I'm new to the game, so forgive me my newbishness.

After watching the video of worlds, I noticed that each player was using their own damage deck, but the rules make no mention of needing one for each player (or team) and, as such, we've been using one deck for both players. Which is correct?

Both.

For home/casual play, 1 single damage deck is used by both players.

In tournaments, each player is required to drawn damage cards from his own deck.

Thanks.

I've always found it odd that each player uses their own deck. It seems like stacking the deck is one of the easiest ways to cheat. Sharing a deck would reduce the advantage that deck stacking would give the cheater.

I've always found it odd that each player uses their own deck. It seems like stacking the deck is one of the easiest ways to cheat. Sharing a deck would reduce the advantage that deck stacking would give the cheater.

It also can be an advantage to one player though. If you have both Direct Hit criticals happen to you, there is no way they can happen to your opponent. If he had his own damage deck, that wouldn't be the case.

I've always found it odd that each player uses their own deck. It seems like stacking the deck is one of the easiest ways to cheat. Sharing a deck would reduce the advantage that deck stacking would give the cheater.

It also can be an advantage to one player though. If you have both Direct Hit criticals happen to you, there is no way they can happen to your opponent. If he had his own damage deck, that wouldn't be the case.

There are 7 Direct Hit cards in the deck unless someone is cheating.

When sharing the deck players have the same chance to draw those cards, the distribution changes a little bit as crits are dealt but neither player has an advantage. In the case of someone cheating by switching out Direct Hits for other cards they would be reducing the chance of inflicting a Direct Hit by the same amount that they are reducing the chance that they'll receive one.

I've always found it odd that each player uses their own deck. It seems like stacking the deck is one of the easiest ways to cheat. Sharing a deck would reduce the advantage that deck stacking would give the cheater.

You can not stack the deck.

1. Your opponent, or a TO, may check the contents of your deck to verify its integrity.

2. You get the opportunity to shuffle your opponent's deck.

Now you could have outright cheats but stacking should never happen.

While you could share one deck between two people you should NEVER mix two decks together. Mixing two decks changes that chance that a specific card can be drawn from the deck after the first card is drawn. Using one deck may give more information about what that next card will be but it does not change the chances of what the next card drawn will be.

When I use the term "stacking the deck" I am talking about the practice of switching out cards that you don't want to pull in favor of cards you don't particularly mind pulling. Switching out Direct Hits for one extra of seven different less annoying crits would likely not go noticed in play unless the cheater had very poor luck. The deck can only really be verified after the player has setup but before they start putting stuff away. It's time consuming enough that you'd only do it if you suspected your opponent of cheating. Most players won't challenge the legality of someone's deck unless their opponent has an impossible combination of crits showing because it will reek of poor-sportsmanship if the happen to be wrong.

I do suppose that even using a common deck could end up being beneficial to a cheater if it is stacked to his list's benefit. Doubling the number of Pilot crits in the deck would play to his favor if he had a ship or two with Determination.

Maybe after the first game though and you saw enough of the players cards to wonder where certain ones were, you could alert a TO and they could keep an eye for the later games. Might not help you but would help other players later on.

You really think it takes that long to check someone's deck? Ok, maybe it does if you're really going to get down and dirty but it shouldn't take much to see if there are any "three of a kinds" in the deck and if it is missing those Direct Hit cards.

There is NO reason anyone should complain about having their damage deck checked for accuracy. If anything is "unsportsmanlike" it is bawking at that. If you have nothing to hide there is no harm in it but if you HAVE something to hide then you probably should be getting thrown out of a tournament or at the very least be handed a game loss. The person exhibiting poor sportsmanship is the one who thinks he's too good to have his DD verified.

There have been a few topics covering changing the composition of the damage deck and while you hope you'd never NEED to check someone's deck there is nothing wrong with getting in the practice of doing so. Those who follow the rules, and it is in the rules, will have no trouble with it and anyone who would try to cheat that way will quickly be found out should they be stupid enough to even try it.

On a different but related note, it's worth checking your own damage deck now and again. I found after one game that I was a card short, presumably during a previous game one of my cards had become mixed up with an opponent's deck without us realising. Didn't matter because I have more than one damage deck and it was during a casual game, but since then I regularly check my damage deck after games. This was about a week out from regionals so if I hadn't checked... Could have been a ridiculous thing to get DQ'ed for (and the missing card was thrust control fire, so it wasn't like I even benefitted from it not being there )