Playtesting and How it Should be Done.

Posted on Saturday, August 1, 2009

The main misconception about play testing in yu-gi-oh (and probably a lot of other games) is that you are play testing to make the deck better. This idea is false. The main reason you play test is so that you can make yourself better, not the deck. Granted there will be times where you will probably want to make changes to your deck, and this method of play testing will insure that you get some more optimal results.

Okay so now that you have this idea of what you should be play testing for, a good method of playtesting that me and my friends use is a 20 game method. The 20 game method consists of, you guessed it, 20 games. The idea is to have five games of you going first and then five games of your opponent going first. After the first set of 10 is completed you side deck and do five games with your opponent going first. Then you side deck again and play the last five games with you going first.

This method allows you to become comfortable with the deck for multiple situations, letting you plan the matches ahead of team. Obviously you should do this for multiple decks and then after the set of 20, you and your opponent can (and should) also switch decks between you two so that you can get a feel for the other decks main strategies. Knowing how your opponents deck plays is just as important as knowing your own, and allows you to make skilled reads on what they will do (granted, we're talking about four common decktypes you'll play against, blackwings, gladiator beasts, lightsworn and cat synchro).

You probably wont feel the need to play test like this unless its for big events, but at least doing the 20 game set will allow you to keep your skills sharp with the deck, as well as giving you a just reason to eliminate cards that you don't feel are working optimally.

So until next time:

E.P.B.