People are always coming up to me and asking "What's the deal with card manipulation?"
 
“Well," I will reply. "Card manipulation is the most fundamental change that STCCG has seen in the last two years. It is a blanket term which describes the way in which a player can, with the skillful use of six interrupts, build a better hand. I have nicknamed these six cards the 'holy hexany'"

Usually they look shocked that I have given them a succinct, accurate, straight answer. After a moment, once they have gotten over the surprise, they reply, "Wow! You answered my question without being an asshole about it! Would I be pushing my luck in asking you what six cards, and why they are called the 'holy hexany'?"

"Yes," I reply. "You would be pushing your luck."

As this is a strategy article, and not my usual dissertation on my life and my neuroses, I will forgo describing the savage beating that ensues. Instead I'll just get on with describing how to employ card manipulation.

First I'll give you a definition of what makes a card qualify for the hexany. "Any interrupt that either gives you a significantly better selection in cards available for your use without a significant decrease in hand size, or increases your hand size without a significant decrease in selection of cards available for your use."

By my standards there are six such cards currently in STCCG.  Data Keep Dealing, All Threes, Palor Toff, Mutation, The Power, and Beyond The Subatomic, are the backbone of a modern deck. Between these six cards you should be able to custom build your hand at the start of each game, and get the cards you need when you need them.

As I evaluate these six cards, it is important to first look at the three aspects of the cards that we need to look at: card advantage, discard pile advantage, and selection advantage. The first two are simple numerical values, the third is harder to judge. My basis for measuring it will be on percentages starting at 100% for a normal card draw reducing it when my opponent gets to pick and increasing it when I get a choice, for example a card that allows my opponent to choose which of two cards I will get reduces that card to a 50% card.

All Threes is the most misunderstood of the hexany.  Many people see the "Unless Data in Play" clause and think that the card is worthless without him. Many people are incorrect; obviously the card is more useful with him in play, but don't dismiss it's base usefulness quotient. For this article I will assume that you do not have Data in play. Playing this card does three things; increases the number of cards in your hand by two, puts four cards in your discard pile and reduces your control of three cards in your hand by 50%.  The net advantage of this card on its own is that for one card you get 3 half cards, or a total of 1.5 cards (I call the three cards 100%, 50% and 0% to represent the fact that one should be good, another somewhat, and the last useless.) A 0.5 card advantage. Not much to look at, on it's own, but the math improves when you combine this with others of the Hexany.

It has the best synergy with Mutation. Although mutation's second function is fairly weak, its ability to swap itself and another card from your hand for two cards from the top of your draw deck is quite useful. The net effect is thus: two cards into your discard pile, no loss in hand size and increasing two cards in your hand to a minimum of 100% selection ratio.  There is really no downside to this math, and it compliments All Threes in the following manner; you ditch the 0% card for a 100% card, and for the cost of two cards from your hand you get three at 100% and one at 50%, or 3.5 cards; a 1.5 card advantage.

At first glance, The Power seems like “mutation lite”  But the key is versatility;  if you need card advantage at the expense of card selection, you can get two cards at 66% for one card. If you need the top card of your deck after you’ve just played DKD, you can get that one card for one card. If, on the other hand (as in most situations) you want one card at a better selection, you can get one card at 200% selection. In each of it’s functions, it is less powerful than others in the hexany, but the fact that it can do so many things makes the card shine.

Beyond the Subatomic is key to the gamut of card manipulation.  Although its abilities in terms of card advantage and card selection are minimal, its effect of discard pile advantage is huge. By my count, between the chances of getting the specific card that you need, and the count of what card you will get, BtS only increases one card in your hand by 20%.  However, if used carefully it should put about ten cards in your discard pile as it does so. These ten cards are important to the use of the next two cards in the hexany.

Palor Toff's usefulness has been known for a long time. The ability to, with no cost, trade one card in hand for almost anything in your discard pile. This becomes a vital part of card manipulation after a BtS; Many of the other parts of the hexany are "once per turn" so you don't want to stock too many, how do you make sure you have the appropriate card at the appropriate time? By BtSing them into the discard and then palor toffing for the ones you need when you need them. I count Palor’s card advantage at 0, its discard pile advantage at 0, but its selection advantage as (number of cards in your discard pile) X 50%.

Data Keep Dealing is the only one of the hexany that actually reduces your hand size-- and as such I wouldn't recommend it's use without the rest of the hexany, or a good draw mechanism. However, this card is the reason that discard pile advantage is... well... an advantage.  The effects of this card are: puts four cards in your discard pile, reduces your
hand size by one, and then lets you select Any Three Cards from your discard pile and place them at the top of your deck—essentially making your next three draws (number of cards in your discard pile) X 100%!

I’ll go into how this works with the other cards:
Start off with a hypothetical  draw deck of 70 cards. You include in this draw deck 10 BtS, 8 Palor Toffs, 5 DKD, 4 Mutations, 4 powers, and 4 All Threes.  This leaves you with 45 other cards of “X” value. The desirability of any particular card X starts out at 100% of a normal draw. In your opening hand, it is likely that you will either draw a BtS or an All Threes, complemented by a Palor Toff or a DKD. On the first turn, a BtS for a lesser card type should give you discard  pile ~10 cards, of which roughly half are of the Hexany.  If you have either a palor toff in hand or a DKD and some way to draw another card (I.E. Power, Mutation, All Threes, Ref Cycle) then you have your pick of what Hexany card to pull.

Without any manipulation, you have 700% of a normal single card draw. But by using the hexany this figure can be improved.

Using this model we can assume that we can continue to manipulate that hand. If you have 4 X cards, a Power, a BtS and Palor, current  hand value is 400% + BtS (120%), Power (200%) and Palor (0% as your discard pile is 0 cards). Start with a BtS, with any degree of luck, putting the hexany in the discard. Palor for DKD and place All Threes, the Palor Toff, and a mutation on top of the deck. Play the Power to draw three cards and allow your opponent to discard one. Regardless of what they chose, you have the option of having the All Threes and Mutation, as if they chose one of those, you can Palor it back. Play the All Threes. Your opponent will chose for you to lose the better of the two options. You now have your opening 4 X, [1 100%X, 1 50% X, and 1 0%X (from the All Threes)], 1 120%X (from the BtS) and  a Mutation. Play the Mutation to get rid of the 0%X of the All Threes, taking 2X 100% instead. The total of the hand is now  9 cards and clocks in above 900% selection.

And that, Brad, is why I play all six of the Hexany.