"Or at least in retro formats" is such an important distinction when describing things like discerning what a set card is. You really don't have the availability to bluff that often in the modern game unless you're playing a deck that involves a lot of unknowns (like Labrynth due to the heavy amount of trap cards). It does happen sometimes, but generally you're looking for choke points to interrupt and force your opponent to end on a suboptimal board (which requires having memorized these choke points since they're not often designed to be intuited very well). Usually if your opponent is on a certain deck, you generally have a good idea of what all cards they're on, and the same goes with tech cards usually if any of them are incredibly strong that format. But more importantly, you generally cant afford to hold onto cards (unless they're hand traps) because establishing an oppressive turn 1 board is just that important in the modern game. Usually if you're ever holding onto stuff, its follow-up for turn 3-4 if its a part of your archetype's gameplan. Modern Yugioh operates more like a fighting game, whereas older formats play more like a slow game of chess. Both formats utilize poker-style tactics, just in different ways. In the case of Modern Yugioh, this (primarily) comes through in the form of how you construct a deck. If you can find powerful tech cards or archetypes that people aren't anticipating (because the card pool is just that massive), you put yourself at a major competitive edge. This is especially true in the case of what extra deck cards you decide to run given that the extra deck is basically a third hand (with your graveyard being the second hand, and unlike the graveyard, the extra deck isnt public knowledge during a match). I've seen this sort of advantage likened to survivorship bias before from players like Jesse Perez. Basically: a majority of the bluffs in the modern game happen before the game even begins because people go into certain match-ups with certain expectations. Your goal during deck building (if possible) is to subvert those expectations and then follow through with your ability to pilot the deck. Hell, sometimes just showing up with a deck that not a lot of people are familiar with can sometimes produce that sort of advantage. No one would be prepared for, say, Tri-Brigade if any breakthroughs were to suddenly happen. Maybe after the release of Mulcharmy Fuwaross (basically a new Maxx "C"), we'll be forced to more frequently return to these sorts of traditional principles (its why i picked up Dinomorphia again), but at the moment, it really is just a game of King of the Hill. The only time i've ever really had to heavily lean on this sort of game sense was when I was playing a control deck like Runick or a toolbox aggro deck like Gold Pride PUNK. Otherwise the only thing you have to understand is when to not fire off certain cards. Baiting an opponent is so fucking important in the modern game, and its where my experience with fighting games really comes in handy (at least after i've had time to warm up and study the current meta, i'm often busy with personal projects). If its worth anything though, this video definitely makes me want to go back and give Edison a shot. I started in 2021, so modern Yugioh is really all I know. It'd probably be fun to play a format where its easier to over-extend, i'd just need to find a way to feed my deck building niche. Like, if I cant do anything as wild as make Halqifibrax run in Impcantations using Magikey Batosbuster, Edison isn't going to hold my attention. I like to innovate cards that people aren't currently looking at. Thats just my thing, i'm a mad scientist in the community. It'd certainly help if simulators like YGO Omega's deck building tools would allow me to easily filter out cards that aren't legal in Edison, then I could just browse the card pool like I do with the modern game.
@@whyishoudini I'm messing with Cybernetic Magician tonight in Edison (i just like the art). Caius is a really fun boss monster in this format, lol.
I've never played modern before and figured there's a decent chance its a completely different game with all the searching, special summoning from deck, etc which is why I made the distinction "at least in retro formats...". I wouldn't have expected being able to strategize a gameplan around extra deck choices, that's really neat to hear compared to almost everything being a staple in older formats. I'd definitely recommend giving Edison Format a try! Its fun and picking up in popularity. EdisonFormat.net and .com are great starting resources to look at 👍
I much prefer slower Yu-Gi-Oh because of the possibility of bluffs and the prevalence of trap cards and the mind games, and not so much of memorizing best ways to interrupt via choke points. Comparing it to fighting games is kinda funny to me because I don't really enjoy fighting games that much XD Also I am that one guy who only ever plays one archetype and tries to make it the best it can be rather than just playing whatever people decide is the best in the format.
Bluffing and reading opponents have always been my favorite parts of turn based strategy games, I love your example of waiting to think as tho ur backrow were active, those little interactions are the best part
Not taking the same amount of time for every decision in poker is called giving "timing tells". If you're not paying attention to avoiding that then your opponents will be able to guess your hand strength based on how fast you make bluffs/value bets. I've taken advantage of weaker opponents writing their cards on their face with timing tells in certain spots LOL. "Wow no fear at all of mirror force? You play so risky!" Meanwhile I've never felt safer LMAO
@@rydanstone847 it’s rarely ever a second but sure if my opponent has literally zero cards in hand field and grave yet wants to think yeah I call that stalling. There’s a difference between bluffing and cheating and you can pretend it’s something else but if it’s not a legal play then yeah it’s pretty much cheating. There’s a reason why in online clients you can’t just think when you have zero legal actions.
Wonderful video, I will be saving this for future reference tbh. I honestly wish people would talk more about Yugioh like this, because it's great to see just how deep the game can be sometimes.
The math problems you'll see will get really complex sometimes. A lot of people don't know how to start in some spots but will make sure to brag about how fast they can pick one of the possible actions LOL
I remember back in my day, I was playing an online duel on my Nintendo DS (Yu Gi Oh 2008) and I bluffed my opponent so good that I won the duel of it. I was in bad shape in the duel with 1 monster face up defense, no spells or traps set, and my opponent 3 monsters and a couple of cards in hand. All I had in my hand was a couple of spell and trap cards but I had nothing to destroy his monsters EXCEPT I just added mirror force to hand from the effect of Golden Sarcophagus. However, my opponent knows I have mirror force in hand and will likely destroy it if I just set it. So what did I do? I set 3 spell/trap cards but I didn’t set mirror force. Sure enough, my opponent starts trying to pop my back row but isn’t brave enough to attack for game because he hasn’t destroyed mirror force yet. After a couple turns of bluffing, I eventually sneak mirror force onto the field and activated it when my opponent was finally brave enough to attack. he surrendered immediately afterwards. Middle school me was so proud!
Great video! I didn’t learn a lot new, per se, but you gave a name and face to a lot of concepts I struggled to figure out on my own for years. To anyone watching: this guy knows his stuff! Just remember that if you plan to play in paper at all, do not make a habit of pulling up deck lists or using hyper geometric calculators leading up to these events. Get used to working these out in your head as much as possible. For online tournaments absolutely use these tips.
LOL in person you arent allowed to take notes, I'm sure they'll allow you to pull out a laptop to look up everything you need. Online you can do it quickly on the side so you should definitely take advantage of that. I have done probability comparisons in person multiple times to decide on a successful play 😃
This video is amazing. The point 16:22 at is my favorite. Regularly watching tournament runs and war league matches really highlights this. The amount of times someone goes on an insane run while making high risk low reward plays and deck building decisions really confounds me. You can understand all the math in the world, but upswings because of RPS luck and consistent divine intervention opening hands blows away my wildest expectations. Some thing goes for downswings.
There's a million different variables at play in a game of yugioh. What you draw, what your opponent draws, RPS, what you brought, what your opponent brought, bracket luck, etc, etc, etc. People often underestimate how much of their success was influenced by luck. "I'd rather be lucky than good" is a very popular thing you'll hear at poker tables.
The information wars in yugioh is so important and overlooked. Trap dustshoot is so good for this reason (and the fact that it sends the opponent back on card economy)
This is the best video on TH-cam for classic Yugioh metagaming. Losing this in modern is one of the reasons the formats always suck. Hand traps change the math so much on bluffing that it's unrealistic to be worried about the hand since it could be any card in the deck, hand trap or not.
I didn't even recognize modern as the same game when I first saw it. People are searching their deck and their opponents deck with every card and OTKing with 1.5 cards LOL
The worst part? You can't even bluff some things in modern YGO either. For example, it is actually against the rules, full stop, to count out the opponent's summons and bluff Nibiru if you don't have it in hand. You can actually get judge-called for this. It's a card game with limited resources (and even more limited outs) that actively punishes you for playing it as such.
@10footD As someone who plays a lot of modern yugioh I will say that it is a lot, like a lot. It's very hard if you don't understand how anything and it is also really to understand that the reason the game is still balanced is that every deck is insanely powerful. If you don't like that but still want to play older formats, good, it's not everyone's cup of tea, I personally like it but I get why you might not.
Never expected something this good to come out of 10 Foot. No offense. It was so analytical and well thought out. Made me subscribe. Keep up the good work!
Great video, this advice is still relevant for modern yugioh imo. All these same kinds of interactions potential bluffs, etc. still happen just condensed into a few turns.
"However bad you think variance can be, it's worse, a lot worse" LMAO That is hilarious, but I think it's funny how people will apply this logic to their losses, but never their wins. I have for sure won more games due to variance being on my side than I have lost due to variance going against me and like you said, that's okay. Great video, very enjoyable and top tier editing.
I have literally zero experience playing yugioh since i bought a yugi starter deck probably 20 years ago now, but you did a great job articulating some concepts that ive heard regs struggle with. Literally i had zero idea what you were saying when talking about in game yugioh plays but i still enjoyed the hell out of it
3:55 ABSOLUTELY the wildest reveal less than halfway into the video, hysterical Great video, love the tie in to retro formats but definitely feels like the kind of advice applicable to every card game
Hey, this was a great video !!! Very insightful and I love the breakdown of the super simplified game state with Caius, really got me thinking! Definitely gonna subscribe for more :)
Thank you so much! I appreciate it! Funnily enough I spent the most time working on that spot in the whole video. At first I recorded a detailed explanation and made graphics on why you're ALWAYS supposed to target the backrow there but when I did the math with different variable values to prove it (e.g. opponent won't set their spells + opponent won't set dustshoot to bluff gorz/keep possible gorz topdeck live, opponent won't misplay by setting brain control + they also play other possible chainable backrows, they do play book + won't set spells, etc.) there were some spots where it's better to target the monster and also the percentage edge for targeting backrow wasn't as large as I thought in some other spots. Then I went down a rabbit hole on "because there's more spots where the backrow is better, you should target the backrow" but then I realized I was spending several minutes working through that which is not possible in a timed event. That spot is deceptively complex with just two possible caius targets, I'm glad I left that part in LOL
Glad you found it useful! I've spent a lot of time playing both games and the poker stuff definitely gave me an edge when everybody was starting the format at the same time
@@10footD Not useful for me per se because i already was "trying" to do all of this already (even though i can't really deal with tilt well personally) It is useful more in the sense that when people ask me for tips instead of using my poor words when i mean these i can just refer them to here
Thank you so much! I bet you love it when you get blamed for other people's misplays/misfortune. "Can you believe this dealer really dealt those cards???" I'm sure you have tons of wild stories LMAO
As someone who plays poker and is about to go to nats for NAWCQ this week, this video reminded me to say thinking on activations that can be responded to by ash to bluff that I have ash or to say thinking on 5th summon to bluff I have nib.
A lot of decks don’t even care about nib anymore, especially those who spent 500 dollars on fiendsmith to basically make nib a dead card. This format literally turned into diceroll, I go first I win
Even though I do not like the edison format in the slightest, I do believe this video should be a must watch for anyone who seriously is considering improving at yugioh, regardless of format, what an increible job you have done, congratulations
This concept of bluffing is a dead style in modern yugioh, especially with the new fiendsmith cards literally reading,” I don’t give a fuck have fun playing thro 7 negates.” It’s a sad direction the game has been progressing down, especially with the advent of stronger and stronger engines, until eventually where engines are so strong that you won by just comparing opening hands with zero skilled interractions
@@leoshi8453 if that were true, the same people wouldn't be the ones winning ycs tournaments since they would have as many chances of wining as any other person. As for bluffing, it's still a part of the game, just not in the same ways, instead of bluffing regular traps, you can still bluff handtraps, bnoardbreakers, extra deck options, or many other card choices. The format is pretty bad at the moment, but to say that it is just as simple as "comparing hands" is an oversimplification, there is still a lot of skill involved
@@ShroomOfSorrowthis makes the assumption that the behavior that drives success in Yugioh is only reading the opponent. Modern Yugioh seems more of a matter of reading the metagame. It’s so heavy with potential interaction that it creates extremely high stakes decision making, where pure knowledge of what your opponent is playing is all that really matters. I/e if you have full combo, you aren’t going to bluff that you don’t and wait to go off later, because your opponent will capitalize on that, you’re going to try to win the game and hope that your opponent can’t interact with you. You win or lose on your opponent properly assessing what your next move is and hopefully having the card to interact with it. They are correlated skillsets, but it’s not a singular skill that leads to success from the OG days to now.
I am so glad this popped up in my recommendations. I play Digimon TCG (and all of this should realistically apply to any card game). And I have been on a nasty losing streak the past couple of months. I now know what I could be doing better and what things have not necessarily been within my control. I have been feeling like I am awful at the game, especially since I consistently did well up until recently. You have changed my perspective.
I was literally finishing reading the book The Mental Game of Poker on the train to go to EWCQ IRL in Milan. I ended up winning the whole event... The mental aspect should be cared for almost as much as the gaming aspect
@@GoatFormat Thank you! Kind words like yours help keep me going ❤ I will eventually transition to another niche on this channel when Edison becomes stagnant to me. Hopefully most of the base I build will stay
I love that statement, “However bad you think variance can be, it’s worse.” There’s so many times where you can get dealt hands that feel like your being cheated, and people will go, “It’s not realistic” or “How is this possible,” but randomness/variance doesn’t care about being fair, otherwise it wouldn’t be random. Sometimes remembering that can help you stay calm and grounded. Super interesting video!
This reminds me of how psychological older yugioh formats used to be. Modern yugioh can never work on poker theory because you physically cant bluff or play balanced. If youre not playing your whole hand turn 1 in either play makers or hand traps, you lose. Theres a lot of reading to it, but virtually no strategy
I looked very lightly into modern and could barely recognize it as being the same game. Maybe you can't use bluffs as frequently as with Edison format but hopefully some other aspects like tilt control can be used. Thank you for the comment!
@10footD you definitely can't tilt control because so many newer strategies can just play around common handtraps or counterplay, and how common it is to simply scoop going second if you realize you don't have the handtraps or play makers necessarily to comeback turn 0, and that's a problem. No game, including poker, should be decided in 1 hand, and that's effectively what modern yugioh is. People either go all in or fold pre-flop so to speak. If you open with one or two handtraps going second, you MIGHT see how the opponent plays and if they can continue through your interruption, which would be the equivalent of the flop, but if they continue past your interpretation you simply fold. You know you won't be able to counter before side decking because going first is so infinitely more advantageous than second to the point it's not even fair.
I needed this video. Thank you man. The part of the game im lacking in. Up until recently i was still getting tilted by them often having it. There is definitely so much more to the game that im not participating in yet.
My favorite thing about the use of poker in yugioh is the mirror match where side decks and play in a vacuum changes the way the two players approach the game
I play comp Digimon and I learned alot from playing poker and yugioh. Bluffing and holding spell cards can really freak opponents out, can bring a win even if you brick.
Fantastic discussion! I really enjoyed watching :) Despite what some commenters say, modern yugioh isnt all that different in terns of what this video is discussing. Instead of looking for mirror force, youre looking at your opponent's hand size and body language to see if they have a certain handtrap. For example, if my opponent has 5 cards in hand and seems focused and calm, I might worry that he has a card like Nibiru or droll and hopd back a little to avoid wasting cards. On the other hand, if my opponent is just letting me play uninterrupted, im going to assume that he's not able to stop me. Over time, you get an intuition for that and it's a lot like sniffing out trap cards or gorz. The big difference from poker is preparation. With poker, it really comes down to execution. With Yugioh, you have the added variable of building a deck before playing. Therefore youre thinking about what cards you might be running into.
As a magic player who didn't understand 80% of this video, I'm subbing, this was great. I'm too bad of a player to effectively generalise from this, but I'll try to atleast balance my actual/bluff thinking when playing combo decks.
I really liked what you said about tilting. A big Pokémon TH-camr had outplayed his opponent in a Smogon tournament for about 40 turns. Then lost due to a 10% ice beam freeze. He said “GG” and the comment section was livid and told him to never say GG again in that situation. It struck me as odd that people would willingly play a high variance game like Pokemon but variance isn’t allowed
I was watching this in the background while playing hearthstone and tuned back in at like 5 minutes in to just getting absolutely berated by this man for theoretical plays I didn't even make. 10/10 would watch again.
That just comes with experience. A lot of it is pattern recognition though sometimes you'll need to rely on intuition in new spots (especially vs wildcard decks).
@@10footD I don't know about that... maybe on that "future sight" thing... but Yami did pull off the bluff trick on Mai back in Duelist Kingdom which saved him from a loss.
That's why I LOVE Edison, life points matter, how you play a starting hand matters, every set, every activation of a card matters and can make a difference in almost every match you play. Modern be like: did you open 4 hand traps, starter and extender for draw? No, well too fucken bad, cause I did!
6:20 I don’t even play yugioh (which raises the question of why I’m watching this far into the video, but I digress), but this is such a huge thing across every single card game, and even video games with hidden information. I stopped conceding games I presume I’m dead in to give my opponents room to misplay. Sometimes I’m giving MYSELF room to NOT misplay - maybe you’re forgetting something you’re bluffing without realizing it, but your opponent is afraid of it and plays too conservatively as a result. I can definitely tell my game has leveled up after I stopped only playing the game, and instead played my opponent just as much as the game. The more you can put yourself in their head, the better you’ll do
I know I’m exaggerating slightly but man I gave up on yugioh and this video was so genius I’m diving back in. Possibly the best theory video I’ve ever seen on yugioh
Hey, just want to praise the video. Most of the videos that I've watched about yugioh and maths are borderline clickbait, or pretty deterministic. I really, really liked your approach and tone.
Thank you! It's hard to talk about math and be engaging, I spent the most time on that section re-writing and revising. A lot of times people will make a lucky play and parade themselves as an expert after it works out. Some of the footage I thought of using ended up not being as guaranteed as I thought it was in the moment.
Thank you so much for the kind words! Sorry it took a while to get back to you, I was out of town for nationals. I spent a lot of time on this video and I'm glad you found enjoyment out of it. We need more love in the world ❤
This lesson about learning to deal with randomness and not "deserving" to win should be learned by video game players as well. In team games there's always people who say "I would have won of it wasn't for my bad teammates," while performing not any better on average than those same teammates. It's the same kinds of people in TCGs who always complain about their bad draws instead of learning to use the cards more effectively. A good player can make games way closer than it should be and sometimes pull off a win with seemingly useless cards.
I've definitely used not tilting concepts to help climb in team games like League of Legends. It should be an expectation that you will sometimes get bad teammates and it should be an expectation you will lose sometimes. The best players however will have a much higher winrate than the average player with the same teammates. You are the common denominator; in a 5v5 game there's 5 chances for the opposing team to get a bad teammate while there's only 4 on your team so the odds are in your favor if you're as good as you think you are 😉
this video makes some great points, there is a small issue with bluffing in ygo though. Stopping to think everytime your opponent summons a card without a valid response (i.e. when your only set is a mirror force that u want to pretend is a torrential) is kinda of a taboo in this game, as implying false information about a unknown zone is against the rules, and may also be interprinted as stalling.
I usually won't play around heavy storm turn 1 since there's 1 dustshoot and 1 mst to worry about so I'd rather play around the larger number of cards. Gorz will depend on in game reads and your matchups. Vs frogs or diva hero for instance, you can't tell if they have gorz or they're hand is a pile of bricks so its better to just go for it more often than not. For some other decks it gets really suspicious to have 3 or 4 cards in hand
Could you make a video about the popular opinion that heroes can’t win tournaments despite their many tops because they have a consistently low ceiling? On one hand it makes sense to me but on the other hand it doesn’t sound quite right. If they’re getting tops then clearly they can win games, it’s not like semi-finals or finals become a different game.
I dont think that would be a popular video. Every deck has a percentage chance to win, some are lower than others. Heroes are not on the same level as the S tier decks in the format so its less likely for them to win but it's always possible. A lack of good luck, having bad luck, and having a worse deck has all played a part in their lack of wins in large tournaments. They have won smaller local tournaments before and I'm sure they'll eventually win a large tournament if people keep playing them. Be mindful of who you listen to LOL "Advice you get from [regular players] will nearly always be wrong, oversimplified, and unhelpful."
The issue is that with modern yugioh, they can just setup negates and destructions and destroy your facedown card, causing denial of a resource that would've been safer in your hand. In edison and goat it's a good tip. I still do find some uses for it in modern yugioh though but its a lot more limited. (Strategy 1)
Great video. Several of those strategies came up for me in paper Yugi, especially bluffing and avoiding injustice tilt with bad opening hands. At nationals I won at least 1 game I was not supposed win, just by bluffing a good hand. I had only 3 card remaining, 1 only of them was playable and the other 2 were bricks. My opponent was convinced that I am just throwing a bait at him, but it was not a bait. Speaking about setting cards you would not normally set, I think the same can be applied on deckbuilding. Especially in hyper offense decks like Dragon Turbo and Dark World I like to play a small amount of defensive traps like Torrential or Mirror Force in the main or side. My opponents will always assume I don't play those cards and they will always play into them, which puts me into a favorable position every time. Immidately after my opponents played into those cards, they will also change their playstyle for the rest of the match, so psychological damage has been inflicted. And even if I brick G3, my opponents won't go all-in again after losing everything to Torrential and Mirror Force. Maybe those cards apply a tilt on the opponent, resulting in my opponents make mathematically incorrect decisions like not going all-in with a potential lethal line on board.
This was SO GOOD 🤣🤣🤣
I'm glad I got your approval 👍
Great video!
Why did click on the video to learn some ygo and got yelled at by 10foot 😂😂😂
"Or at least in retro formats" is such an important distinction when describing things like discerning what a set card is. You really don't have the availability to bluff that often in the modern game unless you're playing a deck that involves a lot of unknowns (like Labrynth due to the heavy amount of trap cards). It does happen sometimes, but generally you're looking for choke points to interrupt and force your opponent to end on a suboptimal board (which requires having memorized these choke points since they're not often designed to be intuited very well). Usually if your opponent is on a certain deck, you generally have a good idea of what all cards they're on, and the same goes with tech cards usually if any of them are incredibly strong that format. But more importantly, you generally cant afford to hold onto cards (unless they're hand traps) because establishing an oppressive turn 1 board is just that important in the modern game. Usually if you're ever holding onto stuff, its follow-up for turn 3-4 if its a part of your archetype's gameplan.
Modern Yugioh operates more like a fighting game, whereas older formats play more like a slow game of chess. Both formats utilize poker-style tactics, just in different ways. In the case of Modern Yugioh, this (primarily) comes through in the form of how you construct a deck. If you can find powerful tech cards or archetypes that people aren't anticipating (because the card pool is just that massive), you put yourself at a major competitive edge. This is especially true in the case of what extra deck cards you decide to run given that the extra deck is basically a third hand (with your graveyard being the second hand, and unlike the graveyard, the extra deck isnt public knowledge during a match). I've seen this sort of advantage likened to survivorship bias before from players like Jesse Perez.
Basically: a majority of the bluffs in the modern game happen before the game even begins because people go into certain match-ups with certain expectations. Your goal during deck building (if possible) is to subvert those expectations and then follow through with your ability to pilot the deck. Hell, sometimes just showing up with a deck that not a lot of people are familiar with can sometimes produce that sort of advantage. No one would be prepared for, say, Tri-Brigade if any breakthroughs were to suddenly happen.
Maybe after the release of Mulcharmy Fuwaross (basically a new Maxx "C"), we'll be forced to more frequently return to these sorts of traditional principles (its why i picked up Dinomorphia again), but at the moment, it really is just a game of King of the Hill. The only time i've ever really had to heavily lean on this sort of game sense was when I was playing a control deck like Runick or a toolbox aggro deck like Gold Pride PUNK. Otherwise the only thing you have to understand is when to not fire off certain cards. Baiting an opponent is so fucking important in the modern game, and its where my experience with fighting games really comes in handy (at least after i've had time to warm up and study the current meta, i'm often busy with personal projects).
If its worth anything though, this video definitely makes me want to go back and give Edison a shot. I started in 2021, so modern Yugioh is really all I know. It'd probably be fun to play a format where its easier to over-extend, i'd just need to find a way to feed my deck building niche. Like, if I cant do anything as wild as make Halqifibrax run in Impcantations using Magikey Batosbuster, Edison isn't going to hold my attention. I like to innovate cards that people aren't currently looking at. Thats just my thing, i'm a mad scientist in the community. It'd certainly help if simulators like YGO Omega's deck building tools would allow me to easily filter out cards that aren't legal in Edison, then I could just browse the card pool like I do with the modern game.
Try Ritual/Reliquished Chaos in Goat Format
@@whyishoudini I'm messing with Cybernetic Magician tonight in Edison (i just like the art). Caius is a really fun boss monster in this format, lol.
I've never played modern before and figured there's a decent chance its a completely different game with all the searching, special summoning from deck, etc which is why I made the distinction "at least in retro formats...". I wouldn't have expected being able to strategize a gameplan around extra deck choices, that's really neat to hear compared to almost everything being a staple in older formats.
I'd definitely recommend giving Edison Format a try! Its fun and picking up in popularity. EdisonFormat.net and .com are great starting resources to look at 👍
I much prefer slower Yu-Gi-Oh because of the possibility of bluffs and the prevalence of trap cards and the mind games, and not so much of memorizing best ways to interrupt via choke points. Comparing it to fighting games is kinda funny to me because I don't really enjoy fighting games that much XD
Also I am that one guy who only ever plays one archetype and tries to make it the best it can be rather than just playing whatever people decide is the best in the format.
Modern Yugioh still has handtraps, which work off the same principle.
Bluffing and reading opponents have always been my favorite parts of turn based strategy games, I love your example of waiting to think as tho ur backrow were active, those little interactions are the best part
Not taking the same amount of time for every decision in poker is called giving "timing tells". If you're not paying attention to avoiding that then your opponents will be able to guess your hand strength based on how fast you make bluffs/value bets. I've taken advantage of weaker opponents writing their cards on their face with timing tells in certain spots LOL.
"Wow no fear at all of mirror force? You play so risky!"
Meanwhile I've never felt safer LMAO
It’s also called stalling. Having zero legal actions and thinking is literally cheating.
@@jonthefarmer1112taking a second or two to think is not stalling get so real
@@rydanstone847 it’s rarely ever a second but sure if my opponent has literally zero cards in hand field and grave yet wants to think yeah I call that stalling. There’s a difference between bluffing and cheating and you can pretend it’s something else but if it’s not a legal play then yeah it’s pretty much cheating. There’s a reason why in online clients you can’t just think when you have zero legal actions.
@@jonthefarmer1112 yea congrats on giving an example that isn't at all what is being talked about I can really tell you came here in good faith.
Wonderful video, I will be saving this for future reference tbh. I honestly wish people would talk more about Yugioh like this, because it's great to see just how deep the game can be sometimes.
The math problems you'll see will get really complex sometimes. A lot of people don't know how to start in some spots but will make sure to brag about how fast they can pick one of the possible actions LOL
I remember back in my day, I was playing an online duel on my Nintendo DS (Yu Gi Oh 2008) and I bluffed my opponent so good that I won the duel of it. I was in bad shape in the duel with 1 monster face up defense, no spells or traps set, and my opponent 3 monsters and a couple of cards in hand. All I had in my hand was a couple of spell and trap cards but I had nothing to destroy his monsters EXCEPT I just added mirror force to hand from the effect of Golden Sarcophagus. However, my opponent knows I have mirror force in hand and will likely destroy it if I just set it. So what did I do? I set 3 spell/trap cards but I didn’t set mirror force. Sure enough, my opponent starts trying to pop my back row but isn’t brave enough to attack for game because he hasn’t destroyed mirror force yet. After a couple turns of bluffing, I eventually sneak mirror force onto the field and activated it when my opponent was finally brave enough to attack. he surrendered immediately afterwards. Middle school me was so proud!
Great video! I didn’t learn a lot new, per se, but you gave a name and face to a lot of concepts I struggled to figure out on my own for years. To anyone watching: this guy knows his stuff! Just remember that if you plan to play in paper at all, do not make a habit of pulling up deck lists or using hyper geometric calculators leading up to these events. Get used to working these out in your head as much as possible. For online tournaments absolutely use these tips.
LOL in person you arent allowed to take notes, I'm sure they'll allow you to pull out a laptop to look up everything you need. Online you can do it quickly on the side so you should definitely take advantage of that.
I have done probability comparisons in person multiple times to decide on a successful play 😃
This is incredible. I have no words to describe how great this video is. This must have been so much time and work. Thank you for this.
It took a lot of work and frustration LOL. Looks like it's doing well so far, maybe it was worth it 😃
This video is amazing. The point 16:22 at is my favorite. Regularly watching tournament runs and war league matches really highlights this. The amount of times someone goes on an insane run while making high risk low reward plays and deck building decisions really confounds me. You can understand all the math in the world, but upswings because of RPS luck and consistent divine intervention opening hands blows away my wildest expectations. Some thing goes for downswings.
There's a million different variables at play in a game of yugioh. What you draw, what your opponent draws, RPS, what you brought, what your opponent brought, bracket luck, etc, etc, etc. People often underestimate how much of their success was influenced by luck. "I'd rather be lucky than good" is a very popular thing you'll hear at poker tables.
Probably one of the best instructional Yugi videos I have ever seen.
Thank you! I put a lot of effort into this one ❤
Probably? I'd say absolutely. There's nothing out there on this level.
The information wars in yugioh is so important and overlooked. Trap dustshoot is so good for this reason (and the fact that it sends the opponent back on card economy)
This is the best video on TH-cam for classic Yugioh metagaming. Losing this in modern is one of the reasons the formats always suck. Hand traps change the math so much on bluffing that it's unrealistic to be worried about the hand since it could be any card in the deck, hand trap or not.
I didn't even recognize modern as the same game when I first saw it. People are searching their deck and their opponents deck with every card and OTKing with 1.5 cards LOL
The worst part? You can't even bluff some things in modern YGO either. For example, it is actually against the rules, full stop, to count out the opponent's summons and bluff Nibiru if you don't have it in hand. You can actually get judge-called for this. It's a card game with limited resources (and even more limited outs) that actively punishes you for playing it as such.
@10footD As someone who plays a lot of modern yugioh I will say that it is a lot, like a lot. It's very hard if you don't understand how anything and it is also really to understand that the reason the game is still balanced is that every deck is insanely powerful. If you don't like that but still want to play older formats, good, it's not everyone's cup of tea, I personally like it but I get why you might not.
Modern still uses the same strats.
Never expected something this good to come out of 10 Foot. No offense. It was so analytical and well thought out. Made me subscribe. Keep up the good work!
Glad to see this video doing well. Really high quality content
Great video, this advice is still relevant for modern yugioh imo. All these same kinds of interactions potential bluffs, etc. still happen just condensed into a few turns.
This is one of the most informational videos on yu-gi-oh i’ve ever seen. Keep it up woth the good content!
Glad you found it useful! I'll try my best to make good content 😃
"However bad you think variance can be, it's worse, a lot worse" LMAO That is hilarious, but I think it's funny how people will apply this logic to their losses, but never their wins. I have for sure won more games due to variance being on my side than I have lost due to variance going against me and like you said, that's okay. Great video, very enjoyable and top tier editing.
As someone who plays poker for a living, I'm impressed by how accurate the poker talk was. Good job!
Banger video as always friend. Players of any level have something to learn and apply to their play from this video or as in my case multiple.
For sure! Thanks for the encouragement as always ❤❤❤
Nowadays if you pretend to think for a few seconds just to bluff, your opponent accuses you of slow play...
Awesome video man! Lots of great takeaways, i loved the yelling and the education
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'll try to yell in my other videos too 🗣🗣🗣
This was literally the best yugioh video I have ever seen. Keep up the good work champ
I have literally zero experience playing yugioh since i bought a yugi starter deck probably 20 years ago now, but you did a great job articulating some concepts that ive heard regs struggle with. Literally i had zero idea what you were saying when talking about in game yugioh plays but i still enjoyed the hell out of it
3:55 ABSOLUTELY the wildest reveal less than halfway into the video, hysterical
Great video, love the tie in to retro formats but definitely feels like the kind of advice applicable to every card game
That was one of my favorite parts to edit LOL
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and found it useful 😃
Not in A MILLION YEARS would I have read that was the set
Hey, this was a great video !!! Very insightful and I love the breakdown of the super simplified game state with Caius, really got me thinking! Definitely gonna subscribe for more :)
Thank you so much! I appreciate it!
Funnily enough I spent the most time working on that spot in the whole video. At first I recorded a detailed explanation and made graphics on why you're ALWAYS supposed to target the backrow there but when I did the math with different variable values to prove it (e.g. opponent won't set their spells + opponent won't set dustshoot to bluff gorz/keep possible gorz topdeck live, opponent won't misplay by setting brain control + they also play other possible chainable backrows, they do play book + won't set spells, etc.) there were some spots where it's better to target the monster and also the percentage edge for targeting backrow wasn't as large as I thought in some other spots. Then I went down a rabbit hole on "because there's more spots where the backrow is better, you should target the backrow" but then I realized I was spending several minutes working through that which is not possible in a timed event. That spot is deceptively complex with just two possible caius targets, I'm glad I left that part in LOL
This video is actually really good and accurate. Really well made, gj
Glad you found it useful! I've spent a lot of time playing both games and the poker stuff definitely gave me an edge when everybody was starting the format at the same time
@@10footD Not useful for me per se because i already was "trying" to do all of this already (even though i can't really deal with tilt well personally)
It is useful more in the sense that when people ask me for tips instead of using my poor words when i mean these i can just refer them to here
As a Poker Dealer at a casino and a avid player of Edison this video goes hard
Thank you so much! I bet you love it when you get blamed for other people's misplays/misfortune.
"Can you believe this dealer really dealt those cards???" I'm sure you have tons of wild stories LMAO
As someone who plays poker and is about to go to nats for NAWCQ this week, this video reminded me to say thinking on activations that can be responded to by ash to bluff that I have ash or to say thinking on 5th summon to bluff I have nib.
Best of luck at nats, glad this video helped! I'll be there too playing in the Ultimate Time Wizard event
A lot of decks don’t even care about nib anymore, especially those who spent 500 dollars on fiendsmith to basically make nib a dead card. This format literally turned into diceroll, I go first I win
Even though I do not like the edison format in the slightest, I do believe this video should be a must watch for anyone who seriously is considering improving at yugioh, regardless of format, what an increible job you have done, congratulations
Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm glad the effort paid off 😃
This concept of bluffing is a dead style in modern yugioh, especially with the new fiendsmith cards literally reading,” I don’t give a fuck have fun playing thro 7 negates.” It’s a sad direction the game has been progressing down, especially with the advent of stronger and stronger engines, until eventually where engines are so strong that you won by just comparing opening hands with zero skilled interractions
@@leoshi8453 if that were true, the same people wouldn't be the ones winning ycs tournaments since they would have as many chances of wining as any other person.
As for bluffing, it's still a part of the game, just not in the same ways, instead of bluffing regular traps, you can still bluff handtraps, bnoardbreakers, extra deck options, or many other card choices. The format is pretty bad at the moment, but to say that it is just as simple as "comparing hands" is an oversimplification, there is still a lot of skill involved
@@ShroomOfSorrowthis makes the assumption that the behavior that drives success in Yugioh is only reading the opponent. Modern Yugioh seems more of a matter of reading the metagame. It’s so heavy with potential interaction that it creates extremely high stakes decision making, where pure knowledge of what your opponent is playing is all that really matters. I/e if you have full combo, you aren’t going to bluff that you don’t and wait to go off later, because your opponent will capitalize on that, you’re going to try to win the game and hope that your opponent can’t interact with you. You win or lose on your opponent properly assessing what your next move is and hopefully having the card to interact with it. They are correlated skillsets, but it’s not a singular skill that leads to success from the OG days to now.
I am so glad this popped up in my recommendations. I play Digimon TCG (and all of this should realistically apply to any card game). And I have been on a nasty losing streak the past couple of months. I now know what I could be doing better and what things have not necessarily been within my control. I have been feeling like I am awful at the game, especially since I consistently did well up until recently.
You have changed my perspective.
My favorite bluff in yugioh is post siding and deciding to go first... On an all in OTK or die deck.
Good luck soldier LOL
Haven't competed at a regional since 2004. Really excited to get back into Yugioh.
Mental game of poker mentioned, instant like
Very solid book ya. You know where to find it too 😉
I was literally finishing reading the book The Mental Game of Poker on the train to go to EWCQ IRL in Milan.
I ended up winning the whole event...
The mental aspect should be cared for almost as much as the gaming aspect
That is awesome! Congratulations on the win!
How do you not have a million subscribers? Great Video
Because I make Edison content LMAO. Yugioh is a niche and Edison is a niche within a niche which kills 99.9% of possible viewers
@@10footD Well either way this was an extremely good video man and hopefully you keep making more well done
@@GoatFormat Thank you! Kind words like yours help keep me going ❤
I will eventually transition to another niche on this channel when Edison becomes stagnant to me. Hopefully most of the base I build will stay
Great Video! Will comment for the algorithm even though i dont want my opponents to watch your videos 👀
I love that statement, “However bad you think variance can be, it’s worse.”
There’s so many times where you can get dealt hands that feel like your being cheated, and people will go, “It’s not realistic” or “How is this possible,” but randomness/variance doesn’t care about being fair, otherwise it wouldn’t be random.
Sometimes remembering that can help you stay calm and grounded.
Super interesting video!
7:58 dude can see the future.. ban him from playing card games..
Great video bro!! I love it!
Hope you get more subscribers! This is some good content!
I hope so too LOL. Glad to hear you enjoyed it
This reminds me of how psychological older yugioh formats used to be. Modern yugioh can never work on poker theory because you physically cant bluff or play balanced. If youre not playing your whole hand turn 1 in either play makers or hand traps, you lose. Theres a lot of reading to it, but virtually no strategy
I looked very lightly into modern and could barely recognize it as being the same game. Maybe you can't use bluffs as frequently as with Edison format but hopefully some other aspects like tilt control can be used. Thank you for the comment!
@10footD you definitely can't tilt control because so many newer strategies can just play around common handtraps or counterplay, and how common it is to simply scoop going second if you realize you don't have the handtraps or play makers necessarily to comeback turn 0, and that's a problem. No game, including poker, should be decided in 1 hand, and that's effectively what modern yugioh is. People either go all in or fold pre-flop so to speak. If you open with one or two handtraps going second, you MIGHT see how the opponent plays and if they can continue through your interruption, which would be the equivalent of the flop, but if they continue past your interpretation you simply fold. You know you won't be able to counter before side decking because going first is so infinitely more advantageous than second to the point it's not even fair.
You can bluff all the time. Your opponant does not know what hand traps you have or not or what set cards you may have unless they saw you search it
thank you for the very thought out video! really amazing work here!
I try my best, thank you for the kind words! Will I see you at nats this weekend?
I needed this video. Thank you man. The part of the game im lacking in. Up until recently i was still getting tilted by them often having it. There is definitely so much more to the game that im not participating in yet.
Glad to hear it helped! Accumulated tilt is also something to look out
My favorite thing about the use of poker in yugioh is the mirror match where side decks and play in a vacuum changes the way the two players approach the game
_Me who plays a virus deck._
"Those are some nice cards you got there, it would be a shame if they were all gone."
I play comp Digimon and I learned alot from playing poker and yugioh. Bluffing and holding spell cards can really freak opponents out, can bring a win even if you brick.
I don’t play yugioh but will try to apply these to the games I do play. Absolute Banger thank you
Why did i know the allure with no darks will come up 😂
It's the special
It’s very good at proving the math point
Because time wizard formats are stale and you only see a pool of 200 viable cards in every duel?
Yeah that's why.
Fantastic discussion! I really enjoyed watching :)
Despite what some commenters say, modern yugioh isnt all that different in terns of what this video is discussing. Instead of looking for mirror force, youre looking at your opponent's hand size and body language to see if they have a certain handtrap.
For example, if my opponent has 5 cards in hand and seems focused and calm, I might worry that he has a card like Nibiru or droll and hopd back a little to avoid wasting cards. On the other hand, if my opponent is just letting me play uninterrupted, im going to assume that he's not able to stop me. Over time, you get an intuition for that and it's a lot like sniffing out trap cards or gorz.
The big difference from poker is preparation. With poker, it really comes down to execution. With Yugioh, you have the added variable of building a deck before playing. Therefore youre thinking about what cards you might be running into.
As a magic player who didn't understand 80% of this video, I'm subbing, this was great. I'm too bad of a player to effectively generalise from this, but I'll try to atleast balance my actual/bluff thinking when playing combo decks.
This video should become mandatory for anyone trying to be good, specially in time wizard formats
LOL I'm sure everybody can benefit from it to some extent. Thank you for the comment!
I'm the guy who was at table 7 in round 5 today, was good to meet you! Sick vid
Great talking with you and meeting you! We'll get the W next time
Honestly one of the greatest yugioh videos ever made.
Too bad in the current format when the opponent sets a monster, it's ash blossom 99% of the time.
In my old local with my homies we used to play like this. Lmao
Lmao love the yelling and exuberance you in the vid
Shit gets exciting sometimes LMAO
Really enjoyed the video man great work!
Thank you friend! It means a lot. Can't wait to see you again at nats 😘
@@10footD for sure my friend ❤️
I really liked what you said about tilting. A big Pokémon TH-camr had outplayed his opponent in a Smogon tournament for about 40
turns. Then lost due to a 10% ice beam freeze. He said “GG” and the comment section was livid and told him to never say GG again in that situation. It struck me as odd that people would willingly play a high variance game like Pokemon but variance isn’t allowed
Variance makes the game more unpredictable which also adds an extra layer of fun and excitement
stop yelling at me
Yea fr 😂
I love TCGs but I have never even thought about bluffing while playing so thanks for that good POV
I was watching this in the background while playing hearthstone and tuned back in at like 5 minutes in to just getting absolutely berated by this man for theoretical plays I didn't even make. 10/10 would watch again.
Great video! Wish I found this 3 months ago, but better late than never.
This was awesome, I wish there was this kind of energy in some mtg videos
now do a guide on how to go through these thought processes in under 45 minutes challenge ❤
That just comes with experience. A lot of it is pattern recognition though sometimes you'll need to rely on intuition in new spots (especially vs wildcard decks).
I feel like Yami and Joey will love that we should be treating Yugioh like Poker
"Bring on your assault Mai."
Yami and Joey would have some strong words for me on the heart of the cards and friendship. Forget everything you just saw LOL
@@10footD Roger Roger. Listen to Kaiba. Pure talent and take advantage of the naive
@@10footD I don't know about that... maybe on that "future sight" thing... but Yami did pull off the bluff trick on Mai back in Duelist Kingdom which saved him from a loss.
Older Duel Links was like this too. You learn a lot with every game you play, and card counting is easier with 20 cards
Now it's skill reading
You’re my new favorite Yugituber! I hate Cimo, but I see he’s your fan too. Keep it up!
It seems like such a lost art in yugioh. I don't think bluffing has mattered as much since the introduction of synchros.
That's why I LOVE Edison, life points matter, how you play a starting hand matters, every set, every activation of a card matters and can make a difference in almost every match you play. Modern be like: did you open 4 hand traps, starter and extender for draw? No, well too fucken bad, cause I did!
Awesome work ,now i finally get why u think so much :D
Am I thinking or bluff thinking? Only I know the answer LOL. Math can also get complex randomly
Great video, but if this video influences more players to big think for 3-4 mins per turn, I might just quit Edison
my new fav edison content creator
How to count cards in a game that let's you. Very interesting and educational. I will definitely use some of these strategies
Wait hold on this makes so much sense this shit like an epiphany
this is probably the thing i miss most about 5D's yugioh or when traps were still more popular, just the mind games and the bluffing
Tldr, got kicked out from locals for jokingly stall the tournament
6:20 I don’t even play yugioh (which raises the question of why I’m watching this far into the video, but I digress), but this is such a huge thing across every single card game, and even video games with hidden information. I stopped conceding games I presume I’m dead in to give my opponents room to misplay. Sometimes I’m giving MYSELF room to NOT misplay - maybe you’re forgetting something you’re bluffing without realizing it, but your opponent is afraid of it and plays too conservatively as a result. I can definitely tell my game has leveled up after I stopped only playing the game, and instead played my opponent just as much as the game. The more you can put yourself in their head, the better you’ll do
Very Informative Video, would recommend to every new Yu-Gi-Oh Player. Playing the Fool is always the key to Win more Games.
Gotta pretend I'm a casual to get their guard down. Once I get them relaxed I sneak the win from under their noses 😉
Actually insanely helpful, I do this sometimes but you yelling at me to do it all the time will be the difference between winning more and not
I LOVE YELLING. DO IT ALL THE TIME YES GOOD JOB
I know I’m exaggerating slightly but man I gave up on yugioh and this video was so genius I’m diving back in. Possibly the best theory video I’ve ever seen on yugioh
Glad you enjoyed it! The Edison community has some great members. Edisonformat.net and .com are both good starting resources
I love the energy in the video, an absolut joy to watch
Thank you! I try to be entertaining LOL
Hey, just want to praise the video. Most of the videos that I've watched about yugioh and maths are borderline clickbait, or pretty deterministic. I really, really liked your approach and tone.
Thank you! It's hard to talk about math and be engaging, I spent the most time on that section re-writing and revising. A lot of times people will make a lucky play and parade themselves as an expert after it works out. Some of the footage I thought of using ended up not being as guaranteed as I thought it was in the moment.
This needs to be shown to every tcg player once a year, just so they don't forget it.
I dont often say this to men but, i love you. This was beautifully written, narrated, illustrated, edited, and most importantly, correct.
Thank you so much for the kind words! Sorry it took a while to get back to you, I was out of town for nationals. I spent a lot of time on this video and I'm glad you found enjoyment out of it. We need more love in the world ❤
This can be applied to anything! I love this
"Judge my opponent is counting cards"
This lesson about learning to deal with randomness and not "deserving" to win should be learned by video game players as well. In team games there's always people who say "I would have won of it wasn't for my bad teammates," while performing not any better on average than those same teammates. It's the same kinds of people in TCGs who always complain about their bad draws instead of learning to use the cards more effectively. A good player can make games way closer than it should be and sometimes pull off a win with seemingly useless cards.
I've definitely used not tilting concepts to help climb in team games like League of Legends. It should be an expectation that you will sometimes get bad teammates and it should be an expectation you will lose sometimes. The best players however will have a much higher winrate than the average player with the same teammates. You are the common denominator; in a 5v5 game there's 5 chances for the opposing team to get a bad teammate while there's only 4 on your team so the odds are in your favor if you're as good as you think you are 😉
So the Heart of the cards is real
100%
I always thought the counting cards rule was dumb bc in other card games its best to try to remember all information possible
Edison doesn’t deserve this man
Awwwww thanks ❤
This was very well put together.
Thank you!
this video makes some great points, there is a small issue with bluffing in ygo though. Stopping to think everytime your opponent summons a card without a valid response (i.e. when your only set is a mirror force that u want to pretend is a torrential) is kinda of a taboo in this game, as implying false information about a unknown zone is against the rules, and may also be interprinted as stalling.
Wish I had known about ranges back when I was actually playing in Edison/tengu times.
What’s your opinion on limited cards in Edison, I never play around the 1 of(Heavy,Gorz)
I usually won't play around heavy storm turn 1 since there's 1 dustshoot and 1 mst to worry about so I'd rather play around the larger number of cards. Gorz will depend on in game reads and your matchups. Vs frogs or diva hero for instance, you can't tell if they have gorz or they're hand is a pile of bricks so its better to just go for it more often than not. For some other decks it gets really suspicious to have 3 or 4 cards in hand
Could you make a video about the popular opinion that heroes can’t win tournaments despite their many tops because they have a consistently low ceiling? On one hand it makes sense to me but on the other hand it doesn’t sound quite right. If they’re getting tops then clearly they can win games, it’s not like semi-finals or finals become a different game.
I dont think that would be a popular video. Every deck has a percentage chance to win, some are lower than others. Heroes are not on the same level as the S tier decks in the format so its less likely for them to win but it's always possible. A lack of good luck, having bad luck, and having a worse deck has all played a part in their lack of wins in large tournaments. They have won smaller local tournaments before and I'm sure they'll eventually win a large tournament if people keep playing them. Be mindful of who you listen to LOL
"Advice you get from [regular players] will nearly always be wrong, oversimplified, and unhelpful."
@@10footD unfortunately the video didn’t tell me what to do if I get advice from TH-camrs so I have no idea what to do now 🤷♂️
@@IndexInvestingWithCole rip
The issue is that with modern yugioh, they can just setup negates and destructions and destroy your facedown card, causing denial of a resource that would've been safer in your hand. In edison and goat it's a good tip. I still do find some uses for it in modern yugioh though but its a lot more limited. (Strategy 1)
Coming back to rewatch bc its so good
Aww thanks :)
I've decided to make my next video focused on tilt control because this video has done the best so far
This is how i used to play yugioh in elementary, except my deck was shit.
But bluffing and all that was mad
Great video. Several of those strategies came up for me in paper Yugi, especially bluffing and avoiding injustice tilt with bad opening hands.
At nationals I won at least 1 game I was not supposed win, just by bluffing a good hand. I had only 3 card remaining, 1 only of them was playable and the other 2 were bricks. My opponent was convinced that I am just throwing a bait at him, but it was not a bait.
Speaking about setting cards you would not normally set, I think the same can be applied on deckbuilding. Especially in hyper offense decks like Dragon Turbo and Dark World I like to play a small amount of defensive traps like Torrential or Mirror Force in the main or side. My opponents will always assume I don't play those cards and they will always play into them, which puts me into a favorable position every time.
Immidately after my opponents played into those cards, they will also change their playstyle for the rest of the match, so psychological damage has been inflicted. And even if I brick G3, my opponents won't go all-in again after losing everything to Torrential and Mirror Force. Maybe those cards apply a tilt on the opponent, resulting in my opponents make mathematically incorrect decisions like not going all-in with a potential lethal line on board.
This reminds me of Core-A-Gaming but for Yu-gi-oh, amazing content here!
Love this type of content!! Subscribed.
Thank you!