I have spent the better part of my gaming career watching people make mistakes. I see these mistakes not only in the matches I watch, but also in the matches I play. Dozens of times—no, hundreds—I have confidently made a strong play, only to immediately realize that what I have actually made is an egregious error. Just as many times, I have sat in a hopeless situation, on the verge of concession, only to have my opponent forego the clear path to victory in favor of some ill-conceived misplay. These experiences are universal—the games we play are games of skill, and a mistake on the part of one player will often deliver victory into the hands of another.

I’ve seen any number of mistakes in my time, and Vs. System players make a heck of a lot of them. The players at the top of Vs., the very best in the world, can be expected to make at least two or three serious errors in a given game. At the lower levels of Pro Circuit competition, one can expect to see each player make that many errors in any given turn. This isn’t a slight on the Vs. System or its players; Vs. is a very young and complicated game. There are few—perhaps zero—players in the world capable of playing even one perfect game. This is to be expected, as when players attempt to master such a dynamic, complicated system by themselves, without a clear guide to what is and is not correct, the learning curve is steep.

On the other hand, there are a few very clear-cut errors that I see players make again and again. More than a few, actually. Several. This article, though, only has room for one. Today, I would like to discuss one of the most subtle yet critical ways in which a player can misstep: incorrect timing. As in so many other areas of life, Vs. System is a game where patience is rewarded. It’s usually right to wait, and there are any number of reasons why.

Information is a Vital Resource

Let’s say that you’re playing an Anti-Matter stall deck in DC Modern Age. It’s turn 3, and you have two Shadow Creatures in play, with Kiman waiting in your hand. Your opponent is playing GLEE and has the predictable G’Nort and Tomar Re, with Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern already in the KO’d pile. You draw for the turn and find that you’ve picked up a copy of Qward. You play it face down—it’s your initiative—and pass to your opponent’s recruit. He brings out Salakk and Major Disaster.

Read that paragraph again, and then answer—when are you planning to flip up your Qward?

The answer is—not this turn. Flipping up and using Qward this turn will allow you to stun your opponent’s G’Nort . . . and that’s it. One point of stun endurance loss has essentially no value in a control deck like this one. On the other hand, Qward is one of its most powerful tools. Next turn, you’re going to play Kiman. Your opponent is very aware of what Kiman does, and if he’s smart, he will plan his turn so that Kiman disrupts his attacks as little as possible. However, he doesn’t know about your Qward. He knows that it’s in your deck, but he doesn’t know whether or not you have it. There are two fundamental ways for him to play out the turn—he can either play as though you have a copy of Qward face down, or he can play as though you don’t. If he chooses the latter, you can flip up your Qward and punish him for his lack of foresight. If he chooses the former, he has made the correct decision . . . but playing around an unseen Qward every game will cost your opponent a lot of missed opportunities. Your opponent can’t look at your resource row. He must make a decision based on incomplete information. No matter which choice he makes, there’s a chance it will be wrong. My point is this—withholding information causes your opponents to make errors.

There’s an even better answer to the question I asked a few paragraphs up: you flip your Qward at the last possible moment. Every decision that your opponent makes before you flip up that Qward is a decision your opponent makes in the dark. Every action he takes is another opportunity for him to make a mistake. There are innumerable ways to misstep during a game of Vs. Your opponent could recruit the wrong characters, search out the wrong Construct with Kyle Rayner, play his Light Armor on the wrong character, declare his attacks incorrectly—the possibilities are endless. All you have to do to open up this Pandora’s Box of possible misplays is wait. Information is a valuable resource in Vs., just as surely as your characters and resources are. Delaying your actions until the last possible moment withholds information from your opponent, causes him or her to make errors, and increases your chances to win.

Force Your Opponent to Make the First Move

Here’s another example. Let’s say that you’re playing the Teen Titans mirror. It’s your opponent’s initiative, and you each have Pantha, Hank Hall ◊ Hawk, Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Sharpshooter, and Terra in play. You’re going to use Terra to stun a character this turn, and that character will probably be Roy. You know this, and your opponent knows this. The play is inevitable. Still, you should wait. Holding off until the last possible moment accomplishes a number of things. Most importantly, it severely limits your opponent’s options. Perhaps he has a plot twist that he wants to use on one of his smaller characters in combat this turn. As long as your Terra is ready, you render all of them useless. Chances are that your opponent will be forced to attack Terra first, just so that he can conclude the rest of his attack step without fear of being interrupted. After he’s laid all of his cards out on the table (so to speak), you can make a more informed decision on how to proceed with the rest of the turn.

Let’s take yet another example, which comes up nearly every time I watch a match involving Curve Sentinels. All too often, a player will play Reconstruction Program as soon as he draws it, or use Bastion to pump a character at the wrong time. Playing your Reconstruction Program just because you have three Army Sentinels in your KO’d pile is a serious error. By making this play, you give your opponents an extremely critical piece of information—they now know the exact nature of a part of your hand, and they know to play around three additional pumps from your Bastion. The correct time to play Reconstruction Program is when you absolutely have to. If you have a character card in your hand that does the job you’re looking for, either as a recruit or as a Bastion pump, use that card first and play your Reconstruction Program later. On a similar note, I often see players misusing Bastion in combat. A player might attack a Sentinel Mark V into an opposing Sentinel Mark V and use Bastion to pump the attacker twice. There’s no reason for you to make this play, no matter what you believe your opponent has. Perhaps your opponent has exactly one power-up, but not two. In that case, he or she would just let his or her Mark V stun and save that power-up for another day. Had you used Bastion on your Mark V once, your opponent would have been motivated to use his or her power-up, and then you could respond with the second pump to seal the attack. In this situation, playing your hand out too quickly could net your opponent a “free” card. In general, the rule for combat tricks is this—invest as little as you can while still accomplishing your goal (usually a stun). If your opponent has something up his or her sleeve, you always have the opportunity to play back at him or her.

There’s Always Time for Breakthrough

This last point is, to me, the most aggravating way a player can throw away a game. It’s turn 4, and a player attacks his 4-drop into his opponent’s unreinforced 3-drop. His character is certain to live, and his opponent’s character is certain to be stunned. Still, he plays a copy of Savage Beatdown from his hand to deal 5 extra breakthrough endurance loss. Almost without exception, this play is a mistake. Savage Beatdown is a monstrously powerful card, capable of allowing a character to attack two or even three steps up the curve. It does far more impressive things than 5 points of breakthrough endurance loss. Save it. While it might only be good for a few points of endurance now, two turns from now, it might decimate your opponent’s board. The same goes for all offensive plot twists. To those of you who don’t see the logic in this argument, consider this point: you will almost always win the game during your attack step, and you will almost always do so while in the process of decimating a large portion of your opponent’s board. Using your Savage Beatdown for breakthrough is an option that is always open to you. Using your Savage Beatdown for something potentially more important, like stunning a character, is an opportunity lost if you throw the card away too early. Saving that Beatdown until you are certain it won’t be good for anything more than 5 endurance ensures that you won’t miss a chance to use it for something better. The bottom line is this—if you are using a +ATK plot twist only to deal breakthrough to your opponent, and you are not winning the game this turn, your play is almost certainly incorrect.

All of these points are important, and understanding why they make sense will go a long way toward improving your Vs. game. If you get nothing else out of this article, just try to remember to exercise a little patience. You’ll be a better player for it. If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to let me know in person. I can be found in attendance at almost every major domestic event.