With the 2011 World Championship Qualifiers rapidly approaching as well as multiple Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events being announced throughout the world, it’s as important as ever to learn every little trick you can to up your game. One of the biggest things that separate the best Duelists from the rest of the pack is their ability to keep their opponents in the dark. What that means is that a Duelist who is able to find the most efficient way to win the Duel while showing their opponent the least amount of cards in their Deck and, if possible, without giving away what type of Deck they are running at all, frequently has a better chance to win the Match than a Duelist who reveals his entire strategy immediately.

For an example of this in action, we look to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s and Yusei’s Turbo Dueling rivals, Team Unicorn. In their entire history as a team, Team Unicorn managed to defeat every opposing team without revealing their true strategy. Their first Duelist was so good, that he could defeat three Turbo Duelists straight, leaving Team 5D’s in the dark as to what their overall strategy was. That gave them an advantage that almost proved to be too much!

Here’s an example. Let’s say you are running a Flamvell Lightsworn Deck and you’ve been successful with Flamvell Firedogs, Flamvell Magicians, and Rekindlings so far. You haven’t played any Lightsworn cards yet, but you draw a Charge of the Light Brigade. If you’re confident that you’re going to win this Duel, there’s no reason to activate Charge of the Light Brigade. It’s not necessary to further your strategy, and all it’s going to do is tip your opponent off that you have Lightsworn cards in your Deck too.

Win the Duel with the cards you have now, and when the next Duel rolls around, your opponent will have absolutely no cards sided in to deal with the other half of your Deck that you happened to hide from him in game 1! This trick works in many other Decks as well; as pretty much any Deck that fuses multiple strategies is a front runner for this tactic.
That’s not the only way you can leave your opponent in the dark, however. By simply being careful and watching what cards you activate and when you use them, you can avoid giving your opponent information he can use to his advantage in later games, or even later in the same game. If you’re using three copies of Royal Decree or some other powerful, but unexpected card, and your opponent has no idea of this, don’t just use that card flippantly with no regard to the consequences. If you activate an important, strategy-defining card like Decree early and for no reason, you’re giving your opponent a lot of knowledge he wouldn’t otherwise have.

Make sure to wait until that card will ensure you either the victory, or complete control of the game. If you’re just using that Royal Decree because your opponent Set one Spell or Trap Card and you want to make sure you can Summon a Synchro Monster next turn, you’re going to feel bad when your opponent flips up Book of Moon on your newly summoned Tuner Monster and your Royal Decree is simply hit with a Mystical Space Typhoon or even worse, is left to sit uselessly on your field for the rest of the game while your opponent makes that huge push for victory.

Now, your opponent knows you use Royal Decree and can use his Side Deck appropriately, whereas if you had held on to the Decree and played a bit more conservatively, you would have a much better chance of not only swinging the first Duel in your favor, but once again, leaving your opponent in the dark and having a huge advantage for the rest of the Match.

Remember, Royal Decree was only an example; there are tons of different ways to leave your opponent in the dark, whether it’s a part of your Deck that you’re not letting your opponent know about, or it’s an unexpected but very powerful card that you haven’t shown in action. Leaving your opponent in the dark is a huge part of the game, and the TV show. Holding back the strongest cards till the end doesn’t just make for good television, it’s also a powerful strategy that you can put to use in your own Duels!