Shards of Infinity guide - Tips and tricks for new players

If you haven’t heard already, Shards of Infinity is the new hotness around these parts. It takes the best aspects of both deck-builders and collectible card games (CCGs) and mashes them into a delightful competitive multiplayer game.

Winning in Shards of Infinity doesn’t come easy though. There’s no one set of cards you should look to get or progression of moves to make to generally do well. With that said, there are some things you can do to make sure you’re always a competitive player. Check out some of the most useful tips for new players below:

Watch your neighbors

As a deck-builder, each new match of Shards of Infinity is brimming with opportunities for you to find a new, great deck combo. Be careful not to just focus on building your own deck though, as that can give your enemies many opportunities to thwart you.

Instead, pay attention to what your opponents are buying and try to counter pick when appropriate. This doesn’t just mean buying protection cards if your enemies are stacking up on Wraethe cards. It might also mean buying some Wraethe cards of your own to deny your opponent from continuing their strategy. Remember that you have a small pool of six cards to choose from, so buying cards other people want can really mess up their overall strategy, which is good for you.

Understand the card types

If you got lost when I said “Wraethe cards” just a moment ago, make sure you read this section. Each card in Shards of Infinity is color-coded to signify a certain kinds of card archetypes and synergies, and each type of cards is labeled as one of four factions. See below for info on each faction:

• The Order - Blue colored cards that generally let you cycle through your deck quickly, earn Mastery, and protect you from direct damage.
• Undergrowth - Green colored cards that provide lots of healing and damage output, but usually require multiple Undergrowth cards to be played together to maximize effects.
• Wraethe - Purple cards that are mostly about dealing lots of damage. There are also a few cards that can let you remove cards from your deck. Like Undergrowth, many Wraethe cards are dependent on you having other Wraethe cards in your deck to be their most effective.
• Homodeus - Grey cards with yellow trim that are Champion-focused. Champions are cards that can stay in play and apply effects over multiple turns, so Homodeus revolves around creating a sort of snowball-effect of advantages against other players.

Almost all the cards in every faction work extremely well together, so getting multiple cards of any given type are usually useful. Just make sure your enemies aren’t always doing the same. A well-balanced approach to card buying can let you maximize your advantages while minimizing those of your foes.

Keep up on Mastery

Mastery is the persistent x-factor in games of Shards of Infinity. In the early game, it can seem quite useless to invest in this resources as it really slows down your deck building. But, investing in Mastery early can lead to some amazing power swings in the late game, so you don’t want to be the only one not accumulating it.

Generally speaking, it’s good practice to at least try and keep up with your opponents’ Mastery gain. If you do that, you won’t ever be affected too much by power swings, as you’ll get the same perks around the same time. There are some cases where you might want to opt to set the pace for Mastery gain in a match, but whenever you aren’t, keeping up with everyone else can help keep you safe.