Hey everyone,
I wanted to go into a little more detail as far how I currently run my playgroup. If you will please read my articles on Land of Redemption, so I don't have to go into extreme detail here (
Part 1 &
Part 2).
So when a player is ready to take the step to become a "full time player" instead of just playing the I/J decks, I want to reward them by giving them cards. When this decision is made, I (like I said in my article) do push for a player to purchase the I/J starter decks that they have been practicing with, and that would allow them to have a nice "base" of cards as well as getting "better" cards from me as well. So before I give a player any cards, I had to determine how I would give them away and what to do to possibly protect myself from giving away too many "high priced cards." So
here is the "Tier list" that I personally use. Again, feel free to adjust those based on your haves.
So when I give cards to the new "full time players" I do this in two different forms: Those who decided to purchase the I/J decks and those who didn't.
For the ones who didn't purchase the I/J decks I give them:
* 45 - tier 1 cards, 4 - tier 2 cards & 1 - tier 3 card
* Player must also pick 7 Lost Souls (2 with abilities and 5 without), 8 of each: Hero, Good Enhancement, Evil Character & Evil Enhancement (all must be single color) and then 11 other cards of their choice.
For the ones that did purchase the I/J decks I give them
* 40 - tier 1 cards, 7 - tier 2 cards & 3 - tier 3 cards
* Player must pick 5 Lost Souls (with abilities), 8 of each: Hero, Good Enhancement, Evil Character & Evil Enhancement (no longer required to be single colored) and then 13 other cards of their choice.
*Note: The reason I have them pick that many Heroes, Evil Characters, etc. is to have a player continue to have a "balanced deck." While most "competitive" players don't play a truly balanced deck, I feel it is the best way for newer players to learn and not get frustrated by not having what they want when they want. If a player has 7 of each of these in their deck: Dominants, Lost Souls, Heroes, Good Enhancements, Evil Characters and Evil Enhancements, that leaves them with 8 "utility" cards. If you move the four (specific picks) to 8 (like they get) they still get 4 "utility" cards which is a large step up from the I/J decks.*
*Note: What I have done is given each tier a color. I have then put every card eligible to be picked within a 3 ring binder and slid a colored paper into the bottom left hand corner of the card sleeves so players can see very quickly and simply what tier each card is.*
Once a player has a deck built they now get to start playing my "level decks" to earn more cards and to earn a new "level."
A list of all of my current decks is
here. Players will play the first 4 decks in order. So this allows them to "move up a level" when they beat one of the decks. Once they have beaten all 4 of those decks, they are now officially a "level 4 player" and are ready to be introduced to different styles of decks. These decks are an "introduction" to the different styles of play within Redemption. These decks are built to focus on one aspect (and generally only that aspect). So these decks are not made to be extremely competitive, but rather to showcase that style, and then let players pick their favorite play styles and mix and match from there. So again, these decks are made to introduce the style/type rather than be a high tournament level deck. Please let me know if there are changes you would make to these decks to make them more "efficient." I really only want most of these to be on a Local/District level so that players can beat most of them (if not all) without a ton of difficulty.
Since I typically have 12 "introduction" decks, I've always had the player role a 12 sided dice and they play the deck they rolled. This gives it a random aspect and they don't know what is coming. This helps them get ready for tournaments as they don't know what each player will be playing and they have to learn to adjust during each game.
