This page analyzes whether players could realistically use a starter decks to play the game or not.
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Deck Functionality
Starter Decks
Conclusion
Deck Functionality
On this page I have a summary of the functionality of each of the 11 Opened Decks I have a full record of opening. To determine how functional a deck is, I considered the element base, how many Characters were available, how many cards were limited in use or completely useless, and the overall number of cards in the deck before doling out my verdict.
Available Elements
For each Deck, I have made note of their available elements up to a maximum of 3. For Support cards, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water have cards that require up to 2 elements in play, while Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold only require 1. Magical Instruments gain their maximum bonus at 3 elements. Certain cards like the Golden Seed, Bud, or Lisa can count for various elements, which I have made note of and included in my count. Additionally, Boink allows players to ignore element conditions of Support cards for one turn.
Support cards and Magical Instruments care the most about having matching elements in play. Support cards may be rendered useless if the requisite elements are unavailable. Technically, Magical Instruments are never useless as you can still play them, but they will just have no effect unless played on a Golem.
Only a handful of Monsters require specific elements in play as part of their Open Cost, and I have made note of those as being useless cards. Otherwise, I do not consider Monsters limited by not having access to any element bonuses.
Character Considerations
Since starter decks only contain 60 cards, including Character cards, that means you will likely have to run them as a 52 card deck. However, there are a couple of hang-ups here as starter decks contain either 7 or 9 Character cards. Therefore, the maximum Main Deck size you can run will either sit at 53 or 51 cards.
As mentioned on the Starter Decks main page, the decks seem to come in two types: Monster Item (MI) and Support Character (SC) starter decks. Of relevance to this page is the fact that MI starters contain one fewer uncommon Character and do not contain any rare Character cards besides the guaranteed Holofoil Hero card. The SC starters end up with 9 Character cards and the MI starters with 7. Therefore, due to only containing 7 Character cards these decks cannot create a legal Character deck.
I did not label a deck as completely non-functional just due to missing one Character card. Fielding a deck with only 7 would simply be playing with a handicap.
Limited Use Cards
Some cards may be extremely difficult to use due to the elements available. For example, a deck with only two Fire element Lands available will struggle to play Professor Kathinja’s Rage due to its requirement of two Fire elements. Similarly, paying the Open Cost for the Gorgon Eye becomes an issue with only one Water element Land in the deck. I have attempted to make note of any cards that present such extreme difficulties.
Useless Cards
Finally, some cards may end up completely useless in a starter deck. The extra Character card in SC decks are one such useless card, but any card for which the element condition or Open Cost cannot be paid really has no reason to remain in the Main Deck. The same could be said for Magical Instruments which give no boost, but they may find use on Golems at least. I have attempted to pick out how many completely unusable cards each of the starters end up with.
Verdict
Based on the above factors, and the overall count and playability of the cards included I assigned the following verdicts:
- Fully Functional – The deck can be played. Even after removing limited use cards, there is still a decent deck here.
- Mostly Functional – The deck can be played. It has a few issues but nothing too serious.
- Somewhat Functional – The deck can be played. It is far from ideal, however.
- Non Functional – The deck cannot be played. The deck has serious issues.
Starter Decks
First Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
 |
30 |                               |
 |
18 |                   |
  |
10 2 |
            |
Available Elements – 
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Drakonis and Professor Bomb are difficult to use with only one Fire Land. The Teardrop Marimba has no Water Lands to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it. Labanne, Li’l Cactus, Sproutling, and the Beiser Drum are difficult to use with only one Wood Land.
Useless Cards – The Gorgon Eye and Big Baby both die upon Opening. Crystalle, The Manager, and Basketfish cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 7 cards Useless – 5 cards Main Deck – 48 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Somewhat Functional |
Second Starter Deck (SC)
Not enough information.
Third Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
29 |                     |
|
18 |         |
|
10 2 |
       |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Nouvelle is difficult to use with only one Light Land. Miss Yuka is difficult to use with only one Gold Land.
Useless Cards – Pokiehl, Capella, Inspector Boyd, and Windcaller cannot be played. This starter deck only came with 59 cards, so it essentially had 1 useless card added.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 2 cards Useless – 5 cards Main Deck – 48 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Mostly Functional |
Fourth Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 |  |
|
18 |             |
|
11 1 |
 |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Watts and Gaeus are difficult to use with only one Earth Land. Miss Yuka is difficult to use with only one Light Land. The Jewelbeast, Teapo, and Alex are difficult to use with only one Gold Land. Boink can be used to make playing the difficult to use Support cards a bit easier and actually makes Pokiehl playable.
Useless Cards – As long as Boink is saved for Pokiehl, there are actually no unplayable cards.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 7 cards Useless – 0 card Main Deck – 53 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Mostly Functional |
Fifth Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |    |
|
10 2 |
  |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Flameshe, Crystalle, and The Manager are difficult to play, with only one Water land.
Useless Cards – Penguin cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 3 cards Useless – 1 card Main Deck – 52 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Mostly Functional |
Sixth Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |  |
|
9 3 |
  |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Watts, Meimei, and Dudbear are difficult to play, with only one Earth Land.
Useless Cards – Lilipea cannot be played. Capella, Inspector Boyd, and Duelle cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 3 cards Useless – 4 cards Main Deck – 49 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Mostly Functional |
Seventh Starter Deck (MI)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |   |
|
10 2 |
|
Available Elements –
Lisa counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – Cannot complete the Character Deck.
Limited Use Cards – Windcaller is difficult to play with only two Wind Lands. Flameshe, Gorgon Eye, and Big Baby are difficult to play with only one Water Land. The Teardrop Marimba only has one Water Land to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it. Belle may be difficult to play, with only one Dark Land.
Useless Cards – Penguin cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 6 cards Useless – 1 cards Main Deck – 52 cards max Character Deck – 7 cards Mostly Functional |
Eighth Starter Deck (SC)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |  |
|
10 2 |
 |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Bud counts as Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.
Lisa counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – One extra Character card.
Limited Use Cards – None!
Useless Cards – None!
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 0 cards Useless – 0 cards Main Deck – 52 cards max Character Deck – 8 cards Fully Functional |
Ninth Starter Deck (SC)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 | |
|
9 3 |
 |
Available Elements –
The Golden Seed counts as Light, Dark, Wood, and Gold.
Character Considerations – One extra Character card.
Limited Use Cards – Watts, Meimei, and Dudbear are difficult to play, with only one Earth Land. Gorgon Eye and Crystalle are difficult to play, with only one Water Land. The Teardrop Marimba only has one Water Land to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it.
Useless Cards – Lilipea cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 6 cards Useless – 1 cards Main Deck – 51 cards max Character Deck – 8 cards Mostly Functional |
Tenth Starter Deck (SC)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |   |
|
10 2 |
|
Available Elements –
Character Considerations – One extra Character card.
Limited Use Cards – Magnolia and Louie are difficult to play with only one Fire Land. Flameshe is difficult ot play with only one Water Land. Lilipea is difficult to play with only two Earth Lands. The Beiser Drum has no Wood Lands to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it.
Useless Cards – Kathinja cannot be played. Penguin cannot be played. Labanne and (ironically) Boink cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 6 cards Useless – 4 cards Main Deck – 48 cards max Character Deck – 8 cards Mostly Functional |
Eleventh Starter Deck (SC)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 |  |
|
10 2 |
   |
Available Elements –
Character Considerations – One extra Character card.
Limited Use Cards – The Lizard Marimba has no Wind Lands to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it. The Dior Harp has no Dark Lands to increase its power, but at least the Golem can make use of it. Jewel Beast is hard to play with only one Gold Land.
Useless Cards – Capella, Inspector Boyd, Windcaller, and Duelle cannot be played. Miss Yuka, Diana, and Florina cannot be played. Belle cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 3 cards Useless – 8 cards Main Deck – 44 cards max Character Deck – 8 cards Somewhat Functional |
Twelfth Starter Deck (SC)
| Rarity | Count | Cards |
|---|---|---|
|
30 | |
|
18 | |
|
10 2 |
 |
Available Elements –
Character Considerations – One extra Character card.
Limited Use Cards – The Lizard Marimba has no Wind Lands to increase its power, but at least the Golems can make use of it.
Useless Cards –Capella, Inspector Boyd, Windcaller, Duelle, and Pokiehl cannot be played. Diana and Florina cannot be played.
| Verdict |
|---|
| Limited Use – 1 cards Useless – 7 cards Main Deck – 45 cards max Character Deck – 8 cards Mostly Functional |
Conclusion
Overall, despite being mostly functional these starter decks do not appear fun to play with.
Many cards have limited functionality, which would make playing with them a complete gamble as to whether they could be used or if they will rot in your hand. Uncommon and rare cards especially tend to be rendered useless due to a lack of element coverage. Luckily, every single starter opened can at least field a 40 card Main Deck with all of the limited use and useless cards removed. However, it would be quite a bummer to have to remove so many cards to actually play.
The way common lands come in two different sets leads to a lot of problems. Land set A in particular seems to cause a lot of issues, only really doing well for Water. The majority of Water Lands show up in set A making it difficult to play Gorgon Eye and Big Baby unless the Pirate’s Hook shows up in the rares, and nearly impossible to play Penguin with the other set. Set B has a bit more stable of a Land base, since it provides half of the Wind Lands and all of the Light Lands. After the commons, it is a complete gamble with the uncommons and rares as to whether you will flooded with one element or barely scrape by with enough to play another.
| Common Land Sets |
|---|
| Set A: Set B: |
Decks that come with the Golden Seed, Bud, or Lisa look a lot better than those that do not, showing how important the Land make-up of a deck is. Instead of the Hero being the only guaranteed card in the starter decks these cards should have been considered as well.
Page 7 of the Rule Book recommends buying at least one starter deck, but says you can also build a deck using multiple boosters instead. Until I open a booster pack myself, it is hard to say whether or not that strategy would be recommended either. From what I see on this page, though, picking and choosing cards from two starter decks may suffice when trying to build a functional deck, perhaps with three starter decks two functional decks could be made. This heavily depends on the land make-up, of course! I am not sure if it would be better to get two of the same common Land sets or one of each.
It seems to me the game should have released with premade decks, something similar to the Red Sample Deck and Blue Sample Deck. Maybe if that were the case, more people would know about the game today!
