Yugioh used to be a simple game. If you won the dice roll, you went
first. If you lost, you had an excuse
for losing.
Today’s game has changed that simple formula. Many clever doolists are deferring their turn
and letting their opponent go first.
Since Yugioh players are not known for their manners, there must be a
reason for this sudden rise in courtesy.
Choosing to go first or second has become a complex decision. Doolists need to consider what is
advantageous to their deck as well as what may be detrimental to their opponent’s
deck. This decision can be facilitated
by understanding the advantages of going first or second. I categorize these advantages as follows:
- Card advantage
- Board Advantage
- Attack Advantage
Card advantage is pretty basic. Players going first get five cards and those
going second get six. This difference
means your chances for drawing a limited card increase by 2.5%. In other words, players going second will benefit
from an early Raigeki in one game in 40.
This advantage is greater for decks that run search cards. If
Tellarknight players run three Deneb and three ROTA, their odds of opening with
Deneb increase by 7.2% or one game in 13.
All of the top meta decks benefit from this phenomenon, but, it may make
the biggest difference to Qliphart players.
Most will tell you that their deck is more consistent when going second as
these numbers suggest.
Board advantage is the advantage that comes from getting
your cards on the matt first. In
general, this advantage goes to the player going first in exchange for card
advantage lost to the player going second.
Trap heavy decks benefit the most from board advantage. In fact, I suspect this rule change was
prompted by the dreaded “Laggia/set four” combination seen at the height of the
Dino Rabbit era.
This advantage is being diminished by the recent reduction
in traps by the top decks. While Burning Abyss and Qlipharts have become nearly
trap independent, the board advantage calculus has been changed the most by Shaddolls. This deck actually gains board advantage from
going second, particularly if the opponent unwittingly opens with a special
summoned monster. In short, the
Shaddolls gain both card and board
advantage by going second. While this
deck may be the best at combining board and card advantage, other decks can do
so as well by maining cards like Enemy Controller and Snatch Steal.
Attack Advantage is the ability to do life point damage first. In the past, this advantage was relatively small since the game focused on managing life points rather than
crushing them. The Qlipharts have changed this prescription a bit. Their attacks are so massive and so quick
that “managing” life points is like bailing out the Titanic. While most opponents will have the resources
to deal with the deck, gathering these resources takes time. By going second, Qlip players can make sure
these resources are never amassed.
Given the choice, I will almost always go second despite using
a trap heavy Satellarknight deck. I mitigate
the loss of board advantage by leaving out cards that are good openers but are
poorer responders. For example, I play Enemy
Controller instead of Bottomless Trap Hole.
Nevertheless, the deck does have better first turn plays than most of
the competition. So I’ll summon Deneb,
set two, and say “Go”.
