Who am I?
Hi, My Names Isaac I go by Urza or Ezra whatever spelling is available. I'm a Game developer/Computer Programmer and long-time competitive card game player. I've competed in Grand Prix/ PTQ's / Hearthstone major lan and events and numerous other card games. I've worked on Triple AAA Games like Paladins and Smite. Needless to say, if it comes to computer games or especially card games you've reached my area of Expertise.
I'm also the Guild Leader for T&A III, so hit me up if you're looking for a great guild to join,
Game Theory ... Solving for N and the typical Card Game Problem.
If you've played many card games you will realize they all suffer from the same problem. They get solved really fast the advent of the computer age caused this to happen even faster. In the old days, we would create paper proxies of magic cards and play all weekend to prepare for events to find the best "Tech" that other players may have not found yet. With the advent of the computer age/bots / and large database most card games get "Solved" in about 3 days, there might be some growth in the meta but the best deck or N1 is generally known within a few days of the set Release.
How does Splinterlands address this problem?
One of the things that drew me to splinterlands was the unique approach to game theory rather than giving you the same game every time the rules and even mana cost CHANGE every game. This means the best deck is Never the same thing between two games. If you are playing splinterlands spamming the same deck over and over again you are seriously missing out on some serious earnings.
What is N Game Theory?
N game theory is a simple method of determining the level of strategy in a game. You might think of it as an expression of paper rock scissors Logic in a more advanced game. For Splinterlands we will want to Express this in up to n3 ( 3 Levels of Play ) ... the argument could be made for more levels of consideration but as an intro, I think we should stick with 3 levels. N1 is always the Best Deck, This is the deck that if selected with the current ruleset would result in the highest odds of winning. Thank of this for putting the most powerful cards on the board with the most general win rate against all other decks. Technically if we stop here it is always correct to play N1 "It's the best after all". But if we apply some game theory we could consider well what beats N1 ... So as long as N1 does not have a 100% win rate or near to it. There is some combination of cards that genearlly beats it ... Provided the game is well balanced with counter options ( This is not always the case but in splinterlands balance is generally well enough that there is an N2). If we can assume our opponent is most likely to play N1 then N2 because of the proper Play. ( I'll link some example games Below ) , N3 ... Be careful there is a lazy way of viewing N3 that then N3 is the deck that beats N2.... this is not proper game theory N3 does not truly always exist N3 is a deck that exposes a combined weakness in both n1 and n2 to create a deck that is targeted to exploit that weakness those creating a deck that has a very high win rate against n1 and n2 but probably a horrible win rate against anything else.
EXAMPLES
N1
(Playing Magic )
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_7c03bbf79c82c855bce7ad2f9547cfb5&ref=erzagal
N2
(Rules Suggest A range Rush with Close Combat so i went Counter Range)
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ba7c564dd02a7c765ff272da9461bbbd&ref=erzagal
N3
This is a solid example of N3 ... The Ruleset forces the attacks to go through a front target. The Summoner weakens Melle and the Front Tank weakens Magic. Allowing a large amount of damage from the backline to blast through. Either strategy is counter so I need not worry about which one my opponent takes.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_51cf20e6e1cece5bed3aed6ad876d9ec&ref=erzagal
How does this help me win vs Bots?
So the simple answer is to understand the purpose of bots and how the current generation of Splinterlands work. Splinterland bots are playing a numbers game they want to play as many games as possible and get as many wins as possible for max rewards. Can you guess which decks they are going to choose? ... N1 that's right. Bots use databases to tell them which deck to pick based strictly on win rate. Knowing this and understanding the meta can give us a HUGE amount of win rate over bots...If the bot is always going to play magic playing Anit Magic Cards will give you huge rates. Watching match history and choosing N2 Strategies Where appropriate will help Greatly. Stay tuned for my Next Article on the top N2 Cards to Purchase before the prices go up!
Final Thought!
No, you won't win all your games but proper game theory will win you more of them. Also, this strategy allows you to have higher win rates against players with better collections. I often am able to climb myself into high gold or low diamond with a silver deck using proper Game Theory!
Good Luck Have Fun and Come back for my next Article!