I am absolutely on your side on trying to avoid any extra decks but like you said it almost feels as if it is necessary for this kind of deck if you want to just make it a little bit stronger than the weak version and especially don’t want to add to much defense.

I pondered a little bit about the idea and came up with those “solutions” for each version: The 23/17 (which is supposed to be a scaled down version of the red deck): 2xA4D1; 2x3AD1; 1×3/2; 2xA2D2; 1xA1D3; 1xA1D4

And the 20/20 (a weak alternative to the blue minor): 3xA3D1; 1A3D2; 1xA2D2; 2xA2D3; 1xA1D3; 1xA1D4

Maybe I will print out both. This custom version and the original weak version and play test them both ways.

So, for a deck like this with all majors, I think it’s important to have weak cards. Instead of “I’ll attack him but does he have defense or not?” it’s “I’ll attack him but I know he has defense, but is it strong defense or weak defense?”

Otherwise, you’ll basically have an answer for everything, as long as you’re holding cards in your hand. It’s the 9 weak melee cards that prevent the Nazgul deck from being overpowered, in my estimation (not that I’ve tried stronger cards in their place).

As for straying from standard basic decks… We count cards when we play, so we don’t stray from our own set of basics, which is smaller than OWJ’s set, and therefore, I’d advice against making custom basic decks BUT I also think there’s such a difference between Strong and Weak minor decks, that a “middle” deck could be a good addition.

That is exactly what I did.
The problem is out of the standard minor melee decks I can’t find anything I like for that case. The Weak deck is ultra weak. I considered the strong or strong+ decks but they have way too much defense for my liking (for the Sith deck). I’d much rather use something around 23/17. Only deck that comes close is the brown one but this still has 5 defense more than a red deck.
And for the blue deck I would like to have something around 20/20.
I have always avoided using something out of the realm of OWJ Basic Deck Design article. Do you think it would be appropiate to go that way in this specific case? Just to hit the right mark regarding strength of deck or should I rather go with what’s out there?

So if I follow, you replaced the 9 melee minor basic cards with 9 minor Red or 9 minor Blue cards? I think you and I have discussed this, but I’ve come to realize that there’s a big difference between strong and weak minor cards. “Too strong” is a matter of how strong you want the decks to be, but they will definitely be substantially stronger than the Nazgul deck.

Ah u cee, now I missed your answer 😀
It really is tough to balance out. With my interpretations I tried to stay as closely as possible with your design (as it is proven and well tested). Just thought about what you said regarding it beeing pretty weak in a possible SWED collection. That is why I exchanged the weak minor decks for a red (for the darkside deck) and blue (for the Jedi deck) minor. I just have the feeling both could make the decks way too strong. Do you share the same sentiment or do you beleive this could work?

Ah, I hadn’t seen that. The challenge in designing this deck is what you brought up: By letting each of the 3 characters access all 31 cards, it’s easy to design an overpowered deck. The way to mitigate that problem is to design the talent cards to be kind of weak, if you were to compare them to other decks. The offense consists of 3x A4*, 2x A6, and 3x 3 direct damage. That’s simply not much, unless you’re able to get higher values out of the A4*s. As the Nazgul player, you have the advantage early, but lose it as your opponent starts killing off Nazgul, something that’s not that hard to do with their 8 HP each. Once you’re down to your last Nazgul, you’re at a disadvantage against pretty much any major character, even with access to every card in your deck. I think if all 3 Nazgul had 9 HP each, this deck would actually be very strong.

Don
t know if you saw my last question regarding deck strength? 😀

Sets like LOTRED and GOTED allow the creators to explore new concepts and sometimes, they end up working. When they do, I’d like to see them incorporated into SWED to expand the game a bit. The Uruk-hai Army is another game-expanding deck, but not as good as this one.