How to play : Jinx Loose Cannon

Before you pass the turn, look at your hand: if you still hold one card or none when your next turn starts, the legend draws you an extra one. The list gives you plenty of ways out: twelve cards have Hidden, Seal of Rage costs no energy, Punching Poro discards a card to Empower and Jinx, Demolitionist discards two when she lands. Hiding is the best of them, because a face-down card is still yours to play later.

The face-down cards are also where the damage comes from. Monster Harpoon deals 4 instead of 2 while you control a face-down card, and with Katarina, Reckless on the board every card you play from face down deals 2 to an enemy unit. Hide early, flip at the right moment, and the Fury half of the deck makes every flip hurt.

You can only hide at a battlefield you control, so the opener you want takes one early: a two-energy unit such as Punching Poro, Traveling Merchant or Bedeviling Stranger, plus a card to hide there once the battlefield is yours. A hand of Hidden cards with no cheap unit does nothing: mulligan two of them and dig for one.

Keep Seal of Rage in any opener: it costs one Fury power and no energy, then gives a Fury power back every turn. Katarina, Reckless or a four-cost unit is a fine keep on its own, but never two of them in a four-card hand. And never mulligan to find Jinx, Demolitionist: she waits in your Champion Zone from the very first turn.

In a best of three you pick your battlefield, so pick it for the opponent in front of you. Bandle Scouts’ Academy is the default: every card you hide there gives you a Gold token, which pays the power back on a later turn. Bandle Tree holds a second face-down card, for when you want two tricks waiting at once. Void Gate is the pick against bigger units: each hit from a spell or ability on a unit there deals 1 more, so Falling Star deals 4 twice there.

Count your power before you hide. Each card you hide costs 1 power of any domain, Pyke, Dockside Butcher asks for one Fury power more when it flips, and every power you take from a rune sends that rune to the bottom of your rune deck. Seal of Rage and the Gold tokens add power without recycling a rune, so get them down first and the hidden plan stops eating your runes.

Katarina, Reckless comes down first, then you hide: hiding a card readies her, so she can move on the turn she lands. With her on the board, every flip of Bedeviling Stranger, Switcheroo or either Pyke deals 2 damage on top of the card’s own effect. The best flip of all is Pyke, Dockside Butcher: pay the extra Fury and it comes up ready with +2 might this turn, and on your turn Ganking walks it straight to the other battlefield.

Play something before Noxus Hopeful: Legion makes it cost 2 less once you have played another card this turn, and a Seal of Rage or a flipped card counts. Momentary Companion has two modes. Flipped on your own turn, it is a 4-might unit for no energy, and it stays. Flipped on their turn, it gets Temporary and dies at the start of your next turn, before scoring: use it to stop a conquer, never to hold a battlefield for points.

Bedeviling Stranger counts every unit at the battlefield you choose, yours included: once a fight there holds four or more, flip it and send their best unit back to their hand. Switcheroo swaps the might of two units at the same battlefield for the turn, so pair their biggest with your smallest. Both wait face down until the fight starts, which is exactly when they hurt most.

Numbers worth memorizing: Monster Harpoon deals 4 while you control a face-down card, Falling Star deals 3 twice (to one unit or two), Iron Ballista deals 2 a turn, and Void Gate adds 1 to each of those hits on a unit there. Star-Crossed answers what is too big for your damage, but it returns one of your units too: pick Jinx, Demolitionist, who makes you discard two again when you replay her, or a Momentary Companion about to die to Temporary.