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Jumping into PVP in Harry Potter Magic Awakened can be scary. After all, here you are, living your best life when suddenly you have to go to the dueling club to fight other players with your deck of spells. “I wanted to just go to classes and hang with my friends!” I hear you say.
Like so much in life, the path to success is walked by those with power. While your first instinct might just be to fill your deck with extremely powerful cards, there’s a bit of finesse to building a functional deck. There’s also the business of how to actually conduct your fights- and those are what we’re going to be talking about here.
Building Your Deck
Regretfully, filling your deck with 6-cost powerhouses aren’t the way to victory. Even if you used our previous guide for choosing the best cards on the reroll banner, there’s unfortunately a lot more to building a good deck. The secret is balancing the cost of cards in your deck- that means having at best one 6-cost at all, while the rest of your deck is made up of 3-costs and 2-costs.
Some really good support cards aren’t even Legendary- Niffler is a good Epic card that’s only 2 cost, giving you increased MP to speed up your offensive plays. That being said don’t expect it to ever generate more than 1 MP- on top of draining its own health, other players will immediately target it, meaning you’re never going to see it around for more than a few seconds at a time.
Essence of Dittany is a surprisingly reliable common card that’s great for a lot of beginner plays. It’s an AOE heal, which means that if you’re running a summon-heavy build it’s good for keeping your minions going. Think of units like the stone knights of Piertotum Locomotor- they’re tanky enough as is, and supporting them with a heal instead of a recast is both cheaper and lets you keep your pressure up.
Alternatively, if you’re running single-unit cards, Episkey is another good support to have. It’s a channeled heal, which does leave you vulnerable while using it. If you already have the momentum, though, Episkey is a terrifying card to have in the deck- just the idea of having Thunderstorm around for longer is going to force your opponent to change up their playstyle.
Similarly, you’ll also want to make room in your deck for control cards. Personally, Incarcerous is a good low-cost common for getting the job done- it can either stop a summon ball headed straight your way, or even catch your opponent and stop them from running away from your incredibly slow stone knights. Its main selling point is how easy it is to upgrade- it’s both common and purchaseable via the shop.
Actual Combat
Once you’re done building your deck, the next step is actually playing the duels. After all, there’s not point having a PvP mode in Harry Potter Magic Awakened if you’re not going to actually fight. It’s easy to forget that movement is a limited resource in the game- try not to move around too much unless you absolutely have to, like for positioning some spells or getting out of enemy AoEs.
Don’t forget to unlock Echoes too- you’ll get these as soon as you reach the Forbidden Forest. They’re not a huge game changer early on, but considering Dobby is a free teleport you’ll want to make sure you don’t catch yourself under-advantaged in your matches.
Aside from that don’t be afraid to cast spells just to add new cards to your hand- if you’ve loaded your deck up with more all-purpose-use cards rather than hyper specific ones, you’re more likely to find a use for them.
While your temptation might be to rush down the enemy wizards, there’s some benefit to spending spells to take out their summons- for one, robbing them of high-cost ones means not having to deal with them again for a while. Just remember to take your shots where you can find them, since ultimately getting your enemy to 0 health is the best way to win the duel.
There’s also something to be said for your Companions- these don’t cost MP to cast, so don’t forget to use them when you can. Companions like Ivy are really good since she literally just nukes one unit off the board on entry. The Frey Twins and Malfoy Gang [Throwback] are also good for just flooding the board with bodies, while cards like Daniel Page are good for topping off your units health.The important thing is that you shouldn’t be seeing companions as the main feature of your deck, but rather as supports to your predetermined playstyles.
Have Fun
Ultimately, though, Harry Potter Magic Awakened is a game to be played for fun, so don’t stress too much about “optimal” play in PvP. All the advice here is just meant to serve as guidelines for your own PvP experience, but don’t let that stop you from making your own massive swarm deck that snatches victory right before you burn yourself out.
If you are going for higher-level play, don’t forget to upgrade your cards. I do recommend looking at the lower cost cards just because you can get duplicates more easily, but you will ultimately need the privilege that comes with Epic or Legendary rarity cards.
I would have to say the summon-based spells are better for more casual play- having to maneuver and spell-sling at the same time can be quite intense, so having trolls and bugs fight for you instead is a pretty good bargain.
