Hearthpwn

not enough two drops in that list

Quote from HS_Sar »

 As for board position vs. tempo, one could argue (at least with the definition of tempo used in this article) that they're the same thing. 

That's exactly what I was worried about.

The give and take relationship of card advantage and tempo in garfeildian systems is a fascinating and tremendously important subject especially this early in the life cycle of a game. An article simply stating that having more cards in hand leads to more minions in play...not so much.

Quote from HS_Sar »

If you have a large minion on the board and the opponent has a small minion, you could choose to attack the enemy hero.  This gives you an advantage in hero life...However,  you lose the ability to reduce the opponent's tempo and card advantage. 

So it's not that your own life total is a resource, but your opponents is?   

Quote from HS_Sar »

recognize at the moment that the full article has not been published; I think it will become a little more clear later on why this definition was chosen.

Thank you so much for interacting with me on this, I'm looking forward to the rest of the article..

Quote from Dabniel »

I think a great few points to use as examples would be warlock cards like Succubus and Flame Imp, they provide additional stats at the cost of card advantage and health respectively giving you a boost in tempo.

Weapon's would be another example but this are specific cards unique to a few specific classes and not the broader game as a whole. 

Thanks for the article, I look forward to reading more but there were a couple of things i took issue with.

I think what your calling "tempo" is actually board position. The proper definition of tempo would be closer to - board position in relation to mana spent. Saying that you need card advantage in order to gain tempo is couldn't be further from the truth card advantage is generally sacrificed in order to generate tempo and vise versa.

Take for example Innervate and arcane intellect. If you were to cast innervate and chillwind yeti on your second turn you would spend 2 mana to be at -2 cards with a 4/5 on the board this is a huge tempo swing in your favor but a loss of card advantage. If you were to cast arcane intellect on turn 3 you would be you would spend 3 mana to be at +1 cards with nothing on the board gaining card advantage in exchange for a loss of tempo.

Also I disagree with the premise that the life total is a resource in hearthstone. I'm assuming that this a carry over from a MTG background but the big difference between HS and magic is the lack blocking is that whether or not you use you life total is almost never your choice. In magic the gathering if you and i both have a 2/2 in play and I attack you, it is very often the correct play to not block, sacrificing your life total because your 2/2 has flying for instance. In hearthstone if you and i both have a 2/2 in play I can trade regardless.

There are a few exceptions like mass removal, weapons and of course with Warlocks (who translate life directly into card advantage) but to put life totals on the same plane of importance and Card Advantage and Tempo is to undersell the importance of the later two.