When many people start they just like to play in a style that executes their decks’ plan. You have an aggro deck so you dump minions til you run out of mana and go face, right? Well as you get better you need to learn to play around your opponents’ cards. You may have enough mana to play 2 minions as aggro shaman but know your opponent will likely have mass hysteria next turn, so you may be better off toteming, hoping to hit a 0 mana totem to soak up some damage, and playing 1 minion. Or, if you are not shaman, maybe you just play 1 minion anyway, so after they clear your board (if they do), you have another one to play. It is counter intuitive to not use all your mana at first but this is a vital skill that very much seperates beginner and intermediate players.

The same goes for control players. Let’s say you are control warrior and have a brawl and the opponents board is fairly scary. But maybe that is your only answer and you really need to live long enough to draw Dr Boom so you can actually win. So ask yourself – do I brawl here to spare the opponent attacking with his minions twice? Or can I absorb 8 damage to the face and hope they play 2 more minions and I get more value from my brawl? If you find you often lose because you get “too greedy waiting for the perfect time to get max value from brawl,” try several games playing it what you consider “too early.” On the other hand if you find that you tend to run out of answers late in the game even though you clear the board often enough early, start holding back more with your clears, and learn to become more comfortable with a lower life total.

The next step is knowing when NOT to play around cards. On one hand, if you are only going to win vs this token druid by rushing them down because you have no way to deal with wide boards, then just play hoping they do not draw savage roar. If you can tell they have a good hand and you are not able to clear their board, and you are almost out of resources but maybe have their life down to 15, you may be more likely to win just going “all in” on face damage. If they draw savage roar you lose. If you play around it and they don’t draw it, you still lose. Trying to play around savage roar may keep you alive another 2-3 turns only for you to forfeit any actual chance of winning. So if you are going to lose no matter what if they draw it, play as if they don’t have it and if they don’t, you can actually win.

The other thing is playing around cards too much even when you are doing okay in the game. In general you want to play around cards more when you are in the lead, and play around cards less when you’re losing. But sometimes you play around cards so much, you actually are not able to execute your win condition well. It takes practice to find the right balance, and sometimes your opponent gets the best cards every time, but in general think about “am I playing around TOO much?” as well as asking if you are not doing it enough.