Hello, I'm Andrewsmile (and Bannedrewsmile) and currently hold the #1 and 2 spots in arena and I thought I'd share some thoughts on the game after playing it a few hundred times. I'll start by listing some broad and widely applicable tips, and get more specific towards the end. I think a tierlist for this game is generally unhelpful since everything is so context dependent, but I'll discuss quite a few of the cards as well. I was lucky in this game and got a lot of practice in early- during the beta for this game, there was a player named AZISss who has since closed their account but they reached 500 elo before anyone else had even broken 300. I played this player dozens of times (which was great for my skill level but not for my winrate 
) and learned a lot from them-
General strategy tips
First, the goal of the game is to get 60 points by turn 7 in a fast game, turn 8 in other games- I reach 9 turns in 5% or less of games I play. There are a few ways to do this, but the most consistent way is to find a money generator early, a 2-3 card combo that can generate most of your points, and a point bomb or 2 for the late game. Probably my most important but most controversial take is that an end-of-turn points build (Freyja, Genie exalted, etc) is just too slow, too easy to disrupt, and too inconsistent. I think we've all had a game where we lost hard to this build, but in general I find it to take far too long to set up and leaves you at the mercy of the draw in the late game. Too many things have to go right to win with it, but players try it in a huge majority of games I play. If you have premium, you can see this in the statistics for my accounts: the average winner of a game gains 20 points from sand timer effects- I gain less than 11 on average. There are a couple of more nuanced reasons why this build suffer as well- mathematically, its quite balanced with other builds but it lacks flexibility. Your plan becomes incredibly transparent early on, every player in the game knows exactly what you are doing, how many points you stand to gain per turn, what cards are good for you, and what they can steal. When you lose with this build, it can often be because a crucial card is counterdrafted from you. It is easy to feel like you just got unlucky here, but in reality you put yourself in a position to get unlucky. Good players know what you are holding, what you need to win, and they won't let you get it.
Aside from overvaluing sand-timer effects, the biggest mistake I see players making is playing cards when they dont need to. For example, say you have 4 money and are holding triton (the card that gives you 2 3-stones whenever you draft a water card). It is the end of your turn, you have no other cards in hand or left to draft. You can either play triton, or pass. I see sooooo many players playing triton in this situation, but in reality they gain nothing from doing so. You can just wait until next turn to play triton, and there may be a better use for your 4 stones that shows up first. this may seem obvious to some, but this tip will improve your game the most if you have not implemented it. Always try to avoid playing cards until either 1) they will provide a benefit this turn or 2) you will be wasting stones by not playing them. And even then, sometimes it is better to waste stones than to play a card you're not sure will benefit you.
General game structure- in general, my games have played out pretty consistently of late. My first 3 or 4 turns, I will usually not sell anything unless I find a good money generator. I am looking for cards that are part of a bigger combo-This depends on what is showing up, but early on I am looking for Boreas, mimic, asmodeus, balog, hae-tae, tidal, phoenix, pink draw cards, aeris, and scorch. All of these cards are good with a variety of different cards that can show up, but will outright win the game with the right additional puzzle piece or 2 (I will list these in the next section). Often, this leads to me not knowing what my plan is after a few turns- I will have my bets hedged and then when the right support card shows up later I will strike- and since my hand is so full and so varied, my opponents will often not know what they need to counterdraft. This makes it seem like I get lucky more than other players, and I probably do, but I try to set myself up so I am more likely to get lucky. Remember that in a 3 player game a little more than half of the cards will show up by turn 8- you can't plan on something specific every game, you have to be flexible.
Powerful combos that you need to know about
below are some combos that if assembled will win you the game, and thus should be heavily prioritized (and also denied to your opponent)
Hae-tae + either yuki onna (both wins you the game, and/or also getting hestia wins you the game). It is really easy to generate 3-stones- there are 5+ cards that can do it, so Hae-tae is VERY powerful and the advantage of yuki onna is it lets you generate 24 points all at once (36 with hestia) which is absurdly strong.
Hae-tae + the card that turns a 6-stone into 3 3-stones (I forget her name) + anything that lets you spend money for points like mud slime or point bombs. This 2 card combo is the biggest money generator in the game. Even if you only trigger it every other turn (and convert a 3 to 6 each other time) it still takes you from 3$ worth of purchasing power to $18 of purchasing power when it triggers, which is hard to keep up with. If you have been drafting cards that give solid points like girin, eternity (really any dragon) you should be able to outscore your opponents faster.
boreas + hippogriff + either agni or pegasus. Having just the first 2 and then some pink cards makes this a win- getting agni or pegasus making boreas only cost a single 1-stone makes him able to often win the game the turn the combo comes out, ive seen it as early as turn 5/6 with salamander giving 4 1-stones every round. phoenix is very good here as well.
Tidal + aeris or scorch. If you can generate some money and draft just 2 other dragons, which is often extremely doable/consistent, the first tidal will be 15 points and the scorch will be 20. Between the points you get from the other dragons and a few incremental points, this combo is easy to assemble, cheap for how many points it generates, and can win by turn 7. If you can manage to get willow and dragon egg you can often get 3 or even 4 dragons down before the tidal comes down and you will win by a large margin.
Mimic + the green giant (+the golems make this a surefire win). As long as you have mimic, you can throw green cards in the discard all game, fish them out, and slam down a 28 point green giant turn 7, remove him, and play him again turn 8. Having the golems, basilisk, or medusa make this very consistent. This strategy is very hard to counterdraft because just picking green cards isnt enough, you have to put them in hand since discarding them doesnt work. The fun bonus card here is the green hate-dragon, gust, because you can use it to discard an opponents green card and then steal it.
Asmodeus + (forest spirit or ifrit or succubus or ignis). Everyone knows to look out for succubus, but forest spirit is an equally scary pickup. It is easy to pick some big cost cards up early and then hold them to either play for points or discard for almost as many points with forest spirit. This flexibility makes the combo pretty strong.
Golems + yuki onna (+hestia is the fastest way to win that I know of). Instantly turning 1 stones into 6 stones and then getting points from them without even spending them yet is very powerful, and yuki seals the deal. If you can pick up an extra 6-stone in between playing the golems, Hestia makes the second golem give 30 points and yuki gives you the next 30, winning the game as early as turn 5.
Pink draw cards- if your opponent doesnt know what you're holding, they cant play around it. This is more powerful than you may think- As I have climbed the ladder, players have been more and more hyperalert to what I am drafting and I am often far more heavily counterdrafted than other players in the game. This is both good and bad for me- some players give up their wincons just to steal something they think I need, shooting themselves in the foot, but I also need to be far more flexible about what I'm doing. Because of this, I am willing to pay a premium for hidden information.
Closing tips
Point bombs arent enough to win- a huge poseidon or eternity is less than half of what you need. If you are playing around these cards, think about how you will get the rest of your points
if counterdrafting will hurt your opponent more than your best pick will help you, its probably the right play. Opportunity cost is a large factor in this game so try to weight all your choices not just by how they affect you but also how they affect your opponent and what everyone's next best play is.
Let me know your thoughts and I look forward to seeing you on the ladder =)
) and learned a lot from them- General strategy tips
First, the goal of the game is to get 60 points by turn 7 in a fast game, turn 8 in other games- I reach 9 turns in 5% or less of games I play. There are a few ways to do this, but the most consistent way is to find a money generator early, a 2-3 card combo that can generate most of your points, and a point bomb or 2 for the late game. Probably my most important but most controversial take is that an end-of-turn points build (Freyja, Genie exalted, etc) is just too slow, too easy to disrupt, and too inconsistent. I think we've all had a game where we lost hard to this build, but in general I find it to take far too long to set up and leaves you at the mercy of the draw in the late game. Too many things have to go right to win with it, but players try it in a huge majority of games I play. If you have premium, you can see this in the statistics for my accounts: the average winner of a game gains 20 points from sand timer effects- I gain less than 11 on average. There are a couple of more nuanced reasons why this build suffer as well- mathematically, its quite balanced with other builds but it lacks flexibility. Your plan becomes incredibly transparent early on, every player in the game knows exactly what you are doing, how many points you stand to gain per turn, what cards are good for you, and what they can steal. When you lose with this build, it can often be because a crucial card is counterdrafted from you. It is easy to feel like you just got unlucky here, but in reality you put yourself in a position to get unlucky. Good players know what you are holding, what you need to win, and they won't let you get it.
Aside from overvaluing sand-timer effects, the biggest mistake I see players making is playing cards when they dont need to. For example, say you have 4 money and are holding triton (the card that gives you 2 3-stones whenever you draft a water card). It is the end of your turn, you have no other cards in hand or left to draft. You can either play triton, or pass. I see sooooo many players playing triton in this situation, but in reality they gain nothing from doing so. You can just wait until next turn to play triton, and there may be a better use for your 4 stones that shows up first. this may seem obvious to some, but this tip will improve your game the most if you have not implemented it. Always try to avoid playing cards until either 1) they will provide a benefit this turn or 2) you will be wasting stones by not playing them. And even then, sometimes it is better to waste stones than to play a card you're not sure will benefit you.
General game structure- in general, my games have played out pretty consistently of late. My first 3 or 4 turns, I will usually not sell anything unless I find a good money generator. I am looking for cards that are part of a bigger combo-This depends on what is showing up, but early on I am looking for Boreas, mimic, asmodeus, balog, hae-tae, tidal, phoenix, pink draw cards, aeris, and scorch. All of these cards are good with a variety of different cards that can show up, but will outright win the game with the right additional puzzle piece or 2 (I will list these in the next section). Often, this leads to me not knowing what my plan is after a few turns- I will have my bets hedged and then when the right support card shows up later I will strike- and since my hand is so full and so varied, my opponents will often not know what they need to counterdraft. This makes it seem like I get lucky more than other players, and I probably do, but I try to set myself up so I am more likely to get lucky. Remember that in a 3 player game a little more than half of the cards will show up by turn 8- you can't plan on something specific every game, you have to be flexible.
Powerful combos that you need to know about
below are some combos that if assembled will win you the game, and thus should be heavily prioritized (and also denied to your opponent)
Hae-tae + either yuki onna (both wins you the game, and/or also getting hestia wins you the game). It is really easy to generate 3-stones- there are 5+ cards that can do it, so Hae-tae is VERY powerful and the advantage of yuki onna is it lets you generate 24 points all at once (36 with hestia) which is absurdly strong.
Hae-tae + the card that turns a 6-stone into 3 3-stones (I forget her name) + anything that lets you spend money for points like mud slime or point bombs. This 2 card combo is the biggest money generator in the game. Even if you only trigger it every other turn (and convert a 3 to 6 each other time) it still takes you from 3$ worth of purchasing power to $18 of purchasing power when it triggers, which is hard to keep up with. If you have been drafting cards that give solid points like girin, eternity (really any dragon) you should be able to outscore your opponents faster.
boreas + hippogriff + either agni or pegasus. Having just the first 2 and then some pink cards makes this a win- getting agni or pegasus making boreas only cost a single 1-stone makes him able to often win the game the turn the combo comes out, ive seen it as early as turn 5/6 with salamander giving 4 1-stones every round. phoenix is very good here as well.
Tidal + aeris or scorch. If you can generate some money and draft just 2 other dragons, which is often extremely doable/consistent, the first tidal will be 15 points and the scorch will be 20. Between the points you get from the other dragons and a few incremental points, this combo is easy to assemble, cheap for how many points it generates, and can win by turn 7. If you can manage to get willow and dragon egg you can often get 3 or even 4 dragons down before the tidal comes down and you will win by a large margin.
Mimic + the green giant (+the golems make this a surefire win). As long as you have mimic, you can throw green cards in the discard all game, fish them out, and slam down a 28 point green giant turn 7, remove him, and play him again turn 8. Having the golems, basilisk, or medusa make this very consistent. This strategy is very hard to counterdraft because just picking green cards isnt enough, you have to put them in hand since discarding them doesnt work. The fun bonus card here is the green hate-dragon, gust, because you can use it to discard an opponents green card and then steal it.
Asmodeus + (forest spirit or ifrit or succubus or ignis). Everyone knows to look out for succubus, but forest spirit is an equally scary pickup. It is easy to pick some big cost cards up early and then hold them to either play for points or discard for almost as many points with forest spirit. This flexibility makes the combo pretty strong.
Golems + yuki onna (+hestia is the fastest way to win that I know of). Instantly turning 1 stones into 6 stones and then getting points from them without even spending them yet is very powerful, and yuki seals the deal. If you can pick up an extra 6-stone in between playing the golems, Hestia makes the second golem give 30 points and yuki gives you the next 30, winning the game as early as turn 5.
Pink draw cards- if your opponent doesnt know what you're holding, they cant play around it. This is more powerful than you may think- As I have climbed the ladder, players have been more and more hyperalert to what I am drafting and I am often far more heavily counterdrafted than other players in the game. This is both good and bad for me- some players give up their wincons just to steal something they think I need, shooting themselves in the foot, but I also need to be far more flexible about what I'm doing. Because of this, I am willing to pay a premium for hidden information.
Closing tips
Point bombs arent enough to win- a huge poseidon or eternity is less than half of what you need. If you are playing around these cards, think about how you will get the rest of your points
if counterdrafting will hurt your opponent more than your best pick will help you, its probably the right play. Opportunity cost is a large factor in this game so try to weight all your choices not just by how they affect you but also how they affect your opponent and what everyone's next best play is.
Let me know your thoughts and I look forward to seeing you on the ladder =)
)