Path of Legends: the mistakes that cost the most games

Placing first, for no reason

The most frequent fault: starting the game by dropping a unit at the bridge because you're sitting on ten Elixir. Whoever places first gives away the information, and lets the opponent answer for less.

The simple rule is to wait. If nobody places, you've lost nothing. If the opponent places, you defend with an Elixir advantage and counterattack with whatever survives.

There is an exception: some cards go down in the back early on to set up a push. That's not the same thing as handing over the first piece of information at the bridge.

Defending too expensively

A game is played out over a series of Elixir trades. Spending five Elixir to stop a card that costs three is losing slowly, even if you win every trade on screen.

Before you place a defense, ask yourself what's left afterwards: a defense that survives and counterattacks is worth far more than a perfect defense that gets sacrificed.

On your profile, the detail of each game shows leaked Elixir and the level gap: those are the two numbers that explain the most unexplained losses.

Queueing again after a loss

Losing streaks are rarely down to matchmaking. After a close loss, you requeue fast, annoyed, and repeat the same mistake. Most players' stats show a clearly lower win rate on the games played within the five minutes after a loss.

Two losses in a row: stop for the session, or watch the replay of the last one. Ranked isn't going anywhere.

Ignoring double Elixir

Plenty of games are decided after the change of pace, when Elixir arrives twice as fast. Heavy decks only exist for that moment; cycle decks, on the contrary, need to have taken the lead before it.

Know which minute your deck is strongest, and play to get there in good shape. A cycle deck that enters double Elixir level has already lost half of its advantage.

Playing a deck you don't know

A meta deck takes dozens of games before it gives what it's worth: you have to know its answers against every archetype, and when it can afford to attack.

Keep one main deck for at least a hundred games, and use your history to see which decks you lose to most. That's what your profile's matchups page works out automatically.