Tips for raiding, to help beginners

[TimeToSplit]

A lot of people have talked about how punishing it is for people trying the raid for the first game and ending up with 0 wins, so here's some tips:

*Prioritize a good mana-curve of units. You want a healthy amount of 2 and 3 drops to take care of the early game. This is especially important because if you have two 2-drops and you're going second, you can play one turn one and another turn two. One-drops aren't as important, but if you do want one-drops, 2/1's are pretty good. You also want at least a few late-game cards (in the 6+ mana slots).

*As far as base stats if we ignore the abilities (such as if the unit has no abilites, or if you decide they're not useful), for one mana you want a 2/1. For two mana, you want a 3/2 (although this is bad against the mutate class, where a 2/3 would be much better). 3 mana, a 3/3 is acceptable, but 3/2 is also fine, since either way it'll trade with a good 2-drop. For 4 mana, a 4/5 is very good, but 4/4 is okay too, and it continues to scale like this.

*Consider synergy. If you see a unit that says "Give all support +1/+1" then stop, check and see how many support units you have. You should consider the power of the unit without synergy first, but if it happens to have good synergy then it make a difference. But generally, you want good cards INSTEAD of synergy, don't fal into the trap of drafting every support card you see just because you got a card like this.

*Keep in mind how far into the draft you are. As a rule of thumb, you can spend the first 10 or 15 picks going for cards based purely on the card's individual power level, then later on picking cards based on what you need. For example, there might be a screen unit which is usually pretty bad, but if you don't have any screen units, it becomes more important to pick that card, as you may need a screen unit to protect another unit, or to deal a swam of small units.

*For spells, remember that a lot of the spells are very situational, so think carefully if it's really worth it. But removal spells or unit that have "impact: deal damage to an enemy unit" should be prioritized, because you want cards that can win you a game in an otherwise losing position. Some cards are good when you're already ahead (like the spell that gives soak to your units with shield - if you already have multiple units out with shield, you're probably winning already, anyway). You don't really want these, instead you want cards that can win you games out of a losing situation.


*After you're about halfway through the draft, you may see an archetype start to form, synergies and vulnerabilites. For example, if you notice that your deck has a lot of quality top-end cards and powerful removal spells, then move toward a control deck - so get screen units and possibly some healing sources. Alternatively, if your deck has a lot of high quality, low-cost units, then you may want to focus on aggressive cards - mobility units, burst damage, and cheap threats. Either way, you still want to pick the high quality cards and smooth out your curve, but it's definitely a consideration.

[TheOne]

Your help actually made me draft a deck that went 6 wins. Considering that 3 wins was max before that I would say it helped a lot thank you

[bitrunner]

Thanks for the hints but it didn't help much. I lost 5 of 6 games in my first two Raids. Maybe, Raids are not for me.

Most opponents had special card backs. That means that they probably had a high rank and had already played tons of Raids before.

Next time I'll buy a booster for the 100 credits instead of trying another Raid.

[Natural-Causes]

bitrunner that was my experience too but i didnt give up and i have had raids go 11-0 before losses mount, recently i went 12-3 following this advice. card knowledge, bread knowledge and game tactics (knowing what teams cyphers could be on the board) matter. i am not surprised but give it a couple more go's and see how you do. you can always join us on teamspeak, ts.ihie.ca and we can discuss the game and raid dynamics. that is an open invitation to any star crusaders btw =)

[FoeHammer]

that's my one problem with this game. the match ups are uneven.

[Omicron]

went 5-3 for my first free raid :-)

[Gokki]

The game won't let me pass the turn and says i have cards that can be played. I don't want to play those cards right now, it's better to do it on next turn. Uninstalled for not letting me play.

[All the best for everyone! :)]

Originally posted by Gokki:

The game won't let me pass the turn and says i have cards that can be played. I don't want to play those cards right now, it's better to do it on next turn. Uninstalled for not letting me play.

Do you happen to be in tutorial yet?

[FirstOfficer]

@Gokki: I know! This step in tutorial was an unintended consequence of the first 2 turns, where we needed the player to attack. This will be fixed in future versions, it's already on the slate. We're also adding an option to skip tutorial entirely! Sorry we lost you on this, but I promise that the game is a lot more fun than the tutorial! :)

[Arginine]

RAID - strong cards, good picks, meta -> simple advices

Greetings, commanders!

I am seeing more and more complaints about raid. One of them concerns is multiple copies of Mind Anchor and Noise Veil.

1) Building to counter something is better than building an own strategy! As an example:

-> Carbonic Protector is probably the most feared Paragon in Raid. It's stats are worth 4.5 supply, screen is worth 0.5 supply, and the soak 2 therefore is valued at 2 supply. Slicer's ability is valued at 0.5 supply -> deploying a Slicer to counter Carbonic Protector will remove the soak 2, and 1 stat point -> counters 2.5 supply for 0.5 supply effect. You generated 2 supply advantage on the board.

-> Mind Anchor takes 1 stat away for 2 supply, that is a waste of 1.5 supply. Liberator's effect is valued at 0.5 supply. Depending on how much you undo, you will generate great supply advantage. Liberator is the strongest card to counter whatever Annunaki does. It really takes me a lot, to skip a Liberator (usually when I have at least 2-3 of them already). Additionally, you can nullify Shelling, Noise Veil and every kind of debuff with it.

2) Don't expect to be able to get many synergies out of your deck. Pick generally synergizing cards, like Rage Dok or Mass Indoctrination, instead of Double Retainer or Pulse Rifles, or Psychic Charge reliant cards.

3) Nullifies and hardremovals are high priority picks. They are the best counters and fit right into advice #1! Be cautions using a hardremoval! I've seen player lose, when they rather used one instead of contesting the board. It is more important to have board presence than it is to remove a unit.

4) Attack buffs enable you to make cheaper trades. Thus cards like Adrenal Overload, Adreanal Transformation, Mass Indoctrination, Vraxxian Gunboat, ect. are very beneficial

5) Take your time during deck building. Think about what possibly the enemy could do against each pick, and what you can do to counter his deeds. So is possibly an Archeus Cruiser or Planetery Runner is a bad choice against Paranoia. Whereas playing Annunaki and having Paranoia yourself can make these cards a good choice.

6) Take your time during turns, think about what you are going to do next. Give your opponent credability of intelligence, they might have a plan themselves. Example:

->I just played a match, wehre my opponent started with a Combat Engineer and 2x Entrench -> 5/5 unit on turn 2 ready to attack. He pressured me so hard, and ignored my two puny units I deployed. Got them to 1 HP, and played a Cypher (Counter Batteries) and left my units alone. I was able to deploy a Rage Dok on my turn 5, and was able to trade with his 5/8 Combat Engineer. I won the match by the skin of my theeth (6 HP, with a starting HP of 36)

7) An enemy strategy is only as good, as unprepared you are against it! It takes some time to get used to the raid meta. Generally, card that don't rely on other cards for strenght are good, such as Terazin Destroyer, Myrmidon Squad, Hellfire Cannon.

8) Choice of Modules: Whenever you get the chance to get a Fusion Reactor, go for it! You can win with 3 energy based modules too, but you will most likely use mostly one of them in a matchup. Maybe an otherone in an other matchup. Good choices are in this order:

-> Gremlin Protocols: advice #1
-> Noise Veil: advice #7
-> Shelling: advice #3
-> Carbonplating / Regenerative Tissue: advice #6
-> Convoy Raiding: advice #1
-> Arsenal: advice #4, Arsenal becomes top choice as HajirGog as he has Superheat.

9) Card draw is very important, but Nymph Gunship is a terrible raid card! Try to avoid it!

10) When building your deck, try to have most cards in the 4,5,6 supply cost, the least in the 7+ supply cost. When mulliganing, drop everything that you can't deploy in the first 3 turns, unless you hace a perfect curve. It is important to be present in the early turns. If you get a decent 1,2,3,4 and 5 drop in your starting hand, you can keep all of them!

There is already such a topic, I will merge this into there tomorrow. I am leaving it out for 1 day, because I doubt many players read pinned discussions.

[BREWS1]

Good Guide.

[Maridor]

Thanks for the guide!

[Karna99]

The matchup seems very bad, just lost 2 raids in a row on the first planet that is suppose to be easy. Both times the other player was very OP and I have played and won raids before. The match making is crap and tired of losing to over powered decks in all formats. This is serious going to turn off new players for the game. Add some AI matchups for the easy planets at least in Raid or new players will not play them beacuse we just go up againt OP decks/players.

[Moridin63]

Didn't I beat you for one of those?

That was my first planet as well,
And I AVERAGE around 1 win per raid, that's how good at raiding I am lol..

But at least I made an OP deck finally, I guess

[Karna99]

Great another 0/6 Raid. Why do I bother to play them when all I play is constructed decks it seems on the first "easy" planet every time? Has something changed since the patch as I use to win 6-7 raids before. If I get any more 0-3 results I am done with raiding.

[Bulldozer]

The difficulty there is just bollocks. Could be removed altogether. How the difficulty can be determined any way? Even a veteran player can get a bad draft. Or you can have a very lucky draft. Also why pitch a veteran player who starts a raid against an "easy" beginner player anyway? Also most of the planets are easy, are there enough beginner players? Are there enough players in raid anyhow that you can reliably differentiate players based on skill or do you just have to macth players who happen to be playing Raid??

Edit: and why did Steam sensor my bollocks