In my opinion, the most important thing you can have in a game is information. What your opponent is playing, what your opponent has in his or her hand, how your opponent wants to play those cards, and what your opponent is going to draw . . . all of them are things I’m sure you’d like to know when dueling, right? Unfortunately the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is a not a game of complete information. Neither player knows everything about the opponent. This is what makes the game exciting: the element of surprise.

Not knowing anything about your opponent is a terrible plight to be in. You want every possible advantage when playing, and knowing what’s going on in your opponent’s head is a definite advantage. Fortunately you’ll be let in on some facts as soon as your opponent starts the game: the opening card usually indicates what the opponent is playing. Elemental Hero Stratos, Solar Recharge, and Reinforcement of the Army are usually dead giveaways of what you’re up against.

Picking up on information is the most important part of your game. It’s easy to see what the opponent’s playing because you’re sitting right across from him or her. You know what’s hard though? Knowing what’s in your opponent’s hand. After all, you’re sitting right across from him or her and get to look at nothing but the backs of sleeves for the whole duel. But have you ever watched some of the top players on Day 2 battling it out for a Top 4 spot? They never seem surprised by what the opponent does! Most of the time they seem to anticipate that exact move and have a counter-move ready for it.

That’s because the pros can decipher what’s in your hand by making reads. Reads are when you decide your opponent must be holding a given card because he or she has done something that makes you suspect that player is holding that card. For example, let’s say I have a pretty hefty field with nothing really valuable in my graveyard and my opponent drops two copies of D.D. Crow to remove two pretty insignificant cards. That lands three Dark monsters in his or her graveyard. Here I can reasonably make a read that my opponent has Dark Armed Dragon in hand.

What I’ve done there is called a "process of elimination." I arrived at the conclusion that my opponent had Dark Armed Dragon because that player made a move that doesn’t make sense unless he or she has that card. There’s no reason for the opponent to play D.D. Crow that early unless he or she wanted to put extra Darks in the graveyard. Since Dark Armed Dragon is the only card that cares whether you’ve got three Darks or not, I can assume that my opponent—who wants to get three Darks—has one. This is a particularly easy example because there’s only one card that my opponent could possibly hold.

This process becomes a lot more difficult when your opponent makes more subtle plays. For example, let’s say during my end phase he or she flips Phoenix Wing Wind Blast on a spell or trap I control. Now there are a lot of things my opponent could be doing. Caius the Shadow Monarch, Dark Armed Dragon, Goyo Guardian, or Snipe Hunter . . . all of those seem like pretty good options after a Wind Blast play, so we can’t really make a read on what the opponent is going to do.

The process of elimination can help us make a proper read, however. This time, instead of singling out what play the opponent is going to make, we’ll eliminate plays that can’t possibly be made. Let’s say our opponent removes a copy of Destiny Hero - Malicious from the graveyard but has used Monster Reborn and all three copies of Krebons. Most players aren’t going to have a way to revive Krebons in this situation, so we can eliminate the possibility of a Synchro summon from the opponent’s range of potential options.

What other reasons could our opponent have for pulling a Malicious out right now? Graveyard management, Caius the Shadow Monarch, Crush Card Virus, Creature Swap, or defense. From here you can make a mental checklist of what your opponent could have. Let’s say the opponent has too many Darks for Dark Armed Dragon, probably doesn’t play Creature Swap, and has 6200 life points left. Chances are the opponent is still feeling safe, so we can eliminate Dark Armed Dragon, Creature Swap, and defense from the list.

That leaves only two options to prepare for. Our opponent has either Crush Card Virus or Caius the Shadow Monarch. Now you know what to save your Solemn Judgment for. But what if you’re afraid of both? Can you eliminate either of the remaining possibilities? Not with the information I’ve provided, but if you’re able to apply the process of elimination to events that didn’t occur then you may be able to eliminate a possibility. Let’s say my opponent had that Malicious in the graveyard last turn and I had nothing but a set monster and 2000 life points. Clearly my opponent would have played Caius last turn to win the game. Instead he or she just set a monster, and after I summoned Elemental Hero Stratos next turn he or she made the move to special summon Malicious. Therefore I can almost guarantee my opponent is holding Crush Card.

Here’s where topdecks and luck can really hurt you. Inferring that the opponent doesn’t have Dark Armed Dragon because that player has too many Darks can leave you wide open if your opponent draws a way to reduce his or her Dark count. If your opponent draws into Prometheus, King of the Shadows and plays it to reduce the Dark count to three you can immediately adjust your read to him or her holding a Dark Armed, but by then it’s probably too late.

Knowledge is power. If you know how to win the game you can go about winning it. Knowing how to win means knowing how to beat your opponent and to do that you’ve got to know what your opponent’s going to do. The only way to win is to make accurate reads.

—Matt Peddle