Cactus Game Design Message Boards

The game has definitely gotten to the point where LS selection is a critical part of the deck building process. Up until Cloud of Witnesses, there were very few strategy variations of Lost Soul selection (the main ones being the inclusion of Lost Souls, and/or the inclusion of the Negate LS). 

At this point, there are legitimately 13 different Lost Souls that I pretty much always at least consider for my T1 decks.

Prosperity, Dull, Lawless, Humble, Hunter, Imitate, Forsaken, Darkness, Exiles, Wanderer, Punisher, Awake, Covet
(Vindicated is another LS I haven't used much myself, but have seen other people use effectively.)

Some are easy to cut for some decks (i.e. Imitate won't go in an OT soul line-up and Covet wouldn't be used if I have more than one NT soul), but the right LS selection is a critical aspect of competitive decks these days.

Prosperity, Dull, Lawless, Humble, Exchanger, Imitate, Forsaken, Darkness, Exiles, Wanderer, Punisher, Awake, Covet
(Vindicated is another LS I haven't used much myself, but have seen other people use effectively.)

What’s the difference between Exchanger and Wanderer?

 

A 50 card deck with three souls has the same draw potential as a 54 card deck with seven.

By "draw potential", I assume you mean "the same number of non-LS cards" - 47, as it were.  Since LS replace themselves, I've always ignored them from a deck size standpoint.  A 50 card deck w/ Hopper is a 42 card deck.

But deck size is irrelevant.  What is extremely relevant is the variation that would be created if you could make a deck that only ran 3 LS cards.  If the 5-LS-in-1 comes up early in the game, then your opponent gets to make rescues.  If it's at the bottom of your deck, they most likely don't.  It's so swingy, and would definitely not be fun to play against. 

And if you are going to propose that this 5-LS-in-1 card start on the top of your deck by game rule...  Well, at that point you might as well just propose that all LS be in a separate deck.

Keith Bartram suggested that winning a battle challenge should create a lost soul token in the Land of Bondage of the loser of the battle challenge.  Not only would this create more strategy when it comes to accepting battle challenges, but would also potentially stop extensive soul-droughts.