Hey guys, time for another article. So today I thought we would discuss one of the most fundamental basics of the game. This theory has been proven over and over again by many top players. This theory states "Magic is a game of resources, whoever has more, is more likely to win." So how do we gain resources? What does a resource refer to? Why is it important? Let's dissect these questions, and obtain our answers. A resource can be almost anything. The land you just played on your turn is a resource. All of the cards in your hand are a resource. Even how much life you have left whether it is 20 or 3 is a resource. Why is this information important? Simple, because when it comes right down to the basics, magic is a game of resources. Your deck will either gain you resources, or take away your opponents resources. Your opponent's deck will do the same. This logic is the most basic entry level information for improving your game. If you are looking to improve, you must have a strong grasp on your resources and their applications. See that {Stone Rain} you just played? You lost a resource from you hand, but you also took away one of your opponents resources (being their land). So now that we have a grasp on what a resource is and what their applications are, how do we get these? The answer to this is "Card Advantage". This term means exactly what it says; it is having the advantage of cards. You may think drawing a card is card advantage, when in actuality it is not. Take this example into mind, say both you and your opponent are play decks of 60 lands and no other cards. Now let's say that you move first. You drop your land and pass your turn. Now your opponent draws. This draw is not card advantage. Here is why. For your opponent to keep up with you, he or she must also drop a land. This puts them back to 7 cards instead of 8. If they are back to 7 cards, they lost the advantage of the draw. That is okay though, because they gained a resource on the board. That's just how the game is played. So, we now know that not just anything is card advantage. Not even drawing 1 card. So let's break this down even further. If drawing 1 card is not an advantage, what if I drew 2? Now we are starting to deduce for ourselves, theories that many have learned through tried testing. We start to think to ourselves, if I can get 2 cards by just playing 1, I have doubled my investment! This is card advantage. You play one card and get 2. {Divination} is a good example (although it is a bad card as it is sorcery, it's still a good example of raw card advantage). A card like {Think Twice} is an example of card advantage over time. When you play it the first time, you lose it from your hand and it replaces itself (by letting you draw 1 card). When you flash it back however, you lose no cards from you hand, but get to draw 1. You are now +1 than where you started. Granted it took a while, but that is all standard has at the time of writing this article. Last season it was {Jace's Ingenuity} which was a +2 advantage. But this theorem goes even deeper. What do I mean by this? Have you ever heard the expression, there are 2 sides to every coin? That is true in this case too.
If playing a card that gives 2 cards is good, then one may deduce that the reverse is also true. This brings us to the next point. If we can play cards that give us an advantage, we can also play cards that take away our opponents advantage. Remember, if we take their resources away while increasing ours, we are more likely to win. So if we play 1 card that takes away 2 of our opponents cards, we have gained card advantage. Yes, we did not draw any cards. But we spent 1 resource from our hand to take out 2 of their resources. So we are still ahead now by 1 card. This is what we call a 2 for 1. {Maelstrom Pulse} is an incredible example. If you cast Maelstrom Pulse while the opponent has 2 {Primeval Titan}s in play, they both die. You have successfully 2 for 1ed them. I am going to refer to an old standard deck for this segment. This deck is known by many as Jund. Jund was a deck that played off of the Cascade mechanic. Cards like {Bloodbraid Elf}, {Blightning}, {Maelstrom Pulse}, and {Broodmate Dragon} all gave you card advantage by either playing 2 cards or taking away 2 of your opponents cards at the cost of you just playing 1 card. An example would be playing the Boodbraid, and cascading into Blightning. You have spent 4 mana to make your opponent discard 2 cards, take 3 damage, and you got a 3/2 haste elf out of the investment.
Now, at this point you should have a fundamental grasp on card advantage and its applications. Use what you have learned, and you will win more games. If you learn how to get the most value out of every card in your deck, your game will improve tenfold. Next time you build a deck, look at the cards carefully. Ask yourself, does this give me an advantage? If not, is it strong enough on its own I don't need a 2 for 1 to play it? A card like {Oblivion Ring} does not grant you any extra cards, but it is powerful enough on its own that it is okay to play. If you make your deck with card advantage and the power level of cards by themselves in mind, your ability to make strong decks will also become more consistent. Thanks for reading this article. I hope it has allowed you to bring your A game more often. Until next time, keep it real and have fun!
You are amazing at this
Quote from: Guypocolypse on April 22, 2012, 05:44:00 PM
You are amazing at this
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it!
Classy post!
Good info and well-presented, anyone unfamiliar with card advantage will be much more understanding now. 👍
It made me consider a few things as well! :)
So {wood elemental} isn't the strongest card ever made? Shucks
I really like the way you ended that! It was pretty awesome! An the article as a whole was fantastic! Thanks
Very nice article I enjoyed reading it, and it helps me understand card advantage
Great read
Very nice
I like it, but I'm surprised you didn't talk about cards that seem like card advantage or at least breaking even on it but are actually card disadvantage, i.e {Unsummon}. Great article anyways.
So I can't deny this is a great post but I'm simply going to say a lot of the ideas presented should be realized by the players (usually subconsciously) because you don't need someone to tell you taking your opponents cards out is helpful and advantageous (or at least you shouldn't) I don't argue with any points you've brought up but a lot of it seems common sense to me. But that's probably because I've always been around card games and understood this.
Still. It was excellently written and I enjoyed reading it.
Excellent topic and very well written article!! Very concise and gives a brief insight into CA for the newer players who perhaps don't quite understand this subtle and often overlooked part of competitive MtG play. +1 DG
Quote from: Destore117 on May 13, 2013, 05:10:58 PM
So I can't deny this is a great post but I'm simply going to say a lot of the ideas presented should be realized by the players (usually subconsciously) because you don't need someone to tell you taking your opponents cards out is helpful and advantageous (or at least you shouldn't) I don't argue with any points you've brought up but a lot of it seems common sense to me. But that's probably because I've always been around card games and understood this.
Still. It was excellently written and I enjoyed reading it.
Many of these ideas are not recognized by newer players. They play cards like {Unsummon} and weak Auras that cause them to lose advantage. This read was not designed for those who already have a strong foundation of the way magic is played. It was designed to help players go from casual FNM level to PTQ level. It is meant to teach you what cards to stay away from and what cards to look for. It shows you how to find what CA actually is. Not all of my work is designed for seasoned players. I like to evenly spread it among the different levels so everyone can enjoy and improve themselves. This information is not common sense and is not about taking away cards. People must think critically and try to grasp the principles if they want to learn from my work. Based on the list you posted earlier in casual, you do not understand how CA in MtG works. I am not being mean, but you have little room to talk when you were making some of the choices you had made. You are still very new to the game and have much to learn. Card advantage must be mastered if you wish to excel in this game. This is the truth. Not being mean, just trying to pass on my knowledge to others :)
Being honest...I hate being criticized. I know that I need it to accel especially in such a hard to master field such as magic. But I guess I just misinterpreted what you said as basically saying "if you take their cards out of the game you should be in better shape."
That's how I saw it. But I know that isn't 100% the case because some cards that opponents often have thrive on them losing a few.
Such as scavenge oriented decks I have seen (which is so annoying when death touch starts being involved)
And as to my decks I have posted.
It was truthfully just me throwing in a bunch of low mana costing cards in hopes it would aid my Extort mechanic but when I really think about it. Those cards require much more base to them than I have. That truthfully is my one flaw.
I can easily overlook things. Like having 4 omega myr could help my extortion but the chances of me getting them with my extort cards are low due to my additions of all the other artifacts. I really just put them in because I didn't want to trade them at school. A lot of those artifacts are cards I intend to keep and possibly edit my deck(s) in the future. But really I do thank you for being brutally honest. I have ALOT to learn...and I guess I presume to much...but I will keep at it and hopefully with everyone's help here. I won't turn out a half bad magic player :D
Great post! card advantage isn't everything, but it DEFINATELY should be considered! :)
Actually this is a great article because there are decks that don't consider CA as too important, aggro decks tend to fall into this category by over extending themselves with board presence. Putting down your whole hand by turn 3-4 and watching it all vanish to {Terminus} or {Supreme Verdict} while your opponent still has an almost full hand. I believe that this article helps to point out that careful use of your resources is also very important. If you can win with {Lingering Souls} by playing it twice and holding a second, then why not do so. Great article.
card advantage is can be Very important when playing against red or black especially :) also blue usually has cards that will give you card advantage.