HOLDER'S HEROES

Redemption is a game that is rich in depth and strategy, but like nearly all card games, a deck of cards will carry with it an element of chance. One way to make sure a deck makes the best use of its strategy is by minimizing the impact that chance has on how the deck is played. There are many ways to do this, and today we are going to look at the most basic way to maximize effect by minimizing chance: by controlling the size and makeup of your deck.

Follow up:

The first thing we’re going to look at is the set of rules that governs how Type I decks are built. At one extreme end, only 1 of each Dominant and multi-color card is allowed in a deck, regardless of its size. At the other end, a deck is required to have 7 Lost Souls in the first 50 cards, and 1 Lost Soul for every 7 beyond that. Also, as a general rule, you are allowed to have 3 of the same card without a special ability in a deck, and 1 of each card with a special ability per 50 cards in your deck.

Starting with the 1 per 50 rule, you see that for every 50 cards, you can keep repeating copies of the same cards no matter how big your deck is. However, if you incorporate cards without special abilities, the maximum of 3 gives you an artificial maximum of 150 cards, beyond which you will not be able to duplicate any more cards without special abilities, even while you continue to duplicate the ones that have them.

Next to consider is the rule of 1 Dominant or multi-color card per deck. What this means is that the larger your deck, the lower your odds of drawing these cards. If you have 7 Dominants in a 56-card deck, your chance of drawing any one of them at any particular time is about 12.5%. In a 63-card deck with the same number, your chances drop to just over 11%. In a 105-card deck, those chances drop even further, to 6.67%. Since Dominants can be played at any time, and their effects can have a dramatic effect on the game, lowering your chances of pulling them out of your deck is bad news. Worse still, because the ratio of Lost Souls stays about the same regardless of deck size, your chances of drawing a Lost Soul and leaving yourself open to attack stay the same (technically, there is a tiny increase as your deck size grows larger), while your chances of drawing a Dominant continue to drop.

Our last consideration is the 1-per-7 rule for Lost Souls. What this means is that, beyond the original 7 Lost Souls in your first 50 cards, you can add up to 6 more cards, and then your 7th card must be a Lost Soul before proceeding. Many players take advantage of this by adding the maximum amount of cards that do not require them to add more Lost Souls. This allows the dual benefit of having more cards available and reducing the odds of drawing a Lost Soul. For example, having 7 Lost Souls in a 50-card deck provides a 14% chance of drawing one of your Lost Souls. Increase the count to 56, and the odds drop to 12.5%, because you added 6 more cards but no more Lost Souls. However, the very next card must be a Lost Soul, which puts you back at 14%. So you can see that every card you can add, without adding Lost Souls, gives you a slight edge over chance.

What does this mean for deck size? 105-card decks used to be somewhat common among advanced players, because the reduced availability of the Dominants was balanced by their ability to have two copies of many powerful cards. But then and now, it is far more common to have the absolute minimum of 50, or to have a +6 size of 56 cards, or 63, and so on. 56-card decks are very effective, 63 cards can be moderately powerful, and a 70-card deck is difficult to pull off against smaller decks. Go beyond 70 and you’re asking for trouble.

To sum up, one of the most basic keys to a winning deck is to be mindful of how large your deck becomes and making sure you can get to the cards you need.