Expanding your horizons

If there's one thing I've learnt in the past year or so where I've been playing yugioh at a competitive level, it is that you should always expand your horizons. Normally I hate different, I hate new and I'm afraid of the unfamiliar (no I do not have Cenophobia- I think) but in the case of Yugioh, you just have to embrace new ideas and concepts. Even if you don't want to embrace it at least familiarise yourself with them because you're bound to face them sooner or later and you don't want to pick up those 5 cards not knowing how to handle the situation. I'll give you an example. Chain burn. If you have ever faced this deck, you'll know how frustrating it is and how helpless it is to be in your position. I hated this deck with a burning passion (see what I did there?). My friend first used it against me sometime last year and to me the idea of using burn to win was cheap and a disgrace to the game. I cursed the player to innovated chain burn and said he ruined Yu-Gi-Oh for those who played it. But after weeks of hating on chain burn I decided to use it, not because I wanted cheap wins but because I decided that the only way to know the strengths and weaknesses of a deck is to pilot it yourself. Think about it: if you were piloting inzektors what would you fear? You'd be afraid of effect veiler, D.D crow and other effect negating cards. Now put yourself in the shoes of someone facing inzektors. You know exactly what your opponent is afraid of. You know which cards in their deck play the vital role and which ones are just support mechanisms.

My point is, in Yu-Gi-Oh those with perspectives have an advantage over those who focus on that one deck they like. By using decks you like and dislike, you will find out the strengths and weaknesses of each deck and how to adapt your strategy to best counter that deck. So next time a deck annoys you or you just dislike the way it functions. Do some research on it, see the playstyle is has and find out the weak points you can abuse. I shall capitalise on this post by discussing the top decks right now both tier 1 and tier 1.5 and how you should adapt your strategy to take them down! Until then, keep this quote in mind

"Good players play the format, great players define the format"