Guide to withholding information

[Satanaitis]

Knowing what cards to expect from your opponents hand or deck, is no doubt one of the most advantageous thing not only in SE, but in every other TCG. This article will cover basic ways of preparing and playing your deck in a BO3 scenario with giving out the least information possible.

PART ONE: PRE-MATCH PREPARATION

1. Replace all different coppies of the same card with one type of copy, say you have 3 Death Mage Thaddius in your deck, 2 of those are normal art and one is foil, replace foil one with the same art as the two others, here's why:

eg.: you're facing zhanna and you have foil DMT out, she plays Banish on it (your foil DMT is shuffled in your library now) on your next turn you topdeck a non foil DMT and play it (your opponent now clearly knows that there is still a foil DMT in your deck)

PART TWO: IN GAME ACTIONS

1. Since SE is a digital game theres no way to shuffle your hand, this means - always play the card your opponent have already seen

eg.1: you have no cards in hand and your opponent plays Retreat on your Aldon, at the beggining of your turn you draw your second Aldon (Retreated is on the right, drawn is of the left) playing Aldon that you drew (the left one) will reveal to your opponent that another card in your hand is also Aldon (otherwise there's no way for him to know what you drew)

eg.2: you have two Bloodpack Shamans in hand, you play the one that's on the right side and return another Bloodpack Shaman from your graveyard to the same right side of your hand, DO NOT play the one on the left that was in your hand all this time since it will clearly reveal the last card left in your hand.

2. Do not show cards you don't have to/overkill. When the game is one or two turns away and the winner is clear, many players like to show off what other win conditions or counters they had.

eg.1: You run Baduruu with x Grundler's Double as your main weapon and x Emore Crossbow as your secondary weapon, your opponent is at 3 life, all you have to do is use your ability to summon a weapon and attack him, you have both your main and secondary weapon to choose from, but you haven't played any copies of Emore Crossbow this game, DO NOT use your ability on Emore Crossbow, since it will reveal what your secondary weapon is.

eg.2: You are turn away from losing to Moonstalker, there is no way out, you have teched in Nocturnal Advantage, but haven't played it yet, DO NOT play it just to show your opponent that you would've won if you had more time.

3. Turn order. There are a lot of different ways to play out your turn, but there's only few that gives your opponent the least time to adapt to the situation until you end your turn.

Unless your best play suggest otherwise, your turn should go like this:

1. Use draw engine to see if you get better plays
2. Attack with allies
3. Play cards that affect your side of the field
4. Play cards that affect opponents side of the field

0. Using shadow abilities differs depending on the hero you are playing, but it's best to wait for the last moment you can before doing it.

PART THREE: CHATTING

1. Never give out your opponent any information about your hero/build/tech or any other choises you made to prepare for your match.

eg.1: never say things like "prepare to be rushed"

Same applies to in game chatting.

eg.2: "4x unique in hand"

thank you for reading, feedback is appreciated

[Backer]

Good tips for top level play.

[kulanah]

But that means I have to take out all my foils. Q.Q

[a player]

Interesting stuff! All sounds like good advice, but doesn't your hand always appear to be shuffled, from the opponent's perspective?

[Twio]

Good tips Satanaitis. Something to add would be if you draw a second copy of a card you already have in your hand and you want to sac one, always sac the one that was already in your hand. If you sac the one you drew, it tells your opponent that you either already have a very strong hand, or that you're drawing multiples and saccing them.

If you sac the copy that was already in your hand, that tells your opponent nothing because they don't know what you sacced.

[Backer]

What about Card Sleeves? I think it'd be safest to have none or the most popular one.

[Twio]

What about Card Sleeves? I think it'd be safest to have none or the most popular one.

Why? If you have no sleeves and your opponent steals a card with Night Prowler, you won't know if they have sacced your card, or whether they played your Infernal Gargoyle or their own copy. Having sleeves gives you information about your opponent's plays.

[Backer]

Why? If you have no sleeves and your opponent steals a card with Night Prowler, you won't know if they have sacced your card, or whether they played your Infernal Gargoyle or their own copy. Having sleeves gives you information about your opponent's plays.

Vice Versa.

[Twio]

Vice Versa.

If you're implying that you're expecting to steal other people's cards, obviously it's common sense to run no sleeves for maximum efficiency? However a large majority of players aren't

[Backer]

If you're implying that you're expecting to steal other people's cards, obviously it's common sense to run no sleeves for maximum efficiency? However a large majority of players aren't

I suspect that the majority uses the default sleeves. I don´t know for certain that's why the alternative would be the most popular one.