Board Game Arena

I've been surprised lately by the number of opponents in 2p games who hate draft energy at the start of the game rather than going for something they can use. In particular, if I start by archiving a gizmo of color X, and there are no other gizmos of color X on the board, does it really make sense for my opponent to grab an energy of color X that they can't use? It seems like it should slow them down enough to not be worth the effect it will have on me. I'm hovering around 400 ELO, plus or minus a little, so I'm not terrible but I'm not a top player either. I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts.

In any 2 player Euro game, blocking your opponent is just as good as making progress yourself.

For example, suppose you file a level 2 black build-pick, and there's 1 black marble in the tray. If your opponent takes the black marble, not it's going to be harder for you to build your gizmo.

It depends on what's in the tray. If you see the "next" marble is black, picking a black to block your opponent is pointless. If there are two black marbles in the tray, picking to block is pointless.