It's not just abilities you have to think about. the arena is like chess.

“The art is for me to feed pieces to you, and make you think you took those pieces, because you’re smarter and I’m dumber.(ego inflation) In every game or con there is always an opponent(ego) and there is always a victim(self). The more control the victim(self) thinks he has, the less control he actually has. Gradually he(self) will hang himself, I(ego) as the opponent just help him along.