WoW The Basics: Threats, Answers, and Inevitability

Let's start with a typical gameplay example. Your opponent managed to reduce your hit points to four, and she's got Zygore Bladebreaker in play, an ally with an ATK of four. Unless you find a way out of this situation, your opponent will win the game on her next turn. Biting your lip, you draw a card, and as luck would have it, you draw Tristan Rapidstrike, an ally with three ATK and protector. You play your ally, knowing that even though you're not out of the woods just yet, you've at least bought yourself some time to possibly turn the tide of battle.

This example illustrates three important concepts: inevitability, threats, and answers. In the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, you win the game when your opponent's hero either takes damage equal to the hero's health or when your opponent runs out of cards. Inevitability means establishing a situation in which you will inevitably win the game, just like in the example above where your opponent had an ally capable of defeating you and you had nothing to stop her. The means by which inevitability is established are called "threats," and the means by which threats are countered are called "answers."

When building your first deck, this is the first thing to keep in mind: your deck should include threats that let you establish inevitability as well as answers to your opponent's threats. Sometimes, the lines between threats and answers become blurred. For example, you could have drawn Starfire instead of Tristan Rapidstrike. Normally, Starfire would be considered a threat, but in this case it can actually be used to counter a threat, which makes it an answer. The ability of some cards to function as both threats and answers is called "versatility"; we'll go into a little more detail on this aspect later.

Let's see how different balances of threats and answers translate into different deck types and play styles.