So, I purchased the Starter set, as well as a box of decks. I have 14 decks to choose from to start playing. I've riffled through all the decks and found a few with some interesting mechanics, but I wonder..

How did you choose which deck you were going to play first?

I bought one.

31 minutes ago, Phaed said:

So, I purchased the Starter set, as well as a box of decks. I have 14 decks to choose from to start playing. I've riffled through all the decks and found a few with some interesting mechanics, but I wonder..

How did you choose which deck you were going to play first?

Doesn't matter, just randomly pick one and try it, after you get a few games in you'll get more of a feel for how certain houses lean, how each deck might play based on the cards inside, etc and find what styles/houses/cards/ etc you like more.

Before the game was released I printed up a bunch of proxy decks and my favourite houses were Brobnar, Logos and Mars. I went to a prerelease on November 10th and was allowed to buy a single deck. It had Dis, Sanctum and Shadows and it didn't look very good. I was initially disappointed but I played with it anyway, not much choice, and it was fun. I played again, and again, and again. To date it's the only deck I've played despite owning 15 now, and I'm still undefeated with it. In other words, pick any deck, at random would be best, and just try it out, see how it plays. Enjoy the game...

For me it was easy, I went to a pre-release event and only had one, so I played that. In your case, just play which one looks fun to you and expand from there. Enjoy the game, there's lot's to love (and a few rule things to grumble about, but I'm sure that will be sorted over time).

Phaed, I feel you haha. I've got a bunch of decks and was also faced with the challenge of 'which one to play next'. I have this innate need, as a competitive player, to identify the powerful decks and practice those (as we have some upcoming BYOD tournaments here).. which is easier said than done!

I ruled out a couple of decks if they had too few creatures (<16), if they generated very little ember outside of reaping, or if they had no way to influence the boardstate (removal) or no way to control my opponent's ember.

I selected a bunch of decks and played a bunch of games. Funny note: my prerelease deck was actually one of the more fun ones.

I found, during my anecdotal number of games, that removal isn't that important, you just need a way to get rid of 'key annoyances'. I found that controling ember and gaining ember is way, way more important. I also found out that the Shadow house scratches my itch in the best way. And I also found that no deck does everything I want it to do.

So I am once again back to the drawing board with this information.

I am very curious to see which style of tournaments I will enjoy more; the BYOD or the Sealed version. The second will put a rest to my need to 'find the best deck in my collection', so I might just be that one

I just played one of my decks at random against a friend who played a different one at random.

Thanks for the replies all. Here are the two decks that stood out at me.

Lourdes L. Bestiqueen, the Eighth : This deck has a lot of armor generation and taunt via Sanctum, as well as big archival abilities through Logos. So Protect my creatures, then use Shadow to deal massive damage with Booby Trap and Poison Waves, while stealing Æmber with Shadow creatures. Then heal up with the good Sanctum heals this deck has.

Tressa "Silas" Asmotoise : This deck has a TON of board control. Steal Æmber and maintain control of it by limiting your opponents access to Æmbershards.

I did get one deck with a Maverick, but it was less interesting.

I went to the preview tournament and got it.

When picking which deck to play with I've found that the age old method of "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe" nets the best results.

1 hour ago, Ishi Tonu said:

When picking which deck to play with I've found that the age old method of "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe" nets the best results.

That's also how I purchased some of my decks.

My biggest excitement was getting a deck with a dragon in it. After three games i pushed the deck aside... the deck did not support protecting aember enough to get him out ever, so i started playing my untamed deck instead and have had a lot more fun with the support of brognar and logos.

@Drakanore_Gamer I feel your pain. One of may decks has Kelifi Dragon as well but the deck isn’t great at producing enough extra aember to get it out reliably. But when i get it out, its a game closer unless they can get rid of it quickly.

My dad has a deck with two Kelifi Dragons, pretty rough, but also just plain awesome

4 hours ago, Palpster said:

My dad has a deck with two Kelifi Dragons, pretty rough, but also just plain awesome

Khaleesi approved.