Forum:The Ten Pillars of Dueling

"The Ten Pillars"
In my opinion, there are ten things each person needs to consider in order to be as good a Yu-Gi-Oh! player as they can be. While you may argue the validity of some of the pillars, I maintain that each of these are vital. If you can truly master each of the ten categories below, you are well on the way to becoming a top duelist. While you may consider some to be more important, dismissing others as inconsequential, remember that it is always the whole that is worth more than the sum of its parts.

Pillar I: Adaptability To be able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions.

You can build the best deck in the world, you can win a tournament undefeated but if you refuse to change your deck as a result, you can kiss that winning streak goodbye as a new set comes along if you don't change and adapt. I often comment to other players that I am just as happy to lose as to win as it gives me a chance to look over my deck and make crucial changes. If I couldn't take out their back row, I need more cards that deal with Spell and Trap destruction or removal. If I keep getting a dead draw, I should consider running one less copy of the card. If I run out of cards in the deck, I am drawing/milling too fast and need to slow down. If I pull three ways to reach the same card in my opening hand every time, perhaps I am devoting too much in my deck to pulling out that card.

Pillar II: Advantage To be in a superior or advantageous position; possess an advantage over.

Most people are probably familiar with this concept by now. When I refer to advantage, I am talking about cards being +1s, -1s, +2s, 0s, etc. This manifests in several sub-categories - Hand Advantage (Having more cards to hand, How much you can Draw), Field Advantage (Maintaining a strong field presence) and Implied Advantage (Mirror Force can be anything from a 0 to a +4 depending how many monsters you can take out with it). For example, Destiny Draw is a 0 because you discard it and a monster to draw two more cards, but if you discard Malicious you can set yourself up for a +1 later when you summon it, as well as thinning your deck and increasing the probability that what you draw may be just what you need.

Pillar III: Consistency Reliability or uniformity of successive results or events.

If your deck is designed to achieve a particular goal (such as Burn, Deck Out, One-Turn-Kill, Exodia), it needs to do this reliably, swiftly and efficiently every time you play the deck. The longer you take to set up your win condition, the more time you are giving your opponent to set up theirs. Any card that does not contribute to your win condition in one way or another does not belong in your deck. If you plan to deplete their hand, Dark Bribe may not be the best Counter-Trap to run. If you wish to clear their monster zones and lock them down with Cold Wave, you may want to stay away from Ojama Trio. If you are trying to thin your deck to reach a certain card, Pot of Avarice isn't necessarily the card you want to Draw with.

Pillar IV: Experience Knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone.

It doesn't matter how many times you've tested a deck on paper, you can work out all the mathematics and probabilities, nothing is a substitute for good experience. The more times you play with a deck against various different opponents, the more you will learn. "Not just how to use a card, but how to play a card" to paraphrase the anime. Everyone knows how to use Solemn Judgment, it's easy enough to flip the trap, pay half your life points and negate a card. It's knowing when to play it at just the right moment that separates a good duelist from a bad one. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. It's also just as rewarding to learn from your mistakes and failures as well as your successes.

Pillar V: Knowledge Acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation.

While experience is handy, it also helps to know what you're doing on a higher level. You might know that you can't activate Royal Oppression in the damage step or to stop someone Synchro Summoning with Vayu, but if you know why you can't stop those examples then even better. Priority, Spell Speeds, the Seven Substeps of the Damage Step - all knowledge that can be used against your opponent if you learn it well. Knowing what rulings affect what you can do or can't do with your own cards is also handy knowledge to take with you to a duel.

Pillar VI: Luck Good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance.

I will stake money on the odds many of you have just looked at this Pillar and mocked it. Whether you feel this pillar is applicable or not, every one of you relies on luck in your duels. Luck, or to give it another name: Chance, plays a large part in every duel and in my opinion goes hand-in hand with Skill. Every time you draw a card, are you not relying on a mathematical chance that said card will be exactly what you want and testing your luck? Is not the point of deck thinning to increase the chance that you will draw what you need? You may not rely on luck to win your duels and indeed you shouldn't, but it still plays a part in your success whether you choose to admit it or not.

Pillar VII: Power Great or marked ability to do or act; strength; might; force.

Xander: Figuring out how to control your magic seems a lot like hammering a nail. Well, hear me out. So you're hammering, right? If you hold the end of the hammer, you have the power, but no control. It takes, like, two strokes to hit the nail in. Or you could hit your thumb. Willow: Ouch. Xander: So you choke up. Control, but no power. You could take, like, ten strokes to knock the nail in. Power, control. It's a trade-off. [Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7, Episode 4 - Help.]

The above quote says everything I believe about "Power" when it comes to your deck. I could build a deck solely on the Limited and Semi-Limited cards in the game and get off an amazing move or combo every few turns or alternatively I could control my deck as precisely as possible with search and draw cards, but if I can not match the force that my opponent is coming at me with, I'm not going to win either way. Use as much power as you can safely control. Having said that there are some powerful cards that you will want to use is almost every deck, which are commonly known as staples. Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute and Heavy Storm to name three.

Pillar VIII: Skill Proficiency that is acquired or developed through knowledge or experience.

You know what your cards can do, you can play them not use them, and you know that by thinning the deck and using searchers you can affect the probability of getting cards into your hand. The trick to showing that you have skill is knowing what to do with those cards once you have them. If you can look at a hand of six cards and see not just single moves but combinations there, then know that you need this from your deck to pull off another combo and also think two moves ahead and anticipate what your opponent might do, then you are on the path to developing true skill in the game. I used to love the Duel Puzzles in the games because they were a brilliant test of this pillar; being thrown into an awkward situation and finding the solution to turn the duel around is what skill is all about.

Pillar IX: Synergy Combined action or functioning that creates an enhanced effect.

Use Reinforcement of the Army, get Elemental Hero Stratos, summon Stratos, add Destiny Hero Malicious to your hand, play Destiny Draw discarding Malicious to draw two cards, activate Emergency Teleport to summon Krebons, remove Malicious from play to summon a second Malicious, Synchro Summon, play Foolish Burial, send Plaguespreader Zombie to the Graveyard, revive Malicious with Call of the Haunted, resummon Plaguespreader from the Graveyard, Synchro Summon again...

This is Synergy in its purest form. If you can write down names of cards in your deck, and draw lines between ones of that work together until you start forming a chain or even better, a web on the page, then your deck is showing signs of synergy. The more cards you play that work with other cards in your deck, the better the synergy you have, and the more likely you are to produce consistency and tip the probability of drawing something useful in your favor.

Pillar X: Versatility Having varied uses or serving many functions.

The final pillar, and the hardest to get right without crippling Consistency, Power and Synergy in the process. Gladiator Beasts are the very definition of versatility, being able to rely on a multitude of effects thanks to any one monster being able to tag out nearly all the others. In this game, it is best to have a range of effects, spells and traps to cover a vast variety of possibilities. This is why practice and play testing are so important; to find situations your deck struggles to win against against, so that you may fortify your weaknesses or adapt to avoid them altogether. Look through the archetypes being played in the metagame. Use your side deck to store cards that could save you from a second defeat if you rematch against these decks. This is the area that Synchros were made for, as most decks will be able to find a Tuner that naturally fits, and thus the Extra Deck becomes a secret arsenal waiting to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting foe.

AeonThePhoenix 13:15, November 7, 2009 (UTC)