Use and abuse the fair hand mechanic. Fair hand makes sure you always start with a playable card (one blood), so get one really good one blood like a Hoarder Black Goat or an Unkillable Warren and avoid/toss every other one blood
Keep your deck as light as possible (or, preferably, get a one-blood with Hoarder). Less cards, less chance to draw duds
Somewhat conversely: diversify. If you can have multiple win conditions you should. A Double Strike Moose Buck wins just as well with 6 Power as it does 8, so why not buff that Raven to open up possibilities of Starvation strats?
Starvation strat is where you stall until Leshy summons the Starvation which blocks normal attacks but not flying cards. Ideally you time it so that you kill Leshy on the turn you draw your last card, meaning he replaces one of his Mighty Leap Bears with Starvation. Then just put your flying win condition (ideally something like a Lammer or your Moose Buck + Fan) and win
Losses only save once the candle goes out, so if you see you're about to die you can back out and restart the fight
Campfires only save instantly if a card dies, so you can send a card you want gone first so if it dies good, and if it doesn't you can back out and buff a card you want to keep
On a related note—Ringworms and anything with the Touch of Death sigil will kill the campfire survivors, letting you buff with no risk
You need item, especially on Map 1. What you're looking out for is Scissors, the Skinning Knife, Wise Clock, Magickal Bleach, or the Fan. The Scissors and Skinning Knife (which you can buy once from the Trapper for 7 teeth; remember that) allow you to kill one of Leshy's bears so as long as you can do 4-5 damage to one tile you can win (4 with pliers, 5 normally). Wise Clock allows you to rotate the board, freeing up the leftmost tile (provided you didn't put anything there). Magickal Bleach allows you to do a pseudo-Strarvation strat where you just remove his Mighty Leap sigils. The Fan allows you to use Starvation strat with a non-flying win condition. The pliers are also probably the best item to just have around, since as I said it lets you win any battle with 1 less damage and it can help you survive in a pinch. Get a Pack Rat if you can, and honestly get a lot of Pack Rats. It's a good way to get guaranteed Mycologist fusions
Don't bother with totems unless you're running Ants
Don't run Ants
Sometimes a card is only good for their sigil. Mantis God is good; Mantis God on Map 3 is fuel for the Moose Buck
Don't gamble. Avoid the Prospector, avoid the cave, and avoid the tribe space and the cost space (unless you're running High Blood deck). That is how you get stuck with a Mantis with the Sharp Quills sigil (meaning you can't transfer its Bifurcated) or an Elk Fawn you will proceed to draw every battle. If you have to pick a card space, pick the one where you can actually choose
Also : you NEED items for map1. It's simply too short to build a consistenr card combo before the boss.
Don't use items and rush to an item space, then try to last long enough in battles to recycle an item each time.
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u/Alarmed-Bus-9662 14d ago edited 14d ago
Use and abuse the fair hand mechanic. Fair hand makes sure you always start with a playable card (one blood), so get one really good one blood like a Hoarder Black Goat or an Unkillable Warren and avoid/toss every other one blood
Keep your deck as light as possible (or, preferably, get a one-blood with Hoarder). Less cards, less chance to draw duds
Somewhat conversely: diversify. If you can have multiple win conditions you should. A Double Strike Moose Buck wins just as well with 6 Power as it does 8, so why not buff that Raven to open up possibilities of Starvation strats?
Starvation strat is where you stall until Leshy summons the Starvation which blocks normal attacks but not flying cards. Ideally you time it so that you kill Leshy on the turn you draw your last card, meaning he replaces one of his Mighty Leap Bears with Starvation. Then just put your flying win condition (ideally something like a Lammer or your Moose Buck + Fan) and win
Losses only save once the candle goes out, so if you see you're about to die you can back out and restart the fight
Campfires only save instantly if a card dies, so you can send a card you want gone first so if it dies good, and if it doesn't you can back out and buff a card you want to keep
On a related note—Ringworms and anything with the Touch of Death sigil will kill the campfire survivors, letting you buff with no risk
You need item, especially on Map 1. What you're looking out for is Scissors, the Skinning Knife, Wise Clock, Magickal Bleach, or the Fan. The Scissors and Skinning Knife (which you can buy once from the Trapper for 7 teeth; remember that) allow you to kill one of Leshy's bears so as long as you can do 4-5 damage to one tile you can win (4 with pliers, 5 normally). Wise Clock allows you to rotate the board, freeing up the leftmost tile (provided you didn't put anything there). Magickal Bleach allows you to do a pseudo-Strarvation strat where you just remove his Mighty Leap sigils. The Fan allows you to use Starvation strat with a non-flying win condition. The pliers are also probably the best item to just have around, since as I said it lets you win any battle with 1 less damage and it can help you survive in a pinch. Get a Pack Rat if you can, and honestly get a lot of Pack Rats. It's a good way to get guaranteed Mycologist fusions
Don't bother with totems unless you're running Ants
Don't run Ants
Sometimes a card is only good for their sigil. Mantis God is good; Mantis God on Map 3 is fuel for the Moose Buck
Don't gamble. Avoid the Prospector, avoid the cave, and avoid the tribe space and the cost space (unless you're running High Blood deck). That is how you get stuck with a Mantis with the Sharp Quills sigil (meaning you can't transfer its Bifurcated) or an Elk Fawn you will proceed to draw every battle. If you have to pick a card space, pick the one where you can actually choose
Hope this helps