Am I doing it wrong?

[teesaw]

I've read a few posts on here regarding a Q&D deck build, and I'm not even close to what I'm seeing here.  For starters, I still play in the realm of stacking a particular power type that's the strongest...is that style out-dated?   

I'm thinking the biggest difference is that I don't really play with missions as much (under the original rules, missions were optional) so venture doesn't come into play, and it's really just an all out killfest.

My quick and dirty is:
4 heroes with 7 and 8 of one grid type (primary Grid) and usually two with 6's or 5's in a secondary grid, but not always

The deck goes:
10 Power Cards of the primary grid (3 x 8, 3 x 7, 2 x 6, 2 x 5)
4-6 Power Cards of the secondary grid (2 x 6, 2x 5, 2x 4)
2-4 Extra Power Cards - if I've got a rogue 7, or a third grid that 2 characters have 4's and 5's in, I'll sprinkle in some extras)
8 Multi-Power Cards (2 x 4, 3, 2, 1)
9 BU Cards of the primary grid
0-2 BU Cards for the secondary grid* (6+2 and 6+3)
4 Training Cards (To play off 4's and 5's)
3-4 Teamwork Cards (All 3 for Primary Grid, GT6 for Secondary Grid*)
6-7 Ally Cards (3 for Primary grid, GT6 for the secondary grid*, and the 3 LT's for the others)
2-4 Specials per hero, and 3-5 any hero specials - Guardian Angel, WHW, Power Leech, and some hodgepodge; specials are mostly Attack+ (AA, AB, etc.), Avoids, Protects (teammate avoids), Silences, and Heals/Teammate Heals.

This style was born out of collecting cards from booster packs, with very little access to trade shows and other venues for tracking down specific cards to fill roles in the decks, and it makes for a very fun game against another deck made in the same style. 

Here are my questions:
1) How would this deck fare in a tournament?  I've watched some of the recent videos and there are card mechanics that I've never even heard of.  Am I walking into a gunfight with a musket?

2) I've heard people trashing Training cards and BU cards on the forum - for me, 5+4=9 or 8+3=11 are killer moves...aren't they?  What am I missing?

3) I don't use any artifiacts, aspects, or doubleshots (re: artifacts/aspects, i never made it that far in the game; re: doubleshots, they seemed too complicated when i was a kid, and dont really work with single-alignment decks) - Why are those cards important (or are they not that important?)

4) I don't typically use a homebase (never mailed away for the OPL stuff as a kid, unfortunately) - are the bonuses from the generic homebases a must-have to survive?

[breadmaster]

i was like you.  up till a few years ago, I didn't play with venture.  if you take the time to learn the system (you WILL get destroyed the first dozen or so games ), the game becomes SO much better

the best bet with building, is to stick with the formula you see most people using, and once you have that down, then branch out with new stuff.  if you add a whole bunch of different stuff at once, and it doesn't work, it's hard to isolate why

some building tips

-you may be going overboard on your power cards.  if i'm reading it correctly, you may be putting in up to 5 level 5s?  the rule of thumb is 3 of each.  some people put in only 2 of levels 5 and under.  this is a personal one

-BUs and trainings.  get rid of them immediately.  only a few select decks can get away with using 1 or 2 of them.  up to 15 bogs down your deck.  while your opponent is attacking you with cards that will kill for spectrum late in the round, you will come up short because you have combined 2 cards to defend 1 earlier in the round.  essentially, you are only drawing 6 cards to your opponent's 8 EVERY round.

-you probably want to thin down your allys a bit.  if you have 7 allies, for 12 specials (going by the 4/character you listed), you'll find you have too many allys that are sitting unusable.  when you add in that you can't use allys for defensive cards or any-heroes, the balance tips too far

the questions

1) yeah, you're going in with a musket.  anything can happen in overpower since luck is involved, but I wouldn't count on it

3) artifacts/aspects/doubleshots are not terribly important.  the two most common you'll see are the image inducer artifact, and the a-next aspect

4) homebases are not a must.  the two most common (by a huge margin...i'll throw out 95%, but it may even be higher) are marvel universe/omnivese and team overpower, which any team can use.  the former gives you 1 extra venture point/round, and the latter allows you to place 1 any hero on it. 

welcome to the forums, good luck and enjoy!

[Jack]

Tournaments are time limited matches and you would want to go through your deck as fast as possible to make sure all your cards get used. You would want the minimal amount of cards (51 or 56 depending if you use events) to achieve this.

Playing two cards in one action can be blocked by a single card. Card advantage is a key component in this game. If you both have 8 cards to start and you use 2 to attack, blocked by 1, you're down a card.

Artifacts are useful depending on the deck, it depends on the strategy. Do not depend on them to win, think of them as complements to a deck. Aspects come with homebases. Doubleshots are interesting, some people like using them, some people don't because of the two-per-action thing. They are slightly more useful than Training because they stick onto a card after it lands and can count for venture/KO.

Always use a homebase, Marvel Universe or Omniverse are the two generic ones if you just want +1 to venture in the battle. Team OverPower is useful if you play Any Hereos. The venture bonus doesn't help too much but I've seen some battles where ventures were tied because of the -1.

[teesaw]

Thanks for the responses -

I think I know what I'm doing wrong, here - basically, we need to stop playing the heroes that we 'like' and start playing the heroes that we have the most specials for, even if they may not be our favorites.  It will be easy for me, but perhaps not so easy for my 5 year old, lol.

We've been practicing with the venture game, too and now that there's a penalty for conceding in battle it makes it a little bit tougher with so many hands full of crap cards.  Maybe we'll break our financial silence and splurge on some filler cards...if you don't see any more posts from me, it's because i tried to do that and my wife killed me.

[breadmaster]

there are a couple alternatives

1) play online.  the program is old, but it's free, and you have access to every card

2) use the forum to spitball deck ideas.  once you narrow it down, you'll probably find you only need a dozen or so new cards, and they probably won't be all that expensive either.

[chuu]

you could always use proxies cards as well, if you're just playing with friends and family, no one really cares if the cards are real.  It's only tournaments where you have to have the real cards...hell, even at the most recent tournament it was kinda laxed.  You just had to have a good looking proxie...lol.

[breadmaster]

of course, I forgot the simplest solution of all

don't worry about how your deck would do in tournament.  if you and your kid enjoy the way you play, have a blast continuing to experience the game in its purest form...

bashing each other over the head with the superheroes you love using street signs and hot dog carts!

[teesaw]

Thanks guys! 

I like the simplest solution, at least for now, but It's been very nostalgic for me picking these things up again and I've been interested to know how the "real" players play the game.

Thanks again for all your help.