Let's get started! Building a deck

Greetings, all!  Now that Ponyhead has been released and all cards are accessible to view, we are able to examine the overall game completely.  Through this blog, I will be providing my analysis of the overall game, its strategies, individual cards, the metagame as it develops, just whatever I can think of.  I do not have any achievements to claim, other than that game design has always fascinated me and I have a "play to win" mindset.  It is my hope that through this blog, we will be able to find the true value of this game, because only when you examine the deepest level of the game do you find its true rules.

For this first post, I want to examine what you generally want your deck to be.  I am still evaluating this somewhat, as I have little capability of playing against other people right now (but we're working on it).  When I bought the starter decks, I didn't examine them completely, but I did at least check how many cards had 0 power requirement.  It seems to me that about half of your characters shouldn't require any extra power at all to play.  This is extremely important, because without those base cards, you aren't able to play the game at all.  Think of them like lands in Magic (because I know plenty of you guys play that).  They are the core of your deck.  Keep in mind, you are going to have a main character that provides some power at all times.  This is particularly important in blue, which has little available that requires no power.  This is why Rainbow Dash is one of the hardest mains to flip; you practically need her to get a blue deck going.  Fortunately, with her, the color becomes much more available to you.  There are plenty more cards that require only 1 power.  Anything that needs at least 2 power cannot be considered a core character though, because you'll always need something else to bring it out.

Beyond the core characters, there are also the power events, such as Spread Your Wings.  Keep in mind one of the final rules: if a card gives +1 power to two colors, that character becomes both colors and has that much more total power.  The bonus only lasts for the main phase though, so it only allows you to be able to play things (well, mostly).  Not all of the color pairs have events that pair this way, but for those that do, you can use these to power your way into the bigger characters.  For example, with just Spread Your Wings, Rainbow Dash can have the power requirement to allow Dr. Hooves.  When using these "boost" events associated with your main character, you'll be able to play just about anything.

Now, unless you intend on only confronting your opponent's problems and letting your opponent just rack up points on yours, you will need at least 2 colors in your deck.  Your main character's color will be much easier, since you will have 1 power there at all times.  Your second color will require a bit more work.  I've had some success running a mostly white deck and barely using a second color at all.  I simply used strong core characters such as Full Steam and Apple Brown Betty to power through the non-white requirements, and only have 1 non-white support card in the deck.  Usually though, you'll want to choose two colors that compliment each other.  The boost events seem to suggest enemy colors, because I usually can't find a common thread to those pairings that makes them better than other combinations.  For example, blue has plenty of effects that allow you to move for cheap, so if paired with something that has a lot of raw power, you can get the most return out of that.  Twilight Sparkle really likes events, and pink definitely has plenty of good ones to use.    Orange likes to discard, pink has plenty of card advantage and kill (imagine the irritation of tons of discard WITH pinpoint removal).  Choose a combination that either emphasizes a certain strength, or main one color where the secondary compensates for your its weaknesses.  Then again, you could also experiment like I have with trying to be almost exclusively one color.  Even if this wasn't a new game, I always encourage experimentation.

We've addressed how to get yourself off the ground, so how about the rest of the deck?  The rule book says you should have 25 characters and 20 others.  This is a fairly solid guideline.  You are also allowed 3 copies of any card.  All of this is so that you can draw what you need when you need it.  You'll have 6 cards to begin the game.  You want to draw characters you can play right away, and this is what determines how many core sources of power you run.  The rest of the cards will be based more on the styles your colors support.    You don't have to adhere strictly to any of the numbers, and sometimes strict card types may bleed.  Forest Owl, for example, offers no power of its own, so I would consider it more a support card than an actual character.  The boost events take the place of core characters.  This can mean you either change the characters you have or you run less characters.  I have yet to experiment with these events, though the former seems the proper strategy.

Troublemakers are a rather unique card type.  It is difficult to say for sure how many one should run.  I just go with 6, 3 copies of 2 cards.  They are useless late game, but you'll ideally want them early game.  Obviously Rainbow Dash wants more so that she can get boosted.  Pink may desire more as well, given there are many cards that want you to win faceoffs of any kind and its so-called "random" mechanic ensures you'll have good flips for them if you made your deck properly.  Specifically what troublemakers you choose will depend on your deck style and the metagame around you (Yellow Parasprite is particularly deadly around here).  Fundamentally though, they'll ensure your opponent cannot confront events cheaply.  People will commonly run the uncommon 1+1 problems so they need just a cheap off-color friend with their main.  If a troublemaker's in the way, perhaps they'll get the initial boost of points, but they'll probably have to work harder to get any more.  By then, you'll have time to develop what you need to handle the problem faceoff.  Eventually you will have to deal with faceoffs though, so it can be very important to have plenty of cards that will give you an edge there.

 

Problem decks right now don't take much thought to create.  You need 10 of them and you can have 2 copies of each.  You have to pick from 5 problems, and there isn't much variety between each of the colors.  You can run high or low based on what your deck needs.  You probably won't go through many of these over the course of the game, so don't intend on getting any specific one.  The only hitch is that there are few starting problems that require high power.  Most noticeable is "A Thorn in His Paw," which aside from needing 8 power from the opponent, also has the possibility of hindering the opponent's capability to get there.  Among those with specific colors to their cost, Avalanche is the only one that may be a starting problem, and with its effect being very beneficial to Orange's style, that one may be worth theming your deck.  All the other 2-color problems should be included only if your deck happens to support it.  Like I said, you won't go through much of the deck, so you can't anticipate a specific problem to take full advantage of it.

There you have it, plenty of core concepts to consider when building your deck.  One marvelous thing about customizable card games (I know, they prefer "collectible") is that there are rarely concrete rules.  I've always held that some foundations are good for getting started.  Learn some basic rules, get experience, and then learn how to break those rules.  Guidelines will get you learning the basics like a military boot camp.  After that, you can "unlearn what you have learned" to get true mastery.  It is my hope that we can explore both sides together.  Good luck everyone, and don't forget to have fun.  I play to win, and the fun for me is finding out how to do that effectively, without malice.  I know I'll have the most fun if everyone around me is strong.  I'll see you next week!

P.S.: I would very much like to answer rules questions, as well.  Every Monday, I will take a question that is frequently asked or particularly interesting and do my best to answer it.  I am not an Enterplay representative, so do not take these answers as written in stone.  I've always been good with rules though, and will quote the specific rules that would seem to support my conclusions.  You can ask questions in comments, or else you can email me at mlpblogrules@gmail.com.