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Using cards in a deck as life

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CCGer
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Joined: 07/28/2011

There are some card games that uses card in the deck as life. When you run out of cards, you life drop to 0 and you lose. Is it a good mechanic for a competitive strategy card game?

I find this mechanic very novel, but it seems to rely on luck. I hope that we can have a good discussion on this topic.

larienna
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Joined: 07/28/2008
That is a mechanic I wanted

That is a mechanic I wanted to use in one of my CCG like game, and I know Elemental Clash use this mechanics. WWF CCG use this and the Battletech CCG have something close.

It is a very interesting mechanic where I don't see any dependency to luck. In the WWF ccg, if you flip the right counter move when taking damage, you stop taking damage. I found this very interesting. I also though of a mechanic where cards could have different HP levels. (ex: weak cards have high HP and vice versa) so you would flip less cards if you hit cards with multiple HP.

drktron
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Joined: 07/18/2010
I agree with larienna, the

I agree with larienna, the mechanic isn't necessarily based on luck. The WCW nitro tcg (like the WWF game)used it and the Highlander Ccg used a version of this where you lost health each time your deck ran out. Interestingly your health was tracked by your handsize. I've also used it in one of my own games.

The Loneliest Banana
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Joined: 09/06/2011
There's no element of luck

There's no element of luck beyond what shuffling gives you.

Think of it this way: Suppose you lost cards from the bottom of the deck. These cards would never have been drawn anyway, they would have been left in the deck at the end of the game. So you aren't losing anything (except your score).

Now imagine you had a rule that put cards from the top of the deck on the bottom of the deck without looking. Before, you would have drawn a random card from among those you had left. After, you will draw a random card from among those in your deck. Nothing has changed.

Suppose you move cards from the top of the deck to the bottom, and then lose cards from the bottom of your deck. The first action does nothing, and the section action reduces your score, but those cards would never have been drawn anyway.

Losing random cards from your deck does not affect the game at all. There is no difference between discarding Awesomex the Destroyer to damage, and never drawing him during the course of the game.

The only effect is has is giving players information as to what is left in the deck.

Many players will never figure this out though, and so it will *feel* like cards they actually had are being destroyed, and that they are experiencing great or terrible luck with regards to what has been discarded.

If you have players *choose* which cards are lost, this changes. Now players can manipulate their opponent's deck by ensuring key cards are never drawn, and so reducing an opponent's deck actually makes it weaker.

disaac
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Joined: 02/26/2011
Hand as Life - Dungeon of D

I know that the DIY game Dungeon of D by Jack Darwind (a solitare Dungeon Crawl card game) uses the cards in your hand to represent your life points. If you run out of cards in hand you die & thus lose the game.

You can always refill your hand by resting for a turn. But it costs a resource (food) to do so, and depending on the danger level of the room you are in, you probably will not be able to go back up to a full hand size.

That game (actually the entire series of games) makes great use of the main (Power) deck of cards for multiple purposes. It's quite a bit of cards and thus quite a bit of work for a DIY game, but it is worth it. I have actually only played it a couple of times, and only went through about 3 or 4 levels each time, but it gets pretty interesting as you get further into the levels. And you have to make sure to manage your resources well.

By the way, I had initially tried his first game Island of D, but it didn't seem nearly as interesting as this later game.

ilta
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Joined: 12/05/2008
Technically speaking Magic

Technically speaking Magic the Gathering uses this, in a way, with the often-irrelevant rule that if you need to draw from your deck but are out of cards, you lose. Usually by the time that happened one person had lost his 20 "actual" life points, but it is there and you could theoretically build a deck that was designed to burn through the opponent's deck and kill him that way.

larienna
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Joined: 07/28/2008
Quote:Usually by the time

Quote:
Usually by the time that happened one person had lost his 20 "actual" life points, but it is there and you could theoretically build a deck that was designed to burn through the opponent's deck and kill him that way.

Yep, I did this in the MTG video game (the first PC game) it was awesome. Here is a copy of the deck card content

;EP Mind Twister
;U/R Draw/Discard
;Eric Pietrocupo
;ericp@ariel.bdeb.qc.ca
;November 15, 2004
;1
;4th Edition
;This is a red/blue deck designed to destroy your opponent by making hi lose all his cards in his deck.

.126 x1 Island
.164 x5 Mountain
.266 x4 Volcanic Island
.282 x4 Wheel of Fortune
.92 x2 Fork
.25 x3 Braingeyser
.249 x4 Time Walk
.1 x4 Ancestral Recall
.18 x3 Black Vise
.495 x2 Feldon's Cane
.17 x2 Black Lotus
.169 x4 Mox Sapphire
.96 x2 Gauntlet of Might

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