One of the things that bugs me about the signature cards are the singles. Having only one card is so unreliable that you can't really build around it. However, the card is so powerful that an early draw of it and you're almost assuredly ahead,

I'm hoping to see a zero-cost neutral event that allows you to search your deck for a signature card and add it to your hand. Even a neutral army unit that lets you search the top six cards of your deck for a signature card type reaction would be good. Maybe make this stuff faction-specific, but available to all races, sort of how they went for the big board-clearers.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

I think that would be very useful to have. I have the same problems you mention where it is almost impossible to find the one of a kind cards.

A card that permanently gives: "Exaust your warlord to look at the top 5 cards of your deck" to your warlord might be good.

Maybe some house rule that each player can have a side deck or starting hand of Signature cards would be cool.

Does anyone else think "baseball trading cards" when they read "Signature card"?

Who want's to buy my Emperor rookie card?

@Saint1012

I feel the same way. Since we must use the 8 signature cards I don't see to many reasons why we can't use two or three copies of a particular card but still can only use 8 in total. If you happen to have extra copies of warlord packs or core sets this would help customize a warlord to a players liking, and make it harder to predict what's going to be in a particular warlords deck.

I would've liked three more cards added to the sig. cards. I think a 4-3-2-2 spread is better. Anyways, what's done is done.

Have you ever thought of letting both players start with a signature card of their choice in-hand at the beginning of the game?

I've never thought of trying that but it would be a fun to try.

How much you want to bet Necrons or Tyrinids will get a card like the one you mentioned.

The downside to all of this is exactly how powerful these signature cards are early, at least for a good chunk of the warlords. I wouldn't want Kith to always have turn 1 Khymera Den, or Kugath to always have turn 1 Plague Banner, and I definitely wouldn't trade having a guaranteed signature card in my hand turn 1 for them to have the same.

Honestly, those singles are one of the worst parts of the game for me. They are very cool, but they're too powerful and can wildly swing the game.

Honestly, those singles are one of the worst parts of the game for me. They are very cool, but they're too powerful and can wildly swing the game.

Completely agree with you.

Agree with your assessments: the balance between luck and skill in any good game is important, and this is one of the few elements in an excellent LCG where the luck factor is too high.

Even with 3x cards it can be an issue: I know that if my Zarathur swarm deck gets an Ammo Depot on turn 1, I am at a huge initial advantage, so I've got a strict mulligan rule of No Ammo Depot -> Mulligan. Even with this rule, I'm acutely aware that my statistical hit rate on first turn Ammo Depot is 61%. I've built my deck and I play my game to mitigate that 39% miss chance, with heavy enough command and an emphasis on pushing card draw in my play if I'm depotless, but its still a significant luck factor that can be decisive against a skilled player.

The x1 cards are so much worse. We're looking at a 14% chance of hit on a 1x without mulligan, and a 26% chance with mulligan. Compound this with the fact that a lot of these 1x cards give massive advantage if gained turn 1 (Tempest Blade, Khymera Den, Plaguefather's Banner) and we're looking at a very high variance in deck performance that is independent of the skill of the player or on the build of the rest of the deck. A good player can beat a great player with that 26% chance.

Having said that, I'm not in favour of structural changes to the rules, like starting with a sig card in hand, or whatever. To me, the rules as written are established now, and aside from errata and clarifications, they should remain unchanged.

Card-based solutions are fine, though, and I love the idea of the neutral searching event. I note that such a card already exists for searching for the Tempest Blade: its called Earth Caste Technician! Either that card puts the blade in your hand, or it moves it six cards closer to the top of your deck.

I'd like to see more card-based solutions that are reasonable includes in their own right and which stay within the mechanical themes of their factions, like Earth Caste Technician. I'd prefer these are not neutral cards, as I feel that high utility neutral cards make the game too flat and homogenous as well as effectively shrinking the number of tourney level decks you can build from a cardpool (see Void Pirate, Promotion).

Also, I think that effects need not be limited to searchers: the problem can be addressed in different ways too. Add support-hate and attachment-hate to more factions, and those 1x supports and attachments become less likely to be decisive. Add soft interactions that mitigate those cards advantages (as Dakka dakka mitigates Khymera Den, for example) and that works well too.

I think 1x Power Card was a design flaw of the base game, but I think its one that can be fixed with an expanding card pool.

I think 1x Power Card was a design flaw of the base game, but I think its one that can be fixed with an expanding card pool.

Ultimately, this is the issue... Also, I agree that adding card effects to get signature cards is better.

The downside to all of this is exactly how powerful these signature cards are early, at least for a good chunk of the warlords. I wouldn't want Kith to always have turn 1 Khymera Den, or Kugath to always have turn 1 Plague Banner, and I definitely wouldn't trade having a guaranteed signature card in my hand turn 1 for them to have the same.

Honestly, those singles are one of the worst parts of the game for me. They are very cool, but they're too powerful and can wildly swing the game.

A card that permanently gives: "Exaust your warlord to look at the top 5 cards of your deck" to your warlord might be good.

Maybe some house rule that each player can have a side deck or starting hand of Signature cards would be cool.

Does anyone else think "baseball trading cards" when they read "Signature card"?

Who want's to buy my Emperor rookie card?

I'll buy it, but only if you have that rare miss-print where they mistakenly put him in the Chaos color scheme uniform! That's the one I'm on the hunt for!