Show Me the Way: Trap Dustshoot

We've all been there before.  Your opponent has an Effect Veiler, stopping you getting that Black Luster Soldier off the field outside of Dark Hole.  He grabbed that Maxx "C" with Sangan right before you were about to swarm.  She snatches that Archlord Kristya with Pot of Duality, ready to be dropped (for game?) next turn.  These are unfortunate (and common) situations, but luckily for you, there's a nice way out!  Enter Trap Dustshoot.

Trap Dustshoot is, hands down, one of the best trap cards this format.  Most of you have had your fair share of Typhoons and Storm destroying your back row, resulting in a nice one-for-one for your opponent (assuming you both play conservatively!).  But what if I told you that you could gain advantage off of your opponent's trap hate?  Instead of being the eager-beaver, Monster-chugging card players that we are from time to time, it might be a better idea to hold off on enthusiastically flipping that Dustshoot during your opponent's standby phase.  Instead, bait it out with a Typhoon or Heavy Storm.

Now, why would you do this?  Why is this a good play?  Here's the answer: card advantage.  Once again (as we will often do in our articles!), let's look at the card advantage involved in an opponent's Typhoon hitting your Dustshoot: 

Card advantage for your opponent: -1 from activating and resolving Typhoon + 1 from destroying your facedown Dustshoot - 1 from the resolution of Trap Dustshoot = -1 + 1 -1 = [-1]!  In other words, if your opponent hits a face down Trap Dustshoot with Typhoon or Storm, it'll result in a [-1] in terms of card advantage for them, which means a cool, easy [+1] for you!  Neat!

Assuming the game isn't going to end this turn, and the state of the game is relatively stable for the next few moves, it'll only be to your advantage when you play this way.  This is because you've easily eliminated one of your opponent's options - and how much easier can it really get?  Your opponent does all the work!  The [+1] off Dustshoot doesn't just have to be from Typhoon or Storm - you can chain to a multitude of other cards to net you your precious plusses: Dust Tornado, Trap Stun, Scrap Dragon's effect, a Black Rose nuke, a Brionac bounce (targeting your Dustshoot for a cool [+2]!), or pretty much anything that removes spells or traps from the field.  

If you find yourself in the situation presented in the opening paragraph too often, you might want to consider adding consistency to this play.  But how?  Trap Dustshoot has rightfully earned its place on the limited section of the ban list.  Here's the answer: play Mind Crush.  You saw the Veiler/Maxx "C"/Herald of Orange Light/Kristya go to the hand with Sangan, Duality, and so forth.  You know it's there, you just need it out the way!  Mind Crush does this job easily.  

You can also apply what you just learned about the card advantage associated with the interaction of Dustshoot and Typhoon to Mind Crush.  Your opponent plays Duality, getting The Agent of Creation - Venus.  He activates Typhoon or Storm before he summons it next turn, and you chain that Mind Crush!  Two of these, along with a copy of Trap Dustshoot, will consistently help out with your opponent's cards in the hand that plague your existence (or maybe just you winning the game).

Remember, though card advantage accounts for a lot of good moves, it isn't strictly everything.  If your opponent is ready to drop that Kristya this turn and you have no other answers, you should play Dustshoot or Mind Crush.  Sure, in this case, it might be a [+0] (or break-even/one-for-one), but it's better than losing the game.  Above all else, practice makes perfect.  You'll naturally get the hang of predicting what your opponent does the more you play competitively, and you can use this to your advantage.  

So practice, practice, practice, and you'll be able to tell when it's a good time to try to plus off of Dustshoot/Mind Crush plays or when you're in danger of losing the game.  Simply put, there's no better substitute for practice!  Though this might seem obvious, you'll get the hang of playing conservatively and utilizing card advantage in games only when you actually play the game and think about these concepts while doing so!  Make a conscious effort from here on out, then being aware of the card advantage and playing conservatively is only second nature - like driving a car or riding a bike.  Don't give up, practice makes perfect!  

Dr. House

In the Spotlight: T.G. Agents

Consistency.  Speed.  Power.  Control.  What if I told you that you could play a deck had all of these for relatively cheap?  Here’s a deck list I’ve been testing with that utilizes monsters as its source of power and control.  That’s right, almost no traps involved!  The reason why is probably fairly obvious: with the newly limited Heavy Storm and the unlimited Mystical Space Typhoon floating around, traps just don’t last long enough to play conservatively.  I found that cards such as Solemn Warning and even Solemn Judgment slowed me down and were most always Typhoon’d or Storm’d away, rendering them useless.  Here was the deck list at the start of the format:

           Monster Total: 27

3 Master Hyperion

3 The Agent of Creation - Venus

3 Mystical Shine Ball

3 The Agent of Mystery - Earth

3 Herald of Orange Light

3 T.G. Warwolf

2 T.G. Striker

2 Archlord Kristya

2 Tragoedia

1 Black Luster Soldier

1 Honest

1 Sangan

     

Spell Total: 12

3 Pot of Duality

3 Cards from the Sky

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Mind Control

           Trap Total: 1

1 Trap Dustshoot

From a financial standpoint, TG Agents are one of the most cost effective decks in the current meta.  Go to your local card shop and pick up three Lost Sanctuary structure decks, and be sure to make an effort to trade for a few freshly minted super rare Pot of Duality and Archlord Kristya, and, voila, you’ve got yourself the core of a tier 1 deck!  If you’re having problems trading for the Dualities or Kristyas for cheap, you can (worst-case scenario) pick some up in the Wave 1 tins.  Add some Tech Genus staples and you’ve just made it a bit more fun!  The T.G. and Agents work together to form a great combination of defense and control, all wrapped into one deck.  Read on to find out why!  

1. Consistency and Speed

Because this deck utilizes some great spell cards like Pot of Duality and Cards from the Sky, you'd be hard pressed to open up with a truly terrible hand.  Playing multiple Cards from the Sky in one turn, perhaps in combination with a Duality, can help you thin your deck down quickly to draw in to some power cards and get your win condition faster!

Another great card that helps with consistency is Earth, which gives you hand advantage in the form of a [+1] (see article on card advantage), as well as an extra card to discard for Herald of Orange Light if you need to.  Earth’s [+1] essentially mitigates the cost of Herald’s inherent [-1].  Additionally, let’s say you have an Earth and a Cards from the Sky.  If you read the article on playing conservatively, you’d know exactly what to do:  normal summon the Earth, searching Venus.  Banish the in-hand Venus to Cards and draw two.  From this play, you have a [+1] and two freshly drawn cards, rather than banishing the Earth (without normal summoning, of course) and just drawing two cards.  From this, we see the conservative, card-advantage route generates the most options.

2. Boss Monsters and Power Plays

As you can see, this deck makes excellent use of hefty boss monsters, all of which can turn the game into your favor within a single turn.  Summon Master Hyperion by banishing an Agent from your graveyard, then banish another fairy to net a [+1] in card advantage.  Summon an Archlord Kristya against any deck in the current meta, and watch as your opponent struggles to overcome it (unless, of course, they have Dark Hole or the like).  Finally, the deck takes advantage of the most powerful monster to come off the banlist in years: Black Luster Soldier.  The Soldier can drastically turn things in your favor - use it to banish that pesky Ally of Justice Catastor holding you back, or try its other effect: attacking twice with a whopping 3000 attack!  It’s especially good when utilized late game as you’ve usually got that graveyard loaded with your light monsters, as well as some darks.  Note that T.G. Warwolf is a dark monster, which is one of the reasons T.G. and Angels work together to produce a deck that's greater than the sum of its parts.  

Since you often have many cards in hand, Tragoedia is a good beater early or even mid-game.  However, a mistake many players make is that they only play Tragoedia reactively - as in reacting to opponent’s plays.  Instead, take a new twist on things and try playing it proactively.  Suppose, for example, you have 5 cards in hand, including Sangan and Tragoedia.  Normal summon the Sangan, then ram it into the Bora in the battle phase, special summoning Tragoedia in the damage step.  Sure, you lose some Life Points in the process, but you get your Sangan search (netting 4 cards in hand now), and you’ve got a bulky Tragoedia on the field with 2400 attack!  After it’s done, you’re still at 5 cards total (in hand and on the field), but you’re still in your battle phase!  Take down that Bora, and you’ve got a great beater and a Sangan search to set up for your play next turn.  Alternatively, Sangan can get you that Herald from your deck to protect you later on if needed.  Many opponents will not expect plays like this, so the element of surprise will be a big advantage on your part!  

This deck is terrific at generating monsters with high attack and defense.  Our shining star: Gachi Gachi Gantetsu.  This Xyz monster comes in the Dawn of the Xyz starter deck, and is a perfect fit in T.G. Agents.  Many great first turns come from summoning Venus, getting 2-3 Shine Balls from the deck, and stacking two of those Shine Balls for Gachi.  With this play, you net a [+2] in terms of card advantage (assuming Gachi and the 3rd Shine Ball hit the field), and a souped-up Venus with 2000 attack due to Gachi’s effect!  At this point, all monsters you summon will now have their attack increased by 400, which is a pretty big deal.  Your opponent’s only answer will be to minus himself by summoning synchros or Xyzs to attack over or get rid of your monsters.  

Remember how how Necrovalley made a huge difference for the Gravekeeper beatdown strategy?  It can turn their monsters from being just “good” to a force to be reckoned with, powering over even the strongest level 4 monsters!  Gachi has the same principle.  Venus becomes 2000, Earth pumps up to 1400, Hyperion a whopping 3100,  and Tragoedia 400 + 600 times the number of cards in  your hand.  Plus, when your opponent finally manages to get the Gachi off the field, you’re set up for Hyperion and Kristya plays!  Awesome!

The T.G. monsters aren't only used for synchos and card advantage; they're also used for Xyzs.  A Venus and Warwolf get you Leviair, which you can then use to special summon one of your level 4 or lower removed from play fairies for a cool [+1].  Also, you can get Leviathan Dragon, remove a Venus, and have a 2500 ATK beatstick (or up to 2900 with Gachi on the field!).

3. Control

Although great at aggressively putting big monsters on the field, this deck also utilizes an extremely effective control strategy.  Herald is one of the best control cards in the deck (the other being Kristya!), but it can be tricky to play.  It’s an inherent [-1], but there are certain ways you can play it to help make up for that (and, as you’ll see, this way is to play conservatively!).  Don’t lose card advantage over small stuff, because a [-1] will eliminate some of your options when you need to make a comeback.  Herald small stuff (like Effect Veiler or Honest!) late game only if you know your opponent is on his last leg and you can win the game that turn (key word here is “only”!).  

Looking over my decklist, you’ll notice I only play one trap card.  Not surprisingly, it’s a control card, because Trap Dustshoot will either eliminate key cards in your opponent’s strategy or cards that prevent you from accomplishing your strategies, such as Effect Veiler, Honest, and Maxx “C”.  See the article on how to make the most of Trap Dustshoot coming soon!

Finally, most decks in the meta right now focus on swarming the field, and, outside of Dark Hole, there are few cards commonly played that focus on monster elimination.  This is where Archlord Kristya really shines!  While testing this deck against most meta decks this format, when I’ve summoned Archlord Kristya, it was typical that my opponent simply scooped, and we proceeded into the next game.  Indeed, this shows how powerful a single card can be - summoning a 2800 beater, getting a [+1] (the fairy from the grave, typically Honest or Hyperion), all backed up by a built-in Royal Oppression!  Also, don’t forget that Kristya can be tribute summoned or Monster Reborn’d.  In fact, a great (but somewhat situational) combo with this deck is when you have Herald, Kristya, and Reborn.  Play the Herald, discarding the Kristya, and activate Reborn, special summoning Kristya.

4. Card Advantage

Note that card advantage has been mentioned in most every topic discussed thus far.  It is hard to stress how very important this is in getting advantage during any game, against any player.  Almost every card in the deck, with the exception of Herald, is an advantage generator.  Venus is a [+3] when combined with Shine Ball.  The T.G. monsters replace themselves.  Wonder Magician in the extra deck creates a [+1] that makes up for its inherent [-1] to synchro.  Earth is a [+1], Kristya is [+1], and Hyperion creates a [+1] every turn he sticks around.  This isn't even counting the battle phase advantage you'll generate with your pumped-up monsters, thanks to Gachi!

Herald is the only minus, but take this example:  your opponent uses 3 cards to synchro for Trishula.  At this point, before the effect of Trishula resolves, here’s the card advantage for your opponent: -3 synchro materials + 1 Trishula = [-2].  Trishula triggers, and you use Herald and another fairy [-2] to negate and destroy the activation of Trishula.  This bit of card advantage calculation will be a little complex, but if you can stick with it, your understanding of play-by-play advantage will be broadened.  Ready?  Here we go!  

Play-by-play advantage for your opponent: -3 synchro materials + 1 Trishula + 2 of your cards that you used up from Herald - 1 Trishula (since Trishula is destroyed by Herald’s effect) = -3 + 1 + 2 - 1 = [-1], which is a [+1] for you!  Whew!  Got it?  Your opponent used 3 monsters for Trishula, while you played smart (read: conservatively) and used 2 cards for Herald, generating a [+1] after all is said and done!  

5. Format Modifications

Of course, no deck is perfect from the start.  As the format goes on, you'll have to modify the deck to have it perform to the best of its ability.  After the meta became a little more clear following the first YCS of the format, I've made a few changes.  I took out three Herald of Orange Light and three Cards from the Sky because I felt as if they were holding me back when I wanted to explode and win the game.  I put in four defensive cards: 2 Effect Veiler and 2 Maxx "C".  I found that this did not interfere with the consistency of my Kristya and Hyperion drops (due to the reduction of three fairies).  The final two changes were a 3rd T.G. Striker (for more Armory Arm or Trishula plays) and Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.  I'm still playing around with the deck, but this is what works well so far!  Feel free to change it around and find what suits you best. Remember, you're playing for your meta, not mine!  So here's the modified deck list:

         Monster Total: 30

3 Master Hyperion

3 The Agent of Creation - Venus

3 Mystical Shine Ball

3 The Agent of Mystery - Earth

3 T.G. Warwolf

3 T.G. Striker

2 Archlord Kristya

        2 Effect Veiler

        2 Maxx "C"

2 Tragoedia

        1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1 Black Luster Soldier

1 Honest

1 Sangan

     

Spell Total: 9

3 Pot of Duality

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Mind Control

           Trap Total: 1

1 Trap Dustshoot

Conclusively, this deck utilizes playing conservatively and card advantage to a great extent, and it is up to you to play smart and make the most of it!  With these tips and a little bit of practice, you can unlock the full potential of T.G. Agents!

Ms. K

The Good Player's Toolbox: Playing Conservatively

There are a few elements that define good players.  They make accurate reads.  They understand card advantage.  They have a good grasp of the meta and the key cards that comprise it.  These are all skills that aspiring players need to work toward, and we’ve already made the biggest leap: card advantage (see previous article).  We’ll make another big leap today with something simpler (thankfully!): playing conservatively.  One of the biggest reasons “good” players win on a consistent basis is because they play conservatively.  Be aware that you need to understand the basic concept of card advantage, so be sure to read (and understand) that article before rushing into this one! 

What does playing conservatively mean?  Well, it revolves around a simple principle: don’t play cards that you don’t need to.  As we go through the article, I’ll provide examples that (hopefully) illuminate on how to play conservatively and why players are rewarded for doing so.  Obviously, the reward will come from winning the game or securing a more advantageous position, and these are things that you’ll naturally discover as you start to implement them into your playstyle.  Let’s start out with a simple example involving an often-misplayed card, Heavy Storm:

Case I:

Your opponent sets two cards to his backrow and passes.

Right away, you identify that your opponent is not playing conservatively.  That is, he is in a position to lose cards when he doesn’t have to.  The lingering threat of Heavy Storm in the format would spell a potential [-1] in terms of card advantage for your opponent if you were to play it right now and achieve a [+1] on your side of the playing field (the classic “two for one”, 2 backrow for 1 Heavy Storm = [+1] for you, [-1] for them).  So, immediately, you’re at an advantage!  You’re an aspiring conservative player, while your opponent is not!  Congratulations, you’ve taken the biggest step!

Now, let’s say your hand consists of a Mystical Space Typhoon, Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress, Tragoedia, and 3 other cards.  Being an aspiring conservative player, you want to use the minimum number of cards possible to achieve the most advantageous gamestate.  You’ll see the results of this in the attack of Tragoedia  in turn 2 (we’ll get there, don’t rush!).  Let’s say you take Route 1:

Route 1:

You blind Typhoon a backrow, hit his facedown Typhoon.  You normal summon a Lyla and lose it to Torrential Tribute.  You now have 4 cards in your hand.  

You took Route 1 and ended your turn.  Your opponent then summons XX-Saber Boggart Knight and attacks you directly, and you special Tragoedia at 1800 ATK (600 x 3 remaining cards in your hand).  

Now let’s say you’re well seasoned in playing conservatively, and you take Route 2:

Route 2:

You summon the Lyla, baiting out your opponent’s cards.  He’s forced to play Torrential (or risk losing it), leaving you with the lone harmless Typhoon facedown.  He’s out a Torrential, and you’re out a simple Lyla.  You pass with 5 cards in hand.  

This time, he summons the Boggart, and attacks directly.  You summon the Tragoedia with 2400 ATK, ready to be boosted to a wopping 3000 ATK with your next draw!  You’ve secured a much more advantageous gamestate through a bigger monster just because you played conservatively.  

Now, that’s a fairly simple example of playing conservatively and achieving success through old-fashioned beatdown.  But what happens when we climb up the power scale and venture into more complex strategies?  Let’s say it’s late game.  Your opponent has a lone backrow, and you’re holding a Mystic Tomato and Dark Armed Dragon in your hand, with 2 darks in your graveyard.  Your opponent holds a Dark Hole, backed up with his backrow.  Let’s say you’re not quite acquainted with playing conservatively yet, and you take Route 1:

Route 1:

Summon the Mystic Tomato and attack directly.  You attack into Mirror Force, sending the Tomato to the grave, effectively filling it up with 3 darks.

The nonconservative player will simply special summon the Dark Armed in main phase 2 (MP2) and pass, just to have a monster on the field.  But why do this?  Is it completely necessary (assuming life points permitting)?  You can’t gain card advantage through Dark Armed since there are no more cards on either side of the field.  You can’t attack to inflict damage, possibly for game.  So why do this?  To make matters worse, your opponent drops Dark Hole, and attacks directly with a freshly topdecked Blackwing - Bora the Spear.  At this point, your opponent has 1 card, and you have none, so you’re at a [-1].  You put yourself in a bad position because you rushed.  So let’s example what would have happened if you would have waited and taken Route 2 (the conservative route):

Route 2:

Summon the Tomato and attempt to attack, running into Mirror Force.  Pass, with the Dark Armed in hand.  You opponent, now at 2 cards, summons Bora and attacks directly.  You draw for your turn, topdeck a Spirit Reaper, and special summon the Dark Armed, popping Bora with Dark Armed’s effect, netting a [+1] in terms of card advantage.

Note:  Just as a reminder, this is because cards in the graveyard do not count toward card advantage, only cards on the field and hand, with the exception of cards like Spore and Mezuki, which provide [+1]’s from the grave.  Effectively, you give up a card in the graveyard (no change in card advantage) to destroy one card on your opponent’s side of the field, getting you a [+1].  This means you now have more advantage over your opponent because you have more cards (1 Dark Armed + 1 Reaper = 2, compared to 1 Dark Hole in hand = 1, so you’re at 2 (you) - 1 (opponent) = [+1]), hence the name: card advantage!

You then normal summon the Reaper, and attack directly with Reaper, netting yet another [+1] with Reaper’s effect!  You now have 2 cards, while your opponent has none, just because you played conservatively!  Your total card advantage at this point is [+2] when you took Route 2, compared to [-1] in Route 1.  This is a significant improvement!  Congratulations, you’re one step closer to being the best player you can be!

Let’s say you know your opponent has a Dark Hole (via Pot of Duality, or something of the sort).  He summons a Bora and passes, with only Dark Hole in his hand.  You have a hand of Judgment Dragon, Jain, and Foolish Burial with a Wulf in your deck and 4 Lightsworn monsters with different names in your graveyard.  A nonconservative player will rush (assuming he can’t win this turn) and summon Judgment Dragon, like in Route 1:

Route 1:

You summon the Judgment Dragon, nuke the field for your [+1] (Bora destroyed), and attack.  

You walk right into the Dark Hole next turn, plus whatever your opponent has for you.  Bad play!  Don’t do this!  Rather, play conservatively and force the Dark Hole on smaller monsters, keeping your big boss monster for late game in Route 2:

Route 2:

Normal summon the Jain (or Foolish a Wulf), attack over the Bora, and pass.  You’ve achieved a [+1] through battle.  Your opponent is forced to play the Dark Hole and whatever topdeck he has.  Now, you can play the Judgment Dragon, destroy the topdeck for another [+1] ([+2] at this point!), then Foolish the Wulf or summon the Jain (whichever you didn’t do), and attack for massive damage!  With this route, you have two great monsters on the field and have effectively played around the threat of Dark Hole.  Conclusively, we can see here that conservative play rewards the player with a [+2] and game finishing boss monster.    

Let’s take another example.  Suppose you’re playing an Agent Angel deck, and you have a well-established field: a loaded Gachi Gachi Gantetsu with a souped-up Venus.  You have Honest, Earth, and Master Hyperion in your hand, with a single Shine Ball in the grave.  Pretty nice!  However, your opponent special summons TG Striker and Warwolf, going into Catastor, taking the inherent [-1] from the synchro summon (-2 synchro materials + 1 synchro = [-1] for your opponent in overall C.A.).  He attacks over your Venus.  Now, the non-conservative player will panic and take the least effective way out, Route 1:

Route 1:

Banish Earth from your hand, summoning Hyperion.  Banish another fairy in the graveyard, destroy Catastor.  

Note that in Route 1, you gave up 1 card (Earth) to destroy 1 (Catastor).  In other words: [1] of your cards for his [1] card translates to a [+0] for you.  Why do this?  Why settle for break-evens?  Simply take Route 2, the conservative (and therefore, more advantageous) route:

Route 2:

Normal Earth, getting another Agent ([+1]!).  Banish Venus in the grave, special Hyperion ([-0], as opposed to [-1] in Route 1.  Banish the Shine Ball for the Catastor ([+1])!

Here, you’ve played conservatively and accumulated card advantage!  You break even in Route 1 ([+0]), but in Route 2, you net not a [+1], but a [+2] ([+1] from Earth search, [+1] from Hyperion destruction).  Awesome!  

Perhaps the best example of playing conservatively can be seen in Solemn Warning plays.  Let's say you have a set Solemn Warning and your opponent has one card in hand and Spore in the grave.  He removes a Lonefire to special summon Spore as a level 4 tuner, then normal summons Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite to synchro summon a level 8 monster.  Let's compare what a conservative and non-conservative player would do, and see which route is better:

Route 1:

You activate the effect of Solemn Warning to Spore's activation, negating the summon of Spore.  Your opponent then normal summons Zephyros.

In this case, Solemn Warning acts as a one-for-one or [+0].  You then take a direct attack, lowering your life points by 3600 this turn!  Ouch!

Route 2:

Your opponent activates the effect of Spore, special summoning it.  You let it go through.  Your opponent then normal summons Zephyros and synchro summons Stardust Dragon.  You activate the effect of Solemn Warning, negating the summon of Stardust Dragon.

In this case, Solemn Warning becomes a [+1]: the 2 synchro materials in exchange for 1 Solemn Warning = [+1].  In addition to card advantage, you've also saved 1600 life points.  The conservative option is much better in terms of card advantage and life points!  

Clearly, you can see that being conservative and letting your opponent waste resources to get rid of your cards is much more effective than rushing into power plays.  When employed correctly with card advantage in mind, you’ll have multiple match victories under your belt in no time!


Dr. House

The Good Player's Toolbox: Card Advantage

Perhaps the biggest leap toward becoming a better player is understanding how the concept of card advantage (C.A.) works.  In fact, once you become somewhat familiar with the basics, you can use it as a measure of how well you’re doing in the current game.  A lot of players assume that life points are the measure of how well a game is going (though this is true, to an extent), but this theory is quite possibly the biggest misconception among players.  Answer the following question: Who is more likely to win the duel: Player A at 2100 life points with 6 cards in hand (one being Effect Veiler), a Stardust, Utopia, and Brionac backed up by a Solemn Judgment or Player B with 1 card in hand and 8000 life points?  At this point, I hope most of you said Player A!  

So obviously, there’s more to the story than life points.  What is it?  What else can tell you how well players are doing if life points aren’t everything?  Indeed, card advantage accounts for the rest of the story.  This major step forward requires you to know how to add and subtract, and the faster you can do it, the better off you are.  But don’t fret if you’re not a math major (or even math savvy), because it’s the underlying concepts that are important, rather than the calculations themselves.  But don’t get discouraged!  Learn the concepts and calculations, learn to keep track, and before you know it, you’ll be a much better player within a few matches.  Before I continue in detail, I’ll outline the basics, then explain how (as mentioned earlier) you can use this lesson to monitor your status in a duel.  

The Basics

1.  Overall Advantage:
Count the cards on your side of the field and in your hand.  This is the overall advantage, which is typically what you use to compare yourself to your opponent.  The more cards you have, the better chance there is for you to get out of a sticky situation or win the duel.  Simply put, the more cards you have, the more options you have and the better off you are.  You can easily compare your advantage to your opponent’s.  Here’s a simple example:

You have Scrap Dragon and a face-up Royal Oppression on the field, as well as 3 cards in your hand.  Your overall advantage is 2 (field) + 3 (hand) = 5.  Your opponent has 2 cards in hand with 1 set backrow.  His overall advantage is 1 (field) + 2 (hand) = 3.  Therefore, you’re at: 5 (you) - 3 (them) = [+2].  Pretty snazzy, keep it up!  

But let’s say you made the mistake of setting a monster and 2 backrow on your first turn.  Your opponent opens up with Heavy Storm, destroying both backrow.  Your opponent now has 5 cards in hand (1 less due to playing Heavy Storm), while you have 1 card on the field and 3 cards in hand; 1 (field) + 3 (hand) = 4.  Therefore, the overall advantage is now 4 (you) - 5 (opponent) = [-1].  You’re at a [-1] now, not cool!  Lesson: Don’t make the mistake of being minus’ed early by being foolish and setting more than 1 backrow.  Why?  Because you lose card advantage, eliminating options for you to come back.  Therefore, even as early as turn 1, your opponent has a big advantage over you, simply because he has more cards.  


If you're both at [X] (say, your opponent has 2 cards in hand, with 1 on the field, while you have 3 cards on the field, you both add up to an overall advantage of [3]), you're both progressing though the game at an even pace.  Generally speaking, if you're at [+X] in card advantage (as in the Scrap Dragon example), keep it up, you're winning!  If you're at [-X] compared to your opponent (as in the Heavy Storm example), you're not doing so well.  This is how card advantage is used to monitor how well you’re doing in the current duel - simply by counting resources (both yours and your opponent’s) and comparing.

2. Inherent Advantage:
Inherent advantage is the advantage produced by cards themselves.  They usually take the form of a [-1] or [+1], as we see from these examples:

Player A opens his turn by summoning Elemental Hero Stratos with 5 cards in his hand.  At this point, before Stratos resolves, the overall advantage is 1 (field) + 5 (hand) = 6.  The effect triggers and Stratos resolves, adding Elemental Hero Neos Alius to Player A’s hand.  The overall advantage is now 1 (field) + 6 (hand) = 7.  Player A just made a [+1], which we can see by comparing the overall advantage before and after the resolution of Stratos: 7 (after) - 6 (before) = [+1].  Therefore, Stratos is a [+1] in terms of card advantage.  He adds a card to Player A’s hand, effectively giving him more options to win the game against Player B, his opponent.  

Before I go further, please note: the card that you use, especially non-continuous spell or trap cards, need to be accounted for when computing the card advantage a play generates.  For example, you get [+2] from drawing 2 cards with the effect of Pot of Greed, but you also played (and resolved) Pot of Greed.  Therefore, the card advantage computation would look like this: [+2] (from drawing with Pot of Greed) + [-1] (the Pot of Greed that you used) = [+1].  Cards that generate [+1] or higher in inherent advantage are deemed “good cards”.  Notorious examples include:

Agent of Mystery - Earth: [+1], one card from deck to hand. 

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness: [+1], due to the summon of the token. 

Tour Guide from the Underworld: [+1], one card from deck to field.

Dark Armed Dragon: [+3], you waste no cards in your hand or field, while your opponent gets his face shoved in by having 3 cards destroyed.

However, there are cards that generate plusses, but players fail to use them the right way.  Ubiquitous examples include Heavy Storm and Dark Hole.  Activating Heavy Storm while your opponent has 2 backrow and you have none is a [+1] for you because they’re down 2 cards, while you’re only down 1: [+2] (them) + [-1] (you playing Heavy Storm) = [+1] for you.  However, you can misuse Heavy Storm, which inexperienced players frequently make the mistake of doing (and in that case, you can show them this article!).  Let’s say you have 2 backrow and your opponent has 1.  You play Heavy Storm, so you’re down 1 card from Heavy and 2 from your backrow, so you’re down a total of 3 cards, while your opponent is only down 1: [+1] (opponent) + [-3] (you) = [-2].  Bad move!  You just lost 2 options of getting rid of your opponent’s cards.  This is why understanding how card advantage works is important to understanding why some plays are good and some are just terrible, like the one above!  The same logic can be applied to Dark Hole with monsters.  

Note that I said earlier that only cards in the hand and on the field are counted toward overall card advantage.  Now, this is generally true, but there are some exceptions: cards in the graveyard can count toward card advantage as well.  These are very unique cards and the most well-known examples include monsters like Mezuki, Glow-Up Bulb, and Spore.  Mezuki activates in the graveyard (where we typically don’t count card advantage), but by banishing itself, it summons a Zombie to your side of the field (where we do count card advantage). Therefore, you’re essentially getting a [+1] out of “nowhere” from the Zombie that was special summoned.  The same logic applies for Spore and Glow-Up Bulb (since cards in the deck don’t count toward card advantage either).  These are cards that are inherent plusses, meaning they self-generate card advantage.  

There are inherent minuses, but they are not necessarily bad cards.  A common example includes Foolish Burial.  You send 1 monster from your deck to your graveyard ([+0], since you don’t gain any advantage in terms of controlling cards in your hand or field), but you also used up the card itself: [+0] (Foolish Burial effect) + [-1] (from using up the Foolish Burial, itself) = [-1].  

3.  Play-by-Play (or Combo) Advantage:
Some cards will make up their card advantage when combo’ed with other cards.  Let’s look at the Foolish Burial example again.  By now (hopefully), you understand that Foolish Burial is an inherent [-1],  because you don’t gain advantage when the effect of Foolish resolves [+0] and you used up the actual card [-1].  But what if you combo this with Mezuki?  You take the [-1] from Foolish Burial, but Mezuki creates a [+1] when it special summons a Zombie to your side of the field.  Therefore, the play-by-play advantage is break-even [+0]: [-1] from Foolish + [+1] from Mezuki = [+0]!  Cool!  Now we understand why these combos, such as Foolish Burial into Mezuki [+0], Wulf, Lightsworn Beast [+0], or Dandylion [+1] are “good” plays.  This is because they provide (or nullify) card advantage!  And yes, in the case of Dandylion, tokens do count toward card advantage because they are options toward plays, such as synching into higher levels or using them for effects that require you to tribute cards, even though tokens are not actual “cards”.

4.  Battle Phase Advantage:  
Attacking and successfully destroying a monster in your battle phase is a [+1] in terms of card advantage.  Why is this?  Well, let’s take a look, assuming the players have no cards other than the ones in the example:

Player A has Thunder King Rai-Oh face up, overall advantage = [1].  Player B has Revived King Ha Des, also having an overall advantage of [1].  Player B enters the battle phase and successfully attacks and destroys Thunder King.  Now, Player A has no cards: overall advantage = [0], while Player B has 1 card: overall advantage = [1].  Player B has now gained a [+1] through the battle phase, and hopefully this is pretty intuitive as to how this happens - a card is destroyed through battle with no cost to the attacking player.  Thus, the battle phase provides a gateway to free plusses.  Use it wisely!  To help you make the most of your battle phases, we’ll make an article on understanding the battle phase and damage step soon.  

5.  Inherent [Dis]Advantage of Synchros, Fusions, and Xyz:
I’m assuming that those who are reading this article know how to summon the above monsters.  Let’s say you’re trying to synchro summon a Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier to get a pesky Stardust Dragon out the way.  You have a Zombie Master and a Plaguespreader Zombie.  You send both to the graveyard [-2] to synchro summon Brionac [+1].  Therefore, you gave up 2 cards to summon 1: 1 (synchro monster) + [-2] (materials) = [-1].  From this, you see every synchro summon is (at minimum) a [-1].  The same logic can be applied to “contact” fusions and Xyz.  But there is a way you can make up for this, discussed in the next section.

6.  Inherent Advantage of Searchers and Recruiters: 
Searchers are cards that search other cards, like Goblin Zombie, XX-Saber Darksoul, Sangan, and Gravekeeper’s Recruiter.  So when these cards are sent from the field to the graveyard, they make up for any lost card advantage.  This is a very powerful (and reliable) way to keep up card advantage - when your opponent destroys an XX-Saber Darksoul by battle, you don’t take an overall card advantage of [-1], rather: [-1] from the destruction of Darksoul + [+1] from Darksoul in the end phase = [+0].  From this, you see that searchers effectively bypass the inherent minuses of the battle phase!  Awesome!  However, searchers are not only used for battle phase shenanigans - they do a great job of making up for lost advantage when synchro summoning.  Let’s look at the Brionac example above, but use XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and XX-Saber Darksoul as the synchro materials.  We give up our two monsters to make the Brionac, as usual, but something peculiar happens: [-2] for materials + [+1] for Brionac + [+1] for Darksoul search = [+0].  Compare this to the normal [-1] of the synchro summon: it’s substantially better in terms of keeping up with advantage.  Congratulations!  You’ve just bypassed yet another inherent minus by using searchers as synchro material!  Indeed, this explains why searches are so prominent in top-tier decks, because they make up for or provide card advantage, giving the player more options to win.  

Recruiters are cards that summon other monsters to the field, like XX-Saber Emmersblade, Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, Pyramid Turtle, and so forth.  These simply bypass battle phase minuses by replacing themselves during the damage step (more on that later!): [-1] from successful battle and destruction of Pyramid Turtle + [+1] from Turtle’s recruit = [+0].    

Conclusion

First of all, congratulations!  You read through the whole thing!  You’ve taken the first major step toward improving yourself and being the best player you can be.  Hopefully, with these six major points of card advantage, you have a much better idea of how well you’re doing in the current duel.  Just practice by keeping count of your and your opponent’s cards on the field and in the hand and keep comparing.  This will keep you informed of your overall advantage.  If you keep making plusses, you’re playing really well (or your cards are overpowered!), but if you’re constantly in the negative, you might need to change your strategy.  This is why most good players will ask you, “Cards in hand?”, because they too are keeping track of how well they’re doing.  Remember, practice makes perfect, but don’t get discouraged!  It’s simple addition and subtraction, and the more you do it, the better you get.  If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to comment below!


Dr. House