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Cloudstrife 189 on Yugioh
The secret to dueling: A Fight Against Time
September 21, 2009

I must admit, I’m a little bit nervous about this article because I know that this is going to start some major controversy between players. However, I really feel that this is an important aspect of this game and needs to be addressed adequately. Welcome to my next article,
A FIGHT AGAINST TIME!

Last year, my friend developed a really effective deck. It was a Final Countdown Deck that utilized on stall until the 20 turns were up. During the play testing, he constantly defeated us, time after time again. He then decides to take this deck to his first ever regional and proceeds to lose round after round until he eventually drops. The reason why? Time!

A lot of duelists who play, tend to only play casually, and never have to realize the importance of the time limit. This is mostly because those matches are played until a victor is declared. However, after going to a major completion, many duelists quickly learn the importance of the clock. Many, many duels are lost because duelists did not defeat their opponent fast enough and were forced into the end of match procedure. This article is going to address what to do to prevent that, and what to do when time is running out.

First, I’m going to begin this article with a little bit of uncertainty. I'm going to state my mere opinion that I think winning due to time isn't a win condition to strive for. In professional football/basketball, it is a skillful tactic to use the clock to your advantage. It is very wise to change your playstyle and start stalling things out before time is called. In fact, that is a strategy that needs to be exploited effectively to win in those types of sports. However, the major difference between those sports and YGO is that for those sports, your win condition is based upon time being called, in YGO, it is not. In basketball/football, players will keep playing until the buzzer finally goes off. In YGO, it is very likely that you will complete your match way before then. I believe that YGO only has a time limit in tournaments to keep the matches flowing at a decent pace, so you can complete all your matches on one given day. The problem comes up when players try to exploit the time limit like people do in basketball/football and purposely try winning during the end of match procedure. I find this approach to be unethical and downright cheating. If players continue to play cards, and keep the game moving, that is one thing, but if players start to spend 2-3minutes thinking about each move, constantly checking and rechecking the graveyards, etc, then this is where I must draw the line.

Now, there are a few things I must first clarify. In the above story about my friend playing a Final Countdown Deck, I still can’t say whether he was cheated or if he lost on his own accord. On one hand, his deck does take at least 20 turns to win each duel, which means it’s going to be a long duel. However, on the other hand, most of his moves consisted of “draw, pass” and I can’t imagine his opponent’s having too much to think about when they’re locked down by Skill Drain, Clock Tower Prison, and 3 Solemn Judgments. All I know is that he lost every duel due to time because his life points would always be lower than his opponents thanks to the steep costs of Final Countdown and Solemn Judgment.

To help being a victim of slow play yourself, make sure that you are playing at a good pace yourself. If your opponent seems to be thinking a lot in between plays, you have to ask him to make a choice. Try to be as polite as possible, but let him know that you have no intention on having this game go into time. If he continues to stall, you must inform a judge. That may piss your opponent off, but that will ensure that you won’t be cheated by time this duel. If enough people complain about the same person enough times, then they WILL fix the problem. I understand that some players do need to think about their plays to make sure that they don’t misplay, however, I like what a judge told us at my last regionals during the player meeting:

“This is a major tournament. I understand sometimes you might want to check a “Lightsworn” player’s graveyard 8-9 times a turn because it’s constantly changing. However, because this is a major tournament, you are expected to make your plays in a timely manner. This isn’t “practice.” This is the real deal…You must try to make all your plays in a quick manner and keep the game constantly flowing. Slow play WILL NOT be tolerated…”

Now, I must admit, this is kind of harsh for the new players. However, the judge did make a very good point. If this was another practice duel, then they would have “x” amount of time to read all the cards and think about what the best play is. However, this is not a practice duel. This is a tournament. The same thing can be said about taking tests. During the homework, you can spend however long you want doing it until you get the correct answer, but during the test, you have a time limit. The same thing applies in YGO. If you would have done your “homework” enough times, you wouldn’t need to spend as long making any particular play. Just because you failed to allot enough time to doing your “homework” during your off time, doesn’t mean that you get to take all day during the tournament, “test” ,until you eventually get to the correct answer.

It may get to the point during the duel, where both players are indeed keeping the game flowing but time is still about to run out. If this is happening, then I recommend that you change your strategy. Just like during a test, if you only have one minute left, then try to go for the big point questions while you still can. Once again, the same thing applies in YGO. Once time is called and the End of Match Procedure is applied, the victor will be decided by lifepoints so it is very wise to keep yours much higher than your opponent’s. Now, without slow playing and cheating yourself, you must do a 360 degree turn-around with your playstyle. All those “Solemn Judgments” and such become offline. If the duel is going to be over with any minute now, you can’t afford such a steep cost unless you can make up for it in a turn or two. You must try really hard to do one of two things: defend or over extend. If your life points are higher than your opponent’s, then you must try to protect them at all cost. If your life points are less than your opponent’s, you must try to drop theirs down as much as you can. There’s no use in trying to save cards for later at this point. The duel is about to be forced to end, so you must have the “now or never” attitude.

Conclusion:
This article is not meant to scare you. Before going to a competition, ask yourself if your deck can complete a match in under the 40minute time restraint. Don't try to start playing too fast and make a lot of misplays. You are alloted a fair amount of time to think between plays. All this article is meant to do is to encourage you to get good at what you do, dueling. The more you duel, the faster you get. The faster you get, the less of a problem the time limit will be for you. If your opponent appears to be “thinking” a lot, ask him once to speed it up. Tell your opponent that you understand that it’s a hard choice, but he must keep the game flowing because we’re playing under a time restraint. If he continues to slow play, you have to get a judge involved. This is my only recommendation to avoid being cheated by slow play. Winning because of time is not a win condition that should be exploited in YGO. When the clock is getting dangerously close to sounding, change your playstyle to 100% aggro or 100% defensive, accordingly. Abandon all thoughts of “card advantage” and “plus ones, minus ones.” All that matters after time is called, is who has the most life points.

I’ll end with a famous quote from Andrew Jackson,

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”

Thanks for reading,
Cloudstrife 189

As always feel free to let me know how I"m going or hit me up sometime to talk YGO.

AIM: Cloudstrife189
Yahoo: Cloudstrife189@ymail.com
Email: Cloudstrife189@ymail.com