Managing Card Costs

Do card costs matter? Absolutely! It doesn't take long to notice that most of your fortitude loss comes from your own cards. For that reason, outlasting your opponent can be an effective tactic to winning your epic debates.

Attrition Decks vs Costs

Imagine a scenario where your opponent attacks with an 8/5 argument, and you block with a 6/3. At round end, you will both loose 5 fortitude- so you're actually evenly matched, even though your opponent's argument is stronger. However, what if you are able to increase your strength by crowdwork or from abilities, decrease your costs, or increase your opponents costs? Now your arguments will be much less erosive than your opponent's. If you can pair that with some defensive moves, you'll likely scrape out a lead over several rounds.

Attrition strategies like this will prey upon high cost arguments and attempt to punish players for going "all in" or for focusing solely on only the most powerful arguments. The most strategic players will minimize unnecessary expenses and choose their glory moments carefully.

Power Decks vs Cost

Where does that leave power decks and all-in decks? Well if the conditions are right, one can simply overpower attrition decks quickly. In cases where its better to build strength over time, you can play as conservatively as possible until conditions are right. Imagine a scenario where you are playing a power Washington deck vs an attrition Wilson deck. Rather than going all-in, consign yourself to only making 1-3 threads on your 1st turns, while trying to shift the crowd with RD. As second player against an all-in, sometimes dogpiling single threads with RD as a counter-offensive is better than being baited into blocking a bunch of weak threads and bleeding costs. When the crowd is high enough, you can simply overpower your opponent. In any case, practice the math so that you don't lose to your own miscalculation.

Upgraded Tactics vs Cost

Upgraded tactics are superior, of course, since they give more strength for the same cost. For example, if your strategy relies on 6/3 arguments, you could work on upgrading a bunch of 5/2's into 6/2's, then swap them in. This will lower your costs while maintaining the same level of offensive pressure.

Fortitude Gain vs Costs

Adding fortitude-gain to your deck can mitigate some of your higher costs. In the beta release, only Wilson and Teddy have built-in fortitude gain. As far as tactics, Personal Anecdote is currently the only RD, while the next release is looking forward to Gaslighting and Socratic Questioning.