As far as strategy games go, Vs. System is about as tough as they come. With the resource row effectively serving as a second hand, the number of interactions between unseen cards is far greater than in games where the hand is the only unknown factor. And that’s the easy part—the real challenge is figuring out formation.

Matt MacLachlan has been around since the very beginning. As a member of Internet powerhouse Team Realmworx, Matt finished in the Top 8 of the first PCQ ever, so he really has seen it all. With a $10K Top 8 and multiple PCQ wins on his resume, Matt seemed like a good person to ask about formation. I asked him to come up with five basic formation rules to live by, and here they are, complete with explanations.

1) Know who is important on your side

One inevitable truth is that you don’t want to lose your most important character. More often than not, that character will be the one you played on your current turn, thanks to increasing strength with increased cost of character cards, but that’s not always true. If you’re playing Teen Titans against Gotham Knights, Roy Harper ◊ Speedy might be more crucial than Tim Drake ◊ Robin thanks to Alfred Pennyworth, while in other situations, Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal might prove more effective than Red Star or Garth ◊ Tempest. Understanding each character’s importance lets one know which characters need to be protected for long term gain.

2) Know your opponent’s deck and what it’s capable of

You’re playing against Teen Titans and you have the initiative on turn 5. You set up in an L-formation, feeling confident it’s the right play. You then go through your attacks and come out relatively clean and with your best character still intact. Each player readies . . . and your opponent plays a resource and Koriand’r ◊ Starfire. Good game. This and similar situations can be avoided by understanding the popular decks and what they’re capable of each turn. If you’re playing against Doom, you wouldn’t leave yourself open to Sub-Mariner madness when it’s in play, so why would you leave yourself open to the possibility of it coming out next turn?

3) Don’t let your opponent’s attack be easy

Essentially, there are two formation strategies when you don’t have the initiative—defensive and aggressive. If you’re playing defensively, you’ll leave your smaller characters up front and then reinforce, forcing your opponents to attack the little guys to get to the big guys. If you’re feeling more aggressive, you put the big guy in front, essentially saying, “Here’s what I’ve got, and I don’t think you can handle it. Show me I’m wrong.”

4) Know how important this turn is to the game

If you get reduced to negative endurance with plot twists still available for use, you’ve usually done something wrong. The same goes for formation. If you’re playing against X-Stall and it’s turn 7, it’s a pretty sure bet that Jean Grey, Phoenix Force is coming out next turn—so you’d better do your work now. Alternatively, if you’re the X-Stall player, all you need to do is survive turn 7, so a defensive posture makes more sense.

5) If something looks weird, there’s a reason

Sometimes the reason is simply that your opponent is bad, but most of the time, there’s going to be a trick waiting for you. Your job at that point is figuring out what that trick might be so that you can protect yourself from it.