So I'm a complete noob to these kinds of card games - have only watched my son play with them a bit.

The Tournament Deck rules say that a deck has to have a minimum number of 50 cards, right - but doesn't state any kind of maximum other than you can have no more than three of any specific card title in your deck. So you could have a deck of 500 cards. But I guess what that needs to be balanced with is the probability of any one of those cards coming out of the deck when you need it. And I guess also you have to balance that probability with the right type of card also, particularly since we have the limitation of the spheres. Are there any other factors to consider?

And then is there an optimal number of cards in a deck that people have discovered, in general? I know that you can't come up with a number that will work for every situation or scenario. But in general is there an optimal number?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'd also be grateful for any noob tips and tricks that people can offer. And if I've overlooked an obvious post in here that already addresses this, forgive me. Perhaps you could point me to a good post or other solid sources of info rather than flaming me.

Thanks for all replies.

General rule of deck-building games: you should always build decks of the minimum allowable size. Reasons in brief: the smaller your deck, the more consistent it is, and the more chance of drawing the vital card you need at a given time. I am sure that other people can explain this more fully and eloquently.

jjeagle said:

To explain further (or to attempt to, anyway):

1. In general you want your deck to be consistent. For example, let's assume (for the sake of argument) you run roughly equal numbers of events, attachments, allies, and that ideally you will want to draw a mix of these three card types. The smaller your deck, the more likely you will get a mix of the types throughout the game. The larger your deck, the more likely you will draw into "streaks" of just one card type. A similar example would be if you are running a multi-sphere deck - you will likely want to see cards from across the spheres, and a smaller deck improves your chances of consistently getting this mix.

2. Let's assume there is a specific card you want to draw at the start of the game (eg Steward of Gondor, A Test of Will, Lore of Imladris versus Rhosgobel, whatever it may be - in my view there generally will be such a card, or several such cards). Let's also assume you will mulligan to dig for that card if you don't draw it first time.

By my calculation, the chances of getting that one card in your opening hand (if you run three copies) are:

50 card deck = 54%

60 card deck = 48%

100 card deck = 32%

So the larger your deck, the lower the chance you will see the cards you need.

jjeagle said:

to add some other tips as requested-

you want to really be flexible in your decks- this game pushes for different decks per scenario, so what works for journey down the anduin wont be as good for escape from dol guldur

you need to concentrate on questing as a primary power, not fighting. while it is true that you need to have a balance of everything, questing is how games are won

tactics may seem like a powerful cool sphere, but in core its rubbish- the real powers a spirit and lore

utilise combinations - for example Protetor of Lorien has an ability that lets you discard any amount of cards to increase your stats of willpower and defense….so think what goes well here? well a big card draw will allow you more cards to get rid of hence more stat increase so you want cards like wealth of lorien (draw 3 cards) Gleowine (exhaust to draw a card) beravor (same to draw 2) Unexpected courage (to put on beravor) and also more cards that arent in core set will do the same.

you really need treachery cancellation- this is why spirit shines so well….cards that you should never leave your home without if you are playing the respective spheres

-test of will

-hasty stroke

-unexpected courage

-steward of gondor (best card in the game)

-citadel plate

-henemarth riversong

-galahrims greeting

often its better to go low start threat heros instead of really powerful high threat ones

use cards like snowbourne scout to sacrifice to allow heros to stay readied to kill enemies

hope this helps

rich

The math exercise is interesting and the advice to keep it to the minimum size deck is making a major assumption that all 50 cards are unique…however, there are multiple copies of cards and it is possible that you can use 60 or even 70 card decks and still have the same percentages posted above for your favorite card being drawn.

With that said, if you did a 50 card deck with say, 30 unique cards due to multiple copies, then the percentages are even higher than what was posted above.

So I guess you have to look at it one of two ways. You either have your heart set on a very limited set of cards, then you stack your deck so these favorites have an ultra-high chance of appearing.

Or you feel very comfortable with a 70-80 card deck because there are multiple copies in there and they are all equally good cards. Your percentages don't dip much at all in terms of the chance of getting a card you need.

My mistake, I misread…the calculations above are assuming 3 copies in the deck. The logic is intact, but the above quoted % is for a limited set of cards with multiple copies so having a 60-70 card deck would definitely be lower %. I personally feel there are many good cards and I'm ok with a larger deck as a result…pros and cons to everything…the basic fundamental to a great game…always have pros and cons to any strategy.

It's right that a player should only hold a minimum of cards. jjeagle already pointed out the benefits. Adding more cards than neccessary makes no sense, because even if a player would be able to draw all of his deck, he still has to pay for every card to bring it into play.

A good example why keeping the numbers of (different) cards low:

Daughter of the Nimrodel and Rivendell Minstrell. In most of my decks I wanted to have them both, but then I wanted to keep it at 50 cards. That's why I took 3 copies of one ally, say Rivendell Minstrell, and none of the other. That way I had to give up a good healer, but at least I knew that DotN wouldn't show up and I could play accordingly - instead of hoping for her to come with a huge player deck that reduces the chances of her showing up extremely. And getting both of them in my hand wouldn't help as I didn''t have enough resources to pay for the two of them.