“Defense wins games.” The age-old saying between Chess, Beyblade, and the NFL seems like a surface-level one-liner thrown at parties, tournaments, and tailgates. But when you consider what it takes to have a strong defense, it’s anything but equal to the offense thrown at it.
When it comes to balancing a game with rules, it’s important to understand that a competitor initiating a play or move is already aiming for the goal before the opponent. Because Defense lies in being a counter response to this initiation, both game designers and competitors need to regard the “X to Y” relationship here, with Defense being the reaction to the initiation of Attack.
The designers of both the Yugioh and the Pokémon TCG knew this from the get-go. For early Yugioh, normal monsters that required no tribute to be played had their attack stats capped at 1900 or lower, while defensive-based no tribute monsters were given a 2,000 cap. Pokémon was even more blunt, with its first set containing the +10 Attack PlusPower and +20 (appropriately named) Defender. If the cards were valued at the exact same, then Attack would naturally claim even more usage due to the inherent advantage of offense being an initiation towards winning the game. Even with the numerical edge granted to defense here, the offense-oriented cards still saw more general usage due to the instant progress they could give the player over being a reactionary precaution.
“Defense wins games” doesn’t just come from playing a blue vitamin bottle for your Lickitung; rather, it’s capitalizing on what defense can grant you by exposing the weaknesses in the opponent’s offense. You can reduce damage or protect your life points all you want, but you still have to make progress on your own in order to win the same game as the initiator. This natural learning curve to push defense to your advantage is the tried and true maker of so many competitive matchups, interactions, and tournament winners.
When you look at Team Fortress 2 Payload matches, the average win rate of Attack vs. Defend is weighed against Attack. Even if the public server shuffles the players around, playing defense requires you to hold an objective while not overextending so that your team is prepared to respond to their initiations of progress. In competitive Highlander, both teams take a turn for both sides, with a stopwatch to calculate the winner. Something of note is how often these top-level competitive teams coordinate to patiently hold an objective point and coordinate their strikes. Team Fortress 2 also grants Defense a +1 in regards to The Pyro’s Projectile Reflects being Mini-Crits. Reflecting is TF2’s version of a parry; as such, it requires the Pyro player to react and predict when the initiator fires a projectile. At a higher level, this can turn into long-delayed mix-ups that test both players’ game sense to attack or defend accordingly.
The key to a game-winning defense is recognizing the key opportunities to strike. Just like a tactful NFL coach, observation of your opponent’s behavior and weaknesses is a strength that aligns with the time granted to you by good defense. Defense grants you time; the skill ceiling for how you take advantage of that time comes down to the competitor.
In Obi-Wan’s case, the time was over 30 years. His duel with Darth Maul in Star Wars Rebels demonstrates his honed observation as to what Darth Maul’s attacking plan is. By beginning the duel with the lightsaber stance used by his fallen master, Obi-Wan predicted that Darth Maul would seize this window of opportunity to kill him as he did Qui-Gon Jinn decades ago. Darth Maul’s offense-oriented “aim to kill” fighting style, paired with his arrogance and hatred for Obi-Wan, did not prepare his own defensive countermeasures for the duel. Preparation allows for your 2000 defense monsters to provide tribute for a monster with even more attack. It serves for Lickitung to deny KOs while exhausting your opponent’s deck, providing a win condition outside of taking KOs. Most importantly, defense provides crucial analytical time to see how the opponent reacts to their game plans not working out—are they an innovator, an honor, or both? Keep refining your patience, and remember to always seek new plans of adaptation while trusting your practiced fundamentals.
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