Tales of Tribute Advanced Guide to Deck Cycling

In the first of our advanced technique guides we cover deck cycling, showcasing examples of how high rank players use deck cycling to their advantage as well as when to avoid cycling your deck.
Tales of Tribute is a new card game released in and alongside the Elder Scrolls Online's recent High Isle expansion.
PinkAppleYT Tales of Tribute Guide
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[@PinkAppleYT]

Deck Cycles occur when your draw pile does not have enough cards for the game to give you a full hand, or when you attempt to draw from or interact with your draw pile but do not have enough cards in it for said action. I hope this helps you win some matches :)

[@Stinkyremy]

This is some big brained thinking tbh. I only started playing a few days ago so i am just spamming all my cards, occasionally not using some but I didn't even think to manipulate decks like this via cycling

[@SymphonySays]

Now that I've watched this, I finally see why some opponents pick cards I actively avoid lol. It's pretty advanced for me (ToT is my first deck-building/strategy card game experience) But hopefully I will catch on & finally move from Voidsteel to Rubedite. Tysm for sharing your knowledge!

[@Liforce]

This video was fantastic. I can't imagine how long it took you to get all the footage, but it explains deck cycling perfectly. Kudos!

[@itsBigDaddio]

This is an eye opening video

[@Cyber1zed]

You're right Ive been complaining how lucky my opponents are with this, but now it makes sense.

[@nvogue1090]

Now that is an advanced technique, and well explained. Please keep this coming. Subscribed!

[@PinkAppleYT]

Appreciate the feedback :) and have lots of videos planned for you guys!

[@barjunkie21]

this is something i never even thought of great vid

[@PinkAppleYT]

Yeah its definitely a massively overlooked technique, once you make the realization however you will start seeing these situations all the time!

[@alvisjose]

Marvelous! Ty for this great insight.

[@lordwolfx]

Awesome video, thanks Brookings

[@DarKirby02]

Lots of great techniques. Even I can utilize getting turn 3 rally/currency exchange if it comes up 🙌 Very comprehensible. Amazing deck cycling guide 👌

[@PinkAppleYT]

Thanks, I definitely feel is my best video yet :) Cant wait to get out more!

[@SilverMajra]

Excellent breakdown of a pretty advanced concept. I didn't even have a name for it, it was just something I would do so its nice to have a name for it now.

[@WoelerGaming]

Now this is super interesting. Thanks for this video. I never thought about the cooldown pile this way.

[@PinkAppleYT]

Great thing is, once you are familiar with these concepts you will start to see situations to use them in a lot of matches!

[@vronykah]

Several ideas I hadn't thought of! Thank you for these tips! I am looking forward to more of your content!

[@PinkAppleYT]

:) Cant wait to get more out there! Is a lot to Tales of Tribute that does not meet the eye initially.

[@finallyhappyglover]

Nice job on the explanation of deck cycling. Useful information and you gave multiple examples. Thank you sir!

[@Wonky2]

I've been winning a lot more since watching this video and putting these techniques to use, even got called a cheater once :D

[@dilvish9317]

Really good vid Pink Apple. Definitely helped me understand that deck-mech.

[@PinkAppleYT]

Glad it helped out :) More to come!

[@CassandrasBox]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

[@lesnessmanbowtie]

Great Video! Thank you.

[@fourby2ly390]

Great info, thanks for sharing these techniques.

[@meta1girl-l6m]

great video!! always good to learn something new :) thanks

[@pepperandterrancecatnip8410]

super helpful, an epiphany for my game. thank you!

[@mundyness]

This was fascinating, as an intermediate player who wants to get better! Thank you for sharing :)

[@sherrydowns4052]

Cool tips dude; keep ‘em coming

[@MS-ht9it]

Love this!

[@Kemendil1992]

Genius! Thanks a lot :-)

[@maxdamagus]

"WTF RALLY TWO TIMES IN A ROW?!": me in games, before I watched this video.

[@tcatzmeow]

Great video, I have seen people do some of these moves and know I know why…thank you.

[@KaisersGB]

Awesome techniques! That explains why I see some people not playing Their full hand! I will have to practice these in my next matches, thanks for the awesome info!

[@PinkAppleYT]

Yeah a lot of people are not even aware of these mechanics! Hopefully you start automatically recognizing these deck cycling opportunities now :)

[@KaisersGB]

@@PinkAppleYT I started to see the potential a couple of days ago but didn't realize how powerful a move that was until you highlighted it in this vid. This is the kind of reliability I need to focus for my crow strat

[@vicstone4964]

Thank you so much for this video sharing part of your knowledge about ToT 👍 I only knew that I know nothing about this cardgame, but your good explanations helped me to understand it much better. No more complaints about "lucky" opponents 😳 Practice already started 😃

[@PinkAppleYT]

Glad to hear it helped out :) more to come soon!

[@roanlaplante]

The example where you have rally that wouldn't be in your reshuffle if you didn't play the toss effect, I agree is a mistake, but it's a bit of a more ambiguous mistake because your deck does have a lot of other red cards in it, and your deck is pretty thick already, in other words, the marginal contribution of rally to your deck's card quality is a smaller percentage than if you did curated deck cycling on a thinner deck, so your deck will still be hitting pretty hard even if the rally is not included in the reshuffle. There are situations that would more clearly illustrate the example. A minimal situation is, you open grand larceny and scrying globe/ragpicker, and on turn 4, your deck has larceny and scrying globe in it only, and by playing the scrying globe, you won't have the grand larceny in your reshuffle, and there's no prize to buy immediately that requires you to spend the 2 gold. This is a situation where playing the scrying globe is a 100% unambiguous mistake. Also, you could mention that your second example where you rely on a harvest season to reshuffle so that you can buy a rally on turn 3 has only a 66% chance to work, although its still the right play because the tavern has no other prize. Also, your example with the shehai summoning is clever and something I wouldn't have thought of, but it's not a realistic game situation: If your deck is thin as it is in the example, shehai summoning is a bad card that will more likely prevent you from playing rally than help you from playing rally because it is taking up space in your deck. If your deck is thick and has multiple green cards with dig effects, then a) the marginal % contribution of rally to your deck is not as high in the first place and b) it's not as damning because your green cards that dig through the discard pile will help you get the rally back, which they might potentially do faster than if you included the rally in your reshuffle.

[@PinkAppleYT]

The video is intended to highlight the mechanics at play more so than analyze each individual moment to the highest level possible. A lot of players are unaware of these deck cycling mechanics! Am sure I could have gotten some more precise clips, but for the sake of time and illustrating how deck cycling works I felt the situations in the video would give players the tools they need to figure out how to utilize deck cycling to their advantage.

[@magenpie_4009]

Hi Pink Apple - this video is the single most useful vid I've found on ToT. With the exception of Old Salty Sean, most guides explain the very basics but none of them go into the details/mechanics of gameplay. I'd been searching everywhere for things like 'what happens to cards you don't use' and 'is card order important' etc. I'm totally new to card games like this, and simply don't have the jargon to know what I'm asking for and want to know. I could tell something was going on with play order and keeping cards back, but I'm too dim to work it out for myself!Also, so many guides are full of waffle, your vids are utterly straight to the point, which is such a relief!! So from a bewildered card noob, thank you so so much!! And thank you to Old Salty Sean for pointing me in your direction. Many many thanks, and I look forward to your future guides. Kind regards, - Magenpie

[@magenpie_4009]

Just wanted to say, I've just won my first three games in a row and I've started playing ranked, which I was terrified of before. I'm by no means good at this but you've helped so much!

[@PinkAppleYT]

Comments like this really keep me motivated to keep pushing out educational content in my own style :) so happy to hear the video helped you out!

[@PinkAppleYT]

@@magenpie_4009 Congratulations! Biggest piece of advice I can give is don't mind the losses, it can feel daunting at first but at the end of the day becoming a better player is the best result you can have!

[@paulorobertoleitedasilvaju2768]

I got the crack

[@trall1444]

I loved this guide, just one question though, in your last example you didn’t play the fortify for one power and I’m curious as to why you wouldn’t play it in this situation

[@PinkAppleYT]

Glad to hear it helped out! As for the fortify in the last example, I was simply showcasing the deck cycling aspect and as such did not really think about playing the other cards in that hand as they were not relevant to the guide, but if that was a ranked match you are correct, no reason not to play it there!

[@trall1444]

@@PinkAppleYT I honestly just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something! Thanks for such a great guide, can’t wait for your next guide if your doing one

[@Games-fl8id]

Hey @PinkAppleYT, have you quit the game? Haven't seen any newer video's from you. would love t see up to date guides and including the tier lists of the newer decks

[@PinkAppleYT]

Hey! I had taken a break from the game and content creation for a little bit mostly for personal reasons, but there will be new videos soon! I just finished rank #1 NA last month playing Almalexia and the tierlist is already finished just adding the final touches to the video. Thanks to you and everyone else for the support and interest! :)

[@Games-fl8id]

@@PinkAppleYT Ahh nice, congratulations. I just got access to high isle since it's now part of ESO+. so just starting out my tour. Just level 3 with ebony rank so far. Only the starter decks. Maybe about 15% winrate in ranked so far. Playing hlaalu+ crow or Hlaalu+Pelin so far. (Pelin mainly for the buy>Sacrifice atm. ) although Druids, Maomer and the dark deck (orgrum or whatever he's called) seem interesting as well. so possibly for the long run. But first things first, gotta increase my winrate.

[@kiwitea2451]

Hey Pink Apple, I haven't had the honor of playing you, but I've managed to crack the leaderboards last season. I'm wondering what you think about habitually killing your black and red starter cards early? I'm in this habit, I mint them asap unless there is an obvious combo on T1 or T2. I find it makes a huge difference in terms of early economy and accessing key cards. I have noticed that almost none of the other leaderboard players do this, though. Is is a solid approach, do you think? Do you do this much?

[@PinkAppleYT]

I tend to replace them as fast as possible, and I replace fortify in nearly all cases even if I pick up an early siege weapon volley or reinforcements. Makes your early economy much more consistent, I would continue to keep replacing them!

[@DrowChyld]

The blue is fine but I just don't like it. I run with crow and gold, been times I've got 40+ prestige in one turn at turn 6. This one is more trouble then its worth, 9 times outta 10 but there is satisfaction when you can use its mind-bending tactics to pwn the draws.

[@Death10186]

Do a video on how deck cycling can also be used in conjunction with Ansei and Amalexia decks. Its quite stupid how you can run the same 2 overpowered hands turn after turn after turn. I dont have Necrom but when a player chooses the Amalexia deck I punish them with it so hard. If you use the amalexia vendor at turn 2 you basically ruin your opponents momentum to build anything up. Then yu just keep stealing or chucking any cards they buy. Beat a guy Turn 5 where I had 30 prestige and he had 3

[@KrishnaGupta-fe6hm]

Ed who?

[@magenpie_4009]

Hi Pink Apple - Would it be ok to ask you some (possibly stupid) questions here? I'm really sorry if making a second comment isn't the right thing to do, I don't really know how KZbin works tbh. Also apols if I'm being demanding!

[@PinkAppleYT]

Always feel free to ask away!

[@magenpie_4009]

@@PinkAppleYT You are so kind, thank you! I'm not sure if I'm going to explain very well, please bear with me, but how does The Dealer deck work? Is it a never ending pile of RNG cards or is there a set deck? So, if my opponent removes a Rally from the Tavern to the off-screen discard pile, is that Rally vanished and gone forever or does it have a chance to come back? Secondly, I'm still a bit confused about which cards cycle the deck. Is it any card which require you to remove cards from your hand/cd pile and cards from the Tavern which give you new cards? I feel this is probably the stupidest question in the world and indicates that I'm a massive idiot. Lastly (sorry) where do I find info/stats about my wins/losses to date? The UI is so esoteric (ESOteric har har) with regard to ToT. The only info I can find about my progress is in the achievments tab. Is that all there is? I feel I'm pawing at the air in understanding the game, with enlightenment just out of reach. I seem to be doing...ok-ish...with very basic games against Real Live People, but I get into a flap really quickly. Yesterday I lost a game with NO idea how it happened, followed immediately by a game where I came back from nothing, converting obscene piles of gold into power (thanks to Tithe) but don't exactly know how I accumulated so much money! I'm very much playing with my gut atm and that's obviously not good for consistant wins. And I have no idea how the decks beyond the basic four work. Sorry if I've waffled on!

[@PinkAppleYT]

@@magenpie_4009 So on the left portion of the screen there is a pile of cards that can be opened up to show the remaining cards in the tavern. There is actually a tab in that menu to show the tavern discard pile. That is where cards that get removed go. If every card in the tavern is bought/remove, the tavern cycles all the cards in the tavern discard back into the tavern draw. Most games do not get this far, but sometimes you will play a slow game with lots of gold and it happens. In this case, the removed rally would be back in the possible draws. The pinned comment on this video explains what triggers a deck cycle :) basically its any time the game attempts to interact with your draw pile but there is not enough cards to take the action. There is no win/loss count as far as I know in the base game, atleast not for rubedite. Some players use an addon that keeps track of this for them however. For the top 100 you can open the leaderboard under the journal part of the menu. Hope this helped :) if anything still needs clarification let me know.

[@magenpie_4009]

@@PinkAppleYT thank you so much!! :)

[@lordwolfx]

Broski*

[@meelsie143]

I’m far too stupid for this