Raph's Beginner Guide to Card Advantage and Board Advantage
These 2 terms, Card Advantage and Board Advantage has been used very frequently in these forums. It can take some time and effort for new players to understand what these terms mean and how they translate into the actual SE game. This guide serves to inform new players how Card Advantage and Board Advantage principles can be applied to the game in order to improve anyone's win rate.
(Notes: Mojumbo posted an article on card advantage recently. It's a good one! This article of mine has actually been in my head for some time, but I never got down to it because I did not think it was necessary. But as I did my guides for beginners, I felt that they needed a supplementary article and hence I decided to finish it. As the saying goes, great minds think alike! lol, Mojumbo has a great mind!)
From http://dictionary.reference.com:
Quote:
Advantage: any state, circumstance, opportunity, or means specially favorable to success.
NOTES: Card Descriptions here: http://www.shadowera.com/cards.php
Card Advantage
Card Advantage as explained in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_advantage, edited by me for easier understanding:
There are 2 types of card advantage.
The first type of concept of card advantage known as Card Draw Advantage. It's about one player having more cards in hand than their opponent. Card Draw advantage is generally indicated in terms of a positive number.
For example, if a Bad Santa yielded 3 cards for you while your opponent drew 0 as his hand is full with 7 cards, the card advantage gained is +3 for you.
The second type of Card Advantage is as follows:
"Advantageous Trading" : Card advantage is often also the result of making a play where your own cards are used to neutralize or eliminate a greater number of your opponent's cards. This form of card advantage is often stated in terms of X-for-Y, where X and Y are numbers; if X is bigger then it expresses card advantage, if Y is bigger it expresses card disadvantage; i.e. a 3-for-1 is a positive advantage, a 1-for-2 is not.
Example: If in a game of SE a player plays Tidal Wave, a card which destroys all allies in play, when they themselves have no creatures in play and their opponent has 3 allies in play, they are said to have gotten a "3-for-1", where 3 indicates the number of opposing cards removed from play and 1 indicates the card spent in order to accomplish this task.
It is seen as a baseline to spend one card to get rid of one opposing card; this is often referred to as "trading". A player who "trades" one card of their own for two of their opponent's is often gaining a long-term advantage as their opponent will run out of cards before they do.
Vice versa, using 2 Fireballs to get rid of a Plasma Behemoth or a Aeon Stormcaller is less than optimal.
We'll now have to take a little detour to Raph's "House of Philosophy". :)
Before we discuss further, we need to list certain premises in order for this guide to be fruitful for you.
Premise 1
The aim of a SE game is to reduce your opponent's hero's health to zero via damage before your opponent does the same thing to your hero. (duh....)
Premise 2
There are 2 main types of cards in SE. Active cards vs Reactive cards. An active card either deals damage or creates advantage for you and are hence both are threats to your opponent. A Reactive card removes threats but does not deal damage.
Examples of an active card: allies, weapons, tome of knowledge, wizient staff.
Examples of a reactive card: Cripple blow, Tidal Wave, Smashing blow, Focused Prayer, Sever ties, Ley line nexus, Shriek of Vengeance.
Premise 3
Everyone starts out with 6 cards in your hand. The player who goes second gains the first Shadow Energy first and also gets to draw a card on his/her first turn. The player who goes first does not gain the shadow energy on his/her first turn, nor get to draw a card on this first turn. This is all part of Shadow Era rules as a means to mitigate what's known as the "First Player's advantage" (also known as "Initiative" and worthy of an article on its own) and it's monitored automatically via the game system.
There is no way anyone can win with only 6 cards in his/her hand. :)
And hence, as with all trading card games, there is a draw phrase, and in SE, every player gets to draw 1 card.
Premise 4
"Win conditions"
In order to win the game, one has to have cards in his deck that can deal damage. These cards can be generally be called "Win conditions" cards. Without them, the player cannot win. With that said, logic dictates that the more 'win cons' a deck has, the more likely the player will win. Naturally, many other factors exist: for example, how long your ally stays on board and the amount of influence it has on the board or the field, a.k.a the battleground.
That's why the discussion of card advantage, IMO, must be discussed in tandem with "Board Advantage". (Also known as Field Advantage)
Premise 5
This Guide does not discuss the Millstalker deck. What is the millstalker deck? It's a deck in SE that wins using a unconventional method by running his opponent out of cards. It's usually around 46 - 50+ cards. We are not going to discuss the Millstalker deck in this article, otherwise, it gets too complex.
(If you guys want me to write one on the Millstalker deck, I can do it if there is demand and I hava available time. The Millstalker deck itself is a study in card advantage and board advantage.)
Premise 6
Mathematical nature of Shadow Era (or any TCG)
Jasmine has 3 attack power and 4 health. That's a fact. Aeon is 3/8. Puwen is 2/3. Some allies have abilities that can reduce damage and they can survive "longer" on the board, a.k.a the field. For example, Armored Sandworm and Infernal Gargoyle. The reality is that the longer your ally remains on the board; the more it remains a continued threat to your opponent.
However, this does not change the mathematical nature of the game. If a my opponent is playing a mage and he casts a supernova; if I have a Jasmine on board, it dies. If I have a infernal gargoyle on board, it also dies. However, if my opponent only has a fireball, he can remove my Jasmine since Jasmine is a threat to him; but if I have a gargoyle on board, he has to use other means to remove it.
SE is an interesting game; as with all TCGs, other game mechanics exist to 'counter' the mathematical nature. Cards like Captured Prey, Now You Are Mine, Tidal Wave, Mind Control, and Retreat!, etc completely ignores the 'math' and these abilities affect all allies regardless of their power/health.
We are done with the visit to Raph's "House of Philosophy". :)