Quote Originally Posted by Ryll
What Taichi did was pursue the first dead card aggressively, but obviously backed off when he recognized the dead card. The winning hand, Taichi attacked even more aggressively and with confidence. That caused Retro to not only defend his card, but also drop his hand on top of it. If Taichi was so sure that it was the winning card and went all out to get it, of course it would be the right one...right? It's precisely the same thing we saw moments later when Amakasu only moved because he saw Chihaya going for it.
Retro lost his cool because Taichi's attitude made him believe that Taichi had a chance of getting his card, which made him desperate enough to take the card before Taichi instead of simply defending it until he was sure. (He most likely doesn't know if there were any more "The fall" cards left).

I don't think Taichi's thought process involved "If I attack aggressively, I can make Retro commit a fault because he'll be on edge". Instead, I believed it was "I have to move at every card in order to have a chance to take their side". Mashima moved before he knew which card it was because he needs to be close to the card when the 3rd syllable is pronounced.

My interpretation is that Taichi was desperate to take those cards, which forced Retro to act rashly. It wasn't as if Taichi acted desperately in order to make Retro act rashly. After reading your explanation though, I agree that he's certainly capable of such mind games.. and I'm less sure than I previously was.


------------


It's arguable whether or not Yumin cheats, but I was pretty put off when the coaches said Hokuo's strategy was "borderline cheating" this episode. It's legitimate strategy - period. There's nothing "borderline" about it.