Deck Building Tips

The following was captured from a very old thread in recs.games.trading-cards.misc. I don't know if any of these email addresses are still valid or if any of the people herein still play the game.

Subject: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: savage@nntp.best.com (John and Denise Castellucci)
Date: 1996/11/26

I am a beginner to Guardians, and I was wondering if anyone could clue me into basic deck ratios?

How many total cards? Shields? Terrain? Spells? Critterz? Others?


Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: darkiczel@aol.com
Date: 1996/11/27

savage
Here's my generic recipe for a deck
- 2 shields
- 2 standard bearer's
- 8 terrains
- 1 Guardian
- 2 15.5 ounce cans fancy red kidney beans, drained
- 3 strongholds
- 3 dispel magics
- 4 medium/large onions(divided use)
- Almost always 1 or 2 curse fo the Betrayed's
- 15 maximum total magic item's and spells(15 if very high, depends on the deck)
- Champs, if you got enough magic items
- Creatures to fill up the rest to get around 60-65 cards
- 3 lbs. of ground meat
make 11 pints
- Darkiczel



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: chrisjhyde@aol.com
Date: 1996/11/28

Do you really use that few shields? I generally use about 8 plus two standard bearers and a shield terrain card (if I have one that matches) in a deck of about 70-80 cards.

Chris



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: crednose@aol.com
Date: 1996/11/28

I use at least 10% shields, 8-9% land, 50-60% creatures, and the rest spells and magic items. My decks usually have between 60 and 90 cards.

C Rednose



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: darkiczel@aol.com
Date: 1996/11/28

Chris

Yes, yes. 6 shields + two standards. If I played with 70-80 cards I would use 3 + 2 and nine terrains, but a mid 60 card deck seems to work the best. I depends on the average vitality creatures you have. If you have a lot of small creatures you don't need as many shields, but then I play with about 70 cards, so I still play with 6+2. I actually have one deck that has 8 + 2 shields for about 62 cards, but that's because I have a lot of large vitaliity creautures in there

- DarkIczel



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: darkiczel@aol.com
Date: 1996/11/29

Lawyers

How far exactly is a 3 from a 7 on the keyboard? These typoes are becoming quite pitiful.

- DarkIczel



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: rk1066@aol.com
Date: 1996/12/01

I don't know if starter decks are optimized for play(I give the creators credit for some thought on this matter) but:

9 shields/56 playing cards = 16% shields(2 sig figs)
7 terrain/56 playing cards = 13%(12.5 rounded)

You can also estimate the shields needed by calculating the total deck vitality divided by 30. I have done this recently and it seems to work pretty well.

I stress shield numbers because you can't do anything in the normal game without them. Yet, too many shields may mean you sacrifice elsewhere.



Subject: Re: [GD] Basic Deck Ratios?
From: Paul Steiner
Date: 1996/12/01

darkiczel@aol.com wrote:
(See above.)

Serves up to 4. Serve cold. Flavor with salt and pepper. Also after making the deck add 5 more normal shields.

Paul

The sharpest blade does not win the duel but neither can you be victorious with mere conviction in your hands.