I am pretty new at this, and have no CCG background, but teching is something I understand from an RTS perspective: it’s analogous to creating a building that produces that unit or spell. When I tech a card, I am giving myself build capacity for that particular thing, so I look for something I think will be generally useful.
The situations I have found where I want to tech two copies of a thing are:
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if I always want to be able to play it. Possibly because it’s a critical counter for something I am worried my opponent will do and I might need to respond fast. Possibly because it’s something very scary that I telegraph my intent for, and I may only get one turn on which my opponent isn’t able to stop me, so it darn well better be in my hand that turn (ults, tech 3s).
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if I expect to play it many times as part of a core strategy.
And the one that is counterintuitive for me, but which I guess is more obvious if you have a CCG background -
- If I need it now now now or I’m dead
One of the things that really helped me understand the opportunity cost of teching was to sit back and look at how many opportunities I would have over a game. It’s about five or six cycles before you stop being forced to tech, which you generally want to do, so you get about 10-12 cards. I try to balance them between production abilities - some spells, some T1s, some T2s, - because I know an overreliance on any one is a critical weakness: my opponent will see it and shut down that particular building or hero. When I drew it out on paper, what I’d be able to play when, I came up with 2 spells, 2 T1s, 2 T2s, 2 T3s, 2-4 situational as a basic rule of thumb, from which deviation could be measured as a strategic cost. In a longer game (trashed or skipped workers) you would have more slots, but they would individually be less potent. Seen in that light, teching two copies of something comes with a severe opportunity cost: I may not be able to play anything else in that tier without becoming overreliant on it.
Me being pretty new to this game, don’t take that as the analysis of someone who knows what they’re doing. If it’s wrong or incomplete, I would also like to know.