What to scout, and when

Scouting is reading the other boards in your lobby. It costs nothing but a few seconds, and it answers three questions your own board never can: who else is on what you need, how strong you are against everyone else, and which boards you still have to beat. Each question has its moment.

Early on, boards are a mix of whatever players happened to hit, so read them lightly. Note who holds pairs of the units you are collecting and who is already strong enough to win streak. Nothing on the board is a commitment yet, theirs or yours.

Before you commit, look for carries. Damage items stacked on one unit tell you what a player is building far better than the units around it. If the line your items point to is already taken, this is the cheap moment to find out, before the gold and the items have gone into it.

Before every big roll, scout again, benches included. Your odds are copies: there are 10 of each 4-cost in the whole game, a 2-star holds 3 of them, and a copy on a bench is as gone as a copy on a board. Look at who else is about to roll for the same units too. A player with gold and your carry takes copies the moment they roll, so whoever rolls first finds more.

Strength decides what your gold is for. If yours is the weakest board and your health is going, spend to stabilize. If you beat most of the lobby, you can save and level on your own schedule. The game review marks the result of misjudging it: finishing behind the top of the lobby, on level or on the strength of the main carry.

Late in the game, scout before each fight for the boards that can still beat you, and set your board up against them, not against the ones you beat anyway. Placing units against what you scouted is the Positioning track's subject.