First of all, this post is fantastic! Very well thought-out and clear, and really helps to clear up the murky waters of being a Codex/strategy game noob 
Second, you didnât mention Add-ons (either accidentally or intentionally). Where do those fit, exactly? Should they go with #2, or should they have their own number? Or should #2 be reworded to say something like, âWhat should I spend gold on?â
When I taught my friends to play, for their first game, I told them to tech 2 units the first turn, and 1 unit and 1 spell the second. This let both of them have the chance to create a board presence before reaching tech 2, which is when things get crazy.
I like @Ryjakâs way of breaking things down. I think it might make sense to do a guide on each component. I just drafted a beginnerâs guide to workers, feedback is appreciated!
For Beginners, Add Ons are pretty simple: Build a Tower when you have enough Gold at the end of the Turn. Itâs a good all-around option that generally causes problems. I would mention the Surplus as a more advanced option for when you find you canât afford to only play two cards each turn to discard to five, putting you behind on card drawing, AND you find yourself floating 5 gold.
The other Add-ons are generally for very specific plans for mixed color Codex
Builds, and thus not appropriate for a Beginnerâs Guide.
That makes sense. I tend to build surpluses more often than not, but maybe thatâs why I keep losing my games 
. Iâll think twice before I skip out on making a tower next time.
In my experience, the one thing that has made the biggest difference in my play and the play of people Iâve taught is becoming better at tracking where my key cards and the effect that has on the way you tech. (@EricF is really really good at this, and reading some of his games is extremely helpful in developing the way you think about teching and cycling cards).
Iâve seen a couple of people in this thread advise building tech 2 as early as possible, but I think this can be a huge mistake. You should build tech 2 the turn before your tech 2 units arrive. If you read a lot of the PbF games (even among players who are not novices), itâs extremely common for players to build tech 2, and then not play any tech 2 units the following turn. Obviously, you canât predict your draw, so this may happen occasionally, but it seems to happen a lot. If you watch what people tech, itâs not unusual to see players building tech 2 when they have 0 probability of drawing a tech 2 unit in their next hand. I guess you could be bluffing, but it seems generally to be a bad idea.
Another thing Iâm finding recently is that Iâm moving out of a mindset of spending all my gold every turn. I tend to advise new players not to be scared of floating gold - sometimes you donât have any good plays to make, and itâs better to hold your resources until next turn. I also find that when my opponent floats gold, itâs scary, so it seems like itâs a better strategy than novices usually imagine.
Tech 2 doesnât just get you tech 2 units, it gets you an additional hero. If you teched mixed spells during the first few turns, this could be important so you can bring out the second hero and cast their spells, instead of being locked in with the first hero.
Floating gold leads to explosive turns, and is not something to be ignored. By paying attention to my opponents gold count, I can determine whether a maxband hero effect is possible, or Rewind, or Judgment Day, or Drakk + Kidnapping, or any number of effects that I might be worried about.
Thatâs true, but I think games where you build Tech 2 for a second hero (rather than building a heroâs hall) are fairly rare. My point about players building tech 2 and then doing nothing with it the following turn still stands though.
Where can I find this guide?
in this thread, above:
Also in Collected Codex Resources pinned thread.
Since people are bringing up my reference sheets, Iâd appreciate some help getting them updated and/or making some for multicolor builds (especially since Iâm still waiting on my new computer). Let me know if youâd like to contribute!
Iâd be willing to write the Demon/Necro/Finesse one sometime next week, I could try PPA as well I spose since Iâve played that a fair bit.