Sometimes you can only do so much by playing whatever is meta at the time as eventually, your pool of sane plays will have dried out. Instead of trying to throw all the things at your opponent that you tried already, try mixing it up. I will help you by listing 10 plays to catch your opponent off-guard, some of which help you as a solo MM player, some can help teams expand their playbook by a few trick plays, enabling you to flabbergast your enemy. It's important to note that these plays often are a one-trick-per-match-pony, meaning that you can't do most of them more than once per game and expect success.

Also, some of them can be far-fetched on higher tier play, like Global as well as level 7 and above on FaceIt, but that doesn't mean that they aren't worth a shot!

Be aware that these plays aren't really ranked in a specific order.

Virtus.Pro Strat: 4-5 CTs Mid Stack on Cobblestone

This strat was popularized by the golden five line-up of Virtus.Pro and it is characterized by the unpredictability of this set-up, as well as the (almost) guaranteed kill once a T pushes Mid. This play is especially worth it in full (USP-S and P2000) ecos.

As is illustrated by the graphic on the left, you get all five CTs to line-up on the ramp in Mid, which causes all five CTs to get exposed to and see the enemy at around the same time if a T pushes out of Water. This will cause him to face five CTs all at once, who with even only starter pistols should get five tags in the second he peeks, which leaves him with like 20 HP without a headshot. Obviously, you should aim for the head, as two headshots kill him. There is basically no way for a T who overcommitted to the peek in mid to get out alive, granting your full eco a weapon.

The more people in Mid, the better this set-up is. However, if you commit all five players to Mid, B will be completely open and A-Long will also be a potential factor that can kill your set-up. However, this is why you should do this in full ecos, where you have nothing to lose and your chances of winning the round are extremely slim with or without this set-up. Ideally, you will get a rifle and 5 surviving CTs in a retake to B with fast flanks, in case the Ts haven't planted yet.



One-way Smoke B-Halls on Train

Sometimes you feel like wax in the hands of the well thought-out T-side of the opponent, but instead of just pushing Upper B and taking Ivy control early on you can also try to get a one-way-ish smoke working in B-Halls to try to lure the Ts into their timely demise.

This smoke will look like a normal B-Halls smoke, however, the edges and corners are perfectly lined up to not to allow any Ts to sneak through without having grey screen from the smoke for a solid part of a second, allowing you, with the right positioning (behind the smoke for example) to spot them before they spot you. This smoke also helps you at slowing down and weakening B-rushes, as you can see them exit the Smoke from lower B before they have full screen visibility again. This smoke can actually help you to significantly slow down the T-side, even though you aren't even close to the smoke. You can make it a habit to throw this smoke and condition the T-side to not to be scared of it until you stand right behind it one round.

Of course, once you start this the second round in a row the majority of players will be more careful, flash through the smoke, wait for it or spam through it. So don't get too active with the abuse of this smoke.



Decoy-Flash

The decoy only costs $50, however, it can help you win rounds! A lot of people simply misuse the decoy and throw them away in spawn after picking it up the round prior.

To correctly use the decoy as a fake flash, be sure to think of it like a popflash, but just slightly worse. You can get a in-depth look at what a flash should do here, but to quickly summarise: The flash should pop instantly as it enters the view of the enemy, without making a sound. Use the decoy in popular popflash spots, like Popdog on Train, where you can right click-flash into Popdog. This flash is so common that, if you use a slightly worse flash line-up with your decoy, people will turn around once they see the decoy. Et voilà, jump down and get the kill on the enemy that is turned around.



Masking Drop Sounds

This will sound really basic and will be a facepalm moment once you realise how obvious this is, but a lot of people still fail to utilise this in full teams as well as in solo queue. Let's say you're on Cobblestone T-side and the CTs like to hold Drop from outside on both sides, the window and the archway, and you want to drop down without it actually sounding like you do. What you do? you tell a teammate to spray into the wall at Drop and you can drop down while slimming down the chance that they hear you landing on the ground.

To not to make this too obvious, be sure to sporadically spray a clip into common Drop positions prior to the drop, either in the round where you're doing it or before, establishing that not every spray is suspicious. Then, later, once you've successfully killed an unsuspecting CT, you can spray into the wall again if no one is holding from inside drop and play with their heads by not dropping down. This will keep them concentrated on Drop, an area you may completely ignore to execute on A, for example.



Firetrap Banana

This one takes quite a bit of coordination and utility usage. However, I believe that it's worth it. What this play does is abuse the fact that, when blind, people in CS:GO try to hide in corners, instinctively pressing the back key and a key to either left or right, trying to hide. This is especially prevalent in Banana, where you have two corners to hide in when CTs peek. This is why you will use flashes and incendiary grenades!

This trickplay is almost impossible to pull off with random teammates, so full teams or duo queues should listen up now. You will need a bit of individual practice, but the timings are easy:

The first throw of each player is indicated by the dotted line, the second by a full line and the third by a slashed line. Although the green player does throw two flashes, he uses the same line-up, which is why I did not add a third line for green.

Red starts off with a flash, the flash above the building separating Banana and B. This one should blind the two or three Ts slowly setting up in Banana to take top Banana. Right after the flash pops green should throw (not get it out just now!) his incendiary. Red switches to his incendiary right after throwing his flash, too, allowing for him to throw his incendiary almost at the same time like green. Green switches to his flashes instantly and flashes twice above the aforementioned building, meanwhile red gets his flash out to further blind anyone standing in the corner opposite of Tree.

If people actually got stuck in these corners, they will burn to a crisp. If not, you've most likely done 40-50 damage to each player in Banana. Afterwards, you can use both smokes to delay the potential B-take. Line-ups:

Mirage B Selfboost Smoke-Play

The selfboost on the weird lengthy boxes at B-site on Mirage is relatively well-known on high level play of LEM and higher. However, pairing this selfboost with a smoke, a smoke that will most likely get overlooked in the chaos of a B-site take, you will survive on B well beyond the Ts entering B, giving yourself the chance to kill the Ts coming in through the door or running around and outside of the bombsite.

As you can see, you will still have clear vision of Ts coming into B and can predict where the bomb plant will be (due to the walls at the corners B). Getting a kill will not only slow the Ts down, but also thoroughly confuse them and may even allow you to get a second, almost free kill, surviving way past your intended time.

Mirage Window One-Way Smoke

Window in Mid on Mirage can be quite hard to deal with for both sides. To screw the chances in your favour on CT-side, be sure to try out this one-way smoke. If you have a good spawn, you can quickly drop the smoke on the pedestal in front of Window and let the Ts walk into your AWP crosshair.

Although you are technically visible at the very left (from your point of view) of the Window, I can assure you that you can see the Ts before they should be able to spot you. This gets reinforced by the fact that, in a random MM, people are not sure if someone on the T-side threw the Window smoke from T-Spawn, for example. However, since the set-up is a high risk, I'd really wait for the right spawn to attempt this. Also, once you've done this people will spam the smoke like crazy, so be sure to stay way from such a play the next few rounds again.



Nuke B Silo One-Way

We all know how difficult Nuke can be in random matchmakings - but once you've got around to using this one-way you will not want to play as anything other than the Vent rotator anymore.

Once you get the call that they're taking Ramp, you can go down to B and use this smoke to be barely visible, yet able to spot Ts coming in through the two entrances from Ramp to B. For this to work, Secret and Vents need to be on lockdown, though, as you can otherwise be flanked and your position made obsolete quite fast.

You can also use this smoke as a T in the afterplant. I need to reiterate how important Vent control is for this to work, as you can get flanked quite easily by a CT coming from Secret.



Cache Mid-Main Selfboost

While everyone tries (and fails) the selfboost on the common boost position, you can get a potentially more powerful position way easier, from where you can destroy normal Mid takes with ease.

Be aware that you will make a bit of noise, and a firm Mid control should be established before you try this. You can do this by throwing an incendiary on Boost and a smoke into Mid-Main. This set-up is most powerful in a bait and switch set-up, where one CT will keep prefiring and throwing utility from Whitebox, drawing all the attention to him, allowing you to concentrate on Boost, who would spot you while running out, and listen for steps from Mid-Main.

This is where Reddit clips are born, as you can decide when to kill the enemies. If you suspect that no T will be coming from Boost you can allow the Ts to properly enter Mid in high numbers before you start to shoot them, giving you a real chance to kill two, maybe even three or more, Ts.



One-way at B on Overpass

This trickplay utilises the chaos of a B-take with a smoke that looks like a slightly failed on-spot smoke. It's a quick and easy set-up, but since it needs to be done with relative certainty that a hit will commence in the next five to ten seconds, it will take some tries to get right.

By smoking the bottom of the sandbags, you will be able to get up on said sandbags and look over the smoke and be barely visible to the opponents. This only works if you stand pretty far back on the sandbags, barely allowing you to clearly make out T models coming onto B-site. Once again, this play can be done in the afterplant, but that is riskier due to being exposed to Heaven. Use this one-way with caution, and don't even try to do it twice in one match.



Conclusion

Some of these work with a team or at least a few premades, but most of them are for your own game, which enables you to do most of these in every random pug. Be sure to not to rely on trickplays in order to get good, since that won't work. These small gimmicks are there to get you over rough times in matches, not to win you whole matches all the time. Also, some of them do work twice or even more times in a single game, but the more you use them in one game the more likely it is that the enemy will see through it.

Want to show us these trick plays in action? Be sure to share your clips on our #digscord as we'd love to enjoy the sick plays with you!