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Trading Card Game Tips from fans

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 12:47 PM

Subject: The Incredible Four--by brad

The Incredible Four

Hey all, I’m back with a fresh new article. As for the title, well, I guess “Fantastic” was already taken and everything else just sounded sort of stupid with the word “four”. This might be appropriate, since it is Valentine’s day, and in my opinion, “love” is a four-letter word. So, enough of that.

As you could have guessed, I’ll be discussing four types of cards for your reading pleasure today. On more a broad scale, these four types of cards have nothing to do with whether they are spell, trap, or monster cards, but what the said cards do. The four types are as follows: control, advantage, speed, and removal.

You have probably heard about control, aggro, aggro/control, and combo before, and how certain cards can fit into these types. The terms I have come up with are not replacements, but rather addendums. For example, control cards would usually fit into the aggro family, and advantage cards would most often fit into the control family.

So, have I lost anyone yet? Let me further explain the four types.

Control—these are cards that will allow you either to take control of your opponent’s monsters, or manipulate their actions. Popular control cards seen in today’s game are Snatch Steal, Brain Control, Creature Swap, and Book of Moon. Most of these are used for aggression on the opponent, but yield no real card advantage, which leads us to the next set.

Advantage—This is simple. Any card that can give you any type of advantage, whether it be field advantage, life point advantage, or hand advantage, would fit here. You can take a guess at what widely used cards fit here. Don Zaloog, Spirit Reaper, D.D. Assailant, Cyber Dragon, Cyber Jar, Wave-Motion Cannon. The list is all but endless.

Speed—Third, we come to speed. Speed cards usually also lead to advantage, but these cards are unique in that they let you thin your deck or draw cards. Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive, Sangan, Reinforcement of the Army, Last Will, and Cyber Jar would fit here. Notice how Cyber Jar fits into the advantage and speed groups? This is because Cyber Jar not only leads to field and hand advantage, but it also thins the deck and draws cards. Powerful engine, don’t you say?

Removal—Many of these cards can also be considered advantage cards. Simply put, these are cards that remove a card or cards from the field. Trap Hole, Sakuretsu Armor, Smashing Ground, Dust Tornado, Heavy Strom…you get the picture.

So now that you know the four types of cards, you are ready to use the principles in deck building. When considering cards for your new deck, in addition to analyzing certain cards’ strengths and weaknesses, consider what type of effect the card has. A good deck will incorporate elements from each of the four groups. But while some decks rely more heavily on one type over another, a good balance will work best.

I hope you have enjoyed this article. Until next time, have fun!

Ciao

Like my opinion? Think I’m a pompous nOOb because of my views? Drop me a line, I would like to hear some feedback. brad@bradlandusa.com. As always, I do not accept unsolicited hate mail.