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Old 10-03-2011, 07:43 AM   #1
SpinningCone
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Default card balance when using all expansions

Long story short the m friend moved away and took their Munchkin cards with them. so i'm planning on buying my own and looking at a bulk purchase of Munchkin+7 expansions (more than we used to play with).


my question is how balanced are the cards if i just combine all 8 sets into one deck?

obviously certain cards will be uber rare because they will sit within hundreds of others, but does it matter? what about certain *types* of cards?

is need for steed the only expansion with steeds? what about race/class cards? should i look into adding 2 of the main game or specific expansions to balance the overall distribution within the deck? or should i just play with a limited number of expansions at any given time and manually sort them back out later?
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Old 10-03-2011, 08:02 AM   #2
stopyelling
 
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Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

frankly this is my biggest concern right now. from what i've read anytime you play with more than one core set or more than 2 expansions play with the fast rules (the ones that has you listening at the door and drawing a treasure card instead of a door car when looting)
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Old 10-03-2011, 08:32 AM   #3
Mister Ed
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
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Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

Races and Classes should be balanced with all the expansions, because each expansion adds in extras of the existing races and classes from previous expansions. Steeds, well Need for Steed has Steeds, and so does De-Ranged (Munchkin 5), and there is the promise of more in Munchkin 8, but yeah, Steeds might be a little thin on the ground if you add all the expansions in together.

If you are looking for a Steed-ier playing experience, you could just add 4 & 5 to the core set. I've done that, and it worked fine.

My biggest problem with adding ALL expansions is that shuffling becomes nigh impossible (or at least VERY tedious). If I had an auto-shuffler, I'd use that, but absent that, you are looking at endless shuffling to try to randomize that many cards manually, and in my experience (perhaps I'm not a good shuffler?) it doesn't end up all that random by the time I give up and say, "I've been shuffling for half an hour, that's gotta be good enough".

When I last played with everything, I lived in dread of any card that let you search through a deck, but then required shuffling afterward. (Don't think any happened to come up, though.)
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Old 10-03-2011, 08:47 AM   #4
SpinningCone
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

i'll have to look into the faster play rules.

my concern is mostly balance. i can handle shuffling. it takes a bit of time but with proper technique you can randomize the large set. my thoughts would be to randomize the whole set then probably just pull out blocks of 100-200 for each play, though there may be an advantage to knowing certain cards *aren't* in the deck.

what about the demented dungeons set is that only the 16 portal cards and double sized cards? ive never played with this expansion. should i pull out my 200 cards for each play and then reshuffle the demented dungeons cards into the smaller subset then pull them out again when we are done?
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Old 10-03-2011, 08:52 AM   #5
MunchkinMan
 
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Location: Macungie, PA
Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

Re: Shuffling large decks

Have everyone playing shuffle a section of the deck, split each section in half, combine one half-section with a different half-section, shuffle again and then combine. This spreads the workload and improves randomness.

Also, if you play more than one game, unless you feel the shuffle was terrible, keep playing the next game with the top half of the remaining deck and shuffle the discards into the bottom half. If you can leave your cards as is, you won't have to start the game by shuffling the deck the next time your group gets together to play.
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Old 10-03-2011, 01:49 PM   #6
SpinningCone
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

yeah shuffling isn't too bad. i'm more worried about proper distribution of certain cards for balanced play. things like hirelings steeds wishing rings wandering monsters etc.

kinda like managing mana in magic the gathering, certain types of cards should have certain percent to show up I'd like to keep my ratios as optimal as possible and was hoping someone here had some experience in balancing that when using all expansions.
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Old 10-03-2011, 03:40 PM   #7
RevBob
 
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Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpinningCone View Post
i'm more worried about proper distribution of certain cards for balanced play.

kinda like managing mana in magic the gathering, certain types of cards should have certain percent to show up I'd like to keep my ratios as optimal as possible and was hoping someone here had some experience in balancing that when using all expansions.
There's a key difference between the two situations. Magic expansions are designed to expand the number of cards available to build a deck; you're not supposed to just open a box and add all the cards to your deck. Munchkin expansions are generally designed for you to do just that. (Yes, there are some expansions that say "shuffle these into the top part of the deck," but they're exceptions.)

In other words, Munchkin expansions are pre-balanced for your convenience.
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Old 10-03-2011, 04:06 PM   #8
Authraw
 
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Default Re: card balance when using all expansions

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpinningCone View Post
what about the demented dungeons set is that only the 16 portal cards and double sized cards? ive never played with this expansion. should i pull out my 200 cards for each play and then reshuffle the demented dungeons cards into the smaller subset then pull them out again when we are done?
I actually play with all of the original Munchkin expansions (except for the Munchkinomicon, which seems to extend our games by at least an hour when we use it) and that includes Demented Dungeons. We see about 1 to 3 portal cards per game depending on how long it goes on. I honestly like that ratio, though. Constantly changing the dungeon seems to slow down the game, and it makes dungeon changes into big game-changing events rather than regular occurrences.
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