Tips tashkalar

High Form Strategy

Learn the decks and Legendary Beings. To play Tash-Kalar well you need to be able to recognize patterns that your opponent is trying to form, and know what's coming up in your own deck that might be useful.

Track the cards. If you are playing a turn-based game, use the Notes feature of BGA to keep track of both your cards and your opponent's.

Anticipate cards in your deck. Don't just set up existing patterns in your hand (though do that too!); if you know a useful card is in your deck, try to keep a few pieces on the board that will help you achieve that pattern. It might be the next card you draw. (E.g. if you have the Highland deck, try to maintain a few pieces at the corners of a green square in anticipation of Ritual Master, or a bow-shape for Warlord / Eagle Lord.)

Play or discard cards rather than letting them go stale. Don't grow too attached to a card unless you're absolutely sure you need to use it soon to accomplish a task. If it's not helping you, get rid of it by summoning it or discarding, even if you can't trigger its effects.

Be wary of flares. Extra actions are extremely valuable in Tash-Kalar--often they are the deciding factor in claiming a task or totally reshaping the board--so don't let your opponent get flares easily. If you are ahead in piece-count, try to stay ahead by a maximum of 2 heroic pieces and 3 pieces in total--this guarantees that only one flare (the 2/5 flare in the deck) is playable. If you must exceed that limit, avoid triggering top and bottom flares at once. (The top number of flares ranges from 2 to 5; the bottom from 4 to 6.)

Keep your piece count down. If a piece of your own is not helping your position and you have a chance to destroy it, do so rather than destroying an enemy piece--this puts you rather than them closer to a flare. If you're ahead in the game and your piece count is high, consider discarding cards or summoning a being on top of your own piece (oversummoning) to avoid placing another piece on the board.

Keep your pieces together. If your position is dispersed they will add to your piece-count while being useless for summoning or claiming tasks.

Prioritize 1- and 2-point tasks, not 3-pointers and Legends. In particular, avoid focusing on Side Chain and Corner Chain, which are very difficult to achieve without an exorbitant cost. Legends are good but since the 1 point they give is no better than an easily achievable 1-point task, and can be taken away from you, they should not be a major priority unless they help accomplish a task. You need to claim very easy tasks before your opponent does, as they stack up quickly--in particular, never leave End of Legends, Heroic Destruction or Rainbow Domination unclaimed for long, as they are the easiest 2-point tasks to claim.

Place pieces on or around coloured squares by preference. Even if there's no coloured summoning/conquest task on the board, one will eventually pop up. (Caveat: do not casually leave pieces on red squares if you are playing against Highland and they haven't yet played Blood Shaman.)