Subject: Follow up to card advantage article.
Date: 03 Nov 97 18:19:55 EST
From: Michael.B.Rand@Dartmouth.EDU (Michael B. Rand)
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Greetings,

Many people have commented on my Dojo Article concerning the difference and the
interaction between card advantage and card quality.  Many good players
complimented me on my article, yet I feel (as do some others) that certain
issues were not discussed sufficiently.  I will attempt to close those issues
in this current post, which will probably just perpetuate a series of posts
proving only that I am a big wind bag.;)

The purpose of this post will be to discuss the difference between dependant
and independant card advantage.  First definitions, then examples of decks
which use both.

Dependent card advantage:  A card advantage which stems from the interaction
between your cards and your opponents.  This can be Wrathing away 10 of your
opponents creatures with one Wrath, busting up someone's Icy with your Uktabi
Orangutan and then having it bolted, or Shatterstorming away a Prison lock of 3
artifacts.  Deemed dependent because it relies on your opponent to work, though
it may be incredibly versatile (Wrath/Icy is one example).

Independent card advantage: A card advantage which stems from drawing and
denial mechanisms, mainly drawing though.  An example would be protecting a
Jayemdae Tome for 20 turns and drawing 15 extra cards with it (applying a
serious beatdown the other 5 turns =) ).  Deemed independent because it gains
you the same amount of cards whether or not you are even playing an opponent,
nevermind what kind of decks they have.

Again, let's look at some decks to show what I mean about these two different
types of card advantage.

1. Dependent card advantage:

A Maro Geddon deck (the same as in the previos article)

4 Grassland
4 Brushland
7 Forests
5 Plains
4 Thawing Glaciers

3 Abeyance
3 Gaea's Blessing
2 Sylvan Library

3 Whirling Dervish
3 Maro
3 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Scalebane's Elite
1 Autumn Willow

4 Icy Manipulator
2 Serrated Arrows

3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
2 Gerrard's Wisdom
2 Armageddon
1 Wrath of God

Now, this deck contains many versions of dependent card advantage.  Against a
Weenie swarm, locking up one creature with an Icy Manipulator then wrathing
away 2 or more critters is dependent card advantage.  If my opponent has out
artifacts, they can get destroyed by an Uktabi Orangutan, which must then be
dealt with by expending a card.  Maro is great dependent card advantage against
a burn deck, while Serrated Arrows absolutely rip though weenie decks.

The reason that dependent card advantage is sometimes unreliable, however, can
be seen in the MaroGeddon's matchup with it's arch-nemesis, the Counterpost.  I
met a particularly disturbing version in round two of the New Jersey states.
It had only one main deck artifact to speak of (a Bosium Strip), no creatures
save the Outpost tokens, and many counterspells.  He also had 4 Thawing
Glaciers to my Thawing Glaciers, and nuked the only other source of independent
card advantage (the Sylvan Library) on site. Some players have pointed out that
this was merely a bad matchup for my deck.  The reason WHY it was a bad matchup
is because all of my card advantage cards relied on permanents which my
opponent simply did not have.  He could merely counter the Armageddon and
Sylvan Library, and there was very little else I could do to push the favor of
card advantage back into my favor.

This points out the potential problem of dependent card advantage: an opponent
may not have the kind of deck that allows you to garner card advantage because
they might not play the "right" type of cards, not allowing you to run your
dependent card advantage schemes.

2. Independent card advantage

To show a deck based around independent card advantage, let us look to a mono
blue deck: Ophidibastard.  This deck is actually very similar in concept to the
Browse/Digger decks of the Control Magic era, in that it would protect a few
damage dealers and card drawers and beat you to a pulp.  Here it is:

4 Ophidian
4 Man-O'-War
2 Vodalian Illusionist
2 Flood Gate

4 Counterspell
4 Dissipate
4 Force of Will
2 Binding Grasp
2 Browse
1 Soldevi Digger
4 Impulse
1 Flood
3 Nevinyrral's Disks
20 Islands
3 Quicksands

Very untunned, just really made to prove my point.  The whole point of this
deck was to drop an Ophidian, counter any threat to it, then drop a Man-O'-War
or an Illusionist and kill your opponent.  How does this work?  Independent
card advantage.  The Ophidian need only get through unblocked for 5 or 6 turns
for the card advantage to be overwhelming.  This deck works on independant card
advantage.  Your opponent will always be there.  Therefore, the Ophidian is
never going to be in a situation where the card advantage will not pan out, you
simply need to get it down, protect it, and no matter what deck you are playing
will go down to massive independent card advantage.

The problem with independent card advantage? There are some.  First is that
independent card advantage cards are very rare in number, being so powerful.
They almost always involve drawing a card, though very few are discard spells,
which can still be useless against a burn deck or a deck that plays out its
hand very quickly.  The second disadvantage of independent card advantage cards
is that they almost always involve elaborate protection setups to provide the
user with massive card advantage.  The Ophidian has 12 counters devoted to it.
In Brian Weissman's "The Deck", he almost always would say, "one needs to
protect the card advantage permanents (Moat, Abyss, Tome, and Scepter) with
counters."  A Wrath of God can garner 5 count turn advantage on turn 5, the
second summoned.  IT would take an Ophidian at least until turn 9 to see that
kind of card advantage, assuming you dropped it turn 3.  That is also assuming
that you successfully protect the Ophidian/Jayemdae Tome long enough to see
that kind of card advantage.  A third disadvantage is that these schemes are
almost always incredibly mana intensive.  Tome: 4 mana to activate.  Whisper's
of the Muse: 6 to cast and buyback.  A Winter Orb can end your day. So, while
dependent card advantage almost always provides robust, quick card advantage,
an independent card advantage scheme almost always involves slow, fragile
methods for accumulating steady, yet massive card advantage.

3. Conclusion

So which type do you use?  Do you make a faster dependent card advantage
scheme, banking on your opponent having the right type of cards to make it
work?  Or do you use a slower, independent scheme, protecting your permanents
somewhat and going for the kill methodically yet convincingly.

IMHO, the answer is both.  There are very few cards that provide both Dependant
and Independant card advantage (Ancestral Recall and Meditate being two, note
the increasing price in both, especially Ancestral.  Why do you think it is on
everyone's top ten list?)  By including both independent and dependant card
advantage in your deck, you will ensure that you will not fall to an early
weenie or burn rush, while at the same time you will be able to accumulate
threats in the mid to late game to stay with the ultra control decks.  If I
knew how to do this in one deck, I would be playing it.  As I don't, I'll leave
it up to you to decide how to do this.  When you do, e-mail me the deck and a
waiver saying that I may keep all winnings from it ;) Just kidding.  Have fun,
and keep it real.

Again, any comments/criticisms would be GREATLY appreciated.  Post them either
here or e-mail me at michael.b.rand@dartmouth.edu.

Peace,

Michael Rand
Dartmouth College Class of 2000
michael.b.rand@dartmouth.edu
"I ain't good looking but I'm someone's child"
Oasis