You can use potion effects and a Little Help to set up a favourable arrangement of marbles, before taking one and triggering explosions.

If you take low value potions near the start then later when you have lots of potions, you can start taking the high value ones and get lots and lots of points!

The game goes faster than you expect, do not try to "save" potions to use in later turn(s). Try and complete both potions each time if at all possible. This generally means using potions before ( and after ) taking your marble from the stack.

Before deciding on marbles to save, take a look at the new potions available and what your opponents need, if they have the Elixir of Blind Love.

In order to choose a marble, start looking for all lone, single marbles of the color needed and especially those that might be embedded between two marbles of the same color, choose the combination that fills the most slots in your potions. The better move may be to take a marble without explosions if it fills a critical slot in one of your potions. Using the Lavamancer potion to clear marbles of one color that reduces the stack to the point where the colors you need remain plentiful in an arrangement that most fully satisfies your open slots.

Also consider the possibility that an initial explosion could trigger others. Lastly, be mindful of any explosions that set your opponents up favorably, that should discourage that move.