THE BOTTOM LINE
By Doug Bissonnette
So, you've put together a real winner of a WYVERN(tm) deck, eh? You're up to a 90% win rate, and you usually only lose one or two positions when you win. You think you're ready for a tournament so you enter a four rounder and proceed to devastate your opponents one after another. Most impressive. After winning the fourth round you sit back and smile confidently, knowing that you were truly the master of the your opponents.
Then the final results come in. You weren't first. You weren't even second. You were third, and the person that you beat in the first round was the ultimate winner. How could this be?!? You trounced him and still had three positions left!
Gold. That one word embodies the sole reason you lost. Sure you ripped everyone apart, but at what expense? Remember WYVERN(tm) games aren't as simple as who wins and who loses. If the final score of that game was 28 to 11, then you may have been the victor, but you didn't necessarily win.
Here's what really happened in the tournament:
You beat Jack first, making 28 points. Then you beat your next three opponents 31-2, 33-6 and 30-5. You total for the tournament: 122.
Tom, who also won every one of his matches, finished with a total score of 132.
Jack, who lost his first round game to you with a score of 28-11, went on to win the next three games. The score were 42-3, 41-6 and 40-8. He had a total score for the tournament of 134, barely beating Tom, but solidly beating you. Even when he lost to you first.
Tough break, eh? There's no way you could have done any better than you did. After all you did win all four games. Jack and Tom just got lucky. Next time their luck will run out and you will be assured victory!
Wrong.
Jack won because he understood the importance of VALUE. In that first game against you he realized after he lost his third position that he was no match for your deck. He eased off and played a few SACRIFICES (a card which forces the winner to pay two gold pieces to the loser). Then he snatched some gold from your Terrain with GRENDEL(a Scout that steals gold), and tricked you into hitting a few of his Terrains. By the time you had taken his last position he was back to 22 gold. He lost the game, but didn't go away empty handed. You still had three positions left, but were out of gold. When you work that out in terms of points it isn't surprising that you didn't win he tournament. It's pretty hard to get a lower score than that!
Value. That's really the bottom line. If you spend seven gold to bring in JORMUNGANDR (a strength seven dragon), and your opponent spends three gold and uses JASON (a Dragon Slayer that slays any dragon), then you didn't get much value for your money. On the other hand, if they pump eight gold into their MAGIC SHIELD (a Treasure that allows you to raise strength for defense by spending gold) to boost up that Scout that JORMUNGANDR attacked, well - at least they wasted a little more cash than you did.
This leads us to a few "rules" of value. Some of them are obvious, some of them are subtle, and some of them are debatable, but nevertheless, here they are:
1. NEVER SPEND A DOLLAR WHEN A DIME WILL DO.
Don't spend seven for JORMUNGANDR if you can win the battle with a four cost WYVERN (a strength four dragon), and don't waste a JASON on a Scout if you have a weaker, less expensive Dragon Slayer.
2. IF YOU MAKE A DRAGON STRONG, HE WILL FIGHT WELL FOR THE BATTLE, BUT IF YOU HIRE A STRONG DRAGON HE WILL BE STRONG FOR LIFE.
Every time you have to pay to increase a dragon's strength by using a strength modifier you spend money that is lost as soon as the battle is over. Maybe that money could have been used for a bigger dragon so that you needed less strength modifiers to win.
3. BEWARE THE POINT OF DIMINISHING RETURNS.
A position on the playing field is only worth one point in the final analysis. To finish the game with all six positions intact, but with no gold is much worse than having only one position left, and fifteen gold. Choose your fights wisely. If a position would cost too much gold to hold, then consider letting it go. It's not the battle that really counts, its the war.
4. KEEP AHEAD OF THE JONSES.
If you do have to spend a lot of gold for something, make sure you force your opponent to do it also. If you have no choice but to lose that CELESTIAL DRAGON (strength five) to his Scout, try to deplete his gold at the same time. SACRIFICE is the best way to do this, but ARMOR (which cancels a strength modifier Battle Action) is another good way to reduce the value of his gold. If he spends three gold on a card and you make it useless for free, then he's going to be pinching pennies before it's all over.
5. YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
It isn't a safe strategy to invest too heavily in any one dragon. Your dragons will die. It's almost unavoidable. So remember when choosing your forces that some big dragons may be too expensive to provide value. If an expensive dragon dies quickly you will not get your gold's worth. This may seem to be contradictory to rule 2, but it isn't. Just remember you nee to do more with an expensive dragon than you would with a cheap dragon in order to get the most out of him.
6. YOU CAN'T STAY IN BUSINESS IF YOU ONLY LOSE MONEY.
It isn't always enough to control spending. If you aren't gaining any gold from things like Terrain, or the ORIENTAL PRINCESS (a Treasure which gives the winner of every battle two gold pieces), or any of the other cards that can help jeep your coffers full, then you're fighting a losing battle. Any gold you make is more you can spend and still stay even.
7. SOMETIMES A DRAGON IS JUST IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME.
It is not always up to you which dragons you will have to pay for. If you are unlucky enough to get your three biggest dragons in your initial setup, then you have to be very careful. There's no faster way to lose gold than to be forced to pay for dragons you would rather not have. One DRACO (a strength three dragon that keeps attacking until he loses or hits Terrain) and a couple of NIGHTS (cancels any battle) can force you to pay for all of your dragons right at the start, whether you want them or not. Keep this in mind when making a deck and when deciding if you should trade out.
8. YOU CAN'T WIN BY LOSING, BUT YOU CAN LOSE BY WINNING.
Always remember that the 25-point bonus goes to the winner. If it takes all of your gold to win, then you should do it. But if there's a good chance that you aren't going to win no matter how much you spend, don't hesitate to try and cut your losses. This is probably the hardest decision you will have to make in WYVERN(tm), but it's the most important in terms of your overall average.
9. HE WHO WINS WITH THE MOST GOLD WINS IT ALL.
If you win a game with three positions and ten gold left, and Jack wins a game with three positions and eleven gold left, you lose. It's simple and obvious, but it's the underlying concept to a winning deck. A losing deck will never win a tournament, but a low-value winning deck is just as sure to lose.
None of these rules give specifics, and they are not intended to be applicable to all situations, but by and large you will find that the concepts they define are vital to a winning strategy. Here are a few example of good value play:
Dragons such as NAGA and AJATAR, who attack from face down at at higher strength that they cost, and the CAULDRON, which allows you to turn a dragon face down on your turn.
Playing multiple SACRIFICES on your opponent in a single battle, especially if you are ahead on positions and your opponent is low on gold.
Combining the ORIENTAL PRINCESS with either the SILVER CHALICE or the MAGIC SHIELD in order to balance the expense of using these rather costly treasures.
Using TURN THE TABLES to force your opponent to attack Terrain when you believe he is out of Scouts, thus gaining you gold and weakening his dragons.
There are many ways to take advantage of the cards that give you gold, or to help prevent the loss of gold. Experiment with different combinations and keep track of how many gold pieces you end up with. If a deck wins a lot, but is too expensive, try to replace some of the costly cards with cheaper ones, or add some new ways to increase your gold. After all, gold can't buy happiness, but it can certainly help win a WYVERN(tm) tournament! And that's the bottom line.