Hey all, so I felt like doing this. So This is going to be about how to tell if you are winning in a duel, and how to use that to your advantage in learning how to get ahead.

First off I want to say that Lifepoints only matter in the following situations:

1) when they hit 0
2) when you need to pay a cost(ex solemn warning)

So because of that, lifepoints really have nothing to do with who is winning. The only time you need to be worried about your LP is if you are mathing to see if you can survive without dropping some card or other(ie dropping trag after 1 attack instead of after he is done attacking). Or if your LP are really really low and you cant take chances with having low atk point monsters out.
So having less LP doesnt mean you are screwed, it means your opp dealt more damage which is really insignificant. Usually if you get a huge combo off its either OTK or your opponent is done either way, so in those cases LP still doesnt matter. Basically, as above, LP dont affect the game until they are 0.

So if its not LP that decide who is ahead, what is it? Quite simple. Card Advantage. Card advantage means how many more do you have over your opponent. This includes all cards in hand and field for both players. If you are ahead in card advantage, you are probably winning. If you have more cards you can combo off better and you can have better defenses. Because of this, when you are dueling your goal should ALWAYS be get more card advantage, unless you are going for game.

This describes why the current top decks are so good. Wind-ups? summon huge numbers of monsters off of very few cards, ie they have a better field now and they have a higher card count. Also because of Wind-Up Factory, they can get huge plus very easily. Mermail/Atlanteans? They destroy all your stuff while getting to search more cards. they reduce the opponents card advantage and increase their own at the same time. Dark Worlds? whole deck lets you draw and the bouncing monsters for grapha is like summoning free stuff from your grave. more card advantage. GearGia? armor gives huge search power and so does gear giant. more card advantage.

I think you get my point by now, if your deck lets you have a card advantage you should be able to win. This is also why pot of greed is a banned, its a free +1(lose 1 gain 2).

This should help you in dueling somewhat, you can learn when you are at a good position, build decks more toward the idea of gaining that position, and learn how to duel more. I still see a lot of people play that still worry about their lifepoints a lot. Just remember that until they hit 0 they have no in-game effect.

Hopefully this helps everyone ^^

cool topic , i hope we see more in the future (feel good to see professor do something other than testing)

lol, indeed. I actually have a lot of this kinda thing on here already.

hmm , didnt see them (maybe too lazy to look) but i might check them sometime

they are all in the dueling 101 section ^^

ik but too lazy to read them , i bearly read this one , it is so big O: , ^^

big=detailed

big = more boring to read too ^^
if i look to a big message most of time i dont read it

thats your choice though, just like in a class its your choice whether or not to listen to a lesson. the information is there, whether or not you want to learn it is competely up to you. a teacher shouldnt be expected to take something detailed and take out all its meaning by making it smaller and less detailed. taht would defeat the whole purpose of teaching.

ik i was saying what i think about big topics ^^