Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Rules:

1. Download Chris Bany's Pricelist 9.0 from http://www.covenantgames.com/card_market.htm. In this spreadsheet, every card in the game is numbered 10-2191

2. Find a random number generator, like www.random.org.

3. Generate 49 random numbers between 10-2191 (random.org generates integers, so you don't need to worry about the 4.879613rd card), and make sure to record them somehow. If any numbers repeat, try again.

4. Find the cards corresponding to those numbers. If any are Lost Souls (except the Hopper) or dominants, generate that many more random numbers until you have 49-non LS/dominant cards.

5. Add however many Lost Souls you need to have 7 total (8 if you drew the hopper). If your deck total is less than 56, generate enough numbers to get 56, ignoring any LS's or dominants drawn. If you have too many LS's, then choose 7 of the ones that were selected, again excluding the Hopper.

6. Post your deck here.

EDIT: Alternatively, you can use Cameron's modified spreadsheet on the next page of this thread, and it should go much faster.

I figure it would be fun if anyone has time to do this. I have finals today and tomorrow, so I won't do it now, but hopefully I can soon. I'm just interested to see what someone comes up with. And maybe there can be a few games between random decks.

Tips: If you want to make it easier to find the right cards, put your numbers in an Excel file, and do a sort by selecting all the cells containing your numbers, right clicking, and selecting sort.

Eventually if there is enough interest, I hope to have some sort of tournament wherein the winner will receive a randomly selected UR, Promo, or TxP (excluding Faithful Servant, Grapes of Wrath, and some of the newest and oldest Promos, which I don't have available), that is I will generate random numbers until a number for an UR, promo or TxP comes up, and that will be the prize.

Good luck!

Yay Randomness!

So you are trying to build a deck, kind of like a booster draft, where you are randomly picking from all cards and sets?  If so, are you wanting me to do that for all of the cards and then pick the best few decks, or do you want me to just do a couple of decks?

I'm a Stat Major, so I LOVE stuff like this!  So let me know which way you want to do this, I could do every card in the game like this in a hour or so!

You can make as many decks as you want, just so long as they are random (randomly selected without replacement, of course). I haven't come up with all the details for a tourney, as I want to make sure there's enough interest for it to be worthwhile, but I'm pretty sure it will be where you can make as many decks as you want and choose your favorite for the tourney.

So if you draw a dominant number you don't get to use it, I.E. no dominant decks?

Right. Since it is theoretically possible for someone to get SoG/NJ after enough tries, I decided no doms would be best. I'm definitely open to seeing what other randomly generated combos might show up though.

Cards in deck: 56
Lost Souls: 7
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul
   Lost Soul (shuffler)

Multi-Color Sites: 1
   New Jerusalem (site)

White Sites: 1
   Golgotha

Green Sites: 1
   Samaria

Artifacts: 2
   Gifts of the Magi
   Stalks of Flax

White Heroes: 1
   Mary

Red Heroes: 2
   Abishai
   Dodai the Ahohite

Gold Heroes: 1
   Archippus

Green Heroes: 2
   Bezaleel
   Nathan

Blue Heroes: 1
   Jair

Purple Heroes: 2
   King Jehoshaphat
   The Magi

Multi-Color Hero Enhancements: 1
   Helmet of Salvation

White Hero Enhancements: 5
   Antidote
   Burning Bush
   Consider the Lilies
   No Need for Spices
   Withered Hand

Red Hero Enhancements: 1
   Goodness

Gold Hero Enhancements: 2
   Built on the Rock
   Highway

Green Hero Enhancements: 2
   Clemency of David
   Interceding for Battle

Blue Hero Enhancements: 1
   Balm of Gilead

Purple Hero Enhancements: 2
   Coat of Mail
   Elisha's Bones

Crimson Evil Characters: 1
   Sapphira

Gold Evil Characters: 2
   Chief Captain Lysias
   Taskmaster

Pale Green Evil Characters: 3
   King Shalmaneser V
   Pagan Priest
   Prince of this World

Black Evil Characters: 1
   Cain

Brown Evil Characters: 3
   Haman
   King Nadab
   Shimei

Crimson Evil Enhancements: 3
   Boasting of Strength
   Political Bribes
   Selfish Ambition

Gold Evil Enhancements: 1
   Egyptian Horses

Pale Green Evil Enhancements: 2
   Filthy Garments
   Two Thousand Horses

Black Evil Enhancements: 1
   Mask of Self-glorification

Gray Evil Enhancements: 2
   Deepening Lie
   Desolation of Tamar

Brown Evil Enhancements: 2
   Boils
   Jeroboam's Idolatry

Ok... So yeah.... I have some nice things, and some funny things, and some not so nice things,

Nice things -
Prince of this World - Immunity is (I think) Going to be huge in these types of decks
Red Banding - Those guys are awesome
Stalks of Flax - Trade away my crummy characters for ones that match my colors? Yes please!
The healing enhancements - These could be very handy, especially Elisha's bones which gives me numbers

Funny things -
The Magi + Gifts of the Magi
King Shalmenser + Samaria
The Mary - Yeah she's the december one.
Haman is the promo version also

Not so Nice things -
Two gray enhancements, but no characters to play them on.
Two cards that really like Hur, but no Hur
I got a ton of nice white enhancements, but only one character for them.
I pulled a SoG, but couldn't put it in...Sad...

I thought I had... Odd, yeah she's nice, but I would rather have say like KoT I fear that even with Political Bribes backing her up she'l get run over by numbers.

Yeah, I really like the band you got, especially because you can steal opponents characters.

Lost Soul x 7

Artifacts:

Holy of Holies (PS)
King's Sword (C/D)
Miraculous Handkerchiefs
Ram's Horn (PS)
Tables of the Law (G/H)

Red Site:

Dangerous Way

Blue Enhancements:

Answer to Prayer
Pillar of Truth
Sarah's Beauty

Gold Enhancements:

Angel Food (Essen95 promo)
Peace

Green Enhancement:

Trust in the Lord

Purple Enhancements:

Asa's Good Reign
Prophecy of Eldad & Medad

Red:

Hushai

Sound the Alarm (C/D)

Silver:

Captain of the Host (WA)
Cherubim (5/5)

Witnesses to Creation

Teal:

Amariah the High Priest

Perpetual Priesthood
Phineas' Spear

White:

Jochebed

Moses and Elders

Multi-Color Enhancements:

Burning Censer (FooF)
Passover & Unleavened Bread
Fountains of Living Water
Shield of Faith (UN)

Black Character:

Bear (C/D)

Brown:

Angry Mob

Seeds of Rebellion

Crimson:

Breaking Through
Going to their Deaths
Nebuchadnezzar's Pride
Peter's Lie
Quarreling

Gold:

King Basha
King Elah
Taskmaster (C/D)

Building Egypt

Gray Characters:

Abihu (C/D)
Emperor Nero

Orange Enhancements:

Built on Sand
Destructive Sin
Poison of Dragons (PS)

Pale Green:

Controlling Demon
Prince of this World (WA)

Achan's Sin
Human Wisdom

There are several "useless" cards but the fact that Nero and Prince of this World are in the same defense, makes it pretty good.  Captain is always a plus too!  There are a ton of Artifacts, but they can be used to battle whatever the opponent has.

Some poor soul could randomly generate a ton of decks, and then put them into RTS and then e-mail the decks to a tournament host, and then that host could go from there!  Of course I could be that poor soul if I have some reason to do that! 

ok, I did some work in Excel and I got my little program working.  I'll upload it as soon as possible.

I already have my own system in Excel set up, I can generate a deck in seconds.  Now of course putting it into RTS or any other program will take a little longer!

The only problem I forsee with the RTS system, is that you would actually have to e-mail each player a deck before they play, and dare I say it, they could modify the deck before they play with it.  So there would have to be a way to play a deck that can't be modified or a new system would have to be created to keep people from cheating!

If people want to cheat, feel free. They just sinned, and lost self respect. Nothing off my back. People can cheat in normal games as well. It is easy to draw 2 cards and make it look like 1. It is all a trust based system.

If people want to cheat, feel free. They just sinned, and lost self respect. Nothing off my back. People can cheat in normal games as well. It is easy to draw 2 cards and make it look like 1. It is all a trust based system.

Thus why I love Urim and Thummin, I know exactly how many and what cards you have, So if you do draw an extra I can usually tell.

When I get around to making this a tournament, hopefully sometime after finals, and probably after Christmas, I will let everyone know. I will have no way to ensure that people didn't cheat, which is why the prize won't be anything too huge or valuable (1 card isn't going to kill me, even if it is a nice promo/UR). I mostly just wanted to provide a method of celebrating randomness through Redemption.