Cactus Game Design Message Boards

The e and f starter decks are a decent place to start learning the game but they are not particularly good for building decks around.  If you get the newest (I/J) starter deck, it has much stronger decks that are a lot easier to build into something semi-competitive.  From those decks you can easily build on the purple disciples, silver angels, or gold judges for offense and the black philistines, gray romans, or orange demons for defense.  If you get a couple of the tins with matching groups, you can quickly have a very playable deck. 

Alternatively, three lions gaming has recently come up with their own custom "packs".  Each pack includes an offense, defense, or extra cards (dominants and souls).  So 3 packs will get you a playable deck.  Its not for me because I've been collecting since 1995 but it seems like a pretty good option for new players. 

I think the bar code trade in might have expired but I'm not sure.

Greetings,

The starter decks are intended to be pretty much equal in terms of strength. It comes down to personal preference. Between the two, I've always been drawn towards the F deck, but that's just me. Starter decks have often been notorious for their lack of customization. Although harder to find, you might consider trying to get the other starter decks, not just the newest ones but some of the older ones as well. This will help you build a basic core of cards to choose from when building a deck.

Jesusman

Ah I see then. I will look into getting the new Starter deck as soon as i can. Thank you all for you're helpful advice. Just to clearify I will mainly just be playing casually. I've never been one for competitive play.

Even if you are just playing for fun and trying to find others to play with, the I/J decks are probably the most balanced starter decks ever made and are also the best teaching tools for showing others how to play.  That said, if you are also just looking to play others, hit us up on Lackey   There are booster drafts on there quite a bit, too, and that's always a more fun category to play