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My deck is currently at 56 cards.  It performs well, but I wonder if it would do better at 50.  I know that it has some powerful endgame strategies and I'd lose these by dropping the cards.  Thoughts, suggestions?

In todays meta I would say 50 would be best for most strategies (Disciples, TGT, etc.) I recall Gabe once saying that 50 is the best. But I don't know your offense so Idk.

The federal commission of TH3 UNF0RG1V4BL3 approves of 50 card decks.

It depends on what drives your victory points.

For most people, it's important to get to SoG/NJ/AotL as quickly as possible, and so every card in your deck over 50 gets you one card further away from those cards.  More to the point, it will take you 13 turns to draw through 51 cards, barring any additional draws or searches or shuffles, and so 52 cards would increase the distribution across a 14th turn, and one more turn for every three cards following.

On the flip side, it's also important for people to keep Lost Souls off the table as much as possible.  That's why 56/63/70/105/etc are popular sizes: they represent the maximum number of cards you can have before the next card you add must be a Lost Soul.  The idea being, every extra card you can add that is not a Lost Soul reduces the statistical odds of drawing one, albeit by a small amount (we're talking about a card-by-card statistical range of 12.5 - 14.3%)

Taking cards out will get you to your Dominants quicker, but will also bring out your Lost Souls quicker.  So it's a decision based on how bad you need those Doms - and/or how much you need to keep Lost Souls buried - versus the power added to your deck by the other cards you're debating.

Well, that was quick.  I've never been worried about drawing lost souls, as my defense has proven to do well.  However, if I cut, I'd be cutting my defense.

Then you'd probably have to worry about drawing souls. Honestly, you wona Regionals with it, so I wouldn't tweak it too much. Just my opinion.

Quote from: Master KChief on July 21, 2011, 02:47:08 PM

50, no more, no less.

51 

if you're playing with plot. even so, only one deck needs to be 51 in most tournaments.

you can no longer rely on lost soul drought due to the many ways to create lost souls nowadays.

Why don't we all compromise (and thus be like me) and say 53?

Especially when you get to chuckle as you create confusion for a reigning National Champion as they ask: "Jon, I got a count of 53, is that right?"


Yep, 53...the ideal of both worlds, 50 & 56!