2p/arena tips?

[OfficerKrispy]

Hi All,

I decided to try ranked to challenge myself and I've been getting smoked left and right. I consider myself a pretty good player at higher player counts (~80% wr in 3-4p) but I can't get a handle on 2p, I probably have ~ a 20% wr. It feels like my opponents often have insane draws or synergies (draw into rhino or elephant, side entrance and release of patents in opening hand, 9 rep by end of round 2, every bird synergy sponsors, etc.) and I'm playing from behind most of the game. When I win it's usually by a 5-10 point margin and when I lose its often by 15-40 points. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what.

Some thoughts I've had:

1. 4 Association into cards or 2 rep seems to be the standard opening looking to flip 2 cards by end of round 2. I've tried going partner zoo a bit but the card selection you get from reputation feels too powerful to ignore.

2. I trigger breaks too much. This loses tempo and gives the opponent first selection of cards, association, etc. in the next round.

3. I was undervaluing sponsors for a while because they feel less impactful at higher player counts. In 2p they give you something to do when stalling out the turn and because there's less competition for them you can build some strong synergies.

4. Which cards to flip is murky. It seems like for the first 2 flips animals/build are best for more efficient actions and making sure you get that 2nd card flip round 2. 3rd and 4th flips seem harder to gauge usually I flip either cards or association depending on what I need. If the market or my hand is flooded with sponsors I think an early sponsors flip can be powerful but otherwise I almost never flip it.

5. I've been using my first conservation project cube for a worker but I'm starting to think this isn't actually that good. It generally will net me 1 extra association that round but because rounds are so short it's hard to get a lot of value out of it. A 2 enclosure, income, or snap might be better.

6. Competing over the card market. I feel like I'm still pretty bad at this, I've been trying to get better at saving card from rep range spaces and snaps for important cards that might come up but I often feel like I get the worse end of the deal.

7. I was undervaluing cards for a while too. Because the market churns a lot less than it does in higher player counts you need to prioritize draws more to get better card synergies.

Any thoughts/tips would be welcome!

[KeithHendricks]

Sponsors are good at any player count, as along with Animals and Association, they are the third good scoring opportunity. Whether you’re using them to get tags for projects, appeal, or CP, they can be pretty great. Native lizards is worth 8-9 points on average if you time it right, and guided zoo tours is worth 5-7 points if you collect the tags it requires (1 ticket, 1 CP on playing, 1 CP endgame). A card like science lab is priceless if you play it early enough, due to all the card draws feeding into your strategy, plus the endgame points. I would play more sponsors if you can. Make sure that you play the set collection game for those sponsors that require it for endgame scoring.

As to which cards to upgrade first:

Upgrading association is stronger in two player as only two people are fighting over the discounted donations. If you’re able to upgrade association before the first break by moving up the reputation track, it can give you a good advantage.

Upgrading sponsors early is good in two player when the card row has a lot of good sponsors with heavy endgame scoring. In two player games I notice that the person who dominates sponsors usually wins. Obviously it isn’t the only thing they’re doing, but the 20-40 points of sponsor scoring they achieved (whether through appeal bonuses or endgame scoring or tags chipped in to a big conservation scoring) let them end the game quicker. Basically, if one player is scoring on each animals and association play, and using their sponsors card for cash generation while their opponent is scoring on animals, association, and sponsors plays, the latter has more scoring opportunities, 3 to every 2. This is overly simplistic, as build is also a scoring opportunity (pavilions, filling the map, and integration with some sponsors like Archaeologist and Side Entrance). But it’s a good rule of thumb that the person using their sponsors card more effectively will win.

Upgrading animals early can be great when you have a lot of the right size enclosures built for the animals in the card row. Upgrading animals is always a strong move, as the best thing about the upgraded animal card is not that you get a reputation point on 5 strength, but that you can always play an animal, even on 1, and the second best thing about upgrading animals is that you can play two animals on 3. Not that I always upgrade animals. It just depends. The game is very situational. But when I do upgrade it, I only occasionally wait until it is on 5 strength, preferring to use it on 3, or even on one or two when I have an animal worth a lot of points (like an iconic animal or a large animal).

Upgrading build first is pretty much contingent on which map you’re playing. Hollywood Hills and Ice Cream Parlors really benefit from upgrading build first so that you can trigger their bonus abilities quickly.

Upgrading cards early is good if you have one of the sponsors that let you move quicker on the reputation track, like Archaeologist or Spokesperson.

[Wrathberry]

one thing i noticed is that the "pause" is very powerful. i mean 1 player with a 2x on sponsors could instantly trigger another break. if you fall behind with your action sequencing once its hard to come back, because it feels like your opponent always triggers the break before you did everything you wanted to do before the break.

so really pay attention to that.


i agree with sponsors and donations. donations seem really important in two player mode. ALSo whats really important is, to pay attention to which cards your opponent wants.
in a 4 player game its not that important to steal cards from the row, because there are 2 other players who probably dont care for that.

but in a 1vs1 it can be very important to "hatepick" cards from the cardrow just to prevent your opponent to play them. normaly its not worth it if you have to snap for them and you cant use them by yourself. but if you can take it while you draw several cards, or with a "grab from reputation range" trigger, its often really strong just to steal cards your opponent would need.