Calculating your Opponent's 'Outs'

Hey hey readers, AJ here. I know you all thought that i was going to post my World Championship Qualifier tournament report from Bangor. That will still happen but I thought this would be more helpful, probably less so than now because 2 of the 3 Regionals are over, but hey, why not? I think most of you heard enough of me bitchin' about getting 'sacked' against that day anyways so that is enough for the time being.

This article, I believe, is one that holds a bit of value to any player really wanting to better their game. It's something that you will need to do if you attend an event and wish to progress to the top tables.

What constitutes as an 'out'? My definition in this game would be "Any card that can take away your winning or advantageous position". So cards like;
Torrential Tribute
Mirror force
Dark Hole
Gorz
These all fulfill the requirements to take away your position and give the upper hand back to your opponent. I know these cards have done this to me one too many times and this is how you establish how not to run into or fall for these cards.

Firstly, checking your opponent's graveyard is possibly the biggest piece of knowledge you will now get with the banning of trap dustshoot. People dont seem to realise that the graveyard holds so much information about your opponent's deck. Most of these problem cards are staples and 'one-offs' in a deck so by looking through the graveyard you can tell whether or not your opponents still has it as a potential threat to you. Be sure to look through it but do not announce that you are trying to calculate outs, although sometimes that may throw your opponent off their guard. So making a mental note while checking their grave is vital. You see this example most commonly and this is why at crucial stages of an event or even just a game you will see players checking graveyards 3 or 4 times before making a play. This is to ensure their winning play is not stopped. The same concept applies to asking your opponent how many cards they have in their hand. This game is all about maintaining healthy advantage both field and hand. You don't want to deplete your hand then have you opponent having 5 or 6 cards in their hand just so you can have a half decent board presence.

Next, you have to know when to make your push. If your opponent is drawing for turns and not playing very many cards or none at all, then it is pretty clear that they are drawing dead and now is your time to seal the game. Being able to read your opponent and keeping your cool is of great importance in this game, so dont tilt (even I tilted before, really badly) and dont say or give away if your drawing bad, even one set card is enough to keep your opponent at bay for turns on end.

I don't want to break down the maths, its much to early for that but to be honest the maths is fairly irrelevant when the game is so heavily based on luck.

So I hope you enjoyed this read, it's short but sweet and it should help in the long run.

Until next time

Aj

My youtube---> http://www.youtube.com/user/Ajlikesbananas?feature=guide