"On the First Day of Christmas... Or, What to Do on Your First Turn" by Manny O'Donnell Play Sally to your Starting Locale. Just kidding, of course. It's nowhere near that simple. Even if you DID have Sally in your starting hand, she's probably not the best first-turn card to play. The longer, more correct, answer is: it depends. It depends on your Starting Locale (AND your opponent's), which of you is the Pumpkin King, and what you've drawn in your starting hand. Still, we can make some generalizations about good first moves, and some that are, to varying degrees, less helpful, and that's what this article's all about. For me, the best possible first day ends with me playing a Creation, especially when my opponent was unable to, because it puts me in the driver's seat with the oh-so-important "Add 1 PP" Pumpkin King activity. This is also the case because most Characters are not going to do you very much good when played to your Starting Locale (although there are important exceptions, which I'll cover later). But first, let's take a look at the Pumpkin King, since his activity happens before any cards are played. In a 2-player game, the first-turn PK also gets last licks, because he or she is NOT the PK on day 12. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's difficult to help yourself more than your opponent on the first turn, especially if you have the larger starting hand. If you're not the first PK, then that's a choice out of your hands, so for the purpose of instruction, we'll say you ARE. Let's take a look at your Starting Locale and hand, shall we? If you started with Oogie's Lair and drew a 3-pt. Creation, congratulations; you have the points to play it. If your opponent did NOT begin with Oogie's Lair, do NOT choose the "Add 1 PP" activity. You can be reasonably certain that your opponent will not be able to match you. If you play with any other Starting Locale and draw a 3-pt. Creation, you're in a different boat. You need that point to play that Creation. The same is true if you start with Oogie's Lair and draw a 4-pt. Creation (but then, if your opponent started with something other than Oogie's Lair, then he or she can't play a Creation if you don't choose that option as PK, so either way, you won't be BEHIND in Creations). If you draw no Creations that you can play, you might try for an advantage in one or both of the other two PK activities. You COULD attempt this by playing two or three 1-pt. Characters to your Starting Locale in the hopes of getting more out than your opponent, as well as reducing your hand by more cards than your opponent does. This DOES have the drawback, however, of putting multiple Characters where they are no help in activating future Locales, which means you'll want to be able to move them easily. The following list gives some indication of the relative ease of movement of the 1-pointers (easiest to hardest): Little Witch (can move for free to Big Witch's Locale when BW is played later) Winged Demon (can be moved anywhere for a discard) Any Mr. Hyde (can be taken back into your hand, and replayed anywhere for 1 pt.) Combos of Shock with Lock and/or Barrel (can move together for 1 move) Igor (can be discarded, and a COPY played anywhere for a point) Decomposing Guy (same as Igor, need a COPY in your hand) All of the above could, of course, be moved to an adjacent Locale with one move each, in addition to the movement abilities listed. The following are adjacent-with-a-move ONLY: The Players (but if two are played to the Starting Locale, you may draw a card, and if they are then moved to different Locales, that gives you 2 places to play the third and get HIS card bonus) Cyclops (ok, if you need to switch a card out) Barrel and/or Lock WITHOUT Shock (probably not a good idea) Jewel (no, save her to play at Dr. F.'s Locale if you can) Corpse parents (blecccch- save 'em and play 'em on Corpse Kid if you can) Mummy Boy (same as Corpse Parents) Black Cat (definitely not- wait for Sally or it'll cost you) Of course, there are exceptions; if you have two Players and Jingle Bells in your hand, you can put them out this turn to get Jingle Bells out next, so that would increase the value of playing them over Characters that are more easily moved. And naturally, if you're playing a Mayor deck, his Surprises move Characters fairly easily anyway, especially from the Mayor-mobile, so ease of movement would not be as big a concern at all. One other starting strategy is to play your starting Character to his corresponding Starting Locale. It's not immediately helpful for PK purposes, but the Mayor, Jack, and Oogie all have useful Surprises from their Starting Locales. Also, if you can play both Jack and Zero on your opening turn, then the following turn you may be able to move them for free if you are the Pumpkin King and choose the Movement option (since you will now have 2 Characters and there's a good chance you'll have more than your opponent). Note that I didn't mention Dr. Finklestein just now. There are only 3 reasons to play Dr. F. to his Starting Locale: 1) You literally can't play anything else without wasting points, or 2) You also drew Organ Donor and a high-point Creation, in which case choose the "Add 1 PP" option, play Finklestein and discard him when you play Organ Donor to play the Creation, or 3) You are playing with Ultra-Rare Dr. Finklestein (Brainy Inventor), whose card text only functions at his Starting Locale. There are some alternative opening moves, such as paying for Search cards on the first turn, but I will leave you to discover those on your own. For now, this should be more than enough to get you started (at getting you started). Check back for more tips, and as always, feel free to ask us anything you might have questions about. Play mean and have fun! Back to Finklestein's Lab