The deck size is a MINIMUM of 50 cards, correct? As far as I can tell, there is no upper limit. I've seen a few posts that seem to indicate that official deck size is exactly 50 cards, which has me doubting myself.

Also, I assume that the 3 heroes do not count towards the deck size?

Svenn said:

Heroes are not part of the deck.

And the basic CCG deck size rule still applies: the larger the deck, the weaker.

Yeah, I realize that large decks can be weaker, but I've never been one to always stick with the minimum amount of cards. I'm not trying to have a 150 card deck or something, but I just want to make sure that 55 cards or something isn't against the rules.

Svenn said:

No, that's absolutely fine.

I was going to build my first deck tonight and before I even got past picking my Heroes I had this same question. Good to know that the Heroes do not count toward the 50 card minimum.

It's clear that TOURNAMENT deck has to be minimum of 50 cards. What about non-tournament (as in "casual"?) decks that you play with solo or with friends? What's the minimum size for these decks? Is it 30, like the starter decks included in the core set? What if I wanted to add some cards and replace some cards in the starter deck, will it still be minimum of 30 cards? Or can I only add cards to the starter deck to make it 50 cards? In other words, for a non-tournament deck can I have a 30-deck with 3 copies of each card (basically only 10 cards/3 copies of each)? Or is there even a minimum deck size for non-tournament decks?

The minimum deck size is 50, no matter how you are playing. If you are not playing in a tournament, however, there is nothing from stopping you from using a deck of any size you desire.

FFG does specify that tournament legal decks have a minimum of 50 cards, but there is no minimum set on casual games at home. I personally play with tournament legal decks, but there is nothing stopping me from playing with a 10 card deck at home if I wanted to.

Heck, when you are playing at home there is nothing stopping you from using 6 heroes and having them each generate 2 resources a turn

Ah, how I do love house-ruled games.

Bohemond said:

I think the rules prohibit these. Max 3 heroes per player (or per deck in case you want to play solo with 2 decks) and one resource token per hero. Of course, in a house game nothing will stop you if you don't want to follow the rules.

I personally just cannot understand, why people always make so many "house" rules... man, just play the game as it was intended! I mean, I can build a "WIN BUTTON"-house rule... no challenge in that.... I just can't understand why people always HAVE TO win... even in a CO-OP game... man, half the fun is building the deck UNDER LIMITATIONS! I mean, rather than having more than 50 cards, you could just put GANDALF 8 TIMES in a deck... whatever.... not flaming and bashing anyone, just my point of view.... no insults intended... .

Vyron said:

No worries. I was just poking fun with my posts.

If you want a tournament experience at home and without buying multiple core sets, you could try scaling down.

So to overcome the fact that many cards come in 2s (or Gandalf in 4 and you want to play 2 player) scale back.

Play a deck 2/3rds the size , i.e. 33 cards and no more than 2 of any card.

That way you sustain the drawing probability of any given card. (Let the flaming begin)

i only allow myself one of each card because i like the variety, so i have a minumum of 30 cards. having 50 cards when you only play 1 of each is too much becasue we dont have a big enough pool yet

i find that when you play 3 cards of each then that is a quarter of your deck gone in just 4 cards. you're forever seeing the same cards over and over

Scaling down removes the option of varying the relative frequency of cards, i.e. you can no longer have a 3:1 ratio for two given cards. That's essentially why I stick to the 50-card minimum even with reduced-pool decks.