Matching strategy

Unknown

Being a high level mtg player I've got no prob with deck building or in game strats but I need advice on matching. I can easily pick out matches but they are always one set and done. 80% of the time the ai finds ones that create huge chains and fill up the mana for every card in their hand and I basically lose on the 1st turn. Are there patterns or tips to follow to create those?

Unknown

Not an earth-shattering tip, but keep an eye out for "L's", not just straight line matches. Those will get you an extra turn:






You want to move the top right to the left as opposed to the bottom row up

Natsufan01

Sepharl wrote:

Being a high level mtg player I've got no prob with deck building or in game strats but I need advice on matching. I can easily pick out matches but they are always one set and done. 80% of the time the ai finds ones that create huge chains and fill up the mana for every card in their hand and I basically lose on the 1st turn. Are there patterns or tips to follow to create those?

Well it always comes down to luck, but there are tips to help expand that luck. This game for me though requires more thought than I'm used to. Match 4's clear a line, but don't get any more Mana than what you matched. A match 4 of a lesser color for that Planeswalker can end up giving less Mana than a match 3 of a better color. I often have to add up total mana before making a move to decide what is best.

When you're looking, look for matches that will make other matches fall into place. If you're matching horizontally, look for ones that only need a gem to fall one line to get into place. When making a vertical match 3, look for a gem above that that will match when it falls 3 spaces. You also should look for a swap that will make two matches at once, like


It's hard to describe the strategy for cascades in matching games. Start with the basics that I described. Once you get that down, it becomes easier to see advanced scenarios. Like a match, that will create a match, that will create a match 5. But you're always limited to what you see on the board, so the best move you can see won't always be the best move possible, you just won't know. Sometimes I create matches with the hope that the gems falling in to replace them will make matches too. Also, don't forget that support gems do not get removed (unless they're down to 1 already) so figure than in when seeing how things fall.

Natsufan01

matching the middle down, will also match the above it. or






matching the blues in the second row will drop the red from the top row to match with the two underneath.

Unknown

PQ player for a long time, pretty much a lot of it is luck.

Here are some general tips:

• Clear from the bottom up.
• You can predict the AI's turn, they will always prefer in this order:

1. 5/4 matches of their primary color. They have about a 50% chance of choosing the 5 match, 50% chance of choosing the 4 match if possible. So you may luck out.
2. 5/4 matches of your primary color
3. 5/4 matches of planeswalker mana
4. 3 matches including any of their activation
5. 3 matches including any of your activation
6. 3 matches including any of your support
7. 3 match of their primary color that matches one of their support
8. Random 3 match

• Using this knowledge you can "save" your supports for another day if you can present another more juicy target.
• Whenever you see a horizontal clear, look up to see if it will trigger any additional horizontal clears (usually looks like a "stacked" snake)
• Default to using a vertical clear.
• Clear anything under your supports to drop them lower, lower chance of them exploding
• Watch to make sure you don't setup any 4/5 matches for opponent (unless you are baiting them) with your clears
• Save your support to cast the next turn if a lot of that support's color is near top of board/able to be cleared. Clear those first.

Unknown

Puzzle Messed wrote:

Not an earth-shattering tip, but keep an eye out for "L's", not just straight line matches. Those will get you an extra turn:






You want to move the top right to the left as opposed to the bottom row up

Look for "T"s as well.

Natsufan01

more advanced









You might think to move the in the third row to the right for a match 4. Instead, move the in the third row to the right, which drops the in place to match 3 vertically, which drops the from the top to an L match 5.

Melevorn

Natsufan01 wrote:

more advanced









You might think to move the in the third row to the right for a match 4. Instead, move the in the third row to the right, which drops the in place to match 3 vertically, which drops the from the top to an L match 5.

You didn't mention this, but the move will also chain to a vertical match 3 (upper left corner).

Unknown

Oh and one last thing:

Match-4 is almost NEVER the right way to go. Try to match 2 3's instead or bait the AI to setting up a 5 for you. Or only use to clear activation tiles or supports. You only get mana for the 4 (and with planeswalker bonuses, this is usually about half of 2 3-match).

Blahahah

If you have issues with matching, one strategy you can use to help as a sort of minor-crutch is to play Nissa and level her up to get her final ability, and favor cards that give you mana or convert mana for you. This could be cards like Llanowar empath, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Meteorite, and so on. These will provide you with better odds for more matches since they either directly resupply your mana (like empath) or provide their benefits at the beginning of your turn so you get the advantage (unlike Elvish visionary whom may provide your opponent with better matches). Also, play faster creatures like Orchard Spirit and Leaf Gilder, which should carry you through via rushdown until you get more comfortable playing the long game.

void

Sepharl wrote:

Being a high level mtg player I've got no prob with deck building or in game strats but I need advice on matching. I can easily pick out matches but they are always one set and done. 80% of the time the ai finds ones that create huge chains and fill up the mana for every card in their hand and I basically lose on the 1st turn. Are there patterns or tips to follow to create those?

Coming from card gaming myself aswell when I first started playing this I really tried to find some hidden logic but at the end of the day, outside some of the tips posted in this thread there really isn't much depth in match three puzzles. While I'm sure a veteran player of these types of games has somewhat of an edge in pattern recognition, most of the biggest combos I've managed to pull in this game have happened largely due to random chance. Though in this games credit I still feel that the better built and piloted deck with a better game plan still wins more often than not even with uneven mana distribution due to random nature of the puzzle game itself.

JVReal

Bummed me out when I noticed during play that a match 4 that clears the row does not give you the mana for the row. Also bummed that a match 5 doesn't give you a charged or power tile as well as an extra turn.

Does the +1 or +2 to a color count for regular mana, as well as mana for your PW? There are some matches that are not tiles with the logo but I get mana for my PW...

Unknown

JVReal wrote:

Bummed me out when I noticed during play that a match 4 that clears the row does not give you the mana for the row. Also bummed that a match 5 doesn't give you a charged or power tile as well as an extra turn.

Does the +1 or +2 to a color count for regular mana, as well as mana for your PW? There are some matches that are not tiles with the logo but I get mana for my PW...

+- mana is for each match individually, doesn't affect PW.

PW mana is 1 mana for every match (a match is a 3 or more match, hence 2 match-3 is better than 1 match-4), and X mana for every PW icon match, where X is the number of tiles matched.

JSP869

Natsufan01 wrote:

Match 4's clear a line, but don't get any more Mana than what you matched.

What??? How did I miss this? Yes, I know I played through the tutorial, but I'm pretty sure this was NOT covered in the tutorial, anyway.

So when you clear a line you do not get the Mana for the tiles you destroyed but didn't "match".

Wow.

Natsufan01

It was not covered in the tutorial, we had to learn that through observation. On the flip side, it was never said that it was supposed to work that way either. If you never played MPQ, you wouldn't have even thought that. I'm pretty sure the original Puzzle Quest didn't gain the mana from those either. Not sure though.