Being a better player

Again, I'm taking a break of talking about cards. This time we're going to talk about a thing far more decisive than cards in the game: the player.

In a way, in a duel between 2 decks of equal potential, if a player does every move exactly as it supposed to be,no misplays and no bad choices and he/she still loses, there's only luck to blame. If there is at least one misplay, the player has the total right to blame himself/herself (although he/she shouldn't take it too seriously, it's a game, after all). If both players do misplays, the overcome of the duel is just chaotic, so it would be best if in these games there was a judge or a spectator with enough knowledge to point out the misplays.

But, in a tournament, no matter what level it is, there are some other conceptions that makes the game different than casual one. We can see this while playing some decks:

Let's say you're playing Elemental Heroes and you play this card: You search Elemental HERO Stratos and shuffle your deck. Then, you summon Stratos and search for an Elemental HERO Bubbleman. You shuffle again. After that, you may want to activate a Reinforcement of the Army to look for an Elemental HERO Neos Alius. You shuffle again. After a few sets, your turn is over.

In a tournament, the time for a Match is 40 minutes. 13 minutes and 20 seconds for each duel. You may receive 5 more turns after the clock hits 0, but after that, Life Points make the decision, not you. Every second counts, and if you don't play fast in a deck with many combos in a single turn, you may lose. That move with Elemental HERO we showed made 3 shuffles.

Don't know how fast you can do that, but let say it's your first tournament: You don't have the hand skills, you just got your deck, you want to play competitively, but the timer is scaring you. Even if you play fast enough, shuffling a deck is a thing that, depending of the player, can take up to 10 seconds, so searching or sending 6 cards individually, you've lost a minute. No wonder why Infernities never made an appearance in tournaments.

But there's always a thing to do about this: after searching a Stratos, drop it on the field (if you really wishes to summon it) and ask your opponent if he/she will use Effect Veiler or such on it while still holding the deck. If not, search the monster with Stratos's effect (again, if you want to do that) and if you don't want to play another card for searching, shuffle your deck. Most will agree that's an excusable thing to do if you don't shuffle fast enough, so your turn wouldn't last a whole minute. Think about that when playing with or against Wind-Ups.

Now, another thing to argue: the rulings. Some people think that all the players have know how every single card in existence works. Wrong. We only HAVE to know how every card in our decks works in every situation. Knowing more cards is always good, helps to know how to counter decks strengths and take advantage of their weakness. You can't expect every opponent of yours to know, but you can take advantage of his/her misplays against you.

Suppose that there's a ruling discussion at a tournament, either local or official, and both have good arguments or one of the players is not having a open mind. In a local tournament most likely won't have a judge to help, so only checking online or the opinion of the rest will decide. In an official tournament, there'll always have a judge to help, but keep in mind that the judge's decision is absolute, so arguing with him won't help anything, whether he/she is right or wrong (e.g. Guadalajara's YCS' rumor, where the judges decided that Shi En can negate the equipment of Inzektor Hornet). At that time, you've lost many minutes, even more if you keep discussing, as the judge may apply a penalty.

So, not having speed and knowledge makes the time the worst opponent. Rather than playing with someone before tournaments, make sure yourself won't be a threat. Practice shuffling, know the effects of your and most commonly played cards, understand their rulings and, above all things: be humble. You may be good, but you can also be wrong sometimes, doesn't hurt to check. The only thing that will happen it's someone learning something new.

Until next time and remember: Play with your brains, not with your money.