General tips from a fairly new player

Hey all! I'm fairly new to the game, but i havent found many guides or tips so I wanted to start creating some. What i have below are general tips and would like to do card/faction reviews. That said, I am by no means an expert (only lvl 24 right now) but I love these types of card/board strategy games so I hope some past knowledge is helpful. Also, more experienced players can add to this post as I tend to watch and edit it. So with all that said, here are some general tips!

• Balance your gold usage. In games like this, you often want to buy as many packs as possible to build the decks you want. While this is generally true, try to balance buying packs with upgrading cards. Upgrading cards almost always make even subpar cards worth their cost. For example, gifted recruits, a 'meh' 2 cost unit becomes worth putting in just about any deck after upgrading it to lvl 2. And thats for a low level so-so neutral card. As a general rule of thumb - if you have no cards to upgrade, buy some packs. If you have cards to upgrade, save the gold until you can upgrade them. Of course some cards are not worth much an upgrade, but most show their value after some boosting.

• Hold the line. This game tends to prioritize board presence a little more than anything else. Card draw, card power, etc tend to have a lower priority than advancing forward and stopping your enemies advance. The reason being is that your options grow as you gain more ground and your enemies options become far more limited. Plus the ultimate goal is to get your enemy's base so its importance to keep pressure.

• Keep a good, lower end curve to your deck. While the game starts at 3 or 4 gems depending on first or second play, your hand will completely refill at the end of a turn. That said, when you get to 7 mana or higher you always want to play more than one card as your deck will never run out and your hand always refills. Generally, i try to keep half or more of deck at 4 mana or lower. I only recommend a couple higher cost cards that either play specifically into a strategy or help you push forward or comeback from a losing position. Cards like Joust are often helpful in comebacks in this nature, but you dont want 4 or 5 8 gem cost cards since your early game will be far too slow and your late game likely wont have the pressure it needs.

• Use structures sparingly. Structures can provide powerful effects and can be kept in safe position most times. However, they are often costly (most are 4 gems or more), dont advance the line, and dont provide any immediate benefit. Given the right strategy, they can win games, but I generally think 1 is enough in most decks and 2 is only good for key or advanced strategies. Also...

• When using structures remember 2 things:

1: Place them when you have board advantage. If they have an advancing line and your are closer to your base, dont place that mech workshop. They will easily crush it and you wasted 4 mana before even getting use out of it. The only structure that doesnt really follow this is the fortress structure which is just a road block.

2: Be careful where you place structures. Generally speaking, its better to place structures on the outside positions rather than inside. More specifically, if these are the 4 spaces by your base: 1 2 3 4, you want to place structures in the 1 and 4 positions. Why? Well, lets say you place it in the 2 position. Then on your enemies turn, he gets his advancing line right up to your base and places a big unit in 1. Now you have no way to get to that unit with yours and you cant easily get behind him - you are basically left with spells alone which is pretty bad. If that structure was in 1 or 4, you would likely have a space or 2 where you could put guys to counter. So simply put - dont put structures in 2 or 3 unless you have a strong advance.

• Pirates are OP. Ok, maybe they arent OP, but pirates are a neutral theme that has use in just about any faction. If your card pool is weak or if you want to complete faction quests but dont have many cards in them, pirates could be your answer. Pirates play well together and thematically and generally fall in the 1-4 price range so they fit the meta quite well. That said, pirates tend to have a slight priority for upgrades. Of course commonly used cards or very powerful faction cards can take priority, but if you are unsure in what to upgrade, its hard to go wrong with pirates.

-From PuttingPutinPudding

• Hand refills and Mulligan: hand refills really push for a deck that is considered aggressive in other games. Anyone worth their salt would tell you that card draw is one of if not the most important tech cards in your deck, and card draw engines like the auctioneer (hearthstone) are very popular because of this. You should utilize the mulligan almost every turn to get the cards you want. Starting with a six drop in hand isn't useful at all, so trade it for something else. Learn which cards do what early on.

• Specific card strategies: Cards like windmaker (the rodent that bombs for three damage when fighting stronger cards) will be able to go straight from your front line into the enemy base on drop if the line is all the way up. If you struggle with finishing, try to fish for a card like that for an immediate kill. Jousters have great removabilitly, and can destroy an enemy push if they have one or two three strength minions lined up. However, when comparing stats they suck compared to what you can do instead for eight mana. Save cards like armed schemers until you can set up a great bombing by putting him next to a lot of enemies. Don't put cards like brood sage in your deck unless you plan on poisoning enemies.cards such as restless goats are not defensive; they are meant to get your line up as fast as possible as soon as possible. On the other hand, goats into forgotten souls will put your board at a great spot. Northsea dog isn't too good unless you put him in a hyper aggressive deck where you burn all of your cards from your hand in a single turn. Remember that there is no end to cards; cards like collector mirz that add to your deck add to it FOREVER. Play it enough times and you'll start drawing one or more zero mana five strength cards every turn. If you're up against a player with mirz you better hope you end it fast.

• Keep in mind your opponents deck: or at least a rough idea. If they use execute on your one mana three strength robots, chances are they won't have another spell to kill your mech workshop turn two. If you know they have avian stalkers, make sure their line is as far back as possible, even if it means you don't make the best trades because an avian stalker deep into your board will destroy any chance of you gaining control of that lane for quite some time.

• Keep combos in mind when putting cards down: For example, you can kill most minions with a simple combo of frosthexers into icicle burst for a cheap three mana. It's probably best to save frosthexers for it instead of putting it down when you get it. It also works with wisp cloud.

• Be watchful of your own cards: Don't put all of your structures in the back line if you have temple guardians, because they are meant as a wall card and at maximum value can become 15 strength for eight mana. Allow room for cards like hearthguard to be placed.

• Know what types of decks are available for each kingdom: swarm of the east is very aggressive with possibly the strongest removal card in the game, cheap cards and minions/structures that damage the enemy base. The kingdom also has cards that make minions move forward, a great tool for pushing. Compare that to winter pact which comes with strong minions such as chill beards and wolf cloaks, as well as buffing cards like fleshmenders and olf the hammer. Lady rime is a god when it comes to lategame, able to steam past anything and everything. This kingdom has freezing too, which is the special effect for it like how shadowfen has poison.