Although the use of a Scrabble helper is a good way to achieve victory, it always pays to learn strategies and concepts about the game – even the bad ones. Sometimes, the path to victory is carved by resorting to unconventional methods, like how the Persians beet the Egyptians by painting cats into their shields. The latter worshipped cats, so they refused to attack, giving the victory to the former. A certain tactic could sound so outrageous that it may actually work! With that said, what are examples of these strategies and how can you use them to your advantage?
Hoarding all of the hard consonants
Well, letters J, K, Q, X and Z will certainly give you a ton of points in a hurry, but finding suitable words for them could be a hassle, especially for new players. Little do newbie players know that these words could grant you a victory in less than a few turns.
Why this seems like a bad idea: Obviously, you really can’t enumerate words containing these letters, especially long and high scoring ones. Why hoard them when you can simply swap for usable letter tiles?
Why it’s a good idea: First off, they score big points. Second, there are actually a number of usable words for them. Words like Qi, Xi, Ja, Kit, Za and Zax, are only short words, but they could give you a big breathing space, especially if you place them on a bonus square. Aside from which, utilizing them will prevent your opponent from scoring big points, and it could start to pave the way for a defensive game.
Swapping your tiles
Let’s say that you don’t want to hoard all of the hard consonants and you’re going for a drastic approach. Why don’t you swap your tiles in the next few turns until you come up with usable words? Well, this sounds extremely crazy, coming from a blog that gives Scrabble advice.
Why this seems like a bad idea: Whenever you swap tiles, you lose the turn, meaning, you throw away your chances of scoring points, and ultimately, winning. This could also disrupt your train of thought: with every swap, you’re required to think of new combinations. Lastly, relying on this tactic is more of a gamble than a strategy: the tiles you draw rely on your luck.
Why it’s a good idea: Why are you skipping turns and drawing letter tiles in the first place? Well, you’re trying to go for multiple bingos of course! Why place words on the board every turn and score less when you can do so in rare intervals and score big points in the process. Remember, a bingo grants a whopping 50 point bonus! Why use guns when you can bury your opponent with nukes? Although a gamble, this tactic can actually give you the game if you can think fast.
Placing low-scoring tiles on bonus squares
In Scrabble, there are several bonus tiles: the double word, double letter, triple letter and the triple word bonuses. The game revolves mostly on how you maximize these squares: one wrong move and your opponent can actually score 30 points with a three letter word. So, why don’t you just place low scoring words with reckless abandon in bonus squares?
Why this seems like a bad idea: You’re not maximizing the squares by getting a lot of points! It’s like throwing their bonus points away! They are there so you can score by the twenties!
Why it’s a good idea: Its crunch time and there’s an A next to a triple word tile on the edge of the board. You can’t form any words with your current rack, so you simply place another A to form the word Aa (it’s a word with Hawaiian origins) on the triple word tile. This will surely frustrate your opponent, given that he was about to use the tile in his next turn, which could have given him 60+ points. By using the bonus squares even for low scoring attempts, you deprive your opponent from benefiting from it. It’s like spilling the soup and taking the bowl, in order to make your adversary starve.
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