From: Cindy Mathews [mailto:megin@cableone.net]
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 12:44 PM

Subject: Card Advantage-A New Concept--by brad

A New Kind of Advantage

 

Hello, Pojo fans, one and all.  Today, I’m stopping in for an article with a different twist.  I’ll be looking at card advantage under a different light in an effort to analyze what it means from a somewhat different angle.  I hope you all enjoy. 

 

But first, a rant.  I know this is the first I can count in a while, but I think it is necessary.  Last Saturday, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of friends who were all trading and discussing various deck strategies, while one friend was in the process of tearing apart his cookie-cutter deck and building something new.  He kept asking me for my Strike Ninjas, and when looking through his cards, I did see his Cyber Dragon, in addition to other useful cards.  He would not trade Cyber Dragon, and I would not trade any of my Strikes.  Later on, when his deck was almost complete, he got pretty upset for some reason.  His Cyber Dragon was missing.  Someone stole his Cyber Dragon. 

 

Now, a message for anyone who has stolen or has considered stealing cards.  When you steal cards, you make the game less fun for everyone, including yourself.  It is low and pathetic.  Not only do you make the person you steal from think about quitting, you make his friends and the people sitting around him a bit more cautious with their cards, and thus, the game becomes less fun for them as well.  And are you really doing yourself all that much justice?  Sure you got a brand new holofoil card for nothing, and it might win you some games, but that you had to steal to get it most certainly is destructive to your conscience.  And when that happens, the game is no longer fun.  Theft is an increasing problem, especially in my area, and I urge everyone who has ever stolen to consider the game as a whole, and to stop.

 

There, now that’s out of the way.

 

CARD ADVANTAGE—A NEW CONCEPT

 

Think about your last duel.  How many cards in your deck did you cycle through as opposed to your opponent?  It has recently been revealed to me that the number of cards in your hand, on your field, and in your graveyard is directly linked to the frequency of victory.

 

Let’s say that a game has just ended, me with a 3000 lp advantage over my now humble opponent.  When I finish games, I do a quick count of the number of cards I had cycled through.  Me: five in hand, five on the field, and sixteen cards in the graveyard.  That’s 21 cards.  My opponent has perhaps two in hand, two on the field, and nine in the graveyard for a total of 13 cards.  That means that I cycled through eight more cards than my opponent.

 

My findings on instances like this (through study of course), is that the percentage of games in which I emerge victorious is directly proportional to the advantage I have capitalized upon through the game.  If the number of cards in your graveyard is counted with overall card advantage along with your hand and field, you can get a clearer picture of what has happened.  It might just mean that my deck has a lot more speed than my opponent’s, but if we look inside the need for speed, we see that speed directly translates to card advantage, which directly leads to victory.  This is a proven fact.  Now how I got so many more cards in the graveyard than my opponent may have come about through various means, but the fact that I had eight cards on him in the end is a stat that strongly pushes the idea that I won the duel.

 

That said, let’s look at a few cards in particular.

If the graveyard counts, this is the outcome.

Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive—usually a +1, unless it gets crossed out or destroyed with a Mystic Swordsman Lv. 2 or something.  This is considered Dekoichi itself, plus the card you drew with his effect.

Nobleman of Crossout—a typical 1-for-1.  No advantage gained by using it, but none lost, either.

Reinforcement of the Army—a +1, unless it is negated, even if Don or Reaper discard the new card. 

Graceful Charity—unless negated, a solid +3.  Then, you put two cards in the graveyard, but there, they still count, especially if they are monsters.

Pot of Avarice—on paper, this looks like a -3.  Drop five for the monsters you shuffled back into the deck and add two from drawing the cards.  But, since you cycled through the five monsters in the first place, they still count.  This makes Pot of Avarice a +2.

Magical Merchant—it depends on how many monsters you dump before you hit a spell or trap card.  In my experience, it usually translates to a +1 or +2. 

Magician of Faith—just a 1-for-1 here.  You get the spell card back, but since you’d already used it in the first place, it can’t be counted again. 

 

That said, a lot of cards can still generate positive advantage.  Mirage of Nightmare, for instance, can usually lead to ridiculous amounts of advantage, and thus, it is banned.  There is a good reason behind it.  That kind of advantage is just too powerful. 

 

Below is a table that describes the amount of cards gained/lost in relation to games won/lost

 

Game:         Card Advantage, incl. gy            won/lost

1                                  -5 (23-18)                        lost          

2                                  -2 (21-19)                        won

3                                   EVEN (17-17)                lost

4                                  +2 (26-24)                       lost

5                                  +5 (27-22)                       won

6                                  +11 (21-10)                     won

 

As you can see, the greater the number of card advantage on the positive side, the more games I won.  The greater the number of card advantage on the negative side, the more games I lost.  Usually, even, or within two cards of even, doesn’t make that big a difference, but when the card advantage went higher into the positive range, I won 85% of the games.  This is an impressive number

So, when distinguishing card advantage, consider the graveyard, perhaps even in terms of what cards are still useful in the graveyard.  In this case, Spirit Reaper, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Smashing Ground are all 1-for-1s.  Painful Choice would be a +5.  Four cards to the graveyard, and one to your hand.  Pot of Greed would be a +2.  You see where this is going.

 

All in all, gauging card advantage can be a very helpful tool in guiding you to victory.  In most cases, as a matter of fact, card advantage is even more important than life point totals.  Keep that in mind the next time you are dueling.

 

Now, there’s something to chew on.

 

I don’t know why I keep making analogies to food in these articles, but maybe I just shouldn’t write on an empty stomach.

 

Chow…Oh, I mean Ciao.

 

Like my opinion?  Think I’m a pompous nOOb for suggesting such strategies?  Drop me a line, I like the feedback.  As always, I do not accept unsolicited hate mail.  brad@bradlandusa.com