Card Advantage - Virtual Card Advantage

Virtual Card Advantage

Virtual card advantage is when one card one player plays renders several cards their opponent has played or has in hand useless. One example of this is the card Moat; any non-flying creatures that player's opponent has cannot attack, so this can create situations where one player has a large number of useless cards. This is differentiated from "real" card advantage in that if the card which is nullifying large numbers of the opponent's cards is removed, then the "card advantage" disappears. It is also usually rendered ineffective in a post-sideboard game; when the opponent realizes the uselessness of several cards within their deck, they can sideboard out or in specific cards to nullify this advantage. Other such examples include untargetable creatures rendering targeted removal useless and a player emptying his hand against a discard deck, which renders their opponent's discard completely useless; and, the use of repetitive effects (such as planeswalkers or utility lands) that don't require the cost of a card and impact the game state without expending any significant resources.