Cactus Game Design Message Boards

1) Is drawing a lot of cards necessarily a good thing? I know that drawing cards = LS = giving your opponent the chance to advance to win condition, but should I be aiming for intangible concepts like "card advantage"? (I know in Yugioh, card advantage is a pretty big thing). If not, what's that one intangible thing I should be going for?

2) Is the Lackey a seamless, easy-to-use simulator, or is it very complex and takes a curve to learn?

3) Is playing a lot of heroes that negate other heroes necessarily a good thing? Are there heroes/evils that have effects as flexible as "negate select hero / evil" or do they all specify brigade?

4) Anyone got links to Nats 2017 top 4 decklists? Maybe I'm being ignorant but can't seem to find them.

5) Any of you in the South Florida area? I see the member pins and the player list with locations but it isn't specific enough. I'm near West Palm Beach.

6) Off-topic: Any of you have competitive play history with other card games? Magic, yugioh, etc. - what's your stories with those games and do you think it's helped you succeed with Redemption?

1. Yes. Concepts like card advantage are not often mentioned given that in most card games having 1-2 more cards in hand than your opponent can be a big deal while due to the way Redemption works you can't determine advantage purely by number of cards in hand. In Redemption card advantage and board advantage are pretty much the same thing thanks to the lack of a resource system. Getting cards out of your deck and onto the table is a very good thing. The deck that took 1st and 2nd at Nats this year derives a large part of it's strength from being able to draw all its cards and put an entire deck's worth of power onto the board in the first couple turns. Even Lost Souls are good to have out these days since they have such useful abilities and there is enough soul gen you're unlikely to experience drought in constructed play. Tl;dr: drawing cards is very very good.

2. It is a table simulator, not a Redemption simulator. It doesn't actually do any game related things for you besides providing cards, locations, and buttons to move cards around. It can look daunting the first time you open it up and try to play but once you adjust to the interface it is very playable. I don't think it takes too long to learn especially if you have someone to help you (If you want I may be to able to find a time to do this).

3. The strategy of negating "everything" and going for a numbers win is one of the oldest and most powerful strategies in Redemption. Some recent cards have given significant counters to it though (Specifically the "Humble" Lost Soul). There are lots of cards in the game that specific things like "Negate and discard the last enhancement used by opponent" or something to that effect. Most enhancements played today can either be categorized as "battle winners", "negates", or both. The former have abilities that remove opposing characters from battle and the latter being the flexible negates you are asking about. Modern Redemption cards very very rarely limit their targets by things like brigade.

4. Check the National Tournament Winners subforum for Top 3 decklists from any category. The website landofredemption.com usually compiles Nats decks but I don't know if it has been updated with 2017 decks. I will note if you are looking for lists to get an idea of what modern decks look like, the top 2 decks from this year's T1-2p aren't "normal" decks. For standard deck building info like "How many Heroes should I have?" and "What should my character/enhancement/other balance look like?" I'd advise looking at Josiah's 3rd place deck and at decks from the past year or two on http://landofredemption.com/?page_id=3049.

5. Not from Florida but I know there are a few active boards members that are. Not sure which area of Florida though.

6. I have played several online card games, some more competitively than others, and follow Magic (Don't actually play myself since I don't have the budget for two paper card games). I can definitely say there are principles that apply to all card games (and most strategy games in general even outside of the card world) and I frequently find myself applying things I've learned in one card game to similar circumstances in another.

One more thing, this is a great thread with great questions but I think it fits more in the general discussion forum than the rules and errata forum. Some people don't check the ruling boards as often as general discussion so you're likely to get more replies in general discussion than here.

I'm in Gainesville, FL and host monthly tournaments in my area and host as far south as Tampa. Whiteandgold7 on the forum also hosts tournaments in the Clermont area. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll add you to the Florida playgroup list for notifications of upcoming tourneys. I know West Palm is a bit of a haul to central and north FL but if you're willing to make the drive I'm sure you'll have a good time! Disciple_Drew on the forums lives in or around your area (possibly Broward county) but he's rarely on the forums.

I actually was set to host a local tourney in Inverness (Citrus county) this past Saturday but Irma but a damper on that. So I'll reschedule the tourney for either the 23rd or 30th of this month in Inverness.

1) It is true that you could pull out more Lost Souls*.  However, drawing more cards in your decks give you more options for battle, for attacks, limiting your opponent, and/or creating more lost souls for you to go for. I think the intangible thing that you are going for is creating more options for you than for your opponent.
    * They have actually created some great lost souls that help you in battle and more options in the game state.  So lost souls is not always a bad thing either if you have the right ones.

2) There is a bit of a curve*, but I would say that, overall, it is easy to use.  I echo other's sentiments in your other thread that it doesn't enforce rules. 
    * In my opinion, most everything has some degree of curve and I think Lackey is on the easier side compared to other online games.

3) Off the top of my head, I don't know of any cards that narrow down a negate to specific cards. If there is one, it wouldn't see play because it limits your options.  Your opponent may not even have the card that you are targeting in their deck, so that limited negate would be a "dead" card in your deck.  As for the generic negate like "Moses" from Cloud of Witnesses set, it is a good thing if you plan the rest of your deck to have him on the table.  If you don't plan for his negate and put him in your deck, then you have a "dead" card in your deck.
   "Dead" = a card that does not add value in most circumstances.  It clogs your deck or hand because it is not an option for you.

4) Like others have said, there is a thread on this Message Board specifically dedicated to this.

5) I'm not but there are some Floridians here.  I hope all of you are okay.

6) I've played other CCGs, but I've not gone to any of their tournaments.  Redemption introduced me to the genre, and I've invested most of my time, travel, & resources to it.  With that said, I assume that techniques & strategy would be similar enough to contribute to crossover success.

Welcome to the Boards and Game of Redemption!

Oh...and I'm going to attempt to merge the topics together in one thread, so you have all your answers together.

Thanks for the recommendation, but I don't have any idea who those people are.

Hey guys, thanks Tim for reaching out. Hello yayapinata, I'm Jonathan. My brother Andrew (disciple_drew) currently lives in Coconut Creek with his wife. We use to live in Pompano Beach, I moved to Orlando in 2015, but am currently in Winter Garden, FL now. We played MTG in high school and quit playing years later.