Game Concepts #1: Tempo and Momentum

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Bell
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Game Concepts #1: Tempo and Momentum

Post by Bell »

Chaos Fractal's resource system, using Tempo to enable players to recover from quick attacks, or overwhelm opponents, is, by itself, something that must be mastered. Understanding how and when your attacks will push the situation too much into your opponent's favor is a very necessary skill for all duelists. This is especially because of the more complex aspect of a serious duel, momentum. While tempo usually decides the stages of the game, early, middle, or late, momentum is the factor that decides who has the upper hand, theoretically, during each stage, and who has managed to make best use of their tempo and their deck building.

Controlling the momentum of the duel, especially regarding Cost Reduction and the associated issues, is key to effective playing, because the longer a duel stretches out without either player moving significantly, the smaller the chances of things being decided by actual strategy rather than just luck of the draw. The reason is that the more creatures there are in play, the lower the cost of new creatures, for most players, in well built decks, and many cards also offer other advantages. Therefore it is to the player's advantage, quite often, to reduce the number of creatures their opponent has, even if they must do it by trading their own. This is actually sometimes hard to notice, but when a player uses their own creatures to attack, even if both creatures in the battle will be destroyed, the player whose turn it is, has the advantage. They were able to use their cost reduction effect before the attacks, whereas their opponent is now a creature down and has also had their momentum slowed.

Choosing not to 'trade creatures' or engage in combat can lead to highly unpredictable results, as opposing swarms reach levels of power where a single high cost spell or creature suddenly becomes accessible earlier, and it may not be a card one is prepared to handle at that point without a similar swarm, or sometimes one simply does not have a good card in hand to match it with. This also means that to most decks, their creatures of cost 2 are very important, because they not only allow for momentum shifts, but also give them something to attack with to gain pure advantage sometimes. One example is the progression of Avant Garde into Shinanigan, particularly if the player using these is going first. If they can use this combination to defeat a creature weaker than the Avant Garde, they have gained a considerable advantage, yet even if they only match it and therefore lose their attacker, the trade may still often be worth it, just to keep the momentum of the duel down, if they do not have their own advantageous cards to play. Understanding when to 'trade' and when not, therefore, is based on what the player has available to use, making the decisions even more critical.

Yet there are even more complex choices to make, such as following the card Brave Hessus J with Turquoise Temper. While the decision of whether or not to play, itself, is easy, and based on what the opponent has in play, there's also the question of whether or not to attack. To remove the opponent's ability to play a cost reduced card of written cost 4, and then attack, giving them that ability back, might seem counterintuitive to some, but then you have to consider that it does not directly increase their momentum that much unless they were going to play something of cost 2 and then one of written cost 3. Either way, even one strike is an advantage, and the attacking player still has their two creatures. Even this does not mean that the attack would always be correct. Knowing what you can handle happening is just as important, so again cards in hand play a role here. Attacks, in themselves, should not usually be seen as changing the momentum of the game unless you know that the opposing deck is able to reach a heavy defensive position if at high tempo, that you cannot break, because early attacks in particular tend to do nothing more than make the difference between a 5 and a 6 cost creature played by the opponent. If they are prepared with their smaller, 'swarming' cards, then it is a question of how well one can handle those.

A buildup of momentum benefits Earth and Water decks quite a lot, a bit moreso than others, so this also plays a role in terms of deciding whether or not to go for it. The most important thing to realize in terms of your deckbuilding, though, is that cards which help you to deal with low cost creatures are nearly never a waste. In order to gain momentum, nearly all decks will use some of these, so there is much less chance of cards like Turquoise Temper, Wormhole or Falcon Strike being completely unnecessary. Bear this in mind especially because the number of cards available to players early makes it very easy for players to rely on their building momentum, and taking it away may be one of your best options when you do not have as much yourself.
In chats wrote:<Wedjat> Why is there no function for converting "antagonizing fools" into "delightful servants"?
<ri> you don't have access to defool.exe?
<Wedjat> It would be an illegal operation.
<Bell> SIGGED
<Wedjat> \o/
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