Should be fun to see how this plays out. I wonder if it will be easy enough that anyone can pick up a deck and get it . I'm hoping each deck can be at least somewhat valuable. Or if it'll develop into a buy-and-trash mentality of players -- grabbing a deck, comparing it to the meta, and putting it on the shelf to buy another one.

But it's a curious endeavor and I'm excited to track its growth.

Interesting concept but I wonder what the business model is.... I can buy the starter (presumably to pull in a friend and get the tokens) then just buy 1 or 2 decks for $10 each... And then nothing?

If I like that deck I just keep using it until some balance tweak changes it?
I like the idea but I'm struggling to see how it would work in practice.

Sounds like allot of fun, I wonder if they have developed a computer programme that makes sure the deck balance is in place.

Honestly, this sounds pretty terrible. There are always cards that are better and worse. Cards that interact with each other better than others. Is getting a competitive deck supposed to be a crapshoot of buying random decks until you happen to find the combination that you're looking for? That's like taking the worst aspect of CCGs and making it way, way worse.

I hope I'm wrong about this.

Two things:

1) How will expansions work? Will I have to abandon my deck if I want to try the new cards in the expansion? Feels bad.

2) Since there cannot be alt art promos, how will FFG support OP? Just product?

My concern is more will the decks have symbols on them so we can buy what factions we want or 100% random?

Also you can't change em officially or..? I'm not competitive but

39 minutes ago, Dawngreeter said:

Honestly, this sounds pretty terrible. There are always cards that are better and worse. Cards that interact with each other better than others. Is getting a competitive deck supposed to be a crapshoot of buying random decks until you happen to find the combination that you're looking for? That's like taking the worst aspect of CCGs and making it way, way worse.

I hope I'm wrong about this.

Man, I'm right on board with you here. Being forced into a pre-con deck of random construction just seems like the worst parts of CCG (Random distribution) while losing all the customization that would make a CCG/LCG fun. I'd love to be wrong on this, but I can totally imagine somebody pulls a "god deck" with some really powerful interactions and now there's a secondary market for "good decks".

Just like you, I'd love to be wrong on this.

I wonder...

The rules are up. Did anyone see a release date?

GenCon starts tomorrow, wonder what they'll be doing with it.

Release is Q4 this year. Looks like only decks available were given out to InFlight attendees.

1 hour ago, CEOWolf said:

My concern is more will the decks have symbols on them so we can buy what factions we want or 100% random?

Also you can't change em officially or..? I'm not competitive but

I believe they said that the packs will be completely blind in regards to factions inside. And from some of the pictures of decks handed out at Gen Con, that seems to be the case.

Weird. It'll be fun as a draft game I guess?

Looks fun to me. I love playing decks, but I don't always love to actually build them soooooooo perfect game?

1 hour ago, Aahzmandius_Karrde said:

Release is Q4 this year. Looks like only decks available were given out to InFlight attendees.

Yes we were each given 2 decks.

The way it has been explained at the inflight event was that you open the deck and play.

You cannot trade cards. You cannot enhance your deck by purchasing cards. Every single deck you purchase is 100% original. No more tourneys with 3 over powered decks being played by 30 people that read up online. No more overly priced cards. If a deck is proven to be way OP or UP they have have handicapping in play. It seams to be a card game where money doesnt win.....play strategy will.

I just don't know if I can get behind the concept. Like, generally there are factions I like better than others in any game. But to get my three favorite factions all in one deck, there's like a 1 in 35 chance of that? So spending, on average, $350 digging for the deck I want?

I realize the intent is "play with what you get" like sealed in a CCG, but I'd rather have some control over what I'm going to get. I'd be a lot more excited about this game if the box listed at least one of the three factions on the box, so you have a little bit of an idea of what playstyle you're getting into. Playstyle is a big part of a gamer's identity, and if you're a control player and open up a trio more suited to aggro, you're going to have a bad time. Then spending more money to "reroll," knowing full well the next $10 deck might also not be suited to your style, feels really bad.

I think at the end of the day, while they're hyping "no deckbuilding" as an upside, for me, it's a downside. I imagine there will be a lot of others like me in that regard. It's a hard sell.

45 minutes ago, Zetan said:

I just don't know if I can get behind the concept. Like, generally there are factions I like better than others in any game. But to get my three favorite factions all in one deck, there's like a 1 in 35 chance of that? So spending, on average, $350 digging for the deck I want?

I realize the intent is "play with what you get" like sealed in a CCG, but I'd rather have some control over what I'm going to get. I'd be a lot more excited about this game if the box listed at least one of the three factions on the box, so you have a little bit of an idea of what playstyle you're getting into. Playstyle is a big part of a gamer's identity, and if you're a control player and open up a trio more suited to aggro, you're going to have a bad time. Then spending more money to "reroll," knowing full well the next $10 deck might also not be suited to your style, feels really bad.

I think at the end of the day, while they're hyping "no deckbuilding" as an upside, for me, it's a downside. I imagine there will be a lot of others like me in that regard. It's a hard sell.

You can see the factions after you open the box without opening the cellophane. Maybe this will be the opportunity to trade before play.

I would think you could relatively easily trade decks with people. Might get crazy though depending on how people start to value what in the game.

Im interested in seeing how op is supported and prizes - special card sleeves? Upgraded game components? Alt art won’t really work.

2 hours ago, Zetan said:

I just don't know if I can get behind the concept. Like, generally there are factions I like better than others in any game. But to get my three favorite factions all in one deck, there's like a 1 in 35 chance of that? So spending, on average, $350 digging for the deck I want?

I realize the intent is "play with what you get" like sealed in a CCG, but I'd rather have some control over what I'm going to get. I'd be a lot more excited about this game if the box listed at least one of the three factions on the box, so you have a little bit of an idea of what playstyle you're getting into. Playstyle is a big part of a gamer's identity, and if you're a control player and open up a trio more suited to aggro, you're going to have a bad time. Then spending more money to "reroll," knowing full well the next $10 deck might also not be suited to your style, feels really bad.

I think at the end of the day, while they're hyping "no deckbuilding" as an upside, for me, it's a downside. I imagine there will be a lot of others like me in that regard. It's a hard sell.

That is where I am at as well. It feels like the Star Wars LCG, minus the little choice that was in that game (and an IP that carries many products alone). I remember that game hit a big block locally when deck construction was revealed.

Oh well. Seems like it might be fun once in a while, but not competitively. Especially since, if I am reading the rule book correctly, the handicapping system that was mentioned earlier is not used in tournaments.

How will the people check if you have not swapped the cards in your deck?

Ramdon boosters is a thing from the past, random decks is the future!

8 minutes ago, Zura said:

How will the people check if you have not swapped the cards in your deck?

Each deck has a unique card back

At first glance, this seems either terrible (especially for organized play) or incredibly gimmicky and useless.

And it feels like it's made to push players to buy a lot of deck in order to obtain a competitive deck with a desired playstyle.

Well, plenty of more casually oriented players have been asking for this kind of thing. Sounds like fun.

Very interesting, indeed!

Obviously, this is not for everyone. People who enjoy creating their own decks and value this aspect of card games won't have much fun here, I guess.

I don't really like to build decks and play in constructed formats, I always use lists from other people. A lot of people do, and you always play against the same decks at tournaments, and metas get boring, etc. etc. (I am part of the problem, I know).

Sealed formats have always been my favorite ways to play, and I really like the design philosophy about this game, that Mr. Garfield expressed on the last page of the rulebook.

They seem to solve many "problems" that people have other card game format have.

Don't like to chase for expensive cards in CCGs? Well, you could spend an unlimited amount of money for new cards/decks, but you will never really know how good they are unless you actually play them.

Card pools in LCGs grow too big, it gets too expensive/complicated for new players to enter? A starter set and any deck is everything you will ever need to play.

Deckbuilders get repetitive when players of an equal experience level play against each other and now the "value" of each card? Every deck is unique and you will never know what cards you opponent plays.

These are all assumptions, of course. Chances are, that all of this turns out to be an uncontrolled RNG mess, but you never know until you play it.

I'm very interested in the OP formats. Can you bring pre-bought and played decks, or will tournaments have to be played with new, sealed decks only? I'd prefer the latter.

I bet that FFG will either provide some sort of construction possibilty in the future, or the community will. But hope these will not become official tournament formats.

Can this become a viable, robust tournament game? Or will it never be more than a gimmicky, casual "side game"?

Nevertheless, I'm really intrigued, and I hope that they can pull it off.

Also, I'm really impressed with the innovation that game seems to have, in design, production and distrubution (if it works).

What I love most about the idea for this game is: Every deck is different. I've played many actual TCGs, and a pattern I noticed when I play tournaments is that most people use the same top tier deck.

I remember one time when I was playing Cardfight!! Vanguard with my own deck, 4 rounds and semi-finals, I played against the exact same deck. Only in the finals did I finally face a unique deck. That is not healthy, having to face the same deck for 5 rounds in a row.

This is why I'm looking forward to this game, I love uniqueness. And even if I end up buying the decks for myself, given the pre-built nature of the decks, my friends can't accuse me of having one deck being most built, while the rest are half-baked.