Deck-Building

By aeixea, in Marvel Champions: The Card Game

As a deck building game, the deck building phase for your hero is crucial. Decisions are made that cannot be changed throughout the game.

I think there are many players like me who have been drawn to this great game by the Marvel franchise but have never played a deck building game and there are many crucial concepts that are unfamiliar to them.

What is a tribal deck?
How does a control deck work?
What is a combo-oriented deck?
What does ramp mean?
Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size?
What deck building strategies are there for each hero?
Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios?

And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck?

I think it is necessary to create a place where a player can clarify and know these concepts in order to get the most out of the game and enjoy each game.

What is your opinion?

4 hours ago, aeixea said:

As a deck building game, the deck building phase for your hero is crucial. Decisions are made that cannot be changed throughout the game.

Technically speaking it's a Deck Construction game, not a Deck Building game. A Deck Construction game (Marvel Champions, Arkham, Netrunner, Magic the Gathering etc) involves constructing a deck before the actual game begins, and during the game you have little to no ways of changing your deck.

In a Deck Building game (like Dominion, Clank, Aeon's End, Quest for El Dorado) players begin the game with a very simple deck and add cards to it over the course of the gameplay itself.

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I think there are many players like me who have been drawn to this great game by the Marvel franchise but have never played a deck building game and there are many crucial concepts that are unfamiliar to them.

I'm not sure if you're asking us to define these or not, or simply saying, have a thread for them to be discussed would be valuable? I think it wouldn't hurt and could be helpful to new players

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What is a tribal deck?

This would be a deck that heavily revolves around or otherwise relies on a set of characters or creatures that share the same trait, subtype or label. In the context of Marvel Champions specifically it could be a deck that contains lots of Avenger allies and want to play stuff like Avengers Tower, Avengers Assemble and Sky Cycle.

There is also an upcoming Basic card in the Ant-Man pack - that will help to enable tribal decks based on other traits.

a10.png?strip=info&w=418

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How does a control deck work?

What a control deck looks like and how it functions depends on the game itself. Generally speaking control decks want to try to have answers to what the opponent/game throws at you. They want to prevent damage, cancel effects, destroy priority targets, protecting themselves, all while building up some inevitability in order to win. Generally speaking control decks will be slower to win because of this.

In the context of Marvel Champions I think a control deck looks like Black Widow Justice with lots of preparations and her Synth suit. She cancels lots of threat placement, can cancel the worst encounter cards and can defend profitably without taking damage. Similarly you have Spider-Man Protection who can block all the time, take little to no damage and win with Swinging Web Kicks. Or you have characters like Ms Marvel who can play and recur Tackle to keep the villain stunned, or Captain America who can run multiple stun effects. Spider-Woman in solo can also probably do this between Pheromones and Contaminant Immunity.

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What is a combo-oriented deck?

This would be a deck that includes a specific combo or combos at the deck construction stage and looks to build or otherwise exploit it during gameplay. Some decks will have small combos that are included but they either come about organically or incidentally and the rest of the deck and the way it is played is not about seeking out the combo proactively. For it to be considered a true combo deck I think it needs to be build around the combo(s) and actively try to create them during play.

I'm not sure Marvel Champions has any true combo decks yet, although there's plenty of funky things you can do. Goliath + readying effects. Rapid Response, Counterintelligence and Agent Coulson in Spider-Woman. Multiple Honorary Avenger's on She-Hulk (ally) for a ton of damage. Lots of allies + Avengers Assemble.

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Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size?

Generally speaking combos benefit from card draw, so yes I'd imagine larger hand size heroes are better suited to combo decks.

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What does ramp mean?

Ramp is about the concept of your deck having an arc to it - over the game, it builds up and can do more and more things over time.

In Marvel Champions all decks have some ramp, to varying degrees, because you will most likely include some baseline cards that increase your potency over time - such as Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, Quincarrer. And all decks generally get more powerful over time as you play Upgrades and Supports - not only making your hero stronger but also thinning your deck and making it leaner, with damage Events and resources now a greater proportion of the deck and more likely to be drawn.

Most of the time, a decks' ramp is determined by the chosen hero, which all have different levels of arc or ramp to them. Spider-Man for instance has little ramp, able to dish out lots of damage and defend well at any point in the game. Iron-Man on the other hand is all about the ramp, acting as arguably the weakest hero at the beginning of the game and among the very strongest at the end.

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What deck building strategies are there for each hero?

This is way too broad a question and way too big an answer haha. One of my favourite things about this game is how modular the hero side of things is. Each aspect has multiple 'archetypes' of play and each hero can be played with any aspect. It really lets you explore the card pool in a fun and varied way.

Checkout this awesome resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelchampionslcg/comments/iib2yh/a_visual_beginners_guide_to_deckbuilding_synergies/

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Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios?

My way of playing most of the time is to pick a Hero/Aspect combination, build a deck and then run that deck through each scenario until I beat them all. I don't deckbuild for specific scenarios, but I do make some tweaks to the deck as I go.

This way of playing used to give me 5-10 plays by the time I had beaten all available 6 scenarios. Which was usually enough to feel that I had got to know that Hero/Aspect combo but be ready to move onto something else. After the release of Rise of Red Skull we now have way more scenarios, so I'll probably pick a random assortment of scenarios to play through.

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And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck?

It's generally considered better to be as close as possible to the minimum deck size because this lets you build a deck with only the 'best' cards for that deck and during gameplay increases your chances of drawing your best cards.

I think this holds true for Marvel Champions too and I almost always build at 40 cards, occasionally going to 41 or 42 if I really can't cut something.

There will always be exceptions, but outside of Spider-Woman (who occasionally will want to go above 40 because of her weird deckbuilding) I've not come across any.

Edited by jonboyjon1990

Some of these questions might be a little off, as the concepts apply more to competitive CCG/LCGs rather than a game like Champions. But still somewhat applicable.

- What is a tribal deck?

Tribal decks are decks that have effects reliant on a particular trait, and thus tend to have good synergy. They're sometimes looked down upon because they can be pretty simple and restrictive; usually the decks 'power' is set by the designer, rather than the player base discovering interesting combos or interactions. In Champions, Avengers is currently the only real Tribal deck.

- How does a control deck work?

A control deck prioritises controlling their opponent, before achieving their own win condition (in some cases, a control deck will stall until a 'guaranteed win', such as playing a game winning card the opponent can't stop). There's a *lot* of different variations on how this works. In most games, all decks will have some level of control elements; it's a control deck if it's the primary focus of the deck.

A dedicated control deck in Champions would likely be one with a particularly heavy focus on stuns, or perhaps the Preperation/Spy cards. Otherwise there's plenty of characters who have a lot of control elements (e.g. Widow), but I wouldn't really classify just any Widow deck as a control deck, for example.

- What is a combo-oriented deck?

Generally speaking, a combo orientated deck has two goals; a) Achieve a game winning combo, and b) Don't die. Mostly a combo deck will run as much control as it needs to survive, and then everything else will be devoted to achieving the combo.

This doesn't really work in Champions because there's no real way to devote a large portion of your deck to a combo (e.g. few cards for extra draw, or cards that let you search your deck for combo pieces), as well as the resource system not really letting you build up a hand of combo pieces. Instead Champions tends to be more 'decks that use a powerful combo', usually via getting allies out and then abusing them. Examples of this would be decks built around Avengers Assemble (gets out 3+ Avengers allies, play AA for a massive burst turn) or decks using Goliath (Using his ability to give him a huge attack for a turn, and then readying him multiple times).

- What does ramp mean?

Ramp refers to accelerating your resources. It's mostly used in games that have a rising resource curve (e.g. Magic) where turn one your have 1 resource, turn 2 your have 2 resources etc. A ramp card allows you to break this by generating extra resources, either a resource 'burst' or a permanent increase (e.g. based on the above curve, gaining 4 resources on turn 3).

In Champions case, this is basically playing the various resource cards; either as a single turn boost (e.g. Strength allowing you to play a 2 cost card) or to increase your resource generation on a turn by turn basis.

- Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size?

I think there might be two different questions here. It definitely makes sense to deck build based on the heroes hand size; this is mostly important for Thor/Hulk who generally want to stay in Hero form, so benefit from making card choices that help them to do that (usually, this means 1 and 3 cost cards).

In terms of actual combos, yes the more card draw a character has the better they will be at achieving combos.

- What deck building strategies are there for each hero?

Yeah, much to broad a question. Overall, most characters will be informed somewhat by their aspect, either supporting their strengths or covering their weaknesses. So you could argue that there is four basic ways to play each character. But then then there's a lot of options within their aspect, and multiple decks could be built for a character from each aspect and they could still have different purposes or playstyles.

- Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios?

I'd say this comes down to how hardcore a player is, and what difficulty they are playing on. At Normal difficulty, there's probably no need for most players to customise a deck. At harder difficulties, yeah I think players would be doing some level of customisation. Though it might be done on a broad level. e.g. 'I won't play Thor vs this minion light scenario' rather than specifically customising a deck.

- And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck?

Statistically, a 40 card deck is better than a 50 card deck. This is because the '41st card' is always worse than the 40th card. And the 42nd card is worse than the 41st card, and so on. There can be some specific cases in which a bigger deck is better, but it's very rare and doesn't really apply to Champions. One important thing to understand though is that the actual statistics are not *that* big a deal. Running a few extra cards may make your deck technically worse, but likely won't have a huge impact in a non competitive setting. If you cut your deck down to 43 cards and can't bare to cut anything else, just go with it. Your deck won't go from a 99% win rate to a 30% win rate because of a few extra cards.

1 hour ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Technically speaking it's a Deck Construction game, not a Deck Building game. A Deck Construction game (Marvel Champions, Arkham, Netrunner, Magic the Gathering etc) involves constructing a deck before the actual game begins, and during the game you have little to no ways of changing your deck.

In a Deck Building game (like Dominion, Clank, Aeon's End, Quest for El Dorado) players begin the game with a very simple deck and add cards to it over the course of the gameplay itself.

I'm not sure if you're asking us to define these or not, or simply saying, have a thread for them to be discussed would be valuable? I think it wouldn't hurt and could be helpful to new players

This would be a deck that heavily revolves around or otherwise relies on a set of characters or creatures that share the same trait, subtype or label. In the context of Marvel Champions specifically it could be a deck that contains lots of Avenger allies and want to play stuff like Avengers Tower, Avengers Assemble and Sky Cycle.

There is also an upcoming Basic card in the Ant-Man pack - that will help to enable tribal decks based on other traits.

a10.png?strip=info&w=418

What a control deck looks like and how it functions depends on the game itself. Generally speaking control decks want to try to have answers to what the opponent/game throws at you. They want to prevent damage, cancel effects, destroy priority targets, protecting themselves, all while building up some inevitability in order to win. Generally speaking control decks will be slower to win because of this.

In the context of Marvel Champions I think a control deck looks like Black Widow Justice with lots of preparations and her Synth suit. She cancels lots of threat placement, can cancel the worst encounter cards and can defend profitably without taking damage. Similarly you have Spider-Man Protection who can block all the time, take little to no damage and win with Swinging Web Kicks. Or you have characters like Ms Marvel who can play and recur Tackle to keep the villain stunned, or Captain America who can run multiple stun effects. Spider-Woman in solo can also probably do this between Pheromones and Contaminant Immunity.

This would be a deck that includes a specific combo or combos at the deck construction stage and looks to build or otherwise exploit it during gameplay. Some decks will have small combos that are included but they either come about organically or incidentally and the rest of the deck and the way it is played is not about seeking out the combo proactively. For it to be considered a true combo deck I think it needs to be build around the combo(s) and actively try to create them during play.

I'm not sure Marvel Champions has any true combo decks yet, although there's plenty of funky things you can do. Goliath + readying effects. Rapid Response, Counterintelligence and Agent Coulson in Spider-Woman. Multiple Honorary Avenger's on She-Hulk (ally) for a ton of damage. Lots of allies + Avengers Assemble.

Generally speaking combos benefit from card draw, so yes I'd imagine larger hand size heroes are better suited to combo decks.

Ramp is about the concept of your deck having an arc to it - over the game, it builds up and can do more and more things over time.

In Marvel Champions all decks have some ramp, to varying degrees, because you will most likely include some baseline cards that increase your potency over time - such as Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, Quincarrer. And all decks generally get more powerful over time as you play Upgrades and Supports - not only making your hero stronger but also thinning your deck and making it leaning, with damage Events and resources now a greater proportion of the deck and more likely to be drawn.

Most of the time, a decks' ramp is determined by the chosen hero, which all have different levels of arc or ramp to them. Spider-Man for instance has little ramp, able to dish out lots of damage and defend well at any point in the game. Iron-Man on the other hand is all about the ramp, acting as arguably the weakest hero at the beginning of the game and among the very strongest at the end.

This is way too broad a question and way too big an answer haha. One of my favourite things about this game is how modular the hero side of things is. Each aspect has multiple 'archetypes' of play and each hero can be played with any aspect. It really lets you explore the card pool in a fun and varied way.

Checkout this awesome resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelchampionslcg/comments/iib2yh/a_visual_beginners_guide_to_deckbuilding_synergies/

My way of playing most of the time is to pick a Hero/Aspect combination, build a deck and then run that deck through each scenario until I beat them all. I don't deckbuild for specific scenarios, but I do make some tweaks to the deck as I go.

This way of playing used to give me 5-10 plays by the time I had beaten all available 6 scenarios. Which was usually enough to feel that I had got to know that Hero/Aspect combo but be ready to move onto something else. After the release of Rise of Red Skull we now have way more scenarios, so I'll probably pick a random assortment of scenarios to play through.

It's generally considered better to be as close as possible to the minimum deck size because this lets you build a deck with only the 'best' cards for that deck and during gameplay increases your chances of drawing your best cards.

I think this holds true for Marvel Champions too and I almost always build at 40 cards, occasionally going to 41 or 42 if I really can't cut something.

There will always be exceptions, but outside of Spider-Woman (who occasionally will want to go above 40 because of her weird deckbuilding) I've not come across any.

I was asking for a definition for new players, just like me. I think this information saved here will be very useful to other players as well.

I don't know the difference between deck building and deck construction.


An extensive and very useful explanation, thank you!

1 hour ago, Abyss said:

Some of these questions might be a little off, as the concepts apply more to competitive CCG/LCGs rather than a game like Champions. But still somewhat applicable.

- What is a tribal deck?

Tribal decks are decks that have effects reliant on a particular trait, and thus tend to have good synergy. They're sometimes looked down upon because they can be pretty simple and restrictive; usually the decks 'power' is set by the designer, rather than the player base discovering interesting combos or interactions. In Champions, Avengers is currently the only real Tribal deck.

- How does a control deck work?

A control deck prioritises controlling their opponent, before achieving their own win condition (in some cases, a control deck will stall until a 'guaranteed win', such as playing a game winning card the opponent can't stop). There's a *lot* of different variations on how this works. In most games, all decks will have some level of control elements; it's a control deck if it's the primary focus of the deck.

A dedicated control deck in Champions would likely be one with a particularly heavy focus on stuns, or perhaps the Preperation/Spy cards. Otherwise there's plenty of characters who have a lot of control elements (e.g. Widow), but I wouldn't really classify just any Widow deck as a control deck, for example.

- What is a combo-oriented deck?

Generally speaking, a combo orientated deck has two goals; a) Achieve a game winning combo, and b) Don't die. Mostly a combo deck will run as much control as it needs to survive, and then everything else will be devoted to achieving the combo.

This doesn't really work in Champions because there's no real way to devote a large portion of your deck to a combo (e.g. few cards for extra draw, or cards that let you search your deck for combo pieces), as well as the resource system not really letting you build up a hand of combo pieces. Instead Champions tends to be more 'decks that use a powerful combo', usually via getting allies out and then abusing them. Examples of this would be decks built around Avengers Assemble (gets out 3+ Avengers allies, play AA for a massive burst turn) or decks using Goliath (Using his ability to give him a huge attack for a turn, and then readying him multiple times).

- What does ramp mean?

Ramp refers to accelerating your resources. It's mostly used in games that have a rising resource curve (e.g. Magic) where turn one your have 1 resource, turn 2 your have 2 resources etc. A ramp card allows you to break this by generating extra resources, either a resource 'burst' or a permanent increase (e.g. based on the above curve, gaining 4 resources on turn 3).

In Champions case, this is basically playing the various resource cards; either as a single turn boost (e.g. Strength allowing you to play a 2 cost card) or to increase your resource generation on a turn by turn basis.

- Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size?

I think there might be two different questions here. It definitely makes sense to deck build based on the heroes hand size; this is mostly important for Thor/Hulk who generally want to stay in Hero form, so benefit from making card choices that help them to do that (usually, this means 1 and 3 cost cards).

In terms of actual combos, yes the more card draw a character has the better they will be at achieving combos.

- What deck building strategies are there for each hero?

Yeah, much to broad a question. Overall, most characters will be informed somewhat by their aspect, either supporting their strengths or covering their weaknesses. So you could argue that there is four basic ways to play each character. But then then there's a lot of options within their aspect, and multiple decks could be built for a character from each aspect and they could still have different purposes or playstyles.

- Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios?

I'd say this comes down to how hardcore a player is, and what difficulty they are playing on. At Normal difficulty, there's probably no need for most players to customise a deck. At harder difficulties, yeah I think players would be doing some level of customisation. Though it might be done on a broad level. e.g. 'I won't play Thor vs this minion light scenario' rather than specifically customising a deck.

- And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck?

Statistically, a 40 card deck is better than a 50 card deck. This is because the '41st card' is always worse than the 40th card. And the 42nd card is worse than the 41st card, and so on. There can be some specific cases in which a bigger deck is better, but it's very rare and doesn't really apply to Champions. One important thing to understand though is that the actual statistics are not *that* big a deal. Running a few extra cards may make your deck technically worse, but likely won't have a huge impact in a non competitive setting. If you cut your deck down to 43 cards and can't bare to cut anything else, just go with it. Your deck won't go from a 99% win rate to a 30% win rate because of a few extra cards.

Thank you very much for your input. A very clear explanation.

6 hours ago, aeixea said:

As a deck building game, the deck building phase for your hero is crucial. Decisions are made that cannot be changed throughout the game.

I think there are many players like me who have been drawn to this great game by the Marvel franchise but have never played a deck building game and there are many crucial concepts that are unfamiliar to them.

What is a tribal deck?
How does a control deck work?
What is a combo-oriented deck?
What does ramp mean?
Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size?
What deck building strategies are there for each hero?
Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios?

And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck?

I think it is necessary to create a place where a player can clarify and know these concepts in order to get the most out of the game and enjoy each game.

What is your opinion?

My first question is...Are you bringing your MtG bias with you or checking it at the door?

MC:TCG Tribes (a complete(?) listing!)

Asgard (Thor)
Signature: Asgard (Thor), God of Thunder (Thor), Lady Sif (Thor), Mjolnir (Thor), Thor's Helmet (Thor)
Basic: Heimdall
Aggression: Hall of Heroes, Jarnbjorn, Valkyrie, Thor

Avenger (Ant-Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Thor, Wasp)
Signature: Captain Marvel (Spider-Woman), Hellcat (She-Hulk), Mockingbird (Hawkeye), Spider-Woman (Captain Marvel), Winter Soldier (Black Widow)
Basic: Avenger's Mansion, Avenger's Tower, Quincarrier, Quinjet, War Machine
Aggression: Hercules, Hulk, Sentry, She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, Tigra, Valkyrie, Thor
Justice: Quake, Spider-Man
Leadership: Black Knight, Falcon, Goliath, Hawkeye (Barton & Bishop), Iron Man, Squirrel Girl, U.S. Agent, Vision, Wonder Man
Protection: Brother Voodoo

Champion (Ms. Marvel)
Signature: Red Dagger (Ms. Marvel)
Aggression: Brawn
Protection: Nova

Gamma (Hulk/She-Hulk)
Signature: Boundless Rage (Hulk)
Aggression: Brawn, Hulk, She-Hulk

Giant (Ant-Man, Wasp)
Signature: Giant Stomp (Ant-Man)

Inhuman (Ms. Marvel)
Basic: Lockjaw

Mystic (Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch)
Signature: Wong (Doctor Strange)
Protection: Brother Voodoo, Clea

Soldier (Captain America, Captain Marvel)
None

Spy (Black Widow, Spider-Woman)
Signature: Winter Soldier (Black Widow)
Basic: Mockingbird, Nick Fury
Justice: Agent Coulson
Protection: Black Widow

Tiny (Ant-Man, Wasp)
None

Wakanda (Black Panther)
Signature: Shuri (Black Panther), The Golden City (Black Panther)

As a deck building game, the deck building phase for your hero is crucial. Decisions are made that cannot be changed throughout the game.

I think there are many players like me who have been drawn to this great game by the Marvel franchise but have never played a deck building game and there are many crucial concepts that are unfamiliar to them.

What is a tribal deck? - A deck with a specific theme, usually based on a key-word/type. In Magic the Gathering (MTG), you might have a deck with lots of Goblins, or Merfolk, for example, and cards that have an effect on that type. In Marvel Champions, Avengers is the most prevalent type.

How does a control deck work? - Generally it does what it says on the box, you seek to control what your opponent (in this case, the Villain) can or can't do. You might not be able to stop everything, but you can usually choose what you want to let go or stop. In MTG, that's the province of Blue. In Marvel Champions, Black Widow or even Doctor Strange are good examples.

What is a combo-oriented deck? - Card combinations (combos) are playing several cards that have a cumulative effect. So, a combo deck doesn't just have 'good' cards, it has cards that play off each other to achieve a greater effect than they have singularly. MTG is exploding with combos, as is Hearthstone. Marvel Champions has few at this time. (Strength in Numbers + Avenger's Assemble).

What does ramp mean? - Acceleration. In MTG a ramp card is one that gets you more land/mana or cards. In Hearthstone it gets your more crystals or cards. In Marvel Champions it gets you more cards/resources, etcetera. It's more frequently used to mean the resource needed to 'play' cards, but in MC cards are resources too, so the meaning is more fluid.

Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size? - If you had a combo that required more cards than a hand size, probably. Again, there really aren't combos here, as yet.

What deck building strategies are there for each hero? - Generically, you could try leaning into a hero's strengths, or going for something to shore up their inherent weaknesses. That doesn't necessarily have to be a consideration, you can also look for inexpensive cost decks, or cards to maximize synergy, thematic decks, and so on and so forth.

Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios? - I like the default deck lists, and I enjoy the piloting more than the deck building. So I've been mostly keeping the same decks (partly because I enjoy the challenge of demonstrating that default decks can defeat any combination of villain/module on a regular basis once you know the rhythm.

And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck? - Aaaaargh the worms! I'll redirect you to the answers on the ramp question AND the combo question, and also, the important caveat that this is not a game where players are competing with players, nor do you lose the game upon deckout. So, you're not in a race against another human to hit a combo that goes infinite and wins the game (commonly known as One-Turn Kill, or OTK). The lack of loss on deckout means...consistency really isn't that important in this game.

What that all boils down to is that, if you have 40 cards, and they're all great, you can always add a ramp card and make that deck better, because it's going to have an effect for many deck cycles, something that isn't as true (still true, just not to the same degree) in MTG or Hearthstone. So, 50 card decks can be better than 40 card, because they can include more ramp than the 40 card deck, every time. That might not be true in a race to the combo game (MTG, Hearthstone), but this game isn't those games, and the priorities that explicate 'why' 40 card decks would be considered better in those games doesn't hold true in this game.

I think it is necessary to create a place where a player can clarify and know these concepts in order to get the most out of the game and enjoy each game.

What is your opinion? - I mostly agree with your opinion that it's important to have shared definitions to aid communication, and communication aids enjoyment.

9 hours ago, aeixea said:

I was asking for a definition for new players, just like me. I think this information saved here will be very useful to other players as well.

I don't know the difference between deck building and deck construction.


An extensive and very useful explanation, thank you!

Just to clarify, there is no difference between 'deck building' and 'deck construction'. However, 'Deck Building Game' usually refers to a specific genre of game, where you build and improve your deck as you play the game.

So Champions is a deck building game in a general sense (it's a game where you build a deck prior to playing it), it isn't a Deck Building Game in reference to that genre of games (games where you build your deck as part of the game itself). So it's best not to use that specific phrasing if you want to be clear.

3 hours ago, Abyss said:

Just to clarify, there is no difference between 'deck building' and 'deck construction'. However, 'Deck Building Game' usually refers to a specific genre of game, where you build and improve your deck as you play the game.

So Champions is a deck building game in a general sense (it's a game where you build a deck prior to playing it), it isn't a Deck Building Game in reference to that genre of games (games where you build your deck as part of the game itself). So it's best not to use that specific phrasing if you want to be clear.

Yep.

In this case, it's especially a good idea to avoid it, since if you start talking about a Marvel deck building game, most gamers would immediately assume you meant Legendary: Marvel, which is an actual deck building game (in the specific sense Abyss mentions here).

15 hours ago, IceHot42 said:

My first question is...Are you bringing your MtG bias with you or checking it at the door?

I have never play MtG XD

When I started with marvel champions, being a deck construction, I started looking for information about it to improve my game ... and I came across all these terms.
I had not heard them in my life before. :-)

8 hours ago, Derrault said:

MC:TCG Tribes (a complete(?) listing!)

Asgard (Thor)
Signature: Asgard (Thor), God of Thunder (Thor), Lady Sif (Thor), Mjolnir (Thor), Thor's Helmet (Thor)
Basic: Heimdall
Aggression: Hall of Heroes, Jarnbjorn, Valkyrie, Thor

Avenger (Ant-Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Thor, Wasp)
Signature: Captain Marvel (Spider-Woman), Hellcat (She-Hulk), Mockingbird (Hawkeye), Spider-Woman (Captain Marvel), Winter Soldier (Black Widow)
Basic: Avenger's Mansion, Avenger's Tower, Quincarrier, Quinjet, War Machine
Aggression: Hercules, Hulk, Sentry, She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, Tigra, Valkyrie, Thor
Justice: Quake, Spider-Man
Leadership: Black Knight, Falcon, Goliath, Hawkeye (Barton & Bishop), Iron Man, Squirrel Girl, U.S. Agent, Vision, Wonder Man
Protection: Brother Voodoo

Champion (Ms. Marvel)
Signature: Red Dagger (Ms. Marvel)
Aggression: Brawn
Protection: Nova

Gamma (Hulk/She-Hulk)
Signature: Boundless Rage (Hulk)
Aggression: Brawn, Hulk, She-Hulk

Giant (Ant-Man, Wasp)
Signature: Giant Stomp (Ant-Man)

Inhuman (Ms. Marvel)
Basic: Lockjaw

Mystic (Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch)
Signature: Wong (Doctor Strange)
Protection: Brother Voodoo, Clea

Soldier (Captain America, Captain Marvel)
None

Spy (Black Widow, Spider-Woman)
Signature: Winter Soldier (Black Widow)
Basic: Mockingbird, Nick Fury
Justice: Agent Coulson
Protection: Black Widow

Tiny (Ant-Man, Wasp)
None

Wakanda (Black Panther)
Signature: Shuri (Black Panther), The Golden City (Black Panther)

There is a big difference between the Avengers tribe and the others! ... which tribe do you think will expand first? After the avengers, I mean. If they really start releasing X-men packs, they will start a new one, leaving the rest as before.

thanks for the analysis!

9 hours ago, Derrault said:

As a deck building game, the deck building phase for your hero is crucial. Decisions are made that cannot be changed throughout the game.

I think there are many players like me who have been drawn to this great game by the Marvel franchise but have never played a deck building game and there are many crucial concepts that are unfamiliar to them.

What is a tribal deck? - A deck with a specific theme, usually based on a key-word/type. In Magic the Gathering (MTG), you might have a deck with lots of Goblins, or Merfolk, for example, and cards that have an effect on that type. In Marvel Champions, Avengers is the most prevalent type.

How does a control deck work? - Generally it does what it says on the box, you seek to control what your opponent (in this case, the Villain) can or can't do. You might not be able to stop everything, but you can usually choose what you want to let go or stop. In MTG, that's the province of Blue. In Marvel Champions, Black Widow or even Doctor Strange are good examples.

What is a combo-oriented deck? - Card combinations (combos) are playing several cards that have a cumulative effect. So, a combo deck doesn't just have 'good' cards, it has cards that play off each other to achieve a greater effect than they have singularly. MTG is exploding with combos, as is Hearthstone. Marvel Champions has few at this time. (Strength in Numbers + Avenger's Assemble).

What does ramp mean? - Acceleration. In MTG a ramp card is one that gets you more land/mana or cards. In Hearthstone it gets your more crystals or cards. In Marvel Champions it gets you more cards/resources, etcetera. It's more frequently used to mean the resource needed to 'play' cards, but in MC cards are resources too, so the meaning is more fluid.

Are combos chosen in relation to your hero's hand size? - If you had a combo that required more cards than a hand size, probably. Again, there really aren't combos here, as yet.

What deck building strategies are there for each hero? - Generically, you could try leaning into a hero's strengths, or going for something to shore up their inherent weaknesses. That doesn't necessarily have to be a consideration, you can also look for inexpensive cost decks, or cards to maximize synergy, thematic decks, and so on and so forth.

Do you always use the same deck against all scenarios? - I like the default deck lists, and I enjoy the piloting more than the deck building. So I've been mostly keeping the same decks (partly because I enjoy the challenge of demonstrating that default decks can defeat any combination of villain/module on a regular basis once you know the rhythm.

And the always controversial question: is a 40-card deck better than a 50-card deck? - Aaaaargh the worms! I'll redirect you to the answers on the ramp question AND the combo question, and also, the important caveat that this is not a game where players are competing with players, nor do you lose the game upon deckout. So, you're not in a race against another human to hit a combo that goes infinite and wins the game (commonly known as One-Turn Kill, or OTK). The lack of loss on deckout means...consistency really isn't that important in this game.

What that all boils down to is that, if you have 40 cards, and they're all great, you can always add a ramp card and make that deck better, because it's going to have an effect for many deck cycles, something that isn't as true (still true, just not to the same degree) in MTG or Hearthstone. So, 50 card decks can be better than 40 card, because they can include more ramp than the 40 card deck, every time. That might not be true in a race to the combo game (MTG, Hearthstone), but this game isn't those games, and the priorities that explicate 'why' 40 card decks would be considered better in those games doesn't hold true in this game.

I think it is necessary to create a place where a player can clarify and know these concepts in order to get the most out of the game and enjoy each game.

What is your opinion? - I mostly agree with your opinion that it's important to have shared definitions to aid communication, and communication aids enjoyment.

Thanks for your contribution!

This is a good conversation to have, even for people who have been playing LCGs for a while; for me it's mostly been the Lord of the Rings LCG, which has a much higher learning curve and doesn't hold your hand at all with deck construction. That being said, I'm by no means an expert at building decks. I'm not great at figuring out the best card ratios - do I include 2 or 3 of a given card? - and I feel like I miss a lot of really simple card combos while seeing insanely complicated ones (the evolution of my Hawkdir deck for LOTR LCG is a testament to that 😬 ). But I have picked up a few things that have worked for me in constructing decks that have at least some synergy, even if I'm not necessarily going for a specific type of deck. So this is my input from an "experienced novice" point of view.

The very first thing I learned is that you can have a deck full of really strong cards and it won't work at all. It's really important to decide what you want your deck to do first, then build it to do that thing. This means leaving out some really awesome cards in favor of so-so cards. This is so that the awesome cards you do use that specifically do the thing you want the deck to do can really shine. Think of it like the military: special forces teams are awesome at doing some pretty bad-a** things, but a military composed only of special forces teams is not going to be very good. Support organizations (logistics, medical, etc.) are really important, even if they're not very glamorous. So-so cards play that support role in deck construction. They help you get to those awesome cards in your deck and get them onto the table.

The next thing I found to be really important is determining how you want to play. Do you like to deal tons of damage really fast (Hulk), or do you like to toy with your opponent's deck and combos (Black Widow)? Or do you like being able to slowly build your character over time and get to the point where your deck can almost run on autopilot (Iron Man)? I generally lean toward wanting to do lots of damage in one swing (again, my Hawkdir deck for LOTR LCG is an example of this) so I have a tendency to want to play big damage cards even if I'd be better served by waiting a turn or two to set up for a better hit. It's one of the impulses I've been working on curbing so I can play with characters like Black Widow more effectively.

I don't really have anything else off the top of my head I can think of to add. Mostly it's just that you have to be patient with learning how to build a deck. It's an acquired skill, and too many people get frustrated and give up because they can't build an amazing deck right from the get-go. It takes time to get a feel for the rhythm of a game, kind of like a language. And once you can get the rhythm down for one, it's easier to find it in others. I've played all of FFG's current LCGs to some degree, and I can say that if you want to jump into their other cooperative LCGs, MC is by far the best game to cut your teeth on.

7 hours ago, aeixea said:

There is a big difference between the Avengers tribe and the others! ... which tribe do you think will expand first? After the avengers, I mean. If they really start releasing X-men packs, they will start a new one, leaving the rest as before.

thanks for the analysis!

Well, the Galaxy’s Most Wanted will add Guardian (for Groot and Rocket), and I can only assume most of their deck allies will have that tag as well.

I figure the rest of the guardians are going to be the 4 hero packs immediately after that.

Once you put aside the MtG thought process, there a lot of neat things about the deck construction portion of the game...

1) First thing is that play-testing and playing are the same thing. So I believe this gives a tremendous amount of value to some of my next few points (Playing the stock decks and the one-ofs ). When you play you get to learn what is enjoyable for you and come-up with ideas. That is why I think you should always start with the stock deck , it gives you a good feel for the basic deck and several new cards all at once. And I think every deck should always have a one-of new card because it will spur new ideas or let you know what is not for you.

2) Some of the Stock Decks are actually pretty good and I think they give a great starting point. Ill probably play the stock deck 5 or 6 times to make sure I see how each new card works then I will swap out the ones I dont like for cards I do like. With the Dr. Strange deck I havent had the desire to swap out any cards. The deck still stands as it started.

3) I believe pretty strongly in one-ofs in this game. First and foremost its fun to experiment. But this game gives you value in the one-ofs because you will always spend cards as resources (so the card is rarely situationally dead). But the versatility the one-of offers is exceptional value. Plus I likely the thinkyness of the game anyway. A deck that does only one thing is flawed in this game because that deck is everything the one thing doesnt do, more than the one thing it does do. Furthermore, as your deck thins out by sticking upgrades/supports your one-ofs recycle more often.

4) Even though my deck building goals are unique to me I enjoy Aspect Swapping . After stock decks and tweaking, if the Hero isnt grooving for me I will run through a battery of aspect swaps. I have 4x2 aspect decks always ready to swap out. I just need to pull the few specialty allies/cards that dont fit the hero and give it a try. Ideally my goal is to have 16 heroes in pairs sharing 8 aspect decks (2 of each aspect) with 1 or 2 tweaks for each hero.

5) 40 vs 50 cards. I agree with Derrault here that its a very tiny issue and there is benefits to both and little down side to one over the other since your hand size is not impacted by your deck size, you can cycle (replace itself with a draw) unwanted cards at the end of every turn, your deck will get thinned, and you will flop your deck at least once in most builds. However, I gravitate towards 40 card decks for a few minor reasons. First the stock decks are 40 cards decks. Second most decks, really have 20 fixed cards in it with 15 signature cards + 5 double resources. The more cards you add the less often you opening draw the best engine builder card or double resource. So when I add card 41 I ask myself: does it cycle ? Are my top hand card plays my signature cards? Is it better than my top hand card plays ? Does it generate resource acceleration or an opening that matches my strategy? How much versatility does it add that Im deficient in?

6) The exception that proves the rule: The 20 fixed cards can go up to 22 with Spider-Woman which is one reason I will likely run Jessica at 50 cards since I can double up on the power of aspect resources including getting more consistency out of her finesse resource engine. Since she is my 17th (unpaired) deck this wont mess with any other hero.

7) I also consider my top hand card plays . If you like math, you can do some math to get a rough idea of how your deck is designed to function. So for example if I am running a 40 -card deck that draws 5-cards from hero mode and generates an extra resource for most of the game, I will probably be drawing 7 to 8 hands before each shuffle. If I play two-cards on average per hand through the first shuffle, I will play 14 to 16 cards. So my top 16 cards are important.

8 ) Some of those cards are stickies (upgrades and supports), so for every sticky card (minus one or two that doesnt stick or gets caught off guard ) I will also need a "B" card . So I will make sure that I have equal amount of "B" cards to replace the stickies with the "B" cards supporting my main strategy plays. The rest of the deck is resources and optional plays.

9) Next for me comes card evaluation . Aside from how the card fits into a strategy, I am going to do the math. How much does the card cost? What do I get for the cost? Uppercut for example costs 4 and deals 5 damage, that is 1.25 dmg/resource. That is not even a "B" card, its a "C" card at best. Dont forget to count the card itself as a resource . Tac Team costs 4 and 2 extra turns and deals 6 damage, that is 1.5 dmg/resource . If you have the two extra turns coupled with the ability to spread out the damage where needed and use it from alter ego mode, that is a much better card, closer to a "B" card, but maybe still a "C" card . Relentless Assault on the other hand grades out better 1.67 dmg/resource, but is highly situational. This is a good example of what I want from a one-of "C" card . This is also why I relegate Make the Call to a low-count "C" card. It costs an extra resource to have a small amount of versatility that is probably just better filled by an extra ally to begin with. This will definitely be the case the more allies we get in the card pool. This is also one of the reasons that the Aggression aspect can be weaker with fighting Heroes. How are the aggression cards going to out preform your 15 signature cards?

10) Allies are an auto-includes for me. I am going to run 3 or more in each deck.. Furthermore, I see this getting compounded as the options increase. Allies just have to much value until they start putting overkill and concussion blast and allies answers into more villain decks. Allies do something and then give you a chump block at worst. They also play from alter-ego mode. What ally would possibly be worse than Invulnerability at 3 cost (what were they thinking)?

11) Helicarrier over Avengers Mansion . In most decks I would include both, but in low hand decks Im going to prefer the Helicarrier . But the Av mansion draws a card giving it more flexibility? Sure, but at the cost of an extra early resource. But you might draw a double resource? You might, but if you do then you dont draw that same card the next hand. Its why Soldier Serum , God of Thunder , etc are way, way better than the mansion. The mansion is maybe my 5th or 6th best resource generator which makes it worth including since I maybe have 7 or 8 hands per shuffle.

12) Its also why I think the Enhanced x Resource cards are one-ofs trap cards. They cost 3 and 2 extra turns and produce 3 resources. There only practical use over a well built deck is to give up your best card play to smooth out 2 other turns. You absolutely dont want these in your opening hand. You really only want these in a hand that stinks or a hand that is resource flooded . Why not just build a better deck that doesnt produce as many hands that stink or as many resource flooded hands..

Just my 2-cents and how I approach things to meet my end-goal of building 8 share-and-pair decks + 1 double aspect deck.

Edited by IceHot42
16 hours ago, Derrault said:

Well, the Galaxy’s Most Wanted will add Guardian (for Groot and Rocket), and I can only assume most of their deck allies will have that tag as well.

I figure the rest of the guardians are going to be the 4 hero packs immediately after that.

You're right, it seems that next year the heroes are going to bring the keyword "guardian".

With Groot and Rocket in Febrary, that leaves us with 8 months for StarLord, Gamora, Drax, Adam Warlock, Mantis, Martyr and Moondragon. (Does anyone else sign up for a Cosmo, the spacedog hero pack?).

Obviously, the expansion for that year must include Thanos plus a couple of additional scenarios, we already have the 12 months of the year covered.

12 hours ago, IceHot42 said:

Once you put aside the MtG thought process, there a lot of neat things about the deck construction portion of the game...

1) First thing is that play-testing and playing are the same thing. So I believe this gives a tremendous amount of value to some of my next few points (Playing the stock decks and the one-ofs ). When you play you get to learn what is enjoyable for you and come-up with ideas. That is why I think you should always start with the stock deck , it gives you a good feel for the basic deck and several new cards all at once. And I think every deck should always have a one-of new card because it will spur new ideas or let you know what is not for you.

2) Some of the Stock Decks are actually pretty good and I think they give a great starting point. Ill probably play the stock deck 5 or 6 times to make sure I see how each new card works then I will swap out the ones I dont like for cards I do like. With the Dr. Strange deck I havent had the desire to swap out any cards. The deck still stands as it started.

3) I believe pretty strongly in one-ofs in this game. First and foremost its fun to experiment. But this game gives you value in the one-ofs because you will always spend cards as resources (so the card is rarely situationally dead). But the versatility the one-of offers is exceptional value. Plus I likely the thinkyness of the game anyway. A deck that does only one thing is flawed in this game because that deck is everything the one thing doesnt do, more than the one thing it does do. Furthermore, as your deck thins out by sticking upgrades/supports your one-ofs recycle more often.

4) Even though my deck building goals are unique to me I enjoy Aspect Swapping . After stock decks and tweaking, if the Hero isnt grooving for me I will run through a battery of aspect swaps. I have 4x2 aspect decks always ready to swap out. I just need to pull the few specialty allies/cards that dont fit the hero and give it a try. Ideally my goal is to have 16 heroes in pairs sharing 8 aspect decks (2 of each aspect) with 1 or 2 tweaks for each hero.

5) 40 vs 50 cards. I agree with Derrault here that its a very tiny issue and there is benefits to both and little down side to one over the other since your hand size is not impacted by your deck size, you can cycle (replace itself with a draw) unwanted cards at the end of every turn, your deck will get thinned, and you will flop your deck at least once in most builds. However, I gravitate towards 40 card decks for a few minor reasons. First the stock decks are 40 cards decks. Second most decks, really have 20 fixed cards in it with 15 signature cards + 5 double resources. The more cards you add the less often you opening draw the best engine builder card or double resource. So when I add card 41 I ask myself: does it cycle ? Are my top hand card plays my signature cards? Is it better than my top hand card plays ? Does it generate resource acceleration or an opening that matches my strategy? How much versatility does it add that Im deficient in?

6) The exception that proves the rule: The 20 fixed cards can go up to 22 with Spider-Woman which is one reason I will likely run Jessica at 50 cards since I can double up on the power of aspect resources including getting more consistency out of her finesse resource engine. Since she is my 17th (unpaired) deck this wont mess with any other hero.

7) I also consider my top hand card plays . If you like math, you can do some math to get a rough idea of how your deck is designed to function. So for example if I am running a 40 -card deck that draws 5-cards from hero mode and generates an extra resource for most of the game, I will probably be drawing 7 to 8 hands before each shuffle. If I play two-cards on average per hand through the first shuffle, I will play 14 to 16 cards. So my top 16 cards are important.

8 ) Some of those cards are stickies (upgrades and supports), so for every sticky card (minus one or two that doesnt stick or gets caught off guard ) I will also need a "B" card . So I will make sure that I have equal amount of "B" cards to replace the stickies with the "B" cards supporting my main strategy plays. The rest of the deck is resources and optional plays.

9) Next for me comes card evaluation . Aside from how the card fits into a strategy, I am going to do the math. How much does the card cost? What do I get for the cost? Uppercut for example costs 4 and deals 5 damage, that is 1.25 dmg/resource. That is not even a "B" card, its a "C" card at best. Dont forget to count the card itself as a resource . Tac Team costs 4 and 2 extra turns and deals 6 damage, that is 1.5 dmg/resource . If you have the two extra turns coupled with the ability to spread out the damage where needed and use it from alter ego mode, that is a much better card, closer to a "B" card, but maybe still a "C" card . Relentless Assault on the other hand grades out better 1.67 dmg/resource, but is highly situational. This is a good example of what I want from a one-of "C" card . This is also why I relegate Make the Call to a low-count "C" card. It costs an extra resource to have a small amount of versatility that is probably just better filled by an extra ally to begin with. This will definitely be the case the more allies we get in the card pool. This is also one of the reasons that the Aggression aspect can be weaker with fighting Heroes. How are the aggression cards going to out preform your 15 signature cards?

10) Allies are an auto-includes for me. I am going to run 3 or more in each deck.. Furthermore, I see this getting compounded as the options increase. Allies just have to much value until they start putting overkill and concussion blast and allies answers into more villain decks. Allies do something and then give you a chump block at worst. They also play from alter-ego mode. What ally would possibly be worse than Invulnerability at 3 cost (what were they thinking)?

11) Helicarrier over Avengers Mansion . In most decks I would include both, but in low hand decks Im going to prefer the Helicarrier . But the Av mansion draws a card giving it more flexibility? Sure, but at the cost of an extra early resource. But you might draw a double resource? You might, but if you do then you dont draw that same card the next hand. Its why Soldier Serum , God of Thunder , etc are way, way better than the mansion. The mansion is maybe my 5th or 6th best resource generator which makes it worth including since I maybe have 7 or 8 hands per shuffle.

12) Its also why I think the Enhanced x Resource cards are one-ofs trap cards. They cost 3 and 2 extra turns and produce 3 resources. There only practical use over a well built deck is to give up your best card play to smooth out 2 other turns. You absolutely dont want these in your opening hand. You really only want these in a hand that stinks or a hand that is resource flooded . Why not just build a better deck that doesnt produce as many hands that stink or as many resource flooded hands..

Just my 2-cents and how I approach things to meet my end-goal of building 8 share-and-pair decks + 1 double aspect deck.

Great analysis! Thanks for the tricks ;-)

I think you are right when you say that an important part of the game is to have fun testing the decks, removing the cards that you do not like (not because they are not useful but because you do not use them in your style of play) for others that you always use, trying different aspects with the same hero.

I always try to set up the thematic games, Spiderman vs Sinister six, Siperman vs Green Goblin, Captain America vs Red Skull, Black Widow vs Taskmaster, Black Panther vs Klaw ... when you know the comics you know the relationships between the characters and the truth is I always have fun, even if I lose the game. It is something that does not happen to me with any other game. That's why I like this Marvel Champions so much.

14 hours ago, IceHot42 said:

12) Its also why I think the Enhanced x Resource cards are one-ofs trap cards. They cost 3 and 2 extra turns and produce 3 resources. There only practical use over a well built deck is to give up your best card play to smooth out 2 other turns. You absolutely dont want these in your opening hand. You really only want these in a hand that stinks or a hand that is resource flooded . Why not just build a better deck that doesnt produce as many hands that stink or as many resource flooded hands..

I agree - if you look at them as resource cards - personally I see them more as enablers than traditional resource cards. They don't have a place in most decks, but they enable certain cards - like Nova, Vision, Black Widow and Heroes like Hulk.

Edited by jonboyjon1990
14 hours ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

I agree - if you look at them as resource cards - personally I see them more as enablers than traditional resource cards. They don't have a place in most decks, but they enable certain cards - like Nova, Vision, Black Widow and Heroes like Hulk.

I see their importance as being that of paying it forward a turn, so that you can expand the value of 3 more turns, for example. (They are also useful for ensuring you can remove villain upgrades without dramatically shrinking your hand)

On 9/17/2020 at 1:03 PM, IceHot42 said:

6) The exception that proves the rule: The 20 fixed cards can go up to 22 with Spider-Woman which is one reason I will likely run Jessica at 50 cards since I can double up on the power of aspect resources including getting more consistency out of her finesse resource engine.

Playing more cards that don't trigger Spider-Woman's ability ("Power Of" cards) and adding more of each Aspect card might improve consistency of Finesse from 95% usefulness to 99% but you're going to get noticeably more hands where you draw only a single Aspect's worth of playable cards, not to mention greater odds of drawing a "Power Of" card that doesn't match any other Aspects in your hand. And at 50 cards instead of 40, you're not going to consistently draw into your Finesses as early either. Don't get me wrong, play however you want to have fun - just be aware of the tradeoffs you're making.

19 hours ago, BCumming said:

Playing more cards that don't trigger Spider-Woman's ability ("Power Of" cards) and adding more of each Aspect card might improve consistency of Finesse from 95% usefulness to 99% but you're going to get noticeably more hands where you draw only a single Aspect's worth of playable cards, not to mention greater odds of drawing a "Power Of" card that doesn't match any other Aspects in your hand. And at 50 cards instead of 40, you're not going to consistently draw into your Finesses as early either. Don't get me wrong, play however you want to have fun - just be aware of the tradeoffs you're making.

You actually only gain a little under two turns worth of draw if you include +10 cards, and that makes virtually zero impact on the consistency of your draw.