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Cloudstrife 189 on Yugioh
The secret to dueling: Soft Cheating
October 2, 2009

I've been playing the game for over 7 years and have attending tons of regionals/ and a nice handful of SJC's. One of the biggest controversies I have ever encountered has been involving cheating and which ones are allowed and which ones aren't. I've been told by a handful of "pro" players that lots of pros soft cheat and that there's nothing wrong with it. I'm going to go detailed into soft cheating, and at the end, allow you to make your own choice.

I have come to understand soft cheating as a type of cheating that can't be easily detected. People can always justisfy soft cheating by playing dumb and acting like it was an accident or mistake. By this approach, it will be nearly impossible to prove it was intentional, thus not making it cheating. Here are some examples of what I have found to be soft cheating. I will list 5 examples(there are MANY, MANY more) .

Example #1 (Lifepoints)

Player A: Opponent summons Dark Armed Dragon and Player B responds with Solemn Judgment.

The game continues and "x" amount of turns go by.

Player B: "We both haven't took any life point damage yet right?"

Player A: "I don't think so..."( as he hits "clear" on his calculator and resets the lifepoints...)

At this point, Player A has clearly cheated. But what's the worst that could happen? Player B says "wait, you took 4000 from solemn right?" in which case all Player A would have to say "oh yeah...I forgot about that...my bad"...once again, its impossible to tell on if he honestly forgot or if he was attempting to cheat his opponent.

Example 2 (Normal Summons/sets)

Player A: Attempts to normal summon a monster and its bottomless trap holed. He plays some more spell/trap cards, special summons a lot more monsters and in mainphase 2, sets a monster.

Now, I'm sure you guys are saying how can this happen, its so obvious to see that he has summoned already. However, sometimes going against zombies with mezuki's, book of lifes, pyramid turtles, zombie masters, burial from the different dimension, etc it gets really hard to remember what happened 5 cards ago or so. Once again, if Player B attempts to call Player A on it, all Player A has to do it say "oh, I forgot" and just shrug it off and pick his monster back up. Even if a judge was close by watching, the judge could never tell if it was an intential mistake (thus making it cheating) or seriously an honest accident.

Example 3 (Complex Rulings)

Player B: "Attacks with Stardust Dragon into a face down ryko."
Player A: "Destroy Stardust Dragon with ryko's effect."
Player B: "Wait, can't I chain with Stardust Dragon's effect?"
Player A: "No, I don't think so, not in the damage step. Only cards that increase/decrease ATK/DEF can be played in damage step."
Player B: "Oh, that sounds right"(and puts Stardust Dragon in the grave)

Just like before, it is impossible to prove if Player A really knows the rulings for Stardust Dragon and the fact that he CAN be played in damage step, or if he truly thought only increasing ATK/DEF cards can be played in damage step. The way Player A made his argument did seem pretty persuasive and could easily catch beginners to some intermediate duelists off guard.

Example 4 (drawing an extra card)

Player A: Draw for my turn

Announcer: "Has anyone seen a lost black book bag......" (the game gets slightly side tracked and everyone pauses their duels....)

Player A: "Wow, I hope the guy finds his bookbag...Have I drew yet?"

Player B: "I dont think so..., but i'm not sure..."

Player A: " I don't think so either...you just ended your turn. Can I go ahead and draw and start my turn?"

Player B: Sure

This kind of soft cheating can be tricky. What player A did was very clever. He put all the pressure on his opponent before he did an illegal play. By asking his opponent's permission, they both came to an agreed game state. If in 5 turns, Player B remembers that Player A already drew prior to the announcement, it will be hard for him to hold his argument in front of a judge since both players agreed at the time that Player A hadn't drew yet...

Example 5 (milling)

Player A: He has 4 cards remaining in his deck and summons Judgement Dragon.
Player B: Chains threatening roar.
Player A: Ends his turn and "forgets" to mill
Player B: Draws for his turn and passes
Player A: "Attack for game"
Player B: "GG"
Player A: Quickly shuffles his cards together...
Player B: "Wait, did you remember to mill last turn? I think you might of forgot?"
Player A: "Oh, I think I did. Besides, I had 5 cards left in my deck anyways. Its too late now..sorry..."

This happens a lot against lightsworn players. Because so many of their cards mill, its easy to forget one end phase here and there. Most of the time the opponent is so focused on dealing with JD that he forgets to pathetic mill effect at the end phase as well. Once again, unless there was an audience watching, this could be very hard to catch and might just blend right in...

There is a billion more ways to "soft cheat" and I just covered a couple so you guys would have a broad understanding of it. Ultimately, soft cheating is so dangerous and effective because it can rarely be caught or detected. Many times you can't tell if the person is out for blood or seriously just made an honest error. Even after calling over a judge, much can't be done if it's too far past the incident where it occured and if Player A plays dumb. The best way to soft cheat is to ask a question. Ask your opponent if he will allow you to do a move and if so, then its agreed upon.

Example X

You already normal summoned in main phase 1.
Main phase 2 comes along "I set a defense monster and end my turn k?"

If your opponent says "k" then you're good to go..

Now, here's where ethics come into view. If you're dueling in a major competition and some "free" advantage came to you, would you really deny it. If you wasted $300 on your trip to Gen Con Indy, and your opponent is really going to let you activate a costless solemn, or draw an extra card, would you really deny it and lose the duel? Right now, you might say yes, but when you're dueling on the bubble and you might qualify at your first ever SJC/Regional, your better judgment might be against you. I must admit, I use to soft cheat A LOT and even convinced me and my friends that it was part of the game. I use to tell them that if your opponent doesn't know all of their rulings and the proper procedures of the game, then it isn't your job at this major competition to educate them midgame. Take all the advantage you can get and play at THEIR skill level. If your opponent tries to summon without tribute and says that this is the way how they were taught how to duel, maybe you should agree with them and proceed to crush them with your hopeless dragon deck, free of tributes for that duel. Does anyone remember those old days where you could draw til you had 5 cards in your hand every endphase? Can anyone say "Exodia!"

However, a lot of things have changed in my life since then and I no longer find it valuable to soft cheat. I admit, because I do know a lot of card rulings, I don't always want to act like I know the proper ruling(s) when I can get away with a more beneficial one, but even that has started to change. I have come to respect myself and my team mates a lot more for winning the old fashion way by plain skill. So my question for you fellow pojoers,

To Cheat or not to cheat? That is the question.

Until next time,
Cloudstrife 189
"Tray Massengale"