Asking for Deck critiques, new to CCG type games

[William Hawk]

iClipse, well, a freeze helped me secure a win today when the other player brought out a Shadow Knight and I Froze him. If I remember correctly I had 2-3 allies out and one was a Knight of my own. He was low on cards in hand, must not have had anything good to play, and figured I was showing too strong a hand, so that was game. Portal is also nice as I have dropped it turn 4 or 5 or 6, after an ally or two has been killed, then next turn I drop a Knight, bring back the dead ally, possibly drop a Hellsteed or Carniboar at the same time, and now I can cause havok while possible holding a Fireball or two in hand to drop next turn, if not LS. But as I tweak my deck further I will consider other possibilies. Of course if they keep helping me win no reason to get rid of them, right?

Raphael, yeah that's a good point about going turn 2, I just get tired of it. Guess I wasn't looking at the positive side of it. Thanks!

[William Hawk]

Also one thing I am thinking, is if certain cards don't seem to fit well in my deck, then perhaps the opponent is not expecting them to come out. If I can throw him / her off with a few surprise cards, better for me. Besides I don't want a deck that looks like every other same-hero deck out there, I want it to be my own creation. But again, if things start to go wrong I will strongly consider all of the advice I have been given. My goals are to learn from my mistakes, take notes, and keep improving and trying different things. I want to get to the point where I can build a deck and someone will see it and say, "wow I never thought of those cards together, nice build!" Of course this will take time, I am still new, and I know that card selection at the moment is limited. But that will all change

[Raphael Majere]

No attack involved here, but I prefer the student copy master concept. An art student first copies his master's technique and methods. Even replicating his paintings. After the formative years are done, the student can develop his own methods, style.

I believe in a solid starting point.

[William Hawk]

Raphael, no worries, no offense is taken at all. What is REALLY funny about that post is that I actually AM an art student at the moment, lol. Well, I have been a professional for many years but I am back in art school to learn more and refine the fundamentals. So I guess that means I cannot disagree with your point, HAHA!

By the way I have been reading your threads about the Rush decks you played with, and all the tweaks and advice other people were giving. I did not realize the level of thinking with regard to strategy went sooooo deep! Like I said at the beginning I never played any CCG / TCG before (of course I am aware of them but mostly as a fan of the artwork on the cards). I'm very impressed with what I have been reading. I think I will come to like this game even more than I initially thought. Great reading in those threads!

[Raphael Majere]

I love the card art. In terms of tcg, there are a lot of current/ex mtg players, pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, WoW tcg players. The level of strategy is far deeper for these games.

SE is unique in it's own ways but it's still a strategy card game. So many of the principles like card advantage, card draw, deck size, card synergies, resource curve apply.

Good luck!

[MattOG]

Deck Revision:
4 Gargoyle
2 Plasma Beh
2 Belladonna
2 Hellsteed
2 Dark Flayer
4 Carniboar
4 Shadow Knights
4 Fireballs
2 Freeze
3 Lightning Stike
2 Portal
2 Research
2 Snow Sapphire

If I have it right... I think I do.

Going back to an earlier post, Focus.

I'm pretty sure this will be mentioned in at least one of the articles above, but it's really important when building that you know where you are going with the deck. How you are going to control the board if they drop x ally? What cards do you need to get out in order to secure a win (win condition)?

It's very easy with certain classes to try and include too many cards, which in the end dilutes your deck, and means you don't get to the "key" cards when you should. It basically goes like:

"hmm, freeze an ally, that could be useful" - add
"wow, I can attack with an ally as I cast it with portal" - add
"snow sapphire will freeze someone if they attack me" - add
"shadow knight brings back a dead ally" - add....

Though it should go like:

T3 - I want a gargoyle. - add 4
T4 - T5 I'm possibly going to need some support for the gargoyle. - Add 4 Fireballs & Lightning Strikes.
T4 If they don't pop an ally down I need to deal with, I want to drop another. - Add 4 Bella's
T5 - If I've got the board, I could do with cementing my position - Add 4 Shadow Knights.
T5 - T6 If they have the board, I'm going to need to be able to take it back. - Add Portal / Nova - Think about allies that would follow....


This is something I'm sure will be covered, but it's an important part of keeping your deck running smoothly.

As a side note, most of my 40c decks run with 6-8 x4 cards (e.g. 4x gargoyle), 3-4 x3 cards (e.g. 3x Shadow Knight), and 2-3 x2 cards (e.g. 2x Snow Sapphire). My 30c Decks run with a similar spread. 4x cards I need. 3x cards I want. 2x cards I could do with late.


HTH

[Raphael Majere]

4x cards I need. 3x cards I want. 2x cards I could do with late.

This is good advice.

[William Hawk]

points taken. no time to play today with school, but I should get some games in this weekend. I'll start considering what I might want to change out next, and report the results when I do.

Thanks guys