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Hi There,
I just discovered Redemption when I was looking for something to fill the excitement of hockey cards, but with something of eternal value.  I purchased the starter gift set with I and J decks.  My two boys, 11 and 8, read the rules and have figured out the basics, I believe.  However, after some time, they both agreed that the J deck was inferior to the I deck and that my son with the I deck had an advantage over his brother.  Is this true?  Could someone help us understand the strengths and weaknesses by comparing cards from each deck?

Secondly, my boys are earning Redemption cards from the booster packs for completing many days of school work and music lessons done with a good attitude. My younger son picked out "Hunger" but when I saw it, the skull seemed a little tense for his sweet 8 years so I put it back ...not realizing until much later, that my older son selected it as his reward.  What's a mom to do. I have now come to grips with the fact that there are skulls on a lot of cards so we're past that now.  My younger son is not super happy as he has realized that Hunger is a very powerful card.  Any advice as to what kind of card I can pull to even up the score?  Or is this not as amazing as we think at this point?

Next, my older son also ended up with Haman's Plot.  It says to "rip up" the card after use which of course we are pretty sad to do and are not likely to do (well, my younger sad is not sad to watch him remove it from his deck).  To help keep the peace, could someone suggest how this card may be dealt with?  My oldest would like to use it "once per game" but my recommendation is to use it once in a lifetime and keep it for show.  Of course, I am not an expert and your opinions will definitely carry more weight in these matters.

The King's booster pack:  how advanced is it?  How much experience should they have before checking that one out.

We are from Canada and parcel pick across the border as we did for our original gift packs is no longer an option.  Anyone else know a way to obtain these booster packs that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to ship to Canada?  Has anyone just used a simple envelope without issue or bending?  It could be a loooong stay at home these days so I like the idea of keeping them motivated with their work and are having to really spread out giving out these cards.

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Kathy

Hey Kathy.
Ironically, the J deck actually is the preferred choice for players when they have to choose between the two. I personally find that the J deck is a good deal stronger but the I deck can keep stay competitive. If you want I could break down the I and J decks strengths and weaknesses in a more detailed way, but both decks are made with the same card strategies. Some of the key cards for both offenses are negates and recurring cards from the discard pile. If an opponent plays a card, let's say Hunger for example, the other play may play a negate which will mean Hunger's (the evil enhancement) ability no longer works.

I started playing at a very young age and started playing very competitively when I was 13. I know the evil characters have dragon icons and the evil enhancements have skulls, but the basis of the game are for heroes (cross icons) to use their good enhancements (Bible icons) to defeat the evil characters and their evil enhancements. The amount of Biblical knowledge, the community, and just how amazing the game is and what it stands for is so much more important, in my opinion, than the skull icon. As a parent you should do what you think is best for your children, I just wanted to give my opinion as an avid player since I was a child and I have been playing for 20 years. I can personally attest to the relationships, learning more of the Bible, and the amount of fun I have had playing this game.

If you decide to continue to let your boys play Redemption, I would look to buy them different packs from newer sets that have a lot of amazing and very strong cards that allow for instant upgrades to their deck. I will say that the last fewer packs are more advanced for newer players but any questions they have you can feel free to message me through here, or just ask on the forum. We are a very active community and questions are usually answered quickly.

I wouldn't be too worried about Hunger, there are plenty of cards that are much stronger or Hunger can simply be negated and it no longer works. The Watchman also talked about Haman's Plot, no one really rips that card while playing, I have even told opponent's they don't have to rip it for smaller level tournaments either, just to make sure they take their card out of their sleeve for the remainder of the tournament. Haman's Plot is a very strong card and it is the only one of it's kind. I use yourturngames.biz for all of my card needs. They could scroll through that site and pick cards out. New common cards that are very strong are only .75 cents on that website and I know they also offer a subscription so that helps as well. Hopefully this post and The Watchmen's answered some questions for you. I hope to meet your sons one day at a Nationals tournament!

Hi All!
Thank you all for your amazing replies!  What a wonderfully welcoming community!

Derek, I have emailed you at the email address provided at yourturngames but it keeps getting sent back saying there is a virus. Any thoughts?

Hi Kathy,

also from my side a late but very warm welcome with your kids to Redemption. I also already enjoyed playing starters with my daughters (which was a little bit more difficult since we're from Germany and their english experience was not such advanced back then [meanwhile they lost interest a bit in that game ]).

My suggestion would be to go for the newer expansions of the latest sets (as already adviced) but maybe also provide both of them the "opposite" deck from the same starter set (so obtaining a 2nd starter set maybe as a Christmas gift or similar so that both own the I and the J version). This would allow them either to play the exact same deck against each other or (even better) to build their own version of a deck out of the combination of I and J. With the cards of newer expansions they can then upgrade their individual builds and ideas.
Since I own quite several starters which were obtained for donation I checked shipping costs to Canada. Do not know what the I+J starter costs in Canada maybe it would not exceed shipping costs from Germany - but I could send starters in a big letter envelope to you. For more details feel free to contact me directly here via PM if you are interested.