Locations
Locations win and lose games before a single card is played.
Sizing up the available locations is the single most important factor in deciding whether to snap or retreat.
By turn 3, make up your mind.
- Do these locations help you? Hurt you?
- How about your opponent?
- Have good locations for your hand? Then snap.
- Have bad locations for your hand? Prepare to retreat.
It really is that simple!
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An Example
Consider our Devil Dinosaur deck:
Let’s think about what types of locations affect this deck.
Onslaught’s Citadel represents a huge boost to our Devil Dinosaur’s power. We’ll likely play Cosmo here as well to stop an opponent’s Shang Chi, Enchantress or Rogue. This lane is easily won if our opponent has no Ongoing cards.
Olympia is always a welcome location, but is particularly helpful to draw and empower Devil Dinosaur. But your opponent may draw well too, so use your added advantage carefully.
Negative Zone is a great place to dump enemy cards on turn 6 with Aero.
Luke’s Bar poses a considerable challenge to this deck. We are have zero tools for generating power there after it reveals, beyond pulling a card like Doctor Doom from our opponent with White Queen.
Dark Dimension is a mixed bag. Cards like Sentinel, Quinjet, Moon Girl and White Queen are usually best played early as possible. But it’s also a great place to hide Armor, Maximus and Devil Dinosaur for a end-game power push.
K’un Lun seems largely neutral, but for one big disadvantage - playing Aero here could lose the lane. Depending on our hand, we likely should develop power here instead, and target another lane to dump opposing cards with Aero.
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Play locations smarter.
Underestimating locations is the most common mistake made by new players.
- Identify interactions between the locations and your cards.
- Don’t commit too early and miss a better location to develop.
- Study your opponent’s preferred locations.
- Think about how combos best fall across multiple locations.
- Play deck that synergize with Hot or Featured locations.
When you play the locations you’re dealt, for better or worse, this game gets much easier to win.