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So it has been almost 9 years since I last played...and even then I did not have a huge set of cards.  Since then, I have gotten rid of those, and well now my two oldest kids would like to start playing.  So I am looking for a good economical jump in point.   I understand the older cards are pretty much null now since the newer cards have trumped them some.  So I was wondering which "set" would be good to focus on? And if there were any assorted collections or single sets that I could get without my wallet screaming.

With what I was graciously told, being that the Early Church and Cloud of Witnesses and upcoming Revelation set(s) are the ones to pursue, does anyone know where I might purchase packs at a reasonable price?

Do you happen to know if any of those "sets" or cards are being sold by anyone in a bulk format?  I hate to drop money on multiple packs not necessarily knowing what I will get. 

Thanks!  I may do 12 from Early Church and 12 packs from cloud of witnesses, plus getting the starter set.  Just a question...with three of us in the house...what would be a good 3rd option for a starter set?  Maybe purchase one from Tribes?   Sorry I hope these questions do not seem to silly, but I am trying to figure out what to a lot for getting us going.

Yeah sorry I meant three lions...sorry!   Also, noticed a pack on there titled, "The Persecuted Church"?  Is that one included in any of the newer packs?

UPDATE: Okay checked out the "deck builders section", so MANY choices...LOL

I posted this elsewhere, but wanted to put it here to give you a rundown of all the newer sets:

Welcome back.  Here is my personal opinion on the packs.  Unless you can find them at a great discount, there is no longer much of a point to purchase the "foil packs" like kings with the exception of Priests.  All of the cards from those sets are included in the "boxes" so the cards you want from the foil packs are already included in these loaded boxes.  As far as the boxes go, I'd put them in this order:

Early Church
Cloud of Witnesses
TxP or Disciples
Persecuted Church

Since you are beginning anew, and stopped at Kings, I highly recommend Early Church.  This allows you to get the foundation of the new clay sets and start working on several strong defense options.  It also acquires you the "tin" cards which are the Rock of Ages and Faith of our Fathers sets which include the cornerstones to many of the strategies today, Including Genesis Heroes, Philistines, Luke/John N.T. offense, N.T. Women, Evil Kings of Israel, and many more.  Plus it gets you cards from the Kings set which is probably the strongest foil pack.

Going to Cloud of Witnesses:  The cloud of Witnesses cards that are included (4 cards: 1R/UR, 3 C) are the strongest cards in the game (for now), and are a must have for a national winning deck.  The other cards that are included are OK.  They are a nice representation of the game as they include 1 Warriors, 3 Angel Wars, 3 Kings, 2 Patriarchs & 2 Apostles, but most are commons or uncommons, so not a whole lot of stopping power.

TxP and Disciples are grouped together for me because you need to pick which decks you want to run.  TxP does tend to stay one step ahead for me as it contains the Grapes of Wrath and Mayhem dominants, but if you are looking to run Disciple or Sadducee decks, then you REALLY need to get these packs.  Both are loaded with URs from Apostles and Patriarchs, so you will get some of the "chase" cards from when you were playing before.  It is the best way to quickly get cards like Guardian of Your Souls (even though a better one is coming), Unholy Writ, even Leviathan.  Plus if you get the TxP packs, you will get a warriors R or UR.

Persecuted Church is on the bottom for me, but that is not because the cards from that set are bad, but because everything else is.  Without having the Early Church cards, most of the offensive cards in this pack can't stand up alone, you need the missionaries from the Early Church packs to give them a major boost (with the exception of the Philippi church).  The defense has some extremely strong Romans, but if you don't run those, you won't miss most of what else is there.  Don't get me wrong there are again some very strong cards, but when you only open 4 cards (like Cloud of Witnesses) and the other 11 cards are terrible it doesn't make it worth it and I stopped opening these packs just a few months after release and decided to continue to open Early Church and trade for the ones I needed.  Maybe I've had bad luck with the packs, but I've opened 4-5 boxes of this set and maybe a dozen of the packs I was happy with more than just the Persecuted Church cards.


Also, if you decide to acquire "older" cards to at least create cheaper starter decks for new players until you can acquire more of the new cards please let me know.  I'd be glad to hook you up with those on the cheap side!

No unfortunately, I am not.  We do homeschool the kids, but there is a convention in Evansville, IN that we usually go to during the summer to get the  stuff we need.  Also, I have a lot of church stuff that I usually take care of on the weekends, since I am bi-vocational, I work 30 hours a week at Lowes while pastoring and preaching in between that and family responsibilities.   Would love to meet you all sometime though!