Team Fight Tactics has my Attention

As you've maybe noticed, I've only written a single article this week, the one about Chaos Draft, and there's been no podcast this week.  I've found it very difficult to find something I'm knowledgeable enough on to write about, with Modern Horizons going down, M20 having almost no relevancy, and no tournaments or new sets to play.  Expect things around here to go back to normal once Throne of Eldraine spoilers start to drop.

Enter my latest infatuation, Team Fight Tactics.

For those unaware, the current hot trend in gaming is "Autobattlers", starting with Autochess and inspiring Teamfight Tactics and Dota: Underlords.  Autobattlers are reminiscent of Tower Defense games anyone who's played Flash games on sites like Kongregate will be familiar with, and in the case of Teamfight Tactics have the League of Legends IP to provide the story and art elements.  For myself, I grew up playing huge amounts of League of Legends, and I only started playing Magic because of a wrist injury I sustained playing it almost six years ago now.

Teamfight Tactics is as also a relative of games like Magic.  There's a lot of variance, from what champions you see to what items you receive, and managing this variance makes up the vast majority of gameplay, just like it does in Magic.  The ability to think on your feet in given situations is rewarded heavily, so the game is quite skill intensive even with lots of variance.  There's also drafting just like taking cards out of packs, although in this game it is either simultaneous with everyone else at the start, or simultaneous with one other player as players draft in pairs later in the game.

At the risk out sound like an ad, the game is free and making an account isn't difficult.  Monetization comes purely from cosmetics, so as long as you're OK with a boring avatar, it'll never cost you a cent. You're effectively the product for sale here, as someone to play with people willing to put in money.

 If you've decided to give Team Fight Tactics a try, here's a few quick tips to help you get started and not feel too lost.

Don't take a 1 cost unit, or Negatron Cloak from the first Carosel.

The drafting rounds are called "the Carosel" in reference to the slow rotation of the champions to pick from.  You're generally not left with much choice at the first one, so don't take a unit with a grey circle under them, or the cloak item that gives Magic Resistance.  As you're almost always selling the first unit you get for money in order to try to put pairs of units together later, the unit you have is largely irrelevant

Saving money wins games.

The most basic strategy you can have is to be frugal with your money, as each increment of 10 gold you hold onto (up to a maximum of 50) will give one gold in interest each round.  This doesn't generally mean to never spend gold, but be mindful of holding onto the nearest interest generating point when you're choosing what to spend your money on.

Be at peace with bugs.

I really enjoy this game, but it is probably the buggiest game I've ever played.  Champions frequently stop moving entirely, cast spells without the proper mana to cast them, go on random nature walks, just to name a few things that frequently happen.  Riot games has been hard at work making the game better each week, so this will improve over time.  Just like you need to be at peace with never hitting your 3rd land in games of Magic, you will lose games of Teamfight Tactics entirely to bugs and there's not much you can do about it.

Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter