[Applying Theory] Look Ma, Card Advantage.. Sorta

[SpencerForHire]

As in my previous "article" I spoke of the many ways of card advantage, and briefly spoke on the endlessness that is it.  This seems like nothing but it is also your biggest problem when building a deck.  Your opponent is attempting to do the same thing as you.. win. *Pretend Shock*
So you either have to outrace them, or find another way to go about doing things.  The second option, the one this article is about, is creating card disadvantage for your opponent.
There are two ways you can go about doing this:

Reversing the Advantage
Choice one involves turning the advantage of your opponent into a disadvantage, you can do this by making cards in their hand/on the field dead, or by simply removing them from the situation entirely.  A very good example is [card]Chains of Mephistopheles [/card].  This baby is a quick out enchantment that ruins any draw strategy your opponent has.  The problem is you yourself have to now find your way around it aswell or it simply a topdeck race.  Loop-holes such as [card]Necropotence[/card] and [card]Fact of Fiction[/card] exist.  But they are in themselves restricted and hard to pull off without winning in themselves.  Chains usually ends up a SB slot if anything.  (I am still waiting for BG madness to run CoM maindeck.)
A more practical example is [card]Black Vise[/card] this one is restricted for a reason.  It ruins card advantage not by actually making dead cards, but by in fact turning cards into damage.  I dont EVER reccomend running black vise alone, it is much better in decks that run lock components such as statis.  But it is, as I said, much more practical in a MD situation then chains (unless HINT HINT someone makes a BG madness deck)
Ah yes board advantage, another spot to ruin your opponent.  You can do this several ways, you may: Make cards already played useless, make future cards unplayable or even make future cards not worth it.
[card]Humble[/card] can take away field advantage by making all your opponents creeps useless within themselves, then something as simple as [card]Caltrops[/card] can take care of them then.  
[card]Chalice of the Void[/card] makes future cards unplayable.  By the simple correct number setting you can make an entire hand dead or make a deck so it has no possible plan of victory.  A good example is a chalice for 2, with that setting most control decks have a very hard time doing anything worthwhile.  Ak no longer exists as an option, alot of artifact denial that would take care of the chalice is down the drain and counterspelling, especially in the form of [card]Manadrain[/card] are gone.

Denying Card Advantage[/u]
The second option when constructing a deck, is denying your opponent their advantage.   The popular choices of the game are in this catagory.  [card]Duress[/card], and [card]Cabal Therapy[/card] both very popular.  These can take away whatever your opponent could throw at you, deny them the tempo they need to get going and provide you with the necessary time to set up for the win.  Now you may ask, what is the point of 1 for 1 card denial.  The point is that you are only losing a denial card, they may lose something like an [card]Intuition[/card] or a precious [card]Force of Will[/card] that would have later provided them with such an advantage that would have surely had more trouble then just the 1 for 1 advantage.  Netting draw cards is usually a good choice as it takes out technically only one card but in reality in one turn may have turned into an entire hand or even a win condition that would have given you a game loss.
There are also mass disruption of the hand and field; [card]Mind Twist[/card], [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card], and Smokestack are prime examples.  Each can take out multiple cards either in hand or on the field.  The problem with these cards is they cost a bit more.
The reason this is often preferred over reversing the card advantage of your opponent as in the first examples is because it is less reactive and more, in their face as opposed to on their time where they can more easily find a way around it.

Additional options very oftenly are in the SB for most decks.  [card]Null Rod[/card], [card]Damping Matrix[/card], [card]Blood Moon[/card], etc are all examples.
Null rod denies accelerants such as moxes, making them dead cards.
Damping Matrix does effectively the same thing except it makes kill conditions and other powerful cards dead as opposed to early off accelerants.
Blood Moon turns lands into off color sources, effectively rendering them useless in alot of decks.
These are just a few great examples of ways people SB to disable the card advantage, tempo, and overall persuit of victory their opponents are trying to achieve.

Both methods can and do work, however it's just another step in the way of making/perfecting a deck.  You MUST have knowledge on hand of your metagame though for any card to be of any use.  The number one factor is to know what your facing, without that knowledge and testing against it you have no chance of being able to deny their advantage.  Without that knowledge every duress is a blind stab in the dark.  Good luck and happy deck building.

[Johnnymc]

There are other ways to make the opponent's cards useless. For example, waste away the control player's second blue source is a key play, since it cuts Keeper's counterspell count from 8 to 4. If you waste their dual land, or strip their island or whatever, they are limited to 1 blue spell before their next untap phase, as well.

Board wiping creatures also produce excellent card advantage. Think about it; every permanent the opponent has played has cost them at LEAST a card. Most permanents also cost them mana. Karn eats moxen, as does Gorilla Shaman. Memnarch steals their permanents, taking usually some spent mana and their card for 4 of your own mana (or 7, if it is not an artifact). Masticore makes you discard a card during your upkeep, thereby setting you back a card every single turn. But it can eat most creatures, and it can also kill the opponent.

Card advantage is not nearly as important as winning. Stompy, and to some extent Sligh, run on this principle, since they topdeck (although they both try to use every bit of mana each turn to maximize their board dominance early) for the win.

Hymn can also provide much more than a 1 card advantage. If you've ever seen somebody discard an Ancestral Recall or Timetwister, you know what I mean.

[SpencerForHire]

Exactly, these are again basic examples and if I were to go into detail about every possible card in every possible situation I'd never get anything written.
However the mox monkey or memnarch mention is a very good point.  Memnarch is 2 card advantage in your favor each time, -1 to them +1 to you.
Deed, Powder Keg, Engineered Explosives, Disk, etc all produce the board advantage you speak of, I just used the example of Humility because I like that card
Hymn I am against personally these days, although it is good you have just a good a chance of losing good stuff yourself at the cost of a [card]misdirection[/card] and Misc Blue Card 01.