More Advice for New Players

Wuppin has written an excellent article outlining the basics of boardplay in StarChamber. I feel there is also need for an explanation of the other main aspect of the game; that which takes place off the gameboard: management of your collection. The emphasis in this article is on becoming a competitive player without spending a fortune. Even if you decide to commit the big dollars to your collection the advice below will still help you get the most out of the money you spend.

Cards

When you begin StarChamber you have a small collection of cards. Those cards are of five different types or rarities.

Commons

These cards are given away by many veteran players and thus are free, as Wuppin has explained. It's important to immediately point out the distinction between value and utility. Although there are players who could put together a deck in which every single card was worth $2 or $3 or more, not one of them would use such a deck in serious competition. There are many commons that you exclude from your deck at your peril.

Uncommons

The next class of cards in value. They range from $.05 to $.60. There are three uncommons in a booster pack. In this case card value reflects the greater scarcity of uncommon than common cards, not greater utility. As with commons many uncommons are infinitely more useful than cards that are worth several times their value. In general a higher value uncommon will be more useful than a lower value uncommon, but you cannot compare the utility of a promo to an uncommon based on price, for example.

Rares

These cards are worth between $.50 and $12, with the majority falling around the $2 mark. There is one rare in each booster. They range in utility from virtually useless to game-breaking.

Starters

These cards are found only in starter decks, not in boosters. Each starter deck contains two starter cards of that race. The utility of starters varies. The current value is $1.80 in all cases.

Promo

These cards are not included in any pack. They see a brief run of production and then go out of print forever. They can then only be obtained through trading (as any other card) or through council membership, which is explained in the starchamber online store. The developers try to make these cards slightly below the power of rare cards, so in general these add fun or flavor to a deck but are not power cards.

The letter within the card number found in the lower right corner indicates the card's rarity.

The Problem with Your Cards

The above should give a general idea of the value of your collection.

The utility of your cards is, however, a trickier subject. There are many articles on deckbuilding in the forums, and a great number of cards have player comments on individual pages on Kit's site. Those materials will be crucial in solving the initial problem which faces you as a new player. I will outline that problem briefly.

A new player begins the game with 4 starters, 5 promos, 11 rares and 31 uncommons. These cards represent the value of your collection (again, commons have no value). But what happens when you use them to build your first deck? The 4 starters will be of two different races. Therefore only two can effectively be used in a deck. The promos are all mono-tech promos, two of which can therefore also be included. The rares and uncommons will be distributed randomly among the races. On average you would expect to see at most 3 rares of one or two races. Likewise you probably have one or two races (not necessarily the same ones) where you have been lucky with uncommons. So, at most you can include in your deck: 2 starters, 2 promos, 2 or 3 rares if you're lucky and maybe 4 to 6 uncommons. This is well below the numbers a competitive player will include. And, more importantly, in a veteran's deck those cards will be chosen in relation to each other. They will either combine in their strengths or compensate for inherent weaknesses. Your random cards will not. In fact, the odds of the strong cards that you have drawn all combining into a competitive deck are virtually nil.

So, it's important to look at one's collection in a slightly different way. I have referred in the forums to the value of your collection as decquity, defined as the total value of your collection. Your decquity is spread out over ten races. That's the problem with your cards. Simply put, you need to consolidate your initial decquity in one race in order to be competitive. If you trade your 11 scattered rares for 6 great rares of equal value that work together for a particular race, you're golden. I believe the same holds true for your uncommons, starters and promos, although with some explanation. More about that below.

Choosing a Race

I will clarify how to go about making those trades, but first a question must be answered: how do you know which race to go for? I would recommend you answer this question by playing, and particularly by playing two specific types of games. When you create a game in the casual lobby, set one of the following conditions:

Starters Only: only starter decks can be used. They cannot be altered in any way. Deckbuilding is therefore not part of the equation.

Common Ground: only common cards can be entered in the match. You will need to build a deck of common cards for this purpose.

It will be very rare that an experienced player will decline to meet you on either of these more level playing fields. In this way you can begin to get a feel for the different races and how they play. Based on these preliminary matches, and to some extent on the strong cards that you drew by chance, you will soon have chosen your first race. There are one or two races that I would suggest you avoid. More about that below. The next step is to begin making trades.

Trading Rares

Rule No. 1: Always know the value of all cards you trade, you can find card values in Kit's Database.

To begin, go to the casual game lobby and type /ptrade in the chat window. This will bring up a list of the proposed trades. They are listed chronologically, so the first fifty or so are trade offers that have been around a long time. That should tell you something. Towards the bottom however you will come to the more current trades. Check to see if anyone is offering the cards you are looking for by typing the title in the search bar. It will be unlikely that you have the cards they are requesting. You may, however, find the card you want offered for an equal value in Event Passes (EP). Event Passes act as a form of currency in the game, each one being worth about $1. You can always purchase necessary EP's from the online store (they deliver in seconds) to complete these trades.

If the cards you want are not offered, you will add a new ptrade. If you really want the card in question it's a good idea to trade for slightly more than the card's value. Personally, I don't mind losing $.50 or $1 of value for a card or cards that I really want. You may chose to be more patient or conservative with your decquity. Remember, EP's are also useful for evening out trades. Your $2 rare plus 2 EP's= a killer $4 rare. If your offered trade is not accepted within a few days, consider bumping up the value of your offer. Having a few EP's on hand is of course the easiest way to do this.

Occasionally you will see players who offer much less in trade than the value of the card they want. These players are trying to be too clever, perhaps they hope to find someone willing to give them a great deal. Generally speaking, the trade just never happens. Prices do fluctuate in StarChamber as in any open market. It is quite rare, however, that a card will gain or lose more than $1 of value over the short run, so for the most part you can trade freely.

Trading Other Cards

What goes for rares, above goes for the other types of cards as well, although with some points to consider.

Promos: If you decide to trade your promos, bear in mind that when they go out of print their value begins to increase, often quite dramatically. That fact must be weighed against their utility. I've never seen any of the current initial promos (Core Drain, Harbinger's Rain, Echoes of the Atok, Visions of Antiquity, Minerva's Shroud) used in play. They all also have special effects that are triggered at Minerva, a planet which does not exist on any map currently in use. Whether those promos will always be given to new players is also a question. So, you have a question of limited utility vs. potential value as collectibles.

Starters: If you decide to trade your starters, bear in mind that you won't be able to play the related starter deck, which must be intact.

Uncommons: If you decide to trade your uncommons, bear in mind that you can purchase uncommons from private resellers (Many keep their stock up to date with Kit's site). You can get most of the useful uc's of any given race for a total cost of $5 to $7. You may find this easier than trading all your off-race uncommons for ones you need. Contact one of the resellers via email. They will talk you through the simple process. In addition many players will offer several Uncommens via ptrate for an EP. You can also contact most players directly offering EP for Uncommon trades.

In general a higher value uncommon will be more useful than a lower value uncommon, but you cannot compare the utility of a promo or rare to an uncommon based on price. I hope that is perfectly clear: the value of a card indicates its utility only in relation to other cards of the same rarity. It's safe to say that any of the high-end, $0.50, uncommons are more useful than any of the low-end, $1, rares.

When you start trading, bear the following in mind. I was recently sharing dumb trade stories with another player who said that he once traded 4 Proton Cannons for a rare of equal value, or $2. Let's look at that. Essentially, he traded 4 cards that are of the highest utility (as indicated by their value in relation to other cards of the same type) for only 1 card of slightly below average utility (judging by the same standard for its type). For a collector that may be ok, for a player intent on getting his first win, it was an absolute disaster. So, another rule of thumb: until you have a feel for the utility of cards, only trade for cards of the same type. Once you have that sense, you may chose (as I have) to trade a truly poor rare for a handful of useful uncommons that you can't get by other means.

Tech Curve

One final bit of advice before you start trading: mind the tech curve. Tech curve is the necessary level of tech you will need to play any and all cards in your hand. Let me give you an example. You may read through the cards and say "Underground Resistance, that sounds like a good card for my humans," and right you are, and you go out and acquire one or two of them. Then you say, "Industrial Nexus, that sounds great too" and you're right again, it is another great card, but when you put them in the same deck you encounter a problem. You will find it extremely difficult if not impossible to get the 5 Life for UndRes and the 6 Order for IndNex in the same game. Your tech curve was 11, much too high, and now it's back to ptrades to trade in one or the other card for something you can actually play. I believe most players would agree to this general rule: keep your tech curve down to 7 (without tech-boosting cards) or 9 (with a couple of boosts). Deck Flow is a closely related subject which you can find discussed elsewhere.

Race Choice Cautions

In closing, I promised to warn you against a couple of races. I've saved this for last because it's the most uncertain ground to cover. If my statements spark defense of the races in question, great. I would love to know why I'm wrong. That said, here are my thoughts.

Ixa are a combination of two opposing forces: Order (the upward pointing white triangle) and Entropy (the downward pointing grey triangle). The creators of SC have been very good at sticking to this internal dichotomy. They have created very few cards that are good without some crippling side effect. When they have created good cards they have priced them so high that they aren't worth playing. I like squids. I like the creepy squid art. I can't imagine playing Ixa.

Zhikanii are very clever. Too clever. While they have a strong common pool, it seems to me that their Rares only tend to shine in combination with eachother (card A must meet card B). Combos require luck, patience and careful boardplay. While you may have the first of these qualities, you almost certainly lack the other two. For now, stay away.

Androids are the powerhouse race. They have the toughest ships and the most upgrades for them, both in attack and defense. Sound great? It's not. SC is a game of influence, not battle. If you're going to attempt droids pay a lot of attention to the cyber cards that increase influence and the entropy cards that take it away. Creating the UberCruiser may be fun, but it doesn't win games. I hesitate to criticize Silica because they are an extremely strong race. However, I don't think they are competitive unless you have several expensive rares. If you start with one or more Motherships, Behemoths, Stonecutters, Dry Docks, or Minelayers in your initial cards, or a few of the great mono-life rares, then yes think about developing Silica. Otherwise you may find getting a winning deck together very difficult and/or expensive. -->

A Final Caution

All of us who play StarChamber pretty much agree that it's the best strategy game that has ever existed. I think we can also agree on one other point: the AI for practice mode is so unbelievably bad it's actually unhealthy for new players to use it. It so consistently does the stupid thing that it will teach you filthy habits. Stay away from skirmish mode, take your lumps in casual games, and above all get used to looking at what your opponent is doing and anticipating their best move.

Good luck,
happy trading,
happy playing.