Understanding what is Card Advantage and what is Tempo
Hi all,
I wanted to highlight one important thing - players often misinterpret the meaning of the term "card advantage". Like in any similar card game, in Gwent, card advantage is anything that will win you the game: number of cards in your hand, their values, values of cards on the table and even amount & values of cards in your graveyard, if you can use these to your advantage. Increasing number of cards in your hand against number of cards in the opponent's hand (e.g., with Ciri, spies or Decoy) does not necessarily give you card advantage - in case you throw away a strength 8 Stennis spy to draw a strength 6 card, you actually lose card advantage. Even if you draw a strength 10 card, you only gain 2 strength with this change - most bronze common cards would give you so much more than that.
What you gain with increasing number of cards in your hand is tempo, which is another very important parameter. In the majority of games where you are not limited to one card per turn (and don't even have to play anything in your turn without passing, such as Magic:the Gathering), your tempo is how many cards can you get out for a limited number of rounds and create card advantage on the table. In this games, there is a special resource called mana or whatever else that limits how many cards you can play and at which time.
However, Gwent is completely different in this regard: you can play strongest cards as fast as turn 1, and the only two thing that matter are: 1) get maximum values in the last turn of the last round and 2) get the last turn in the last round, as it often allows you to finish developing your strategy (e.g., play Biting Frost without opponent being able to react to it anymore, or play/resurrect your strongest unit without the fear of getting scorched).
To sum up: when you play a card, you increase your CARD ADVANTAGE on the table.
When you return a card to your hand and therefore increase your hand size (or just keep it the same, as with Decoy), you boost your TEMPO, not CARD ADVANTAGE as it allows you to go last and gain the strategical advantage of having the last word.
Stay cool and use card game terms correctly!
Hi all,
I wanted to highlight one important thing - players often misinterpret the meaning of the term "card advantage". Like in any similar card game, in Gwent, card advantage is anything that will win you the game: number of cards in your hand, their values, values of cards on the table and even amount & values of cards in your graveyard, if you can use these to your advantage. Increasing number of cards in your hand against number of cards in the opponent's hand (e.g., with Ciri, spies or Decoy) does not necessarily give you card advantage - in case you throw away a strength 8 Stennis spy to draw a strength 6 card, you actually lose card advantage. Even if you draw a strength 10 card, you only gain 2 strength with this change - most bronze common cards would give you so much more than that.
What you gain with increasing number of cards in your hand is tempo, which is another very important parameter. In the majority of games where you are not limited to one card per turn (and don't even have to play anything in your turn without passing, such as Magic:the Gathering), your tempo is how many cards can you get out for a limited number of rounds and create card advantage on the table. In this games, there is a special resource called mana or whatever else that limits how many cards you can play and at which time.
However, Gwent is completely different in this regard: you can play strongest cards as fast as turn 1, and the only two thing that matter are: 1) get maximum values in the last turn of the last round and 2) get the last turn in the last round, as it often allows you to finish developing your strategy (e.g., play Biting Frost without opponent being able to react to it anymore, or play/resurrect your strongest unit without the fear of getting scorched).
To sum up: when you play a card, you increase your CARD ADVANTAGE on the table.
When you return a card to your hand and therefore increase your hand size (or just keep it the same, as with Decoy), you boost your TEMPO, not CARD ADVANTAGE as it allows you to go last and gain the strategical advantage of having the last word.
Stay cool and use card game terms correctly!