Culdcept Central - The world's largest Culdcept fan site!

Hi all, I'm a longtime culdcept fan (first started with the PS2 version) and recently I just bought an xbox 360 JUST TO PLAY SAGA. Before that, I played Culdcept Saga on my friend's 360, but that was before I moved out of the place we shared together.

Anyway, as a previous casual-MTG player, I was thinking about how online gaming introduced a metagame to this game we all know and love. The thing about MTG is that new cards are released all the time, so strategies evolve. Not only that, but older cards can become banned even in "legacy" play mostly because they are proven to be "broken."

Culdcept is different. We don't have new cards released to us all the time (not a bad thing), but I think this has the potential for a stagnant metagame. And if any cards are "broken," they're going to become permanent fixtures in online play. Which may become boring.

I haven't played against anyone on xbox live yet (aside from my friend), but I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this topic. Do you think there are any broken cards being abused online (I'm thinking of E cards to begin with)? Should someone (we) begin compiling a list of banned cards to keep things fresh? Or does something like this already exist?

Apologies if I posted in the wrong place...

The metagame does change from time to time, but usually you can key in on how frequent players play and what cards they like to use. Just like in Magic. There are some cards that do become permanent fixtures with some of the players (Zeromn, Rouetsoleil, Red Cap, Goblin's Lair, etc.), but not everyone.

There aren't any banned cards typically, although I've heard rumors of some people setting up the game rules so that no Fire cards could be played.

Many players, like the tournament regulars and ladder players on this site choose to not play with or against E cards. These players will set up the rules for no E cards.

It sort of just depends on the players though. If you have a mic, just ask the opponent their feelings about E cards if you have a strong feeling regarding E cards (one way or the other). You can always send a quick message too. Most people need 5 minutes or so to tweak decks at the beginning, so there is no issue if you need a little time.

I'd recommend getting a bunch of cards first before you start online, if you haven't already. It is WAY different from playing the AI. Here is a link to a card farming method that you can use solo for your reference.

http://www.culdceptcentral.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=288&Itemid=210

These are just some of my thoughts on your questions / issues below. Glad you are having fun with the game!

Luckily I was able to get my game save off my friend's machine so I think I have every card now, but thanks for the link, I've never read about that method before.

Any other thoughts out there on banned cards and the Xbox live metagame? If there are indeed certain overused/abused cards out there, I could almost see different tourny's being set up that do restrict their usage... again, taking for instance the different MTG format requirements.

Some cards that my friend and I both have lots of in our decks, but are really no fun to play against: all the Holy Words.

thos, glad you could use that game save. That's huge! I think I see where you are trying to go, but unfortunately, many of the Culdcept Saga players online do not know about this site (sadly for them), or they do not have computers. So, if we were to set up some sort of agreed cards that needed to be banned here on this forum there might be some issues. You could always try to create a rule set when you create your games that ban certain cards you don't like. Just let your opponent know.

We've done some things like the Theme Tourney and Chaos Tourney which mess with the cards that you can play in a deck, but most of our tourneys and ladders only ban E cards.

On the plus side, most of the cards can be beaten by using some sort of strategy, and no deck is invincible. Also, as you mentioned in your first post, since there is a limited number of cards, there really isn't a need for banning cards. I think you'll see this more as you play online matches. Be open to learning new strategies both with your deck and with what they throw at you (and be open to getting your face knocked in a little ) Just make sure you remember it is a game and have fun!

If every player wants to ban something before any match, don't forget that in the end, will be available for play only the cards from the base set....which kinda sucks. Maybe you really hate the dice spells (especially Holy Word 0? ) but you can always put a HW8 or a HW0 in your deck as a counter measure. If you don't want to cast them on your opponent/s, just use them on yourself. You'll soon start to like them when you cast a creature's TA 2 times in a row or get pass a high level land of the opposite side.
Of course, you can edit your own rules, too. For example....to play without spells at all.