This article will begin with basics for good card playing, preparation for tournaments and will reinforce the subjects in the latter part of the article. This article will reference Campaign Format decks unless specifically stated otherwise. The article will address the subjects.

1. General Card Knowledge
2. Specific Card Knowledge
3. General Deck Construction
4. Specific Deck Construction
5. Play Testing Your Deck
6. Scouting the Meta-Game and Play Testing Against the Field
7. Deck Etiquette
8. Sleeve Etiquette
9. Hand Etiquette
10. Board Positioning
11. Board Control
12. Action Advantage
13. The Order in Which Actions are Taken
14. The Tempo of Game Play
15. The Bluff, The Push and the Pull

General Card Knowledge

General card knowledge is the ability to recognize every card in the format the instant that it’s played. This knowledge extends to how said card interacts with the other cards in the card pool. If you are familiar with every card in the pool then you should not be surprised. This basic knowledge is the driving force for the rest of the concepts discussed in this article. With your knowledge of the general card pool, you should be able to see and predict the best decks in the environment. Currently within the CE format there is prevailing rock/paper/scissors relationship between the best decks. There are three different archetypes that focus on and succeed in different elements of the game. All of the archetypes are strong in their own right and control their aspect of the game. The rock of the environment is the build deck that focuses on By Your Word and other effects to ready the lowerlevel characters in its army, either as a form of movement or for additional attacks. The paper of the environment is the healing deck that eliminates the impact of the opposing deck and then attritions its opponent out of the game. The scissors of the environment is the blitz deck that focuses on beating its opponent in the early game before its opponent can respond.

Specific Card Knowledge

Specific card knowledge relates to two types of cards, power cards and problem cards. Power cards are the cards that can swing the game in one action. Problem cards are cards with either wording or ruling problems that can be exploited, which generally pushes them into the power card category until clarification brings them back into check. Know the rules of the game, if you are in any way uncomfortable with the ruling on a card you anticipate facing carry the most recent rule book and the most recent version of the FAQ. Looking at the current environment there are three cards that stand out as true power cards that have the most impact on the game. These three cards are Exhaustion, Imprisoned and Outmatched. There are some problem cards in the environment that can cause confusion amongst players, the most noticeable of which is ?Lekar Osud.

General Deck Construction

This is where being good at math will come in handy. Most CE decks should run a base of 25 characters, though there are notable exceptions, with Yscar the Elder and Krun being the most prevalent. In open the character base is anywhere from just the 6 starters to 25 characters. There should be some split between the selected characters based on the rank they enter play, in essence a mixture of characters that enter play into different ranks. Ideally you want to be able to play the characters from your hand with as little effort as possible. Characters are important because they are resources and the ability to play them without added effort is necessary to a tournament winning deck. In general most decks should run a greater number of actions that items. This is because items are slower and thus less effective than an action due to its immediate effect. A deck that operates under the precept of stacking bonuses on one character violates this concept but it is necessary for that deck archetype to work properly. Most games are decided somewhere between the end of turn one or the midpoint of turn two, even though the game may last much longer than that. The ability to play a card at reactive speed is the most significant ability in the game. This is why Back Alley Tavern is one of, if not the most, distorting cards in the open environment.

Specific Deck Construction

Specific Deck Construction concerns itself with the basis of the deck itself and what you are trying to accomplish. There are really only five different deck archetypes: Blitz, Build, Combo, Control and Über. Whatever deck you decide to build it will fit in one of the preceding archetypes.

Blitz is a deck concept built around eliminating your opponent’s resources until you fulfill the victory condition. By eliminating your opponents recourses before they can be fully utilized your deck experiences an increasing rate of return on every strike you throw at your opponent because you prevent your opponent from achieving their objective by weakening their board position. Individual games with a blitz deck are generally decided with the opening draw. Examples of blitz decks include Krun, Yscar the Elder, Ahdi Akkhar, Rathe Inquisitor Chyre, Cardinal Creigh, Ahdre, Kedric, Captain Dukat and Tepheroth.

Build is a deck concepts built around establishing a board position that forces the your opponent into a corner. Build is accomplished in a number of ways including healing, readying, costless or built-in movement and draw/deck manipulation. The build deck games are decided by the combination of board position at the beginning of the second turn plus the draw of the second hand. Build decks are inherently more forgiving than blitz decks. Examples of build decks include: Garn Hearthstone, Uthanak, Jaqueline Windson, Atu Amani, Nitesh Imaran Lekar Osud and ?Sjonnegaard.

As of the post Sneak Attack environment Combo did not exist in CE. However, combo is the dominant archetype in open format play. A Combo deck revolves around a specific combination of cards played repeatedly in one turn. Example included the now defunct Havelin Tansiq / Fields of Bone / Andel / Kill Mechanism and the Benedric / Gloves of Mercy / Geltran decks. Currently Lord Winter is the combo king because of his readying ability combines with Black Moss / Excessus / Primal Rage. Post Counter Attack combo has began rearing its head in the CE environment. Wizards are its refuge with the counter mechanism on the items Blood and Bone and Necklace of Fireballs.

Control is the counter to Combo, control was developed post betrayal. Control can be easily confused with either blitz or build depending on the deck. Control specifically denies draw based combo decks through draw denial, rank structure manipulation or through action denial. The example in CE is basically limited to Raziel, although Lord Kestrel and De'zicrah could develop into interesting control warlords. In the Open format the two best examples of Control decks are Saunginel and Sav’rukk. Cards common to the Control Archetype are Gravity Flux, Amnesia, Rr’gent, Winter Warfare and Infinity’s End.

Über is a concept that gains the advantage of board position by abusing the stackable bonuses from items and attachable actions. This concept is very straight forward, sit back, equip items, throw forward meat until you’re untouchable and then come forward for the win. Examples in CE include Varson Yscar, Dallen Stormlost Duty, and Valhala Abyssbane. The most notable Über decks in the open format are based around King Xod.

Play Testing Your Deck

When play testing the deck it is important to dry run the deck at least 30 times to ensure a good statistical average of the board position your deck is capable of developing during the first turn, the second turn and the end game. The deck should be able to accomplish its goal for board domination at a predetermined time, known as the crux moment. A blitz decks reaches its crux moment at the end of the first turn or immediately after the first action of the second turn. A build deck’s crux moment occurs between the first action of the second turn and the midpoint of the second turn, so long as you weather the first assault that the opposing deck throws your way you should be in the position to swing the advantage of the game to your benefit. Combo’s crux moment occurs at the moment that the cards in the combo are either in hand or in play, at this position in the game you will either win through pulling off your combo or your opponent will have the counter in hand. Control decks win by dictating the tempo of the game and providing the counter to combo. Control decks are usually disguised as blitz decks that have the extra defense against combo. The crux moment happens when you are holding the counter to the combo, typically a Too Fast To See, Twist of Fate or a Burn the Inn. Other control decks establish a lock-down of certain elements of the game, especially the draw aspect of the order phase. Über decks reach their crux moment when the Über character is forced into the front rank. At this point the character should be buff enough to survive until your opponent is eliminated.

Scouting the Meta-Game and Play Testing Against the Field

This is one of the most important aspects of tournament preparation. Always play one of two decks either the best deck or play the deck that counters the best deck while still remaining an upper tier competitive deck. Play the deck you plan on using during the tournament against the other strong decks in the field, this will help you know what to expect in matches. An even better method is to play test the decks that you will be playing against.

Deck Etiquette

When playing a card game with a standard deck of cards it is recommended that the dealer shuffles the deck seven times to ensure randomness. Since Warlord deck should run at around 44 cards in the main deck you can get by with six shuffles. Its recommend that you pile shuffle your deck at least once between matches to further randomize the stack of cards that comprise the deck.. Always offer your deck to your opponent for a cut after shuffling. Also make an effort to keep all of the cards in your deck faced the same direction. Do not make changes to your deck during a tournament.

Sleeve Etiquette

In a large tournament you should run plastic sleeves over your cards. Always back your main deck and your starters in the same sleeves. Even if you do not run alternate starters give your opponent the illusion that you do. Do not swap cards between sleeves during a match unless one of the sleeves has developed a tear, then swap that sleeve with the sleeve that houses one of your starters to make the deck easier to shuffle.

Hand Etiquette

When drawing cards draw one at a time. Do not move the cards around in your hand. Do not sort the cards as they are drawn. Place them in your hand so that the first card drawn is the back card in your hand and all the cards drawn successively are placed on top of that card, in order. Do keep the hand you hold your cards in separate from the hand you alter cards in play with. Never transfer cards from one hand to the other. Do not pull a card from your hand in preparation for playing it. Do not place your playing hand behind your hand of cards, especially during your opponent’s action because this behavior indicates an intent to play an action. The above actions all telegraph to your opponent the actions your about to take. These are tells, and tells are bad.

Board Positioning

Board positioning is the exact state of every card in play, the number of cards in each player’s hand and the exact cards that are in each discard pile. The state of cards in play includes state of readiness, number of actions taken, the number of wounds per character and the type of action tokens on each character. In effect characters are resources and items are an insurance policy. Some traits have more value to the board position than other traits. Take for example two stunned characters on your front rank with equal AC but one has an additional hit point, thus making him more valuable in achieving your victory condition. Fighters add to the value of your board position because of their ability to play Outmatched, Break Through and their ability to equip Nothrog S’sike, Pike and Throwing Daggers. Rogues add value based on their ability to eliminate spent characters thus forcing your opponent into a stand off unless he’s certain he can kill your Rogue. Clerics add vale because they heal and recur your army making each component last longer. Wizards add value because they have unparalleled offensive capability in the form of their spells.

Board Control

Board control refers to having the most advantageous board position. Board control does factor in the cards in your hand. For example, just having a copy of exhaustion in your hand will improve your board position. This extends to having characters in play that will net you additional cards and thus additional resources. Some warlords give their player a stronger board position just by being in play. In CE these warlords include Faiza Nyota, Yscar the Elder, Garn Hearthstone, Uthanak, Krun, ?Sorcha and Jaqueline Windson. In open these warlords include Andlewick, Behlial, King Xod, Lord Winter, Saunginel, Sav’rukk, Sir Rallen and Uriel. On the first turn, after the opening salvo of attacks, the player with the last ready character that can attack is the player who has the board control until all characters are unable to attack. Other examples include Krun on the front rank with a Nothrog S’sike, Yscar the Elder with Tiger Form, Garn Hearthstone with scribed Cure Lethal Wounds and Sorcha with a scribed Chain Lightning or Energy Bow equipped. Non-Warlord examples are Arra’dann with Monkey Paws, Slate Gargoyle between two other Gargoyles and a Ready Cobolt Gargoyle on the front rank. Nitesh Imaran, Jaqueline Windson, Uthanak, and Atu Amani all share a similar archetype focused on readying the lower level characters of their faction this is another form of board control because they are using abilities to increase the utility of the resources they have available on the board. The newest set, Counter Attack, added another element to Board Control. In Counter Attack characters that perform actions as a result to their own death or the death of other characters are a new element of board control that must be accounted for in deck building and play. The strongest example of this new board control is the new Elf start consisting of 3 x Amatria Tansiq and 2 x Eirlas, both characters react to their own death with an additional offensive strike. A final example of board control is a multi-classed wizard warlord using Burning Hands to either prevent or force your opponent to attack your Warlord depending on Rank Structure.

Action Advantage

Action advantage is the ability to get the most out of every action you take. Knowing when to use certain actions can be the key to many games. For example, waiting until Krun or Yscar the Elder uses an action to move to the front rank to use Exhaustion can often mean the difference between a win and a loss. Action advantage also extends to the ability to take consecutive action, in this vein Ahdi Akkhar is king of the hill through use of his react. However, look at the possibility of using your last action to bull rush Krun forward and wipe two to four opposing characters from the board, and then use your first action on the next turn to do the same, this tactic is especially devastating if you get initiative on the next turn.

The Order in Which Actions are Taken

This strategy refers to viewing Warlord as a variation of chess. Know what actions you are going to take at least five orders in advance and try to project your opponents actions based on their board position. Always know what your opponent has in play and exactly what it does. Take your actions in a manner that would best prevent your opponent from utilizing his strengths on the board.

The Tempo of Game Play

This is a continuation of the prior subject. Knowing when to push your advantage and knowing when to back off in order to have resources available to deal with a threat from hand that you can’t prevent from entering play. This skill is an incredible necessity when you are playing either a blitz or control deck against either a build or a combo deck. Being able to control the tempo of the game helps with your ability to bluff and mislead your opponent. Also if you are able to gain the advantage in both board position and control the tempo of the game, most inexperienced players will crack at this exact moment and begin making play mistakes.

The Bluff, The Push and the Pull

These talents have nothing to do with the cards in your hand and everything to do with making your opponent think you have certain cards or are going to take certain actions.

The Bluff: The bluff is an art form in and of itself. By bluffing your opponent you have volunteered false information through some medium of communication, be it verbal, physical or body language. These are the same type of tells that I told you to avoid earlier in the article, and you should avoid them until you are comfortable that you can pull them off against top level players. A verbal tell usually revolves around trying to goad into doing something you want him to do or to trick him into not doing so. This could be as simple as a “Are you sure you want to do that? You can take that back, if you want.” Or it can be as complex as a well timed gasp of your breath. Physical tells are the hardest to control because these are physical symptoms like a light sheen of sweat on your brow, shaking hands, nervous twitches, inability to make eye contact and inability to speak properly. There are some players that have mastered the ability to fake a physical tell although it only comes into play against the higher level opponents with the sophistication to ferret out slightest of physical tells. Finally the body language tells are the easiest to use against an opponent. Body language tells range from the way you are holding your cards to brushing your playing fingers across the top on a card in you hand, setting your hand down on the table, setting your dice on top of your deck and shuffling the order of cards in your hand in effort to get your opponent to incorrectly try to guess the type of cards you are holding in your hand.

The Push: The push is a specific type of bluff and your capability is measured by your ability to push your opponent into a corner and force mistakes. The push is a combination of advanced bluffing, board positioning, board control and tempo. The ability to push is very important in large tournaments that last all day. This isn’t a nice thing to do and it does take advantage of less experienced players but it can have an extremely beneficial effect on the overall weariness of more experienced players in that it allows them to get more “rest” in between rounds.

The Pull: The pull is another combination bluff that is steeped in board positioning and body language. The pull can be referred to as the bait and switch. With a successful pull you present an seemingly weak situation and take advantage of your opponents overconfidence. It can be as simple as having Krun on the front rank spent but the pull is that he has a copy of Outmatched and a Paying the Price in his hand, while having a copy of Amulet of Waking equipped. Other Warlords that have tremendous potential for The Pull are Faiza Nyota, Mekk’iah, Sorceress Ygraine, Ichaerus, Rathe, and Ahdi Akkhar. Basically it’s a great way to force your opponent to commit and waste resources in a way that benefits you and not your opponent.