Munchkin Deck building suggestions wanted

[Reinn]

Hi all:

I finally got Munchkin 4 the need for steeds last weekend from local store so here are what I have at the moment:

Munchkin Core, Munchkin booster packs 1,4,5,6 and 7. I don't like to introduce more into the game as the I prefer the flavour of the theme to stay in classic fantasy and dungeon crawling(I am a DND fan anyway).

So, here is my question: how to build a good deck?

I analyzed the original deck from the core set and noticed that:

95/168 = 56.5% cards are doors
73/168 = 43.5% cards are treasures
the rest is omitted here...

I came up with a deck of 120 doors which contains 41 monsters and 80 treasures, so all together that was 200 cards.

However, I cannot drop any hiring or steed related cards into the deck for the following reasons:

My deck is with all Races and Classes:

Races : Human, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling and Orc
Classes : Warrior, Wizard, Cleric, Thief, Bard and Ranger

To support those I've already added lots of cards into it. Also I included 20 curses in the doors. Therefore there is no room for steeds and/or hirings unless I continue to increase the size of the doors, which would then have the side-effect to increase the size of the treasures so as to keep the ratio...

Is there any general recommendations for effectively building a deck that is not too big(otherwise most cards would not have the chance to be used in a game) but is balanced so no win could be granted without the twists and turns.

BTW, I am looking for a similar site like this : http://deckbox.org/, which is a online deck-building utility for Munchkin. I am not sure about the rules here, if there is no such a one at the moment, what is your say if I, a programmer, develop a website and open it for public? with information on card details or just the names? I found it pretty hard to share my deck here without a lot of typings (I type too much everyday:( )

As always, many thanks in advance!

[Mister Ed]

I'm not really clear why maintaining a constant ratio between doors and treasures is at all important. The two decks are handled completely separately in the game.

Now if you are tweaking your decks, the ratios I'd be concerned about are WITHIN those two decks. I'm too lazy to do anything but just use the sets as they are when I buy them, but if I were to try to customize them, my main concern would be ratios of monsters/monster enhancers/curses/classes/races, etc. WITHIN the Door deck, or GUALs/one-shots/headgear/footgear/armor/hand items, etc. WITHIN the Treasure Deck. I couldn't care less how big one deck is in comparison to the other.

[Reinn]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

I'm not really clear why maintaining a constant ratio between doors and treasures is at all important. The two decks are handled completely separately in the game.

Now if you are tweaking your decks, the ratios I'd be concerned about are WITHIN those two decks. I'm too lazy to do anything but just use the sets as they are when I buy them, but if I were to try to customize them, my main concern would be ratios of monsters/monster enhancers/curses/classes/races, etc. WITHIN the Door deck, or GUALs/one-shots/headgear/footgear/armor/hand items, etc. WITHIN the Treasure Deck. I couldn't care less how big one deck is in comparison to the other.

I agree, I save the space of mentioning the ratio within treasures and door decks as I was trying to following the original core deck... So no too many GUAL or too few curses!

But you are right, I really shouldn't care about the ratio between size of the doors and that of the treasures... Unless the game masters here can reveal the reason for this under the hood:)

[MaesterKupo]

Personally, I've found that if you purchase them in the order they made them (as in 1 then 2 then 3 then 4...) the new cards seem to balance out any issues created by the last one. And skipping 2 and 3 could create a bit of an issue in balance within the decks but all in all every expansion is fairly well done.

[StormyWaters]

Originally Posted by MaesterKupo

Personally, I've found that if you purchase them in the order they made them (as in 1 then 2 then 3 then 4...) the new cards seem to balance out any issues created by the last one. And skipping 2 and 3 could create a bit of an issue in balance within the decks but all in all every expansion is fairly well done.

This.

There isn't any real reason to skip any of the first 4 expansions (Munchkin 2-5). They add new cards but keep the balance in place and none of them change the theme at all.

Adding 6 is up to you, as you may not want the dungeon cards.

Adding 7 for me is a pass for now. It seems like it's meant to be used in conjunction with other base sets, which I don't have currently.

The smaller packs are up to you though. I personally grab anything and everything I can. I have nearly all the sets so far, except 6, which I will be picking up soon.

Edit: I personally really like Fairy Dust and Munchkinomicon. Mini decks add new options, and Fairy Dust makes it easier for the party to get past the low levels by making it more beneficial to help each other.

[natesroom]

I dont have #3 for some reason and i haven't noticed an issue except for not having enough gnomes. I did incorporate GUAL so i have bards and a few other things.

I still want to get #3 but every time i go to pick it up I get distracted by other things (I'm looking at you zombies!)

[bonetm]

Although M7 was originally for blending sets together, it really makes a difference when you put together M1-M6, boosters and everything else. That much cards have the same balance problems as using too many base sets. I would recommend M7 for anyone with so many cards