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FanatikMonk on Yu-Gi-Oh!

Personality and Play Style:

Comfort and Deck Choice

FanatikMonk
11.10.06

            It’s been a while since my last article.  I’m really sorry about that, but I’m going to make it up to you with a mini-series on personality and how it relates to dueling.  If you haven’t notice, I have great affinity with controlling the tempo of a duel and playing within your own ability and comfort.  So, I’ll break down my next few articles in those terms.  The first one will be on comfort and deck choice, the next will be tempo and side-decking and the final one will be on winning large scale tournaments.  Hopefully, this will get us over that awkward break-up, what exactly are we, are we friends, are we more, do we have benefits thing, and get us on with our fabulous relationship.

Comfort and You!

            The very first article I wrote on Pojo was about the relationship you should have with your deck.  While I don’t believe in heart of the cards at all, you need to be able to look at your deck and really approve of and accept it.  It needs to be something that you have a sincere relationship with, that you can understand and appreciate.  It sounds lame and dorky, but you’ll often find that many players play the best with the decks that make them the happiest.  Winning aside, play style is dramatically improved through decks that you’ve built, improved and enjoyed.  I love seeing people net deck and then ask why they lose.  Just as you’ll never feel comfortable wearing a stranger’s underwear, you’ll never be comfortable playing their deck.

            Part of the difficulty with this is that comfort is defined differently for everyone.  Now, I could go on about that warm fuzzy feeling that you get all over, but it really does transcend that.  Comfort is about feeling as little pressure as possible and being able to devote as much focus as you can to your game.  Many times, that are a lot of exterior influences you can’t control; people talking, someone looking over your shoulder, your friends and teammates nearby, your record, the smell of french fries, all of it can add up to you not being entirely able to play your game the way you want/need to.  Many times, there are also things you can control and those should be among your priorities before entering any tournament.  You never want to enter with a deck you’re uncertain of, that you feel is unfinished or whose performance you don’t trust.  You, also, don’t want to enter in a tournament where you feel intimidated, under (or over) rated or insecure.  I’m sure you can all relate to some of these situations and that you can agree, that comfort is an important thing.

            So how do you combat these problems?  Well here are a few tips:

Be Personally Prepared- I’m a big fan of picking out what I’m going to wear, what I’m going to bring, packing my bag and not touching my decks the night before a tourney.  Whether it’s local or regional, I don’t want to be frazzled or feel off-set before I play.

Have A Routine- Arriving happy is great and having a routine to wake up in the morning, get pumped and set yourself in a mindset to win, is a wonderful way to start the day.  I personally wake up to my Ok Go play list and rock out for a steady 5 minutes before I get out of bed the day of a tourney.  It may sound silly, but it’s better than being tired, reluctant or tense.

Be Familiar with Where You’ll Duel- It’s never a bad idea to visit the tourney site before the tourney.  Being a little more familiar with an area can never hurt.  Meet people at a pre-registration.  Get to know some of the locals in the area, especially if you’re going alone.  Comfort is very much a function of familiarity with your environment, and being able to manipulate and improve that will help you a great deal.

            Now while all of those may seem like superfluous little things, they can, and do, add up.  Playing on a larger scale is nerve-racking, especially your first time.  Now where exactly does personality come into this?  Well, part of dueling well is understanding yourself.  That’s really vague so let me clarify.

Deck Choices and Why We Make Them

Do you ever think why you run the deck types you do?  Why some themes and strategies work better for some people than others?  Why incremental differences account to huge win-loss differentials in decks?  It all has something to do with personality.  Who you are affects how you play so much!  Allow me to magnify this by giving you all an example of the two people you know. 

            There’s the one kid in every comic book store who is “better than every one else,” has “the best book,” is “undefeated with his new idea” because he’s such a “genius.”  He’s a jerk, and no one likes him right?  Allow me to recreate his deck for you.  I guarantee it’s a classic approach on warriors or beasts with a heavy influence on monsters that have big attacks and reckless effects.  I bet his deck runs a lot of swarm (marauding captain, gigantes, recruiters, etc.) and has enough monster removal to fill a truck.  I also bet that he (or she, lets not be male normative) plays very aggressively, looking at cards that can do the most damage to your life points the quickest.  They run ceasefire, cylinder, 3 sakuretsu, 3 smashing ground and Jinzo in anything they create.  When accused of net decking, they claim that they’d never “copy someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing, even if they did win an SJC.”  Yea we all know that kid.  In my store, he was registered for two tournaments at once, and I would’ve loved to call delay of game on him, but I wanted the satisfaction of beating him (which of course “was just a fluke” when it happened because he didn’t “draw the right things”).  He is the epitome of an aggressive player.  He’ll never run soul control, because it’s too slow or Macro because it takes too long to set up.  He will run you over with beasts, monarchs, warriors and machines, without any thought or hesitation.

            I’m sure this person was always like this throughout their life prior to touching a pack of YGO cards.  Their personality chose their deck types and it shows in their dueling style.  The easiest way to beat a player like this (aside from throwing down a “gravity bind”) is to play slowly.  Not to be irritating, but as a way of standing your ground and letting them know that the tempo they want isn’t necessarily going to work for you.  I see a lot of players (especially younger ones) get upset in situations like this and start misplaying drastically.  Don’t be flustered.  Control the duel without your cards and find a pace, mindset that you’re comfortable playing in.

            I’m very much the opposite.  I don’t brag.  I don’t sulk.  I show very little emotion.  I’m short, focused and decisive.  I often try to push everything but what I’m focusing on out of my life.  I study everything about my opponent, the way they look at their cards, where their hands move when I declare certain things.  I’m very calculating and precise.  In larger tournaments, I often play with aviators on, just so that they can’t see my eyes.  It’s a defense mechanism.  I, and players like me, are just as worried we just don’t show it as often.  The form of intimidation we provide is very different from the aggressive player.  We put off an air of expertise, professionalism and confidence.  We run decks like P.A.C.M.A.N., Clown control, Stein OTK and Kuriboh.  Now all of this isn’t to create a sense of superiority (because we aren’t), but it does outline this defense pretty steadily.  I rely on the fact that my opponent will overestimate me.  Two weekends ago, I was about to lose a crucial game 3 match against a friend of mine, but I bluffed my way to victory (after he misplayed several times).  Now, even if I played the same cards that I did at the same time, but I didn’t speak or act the way I do, he would have taken the game easily.  Very much do people like us depend on this veil of untouchability.  Against a player like this, have more confidence in yourself than what they put on and play like you would against a regular player.  We’re waiting for pivotal cards just like you are, we just don’t show it.  You can be equally calculating and careful, just don’t allow yourself to be intimidated at all.

            When I came into this game, I dealt with what I had (a bunch of amazons from MFC) but I immediately connected with cards like Amazoness Spellcaster and Physical Double.  Cards that make you think and could be used at important times to really take control of a game.  While these cards were in no way game breaking during that meta (or any for that matter) they dictated the way I approached the game from that point on.  I looked for cards that could be abused and had lasting effects, cards that under reasonable conditions could do a lot of damage.  Transcendent wings, Macro Cosmos, Magical Explosion were cards that I connected with personally because they backed my personality and philosophy on dueling.

Applying Personality

            So, how does all of this help you?  Part of being comfortable while dueling, is being comfortable with your dueling.  I hate watching people play with decks that just don’t match them.  I could never take a Return based deck as far as I could a Burn deck, and in that sense, I don’t try.  Be able to predict what your opponent is running.  If they’re anxious, looking at each of their draws with blind anticipation and then being disappointed, be prepared for some kind of OTK.  If they draw and set things quickly, pass a turn and do the frustrated blow face (you know the one where you blow out steam and make the, “pfff” noise) bluff like wild, because they’ll blow anything and everything you set at the first opportunity.  The best duelists will duel freely at will.  Things will be natural (not though or effortless, mind you) and logical.  I’ve said it before, but your deck is an extension of yourself.

            Stop running decks you don’t like, because you think they’re better!  Run what you like!  Run what makes you feel good!  Be as comfortable as possible with the things you can control and ignore those that you can’t and your dueling will improve dramatically.  Hope this helped!  Happy Dueling!