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[Zg1s]

Hello folks,

If anyone here below 400 elo is interested in getting some live pointers or tips then I think I can be of help.
Just let me know either through this thread or message me and we'll take it from there.

[spaidsjustin]

Kindly share your general strategies, thank you

[Zg1s]

Kindly share your general strategies, thank you

I don't think I have much more to add than the general tips harambe listed in another thread.
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39786

That said, if I had to give 1 simple pointer to focus on to someone learning the game, it'd just be that the game often ends round 8 and to cross the 60 pt finish line, your card slots are worth 7.5 pts on average. So 1-2 income is good enough, don't get so lost in engine building you end up dedicating like 4-5 slots to stuff that doesn't score points.

For anyone past initial learning, it helps to get pointers from game to game on how to best use cards, what maneuvers you can do with them and what works well with each other, that kinda stuff. I'm sure there's like a top 10 for good cards, but getting better often involves learning how to make use of as many cards as you can. That's a lot easier to do when you talk to people and ask them to review or spectate your games. I personally find the latter more engaging.

[BananaHarambe]

Kindly share your general strategies, thank you

I have a whole strategy website here that is written by top players, just a heads up. I spent 100+ hours of my life setting this site up for people like you that are interesting in learning the game.

https://valeofeternity.wiki.gg/

General strategies:
As said already you should be trying to reach or exceed 60 points on Round 8 as often as possible, which meaning evaluating cards and planning your game around that goal. With experience you can get a vibe on whether or not a game will go to Round 8 or 9 by about Round 5.

This game is very tactical, meaning that you will need to evaluate cards based on the current situation for both/all players. You cannot decide on your overall strategy early and try to force it, doesn't work like that unless you get super lucky. Your strategy will develop over the course of the game based on what cards are available and you need to "stay open" with your picks and actions until enough pieces come available to make a viable game plan (able to finish Round 8). Sometimes all you can do for the first 4 rounds is tame 6-8 cards and hold them (no summon) until you get to first pick one key card on Round 5 and then finally start developing.

Since you cannot really control what cards are going to show up my general advice is to learn how to use every single card effectively so the deck has no "bad cards" and you can correctly identify which cards to pick to make the best available build with what's available. Based on your specific stats, no game reviews maybe try to play a bit more Earth and Water. Earth is harder to play on average than Fire, Water, and Wind but is worth the effort to learn it. Some analysis on Earth is shown here https://valeofeternity.wiki.gg/wiki/Expert_Cup_Stats.

[spaidsjustin]

Questions

1. What is your most favorite family?
2. What are your best recommended cards?
3. How to handle economy if you got no cards that provide tokens?

[BananaHarambe]

Questions

1. What is your most favorite family?
2. What are your best recommended cards?
3. How to handle economy if you got no cards that provide tokens?

Answers:

1) Whichever family has the best cards available the families are quite balanced against each other on a high level so I will look for the most reliable early/mid game cards for each family as “signpost” cards and use them to guide me more towards a certain family/strategy. As an example, I know from experience that picking and taming Balog early is an excellent enabler for fire strategies that pairs with many other cards and would lean me towards Fire without necessarily needing many Fire cards to succeed. To compare, something like Phoenix or Agni are much more narrow and only fit in specific builds with specific stones so I would not consider them signpost cards, they are more of enhancement cards or "third piece" style card.

2) I think it is clear that the best early picks are the top stone generators: Undine Queen, Undine, Basilisk, and Snail Maiden. For scoring cards I consider Valkyrie, Freyja, and Eternity to be the strongest overall scoring cards and excellent early picks. These cards stand out for how consistently they can score for their cost and the how many other cards can fit with them. All cards in Vale can be good in the right circumstances. I would say the deck contains about 68/70 “good” cards.

3) Managing your stone economy without an early generators is very skill testing and it is hard to provide generalized tips since your approach should change based on the cards you are holding. Most players fall apart without a stone generator a high % of the time so learning to play without would make you an excellent player. DM me to link an example game.

Generalized idea would be that you are spending your picks on strong scoring cards that you can summon early if sand timers (Nessie, Burning Skull) or stockpile for later (Eternity, Rudra). Pick which cards you sell carefully if you don’t have anything valuable to summon early, don’t sell too much. If it looks like you will be summoning your cards late in the game, instants will be more efficient at scoring than sand timers.

If short on stones you need to be very resourceful with the stones/cards you have. This could mean holding onto Hydra for later in the game rather than cashing it in early or patiently waiting with Stone Golem in hand until the perfect opportunity to set it up with Hestia and/or Young Forest Spirit for a stone boost. Holding onto cards has the added benefit of setting up a mid game Medusa or Odin to catch up on stones and makes good use out of the stockpiled cards (even if weak). Setting yourself up so that ANY stone generator can be successful added to your build instead of only a few specific ones will increase you odds of getting one later.

Sometimes you can even get creative with it. It is actually possible to win a game without making a single stone if you pair Asmodeus and Young Forest Spirit to summon cards for free (though obviously not optimal). If you are short on stones have expensive high scoring cards it would be smart to prioritize Young Forest Spirit anyways, but once you know the cards and strategies well you might even hold Asmodeus first just for the opportunity /threat of Young Forest Sprit later. Asmodeus could also be used to make a powerful Succubus combo which is very light on stones so the cards are flexible.

You can apply a "points first, stones later" approach if that is what the cards are suggesting. Like I said above, just accumulate scoring cards (points) in your hand until you have enough to pass 60 points, then pivot into summoning. While doing this you might also be cutting your opponent off scoring cards. You opponent might have a difficult choice of taking a stone generator to cut you off stones versus taking scoring cards. In general, I find it much easier on average to cut an opponent off "points" when they are high in stones and short on scoring than it is to do the opposite, cutting an opponent off stones so they can't summon. It can quickly backfire from only 1 strong pick from them or a single unlucky round of cards, whereas being short on points usually requires multiple cards and often specific cards that score high for their space. You can use your late game picks to generate 6-12 stone value per round to act as stone generators rather than taming new cards in the late game.

[spaidsjustin]

thank you very much for the reply, its very detailed, but id like to follow up a question when do your start(round)
to build your strategy,?, does selling cards at the early part of the game good?,

[BananaHarambe]

thank you very much for the reply, its very detailed, but id like to follow up a question when do your start(round)
to build your strategy,?, does selling cards at the early part of the game good?,

It varies quite a bit from game to game depending on what cards you get and how connected they are. Regardless, each game with begin with players being "completely open", looking to pick the best available cards. Players should gradually slide from "open" to focused as the early/mid game progresses. You could visualize this as a radar chart where you start empty in the middle and the chart expands into multiple directions as you accumulate cards. Some cards will slightly "nudge" you a specific direction with soft synergy, others will "lean" you in a specific direction, and a powerful card at the right moment will be strong enough to "push" you towards a specific build.

At lower player counts there are less cards which means players will have to rely on fitting multiple different scoring strategies together compared to high player counts where hyper focused builds are the norm. In our friendly 4p game there was a distinct family/Balog+Freyja/heavy water build that 3 of us were able to collect cards for early and continue to grow so it was pretty straightforward. In 2p it is much more difficult and requires patience and the skills to be flexible. In return, the scoring standards for 2p is lower so hitting mid 60s Round 8 is quite solid, but would be insufficient in a 3p or 4p game against strong opponents.

Some cards like Undine Queen are going to be so universal that they boost every strategy while giving a slight nudge to water, but others are more narrow, but with high potential like Sand Giant or Boreas (threats!). https://valeofeternity.wiki.gg/wiki/All_Cards

In general I would say that selling most cards in the early game is not good because holding more cards in your hand early allows for more opportunities to builds combos or synergy. Besides high selling, highly situational cards like Gust or Harpy, most cards should be held onto early unless you have an immediate use for the stones. If you are selling to summon a good stone generator (Undine Queen) or scoring engine (Nessie, Freyja) then you will be incentivized to sell earlier so you can get more value from them in your area. If you have nothing beneficial to summon then you should lean more towards taming cards, selling only the very worst cards.

Even more, if you are selling Fire or Earth cards they will fill up your stone space very quickly so you want to minimize stone loss when doing so. Getting more familiar with the stone management and card costs in this game will help you make better decisions. If you are holding (3)(1) stones from an early Harpy sell and are considering tame/sell on something like Surtr without an immediate use for the stones (like described above) you should really lean towards holding it. (3)(1) is already 4 stone value which is a great benchmark for early game stone storage since it can already summon a wide range of useful early game cards, quite a bit more than only 3 value. Selling Surtr here would only provide (1)(1) in stone value, a very weak sell.

Thinking further on it, what does a player gain from going from (3)(1) to (3)(1)(1)(1) in stone value? The ability to summon cards that cost 5 or 6 and then ability to summon multiple cards with a combined cost up to 6. When I look through the card list I see the biggest spikes in early summon card quality at 3, 4, and 7. There are not many solid, proactive cards that cost 5 or 6 to incentivize me to sell. Valkyrie, Genie Exalted, and Odin stand out, but these are more mid-game cards based on their effects. At 7 cost there are Freyja and Griffon which are the most expensive and heaviest sand timer effects in the game and they cost 7 for a reason (balance), which is why I consider 7 to be a power spike.

If you oversell in the early game:
1) you are more relying on luck to find cards that want to be summoned immediately.
2) you are much less likely to create meaningful synergy in the early/mid game if you have less cards in hand.
3) cards that care about how many card are in your hand become meaningfully worse (there are at least 4 cards).

Holding cards in the early game and waiting is totally fine. Some cards like Balog are combo cards with enough viable pieces and enough upside to be worth holding. Other cards like Behemoth or Gi-rin are just solid overall scoring cards for late game with low synergy requirements. I would consider accumulating "points in hand" to be meaningfully advancing your game plan, reducing the scoring requirement from your future picks.

[spaidsjustin]

So far what struck me most is by not selling early and prioritizing cards that can dictate end game, gi-rin , eternity, sand giant, rudra, , or cards that can add points per round - at some cases goblin warrior,

In short,

1. End game cards
2. Card that give points
3. Card that give resources
4. Card that deny opponents strategies

Or maybe 2 or 3 is interchangeable

[Zg1s]

So far what struck me most is by not selling early and prioritizing cards that can dictate end game, gi-rin , eternity, sand giant, rudra, , or cards that can add points per round - at some cases goblin warrior,

In short,

1. End game cards
2. Card that give points
3. Card that give resources
4. Card that deny opponents strategies

Or maybe 2 or 3 is interchangeable

I think the priority in terms of individual picks follows
Round 1-3
1. Cards that generate stone (Imp, Undine, Undine Queen, Snail Maiden, Basilisk, Horned Salamander)
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
2. Timer Points you can get out instantly or next round (Like Nessie, ez Round 1 16pts for 2 money)
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
3. End game cards
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
4. Keep/Deny point cards if you aren't playing a stone generator or timer pts like nessie, sell if you are playing those.

The hardest part for me at least, is just keeping track of opponents drafts, not just what they have visible in their area but checking what you know they have in their hand when drafting. That part alone can help not give the last key card to their combo shootin off.