Go for the throat!!!

[tman507]

Not really going to make a long strategy post here, but my most recent match made me think of this. When you are in a position to win the game, do it. Go for the throat! Don't worry about allies on your opponent's field that aren't going to be able to do anything once they're dead. I was thinking of this since my most recent match (tman507 vs. cm4short, the replay might do something weird were one of his PotLs attacks and kills itself, not showing the end situation properly, but it should work fine mostly), where my opponent didn't follow this rule and, hence, allowed me to win.

It was my Majiya vs. his Lance, and he had the advantage over me for most of the game. I battled him down to 3 health while I had 5. I had gotten down to the last card in my deck, which I figured by looking at my graveyard was most likely a Fireball. I also had an Infernal Gargoyle and a Plasma Behemoth on my field, both of which were crippled by Anklebreaker, but would have been ready on my next turn. I figured all I needed to do was survive one more of his turns, and I would win. Then I looked at Lance's SE. He had 4, enough to haste in an ally. Sure enough, he summons Aeon and hastes it, which along with his Anklebreaker, would have been enough to beat me. I thought "Oh well, I almost pulled off the comeback". Imagine my pleasant surprise then when he attacks and kills my PB with his hasted Aeon, and goes after the Gargoyle with his Anklebreaker. On my turn, I draw Fireball sure enough, and use it to blast him for the win.

Point being, even if I hadn't had that Fireball, why wouldn't you just go for the kill right away when you can. So remember: go for the throat!!!

[kcleungab]

he just didnt counted the number of fireball.
and
yes. lance is q control hero so players may force themaelves to focus only to the board

[1ndeed]

Experience will tell when to go for throat, and when to play safe.

One thing you can do to help you decide which route to take in game, is ask yourself:

"how do i lose this game?"

Look at the board, heros, life totals, graveyards. When you are ahead, ask how you can still lose the game. Is it likely to happen or a long shot? What cards do they need to turn the game around, and how many of those cards have they used already? How fast can they kill you at this point?

[tman507]

Yes, you must pay attention to the board. Take everything into account. I will say, I have been guilty of this myself in the past, against a Warrior deck with Rampage attached. I could do enough damage to beat him, and even though he also had a weapon out that could kill some of my allies, I figured it didn't matter as I would win anyway. I didn't take into account that Rampage would heal him.

But in the case of the match I originally described, I had nothing that would've prevented him from winning. All he needed to do was attack me and he'd have won. Even if I hadn't had the Fireball, why wouldn't you just try to end the match as quickly as possible?

Now the situation would be different if I had even 1 more health. If he could have only done 5 damage to my 6 health, then attacking my PB and Gargoyle would have been the smart move. Of course, I would have still had the Fireball, but in that situation with me on 6 health, he would know he couldn't win right away, so going for my allies (at least the PB) makes sense. But he could deal 5 damage, I only had 5 health and nothing to stop him from dealing that damage to me.

[qaz92zaq]

This topic really does deserve an in depth discussion although your case is quite simple.

[Mad Botany]

Some mid-game heroes like Banebow don't have enough damage to stall for long, and very vulnerable to boardwipe, or like mages who have less heal than others often should death racing and in for the throat asap. The only way to win is bring hero's hp down to zero, so if you sense that your opponents are careless try finish them right away. But when and how is very complicating and only experiment can answer that.

[Little Gnome]

Experience will tell when to go for throat, and when to play safe.

One thing you can do to help you decide which route to take in game, is ask yourself:

"how do i lose this game?"

Look at the board, heros, life totals, graveyards. When you are ahead, ask how you can still lose the game. Is it likely to happen or a long shot? What cards do they need to turn the game around, and how many of those cards have they used already? How fast can they kill you at this point?

Man! Not everybody has time for that...

[tman507]

This topic really does deserve an in depth discussion although your case is quite simple.

Yeah, my case is a simple one, but like I said, I wasn't really planning on doing too much of an in depth discussion. I'm not really good at writing anything too detailed when it comes to strategy and stuff for this game. But yes, it should be gone into in more depth by someone who can write strategy stuff better than I can, cause it is an important part of the game.

[mclamdc]

This has happened to me except my opponent had about 13 health left, my allies brought him down to one health and I had an anklebreaker but I had already used it to cripple his ally, I didn't think I had enough on the field to bring him that low so I had attacked the ally with my anklebreaker first. He won on his turn.

[iClipse]

It's possible he just made a simple mistake and miscalculated? I make that mistake often, where I start attacking the other guy's allies, and after I launched my first attack, I realise I could have killed my opponent.