Counting Cards: The Pluses and Minuses of Yu-Gi-OH.

Counting cards is essential in understanding how to play your cards and is a great way to reduce your chances of ending up with less cards than your opponent and further increases your chances of winning that certain game you need to win. What i mean by counting cards is not the way that you see in casino movies or anything like that. Its much simpler than some convoluted mathematical equation. In Yu-Gi-Oh at the start of the game we start with six cards each. Lets say for some reason or another you play card destruction and discard your hand to draw five and your opponent does the same. Now already off the bat you are at a disadvantage. When it come time for you to end your turn your opponent will draw to six, ahead of you by one card already. Now, this might not seems to be like a big deal at this point in time but I will stress this throughout the article: BEING AT A NEG 1(Negative one) IS LIKE PAYING 2000 FOR SOLEMN WARNING ONLY TO HAVE IT BE DARK BRIBED. Now that I have explained what "Neging" yourself is lets move on to One for One cards.

A good example of a One For One card is something like smashing ground or fissure. Lets say its turn one and your opponent has one monster on the field with five in hand. He passes to you and you draw to six. You play smashing ground, it resolves, and destroys the monster sending it to the graveyard. Now count the cards. Five in your hand and five in your opponent's hand. You broke even. With this neither you or your opponent has lost any advantage whatsoever.

With "Plusing" its the opposite of "Neging" yourself. Your opponent has two monsters on the field with 5 in hand. You have a set Torrential Tribute. They summon a monster and you activate Torrential Tribute, destroying your opponent's three monster. You lose Torrential but he loses three cards to your one. A plus 2.

I will delve deeper into "pluses" and "minuses" In the next installment of Counting Cards: The Pluses and Minuses of Yu-Gi-OH.

Hope you look forward to it.

SWXKaw AKA Shane Werner