Let's get better in Codex

[bansa]

This post was requested by @Bomber678. I copied over my response here.

@Bomber678

Yeah player one really can just “play threats”, and it’s not that hard. Responding to threats is very difficult, because it requires prediction and a lot of skill

Absolutely, and you bring up a good point on a topic I was a bit hesitant to share thoughts as it is totally subjective. Based on my experience so far, I believe below are the three areas that really set the top players apart from us. I kind of wanted to keep this to myself selfishly, but I also want to improve with everyone on this forum, so here they are:

1. Tech Choices - This is prolly the most obvious. Obvious doesn’t make it any easy though. Tech choices are extremely difficult as @Bomber678 noted because it requires prediction and experience.

2. Patrol Choices - This I feel deserves more attention. I lose so many games just by bad patrol lines. You make one mistake against the top players and yea we all know what happens next.

3. Timing of Reshuffle - This is the big reveal. You and I wonder how does he have the needed cards in hand every single time? No, they are not cheating. They are timing the reshuffle precisely and this is the secret to the next level.

As you probably noticed, all of above is a concept that doesn’t exist in MTG and this is why any attempt to translate the MTG logics over to Codex is not successful.
Codex is just simply far superior game that really can’t be compared to any of games in genre.

Sorry guys @FrozenStorm, @zhavier and @EricF if I revealed too much of secret We all are working hard to bring you guys some challenging matches.
Either that or you prolly are thinking this guy has no idea why we are better

[bansa]

This was previous response for reference.

@zhavier

It is more that most of the defense strategies, which i mean as delaying to tech 2 or 3 without impacting your enemies board very much, are weaker than strategies that are aggressive in the early game.

Totally agree on this and it explains the apparent P1 advantage. Now that I think about it again, I feel that base HP being 20 is a big factor in strong early aggression. MTG gives P2 a card advantage in attempt for P1-P2 balance and Codex gives P2 a gold/tech advantage. I think card advantage weighs more and is prolly the reason for heavier P1 advantage in Codex. Base HP again I think is tied to this equation.

That being said, I absolutely feel the same way with @Bomber678 about defense being much harder than offense especially the patrol choices as P2. And for this very reason, I think there is still much room to improve on P2 turns as a community and I believe we can close the gap in P1-P2 disparity.

[Bomber678]

I have definitely levelled up my play by watching good players, especially frozen. The way he techs has had a big influence on my play, because I needed to know how he always seemed to have an answer in every situation.

For a specific example, I noted that he often techs in a midgame card on turn three, such as a tech 2 or expensive strong spell (sometimes an ultimate). This makes it easier to pivot to a midgame strategy, but still leaves three tech slots for early game pressure or answers.

[charnel_mouse]

Patrol choices are interesting. They can make a big difference, but they don’t get mentioned in thoughts often, and, if you’re just reading through the turns instead of tracking and considering the board state, it’s hard to know what information the player is basing them on.

[zhavier]

Some of my patrol choices are just reflexive. I know EricF has a more mathematical approach, which is why he is better than me

That’s why I dont always (rarely) have thoughts about my patrol.

[charnel_mouse]

I try to write patrol thoughts often, but I’m not a high-tier player.

[FrozenStorm]

Nothing to apologize for here @bansa, I don’t think Zhav Eric myself or anyone else here wants to keep others “in the dark” about how to play the game well. Part of the fun is having lots of good players to play the game against, and learning the game deeper is a fun thing! I wouldn’t want people not having fun.

I think most of these topics and strategy points have been brought up in previous threads so it’s not like they’re super secrets anyway The links under the “Card-Specific Discussions” header and “Strategy Discussion” header of the pinned collected resources wiki thread are a great place to see deeper discussion about Teching, patrolling, and cycling (reshuffles).

If there’s more detail anyone wants or questions anyone has about those things I’m certainly up for discussing them.

I agree with Zhav that Eric has the best approach to patrolling and timing attacks (and has the best vision for lethal). His thoughts always have careful and math-based breakdowns of how he’s thinking about his turn and setting up lethal damage.

[bansa]

Thanks guys for participating in this thread. I have a plan to reformat the original post to make it a resource document for relatively new players who are passionate about Codex and want to improve their skills.

[bansa]

@charnel_mouse

I try to write patrol thoughts often, but I’m not a high-tier player.

Wrong. I mean yeah so wrong. I saw your recent tourney matches against zhavier and EricF. Are you kidding? You may need tourney wins to become top player but you are definitely high tier. Don’t listen to the model if it says otherwise.

[charnel_mouse]

Steady on, bansa. I’m happy with my (non-canon) matches against zhavier, but I suspect I caught EricF on a bad day. Take the model with a grain of salt, obviously, but I can look at the players it places me near and think that it looks about right.

[bansa]

Hey I think I get a credit for your win against zhavier. I was rooting for you take zhavier’s life down. I got killed by zhavier and sure didn’t want to meet him again in that tourney. I lost my first match to EricF but I was feeling pretty good about going against Purple but didn’t want another match against Green.

[charnel_mouse]

Given the specs involved, I thought of it as kicking zhavier off my damn lawn.

[bansa]

Oops I might have revealed too much information. Fact that I was rooting for EricF against you is a secret Greenies with mine were so scary.

[charnel_mouse]

I’d have done the same, modified Mine was silly.

Looking through the resources, I don’t think we have anything specifically on the subject of patrolling. That’s not really surprising: it’s very matchup- / game state-specific, which is the reason why it’s one of the most interesting parts of the game. The closest thing we had was probably the “How not to get blown up” guide from the old forum, but that’s vanished.

I could do a list of “questions to ask yourself when patrolling”, similar to the one I did here for deck construction, or a short description of how I approach hard patrol turns, if people would find it useful, or at least a good starting point.

[hardy83]

@charnel_mouse

I could do a list of “questions to ask yourself when patrolling”, similar to the one I did here for deck construction, or a short description of how I approach hard patrol turns, if people would find it useful, or at least a good starting point.

definitely would love to read that

[EricF]

I just do all the math for “what attacks could my opponent do” and pick the least-bad option for me.

After some practice, I got better at pruning bad lines quickly, so it usually only takes a few minutes (and often a bunch of things are equivalent, like "opponent could attack with their 2/3 hero, or a newly played Nimble Fencer, so make sure my patrollers line up well against a 2/3 attacker by a. using Elite to up a 2 ATK defender to 3 ATK and b. putting something with 2 or 4 hp in squad lead, so it requires a full extra attack to take it down.