Dark Arts Player Strategy

The Dark Arts seat is the hardest one in the game and the one that decides how good a session feels. Reviewers of preview copies agree that a sharp Dark Arts Player makes the game tense, while a passive one lets the students run away with it. Here is how to be the sharp one.

Know your engine

You cannot Learn like the students. Your deck improves in two other ways:

And the Path itself moves for three reasons: a student Replenishes, an event tells it to, or you hold every House Marker. Two of those three are things you can provoke.

Make the students Replenish

Every student Replenish is a free step for you. Your job in the opening is to make their hands run out faster than they planned.

• Stand where they need to be. Students need the Library, the Room of Requirement, their Location Card areas and the Shield Spaces. A Dark pawn near those spots forces detours that cost cards.
• Use obstacles they cannot cross. Your pawns ignore Locked Doors, Protective Spells, Physical Objects and Water. Cut across the map where students need a specific card to follow.
• Stun and skip. Card effects that stun pawns or make a student skip a turn (such as Confundo) are strongest against the student who is about to complete a scroll or a shield.
• Bump pawns that are parked. A pawn waiting on a Location Card area is a scroll in progress. Sending it back to the Great Hall costs that student several turns.

Bump for value

• Spread your bumps across houses. The marker only moves when you hold every House Marker. In a game with three or four students, a second bump on the same house adds no marker.
• One card reward per turn. Bumping twice in one turn still gives you only one draw-2-keep-1, so spread bumps over turns when you can.
• Remember the reset. Your bumping pawn leaves the map. Keep the pool in mind: bringing a pawn back costs 1 movement point and needs a free Deployment Space.
• Protected Areas are off limits. Students parked there are safe, and that includes the Great Hall where bumped pawns return. Wait for them to leave.

Events or Progress Tokens

On every event space, the students resolve their half of the Event Card first. Then you choose: take the zone's Progress Token, or use the Dark half of the event. You must hold a zone's token before the marker can enter the next zone.

• Early in a zone, take the strong events. If the Dark effect hurts the students badly, use it, and plan to take the token at a later event space of the same zone.
• Do not get stuck. If you keep declining the token, the last event space of the zone forces it on you. Know where that space is before you gamble.
• White events can help students. A few white events are positive for House Players, which is one more reason the white zone is about tempo rather than damage.

The red zone and the Dementor

• Spread your pawns before you draw. You do not know your target location until you take the Dementor. Pawns spread over castle and grounds can reach any location faster than a single cluster.
• Look at the students first. If a student is one shield away and could finish within a turn or two, waiting for the cheaper win may be too slow. If students are far from their second shield, waiting is safer.
• Expect a guard. If your group plays with the location card visible (the rulebook does not say it is secret), students will stand near it and try to stun your pawns. Approach from several directions and keep a pawn in your pool to redeploy.

Hand management

• You can never discard when you Replenish. Play awkward cards for their movement instead of holding them.
• A card whose effect is still locked is not dead. Use its movement now; the same card will be stronger later when its zone is unlocked.
• Your Replenish does not move the Path. Use it when your pawns are stunned or your hand is empty, without guilt.

Choosing your target

Every student is your enemy, but the one closest to a second shield is your only real threat. Count their items: a Library book, a scroll and a Detector or coin, plus the shields they already hold. Bump and stun that student first, and let the others fight each other over the Dark Detector.

Closing the game

On the last space of the Path, everyone plays out their final five cards. You need just one pawn on the target location, so keep at least one pawn within reach and save a long movement card. If you cannot win, slow the leading student: a draw still beats a House victory for you.

Dark Arts mistakes to avoid

• Clumping all pawns together, then drawing a target location on the other side of the map.
• Bumping the same house again and again in a big game while other House Markers stay out of reach.
• Declining a zone's token until the last event space without counting the spaces.
• Saving cards with locked effects instead of using their movement.
• Ignoring the student who quietly holds a book and a scroll.

Want to see the other side? Read the House Player strategy.