Talent cards are the core of ED decks. Designing talent cards is the core of making custom decks for ED. And card distribution is a key element in designing your talent cards. To begin, let’s look at the decks on the basis of personality minors (or the lack thereof) to gain a general understanding of talent card distribution. Most of the rest of this article references this chart.

Back in DT#2 I talk a little about the distribution of talent cards, and I make the unsubstantiated claim that the standard distro should be x3 x3 x2 x2 x1 x1. You can see by the chart that the “standard” distribution only appears in two decks: Obi-Wan and Vader. However, this distro is effective as a standard for a few reasons.

The Standard Distribution

First, with six talent card types it works for both generic and personality minor decks. Six talent card types is the accepted limit for decks where only one character has all the talent cards, so when you use this distro for weaker characters (like a shooter with generic minors) you need to be sure to tone down the individual cards.

Second, the six types are evenly divided into three categories: x3, x2, and x1. These categories indicate the relative power level each card should possess, and the even distribution allows you to easily gauge the balance between the categories. In other words, if you have a set of x3 cards that is stronger card than most x3 cards might be, then you know your other set of x3 cards should be weaker. Distributions where you can’t pair up card types in this manner are a little harder to gauge balance on. Incidentally, this stumbles on the mechanical reason Obi-Wan is so good – fully half of his talent cards are roughly the same power level in terms of what they can achieve.

Anyway, the double x3 category also means you have two Signature cards in your deck; that’s a good thing for representing the character, familiarizing players with the deck,

Finally, as a standard, this distribution is easily customizable. Yoda and Empy are clearly re-organizations of this standard. I’d bet the moisture farm that Empy and Yoda started with the standard; they were just changed in editing to modifier how each deck performed, and you should do the same, if needed.

Ok so that was why the standard is a good standard. But as that chart above will tell you, it is far from the only choice. Whatever the reason for choosing a non-standard distribution, we need a guide for choosing the right distro for the deck. In reference to the chart above, the major-with-generic-minor decks are Yoda, Obi-Wan, Emperor, Mace, Maul, and Dooku. The number of different talent card types for these decks ranges from four to six. It is worth noting that the more powerful characters have six talent card types. The major-with-personality-minor decks are Anakin/Padme, Boba/Greedo, Han/Chewy, Jango/Zam, and Luke/Leia. The number of different talent card types for these ranges from five to seven, and again the most effective of these have seven.So, from that information we can safely say the following:

1. No deck should have fewer than 4 talent card types.
2. In a deck where all talent cards belong to one character, there should be no more than six talent card types.
3. In a deck where more than one character has talent cards, there should be no more than seven talent card types.
4. The more talent card types in a deck, the stronger the deck will likely be.

Now that last rule might raise your eyebrows a bit, especially when you consider Jango and Zam, but they are why I added “likely” to rule four. Regardless, the premise is the more card types you have, the more effects you can achieve, the stronger the deck. In addition to those rules above, I would add a fifth just because aesthetically it makes sense and it can be hard to pull off otherwise:

5. Generic minors do not possess talent cards.

Just within those rules there is a slew of choices for deck distribution. This thread on the Epic Duels forum begins to discuss the process of choosing a distribution. Unfortunately, there isn’t a formula that tells us what distro to use for which deck/character. What we do have is the existing distributions and what there is to say about them.

The Signature Card

First and most obvious are the various types of talent card present in all decks: x3, x2, and x1. The x3(or 4) type talent card is often referred to as the Signature card, but this term is somewhat misleading. All talent cards reflect some aspect of their character (e.g. abilities, maneuvers, personality, etc.). The Signature card is the “go-to” card for the deck. Just like the basic combat cards make up the meat of the whole deck, the Signature card is the backbone of the talent cards. The sig card usually makes up one part of the best combos in any deck, and, even more than other talent cards, the sig card recalls some aspect of its character.

The Keystone Card

The x1 card is what I call the Keystone card. Like other talent cards the Keystone card in some what reflects the character it is for, but unlike other cards the Keystone card is unique and usually powerful. I call it the Keystone card because more often than not if you manage to play any given deck’s Keystone card to full effectiveness, you’ve just pulled a great combo and put your opponent(s) in a deficit. But being part of a combo isn’t the Keystone card’s schtick; it is strong enough to stand on its own. The Keystone card has an official record of being the game stealer: Bowcaster, Force Rebound, You Will Die, All Too Easy, Jedi Mind Trick. Despite the alluring nature of a Keystone card, there are a few examples in the Hasbro Twelve of decks that doesn't have one.

The Support Card

The x2 card is the middle-child of the deck. They’re often good cards, but they don’t have the eye-popping power of the Keystone card. We’ll call it the Support card, because it usually forms the other part of the deck’s best combos. These are cards like Never Tell Me The Odds, Wrist Cable, Force Lift, and the ever vexing Anger & Calm.

Even these descriptions don’t form the decks into nice and neat categories. Dooku, Luke, and Mace all lack that seriously-gonna-kill-you Keystone card, and it is arguable that Luke is a nearly combo-less deck, and practically all Obi-Wan’s cards are good across the board.

So what’s the point of categorizing them? Find out in part two, coming soon!

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