Regarding recent Hearthpwn polls about deck and class popularity I become interested: What are the thin difference between Midrange and Tempo deck types? What are most common features/cards for each of this types? What popular decks for one class (e.g. Paladin or Rogue) can better represent each play style?
I never played CCG before (and I'm not the only one), so this specific profesional termins seems a bit vague and unfamiliar.
The idea is to put on pressure and be able to answer counter pressure with your hand. Tempo usually involves dumping your hand and having some sort of way to refill it afterwards. Another good term for Tempo would be "Snowballing"...Creating a situation powerful and awkward so your opponent cannot answer, but also having options to keep the board under your firm control while doing damage (Bolts/Lances could be aimed at board threats)
Midrange on the other hand is sort of "Preparing for Liftoff". You stall out the board, but you play high value cards that don't quite breach the upper echelons of cost. Shaman performs Midrange best...high value drops like Fire Elemental, Earth Elemental, Lava Burst, and Doomhammer come out early, hit hard, and create a difficult board state for your opponent.
While "control" relects more of a style of "Play until you can drop the big guys", Midrange says "Get your big guys out, get them out quickly, and have options to keep pressure going"...Cards like Crackle and Hex can help clear the way to your big guys to get in and do work.
Some might disagree of course, but that is my interpretation of those phrases!
Tempo, as I understand it, is about putting your opponent in a reactionary position -- ideally on every turn. The "snowballing" that happens is almost a side effect of having and keeping tempo. To put it another way, you're always one step/threat/counter ahead of them. They play a 1/2, you play a 2/4. They equip a weapon, you remove it, and play another minion. They spend all their mana on an AoE (meanwhile their board is empty, or practically so) You play 3 minions on the next turn like nothing happened. That's having tempo. Tempo decks generally run cards with high synergy that help build and maintain this kind of momentum. While Zoo is generally categorized as an Agro Deck, I think it's probably the quintessential tempo deck. Paladin (especially after GvG) and Rouge can also do tempo decks really well.
Midrange, like @Fallstar said, is about having a strong midgame. Cards with above average stats/effects in the 4-6 mana cost range typically make up this type of Deck, with Shaman's Fire Elemental being the best example. Azure Drake could probably be considered a midrange card. Midrange decks typically make up for a weak early game with small taunts, or removal spells. While Shaman being the class that exemplifies this the best, you can likely make a formidable midrange deck for pretty much all of the classes.
As for the line between the two? I think a good midrange deck doesn't generally blur into tempo so much as a tempo deck can blur into a midrange deck -- whether thru bad draws or the deck just being inconsistent (or unfocused). Both rely on spells to achieve their aims, with Midrange needing them instead of minions in the first few turns and tempo needing them to keep their opponent from gaining any momentum.
Hope this helps. (And to the more seasoned CCG players -- feel free to correct me if I messed this up :))
I like to think of it this way. Midrange is getting a 4/4 for 4 mana. Tempo is getting a 3/4 with battlecry: "Deal 1 damage". Both cards can be valued the same, but tempo goes "faster", at the expense of "burning out" quickly as well. If that battlecry didn't do any lasting damage, the faster card was worse in the end. Think of Rogue, which gains tempo by spending cards. Backstab is zero mana, and "combo" is like a battlecry that doesn't come at the cost of stats, but they both exhaust your hand very quickly. So you either kill them with your burst, or you peter out and get outvalued by midrange.
Innervate is also another card which is pure tempo, it trades card disadvantage for stats (ideally), letting you get more stats on the board quicker, but also making sure that you run out of cards in your hand faster as well.
It's the difference between pouring a bucket of water on a fire, either all at once (tempo) or at a constant rate (midrange). If the burst worked, great! But if it didn't, you're empty and screwed.
Midrange would play 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5 (almost the definition of midrange). Tempo would play nothing, remove your stuff + 2/2, nothing, 2/2 + 5/5, you're out of gas.
Innervate has a dual purpose, like most Druid cards -- Tempo AND Deck Thinning. :)
Good call on pointing out the trade off of burning out when running tempo cards -- that's definitely one of the things that stands in stark contrast to midrange.
Regarding recent Hearthpwn polls about deck and class popularity I become interested: What are the thin difference between Midrange and Tempo deck types? What are most common features/cards for each of this types? What popular decks for one class (e.g. Paladin or Rogue) can better represent each play style?
I never played CCG before (and I'm not the only one), so this specific profesional termins seems a bit vague and unfamiliar.
My arena stats!
When I think "Tempo" I think "Aggro Control"..The idea is to play cards that continue to help you snowball to victory.
An example "Tempo" scheme for mage would be something like
T1: Mana Wyrm
T2: Frostbolt
T3: Mana Wyrm, Ice Lance
T4: Fireball
The idea is to put on pressure and be able to answer counter pressure with your hand. Tempo usually involves dumping your hand and having some sort of way to refill it afterwards. Another good term for Tempo would be "Snowballing"...Creating a situation powerful and awkward so your opponent cannot answer, but also having options to keep the board under your firm control while doing damage (Bolts/Lances could be aimed at board threats)
Midrange on the other hand is sort of "Preparing for Liftoff". You stall out the board, but you play high value cards that don't quite breach the upper echelons of cost. Shaman performs Midrange best...high value drops like Fire Elemental, Earth Elemental, Lava Burst, and Doomhammer come out early, hit hard, and create a difficult board state for your opponent.
While "control" relects more of a style of "Play until you can drop the big guys", Midrange says "Get your big guys out, get them out quickly, and have options to keep pressure going"...Cards like Crackle and Hex can help clear the way to your big guys to get in and do work.
Some might disagree of course, but that is my interpretation of those phrases!
Tempo, as I understand it, is about putting your opponent in a reactionary position -- ideally on every turn. The "snowballing" that happens is almost a side effect of having and keeping tempo. To put it another way, you're always one step/threat/counter ahead of them. They play a 1/2, you play a 2/4. They equip a weapon, you remove it, and play another minion. They spend all their mana on an AoE (meanwhile their board is empty, or practically so) You play 3 minions on the next turn like nothing happened. That's having tempo. Tempo decks generally run cards with high synergy that help build and maintain this kind of momentum. While Zoo is generally categorized as an Agro Deck, I think it's probably the quintessential tempo deck. Paladin (especially after GvG) and Rouge can also do tempo decks really well.
Midrange, like @Fallstar said, is about having a strong midgame. Cards with above average stats/effects in the 4-6 mana cost range typically make up this type of Deck, with Shaman's Fire Elemental being the best example. Azure Drake could probably be considered a midrange card. Midrange decks typically make up for a weak early game with small taunts, or removal spells. While Shaman being the class that exemplifies this the best, you can likely make a formidable midrange deck for pretty much all of the classes.
As for the line between the two? I think a good midrange deck doesn't generally blur into tempo so much as a tempo deck can blur into a midrange deck -- whether thru bad draws or the deck just being inconsistent (or unfocused). Both rely on spells to achieve their aims, with Midrange needing them instead of minions in the first few turns and tempo needing them to keep their opponent from gaining any momentum.
Hope this helps. (And to the more seasoned CCG players -- feel free to correct me if I messed this up :))
Tempo is actually really badly defined as a term in CCG. This has been a question since the days of MTG. http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/12
I like to think of it this way. Midrange is getting a 4/4 for 4 mana. Tempo is getting a 3/4 with battlecry: "Deal 1 damage". Both cards can be valued the same, but tempo goes "faster", at the expense of "burning out" quickly as well. If that battlecry didn't do any lasting damage, the faster card was worse in the end. Think of Rogue, which gains tempo by spending cards. Backstab is zero mana, and "combo" is like a battlecry that doesn't come at the cost of stats, but they both exhaust your hand very quickly. So you either kill them with your burst, or you peter out and get outvalued by midrange.
Innervate is also another card which is pure tempo, it trades card disadvantage for stats (ideally), letting you get more stats on the board quicker, but also making sure that you run out of cards in your hand faster as well.
It's the difference between pouring a bucket of water on a fire, either all at once (tempo) or at a constant rate (midrange). If the burst worked, great! But if it didn't, you're empty and screwed.
Midrange would play 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5 (almost the definition of midrange). Tempo would play nothing, remove your stuff + 2/2, nothing, 2/2 + 5/5, you're out of gas.
Innervate has a dual purpose, like most Druid cards -- Tempo AND Deck Thinning. :)
Good call on pointing out the trade off of burning out when running tempo cards -- that's definitely one of the things that stands in stark contrast to midrange.
Okay that MTG article was awesome (and also backs up my assertion about zoo being a tempo deck). Thanks for sharing it @tabbynat
this thread help me alot to understand all this terms lol