First topic message reminder :
Hello, folks. My name is Jin Kazama and I am going to tell you all a little story about something that you don't experience in a computer duel: confidence.
When duelists are at their best, they feel like they can take on anyone, with any deck, no matter the circumstances. When duelists are at their worst, it doesn't matter what deck they use, they will still lose.
Perhaps the most important thing is that in this game, we are always learning. For the past two months, I've learned by trial and error. Mostly errors, I try one trial and fail.
For the past two months I have been spiralling downwards in my play. It's the worst I've played since prior to 2008 when I topped a Regionals. Let me set up the scene.
Using Gemini Stun I ended up 4-2 (10th) at a 6-round Regionals (58 players) that, had they made it to 65, would have had 7 rounds. I had opened the day at table 29 and at round 3 was sitting at table 1. I lost rounds 3 and 5 to close out just short on tiebreaks.
Coming into this format, I made the switch to Miracle Fusion Heroes. This change was since Miracle Fusion was at 3, Heroes seemed to be a reasonable choice and with the Heroes getting their fusions such as Great Tornado and a reprint on nearly everything else, they were inexpensive and didn't require Tour Guides. Taking my knowledge of the game from then, I made my own Hero Deck. At first, it was rather good.
In September, there was YCS Toronto. I had a new job and sadly could not take the time off from work. A surprising amount of people from our area made the time to attend the YCS (which was a flight of about three hours). I missed out on an opportunity to play against the 'pros'.
I was also back in school that September, so I wasn't studying the large tournaments as much as I could. After that YCS, my play became much worse to the point where it was obvious from an opening hand whether I was going to win or lose.
Unfortunately, I was also giving my opponents cues as to my hand, which gave them the knowledge to counter whatever I had going for me. I wasn't aware of this for a while, until one of my teammates told me I was literally giving away the strength of my hand.
Alongside this, I was struggling with the Hero consistency. I was finding it entirely inconsistent even though statistically speaking it was supposed to be quite consistent. The end result were a lot of difficult plays and relying heavily on luck, something I dislike doing.
I moved to Absolute Zero for two weeks, determining that was even less consistent. I moved to Agents... a splash the first week in winning a local tournament, and the second week everyone shut me down because I kept giving away what was in my hand.
I also found myself discussing aloud what my opponent could have, which is a BAD idea during a tournament because they will no doubt surprise you. Also, by discussing your opponent's outs, they can formulate what you might have in your hand.
Three weeks ago, I was told this information, and three weeks ago I built a deck for locals that I had looked at online but made a chaos variant of. I'm not showing the deck in the effort to save it for my next DA Article. Armed with a poker face, I T4ed with it two weeks in a row before winning a box event and got my groove back. This week, while I went 3-1, I placed 5th due to terrible tiebreakers.
Perhaps, during a match, you should think about what you're doing. If you get that Monster Reborn, don't automatically look at graveyards. Or if you don't get that Monster Reborn, look at graveyards to throw your opponent off. The less they know the better chance you have of winning, and being deceptive is good in the game of Yugioh. Even if you think you can win that turn, be deceptive as possible. Who knows if they have a card like Maxx "C" in their hand?
Thanks for taking the time to read this article. I'm going to have another one around here sometime this or next week about side-decking, an important part of Yugioh that sometimes gets overlooked by the online duelist.
-Jin
2009, 2011 Nationals Invite
Author's note: I apologize if this looks dry. It's difficult to effectively explain the topic with pictures.
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Bio-Band
Subject: Confidence (Approved by RS) 
Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:46 pm
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