Greetings everyone !

I know you have discussed it already but still...

1) They will have like 350 unique cards divided and dosed differently among the virtual possibilities.

What will they do then ? Expand the poll of unique cards and the number of factions ? And then ? mix it with the original amount and create new virtually unlimited premade decks ?

I don't see what they'll do with it.

Because if they expand the poll of unique components used to brew the decks, how will our previousely bought grow old ?

2) On another note : as a player I'll try to get the most out of my 10 bucks deck. But on FFG's side, what do they want you to do ? To blindly buy dozens of decks (or have 1M clients buying one random deck) to experience what they have to offer to you in term of premade combinations and try to compete with your deck against everyone ? Is that just a multiplayer game right out the box ? How do they try to retain customers loyalty ?

3) Some have also mentioned the (high) probability of similar to nearly clone decks (except the Archon identification) and the as high possibility of "trash" decks that are unplayable because of bad combination of cards... Do you think that FFG, known for game balance issues has worked a solution out to make the customer quite satisfied with what he gets for 10 bucks or aren't we really safe from discovering that what we bought is unplayable ? I know a lot of people who wouldn't be happy with it so I think the AI behind the composition of the decks is quite intelligent and not broken like in (many) video games ?

16 minutes ago, Elrad said:

1) They will have like 350 unique cards divided and dosed differently among the virtual possibilities.

What will they do then ? Expand the poll of unique cards and the number of factions ? And then ? mix it with the original amount and create new virtually unlimited premade decks ?

I don't see what they'll do with it. Because if they expand the poll of unique components used to brew the decks, how will our previousely bought grow old ?

Not sure what you mean here. If the game goes well, I would expect expansions to keep certain parts of the game fresh. New common cards, for sure. Possibly new mechanics or factions. These wouldn't be simply because they ran out of room, but they wanted to keep that sense of 'oooh, shiney new stuff' around.

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2) On another note : as a player I'll try to get the most out of my 10 bucks deck. But on FFG's side, what do they want you to do ? To blindly buy dozens of decks (or have 1M clients buying one random deck) to experience what they have to offer to you in term of premade combinations and try to compete with your deck against everyone ? Is that just a multiplayer game right out the box ? How do they try to retain customers loyalty ?

I'm sure they want as many people possible buying their stuff, spending as much as is possible.

What they're expecting is another matter. I've stated elsewhere that I don't think they're going to get people dropping $300+ each time a new expansion comes out. But I fully expect that they'll get people to buy a new deck or two, just to try it out. Maybe another one, for variety's sake. And what the ****, I'm bored, sell me another one. Sealed tournament coming up? Yeah, mark me down for it...

I see more impulse purchasing over spending huge amounts in a single chunk.

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3) Some have also mentioned the (high) probability of similar to nearly clone decks (except the Archon identification) and the as high possibility of "trash" decks that are unplayable because of bad combination of cards... Do you think that FFG, known for game balance issues has worked a solution out to make the customer quite satisfied with what he gets for 10 bucks or aren't we really safe from discovering that what we bought is unplayable ? I know a lot of people who wouldn't be happy with it so I think the AI behind the composition of the decks is quite intelligent and not broken like in (many) video game

That, we'll have to see. They did mention that they tried to keep any deck from having totally dead cards, and it looked like any card that might work only some of the time was good for generating æmber, even if it wasn't being used for any particular effect, so hopefully there aren't many totally unplayable decks.

And if you do get a totally crap deck, convince someone to run a Loser Deck Tournament: everyone brings their worst decks, and hands them to their opponent at the start of the game, then tries to win with their opponent's terrible deck.

Thanks for your answer.

My first point was indeed unclear.

They create a smoke screen by announcing a ridiculous number of possible decks which is ok. But Like you answered, I was asking myself how they were going to maintain the interest. By releasing expansions : I'm ok with that it's perfectly good.

By adding new "raw material" (ie new cards like you mention) : I'm less ok because what will happen to the decks you have bought earlier ? Will they be good for the recycle bin ? Or maybe they'll create a "bank of updated raw material" (a bit like when you buy individual lego blocks) to maintain your old decks up to date with new versions of cards ? Because adding new game material (here cards) will have to be considered with the old Archons sitting at the back of the classroom who won't move away like this. At least with some players but maybe the 10$ pricetag will help people to "forget" about their old decks and buy new ones while trying to resell the old ones...

Or they'll finally open the Deckbuilding sytem box and allow people to forge their own deck.... But that's a complete other game to be designed.

Finally by adding new games mechanic ? I'm fine but again : I don't want to pay 10$ for a ready to play deck (however the quality of it) to learn some months later that some of the cards are outdated and illegal in tournaments or that they don't fit new gameplay mechanics...

And like you say : we'll have to see where it goes.

Thanks again for answering

I don't see why you need to update old decks. Since every deck is unique, all a new set does is change what you can deck. It is only a problem if there is some massive power creep. Which they can counteract just by adding some weaker cards to balance it out.

Also there isn't a high probability of almost identical decks. There are 50 cards in a factions. So probably 15 or so rares in each faction. Plus the uncommons and commons. The combinations of cards easily numbers in the thousands. Then multiply it by another thousand combinations twice for other factions.

Sure they advertised septillions of decks, but realistically they will print less than a billion decks. We don't even know what the algorithm is. Or even the bell curve of cards.

If you want to play new mechanics, Just buy a new deck from that set.

4 hours ago, Xelto said:

And if you do get a totally crap deck, convince someone to run a Loser Deck Tournament: everyone brings their worst decks, and hands them to their opponent at the start of the game, then tries to win with their opponent's terrible deck. 

This sounds super fun to me.

@Radix2309 Thanks for answering. Hum... many information new to me i'll have to watch a couple videos an read a bit more to get a better picture of the thing.

Games like this even at their best have a shelf life. so it will only be natural for people to eventually want to play a new deck. and eventually want to play a new set once the larger patterns have been explored.

I'm guessing we will see a whole new base set eventually. wether or not they re use old cards in it will be interesting. I suspect there will be wholly new factions

10 minutes ago, TylerTT said:

Games like this even at their best have a shelf life. so it will only be natural for people to eventually want to play a new deck. and eventually want to play a new set once the larger patterns have been explored.

I'm guessing we will see a whole new base set eventually. wether or not they re use old cards in it will be interesting. I suspect there will be wholly new factions

I doubt there will be a new base set. All they need is one beginner friendly set, which they habe with the 40 dollar box. After that you just get the deck you want.

I definitely expect new factions, but also some old factions with new cards. They will probably still have some reprints, but eith enough new mixed in so that the decks are still new. Especially when combined with new factions.

So eventually old decks will become more and more outdated and unplayable as they add new factions, new cards, game mechanics and so on... Well why not. The cards will still be on the shelf so we will still be able to play the "vanilla" version if the game goes as far as being updated in its core.

36 minutes ago, Radix2309 said:

I doubt there will be a new base set. All they need is one beginner friendly set, which they habe with the 40 dollar box. After that you just get the deck you want.

If they add new mechanics, they may have a new base set with rules that incorporate those mechanics.

Which you can ignore, since the rules will be online, and just pick up packs of the new set.

Victory tastes sweeter when you win with an 'old, outdated' deck against one of the new stuff. It's why I love playing old decks in TCGs.

10 hours ago, Radix2309 said:

I doubt there will be a new base set. All they need is one beginner friendly set, which they habe with the 40 dollar box. After that you just get the deck you want.

I definitely expect new factions, but also some old factions with new cards. They will probably still have some reprints, but eith enough new mixed in so that the decks are still new. Especially when combined with new factions.

by base set I meant new set of 300-400 cards.

I doubt we will see a new preconstructed starter set for a long while. but you never know.

19 hours ago, RedMageStatscowski said:

Victory tastes sweeter when you win with an 'old, outdated' deck against one of the new stuff. It's why I love playing old decks in TCGs.

Yes this is why I bring my MTG deck with the old alpha cards, dual lands and lightening bolts *...

Sometimes older is better. New may have power creep, but Old has banned cards

* Okay I don't actually do that.