[Strategy] Opportunity costs in Codex

Codex
21

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:

  • 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).

  • 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.

13 Likes
22

No I think it’s very correct, and helpful to point out that you have to think long term about deck composition and the opportunity cost of not teching a variety of things. Very well put I thought!

2 Likes
23

I really like planning out what I want my turn 5 deck to look like (all 15 cards), and then backing up and seeing which cards I would need to tech each turn to have them available at the proper time.
The rule of thumb is:
Cards you tech on turn 2 will be availabe on turn 3 or 4, and then you’ll draw them again around turn 6.
Tech on turn 3 will be available on turn 4 only if you stay on 5 cards, otherwise you see them turn 5
Tech on turns 4 and 5 will come up sometime between turn 6 and 8
Tech on turns 6 or later is highly dependent on how large your hand and deck are at the time. If you have a lot of upgrades / units that stayed in play, and have kept at 4-5 cards you might still be recirculating every two tirns. If you went down to 3 cards and have been using a lot of spells, you might never see your last set of teched cards.

The median turn for a game to end is turn 7, with over 80% ending by turn 9.

9 Likes