I figured that this time, instead of just slapping a deck list out, I'd talk about playing techniques. That is, I want to talk about making the right moves and such. This is a long article so I'll put headings to break the article about to make it more readable.

Introduction:

People dislike to lose. Some people more so than others. Have you ever seen a person who yells at this cards when he loses? "Why didn't you come when I needed you!", yells the angry duelist. If you haven't see one of these players, I'd suggest trying to meet one. It's a hilarious experience. Many of these players are blind to their own misplays, or they overrate their deck and playing skills. They blame their lost on luck, even when they consistently lose. It's not luck, it's either bad deck, bad playing or both. This article discusses bad playing and how not to do it.

Really Bad Obvious Misplays

I'm not going to talk much about obvious misplay. For example, I've seen a player starring down an opponent with 500 LP with 4 Sheep tokens and no backfield. He has Hydrogeddon on the field and an Enemy Controller in hand. He does this: attack Sheep token with Hydrogeddon and sets Enemy Controller. Now if you don't see what's wrong with that play, I'd suggest reading this paragraph again, focusing on 400 LP, no backfield and Enemy Controller's position changing effect.

If you know or at least think you're making these bad plays, have an experienced player watch you play and point out your mistakes. Eventually, these misplays will stop happening. Just for your entertainment, here's a misplay I've recently encountered:

Player A has face up Il Blud and a Ryu Kokki revived via Il Blud, no backfield and 1 card in hand which he did not play last turn. All he did was use Book of Life on Il Blud, normal summon Il Blud and special summon Ryu Kokki.

Player B has a Treeborn Frog, no backfield and 2 Monarchs, Raiza Zaborg, in hand amongst other useless cards in hand. It is Player B's main phase. If you were Player B, what would you do? Answer before continuing on.

So what should you do? The best play here is to summon Raiza, bouncing Il Blud to the top of the deck destroying Ryu Kokki in the process and attacking for 2400 damage. Since Player A did not play the card in hand last turn, it's quite probable that card is useless in the situation, like Creature Swap. That'll provide a high chance for another direct attack next turn.

Another option was to play Zaborg to destroy Il Blud. This is a less optimal play in my opinion because it gives the chance for Player A to draw something that will save him. It could be argued that if the Player A drew a monster and set it, Player B could following up next turn with Zaborg to inflict more damage than the previous scenario.

The worst moves to make are to summon Raiza or Zaborg and target Ryu Kokki with their effects. These play reduces the amount of damage your opponent will take with no significant chance in result. The player I witness summoned Zaborg targeting Ryu Kokki. A horrible misplay.

A Harder Play

But these plays are rather easy to spot. I want to go over a type of play that is much harder to make

Player A is playing Macro Cosmos beat down and has 2 Banisher of Radiance on the field with 1 cards in hand. He has nothing else on the field and has 1300 LP remaining.

Player B on the other hand is playing a unique Dragon Burn hybrid. Its strategy is to get some Dragons out for quick beats then burn the rest of the LP away with cards like Secret Barrel, Just Desserts and Magic Cylinder. Right now, Player B has Twin Headed - Behemoth on the field and Dragon's Gunfire in hand. Player B has used both Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute. Player B has 3500 LP remaining. It's Player B's main phase 1. If you were player B, what should you do?

Many people will say play Dragon's Gunfire to destroy a Banisher of Radiance and shift Twin-Headed Behemoth into defense mode to last the turn. However, this is not the optimal play. The optimal play is simply to burn the opponent with Dragon's Gunfire and defend with Twin-Headed Behemoth. Why? Here's why:

If you do the first play, your opponent will end up with a Banisher of Radiance on the field with 2 other cards and you would have nothing on the field. Let's say he drew another monster, like D.D. Survivor. He could summon him and attack, reducing you to 1700 LP and you essentially have to top deck something to save yourself.

The second play leaves you with nothing on the field and at most 1900 LP. If your opponent drew a monster like D.D. Survivor, you would drop down to 100 LP and have 1 turn to save yourself.

The difference here is that the second play leaves your opponent with 500 LP. As said earlier, you've got stuff like Just Desserts and Secret Barrel. Any burn card will essentially win the game. In the first play, let's say your your opponent has drawn a D.D. Survivor. He has 1300 LP and 2 monsters on the field. Neither Just Desserts, Secret Barrel nor any other burn card will save you. The first play only delays in the inevitable whereas the second play gives a chance of victory. If the opponent instead drew a dead card, the analysis still applies: the first option gives little chance of winning (probably only Magic Cylinder will save you) whereas the second option gives considerably higher chance.

There is a third play in this scenario, which is to simply set Dragon's Gunfire as a bluff. This probably won't work very well since Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute are gone and there's a big incentive for Player A to attack. The incentive, by the way, is a game win if it wasn't obvious already.

Questions to Ask Before Each Play

That would have been a difficult play for many players and players who chose the first, less optimal play can never realize what went wrong. If you're in a difficult situation, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there any card(s) that will save me?
2. How should I play so that I can maximize the chances of me drawing those cards?
3. How should I play so that if I do draw one of those cards, it will have the greatest effect?

In the earlier scenario, the answer to question 1 is yes. Any burn card will save you.

The answer to question 2 is to burn the opponent instead of destroying Banisher of Radiance. In both plays, you get 1 turn to draw the card you need, but in the second play, you've increased the number of cards that you can draw to save you (any burn card instead of just Magic Cylinder). That increases the chance of drawing a life saving card.

The answer to number 3 is that both plays have the same effect if you do draw the life saving card (both plays win the game when the correct card is drawn).

Knowing Your Decks and Rulings

The analysis is much harder when you are unfamiliar with the deck the opponent is playing. It's hard to figure out the worst case scenario without knowledge of the opponent's deck. This is why play-testing and information gathering is important. These actions will increase your knowledge of various deck types and improve overall playing skills. It also helps to see the moves the player of the deck types usually make.

Lastly, learning the correct rulings will prevent you from performing misplays. Here's an incident I've seen. The Six Samurai - Zanji attacks a Mystic Tomato when the attacker controls a Six Samurai - Yaichi. The owner of Mystic Tomato did not search for another monster. Why? It is because he thought that Zanji's effect destroys it instead of by battle. Another example is in the last format when a player controlled 2 Card Trooper. His opponent asked what it did and the Card Trooper owner said it gets 500 ATK boost for each card milled off the deck. He then proceeds to send 6 cards from the top of the deck to the graveyard (3 for each Card Trooper). The opponent now thinks each Card Trooper is 3400 ATK (400 + 6 * 500) and destroys his 2 Gravekeeper's Spies. As we can see, not knowing the rules makes you lose. The Card Trooper example seems far fetched, but it seriously did happen, and at a Regionals tournament too.

Conclusion

I hope this has inspired you readers to study your own plays and optimize them. Random bad hands do occur, but a large portion of games are loss because of rotten plays instead of rotten luck.