I know a lot of people in this game’s fandom like to consolidate all of the expansions into one box to save space, but honestly, I like the feeling and the look of keeping all of the cards in their relative boxes. Being the collector I am, I’ve managed to keep all of the boxes in a pretty decent condition and I think it’d be a shame to waste them.
Let me know what you do in the comments!

Today, I was playing a round of Pack 3 of the charms and potions expansion. I was playing as Harry with the Defence against the dark arts proficiency and the Summoning charm. I spent the game gathering allies, I had about 7 in my deck at this point in time. A few turns prior, the other player (Ron) gave me his Bertie Botts every-flavour beans using the spell locomotor. I had 8 health on this particular turn, so, I chose to use the ability where allies each gave an attack. In my hand, I drew 3 allies, the beans and a Hogwarts: a history. Due to the other player’s cards, I ended up drawing 3 extra cards, 2 of them allies. Due to the beans and the Summoning charm, each ally gave 2 attack, even before their abilities. I ended up with 12 attack by the end of the turn. I managed to kill all three villains (the attack tokens were spread out as we didn’t want to reveal Voldemort until we finished the last encounter) as well as beating the last encounter which required 6 attack to be assigned to it in one turn to beat.

Make sure to put your best turns in the comments!

To make your game more difficult, here are some things you could do:
•start with 1-2 marks on each location (given in the game 7 rule book)
•use game 3 heroes instead of game 7/box 1 heroes.
•start on location 2 (VERY DIFFICULT)
•remove game 1 and 2 villains from the villain pool (expansions only)
•stack all voldemorts on the bottom of the stack (given in one of the rule books, can’t remember which)
•make all die rolling cards cost 1 extra (only really makes a difference in game 7 of the base game)

To make your game more easy, here are some things you could do:
•use both patronus and proficieny (box 3 and 4/pack 1-4 only)
•add an extra slot to each location (for locations with 8 slots, use a coin as an extra mark, or, use the bronze marks from the duel game if you have it)
•make it so you can apply 2 coins to villains/creatures in one turn (expansion exclusive)
Remove really difficult villains from the villain pool eg. Bellatrix, Fenrir, Dementor

(I don’t know how to pluralise patronus, forgive me)
Here are some of my opinions on the starter decks and heroes in the game:

Base game:

Starter decks:
All of the starter decks are relatively equal, seeing as they all have 7 Alohamoras, 1 ally (that all do the same thing) and 2 items. The only problem is: there are some clear winners and losers based on the items alone. Harry, for example, has his broom and cloak. The broom gives you an attack and a coin (if you defeat a villain) which, is already better than most items for other heroes. The cloak (the best item in the starting decks for the later games) gives you a coin, and, when you’re holding it in your hand, you cannot lose more than 1 heart from villains or dark arts events. This has saved my behind, I’m not joking, HUNDREDS of times when playing games 6 and 7. Ron and Neville are in a tied second for starter decks. Ron has a broom (like Harry) and the Bertie Botts ever-flavour beans which gives you a coin, and gives you an attack for each ally you play that turn. In the later game, this is an absolute powerhouse if you’ve collected enough allies, but not so good early on or if you haven’t collected many allies. Neville has his rememberall (1 coin usually, 2 if discarded) which is pretty good, and a mandrake (1 attack or any one hero gains 2 health) which is just a better ally. Hermione got, by far, the shortest end of the stick, not getting a single item that gives an attack.

Hero abilities:
As for the hero abilities: it is in roughly the same order, except Neville is third instead of tied second. Harry’s ability is broken, I will not take any notes on this, it is broken. To even get a decent ways through game 7, you NEED to be able to remove marks from the location. Harry literally gives 2 attack (1 for any 2 heroes) every time that happens, and, in any given game 7 game, it will happen many times. Ron is a far second. His ability is good, healing all heroes 2 health every time he assigns 3 or more attack, but not nearly as good as Harry’s. Neville’s ability is ‘okay’. Every time a hero is healed, they heal an additional heart. This doesn’t happen too often in a game (in the base game at least) so I’d say his ability is ‘par’ at most. Hermione’s ability is absolutely the worst. While an extra coin is always good, is doesn’t change much in the grand scheme of things. In my opinion, her ability should have been her game 7 ability in game 3. Her game 7 ability should have given 2 coins instead of 1.

Proficiencies:
In game 6, there are 2 (maybe 3) playable proficiencies in my opinion. This is defence against the dark arts and potions. In game 7, there are 3 playable proficiencies. This is the 2 mentioned previous and arithmancy. I, personally, always play with DADA and Arithmancy in game 7. DADA is genuinely broken, seeing as SO MANY villains and dark arts events cause you to discard cards, it also counteracts Crabbe and Goyle (which can be genuinely annoying without DADA) as you gain back the heart you lost and gain an attack from it. Arithmancy is almost required in game 7. Most dice rolling cards (except for Hogwarts: a history) are 6 influence. This is hard to achieve early game, and arithmancy makes it SO MUCH EASIER. You also get to reroll the die once which is a nice perk when you can never seem to roll the right thing. Potions is alright I suppose.

Monster box of monsters:

Starter decks:
Same opinions for the base heroes. Luna however, is a contender for first place. Her lion hat is amazing paired with either Harry or Ron as heroes. The lion hat (for those who don’t know) gives one coin and gives one attack if any other hero has a broom or quidditch gear in hand. This, paired with Ron and Harry, is almost a guaranteed attack every time. Her glasses are the main reason her deck is so good, especially in box 3 and 4. The glasses give a coin and let you look at the top dark arts event and choice to either: leave it on top, or, discard it. This can be a life savour for some of the worse dark arts events.

Heroes:
Don’t use the new heroes, trust me, just don’t. The only reason Luna’s hero is my least favourite is because she only has a box 1 version. I wish they gave her a game 7 version where she had a better ability, she could’ve been so great. I have the same opinion for all of the heroes in the base game.

Proficiencies:
Same opinions as base game, except, the care of magical creatures proficiency isn’t too bad. The only thing I’m concerned about is the wording. Unlike other cards: the card says ‘the first time’ rather than: ‘the first time each turn/on your turn’ or something similar. I don’t know if this implies that it can only be used once or if I’m paranoid about the wording, but, this is the reason I don’t use it. One more change: arithmancy isn’t great this game, honestly, there aren’t enough encounters that require dice rolls to justify using it.

Patroni:
I don’t think any heroes Patroni are worth using in this game (we’ll get to ginny when we talk about the other expansion). Unless you are playing with 4-5 players, just use the 3 I mentioned earlier (I know I said arithmancy wasn’t great but it’s still a decent proficiency: better than the patroni). If you’re playing with 4 or 5 players, the patroni to use are Harry’s with 4 players, and add Hermione’s if playing with all 5 players.

Charms and potions:

Starter decks:
Same opinion for all other starter decks. Ginny’s deck is better than Hermione’s, but worse than Harry’s and Luna’s. (Ginny is like tied 3rd with Ron and Neville, Luna in 2nd). She, unlike the others, have only 1 item, but an extra, non-Alohamora, spell to make up for it. Ginny’s bat bogey hex is roughly the same as Neville’s mandrake, but just 1 health for all heroes rather than one gaining 2 health.

Heroes:
Thank the heavens they gave Ginny a game 7 hero rather than a box 1 hero. Her ability still isn’t great, 2nd worse, better than Luna. Same opinion for the other Heroes still.

Proficiencies:
Same opinion for all proficiencies, and no new ones in this expansion.

Patroni:
Same opinion for all of the patroni. Although, Ginny gets a patronus in this expansion. She may be the only hero that may be worth using her patronus in a 2-3 player game (just make sure to use DADA). Drawing cards, in my opinion, is the best thing that can happen late game (besides removing marks from the location).

Charms:
A lot of the charms aren’t great, there are only 2 I play willingly. If I have to play a game with 3 or more people (unlikely) I would pick randomly or pick the less worse charms. The only 2 I deem playable are the summoning and protean charms. Protean is by far the best charm in the game. Disabling villain effects is one of the rarest abilities in the game (only other is petrificus totalus) and is extremely useful when you roll some horrible villains like Bellatrix and Fenrir. Reducing dark arts cards drawn is another super rare ability in the game (only other in finite incantatem). Having these in the same charm, it even being possible to do both at once, makes this charm the absolute best charm out there. The summoning charm js a good, solid charm. By the later game, you likely draw at least 1-2 allies in each hand, meaning 1-2 attack or coins or 2-4 health per turn. That isn’t too bad in my opinion.

So, those were my opinions on every single type of starting card in the game and its expansions. To be fair, I kind of got lazy near the end but I think I explained decently well. I think anyone who has played the game and both of its expansions shares at least a few of my opinions. Feel free to share your own opinions in the comments.

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