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Dark Maltos's Dueling Dome
Increase your dueling technique in 7 steps (pt 2)
The Hand
June 27, 2006

Ok, so we’ve tackled the deck, and we’ve realized that familiarity with your deck is a definite key to success. The next area of game play I wish to devote my attention to is one that has been deemed above all else the most essential thing in the entire game. : Use you hand.

The hand, since the very beginning of the game has been considered the most vital tool in a duelists arsenal. It is the measure of a duelists resources, and even more so than the deck, it provides the means of dealing with opposing threats. They way a duelist wields their hand shows a lot of what they are like as a person, and is a sign of their strategy on the whole.

The hand has been the target of a duelists assaults for quite a long time now. As soon as it was realized that without a hand the duelist can’t do anything people seized the idea and incorporated it into many winning strategies. Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper’s popularity soared.

Currently, most duelists play conservatively , keeping hold of as many cards in their hand for as long as possible, waiting for the opponent to ‘over extend’ , and then pounce. A sizable hand for these duelist seems the norm, and normally between these type of duelist, the one with the current ‘upper hand’ will inevitably become the final victor. The hand is conserved and protected , as to reserve as many resources as possible for their most beneficial use.

The problem with this technique is that generally duelists fear playing excesses of cards at a single time , which eventually could be their downfall.

The alternative to this strategy is too ‘over extend’ and play everything at once in an enormous bombardment of Yugioh fury. This technique is generally frowned upon by most duelist, but more often than not can completely turn the tempo of a duel in the users favor.

The downsides to this tactic are normally a lot more drastic. These duelists often find that no matter how successful their assault was, the opponent is now poised and ready to take care of what just happened and clean up. With the depletion of resources, often they find it difficult to bounce back, and regularly get overwhelmed.

Both these strategies have their positives and their negatives, things that are great, and things that can hold them back. In order to completely master the duel you must find the correct balance between conservation and extension , and it’s a fine line between the two.

In order to find the balance you must first avoid the opposite extremes;

-Never completely restrict yourself to only playing one card per turn
-Never completely blow out all your resources unless you think that you will either win the game as a result, or that you balance the card for card trade off.

Somewhere between the two of these lies the perfect balance. To find it you need to follow these guidelines :

Generally, for every card you play you should hope to receive either a replacement card, or a card off the opponent. If not, you should at least activate an effect that can prevent the use of opposing strategies, such as Swords of Revealing light or Jinzo. Cards that prevent the opponent from using their advantage are just as worthy as those that swing it in your favor.

Using a few cards in your turn is fine, just make sure that before you do, you have an alternative strategy as a back up plan if things don’t go they way you expected them to, as inevitably they won’t. A back up strategy is a good sign of a duelists potential. A solid duelist will always have a safety net.

If you go for a mini blow-out strategy, such as when using Magical Dimension for a Dark Magician, and it fails, don’t try to compensate by using many other cards that formed your alternative strategy. It will almost definitely be a massive over extension which may or may not scrape you through the turn, but will almost certainly desecrate your back up plan. The risk of your main focus is not worth the sacrifice of your safety net.

Follow your instincts. Countless times human instinct has proven science and maths wrong. The main focus of these instincts is to survive , and you should lets that one be the big voice yelling at you to attack in your head. If you feel unsure about something, wait. If you feel strongly about something, act upon it.


The hand is something that should be protected. Its something that allows you to make your moves in any deck , and any game. Without it, you are powerless, with it you can be incredible, just as long as you use it wisely and somewhat cautiously. Just remember not to use it too cautiously, otherwise you might as well not have one at all.

Well , I guess that’s it for me today guys. I’ve ran out of things to say. I hope it helps, and as always you can contact me at

Toddyhole@aol.com.

Have a good one guys.