Without making this particularly long, the game of Duelmonsters has lost its fun for me. Due to a lot of things in the game that have been piling up for a while now, I no longer am interested in this travesty of a game.
I've moved to Vanguard and created a new blog here:
http://vmundi.blogspot.com
The first article will jump right into probabilities and mind-numbing numbers.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Duel Theory: Part 2 - Deck Design
After a much shorter Part 1 which was mostly self-explanatory, I'm afraid break time is over. I have to warn you here that there is some math involved in this next part. Thankfully, it's still mostly simple. For the most part, we've been using simple arithmetic as a framework to keep count of the game and adjust our Tempo similarly to how Blackjack card counters operate. But now you need to know how to make a deck. Before you can do this, you will need to know a little bit about probability. I won't do a whole lecture on things like how the Law of Averages works or the Gambler's Fallacy. If you don't know those things, I suggest you search them out now. We're going to be talking about Hypergeometric Probability Distribution. As the name seems to imply, this is a rather complex breed of probability calculation, however you will not need to know the formula or even how it works.
Please see exhibit A; a calculator!
http://stattrek.com/Tables/Hypergeometric.aspx
And now to exhibit B; a handy guide!
For the probabilities I will be giving you, they are based on a deck size of 40 cards and drawing in the opening 6 hands with only looking for 1 success.
You ought to know by now, in this game there are limitations on the number of copies of a card you can have; either 3, 2, or 1 depending on what format and month you're in. The following will show you the constant probabilities of drawing those numbers in the first hand:
Cards that search give you an immense advantage of options. When designing a deck, you should keep in mind what you absolutely must draw in the opening hand consistently, what you'd like to get, and what's totally optional. Identifying those properties takes some keen intuition and experience that will come with time and repetition. What I suggest is taking a deck that's topped well and studying it carefully, calculate the probability for drawing any given card in the deck, and seeing if you can improve upon it by making the meat of the deck more consistent.
Let's use Gravekeeper's as an example. So you want to build this deck. You're going to want Necrovalley of course, so let's ignore that 3 Terraforming can clog you down for now and just go for the highest draw probability. Add in the 9 cards you need,
-3 Necrovalley
-3 Terraforming
-3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
Now you want to see about getting out your Gravekeeper's. No point in adding them into your deck if you're just relying on blind luck to draw them. Well, looking at Gravekeeper's Spy, he's a good utility card that can act as another copy of each GK you have. Let's put him in. Since most of them have < 1500 ATK, we can also use Sangan.
-3 Gravekeeper's Spy
-1 Sangan
Next, look at the other effects and decide what you'd like to center the deck around. We have spy, so we need lots of fodder or his effect might turn useless mid-game. Howabout 2 Descendent, 2 Guard, and 3 Assailant to start off. We can re-adjust them later if need be. Let's center the deck around getting out--and keeping--Visionary. He's a beefy hitter that only needs one tribute, easily gets even beefier, and can stop himself from dying. For his second effect we'll need lots of smaller fodder to discard just in case. We don't want 3 of him because that wastes precious space for card that keep him out. So let's go with 2 Visionary. So far our monsters look like this:
-3 GK Spy
-3 GK Assailant
-3 GK Commandant
-2 GK Descendant
-2 GK Guard
-2 GK Visionary
-1 Sangan
Well, the deck is shaping up quite nicely. We have a lot of DARK monsters, so this could help us in our Spell/Trap selection. In fact, it can help us now. We can add in Gorz, Caius, Dark Armed Dragon, and Tragoedia with ease. Let's pop in 2 Caius, 1 Dark Armed Dragon, and 1 Gorz. We'll leave out Trag for now since his discard effect is counter-intuitive to keeping Visionary out.
-2 Caius
-1 Dark Armed Dragon
-1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
At this time he have exactly 20 monsters. This means that 50% of our deck is monsters. A very nice 66% chance to draw half our opening hand in monsters. And the same for Spell/Traps, conversely. And a mere 1% chance to clog the opening hand with all monsters. So let's stop here before that number rises.
Our Spell/Traps so far just account for our field spell, Necrovalley. Let's go ahead and get some staples out of the way and add in 1 Mirror Force, 1 Dark Hole, 1 Book of Moon, 2 Mystical Space Typhoon, 1 Giant Trunade (as of 4-12-2011, all these are at their max). Since we have so many ridiculous chances to have Necrovalley, and we want to beef up Visionary for a winning hit, why not put in Royal Tributes? 2 of them will give us the chance to absolutely devastate an opponent's hand provided they aren't using Dark World monsters. We might want to get some easy +1's and get back the GKs we discard too, so let's add in 2 Gravekeeper's Stele. Because of Necrovalley, we aren't using Call of the Haunted or Monster Reborn. We have something better for this deck, Rite of Spirit. It's 3 free GK revivals. So let's put the max number of them in for massive swarming and getting our discarded GK's back to re-use them. We're kind of lax on Spell/Trap countering. We have the MSTs, no doubt, but we can't stop getting Dimensional Prision'd, Royal Opression'd, or Solemn Warning'd. Let's put in 2 Royal Decree to stop those shenanigans. But since we're playing 2, let's remove our Mirror Force to keep our trap count low since the Decree will be preventing its use. We have Dark Hole for nuking.
So far we're looking pretty good! We don't have much drawing power. Just immense deck-thinning. Allure of Darkness will serve us well, as will Pot of Duality if played correctly. Since each one is either a 2:2 or a 1:1 that speeds through our deck, let's fill it up with those. 1 Allure and 2 Duality. But now we have 23 Spell/Traps, over the 40 card limit. Let's remove the 3 Terraforming since they will be useless draws once we get Necrovalleys. With that, we still have a ~65% chance to draw it in the opening hand which increases every turn.
-3 Necrovalley
-3 Rite of Spirit
-2 Gravekeeper's Stele
-2 Royal Tribute
-2 Royal Decree
-2 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Pot of Duality
-1 Book of Moon
-1 Giant Trunade
-1 Dark Hole
-1 Allure of Darkness
And now we have a playable 40-card deck which is designed with probability of the interactivity of each card in mind. Some things you can side-in are Magician's Circle in case the opponent doesn't have Spellcasters, Terraforming in case you need to lock their graveyards quickly, Gravekeeper's Watcher in case they have discard effects, a third Stele and Pot of Duality in case you really need to speed the deck up instead of using utility so often. Another option is removing Dark Armed Dragon and putting in Gravekeeper's Recruiter in case your Dragon is unable to use his effect due to Necrovalley too often. Recruiter can do some nasty combos with Descendant.
Hopefully you've learned a little something about the design process. But science isn't content with just formulating a hypothesis! Your deck is completely guesswork at this time. You must go out and apply it to the metagame and see how it fares. After each duel, record your winning/losing card advantage and break everything down so you can see what cards are becoming problematic. The answers may surprise you. Use that new data from experimentation to refine the deck and do it all over again. This is how winning decks are made.
Please see exhibit A; a calculator!
http://stattrek.com/Tables/Hypergeometric.aspx
And now to exhibit B; a handy guide!
- Population size - Is the total amount of cards in a stack you're testing from. For most cases, this is the size of your deck. This experiment will show you why 40 cards is a must for just about every deck.
- Sample size - Is the number of cards you wish to draw and sample from. For deckbuilding this is usually the 6-card opening hand.
- No. Successes in population - This is the number of chances you have to draw a specific card in a deck. Duelmonsters has a limit of 3, 2, or 1 on copies of a card. However you can effectively increase this as I will explain later.
- No. Successes in sample - This is what we're actually trying to find. How many copies of this card do you need to draw? Usually this is just 1.
- Cumulative Proability: P(X >= x) - This last box is your answer. It will give you the probability versus "1". This means that you can simply show it as a percent.
For the probabilities I will be giving you, they are based on a deck size of 40 cards and drawing in the opening 6 hands with only looking for 1 success.
You ought to know by now, in this game there are limitations on the number of copies of a card you can have; either 3, 2, or 1 depending on what format and month you're in. The following will show you the constant probabilities of drawing those numbers in the first hand:
- 15% chance to draw
- ~28% chance to draw
- ~39% chance to draw
- ~49% chance to draw
Cards that search give you an immense advantage of options. When designing a deck, you should keep in mind what you absolutely must draw in the opening hand consistently, what you'd like to get, and what's totally optional. Identifying those properties takes some keen intuition and experience that will come with time and repetition. What I suggest is taking a deck that's topped well and studying it carefully, calculate the probability for drawing any given card in the deck, and seeing if you can improve upon it by making the meat of the deck more consistent.
Let's use Gravekeeper's as an example. So you want to build this deck. You're going to want Necrovalley of course, so let's ignore that 3 Terraforming can clog you down for now and just go for the highest draw probability. Add in the 9 cards you need,
-3 Necrovalley
-3 Terraforming
-3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
Now you want to see about getting out your Gravekeeper's. No point in adding them into your deck if you're just relying on blind luck to draw them. Well, looking at Gravekeeper's Spy, he's a good utility card that can act as another copy of each GK you have. Let's put him in. Since most of them have < 1500 ATK, we can also use Sangan.
-3 Gravekeeper's Spy
-1 Sangan
Next, look at the other effects and decide what you'd like to center the deck around. We have spy, so we need lots of fodder or his effect might turn useless mid-game. Howabout 2 Descendent, 2 Guard, and 3 Assailant to start off. We can re-adjust them later if need be. Let's center the deck around getting out--and keeping--Visionary. He's a beefy hitter that only needs one tribute, easily gets even beefier, and can stop himself from dying. For his second effect we'll need lots of smaller fodder to discard just in case. We don't want 3 of him because that wastes precious space for card that keep him out. So let's go with 2 Visionary. So far our monsters look like this:
-3 GK Spy
-3 GK Assailant
-3 GK Commandant
-2 GK Descendant
-2 GK Guard
-2 GK Visionary
-1 Sangan
Well, the deck is shaping up quite nicely. We have a lot of DARK monsters, so this could help us in our Spell/Trap selection. In fact, it can help us now. We can add in Gorz, Caius, Dark Armed Dragon, and Tragoedia with ease. Let's pop in 2 Caius, 1 Dark Armed Dragon, and 1 Gorz. We'll leave out Trag for now since his discard effect is counter-intuitive to keeping Visionary out.
-2 Caius
-1 Dark Armed Dragon
-1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
At this time he have exactly 20 monsters. This means that 50% of our deck is monsters. A very nice 66% chance to draw half our opening hand in monsters. And the same for Spell/Traps, conversely. And a mere 1% chance to clog the opening hand with all monsters. So let's stop here before that number rises.
Our Spell/Traps so far just account for our field spell, Necrovalley. Let's go ahead and get some staples out of the way and add in 1 Mirror Force, 1 Dark Hole, 1 Book of Moon, 2 Mystical Space Typhoon, 1 Giant Trunade (as of 4-12-2011, all these are at their max). Since we have so many ridiculous chances to have Necrovalley, and we want to beef up Visionary for a winning hit, why not put in Royal Tributes? 2 of them will give us the chance to absolutely devastate an opponent's hand provided they aren't using Dark World monsters. We might want to get some easy +1's and get back the GKs we discard too, so let's add in 2 Gravekeeper's Stele. Because of Necrovalley, we aren't using Call of the Haunted or Monster Reborn. We have something better for this deck, Rite of Spirit. It's 3 free GK revivals. So let's put the max number of them in for massive swarming and getting our discarded GK's back to re-use them. We're kind of lax on Spell/Trap countering. We have the MSTs, no doubt, but we can't stop getting Dimensional Prision'd, Royal Opression'd, or Solemn Warning'd. Let's put in 2 Royal Decree to stop those shenanigans. But since we're playing 2, let's remove our Mirror Force to keep our trap count low since the Decree will be preventing its use. We have Dark Hole for nuking.
So far we're looking pretty good! We don't have much drawing power. Just immense deck-thinning. Allure of Darkness will serve us well, as will Pot of Duality if played correctly. Since each one is either a 2:2 or a 1:1 that speeds through our deck, let's fill it up with those. 1 Allure and 2 Duality. But now we have 23 Spell/Traps, over the 40 card limit. Let's remove the 3 Terraforming since they will be useless draws once we get Necrovalleys. With that, we still have a ~65% chance to draw it in the opening hand which increases every turn.
-3 Necrovalley
-3 Rite of Spirit
-2 Gravekeeper's Stele
-2 Royal Tribute
-2 Royal Decree
-2 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Pot of Duality
-1 Book of Moon
-1 Giant Trunade
-1 Dark Hole
-1 Allure of Darkness
And now we have a playable 40-card deck which is designed with probability of the interactivity of each card in mind. Some things you can side-in are Magician's Circle in case the opponent doesn't have Spellcasters, Terraforming in case you need to lock their graveyards quickly, Gravekeeper's Watcher in case they have discard effects, a third Stele and Pot of Duality in case you really need to speed the deck up instead of using utility so often. Another option is removing Dark Armed Dragon and putting in Gravekeeper's Recruiter in case your Dragon is unable to use his effect due to Necrovalley too often. Recruiter can do some nasty combos with Descendant.
Hopefully you've learned a little something about the design process. But science isn't content with just formulating a hypothesis! Your deck is completely guesswork at this time. You must go out and apply it to the metagame and see how it fares. After each duel, record your winning/losing card advantage and break everything down so you can see what cards are becoming problematic. The answers may surprise you. Use that new data from experimentation to refine the deck and do it all over again. This is how winning decks are made.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Duel Theory: Part 1 - Card Advantage
Part 0 was rather long. It had to be, because it was necessary to set the stage for talking about card advantage. You remember when I said that more options leads to victory? This is the concept that is at the core of card advantage. If this doesn't normally apply to you, then you're not building your decks right (and we'll go over that in the future). In this section, we will be discussing card advantage, hand advantage, field advantage (also called presence), and breaking everything down into smaller units.
Card Advantage is the total amount of cards you control different from the total amount of cards your opponent controls. If you have 2 cards in your hand, and 3 on the field, and your opponent has 1 in hand and 5 on the field, then your advantage is -1 ([2+3]-[1+5]). It's a very simple concept. In that situation, your opponent has more options available in total because their hand and field has one more card than your hand and field. When most players talk about card advantage, they might be referring to the simple plus or minus that an individual card gives, the hand alone, or the field alone. These are simply mistakes in nomenclature. By itself, the term refers to all of your cards. And the advantage part denotes a comparison with your opponents' cards. Card presence is the number you have not compared to the opponent.
Hand Advantage as you probably guessed, is the total number of cards in your hand different than your opponent's. Generally, it is a good idea to maintain as many cards in your hand as possible and cause your opponent to waste cards from their hand to make the difference even larger. By the laws of probability, you are more likely to have options to the given situations than they are if you have more cards in the hand. Using drawing cards that give you +1 or more is very nice for adding options. Using drawing cards that give +0 but change things around is also useful as it swaps non-options for usable options (like Allure, Moray of Greed, and Solar Recharge). Use of cards like Magical Mallet, Reload, Card Destruction, or other -1s, is not recommended unless you play infernity where hand size should always be 0 or you are accepting the loss because none of your options work. In that case, you may want to rethink your deck build too. Hand presence is the number of cards in your hand without comparing it to the opponent.
Field Advantage is what happens when you commit to the field. This is where the mind games get played and where the ruse is started. Advanced duelists know to hold off on committing to the field until they can drain the opponent's options. They also know that if an opponent is stupid enough to commit large numbers of cards, the tables can be turned quickly in their favor. If both players are smart, this becomes a Prisoner's Dilemma where neither wants to commit much to the field, but if neither do, then one will take advantage of the empty field. If you commit too much, then one will take advantage with large destruction. Be wary of this balance. Try to judge the current game and use your utility cards wisely. If you can save them for mid-game, once you exhaust your opponent's options and simplify the field, you can quickly gain field presence and therefore advantage. This is the concept which wins duels.
And now that I've talked about utility, aggro, control, card advantage, hand advantage, and field advantage, you should know about two other very important concepts. Tempo and Simplification.
Simplification is any time the total number of cards from both players decreases equally. An example of that is when dark hole is played and you have 1 monster and the opponent has 2. Both of you lose 2 cards and the game is simplified by 4. 4 total cards are now gone from the immediate use of the game and cause the game to become more simple and easier to predict. As the simplification continues (usually into mid-game), it's entirely possible to know everything that can and will happen if you are sufficiently knowledgeable or prepared. This can be a terrible thing if it results in topdecking while you have little field presence. It is the reverse if there is topdecking while you have high field presence. Nuking the field while there are few cards in the hand can be a saving move for you and a way to quickly simplify the game. Cards which almost always subtract as much from you as from your opponent are called "simplifiers". Like Smashing Ground. Some Simplifiers are also called Floaters, which I covered in the last part (cards that replace themselves a la Card Trooper). If your opponent tries to simplify the game, but you can still gain advantage, you pretty much have won the duel.
Tempo is the speed at which both players lose cards. If you are gaining cards, you obviously have a negative tempo. If your opponent is losing cards faster than you, they are said to be "playing to your tempo". This is a very important concept and many cards can change the tempo of the duel like Deck Devastation Virus. If you play this and your opponent continues to draw weak monsters, then you can gain on him/her very quickly. Setting you up for card advantage or early field simplification. If you can control the tempo of the duel, then you can generally win it. Play a few games and feel out how quickly you make yourself lose cards (and therefore options) versus how quickly your opponent is making you lose them. If you are causing yourself the most trouble, then adjust your deck and play style. If it's your opponent, then simply adjust your deck. If you play by the opponent's tempo, then you are almost sure to lose.
Card Advantage is the total amount of cards you control different from the total amount of cards your opponent controls. If you have 2 cards in your hand, and 3 on the field, and your opponent has 1 in hand and 5 on the field, then your advantage is -1 ([2+3]-[1+5]). It's a very simple concept. In that situation, your opponent has more options available in total because their hand and field has one more card than your hand and field. When most players talk about card advantage, they might be referring to the simple plus or minus that an individual card gives, the hand alone, or the field alone. These are simply mistakes in nomenclature. By itself, the term refers to all of your cards. And the advantage part denotes a comparison with your opponents' cards. Card presence is the number you have not compared to the opponent.
Hand Advantage as you probably guessed, is the total number of cards in your hand different than your opponent's. Generally, it is a good idea to maintain as many cards in your hand as possible and cause your opponent to waste cards from their hand to make the difference even larger. By the laws of probability, you are more likely to have options to the given situations than they are if you have more cards in the hand. Using drawing cards that give you +1 or more is very nice for adding options. Using drawing cards that give +0 but change things around is also useful as it swaps non-options for usable options (like Allure, Moray of Greed, and Solar Recharge). Use of cards like Magical Mallet, Reload, Card Destruction, or other -1s, is not recommended unless you play infernity where hand size should always be 0 or you are accepting the loss because none of your options work. In that case, you may want to rethink your deck build too. Hand presence is the number of cards in your hand without comparing it to the opponent.
Field Advantage is what happens when you commit to the field. This is where the mind games get played and where the ruse is started. Advanced duelists know to hold off on committing to the field until they can drain the opponent's options. They also know that if an opponent is stupid enough to commit large numbers of cards, the tables can be turned quickly in their favor. If both players are smart, this becomes a Prisoner's Dilemma where neither wants to commit much to the field, but if neither do, then one will take advantage of the empty field. If you commit too much, then one will take advantage with large destruction. Be wary of this balance. Try to judge the current game and use your utility cards wisely. If you can save them for mid-game, once you exhaust your opponent's options and simplify the field, you can quickly gain field presence and therefore advantage. This is the concept which wins duels.
And now that I've talked about utility, aggro, control, card advantage, hand advantage, and field advantage, you should know about two other very important concepts. Tempo and Simplification.
Simplification is any time the total number of cards from both players decreases equally. An example of that is when dark hole is played and you have 1 monster and the opponent has 2. Both of you lose 2 cards and the game is simplified by 4. 4 total cards are now gone from the immediate use of the game and cause the game to become more simple and easier to predict. As the simplification continues (usually into mid-game), it's entirely possible to know everything that can and will happen if you are sufficiently knowledgeable or prepared. This can be a terrible thing if it results in topdecking while you have little field presence. It is the reverse if there is topdecking while you have high field presence. Nuking the field while there are few cards in the hand can be a saving move for you and a way to quickly simplify the game. Cards which almost always subtract as much from you as from your opponent are called "simplifiers". Like Smashing Ground. Some Simplifiers are also called Floaters, which I covered in the last part (cards that replace themselves a la Card Trooper). If your opponent tries to simplify the game, but you can still gain advantage, you pretty much have won the duel.
Tempo is the speed at which both players lose cards. If you are gaining cards, you obviously have a negative tempo. If your opponent is losing cards faster than you, they are said to be "playing to your tempo". This is a very important concept and many cards can change the tempo of the duel like Deck Devastation Virus. If you play this and your opponent continues to draw weak monsters, then you can gain on him/her very quickly. Setting you up for card advantage or early field simplification. If you can control the tempo of the duel, then you can generally win it. Play a few games and feel out how quickly you make yourself lose cards (and therefore options) versus how quickly your opponent is making you lose them. If you are causing yourself the most trouble, then adjust your deck and play style. If it's your opponent, then simply adjust your deck. If you play by the opponent's tempo, then you are almost sure to lose.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Duel Theory: Part 0 - Aggro, Control, and Utility
You have no cards in your hand by the second turn, your opponent is sitting pretty with powerful monsters and still has four cards in hand. You're topdecking like usual, hoping for that game changing card that never comes. And then your life points get obliterated. What happened? What separates expert players from every day duelists? Even if a normal duelist copies an expert's deck and reads an article about the combos in it and how it should be played, they tend to get roasted in a real duel. It seems as though there's some core mechanic, something invisible, going on in the game world. It's enough to make any normal person dislike the game or even get angry.
It's time to lift the veil on Duel Monsters and expose Duel Theory. You might hear experts trod on about "Card Advantage" or "Field Presence" and the like. What a card's "utility" is and telling you that your field is "over extended". In this Duel Theory series, we will be taking a look at the game from a more mathematical perspective. Rest assured, I won't be busting out the calculus and making you integrate here. This is strictly arithmetic (until we get to deck building). But what is with this strange expert lexicon? Well, one very common set of words you will hear in regard to your cards is "utility", "control", and "aggro".
Utility is when a card allows you to gain something. Maybe it's a monster, maybe it's a card in your hand, whatever it is, it's benefiting you by giving you a card. Not a spell counter, not life points, not a countdown. Cards. Having more cards gives you more options and options lead to victory. So then utility must be cards that give cards - a kind of meta-card. Take a look at Gravekeeper's Spy. Why the hell does it appear in so many non-GK decks? Well the card has a +1 utility that gives you a monster, possibly another Spy that you can Book of Moon and do it all over again. With Spy at your disposal, your opponent might run into its high DEF as a huge wall, letting you keep the Spy on the field and get another GK to boot. You can easily see that his Utility is a +1 because he generally costs nothing and gains you 1 of something. In the case where he is destroyed when flipped, he is a -1 (destroyed by battle) and +1 utility. And that makes him what's called a "floater". These are cards which replace themselves like Card Trooper (destroyed, draw 1 card). Floaters are extremely useful in decks because they allow you to maintain a steady stream of cards to replace the ones you keep losing. Like a river, it will cost your opponent more resources to constantly fight against that flow than if you had dried up sooner.
Being able to maximize the amount of utility you gain from your cards leads you to more control and more aggressive action. You should train yourself to think of cards in terms of +X and -X. Realize that when you play Pot of Greed, it gets removed from your hand, and after activation, sent from the field to the Graveyard and is no longer an option to you. For this reason Pot of Greed starts off as a -1 to your hand (and total number of options) but it does something amazing: it then generates a +2 by drawing from the deck. Thus making it an overall +1. You will notice your total hand size increase by 1 after playing this card, and you will also have gotten rid of Pot--something you can't really use against the opponent--for two new options that you possibly can. For this reason, cards like Pot of Greed usually end up Forbidden. If there were too many of these universal +1 and +2s that speed through the deck, then every deck would need them lest it be a losing deck instantly. To create diversity, Konami chooses to keep cards like this banned. Meaning you will need to come up with other solutions. Allure of Darkness and Solar Recharge are not actually Pot replacements because they count as -1s for themselves, +2s from their effects, but -1s from their costs (rfp a DARK for Allure, and discard a Lightsworn for Recharge).
Reading cards carefully can be the world of difference for what you recognize as good utility and what turns out to be a dud. Magic Jammer is a classic example of something novice duelists tend to think of as good. (Let's ignore the fact that Spell Shield Type 8 is better in every way) The argument from novices goes: I can negate your spells with this card, therefore it's good because I'll wait for a powerful spell. But failing to realize that once activated, it goes to the graveyard (-1) and has a hand cost (-1). It nets you 1 negation, but costs 2 cards to use. Magic Jammer is a terrifying -1 to your options and can cause serious problems for you later. On the other hand, Magic Drain is, at worst a 1:1 (-itself, +negate a spell) and at best a 1:2 (-itself, +opponent plays a spell and discards a spell). We use ratios like 1:1 (one for one) and 1:2 (one for two) to describe how well a card nets you utility. Things like Smashing Ground get rid of themselves to get rid of a monster with high DEF. This is usually referred to as a "One for One". Ironically, the card One for One, is a two-for-one.
Control is the act of harming your opponent's cards. No, not their life points. Not their spell counters. Their cards. Going back to Gravekeeper's, they've often been touted as masters of control decks. Using these types of cards is similar to using negative utility but on your opponent instead. Where Magic Jammer nets you a -1 from the hand, using Gravekeeper's Guard nets your opponent a -1 from the field ideally. Since his DEF is rather high, he generally stays on the field when he bounces the opponent's monster back. For this reason, he is a good +1 control card that is reliable. I bet another card sprang to mind eh? Penguin Soldier. Now at first glance, he seems like a +2 control, and ideally he can be. But more often than not, don't you see your Penguin die after the battle damage and then bounce 2? For this reason, he can only reliably be called a +1 (-1, +2). The field presence itself is very important when dealing with control. If you clear out those two monsters, but lose one of your own, how can you be said to have controlled 2 cards? Your opponent controlled 1 of yours in return!
Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison, Sakuretsu Armor, and the like are all good examples of +0 control. But what is the use of zero? It seems like adding zero to something means nothing happened to it. And this is the folly of the educational system which does not teach the concept of zero properly. But that is for another article. When you think +0, or plus anything, think of what the components are that made that sum. Smashing Ground is a 1 for 1, we know that. Meaning its components are -1 utility for +1 control on your opponent's monster. When you realize how these cards work mathematically, you can see that these zeroes are actually simplifying the game by making you both lose an equal amount. There's less options in play and less to control now. Take this example, you tribute a monster for Mobius the Frost Monarch right? So you lose 1. Then you gain Mobius, so you gain +1. But then Mobius controls your opponent by activating double Mystical Space typhoon and you get another +2 control. For this reason, Mobius is usually considered a 1:3. Which is absolutely insane. He simplifies the field for only a cost of 1 tribute and then you get a meaty beatstick and instantly 2 MSTs! The Monarch archetype takes tremendous advantage of control in this way.
But what about Mirror Force, Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, and other field clearing cards? Well we definitely know that each one is a -1 once activated. But the destruction is variable. Your opponent might over extend his monster zone and have 4 out on the first turn (*ahemblackwings*). You can take advantage of this by playing your Dark Hole and netting yourself a +3 quickly. Now your opponent has 2 cards in hand, and if you can waste those 2, you will have him topdecking for the foreseeable future in the duel. Massive AoE control like these must be played with essential timing. It's generally looked down upon to Mirror Force a single monster, even if it has high attack. Generally, once the first attack goes through, opponents have no problem summoning additional monsters to go in for the kill. Try to use your area of affect variable control cards for massive damage and get the opponent topdecking quickly. Punish their insolent Roman tactics. Timing is even more crucial with Lightning Vortex. Obviously you never want to activate it on anything less than 2 monsters, but more is ideal. For this reason, Vortex is not Limited in any way. Proper play of Vortex can win you the duel after your other AoE control is exhausted.
Aggro is a nonsensical term used by a lot of expert duelists to refer to monster presence on the field. Even if the term isn't very accurate (it refers to an actual style of play and not a mathematical field standing), I will be using this as the term to refer to monster presence. There's a lot of ways to gain Aggro in the game but it is often the most dangerous play to make and the one I see changing the game the most. Novice gamers often wonder why their OTK failed or summoning a bunch of monsters in one turn made them lose. We just went over variable control cards like Mirror Force, so it should come to no surprise that this loss stems from an inherent flaw in the strategy of swarming while the opponent has options. When you convert your Gravekeeper's Spy utility into Aggro (say with Assailant), you are making a commitment to be on the offensive and go for game quickly. Any duelist that sees this move will not hesitate to Dark Hole, Vortex, or set Mirror Force with protection. Stopping a giant hit on their life points is going to be their main concern and it can be done for relatively low costs to them with high net rewards. Basically, you done fucked up royally.
Most duels are like wars of attrition, using their one free utility (Normal Summon) per turn and free control (attacking to destroy a monster). Without proper planning, obtaining massive Aggro on your side of the field simply sets you up for failure. You might as well have just discarded your hand and said "Go". Anti-OTK is very popular in the world of Duel Monsters. Attacking someone with a clear field and lots of cards in the hand is usually a sure bet on Gorz. Doing battle damage at any time can set you up for Tragoedia. Then he controls your monsters and gets a huge edge on you. Unless you have to work for your massive swarm OTK, then you will probably walk right into a trap. Playing Giant Trunade/Cold Wave when your opponent's back row is close to full means that they had every intention on using it to stop you. Eliminating that threat generally ensures you a nice chunk of life points. Play monsters smart, not often. Many duels I've seen turn into exchanges of little weakling monsters like Sangan just because both people are trying to play heavy control on each other. Think about how much more commonly you see something like this as opposed to someone rushing in with a 3 massive fiend monsters and taking the game by force.
As we close here, I want to mention that some of you idiots out there are getting read to email or comment to me about how all of the utility of these cards change depending on the situation. And I'm here to tell you, save your energy. You will not play every card at the perfect time always forever. Most of the time, you will play cards at a median or average moment for them. The median advantage for Vortex is +0, the median for Mirror Force is +1, and so on. The actual game is not like the show and you will not use those ridiculous situational cards the same way that plot-armored protagonists use them to Deus ex Machina a win.
It's time to lift the veil on Duel Monsters and expose Duel Theory. You might hear experts trod on about "Card Advantage" or "Field Presence" and the like. What a card's "utility" is and telling you that your field is "over extended". In this Duel Theory series, we will be taking a look at the game from a more mathematical perspective. Rest assured, I won't be busting out the calculus and making you integrate here. This is strictly arithmetic (until we get to deck building). But what is with this strange expert lexicon? Well, one very common set of words you will hear in regard to your cards is "utility", "control", and "aggro".
Utility is when a card allows you to gain something. Maybe it's a monster, maybe it's a card in your hand, whatever it is, it's benefiting you by giving you a card. Not a spell counter, not life points, not a countdown. Cards. Having more cards gives you more options and options lead to victory. So then utility must be cards that give cards - a kind of meta-card. Take a look at Gravekeeper's Spy. Why the hell does it appear in so many non-GK decks? Well the card has a +1 utility that gives you a monster, possibly another Spy that you can Book of Moon and do it all over again. With Spy at your disposal, your opponent might run into its high DEF as a huge wall, letting you keep the Spy on the field and get another GK to boot. You can easily see that his Utility is a +1 because he generally costs nothing and gains you 1 of something. In the case where he is destroyed when flipped, he is a -1 (destroyed by battle) and +1 utility. And that makes him what's called a "floater". These are cards which replace themselves like Card Trooper (destroyed, draw 1 card). Floaters are extremely useful in decks because they allow you to maintain a steady stream of cards to replace the ones you keep losing. Like a river, it will cost your opponent more resources to constantly fight against that flow than if you had dried up sooner.
Being able to maximize the amount of utility you gain from your cards leads you to more control and more aggressive action. You should train yourself to think of cards in terms of +X and -X. Realize that when you play Pot of Greed, it gets removed from your hand, and after activation, sent from the field to the Graveyard and is no longer an option to you. For this reason Pot of Greed starts off as a -1 to your hand (and total number of options) but it does something amazing: it then generates a +2 by drawing from the deck. Thus making it an overall +1. You will notice your total hand size increase by 1 after playing this card, and you will also have gotten rid of Pot--something you can't really use against the opponent--for two new options that you possibly can. For this reason, cards like Pot of Greed usually end up Forbidden. If there were too many of these universal +1 and +2s that speed through the deck, then every deck would need them lest it be a losing deck instantly. To create diversity, Konami chooses to keep cards like this banned. Meaning you will need to come up with other solutions. Allure of Darkness and Solar Recharge are not actually Pot replacements because they count as -1s for themselves, +2s from their effects, but -1s from their costs (rfp a DARK for Allure, and discard a Lightsworn for Recharge).
Reading cards carefully can be the world of difference for what you recognize as good utility and what turns out to be a dud. Magic Jammer is a classic example of something novice duelists tend to think of as good. (Let's ignore the fact that Spell Shield Type 8 is better in every way) The argument from novices goes: I can negate your spells with this card, therefore it's good because I'll wait for a powerful spell. But failing to realize that once activated, it goes to the graveyard (-1) and has a hand cost (-1). It nets you 1 negation, but costs 2 cards to use. Magic Jammer is a terrifying -1 to your options and can cause serious problems for you later. On the other hand, Magic Drain is, at worst a 1:1 (-itself, +negate a spell) and at best a 1:2 (-itself, +opponent plays a spell and discards a spell). We use ratios like 1:1 (one for one) and 1:2 (one for two) to describe how well a card nets you utility. Things like Smashing Ground get rid of themselves to get rid of a monster with high DEF. This is usually referred to as a "One for One". Ironically, the card One for One, is a two-for-one.
Control is the act of harming your opponent's cards. No, not their life points. Not their spell counters. Their cards. Going back to Gravekeeper's, they've often been touted as masters of control decks. Using these types of cards is similar to using negative utility but on your opponent instead. Where Magic Jammer nets you a -1 from the hand, using Gravekeeper's Guard nets your opponent a -1 from the field ideally. Since his DEF is rather high, he generally stays on the field when he bounces the opponent's monster back. For this reason, he is a good +1 control card that is reliable. I bet another card sprang to mind eh? Penguin Soldier. Now at first glance, he seems like a +2 control, and ideally he can be. But more often than not, don't you see your Penguin die after the battle damage and then bounce 2? For this reason, he can only reliably be called a +1 (-1, +2). The field presence itself is very important when dealing with control. If you clear out those two monsters, but lose one of your own, how can you be said to have controlled 2 cards? Your opponent controlled 1 of yours in return!
Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison, Sakuretsu Armor, and the like are all good examples of +0 control. But what is the use of zero? It seems like adding zero to something means nothing happened to it. And this is the folly of the educational system which does not teach the concept of zero properly. But that is for another article. When you think +0, or plus anything, think of what the components are that made that sum. Smashing Ground is a 1 for 1, we know that. Meaning its components are -1 utility for +1 control on your opponent's monster. When you realize how these cards work mathematically, you can see that these zeroes are actually simplifying the game by making you both lose an equal amount. There's less options in play and less to control now. Take this example, you tribute a monster for Mobius the Frost Monarch right? So you lose 1. Then you gain Mobius, so you gain +1. But then Mobius controls your opponent by activating double Mystical Space typhoon and you get another +2 control. For this reason, Mobius is usually considered a 1:3. Which is absolutely insane. He simplifies the field for only a cost of 1 tribute and then you get a meaty beatstick and instantly 2 MSTs! The Monarch archetype takes tremendous advantage of control in this way.
But what about Mirror Force, Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, and other field clearing cards? Well we definitely know that each one is a -1 once activated. But the destruction is variable. Your opponent might over extend his monster zone and have 4 out on the first turn (*ahemblackwings*). You can take advantage of this by playing your Dark Hole and netting yourself a +3 quickly. Now your opponent has 2 cards in hand, and if you can waste those 2, you will have him topdecking for the foreseeable future in the duel. Massive AoE control like these must be played with essential timing. It's generally looked down upon to Mirror Force a single monster, even if it has high attack. Generally, once the first attack goes through, opponents have no problem summoning additional monsters to go in for the kill. Try to use your area of affect variable control cards for massive damage and get the opponent topdecking quickly. Punish their insolent Roman tactics. Timing is even more crucial with Lightning Vortex. Obviously you never want to activate it on anything less than 2 monsters, but more is ideal. For this reason, Vortex is not Limited in any way. Proper play of Vortex can win you the duel after your other AoE control is exhausted.
Aggro is a nonsensical term used by a lot of expert duelists to refer to monster presence on the field. Even if the term isn't very accurate (it refers to an actual style of play and not a mathematical field standing), I will be using this as the term to refer to monster presence. There's a lot of ways to gain Aggro in the game but it is often the most dangerous play to make and the one I see changing the game the most. Novice gamers often wonder why their OTK failed or summoning a bunch of monsters in one turn made them lose. We just went over variable control cards like Mirror Force, so it should come to no surprise that this loss stems from an inherent flaw in the strategy of swarming while the opponent has options. When you convert your Gravekeeper's Spy utility into Aggro (say with Assailant), you are making a commitment to be on the offensive and go for game quickly. Any duelist that sees this move will not hesitate to Dark Hole, Vortex, or set Mirror Force with protection. Stopping a giant hit on their life points is going to be their main concern and it can be done for relatively low costs to them with high net rewards. Basically, you done fucked up royally.
Most duels are like wars of attrition, using their one free utility (Normal Summon) per turn and free control (attacking to destroy a monster). Without proper planning, obtaining massive Aggro on your side of the field simply sets you up for failure. You might as well have just discarded your hand and said "Go". Anti-OTK is very popular in the world of Duel Monsters. Attacking someone with a clear field and lots of cards in the hand is usually a sure bet on Gorz. Doing battle damage at any time can set you up for Tragoedia. Then he controls your monsters and gets a huge edge on you. Unless you have to work for your massive swarm OTK, then you will probably walk right into a trap. Playing Giant Trunade/Cold Wave when your opponent's back row is close to full means that they had every intention on using it to stop you. Eliminating that threat generally ensures you a nice chunk of life points. Play monsters smart, not often. Many duels I've seen turn into exchanges of little weakling monsters like Sangan just because both people are trying to play heavy control on each other. Think about how much more commonly you see something like this as opposed to someone rushing in with a 3 massive fiend monsters and taking the game by force.
As we close here, I want to mention that some of you idiots out there are getting read to email or comment to me about how all of the utility of these cards change depending on the situation. And I'm here to tell you, save your energy. You will not play every card at the perfect time always forever. Most of the time, you will play cards at a median or average moment for them. The median advantage for Vortex is +0, the median for Mirror Force is +1, and so on. The actual game is not like the show and you will not use those ridiculous situational cards the same way that plot-armored protagonists use them to Deus ex Machina a win.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Welcome
Welcome to Gameking League, those who migrated over here from the hamachi group will know me as Onmi, one of the people you can almost always count on to be there. I'll be here to help people getting started with Duel Monsters on how to build a deck and how to play, in this introductory post I'll go over a few basic (yet none the less common) mistakes that a lot of starting out players have
Number 1. Read the card text
When building a deck one will often use effect monsters over normal monsters (through benefit of actually being useful for more than one thing) and thus it's important to actually read what those cards say and understand how they work. Duel Monsters is by no means a 'simple' game and often chaining the effects of cards is crucial to pulling ahead. So read Quickdraw Synchron and see all the ways he's useful.
Number 2. Get clarification on rulings
Again this is not a simple game, don't be afraid to ask myself or one of the more experienced players about how certain cards work together.
Number 3. Pick a single theme, and run with it
A common problem for newbie deck builders is that they often make the mistake of trying to get their deck to do too many things, a personal example is trying to get a Genex Deck and a Synchron Deck to work together. Either would make a powerful and fast deck, but doing them together just bogged me down and caused dead draws.
Number 4. Know Thy Enemy
Netdecking (That is the act of looking up the formula of a deck and building your deck exactly to the specifications) is often looked down upon, but it is useful for learning exactly what you will be up against if you decide to play the meta-game. I personally find the Gladiator Beasts a boring deck type, but playing them helped me learn how to counter them.
Number 5. Review constantly
Your first deck will never ever be perfect, that's something you have to understand to move forward. You have to constantly review your duels for what mistakes you made, what cards simply didn't work, and how can you improve? It can take weeks to get a deck exactly right so don't feel discouraged if your new deck got pummeled by an experienced player.
Number 6. Don't hesitate
Got Gold Sarcophagus in your hand? considering playing it? do it right now. Don't hold back your attack because the enemy 'may' have a face down trap that will block your attack, by attacking and forcing these traps to activate you force your opponent to expend resources. Now keep in mind not hesitating isn't the same as playing smart, if your monster has an effect that benefits from your opponent having a powerful monster, hold out before using it.
Well those are just some basic tips over the weeks I'll be posting things on basic deck construction and other tips.
Keep dueling and have fun.
Number 1. Read the card text
When building a deck one will often use effect monsters over normal monsters (through benefit of actually being useful for more than one thing) and thus it's important to actually read what those cards say and understand how they work. Duel Monsters is by no means a 'simple' game and often chaining the effects of cards is crucial to pulling ahead. So read Quickdraw Synchron and see all the ways he's useful.
Number 2. Get clarification on rulings
Again this is not a simple game, don't be afraid to ask myself or one of the more experienced players about how certain cards work together.
Number 3. Pick a single theme, and run with it
A common problem for newbie deck builders is that they often make the mistake of trying to get their deck to do too many things, a personal example is trying to get a Genex Deck and a Synchron Deck to work together. Either would make a powerful and fast deck, but doing them together just bogged me down and caused dead draws.
Number 4. Know Thy Enemy
Netdecking (That is the act of looking up the formula of a deck and building your deck exactly to the specifications) is often looked down upon, but it is useful for learning exactly what you will be up against if you decide to play the meta-game. I personally find the Gladiator Beasts a boring deck type, but playing them helped me learn how to counter them.
Number 5. Review constantly
Your first deck will never ever be perfect, that's something you have to understand to move forward. You have to constantly review your duels for what mistakes you made, what cards simply didn't work, and how can you improve? It can take weeks to get a deck exactly right so don't feel discouraged if your new deck got pummeled by an experienced player.
Number 6. Don't hesitate
Got Gold Sarcophagus in your hand? considering playing it? do it right now. Don't hold back your attack because the enemy 'may' have a face down trap that will block your attack, by attacking and forcing these traps to activate you force your opponent to expend resources. Now keep in mind not hesitating isn't the same as playing smart, if your monster has an effect that benefits from your opponent having a powerful monster, hold out before using it.
Well those are just some basic tips over the weeks I'll be posting things on basic deck construction and other tips.
Keep dueling and have fun.
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