In the Spotlight: Zombies

You’ve definitely heard of them - they’ve been around a while.  Whether you’re a longtime veteran or a player just starting out, you’ve listened to the stories about (or experienced firsthand!) the power of Zombies.  From Japan’s “Tier 0” Zombie synchro deck with 3 Mezuki, 3 Burial from a Different Dimension, 3 Dark Armed Dragon, and 2 Card of Safe Return to our (the TCG’s) watered-down version with 3 Burial from a Different Dimension, 2 Mezuki, and 1 Plaguespreader Zombie (as well as several variants prior to this), we see that Zombies have been on and off the upper tier lists.  With the limiting of Mezuki, Brionac, and Burial from a Different Dimension, Zombies lost a considerable amount of power and consistency, disappearing off the upper tier list for quite some time.  

But they’re back again.  Enter Tour Guide from the Underworld.  This is it.  This is the card that makes the Zombie archetype playable and consistent.  The card that ties together the deck, creating first-turn Sangan setups or explosive plays characterized by a blend of synchro and Xyz monsters.  Without further ado, here’s a decklist of upper-tier Zombies of this format:

    Monsters:   23

3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

3 Goblin Zombie

3 Maxx "C"

3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

3 Spirit Reaper

2 Pyramid Turtle

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Sangan

1 Mezuki

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

   Spells:   11

3 Book of Life

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Enemy Controller

1 Mind Control

1 Book of Moon

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

   Traps:   6

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Solemn Warning

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

    Extra Deck:  15

2 Leviair the Sea Dragon

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

1 Number 39: Utopia

1 TG Hyper Librarian

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Orient Dragon

2 Revived King Ha Des

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency!

This deck breeds consistency.  The first thing you’ll notice are the full playsets of Goblin Zombie and Maxx “C”.  Goblin Zombie is the heart of the deck - you’ll need to learn how to utilize the search power to play this deck effectively.  It’ll set up Synchros via Plaguespreader Zombie, blocks and presses for advantage via Spirit Reaper, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier plays with Mezuki, and anything you can think of in the deck.  It should come to no surprise that getting a Goblin Zombie live is key, which is why two Pyramid Turtle are included.  Additionally, Pyramid Turtle allows you to keep a Zombie on the field to set up for a big Synchro or Xyz play the following turn.  

Maxx “C” is one of the best cards in the deck - one which which really shines when you’re playing competitively.  Let’s say your opponent explodes with Rescue Rabbit or Tour Guide from the Underworld.  You’ll notice the trap lineup is nothing impressive, but Maxx “C” is!  It’ll stop big plays from going off (at least, to those who understand card advantage) while allowing you to draw cards.  The more cards you draw, the more chances you have at drawing your combo pieces and power cards.  It’s searchable via Sangan (which you have “four” of, compliments of Tour Guide from the Underworld!) and serves to help keep your opponent in control.  To emphasize the awesome-ness of Maxx "C", I'll be posting a full article on it soon!

Consistency is the key, especially in tournaments of 9 - 11 rounds, such as YCS events.  You’ll be relying on your sets of Goblin Zombie, Maxx “C”, and Tour Guide to grant you access to your deck, and it’s an extremely important resource to learn how to use.  

Power Plays and Card Advantage

This is perhaps the best OTK deck I’ve played all format.  I can put 2-3 Synchro monsters and 1 Xyz monster on the field early to mid-game (assuming the game lasts that long) as well as a Leviair the Sea Dragon.  We’ll start with the basic combo of the deck:

Combo 1 - Mezuki Madness

Start the game off with an early Mezuki [+1], granting you an easy synchro or more card presence.  This is often accomplished as early as the second turn.  Set up wisely, making sure you have Plaguespreader and Goblin Zombie on the field or in the graveyard.  This would be an ideal play: set a Turtle and let your opponent attack into it (or if your opponent’s smart and doesn’t attack into facedowns, ram it into their monsters to get what you need!).  Grab a Goblin Zombie with Turtle (blocking with multiple Turtles if necessary).  Normal summon Plaguespreader, synchro Brionac, search Mezuki with Goblin Zombie.  Discard Mezuki to rid your opponent of a synchro or Xyz.  You’re all set up at this point!

Alternatively, if you open with a Turtle and Goblin, you can let Turtle get you Plaguespreader during the battle phase, then normal summon the Goblin, going into Brionac.  The same play will essentially be accomplished.  This is one of the many “removal” strategies of the deck.  Alternatively, you can synchro into Orient Dragon or Revived King if you don’t want their Sangan or TG search to go off.  Any path you choose mentioned above grants you access to a great level 6 synchro and your Mezuki/Goblin/Plague setup.  

Combo 2 - Leviair: The Zombie Recycler

Once you used up Mezuki (but not Plaguespreader!), normal summon Tour Guide.  Get another Tour Guide or Sangan and Xyz into Leviair.  Detach a material, and special that Mezuki right back!  This grants you access to your banished pile.  This is extremely powerful because it’s essentially like running a beefed-up Burial from the Different Dimension on an 1800 beater.  However, Tour Guide from the Underworld isn’t the only way you can make Leviair the Sea Dragon - you can accomplish the same thing (on a slower basis) with Spirit Reaper.  You have a full set of Spirit Reaper with three copies of Book of Life, a Mezuki, and Monster Reborn, allowing you to put two Spirit Reaper on the field and make Leviair.  Therefore, you’ve got 2 total Tour Guide plays (one for each pair), along a full set of Spirit Reaper to help you make Leviair the Sea Dragon.  Woah! That banished pile is free for you to dig into! 

Remember this: don’t use up Plaguespreader unless you absolutely have to!  Plaguespreader is your source of synchro summons, and you should never activate the in-grave effect to “stack” and special, because this will cut you off of future synchros.  Avoid this!  Only stack a Plaguespreader if you have Tour Guide from the Underworld in your hand, an unused Leviair effect, or you’re going for game and only need one synchro.  Remember this!

Of course, the deck doesn't stop there.  Tour Guide is just one card.  Let’s say you have Tour Guide and Book of Life.  Normal Tour Guide, going into Leviair, detach and do the Mezuki combo, getting your Mezuki back.  Activate Book of Life, bringing back Plaguespreader, banishing your opponent’s Glow-Up, Spore, Agents, Plaguespreader, and so forth.  Synchro Plaguespreader and Mezuki for a level 6.  Banish the Mezuki, bring something else back, like Revived King Ha Des!  

For those of you looking to flex your new card advantage skills, here’s the card advantage in that play: [+1] from Tour Guide + [-1] from inherent Xyz + [+1] from Leviair effect + [+0] from Book of Life + [-1] from synchro of Plaguespreader and Mezuki + [+1] from Mezuki.  Whew!  Thankfully, you’re well-seasoned in card advantage counting after reading our articles, but if you missed it, here’s the count: +1 - 1 + 1 + 0 - 1 + 1 = [+1].  So a Tour Guide into Leviair coupled with one graveyard revival card (either Book of Life, Reborn, and so forth) grants you a Leviair, a level 6 synchro of your choice, and a free Zombie from your graveyard special summoned to your field at a total card advantage of [+1].  Impressive!

“Combo” 3 - Doin' the Derp

Black Luster Soldier and Dark Armed Dragon - hey, who doesn't like free wins?  One's a [+3], the other's a [+1 or 2].  'Nuff said.  Thunder King for Black Luster Soldier, or Mind Control or Enemy Controller an opponent's monster and get Utopia.  There's your light, you're set to go - full derp ahead! 

A neat trick is using Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Tour Guide from the Underworld together.  Banish your Thunder King Rai-Oh and a Dark for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.  Then summon Tour Guide from the Underworld and bring the Thunder King Rai-Oh back for a game-sealing combo!

“But Why?” - Concerning Card Choices 

This Zombie deck is quite different from a lot of other builds out there.  Mostly, I get a lot of heat for only running one tuner (Plaguespreader).  This is more than sufficient to play the deck, because Plaguespreader can be recycled almost indefinitely, and is effortlessly searched out.  This is all the deck needs, and it just doesn’t make sense to clutter up deck space with unnecessary tuners when you could add more power and consistency to the deck.  One pet peeve of mine is Pain Painter.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “But it’s like Plaguespreader!”  Exactly.  It’s like Plaguespreader.  Meaning it isn’t Plaguespreader.  It can’t self-revive from the grave, which is, without a shadow of doubt, the best part of Plaguespreader Zombie.  The perfect word to describe Pain Painter is “unnecessary”.  Play better cards.  Don’t even get me started on the situational mess that's Blue-Blooded Oni.

Another thing I get some criticism on is my choice of 3 Book of Life.  Book of Life is, simply put, amazing.  It revives any Zombie type monster from the graveyard, including Revivied King Ha Des for an easy level 8 synchro.  It banishes key cards that generate advantage in your opponent’s graveyard.  It takes away that Light (or Dark) for Black Luster Soldier.  It blocks future plays for your opponent (try banishing Grapha, Dandylion, Spore, or Glow-Up Bulb with Book of Life!).  The deck moves so fast, that drawing 2 (or even 3!) in your opening hand won’t hold you back - rather, it opens up more explosive plays for you while shutting down plays for your opponent.  

Given the current meta, Thunder King Rai-Oh is a great choice for this deck, because it shuts down so many opposing meta deck plays. Additionally, Thunder King Rai-Oh allows you to produce Black Luster Soldier derps, If you don’t open up with a Zombie, Thunder King Rai-Oh is simply an amazing card to put on the field during your opening turn.  It stops Rabbit plays, Tour Guides, opposing Thunder King Rai-Oh (via suicide), Duality, most floaters, and so forth.  In fact, Thunder King Rai-Oh is so deadly that I’ve included two copies of Dimensional Prison for opposing Thunder King Rai-Oh - a well protected copy of Thunder King Rai-Oh can shut this deck down!

Complexity

This deck isn’t exactly for the faint of heart.  It requires an in-depth knowledge of card advantage, combo setup, combo disruption (what to use your Maxx “C” on, what to banish with Book of Life - it’s not as straightforward as it seems), and the damage step, as well as a fairly good grip on predicting plays and knowing when to push for game.  Put simply, it requires an advanced player and a good bit of practice.  

On a personal note, I've been testing this deck since the advent of Tour Guide in EXVC, playing it through the old, new, then old (again) Xyz rulings.  I've got to say, when I was playing the deck under the "Xyz-materials-on-field" ruling, it was absolutely insane.  I was so sure it was going to get smashed by the ban list come March 2012, but I'm extremely content with the ruling change!  I love this deck, and I wish it could stick around forever!

If you’ve got the heart for it, definitely pick it up.  It’s a great deck that’s extremely difficult to beat in the hands of a skilled player, but regardless of what skill level you’re at, it’ll take some practice.  Remember, be patient!  You’ll get it down eventually.  I’ve only touched the surface of all the combos that this deck is capable of in this article, and it’s up to you to discover the rest yourselves!  Don't let this intimidate you, pick it up and play!

Dr. House

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

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