A Guide To Shard Management

[FreeForAll]

A little while ago an experienced, well-known player asked chat which cards he should craft next. He'd built up some excess shards and was looking for some versatile cards to spend it on. He told chat that he usually tried to stay below 2k shards... which floored me. Newer players often ask either the same question or questions about when to sell cards, so I thought it'd be worth writing a post on the subject of shard management.

First, let me say that there's nothing wrong with however you want to invest your hard earned shards. This game is for fun, and nobody should be able to tell you that buying a life-size Stormtrooper replica is wrong if you really enjoy life-size Stormtrooper replicas. But for players who want to accumulate a big collection and wealth surplus quickly, there are two rules of thumb.

Please note that it is very important to get a strong ranked deck early on. To reach this goal, you probably shouldn’t feel bad about salvaging currently useless Legends and Supremes to gain staple cards and make the decks you grind Ranked with more effectiveness. After that point, though, you enter a wealth accumulation phase.

Rule of Thumb Number One: Never Salvage Cards Unless You Have More Than Three Copies

Suppose you’re accumulating wealth and you decide you’ll never play with Supreme cards, so you sell them all. If down the road a tournament has rules that require Supreme cards, you’re paying about a 75% markup over each card you sold. And the waste adds up quickly.

Why three? Because the most copies of duplicate cards you can have in a deck are three. At the same time having only one Priestess in your deck while having three in your collection allows you to add those extras to your deck should you ever wish to in the future. If you gain an additional copy you can salvage the extra copy and still be positioned ideally.

Salvaging cards is particularly heinous with Legendary cards that can’t be bought cheaply. If you sell your Styxis and next patch someone creates a new top tier deck using the card, you simply can’t make the deck until you find more Styxis. Resist the temptation. :)

Rule of Thumb Number Two: Never Craft Cards Unless It Is Necessary

Suppose you’re accumulating wealth, you've now come into 4k Shards, and you're considering crafting two Dragon Nests because you think you'd like to play a Dragon Nest deck down the road. If you craft them for 2000 each and then gain Dragon Nests before you need them for your deck idea, you'll sell excess copies for 500 each. Which means you've thrown 2000 - 500 = 1500 shards in the garbage for each. And the waste adds up quickly.

Some players try to buy all Common cards as soon as possible. I agree it'd be nice not to have to click over to the Crafting Menu whenever I'm missing a card I need, but you have to recognize that you're paying a substantial convenience charge. For each card you buy, later gain, and sell an excess copy of, you spent about 50-75% more for that card than you needed to. And the waste adds up quickly.

Another important reason not to Craft cards without reason is that having Shards on hand gives you versatility if you suddenly need something. Put another way, if you have 200,000 shards, you have enough crystals to use any 10-card deck you'd like. By not crafting cards you effectively have access to all cards should the need arise.

In conclusion, too many players complain about Legendary grinding and then turn around and throw Shards away by buying and selling cards needlessly. Follow the above rules of thumb to maximize your deck building options in the future.

[Khazlariko]

Adding on to that - when you're first starting out, you don't have much and you don't know what to get, here is my recommended "first cards to craft to help you win a few games"

Ghost Turret
Boomer
Beam of DOOM!
Shock Rock
Blue Golem
Cannon Roller
Battle Shi-Hou

and maybe followed by the rare card Whirly Scrat.

[Memfisto]

Can buy Stormbringer replica with shards?

[FreeForAll]

This has now been published as a public Guide in the Guides section.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=872839681

[cub]

Originally posted by Memfisto:

Can buy Stormbringer replica with shards?

this

[Texuguinho]

:)

[TofuDieb [profile in progress]]

Originally posted by Matthew 3:10:

What happened to the salvage option? It appears now I can only "promote" cards, instead of salvage them. Am I missing something? Is this a hidden option?

They removed it. Now you can get shards from spinning tokens.