In Class today I would like to give you my take on Card Advantage. All of us have heard the term used but many struggle with understanding it fully. For some it's a lack of experience that leads to their confusion. Others run into issues because of too much experience because there are times when the numbers don't play out as prescribed. Most Internet readers like you have seen a half a dozen descriptions of how to analyze card advantage and many of them are different. This only adds to the confusion.

What I'm going to do today is run you through my personal history with Card Advantage and how my view of it has evolved. I will try to illustrate with examples whenever possible. Some of these may reference older cards as I remember a situation that really clarified things for me or made me understand the flaws in the system I was using at the time.

Stage 1: Card Advantage is counting cards.

During this stage I was a total noob. I had just started playing and my decks where just a collection of cards that I thought were cool. I had no central idea or theme to my builds. I just put the Green cards that I found and put them in my "green" deck. Blue cards went in the "blue" deck etc. That was when a fellow teacher saw me playing with some students and decided to start playing again himself.

In many of our early matches he would ask me "Cards in hand?" I didn't really understand why he asked that so much (More than any player that I've meet by the way). He told me that it was so he knew if I had Card Advantage over him. I took this quite literal and thought that the player with the most cards in hand was winning in terms of card advantage.

This isn't even close to the case but it shows a simple direction to start when defining Card Advantage. At some basic level it makes sense. Having more cards in hand means have more options and more options leads to better chances of winning. Therefore the number of cards in hand does contribute to the total package of Card Advantage.

So I went out trading for cards that make more cards in hand. Cards like Ancestral Vision, Fact or Fiction, Harmonize, Thirst for Knowledge (discarding an artifact), or Mind Spring (x greater than 1) are examples of the many of cards out there that gain knowledge. At the time I was in love with Trade Secrets. Think about it, I spend one card for 4. That's a lot of cards and if my opponent chooses to repeat I'm chalk full of knowledge.

Knowledge itself without the ability to apply it though is a waste. What's the purpose of having so many cards when you have no resources to play them? Often I would find myself short of mana or at least not having enough to cast the multiple cards that I had drawn. The ultimate lesson came that next fall when the same teacher Tinkered (before Tinker was banned) into a Mindslaver, took over my turn and cast Trade Secrets from my own hand. Some of you may be wondering why that individual play stuck in my head. Well since he was in control of my actions and his he chose to repeat the spell over and over. He just drew and drew making me take four cards each time. So there I sat with like 50 cards in my hand and none in my library to begin the next turn.

I then made some crack like "So much for Card Advantage." He chuckled and explained in depth what he called Permanent Card Advantage. Turns out that I wasn't very far off when I was just counting cards. But I needed to look at more than just my hand.

Permanent Card Advantage does count the cards in your hand as resources but also includes cards that are in play as well. He went into explaining that in the game of Magic you do basically three things with cards. Gain, Invest, and Spend.

First you can Gain cards. This is the level that I was stuck at all summer that year. Gaining cards is by itself inherent in the game. One of the first actions we take every turn is to draw a card. Cards that gain even more cards should always be considered for your deck. Admittedly, some of these cards are not even playable in any competitive deck but still the option to draw extra cards should always be considered. Even cards that basically replace themselves like Aphotic Wisps can mathematically help your future draws. Just be careful that you put some cards that win in with your drawers. Otherwise you just spend all your mana getting more cards.

The second action you can take with cards is to Invest them. Even when you do something as simple as laying a land you have invested a card. Investing cards is rather vital to the game process though it has its risk. There are significantly less ways for your opponent to remove cards from your hand than there are ways to remove a card that you have invested. But that is a risk you are forced to take since without invested cards you can't win and if you didn't invest cards you would be forced to discard them at the end of turn anyway.

In simplest terms the last action that you can take with cards is to Spend them. This is basically the realm of Instants and Sorceries. When you play these cards they go to the graveyard and only their effects are felt. Once resolved they no longer affect the game so they are "spent".

Here are some VERY basic parts of the game and how they play out in terms of Basic Card Advantage (BCA):

• Laying a land - (0) – the card leaves your hand (-1) and enters the field (+1).
• Playing a Creature – (0) – Same as land, only you have to use mana so the creature has to wait until you have sufficient mana source. (A whole article in itself).
• Playing an Enchantment, Artifact, or Planeswalker – (0). – Same as Creature. (By the way have you ever notice that Tarmogoyf doesn't recognize equipment as a type. Sure it's an artifact but every "tribal" card has something else along with it.)
• Playing an Instant or Sorcery – (-1) – The Card itself leaves your hand (-1) but does not contribute to the field so we gain no BCA. Now some spells will add cards to hand like Ancestral Recall and some will also deplete your opponents hand like Mind Rot but these effects are figured out separately.
• Basic Card Advantage is a very easy way to count up any Card Advantage that may be on the field. Basically you just count all visible cards. So if I have 4 lands, 4 creatures, and 2 cards in my hand that is a total of 10 in BCA. My opponent has 3 lands, no creatures, and 5 cards in hand totaling 8 in BCA. This appears to be my game to win.

What if one of the cards in my opponents hand was Wrath of God? On his turn he draws, plays a land, and then Wraths. Now I've lost my 4 creatures and he only spent 1 card. (The land just change zones so didn't affect BCA). Now a snapshot of the board looks pretty even with both of us only controlling lands but BCA gives him the advantage at 6 for me and 8 for him.

On my turn I draw, play a land, and play a Spectral Procession for 3 tokens. He draws, land, and plays Baneslayer Angel. Now we find a flaw in the BCA. It only counts cards not tokens I'm still at 6 while he goes up to 9. Of course he has more advantage as my tokens will only hold off his Angel for 3 turns so maybe BCA is accurate.

On my turn I draw, miss my land drop, play Honor the Pure, and Path to Exile his Angel. Now BCA is still 6 to 9 but once again I have a dominating board position and still unscathed life points. So you can see that just "counting cards" isn't a good enough system. But it does provide a simple way of quick evaluation but it is really just a starting point.

I know what you're saying. I could just count tokens as cards then the BCA shows us as even. That is exactly what I started doing and that is an easy accommodation. But it still undervalues Instants and Sorceries that have effects that don't change the cards. The Turbo fog deck would look like a totally unplayable pile if we only looked at BCA. Fog cards are a total (-1) in every situation but if you have one every turn it can be significant factor.

It also totally leaves concepts of burn out of the equation as well. Lightning Bolt to the dome is just -1 BCA but if it puts your opponent to 0 or at least low enough he is forced to do something he wouldn't otherwise then it comes out to your advantage. And now that we modified tokens to fit it BCA how would you deal with cards that have Unearth or Flashback? Poor Hellspark Elemental gets no love in BCA at all.

So Basic Card Advantage has its drawbacks which I soon figured out. I then sought for more understanding beyond what my fellow teacher used. I searched it out on the web. Ironically this advanced of a subject was my beginnings of using the Internet as a Magic Information source. I would just say I "googled" it but Google wasn't really known back then.

I found many writers expanding on the subject. It was a hot topic to say the least. I combined the information I found and came out with Pure Game Advantage (not my title but I like it). Pure Game Advantage does a few things that BCA did not.

First it is a comparison value not an individual total. If two players start with even PGA the score is 0. Using the Wrath of God example from above the PGA would switch to -2 in my eyes. Or +2 from my opponents perspective. You should note that given equal number of turns the player on the draw has an inherent +1 PGA advantage.

Secondly, I allow PGA to take in all playable cards. That would include cards in the graveyard. Eternal Dragon would count the same if it was in hand or in the yard (even if I don't have the mana to return it yet). So Plaincycling it becomes a +1 in PGA terms because it does nothing to change zones since it's playable from both and I gain a Plains in my hand.

A third important factor is the counting of tokens. PGA includes each token in its tally but does not defer between 1/1 saproling and a 4/4 beast though in the actual game they are significantly different.

The final aspect that I include that I haven't seen anybody else use is life points. I include the life into my calculations so basic burn can be included since it does make a factor in many matchups. My PGA number comes from the number of Permanents + Cards in hand + reusable cards in graveyard + life. I've toyed with counting life differently than 1 for 1 but it just doesn't flow as easily. Besides there are examples that shows Wizards design thinks that ratio is fair. Bitterblossom is a prime example is -1 life to gain +1 permanent.

Let's look at my example turns used earlier. This time I'll include the life points and figure the PGA after each turn.

I have 4 lands, 4 creatures, and 2 cards in my hand and 20 life. My opponent has 3 lands, no creatures, and 5 cards in hand and is at 9 life due to my earlier unblocked attacks. This appears to be my game to win and the PGA agrees with a +13 in my favor.

What if one of the cards in my opponents hand was Wrath of God? On his turn he draws, plays a land, and then Wraths. PGA adjust and moves us to +9 in my favor.

On my turn I draw, play a land, and play a Spectral Procession for 3 tokens still at 20 life. He draws, land, and plays Baneslayer Angel while at 9. Now we're at +11 for me.

On my turn I draw, miss my land drop, play Honor the Pure, and Path to Exile his Angel fetching him a land. After combat damage our PGA is +17 in my favor and the game is basically mine. This final number is much more indicative of the game state than either BCA or BCA plus tokens. BCA if you recall showed me as 6 to 9 in his favor at this point and BCA with tokens would put us even.

Of course all of this is just a starting point. Some cards can swing games and have little to now effect on PGA while others that are PGA standouts barely get shuffled outside of draft. Which shows that ANY card advantage measurement isn't the end-all-be-all of systems. Factors like Tempo and Card Economy (future lessons) come into play as well. Oh, and don't forget play style some cards and decks are great PGA abusers but some players will play something they're more comfortable with instead.

Let's finish class today with a POP QUIZ. Assuming 20 life and equal permanents (unless noted) for each player, give change in PGA after each play. Post in the comments.

Ex. You cast Cruel Ultimatum. Your opponent has a creature but only 2 cards in hand. You have a creature in your Graveyard and 6 cards left in your hand. You're tapped out.

Ans. Your opponent sacs a creature (+1), discards two cards (+2), loses 5 life (+5), you return a creature from the yard (+1), draw 3 (+3), gain 5 (+5) but end of turn you'll have to discard 3 cards to return to 7 in hand (-3). Net change is +14. That is why Cruel is such a game swinging card!

Problem 1: You top deck a Volcanic Fallout after your opponent has amassed 7 1/1 Faeries. You play the Fallout and follow it with a Chandra and use her ability to deal 1 damage to your opponent.

Problem 2: You play an Enlisted Wurm, Cascade into a Bituminous Blast (only target is a Kitchen Finks with no counters), Cascade into a Bloodbraid Elf, Cascade into a Maelstrom Pulse (only target is the same Kitchen Finks).

Problem 3: You cast a Sanity Grinding, your opponent plays Cryptic Command choosing to counter and draw a card, you play Twincast targeting his Cryptic and choose to counter and bounce his Vivid Creek. The Grinding resolves putting 16 cards in his graveyard including 2 Hellspark Elemental and 2 Demigod of Revenge (don't ask me why he has Demigods, Hellsparks, AND Cryptic in the same deck it just made a good problem).

Problem 4: You play a Veteran Armorsmith with 1 mana still open, Attack with an Elite Vangaurd into an untapped Hypnotic Specter and an untapped Child of Night, Your opponent solo blocks with the Child and you play Harm's Way protecting the Vangaurd and dealing the damage to the Hippie.

Bonus: Could your opponent made it better for themselves?

Problem 5: You play Tezzeret the Seeker, Untap 2 Artifacts, Sac 5 artifacts to activate Time Sieve; on your extra turn you untap 2 Borderposts to have enough mana to play Time Warp and an Elsewhere Flask drawing a Cryptic Command. On that bonus turn you should win but lets say you just pass after going through the motions.

There's the bell. Class dismissed.