Hi, I’m just curious how you guys manage to print the character sheets as well as the cards. Is there like a good online service that most people use? Thanks.
Hi Nick. I use my home color printer and 110 lb. card stock, though card stock of 80 lbs. or heavier should be sufficient. I print the cards on one side, flip the sheets over, and print the backs on the other side. The quality has been plenty good but suffers as the ink starts to run dry, and the ink can be expensive, but it’s still the cheapest option.
You can use a FedEx office or local print shop for higher quality prints but that gets really pricey. I looked into a card-making manufacturer once but also found it to be cost-prohibitive.
Hi Roman, love the website. I am just getting back into Epic Duels. I probably haven’t played for 10 years. What would you consider to be the most “official” decks to play if someone is just starting out? Would it be the 10YA Tournament set (including both custom and originals)?
Asking because of minor differences here and there. For example, in the 10YA set, Han solo deck is tweaked, but on this site it felt it wasn’t necessary. Or the minor differences between your Jango deck and the 10Ya set. I know at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter – I can always print and try them all out, but just wanted to know your opinion.
Hi Daniel, welcome back. I would play the 10YA Custom Set with the base set, and tweak the base set if you want to. Beyond that, it’s more a matter of taste than anything, but I’d start with the EU Expansion, or just explore the characters you’re interested in.
I don’t really know if anyone plays with the 10YA Tournament Set, but you’re welcome to use it if you want to play a set where all of the decks are roughly equal in strength, or if you just want some optional tweak cards for the base decks.
Ah, I hadn’t seen that. The challenge in designing this deck is what you brought up: By letting each of the 3 characters access all 31 cards, it’s easy to design an overpowered deck. The way to mitigate that problem is to design the talent cards to be kind of weak, if you were to compare them to other decks. The offense consists of 3x A4*, 2x A6, and 3x 3 direct damage. That’s simply not much, unless you’re able to get higher values out of the A4*s. As the Nazgul player, you have the advantage early, but lose it as your opponent starts killing off Nazgul, something that’s not that hard to do with their 8 HP each. Once you’re down to your last Nazgul, you’re at a disadvantage against pretty much any major character, even with access to every card in your deck. I think if all 3 Nazgul had 9 HP each, this deck would actually be very strong.
Ah u cee, now I missed your answer 😀
It really is tough to balance out. With my interpretations I tried to stay as closely as possible with your design (as it is proven and well tested). Just thought about what you said regarding it beeing pretty weak in a possible SWED collection. That is why I exchanged the weak minor decks for a red (for the darkside deck) and blue (for the Jedi deck) minor. I just have the feeling both could make the decks way too strong. Do you share the same sentiment or do you beleive this could work?
So if I follow, you replaced the 9 melee minor basic cards with 9 minor Red or 9 minor Blue cards? I think you and I have discussed this, but I’ve come to realize that there’s a big difference between strong and weak minor cards. “Too strong” is a matter of how strong you want the decks to be, but they will definitely be substantially stronger than the Nazgul deck.
So, for a deck like this with all majors, I think it’s important to have weak cards. Instead of “I’ll attack him but does he have defense or not?” it’s “I’ll attack him but I know he has defense, but is it strong defense or weak defense?”
Otherwise, you’ll basically have an answer for everything, as long as you’re holding cards in your hand. It’s the 9 weak melee cards that prevent the Nazgul deck from being overpowered, in my estimation (not that I’ve tried stronger cards in their place).
As for straying from standard basic decks… We count cards when we play, so we don’t stray from our own set of basics, which is smaller than OWJ’s set, and therefore, I’d advice against making custom basic decks BUT I also think there’s such a difference between Strong and Weak minor decks, that a “middle” deck could be a good addition.
That is exactly what I did.
The problem is out of the standard minor melee decks I can’t find anything I like for that case. The Weak deck is ultra weak. I considered the strong or strong+ decks but they have way too much defense for my liking (for the Sith deck). I’d much rather use something around 23/17. Only deck that comes close is the brown one but this still has 5 defense more than a red deck.
And for the blue deck I would like to have something around 20/20.
I have always avoided using something out of the realm of OWJ Basic Deck Design article. Do you think it would be appropiate to go that way in this specific case? Just to hit the right mark regarding strength of deck or should I rather go with what’s out there?
As I don’t care for LotR and don’t intend to include anything but SW in my ED collection would you mind if I copy your concept for a Star Wars design and share it on the wiki?
Sets like LOTRED and GOTED allow the creators to explore new concepts and sometimes, they end up working. When they do, I’d like to see them incorporated into SWED to expand the game a bit. The Uruk-hai Army is another game-expanding deck, but not as good as this one.
Very interesting design with the three majors more or less. I have one specific question to your wording:
On KNIVES IN THE DARK you specificly refer to “each of your Nazguls”.
On all other cards you alway refer to the Nazguls in a more general manner: “for each Nazgul”, “for any Nazgukl”.
Is this differentiation intentional or without any deeper meaning? It could make a difference if you are in 2v2 and the teammate also plays a deck containing some kind of Nazguls. Did you think about that or am I thinking too hard about that?
No I didn’t mean anything by it. A final pass on any deck, and collections of decks like LOTR, should include reviewing the consistency of wording, but I didn’t do that here. An interesting deck, indeed! As stated at the top, one of the decks I’m most proud of. I didn’t think it could be done, but then I did it.
Deck strength is a tricky question to answer. The LOTRED set in general is on the weak side compared to our SWED decks and probably a tad weak compared to the average Tier 2 SWED deck. I also don’t have much experience with this deck, but for LOTR, I think it tends towards lower-middle strength, so probably Tier 3 by SWED standards. All the more reason to consider these “3 majors” so that minor-crushing cards don’t make a weak deck even weaker.
One thing that crossed my mind regarding strength of the deck.
Shouldn’t the deck be pretty strong as you have three characters thst actually can use ALL the cards? I remember this beeing a problem with solo decks and the reason those decks received those filler cards “heal your character by 1”.
Wouldn’t this be an even bigger advantage /problem with the Nazguls as they also have three figures in play?
This is a must read for Epic Duelers. I love reading your experience with Star Wars Epic Duels.
I discovered this game in a Target store in the reduced bin. I bought the game for $2.00. I showed it to two other friends and we started playing every day for a whole summer. The game became a staple for us. It spread between our friends and slowly our group games went from 2, to 3, to 4, to 6, to 8, to 12 players. Suddenly our game nights had two games of 6 players going on at the same time.
More than ten years later social circles have grown and shrank and here I am today proudly saying that the game is going strong. Players are exposing the game to their padawans. Maps and decks are being created and printed. ***My maps are no where near as great as the maps that are on the PB works site. My maps were created with a black marker, a ruler and colored construction paper.
After seeing other creator deck designs I found myself looking at my decks again. Oh boy did I make mistakes. But man did I love comparing ideas and fine tuning my own designs.
I love this game, I love the fact in this digital gaming era this game helps get people together.
When you speak to a fan of this game, it’s quite simple, they rave about it.
Thank you for the content you have provided. Thank you for sharing with us your journey with this game.
Thanks so much for the comment! Always good to have another name to highlight the hundreds who still visit the Epic Duels sites.
I don’t know if these history posts are “must read” but hopefully, “fun read”. They were fun to write, and think back through everything I’ve seen this game go through. This current group is what I consider the 4th wave of duelists.
If you have deck designs, please be sure to share them at the Wiki (PB works) site. Also feel free to ask for help with those designs, that’s what we do.
This is a deck we somehow haven’t tested yet, but it definately is on my radar. I like the combo of Qui-Gonn and Dooku and the deck design is awesome as it is the case MANY times with your decks. I pprobably will just print iot because of the great design.
I absolutely love the idea of JEDI MEDITATION and actually feel ashamed for not coming up with that idea myself 😀
This deck really has som many great ideas working for it. The use of discard piles, the interatcions btw. the two characters, plus special cards like the aforementioned. I also really like the agressive nature of this deck. No crazy ass amount of defenses. I absolutely see this deck beeing lots of fun.
One question, the Dooku mini in the .pdf is this an original WotC mini or a custom?
I think I altered the photo of a Dooku figure to have dark hair. I did the same with a SWED Dooku figure and painted the hair black. There is no actual young Dooku figure that I’m aware of.
We haven’t played this deck much so if you do, I’d be very interested in hearing about your experiences with it.
Ha I never noticed that. It was originally called THROW QUI-GON INTO THE FIRE so it was supposed to be like Dooku throwing him, and when I shortened it to INTO THE FIRE we just never noticed that the card worked this way.
If we changed it to a Qui-Gon card then Qui-Gon would have 6 cards, so I guess I would leave it as it is, meaning they both have to be alive to use it. It does seem like Dooku should do something too, at least move.
Really cool deck and nice cards I had in mind before but never really could grasp it. MASTER SWEEP is a great card. Crazy thing I just had a very similiar idea for a new deck. I know that the attacking all the other adjacent characters is what makes the SWEEP thin going but this is what it makes this card ULTRA strong. Maybe you could find a way to reduce this part of the card? Perhaps every other character only gets attacked by half the attack value?
MASTER SWEEP looks strong and has great potential, but most of the time it’s just an A4 or once in a while, an A6. Have you actually played with this deck and seen Luke dominate with this card? If you do, please report back, but I don’t think it will happen that way very often.
…it would lead to him attscking three times with an A8..is what I wanted to say.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the deisgn of this deck. It really looks great and fun to play, I just would somehow scale down MASTER SWEEP for our style of play.
I’m talking about 2v2 as well — I almost never play anything else. MASTER SWEEP has great potential but I can’t remember ever seeing it used as even an A8.
Honestly I haven’t. I would say it depends on how you play the game. As our group almost exclusively plays 2v2 teamplay it would not be too uncommon to have Luke adjacent to 3 opponents. This would result in him attacking ALL three with a single action. I can see it work way better in 1v1 matchups.
Ha! Cool. This deck kind of came out of nowhere. I’ll have to dig up that old figure, it’s pretty neat. Anyways, feel free to make this Han on Tauntaun and add more of your movement ideas if you want to.
How funny is that? I just started to work on a Hoth Han and Chewie deck when I really accidentally came across your deck. I actually wanted to have a deck for Hans Tauntaun miniature. Maybe even to pair him up in 2v2 play with Luke’s Tauntaun deck. My idea was to base it on good movement and make this the main theme for the deck as Luke doesn’t make to much use of that in his deck. Your version also brings some movement. I really like your deck, maybe I will leave it at that and just use it with the Tauntaun mini.
Just wanted to let you known I appreciate you sharing it.
Roman, this is such an awesome read. I’ve been following you guys for years. I remember downloading a bunch of decks back in 2009 and revamping my original core game and buying new characters using the Miniatures franchise. Even recently, i downloaded and updated all the way up through Rogue One and SOLO.
I now have over 30 decks, all entirely remade using Star Wars Miniatures; even to the point where i’ve custom built and painted pieces using an amalgam of Star Wars Miniatures body parts and weapons and a heft of super glue(my Kylo Ren grabs the most attention).
I just want you to personally know that i appreciate you and everyone else’s hard work over the years. You’ve brought a lot of great stuff into our homes and lives and increased in the enjoyment of an already legendary game. When i pull out my $500+, completely re-done, multi-mapped, custom built AND LAMINATED Epic Duels:: People GO CRAZY.
Most don’t even know the game existed and i’m always happy to introduce it to more and more people. As far as i’m concerned, the fanbase is still there and growing.
I may not have been around for the tournaments or the good-old-days you’re describing, but from where i’ve been — this game has ALWAYS been such a big part of my gaming groups and game nights. You’ve all had such an influence on me and i wish you all the best.
Thank you for everything, especially the memories.
Additionally, if you’re ever looking for professional graphic design services in deck-building, let me know! I can design like a fiend, but i don’t think i’m at the point of making my own decks. hahah
Thanks JusDon! I showed this comment to my wife, who asked me the other night why I was staying up late to write this. Let us know which decks are you favorites! We want to see pictures of your laminated set and modded figures! Send them and I’ll post them here if you want.
Absolutely. I’ll send pics of my entire set and specifics in regards to alterations as well as my decks!
Where should i send them to?
You can send me an email to justin(dot)doncsecz(at)gmail.com and i can reply with a string of stuff and reply to any questions you may have!
This game is incredible in that its so simple to grasp, but the posibilities for customization are endless. Based on the interviews from the creators (your interviews, I think?), I’m not even sure they were aware of what they created.
I’m upset I missed the golden age, but I loved this game as a kid when it came out, and only rediscovered it when an old co-worker posted on facebook how sets were being sold online for up to $1000. Broke out the old game, and started pondering if expanding into other universes was possible. Google search later and found out people have been doing in for a decade. Pretty crazy. Very thankful, for the people who’ve added input on anything I’ve created, and guidelines to deck building, and of course the deck designer program. Still hoping, someone will make a map design guideline/program in the future 😀
Sophist, thanks for reading and for your wonderful contributions to Epic Duels! I have no map-making capability of my own so I too would love a program, but I’m not holding my breath.
I don’t intend to upset anyone with the description of the Golden Age, but for newcomers, I think it’s worth understanding that there was such a time. My goal is to help people like yourself understand that all the content, and myself as the administrator of it, didn’t just suddenly show up. There’s a whole history to the online community of this great game.
Yes, I am the one who interviewed Rob Daviau and I think I got through to him that what he’s created still has an active following, because, to my surprise, he then decided to re-do the game as Unmatched.
I dunno. Is Durge a loose cannon? Although I resisted the idea at first, I came around to believing Beckett is a good fit, and I put some of these mechanisms in his deck.
Thank you! Excited to give it a go!
I recently re-did the entire base game with the Wizards miniature series and have been custom building minis for Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Solo expansions you’ve made.
I really appreciate it!
Thanks for posting this! Where exactly can you find the rule book online?
That board is going to take some getting used to. I’ve heard high praise for the Tannhauser LOS system so maybe I’ll like it. The picture of the board I’ve seen does make it look a bit small though.
The new hand limit is interesting. I personally want to see a deck that forces draws in order to take advantage of exhaustion.
A lot of what I’m seeing here sounds a lot like what we were talking about for Epic Duels Redux (BOOST, move values). So that’s cool, I guess.
Definitely agree with you that we need to see how it plays out.
From Blue Beetle – Epic Dueling: Adapting Star Wars Epic Duels for Superheroes
on
Luminara Unduli
[…] The Blue Beetle name has gone through at least three major characters, but Jaime Reyes is the most powerful interpretation of the character. He’s also probably DC’s best attempt at recreating the magic of Spider-Man, and probably the most prominent Latinx superhero ever, really. I really dug Mike Maloney’s take on IG-88, who can change attacks at will and that core idea guided this. I also took JEDI AGILITY from Geektopia’s Luminara Unduli. […]
From Cheetah – Epic Dueling: Adapting Star Wars Epic Duels for Superheroes
on
IG-88
[…] more sophisticated take on the “free actions” idea. But the deck really started with Geektopia’s IG-88 and Bossk deck (which mostly uses cards from PD Magnus). Bossk’s THRILL OF THE HUNT seemed to fit […]
From Cyborg – Epic Dueling: Adapting Star Wars Epic Duels for Superheroes
on
IG-88
[…] League, and definitely had to be one of my strongest ranged decks. I borrowed some cards from Geektopia’s IG-88 and 4-LOM decks, which are based on cards by PD Magnus and Docmogs. But a lot of the cards were […]
From Martian Manhunter – Epic Dueling: Adapting Star Wars Epic Duels for Superheroes
on
Quinlan Vos
[…] are either original or generic, though I did use the PSYCHOMETRICS effect from Geektopia’s Quinlan Vos deck. The result is a top tier sluggo that can go one on one with […]
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