Give a pro tip you wish you knew starting out!

spartaxoxo

What's a piece of hard won knowledge you wish you knew starting out?

I'll start. Getting a card that can remove a card from the tavern can help you better get cards you want, and keep opponents from getting cards before you.

Unknown_Redemption

Autoplay cards, really slowed down the learning curve. I was confused for many games

SilverBride

I learned that it's better to lose coins than to buy a card I don't really want and risk it being replaced by a good card my opponent can get.

berunhieyes

Sometimes you're better off playing 3-4 cards and then buying a card from the tavern before playing your last cards. For example if you have a card that lets you take a level 7 card from the tavern, but the tavern is full of lower level cards, paying coin for a card may bring out a better card to get for free.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for starting this thread, @spartaxoxo. Looking forward to seeing everyone's answers.

gabbo1928

In the early hands, gold is more important than power, and those starter cards that give 1 power only hold you back. As early as I can, I will swap those with the treasury for a 2g card, and almost always beat my opponent to the more valuable cards. It's not a hard and fast rule, though. If I get a card in the same suit early that has a good combo trigger, I'll hang on to that 1p card a little longer.

Also, removing cards that are diluting your deck's power is often more effective than adding more cards. Use destroy actions or the Hlaalu patron to get rid of cards that are no longer serving you. Late enough in the game, I'll even start destroying all of my gold treasury cards, because I get more power/combos per turn, and odds are that cards bought in later rounds may never make it into your hand to play.

Non-taunt agent cards that give you coin are great, because you either get to purchase better cards turn after turn, or your opponent has to spend power to stop you, keeping their prestige in check.

Finally, there's almost never a reason to turn down a card whose primary action is to draw another card. It's like getting a free 6th card in your hand to potentially trigger combos with.

gabbo1928

Also, this seems obvious, but people still miss it. When someone uses Rajhin to put a Bewilderment card in your deck, you can use the Treasury to turn it into a 2g card. You'd be better off destroying it if you can, but 2g is better than a useless card.

Amottica

I learned long ago it is bad form to give a "pro tip" A person in an old guild in a former game used to say "pro tip" all the time. She was condescending in how she did it, but the funny part is she was not a very good player, and her pro tips were often pretty bad. She changed servers due to her bad reputation.

Anyhow. I just shared that as the term reminded me of that. Thought it would be light humor.

Personofsecrets

I would tell myself not to write off cards that don't seem very good. There definitely are some cards that aren't as effective as others, but cards such as Time Mastery and Portcullis, I've typically not valued, but have found out that they can be very good in certain situations.

El_Borracho

Learn how to use the Celarus deck early. It seems useless when you first start learning the game, but when combined with a power-heavy deck like Pelin or Ansei, it allows you to keep playing the same cards over and over again while amassing gold.

Austacker

Never feel like you MUST spend all your available coins every turn (even if you can afford cards in the Tavern)

The power of deck building in this game comes from synergy and combination play, not having the most toys.

rbfrgsp

Against the NPC, it's often better to focus on buying cards and building your deck early on, instead of playing cautiously and burning your gold. You can rely on the computer opponent to make suboptimal moves and miss strong cards and they do not punish you in the same way a human player will. This means you can successfully play with a slightly "baggy" deck filled with 1gold cards and a few high power cards, and finish the game in fewer rounds.

Do not use the Duke of Crows patron to build an early lead. Gold generation at the start of the game is low. Save it until you can cash in a huge amount of gold for power. The NPC will rarely buy this patron, and a human opponent knows not to "let you off the hook" by buying it back and returning it into play until they have built their massive gold lead.

Some decks have cards that offer no combo bonus (Pelin's bangkorai sentries, Psijic Prophesy, etc). Once you have these, consider burning that patron's starter card, or trading it for writ of coins. The Bought card acts as the combo starter without loss of any card ability and the starter itself is rarely game-changing in itself. This is one to assess each game though - sometimes you want to have a flood of combo starters; other times you need a lean deck. Edit: just saw that @gabbo1928 has already tipped something very similar to this above.

The one-shot Power cards from the treasury like Blackmail and Imprisonment are early-game trap cards. Leave them on the table if they arrive in the first few turns - the power conferred is never going to build you an insurmountable lead and won't even pressure a human opponent into rushing for more power. Pick them as your free card acquisitions from a combo bonus, or pick them up if you need to use Power as a currency early on (eg: buying the Hunding patron), or to cash in surplus gold that you would otherwise have wasted at the end of your turn.

If Hunding is in play, buy the Patronage as soon as possible. The 1gold bonus becomes exponentially smaller over time but in the first few rounds will be the difference between acquiring 6 value cards instead of your opponent.

FrancisCrawford

Checking your opponent's card piles can provide great insight into their next turn.

For example, before your opponent's second turn of the game, you can see exactly the 5 cards they'll draw.