best strategies?

[Fletcheese]

If you think the drafting stage is all luck then you're not thinking hard enough.

Enlighten me.

When you're getting lucky e.g. rolling a double especially of a strong card then the pick is obvious and your win probability shoots up. But when you're dealt a collection of mediocre cards, deciding what to pick or if rerolling is better is often challenging. Even just deciding which deck to pick from is often difficult and can have a major impact on your success.

I'm painting in broad strokes here because it's complicated. Challengers absolutely offers difficult meaningful decisions that often affect how well you perform. Sometimes you just get unlucky and lose despite making the best decisions and sometimes you have a series of easy decisions that lead to a victory. But I think those make up a fairly small portion of the games which is why it's fun.

[cutezoeymonster]

if your looking for deck idea I like building the cool teen support group if I can get away with it. mostly build haunted house. must get teen also need Necromancer and Vampire. non haunted house AI or Cook stuff that supports teen in the same way another haunted house card would. Your goal is to make teen real strong so when she comes out it's hard to remove he and with necromancer and vampire you can bring her back and if you can do that at the end it might just win the game. And I hope that also helps you think of other synergies and how dope decks look. also teen only works in a deck built around her just so you know.

[DoctorFianchetto]

When you're getting lucky e.g. rolling a double especially of a strong card then the pick is obvious and your win probability shoots up. But when you're dealt a collection of mediocre cards, deciding what to pick or if rerolling is better is often challenging. Even just deciding which deck to pick from is often difficult and can have a major impact on your success.

I'm painting in broad strokes here because it's complicated. Challengers absolutely offers difficult meaningful decisions that often affect how well you perform. Sometimes you just get unlucky and lose despite making the best decisions and sometimes you have a series of easy decisions that lead to a victory. But I think those make up a fairly small portion of the games which is why it's fun.

In a four player game, there's usually one person who gets everything they want and wins easily. No hard decisions to make. There's someone who gets nothing they want, has a disjointed deck that loses most of the time. The middle ground is where the challenge lies, it's about optimising your deck to be as "lucky" as possible.

I still maintain it's a lot more luck than skill, because the drafting options and the battling phase are primarily luck-dependent with little control. As I said, that can make the game fun but also frustrating if you have a personality like mine

if your looking for deck idea I like building the cool teen support group if I can get away with it. mostly build haunted house. must get teen also need Necromancer and Vampire. non haunted house AI or Cook stuff that supports teen in the same way another haunted house card would. Your goal is to make teen real strong so when she comes out it's hard to remove he and with necromancer and vampire you can bring her back and if you can do that at the end it might just win the game. And I hope that also helps you think of other synergies and how dope decks look. also teen only works in a deck built around her just so you know.

I agree, the haunted house deck is the strongest single colour deck if you get everything you want, closely followed by funfair. Getting 2-3 Vampires in general is a killer because you're going to have some powerful B cards no matter what.

[katmk]

I still think being able to successfully roll with the punches is the most desirable strategy to cultivate. I've been lucky enough to build some incredible decks - Sailors, Stable Boys and UFOs, finished off with Submarines was one; another was an entirely orange deck including two Teens, two Necromancers and two Vampires. It's also hard to get past the sheer power of an all Funfair deck, with a good base of Vendors.

The keyword though is definitely "lucky" (and not making a stupid mistake when rearranging!) and I agree with DoctorFianchetto in that you can't bank on getting those combinations. It's frustrating but not uncommon to take three early Skeletons, and then get two rounds of B cards that have no Teens or Necromancers in. I think the skill lies in is how you respond to this situation. For example, it's worth remembering that just one Horse is worth a Teen that you've manipulated into coming out after three other Haunted House cards and if the draws aren't going your way, you need to know when to give up the approach you hoped for when you were getting your A cards.

It's such a fascinating game, with so many thinking points and getting information on how your opponents are building their decks can be vital. Another example, trying to decide between keeping one Champion or two Talents is informed by whether it's better to have the defensive power to get your opponent to use up cards, or whether you need to proof your deck against Cowboys or Ghosts.

I love its low barrier to entry, and that you can play in the hope that you can just ride your luck; but also that it will reward deep thinking and calculation.

[DoctorFianchetto]

I still think being able to successfully roll with the punches is the most desirable strategy to cultivate.

Absolutely. I feel this is where I am weakest. Sometimes I have the awareness to pivot when I see I'm not going to get what I aimed for. Other times I stubbornly stick to the strategy I decided on in round 1 and pay the price when my cards don't appear.

Another example, trying to decide between keeping one Champion or two Talents is informed by whether it's better to have the defensive power to get your opponent to use up cards, or whether you need to proof your deck against Cowboys or Ghosts.

I never thought about that before. I always throw away two Talents in that situation. The only benefit I see is being able to grab another Champion in the later rounds, but your point is a good one. Against some decks it's better to have quantity over quality.

On the note of examining other players, if I grab a Vendor and I see my first round opponent has 2 Vendors, I may move away from the yellow cards.

Another important decision is 2 cards from deck A or 1 card from deck B in round 3. I almost always go for deck A but...I don't really know which is best for a particular situation.

[katmk]

Against some decks it's better to have quantity over quality.

Yes, I think this also applies against the Make-up Artist/Newcomer/Movie Star decks. You need enough cards to soak up the attacks.

On the note of examining other players, if I grab a Vendor and I see my first round opponent has 2 Vendors, I may move away from the yellow cards.

Yes, absolutely! And I find this especially so with AIs, as there are only three of them.

Another important decision is 2 cards from deck A or 1 card from deck B in round 3. I almost always go for deck A but...I don't really know which is best for a particular situation.

I've recently been thinking about the same thing. I have been trying to ask myself what from A will actually enhance my deck, and how likely am I to get it.

[DoctorFianchetto]

I still maintain that Movie Star/Make-Up Artist is the best combination in the game. Whenever I see an opponent with 2+ Make-Up Artists and at least one Movie Star, I think to myself "they're going to win". With a sigh of resignation, I continue the game, knowing I am going to be trounced over and over by dolled up zombie newcomers who keep coming back from the grave to obliterate my roster. These decks always make the final. More often than not, they win.

Which brings me to my last game. I saw a Movie Star and a Make-Up Artist in the first draft. I normally shun these cards, but I decided to grab them. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I end up with two of each. I soon find out that another player also has two of each.

We met in round 5. It was a long and drawn out battle. I had a Ghost which took out one of his Make-Up Artists. His Movie Stars also went pretty early. I thought it was smooth sailing until he threw out a Necromancer near the end. I saw my easy victory transforming to bitter defeat. However, I had two 4 power cards left, and since his newcomers only had one Make-Up Artist buff, it gave me that extra card I needed to exhaust his deck.

We met again in the final. Of course we did, because it is the most powerful combination in the game. He managed to pick up two of the same deck C card (Heroine) while I only found one copy of a T-Rex. We fought long and hard. The Necromancer didn't come out for a long time. I was waiting for it to signal the end of my hope of victory...but it never came. That is the card he discarded in order to keep two Heroines and two Directors. I had discarded my Ghost.

The final situation is the greatest movie set of all time.

[katmk]

I enjoyed the dramatic arc of that retelling

As a deck, it's definitely one I find annoying to come up against but I'm not sure it's unbeatable. Or maybe it's just I can't get it to work for me!

[T72on1]

I'm not so much looking for 'best deck' advice, as there's already plenty, and there's already plenty of different opinions .

What I do wonder about: how do you decide which cards to pick? When to fully discard the first draw and hope for a good second one, and when you pick one of the first draw and then redraw? I mean, it's easy enough to pick 2 in the first draw when 2 good cards occur there, the good combinations have been debated about plenty enough by now. What I find myself into regularly, is that I know, based on my first round or rounds which direction I want to head to, but the game only gives me a mediocre first draw.

For now I often fully discard the first draw and hope for a good second one, but my intuition tells me that's not the right way to do it.

[DoctorFianchetto]

As a deck, it's definitely one I find annoying to come up against but I'm not sure it's unbeatable. Or maybe it's just I can't get it to work for me!

The main drawback is not finding enough MUAs or Movie Stars. The deck is only truly effective for the later rounds if you can get at least two of each. Only one Movie Star is not great in later rounds unless you manage to acquire a bunch of Necromancers. Only one MUA is even worse. Movie Stars you can live without. MUAs are essential.

Like I said before, if you get two of each you're basically guaranteed a finals place as long as you make sensible drafting decisions.

What I do wonder about: how do you decide which cards to pick? When to fully discard the first draw and hope for a good second one, and when you pick one of the first draw and then redraw? I mean, it's easy enough to pick 2 in the first draw when 2 good cards occur there, the good combinations have been debated about plenty enough by now. What I find myself into regularly, is that I know, based on my first round or rounds which direction I want to head to, but the game only gives me a mediocre first draw.

For now I often fully discard the first draw and hope for a good second one, but my intuition tells me that's not the right way to do it.

I don't have a good answer to this one, and I'm not sure there is a good answer. It's all down to the luck of the draw.

I've picked one of the first draw and redrew only to find two of the same card I really want. Other times I've immediately redrawn only to get an even worse set of cards than the first set. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.