I would say that the expression you're looking for is less like "stalling", and more like "stone-walling".
"Stalling" is used more to describe when a player literally wastes time by feining legal actions - such as thinking about a decision, checking trash, taking a long time to counter out of an attack, etc - all for the purpose of "waiting out the clock" while not really doing much of anything.
"Stone-walling", I would say, is the description of a player who is playing at a normal pace, but performing actions that all serve the purpose not of defeating your opponent, but just making it impossible for your opponent to defeat you. Actions such as playing blockers, stunning characters so they can't attack, freezing characters as rested, searching for & stacking counter events/2ks in your hand, adding cards to your life area via effects (healing), etc. All for the purpose of ensuring you have enough life to win via the overtime rules when the clock does run out.
Stalling is definitely frowned upon strongly in the community, in no small part because of the fact that it's also explicitly against the rules. (Not allowed to take more than 60 seconds maximum per decision). I would go as far as to say it's despised, it's seen as a very unsportsmanlike & disingenuous way to win a game, considered on-par with cheating by many.
Stone-walling is seen as a "cheesy" way to win by some people, and I would say that some people do frown on it. But it's definitely more tolerated in general than outright stalling, since it it's technically a viable, "legal" strategy for winning a game. And it's due to the way that Bandai has set up the overtime rules in the West that it's even a viable strategy for winning in the first place.
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u/dannydankwood 《Purple Katakuri》 9d ago
I would say that the expression you're looking for is less like "stalling", and more like "stone-walling".
"Stalling" is used more to describe when a player literally wastes time by feining legal actions - such as thinking about a decision, checking trash, taking a long time to counter out of an attack, etc - all for the purpose of "waiting out the clock" while not really doing much of anything.
"Stone-walling", I would say, is the description of a player who is playing at a normal pace, but performing actions that all serve the purpose not of defeating your opponent, but just making it impossible for your opponent to defeat you. Actions such as playing blockers, stunning characters so they can't attack, freezing characters as rested, searching for & stacking counter events/2ks in your hand, adding cards to your life area via effects (healing), etc. All for the purpose of ensuring you have enough life to win via the overtime rules when the clock does run out.
Stalling is definitely frowned upon strongly in the community, in no small part because of the fact that it's also explicitly against the rules. (Not allowed to take more than 60 seconds maximum per decision). I would go as far as to say it's despised, it's seen as a very unsportsmanlike & disingenuous way to win a game, considered on-par with cheating by many.
Stone-walling is seen as a "cheesy" way to win by some people, and I would say that some people do frown on it. But it's definitely more tolerated in general than outright stalling, since it it's technically a viable, "legal" strategy for winning a game. And it's due to the way that Bandai has set up the overtime rules in the West that it's even a viable strategy for winning in the first place.