Yeah, it definitely applies. 
Eg.1 I pulled Sartana not long after ascending Obakan out of desperation
Eg.2 Whenever I hoard tokens for pulls, I rarely pull the hero I am after. I usually pull a good hero on a single pullā¦
I agree that hoarding your mats is often the better strategy. This is my inventory:
For the record, I have 22 maxed 5* heroes.
The only 5* Iām about to give mats to are Norns (Iām still leveling them up). My other options are first Thorne/Obakan/Horghall/Elkanen or a duplicate hero. Once I have 18+ mats I may max one of these but for now, Iām saving my mats.
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Dupe Joon or Lianna is good, especially with costumes.
The only 5* costume I have is Elenaās (but donāt have the original hero). The duplicate Joon and Lianna are at 3-70 but Iām not going to ascend them (at least for now).
Theyāre doing a great job for SGGās coffers. If you want to leave a pile of 4* mats lying around, thatās your prerogative. But for everyone else, thereās a permanent shortage of everything in this game.
Want some powerful heroes? Sorry, only a 5% chance of getting a Legendary from your TC 20 after 2 days, and even then thereās a good chance theyāll be a dupe or useless.
So you managed to get a good legendary hero? Okay, youāll need 8 unfarmable 3* mats and 8 unfarmable 4* mats (6 class-specific, 1 Damascus Blade, 1 Tome of Tactics) to maximize them, plus a metric buttload of hams.
Want to upgrade your players faster, by training common and uncommon heroes at TC2? Better have enough backpacks, neener neener.
Want to get some good battle items to support your team? Good luck getting hardwood lumber, which youāll need for both axe attacks and dragon attacks. Or midnight roots, which youāll need for bomb attacks and, inexplicably, both mana potions and super mana potions.
As a special bonus, you can announce a new endgame feature and then take 2+ years to release it, only for everyone to find out it completely sucks.
Yes, great job.
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It was like 5-6* Titans in my first kinda training alliance and itās 10* Titans in my current alliance
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You forgot the gloves and compass.
Lol , what do you suggest so? I think its a good idea indeed to not waste valuable mats in suboptimal heroes.(eventually you wont be hoarding mats forever but its a good idea to wait a little bit if you know you dont have a good candidate to use the mats on)
I have a grimble sitting in 1/1 since December . Following your strategy and if were spent my tabards on him today i couldnt be enjoying my maxed ursena
Hoarding is not a bad virtue,ā¦saving for the raining dayā¦
I have to ask, because Iām curiousā¦ Why have you chosen to not use any 4* mats or emblems?
Because I like playing with all of my heroes.
& Cuz itās completely unnecessary; Iāve been able to complete, and even excel, at most things in-game [without em] (including Atlantis & Valhalla hard mode, all seasonal and challenge event quests, trials, etc). Top 1%-5% in all tourneys (including 5* ones), regularly score in the 200s in war, as long as I use halfway decent items I can score well vs 13* titans, and can place high enough in events for flasks and EHTs 
- It makes the game more challenging. Everyoneās always complaining about not enough difficulty, well, solved that. Also always complaining about not enough mats, or how they canāt use their heroes sitting at 3/70 - solved that. Can decide whoās good for myself without any [later] regrets of using hard to obtain materials, when someone newer or better comes out - so solved that as well.
Iāve got 135 heroes (and counting) at 70 (+ all of the 3* maxed). I wonāt stop till I run out of compasses 
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Got a pic of your emblems
I am getting sooooo frustrated lately. I have one 5* hero sitting at 70 because I havenāt seen a warm coat for close to six weeks. So NO distribution is not good.
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Yeahhhh Iām gonna have to say no, the mat distribution is not great.
Of course individual results do vary, you might get more mats if youāre killing 14* titans or scoring high on this or buying that, etc. Iām not going to personally insult anyone just because theyāve been luckier than I have, or whatever means they used to get their mats. Just that there are still a lot of us that donāt have the mats we need, and usually have to wait months to get them.
So not a fan, personally. 
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Fair enough.
My apologies to @Linguini. I was unnecessarily rude.
Just wanted to appoint that I think is wrong (?) not to max and use some good cards waiting for the best ones.
But, as stated above, there are different play styles.
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Sure!
Not looking to derail this thread anymore than I maybe already have 
but since weāre talking item distribution Iām hoping this is close enough where I can share:
So still a ways away from being able to bring two 5* teams to +20 (but I also donāt purchase emblems)
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Wow thatās insane! 
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Iāve been playing since last October, my only fully ascended 5* are Panther, Telluria, Vela, and I have 10 more heroes on the bench.
Not sure if Iām just unlucky with mats or if itās intended by SGG, but saying they do a great job on mats distribution is a bit of a sarcastic statement in my opinion.
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Thatās alright, I donāt hold any kind of grudge 