From: GUYOBRAINS@aol.com [mailto:GUYOBRAINS@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 7:14 AM

Subject: The Most Important Factors in Determining your Skill - Dustin H.

Hello, all! I just wanted to send this in now before I forgot about it.

I like to think of myself as an okay duelist. Not great; in my local tournaments, we have four matches per tournament and I have yet to do better than 2 wins and 2 losses. But okay at least. I think if I work a little harder at it, I could be an excellent duelist.

Let me get to the point. I think it's logical that I would be more skilled than many of the other duelists even mentioned on this site. But I'm not. Do you know why that is?

I'll tell you why. And I remember when I realized it too. It was the day I read whichever one of Dark Paladin's articles where he mentions he's been playing since LON. Labyrinth of Nightmare! I could hardly believe it!

And why is this, you ask? It's because I've been playing since the game first came out. I think I was there to see the release of MRD. I know I was there to see the release of MRL. Why, then, am I not a more skilled duelist?

It's simple. This could very well be the deciding factor in how good of a duelist you are. This factor is how regularly you play against real people.

I didn't start going to Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments until about the beginning of last December. Before that, the only other people I ever dueled against were family members (who could barely duel) and a few other people (also not particularly great duelists).

I've got plenty of cards. I have one binder full of cards from LOB-AST (in set order) and another dedicated to SOD-EEN as well as three more for other sets. That said, I have a lot of cards. I mean A LOT of cards. I have hundreds, maybe nearing 1,000, maybe even exceeding that. Needless to say, I have enough cards to build a good deck.

Here's my point. If you want to be a good duelist you need three things: enough cards to build a successful deck, the ability to think ahead in duels and create strategies and combos, and, most importantly, the one that caused me trouble, duel on a regular basis to improve your skills.

Hope you all enjoyed this little example of the importance of playing regularly. If you have questions or comments, you can e-mail me at GUYOBRAINS@aol.com