Scouting Opponents and Adapting Your Composition

You are playing against seven other people, and everything they do affects you — which pools they're draining, how strong they are, what you'll have to beat to place well. A player who scouts turns those seven boards from noise into information. It's a habit, and it's free.

How to scout

During the planning phase you can click each opponent's portrait (or use the scouting shortcut) to view their board. Do a quick pass every round, or at least every two or three rounds, looking for:

• Who shares your plan. If two other players are building the same carry or the same synergy as you, you're contested — there aren't enough copies in the shared pool for all of you, and your rolls will feel dry. The earlier you notice this, the cheaper it is to pivot.
• Who's ahead. Note the players with strong, well-starred boards and high health. These are who you'll face in the late game; start thinking about how you beat them.
• Who's about to die. When a low-health player is eliminated, all their Pokémon and items go back into the pool — a Pokémon you couldn't find might suddenly be available. Also, their death changes who you'll be paired against.
• What you're about to fight. Right before the fight, check your opponent for this round and position specifically against them — corner your carry away from their assassin, spread against their area ability, match their front line.

Reading contest

Contest is the main reason to change plans mid-game. Signs you're contested:

• Your rolls keep showing everything except the units you need.
• Scouting shows one or two players with the same synergy at a higher count than you.
• You're stuck two or three copies short of a star-up over several rounds with no movement.

If you're contested and behind on it, the copies simply may not exist for you. Pivoting to an open composition — one nobody else is building — will usually give you a stronger board faster than fighting over scraps. The meta report is useful here: it shows several viable compositions, so you can pick a strong one that the lobby isn't already fighting over.

When (and when not) to pivot

Pivoting is expensive — you sell units, lose star progress, and often lose a round or two while you transition. Do it when:

• You're hard-contested and clearly losing the pool war.
• Your carry got nerfed in a patch and there's a strictly better direction.
• A carousel or portal round dropped a powerful piece that opens a much stronger plan.

Don't pivot because you lost one fight, or because another player's board "looks cooler". And the later it gets, the higher the bar — a full pivot on round 28 is almost never right; a partial adjustment (swap two units, re-position, add a counter) usually is.

Adapting without pivoting

Most adaptation isn't a full comp change — it's small responses to what you're seeing:

• The lobby is full of Special-damage carries → prioritise Special Defense on your tank and consider an item that shields against magic.
• Everyone's running assassins → clump your board and put your carry in a protected corner with a bodyguard.
• The strong player you'll face has a fragile back line → an assassin or a "hit the farthest enemy" unit of your own might be worth a slot.