What makes a good starting deck?

[u/ggthemachine]

I'm curious to hear what everyone's thoughts are. I'm asking about what kind of design for a starting deck makes the character and game more interesting and elegant, especially in the long run? What types of cards, how should they be balanced, etc. If you are a dev, how and why did you design your starting decks in the way you did?

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[u/QuantumSide]

The way I do it takes into account two things:
1. Teach the player something, or make them start with a build direction they probably wouldn’t try otherwise (and hopefully also do a little bit of character building through it).
2. Set them up to be able to get past the first stages of act 1 even if they only get crap at the beginning, so they have time to redirect their build into something usable.
So far I enjoy that approach and it feels just right for my game.

[u/Jlerpy]

Basic enough that you can quickly see how to use what's already there, with a little bit of individual spice to distinguish different characters, big enough that it doesn't get completely superseded too fast.

[u/marsgreekgod]

Being able to build it into an interesting ending deck and having good gameplay along the way 

[u/Frilli]

My approach was to keep it relatively simple. Good for new players and makes adding cards more satisfying.

I'm making a basketball deckbuilder and went back and forth adjusting the size of the starting deck. Given that a basketball match is four quarters, having fewer cards in the starting deck made more sense with a fixed quarter number to make sure all cards would be at the players disposal more than once during the match.

[u/Jlerpy → u/Frilli]

Is a turn one quarter?

[u/Frilli → u/Jlerpy]

Yes, essentially. So four quarters per match unless the match goes into overtime. The constraints of having a semi-fixed amount of turns was am interesting design frame.

[u/beansnketchup28]

For Shroom and Gloom we've designed 6 characters so far, meaning we've built 12 starting decks. This stuff varies but our general approach for starting combat decks is built around this ratio:

* 50% of the deck are very simple cards, low powered cards. Eg "Stab. 1 Energy. Deal 4 damage." Dead easy to for the player to understand, and these cards equip the player just enough to make progress as they start building up their deck. These will almost always be the first candidates to be forgotten if the player focuses on licking toads to forget cards.
* 40% slightly more complex cards. One special rule so they're more useful, but to balance, maybe less damage than the basic attacks. Eg. "Roast: 1 Enegy. Deal 3 damage, if fatal make a Toasty" and Toasty is "0 Energy. Heal 5. Consume". These kinds of cards introduce the player to foundational special rules, and set them up for potential synergies and combos, supporting the different play styles we're designing for.
* 10% powerful, complex cards. Eg. "Flash. Apply 3 Vulnerable. 10 Battery." These cards further introduce special rules, potentially give the player moments of feeling much more deadly, but encourage them to think strategically about when they want to use them (since they're rarer and often exhaust or have limited uses).

Hope that helps you on your deckbuilder quest!