Alrightgames: Star Realms – Command Decks

Star Realms: Command Decks – The Alignment, The Coalition, The Pact & The Union

2018 / Deckbuilding card game expansions / 2-4 players / USA

***

Re-sold

The definition of the type of overcomplicating/game-breaking expansion series I previously claimed to be above, I hadn't even considered these alternate starting decks worthy of my attention before I surrendered to a discounted £1.70 per pack. Like some kind of insightful drug metaphor, I got a taste of the wasteful and addictive lifestyle that could lead to me to ruin* and the cheap introductory hit proved more trouble than it was worth.

After all, you can't buy just one pack, unless you want your games to be ridiculously unbalanced.

Then, after buying two contrasting colour sets, you naturally struggle with whether you don't really need all six combinations after all for the maximum possible variety, even though by that point they'd be approaching the cost of one of the big sets and wouldn't fit in the boxes any more.

At the very least, you should keep the mythical possibility of a four-player game open by buying another complementary pair. I relented after they failed to go out of stock after another week.

And now that you're working with dual faction colours, your deck could really benefit from buying the other expansions that have that gimmick feature, even though those are older or Kickstarter exclusives and will cost a lot more.

And since these overpowered decks don't mix very well with the other cheap expansions you bought that were designed for the normal game, you should finally get around to buying the big Frontiers set and starting over, so you'll have two slightly different experiences to choose from when you feel like playing the game of spaceship drawings with numbers on, an activity you don't seem to enjoy quite as much as comparing prices on elusive booster packs.

So, after a couple of weeks being distracted by this tomfoolery, I sold my Command Decks on eBay at only a negligible loss. It was a fair rental fee for a trial run and the accompanying revelations that will save my family from the gutter.* My game feels complete and balanced again. I can treat myself to a few more ships and bases if I'm good, but I'm no space junkie.

* You could only spend a couple of hundred at worst, it's not Pokémon.