someguy12 | 2014-04-11 06:11:25 |
There are obviously 5 resources in the game, the basic elements and the house power, but one can forget that life is a resource too. You can eat a certain amount of damage, and thus reduce damage your creatures take, before losing the game. Ideally, your life will be reduced to 1 to get maximum value for your life, but obvoiusly this is usually not practical. Eating too much damage can result in an unexpected loss, or can force you to make sub-optimal decisions to prevent a loss. So, I believe it is best to take as much damage as possible which will not affect your other decisions. This doesn't mean that you should eat damage for no reason, like not put a fire wall to block a creature (the wall in itself has no value), but it is valuable to keep in mind the advantage of eating damage, especially early in the game. If you drop a creature and the opponent blocks him, your creature gets the first attack in. Whoever blocks a creature first takes the most damage to his creatures. Therefore, its better to not block opponents creatures early on (unless its a really favorable or important setup). You can take 20 damage early without it affecting your plans, and pressure the opponent to block your creatures first. There's exceptions to this, and you should take into account the spells that will be played and other factors about the cards, but don't just block opponents creatures for no reason. If you spend 9 mana for a lightnig cloud, for example, part of the mana you pay is for the health of the cloud. Therefore, by not blocking a creature with the cloud your sacrificing life for cloud health, which has a mana value. To prove this, we can look at earth 2, which is 2 mana for restoring health of a creature and player. Therefore, creature health has a mana value, so by eating damage you're sacrificing life for mana, but more importantly, for board control. Again, don't eat needless damage, espeically against a class with direct damage like illusion, but deciding whether to block a creature is not just a decision about whether u have an aggressive class or not. Anyways, i hope this helps. FORESTRY | 2014-04-11 06:31:47 |
There is much to be said about Life as a resource, specially with Vampire.
Other than this, I will just say that late-game style classes like Sorc, Death or Dominator it is always taken for granted to take at least 20, up to 40 Life damage while doing the synergical setups and then just stop the opponent dead in its tracks (or lose).
The opposite can be said for rushing classes like Forest or Golem - if you focus too much on damaging the opponent and ignoring the creatures, a White Elephant or an IceGuard = gg.
That's tempo... you go too fast without killing the opponent? Run into a brick wall... you go too slow while preparing for your super duper synergies? you die in the process.
AtomOfUniverse | 2014-04-11 08:54:15 |
Someguy, I think you have some good idea about the topic, but you are generalising a little too much. It's true that people too often block creatures rather that put them unblocked, but any HP left on cloud is usually not wasted - the creature is too fast, often it's good to put it unblocked. 20 HP is a big generalisation, against illusion I don't want to lose even that much. If you have too big hp advantage over your opponent it's indeed a bad sign, as you said a resource has been wasted. It's often a result of overhealing, but not exclusively.
Wavelength | 2014-04-11 21:21:46 |
I think a lot of what you said is sound advice, although two very important things to consider when deciding whether to block a creature with another creature (hint: you usually want to) are what value that creature's effect has (higher value means it's more important to kill and therefore block), and how much threat the opponent can produce against your unblocked creature (higher threat means you're better off blocking what's already out on the board; lower threat means you can safely play it unopposed).
One other cool thing is that the real "hidden resource" to most newer players is the turn. As you get used to the game you find that because you can only play one card per turn, the turn actually has a lot of value to it and moves that don't seem mana-efficient or even life-efficient can still be great moves because they make efficient use of your turns.
someguy12 | 2014-04-12 05:23:16 |
I guess trhe point of the post was both for beginners to rethink their moves early on, and for people to put more thought into blocking creatures or not, and where to place creatures.. Blocking vs not blocking a creature lat game, also, can be the difference between winning and losing
Wavelength | 2014-04-12 16:07:35 |
I guess trhe point of the post was both for beginners to rethink their moves early on, and for people to put more thought into blocking creatures or not, and where to place creatures.. Blocking vs not blocking a creature lat game, also, can be the difference between winning and losing True. You block the opponent's creatures and get steamrolled in those first few turns, and you've already lost the game if you can't pull a good board clear.
RedRook | 2014-04-12 21:05:56 |
The debate between blocking versus not blocking opponent creatures comes down to the strategical or tactical situation the game presents. For example, in a late-game rush, summon creatures unopposed to put pressure on the opponent. Wavelength makes some good points about when it is good to block or not. I think a lot of what you said is sound advice, although two very important things to consider when deciding whether to block a creature with another creature (hint: you usually want to) are what value that creature's effect has (higher value means it's more important to kill and therefore block), and how much threat the opponent can produce against your unblocked creature (higher threat means you're better off blocking what's already out on the board; lower threat means you can safely play it unopposed).
What Wave is saying is, take note of the value of the creature the opponent has summoned & decide where it poses an immediate threat or not - if it does, block it, of not, do as you choose. For example, if the opponent summons an Elf Hermit you probably want to block it so that you can kill it off before it gives the opponent a huge mana advantage. While on the other hand, if the opponent summons a Merfolk Apostate, you would not suffer much from leaving it unblocked while summoning your own creature unblocked. Merfolk Apostate poses very little threat to you, unlike Elf Hermit. Also, you have to consider what kind of threat the opponent could do to your unblocked creature, as Wave has mentioned. Say you summon a Lighting Cloud unblocked while your opponent has 12 Air mana. On their turn they might summon Titan across from your Cloud & nearly kill it outright. Unless you have a plan your Cloud will die rather quickly. This will make your play of Lightning Cloud inefficient. & in Spectromancer the more efficient player wins. Another thing to consider when deciding whether or not to block is the value of the creature you are summoning - would it better to summon my Astral Guard into a blank slot or across from the opponent's unblocked Griffin? This really ties into the point above about evaluating the opponent threat. Sometimes the opponent (or you yourself create a situation) leaves an opportunity for you to place a high value creature, like Astral Guard or Lightning Cloud across from a low threat creature. These opportunities can win games. It all really depends on the situation along side your, & your opponent's, grand strategy & gameplan. Each game is different & each situation is different, you just have to weigh the pros & cons of blocking. Modified by RedRook on 2014-04-12 21:09:52 FORESTRY | 2014-04-12 22:51:08 |
Ive won games by blocking Dragon with W12... but ive also lost them because i should had blocked with W10 instead... Cloud sometimes needs to be used as a blocker, etc, its very complex.
someguy12 | 2014-04-13 03:18:30 |
Early on, the decision not block an opponents spirit 3, but instead put an elven healer far away, can be very good.. Also, late game, deciding whether to block a creature or hit an open slot with an ancient giant or time 8 can be the difference between winning and losing, and that decision is situational. Modified by someguy12 on 2014-04-13 03:19:07 LxSxDx | 2014-04-15 20:04:46 |
I was going to add to this and saw Wave already mentioned what I was going to but I'll just say it again to repeat it, the turn I would say is the most important resource. Also, I think one of the biggest weaknesses of new players is that they feel the need to block every creature that gets laid. This most often leads to you playing a very reactionary style of play which means your opponent is dictating the pace of the game, that usually causes you to lose. Mix it up you may surprise yourself one of the biggest keys to this game is realizing that your opponent can't live through a combo you have there are a lot of times when players could win if they just avoid blocking and go all in but you have to know when to do it.
someguy12 | 2014-04-16 21:33:19 |
LSD makes a good point, and you def shouldn't be playing reactionary. Two things ppl may take for granted is blocking creatures and never skipping a turn. A turn being skipped can be better than some moves, though, skipping a turn is rarely the best move (though it occasionally can be), and meditation or weakness is always a preferable.. People should not play reactionary, especially if their cards lends them to a strong strategy, like LSD says. Especially, you can eat damage and encourage an opponent to rush you if you have excellent healing. You can not block a few creatures, then drop an ice gaurd, for example Wavelength | 2014-04-16 21:50:06 |
Two things ppl may take for granted is blocking creatures and never skipping a turn. A turn being skipped can be better than some moves, though, skipping a turn is rarely the best move (though it occasionally can be), and meditation or weakness is always a preferable.. The only two times I can ever justify skipping a turn are if you have 5 (or 6) creatures on the board already and need to save the room for a high-value creature, or if you've mismanaged your mana badly enough (or gotten such a bad draw) that every single possible move you could make will stop you from using a card that's in your long-term plans. Even if you're sure the opponent wants to Stone Rain, even if you don't have Meditation or Overtime or Nature Ritual... you're still better off playing a cheap creature like F1 or A1 most of the time, rather than skip your turn. It forces the opponent into using what you think they're going to use, rather than allowing them the option to take advantage of that lost turn and start making a comeback with their own board presence. I see really good players make this mistake sometimes, and I make them pay for it. Don't skip your turn!!
Modified by Wavelength on 2014-04-16 21:50:38 someguy12 | 2014-04-17 01:26:47 |
I understand what you mean, that its better to do a fire 1 then skip your turn because you dont KNOW what the opponent will do... but sometimes you do know... Like if a geddon or stone rain HAS to happen or any other play by the opponent would be absurd. There are times its better, you dont HAVE to use each turn... Though, the way some people understand the game, they'd rather do a move like rifleman than skip a turn, where they mess up their specila mana, thinking its better than skipping a tunr, which I disagree with.
Arslan | 2014-04-17 14:20:58 |
By skipping a turn you are willingly giving the opponent the upperhand. It is very, very, very rarely a good idea to skip the turn... chrono engines not withstanding...
Even if you know quite certain that the opponent is about to cast a destruct spell, you are oftentimes better off casting a cheap creature or spell than skipping the turn. Why? Because what if the opponent decides not to bomb the field? They summon another bulky creature or a golem perhaps. This will allow the opponent to hold the destruct over your head and force you into their game. A poor but somewhat parallel example would be playing against a possible death 7 threat... or death 5 for that mater... not to mention the opponent might be bluffing their destruct... then you feel like a fool when they summon a dragon instead of a nuke.
As Wavelength has mentioned above, unless by playing a certain card your plans will be forfeit, don't skip...
srbhkshk | 2014-04-18 03:40:54 |
I think the simple rule with skipping turns which will easily work till level 20 and possibly higher is : Don't skip.
chaosLord | 2014-04-18 06:59:38 |
Skipping a turn can be better than many bad moves, but there aren't many situations where you'd wanna skip a turn, but it should be considered because some do exist.
FORESTRY | 2014-04-20 00:35:14 |
LSD makes a good point, and you def shouldn't be playing reactionary. Two things ppl may take for granted is blocking creatures and never skipping a turn. A turn being skipped can be better than some moves, though, skipping a turn is rarely the best move (though it occasionally can be), and meditation or weakness is always a preferable..People should not play reactionary, especially if their cards lends them to a strong strategy, like LSD says. Especially, you can eat damage and encourage an opponent to rush you if you have excellent healing. You can not block a few creatures, then drop an ice gaurd, for example I used to play pure reactionary tactics (with little to no strategy) with Forest - that got me to level 14.
I dont think one can even get that far with other classes using that style. |