- ronlonghi3
Is it actually better to not spend all your coins each turn in the Hogwarts Battle campaign?
So, Patronus and I have been working through the Hogwarts Battle campaign on our livestream, and I had an epiphany recently...Unlike every other deckbuilding game that I know of (including the Defense Against the Dark Arts dueling version of this game), the Hogwarts Battle campaign does not have any kind of banishing effect that allows players to remove cards from their decks.
Why does this matter, you may ask? Banishing cards allows players to filter out less powerful cards from their decks - usually this would be any negative cards (if there are any) as well as starting cards, as these typically are not very strong. By removing these types of cards, you effectively stack your deck with your best cards. And because your deck becomes smaller, you'll draw those powerful cards more often throughout the course of the game.
Since the Hogwarts Battle campaign game does not have a banish effect, that means every card you purchase from the Hogwarts deck will dilute your own deck and make it larger. As such, ideally you will only want to purchase cards that are "good for you" or that fit into your strategy. From Game/Year 3 and on, each Hero has a special ability that triggers from certain card effects.
Harry gets a bonus each time a Dark Mark (or "skull"/ villain control token) is removed from the current Location.
Hermione gets a bonus from playing 4 or more spells on her turn.
Ron gets a bonus from dealing 3 or more damage on his turn.
Neville allows other heroes to heal additional damage on his turn.
Luna (if you're playing the Monsters expansion) gets a bonus from drawing an extra card on her turn.
When you're playing these heroes, you want to purchase cards that allow you to trigger this special ability as often as possible.
But what happens when you either don't have enough coins to buy a card that's good for you or there just aren't any good cards available to buy? Here's where my epiphany set in...while it seems totally counter-intuitive to not spend any coins and instead simply discard them, I think that's actually the right play more often than not. I get it...it feels horrible to discard coins - it seems like such a waste! But actually, it might be more harmful to you to buy a card that has little to no value for your hero's strategy, particularly early in the game. Think about it...if you buy a card in the first few turns, you might draw that card 8-10 more times. If that card doesn't really help you, it's almost like a dead card. You might have been better off never buying it at all! And that's exactly the point I'm getting at - it may be better to waste coins and not be totally efficient than to fill up your deck with cards that aren't effective for your strategy...
What do you think? Comment below!
> Catch replays of our Hogwarts Battle Campaign on our YouTube Channel!