best strategies?

[DoctorFianchetto]

It seems like the carnival set is by far the best. It’s cards all seem to empower each other, or manipulate what the next draw is, or give you bonus fans, or just be a high number, or multiple of those. All great things. Maybe it’s a lucky streak but any time I focus on that set I win far more than I loose. While any other set seems to even out into luck. If the set is that much better than anything else I hope they get some better balance the next time around. Focusing on a single set is already advantageous because of the duplicate advantages. So having one set just be flat better than anything else is a problem.

I agree: the carnival set is clearly the best. Juggler, Bumper Car and Clairvoyant are really strong, a great way to combat poor draw order luck. Vendor is a great boost card. Clowns and Pyrotechnicians can sneak in extra fans to push you up the leaderboard - although I tend to avoid Clowns except for 1v1. Mime and Illusionist pair really well with the deck rearrangers. A pure Carnival deck with 2-3 Vendors beats pretty much anything.

Second best? I'd say Horror. Teenager + Necromancer is a killer combo, and it's relatively easy to build Teenager power with the amount of Skeletons you can pick up early game. Plus that deck has some great utility cards in Ghost, Butler and Vacuum Cleaner.

However I believe the most broken combination is 2+ Makeup Artists and 2+ Movie Stars. Not the easiest to get all of those cards, but I see it frequently enough. Extremely hard to beat and synergise well with pretty much any other cards. Necromancer, Blacksmith and deck shufflers make this strategy even more OP, but even a support of high power cards is a crushing boost. I haven't come up with a reliable way of countering this. I just have to hope they get a poor draw order or they pick one too many distinct cards and get benched.

[Andrewsmile]

However I believe the most broken combination is 2+ Makeup Artists and 2+ Movie Stars. Not the easiest to get all of those cards, but I see it frequently enough. Extremely hard to beat and synergise well with pretty much any other cards. Necromancer, Blacksmith and deck shufflers make this strategy even more OP, but even a support of high power cards is a crushing boost. I haven't come up with a reliable way of countering this. I just have to hope they get a poor draw order or they pick one too many distinct cards and get benched.

I think highly rating movie star/makeup artist is a common opinion, but I actually disagree with it- it's a bit complicated to explain why, but I'll do my best. It boils down to it requiring more luck than other decks both to build and to pilot. Lets assume for the sake of argument that you found 2 makeup artists AND 2 movie stars, which already is somewhat unlikely but lets say you have at least those 4 cards.

This deck actually has the most weaknesses in the game, and is somewhat easy to counter if you know it is coming (which you will since you will play against it in rounds 1-3 guaranteed, it isnt something you can come into later barring ludicrous UFO luck since it is all A deck cards). I will list those weaknesses I see below.

1. Dependence of this deck on draw order, FAR more so than other decks - This deck needs a very specific order to be optimal→ makeup artists first, then newcomers, then movie stars, then necromancers, then vampires. This as you mention is helped with deck shufflers (which is why shufflers are good, NOT makeup artist/movie star), but all decks are helped with these tools so its unfair to give the deck credit for that.

2. This deck is bad against big cards (and basically every C deck card as consequence) - too often when there is a 5+ power card on the top of the opponents deck I see makeup artist decks draw 4+ cards just to start since all of their cards are so weak, and you better hope makeup artist was at least one of those cards otherwise you will run out of gas long before your opponent.

3. This deck is bad against decks with a large quantity of cards (either through duplicates or through butlers/sorcereres/vacuums)- even if you draw in the perfect order, your cards are only good when they capture the flag, not when they hold it. Because it is impossible for you to 2 for 1 (meaning the opponent must use more than 1 card to defeat 1 of your cards) you have to hope you simply have more cards than your opponent. If you don't have movie stars at the bottom of your deck, forget it. This deck is better when haunted house is in play (because of butlers and necromancers) but it is also countered by those same cards: just as they give you more gas in the tank, they allow opponents to have more gas in the tank.

4. This deck gets absolutely obliterated by siren. I realise siren is only one card, but if your opponents do find it and kill a makeup artist or even a newcomer that can't get picked up by movie star anymore you probably lose and if your opponents know to look for it in both turns 6 and 7 they will probably find at least 1.

5. This deck needs more specific cards than other decks- If you want to win the game you probably need make up artists, movie stars, necromancers, and something that orders your deck (sailor, clairvoyant, etc). Thats a lot of specific cards needed, vs say a vendors deck that after it finds some vendors just needs yellow cards. This makes it more likely to "miss" in games where you dont draw where you need. If you hit everything you win big, but in the long run you will lose more games trying to force it.

[DoctorFianchetto]

I have noticed some of those flaws too. Particularly (2) - I always try to pick the highest power cards when I know I'm up against one of those decks. (3) is also a good point. The buffed Newcomer deck is essentially a war of attrition. Most cards wins. I've never tried picking Siren against it, but relying on one specific C card is not a great approach. Most of the time you won't even see a Siren.

[nccc]

makeup artist +ghost =perfect

[gabegolfer]

I think it's official...
we have entered a stable boy meta...
The way I see the strategies at this point

1)Anything with 2 holograms
2)Stable Boy+UFO+Sailors
3)Haunted House+ teenager
4)MakeUp Artist + Movie Star and other 1 pwer units
5) AI+Mascot
6) Vendor Funfair

I'm quite bad at this game, so this is probably wrong.
BTW has anyone ever had 6 skeletons?

[DoctorFianchetto]

I no longer understand this game. I used to place top 2 in arena pretty consistently but now I’m pretty much always in last place. The game has evolved to where I can’t compete, and playing isn’t even much fun. Time to move on.

[katmk]

As someone whose ELO has ricocheted wildly all over the place, I now find it really interesting to see how well I can pivot my strategy when it doesn't look like it's going to work. For example, I might have picked up an AI and a couple of other base 2s, but then see that two other opponents also have AIs - can I turn it around quickly enough to win the last two trophies and make it to the final?

There's actually a lot to be said for just going for the highest power cards you can get. For all my carefully crafted combos, my 5 year old can still beat me by picking two Villains and getting a lucky draw.

[DoctorFianchetto]

I couldn't keep myself away for long because, as frustrating as it can be, it's still one of the most fun games on the website.

It's interesting how the trends are changing, but the most reliable strategy is simply getting as many dupliate cards as possible. It doesn't matter too much what they are. I'd wager that most 12-card decks with 6 unique cards will beat a "custom made" deck with 8-9 total cards.

I'm now seeing UFOs played in every game, often by multiple players. I haven't figure out how they are using UFOs but I assume it's something to do with my point above. Getting as many A cards in the deck as possible in the hope of getting 3 or 4 copies of a strong A card. Anything you don't need is used can be discarded afterwards but it also used in the battle round. Free money.

Apart from UFOs the prevalent strategy is to acquire as many buff cards as possible. AIs, Vendors, Cooks, Make-Up Artists, Teenagers.

It's interesting to discuss strategy but in reality it's all decided by luck, especially in the drafting stage. It feels like strategising is pointless. You'll only get the deck you want 25% of the time. If you're lucky. That's why Challengers is endlessly replayable, and also so damn irritating.

[Fletcheese]

It's interesting to discuss strategy but in reality it's all decided by luck, especially in the drafting stage. It feels like strategising is pointless. You'll only get the deck you want 25% of the time. If you're lucky. That's why Challengers is endlessly replayable, and also so damn irritating.

Obviously there is a lot of luck. Only one player has broken 400 ELO which is even lower than Cant Stop for reference. But you're drastically overstating it. If you think the drafting stage is all luck then you're not thinking hard enough.

[DoctorFianchetto]

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

Enlighten me.