Deck Heroes Basics

Combat[]

During combat, you and your opponent will take turns playing your Cards if an action is allowed. Each round is signified by the small circle with a number on the right side of the battlefield. When you begin a battle, it is often common for many rounds to pass before an action is allowed, in which case the game automatically fast-fowards.

Round Phases[]

Each round consists of multiple phases. These are not officially recognized phases but are clearly identifiable durring gameplay:

Restack 1 - Enemy and Ally Cards in Play are restacked to the left position, eliminating gaps.
Draw Phase - Player draws 1 card if there are any remaining in the deck. If your hand is at max capacity of 5 then you will not draw a card and skip straight to Play Creature Phase.
Play Creatures Phase - Any Cards in your Hand with a wait time of 0 may now be Entered to the battlefield. You will need to choose the order / position of your cards and then click the Battle Button to continue to the next Phase.
- Creatures will enter the battlefield one at a time and recieve their buffs and/or debuffs created by other creatures and heroes on the battlefield.
- The newly summoned Creatures will then Distribute their Buffs and "Activates when Played" or [S] abilities, one at a time after they have been buffed and debuffed.
Hero Phase - The Hero uses their Hero Skill (if 100 Rage) and then Hero Talents available for Pre-Combat.
Restack 2 - Enemy and Ally Cards in Play are restacked to the left position, eliminating gaps.
Battle Phase - Your Creatures will now attack the creature directly across from them on your opponents board. If there is no creature directly across from an attacking creature, it will directly attack the opposing hero.
- Before physically attacking, each individual Creatures will use their Skills one at a time on the target(s) which best fit their description at that instant.
  - Example 1 - If the battle starts with two defending creatures with 700 HP remaining, but the first attacking creature deals 250 DMG to the first defending creature, then at the instant the second creature is ready to use their spells, any spell that targets the Lowest HP will instead target the first creature because it is now at 450 HP and the creature across from them is still at 700 HP.
  - Example 2 - The attacking Creature has only 200 HP remaining and is about to strike a creature that will return 250 DMG upon taking physical attacks. Even if another one of the attacking creature has a Heal ready, the interaction between the Attacking and Defending creature will occur first and in order of left-to-right.
- Creatures that have a Life-Stealing or On-Hit affect will activate before further damage is taken.
- Reactive / Thorn effects that activate on hit will still activate even if the defending creature dies.
- Creatures that are Paralyzed or Entangled will not do physical attacks, but will still activate their per-turn Skills.
- Creatures that are Frozen or Delayed will neither attack nor activate their per-turn Skills.
- Rebirth and similar skills will activate at the end of each Creature's battle phase, so if the creature doesn't immediately come back into the deck then you wont need to worry about it doing so later.
End Phase - If either player no longer controls and creatures and no longer has any creatures in their deck, then the game will end in favor of the other player.

Player Hands[]

You and your opponent will be able to see Creatures in each other’s hands. With each round, the wait time of each Creature will go down by 1, allowing you to anticipate the upcoming events in the near future. A Creature can be played when its wait time reaches 0, and it is very common for the Computer Player to play their creatures as soon as they are ready.

Battlefield[]

Only Creatures in play on the Battlefield can take part in combat. Creatures attack targets that are directly in front of them. Your Creatures will attack you opponent’s Hero if there are no Creatures directly in front of them.

Graveyard[]

Creatures with 0 HP will be sent to the Graveyard.

Auto Combat vs Manual Combat[]

By using manual combat, you can strategically decide on the order / position in which Creatures are played and whether you want to play any Creatures for that particular round. Auto-Combat: By activating Auto-Combat you will lose control of the deployment of your cards and will automatically play Creatures that have reached a wait time of 0. You may engage Auto Combat at any time durring battle, but once it is initiated you may not switch back to manual combat.

It is often wise to start a battle by holding on to your Creatures until the enemy has played a Creature or until you can play multiple Creatures at once. Depending on your deck and strategy, multiple creatures often offer additional protection and buffs and will allow you to overcome your enemy quickly before losing many creatures in the battle.

Victory[]

You’ll win by either destroying all of your opponent’s Creatures at the end of a Combat Round or by reducing their Hero’s Health to 0 at any time.

Strategies[]

Victory in Deck Heroes always has some element of randomization in it due to the Card game nature of it, but there are some solid strategies that can help you focus your deck into a fully-functioning team. By choosing a strategy early, you can guide the Enhancements and Explorations as well as Shard purchases in the direction you'll want to be in the long run.

For now, what's dominating the arena are multi-faction, non-strategy decks with 8-10 5 Star Creatures and a 4 Star Hero. While this works and may be the best use of effort for a certain segment of the game, using proper synergy and a well thought out strategy can make some less powerful Creatures absolutely shine on the battlefield.

It's also important to note that combining strategies can give your deck additional diversity and allow it to overcome new obsticals. Since every strategy seems to have a counter, with a hybrid strategy design your deck may manage to triumph even when the odds are against you.

Buff'n'Stuff[]

One of the first strategies that new players will pick up on after careful observation of their lower level cards is the ability of many Human and Faen creatures to greatly enhance similar other Creatures in play. When done on a small scale this can sometimes help win a tough battle. When done deliberately, though, this can create an overwhelming team of boosted and diverse creatures that just wont seem to die.

General Tactics: Hold back on deploying Creatures until you can release multiple buffing creatures at a the same time and control the battlefield. Use heals on your Creatures and disables on your enemy to further enhance the longevity of your Creatures and allow you to overwhelm the enemy Creatures or Hero. Focus on either big basic stats to try to bring their Hero down, or focus on Spell Casters that do sniper or area damage.

One shining example of a Buff'n'Stuff Hero in the early game is Captain Crook. His standard Talents are perfect for buffing and slowing down the enemy team, and his Hero Skill, Pirate Jig, is a phenominal example of a global Buff to give your creatures an edge in battle.

Use Captain Crook with some Human Creatures with the Sage Advice and Humanity Creature Skills and sit back as your deck buffs itself into a whole new level of control and domination. Combine a Techno-Chief, an Oracle (Explore 6-3, 6-6, 6-9) and a Royal Knight (D3-9 Hard Reward) for buffs and creatures and keep them alive with a couple of Vicars. Don't forget to upgrade them all to level 10 so they are pumping out their best Creature Skills and Buffs.

Faen is also quite good at the Buff'n'Stuff strategy but lack the raw stats and ATK bonuses that Humans have readily available. Instead, use Buffs, Healers and multiple-target Creature Abilities to control the board and wipe out the enemy's creatures.

Faen is especially effective for the Gauntlet and for Dungeon Conditions that require you to have a limited amount of Creatures in your Graveyard. Use your free Master Guide (Log-in Reward), Treant Guide and Centaur Guide to add massive healing and additional HP to your Creatures. Round out the creature destruction with your Flame Brave and a Faen Marksman.

Buff'n'Stuff is a great fit for a new player looking to get further than they should in the Explorer's Gate and is a great way to clear some harder dungeons to get additional rewards. Faen will eventually putter out without the neccessary fire power, but keep an eye out for great high-end Heroes and Creatures that continue the trend.

Lockdown[]

There will reach a point in each player's experience when their cards are so severly outmatched by the Dungeons that even Buffing doesn't seem to do the trick. It's right around this time, though, that some very powerful Lockdown abilities start to become available through new Heroes and Creatures.

General Tactics: With a Lockdown deck, your Creatures will focus on Freezing, Delaying, Entangling and Paralyzing the enemy Creatures so that they are unable to attack or cast their Creature Skills. Disables will only activate on your turn durring your offensive phase, so the enemy has a good chance to whack your creatures hard when they bring out a new Creature onto the battlefield. Keep a close eye on what creatures your opponent can deploy for the next few turns and hold back your extra creatures if neccessary. You don't want your creatures getting hit by a powerful enemy Creature, so sometimes its worth it to let your Hero take a hit.

Lockdown is easily achieved with Faen decks and can be morphed from a Buff'n'Stuff with less effort than starting over which makes Lockdown a solid mid-game strategy. Faen uses a slower strategy that is backed up with Heals and Buffs, but Mortii can use Lockdown with a more direct approach which aims for the enemy Hero while their Creatures are locked down, and Humans with Sneak greatly enhance the damage output on disabled enemies

For Faen, the Creature Skills you're looking for are Cloudburst and Tempest for Paralysis, Frost Arrow for Freeze, Discord for Confusion, and Delay and Entangle for Lockdowns. Round out the Lockdowns with some focused Creature Skills to whittle your helpless opponents down to nothing. A perfect Lockdown team might include your Master Guide (Log-in Reward), Voltic Priests, Frost Wardens and Dream Healers with a few Faen Archers or Faen Marksmen to bring down the enemy creatures one-by-one. If you have an opportunity to get a Creature with the skill Picking Off, that works exceptionally well.

Put a Devil Hunter Hero at the helm of this team if you get the chance, because with his Entangle Hero Skill he is the master of the Lockdown. Even his Hero Talents Static and Deep Freeze play perfectly into this strategy. Watch out for enemy Creatures with Immunity as the protection it grants will also prevent your Lockdowns from landing on them. Most lockdown decks aren't strong enough to contend with an Immune-heavy deck since the base stats are much lower.

Straight for the Jugular[]

As you progress through the middle and higher tiers of gameplay, you may begin to notice Creature teams that are extremely difficult to destroy. Whether it's utlra-beefy Humans, or Mortii with Rebirth, Great Mystic, or even Faen with Recycle, these Decks are built to keep going and it can seem almost impossible to win through a Creature Victory. Straight for the Jugular focuses instead of destroying the enemy Hero through or around the enemy's creatures.

General Tactics: The goal will always be to get as much damage off directly to the enemy Hero as possible. You cannot completely ignore the enemy team's Creatures, since unattended too they may overwhelm your team and stop them in their tracks. By combining Lockdown techniques or by using tanky Creatures, you can survive the enemy long enough to bring their Hero down. Generally speaking, use any opportunity where the Hero is unguarded to strike, including in early Rounds. Avoid creature-targeting talents and abilities except for Lockdowns or debuffs.

There aren't too many Heroes and Hero Talents that will help with this task, so it's important to focus on your goal when using this strategy. Chaos Witch makes the perfect leader for a Mortii team because of her Hero Skill and Katrice and Agni can also fill in that role quite well, although Agni will not match the faction of your creatures. When selecting Hero Talents, Mortii should focus on Life or Vitality for buffs and Shadow Hex as a secondary talent to help finish off the enemy Hero.

Straight for the Jugular relies heavily on a handful of skills, so aquiring the right Creatures is extremely important. You're looking for Creatures with the following skills: Stabthrough, Curse, and Godswill. Ambush can also help inflict massive damage early if you can get a free shot in before there is a defending creature across from you. Mortii also excels at the Rebirth skill, so choose Creatures with this skill to extend your destruction and give your deck logevity.

This deck is exceptionally weak against the Hero Elder Mawrek, who does massive amounts of Lifesteal as part of his Hero Skill.