You Vs. Your Deck: Deck Numbers

Freeing People from the Way of the 60

When one comes from another card game to play Universus, they usually have the same attitude towards deck building in this game that many other games have. Generally, the closer your deck size is to the minimum required number, the more efficient it will be, but we play a game where you see a LOT more cards per turn than in other games. There is a popular card game out there that has banned a card because it simply draws you 2 cards. In a game where you only draw a single card on your turn, that is a significant amount of card advantage. In a game where you can draw 5-7 cards just for your turn starting, a single card that draws you cards generally isn't going to be a staple. People aren't running all over each other to play Vicious because he has access to an attack that is somewhat Greed-ish.

A similar line of thought can be applied to many facets of deck building. Just because a lot of card games have drilled it in to your head that your deck needs to strictly be the minimum size so that you can see your combos and important cards, does not mean that you need to be forced in to a 59 card deck in Universus! I'm not saying that every deck needs to be some 83 card tank, but you can find a good fit for your deck. If your deck wants to do exactly the same thing every single game, then sure, you should hang out around 59 cards, but you still don't NEED to be exactly 59 cards. Maybe you find that you are checking attacks just a bit too often and would like to fix it without removing any, a simple fix would be to just add 1 to 2 foundations and then trying out the deck like that and seeing how it runs. A lot of decks shouldn't need to see exactly the same few cards every game, but can spread out a viable win condition across multiple cards and strategies, so they don't need to be confined to 59 cards. I tend to feel comfortable with decks around the 63-68 size, maybe with a bit of extra card draw in there.

Deck blueprints in Universus aren't usually based exactly on the numbers of each card, but moreso ratios. It's not fair to say that a given deck should stick to 17-20 attacks, due to its size the deck may find 21 attacks to be a bit low, but where it wants to stay. It may take a bit more math than normal, but it's good to look at your deck in ratios once in a while and see where you really feel comfortable. Generally it's easy to just split it in to three sections of Attacks/Foundations/Misc and to go from there. A lot of decks enjoy their attack numbers hanging out around the 30% or so area, and their foundations at hopefully 50%+ or so, but these numbers aren't incredibly strict.

An important thing to learn to identify is when you should give in to adding cards to the deck, as opposed to replacing them. You can always replace cards in your deck and stay at 59 cards permanently, but there are just times where the decision the add a couple of cards to your deck is much more beneficial to your deck. If you find that your win condition isn't as secure as you had hoped, you are going to need to add something to protect you when you need it most, but that doesn't need to replace something that has already been working for you. Consider if you are looking at adding something to your deck that you feel you'll find need for in 70% of games, and the only things you would consider removing are cards that you find useful more often than that, you should first consider simply adding a couple copies of it to your deck, giving it a few test runs, and then seeing how it turns out.

You may also be wondering, how many copies of a card should I have in my deck? The answer comes down to how often you want to see the card.

4x copies is ideal if you want to see a card every single game, hopefully multiple copies.

3x copies of a card is for when you want to see a card every game. Sometimes I will run a unique card at 3 copies when I really want to make sure that I get it out.

2x copies is good for when you want to see a card hit the field once a set. This might be when a card works as a strong, but costly defensive piece, or maybe an attack that is good as a threat but not one you wish to rely on.

1x copies is for something that you can live without seeing every game, but is still good to include. This can be a solid unique foundation or asset that isn't essential for your game plan, or maybe a card that can come out of nowhere to save your life in a pinch, or even a card that won't win your deck the game on its own but is useful to have to throw off your opponent, or to beat certain strategies.

It is also important for your sideboard to follow a similar thought. You could have an attack card that is a 1x in your mainboard, and then 2 additional copies in the sideboard for when you're fighting an opponent that particularly loses to it. Perhaps you have a copy or two of something to protect your win condition in the main deck, and more copies of it in your sideboard for when you feel it might come up consistently. You could also have a sneaky second win condition in your sideboard, too! If you win game 1 with a strong multiple attack and your opponent sides in a set of multiple hate, you could swap out your game plan to being a different strategy that still works with other cards in your deck.

If you run through this method on your deck and notice that you would like an extra copy of a card here or there for the sake of consistency, don't fret about it. Just try out your deck with a couple extra cards and see how it runs. If you want to add another copy of an attack to your deck, maybe try adding two foundations with it as well to keep your ratios the same, and your deck might run better than if you just added the 1 copy, or even if you replaced it and stayed at the same number.

I hope that this article has at least convinced some people to look at changing their deck sizes, because I see far too many people sticking to exactly 59 cards, and refusing to go any higher. Sometimes a little nerd math is all you need to change your line of thought, or maybe ignoring some math is what you need to stay with your mindset permanently!