hyperion_pb said:

Indeed. I think the biggest issue I had with the SWTCG, upon getting over the initial hurdle of the dice mechanic, was the crucifixion through which the game put players who chose to stick to a theme. My Sandcrawler deck never won a single game! I kid, I kid. (Sandcrawlers were AMAZING in that game.)

 Pods sound like a great idea to me.

It is hard to get new players in a card game to make their own decks, and when they finally do and are super proud of how cool it is, they show up to a tournament, get crushed, and it is not very encouraging.  Hopefully this will put more emphasis on player skill, which can more easily be taught by example rather than tearing apart someone's deck and trying to explain resource curves, while leaving room to develop a deck suited to your tastes.

It could also make theme decks more viable, which I think is a great thing.  I sure hope I can make a stormtrooper deck without feeling like I absolutely must have the Emperor in it.  It could be one pod will end up in all decks of one side, but it seems less likely since it takes up a larger slot in your deck.

Summoner Wars is similarly constrained for deck building, as has been pointed out before, and it really isn't the light filler game it might look like.  I tinker with my decks a lot, and it can change the way you play drastically, but unmodified decks are still fun to play and can keep up with constructed decks in the right hands. Not every customizable game has to be all about customization.  It is just a different kind of game.

I don't see how it can work as an optional rule if they're designing around the concept. I think you'd actually get far less variety that way because the power cards would all be auto includes without the rest of the pod to balance them as intended.  There is much talk of supposedly optimal builds, but who is to say there is such a thing?  To use Summoner Wars as a comparison again, there are sixteen factions which cannot be mixed, and they are impressively balanced.  Star Wars has six factions and they can mix, but there is no reason with time there can't be six or ten or however many strong builds.

I'd say that's just my two cents, but until we know more, I don't think anything I say about the game can be that valuable.  Just shooting the breeze.

 I am among those for the new deck building mechanic.  As mostly a casual player I am excited by the possibility to quickly construct a deck between matches, and I get bored running the same deck over and over.  Plus this will make it easier for me to convince my friends to build their own decks with only minimal guidance on my part since I am likely the only one of my friends that will purchase this.

I like this idea (pod deckbuilding) for several reasons already mentioned.

People just need to open their minds into new formulas and new ways of doing things, and people need to stop crying about having to fit another 4 cards to get a Luke on the deck. You don't want to use the other 4 cards, simple:
1. use them on Edge Battles
2. find some mechanic to benefit from discarding cards from hand

I guess this thread has no reason to exist because we don't know how "pods" are constructed. Maybe the Luke pod has one or two Fate card (the ones used in Edge Battles), a Jedi in Hiding or some other weenie Unit and some cool "effect" that can be used with Luke.

I really like this idea and hope to see more of it! It's the lesser "problem" of this game! :)

There seems to be a lot of emphasis to make the game easy. Semi automatic deckbuilding and free fight between characters, vehicles, creatures, starfighter, capital starchips etc. So single evok or Java can bring down Super stardestroyer if he gets lucky enough. All elements that are good for casual game. The problem seems to be that there are so many hardcore  gamesr who are used to Decipher ccg (I am among those…) that we can not / don't understand that this is very different game than the old one (that was more like simulator than casual family game).

I have high hopes that this game is great value as an faminy game where anyone can play and make deck without any prior knowledge. Make deck in 1-5 minute and play the whole game in 20-30 minute. Fast and easy. There is a place for this kind of game. But I personally still think that my heart belongs that old rulemonster ccg that nobody can learn without 6 month heavy training. They are different games and they both can be good in what they are trying to be!

Hannibal_pjv said:

1. As a fellow Star Wars CCGer I understand where you're coming from, but I think we must move on if we want to enter the new age of Star Wars card games. "We must unlearn what we have learned", basically. The good thing is, having played around with some demo decks over the weekend, there's definitely some real skill involved in the game even right out of the gate, so that's good for our kind.

2. "semi-automatic deckbuilding". I'll have to remember that, a great way to describe it and I like the sound of it. ^_^