A Look at Typical Situations of Play

Some common plays and situations in Yugioh mean the difference between winning and losing. In specific positions you should automatically make plays in order to advance your position and stay in the game. The situation may cost you advantage or put you into an undesirable scenario, but by not making such decisions you are admitting defeat if you realize it or not. This article attempts to address these situations (In brief).

The Best Play vs. the Ideal Outcome.

It is common knowledge that when facing a back row of three cards, odds are your summon will be stopped or destroyed. This deters most players from summoning a monster, regardless of the situation and stall in order to bait out an answer. Having an answer is more than common in Yugioh, especially now. Starlight Road is the perfect example. Many players, including myself, say you should not drop the Heavy Storm unless you have an answer to Starlight Road. This is a solid path of thinking, but in application is more than false.

Past formats saw Heavy Storm as a staple which was amazing advantage. Simple ‘+’s’ in terms of what the card did for you. Now the card has more of a reward versus risk persona. If they card is worth Stardust popping up, should you play it. Is the Storm worth the negative from resources wasted to stop Stardust? This leads most mediocre players, which I am most often a person who falls into this category, to wait for an answer before making a push. But in Yugioh you do not often have such an ideal answer. Going back to my back row of three in the first line of this section, let’s presume you have an opening hand of all monsters. Facing a Quickdraw deck. None of your monsters can trample or get out alive from any face down the deck runs, but, you must normal summon as your normal summons are the games finite variable. By not summoning you stall your game position.

This is the best play you can make. But it will not lead to the ideal outcome versus the given opponent. Playing heavy on three back rows when you have one monster live and must press is not the ideal play versus a Gadget deck, but it is the best play you can make. In Yugioh, you build your strategy around an Ideal outcome, but unless we are in a format where the opponent has no cards that disrupt your play and you play a pure aggression deck, your ideal outcome is always in void. Strategy is centered around getting into an Ideal Outcome. As example, I use Infernity. They stride to spam enough Synchro monsters in a given turn to OTK. But in this format, Consecrated Light, Royal Oppression, Thunder King Rai-Oh, D.D. Crow and so much more deters this. Any players can work towards an ideal outcome, but most often it comes down to the best play you can make.

The best play is not about an answer to a given situation, but it is about making the best play that advances your position. Even if deters your win condition or goal, you must make the decision to break even in terms of position so you can top deck your way out of an undesirable situation or game phase.

Abusing Game Condition at the cost of Game Position.

Earlier this format I went to a Regional using Light Undead, an OCG Light Zombie deck which abused Honest and Recruiters. I was sitting (If I can recall off the top of my head) 4 – 2. After facing a few very undesirable matches for Anti-Meta and the undefined Meta at the time, I needed to win this round to have a shot at topping. Game one I lost against a Monarch-Zombie deck which top decked Caius off of his own recurring Pyramid Turtle. He compounded his advantage when he made it in order to advance his game position. His progression forced me to set my own Pyramid Turtles and Goblin Zombies quite often. He was a very good player best illustrated by compounding advantage into a game state condition rather than hand advantage.

What I did won me game two and eventually three. Game two I sided what I could to stop him in another near Mirror Match, but I also decided to not set a single card. His goal was to back me into a corner, and hit me where it hurt, putting an Anti-Meta deck into a top decking war. I summoned each Pyramid Turtle, Goblin Zombie, and Goku – En in attack position, regardless of game situation, abusing my cards high utility and sacrificing life points, or my game position, in order to stop him from eliminating my options. Doing this derailed his strategy completely. He side decked into two Nobleman of Crossout, both of which he drew into early.

The two Nobleman simply were dead cards, and also was the outcome of changing how I used the cards in my own deck. This is a typical situation in Yugioh. The best play appears to be protecting your life points and getting advantage off of your recruiters, but at the cost of a few life points you can effectively force your opponent to redo his strategy. Now, this is not effective in any fast Meta, but even in a faster format, it does work in the mirror. When you will win by being a better player than your opponent, advancing your strategy at the cost of current game position may prove useful.

This is advancing the condition of your play at the cost of your position. The condition of play is how well your win condition still holds up, or is viable. If your sole win condition is Judgment Dragon, and you milled both with your LS monsters, you can’t reach your win condition. You need to progress your condition of play at times at the cost of life points or advantage when your options are slim. The question is not if this strategy is needed, it is when. If you wait until you are out of options your opponent will be ready, or should, when you do have the options to do so. So you should be progressing your condition and your position at the same time. Players did this in the past by setting searchers and protection. Sangan and Torrential Tribute. This protects your position in the game and also pushes your win condition.

Final Thoughts.

This was brief article as I am on the fly with YCS Chicago. As an advanced player, you need to know when to sacrifice your game position at sake of strategy, and vice versa. When you are top decking, you do not have the same level of ability to progress your field and game position. It will be a very challenging decision to make, but is one which must be made.