Preface!

 

This is a short blurb series I will be doing on some common player myths that concern Kaijudo. Kaijudo is based off Duel Masters, which many players compare to other games a little too easily. As I will point out in this series, some concepts that are very valuable in other games may not hold as much water as you think in The Veil.

 

This is based on my experience as the #1 DCI-ranked Duel Masters player and knowledge from Gates of Fate having access to one of the first local Kaijudo metas.

 

This is a loooooong one, so hold onto your reading glasses duelists! 

 

Topic 2: Card Advantage

 

What is "Card Advantage?"

 

If you haven't checked out Andy's Article yet, this would be a great time to do so! He does a great job of explaining what card advantage is.

 

I'm going to briefly run over the basics for you:

 

In most games(remember that), Card Advantage is the tallying of your total resources and your opponent's resources. The player with the higher total number is considered to be in a better position. So if I have 2 more cards than you, I am "+2." That means I am probably winning, or have the ability to be winning more than you.

 

This is why rushing at your opponent's shields in Duel Masters can lose you the game -- you're giving them all the answers!

 

In Kaijudo, there are a lot of cards that will automatically generate advantage for you (that is, if you're willing to pay the price). Some great examples from:

 

1. Fumes 

 

 

When Fumes comes into play, you lose nothing. However, your opponent loses one card from their hand. This means they are forced to -1 themselves. Because the end result is you having one more card, the result of this play is a net advantage of +1.

 

Some players will classify Fumes as a "negative +1" because he depletes the opponent's resource, instead of granting you a new one. That's fine, but it's a bit of an overclarification. Remember, card advantage is adding the TOTAL numbers!

 

 

2. Logos Scan

 

 

Logos Scan gives you 2 cards for the price of 1 (playing the card itself). So you lose Logos Scan from your hand, then draw 2 cards. The first replaces the Scan that you just used, and then you are given an additional card. This is a net advantage of +1, so Logos Scan is a +1 spell.

 

This card is INCREDIBLY good, because it rewards you with many tactically efficient principles:

 

1. The "+1" itself

2. Early game resource generation (this card costs 3, so you are getting that +1 right at or near the start of the game -- where there is less interruption by the opponent)

3. Cycling (you are more likely to access the cards in your deck that you need, since you are taking 2 new cards from it. This can also be considered "deck thinning" but that is an arbitrary concept in Kaijudo)

 

It's important to note that #2 and #3 are not very powerful on their own. A card that rewards you with just Cycling has no net advantage -- that means it's usefulness is based on the card being pulled from the deck (and where it goes). 

 

Early game resource generation without the +1 (for example, putting a resource somewhere else in the playing field) is merely repositioning. You may prefer to have the card there, and as long as your play is +0 (no change in net advantage) this is typically a fair preference. These are all dependent on the individual game state.

 

However, there are some cards that [cost net advantage to reposition. These are typically not all that great. 

 

A good card to illustrate both of these examples at once is Sprout:

 

 

Now don't get me wrong, Sprout has the potential to be a good card. But by itself, it's pretty lackluster. Let me explain:

 

1. There is no net advantage. 

 

Because you give up the Sprout in your hand to play it, you are going -1. The result is a new card in your mana zone, which can be considered "deck thinning" but not cycling. Cycling grants you access to the cards, and there are no current cards in Kaijudo that return mana to your hand. When they exist, you can consider Sprout cycling and it will definitely have more potential!

 

As we mentioned, deck thinning is pretty useless. There are less cards in your deck so you are somewhat more likely to get the right card, but you could have taken the Sprouts out of your deck and been holding it already! There are plenty of semantics here, but suffice it to say deck thinning in Kaijudo (and Duel Masters) has never proven to be valuable by itself. Cycling is always required, and Sprout doesn't have that.

 

2. Mana is not a "true resource"

 

Now, you may say "But Tom, I get a card to my mana zone! Isn't that a +1?"

 

Well Article Reader, I'm here to tell you NO! Cards in your mana zone do not count towards card advantage. They are "resources," yes, but they are committed. Cards cannot leave the mana zone (for now), and have no function other than paying the cost of other cards. The principles of card advantage classify the cards in your hand and on your field (the battle zone) as the cards to be tallied, because they represent potential play options. Having more potential plays than your opponent is nearly always a "good thing." 

 

Now because of this, and the unique mechanic in Kaijudo of the shields system, many players get confused and think shields count as card advantage. Well let me tell you a quick antidote about that:

 

The "True Resource" Story of a Continental Championship

 

When I played Duel Masters, there was an article writer on Pojo that went by the name of Cecilbill. We were at the Continental Championship where I would later help her improve a deck that became known as "Phal Control," but at this point she was playing a DWF deck. 

 

The point of the story is she had a reasonable advantage over the opponent (+1 can change pretty quickly, since your opponent can have cards like Fumes or Logos Scan too). We're talking +4 or +5 here, guys. Cecil had one creature and many cards in her hand, and her opponent had Zaagan, the Dark Knight and one other creature. He had no cards in his hand. Cecil's hand was loaded with kill spells and other goodies that could easily crush Zaagan and the other creature, leaving her opponent Lee Sandow with nothing. 

 

A newer player asked who was winning, having seen both of the duelists' articles on Pojo (Lee was also a writer for the site). The unanimous answer was Cecil, because she was so far ahead in what was really important. Her creature couldn't do anything, but the cards in her hand could completely swing the tempo of the game. Cecil laughed and said to the small crowd "What are you talking about? He has 5 shields left!"

 

This was a bit of an inside joke and we all chuckled, knowing this particular game wasn't going to go well for Lee. Despite having 5 shields, Cecil never had to break them. She could control the state of the game with her superior card advantage, and get rid of them later any way she wanted. And that's exactly what happened -- the 5 shields didn't really help Lee and when he lost his powerful creatures, he had nothing to come back with.

 

Lee's shields were not "true resources," because he didn't have full access to them. He was relying on Cecil to break them, which she abstained from doing for a long stretch of turns. Building up an army of creatures without attacking, Cecil was able to swing in for game easily because Lee had little resources to stop her from preparing this set-up. This "one turn kill" technique is revered by control players from Duel Masters as a classic finish, and is jokingly called "Zerg"-ing by some pro players. Zerg is a Starcraft reference where a championship was won by many little creatures overrunning the opponent. All of Cecil's creatures were very low in Power. But because each creature breaks a shield, there is strength in numbers!

 

So hopefully now you can understand why Shields are not a true resource. You cannot use them whenever you want, and you need your opponent to give them to you (which they can choose not to do). 

 

Mana is also not a true resource, because you need a mana-worthy card to emphasize the advantage. If you have 9 mana, and the opponent has 6, it only matters when you emphasize this lead! This means you are relying on luck of the draw to get some high-cost cards before your opponent catches up. 

 

So back to Sprout! I had a bit of a disagreement with a player on the forums where he felt Sprout was so advantageous he simply had to run 3, because he could use his resource generation to summon powerful late-game creatures like Razorkinder (cost 7). The thread turned into a big debate because Sprout is commonly considered a -1, but this player insisted the positioning was worth it. Now that may sometimes be the case, and we will cover "Field Positioning" in the next article in this series. But the rest of his deck didn't validate this: there were only 2 starter decks out, and not enough different cards to properly emphasize this advantage.

 

Sure enough, the rest of the pros that use the forum took some time coming into the thread and explaining why 3 Sprout was not worth it. Sprout is good for situational advantage, say, getting it off a trigger and being able to cast a higher-level removal spell.

But it is not true advantage, or true resource generation. So it cannot be justified at 3 without some pretty fancy cards that help combo, and we just don't have enough of those yet.

 

Do We Need It?

 

Ladies and gentlemen, now that we understand what IS and IS NOT card advantage I hope you can say this with me loud and proud:

 

"Hell Yes!"

 

Card Advantage is a big decider in who wins the Kaijudo duel. Just like in a real war, your army of creatures needs to widdle down the resources of the opponent before it can be sure it has the victory.

 

Now of course, there are some small arguments against card advantage. The least irrelevant one is "what if the cards you have aren't useful?" Well, hopefully you have built a proper deck (there will be an article on Gates for this as well) and can assume most of your cards will be worth playing. There are bad hands and such, but most of the time with card advantage, ONE of your cards should be able to deal with the situation.

 

Overall, we definitely need to know this. It's very powerful, and can help us build better decks!

 

How Important Is It?

 

Now here is where things get tricky. Card Advantage is not the one magical rule that will lead you to become the world's #1 duelist. Trust me, I had to learn a lot more than that one piece of information before I earned that title!

 

You need to weigh for yourself the benefits between going for the "advantage play" (the "plus") or going for the "presence" (superior positioning). Often these will coincide, and superior positioning will require card advantage. However, there are times where you may need to make a small -1  or -2 risk to solidify your position in the game. There are also going to be times where you absolutely have to go for the +, and that's going to give you the presence in the long run (see the "True Resource" Anecdote I shared earlier).

 

Final Stance

 

So Card Advantage is very important, and is a fundamental to competitive play. We need it to build strong decks, and we need to keep it in mind to make strong plays. 

 

Though sometimes on the battlefield we forsake an advantage play, we are still striving for the [i]net advantage[/i]. We are convinced this sacrifice will give us more potential options in the long run, or win us the game.

 

It's super important that you be prepared to make these plays, but still prepare your DECK to be able to go for the plus! There is nothing worse than your field presence being disrupted, and you not having the cards to generate resources and get that positioning back. It's an easy way to lose.

 

Keeping card advantage in mind when building decks will help your best ideas become more playable, and give your dueling an extra boost in an important way!