xinef detailed explanation is good and all but surely giving out details while you're still in the tournament is not the best way to go about it
Are you so sure about it?
IMHO it depends. If my goal was to win, then in most circumstances it would be true. I'd need to be really good at this strategy to improve my chances of winning through revealing my strategy.
On the other hand, if I have other goals, and winning is only one way of achieving them, it is a very good idea to choose other methods if I estimate my chances of winning to be very slim. For example, other methods might include doing epic things and having an original approach to duels. Even if I lose, I can still lose in an epic way, and do it with style. This way, I can achieve my goals even if I lose. It's a win-win scenario.
Another example. If all participants of a tournament aim to win, only one of them will succeed and be happy. The remaining ones will lose and be sad about it.
If all participants aim to have fun, it is very likely that all of them will succeed. One of them will win, but all of them will be happy. Win-win scenario.
In this case, I simply estimated my chances against fire to be lower than my chances against darkness. I lost against darkness, so I assume my chances of winning against kevkev are low enough, so that epic victory is not really an option. Thus, having to choose between the standard 'lose - then reveal my strategy, as I did after fighting Kael' and 'reveal my strategy - then lose', I decided the second option fits my goals better.
I know kevkev is a good enough PvP player, so I'm pretty sure he knows most of my strategy anyway. Maybe I gave him a hint or two, but based on what I gain and what I lose through revealing my strategy, I think it was worth it. In worst case, the battles will be slightly less epic, but at least we had an interesting discussion before the duel. In best case, I can surprise him with a perfect counter to his perfect counter of my perfect counter.
Ok... in worst case scenario I'll receive a warning or ban for causing drama and disrupting the event
Anyway, the ones that will be remembered by the community are the winners, and the punners. If I can't be the first, I'll be the... oh wait, that's not my goal really, it's just a side effect
It's not necessarily contradictory. I'm just trying to extend each element's card pool. For instance if each element could pick 6 cards, Time could add:
Pests, I. Steal, Obsidian Dragon, Momentum, Sapphire Charger, Trebuchet.
That significantly increases possible decks Xinef could make. Banning one of those cards or a Time card helps narrow the possibilities, but if Xinef picks his cards well, he still wouldn't be completely blocked off from creating viable counter-decks to his enemy. Basically it's the same thing as now but with a larger card pool and a handful of those cards being user-defined.
I like the idea. This way it would be possible to eg. use Dune Scorpions, Deathstalkers, and similar cards useless in monos. It would be possible to make better denial decks (eq + rewind, discord + rewind, devourer + rewind), it would be possible to make Time deckouters with miracles, vampires or antimatters. Stuff like that. On the other hand, you can still break one of opponent's combos by banning the right card. Eg. banning EQ against earth will break their denial capabilities, even if they take rewinds, discords or pests as a sideboard. Banning phase shields will break aether's phase shield stall that is the bane of many mono decks, even if they take other stall cards as sideboard.... sounds good.
