Will bluff work at all in SE?

[Tyr Anasazi]

What is a bluff? Let's first have a look at Poker, where the term comes from, shall we?

In the card game of Poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. To bluff is to make such a bet.

The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand. The size and frequency of a bluff determines its profitability to the bluffer. By extension, the term is often used outside the context of poker to describe the act of making threats one cannot execute.

Okay. So what will happen after a bluff? The opponent has three options, fold, call the bluff and re-raise. Although re-raise open the door to another round of bluffing and response, generally speaking, the bluffer only benefits from the fold option.

Now, it is time to examine a few examples in SE where you can try to bluff.

Exhibit A: T4, opponent is going to have board control. You, playing as a mage, drop a Fb on opposing hero and use your only ally in play to attack opposing hero too, even though you don't have nova in hand.

What's you best hope here? Opponent don't play any more allies and maybe even let your ally live. However, this is not exactly a fold by opponent. At best, it is a call. Play more allies and gain board control is more like re-raise. The only possible way to act like a fold in such a situation will be that opponent uses SL on his full-health ally and thus give you board the next turn, which seldom happens.

Exhibit B: You, as a priest, don't play any allies from T1 to T3, then play TO on T4. Again you have no TW in hand.
What you are hoping is that opponent will neither play any ally nor kill/CB/CP TO next turn.

This is similarly to a semi-bluff in Poker. Since you do have a chance to draw TW on your next draw or when TO is killed. However, again opponent cannot exactly fold the game to you. He can either ignore what you are presenting and hope he can rush you to death or play conservatively and keep using just his weenies to attack your hero. It may eventually turn out to be a sub-optimal play but neither is a really terrible option.

Exhibit C: You, playing as Zaladar, has a DMT in play, no SE left. Opponent is human and has nothing in play. After sacrificing to 5 resources, you only have one card, DR, in hand. And you play nothing and end your turn.

By keeping DR in hand, your bluff is that you have MC but no target to use it. This is an okay bluff. Because if opponent choose to play 4HP weenies instead of 5+HP fatties, you can kill it with DMT and DR. However, opponent does have a third option which is to play a 5HP weenie from the new expansion. Then your plan is ruined.

Exhibit D: This time, you play as Gwen, facing a rush mage. On your T5, you only have two cards in hand, RF and Longbow. You choose to play RF.

If your opponent ignore whatever you present and drop more weenie for the kill, you are dead. If your opponent expect SS on your next turn, so sacrifice weenie in hand and nova the field. You got a chance to fight. This is probably the most proper case for a bluff. Fold is nova and switch to burn only. Call is stop playing more allies but no nova. Re-raise is sacrifice nova and double drop allies. Wrong choice will almost certainly cost the game.

In conclusion, you can bluff successfully in SE. However, in your typical game, bluffing is a high-risk, low-reward practice.

[graphlem]

What is a bluff? Let's first have a look at Poker, where the term comes from, shall we?

In the card game of Poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. To bluff is to make such a bet.

The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand. The size and frequency of a bluff determines its profitability to the bluffer. By extension, the term is often used outside the context of poker to describe the act of making threats one cannot execute.

Okay. So what will happen a bluff? The opponent has three options, fold, call the bluff and re-raise. Although re-raise open the door to another round of bluff, generally speaking, the bluffer only benefits from the fold option.

To Be Continued

There's certainly room for bluffing and mindgames in SE. Everytime a Mage/Priest/elemental hits 5 resources we play the game of "does he have Mind control/nova/Tidal wave?" "how many guys can I play before they use that card? What's the tipping point? do they even have it in their hand?" and for the Mage/Priest/Elemental the thought pattern is "How far should i let them extend themselves before I use MC/Nova/Tidal?"

Maybe as a Mage/Priest/Elemental you don't even run those cards, in hopes that everybody will ASSUME you do run them and change how they play accordingly, letting you use some alternate strategy and cards.

That's the fun of a strategy game, and game theory "I know what you will play, so i will adjust how I play, but I also know that you know I know that"

[phyaH]

this could should be an article , i like the read. , and bluffs do work in SE, i like to threaten ppls weenies with MC's with Zaladar, let em know i got it rdy ahaha

[Bayushi]

Nice read, Tyr! Thanks for posting.

[Index]

Wonderful article!

[Firedrake]

bluffs do work in SE, i like to threaten ppls weenies with MC's with Zaladar, let em know i got it rdy ahaha

That's a good point..now that you can slide cards all over the place to play them, sometimes players don't slide them quite far enough and the card flashes up as being casted but waiting for target. Sometimes this happens like 5 times, like I'm playing a jittery crackhead..

But before the slide feature was implemented, back when there was a camera button, sometimes I would cast a card but not pick a target, then cancel and play something else. Most of the time I needed to sac it cause I only had 2 or 3 cards in hand and I didn't want to discard any of my other cards. Then I'd sac it next turn and hope they thought I was waiting for a better target.

[highmystica]

You can also taunt them, basically the same as talking sh-t in poker. You have the lovely chat option after all ... I like to tip my cards sometime like Firedrake pointed out too, though I do it the old fashioned way and not with the drag and drop slide.