Some Duelists are fond of saying that the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG takes “no skill.” If asked to expound upon that and explain their opinion, such individuals may claim one or more of the following: that luck and OTK's keep skill from really mattering; that “it's just a money game”; or my personal favorite, that “all you need to know are the right moves to make and you'll win.” As if knowing the right moves 100 percent of the time somehow didn't require any skill in the first place.
A few reasons come to mind for why people might say this game doesn't require or reward skill. I never like to generalize, so I certainly won't say that everyone who's of this opinion fits one singular mold. But in my experience, most people who claim that there's “no skill in Yu-Gi-Oh!” are either trying to look cool, or simply aren't that skilled themselves. Often both. Regardless of the Reasoning behind their opinion, I can make one definite statement: anyone who says that this game doesn't take skill is completely wrong.
There's a reason why we've seen a lot of the same faces topping big tournaments time and again for half a decade, and it's not because they have magic powers, secret cheating techniques, or a backpack full of rabbit's feet. They aren't luckier than the rest of us: they aren't more willing to break the rules, nor are they performing some sort of dark magic between rounds. Skill is what makes the difference, tempered by determination and the guts to show up to every tournament they can.
The determination and sheer guts? That's on you. But the skills? Well those, I can help with.
But Not If We Don't Know What Skill Means
Whenever the Question of skill in Yu-Gi-Oh! is broached, the conversation almost always revolves around the Question of what skills the game demands: what the 'S'-word really means. Identifying and understanding those skills is the first step towards developing them: if you don't know what you're trying to improve, you can't become a better Duelist. I think everybody could give you a different answer to the Question “what is skill,” but in these two articles I'm going to present mine: fifteen interlocking fields that you can develop to become a better competitor.
I'm going to go in-depth to describe all fifteen skills and how they interact with each other, but I'm also going to classify each one as chiefly strategic or tactical. Those are two words that get bandied about and are often used incorrectly, so if you don't know the difference, here goes: strategy is what you plan to happen. It's theoretical, and it's usually relegated to the time you spend preparing for your games. Tactics aren't theoretical: they're realistic instead, and they concern what actually happens and how you deal with it. When you build a deck, you're strategizing. When you make on-table decisions about what to do with that deck, you're making tactical choices. Recognizing the difference between the two can help you focus on the things you need to improve, because most Duelists are stronger in one of the two areas moreso than the other. Knowing which skills are strategic and which are tactical helps you decide how best to spend your time.
So let's get to it! And let's start with the basics.
Core Theory Understanding – Strategic:
If you don't know terms like card presence, simplification, utility, and synergy (or you know the words, but don't really know what they mean) it's impossible for you to consistently succeed. Sure, you may win here and there, but if you don't understand the basic building blocks for the decisions you need to make, you won't win nearly as often as you could; and you definitely won't know how to improve for the future.
Core theory concepts are all about perspective: think of them as a set of lenses that can each give you a unique way of evaluating the game. Each perspective offers a different bit of valuable information, and a particular way of observing important situations. Taken one at a time, they can each suggest contrasting conclusions to the same questions. Taken together, they form a series of comments on the divergent decisions you can make. Core theory frames how you look at the game, helping you prioritize your moves to maximize your success.
If you're unfamiliar with this stuff, or think you could benefit from a little refresher course, check out my previous writings on these topics right here at TCGplayer:
Core Theory I: Utility
Core Theory II: Card Economy
Core Theory III: Simplification
There's further information on core theory elsewhere in my writings, but the first three are enough for a solid start. If you don't know this material inside out, I'd implore you to stop reading this article and go play a little catch-up before you continue here. Don't worry: I don't get paid per click, and I promise I feel appropriately awkward plugging my own work! But a strong understanding of core theory really is that important to your success: it's the first big step you need to take if you want to be a real competitor.
Metagame Knowledge – Strategic:
The second step? Well, I suppose if you're ready to start putting one foot in front of the other, then you need to learn about the world you're walking into. At any time in the Dueling universe there are near-infinite possibilities for decks that could be played. However, reality tends to refine those possibilities down to a handful of decks run by most competitive players, surrounded by several more decks that remain on the casual or rogue outskirts. There are possibilities, and then there are realities: metagame knowledge is concerned with the latter. When someone talks about a metagame, they mean what's actually being played in a particular place at a particular time: it could be a continent-wide region, a state or county-wide area, or just the metagame at a given store or single tournament. Regardless of scope, to understand a metagame is to understand both what is possible for you personally, and what other Duelists are actually likely to play.
In order to select the right strategy and build it accordingly, you need to know all about the deck you're constructing. You also need to know everything about the decks that you're likely to come up against. This knowledge can be built a number of ways:
-Tournament experience and playtesting is great because it gives first-hand knowledge
-Discussion with other Duelists lets you benefit from shared knowledge
-Experience and familiarity with a range of possibilities allows you to speculate and form forward-thinking theories
The more you know about the strategies you'll face, and the strategies you could play yourself, the better you'll do when selecting and building your deck. This is Dueling strategy at its most fundamental.
Matchup Knowledge – Strategic:
In addition to knowing the top decks you'll encounter and the possible decks you could run, you also need to know how those decks interact. It's not enough just to understand the individual strategies: you need to be able to compare them, and understand their strengths and weaknesses when they're pitted against eachother. Sometimes a strategy may seem strong against the majority of the decks you could encounter, but one weak matchup might be enough to make it a bad choice. At the same time, any given deck is likely to be a great choice if it has good matchups across the board. That's rare, but with enough matchup insight you can often use your side deck (or main-decked tech cards) to create just that kind of ideal situation.
Making Reads – Tactical:
Moving from those strategic skills, we can look at some of the universal tactical basics. No matter what you decide to play, and no matter what your opponent is running, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is a game of incomplete information. Chess is a game of complete information: you know where all the pieces are at all times, and you know what they all do. Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't like that: it's filled with unknowns like your opponent's in-hand cards; their face-down cards; and the cards left in their main and side decks. If you can accurately predict what cards your opponent has on the field, in their hand, and in their deck, you obviously have a tremendous advantage.
Making accurate reads requires metagame knowledge, so that you'll know which cards your opponent is likely to have in his main deck. Matchup knowledge can help you puzzle out your opponent's side deck as well. When it comes time to try and make reads about your opponent's hand and face-down cards, things become more tactical: you need to try and leverage the knowledge about your opponent's deck into more immediate information. You do that by applying deductive logic and familiarity with your opponent's play sequences, and asking yourself Questions about previous events in the Duel is often the easiest way to accomplish this.
Understanding Opponents – Tactical:
Unfortunately, most competitors' deductive logic has one flaw: it assumes that your opponent operates on the same logical basis as you. Unfortunately, making reads on your opponent isn't always as simple as figuring out what you would do in your opponent's situation: varying skill and experience levels, or simple mistakes due to exhaustion or lack of focus, can lead two Duelists to make different decisions in the same situation.
In order to make accurate reads on your opponent, you need to be able to understand not just your own logic, but theirs as well. In a previous pair of articles I took a general approach to this type of psychological analysis, breaking up the Dueling universe into three distinct “levels” of player and discussing many of their habits and motivations. It's nowhere near an exact science: every player is unique. But there are consistent patterns that you can learn to recognize and derive further information from, and those patterns can help you when you try to predict your opponent's moves. This is a deeply complicated topic, so for more information, definitely check out those articles later. For now, just remember that everyone is an individual, and that knowledge of your opponent's habits, motivations, and style can help you make accurate reads.
Math And Probability – Strategic / Tactical:
The importance of basic math and probability can't be understated. When you build a deck, you don't just run three copies of every card for your particular theme. Instead, you look at all the possibilities, build a list of priorities, and then choose the number of each card you'll run according to its importance. Probability is a big factor here, because it's invaluable to know the real mathematical difference between say, running two copies of a card, and running a full three. Questions of utility and synergy when building a deck often boil down to a very simple Question: how often do you want to see that particular card? Basics numbers can help you solve the most complicated of strategic puzzles.
On the flip side, math skills are also going to be incredibly important on a tactical level, too. When you make decisions that require you to predict your upcoming draws, you're (hopefully) going to use basic probability when you make your predictions. When you try to figure out if your opponent could have that Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute set, you'll check his graveyard, count up the cards left in his deck, and run the numbers to figure out the chance your opponent might have the trump card you fear. The decisions you make in-game shouldn't always be made strictly by math alone, but the numbers and the factual percentage chances of given scenarios are a big part of how smart Duelists make their choices. The other part? Well, that usually comes down to...
Risk Assessment – Tactical:
You can run all the numbers and figure out all the odds you want, but if you know your opponent has a 65% chance of having that killer Torrential Tribute to shut you down, the Question remains: should you take the risk? It's extremely easy to do the math and make all your decisions strictly by the numbers, but that's actually one of the biggest mistakes experienced Duelists make. Math is easy. But balancing risk versus reward, and putting those numbers into a real-life context? That's the hard part.
Risk assessment is honestly one of the toughest skills to hone, and it's one that sees little to no real discussion amongst most Duelists. Math alone can't tell you which move is the right one. You have to balance that information with further evaluations of what your opponent is likely to do in future turns, and what opportunities those turns are likely to afford you. If you have a 70% chance of screwing yourself over, with a 30% chance at game-winning success, most Duelists will hold off until the odds are more favorable. But if you can see ahead, and you know that next turn the situation's just going to get worse, you should bite your lip and take the shot then and there. That's not a simple thing for a smart person to do: it's really easy to see when you've taken a risk and gotten punished in return; it's a lot more difficult to see the situations where you could've won but didn't make the attempt.
Since you can always tell when you've played too aggressively, but can only rarely know when you didn't play aggressively enough and missed victory because of it, it's easy to fall into a cycle of overly-conservative decisions. It happens to everybody. But the true greats manage to keep things in perspective, and can tell when they should pull the trigger: even when the odds might not be in their favor. As you develop your skills it's often wise to remain conservative and play things safe the majority of the time. But understand that if you keep the issue of risk versus reward in mind, then sufficient practice will make you capable of much more in the future.
Opportunity Recognition – Tactical:
Of course, all the math and risk assessment won't do you a lick of good if you don't see the openings when they're presented. You have to be aware of what your hand and field are capable of at all times. You also need to be aware of your opponent's capabilities as well. Balance those two perspectives, pay attention at all times, and you should always be able to see the opportunities when they arise. Sometimes, just seeing a play that other Duelists might not is enough to win the game.
With eight of our fifteen skills described thus far (and plenty of recommended reading!), this seems like a good point at which to take a break. Join me again next week for Part 2, as we pick up where we left off by looking at the strategic companion to opportunity recognition – play sequence knowledge. From there we'll proceed to the skills that are relevant when the first Duel of a match is complete, and continue on to discuss post-match necessities. Thanks for reading!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
