Dustin and Rick discuss the newly announced HIGH ALERT expansion for Star Realms as well as Legend Tournament Winners and great new blog posts on Megahaulin.wordpress.com!
Podcast Episode 82: HIGH ALERT!
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The Reshuffle: A Strategy Guide (2nd Edition)
by Rick DeMille aka Darklighter
Why a 2nd Edition?
I wrote an article for the Megahaulin blog in 2015 about strategy considerations surrounding the reshuffle in Star Realms. “The ‘reshuffle’ in Star Realms,” I wrote, “produces some unique strategy considerations, particularly in the on-line game where you must play all cards in your hand.”
Things changed.
Following the Colony Wars update to the Star Realms app, you no longer had to play all cards in your hand, which is consistent with the physical game rules. You now have the option to “End Turn” before playing all your cards.
So, while many of the principles in my 2015 article are still relevant, other parts of that article no longer apply.
Finally, after hundreds of requests – mostly from myself – I updated this article given that the app no longer forces you to play all your cards.
Basic Principles
The “reshuffle” in Star Realms produces some unique strategy considerations, particularly when you will reshuffle mid-turn.
For example, playing a draw card (e.g., Corvette) when your draw pile is empty will cause your deck to reshuffle during your turn. Any cards in your current hand will not be included in that reshuffled deck. Instead, the cards in your current hand will sit in your discard pile until the next time your deck reshuffles. In other words, when you reshuffle during your turn, the cards in your hand are essentially “lost” for one deck; you will have to wait until your deck reshuffles again to have access to those cards.
This can be good when you are “losing” starter cards for one deck; for one deck those starter cards aren’t diluting your deck. But this can be a bad thing when “losing” stronger cards. Let me set the stage with two examples.
Star Realms Card Tier Lists (incl Frontiers)
BEFORE READING: For the newest version of the Card Tier List, CLICK HERE!
Original by Scott Heise aka HomerJr
Frontiers content by Rick DeMille aka Darklighter
[Updated 8/26/2019]
Since HomerJr’s last update to the card tier ranking, Star Realms has added several new expansions. We’re working on updating the card tier list to include all expansions, but we’ll do so one or two expansions at a time; so it will take a few posts.
Our first update will include the most recent expansion to hit the digital app: Frontiers!
For a brief discussion of each card in the Frontiers set, check out Megahaulin podcast Episode 81, where Dustin and Rick discuss Frontiers.
Updated Tier List
The intent of these Tier Lists is to provide a quick reference to help players, especially newer or less experienced players, when deciding which card(s) in the trade row they should buy (or whether to buy a card at all). Every card included in the V, 1, B, H, F, & R sets is contained within these lists and grouped into one of three tiers based on the overall value of the card relative to the cost of the card.
HomerJr originally wrote the Tier Lists for the V, 1, B, H, & F sets. I (Darklighter) have not changed any of HomerJr’s original rankings, and have just added rankings for Frontiers (“R”) using HomerJr’s methodology (as best I could).
While every card in the game can be valuable and help you win, not every card will have equal value over the course of the game thus there are separate Tier Lists for different phases of the game (opening buys, mid game, late game). Furthermore, many cards are highly situational or valuable only in certain decks. Please note that this is all the personal opinion of the authors, so don’t take anything in here as law. 🙂 We are always open to feedback, criticism, and discussion.
We rank each card into one of three tiers as follows:
- Tier 1: Strong value and/or agnostic to situation; beneficial in almost any deck; you almost always want to have it in your deck if you can
- Tier 2: Solid value and/or somewhat situational; may rely on ally ability triggers to be effective; generally a good buy if no Tier 1 card available
- Tier 3: Weak value and/or highly situational; may need exactly the right game circumstances to be effective; best to avoid buying except in rare cases
- Tier 4: Poor value in nearly all situations; buying this card will probably worsen your deck; you’re probably making a mistake if you’re buying this card
Episode 81: The Final Frontiers!
This week Dustin and Rick review every single card of the brand new digital Star Realms expansion: FRONTIERS. Hear hot takes and discussions around new strategies based on this new expansion!
Listen to Megahaulin on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or right here in the page!
New Star Realms Web Series!
The amazing Ori Kagan has produced a new web series called Scouts Vs Vipers. The title hails from one of the most fundamental questions amongst regular SR players – Do you scrap Scouts first, or Vipers.
The answer? You’ll find some insights (or Ori’s perspective) in the video! Great work!
Glossary Update
The awesome Darklighter took a stick to the Glossary and updated it! We’ve got a lot of great community history in those terms. Head over and check it out:
https://megahaulin.wordpress.com/glossary/
Guide to Online Leagues
This post provides a guide to the various online Star Realms leagues/tournaments played using the Star Realms digital app. These are all free, fan-created leagues.
Summary of Ongoing Fan-Created Leagues, with more details about each below:
- BoardGameGeek (BGG) League
- Star Realms Premier Circuit (SRPC)
- Pan Galactic League & Nebula Minor League (PGL & NML)
- Endurance Challenge (EC)
- Dodgeball
- Quickfire (QF)
- Star Realms Olympiad (SRO) (inactive)
- Star Realms: Galactic Summit Tournament Series (SRGS) (inactive)
- Sunday Casual Series (inactive)
- Facebook Tiered League (FTL) (inactive)
Unavailability of older Pod Eps
We have temporarily removed our back episodes before Ep 74. Publishing to new platforms means we need to be pod safe in our music choices. Until we determine our next step on this, those older episodes will be unavailable. If you have them already, you will not be affected. We’ll keep you in the loop on our progress here.
Episode 80: Return of the Megahauler!
Megahaulin is back after a long hiatus! This week Dustin is joined by a brand new co-host in Rick “Darklighter” DeMille. Discussion focuses on Origins, a new mechanic and expansion for Star Realms and online competitive leagues.
Convoy Bot Changed My Life
Long before I began playing Star Realms, I played an unhealthy amount of Magic: the Gathering. It has always been my favorite thing to counter a spell and shut people down. I could never actually finish someone off with aggressive decks, and they were lacking in choice and card advantage. I’ve always loved to draw extra cards and to come back from behind. So, it’s no surprise that I lean towards blue/red decks in Star Realms, with lots of bases. For a long time, I didn’t touch green cards if I could avoid it.
Furthermore, back in the days before Colony Wars, what is now “top row” was the “big deck” format for a very long time. I felt very confident in that format, and still believe that the top-tier deck is one revolving around bases/scrap/life gain, and that aggro decks are considerably weaker.
Megahaulin Blog for Star Realm Strategy 