The secret to dueling: Hidden Advantage

Thanks to Cloudstrife 189. Source of this article came from http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=767706

Disclaimer

*This concept is very hard to explain fully. A lot of people use this concept all the time but I don’t think it has been properly named so I’m going to name it. I’m going to try my best to explain it as I see it. All comments and suggestions to better fix my understanding of this concept would be much appreciated.

Welcome to my next article, The secret to dueling: Hidden Advantage.
Sorry that it took so long for my next article but I hope it doesn’t disappoint. 
I was going to post this article prior to SJC Austin to inform players on what to expect. However, I’m very happy that I didn’t. After going X-2 at yet another SJC, and not topping once again *sigh*, I feel that I have even more insight to share with you. I truly feel that the secret to this current format lies in this concept of hidden advantage and knowing what card(s) can produce it. First, let me share with you hidden advantage as I see it. Hidden advantage can be looked at in two ways: the concept itself and the cards that help generate the concept.

Hidden advantage is the concept of cards (either itself or other cards) gaining advantage off the fact that either itself or other cards have gone back to the deck/grave/rfg. 

A few examples of popular monster cards creating this advantage are as follows:

Mezuki
Dimensional Alchemist
Necro Gardna
Vayu
Mystic tomato
D.D. Survivor/scout plane 
Gladiator Beast Equestte 
Almost all boss monsters (Judgement Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Gyzarus, etc)
Etc…

The reason I call these cards hidden advantage is because of the fact that they don’t always create advantage, thus, they aren’t a “plus 1.” These cards only have the potential to create advantage. Cards like Mezuki and Vayu aren’t very good on their own, but if their equivalent counterparts exist in the grave as well, then they will indeed continue to create advantage even after they are destroyed. You can’t count on all these cards to always create advantage, but if you manage to get your initial combo(s) initiated, they will add more power to your arsenal. Cards like Mezuki/Vayu can at least attack for some damage and block a few attacks as well. However, their real potential shines once you have them in the grave. Just like necro gardna, being able to choose when to activate their effects is critical in maximizing their potential. 

All boss cards, but more specifically, monsters, tend to create an insane amount of advantage, but once again, only if your combo hasn’t been disrupted. Cards like DAD will create advantage assuming that you can summon it. If your opponent disrupted you earlier with Macro Cosmos/Royal Oppression/Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror/Etc, DAD will be the last card you want to draw.

Hidden advantage for spells/traps is any card that has the potential to create more advantage then just the average 1-for-1 trade off. However, I feel that we need to also go a little more specific on this definition. These cards usually create more advantage based upon how successful your strategy has been going so far this duel.

Example of some popular spell/traps that create hidden advantage:

Beckoning Light
Charge of the Light Brigade
Burial from the Different Dimension
Etc

Once again, if your combo has been executed properly this duel, these cards will add even more advantage to your team. Cards like beckoning light/burial from the different dimension are extremely weak at the beginning of the duel, but become border line broken towards the end. Charge of the Light Brigade creates its hidden advantage by setting your graveyard up for future use while also granting you a free lightsworn monster in the process. 

Now, these cards are called HIDDEN advantage because the amount of advantage generated by these cards tend to come as a shock. Cards like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute use to be “hidden advantage” a few years ago when they use to catch people off guard. However, because they are so heavily played in almost EVERY deck these days, I don’t think there is much “hidden” about them. They just create PURE advantage. Same can be said about Pot of Greed. I just want to emphasize my point an additional time, Hidden advantage cards are “Hidden” because they MAY or MAY NOT create advantage. I find all hidden advantage cards to be combo specific. 

Now, let me start connecting some pieces together. I’m going to list a few examples of how hidden advantage may be generated. When I duel against a player and I just destroy and send their third dark monster to the graveyard, I don’t usually think twice about it because it was something that eventually had to be done. However, when they proceed to drop a Dark Armed Dragon on me, they start gaining much more advantage from that third dark monster then I initially planned. HOWEVER, if they don’t have Dark Armed Dragon, then I’m in a very safe place to be. Another example that happens a lot comes from dueling against Lightsworn duelists. If they mill 2 Judgement Dragons, and three honest, that can either be VERY good or VERY bad depending on if they have their hidden advantage card Beckoning Light. Without beckoning light, I’m in a very safe spot knowing that I can attack with immunity from honest and without the fear of them dropping a JD in retaliation. However, if they do have Beckoning Light, then I just lost because they now have access to the strongest cards in their deck. My last example deals with Gladiator beasts. Sometimes it is very good to know that their Bestari is in the grave and only accessible to them by two other cards (equestte and darius). I know that they won’t be searching for it via Proving Ground or tagging out to destroy a spell/trap anymore. However, if they do manage to get access to one of those two monsters, then their bestari is going to be right where they want it followed by Gyzarus. 

Obviously this list goes on and on because a lot of people are exploiting this concept this format. Now, if we look at SJC Austin specifically, almost every deck was focusing on this concept and these cards in one way of another. Some decks I dueled against tried using the Lightsworn concept of milling an insane amount of cards to load their grave with Mezuki/Vayus/etc. If they were successful, then they got more advantage than normal. They had the normal advantage that the lightsworn monsters posses but also received the advantage of the “Mezuki” they just sent to the grave. The problem with this concept comes from what I expressed in my last article: The secret to dueling: Coming up to tier. By playing too many “hidden advantage” cards, their decks tend to be too inconsistent. Their hands get clogged with cards like Mezuki,Beckoning Light,necro gardna,JD and burial from the DD. All of them can be game breaking at the right time, but obviously there isn’t enough “circulation” to get the combo rolling in the first place. However, once they got their combos going, I was quickly overwhelmed by them, their full field, and the myriad of cards still left in their hands.

To start wrapping things up, hidden advantage can be a hard concept to understand. The cards that generate this concept can be good because they can serve multiple purposes even after they’re destroyed. They can be very bad because they take time to set up and can slow down your initial strategy before you can initially get it flowing. How many hidden advantage cards you play should be based on how often you’re use to getting your combos off. If you play with a LS deck and never have problems milling effectively, then you could afford to play some more monsters that trigger while in the grave like vayu/mezuki. However, if you’re playing in a Meta where people constantly main deck “Dimensional Fissure” and such, then these cards may be very poor choice to play. This concept is best countered by disrupting the flow of their deck. If their hidden advantage card(s) can no longer create that extra advantage, then they become just a minimal threat. If my opponent can’t keep any zombies in his graveyard to combo with Mezuki, then I won’t mind destroying Mezuki without hesitation. However, if my opponent has 20 other zombie monsters in the graveyard, then I start second guessing myself before graving the Mezuki. 

In conclusion, it is your choice on whether to make your deck more focused on this concept or not. There are definitely pros and cons that should be considered that I expressed prior. A lot of expert players are exploiting this concept and it seems to be working in their favor. However, if you’re having consistency problems already, then this concept will only slow your deck down further. As always, any comments and tips are greatly appreciated and I’ll end again with a famous quote.

"Test,fail,adjust..."