A card or a move?

Every Built Deck turn asks the same two questions. Which piece moves, and do you play a card? The move is compulsory. The card is optional, limited to one a turn (Sugar Rush and Espresso Shot say otherwise on the card, and nothing else does), and it's where most games are decided. What follows is seven consecutive White turns in a position built to make the point, not a game that happened. The chess is ordinary on purpose, so you can watch the hand.

You're White. Your opening hand is seven cards: three Braincell, Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield and 1 Turn Freeze. Your Braincell pile is empty. A card is dealt at the start of each of your turns while you hold fewer than seven, which means the first turn deals nothing.

Turn 1: bank

Move: e4. Hand: Braincell, Braincell, Braincell, Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze.

There's nothing to attack and nothing to defend, and four of your cards cost Braincells you don't have. So the card this turn is a Braincell, banked. That uses your one card for the turn, and nothing else in the hand could have used it.

Banked: 1. Hand: 6.

Turn 2: bank again

Black answered e5. You're dealt Horizontal Teleport. Move: Nf3, attacking the e5 pawn. Hand: Braincell, Braincell, Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport.

Same reasoning, same card. Bank a Braincell. It's dull, and it's correct. A hand full of answers is worth nothing without the Braincells to pay for them, and the opening is when banking costs least, because your move is doing the real work on its own.

Banked: 2. Hand: 6.

Turn 3: the first temptation

Black played Nc6. You're dealt Tripping. Move: Bc4. Hand: Braincell, Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport, Tripping.

Here's the first card that looks playable. Move Again costs one Braincell, you have two, and a second developing move (Nc3, say) puts you a tempo ahead. Why not?

Because a Braincell for a quiet tempo is the worst rate you'll get all game. Black has made no threat, so a tempo here buys a slightly nicer position and nothing concrete. Later, the same card will let you move a piece out of danger and make a threat at once. That's what it's for. Bank the last Braincell instead.

Banked: 3. Hand: 6.

Turn 4: just move

Black played Nf6, attacking your e4 pawn. You're dealt Knight Like. Hand: Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport, Tripping, Knight Like.

Now there's a threat, and a card that answers it. 1 Turn Freeze on the f6 knight stops the capture cold. But it costs a Braincell and your card for the turn, and it protects the pawn for exactly one turn, after which the knight thaws and attacks e4 again. Nc3 defends the pawn for nothing, for good, and develops a piece.

A card that does what your move does is a card wasted. Play Nc3 and hold everything.

There's a price for holding, and you should know you're paying it. You end the turn with seven cards, so next turn deals you nothing. That's still right. Every card in the hand has a job it hasn't been asked to do yet.

Banked: 3. Hand: 7.

Turn 5: play it now

Black played Nxe4, taking the pawn. No card is dealt, since your hand is full. Hand: Move Again, Shield, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport, Tripping, Knight Like.

In plain chess this is a known trick. You recapture, Nxe4, and Black plays d5, forking your bishop on c4 and your knight on e4. You save the bishop, Black takes the knight, and material is level again. Black is counting on it.

So recapture first, Nxe4. Then, with the move made and the knight sitting on e4, play Shield on it for one Braincell. It can't be captured until after your next turn. Black can still play d5 and hit both pieces, but can only take one, and the knight isn't on offer.

This is the card to play the moment it's good, because the moment doesn't last. Next turn the fork will have landed, and a Shield then saves one piece while the other hangs. Notice the order inside the turn too: the card went after the move, once you could see what the move set up.

Banked: 2. Hand: 6.

Turn 6: spend the turn you bought

Black played d5 anyway, attacking the bishop, and is waiting for the Shield to run out. You're dealt a Braincell. Hand: Move Again, Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport, Tripping, Knight Like, Braincell.

The Shield lasts until after this turn. If you only move the bishop, Black takes the knight next turn and you've spent a Braincell to delay the trade by a move. The Shield bought one turn, and you have to spend it on two things: get the bishop out and get the knight out.

That's two moves, and it's what Move Again has been waiting for since turn 3. Move the bishop to b5, pinning the c6 knight to the king, then play Move Again and bring your knight back to c3, attacking the d5 pawn. Both pieces are safe, you're a knight up for a pawn, and the position is the one Black thought they were avoiding.

Two cards and two Braincells over two turns won a piece. That's the rate you refused on turn 3, and the reason you refused it.

Banked: 1. Hand: 6.

Turn 7: hold the Instant

Black played Bd7, breaking the pin. You're dealt Sneak Peek. Move: d4, opening the c1 bishop and leaning on e5. Hand: Flash Shield, 1 Turn Freeze, Horizontal Teleport, Tripping, Knight Like, Braincell, Sneak Peek.

You're down to one Braincell, so the card this turn is the Braincell. The decision that matters is the one you're not making. Flash Shield has been in your hand since the first move and done nothing. It's an Instant: it can be played on your opponent's turn, the moment they line up a capture, and no move lets you do that. Black is a piece down and has a queen and a bishop looking for trouble. The first time they commit to a threat you can't meet with a move, Flash Shield spends their turn for them. Until then it isn't idle. It's loaded.

Banked: 2. Hand: 6.

The habit

Over seven turns you banked four times, held through a threat once, played a card the moment it was good, played another to cash in what the first bought, and left an Instant sitting. Each was a decision, including the ones where nothing happened.

The question to ask every turn isn't "is this card good?" Most of them are. It's "what does this card do that my move alone can't, and will it still do it next turn?" If the move covers it, move. If the chance won't come again, play. If its whole value is answering something that hasn't happened yet, hold it, and let your opponent wonder. For the mechanics underneath all this, see Built Deck, explained; for what a second move is worth when you do pay for it, see Extra moves.