That word gets thrown around a LOT when describing plays, and I’ve never been able to figure out quite what it means.
Every guide I’ve read or person I’ve asked has answered by giving examples of what they think tempo is, but the examples are all different depending on the person, so my questions is:
Does that word actually have any meaning?
I’m not an expert myself, and I too have struggled with the terminology. But here’s how I see the main play styles:
Playing for tempo: When you make plays that try to win and then keep board control; this may involve playing more cards than your opponent (which can be bad in the long run, since it limits your future options). Tempo plays are typically minions with good stats for their mana cost, or minions with a Battlecry to help you make good trades (classical example: Shattered Sun Cleric, using the +1/+1 to buff another minion so it can make a favourable trade and remain on board; or Twin Tyrant in a situation where it can clear the board and remain as a solid body).
Playing for value: Here you try to get the most value out of each card. When possible, play a single card per turn to keep a good choice of cards for the next turn. Try to get value e.g. by looking for 2-for-1 trades with your minions, saving your big removal spells on big boards, and using your lesser spells when they suffice. You often lose some pressure at first, but if the game goes long, your long-time value wins. Most of the new minions that start dormant are value plays. You pay e.g. 2 mana now for effectively doing nothing, but it’s an investment in a minion worth more than that 2 mana normally would give you, 2 turns later. Deathrattle minions often fit in value decks too. As do most of the quests.
Aggro: Consider this tempo on steroids. Has some similarities with tempo, but focuses more on dealing face damage and killing the opponent quickly, and less on prolonged board control. Good aggro is not blindly going face, you still want to see where your opponent could make very good (for them) trades and then make better trades yourself. But barring such situations, a tempo player would still make good trades and retain the board, whereas the aggro player pushes face and forces the opponent to trade.
Attrition: I use this as generic term for real attrition decks (typically only found in arena), as well as combo / OTK decks, and fatigue decks. All these decks have as their prime win condition: don’t die. You focus on removing threats, on healing and/or taunting, while removing. For combo/OTK, you do this while collecting your combo pieces for the single-turn game ending combo; for fatigue you do this while forcing your opponent to draw more cards than you (or while you reshuffle cards in your own deck) so they’ll die to fatigue before you; and for (arena) attrition, you simply do this until they run out of removals and threats and you still have good cards left so you can finish them off.
I hope this helps. And if more experienced players want to add or correct, please do!
Hey this actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
Tempo ends up having several meanings - though in essence, the general definition would refer to the “momentum” or “change of board state” during a match. If you play out 4 minions on your turn, you are swinging the tempo or momentum significantly in your favour. You have the tempo because you have more mana worth of minions on the board than your opponent.
If you have that in mind - then you have an idea of what other phrases mean when combined with tempo:
a Tempo play, or tempo’ing out - commonly refers to playing out a minion for its stats. It has increased relevance when, you choose to “tempo out” a minion without gaining benefit from its Battlecry: eg: “tempo’ing out” Captain Greenskin for its 5/4 stats without a weapon. Or playing Rotnest Drake (6/5) without having a Dragon in hand or enemy minion to destroy. This is opposed to keeping the card in your hand for value, to play later. You may need to gain some presence or “tempo” on the board this turn, and have few other suitable plays, so you cannot keep that card for value.
A card is considered “low tempo” if it does not put stats on the board corresponding to its cost. Eg: Arcane Intellect is 3 mana that draws 2 cards. You are expecting a 3/3 or better for 3 mana for it to be considered a good tempo play
A tempo swing is a play or series of plays that usually results in a player gaining or losing a significant board advantage (tempo gain or tempo loss).
Cabal Shadow Priest can be 1 card that results in a tempo swing by itself. For 6 mana, you get a 4/5 and take an enemy minion with 2 or less attack and bring it to your side. Say you take the opponent’s Bone Wraith. They just lost 4 mana worth of tempo and you gain 4/5 (4 mana worth) + 4 mana Bone Wraith: 8 mana worth of tempo, for a 12 mana worth of tempo swing in total.
Combinations of Lackeys, and removal such as Eviscerate, Backstab, Sap, can provide high tempo swings in a single turn - so Rogue is particularly known for this.
A tempo deck in Hearthstone is a deck that often aims to play out cheap minions in the early game to take the board, and have tools to keep the board afterwards. In other words, “tempo out” cheap minions and continue to keep/regain the tempo. Galakrond Rogue is a tempo deck, previously mentioned with its cheap minions like Pharoah Cat and EVIL Miscreant generating Lackeys, and cheap removal to keep the tempo.
Demon Hunter is also a tempo deck with Battlefiend and Satyr Overseer providing very high tempo for a low cost, when used with the hero power. For 2 mana, Battlefiend is a 2/2 and you deal 1 damage. For 4 mana, Satyr Overseer is a 6/4 split across 2 minions and you deal 1 damage. Both cards have the ability to grow and provide more tempo+value in future turns. You might also called it an aggro deck, as it deals damage quickly and looks to end games.
Tempo decks rarely run expensive removal like Chaos Nova, because those cards are a tempo loss.
The difference between a tempo deck and a midrange deck is that midrange decks have more beefy minions, especially at the 4-5 mana cost. They are usually not as flexible as tempo decks in terms of cheap removal and tempo swing turns, rather they deal with threats by using their minions to trade instead.
Dragon Hunter is a midrange deck, and you will see a host of 4-5 cost minions: Evasive Feywing, Big Ol’ Whelp, Rotnest Drake. Stuff you play “on curve”, and in the case of Rotnest Drake, can provide an additional tempo swing.
So as you can see, tempo as a word can be used in many contexts and have different meanings that are connected to each other.
Part of the problem with the definitions is that for some weird reason, decks in classes tend to inherit the names of decks from when HS first released even if the monikers don’t really match anymore.
For example Zoo Warlock. Every aggro Warlock is referenced as such and only aggro Warlock, even though any class can have a Zoo deck, which is one that throws a whole bunch of minions of different types, and aggro Warlock isn’t always a Zoo deck.