Hello all,

Bethesda’s (SzotyMAG’s) post yesterday about the ‘5 mistakes that beginners make’ actually came very soon after I had had a similar idea to write a little post about some of the common mistakes I am seeing a lot of recently and so this seems like the perfect time to get this out. I will expand on some of the points mentioned in Bethesda’s post and also touch on points mentioned by players such as CVH and JL in their YouTube videos on common mistakes players make, as well as adding a touch of my own flavour to the mix.

Mistakes are made all of the time, but it is only this month that for the first time I have broken into the top 100 Legends and managed to hover there or there about, and I guess I had an expectation that these mistakes would be less common here. Turns out I was wrong.

Before I continue, I just want to point out that I by no means classify myself as a professional player, or even one that is particularly that good, but hopefully by opening the discussion on the following points it may help some players improve, if only very slightly. It also goes without saying that there are exceptions to all of these rules but I am talking in the more general sense as opposed to referring to specific situations when they may actually be the right course of action.

1 Not making plays in the correct order

There is a ton of rationale for making plays in any said order, however it is fairly common for plays to made in an obviously incorrect way. For example, when attacking face, I have seen multiple times players attacking with say a non-pilfer creature first before using a pilfer creature (with ‘draw a card’ for example), triggering a rune break and then having their pilfer creature stopped in its tracks.

Another example of this would be playing a number of creatures onto the board and then following this up with say, a Bruma Profiteer and thus not benefitting from the extra life that would had been gained by playing the Bruma first.

A final example of this would be playing a card such as Shadow Shift at the end of your turn when you have already used your Magicka. The resulting card drawn may have been a better choice to play had you played Shadow Shift first. Analyse your choices before making a play as you may be missing something incredibly obvious.

2 Not playing in accordance to your deck type

There is a multitude of situations where going aggro with a control deck or conservative with an aggro deck is warranted but again, this is referring to the time this would not make sense. It is not uncommon to see a player using a control or even mid-range deck occasionally emptying their hand too early leaving them unable to deal with threats later on, or an aggro deck player being too conservative and being unable to catch up in the later game.

There is no point playing a guard into an empty lane if you have no plans to build behind it, or if you do not wish to control that lane. Save the guard for when it is needed. Play to your deck types strengths to gain maximum % points towards tilting a game in your favour.

3 Creature removal prioritisation

This may seem an obvious one from the title but I just wanted to expand on this a bit. There are loads of cards in ES:L that provide ongoing value the longer they are on the board, an example of which could be something like an Orc Clan Captain or a Goblin Skulk. Yet time and time again I see players removing (when it is not correct to do so) creatures that they perceive to be of higher value than these cards because of the fact that they have lethal or a high attack value for example.

Cards such as these can very quickly lead to a snowballing of a game if they are not dealt with sooner. Taking some heavy damage to the face may well be worth it in the longer term if you can prevent your opponent drawing multiple 0 cost cards that will come back and bite you. I recall a video from CVH a few weeks back where his opponent used a Crushing Blow to remove an almost insignificant creature over a Haafingar Marauder, leading CVH’s creatures to subsequently trigger the effect of this card and from then on there was no come back.

4 Being too hasty

This is similar to point number 1 and 3 in the Bethesda article, but I extend on this further. I cannot mention the amount of times that an opponent has had lethal on the board, and thinking the game is all but lost only for them to fudge it up in some respect, either from trading with my creatures when not required or by making hasty face attacks and popping more runes than necessary.

If I have 11 life and 2 runes left, and you have a 3 attack creature and an 8 attack creature, DO NOT attack with the 8 creature first. You will be doubling my chances of me triggering a prophecy and giving myself a lifeline back into the game. See point number 1, take your time, assess the situation and make a trade that increases the % points in your favour. % points make all the difference!

5 Getting cocky

This may be more one of my pet peeves than some sage words of advice but I think it is worth mentioning. It has happened before where my opponent is more concerned with toying with me when they could easily win than actually winning the game itself, whether this is just filling their lanes to make the board look pretty, removing my creatures whenever I play one, or not trading with creatures or face when it is in their interest to do so.

Not only is this BM but you are opening the door for a rather embarrassing loss if say, I draw a couple of lightning bolts, Cliff Racers, Tazkad etc. Take the win whilst you have it, move on to the next game and carry on having fun.

I hope some of these points were useful to some of the beginner/intermediate players out there. At the end of the day mistakes are made all the time, even amongst players who would consider themselves pros, but they should be seen as a way to analyse your game and improve for the next one. Over time they will get less and less frequent and you will go a long way towards increasing your win % and climbing up that ladder or gaining you a few extra wins in Arena.

Adios Amigos!