fieryseraph
New Member
I'm a bit new to this game, (a couple of months), so maybe this is an obvious topic for everyone else, but I was wondering if we could discuss the merits of using the 'ball' trainer engine.
The trainer line that my kids and I play usually looks something like this. It seems to be reasonably reliable, and gets us by okay:
3 Scott
2 Island hermit
4-6 TV reporter/holon adventuer
3 holon mentor
4-6 celios/PETM
...others, depending on deck
But I've been wondering about what would happen if I tried this out:
4 master ball
4 great ball
4 dark ball (DP2)
4 quick ball (DP2)
4 PETMs/celio's
So... depending on the deck you play, but mostly, the following holds true - the sooner you set up, the sooner you can bring the pain train to your opponent. It seems like if you crammed all of those into your deck, you'd be pulling at least 2-3 pokes out of your deck per turn. Maybe you could use them, maybe you couldn't right away, but I think after 2-3 turns of spamming 2-3 balls, you'd have at least most of what you needed, especially if you combined your engine with a starting poke like castform or lickutung/sableye, who both help you draw, and increase your odds of you having what you need in your hand. AND you can STILL use your regular supporters if you really need just one card to connect everything together.
Maybe I am crazy, but I just get really frustrated when I am trying to set up, and I need like another 3-4 pokes to really get going, but I can only find ONE per turn with a Celio's or a PETM. UGH.
So... what does everyone think? Is it crazy to even think about? Too inconsistent/unpredictable?
It looks to me like balls help more at the beginning of the game for a speedier setup, but then how do you balance the fact that you need a lot of them at the beginning with the fact that cards like dark ball can become dead cards toward the end of the game (when there aren't any pokes in your bottom 7 cards; you already pulled them out!)?
Does the ball engine work better in some decks than in others? Maybe only decks that need a lot of setup benefit from this engine? Or perhaps this would only work in something like the kricketot deck, where you know exactly what you are going to get?
Hrmm.... what say you, expert-types and other spectulators?
The trainer line that my kids and I play usually looks something like this. It seems to be reasonably reliable, and gets us by okay:
3 Scott
2 Island hermit
4-6 TV reporter/holon adventuer
3 holon mentor
4-6 celios/PETM
...others, depending on deck
But I've been wondering about what would happen if I tried this out:
4 master ball
4 great ball
4 dark ball (DP2)
4 quick ball (DP2)
4 PETMs/celio's
So... depending on the deck you play, but mostly, the following holds true - the sooner you set up, the sooner you can bring the pain train to your opponent. It seems like if you crammed all of those into your deck, you'd be pulling at least 2-3 pokes out of your deck per turn. Maybe you could use them, maybe you couldn't right away, but I think after 2-3 turns of spamming 2-3 balls, you'd have at least most of what you needed, especially if you combined your engine with a starting poke like castform or lickutung/sableye, who both help you draw, and increase your odds of you having what you need in your hand. AND you can STILL use your regular supporters if you really need just one card to connect everything together.
Maybe I am crazy, but I just get really frustrated when I am trying to set up, and I need like another 3-4 pokes to really get going, but I can only find ONE per turn with a Celio's or a PETM. UGH.
So... what does everyone think? Is it crazy to even think about? Too inconsistent/unpredictable?
It looks to me like balls help more at the beginning of the game for a speedier setup, but then how do you balance the fact that you need a lot of them at the beginning with the fact that cards like dark ball can become dead cards toward the end of the game (when there aren't any pokes in your bottom 7 cards; you already pulled them out!)?
Does the ball engine work better in some decks than in others? Maybe only decks that need a lot of setup benefit from this engine? Or perhaps this would only work in something like the kricketot deck, where you know exactly what you are going to get?
Hrmm.... what say you, expert-types and other spectulators?
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