Psycological, Money, Luck and Skill Factors

Before anything else,this article is not mine at all,it is from a spanish website i visit frequently,the only thing i did is translate it (i got authorization from the original writer to translate and post it)
so,sorry if anything seeems kinda out of place,i did my best to translate it clearly


The beauty of Yu-Gi-Oh resides on that, apparently, it is a simple game, that sometimes, decks seems to play themselves and that there is no mystery at all, Though reality is totally different, it is a deep game with many factors involved. To those who think otherwise i reccomend they should spend more time on youtube watching duels from Rodrigo Togores, Billy Brake, Adam Corn, Frazier Smith, among others.

Since the basic rules are simple, anybody can learn to play this game in a matter of hours; there are even some newbie players that come to believe they are really good when they are using a deck like Wind-Up or Dino-Rabbit. From the point of view of the expert on Póker, and the expert on YGO, players like the ones mentioned make the game profitable, anybody can learn quickly the rules of Póker and the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh and believe they are the Lebron James of the cards.

But the truth is, reality is other, cards are a science and they should be studied thoroughly. If we pit an expert duelist using an inzektor deck versus a standard player using inzektors, the results will always favor the expert player, because truth is, deck never play themselves, even though it looks like it.
There is an infinite number of skills that separate an expert player from some one that knows how to handle decks but that is not truly an expert.
(towards the end of the article,i'll be talking about this "skill factor", right now,i will go through the other factors)

Psycological Factor:

Mental and Emotional factors on Yu-Gi-Oh aren't propperly reflected on the literature of the game, and maybe thats why most of the people underestimate them, but they are extremly important at the time of the duel.
Every duelist loses matches that he shouldn't, and not because a lack of knowledge, or a poor understanding of the game, but because of their bad attitude, a weak mentality, and wrong reactions tocertain situations. Those duelists that master the human factor of the game are those who really grow stronger (ovbiously mastering the other factors too)

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War-

This refers to the attitude on the table at the time of a duel, how to face our opponent, how to go psyched to the match or the tournament. First, you have to win in your mind, and then go to win on the table.
Accross time, duelists that are successful develop a certain repertory of techniques that they carry with them to the tournaments. I'm not talking about knowing how to play with our deck, since that is something basic. These skills are knowing what kind of gameplay adopt against each one of the deck of the metagame, knowing how to play both your and your opponent's deck, prevent and neutralize plays from the opponent, along with many other things that are adquired with the experience. These skills maximize their chances of taking the best course of action on the duel (and big part of the game resumes to that).
Successful duelists grow stronger when they develop a correct mentality: a psicological toolbox that complements the techniques. In fact,this ca determine that under certain circumstances, the defects that their duelist mentality has could make them lose more than their defects on their technical skills.

Money Factor:

An always important factor in any card game will be the money, this is directed to the people that is always raging against Konami because you need a lot of money to play. but people, it's like that, you need to invest a lot of money on any card game, Be either póker, blackjack, Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic, always but always the cash factor will influence the game, and always whoever has more money will have a certain advantage. That doesn't mean it is invincible.
On póker,whoever has more backroll has more chances to do the all-in and bet left and right, however you will never see anyone complaining about that. On Yu-Gi-Oh, whoever has more money will have access to the most fast, stable or controlling decks, and the most rare and efective cards. This is something that shouldn't bother us, since we cannot change this and our complains are useless, cards have always been a game where the cash affect the game, but is never a determinant factor, since with the other factor you can be equally stronger.
Besides, nowadays there are many economic decks highly competitive, it's just a matter of inteligence and knowing how to play them.

Luck and Skill factor:

A discussion that has lately being going around Facebook is that if Yu-Gi-Oh is just a game of luck, or a game of skill. Many were on favor that is just a matter of who has the better hand, and other that is just a matter of skill. I did answere them with the following statement: "It is a game of factors, and whoever master better hose factors will be a better duelist".

Luck or Skill?

the answer is: BOTH, but they don't influence the game at the same degree.

It is really both a game of luck and skill. As you can see,the order of our cards we get is completly random,and the opponent´s ones too, even if we use searchers like Charge of the Light Brigade,Reinfocements of the Army, Proving Ground, Black Whirlwind or similars, is just a matter of luck that we get those cards too, however,there are times where our opponent has a better hand than ours or viceversa. We cannot change that and thats why Lcuk influence this game.
But, if we analyze thoroughly the game, we can see that there is a considerable amount of skill on the game. Since the moment we sat on our desks to assemble our decks, read articles about the metagame, to study how do other decks work, since that moment we are inserting the skill factor on the game. We build our decks with 40 cards well analyzed, each one has it's own motive for being there, we we go to a tournament, visualizing which decks will be the most common in there, and thats why we use certain techs that give us advantage, prepare our side-deck previously analyzed, and we test the deck before the tournamet to see how is our skill and deck working (if it has stability,acceleration,synergy,etc). Once in the duel we should watch carefully for the clues avaliable to prevent our opponent's plays and then use our judgement to take the best course of action before every situation, thats when we start analyzing the graveyard, the field, the umber of cards in opponent's hand, banished zone, etc.
As you can see, it is a science, not just luck. Since the moment there is use of judgement, a certain margin of error, and when there is one,evidently exists an element of skill.
Skill influence the game even before playing,a dn during the duel, and as i always say, proof of that is that there is people like Billy Brake that has won 2 YCS, Ryan Hayakawa that won 2 Shonen Jump Championship, or Emon Ghaneilan that was the first to win 3 Shonen Jumps.
If only luck mattered on the tournaments, don't you think it's a lot of coincidence that these duelist have won many times these tournaments?. being that on each one, there is around 2000 duelists, and each one of them with the same factors at their disposal, including the deck. If it was pure luck that decided the outcome of the games. then these duelists should have played lottery and made themselves rich a long time ago.
But since there is "more skill than luck" involved, sadlythey won't win the lottery,since that is just pure luck.

the good news to the constant duelist is that if he/she plays long enought,luck will stop being an important factor. Mathematics know about this, i'll explain it: The more times a random event happens,it is less probable that you get an extreme result".
Here is an example: let's take a dice and throw it a single time,the extreme results here are the numbers 1 and 6 on the dice, but now,their probability is the same as the one getting a 2,3,4 or 5, because luck determines the outcome on a short way, this is when we throw the dice once, but what about 10 times?, we will notice that the chances of getting a 1 or 6 are less, that tells us that luck doesn't reign absolutely on a long way, applying this on our science can be put this way: think of the 1 as the worst hand ever and the 6 and the best hand ever. This theory is known as "The law of big numbers", on póker, this "law" has amazing consequenses, so i don't see why it wouln't have them on a TCG. I mean, the more matches you play,the chances of having good or bad luck decreases constantly. at a long way, is best to have a stable hand, than overpowered or horrible hands.
Haven't you had that feeling that you stop playing just some weeks, and when you enter a tournament after that,everything seems to go wrong?
Your skill is still good, but stil nothing is working on your favor?
Have dead draws, or even if your draws are good,your opponent's are better?
That is this law working.
To that,you can add this factor: "The more inmersed is a dueling onto the game,the more skill they keep on". Meaning, if you duel constantly, you can keep your skills intact,and even develop them, you even think faster, and more automatically, but if you play little to none, you lose your rhythm, and it's harder for you to prevent your opponent's plays, etc.

You can say that, the longer you play, the less important luck becomes,and skill becomes more important, thats why, before going to a tournament, you have to play the most matches you can do before it, whoever that doesn't have time for that, will go to the tournament at disadvantage; it wouldn't even be psyched for said tournament.

That being said,these are the 4 factors that can influence the game,polish on them,and you can become a better duelist guaranteed

"It only takes 5 minutes to learn how to play, but it takes a lifetime to master the game" -Mike sexton- (Professional Póker Player)

Sigh, I must've read the same thing all over the internet with different words already.

Truth is this game is less dependent on skill with each day that passes IMO. No matter how good you are, you can lose to lucksack anytime.

Funny thing is, a YGOcastellano user writting this, where EVERYONE there is using the last meta in fashion...he must be tired of getting flamed for using Dino Rabbit LOL.

If you wanna stay competitive and play TO WIN, use meta, lucksack, be "skilled" and you're da shit. If you wanna play for fun, you'll be raging to each dino rabbit player you encounter xD

Skill gives you a slight upperhand, and that "slight" word shouldn't be there, that's the problem.

10% money + 10% strategy + 30% skill + 50% luck = win

PD: forggot to put money into the ecuation LOL