Hearthstone: ‘How is Pro different from us’, placement of cards

This ‘Where’s the Pro’ series will explore the art of card placement in Hearthstone – placing your minions on the table for the most impact. (For new players, if you haven’t thought through your minion placement yet, you should think about it now!)

Placing minions on the table is a skill that requires two considerations: How can I hit to take advantage of the position of my minions, and how will my opponent play to affect that? this?

Good examples of cards that require special use of the position include the Flametongue Totem and the Cone of Cold.

When you’re about to clear the table for the Flametongue Totem, you usually have to make sure the two minions next to this card are usable the turn it’s launched, maximizing the value of the Flametongue Totem instantly. Putting it right next to the minion with Taunt is also very valuable, to improve the minion’s ability to trade. You can attack with the minion next to the Totem, then launch the minion with Charge next to it for maximum damage!

Similarly, Cone of Cold can punish players who don’t know how to place minions in good positions. If you have four minions on the table, but the three with the highest value are placed next to each other, the Cone of Cold can hold them back. If you have more than three minions on the table, the Mage is forced to choose which three to choose for Cone of Cold – thus you can prevent the Mage from choosing the optimal target.

There’s a lot of potential in minion placement decisions that players can use. A few factors that may influence that decision include:

• Summons: Any magic card or minion “summon” effect, instead of you having to place them directly on the table, will place the new minion to your far right. Examples include Shaman’s Hero Power or the Animal Companion card.
• Minion summons: Minions can summon additional minions – whether it is a Battlecry effect, like Faceless Summoner, or late turn, like Primalfin Totem – the new minion will appear to the right of where the minion was originally placed. Some minions, like the Sindragosa or the Grim Necromancer, summon multiple minions – in this case, they will fill the adjacent tiles.
• Deathrattles: When the Deathrattle effect summons one or more minions, those minions will be summoned at the original location of the original minion. If you have Cairne Bloodhoof on the table between two Murloc Tinyfins, Baine Bloodhoof will spawn between the two murlocs when Cairne dies.
• Spell effects: a lot of spells other than Cone of Cold can take advantage of poor minion placement. Meteor is a great example.
• “Also damages” cards: If you’ve ever used Scourgelord Garrosh, you’ve seen this effect on Shadowmourne – and can choose to clear the opponent’s board while taking the least amount of damage if the target is selected correctly (this effect also exists on cards Wild like Magnataur Alpha and Foe Reaper 4000!)
• Side effects: Similar to the Flametongue Totem example above, some cards apply effects to nearby minions. There are a few minions that also have Battlecry applied to the minion next to them, the most famous being Defender of Argus.

A lot of players know how to place cards on their table – maxing out the damage they can deal with a Flametongue Totem, or placing Defender of Argus between two strong minions – but the next challenge is to think about the possibilities. the ability that your opponent can punish your hand placement.

Can you stack cards on the table so they won’t be negated by Cone of Cold? Can the opponent clear the table with Meteor? When it was your turn, did you minimize the chance of the opponent getting optimal value when they used Flametongue Totem against you?

There are also some interesting cards in Kobolds & Catacombs, like Hunter’s Crushing Walls!

Understanding the options you have and the respective positions will make you a stronger player.

You can refer to the previous tutorial in the series ‘Where is the Pro different from us’:

• Hearthstone: ‘How is Pro different from us’, Prepare for competition

Source: Playhearthstone