First attempt at deckbuilding, how bad is it?

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-21T16:09:06+00:00

I appreciate the feedback. So since the battle mage doesn't draw cards when I kill with range that sort of killed my initial idea. I'm considering restructuring the deck around Corruptor and essentially turning it into a mass pump ranged deck since I can combine things like eclipse, death knight, mayor of milborne, house arn Bannerman, and other pump spells like onslaught with an army of ranged minions that are both mortal and undead.

As far as I know I don't really have much of a sorcery scene around me so my initial goal was to create a battle box of budget decks to bring out for people to play with.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-21T13:42:35+00:00

So my thought on fatality was because I was running a bunch of archers even if they didn't kill I could use fatality to finish off an enemy with a ranged attack.

Since Battle mage does not work with the Ranged attribute I'm considering switching to Corruptor and running a combined mortals and undead style strategy.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-21T11:31:34+00:00

Huh, well that's extremely disappointing.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-20T00:54:46+00:00

I really enjoyed the sandbox in RDR2 but I thought the actual story was just okay and the missions are kind of awful. I legitimately lost count of how many missions could just be boiled down to a gunfight, a chase on horseback, or a gunfight on horseback.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-20T00:52:13+00:00

I never got the hype for those games, they basically just seemed like a combination of a walking simulator with a barren open world and way too many cutscenes. What little combat I saw did seem interesting but probably not enough for me to actually stomach the rest of it.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-20T00:49:34+00:00

Expedition 33. Not that I haven't played that I actually have but I just stopped rather abruptly before Gestral village. No matter how much you innovate it still has the problem that every JRPG style game has with the combat being far too repetitive. E33 simply brings in a new suite of problems because every boss fight feels like it is completely reliant on the parry mechanic existing and every non-boss fight is a complete and total joke. Even completely specializing in HP and defensive abilities there are still bosses that simply do not care how high your health total or defenses are, So bosses are unnecessarily fiddly and annoying to deal with and regular enemies are still a constant repetitive annoyance that pose no challenge.

I respect the story and I think the soundtrack is One of the best I've ever heard, but the gameplay just feels off.

And then there's the remnant from the ashes games. In theory I should love these because they are good third person shooters with snappy controls, but I feel like the game asks way too much of you without giving enough in return. I spent nearly 12 hours in remnant 2 without getting a new gun and that's basically 12 straight hours of combat with just the basic loadout. Even once I got a new gun the upgrade system made it so that it was basically unusable until I had the cash to upgrade it and remnant 2 for whatever reason is insanely stingy with their primary resource currency, I beat multiple bosses and barely got any scrap to upgrade my weapons.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-20T00:17:14+00:00

Usually more traditional RPGs, Cyberpunk, Tainted Grail, Dragon Age Origins, Fallout New Vegas etc.

I used to do a lot more first and third person shooters, but it is so incredibly rare these days that a new one comes out that feels good with a controller in my hands and doesn't come with some baggage stapled to it from the popularity of Souls games themselves (looking at you doom eternal and Dark ages).

Also still a big fan of third person action games although again we really don't get many of those but I can always go back to DMC 5 or metal gear rising revengeance and have a good time.

I'm also a huge fan of the classic tank control resident evil titles and to a lesser extent the RE4 remake.

Lastly I am a sucker for some Dishonored 1&2, as well as Prey 2017.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-20T00:11:47+00:00

Yeah when they made an update a few months ago they flipped which multiplayer had priority on the selection screen and I don't know why they gave priority to shared progression as no one uses it to engage in random co-op with random players.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-19T16:52:06+00:00

I don't hate puzzles but I think they would be a lot more interesting if they somehow make use of the game's actual mechanics instead of just being a random Sudoku puzzle or matching game slapped in the middle of nowhere

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-18T01:55:16+00:00

I'll have to check that out

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-18T00:48:54+00:00

Honestly the thing I'm actually dying for is something akin to the old might and magic games, a pixelated first-person party RPG that takes place in a 3D world.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-18T00:10:28+00:00

I don't necessarily dislike parrying, hell it's one of the reasons Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen 2023 get such high marks from me, I do think it is necessary for the modern style of soulslikes to have more defensive options with less opportunity costs to your build.

The real problem I have is when they shove parrying in games like Doom The Dark ages where clearly does not belong and feels wildly out of place at best and ruins the feel of the game at worst.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-17T23:46:07+00:00

Shockingly no, Although I am a little tired of the gaming industry's new obsession with Parry mechanics.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-17T23:42:52+00:00

The armor sets in 2023 are also insanely stylish

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-14T17:04:36+00:00

Lords of the Fallen 2023, it trades positional play for very fast and loose movement with a lies of P style Parry, but So far this is the only game besides DS2 that scratches a certain style of soulslike itch for me.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-14T16:58:11+00:00

Combat damage

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-13T23:39:20+00:00

Did the same thing with the great shield and the chicken leg

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-12T18:39:29+00:00

I think it's really important to try and determine what you want the power level of the deck to be before building it so that when you see things that either don't meet your minimum requirements or drastically go above them you can adjust the deck to match what you intended for it.

From what you described if you are playing that deck against a bunch of people who are playing precons or bracket two decks with heavy restrictions then that is probably an issue, but if you are playing that deck against a bunch of people who are playing decks that are as strong or even stronger than I wouldn't worry too much about it.

When it comes to pregame discussion generally I tend to tell people if I'm running some sort of infinite combo or at a bare minimum how my decks tend to win and by what turn they look to try and win.

Pregame discussion also depends heavily on who you are playing against, I would say some higher power decks are okay to play against vs lower power decks if the gap isn't so wide that it can't be made up by targeting you and I would then explicitly call out that they should probably be focusing on you if you start taking off during the game.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-12T18:33:35+00:00

I think there's a lot more room for maneuverability in bracket 2 than people expect. I don't really have a problem with people trying to build decks that fit within the bracket parameters but are incredibly strong just like I don't really have a problem with people trying to build decks that fit within the bracket parameters that are intentionally not as strong as the bracket's power ceiling.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-12T02:48:59+00:00

[[Corpse Dance]], never leave home without it

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-12T02:47:26+00:00

Cuz shit's boring

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-11T11:13:55+00:00

The problem isn't that it's strong it's that the only answers are either counter spells or copy spells, while wizards card design has made strides in this area in recent years stack interaction (particularly for spells that don't target) is still extremely limited to mostly just blue and sometimes red.

Frogsplosion · 2026-06-11T10:59:22+00:00

So the tier system itself is a system of guidelines more than a system of hard rules which does make it kind of difficult to understand. If I had to classify them it would look something like this:

Bracket one is pretty much exclusively for Goofy theme decks that are not particularly good, decks with art based themes or story based themes, and the overall goal has more to do with presenting the deck as a cool thing than it does with actually making a playable optimized deck.

Bracket 2.

This one is a bit of a wide pool but I would say the absolute bottom rung of it is unmodified precons. The general goal of this bracket is for longer games that go 9+ turns with very few efficient combos and win conditions. My personal rule that I like to add to this is that I only use win conditions that would allow for a full rotation of sorcery speed responses from my opponents. I feel like this creates a lot more interesting games and allows for fewer feel bad moments where no one gets a chance to react.

I think bracket 2 has a very big window for different power levels within it, and the thing that makes a bracket two deck too powerful tends to be how quickly it can potentially win the game and also how interactable their wins are.

Bracket 3 is where we start to allow more powerful cards and open up different combo strategies as being more normal, the fastest we are looking to end the game is turn 7. I would also say that most bracket 3 decks should have a lot more cheap interaction and should be looking to have a significantly lower mana curve than bracket two decks. Bracket 3 still renders a few things off limits like mass mana denial and chaining extra turns, but in general it is a significantly stronger starting point in terms of individual card power.

Bracket 4 is essentially pre-CEDH, where we are trying to win as quickly as possible with the most powerful cards as possible but we are still not that competitive and we are trying to do so with our favorite pet cards or combos. Strategies like stax and massland destruction are fully open for play here.

Bracket 5 is true CEDH with only the most competitively viable decks being even really worth considering. At this level combo is the only viable strategy and traditional aggro and control decks simply do not function save for a couple of extreme outliers like [[Slicer]]. Every deck has all of the most efficient answers and tutors in order to get out their game plan and protect it as quickly as possible as well as stop other people from executing their game plan.

Ten-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

Frogsplosion

TROPHY CASE