The biggest distinguishing factor between top pro player and solid to intermediate, to me, is conversion. There are a few stages to YGO development I see consistently.
Beginner: Does not yet see the concept of card advantage. Can be found making plays like using Book of Moon before it’s “necessary.”
Intermediate: Has developed a full understanding of card advantage.
Expert: Realizes the concept of card advantage is useless without the accompanying idea of conversion.
A Brief Anecdote
Conversion is just my arbitrary term for building a Yu-Gi-Oh! strategy that can turn extra cards into actual field presence or a dominating position.
The match that drove this point home for me actually happened in 2005. My good friend and teammate, f00b, was playing a match versus an average player. f00b was one of the best players at the time at generating card advantage (his favorite card was Metamorphosis) but he had consistent issues with converting it.
There is an infamous story of f00b and 4 Airknight Parshaths. At one point in the duel, f00b had 4 Airknights (one was Snatch Stolen) on the field. He eventually ended up losing the game to a Morphing Jar and Tribe-Infecting Virus despite having perhaps +5 cards in hand.
Unfortunately, there were a number of situations I saw in the game where simplification and conversion of advantage was not made. An example was flipping Magician of Faith for Pot of Greed instead of Nobleman of Crossout, while having +4 cards in resources and dominating the game.
To win a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel, you can’t simply focus on getting more cards than your opponent. The judge does not simply walk over, say “hey you have a +3!” and end the game in your favor! In fact the majority of bad beat stories (I call it players crying) at a premier event involve some exaggerated variant of “man I had +4 and the guy ripped Judgment Dragon!!!11″). A lot of times I think the loss could have simply been traced to a mediocre player unable to convert advantage to something productive.
Win Conditions and Conversion
During my work at Metagame.com, Jason Meyer (the managing editor) consistently talked about win conditions. While YGO is a different game from other trading card games, YGO does indeed use the “win condition” term to refer to certain aspects of a strategy that can win games. Examples include:
“LS’s win condition is Judgment Dragon”
“My win condition is to protect Royal Oppression”
The idea of a win condition is not brand new and it’s not inapplicable to Yu-Gi-Oh! either. Your deck definitely better have a few explosive ways of ending the game. Otherwise, your card advantage will probably be useless.
The Golden Rule of Yu-Gi-Oh!:
When you develop a lead in card advantage, you want to force trades and push the tempo. When you are behind in card advantage, you want to build resources back to equalize.
Convert convert convert! Do not be content to sometimes just poke for small amounts of damage when you should be unloading upon the opponent!
I want to post a few examples of plays you *should* be making but probably are not.
There are rare cases where it’s actually a good thing for you to eat a 2 for 1 Heavy Storm or 2 for 1 Torrential Tribute. The reason is that the opponent’s situation is so dire (you dominate the field completely) that the very premise they drew one of those cards is bad for their situation.
An example: I have Dark Armed Dragon and Colossal Fighter on the field with a set bluff and Bottomless Trap Hole. I draw a Book of Moon. My opponent has two cards in hand. Should I set it?
A lot of conservative players here are scared of getting Heavy Stormed. It’s a “3 for 1!!!” they reason. But think closer. Presumably, the opponent did not have Storm last turn (or he would have 2:1ed with it). So given the circumstances, a Storm would be a topdeck.
But think of the situation! You have 5600+ damage on the field. If your opponent does indeed draw that Heavy Storm, he will almost certainly lose the game. Yet BoM will help you stymy losses from Brain Control, Synchro Summons, and other manuevers. You should set the BoM for the -2 from Heavy Storm because the fact your opponent drew the Storm means he lost the game!
Another example: You have a +2 on your opponent. He has two s/t’s and is getting low in life. You have 4 monsters in hand.
Here, you need to realize that the finite resource for you is not monsters. Your finite resource here is normal summons. Your goal should be to put a normal summon on the board once per turn, no questions asked. If you take your foot off the gas, fearing a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute, you are really dropping the ball. Force conversions (even 2:1) when you have a big edge.
Real life example: I was watching Dale Bellido duel a Canadian player. He understood the entire format was based on who flipped the first Dekoichi (because Dekoichi can swing over other set Dekoichis and acts as a 1400 floater). With a Book of Moon in hand, his first play against his opponent’s t-set was to summon his own Dekoichi and attack.
The tempo and field presence from “flipping” the first Dekoichi was worth it to him to summon a flip monster in attack position rather than set it and have his opponent take control. Of course, he won a few turns later.
In short, I’m a big believer in “poking” for damage especially from situations where I have control. Each normal summon you waste in YGO is potential damage, or card advantage, that has been leaked.
When you have the advantage, force the conversion! It’s the biggest tool in your arsenal to become one of the best.
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Interesting article. I thought for sure you went away again so it was nice to see this piece.
Intermediate players do have a bit of a bad habit of converting CA into wins. I had a game back in the 3x Chaos Sorcerer days where I decked out because I was too busy looping Tsuki/Deko than pushing for LP with the massive CA that I already had.
Im glad you articulated “conversion” because i had always had full understanding of the concept but never a word for it. The example with Dale Bellido was perfect, he gave his flip with deiki to eliminate his opponents advantage generated with his own deiki while also having versatile plays with the book of moon. i hope you blog more frequently because so far your one of few writers i take seriously.
great read.
Thanks for posting this article. It helped me understand YGO in a more deeper way.
I quess most of the reasons why i lost is that I didnt have the concept of “conversion” in my mind.
Hope that you continue to post these good articles later on.
And one thing, after I go to college, I may ask you if it is okay to translate your articles(under your name) to korean, if it is okay.
Anyway, thx!
Was the dekoichi play this format(post march 1,2010)?? Other than that, thanks for your opinions Mr. Kim.
The play was back in the “one for one” flip flop format.
Or, as Majin put it to me way, way back in the day some years and years and years ago: “It’s tragic to see someone Flip Summon MoF for PoG rather than Crossout.”
I’m glad for many folks that you put this knowledge in an easily digested form; but now I wonder what secret I will have to hold onto to replace the one you just revealed to countless folks.
To be honest I think you’re posting articles way too fast. I mean I still need time to digest the masterful piece on dealing with recruiters.
Please slow down.
The thing I’m glad you did touch on was having a “win condition”. A lot of decks I see online kinda lack that focus on what they’re trying to accomplish with their deck. I’ve always seen [Judgment Dragon] more as the card in an LS deck that puts the situation in your favour if you need it as a back-up win condition. I’ve won far more games with Gragonith than JD, since it gets past [Royal Oppression] has less of a drawback if a big push with it fails, and is a less likely target of negation than JD or Celestia.
The best players in my area and I have also found “Flamvell Cat” a bit more unreliable than a lot of people praise it for. It’s fast, certainly, and can grab many Synchro Monsters, but such a heavy focus on not only Synchro Summoning, but Special Summoning in general, and if it can’t Synchro Summon, it has no focussed win condition. [Tuner's Scheme] is even rougher on it, because it turns their investment against them, especially with Stardust and Colossal Fighter.
(Every regular player in my area Mains a copy of [Tuner's Scheme], since there is literally no deck played that doesn’t use Synchros, and it always grabs something good)
Good read, definitely a habit I need to get into…
Another thing I think you should have included in the article is something Jerry Wang said one time to me after I lost. If they have it, they have it. Competent Players are so infused with the idea of trying to never misplay, never to be caught by torrential going +3, Heavy Storm going +3, when in actuality they should make a final push for game or make a set up which will produce game.
I am not saying to set your whole hand on the field, but when you make a read or are against the wall you have to go for it since it might be your only opportunity for game. The more time given to your opponent the more time they can draw an out to a situation.
For example, let’s say in your scenario of Dark Armed, Colossal, and your three facedowns. Your opponent goes Heavy, Brain Control, and insert any other card. The chances of your opponent having all those cards are slim to none. If you knew that, you probably would have never set all those cards, but it would be very hard to read a hand like that and the likelihood of a hand like that is slim to none. It was just bad luck; your opponent had the better hand.
This is a very useful tool that has elevated my skill, since I am a conservative player by nature, but being too conservative can be a problem. The ability to adjust your play-style is key in order to advance in the game.
Excellent article, it helps me a lot
love your articles and glad you are writing again. only very few authors have the insight and understanding of gameplay that you have
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