Card advantage vs. House exhaustion

A text for beginners no one asked for

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I love Keyforge. It's a great game, that, while can appear to be a one-gimmick pony, is a surprisingly well though out game that fully builds around it's core idea. And because of this - it's unique nature, lack of deckbuilding and mechanics that complement both of those elements - a lot of metagame ideas one could bring from other games simply don't translate.

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So, what got me to write this are both boredom, and experiences i had with the newborne live community of Keyforge. All the time i hear evaluations and tactics discussions about Keyforge that use MTG or Netrunner terms, not even as shorthands, but as genuine ways to evaluate performance, which are - in my opinion - misguided. One of them is...

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Card Advantage - what is it?

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Card Advantage is a simple idea. At the most basic level, cards are card game's most fundamental resource, as it is the medium through which you, well... play.

A card game, in essentiallity is a back-and-forth where you spend your resources ( cards ) to both chase a winning condition, and slow opponent's chase. So if, theoretically, you can spend one of your cards to make two of opponents cards go away, then you're ahead of your opponent by 1. This is not, of course, true for all situations, as not cards are created equal, but what it boils down to is this:

If your opponent holds more cards then you in their hand, that means that:

a) They are more likely to hold in their hand that one card that can derail your strategy. That one card you can't afford them to have right now.

b) If you go back-and-forth trading 1 card for 1 card, even in perfectly equal exchanges, then eventually you'll go metaphorically broke, while your opponent will still have resources ( or more aptly, ammunition ) .

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Card advantage is a big term in Magic, The Gathering, where you by default only draw one card per turn. This makes unequal exchanges hurt bad. Really bad. So bad, that people, after years of abuse by discard decks, often tend to automatically assume at first glance that card advantage = winning.

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Disclaimer: This is highly hypothethical. One card in Keyforge can wreck your "already in the bag" game. Your experience may vary, and take a grain of salt as you read through this.

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Why Card advantage is not so important in Keyforge?

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1) You draw up to maximum.

So if you say, start the turn, play all your cards, you go back to full hand at the end of it. That means that a card in hand is much less valuable than in MTG - because it WILL replenish adequatelly to how much you cards you play when you call the end of step three.

2) Having some cards hurts you

In this game, a card in hand blocks the influx of another card. Having a bad card in your hand can regularily be a hindrance here. The influx of new cards is certain, value of the ones you have - situational.

3) Houses are a thing

Cards are Keyforge's only resource. ( Except for Aember, but you know, that's also points ) And theoretically, quite expendable. Houses are the balancing factor here. So even though you may wield a full set of 6 cards in your hand, if they are spread up into 2 of each house, you will be effectively only able to play two cards from your hand most of the time.

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And this is the central point here. Being spread out in Keyforge hurts you somewhat. It's great to have choices, sure. But if your hand and board are spread too wide, then you can never fully utilize all the cards you have and have played. You can't play all your cards, you can't use all your cards already on the board. And this leads us to...

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Skyscraper vs. Mansion

Mansion

Is playing wide - by wide, i mean playing different houses on consecutive turns, to make sure your board and hand remain varied to provide widest array of tools at your disposal to tackle the barriers that your opponent hastily puts together in front of you.

This comes at a cost of losing tempo - if you have have 6 creatures on your boards - fe. 2 Dis, 2 Logos, 2 Brobnar - and an identical mix on your hand. That means, by default, you only use 4 of your cards, while 8 ( 66,6%! ) is not utilized to it's full potential. You could be reaping for a full key in a turn, but you'll only reap for measly 2 on this one.

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There are cards that can remedy this. Sure. But only to some degree. Ultimately, playing mansion presents low risk, but low reward style of playing.

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Skyscraper

...Is when you play tall. That means, you favour only one house and consequently choose it on following turns. This lets you spew out creatures, artifacts, spam actions, then fight, reap and overwhelm your opponent through sheer amount.

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Play 5 creatures, reap for 5 next turn. And top it off with an action to ruin your opponent's day. Crystal hive 5 Mars creatures will put a smile on your face right up! On paper, it seems like a better way to play right? It just gets s*it done!

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...But it may be the death of you. A lot of cards in Keyforge punish for skyscraper plays with efects that either destroy or paralyze creatures belonging to one house. ( fe. Blinding Light, Restringuntus, Control the Weak ) If your skyscraper get's smacked with one of these bad boys, it will topple like a house of cards.

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Skyscraper vs. Mansion

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,,Wait, house exhaustion?" You ask. ,,It's about time we get to it, it's in the title of the post". Yeah, i know. So...

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Card advantage vs. House exhaustion ( Finally! )

With all that said, let's tackle an example.

You are at the beginning of a game. You have the second turn. Your deck is composed of Brobnar, Untamed and Mars. You have six creatures in your starting hand. All of them Brobnar. You smile at your opponent and throw all six of them on the board.

You make a smug expression ,,Hey, that's the RNJesus for ya!" and refill your hand as you end the turn, ready to wreck face on the next.

Your opponent picks Dis. Your opponent plays Gateway to Dis. Don't be a smug asshole.

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Why is this so bad?

Your deck has 36 cards in it. 12 of each house. You can only pick one house each turn. 6 cards of your Brobnar are down the gutter, and you most likely at least 5 turns until you recycle back to a full deck. ( Assuming that you play and draw 6 cards each of those turns )

That means, that Brobnar is now only 20 percent of your deck, so statistically you will draw only around 1 Brobnar card with each turn. Sure, you might draw all five. But you most likely won't. And if you won't? Well...

This presents you with a following choice on each coming turn:

1) Activate Brobnar soon

...after and have a very weak turn where you only get to play or discard one, two cards AND you cannot use much that is already on your board. And the worst part? You can refill with another single Brobnar card!

And then every card you play and lose from Brobnar further decreases the value of each coming Brobnar card and each coming Brobnar activation you can pull off, rendering that part of your deck less and less valuable as the match ensues, and your hand more and more pricy to keep clean and tidy with each passing turn.

2) Do not activate Brobnar soon.

And let each card of Brobnar clutter your hand more and more, decreasing the amount of cards you draw, therefore the amount of cards you can play, therefore the amount your draw and ehrmuhgerd, it's a vicious cycle!

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This is what i refer to as "House exhaustion". The more you use a house, the less you can use a house in the future. This is obvious immediately. What is often not considered, is the way a disproportionately exhausted house slows down your hand and forces you into either taking bad turns and halting, or not taking bad turns at all for a time and gradually losing tempo into mediocrity.

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This is, i think, much more reflective of who at the first glance has the upper hand in a game of Keyforge, and should be used to evaluate the state of the game maybe not instead, but slightly above card advantage. ( Hey, 12 cards will wreck face more often than not ) There is no escaping House exhaustion. But knowing when to go wide and when to go tall, is, i think, extremely important in Keyforge. I see too many hands cluttered with cards that do not see valuable play for far too many turns.

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A singular card can do a complete 180 of an ongoing game in Keyforge, sure. But far more often than not, that card won't.

A cluttered hand is a cluttered mind. Construct your buildings wisely. Don't overbuild in one direction and for god's sake, let your Brobnar beatsticks catch a breath!