The Science That Is Advantage
By SiphonX

 

2.02.05  Have you ever seen a duelist use copies of cards that seem like they fit in the deck but actually work against it?  These cards have phenomenal and oppressive effects that would ruin the opponent, if it were not for one idea: card advantage.  Many times, duelists judge the worth of a card upon its basis of coherency with the rest of their deck, but sometimes, this isn’t enough.  The card’s ability to maintain field and hand presence is an overwhelming factor in the decision of what cards should be included in the deck.  Indeed, card advantage is one of the most necessary aspects of a duelist’s cards and their abilities.  This article attempts to address that issue.

 

If you run a deck high in disadvantageous material, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to succeed very often.  The reasoning behind this is a simple logic theory: when your resources are depleted, you are defeated.  If your cards are centered on providing support without retaining any advantage, you may see a little drop in being able to play what comes naturally.  Just because a card is played often doesn’t mean it retains any advantage.  A good example is Compulsory Evacuation Device.  You may be removing one of your opponent’s Monsters from the field, but because it returns to their hand, it’s as if you spent a card for nothing.  To completely understand this analogy, allow me to explain blow by blow what advantage is meant to describe.

 

Each and every card acts as one card, but some have costs. Others’ effects make them act as though they had a cost, and these cards are the elusive ones that many mistake for being powerful.  There is only one card in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! that has no cost, condition, situation, or side-effect but has a positive advantage, and that card is Pot of Greed.  Pot of Greed may allow you to draw two cards, but as it acts as a card in itself, its advantage is actually only one card.  Of course, there are other cards, that when played correctly, retain a positive advantage. It is these cards that duelists intend to watch for, to be able to manipulate them to better serve them, and increase the number of wins they achieve. 

 

Neutral advantage is what cards normally are.  Cards like Smashing Ground, Jar of Greed, Premature Burial, D. D. Warrior Lady and the like are not bad cards by any means, but there really isn’t any way to make them into cards that provide a positive advantage.  These provide the bulk of the deck and make most of the strategic moves.  The goal is to change cards that provide neutral advantage into cards that provide positive advantage.  If you are able to bait an opponent’s Heavy Storm and play all the cards you have set, you clearly gained an advantage.  Playing cards only when you need to is a key in becoming a better duelist.

 

Negative advantage is something everyone wants to avoid.  Not just because it creates a negative card advantage delta, but because even if you somehow manage to combine it with other cards, you’ll still only be able to set out with a neutral advantage.  Obvious disadvantageous cards include Raigeki Break, which is extremely versatile, but provides a negative one card advantage, neutral if you combine it with Serpent or the like.  Coming back to Compulsory Evacuation Device, you can see that although the opponent may be losing one card from the field, they are gaining one card in their hand.  With the lack of Spell and Trap destruction due to the bans/restrictions, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to use this against an opponent’s Space Typhoon, keeping the advantage at a rather nasty negative one.  The bottom line: keep the cards in your deck that provide a negative advantage at a low.

 

Advantage in any deck is especially important to understand, as the more cards you have in your hand or field, the more likely you are to establish a victory.  Even in decks that are centered around speed, if you’ve no cards to continue that reckless speed, it may be more difficult to generate a winning front.  This doesn’t mean every deck needs to have three Scapegoat and the like, but it would most definitely be idealistic to keep advantage in mind when creating your next deck.

 

No one can argue that Hand Control is most definitely a deck that focuses on advantage, and since I feel a deck example defines the concept clearly, I decided to unveil my Hand Control deck, which keeps advantage in clear perspective.

 

16 Monsters:

2 Airknight Parshath

3 Berserk Gorilla

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

2 Spirit Reaper

3 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magical Scientist

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

1 Sinister Serpent

 

19 Spells:

1 Pot of Greed

1 Painful Choice

1 The Forceful Sentry

1 Confiscation

1 Smashing Ground

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Premature Burial

1 Change of Heart

1 Snatch Steal

2 Creature Swap

1 Metamorphosis

1 Swords of Revealing Light

3 Scapegoat

 

5 Traps:

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Ring of Destruction

 

Need a deck fix?  Want to chat about the latest idea of yours for the game?  Drop me a line at pyroboy72@hotmail.com

 

Until next time, duel hard, play well, and most importantly, have fun.
~SiphonX~

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