Gygar strong.
Strong in his simplicity.
The game offers oh so many options to tackle horrors from beyond.
It's so tempting to start mixing and matching stuff.
Especially if you're a new player which heared things about latest expansion (or the game as a whole), bought it, completed the tutorial, then crash-landed on your rear in firstmost Normal fight vs Difficulty 2 Nameless.
Don't do that.
Just don't.
Embrace Gygar.
And have no regrets.

One open blue hole with +0 Damage dealt on Cast from that hole. This is a buff.
One open generic yellow hole.
Two closed yellow holes with +1 Damage dealt on Cast from these holes.
Two completely identical hands:

turn 1


turn 2


0/5 Charge and an ability, which either throws a spell from a blue hole for net 3 Charge cost, or adds a +1 Damage on Cast token to said hole for 5 Charge (up to 10 tokens total).
10 HP.
And nice pectoral muscles.

Step 1: put Spark into the blue hole and Tidal Surge into the yellow hole.

Step 2: play all three starting gems, gain 3 mana (1 per gem).

Step 3: use your ability, if ready, to add a token.

Step 4: add Charge to your ability (uses 2 mana) until you're out of mana.

Step 5: and don't forget to use your ability, if it was fifth Charge. Yes, to add a token.

Step 6: wait for your next turn.

Step 7: cast Spark at wherever it would cause the most damage.

Step 8: also, don't forget to cast Tidal Surge.

Step 9: goto Step 1.

Why would you want to?

No, really!
Why would you want to?

If there's only one hero in a party - then the game doesn't end if that hero faints.
So (unless things went VERY southwards) you don't actually care about heroes' health.
You can focus on your main goal.
Whacking things.

If there's only one hero in a party - that hero gets most activations per enemy turn.
If you're lucky, you can get 8 turns in a row (with default 4:2 randomized settings).
8 turns of exercising Gygar supremacy over whatever crossed his (and your, by extent) path.
8 turns of beating things into the ground, with 10+ damage per turn... with a measly starter spell and some determination.
Wrong entity is called Rageborne in this game, that's for sure...

It sure is.

You do know that starter cards / starter decks universally suck in bad deckbuilding games only, do you?
And in GOOD deckbuilding games starter cards/decks are decent enough to be relevant for at least something.

If you do have an opportunity to accumulate 3 ability Charges per turn rather than 2, without compromising Gygar's 100% deck stability, - please do!
(sources of free Aether Conduits are not covered by this guide, sorry. This is a hint...)

If you do have an option to throw one hand out of the window quickly - hell yeah! do it!
Gygar can win without using his second hand!
Notably, let's imagine a situation where some enemy did deckbuilded you into having 0 Sparks and 2 Tidal Surges...
That's an actual upgrade for Gygar!
Trim your starting gems a little - and you can remain as effective and deadly as before!