Luck & Logic - Finding and Fixing New Player Mistakes
After about a year of playing Luck and Logic, including the first ever US National tournament, I’ve noticed several plays and play errors being made by individuals outside of my friend group. Luck and Logic is an incredibly skill-based game, and seeing these errors being made have lead us to some very easy victories. As a result, I’ve compiled 7 tips for players to improve their game in fundamental ways. Some of these may be intuitive, but my hope is everyone can learn something, from novices to highly-skilled veterans.
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Breaking Gates is your foremost priority
Putting the most important thing first, the most important thing in Luck and Logic is breaking all 6 of your opponent’s Gates, as breaking your opponent’s 6th Gate is the win condition of the game. Yet all too often, I have an open Gate, but my opponent uses the final attack of their turn to attack another Member. While beating Members can leave the opponent with a dearth of resources and breaking Gates conversely gives the opponent more resources, breaking Gates also puts pressure on the opponent to accelerate to the endgame faster and defend harder, ultimately using more resources than they gain. You also only have a limited number of attacks per turn, so giving up a Gate break leads directly into needing more turns with which to win the game.
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Defend all of your Gates
Obviously, if the goal is to break all of your opponent’s Gates, you also want to keep all of your own Gates protected. Even just putting enough cards down to keep every Gate covered is enough. The main goal here is to force your opponent to have to use all of their Attack Limit to break Gates, meaning the number of Gates your opponent can break should be their Attack Limit divided by 2, rounded down. Set your field up in such a way that beating members won’t give them extra Gate Breaks.
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Level Boost. Always.
All too often, I see a player Define Logic with Level Boosts remaining without using said Level Boost. In doing so, they are losing a card in hand. A Level Boost is a free card. Use them. In not Level Boosting, you are reducing your total hand size by 1, which ultimately gives fewer options.
The common “justification” for not Level Boosting seems to be that the player is saving them for defense, which is a logical fallacy. The cards in which you have access to does not change, as the top card of the deck doesn’t generally change between now and when you are defending, and in the cases it can, the top card of the deck is still generally random. Better to know all of your potential options than it is to leave an unknown, and retain the maximum number of options. Additionally, if your opponent exclusively targets Members with low or no Limit, some of your unused Level Boosts go to waste, meaning your hand size went down by 1 for no justifiable reason.
TL;DR, if you’re going to Define Logic, Level Boost. Do it, doesn’t matter if you’re attacking or defending.
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Save your Level Boosts for defense
What? Didn’t you just say to not do this? Well, yes and no. If you’re going to Define Logic on offense, Level Boost. What this point is saying is to try to avoid Defining Logic on offense, so that you can have remaining Level Boosts on defense. Those extra cards make it much harder for the opponent to win their fights, and can force them to use up their Level Boosts, making your next turn’s offenses much easier, leading to easy defenses the following turn…
Basically, controlling Level Boosts can control the flow of battle.
As an aside to this point, if you’re defending with Level Boosts remaining, use them. Might as well, they come back the next turn, and even if you don’t intend to win the current fight, it can force a card or Level Boost out of your opponent. And if you *do* win the current fight, that’s a Gate you just saved.
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Limit your opponent’s options while forcing them to use Limit
If you’re up on Power by an interval of 5k, your opponent can’t play a 5k Logic and be winning. This disincentivizes them from playing 5k Logic cards, forcing a Paradox as their best play. In doing so, large chunks of their hand are not useful in the current fight, making your opponent’s hand effectively smaller. For Aura, being up by an interval of 2 Aura does the same. Continuously force your opponent into situations with the fewest good options for them. Conversely, always take the option that uses the fewest cards on your part. Making your opponent use the most cards per one of your cards is ideal (which is often one-to-one). Try to avoid making multiple-card (and therefore Limit) plays that your opponent can counter in a single card.
Being up on both Power and Aura leaves your opponent with no good plays, which is game-winning. However, it generally takes a lot of expensive setup to get this, so it’s not always worth it. Depends on the deck and situation (and is easiest with Mana, who is Best Girl™).
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Take the path of least resistance
Kinda a combination of all of the above, but the “path of least resistance” is the best way to win. Your goal is to break every one of your opponent’s Gates. You want to do so using the least Level Boost on your part as you can, so you can save Level Boosts for the opponent’s turn. Doing so generally means beating the weakest things your opponent has that are protecting Gates, either with 0 or 1 Limit, and with Members that have either 5k more power or an extra Aura over their members, limiting your opponent’s good options, for easier offenses, easier defenses, and easier Gate Breaks. Basically, make your life easy, take the easy way out.
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Paradoxes are better on defense
One final point, Paradoxes tend to be a stronger defensive play. Assuming a Paradox clears on offense, under the assumption the player already had enough Power to at least not be under their opponent (which is common), the continued Aura fight and extra Aura make the attackers battles easier, leaving the opponent with fewer good options (which is good).
But on defense, they leave all of the defender’s Members up over their opponent unless they have Members that gain Aura (less common). This cripples the attacker’s good options, and often leads to them simply ending their turn. This is game-winning.
So, there's my 7 tips. Hopefully something here has been useful for someone out there. Have fun, and keep improving your game!