Poorly Shuffled Deck

[Decoy]

It's amazing how every time I play this game it's either increadibly fun or extremely boring. The boring parts really make me want to vent a bit.

I don't really mind losing in this game (because it's still really fun as long as I get to do interact with the board, but I have found that 6 times out of 10 my deck will always be shuffled to give me all of my items first making it impossible for me to gain territory until 5-6 turns into the game. By then, I've had to discard all my items so my creatures are defenseless, so I am forced to just roll the dice and take whatever punishment the game throws at me. Each match takes so long that it ends up being very boring. This problem is so bad that I have begun to reset the game if I have not drawn a creature card within three turns.

To help I tried ridding myself of item cards (the most I have ever had is 20%) and replacing them with creature cards but then I draw all my expensive creatures first (I don't have a very big selection of cards yet, and most of the creature cards I have been getting have been costly ones).

I have also tried adding more spells instead of items, but then I'll start with and draw land boosting spells constantly (I don't have a very good selection of spells either). Can't really boost when you have no creatures...

I suppose it's not a big deal since I can get cards quickly by playing 2 player with a dummy player, but it's kind of boring when there's no strategy involved . I just wish I had better luck.

[utawoutau]

Wow, you're way more patient than I am. I reset the game if I don't have a monster in the First Round! ;D

Actually, in your post I think you hit on the solution to your problem even if you may not have realized it. No offense, but it sounds to me that you have a poorly constructed deck. I am not trying to deny that luck doesn't play into it (I once had ten items total in my deck and five of them showed up in my opening hand), but if you are having a hard time playing with your deal six out of ten times, then I seriously believe you need to reconstruct your deck.

Although everyone has their own style, here are two guidelines that I personally find useful:

*Try making a deck that is 40% Monsters, 40% Spells, and 20% Items.
I find this to be a fairly golden ratio. If you think that 20% is way too low for items, then I would counter that you either are not using spells effectively enough or you're using too many basic creatures (i.e. Minotaur and others who don't have any special abilities). Also, the idea with 40% spells is that you should practically use a spell every single round (Obviously mix in cheap spells with the more expensive ones).

* Don't use too many high cost creature cards.
In particular don't overuse creatures that have territory requirements in their cost. I find that a good ratio is 1 or 2 high cost cards out of every 5 creatures. Obviously, if you include too many high cost cards, you increase the chance that your starting game will be incredibly weak.

Hope this helps!

[Decoy]

Your advice is very good. I only wish I had the cards and experience to use it effectivly. I do realize that I am playing with a very poor deck (The decks listed in this forum are helpful, but I do not have the cards to contruct them with), and not being a very good player doesn't really help .

Actually, I tend to think 20% items is too much considering that I usually draw all of my items first. Right now I have it at 10% and even that seems like it's overboard. As for spells I don't have very many new ones. Besides creature stat boosting cards all I have is a few cards that allow me to draw new ones or redraw completely, 4 holy words which I usually only get toward the end of the game, and the card that gives you 50G for each lap you have taken (I forget the name). With all of them in my deck I can only get it up to 30%. I tend not to win spell cards after I have battled. Perhaps I am just battling the wrong area?

[utawoutau]

Okay, it sounds like you are pretty early on in the game. My only advice at that point would be to take any cards out of your deck that you find you never use and put something else in its place. After you get more cards you can build a better deck.

As far as earning cards goes, the first stage that really gives you lots of spell cards is the Temple, I believe. I think that is like the 5th stage.

If you haven't gotten that far yet, you might want to try playing in Versus mode as opposed to story mode. It might just be me, but I find that I get more new cards outside of story mode than in it - but that might just be luck as well. Dunnan, the first area, gives a pretty good assortment of cards.