I have the core set and three Corruption Cycle packs (Path of the Zealot, Tooth and Claw, the Deathmaster's Dance). Now I'm looking to expand my collection, for a format where I'll build all decks for my opponent and myself.

So I'm going to buy Assault on Ulthuan, and three battle packs. Should I get the rest of the Corruption Cycle, or get the first three in the Enemy Cycle? Considerations:

• I'm not especially interested in Skaven.
• I striving to build balanced decks for all six factions.

Thanks.

My first choice would be to get March of the Damned instead of three battlepacks. It has good cards for all factions (least so for the Orcs, but they benefited the most from the battlepacks you already have), and if you're concerned about balance, its neutral cards can easily serve to close the gap for whatever factions you find lacking. The Legends expansion might also be better than three battlepacks, but since you're already introducing two new factions with Assault on Ulthuan, you might not want a new cardtype just yet.

As for battlepacks, finishing the corruption cycle should be of low priority. It doesn't have three copies of every card, and you don't care much about skaven. Keep in mind there's no reason to buy battlepacks in order though, so you don't have to go with the first three of the enemy cycle, and it might go counter to what you're trying to accomplish. For example, Empire and Dwarf will benefit much more from both The Burning of Derricksburg and The Fall of Karak Grimaz than the other factions, so you shouldn't get those if they are already doing well in your environment.

I'd either go with March of the Damned, or just get Assault for now and wait a bit to see which factions need the most help, and ask again then (or check battlepack/expansion contents yourself on deckbox.org) and pick buys accordingly.

Thanks for the advice.

My concern was that battle packs are not balanced individually, but an entire cycle would be balanced. But I guess that's not the case.

As for March of the Damned, isn't that mostly undead and lizard man cards? I'm hesitant to get into building decks with half neutral cards. I'm new to this, and I don't want to get hung up on cost/loyalty issues, and other balancing considerations. That's also why I'm not interested in skaven - I assumed that building single-faction decks supplemented by a smattering of neutral cards was the best way to get my feet wet.

Are there enough faction cards (as opposed to undead and lizard men) in March of the Damned to make it a more worthwhile purchase than three battle packs?

March of the Damned has five cards for each faction, plus the neutrals. So three battlepacks will net you more faction-specific cards, yes (not evenly distributed though). If they'll give you more really useful faction-specific cards depends on the faction and the battlepacks. I'm guessing though that with your card pool, the High Elves will need the most help, and MotD is perfect for that, thanks to the quality of its HE cards and the neutral lizardmen fitting well into HE indirect damage decks.

Really, just get Assault for now, play with it for a bit, see which factions really need boosts in your group, and then come back here and ask us for battlepack recommendations for that. That'll be easiest.

Sounds like a plan. Cheers.