Hello Condemned! The weekend is here, let’s talk draft again. This week, we’re talking about balance. But not in the way you might think!

At the launch events for The Condemned earlier this month, I took part in a booster draft at Adventure Loot Games. a group of 5 people, plus me, duked it out. Most of these players had never played the game before, and were learning how to play it, as they were drafting it! Talk about impressive, am I right?

There was a learning curve to the game, and some people picked up on it more than others. I noticed this at 2D Con for the prerelease, too! That’s kind of why I’m writing this article. I want to fill you in on finding balance in your deck, so you can have a better chance at winning.

With draft, you have a 26 card deck instead of a 31 card deck. This means you have 5 fewer cards to work with, right out the gate. This means you need to make every card count. You need Weapons to attack your opponent, Armor to buff yourself or provide defenses, and Events/Preparations to give you the edge you need to win. If you split it evenly down the middle, you’ll have 6 of each plus one extra. But how likely are you to get 6 of each card?

You’re more likely to find your deck is going to be swayed in one direction or another, and the majority of this is going to be from what gets passed to you by your opponents. Watch for signals. If the pack you started with comes back missing all of the Combat Trick events, that Alpha Strike that you pulled early on might not be a good idea…

Conversely, if you see a lot of specific Weapons going around, it might be worth grabbing them to have something to throw at your opponent when you need it. Weapons are what win you games, but not without the necessary support. If you’re running someone like Sentinel or Dr. Mrtav, you definitely want to take advantage of their bonuses. For the former, grab Spiky Helms and Exo-Heads to keep that Life bonus active as much as you can. For the latter, you’re grabbing Bio Weapons and maybe even a Stitch Plate to give yourself as much buffs to your damage output as you can.

 

At Adventure Loot, someone in the pod drafted 6 Weapon cards. While he’s technically right around that 25% mark for Weapon cards, he found himself having trouble drawing into those cards due to the other cards he pulled not being able to use it adequately. For him, adding an extra one or two weapons would have been a good idea, just so he could keep his damage output up and going strong. I, on the other hand, drafted 13 weapons and didn’t really have too much trouble coming up with threats. But at the same time, I found myself with a full hand of cards and not really able to draw much in the way of combat tricks due to the limitation on playing Weapon cards. The Stitch Plates that I drafted (which I really needed!) were buried in the deck, and not always easy to grab.

This is what I mean by finding balance. If you draft too many cards in any one direction, you’ll have a tough time pulling out the threats you need, when you need them. The packs will tell you what you should be grabbing. Let’s end this Draft Talk with another booster pack exercise. Take a look at this booster pack:

What card would you pick for your first pick in this pack? Sound off in the comments, and check back on Monday to see my response! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in The Arena!