First, thanks to Acidburn for the banner.
Before I move on, I wanted to go back and further explain some of the things that I had talked about before, and also mention a few other basic concepts and ideas.
Card Advantage
I defined card advantage as having more cards available than your opponent. While this is basically true, there is more to card advantage than drawing and discarding. Another facet of card advantage is card efficiency. Card efficiency is the idea of trading cards to your advantage. Of course, now I probably need to explain trading cards. If your opponent plays a threat, chances are good that you will want to deal with that threat. For example, if your opponent attacks with a Raging Goblin. You in turn block it with a Goldmeadow Dodger, and both cards go to the graveyard. You have just traded cards. Likewise, if your opponent plays Hissing Miasma, and you destroy it with Demystify, that is trading cards. So, how do you trade cards to your advantage? Make one of your cards take out more than one of theirs. White has many of the classic examples of this: Wrath of God, Rain of Blades, Tempest of Light. Another seemingly obvious way to trade cards advantageously is to not trade at all. If you can take out a number of their cards without giving up anything at all, then obviously you have the advantage. I was personally reminded of this not long ago. A good friend completely decimated a deck of mine with nothing but two Disciple of Tevesh Szats and a pair of Grim Harvests. Most of my deck had toughness 1, so he would just tap a disciple to kill it. Anything bigger and he would sacrifice a Disciple to kill it, and play a Harvest to return it. The next time he had to sacrifice a Disciple, he returned the Harvest. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I died without even seeing the rest of his deck.
Time Advantage
I actually covered this fairly well, but I didn't cover very well the interaction between Time advantage, also called tempo, and your mana base. As I said, I'm not phenomenally good at figuring this out myself, but there is a great article here. The only thing that I don't like about this article is that while it makes sure you have enough land, it doesn't talk as much about the dangers of too much land, or the wrong land. The problem with too much land is obvious. If you consistently draw nothing but lands, you'll never be able to play any threats. However, having the wrong land is a much easier trap to fall in to. When I was first starting to deckbuild, I loved the Ravnica bouncelands, such as Orzhov Basilica. After all, what's not to like? With 1 land, you get 2 mana with 2 colors! As a result, I was packing as many of them as I could into any deck where I could justify it. But when I tried to play these decks, I had a horrible time. The bouncelands slowed down my play far too much, putting me far, far behind my opponent. There was even a time when all I had were a few bouncelands, leaving me unable to play any lands at all.
Other Concepts
Board Advantage
I should first apologize. Board advantage is a term that I've made up, not having read the term elsewhere. As I've said, the board is simply the "in play zone", and board advantage is simply having cards in play that help control your opponent's actions. Before, I used Hissing Miasma to illustrate trading. But let's say that you have one in play. Your opponent will not want to give up life, so your opponent will be very hesitant to attack you. There are a number of other ways to keep your opponent stalled. I was once totally stymied because an opponent had a pair of Heartbeat of Springs in play, and I couldn't afford the mana burn.
Threat Advantage
Another term I coined, threat advantage is a little harder to define. Threat advantage is when your opponent suffers because of things you might do. While it could be similar to board advantage, not wanting to attack for fear of a counterattack, it can be so much more. If your opponent is playing blue, you might be hesitant to play a spell, fearing a Cancel. Not long ago, I played a Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, and was just about to triumphantly put a Pariah on it, rendering myself invulnerable. Unfortunately, it was Terrored, wrecking my plans. I spent the rest of the game being VERY careful. But my favorite example took place a while back. I had 3 life, nothing in play, and one card in hand. My opponent had 30 life, 3 cards in hand, and 4 untapped creatures in play. But throughout the game, every time he had tried to mount a substantial attack, I had played an instant that wrecked his attack, and had then threatened to regain control of the board. So, on his turn, when his attack phase approached, He looked at his side of the board, looked at my side of the board, and then looked at me. I casually put the card in my hand on its side on the table, shifted my other hand slightly towards my stack of lands, and cocked an eyebrow at him. He then ended his turn. I actually kept this up for 4 turns straight, never drawing anything but lands. Only later did he learn that the card I'd been holding was a Crossbow Infantry. Of course, I lost that game, but I learned the importance of being a perceived threat. Now, bluffing like that is something that shouldn't be done too often, lest it lose its effect, but as a rule, you should always do your best to appear unruffled and in control.
Hopefully, these concepts have further explained some of the concepts involved in successful deckbuilding. Next month will be more involved, with more specific strategies, and an example deck (or 5)
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