Number of cards in a deck

[malarious]

I prefer minimums but dont care about a cap so much.  I am likely to play 40-44 cards in Yugioh for instance.  Why? Math.

40 cards in a deck
6 cards in hand
1 per turn
3 of a given card (for things I have alot of use for)

What are the odds I draw any of the card i have 3 of? Decent.  I dont have a calculator on me so I cant calculate it but the more turns pass the more and more likely it is.  If I can control deck size I can choose to have optimum chance of drawing a card or have some leeway to add in some extra cards I just dont want to lose.

[Rojer007]

I will sugest  to play 40-44 cards in Yu -gi-uh for   Why? Math.

40 cards in a deck
6 cards in hand
1 per turn
3 of a given card (for things I have alot of use for)

[Saethori]

I've played quite a few TCGs, both online and in 'paper', and it's my general opinion that fixed-card decks are better in the long run, strategically.

For starters, your opponent running out of cards has always been a win condition. It could be a direct win condition, such as is the case in Pok?mon or M:tG, or it could merely be an indirect one, in the sense that an opponent that has stagnated is much less of a threat. Fixed sizes are required to keep this part of the game relevant, since if it's ever not, it reduces potential strategy, and thus pigeonholes players.

Secondly, and possibly my major point, it's good for people, not just in a game but in general, to be trained in the sense of prioritizing.
  Many times when dealing with a game with unbounded sizes, there will be players who have never learned about the idea of making sacrifices. They will simply add cards to their deck as they get them, which makes their deck more unwieldy, less consistent, and, in paper formats, more difficult and time-consuming to shuffle and play from. And this is a self-propagating problem, as if a player feels their deck is untuned and loses far too often, they will feel compelled to strengthen it by adding new, stronger cards, which serve only to weaken it further in the long run!
  On the flip side, players who have to deal with fixed size decks are forced to gradually learn and develop skills for prioritizing, optimizing, and sacrificing. This helps them out, not just on a game level, but can also serve in life itself on prioritizing resources and making critical decisions. By constantly shaping a deck and knowing what to cut and what to keep, they intuitively begin to learn which cards support their deck and which cards do not, and become better players as a result.
  Most TCGs also deal with a system of resource management as well (whether it's lands, energy, quests, sacrifical monsters, or what have you), and dealing with leaner deck sizes makes this more important to the average player.


Though I understand the merits of, and would otherwise advocate, decks that go 'just a little bit' over the top to give a better idea what works and what doesn't, unfortunately there is no system that would permit decks to become only slightly inflated. Impose no limit, and many people will take advantage of that and create unwieldy behemoths of decks that are no fun to either play or play against. Impose a maximum slightly different than the minimum, and it would create a false sense that playing at the maximum should be just as acceptable as playing at the minimum. And if that happens, eventually people's decks will want to balloon over the maximum as well...

Perhaps some system with a designated fixed deck size, but rules permit going over this limit... at some sort of in-game cost (such as, hypothetically, starting the game with less health/life for each card over) could work, but such things would need to be carefully tuned; Too weak, and there may as well be no penalty. Too strong, and why ever be allowed to go over maximum at all.

[Cyrus]

Excellent post Saethori, I agree completely. I feel pretty lucky that as a kid (around 9 or so) I learned how to play the Decipher Star Wars game BEFORE learning how to play Magic. Star Wars has a strict 60 card limit that, like you said, helped me develop skills to make replacements earlier on than my friends that only played Magic. Deck building has always been a huge draw for me in terms of CCGs, and having a limit really fuels it rather than otherwise.

[cap.tiny]

to me it depends on the game and both styles have a strategy to them, both ups and downs. in the card game i am working i have a minimum but then have a maximum "build point" system

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Why isn't there an option "have both minimum and maximum deck size" in the poll? Elements CCG has 30 cards as minimum and 60 cards as maximum.