Art of the smokescreen: Mind games

Ok so, I promised this post in my tourny report on sunday. So, I dueling a smokescreen Inzektor to rabbit player during the tournament. And while this deck is fun, and quite a nice strategy at that, He made a few crucial errors. First of all, he was known. These decks typically do not do well at a local level, as by the time you reach round 4-5, everyone knows what you are playing. This does not mean never play one of these decks at a local level. These decks can be very good at a local level, it is just that they do rely upon keeping your opponent offbalance. It is still possible to keep your opponent off balance even with the trick of your deck known. The key is not to be predictable. The player I defeated on sunday was very very predictable. Every game 2 without fail, in came the rabbit, out went the inzektors. Having watched 2 of his games in the later rounds of the tournament, I knew for a fact that game 2 i would see rabbit. This is a horrible idea. You should never become so predictable that your opponent can predict what you are siding at any given time. A way to carry this out is after G1, get out your side deck and begin laying out cards face-down, as if you are going to side. Be sure to flip through your deck and remove an equal number of cards, also face-down. If it is possible, when your opponent is looking, drop one of the archtypal cards from the side deck stack to reveal what you are siding into. It is very important that this is done smoothly and naturally. Now, when your opponent digs through their side looking for their anti-whatever side cards, inconspicously put the original cards back in the deck, and return the side decked cards to the side. Now, Be sure to hold out on revealing what your playing until the last possible moment. Don't do it to the point where it costs you the game, but give your opponents a chance to use that prohibition on the rabbit sitting in your side deck, rather than the hornet in your hand. Another thing to remember is to keep matchups in mind. Siding in to rabbit may surprise a chaos dragon player. However, will that surprise make up for the horrible matchup that is rabbit vs. Dragons? Doubtful. Also, smokescreens should always take advantage of current side deck cards for a deck. An example would be if the standard side deck against rabbit is 2 snowman eater and spirit reaper, siding out any veilers and fiendish chains (just an example). This meta makes a rabbit smokescreen into inzektor a very viable option for the meta. However, if the rabbit side also doubles as a side for inzektor, the time may not be so perfect. I just felt this needed to be said, as that player really pissed me off with how obvious it was. That's all for now.
Tsgreen