In a premier Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event like a Shonen Jump Championship or National Championship, new decks and anti-metagame strategies always make a big splash. At Canadian Nationals Yannick Dubeau was tearing apart Gladiator Beast and Dark Armed decks alike with his unique Counter Fairy build featuring Arcana Force 0 - The Fool. His deck was cool, it was innovative and it worked. He made Top 8 easily.

Fast forward to Worlds. The Korean National Champion tore up the scene with a Skill Drain deck, which borrowed from Macro Cosmos and played three copies of Burden of the Mighty. His deck was impossible to deal with during the Swiss rounds because his opponents never knew what was coming next. From Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast to Elemental Hero Neos Alius, then Exiled Force, and back to D.D. Survivor . . . his opponents were dazzled by the amount of tricks Jung-Ho Ahn could produce, and were unable to keep up in the duel.

Yet both of these competitors fell short as soon as they hit Top 8. Yannick was taken out by Jason Tan and his Gladiator Beasts, while Jung-Ho Ahn fell to one of the Japanese representatives playing Lightsworn. The reason is because the elimination rounds of big tournaments provide a unique playing field, where competitors all know what everyone is running and can change their style of play accordingly.

The winner of a match in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is often decided by who can play out all their cards to maximum effectiveness. Against rogue decks like the ones played by Ahn and Dubeau, players will often use their cards improperly, leading to losses that could otherwise have been victories. "Right card, right time" means that even with the cards necessary to win the duel, they must be played in the proper order. Essentially what you must do is play your deck as if it is a Swiss Army knife, and your opponent is a series of obstacles to overcome.

The problem for many unsuccessful duelists is that they’re using their decks like a sledge hammer. Attempting to run through every opponent with the same aggressive strategy is ultimately going to become a suicide mission. Sure, you’ll take out some players along the way, but in nine or ten rounds of play the chances of facing two or three duelists who are able to stop you are quite good. This is exactly what happened to Jung-Ho Ahn at Worlds.

In his Top 8 match against Takeru Norihama, Ahn suffered a vicious 2-0 defeat and was sent packing early. After his impressive display on Day 1, many people had picked Ahn as their favorite to win. However his deck was just unable to keep up with Norihama’s ability to play out all his cards. In the first game, Norihama played Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner on his first turn, a move that is rarely made by Lightsworn decks. The reason was that Norihama knew his opponent was playing Skill Drain and needed to get cards into his graveyard to special summon Judgment Dragon cards down the road.

Norihama was able to use the same Lumina to force Skill Drain into the open, then make an attack and use Heavy Storm to draw a Solemn Judgment from Ahn’s field. Ahn was down to 3000 life points, a magical number for Lightsworn. One Judgment Dragon attack would mean game, though without monster effects helping him achieve his goal of getting four Lightsworn into the graveyard, this would prove to be quite difficult. Norihama continued with this strategy, at one point using Monster Reincarnation just to feed a Solar Recharge to help dig for more Dragons.

Toward the end of the game Ahn looked to have things in the bag. With a 2800 ATK Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast on the field and D.D. Survivor lending a hand, Norihama was going to have to pull out all the stops to make a comeback. He did exactly that, but how he did it is what makes Norihama a Worlds-level competitor. Instead of playing everything out in one turn, Norihama took two turns to see what his opponent had.

On the first turn, Norihama summoned two copies of Judgment Dragon. Using them, he forced out Ahn’s best defensive option: Dimensional Prison. He then attacked the Survivor for extra damage, leading me to believe he was holding the third copy of Judgment Dragon as well. Holding onto this Dragon probably won him the game. Had he played it in an attempt to win that turn, his opponent would have flipped Torrential Tribute, and would still be holding Dimensional Prison. Norihama’s Jain, Lightsworn Paladin would have fallen to the Prison next turn and Ahn would still be in the match.

Instead, Norihama’s conservative play let him attack over the Survivor for enough damage that a direct attack from Jain would mean game. Ahn had used his Prison to protect his Fusilier Dragon, believing that with Exiled Force he would be in control of the biggest monster next turn. That’s when Norihama dropped his trump card in the form of a third Judgment Dragon, forcing Ahn to use Torrential Tribute. Jain was then able to drop down and attack for the win.

Notice the way Norihama used his deck throughout the game. At the start, he played his weakest cards to force Ahn’s strongest card (Skill Drain) and set the tone for the duel. He then used the best card available to him in the matchup (Heavy Storm) to force Ahn’s Solemn Judgment, reducing him to 3000 life points. Next he played his available cards to dig through his deck for more options. A few turns later he was using a pair of Judgment Dragon cards to force Ahn’s defensive moves and reduce his life points below 1800. That set him up for the final turn, where he used his last copy of Judgment Dragon to seal the deal, forcing Ahn to use Torrential Tribute and clear the way for Jain to attack for game.

This is the style of successful duelists. Every turn you must be able to change up your play patterns, looking to solve the problem at hand. That’s why Gladiator Beasts are so popular and so successful. Each Gladiator Beast is its own Swiss Army knife, able to tag out for a different monster for each scenario. With the release of Synchro monsters, Tuners become their own Swiss Army knives of sorts. There are hundreds of paths to take in a duel involving Tuner monsters, and the player who can pick the right card at the right time is going to be the most successful at SJC Baltimore.

—Matt Peddle