What is drawing a card worth in Malifaux?

Part 1 Why I love Drawing Cards

The Origins of my Addiction

Hello, my name is Ben Alexander Sime and I have an addiction.

My addiction is drawing cards.

It's hard to say where I first got introduced to card draw and it's drug like qualities, maybe snap was the gateway.

I think the one, who really pushed it on me was this chap:

Now, before you walk away, yes, this is a Pokemon Card, don't worry this is still about Malifaux.

Bill was one card, but he would give himself up for two cards, I was good at Maths at school, but I didn't need to be, anyone can see that 2 is more than 1.

Bill taught me at a young age, a concept, which I then learnt more about in another game...

...Magic: The Gathering. Now please don't run away (that includes you Joel Henry), this is still about Malifaux, I promise.

The concept was of "Card Advantage".

Card Advantage

"What is Card Advantage Ben?" I hear you say, well thank you, I'll briefly explain.

Card Advantage simply is a term for what you could call a strategy, that having more cards than your opponent is an advantage.

To gain that advantage you need to end up having more cards than your opponent.

In card games like Magic: The Gathering, this means you'll hit your resources quicker and more consistently, you are more likely to hit that game breaking card and also the concept that if you're exchanging cards 1-for-1 with your opponent, you'll end up having more cards that they will not be able to answer.

So, wait a second.

Hitting resources on time.

Increasing the chance of having a game breaking card.

Having things your opponent cannot answer.

All these things sound good for Malifaux!

This is why I love drawing cards.

Each draw is a possibility, maybe an opportunity.

Magical Christmas Land

Every time I draw a card, it feels like opening a Christmas present.

Yes, just like a Christmas present, your Mum might've bought that DVD she assumed you'd like but is actually a horrific movie in your opinion (Elektra, noooooo!).

Maybe it's mediocre, like smellies or some warm winter clothes, you can use these, but they aren't exciting.

But, but, it could be like Christmas 1995 for me, it could be that Playstation.

Extreme excitement, dreams come true, happiness, like I said earlier opportunity!

So translation:

Let us look at the 3 "Christmas present" scenarios (though there is 54 possibilities).

The first scenario "the bad present" is the weak the 1-5.

These aren't great in a typical scenario, you do not really want to cheat these to beat someone's total, you can't be excited that your CA7 guy will be able to get too high too be stopped.

It's not all bad though.

This is Malifaux, you may have Flurry, Rapid fire or any other ability where you need to discard a card, and come on, you're not wanting to cheat high cards to it.

What about the suit, each card draw gives you another 1/4 chance (technically higher with the Red Joker), that suit may be needed for a trigger that doesn't even care about total.

Scenario two, the mediocre, the Moderate card.

Well, these have their uses, you can't rely on these cards to win you duels all the time, especially in the early turns, but they can do against a "top deck" later on.

Also, for casting spells, putting up auras and the like, these might be just the right amount.

Lastly, "when to cheat" is a whole other topic, but the moderate is a good card to cheat in to make your opponent think about using a better card.

Simply, you cheat to make them miss, they have to use a Severe to beat your total. Sweet exchange.

Third and final present. 

The Playstation, on release you could rock some Wipeout, this isn't the greatest thing ever, but it's up there.

A 13 is the highest card other than the Red Joker, but it can be beat, still, you feel good, happy, confident with your 13.

Later though, your Playstation could play Final Fantasy VII (my favourite game) and this is like that 13 of *insert specific suit here* to get that unbeatable *insert combat trigger here*, or just cast the best version of that spell.

Back into the 'faux

We can see how each card in your hand is an opportunity, cheating as opposed to just flipping is great as you can plan ahead, plus as I've also mentioned, sometimes cards need to be discarded for certain actions.

The more cards, the more of these opportunities we get.

Malifaux gives you plenty of opportunities for you to have the most cards; you can spend your stones on upgrades that give you extra draws from killing, more cards in your starting hand.

You can have abilities that make your opponent discard or you draw.

Also everyone always has the ability to draw 2 then discard 2 for a single stone at the beginning of the turn.

This leads to the final part of this post for now.

I love Arcane Reservoir

We can see I'm all addicted to drawing cards, for 2ss any of my Arcanist masters can be upgraded with this to give me an extra card every turn.

It makes every turn amazing, like every day is Christmas, but where only I get presents (actually that's not my ideal Christmas, but you get the simile).

2 soulstones for all of this joy, I think it's a bargain, but is it?

Well, come back for part 2, where I discuss more about "What is drawing a card worth in Malifaux?" in a literal sense, when we get maybe a little bit mathsy.