This guy really got REALLY LUCKY and TOPDECKED his ONLY OUT on the last turn to steal the game from me! Or maybe, just maybe, it was my own fault?

I want to write about something that is very underestimated in Yu-Gi-Oh!, learning from mistakes. I have played the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game for a long time and I can promise you that there is only one solid way to improve at it: Searching for your own mistakes after every game you play.

Sometimes, it is a wrong read on what the opponent had face down or an overall poor side deck decision, other times it is an over-extension. There are several ways you can lose a game and you need to discover all of them.

The wrong way is to blame your opponent or luck for your loss. That is not how it works. There are only a few games which you cannot win no matter what you would have done. Most times, it is just one bad decision that leads to your defeat.

My advice is to go through all the games you have played and look for small mistakes or decisions and try to figure out how the game could have developed if you would have done it a different way. Or just ask your friends for advice how they would have solved certain situations.

You need to find your mistakes and try to learn from them and avoid them in the future. The more you learn, the more successful you will be in the future. Therefore, if you make mistakes, do not be mad about them; learn from them! In my opinion, a professional player is the one who makes fewer mistakes than his/her opponent. There are no players which do not make mistakes, that’s a myth!

Here is an example of a mistake I recently made at YCS Bochum: I was playing vs Inzektor and he had one Spell/Trap facedown to my 2 face-downs including “Compulsory Evacuation Device” and “Fiendish Chain”. He summoned “Inzektor Centipede” and used the effect to target the “Inzektor Hornet” in his graveyard. I thought it would be better to use the Compulse on it and keep the Fiendish Chain because I could go for game on the next turn. However, he immediately responded with “Forbidden Lance” on his Inzektor Centipede and I lost the game.

I completely forgot about Lance at that moment and that is how I lost the game. I should have used the Fiendish Chain instead. If my opponent would have chained his Forbidden Lance to Fiendish Chain, then the Compulse would have sealed the deal.

JUST KIDDING! This guy really got REALLY LUCKY and TOPDECKED his ONLY OUT on the last turn to steal the game from me! Or maybe, just maybe, it was my own fault? You can decide for yourselves.

Good luck, have fun and most important, play fair and be honest to your opponents.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claudio Kirchmair is a Software Development and Business Management student from Austria. Claudio has been a member of United Gosus since 2008, and has served as the Vice-President, Players since April 2011. To learn more about Claudio, please visit his member profile.