Playing the game

• - Calculate what will happen
  • -- Clash of Decks is very puzzley. Take time to carefully exactly calculate what will happen when you play your cards.
  • -- Know the cards and the symbols. Games are lost by forgetting about the effect of certain powers (symbols), such as casting an incantation on an indestructible creature.

• - Destroy the opponents Fort, not just their creatures.
  • -- Do not be afraid to take damage to your Fort/Outpost especially if you can in exchange establish a winning board position.
  • -- See if you can ignore a lane in which the opponent has creatures that do little damage. You should in fact try to trap some low damage dealing creatures in a lane.

• - Note that by playing cards to the left of you Fort, since they return to the right, your Fort regenerates.
  • -- By that same mechanic it is sometimes good not to play a card from the right of your Fort.

• - Maybe if you cannot win you can force a loop.

• - Once both players play at a level where not many mistakes are made the draw and the initial sequence of the hand largely determine the game!

• - Expert level
  • -- Know what 8 cards your opponent has drafted
  • -- Keep track of what their current hand sequence is
  • -- Calculate what they can play on their next turn, know their mana and cards

The draw, when playing with initiation pack

It is probably most fun to discover for yourself what to draw. But critical cards to know are: Vortex, Martyr and Boom! These are almost always the best choice and very dangerous. Also know that Parasite is especially deadly when combined with Vortex. And Aberration is not that strong if you know it is coming.

Also what to draw does depend on what has already been drawn. There are cards that work well with and against certain draws.

In the initiation pack, without expansions, there are 32 cards (excluding two bridges and two Forts) of which 16 will show up in a draw. List of cards:

Aberration Abomination Alpha Assassin Baron Brigand Brute Carapace Carnivore Disciple Gnome Grrr Lieutenant Machine Martyr Microctopus Mutant Ogre Parasite Partisan Reptile Revenant Scribe Shaman Troll Vortex Zombie

Annihilation Boom! Combustion Cyclone Meteorite