To outsiders, YuGiOh may look like a game played by little kids with little strategy:  We’ve had a 12 year old kid as a former US champion after all. To anyone who plays it, we all know it is nothing like top trumps and it is definitely not designed purely for kids! A bit like chess, YGO is easy to pick up and very difficult to master.  It’s learning the YGO strategies and developing them that makes a good player.  The basic rules are fairly long and take a while to get, and you will need about 10 tournaments before you would have a good idea of what you can and can not do. But, it is still easy enough for you to get started after watching a few games.

So what makes the difference between a mediocre player and championship winning one?  Do they know some strategies others don’t?  Is it because they are lucky in terms of drawing the right cards? Is it because they are rich so they have all the really rare cards? Or is it because they are really just THAT good?

To be honest, it is all of the above. At national level, you would need the ‘best’ cards. I don’t care who you are, you will not win a national with a starter deck! In mirror matches, or even bad matches (as in their deck was built to counter yours), a bit of luck could take you a long way. But lets face it, if you play something like 12 matches before the final, that’s up to 36 games, you luck would even out! So the simple truth is, to get to the top, you HAVE to be a good player too.

So what makes a player good? First, you need to know your deck well and know exactly what the good combos are and the chance of getting it. You have an Allure of Darkness in your hand, and a Dark Armed Dragon, should you play it? What would affect that decision?

Second, and this is overlooked by most, is knowing your enemy, and be able to side deck against them efficiently. You should have prepared exact side deck strategies against all deck types that are bad matches for you. You need to know what to take out as well as what to put in. So having decided on what’s in your side deck, you still need to think what you should take out when play against various opponents. 15 cards out of 40 is significant!

Third, the ability to read your opponent’s field and hand, and be able to work out if certain play can be ‘game breaking’ and learn to avoid letting them do that. For example, if you have two monsters out, they have a Spirit Reaper, you have a Caius in hand, should you play it? What should you be thinking about? Over committing is often punished by Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Lightning Vortex or even Needle Ceiling!

Fourth, the ability to plan for the future. Unless you are certain you can win this turn, you should always leave a few ‘aces’ up your sleeve. You have one monster out, they have nothing, you have a monster reborn and a dead Monarch, should you play it? What if they Gorz you? Would you have been better off saving that reborn so you can do a synchro later?

Fifth, the ability to adapt your playing style when played against different decks. Playing against Gladiator Beast needs an entirely different mind set for example. You need to practice and figure out when to go on the offensive and when to hold back. Against a control player, you may not want to keep a Health Hand and save up on ‘options’ for later, you could lose it all to a Morphing Jar! Against a Gladiator Beast player, you may want to be more aggressive and not set any bluffs etc. All these only come with experience, and so play testing is a must.

Do you want to learn more YuGiOh! strategies, play testing and examples on decisions making? Go check out www.yugioh-guide.com