Card Efficiency: Beyond Economy
Brian Weissman has argued that card economy is,
if not the single most important factor in determining who wins a
game, one of the main reasons why a deck will win or lose. Necro
dominated by pounding you not only with speed, but with card
economy as well. Hymns, Necro, Hypnotic Specter, Stupor, and Mind
Warp all provided gains in card economy. However, to beat card
economy, you don't have to beat it at it's own game, but rather,
be more efficient than it. If a Necro player draws more cards
than a R/G player, but is decimated by a Jokulhaups, while the
R/G player rebuilds quickly, the Necro player will most likely
lose, even with the vaunted card advantage. This is because the
R/G player has used his (Damn the English language for not having
a universal pronoun! I will use he for simplicity, but if anyone
is offended, e-mail me and I will switch back to the genderless,
but grammatically ugly he/she.) cards more efficiently, at least
in this example. Let me illustrate how some of the stronger
upcoming Type II decks will use card economy and card efficiency:
Mono-Black NecroStone: This mono-Black deck uses weenies as its
main road to victory. Choking Sands is used to slow the opponent
down, while Necro provides card advantage, and Tombstone
Stairwell provides a possible finisher. The early weenies are
efficient in that they are able to do damage before the
opponent's defenses are set up. In general, the opponent must
either kill your creatures at a 1-1 exchange, where you don't
lose anything, or must wait for a Wrath of God or other mass
destruction card. You lose nothing in the first exchange, and
possibly gain in the creature dealt damage, and can gain in the
second example. To figure out the gain, simply take the amount of
cards you lost (let's assume you lost two creatures), subtract
the amount of cards you opponent lost (one, a Wrath of God), and
divide that number into the amount of damage the two cards dealt
(let's assume 6 damage). You exchanged one card for 6 points of
you opponent's life. I consider that a good deal. The only
possible downside is that your opponent has survived his weakest
point in the game (the early game), while you managed to do a
mere six points of damage in the strongest area of your game.
Hopefully the Choking Sands will provide more efficiency by both
killing a land, and netting you +2 life on the exchange (not to
mention giving you a speed advantage!). Necro can act as the
refueling card. After one use of it, you should be able to pound
your opponent down with your advantage. The Tombstones are
efficient in that they help you bounce back from a Wrath of God
or other form of mass destruction. Nekrataal is another extremely
efficient card (assuming your opponent's deck has non-Black
creatures.) By using very efficient creatures (although few truly
Sente), Mono-Black can act as a definite threat. I won't mention
the efficiency of Drain Life, but if you have Necro on the table,
it is easy to figure out.
Let me show you a deck that I posted in the Sligh article:
4 Mtenda Lions
4 Llanowar Elves
4 River Boa's
4 Elvish Archers
4 Whirling Dervishes
4 Sut'Aqa Lancers
4 Yavimaya Ants
4 Incinerates
2 Fireballs
4 Giant Growths
4 Karplusan Forests
4 Cities of Brass
4 Quicksands
8 Forests
2 Mountains
This deck was created as my tribute to card efficiency. Quite
simply, this deck is designed to provide the strongest attack
possible. The only card that is out of place is Whirling Dervish,
but it is a strong threat against Necro, so it stays in. This
deck can do 23 points of damage in the first four turns alone,
without the use of Incinerates or Giant Growths. The math for
card efficiency deck is quite simple: Each non-land card is
measured purely in terms of how much damage it does. There is an
obvious lack of concern for your own life, but rather, attack
ruthlessly. With the loss of Bolt and Plowshares, it is hard for
your opponents to trade 1-1, especially with the Lancers and
Ants. The exceptions to the life determines efficiency rule are
the cards that are used strategically, like the Giant Growth that
saves your Lions from a Hammer, or the Fireball that kills a Tar
Pit Warrior and Knight of Stromgald. There you have to look at
efficiency differently. In general, the more flexible, the more
consistently it acts efficiently.
Efficiency should be confused for raw power. Ancestral Recall is
unrivaled for efficiency, while Timetwister has incredible raw
power. They can both provide card economy, but Ancestral is
always useful, while Timetwister is two restricted cards in one.
Timetwister's efficiency varies in different situations, but an
Ancestral is always an Ancestral.
Efficiency with creatures is a tad different. Erhnam Djinn and
Hypnotic Specter were two of the most efficient creatures in old
Type II. For a creature to have a 13 PPR rating (power + power +
toughness) for only 4 mana is huge. Yavimaya Ants comes close
with 11, but it is quite different since it attacks the turn
summoned. Balduvian Hordes is 15, but it hurts card economy if
killed with only one card. Hypnotic Specter was only a 6 for 2
mana, but it flies, and has an awesome special ability. It
clearly rocked. River Boa is possibly the most efficient card in
Visions, since it has Islandwalk and Regenerate, and is a 5 for 2
mana. That ain't bad. The reason power is worth more than
toughness is mainly instinctive. At 1/4 the Hyppy might be a tad
stronger (although that's debatable) because of it's robustness.
Since neither Bolt, nor Dark Banishing could kill it, only Plow
would work. However, if it were 4/1, the loss of robustness be
damned, it would be huge. At 3/7 Erhnam would have been a bitch
to kill, but not as hard to block. If you think the PPR system
overweighs power, e-mail me, but I use it since I look for
aggressiveness in creatures. I don't have a point scale for
special abilities (although I know protection from Black is
better than protection from Green, and that flying is less
important in a 0/1 creature than in a 4/4 creature.) Use your
instincts. If the metagame dictated that Black was weak, Whirling
Dervishes would be weaker than Elvish Archers. As it is now, only
the difference in summoning costs would make me chose and Archer
over a Dervish. Let's move on to non-creatures.
Swords to Plowshares only provided a 1-1 card exchange (usually),
and gave the opponent life, but the defensive speed it provided
was huge. Its instant speed allowed White to be prepared with
only one Plains untapped. Lightning Bolt was probably the most
efficient Type II card after Strip Mine was banned. Its
flexibility as direct damage, for 3 points for only one mana was
huge. If it wasn't an instant, it would be OK, but as an instant,
it was one of Red's best cards. Fireball is probably better than
Disintegrate since it can provide card economy. Disintegrate is
probably better than Lava Burst since the creatures it kills are
gone. Disintegrate vs. Kaervek's Torch is an interesting
comparison. The Disintegrate is better if you want to remove the
creatures you kill from the game (like Ivory Gargoyle, or
creatures in a Stairwell or Llurgoyf deck). The Torch is better
if your main concern is cheesing the dude across from you for 10
points, and you hate Force of Will. If U/W creatureless Millstone
decks were the main enemy (like Necro was last Summer), Torch
would be the best. If Jokulhaups-Ivory Gargoyle decks ruled,
Disintegrate would be strongest. As it is now, reach for the
Fireball first.
The two strongest cards added into 5th are probably Necropotence
and Jokulhaups. I know cases can be made for the pumpknights,
painlands, and Cap, but the pumpknights have been covered under
creatures (indirectly), the painlands are obviously huge in
friendly two color decks, and are almost always a no brainer. The
Cap is strong, but only in or against certain decks. The 'Haups
and Necro are raw power, so let me give them their own paragraphs
(or even articles...?)
Necro has been covered many times, but only for its card
advantage capabilities. However, even it was (pay one mana and
one life) as the activation cost, it would be much weaker, yet
still strong. Since it fills your hand to 7, it grants efficiency
to cards like Contagion and Dark Ritual. Dark Ritual is good
anyway, but in a Necro deck, it is great fuel to help you empty
your hand, as is Lake of the Dead. Playing with Necro does force
you to make a choice: Either you use many means of gaining life
such that you use card economy to crush your opponent over time,
or you play suicide and just use Necro as a personal Wheel if
Fortune, and go for a blitz attack. Since the first method is
tough without the banned artifacts, the second method means Necro
is mostly effective as a one shot deal that sticks around. It is
the first 6 or 7 cards that will make the difference, rather than
burying your opponent over time with 2 or 3 cards a turn. In this
style Necro is a personal Wheel, not necessarily a personal
Howling Mine. It is efficient in terms of lost life, lost draw
phase, and itself (therefore if you used it to draw 6 cards, you
are getting 4 cards for 6 life, as you subtract 1 for the lost
draw phase, and 1 for the Necro itself.) Card economy for sure,
but only efficient if you can spare the life. If you were at 9,
and your opponent was playing Red, you might die with a full
hand. Cards that aren't cast usually are the model of
inefficiency, except when the help you bluff, or are only to be
used when needed (Counterspell, Crumble, Earthquake, etc...)
Necro's efficiency should therefore be measured in its ability to
get you more cards, at a cost of life, and your ability to
actually use those cards. Necro is great when you can cast all
your cards (therefore a lot of quick mana in a Necrodeck is a
good thing), and lousy when they sit in your hand. The success of
Prison decks stemmed from their ability to render the Necrodeck
inefficient as the mana wasn't available. McCabe beat Zila
because his Lake's provided the mana he needed to cast Disks and
Sengirs.
Jokulhaups is much trickier. It doesn't provide you card economy
in the traditional sense. Rather, it resets the game. Taking
advantage of this can be done in three ways: 1. Ivory Gargoyles:
Sure they die, and sure you lose a draw phase, but just think of
it as drawing a 0 casting cost Gargoyle. Good draw in that
situation, eh? 2. Phasers: Armageddon with Taniwha is cool, but
Jokulhaups means that since Plowshares is gone, unless your
opponent is packing a Pyroblast (or Paralyze of he is a real
wiseguy), that Taniwha is probably going to be listed as
"Cause of Death" on your opponent's death certificate.
Breezekeeper, Rainbow Efreet, Frenetic Efreet (if you're lucky),
and Sandbar Crocodile are also good creatures that can take
advantage of this. 3. Rebuild fast. If you had say, 9 mana in
your mana pool before the 'Haups, and you play a Mountain after
the 'Haups, you can play a Wildfire Emissary right after. Even if
you aren't so lucky, if you are hoarding land (Glaciers anyone?),
you can rebuild while your opponent sits there like he had a
mana-screw. R/G weenie decks are great at taking advantage of
this, with the Lions and Elves being wonderful creatures the
first turn after the 'Haups.
Jokulhaups addition into 5th changes the Type II environment
since it can be very efficient as the necessary tools to make the
Jokulhaups painless for you exist. Sure you might confuse the
Hell out of your Breezekeeper, or irritate your Gargoyle, but
truth be told, they don't mind very much. Your opponent's
creatures will probably not be in any position to comment. Necro
obviously changes the environment. I've noticed that this article
has taken a very broad view of card efficiency. I suppose the
best way to learn about card efficiency is to play. After the
games have ended, look at how you won, step by step. The cards
that contributed to your win are somewhat efficient, although
some more than others most likely. The cards that for some reason
weren't cast, or didn't make much of a difference (Relentless
Assault, Archangel, Hecatomb...) are less efficient. It is not
card economy, but rather, efficiency that led to the banning of
Strip Mine, Black Vise, and Ivory Tower. Zuran Orb and Balance
are too complicated for most systems of evaluation. Let me finish
with two last testaments to efficiency: Turbostasis and the
Tutors.
Mark Justice called Turbostasis the least efficient deck he had
ever seen. Now Mark Justice is a really nice guy (outside of a
game), and a really bright guy (outside of a world championship
final), but Turbostasis is extremely efficient. Each card has
it's role in the lock:Howling Mines provided the fuel to set it
up and keep it going; Stasis set the lock; Kismet finished the
lock, Arcane Denial; and especially Force of Will kept the lock;
Boomerang and Despotic Scepter reset the lock; and the Tutors
helped set the lock up. Each card was efficient in its own task,
within the system. Here life was not a measure of efficiency, but
rather each card was measured in its ability to help set up and
sustain the lock.
The Tutors, except for Demonic, and detrimental to card economy.
It is a 2-1 trade. However, not even Brian Weissman can dispute
their efficiency. Vampiric Tutor is not merely inefficient in
terms of card economy, but in life as well. Yet it is sometimes
considered the strongest card in Visions. Its efficiency stems
from its ability to provide you with any resource in your deck. I
suspect we might still have a restricted list in Type II if the
tutors didn't exist. Flexibility (the true resource the tutors
provide) is very valuable, although tough to measure.
I hope after reading this article you are able to understand card
efficiency beyond mere card economy. If reading this article
provides you with an ability to analyze cards and decks more
thoroughly, I have succeeded with one of my two main goals. The
other? Quite simply, I hope you are all not "Dumber for
having read this." Later...
Seth Burn