Understanding the Mirror Matchup
In Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, a mirror matchup refers to a situation where both players select the same Echo in a 1v1 battle. These encounters are rare in 2v2 matches due to the vast number of possibilities, which makes analyzing every permutation impractical. Consequently, this article focuses exclusively on the intricacies of 1v1 mirror matchups.
Mirror matchups can be broadly defined as battles where players use the same Echo. A narrower definition involves players using both identical Echoes and decks.
At high-level play, decks are highly standardized. They undergo extensive optimization through analysis and trial-and-error to provide consistency across various matchups. This ensures a strategic edge in mirror scenarios.
Predictability is a hallmark of high-rank gameplay. Players can often deduce their opponent’s deck during the Echo banning phase, allowing for meticulous pre-game planning. The Harry Echo mirror matchup is a prime example, offering valuable lessons in tactical depth and precision.
Evolution and Fundamentals of the Harry Deck
The Harry mirror matchup is widely regarded as a classic. In China, Harry consistently dominated as the primary spell deck and remained a favorite at the highest levels of competition for an extended period. The depth of knowledge surrounding this matchup is impressive, as it embodies many of the game’s fundamental principles. Analyzing this matchup offers invaluable lessons for both seasoned players and newcomers.
The matches discussed in this analysis span various eras, reflecting the evolution of strategies and deck-building approaches. Over time, several factors have influenced changes to the standard Harry deck: buffs and nerfs to key cards, continual deck optimization, and the introduction of new cards into the meta. Despite these adjustments, the deck’s core principles have endured, showcasing its adaptability and strategic resilience.
One notable shift in its history was the introduction of Frisbee. This addition revolutionized gameplay, prioritizing precision and efficiency. Frisbee’s ability to clear multiple units with a single play has cemented its role as a staple of the Harry deck. Its relatively low mana cost and the ability to target clustered units efficiently make it an essential tool for gaining early board control and disrupting the opponent’s strategy.
The fundamental goal in the Harry Echo mirror matchup is to establish dominance by controlling Golden Snitches while depleting your opponent’s movement cards. Ideally, players aim to maintain three active Snitches on the map, ensuring rapid mana regeneration and mobility. This is critical because many of Harry’s spells, such as Expulso, Stupefy, Expeliarmus, Inflatus, Frisbee, rely on accurate targeting, a challenge when the opponent retains strong movement capabilities.
Another priority is clearing the board of enemy units—Snitches, companions, and summons—to create opportunities for decisive actions. Success hinges on effective mana management and timing, as every play can tip the balance of the match.
Opening Strategies: Setting the Stage
The opening phase is pivotal, establishing momentum and setting the tone for the game. Common strategies include:
Summoning Young Hermione
The initial phase of the game always looks very similar. The first companion – Young Hermione – has been in Harry’s deck for a very long time and has stood the test of time – she remains a top, recommended choice.
We begin the game by positioning Young Hermione behind us, at the edge of the map. This is a standard play – the exact angle or precise location where we place her isn’t particularly significant. What’s more important is how we move around the map immediately after positioning her, in relation to her location. We should always consider our position on the map relative to Young Hermione and the opponent in terms of hitbox and Stupefy trajectory.
We position Young Hermione and then direct our character towards the center, avoiding standing in a straight line between Young Hermione behind us and the opponent in front of us – typically, we move at an angle towards either the upper or lower edge of the map’s center.
From this point, there are numerous gameplay variations. These primarily depend on both your and your opponent’s starting hands. The main objectives of the opening game phase are (the order of points is not declarative – it may vary based on individual strategy or starting hand):
Eliminating the Opponent’s Young Hermione
For this purpose, Frisbee is the preferred card. We eliminate a companion worth approximately 7 mana using a 3-mana card. (However, if our opponent also kills our Young Hermione with their Frisbee – which usually happens – we obviously won’t gain any mana advantage in this exchange). If we don’t have Frisbee in our starting hand, we can still proceed with the opening without losing advantage (this will be discussed later in the article).
Use Frisbee to dispatch the enemy’s Young Hermione efficiently. While both players often trade Frisbees in this phase, understanding the timing and implications of these exchanges is crucial for gaining a subtle advantage.
Summoning Golden Snitch
From the start of the game until we summon the second companion, we can use the Golden Snitch a maximum of two times. However, we shouldn’t always use it twice. When Dumbledore is our second companion, we should only use the Golden Snitch once before summoning him. After the first use of the Golden Snitch, we should start saving mana and keep the Golden Snitch in hand until we can play the second companion. If we use the Golden Snitch a second time before summoning Dumbledore, we won’t have it in hand – or won’t have enough mana – to use it as soon as the Dumbledore companion is ready to use. If your second companion is not Dumbledore but, for example, Young Harry, we can afford to use the Golden Snitch whenever we have it in hand.
Deploy Golden Snitches judiciously. If Dumbledore is your second companion, reserve Snitch for his arrival to ensure synergy. The timing of Snitch usage can dictate the tempo of the match and influence transitions into the mid-game.
Phoenix Deployment
The main motivation for playing this card in the opening is simply to get rid of it from your hand. This reduces our hand size from 8 cards to 7. In the opening, it doesn’t serve any specific, clear purpose. During gameplay, we tend to adapt to it rather than summon it for a particular task, though sometimes we can use it to punish the opponent’s mistake – for example, using Phoenix to absorb damage from Oppugno, or to heal ourselves or our Golden Snitch.
We typically use Phoenix as far away from Young Hermione as possible – ensuring it has the longest possible distance to travel to reach her. We deploy it on the opponent’s side, which might seem foolish, strange, or improper, but it serves its defined purpose and makes the game more difficult for the opponent.
Deploy Phoenix primarily to reduce hand size, freeing up room for more impactful cards. Place it away from Young Hermione to reduce the likelihood of multiple units being hit by a single attack. The goal of the opening is not just immediate gains but also establishing a framework for the mid-game. Predicting your opponent’s moves and conserving resources are key factors that distinguish good players from exceptional ones.
Eliminating Remaining Enemy Units
Rather than focusing on attacking the opponent directly, the priority should be to eliminate their units—the Phoenix, Golden Snitch, and Young Hermione (if still alive). Adapting the early-game strategy to achieve this goal efficiently is essential. The objective is to clear all enemy units at minimal cost or to damage the opponent while removing their units. The key cards for this task are Frisbee, Stupefy, Expeliarmus, Expulso, and basic auto-attacks.
Clearing the battlefield ensures that no unnecessary targets absorb the Oppugno spell, which is primarily reserved for dealing direct damage to the opponent. In this matchup, Oppugno is rarely used to target the Golden Snitch, Phoenix, or other units unless absolutely necessary.
A typical opening scenario might present a dilemma: you have one Frisbee that needs to eliminate both the enemy Young Hermione and Golden Snitch, and ideally the Phoenix as well. How should this card be utilized to maximize impact?
The strategy revolves around creating opportunities to eliminate multiple units simultaneously. There’s no immediate need to use Frisbee right after the enemy Young Hermione appears on the map. Waiting for the opponent to summon Phoenix or Golden Snitch allows for a more impactful play, targeting multiple units with a single card.
If Stupefy is part of the deck, a highly effective tactic involves waiting until the opponent plays Golden Snitch. By using Stupefy on the Golden Snitch and directing it to collide with Young Hermione, you can set up Frisbee to eliminate both targets in one decisive move. This combination demonstrates the value of patience and timing in gaining early control of the board.
Strategy for Using Summons Before Eliminating Enemy Young Hermione
When waiting for the right moment, it is often necessary to delay eliminating the enemy’s Young Hermione. This situation arises when critical cards like Frisbee are not in hand, leaving no immediate way to remove Young Hermione. But is it a wise strategy to deliberately allow her to ‘copy’ a 5 or 7 mana card with her passive ability? The strategy of allowing such copying can be risky, as there remains a chance the opponent gains Protego Totalum, which costs only 2 mana. This protective spell can significantly alter the game’s trajectory by shielding their units or themselves from pivotal attacks like Frisbee.
If forced to let the opponent copy a card, it is generally better for them to acquire a random 5 or 7 mana spell rather than several high-value utility spells. In a mirror matchup, cards like Oppugno, Stupefy, Expelliarmus, or Frisbee, especially at 0 mana, carry significantly more tactical weight than an random 5 or 7 mana spell.
When there’s no alternative but to let Young Hermione copy a 5 or 7 mana card, it’s crucial to anticipate the potential consequences. Being prepared allows you to mitigate situations where the opponent leverages this advantage to punish your position. Consider the following key scenarios to better understand the implications:
- Protego Totalum: Aim to use this spell defensively to protect your own key targets, such as a unit vulnerable to Frisbee or an Oppugno + Broomstick combo.
- Whizbangs: Deploy it strategically against the opponent’s second companion or Golden Snitch to disrupt their synergy and momentum.
- Zouwu: Use Zouwu with precision, targeting either enemy units or the opponent themselves. While it may seem optimal to focus on the opponent, sometimes eliminating key targets like Golden Snitches yields better results. If no other suitable plays are available, Zouwu’s third attack can combine effectively with Broomstick for maximum impact. Prioritize guaranteed eliminations over speculative plays to ensure consistent results.
Mid-Game Dynamics: Building Momentum
The mid-game begins around the 1:00 mark and is typically the most dynamic phase of the match. This is the point where players should aim to store as much mana as possible to prepare for the deployment of their second companion. Unlike the opening phase, mid-game strategies depend heavily on the optimal deck composition, which evolves over time. The choice of the second companion significantly influences mid-game tactics.
When Dumbledore was the dominant choice, the strategy was straightforward: save at least 7 mana, summon Dumbledore, deploy Golden Snitch, Oppugno, and Blast-Ended Skrewt, and focus on disrupting the opponent’s plans. However, the introduction of Young Harry as a viable second companion has brought greater dynamism and complexity to mid-game strategies. Players must now adapt to the current board state and opponent’s positioning. The decision-making often revolves around whether to focus on maximizing damage to the opponent or defending against their attacks. The abundance of scenarios requires quick, instinctive decisions, taking advantage of opponent errors and lapses in focus.
Despite these variations, the core principles of the mid-game remain consistent: map control and Golden Snitch deployment. It’s crucial to prevent the opponent from gaining a board advantage by consistently targeting their units. Frisbee is especially effective against enemy Golden Snitches, as it disrupts the “Golden Snitch machine” strategy, where multiple Snitches create overwhelming mana regeneration and mobility. Deploying Dumbledore as a second companion helps establish dominance in this phase. However, even a single missed Frisbee can result in significant setbacks, potentially allowing the opponent to build a strong board presence, including summons like Blast-Ended Skrewt with Resurrection and recurring Golden Snitches. As the saying goes: “The more Golden Snitches, the more Golden Snitches,” and it can quickly spiral into an overwhelming situation.
Around the 1:30 mark, the pace of the match accelerates further with faster mana regeneration. Decisions must be made more intuitively, based on the evolving game state. Depending on how the match has unfolded, players may begin to shift their focus towards finishing the opponent with an eye on the endgame phase.
Optimal mid-to-late-game strategies also hinge on the choice of the third companion. For a long time, McGonagall was the standard choice, offering a straightforward plan: slow down the opponent and deal significant damage, enabling players to predict the outcome of the match and decide whether it’s the right moment to go for the kill. The meta shifted with the introduction of Dobby, whose movement card generation and teleportation capabilities fundamentally changed the dynamics, as Dobby’s agility allows to evade most of Harry’s spells.
This shift has moved the strategy from positional play to reactionary tactics, where success depends heavily on quick reflexes and adaptive decisions. Attempting to finish the opponent during the mid-game has become less effective in the face of these changes, demanding a more calculated approach that transitions fluidly into the late game.
Late Game and Endgame: Closing the Deal
In the endgame phase, strategy must adapt to the evolving board state. The primary goal is to exploit the opponent’s mistakes and capitalize on opportunities to deliver decisive damage. A key tactic is to wait for the opponent to become scattered, leaving themselves vulnerable to well-timed spell combinations. Throughout this phase, maintaining focus on destroying enemy Golden Snitches remains critical. Without movement cards, the opponent becomes significantly easier to target and control, paving the way for victory.
If a game extends beyond the 3:00 minute point, both players begin to take unavoidable damage every five seconds, scaled proportionally to their maximum health pool. This damage increases with each interval, effectively discouraging prolonged matches and reinforcing the importance of aggressive and timely strategies. The Harry mirror matchup is notable for its brevity, with duels rarely exceeding three minutes. Therefore, time-based strategies are practically not considered in this matchup.
Learning from Historical Matches
To better illustrate these principles, the following gameplay examples highlight key moments and decisions. The recordings span different periods, reflecting variations in deck compositions and strategic approaches due to changes in the meta. The matches are from about a year ago, but they are very interesting and one can learn a lot from them.
[Video 1] Game Analysis
(Video by 七月一日a on Bilibili)
Opening
Player 1 begins the game with the following starting hand: Golden Snitch, Stupefy, Oppugno, Phoenix, (Broomstick). Without a Frisbee, they inevitably must ‘give’ several cards to the opponent. They start by placing Young Hermione and move towards the center, adjusting their position relative to the opponent to bait them into using Stupefy – it’s a bait.
The opponent also places Young Hermione and then uses Oppugno. This might be considered an inaccuracy because Phoenix must be used in the opening phase regardless. Player 1 received damage from Oppugno but could heal it practically for free, as they would have had to use Phoenix even at full HP. The opponent falls for the trap and uses Stupefy, missing the player. During the opening, they’ve already unnecessarily spent 5 mana.
Player 1 uses Phoenix, allowing the opponent to copy Whizbang. In this situation, the opponent could consider using Whizbang on Young Hermione to keep Frisbee in hand. However, Whizbang can also prove useful in the later game phase – a common strategy is using Whizbang on Dumbledore while simultaneously killing a newly summoned Golden Snitch.
Then Player 1 uses Golden Snitch, also allowing Young Hermione to copy the spell – Time Turner was drawn – a card that doesn’t have much impact in this matchup – resulting in an exchange of Oppugno for Time Turner, meaning 2 mana for 2 mana – an equal trade. However, if Young Hermione were to give the opponent Protego Totalum, the correct play would be using Frisbee and killing her before she could copy the card.
In this case, Player 1 waits for a better moment to use Frisbee, simultaneously storing 10 mana and healing themselves and their Golden Snitch with Phoenix.
The opponent makes another mistake – using Phoenix to heal Young Hermione, thereby allowing Player 1 to kill two targets at once with a single spell – this could have been anticipated and the Phoenix could have been used as far away from Young Hermione as possible.
Mid-game
Player 1, having gained a significant mana advantage and positional superiority, is able to use some resources to directly attack the opponent. They don’t use the Golden Snitch because the Dumbledore companion will charge up before the player has the third Golden Snitch in hand. They capitalize on the opponent’s mistakes – imprecise movement and poor positioning on the map.
Subsequently, they use Dumbledore and copy Golden Snitch and Oppugno. These two cards are priority and completely sufficient. In cases where we have Blast-Ended Skrewt instead of Three-Headed Dog, we want to copy these three cards. The rest is irrelevant. Copying Frisbee yields practically no results, while Expulso and Stupefy are too random to rely upon.
In the Harry mirror matchup, killing the enemy Dumbledore is important but doesn’t need to be done as quickly as possible. The most crucial aspect is preventing the opponent from copying two Golden Snitches.
Endgame
Player 1, having gained a substantial advantage in the early and mid-game, focuses solely on killing the opponent. The endgame in this case is a mere formality – the opponent is struggling with their movement cards, has no units on the board, and has a large life deficit. The game ends in Player 1’s victory.
[Video 2] Game Analysis
(Video by 七月一日a on Bilibili)
Opening
Player 1 begins the match with a starting hand of: Stupefy, Expulso, Golden Snitch, Three-Headed Dog, and Frisbee. They summon Young Hermione and move toward the center of the map. The opponent mirrors this play, also summoning Young Hermione and advancing to the center while casting Oppugno.
Both players demonstrate inaccuracies in their opening plays. Player 1 could have countered Oppugno by summoning Golden Snitch, redirecting the damage to the Snitch instead of their own character. Alternatively, Player 1 could have summoned Golden Snitch earlier, either before or immediately after playing Young Hermione. This would have prevented the opponent’s Young Hermione from copying a 5-mana spell and left Player 1 with a 2-mana Frisbee, simplifying their opening strategy.
Another misstep by Player 1 was using Stupefy on the opponent. A better move would have been using Zouwu and targeting both the opponent and their newly summoned Golden Snitch.
Subsequently, Player 1 summons Phoenix. A notable aspect of this phase is their precise movement: short, deliberate steps that prevent the opponent from effectively landing Stupefy on both them and their summon, while ensuring continuous healing from Phoenix.
Mid-game
Player 1 summons Dumbledore, copying Golden Snitch and Oppugno. They attempt to eliminate the enemy Dumbledore using Frisbee, but imprecise spell aiming results in partial damage. Dumbledore receives only half the maximum damage as Frisbee’s second hitbox fails to connect.
This mistake forces Player 1 to expend additional resources, using Expulso to finish off Dumbledore and Phoenix. Interestingly, the opponent faces a similar issue, also failing to eliminate Dumbledore in a single spell.
This match highlights the subtle differences between including Three-Headed Dog versus Blast-Ended Skrewt in a deck. The latter proves to be a better choice. While Player 1 still needs to cast six more spells to summon Dog at zero mana, the opponent can already summon their Skrewt for free and buff it with Dumbledore. In Harry mirror matchups, Dog is typically played only once per game, whereas Skrewt can often be played twice during a single game, and additionally, its summoning can be coordinated for 0 mana alongside Dumbledore’s appearance. This makes the Skrewt an overall better choice.
Mid-Endgame
The game becomes increasingly dynamic following the summoning of the second companion. In such a fast-paced match, it’s challenging to pinpoint specific errors or optimal plays. Many outcomes depend on unpredictable factors, such as the random placement of Golden Snitches on the map or split-second execution of critical actions. Even missing a movement card at a key moment can dramatically alter the course of the match.
The match ends with Player 1’s defeat, largely due to chance. Had the game lasted even one second longer, Player 1 might have secured victory.
More games for self-study
For players looking to deepen their understanding of Harry mirror matchups, studying additional games is invaluable. Analyzing various gameplay recordings can reveal new strategies, highlight recurring mistakes, and provide insight into adapting to different opponents and evolving metas.
[Video 3]
(Video by 七月一日a on Bilibili)
Player 1 begins the game with the following starting hand: Golden Snitch, Frisbee, Broomstick, and Expeliarmus. They position Young Hermione and move towards the center. They immediately decide to eliminate the enemy Young Hermione, likely due to having Expeliarmus in their deck instead of Stupefy.
The opponent attempts to save Young Hermione with Phoenix, but this doesn’t achieve the intended result – it’s an inaccuracy.
[Video 4]
(Video by 七月一日a on Bilibili)
Player 1 uses Oppugno immediately after placing Young Hermione. This is an exception that has its justification. We don’t want to allow the enemy Young Hermione to copy our spells, so if the starting hand requires it, as in this case, we should use Oppugno to increase our chances of drawing a Frisbee from our deck.
You can find more Harry mirror matchup videos for self-study on the following YouTube channel: herclueless
