What advice would you give new players on deck building?

[RavingLunatic]

Knowing when to hold em and when to fold em / when to play em when to stay em: One of the biggest mistakes I see in less experienced players is being in a rush to sacrifice and or to play too many cards. You don't always need to sacrifice or play a card even on t4. If you feel like you have a game well in hand and you are in the driver seat you may not want to rush for the win (unless you feel like you need to rush it). Slow down, sacrifice less cards, play less cards if you have solid board control.

This is great advice and something I am still learning even after playing this game off and on for the past few years.

My only previous CCG was with MTG many moons ago and with it you were pretty much playing a land every turn and playing a creature every turn unless facing a possible Armageddon/Wrath of God deck. In SE there are so many ways that this type of play can come back to bite you in the ass.

I guess the only way to get the hang of it is with experience, as you say.

[Hallgrimsson]

Knowing when to hold em and when to fold em / when to play em when to stay em: One of the biggest mistakes I see in less experienced players is being in a rush to sacrifice and or to play too many cards. You don't always need to sacrifice or play a card even on t4. If you feel like you have a game well in hand and you are in the driver seat you may not want to rush for the win (unless you feel like you need to rush it). Slow down, sacrifice less cards, play less cards if you have solid board control.

Underrated comment, but this is more deck-specific and you really oughta know your deck. In my case, there are times where I stop between turn 3 and 4, mostly if I'm on the play (so I can never be equal on resources unless I slow down), have Layarian Seductress, no reason to go to 4 immediately (namely, no Jeweler's Dream), and I feel all cards in my hand are relevant in the short-term (up to 2 or 3 turns from now). And even in long games, I rarely go above 5 or 6 resources. You really should measure your card draw, the cost of your cards, your acceleration, the average curve in order to eke out every point of advantage you can.

Another thing I remembered is, really, be consistent on your play. As a beginner, just do the correct play based on the information you have, AKA don't do suboptimal in order to mindgame or trick someone to think something of your hand, and don't try to read TOO HARD on people, at least while you don't have the guile to process subtleties in play (a big one being a play that would fool you for a turn, but then the person drops the act the turn after and you never notice it). "Correct" play will win you WAY more games and teach you a better framework than going for the nut risky play every time will.

[Nijjis]

Yeah this is true. You shouldn't be overly afraid to go for it. If I'm playing a 40 card zhana and he has 15 cards left in his deck and has already played two tidal waves I know there's a decent chance he's drawn a third tidal but I'm going to operate under the assumption that he doesn't have it. So if his board is clear and i already have two allies down I might drop a third ally and hope for the best. Just depends on the situation whether or not I can afford to take that hit if he does have it.

Also you most always want to force your opponent to play reactively and not proactively. If he has to spend his turn playing tidal and then on my turn I can restock the board: advantage me (assuming I'm not running low on plays). So force your opponent to react. Bait out those tidal waves etc if you can and then keep track of how many he may have left and what their odds are of finding / having that next one.

[u8y7541]

I'm an old player who has played on and off, not that seriously (I might not know as much). One thing I've noticed is that you must keep many low-cost cards in your deck so you can take control of the board. For example, if you have 3 blake windrunners out at the beginning, you have a clear advantage and you can destroy almost any ally the opponent summons. While these low-health cards are there, you can get more resources and summon more powerful cards. Don't stock up the power cards.

[jacqui]

I would tell them to use a deck that is proven here is why

1. You are new
2. You don't know the heroes
3. You don't know the cards
4. You don't know which cards interacted with which heroes and how well they do
5. Focus on learning how to play
6. Deck building should be the last thing you learn

This is the only good advice.

[mindy]

the most important thing is experience you have to play around much to learn how the meta plays. even if you copy a good deck you still have to know what to sacrifice depending on what enemy hero you are battling. so it takes experience and thats not something you can learn from just watching video tutorials.

[Megatog201]

Best advise evar- go look and watch 300 plus players play the game. It'll give you a good understanding of how it should play out and the names of the cards you probably want to play.