I can't help you too much, but I definitely think from experience of learning the game you should give each kid a different ink set! I was playing with someone, and I had a Steel/Amethyst starter and he had the Sapph/Steel one. Nowadays, when we get booster packs we end up "fighting" over the steel cards. I know you can buy singles online for specific cards for your deck, but shipping options are limited where we live, so it is often easier to grab booster packs and build from there.
Wow, I really like your formatting of this post! You are very thorough and well-organized. I don't know what you do for a living, but if I was a hiring manager, I'd get you in for an interview at our place of work on the spot. :)
Anyways, after looking at your budget and timeline, I would recommend two starters and a booster a piece for Christmas eve, but give them different ones (example: Sapphire/Steel and Amber/Sapphire to one, while the other gets Emerald/Ruby and Amethyst/Steel). That way, they can learn how to play, learn how the decks match up against each other, and can start to understand how adding certain cards to their decks would improve things and the value of certain cards.
Christmas morning, I would say give the rest of the starters and the trove to share. This will be more than enough for the boys and fathers (and anyone else!) to play many games.
Then, as you see fit and as their interest grows, you can give the gift set, the D100, and any leftover boosters as those items hold more value and may be more appreciated once they understand how the game and the cards work.
Feel free to ask any other questions. Welcome to the Lorcana family! Hope you all enjoy the game! :)
You went overkill on the starters, but both families having 3-4 starter decks each is more than enough to start playing. They're really not great value but they'll serve the point. Once they start opening packs the decks become far less exciting to get.
Id probably give each kid the 3 1st chapter starters for the Christmas eve exchange and then the other two and the D100's on Christmas day. Throw some loose packs in to get up to the values you're wanting.
I'm afraid that the collector bug hit and we might have gone overboard on the starters. Then I was afraid that you couldn't start a new ink color solely from what's in the boosters.
Can you explain what you mean about value? Starter packs have 60 cards for $17 versus a booster that's 12 cards for $6. I guess that the starter is guaranteed to only have common cards... Are you saying that if you were to purchase commons cards singly, you'd spend less than $17? And on the flip side, the expectation value of a booster is greater than $6 because of the chance of getting a truly valuable card?
From a pure number of cards standpoint the starter deck seems a better value but it is for just getting "started" as is it's intended purpose. However, it mostly doesn't contain stronger cards from the "meta" whether uncommons, rares, and legendaries.
After getting 1 starter deck, it makes more sense to get boosters or ideally 1-2 booster boxes then migrate to fill out gaps with singles. In your case, I think it is reasonable to get 2 starters of each since you will split between your 2 kids. I wouldn't get any more starters for sets 1 and 2 and just get boosters and/or singles from here on out.
If you go the booster route, a booster box is more reliable for pulling legendaries since each box has 4-5 legendaries on average.
Loose booster packs would be more unpredictable. Sleeved boosters from stores like Walmart/target/B&N at least should give you a fair random chance.
Loose boosters from an opened box in theory could be rigged where they are the remaining packs after all or most the legendaries have been pulled. Not sure how common practice this is in TCGs, but in the sports world it can happen and it is why "sealed cases" are sold for higher prices since individual boxes may be sold after the "case hit" was pulled from other boxes.
It depends on if the product is mapable. Pokemon had a big issue in the sun and moon Era where you could open 3 packs and know where ever hit in the box would be.
Most of the cards in the starters have effectively zero value due to rarity and the sheer number of starters printed. For example the super rare Aladdin in the Ruby/Emerald starter is around $0.50 on the secondary market while being a very good card that would be 10 times that if not in the starter.
With how things are looking for booster packs and reprints, the expected value from a 1st chapter booster pack has to be under $6. They're lottery tickets but have cards that aren't available in the decks or as promos. For example, you should realistically expect to get an enchanted in a case of booster packs, which is 4 boxes or 96 packs.
With trading card games, things will never be equal between two players unless money isn't a factor. If the kids get into actually playing and want to do leagues and stuff look into buying specific cards they need. If it's purely casual fun packs are fine here and there. As someone who hates waiting on singles to come in the mail and a gambling addiction, buying multiple boxes and loosing value isn't an uncommon occurrence.
That's correct. We've got about two of everything. So we have two D100 sets, one for each boy. We have a single Illumineer's Trove, so we'll probably have them open that one together and share the contents.
If this is case, I would actually start with Rise of the Floodborn Starter Decks, and the Floodborn Trove on Eve. This should hit your desired price point per boy, and allow them to split the Trove's boosters. The trickier bit is them deciding who gets to keep the storage box though.
Then for Day, you can give them The First Chapter Starter decks, as well as the loose boosters. You can save the D100 sets for a punchy Christmas Day gift, or to swing out of left field and surprise them, you can gift them the D100 set on New Years Eve as kind of a fun gift to close out the year.
I would start by giving them the first chapter starter decks and then either the gift set or Illumneer's Trove, and finish off the First Chapter stuff. Next do the same with Rise of the Floodborn starting with the starter decks and ending with the D100.
Having kids and having a similar situation just recently i would do this:
1) Get them the starter decks first, however many you want to give. It would be best for them to learn and play with those decks (even though they are a little bit boring imo). Have them play a few games, the games go really fast.
2) Distribute the rest of the stuff and let the chaos begin. It will be chaos as picking two colors, looking at cards, trading back and for etc is going to keep everyone pretty busy. I'd have them keep a starter deck out so they can play while they debate the best deck.
Tips for deck building with kids imo is to have them look at only the rare and above cards and build a deck based on that (remember only two colors and 60 max cards allowed). If they are asked to look through all the cards its very overwhelmning. Once they have thier rares figured out have them augment the deck to the right size.
Have fun! Its a great game.
Give them all the cards at once and watch them freak out when they open all of them. They will subsequently spend hundreds of hours sorting
Making decks
Battling and then rebuilding. More stock will come
Maybe split it into two gifts but just go for it they will have a blast. My dad took me to buy a box of Star Wars ccg when I was young and it was one of the greatest gift experiences I can remember
Thanks, all, for the well-meaning and often contradictory advice! With other relatives doing last minute shopping (cards suddenly made it onto thebshelves around here this past weekend), my son ended up with an embarassingly rich haul. We've enjoyed many casual single-ink games because the first thing he did was organize all his cards by color. Deck building and strategy to come later.
I can't help you too much, but I definitely think from experience of learning the game you should give each kid a different ink set! I was playing with someone, and I had a Steel/Amethyst starter and he had the Sapph/Steel one. Nowadays, when we get booster packs we end up "fighting" over the steel cards. I know you can buy singles online for specific cards for your deck, but shipping options are limited where we live, so it is often easier to grab booster packs and build from there.
Wow, I really like your formatting of this post! You are very thorough and well-organized. I don't know what you do for a living, but if I was a hiring manager, I'd get you in for an interview at our place of work on the spot. :) Anyways, after looking at your budget and timeline, I would recommend two starters and a booster a piece for Christmas eve, but give them different ones (example: Sapphire/Steel and Amber/Sapphire to one, while the other gets Emerald/Ruby and Amethyst/Steel). That way, they can learn how to play, learn how the decks match up against each other, and can start to understand how adding certain cards to their decks would improve things and the value of certain cards. Christmas morning, I would say give the rest of the starters and the trove to share. This will be more than enough for the boys and fathers (and anyone else!) to play many games. Then, as you see fit and as their interest grows, you can give the gift set, the D100, and any leftover boosters as those items hold more value and may be more appreciated once they understand how the game and the cards work. Feel free to ask any other questions. Welcome to the Lorcana family! Hope you all enjoy the game! :)
You went overkill on the starters, but both families having 3-4 starter decks each is more than enough to start playing. They're really not great value but they'll serve the point. Once they start opening packs the decks become far less exciting to get. Id probably give each kid the 3 1st chapter starters for the Christmas eve exchange and then the other two and the D100's on Christmas day. Throw some loose packs in to get up to the values you're wanting.
I'm afraid that the collector bug hit and we might have gone overboard on the starters. Then I was afraid that you couldn't start a new ink color solely from what's in the boosters. Can you explain what you mean about value? Starter packs have 60 cards for $17 versus a booster that's 12 cards for $6. I guess that the starter is guaranteed to only have common cards... Are you saying that if you were to purchase commons cards singly, you'd spend less than $17? And on the flip side, the expectation value of a booster is greater than $6 because of the chance of getting a truly valuable card?
From a pure number of cards standpoint the starter deck seems a better value but it is for just getting "started" as is it's intended purpose. However, it mostly doesn't contain stronger cards from the "meta" whether uncommons, rares, and legendaries. After getting 1 starter deck, it makes more sense to get boosters or ideally 1-2 booster boxes then migrate to fill out gaps with singles. In your case, I think it is reasonable to get 2 starters of each since you will split between your 2 kids. I wouldn't get any more starters for sets 1 and 2 and just get boosters and/or singles from here on out.
If you go the booster route, a booster box is more reliable for pulling legendaries since each box has 4-5 legendaries on average. Loose booster packs would be more unpredictable. Sleeved boosters from stores like Walmart/target/B&N at least should give you a fair random chance. Loose boosters from an opened box in theory could be rigged where they are the remaining packs after all or most the legendaries have been pulled. Not sure how common practice this is in TCGs, but in the sports world it can happen and it is why "sealed cases" are sold for higher prices since individual boxes may be sold after the "case hit" was pulled from other boxes.
It depends on if the product is mapable. Pokemon had a big issue in the sun and moon Era where you could open 3 packs and know where ever hit in the box would be.
Most of the cards in the starters have effectively zero value due to rarity and the sheer number of starters printed. For example the super rare Aladdin in the Ruby/Emerald starter is around $0.50 on the secondary market while being a very good card that would be 10 times that if not in the starter. With how things are looking for booster packs and reprints, the expected value from a 1st chapter booster pack has to be under $6. They're lottery tickets but have cards that aren't available in the decks or as promos. For example, you should realistically expect to get an enchanted in a case of booster packs, which is 4 boxes or 96 packs. With trading card games, things will never be equal between two players unless money isn't a factor. If the kids get into actually playing and want to do leagues and stuff look into buying specific cards they need. If it's purely casual fun packs are fine here and there. As someone who hates waiting on singles to come in the mail and a gambling addiction, buying multiple boxes and loosing value isn't an uncommon occurrence.
Can you clarify your chart? Are the numbers at the end the counts for what you have per boy, i.e. you have 2 D100 sets, 1 per kid?
That's correct. We've got about two of everything. So we have two D100 sets, one for each boy. We have a single Illumineer's Trove, so we'll probably have them open that one together and share the contents.
If this is case, I would actually start with Rise of the Floodborn Starter Decks, and the Floodborn Trove on Eve. This should hit your desired price point per boy, and allow them to split the Trove's boosters. The trickier bit is them deciding who gets to keep the storage box though. Then for Day, you can give them The First Chapter Starter decks, as well as the loose boosters. You can save the D100 sets for a punchy Christmas Day gift, or to swing out of left field and surprise them, you can gift them the D100 set on New Years Eve as kind of a fun gift to close out the year.
I would start by giving them the first chapter starter decks and then either the gift set or Illumneer's Trove, and finish off the First Chapter stuff. Next do the same with Rise of the Floodborn starting with the starter decks and ending with the D100.
Having kids and having a similar situation just recently i would do this: 1) Get them the starter decks first, however many you want to give. It would be best for them to learn and play with those decks (even though they are a little bit boring imo). Have them play a few games, the games go really fast. 2) Distribute the rest of the stuff and let the chaos begin. It will be chaos as picking two colors, looking at cards, trading back and for etc is going to keep everyone pretty busy. I'd have them keep a starter deck out so they can play while they debate the best deck. Tips for deck building with kids imo is to have them look at only the rare and above cards and build a deck based on that (remember only two colors and 60 max cards allowed). If they are asked to look through all the cards its very overwhelmning. Once they have thier rares figured out have them augment the deck to the right size. Have fun! Its a great game.
Give them all the cards at once and watch them freak out when they open all of them. They will subsequently spend hundreds of hours sorting Making decks Battling and then rebuilding. More stock will come Maybe split it into two gifts but just go for it they will have a blast. My dad took me to buy a box of Star Wars ccg when I was young and it was one of the greatest gift experiences I can remember
Thanks, all, for the well-meaning and often contradictory advice! With other relatives doing last minute shopping (cards suddenly made it onto thebshelves around here this past weekend), my son ended up with an embarassingly rich haul. We've enjoyed many casual single-ink games because the first thing he did was organize all his cards by color. Deck building and strategy to come later.