Letting your opponent keep track of your life points for you.

Um . . . isn’t that the person trying to get rid of all your life points? Kind of a conflict of interest, don’t you think? It doesn’t need to be outright cheating, either. Your opponent might not remember to always keep track of every little change in your life points, especially ones that don’t involve cards on his or her side of the field (if you draw a card and have Solemn Wishes on the field, for instance). Your opponent might be really bad at math, or make a mistake like confusing the ATK of D. D. Warrior Lady with D. D. Assailant. It is not your opponent’s job to keep track of your life points for you. It’s yours. If you sit down to play and your opponent tells you, “Oh, you can keep track for both of us, I don’t mind,” do yourself a favor and decline. One-sided life point records cause more problems than you might think.

Not keeping track of your opponent’s life points.

Having said that . . . you should always have a separate record of your opponent’s life points, too. If you’re playing a tricky burn combo, or you want to flip Ring of Destruction for something other than a draw or self-immolation, you’d better know exactly how many life points your opponent has left! You can always ask your opponent if you need to double check, but you really should be marking down every change in his or her life points as the game progresses. You don’t want to screw up your turn or blow the entire game because you thought he or she had more or fewer points than he or she actually did.

Keeping track of life points in your head.

Yes, people do this, and they do it at big events. I don’t care if you are certified as the world’s most gifted math prodigy, no one should have to believe you when you announce the life point totals without any written record of them. Believe me, I’ve seen people try. I’ve had to resolve life point disputes between players who were both keeping track in their heads, with no records whatsoever and wildly differing ideas of what each other’s totals should be. Let me put it this way—handing out a double loss for an irreparable game state sounds like a much more efficient use of my time than trying to determine which player can out-argue the other.

Using a calculator instead of paper.

Okay, I’ll admit it; I like to use a calculator. I am not fast at math, and I don’t write very quickly. Calculators are so much easier. However, the calculator does not leave a verifiable trail, and there are going to be times when you need one. Plus, what happens if you hit the wrong button? I’ve wiped out my life point totals before, either because I pressed something I didn’t mean to, or the calculator up and died on me. If you really can’t bear to do the math the hard way, go ahead and use your calculator, but write down the changes on paper as well.

It’s also not a bad idea to jot down what caused each change—a brief note will do, like “Confiscation” or “attacked def. Sangan w/ Zaborg.” Sometimes that really helps. Make sure you record gains clearly as gains—you don’t want them treated as subtractions if there’s an audit! Also, please make your numbers readable. I remember trying to puzzle out a paper record at a Shonen Jump Championship when there was a dispute—both players had the math on paper, but one of the player’s computations was just a bunch of loops. Three judges took a look, and not one of us could decipher them. Be legible!

I’m just going to give you a little example of how important a paper trail can be. Last summer, I table judged the finals of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG World Championship 2006 in Tokyo. In addition to watching the players, I had to keep updating their life point totals on white boards that the video cameras covering the match could then broadcast for the audience. At the end of each turn, I’d wipe off the old total and write in the new for each player. That made it easy for the audience to follow along, but in game 3, there was a life point dispute. Italy’s champion made a final rush against the Hong Kong champion, and believed the game was over. The player from Hong Kong didn’t agree—he was sure he still had points left. Since the white boards (essentially the same as a calculator display) were wiped clean between turns, they weren’t any help in convincing him that he’d just lost the match. (And really, who could blame him?)

Fortunately I was also keeping a written record of each change in a notebook hidden in my lap. From there, I was able to take the game back a few turns and show him the 700 or so life points he had forgotten he’d lost. It doesn’t get much more important than game 3 of the finals at Worlds—especially when they’re on stage in front of an audience. Imagine if we’d just been relying on calculators. It could have caused an international incident! Remember, paper is your friend.

Making math errors because you’re going too fast.

Sometimes players tend to dawdle over the meaningless tasks and speed through the important ones. Do you really need to check how many cards are in your opponent’s hand and look through both graveyards once or twice per turn? Then you start slapping stuff out on the field without waiting for a response, declare all your attacks as one, and scribble away at your life point record. That’s how mistakes get made! You don’t need to speed through your calculations. Slow down and make sure you’re doing it correctly. Don’t worry about trying to impress people with your elite mental math. I can honestly say I’ve never felt a compulsion to tell someone, “Wow, the way you subtract in your head? Dreamy!” I know that when we’ve played the same monsters against the same monsters for a while, it’s easy to memorize the likely attack damage, but write it on the paper anyway. When there is a discrepancy, you’ll be glad you did.

Not verifying the life point totals with your opponent during the course of the game.

I’ve seen really good players mess up on life points, usually at matches that I’m either reporting on or table judging. It happens! It’s always best to catch and sort out discrepancies before you get to the end of the game, while the last few turns are fresh in everyone’s mind. Whenever the life point totals change, take a few seconds to say, “I’ve got us at — and —. What have you got?” If there’s a discrepancy, stop and figure it out.

Pay attention to this next bit—make sure your totals agree, and if they don’t, figure out why. If your opponent thinks that she has fewer than you have listed, let her know and then figure out what happened. “Well, she knows better than I do what her life points are,” you might say to yourself piously as you reply, “Yup, that’s what I’ve got!” and scribble in a lower number. However, if that player had herself down for 2000 more life points than you had her at, you’d probably be a bit less willing to let that slide. You’d double check if she had you down for less, wouldn’t you? Don’t take it as a lucky gift if the opponent miscounts your life points and has you down with more than you actually have, or puts him or herself at less. That is cheating. Avoid any allegations of misrepresentation, and always track down discrepancies even if you think they’re in your favor.

If your opponent asks, you are obliged to give him or her your accurate life points. Don’t try and confuse the issue by saying, “Well you should have been keeping track, shouldn’t you?” and never lie or otherwise try to mislead your opponent. Life point totals are public knowledge, and if you try to misrepresent either player’s points, you’re likely to get a sharp penalty. Don’t be dodgy on this.

Not writing down life point costs or changes until all effects and actions are resolved.

If a lot is happening in a turn—you’re planning to activate several cards with a cost, chain together several cards that deal damage, or attack several times—it’s tempting to wait until you’re completely done before noting down the life point changes. Don’t do this. It’s quite easy to forget something, especially when you’re dealing with a lot of cards, or things like costs. Likewise, if you’re attacking with multiple monsters, record each one separately. Don’t just write down the total damage you dealt—you might need to go back and double check if there’s a dispute, and when the monsters aren’t on the field anymore, it’s a lot harder to reconstruct attacks if you’ve combined the damage. If a neutral party who wasn’t watching your entire duel (i.e., a judge) ends up reviewing your totals, it’s going to be easier on you if you’ve got each individual life point change recorded.

Have I convinced you yet? There are some decks emerging in popularity (Chain Strike Burn, most notably) that can inflict a lot of life point changes in small doses. If you’re not on top of who has what remaining, it’s easy to blow a complicated play, or think you’ve lost when you haven’t. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of players scoop up their cards before actually doing the math, believing they’d been beaten, only to realize later that they actually had some life points left. It’s not a happy place to be, and it doesn’t happen if you do an accurate job of tracking your life points. It’s a new year, and it’s time for new resolutions! If you’ve been guilty of slacking off in your life point recording, now is the time to change for the better. Throw a little notebook and some pens in your dueling bag—right now, while you’re thinking about it—and I hope we’ll be seeing them at your next event.