If you already understand the positioning and the roles, targeting is the next thing to learn. I already covered the basic positioning and basic order in that topic. So here I gonna talk about exceptions and nuances of targeting. But to recap: you always attack the front axie by default, they always attack your front axie, and when you kill one you can attack the one behind it. This is the front to back approach which is used for most of players. The exceptions are called Backdoor, as you break this rules by using cards that change your direction and you attack a different axie first, this can be useful to skip shields, spread poison or debuff targets, but also wields the risk or not killing the target and you got to get to it the normal way next turns so he benefits more from it than you.
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Made an error with melon, the line should be above it as it's the same as the owl. Also the values might be different now. These are the cards that can modify targeting or interact with it. Top right 5 cards are really situational and they only take effect in specific scenarios so I don't think anyone ever chooses them for targeting effects, they might make some matchups easier but it's not worth choosing them for a normal scenario with random opponents. When their conditions don't met, they will be normal cards with wasted effects, while other cards might have a higher chance of fullfillment. Kingfisher: a fairly high damage card that can target aquas but you got to be low health which is not a good sign for a bird, probably there might be a combo with 2 post fight which uses up 2x30% of your health, but then you either need to heal back to use it again or give up that axie. Hungry bird: same condition against bugs. Right now less than 10% of the teams got bugs and they are fairly low cost, the only builds that still see play are pincer/parasite discard bugs with fish bait, or some terminators, bug cards on other bodies don't count so this effect will be rare. It's still a good attack value and a high shield. Cloud: skips a last stand. Since it counts as an action, it also removes a tick, and every card after it. While it's not a bad thing to do that if you are faster than the axie in last stand, it won't usually matter. The condition of being faster probably occurs, as high morale needed for last stands, so beasts, bugs and plants. SO you already beat the bugs/beasts and last stands rarely ever occur in games. Piranha: target injured if you are under 50%. This doesn't modify target on it's own, sure it's useful to correct a failed backdoor attempt, and this card has high values even after nerfs, but it's more of an additional synergy than a targeting card in itself, for front to back games, it will just target the front axie most cases so you only ever activate this condition by being damaged and dealing damage to other axies. Might worth a try with yam as defensively can apply to any axie that hits a tank with yam on it but the poison will apply to the front tank so you won't backdoor until that is alive. Turnip: needs 2 cards to target a bird, fairly balanced value but it's a back card so won't be good on plants, as they need pumpkin or shiitake most cases. Might work on others as birds can die to a 3 card combo.
Stench: while is not targeting card, but acts similar, with the condition that your speed levels are correct. A fast axie applies stench, the next will skip the target, so it's a combo that requires planning and luck too, you might be interrupted by cards like fear or stun. It's still a fun mechanic. Only 2 cards apply stench, the target will be ignored and same turn the next axie of yours will hit the one behind. Both cards got 30 attack and 80 shield which is not bad with an effect like this.
Lets not forget Eggshell and pigeon post, this is more of a defensive combo with eggshel only, Aroma will make your own axie the target so the opponents will be redirected to you. This can confuse them as it's hard to expect, and if they try to kill your front tank, might be a solid option to use it, as it's a bird card and high damage, can be used on both aquas and birds, and usually the opponent fully expects to kill your front so they don't use too many cards, so you can survive 1-2 attacks on backline. Pigeon Post can remove poison and other debuffs, and give to another axie, so on it's own it's not that useful but it's high damage and if the conditions are met can turn tides. If you trigger debuffs on yourself, you can transfer them to an opponent. Most debuffs will apply to you so can't transfer anyway as this card will trigger first and then apply the effect, so can't transfer stuns or one turn debuffs like attack down. But you can transfer poison or sleep. Only eggshell is self inflicted debuff that lasts by my knowledge. Getting hit to transfer might not be a good idea for birds, but there are other possibilities for medium speed axies, for example a midliner reptile could transfer a poison after getting hit by it. Usually used for high attack value or for the egshell combo.
Now the best for last, I grouped them by similarity. These cards are modifiers so you need to use them first to change your target, used later in a combo will target normally the first axie on front. You won't change target after you started an attack on an axie. So this can be an amateur mistake when using it. Also these cards got low value on their own so without synergy and high damage cards paired it will be hard to make use of it. Also having two of these on same axie might make them totally useless as you don't need 2 options to target others in most cases. So highly skill based, but also can be rewarding.
Perch and trispikes are bot a back card and both need 2 cards or more to trigger. So on a normal axie is quite expensive to go for 3 card combo 3 energy, and it might not be enough paired with 2 cards to kill one axie. So you might even need 4 card combos. That's why they work better on the backlienrs who can wait for such combo. Perch is decent damage on it's own so might be the only exception that can be used with another targeting or utility card. Like perch+wing horn and decide target dynamically. Idle means he didn't use any card not just no attack. It can be outplayed by playing a card on backliners while keeping the tank with no card used or both mid and back use a card then it will hit front anyway. But if they use one card only per axie they lose combo damage. They can expect it coming by counting your energy, you will need 3-4 to make it kill an axie so any shield can ruin that. But if you get the effect of attacking idle, it will not have a shield so you get base value health, like 516 plant, 420 aqua, so the 10-20 damage more from other back cards is counteracted by that. Babylonia is also another card that can be combined so both anti-idle cards deal massive damage. Garish worm also back card so can't be comboed with this. In case that is nerfed this two cards will be slightly better than now.
Trispikes usually is used with poison but there are 0 card cost cards that help it occur more often and deal enough damage to kill, the poison might be nerfed and trispikes is medium damage on it's own. Still decent armor so not a bad bruiser card.
Both this cards are expensive, especially with the meta combo cards that make them better.
Winghorn and gerbil: skip the closest if there are 2 or more. Simply translated: hit the midlaner. It's quite effective to skip the tank and kill the midlane directly, but will need 3 attack cards. They both low attack and shield so they are highly situational. Gerbil is also beast card so only 1 speed from it. Wing horn on other hand gives 3 speed so might be a good choice, especially horns are usually flexible on any offensive axie, especially if they give speed. For example aquas get less health and more morale from a single bird card and this way they go faster than other 57 speed aquas. 2 might be overkill and once they hit you you go first, so only matters when you are full health. But when two exact same birds are two sides on the battle field, then low ID goes first so there is a hefty price to pay for an eggshel pigeon post bird on low ID, quite the same with aquas with 3-4 damage cards, the faster the better so the low ID can be a tool that wins a few games. A bird card bypasses this so wing horn is actually super good on aquas with 3 damage. Still viable with nimo, it might be overall low damage but with enough cards you use double damage cards and do the combo or use 2 nimo together for 2 energy. Both this cards might be bad in 1v1 situation when you run out of cards and need attack in alst turns so it's not easy to play it and to synergize with the rest of your team.
Little owl: target fastest. This can be mid or back, usually not the tank, fastest axies usually are the most dangerous so this card can help taking them out early. With bird cards ranging from 120 to 150 and combo bonus, usually enough to kill anyone with 3 cards and this. The most disgusting backdoor is with eggshell pigeon post, as the aroma will make them targeted by your slower axie as well, so you can do one more attack on this target with them without them having a targeting card. That combo is the only 5+ card targeting so no wonder this is the most popular backdoor card. Post fight is the only card on 0 cost that can deal massive damage comparable to 1 cost cards, while it has a downside, still makes this combo cheaper for 4 cards, so 3-4 energy can kill almost anything. No wonder the birds with that 4 cards are most popular.
Melon also targets fastest, but since it's a plant card, will give no speed, but 3x6 hp and 66 armor, 1 morale, which is not bad, I saw it on aquas, still enough with koi to outspeed birds or target them and helps against other aquas as they have trouble killing anything with average 50-60 armor per card when 1v1 (2 aqua cards tops at 290 no advantage, 4 is theoreticaly 580, 6 is 770, so your axies hp+ shields extended above these values, will get them a lot of trouble killing it). Other horns give more damage.
Finally 2 that target furthest, so the backliner. Toothless bite is a low value reptile card, usually used to spread poison and then defend and delay to make it more effective. It's on the mouth so no chomp can be used with it, also only 1 speed from it not 3 so not a good option for all classes.
Shrimp: also backliner targeting with low attack, with 3 damage cards can be used on birds and aquas or even some reptiles use it, gives 3 speed so it's good against backline birds. Only Garishworm can be used as poison as the other 2 is tail cards as shrimp. Generally lacks damage to oneshot aquas.
So these are the backdoor options. it got a bit long :)
Potato leaf: can't be targeted by aqua cards. This only triggers if t he first card is aqua card and it would do damage. If the card is not aqua card and would not do damage (cuckoo or luna for example) the 2nd card is checked. Same goes for stun, if the axie is stunned or feared then the targeting is also cancelled. Eggshell interactions: you can use eggshell twice and mark the opponent and yourself with aroma, this means if it still survives it hits the bird (or the axie with eggshell). Eggshell overwrites potato leaf, can't dodge. Same goes for piranha when the axie is injured, the target damaged axie overwrites the potato leaf.