Hi. I'm curious how people attack a new quest.

Do you study the encounter deck and build a player deck around what you think will work?

Or do you play the first n times blind, with your last/random deck?

Different people do different things. I study the encounter deck, but I don't build a new player deck to specifically attack it -- I just decide what cards from my sideboard to swap in. A lot of people like to play blind, though.

Well you can only play blind once. So I I do that. Haha

It makes the story aspect more fun for me and it feels exciting to see what will happen when enemies come out and to see how the encounter deck works. After a few plays the enjoyment shifts to teching and really trying for the wins more.

For me that's how I get to the best of both worlds.

I also am the kind of guy who doesn't watch the trailer for a movie before I see it

If its my first time playing it, I play it totally blind. Usually that ends up in a big "oh crap, didn't see that coming" moment.

I also try to run the same deck through an entire cycle so I will try several times before making deck changes.

Same, I get a deluxe, make my deck, (or 2) and try to play it through the whole cycle, tweaking it as I go if needed. So I also play each quest blind. I also don’t expect to win first play either.

Blind is the best way to play. You'll have knowledge every subsequent play-though so why not enjoy the surprises once?

I played blind until Journey to Rhosgobel. Now I just build a new deck after looking through the encounter cards with some of the cards in the pack.

3 hours ago, player1683311 said:

I also am the kind of guy who doesn't watch the trailer for a movie before I see it

That's the only way I hear about movies!

3 hours ago, mewmartigan said:

If its my first time playing it, I play it totally blind. Usually that ends up in a big "oh crap, didn't see that coming" moment.

I also try to run the same deck through an entire cycle so I will try several times before making deck changes.

Pretty much this.

I play blind except for a quick glance through the deck to check for Condition attachments to know if I need to sideboard. Those are so damaging that it's often strictly necessary to include Condition removal.

I play blind, but hanging out in community discussions I tend to have at least a couple of vague ideas about any given quest just from people's passing comments.

40 minutes ago, PocketWraith said:

I play blind, but hanging out in community discussions I tend to have at least a couple of vague ideas about any given quest just from people's passing comments.

Same for me. I don't explicitly look through all the cards, but I do read all of the articles and comments online so I usually have some ideas of what to expect. I can still be surprised from time to time though!

Most of my fun comes from deckbuilding, though, so a little warning about the quest actually gives me more to think about.

Early on we looked at the encounter cards because with a small card pool the game was difficult and the early quests liked to ambush you with quests that was very biased in certain directions, and it was hard to cover all aspects of the game well. Now quests tend to be more balanced and the card pool allows us to build decks that comfortably cover all major aspects of play, so we tend to play blind and use the same decks for a while.

I play blind. Even on subsequent playthroughs I don't study the encounter deck. It's entirely possible that somewhere in all the quests there are encounter cards I've never seen, if they haven't come up during gameplay.

I try to do my first run blind. But I occasionally need to know what happens in the following quest stage in order to make a choice.

After that I play with full information: I look at any quest stage I want, look at the encounter cards that stay when the encounter deck is almost empty, check for all the shadow effect or when revealed effect to know what is the best use of my cancel, etc...

I play blind, but that most likely will end to tears... And I like that

I sleeve all my cards, including the ECs. And while I could sleeve them with their backs up I enjoy glancing at the artwork and, in case of enemies, sometimes notice some stats (8 attack? How should this be possible??).

This hits a nice mix of anticipation and tension for me. I know there is a troll. But what‘s his text? What does this menacing looking treachery do, the artwork of Sauron‘s Eye makes me fear the worst.

I also read the previews by FFG so I have a basic knowledge what the quest is about. After playing this game for years you also get to know some of FFGs „tricks“: Get a Choice where one option is much easier (e.g. shuffling Nazguls into the deck in a Knife in the dark)? You can bet it is going to hurt later. A lot.

Haha, yeah, poor poor fool is what I think when I do the easy choice

First I decide on which deck to play, then I look through the encounter cards to prepare my strategy. I don't sideboard after looking through the cards the first time I play. I've chosen this approach, as I enjoy the strategic aspect of the game a lot.

On 8/18/2018 at 5:09 PM, mewmartigan said:

If its my first time playing it, I play it totally blind. Usually that ends up in a big "oh crap, didn't see that coming" moment.

I also try to run the same deck through an entire cycle so I will try several times before making deck changes.

Same here too...

21 hours ago, Nickpes said:

Same here too...

And me!

I play blind. I prefer to spend my free time on an extra game even if I lose.

This actually has implications for the new competitive variant introduced with The Wizard's Quest a Gen Con. In that scenario, another player or group of players designs the encounter deck for you, selecting from a set of available cards. So.... do you allow that group to design the quest, then play it blind? Or do you demand that they give you an opportunity to look over the deck before you play? And, do you show them your own heroes/deck before they design the quest?

The encounter cards in The Wizard's Quest are clearly written to maintain a level of surprise, always having the other team do any searching through the deck. The rules are strangely silent on whether or not you can know something about the other team's Heroes before you build them an encounter deck.

Fair is fair. If Player One can't see Player Two's encounter deck, Player Two shouldn't be able to see Player One's player deck.

I like each team to know the other's heroes and general deck strategy. This allows some degree of tech against the player decks. Otherwise, you'll just try to build the all-around best encounter deck.