Poker Face

Normally, I’m one goofy, random son of a bitch. In fact, generally, you might say that I am weird in my own little individual way.

When I sit down and play that children’s card game youd, think that translate. Absolutely not.

It may not seem like it matters much, but it does. Tells are a lot more important in Yugioh than people give credit for. You wouldn’t believe how much information I can get of a player’s hand strength or what their facedowns are simply by the reactions. 

One of the biggest tells I see is when one of my normally chatty and goofy peers suddenly is serious and thinking really hard. In their mind the gamestate has become complex, even though it seems really simple on your end

A huge mistake I see is when someone groans about how bad their hand is. Granted this happens a lot more in casuals, but even when I’m playing in a more laxed setting, I never reveal information about the strength of my hand. This can extend to body language. Small headshakes and little signs of frustration can give a lot of information to your opponent; signs of weakness allows an opponent to go aggro on you and more aware that your sets are like bluffs and chump blockers.

Social Connections

Why is it that even the “nerdiest” of communities (coughyugiohcough) tend to ignore the importance of establishing good social connections within their subculture? 

Friendships and connections will get you far in ANY hobby. You’ll never know when you will need a hookup for a certain resource and at worst, you have very good people that you can collaborate ideas with.

Survivor: Cochran’s Move

In a Purple Rock scenario:
5/7 Upolu Draws (Coach/Albert/Sophie/Edna/Brandon)
2/7 Savaii Draws (Jim/Cochran)

5/7 Upolu draws: Savaii takes control; Cochran has options to flip later down the line
1/7 Jim Draws: Upolu takes control; Cochran has options to flip here if necessary
1/7 Cochran Draws: Goes to RI, has a small (albeit very small) chance of coming back

All these scenarios gives Cochran options down the road which are much less costly on jury votes.

Cochran flips: Pretty much guaranteeing losing the game by virtue of losing 4 jury votes (which are unlikely to be gained back). Has no options left other than being 7th in an alliance of 6. Savaii allies are all unlikely to realign with him, sans perhaps Dawn.

Nutshell: Cochran’s move is possibly one of the worst plays in Survivor history

Making a Read in YGO

One of the biggest skills in Yu-gi-oh that seperates a good player from a great player is the ability to make a good read. This can come down to reading backrows to reading the strength of an opponent’s hand. I narrow making reads down to categories: reasonable reads and cerebral reads.

Reasonable reads are making assumptions based on the current gamestate. This comes down to how the board develops, what certain outs an opponent may have live, ect.

One of the simplest examples occurs when an opponent has a facedown backrow that goes unused for a long time. Throughout this game, you have not set down a backrow yourself at all. Very clearly, that particular facedown can at most, be reasonably deducted to be an MST.

A not so obvious play: You look at an opponents two backrow. You successfully resolve a Heavy Storm. If you can push for game, will your opponent have Gorz? Probably not, since setting backrow isn’t representative of that kind of hand. Be careful though, since some players (like myself, lol) like to set backrow so that their Gorz isn’t as readable. This happens at higher levels of play though and generally shouldn’t be terribly worth tripping up about.

A more complex read came from a real life situation I encountered. The game state developed in a way where my opponent (playing Tour Guide Zombies, pre-ruling change) committed little resources to the board, setting only monsters every other turn. Because of the way this game was played, I reasoned that he held boss monsters in his hand that weren’t live. I’ve made plays where he would have used Effect Veiler on my monsters if he had it, so I didn’t read that either. I deduced he must have had a BLS in his hand that he wanted to make live. He had ample darks, but no lights. As soon the first light hit the graveyard (which I believe was a Utopia), I flipped my set Mind Crush, calling Black Luster Soldier. I was correct.

These kinds of reads that test your ability to analyze the game state and situation to make a good educated guess on your opponent’s unknowns. This in itself requires an ability to analyze  human psychology in a way  similar that a poker player does it. Think about it this way: people value psychological tells in poker a lot more than most mediums.  Of course, this can definitely be applied to Yu-gi-oh as well.

I think people underestimate the importance of upholding a poker face in Yu-gi-oh. If an opponent has a good read on the strength of their hand, it allows them to be flexible and play accordingly to their read. For example, if they read a weak hand on your part, it allows them to play aggressively and push hard for game.

One of the more common is when  a person shows signs of nervousness. Depending on the gamestate, he’s anxious either because he’s scared that you might explode, or he’s excited because he has the proper out to your situation and is waiting for you to run into his Torrent, Mirror Force, or Gorz. For the former, this is largely indicated by checking backrow far too often. This is much akin to a poker player constantly checking their hole cards. However, unlike poker, you only interact with your opponent for 45 minutes, so it’s much easier to tell if he’s genuinely panicking.

At a regional or even the YCS level, humans are more affected by the nervousness that you may think. This holds especially true for a person who has yet to attend a premier event. Unfortunately, these kind of people are the easiest to read.  For one, these people are more likely to play more tight because they’re not as willing to gamble their swiss record to make a more optimal play. These kinds of players, you can play more aggressively, even if their comeback cards are live.

(Note that the more inexperienced aggressive players will try to push and gamble their resources on a failed push. Thus when they fail, they won’t have resources for you to read in the first place. From there, you can outplay them most of the time)

Also keep in track of tendencies in players. Some players you’ll run into are talkative that suddenly quiet themselves in the middle of the match. Some players do the hand shuffle and then suddenly don’t. You can tell from these instances that their thinking a lot harder about their players. This usually indicates that their not as confident in their hand. Granted, this kind of lack of confidence can stem from various factors (ranging from having total crap and thinking how to regain control….from a good enough, but not great hand… to having the nuts, but unsure how to play it correctly). The skill comes in reading what kind of factors these are, considering the gamestate. For example, if they’re suddenly thinking hard, and they don’t do much, you can probably reason they have a marginal hand, with potential a live Gorz. This should give you the OK to push, especially if you have outs to Gorz.

Finally, keep in mind what kind of players are readable. Bad conservative players are easy to read. Nervous and anxious players of any skill level are also readable. Bad aggressive players are near impossible to, so it’s best to play you’re best solid game against these kinds of players, though keep in mind that you can’t bluff these players (since they tend to play like Torrent or Mirror don’t exist)

Giving Advice {through looking beyond the obvious}

Giving advice on any given subject seems like the simplest and most straightforward thing to do in the world. Yet, in my estimation, a lot of people struggle to give good advice. At the very least, they don’t realize till later until how little their advice may help.

To help a person with any given situation, people tend to give advice derived from their own life experiences. However, many people fail to do so with through the perspective of the other person in consideration. Here’s a thought; which of the following would seem more helpful?

“This is what I did in a situation similar to yours”

OR

“This is what you can probably do in consideration of your particular situation”

One thing people tend to fail to realize is that situations are different. On the surface, certain situations may be similar to what one went through, but the conditions in which those situations took place tend to vary. For example, people tend to help others cope with a breakup by establishing what they went through on their breakup. However, the circumstances in which lead to those breakups tend to vary.

More importantly, people tend to ignore the persons themselves. Just because certain advice may work for you or even another person may not necessarily work for the person your giving advice to. People need to take in consideration the type of person who they are giving advice to is. Most prominent example is with dating advice; most advice in said field tends to be generic, and does not usually allow for flexibility depending on personality traits. Of course a person with more introverted hobbies or of poorer income can’t simply do the shit most people tend to suggest. This is a large part why I think asking for advice online generally doesn’t work; it’s because people giving advice don’t know the person at all. The best they can do is give generic advice or share their own personal experiences that may or may not work for that particular person.

The best advice takes that particular person in mind.

“Be Yourself”

“Be yourself” is by far the worst piece of dating advice anyone can give. Do you ever notice the only people that actually suggest it are people who’s traits and personalities are already socially accepted? So what about those people who’s “being themself” is clearly not getting them anywhere? I kind of feel that people that claim to “be yourself” are not actually taking your dating frustrations seriously because it honestly shows complete disregard to their environment and situation, as well as what “being yourself” actually means (if you’re a Yugioh player, think of it as disregarding the dating metagame for you’re particular area). It’s such a ridiculous blanket statement that I’m getting perturbed by people that suggest it without any real analysis

Have you also realize that most people that actually give out this piece of advice are judgmental towards your traits and/or interests anyways??

Like when people actually say this, this is what I feel they really mean in different mediums:

“Be yourself, but only if yourself is what I/other people want”

You know how I mentioned where people tell you to be yourself and then they become judgmental of those traits about you anyways? This is where it comes in. I have mentioned this previously, but there is a hierarchy of what kind of traits are socially accepted and what aren’t. It’s not unreasonable to suspect that most women want traits pertaining to the higher tier of said hierarchy.  In fact, we live in a society where certain traits, hobbies, viewpoints and personality quirks are valued far more than others. It’s ignorant to assume that people aren’t going be judgmental with an aspect foreign to them. What if your a giant asshole? Being yourself won’t work. What if you’re  an extremely shy introvert? That’s not really going to get you places either. What if you’re happy being yourself but people reject you because of the appearance they choose for themselves? This actually brings me to my next one:

“Be yourself AND be attractive”

I’m going to admit. I think I’m objectively a decent looking guy. What most people will fail to tell you is that women will only take initial interest if you are physically attractive. Because let’s be real: Why would a woman take the initiative to get to know who “you” are if what you are isn’t what they are attracted too? Here, it forces men to take the initiative

Now, I honestly don’t mind notions of a physical attraction needing to exist, but I dislike how the “be yourself” people act like that it doesn’t exist.

With all this said, this is an interpretation that I actually like and endorse:

“Be the best self that you can be”

I really like this variation of the quote. It promotes letting the best qualities of oneself come out. It allows one to prevent whatever traits they have to become liabilities. One of my main gripes with the phrase “be yourself” is that it devalues the idea of self-improvement. I especially don’t like the extented quote:

“Be yourself and someone will eventually come”

because it pretty much promotes sitting on your ass and not improving yourself. It basically states “everyone is perfect” which we all know, we all have flaws. But the statement supports not working on those flaws.

I think people need to realize that “being yourself” is obviously not enough.

Now note how I never mentioned anything about “being fake”. That is something I would NEVER support. This should never be a resort for anyone. However, certain extroverts that simply “being yourself” on it’s own is not going to produce the same results for everyone. Everyone’s self functions differently in the metagame of dating, especially when you factor different living conditions and environments.

Tags: be yourself, dating, love, women

YGO: Random Thought Analysis – Agents

First and foremost, I hate doing articles like this. Reason being, things like this tends to be extremely time sensitive; the things I’m going to say aren’t necessarily going to hold true at a future date, whether it be months later or even weeks later. This is especially true for a socially dynamic game like Yu-gi-oh.

But I have always been fond of the concept of angels. The idea of watchers from heaven is fascinating to me. I jizzed in my pants when I saw Agents come out in the OCG. After experimenting with the deck aplenty, both IRL and on Dueling Network, there are my current opinions on certain debated aspects of the deck. I’m not going to go over really obvious stuff (if you’re running Agents, I don’t think it’s debated right now you run Kristya or 3 Earth)

Sanctuary Builds:

Not a fan. It’s more explosive, but far less consistent. I feel you’re used to use triple Duality in Sanctuary builds, where are standard Shine Ball builds are more flexible.  It also forces you to use sub-par cards. Sanctuary in the Sky is a very mediocre field spell card. It’s actual effect is not really useful, and is basically used strictly as an enabler card for the Agents/Hyperions extra effects (unlike, say….Necrovalley). Zeradias is just bad outside it’s effect. The fact it’s not directly playable most of the time if you need it to be really hurts. He’s basically only a search engine for a mediocre spell card. I really wish Sanctuary did more on it’s own.

Valhalla

This gard is garbage. Once again, I hate cards that don’t generate advantage by themselves. Here, you’re required to have both the card itself AND a proper fairy you want to special summon. This my problem right of the bat: Agents isn’t supposed to be a hyper-aggressive deck. They control tempo and maintain field presence in a gradual manner

Shine Ball / Venus

My preferred number with this engine is 3 Shine Ball 2 Venus, accompanied with 1 tech Genex Ally Birdman. I like the engine, as it creates ridiculous field presence, but I am not a fan of 3 Venus like most builds. Once you use the Shine Balls, Venus becomes nothing but a relatively weak beater.

That said, if you open up with Venus and Birdman, you’re going to open up strong and be in a really good position, barring a Veiler or Maxx C.  The interact between the two cards allows you to configure yourself to leave virtually any synchro from the 5-9 range, as well as a Gachi if you so wish. My personal favorite play to end up with a both a Gachi and a Stardust….which leaves you with so much field pressence, it’s ridiculous.

Speaking of Gachi, definetely leave room in you’re extra deck for him. That extra 400 attack for your monsters is going to help more than you’d think.

Dimesnional Alchemist

Such a good card in here. He accelerates and thins your deck out even more, and makes good use of the RFG fairies you used for Hyperion. He’s a very good card advantage generator; people do NOT like to use Torrential or Mirror Force with him out. I would use 1-2 in most builds.

Herald of Orange Light

I go back and forth on this card. Sometimes, it’s amazing. Sometimes, it’s nothing more than Cards for the Sky bait. I definetely don’t reccomend it in Sanctuary builds. You’re not going to get additional fairies you want ditch as often (especially considering 2-3 of those monsters

Jupiter

I tend to value the merits of this card more that most people do. I always run 2-3 in my builds.  I know people dislike pure beaters like this, but 2600 is just a good magic number. It’s a  searchable one card out to Shien and Stardust. It beats over Monarchs and Librarian. A 4 star that can swing over all those is just too valuable right now.