I wish I had noticed this before I posted my question about new starters. I do have some reaction to the thoughts here though.
There will always be a need for beginner decks. Everyone has to start someplace. I have 2 dislikes of the I/J starters, one is that they are 5 years old and the second is that they aren't mono brigade. Other than that, there isn't really anything wrong with I/J in my opinion.
I think it would be ideal to release new starters every 4 years so that the new abilities and such can be incorporated. That being said, it is also very hard to determine how many decks to print because while you don't want to print too many, you also don't want to run out because then new players wouldn't have a quick and easy base from which to start.
I feel like there aren't enough players to make official decks that are more competitive in a cost effective way. There are so many themes, which ones would Cactus choose? What does Cactus do for the players who prefer themes which don't get picked?
Maybe a better idea would be to release a new set that is sold by theme. So a new set might have 10-20 themed packs of 7-10 cards each. Each pack would have 3-4 characters and enhancements and then 1-2 other cards. As with the starters, I think something like this every 4 years would be great.
This leads me to my grand plan for Redemption (since I'm an expert after not playing for almost 10 years)
Sean's Grand Plan
Year 1, print 2 starter decks, 50 cards each, sold together for $12.00. Each deck has 1 new special ability Lost Soul and a reprint of an old special ability Lost Soul iff it was given errata (Lost Souls never printed outside starter decks). Each deck has one 2 color Hero and one 2 color Evil Character. Each deck has 1 card for each new 'feature' since the last starter (i.e. Star Cards). New brigades never introduced in a starter. If a new brigade is introduced it is always included the subsequent starter.
Year 2, print large expansion of close to 200 cards to be sold in booster packs of 10 cards each for $6.00. Uses C/UC/R/UR format.
Year 3, print 15 themed sets of 8 cards each. Sold for $6.00 per set. Sold in strategic pairs for $11.00 after 6 months.
Year 4, print small expansion of about 100 cards to be sold in tins/boxes of 4 new common cards, 1 new rare card, 1 booster from the large expansion from 2 years ago and any special shenanigans. Sold for $12.00. A major focus of this year would be to reprint cards that have errata so that the correct wording can be present for easy game play.
Year 5 begins the repeat process
Getting back to strictly starters, we should skip the letter K and release the LMNO 5th Generation deluxe starter set that has 4 decks, 50 cards each.
Sorry for the long post but I had fun with it.
Sean
