MArcomage

There are card games (LOTR TCG for example) that allows you to customize your starting hand (or similar) to reduce the starting random factor.

Usually you are given some points and you are allowed to pick some cards according to some rules.

Would you like to have something similar here? What would be the rules you would like to have?

Examples:

- you can only pick cards from your deck
- you can't pick rares

I think it's not good idea, it's lot of very, very strong combinations of several cards (just commons and uncommons), so when both players will be able to kill opponent in for example four or five turns, it's not very interesting...

That is why there are usually some rules to limit the starting hand (we could also disallow the uncommon cards, or limit it by present keyword, cost type... there are lot of options). Also we could add the option if you would like to go first or get the stock bonus instead.

that would be funny for a combo maniac like me.
but can you imagine a first hand with fairy, zeloth and a bunch of fanatic?
it's a nice idea but could be very dangerous, there must be really strict rules.

Strict rules? How about this: you can only choose common cards (each card only once). That would allow the player to customize his hand, but it wouldn't be overpowered.

This is too strict, I can't think a common only starting hand that I like to have (maybe chaos dwarf and other 7 alliance)
what abuot: you can choose only 4 card (1 uncommon e 3 common)

Maybe this: You can choose up to 3 cards, at least 1 of them must be from your deck (rares included).

dimitris wrote:
Maybe this: You can choose up to 3 cards, at least 1 of them must be from your deck (rares included).

Well, Heresy, Zealot, Angel.
I start, first turn Heresy, I have 6 Fanatics, Zealot and Angel, Resources 18/8/13
Second turn Angel, I have resources 42/24/37, draw for example only Soldier card, Zealot attack for 55. Bye.

And it's just first combination which crossed my mind...

That's why I think it would be better to allow only unique common cards.

vault wrote:

dimitris wrote:
Maybe this: You can choose up to 3 cards, at least 1 of them must be from your deck (rares included).

Well, Heresy, Zealot, Angel.
I start, first turn Heresy, I have 6 Fanatics, Zealot and Angel, Resources 18/8/13
Second turn Angel, I have resources 42/24/37, draw for example only Soldier card, Zealot attack for 55. Bye.

And it's just first combination which crossed my mind...

How did you got 6 fanatics since heresy brings only 3 maximum? :P
Anyway, I didn't say this won't bring powerful combinations, but you'd need some luck also.

I do like the idea of being able to choose a starting hand, though obviously the rules would have to be finely tuned. It would, I think, make the game more strategic and less luck-based.

An even simpler solution which would go a long way toward evening things out would be to have the starting hand of each player consist of a set number of cards of each rarity from their deck. For example, everyone could start with 6 random commons ans 2 random uncommons from their deck.

Also, I remember someone in the concepts section suggested an idea that would have a very similar effect on the game style: having a 'tutor' like card that summons a specific card of your choice (they achieved this by having it summon the card in your deck's first uncommon deck slot).

Mojko wrote:
That is why there are usually some rules to limit the starting hand (we could also disallow the uncommon cards, or limit it by present keyword, cost type... there are lot of options). Also we could add the option if you would like to go first or get the stock bonus instead.

I like this idea. You could specify on your profile which you prefer and if both players prefer the same thing, it can just be random like it is now.

dimitris wrote:
How did you got 6 fanatics since heresy brings only 3 maximum? :P

True, I mistooked the effect with death before dishonor which changes all fanatics... ;) But I'm sure it's no problem to find combinations to kill your opponets in few turns...

The short version of my opinion is that we should just leave things as they are. There would be far too much to consider to really work this out.

I don't mind the 6C2U suggestion, though. It would mean that cards that gauge their effect on how many Commons both players have can't randomly start someone with an advantage before the opponent can act.

This is isn't quite on topic, but somewhat related, but one thing that always bugged me was drawing cards that have an 'if new' condition in my starting hand. It makes those cards very much a detriment to have on hand initially. I'm not even sure what could be done to fix it (one could argue that it's just a strength/weakness trade-off with those cards), but I know that it can be pretty frustrating, and forces you to stick magic portals or renewal in your deck.

I would rather see an option to disallow duplicates on the starting hand. It can be extremely crippling to have a lot of duplicate commons in your initial hand (and the reverse could be true too, there are some very strong combo's you can get from duplicate cards). Overall, I don't see it hurting to reduce the probability of getting duplicate cards on your starting hand at least.

In general, I agree with most people and say that being able to choose a starting hand is too strong (wheat farms+harvest fairy would be a very effective start as well, and doesn't involve uncommons), but maybe you could pick a distribution of types of cards (like the 6 common, 2 uncommon start that people mentioned)