Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

"reading" your opponent

D

Dantes guide

New Member
I was recently playing a fun golduck deck I put together for a tournament, and my opponent got mad at me for being "too accurate" with golducks mind play. I had gotten pretty good at reading my opponents in order to predict where the trainers in his hand were (watching his eyes/ card position). My opponent complained and called the technique illegal as the attack is supposed to be completely random.

I can see how that would make sense, but is that truly the case?:confused:
 
I don't know about the legality, but I notice most players have a certain way they like to setup cards in their hand. Some separate energy, trainers, pokemon on differnet sides of their hand. Others keep the cards for next turn on top. I normally riffle my hand after my turn to counter my opponent's ability to predict.
 
lol, reminds me of when I knocked off and opponants Zappyex, Rex and trode ex at a CC last year in 3 consecutive turns :D

It's not your fault that you can read them. If he was realy unhappy he should have just shuffled his hand and put it face down for you to pick.
 
IMO one of my best traits as a player is "reading" my opponent. You know when there isnt a card in a persons deck that they need, and you know when they have a great hand. Players play a little faster when they have what they need and slower when they don't. Also, I dont think its really not your fault if you can tell where cards are.
 
reading my opponent is my strongest skill
if i know everything you can do, i can plan for it
and believe me, i sometimes plan for the most ridiculous things, only to have them happen
mindgames are also fun, i can make you do what i want with just a few words...
 
reading opponenet is a good skill, it help me alot ^^ since i'm running a friendly deck, this skill help me beat those archtype deck....its just mater of knowing what your opponent next move.

btw player skill have nothing to do with gameplay.... its not like you are cheating to read your opponent or something like that... so if your opponent is unhappy about your skill, tell your opponent to call the judge...
 
Heh, reminds me of back in the day at an STS qualifier when they were giving away Jigglypuff #7 promos. They were a hot card then, selling for like $30!
The staff guy would fan out about 20 or 30 cards and you could pick one, just looking at the backs.
He only have like 3 Jigglypuffs in the fan.
'sensei went first and picked a 'puff. "Lucky guy" the staffer says,
I go next and pick a 'puff too! At that point, he starts trying to figure out how we were doing it!
 
... pity the poor soul who went fourth :(

At the end of league I usually have a lucky dip for stuff. I use different color energy cards to select the prizes. ....the players pick is determined by the roll of a big 20 sided die.

Regarding the original question.. Its a fun trick to perform for league play, but somehow it just doesn't seem quite right for tournament play. As you yourself said the choice is supposed to be random no?
 
NoPoke said:
... pity the poor soul who went fourth :(
Click to expand...

He had a whole box of them. He just was putting a few in his hand at a time. Also, remember, back then, we were "just" regular players. The Compendium didn't exist yet and we were just mods and a little site called Psylum's PokeGym that had a lot smaller Pokemon membership than Pojo's Pokemon site.

We didn't do it on purpose, but after we did it, we realized that the backs of the Jigglypuffs were darker than the other cards and so looked different.
 
Doesn't it say that the player chooses a card at Random? If so, let your opponent shuffle their hand around before you choose, now that would be random.
 
I think I can safely say I am very tough to read.

lol, when they use knock off, I just stare at something like a useless evo. just stare at it. They will of course think it is something useful, so haha.
 
If it says Random it means Random. Assign each card in your hand a dice number and roll and discard. Moza, you're right. If people are going to pull tricks like that, give tham a taste of their own medicine!
 
Back when I ran Golduck/Vileplume, I wouldn't even try to read my opponent, although some of them did try putting their cards face down and rearranging them.

Of course, the price you pay is that then you have to look through your hand again later to find the card you want, taking up time.
 
your opponent should have just shuffled his hand and then let you pick from there, holding them facedown himself so he isn't persuaded to divert attention to one card over another. The bend in many holos still can show though...
 
I've used these CC's as a valuable skill-building process, and reading is not excluded from that.

Here are some things to look out for when reading opponents:

-eye movement (the most basic)
-increased/decreased blinking/fidgits
-readjusting oneself in the playing chair
-card flicking...OHHHH YES card flicking! Not only do you need to watch for increased activity here, but you also need to watch yourself, because you may be doing the exact same thing!

An example of "reading" is when I ran Super Stantler. I tried my hardest to tell when the Push away would be most effective. Sure enough, whenever people's hands and necks got tense, that gave away them anticipating the discard, and after going with my better instinct, bang, city champion etcetc :p
 
if people want to read me, they can try. i got me a poker face :p usually... lol

its just part of the game, that is all.
 
Magic_Umbreon said:
If it says Random it means Random. Assign each card in your hand a dice number and roll and discard. Moza, you're right. If people are going to pull tricks like that, give tham a taste of their own medicine!
Click to expand...

ehhh that wouldnt be to good especially combined with the massive hands people have nowadays =/
 
Decks are too similar these days to read. Second, in most cases, card flicking players do not follow patterns outside of anxiousness.
 
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