• Pojo Home Page
  
• Message Board
  
• Contact Staff
  

Cloudstrife 189 on Yugioh
The secret to dueling: Its not the Deck...
October 23, 2009

If you ever met me in real life, then you know that I tend to speak about one thing and one thing only: The importance of player, not the deck.

Welcome to my next article, The secret to dueling: It’s not the Deck…

This article will repeat a lot of the ideas that I wrote in my first article, The secret to dueling: A Direct Correlation. This is because I feel like a lot of people still don’t fully understand the significance of this concept. Let me break it down in laymen’s terms:

I believe that the player, ultimately, decides the outcome of the duel. How he chooses to control that outcome (via the deck), is up to him. Now, sometimes, there is a better way for him to control this outcome via A Direct Correlation. Through this concept, I emphasized the fact that a player can best do this through a proper alignment of his deck with their playstyle.
When a player wins a duel, I want them to be able to say that “I won” as opposed to “My deck won.” Just imagine playing a tennis game and saying that the only reason you beat Federer is because of your racquet. It would suck. It takes away from the personalization of your victory. I always hated playing with a Lightsworn deck because people always made me feel bad afterwards by saying comments like “You’re deck is cheap” or “Anyone can win with LS.” So now I play with a deck where my skill shines through on all fronts. I know that I didn’t have to change decks to please these duelists; however, I like people to see my skill and expertise of the game through complex combos and procedures and felt like a Lightsworn deck wasn’t doing me justice.

Right now, I tend to receive constant Emails/Pm’s/Phone Calls/IM’s/etc about people asking me to review their deck and ask for deck advice. Each and every one of them initially hates my advice. I always tell them the exact same thing. I ask them to spend less time trying to make their deck “perfect” and spend more time working on themselves as a duelist. I tell them, that when I duel, I don’t see my deck as a weapon. I am the weapon. By removing my deck from me, you are not handicapping me in any way, shape or form. Regardless of the deck that I play, I know that my superior knowledge of this game will ultimately unlock a lot of the deck’s potential. If I could get a “Direct Correlation” with that deck, it would unlock the rest. People like to try and prove me wrong and ask me to switch decks with them and I tend to still obliterate them. This is because I have invested so much time into this game that I understand how to unlock almost every deck’s maximum potential. This is because I have experienced so many different players, decks, and playstyles that a lot of the “complex” plays aren’t that complex for me anymore. I’m sure that a lot of other advance/elite duelists could do the same and pick up a random “Skull Servant” deck and figure out the strongest combos/plays pretty fast and play it quite effectively as well.

There are secrets to YGO that can only be gained through experience, whether that be the average strong opening of the “T-set (f/d monster f/d spell/trap)” or concept of “Field Equilibrium (not investing more cards to the field then your opponent).” Figuring out all of these “secrets” is a lot more important than figuring out whether to main deck 1 or 2 “D.D. Crows” in your BlackWing deck. Now, I must be honest, deck construction is a huge thing in YGO, but only at the very end. Once you have maximized YOUR potential, then, and only then should you start working on maximizing your deck’s potential through concepts like synergy and “hidden advantage” to better suit your correlation. I find it a more productive use of your time to spend hours reading Tournament reports and articles like this than it is to go back and forth swapping cards in/out your main deck all night. Just try get to a skill level where regardless of the card that you play, you will play it to the best of its ability.

I see a lot of players that don’t even understand the concepts of Priority or Missing the Timing and they ask me to make them better by fixing their deck. I say “sure” and toss them a rulebook. They read and then ask if we’re ready to fix their deck. I toss them the advance rulebook. They sigh and read it and they ask again. I sarcastically say “sure” and start pounding them with intense questions like:

Do you know every card in your deck?
Why do you play this card?
What deck(s) is your deck best against?
What is your worst matchup?
How would you handle a mid to late game Judgement Dragon?
Is your deck a responsive deck or an Aggressive deck?
Because there is an increase play of “Skill Drain”, how does this card interact with it?
How do you picture yourself winning the duel?
Etc…

By about the third or fourth question, they say “forget it” and ask somebody else. However, that just tells me that they don’t seriously want to get better. This tells me that all they want to do is play with a deck that anyone off the street can play with. I ask these questions because I’m trying to get them to understand that their deck is an extension of themselves. How I make a deck for “A” is not the same how I would make it for “B”, especially if “A” and “B” are on two different skill levels. Building a deck is no easy feat and should not be handled lightly. Now, I’m sure that I could just netdeck some Lightsworn deck and hand them the deck list and that would make them initially happy. I could tell them to just understand the Damage Step and don’t worry about missing the timing because none of your cards can. However, think about it. They didn’t go through all the trials and tribulations to understand why people chose to play with such cards. Only through trial and error can people truly learn. By trying to have them cut all the steps to get to the finish line, they may be good temporarily, but when a new race begins, they’re further behind than ever before. But if you were to drill into their heads a few concepts stated above (T-set, Field Equilibrium, Priority, etc), then if they ever had to change decks again, they would instantly be able to make strong plays and tell the deck’s potential instantly.

To conclude things, I want to restate my high belief in IT’S NOT THE DECK, ITS THE PLAYER! Yes, some beginner with a strong deck may beat you from time to time, however, if you can see that he doesn’t understand some things, exploit them and use them against them.

“I summon Judgement Dragon and pay 1000 LP to blow up the field.”
“Um…do you call priority..?”
“Um..priority, what’s that? Um, no, I don’ t need to…”
“Oh, okay, I’ll respond with Bottomless Traphole.”
…
Now, I’m not saying that you’ll still win that duel, but I’m sure you’ll just be that much ahead in the long run. In YGO, I find it to be more beneficial to focus on consistent victories and take the sporadic losses with a grain of salt. Just remember how pointless the car is without the driver. It’s a cool looking piece of metal, but without you, it just sits there. Like my friend Jack told me, It's bad to take the "new driver, fast car" approach to YGO. Let’s end this article with my revised version of the USMC Rifle’s Creed:

This is my deck. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My deck, without me, is useless. Without my deck, I am NOT useless….

Until next time,
Cloudstrife 189
Over and out…