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There are two major factors that a deckbuilder should take into account when building a deck, although they are not necessarily known by the same terms I will use. Card advantage is well-known as a key concept in Magic, and can be defined as the neutralising of multiple cards of an opponent's, using fewer cards of your own. However there is a point where card advantage is not the most important consideration. This is the point where what I choose to call tempo advantage takes over, and is in the very early game. Tempo advantage cannot be easily defined in quantifiable terms, though it can be loosely defined as whoever has the upper hand on the table. Generally in creature battles, whoever is attacking has tempo advantage. Not all decks take advantage of tempo advantage, often simply because the deckbuilder assumes that the principle of card advantage is inviolable. I am going to mainly deal with tempo advantage, largely because card advantage has been discussed in great length. There are two distinct stages in a game where each type of advantage has its ascendancy, as well as a transition phase.
Early Game (Turns 1-4):
This is where tempo advantage is often the prime consideration. While card advantage is useful, it has little impact on a game unless it is in very large amounts, such as that inherent in Necropotence and Ancestral Recall. This is the domain of aggressive decks, such as combo decks and aggressive weenie decks, and is typical of the Extended environment. Decks such as Stompy and Sligh disregard card advantage and aim simply to deal the most damage possible to the opponent in the least amount of time. Combo decks are a semi-exception since they aim for neither card advantage or tempo advantage, desiring rather to dig through their deck looking for a particular combination of cards to kill the opponent with, usually in a single turn.
Games between two of these aggressive decks usually come down to whoever holds tempo advantage for the longest period of time. The greatest boost to tempo advantage is going first, as this allows you to either attack first, or cast your key spells first, putting the opponent straight on to the defensive. Another tempo advantage is having the lower mana curve, as this allows you to drop more threats than your opponent.
A common saying is that "if Stompy/Sligh doesn't win in the first X turns, they've lost." While not universally true, the reason for this is because the decks are designed to win in the early game, as I said above, by ignoring card advantage in the pursuit of tempo. If the opposing deck can avoid being killed, these decks will usually run out of steam and the game will enter into another period, which is at least partially governed by card advantage.
Mid-game (Turn 5-10):
The transition phase, during these turns card advantage can be used to regain tempo advantage. Aggro-control decks and slower weenie decks based around utility are prevalent in this area, as they often make up for a less aggressive creature-base by slowing the opponent's game, using disruption such as removal or countermagic, as in CounterSliver. The most common example of card advantage being used to regain tempo advantage is the use of a mass removal spell against one of the aggressive weenie decks, as this often causes a dramatic swing where the weenie player has emptied his hand, and the control player neutralises it all with a single card.
Type II is currently in this area, as the fastest beatdown deck, namely Fires, relies on fat creatures instead of the smaller creature-base of the pure aggressive decks. Also, almost all Type II decks run mass removal spells to regain tempo if the opponent gains a large tempo advantage (Earthquake in Fires; Wrath in Rebel and U/W Control; Wash Out in Blue Skies).
Aggro-control decks often have a hard time against both purely aggressive and purely control decks. They are unable to run most mass creature removal to use against the aggressive decks because they use creatures as their pressure upon the opponent, while not being fast enough to force control decks on the defensive early and keep them there. However, a good way to regain the tempo advantage, or at least neutralise your opponent's, is to create a creature stalemate. This is why some decks use Deranged Hermit, as it provides its own creature stall as well as acting as a kill card against control decks when cast early with green's mana acceleration. CounterSliver also uses this philosophy until it finds a Winged Sliver to give its own creatures evasion, to avoid the creature stall and gain the tempo advantage. CounterSliver's plan against control is to drop a clock (usually one or two slivers), then protect them with its own counterspells.
Late game (Turn 11 and on):
This is the area of pure control decks, where card advantage rules supreme. Any tempo advantage gained early in the game has run itself out if the game has reached deep into this stage, and permanent card advantage mechanisms, such as Jayemdae Tome, Whispers of the Muse, and Thawing Glaciers become key cards. Most control decks are designed to stall the opponent until the game reaches this period, when its access to larger numbers of cards can give it the answers to almost any card played by the opponent.
The main problem facing control decks are poorly built versions that lack ways to regain the tempo, by not having either enough cards to be likely to draw some, or the cards used are not fast enough. This is shown best by the popularity of Oath decks as a foil against creature decks, as opposed to traditional U/W Control with Wrath of God, as Oath of Druids only costs 1G whereas Wrath of God costs 2WW. The extra two turns granted by using Wrath can put the player into a position where they have very little life, or may even be dead. Additionally, the Oath maintains its influence as long as it's on the table, whereas Wrath is a one shot affair.
In summary, tempo advantage is too often neglected in decks other than those dedicated to its application. While most deckbuilders deal with tempo advantage without considering it (through use of concepts like the mana curve), this lack of consideration can lead to mistakes such as including insufficient or overpriced solutions. If you wish to discuss any points I have raised, feel free to e-mail me at donald_shepherd@hotmail.com.
Thanks for reading,
- Donald Shepherd
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