Getting Started

I'm not going to spend time dwelling on anything covered in the tutorial so I'm going to start with the most common complaint from newer players which is, "This game is pay to win"

This is a myth.

I myself have 600+ hours logged in this game (100 of which are probably idle hours where I wasn't doing anything) and my collection is over 3,000 cards and I've only spent $10 on the game which amounts to roughly 150 cards. To get some of the nicer combos you will probably want to trade for some of the more popular rares as you can, but as of this guide the best decks rely far more on common/uncommon cards than they do the rares, epics and legendaries. In fact most of the top decks right now revolve around a handful of proven common and uncommon cards. Yes, the epics and legendaries can definitely help but they aren't absolutely necessary unless you are looking to break into the absolute top of the ranked scene, even then these cards won't guarantee a win or a loss as even the best card can be played around.

1.) Basic Strategies

- Play according to how you want to play
The more advanced aspects of your strategy are going to revolve around the deck you build. Many decks are competitively rated into tiers but this is slightly misleading. If you are looking to be competitive, the first thing you need to do is determine what kind of player you are. Do you like instilling doubt into your opponent? Verore or genesis might be a better fit for you. Do you like to play aggressively and beat your opponent before they can react? Then maybe Flame Dawn is more your style. A deck can only be played to its best if the person playing it understands what it is they are trying to accomplish and how to accomplish it. For example, you wouldn't play a rush deck if you can't optimize damage output and you probably don't want to play genesis if you think building one uber-robot will win you the game. Each faction has its own nuance and understanding these nuances will help you to better predict your opponent and pull tricks your opponent isn't expecting.

- Ferocity can stumble!

Always try to think outside the intentions of a card. Often times, abilities and creatures will have small little tricks that allow them to manipulate events in a way they aren't necessarily intended. The easiest example of this is ferocity, a card which gives a creature +2/+0 and moves them straight to the assault zone. The most common use for this is to play a creature and then bypass the typical exhaustion a card has when it comes into play. However, such a card can also be used to move ENEMY creatures allowing you to move a pesky defender out of the way if you are going for a big assault. Just remember that often these trick plays can have negative consequences for you. Each turn, rather than trying simply to play cards create a goal each turn and consider what you can do to make it happen and what your opponent can do to prevent you from achieving your goal. Most players in IW aren't stupid and you have to prepare for both optimal and suboptimal solutions, because sometimes stupid works.

Poke, poke poke

Its important to remember that a card can't both attack and defend at the same time. If there is a big scary creature chances are your opponent knows this and will oftentimes believe this is enough to prevent you from attacking. Except in the case of unstoppable or decimator, a 2/2 support drone can block a 999/999 logrithmatron. Your opponent doesn't want to lose and if you can deal 100 damage, your opponent may decide they want to block. This allows you to send your fliers in without fear for a mere 12 damage without running the risk of facewalling the rest of your creatures into death. That 12 damage may not seem like much, but in close games oftentimes a win or loss can be attributed to early aggression or caution.

2.) Card Management

Know when to hold em'

Too many times I've seen people throw creatures onto the board only to have them die the following turn without really accomplishing anything. This is something you want to avoid. If playing a card looks like it won't actually DO anything, DON'T PLAY THE CARD. There is no reason to run your 1/5 dropbear into a 5/4 footman if you can buff him next turn and kill 3 creatures with a 9/13 instead. Also, if your opponent its obviously running a creature kill deck, don't put creatures down unless you know how to keep them alive. I've done this and most players have done this, but don't play a bunch of one cost x/4 creatures when there is an Sage of Yuanshi on the field unless it either doesn't matter or your baiting the self-damage for a deliberate reason. Remember, your opponent doesn't know whats in your hand and a full hand of things you *might* be able to do can be just as or even MORE threatening than a big bad 30/30 flier that can be killed by a measely 2 or 3 cost kill/quasi-kill card.

Know when to all-in

This WILL at some point bite you in the ass. In the world of TCG's this is inevitable. However, sometimes when you know your in a bad situation the best thing you can do is to play everything in an attempt to pull out a miracle. All-in's can be difficult to predict, and in some cases hard to stop. Always remember, it is far better to lose knowing you did everything you could than to lose with a Mass Death in your hand. And sometimes your opponent simply won't expect everything being thrown at them all at once and you can pull miraculous comebacks out of thin air.

Big hand = more scary than small hand

I can't emphasize enough how much more terrifying a large hand is over a small hand. It is not uncommon for people to not make optimal plays because they are more afraid of what you might be able to do than what you can do. If you have 5 resources and nothing relevant to play, just draw a card. It gives you a bigger hypothetical stick, and in IW we're all about hypotheticals.

3.) Resource Advantage

So your opponent just death ray'd your one cost support drone? Oh okay no big deal. Wait, you mean your support drone you upgraded and gave a jetpack to? And buffed with Tinkerer? Yikes. Doing the math, you spent (1+2+3+1) for 7 resources. And your opponent just killed it for 3. Now your opponent is effectively 4 resource ahead of you. Remember, ultimately when you do something that somehow harms the opponent, you want it to cost them more than it cost you to do said thing. This is why cards that can do things for free are considered so good. Something as simple as making a 4/4 zombie with aleta automatically pays for itself if it kills a 1 cost creature. This is also why cards like Patient Zero and Aleta Spellcaster are so bad - you spend more to kill a creature than it cost your opponent to play it. Unless that creature is a 4 cost or higher your losing resource advantage using your patient zero - even moreso if you miss.