End game : auto-win, 50/50 and split

Something that makes a great better is that he (or she) has the ability to forsight how the game can play out. Visualising how the game can end and play his first rounds according to this.
There are three ways a game can finish : Auto win (or auto loose), 50/50 or split.

The first situation is auto win

It is a situation where
A if you play a certain way, there is nothing your opponent can do to stop you from winning.
B situation where you will just have to react to what the opponent does and play accordingly to win.

This is an auto win for me because A : I just old Michel and my opponent cannot do anything.

This is an auto win for my opponent because B : if I open Kommandon he can just Icaro 0 and win. If I open Striker he can Zebos full and win.

The second situation is a 50/50

Anyone who plays Urban rivals and hangs around in social places must have heard about 50/50s : Your opponent opens and must put all his pillz on one of his remaining two cards. If you pillz at the same time your opponent pillzed you win, if you don't you loose.
You open round 3 and your opponent has one big damage card and one low damage card. You have to pillz to stop the big damage card. But you don't know if he will play it round 3 or 4.

You can just toss a coin : you either win or loose.

50/50 is something you want to avoid as they are pure randomness. If you are in a situation of 50/50 you either : screwed up in the early pillz. Had a very disadvantageous hand and forcing a 50/50 is the only way to recover from it.

Third situation : the split

In this situation, player B (the one above) just needs to win one round with either Edwin or Dudley to win the game.
Player A (the one below) will open round 3 and has to win both rounds.

Player A has to open Miloz this round, player B will answer with Edwin.
What options can player B do ? Well he can play Edwin full pillz, he can old Edwin. But he can also play anything in-between. If he plays Edwin 4 and player B played Milloz 5 expecting an Edwin 5 player B wins.

Player B has 6 options available (old, split pillz between Edwin and Dudley) and player A has to play the correct pillz to win the game. 

We are now in a random situation : player A will roll a 6 faced dice, player B will also roll a 6 faced dice and if player A hits the same number than player B, A wins, otherwise B wins. This situation is a 5/6 in player B's favour.

 

Now you know what to look for in your game : you want to be in an auto win or a split in your favor, avoid 50/50 if possible, and do anything possible to not be in an auto-loss or a split in your opponent's favour.

Note : In the split example, for simplicity sake I called the situation a 5/6 in B's favour. But it is actually a 2/3 in B's favour. I will go over that in my follow up article.

In my spare time, I am a volunteer facilitator for the game "Climat Fresk". Climat Fresk is a serious game which lets you learn about the climat change. Please try it, you will learn a lot of things thanks to it ! => https://climatefresk.org/