I'm getting into this game and want to play competitively.

Should I buy enough products to ensure that I have 3 of every card?  It's quite expensive...

Any advice gratefully received,

 - geo

geometricpatterns said:

Just have a look at the most recent winning decks on this site and see how many copies you'd require to build them!

I might play competitively eventually - I am just getting into the game now. I am skipping all the asrkham packs except the newer ones with 3x of every card, and have bought 2x core and horrors of arkham deluxe expansion. Although I played WH:I hardcore and to be decent in comps you needed 3 of evey important card (very expensive)

Yeah, unfortunately I allowed myself to get talked into participate in a tournament.

It's quite frustrating to notice how many deck ideas I cannot use because I only a have a single card that would be key.

Still, I am unwilling to buy another two copies of the older APs. It's not even because of the cost but because of the huge amount of utterly useless cards, I'd get (i.e. the ones that I'd have nine copies of).

Seconded,

As nice as it is to have 3x the best cards from the old APs - you've paid ($10?) $15 - $20 AU to use around 3 cards from that pack :P!

I have many more cards I am not using that I am using in WH:I - which sucks.

You do not need x3 of every card unless you are going to make competative decks with every faction. 

Suggestion: figure out what sort of decks you want and then get enough AP's to support them... but you will need x3 of Terror of the Tides no matter what! 

Tokhuah said:

Suggestion: figure out what sort of decks you want and then get enough AP's to support them... but you will need x3 of Terror of the Tides no matter what! 

Yeah, you will need three Fountain of Youth conspiracy cards for every deck, amirite?

I thought conspiracy card were meant to be used as Domains with flavor text! 

Tokhuah said:

Doh! I'll never learn this game.

You don't need 3x every card to compete. As said previous, figure out your strategy first, then buy the components you need to achieve that. Especially with the new cards coming out, you have a ton of possibilities. I would also check the banned list for tournament play, which will also help you decide on what packs to buy. No sense making decks around Aspiring artist if you cant use him right? If you buy like I have, one of everything so far, you can make some seriously competitive decks, and your opponent will most likely not see it coming either. Your opponent is most likely "tournament ready" and has his deck to beat other common tournament decks. Being the odd one that makes a deck many haven't seen will actually give you a leg up in competition. It's like playing Street Fighter 4 online, most people play Ken and Ryu, if you show up with anybody else they really have no idea what to do half the time.

It's up to you personally, whether you should get duplicates or not. It's all in how you want to play. Casual play once in a while, not really. Tournament, definitely. Myself, I prefer to have triplicates & am working on getting multiples of a couple older sets. I don't mind having 9 of a particular card as a result because that means I'll be able to have several decks assembled & ready to play, without having to pull one apart to build on a new idea. With the new 20x3 card format for Asylum Packs, as well as the re-release of Summons of the Deep, it'll be much easier to do.