Matching Top Tier: Thinking During the Duel

Hey everyone! It’s Ed here back again with another article, not a Deck Fix yet, but a different type of article that is meant for all of you, whether you are a veteran at the game or just a new player trying to master the game. To start off my article, I’d like to talk about the importance of your playing style. I know that I help out with Deck Fixes and by giving advice about the structure of someone’s deck, but a deck is useless without the owner knowing what he/she is doing. For example, if a person that was just starting out in the game is playing a Dark Armed Dragon Return deck, he/she would have to know his/her deck inside out and understand when to activate certain cards. That person would most likely not get the results that they expected with the deck, even though someone else won a SJC with the same exact deck.

Many players believe that, whenever they lose when playtesting, the reason for their loss was that their deck isn’t perfect. Well, players can easily lose by making careless mistakes that the player and his/her opponent might not even notice. There are many common misplays that numerous players carry out subconsciously, and I’d like first to point out that you have to constantly keep focusing on the opponent and the reasons for every action that they take. As a competitive duelist, you must constantly keep track of the following: the order in which the opponent activates/sets cards, their reaction to plays/draws, their experience, and what they’re thinking.

The order in which the opponent activates/sets cards

The order that the opponent activates or sets certain cards can be crucial to the way you can interpret the duel. There are many things about the order that the opponent activates/sets cards that can tell you about the player, what they’re thinking, and what cards they are holding. Usually, players set cards without considering what the opponent may be thinking, which is a great flaw in most players’ way of thinking. The order in which spell and traps are set can tell a lot to the other player, like how dangerous the cards that were set are. About 80% of the time, a card that is set second is less threatening than a card that is set first, which is the reason that many duelists prefer to drop all the cards they wish to set all at the same time so the opponent can’t use this method of interpretation.

Once, when I was dueling at a local tournament, my opponent was cornered, but he still had a couple more cards in hand than I did. He set three cards facedown and ended his turn, telling me that the first two cards were most likely the most dangerous. Considering his experience (1-2 years without any regional shows), I figured that his first card was a threat and his last two cards were bluffs. This hypothesis was also supported by the fact that those three cards were the last of his hand. The fact that my opponent didn’t set those cards in the previous turns also told me that the possibility of two of his set cards were Spells that couldn’t stop me from attacking for game. During his end phase, I activated my Dust Tornado on the first facedown that he set, and it was a Mirror Force.

The above scenario was a somewhat uncommon event, but when things like this happen, a player has to think about why his/her opponent did what they did rather than just immediately assuming that the three set cards were potentially dangerous Trap Cards. Another thing in the last scenario is the fact that my opponent set all the cards in his hand. If this happens, you have to almost always consider the opponent’s experience, but I’ll get to that a bit later. Based on their experience, you can conclude that they have many Traps, are bluffing, or have a card that would benefit from having no cards in their hand such as Fire Darts or Morphing Jar.

Their reaction to plays/draws

Your opponent’s reaction to the plays or draws that you make play a pretty big role in pretty much any card game, whether it be a Trading Card Game or not. Keeping a straight face in the game of Yu-gi-oh is very important when playing at a large or important tournament. Giving away the fact that you got a good draw or a dead draw is almost just like telling your opponent the cards in your hand, which is never good. When playing against another duelist, you have to once again think about their experience, and I’ll cover that more in detail later. Their reactions can tell you a lot about their hand or just any card that they see.

An important thing to remember in any duel is to constantly keep an eye on your opponent’s facial expression, even during your turn. When you activate certain cards that can completely alter your opponent’s chances of winning the duel, the opponent is bound to show some sign of disappointment or happiness, whether it is for a split second or a couple moments. However, just focusing on his/her face isn’t enough; you must comprehend every possible thought would be going through the opponent’s brain from the reaction shown in their actions, spoken words, or facial expressions.

For example, when you activate Royal Oppression during your opponent’s Draw Phase and your opponent’s eyes widen for a split second and he/she attempts to hide it like nothing happened, you can not only make a pretty close guess about his/her experience, but you can also make a mental list of all the possible deck types that the opponent could be running. In this case, the possible competitive decks that the opponent could be playing would include Dark Armed Dragon Return, Diamond Dude Turbo, Dark Return without DAD, Priestess OTK, and Gladiator Beasts. With this information, you can adjust your play style accordingly.

Their Experience

Another HUGE factor that any player absolutely must pay attention to, the experience of an opponent is something that has to be thought about so that it can be easier to predict what the opponent is thinking. Their experience not only tells us this, but it can also help us better guess what they're going to do next. That's really all I can say about it, but I'll give you guys some examples.

Picture this scenario:

Jan is playing against Tony, and they've just begun the first duel of the match at a Shonen Jump Championship Tournament. Tony begins by setting four spell and trap cards facedown and setting one monster in facedown attack position, saying "I set all these Spell and Traps. Then, I'll summon this card facedown. Go."

From this scenario, we can already so easily infer that Tony is rather new to the game, and Jan, being a more experienced duelist, can predict that all of those Spell/Trap cards that were set are either potentially dangerous Trap Cards or a mix of Traps and Spells. The problem with facing a novice player is that you can never predict their back row just by understanding their experience. However, after one of those cards is activated, the task should become much easier.

Picture this scenario:

Tracy is playing against Jim, and they've just begun the first duel of the match at a Shonen Jump Championship Tournament. Jim begins by setting two Spell or Trap cards at the same time and setting one card in facedown defense position. "Go ahead" said Jim as he kept a poker face.

In this second scenario, it's a great deal harder for Tracy to predict Jim's past Yu-gi-oh TCG experience, simply because Jim didn't show any facial expressions, not even after he drew his hand. Setting the two Spell or Trap Cards on the field was another move that showed he was rather experienced, and that play prevented Tracy to predict what those two facedown cards were. Basically, the experience of the opponent ties in to every other element of the game I did and am going to talk about in this article. Be sure to incorporate this concept into your everyday duels.

What they're thinking

This is basically common sense, seeing that many people, even novice players, always try to interpret what the other player is thinking. The last couple of concepts were all to find out what the opponent is thinking, but this section is to talk about why it is important to figure out what the opponent is thinking. To explain this, I'll talk about dueling someone you've dueled many times before that you're familiar with. When Team Members duel each other in tournaments, people almost always say that because they're too familiar with each other's moves, the player with the best hands will always win. People most likely believe this as a fact since Team Members always help each other out before tournaments with each others' decks, so they know the other player's deck inside out.

However, if one of the players keeps in mind how the other player tends to duel and what they would do in certain situations, the player can easily trap his/her Team Member and win the duel. I've seen this happen multiple times, and the Team Members that predict their opponent's thoughts always emerge victorious.

Well, that's all I wanted to talk about, Pojo.com! I hope that you guys will think about all that I said and incorporate it into your everyday duels! Remember, send all questions, feedback, article ideas, and deck fixes (REMEMBER to read my Submittal Guidelines before sending me the email) to me at lightningsaphira94@gmail.com.

Have Fun and Play Fair!

Ed