Hi, I'm new to KeyForge and would like help tinkering out a strategy for my deck. My deck is called "The Beguiling Tanner"

its got a lot of runts in dis and shadows, and I'm not sure how to pilot it. Its got some trolls for beefy characters and a good buff card so one of my creatures could potentially be beefy, and it has a few purge mechanics and control mechanics, but I'm not sure how to establish the board with such small creatures.

I don't have a lot of players in my area to practice against so I was hoping to get some help from people who've played similar weenie decks.

First off, be very careful with your Autocannon. It hurts both your stuff and your opponent's so you want to either discard it or hold it until most of your weak stuff is played or dead. The same general advice goes for Poison Wave, but since it's in Shadows, you can often declare House Shadows, drop a Poison Wave to weaken the board and then follow up with your horde.

Next, you have a very strong stealing theme. You want to take advantage of the Elusive trait on most of your Shadows creatures to avoid initiating combat (except for your Umbras; they can initiate fights). Instead, reap or use Action abilities to steal the opponent's Æmber.

Your Dis is used to disrupt the opponent and make their board control hit these creatures for fear of them strangling your opponent. If you can get a turn where you're reaping with 4 Dis creatures, they will be sad as either cards are flying out of their hand, you are bouncing a creature or artifact they need, or you're threatening to make a key from the Æmber you get from a destroyed Dust Imp. If you can also land your Lash of Broken Dreams, you can often get to a point where you steal enough to prevent some key forging and use the Lash to make it so when they do forge it costs 9.

Your Brobnar are there to take out threats. You probably won't get much use out of Follow the Leader, but when you do, it can finish off a board that you've weakened in other ways.

This deck has a decent mix of stealing, fighting, and disruption. Once you get a few games under your belt with it, it should be fun.

This game is basically a race to get 3 keys. so don't forget to reap. Some people focus so much on fighting and killing your opponent's creatures that they don't realise they could win by just farming aember. (Seen that happen last tournament)

Pretty much echoing what was said. Brobnar for your hard hitting muscle, Dis should be targeted by your opponent for fear of the nasty stuff they will do if your opponent doesn't get rid of them, and while they are focused on that use Shadows to play tricks and steal aember at critical moments.

When all else fails, bait and switch.

The best way to learn your deck is to keep playing with it. Experience will teach you more about how to use it than our initial impressions ever could.

I think too many of us have ended up with too many decks and as a result we are not playing individual decks enough to truly learn how to use them, but I digress and that's a whole different discussion. Best of luck with your Beguiling Tanner.

Beef is unimportant. Fighting is not how you win this game.

Basically.

Best card in the game for me is still Dust Pixie.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

Beef is unimportant. Fighting is not how you win this game.

Basically.

Best card in the game for me is still Dust Pixie.

Warsong, Loot the Bodies, Blood Money and most of the rest of house Brobnar would like to have a word

Many if not most of those work fine without beef. And Brobnar is just as good at reaping as everyone else. This is not a game about killing stuff even if one house can make hay by doing so.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

Many if not most of those work fine without beef. And Brobnar is just as good at reaping as everyone else. This is not a game about killing stuff even if one house can make hay by doing so.

I have some more friends that would like to weigh in.

From house Sanctum: Gatekeeper, Raiding Knight, Bulwark, Champion Tanbris and Take Hostages wish to chime in.

From house Shadows: Dodger, Umbra, Pawn Sacrifice, Relentless Whispers, Seeker Needle, Nerve Blast would like to add a few things to the discussion.

From house Logos: Quixo wishes to speak with you.

The entire house of Dis would like to have a chat with you. They sent the Dust Imps to convey the location and time: 3pm by the flag pole.

Cooperative Hunting, Save the Pack, Niffle Apes with their beloved Queen and Snufflegator have made cries in a manner that suggests they wish to communicate.

Lastly, you have an incoming transmission from Tunk and Zorg of house Mars.

While fighting is indeed not what the game is about, it is a critical component. Each house has their own unique tools to do so and the timing and knowledge of when to engage is crucial if you want to win. Would you concede that?

It can he a critical component. But only when it generates aember. You don't win by making sure your opponent never has board presence you win by forging keys, and focusing on beef is largely missing the point. In many if not most of the above cases you're rarely going to do worse by reaping rather than fight with that creature at any given point. Some exceptions apply of course.

But the best rule of thumb especially for people who might be coming from games where fighting is the win condition, is to remember that in keyforge it is absolutely not.

Actually, I’d argue that for the most part you do win if you have a board presence and your opponent doesn’t. I get what you are trying to say but you are being so dismissive of combat and how useful it is. A better rule of thumb is to realize there is no good rule of thumb and evaluate the state of the game as it presents itself. Every turn is situational. Yes a troll can reap and generate an aember, but this turn he should fight dodger otherwise he (dodger) can fight my weaker creature and steal the aember I just reaped.

We can go back and forth on this all day but the bottom line Orcluck and any new player will learn the most about how to play and win with their deck by playing and winning (and losing) with their deck.

11 hours ago, TheSpitfired said:

We can go back and forth on this all day but the bottom line Orcluck and any new player will learn the most about how to play and win with their deck by playing and winning (and losing) with their deck.

True, and when someone asks for suggestions on how to play their deck, it is up to those of us who have played more to bring meaningful advice.

Agreed, see the first three replies.

We were getting more into what I would classify as “general gameplay theory” so my most recent reply was an attempt to bring it back.