
“baiting” out backrow - or, in other words, allowing your
opponent to spring their traps and knowing that you will
still be able to come out ahead - is a good idea or not.
This ties into the mistake of not playing around backrow
properly very well. If you know the value of each card in
your hand and are able to determine when playing them will
maximize that value, you’ll go a long way to predicting
backrow and playing around it effectively. Sometimes it’s
okay to bait out a Sakuretsu Armor or a Mirror Force and
lose a monster like D.D. Assailant in the short term in
order to solidify your position in the game later on down
the line. This is called “baiting” and knowing when it is
effective comes with practice. It’s not always useful, but
if you can call out and play around backrow without losing
too much presence, you’ll win a lot more games.
Here’s a great example: just this past weekend, at a Goat
Format tournament, I was watching a friend playing in-game.
He was up in LP and also in numerical advantage, something
like 5-3. He had Exarion on the field and his opponent had
one backrow. My friend summoned D.D. Assailant alongside
Exarion Universe and proceeded to walk straight into a
Mirror Force. And because of that he lost, even though he
had more in the way of advantage, because he had no other
monsters in his hand that could replace that Exarion
Universe or that D.D. Assailant.
Instead, he should have sat on the lone Exarion Universe and
just poked for damage. Mirror Force as a 1-for-1 is a
desperation play and if you force your opponent to make that
play you often will seal the win. Instead, he gave his
opponent a +1 because he just didn’t anticipate the Mirror
Force. This is one of those mistakes that is typically only
rectified by making it in the first place.
This ties into my next point pretty well:
Being overly passive (or aggressive)
Another common mistake that newer players make is being
overly passive or aggressive at the wrong times. This is one
of the easiest mistakes to make and it really takes some
practice to get good at understanding the ebb and flow of
situational advantage. Being overly passive is one of the
easiest mistakes to make. In Goats, the player who can
maintain their card advantage into the mid and late portions
of the game typically win more duels. So there’s a tendency
for people to play a more passive game, as they don’t want
to waste resources too early or fall into a detrimental trap
without adequate follow up.
I certainly understand this mindset, as it’s a mindset that
I still find myself falling into. Losing resources early is
problematic, but you have to play something to try to
swing the momentum to your side. Simply setting and not
pushing can leave opportunities on the table, and playing
too passively can enable your opponent to make big plays
after collecting several key cards they need to firmly grasp
that pendulum of momentum and use it to smash your best-laid
plans to smithereens.
Being too passive is something that a lot of
middle-of-the-road players do. Being too aggressive
is a trait of a lot of newer players, especially those who
play both Goat Format and the modern game. In Goat Format,
being too passive is almost preferable to being too
aggressive, but I personally think it’s a fine line. There’s
a balance.
Anyway, it’s easy to see if someone is being too aggressive:
do they keep walking into traps? Summoning a second monster
when Torrential is still live? What about attacking with
multiple face-up monsters to give the opponent a +1 on a
Mirror Force? Do you do these things? That’s the most
important question to ask yourself when analyzing mistakes.
Sometimes being aggressive pays off, but it takes knowing
when to push and when not to. Going back to Mirror
Force, If it’s still live and your opponent has one backrow
but didn’t activate it when you attacked with just one
monster, why commit a second one to the board? This exact
same mindset is how you also play around a card like
Torrential Tribute. Those two traps are some of the biggest
momentum shifters in the game which is why passive play can
reward you with wins. But being aggressive also requires us
to understand when it’s okay to let those traps go through.
For instance, you have a D.D. Assailant on the field, and
you have an Exarion Universe in hand. Your opponent has a
backrow they’ve been sitting on for a few turns and another
they just set on their last turn.
Do you summon the Exarion? A question like this is hard to
answer in the abstract because it all depends on what else
you have. Sitting on something like Scapegoat and
Metamorphosis? You have some backup, but it requires your
opponent to do something, which as we know from modern
Yu-Gi-Oh! isn’t always the best strategy. Of course if your
opponent has been burning through aggressive cards, chances
are they won’t have much of a follow-up either. Maybe you
have something like Tribe-Infecting Virus instead of Exarion
Universe. That’s a card you typically don’t want to
summon unless you can get his effect off, and you certainly
don’t want to walk him into a Mirror Force.
Holy crap, you know how many times I’ve seen novice players
make that mistake? Not one like it - that exact play. It’s
more common than you may think especially if you’re a
veteran player of Goat Format. You see, it’s easy to be
aggressive, but it’s hard to be smart about it. Smart
players understand that you have to make sure you don’t play
too passively and miss out on opportunities to capitalize on
mistakes or weak draws while also not being overly
aggressive and walking right into detrimental traps that can
kill your momentum.
There’s one more thing I want to talk about that ties into
being overly passive or aggressive, and that’s
predictability. You no doubt know what it means to be
predictable - a predictable person is someone who has
certain traits or tendencies that others notice.
In Goat Format duels, predictability is a major problem.
There are only so many cards that we have to choose from, so
many cards overlap. More than that, aside from anywhere from
two to twelve tech cards you see in a standard Goat Format
deck, the builds are almost all the same. Certain trends,
such as the prevalence of Dust Tornado in a standard Goat
Format build, are pretty much staples. Others, like Mobius
the Frost Monarch or Gravekeeper’s Spy, are fringe-ish cards
that see sporadic play in the main, often depending on the
local meta.
And that’s where predictability comes into play. A good
example, actually, is Dust Tornado. A predictable play is
the standard 1-1 set; it’s the most common opening in Goat
Format. Less common is the 1-2 opening of one set monster
and two set backrow. But it sees play occasionally,
oftentimes when the second card is a Dust Tornado. It’s
awesome to be able to pop a backrow at the end phase of our
opponent’s turn, but many new players that open with Dust
Tornado will set it along with another backrow every
single time it happens.
This is a real problem, because stronger players, ones who
have the ability to innately pick up on tells and trends,
will punish you for it. If they start seeing you set two
backrow and the second is always a Dust Tornado or some
other S/T removal card they’ll likely learn to play around
it. Another good example is checking graveyards - many
people only check their own when they’re looking to summon a
Chaos monster or play a revival spell. This is the immediate
assumption an opponent makes when you check your graveyard.
When you check your opponent’s graveyard, they immediately
assume you’re checking traps in anticipation of a push.
Smart players pick up these tendencies quickly and will
exploit them by checking both graveyards often. This lulls
the opponent into a false sense of security even if you’re
sitting on a Call of the Haunted with a Jinzo in grave and a
BLS in your hand.
Ultimately it’s important that you strive to keep your plays
variable. If you play with the same core group of people,
watch for tells and tendencies and tell your friends to do
the same to you. If you can catch them, you can help each
other become more varied players, which will lead to
stronger games and more wins.
But while we’re on the subject of S/T destruction, let’s
talk about…
Misusing Spell/Trap Destruction
It’s a common tactic to pop backrow before making a big push
- that’s often when the Heavy Storm drops. We’ve all done it
(and had it done to us), and it’s definitely satisfying. But
in the turns before, many times we use our Spell/Trap
destruction incorrectly. It’s tempting to just blind-MST in
a format where most people only set one backrow at a time.
And it’s true that we want to clear backrow in order to poke
for damage.
But many times newer players will just activate Dust Tornado
as soon as the end phase rolls around regardless of what
they can do next turn. Or they’ll set a Mystical Space
Typhoon and flip it as soon as something they can pop comes
up. This is oftentimes the wrong play. Sometimes it’s good
to set your MST, but usually you want to keep it in hand to
get rid of real threats.
Basically, don’t blind MST or Dust Tornado as soon as you
can. Wait until you know that the card you’re destroying is
actually worth destroying. It sucks flipping up a
Dust Tornado just to hit a Scapegoat and watch your opponent
fill their board with tokens. Of course, sometimes you want
this - especially if it’s their only backrow and you’re
about to bring out Airknight Parshath or Exarion Universe.
But that’s not as common as it is to simply misuse your
backrow killers and end up being unable to generate pressure
later in the game.
And now, my last point before I end this long-ass article…
Not paying attention
This is the bane of everyone’s existence, or has been at one
point or another. I myself made a crucial mistake simply by
not paying attention during a Goat Format tournament not
long ago. Here’s what happened:
My opponent had a Jinzo on the field as well as two set
backrow. I drew for my turn and he immediately flipped up
Trap Dustshoot. Frustration set in for me, and in a moment
of ineptitude I threw my hand on the board...and then
someone pointed out that he couldn’t activate Trap Dustshoot
to begin with.
But the damage had been done, and I sheepishly took my cards
back and tried to play out of what had become a significant
hole. He knew all my plays, and won in short order. Had I
been paying attention I would have caught the fact that he
was unable to even activate it, thus saving myself from
revealing my hand and giving my opponent all the information
they needed to seal the game. Granted I likely would have
lost, as my hand was definitely weak to Jinzo, but that’s
beside the point. My fate was sealed the moment I dropped my
hand on the board.
And it was all because I wasn’t paying attention. It’s an
easy thing to do especially if you’re playing at a
tournament and you’re surrounded by other players. Watching
other games while you’re playing, not checking graveyards
periodically, not thinking about traps or outs, talking to
friends instead of watching your opponent - this all falls
into not paying attention. Playing in Goat Format is like
driving - if you get good at it you tend to get complacent.
But you only got good at it in the first place by paying
attention and fixing mistakes. Trust me, bad players who
don’t learn from their mistakes continue to be bad players.
But bad players can become good players by catching mistakes
and paying attention and keeping their emotions in check and
being smart.
That's it for this time. As always you can contact me
anytime at
anteausonyugioh@gmail.com.
Don't forget to stop by the official
Pojo Goat Format Thread
and check out the
Goat Format Discord server as well to continue the Goat Format discussion. If you're on
Reddit, check out
r/MenWhoPlayWithGoats,
the official Goat Format subreddit.
|
|||
|
Copyright© 1998-2016 pojo.com This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site. |
|||||
