Let Loose the Cards of War

While this game has a large amount of strategy involved in how you choose your cards build your deck, the one thing that can make or break every game is how you play the game. For instance, if you haphazardly drop allies every turn and forget to build up your resources, you're going to run out of gas before you ever cause any real damage to your opponent. Inversely, if you were to drop a resource every turn, even when you don't have a quest in hand, you could end up wasting a very useful card simply to play a sub par card ally. So how do you strike a balance and make the most of your resources every turn of the game? Not without a lot of careful thought.

It's a Secret to Everybody is probably the best first-turn stand-alone quest. It doesn't require any other action and it gives you the advantage of controlling your next draw when you would be doing nothing otherwise. While you may have to make a tough choice between the three cards you get to see, the ability to plan one turn ahead of your opponent can be a huge advantage. A Donation of Wool, on the other hand, can capitalize on a poor opening hand or on effects that use cards in the graveyard (Eviscerate and Ophelia Barrows are a couple cards that could take advantage of an early discard). The card also gives you an added option in your first turn which means that you cycle one more card in your first turn than your opponent expected. It's a seemingly small tradeoff for a negligible advantage, but during the early game, every little bit can help.

However, rather than playing and using a quest immediately, there are a few allies, abilities, and equipments that could also be very useful in starting the game in your favor.

While the Alliance lacks some of the overly offensive allies that the Horde has access to, it does feature the elusive ability. Apprentice Teep and Warden Tonarin are both good choices for a first-turn ally. The apprentice doesn't have enough health to survive much combat, however she's ideal for putting a little damage on the opposing hero in the early game before your opponent gets a protector on the field. Of course, Warden Tonarin is a perfect answer to the gnome (provided your opponent is playing Alliance as well). With just enough attack power to stop the apprentice, Warden also shares her ability to sit on the field and stare down the enemy without fear of being attacked. Granted, both of these allies are vulnerable to abilities, but any allies your opponent can put on the table will have no choice but to wait for you to make a move.

Agent Elrond has already summarized the best first turn allies that the Horde can use in his piece titled Happy With The Horde pt. 1. I'd suggest looking that over for a few ideas on how to open with Horde allies.

While there is a decent number of abilities that can be played on the first turn, the two that most stand out are the Warlock's Fear and the Warrior's Rend. Both are good opening abilities. Fear can send your opponent's allies back into their hand, ideally played when your opponent opens with an ally that costs one resource to play. If you find yourself facing Apprentice Teep or some other cheap ally before you're ready to deal with them, Fear can buy you a little more time. Rend, on the other hand, is perfect as an opening play as it starts the damage flowing on your opponent before they can mount an offensive. By the fifth turn, with only a single Rend in play, you can knock even the strongest hero down by a sixth of their health... and that isn't taking allies or other abilities that you may play into account.

While there are a few pieces of equipment that could also be mentioned, none of them are particularly spectacular for the first turn and may not even be useful for the early game at all, though I'm sure some decks could take advantage of them, given the right circumstances.