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It is so hard to know what cards to shave off your deck to make it 50 cards.

Being able to modify deck size is something that sets Redemption apart from other games, so it's hard to draw a comparison to other games.

I am curious what the general redemption public thinks about the necessity of a 50 card deck.  Is getting to SoG/NJ before your opponent does still the best way to win in type 1?  With the shift to balanced decks in the meta (I know there is no clear meta right now) is going to 53 for another hero and 2 more battle winners worth it? Is going to 57 for more overall power and the extra Dominant worth it?  Are we cutting draw enhancements for more power?  Would a raw 50 card speed deck be able to blast through these balanced decks if we went back to 7-8 card defense?  These are all questions I've been pondering as we begin prepping for an exciting redemption season. What do you think?

For reference, nobody in the second to last round of top cut last year had a 50 card deck. First place had 56 cards, second place had 52, and third and fourth both had 51. I think we may be getting to a point where search and draw are both incredibly ingrained into the cards that the issue of probability Gabe mentioned no longer matters as much. Additionally, there are so many good options in every theme (and a huge host of excellent neutral cards) that playing at 50 may no longer be the only optimal option, as slightly more cards gives you more answers to any given situation. If Redemption operated on a d1 system, 50 would be the best without question, but because it's a d3 (and most abilities are more than a d1), that may not be the case.

Quote from: Chris on January 13, 2015, 06:52:58 PM

For reference, nobody in the second to last round of top cut last year had a 50 card deck. First place had 56 cards, second place had 52, and third and fourth both had 51. I think we may be getting to a point where search and draw are both incredibly ingrained into the cards that the issue of probability Gabe mentioned no longer matters as much. Additionally, there are so many good options in every theme (and a huge host of excellent neutral cards) that playing at 50 may no longer be the only optimal option, as slightly more cards gives you more answers to any given situation. If Redemption operated on a d1 system, 50 would be the best without question, but because it's a d3 (and most abilities are more than a d1), that may not be the case.

In fairness, I was only at 51 because I built my deck the morning of, as per usual, and couldn't figure out what card was extra. I should have been at 50.

R is clearly dead

2 new releases of cards, lackey plug in, and no clear meta in T1 or T2 and a ton of board action during the dead season all in the last 6 months begs to differ.

Quote from: LukeChips on January 16, 2015, 10:10:42 AM

I sent an hour yesterday trying to get my deck down to 50, but the best I could do was 53...

Then leave it at 53   Play with it for awhile, and any cuts will be pretty obvious to you based on you never using them. Otherwise, if it works, then it works for you.

I will absolutely derail this thread more once I get off work. People should know why I don't intend on ever playing in a meaningful way ever again.

For the record always make the deck as small as you can.

I think that the deck size is increasing with TEC released. I remember when Disciples first came out and the biggest thing was decking out as fast as you can to win the game. One game particularly that comes to mind is when I went up against Randall back in 2011 at Creation fest, and he decked out within 5 turns. These new decks are more balanced, and I think we'll see a lot more TO games this year.