Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I have been off the boards for a while and my kids have periodically asked if we could bring out the cards. I have never unpacked them and came across them today. I thought I would start trying to help them put some decks together. I quickly realized that I am sadly out of touch and know nothing about the current style of decks that might work.

Any help would be appreciated.

Here are a few semi-random things you may find helpful.

If they're just starting out I would highly recommend a variation of TGT.  Of the possible variations Gardenciples is the most powerful. 

If you want to build decks that resembles the current meta, you will want to purchase some of the new Roa/FooF expansion tins, they have some very powerful cards.

FBTNB are currently the most dominant decks.

The last two things for you to know is that the current meta has 10 card defenses (doms included), and that you have to use a lot of speed to preform well.     

Ugh...telling him right off the bat that speed is the way to go. I'm disappointed. I'm doing just fine with my defense heavy or balanced decks. If built and run correctly you will beat a speed deck just as much as it beats you if not more.

Not the case. Seems you play vs bad speed decks.

12–14 card defenses seem to be quite viable (i.e Nats winning deck this year). Unfortunately however, turtles are just too slow within time limits to be very competitive.

Quote from: CJSports on December 10, 2012, 11:51:01 AM

Ugh...telling him right off the bat that speed is the way to go. I'm disappointed. I'm doing just fine with my defense heavy or balanced decks. If built and run correctly you will beat a speed deck just as much as it beats you if not more.

Even a balanced deck needs to have speed in it to succeed.  I prefer balanced myself, (becasue I like blocking) but even my balanced defenses are built with drawing in mind.  I'm not saying that decks must be offensive heavy, I'm saying that they should include lots of draw/search abilities (whether it's on offense or defense). 

Regardless of that, I would still recommend him building offensive heavy decks, they are easier to build/pilot than a balanced/defensive heavy deck.  Since he is just getting back into the game, I would recommend what's going to be easier.  Ergo, I recommend offensive heavy  (esp. FBTNB).

Yeah I can concur with that. Playing/making a offensive deck is much easier than defensive or balanced.

Quote from: CJSports on December 10, 2012, 11:51:01 AM

Ugh...telling him right off the bat that speed is the way to go. I'm disappointed. I'm doing just fine with my defense heavy or balanced decks. If built and run correctly you will beat a speed deck just as much as it beats you if not more.

Not the case. Seems you play vs bad speed decks.

No I just know how to counter the good ones. If you have that for a goal it really isn't difficult to consistently beat speed. Problem is in tournaments you run into legal stalling and time outs which is something defense heavy can't get around. After you counter speed all you have to do (under exaggeration) is throw in WS to get through any other defense in the game.

EDIT: I could also easily say that you haven't been playing against good defense heavy decks, so unless you have more to go off of please don't just say I'm wrong.

if you are really just trying to teach someone the game,just use a starter deck,its called a STARTER deck for a reason.

The best teaching deck is COMBO COMBO COMBO COMBO AFRICA because instead of forcing a player to learn the game, it forces the player to feel the game.

Thanks for the ideas. It seems like I have a lot of research to do before I start building decks again. I will probably take the advice of Slugfencer and start with their favorite cards. That seems easier.

On the small defense side, are stand alone characters the bulk of that? I still remember my massive Banding and FBTN deck that had that stand alone defense from 8 years ago. That was fun.

The small defense goes something like this:

Uzzah, gomer, kot, sabbath breaker, ammy's slave, and plot.

There are variations of course, as well as othee potential options, but this is my favorite.

The usual variation these days look like this:
Assyrian Survivor, Damsel, Death of Unrighteous, Emperor Vittles, Sabbath Breaker, and Balaam's Disobedience. (often the CBP lost soul is also used to help DoU clear your souls out).

Uzzah, Slave, Plot also optional, or you can throw in Balaam and Charms.

Depends, CwD can hurt Dan N' Friends if you get it early game, preventing them from getting off their searches.