Welcome to the Wizard101 Message Boards


Player Guide
Fansites
News
Game Updates
Help

Follow important game updates on Twitter @Wizard101 and @KI_Alerts, and Facebook!

For all account questions and concerns, contact Customer Support.

By posting on the Wizard101 Message Boards you agree to the Code of Conduct.

Understanding the Spell Deck

AuthorMessage
Hero
Jul 30, 2012
771
I understand the obvious basics of spell decks. I want to know if there are "unstated" benifits of some decks over others. I ask because there are very inexpensive decks that have the same or better features than an expensive deck. Also many decks available to lower level wizards have as good or better features than those available at higher levels. Why is the pricing structure so peculiar?

my guesses are:
- better distribution of cards provided during game play
- higher probability of getting delt certain cards (cards belonging to a school)

If you answer please indicate intuitive guess vs certainty.

Adherent
Jul 03, 2010
2634
RottenHeart wrote:
I understand the obvious basics of spell decks. I want to know if there are "unstated" benifits of some decks over others. I ask because there are very inexpensive decks that have the same or better features than an expensive deck. Also many decks available to lower level wizards have as good or better features than those available at higher levels. Why is the pricing structure so peculiar?

my guesses are:
- better distribution of cards provided during game play
- higher probability of getting delt certain cards (cards belonging to a school)

If you answer please indicate intuitive guess vs certainty.


I personally have always gone with decks that are for my wizards school - they offer the most copies of my school spells. I usually stop worrying about getting another around level 35 because, I rarely would ever use more then 5 copies of any one spell in my deck. Since order of cards per round are totally random I don't think more expensive decks are a benefit. Most normal battling only requires 15 - 20 spells in my deck. I do find differences in price on the same level decks but that seems mainly because of the extra sideboard slots it has. Since I don't enchant many of my regular spells I don't need the more expensive deck to get by.

That said - most of the decks I have are ones I have won. At the Bazaar prices go by inventory so sometimes items are cheaper at the shops. A new deck for my wizard always is last when it comes to gold spending since I focus mainly on gear to boost power - you can make it quite far in the game with the starter deck - in fact with a reshuffle, treasure or trained, added probably the entire game.

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
The following is only supposition:

I would imagine (and I havent researched it at all) that the price is fixed upon features. There's things to consider:

1) Number of cards it can hold
2) copies of non-school cards
3) copies of school cards
4) treasure card slots (sideboard)
5) Type of deck (school vs non-school deck)
6) Level requirement

Currently I'm using a Cinder Deck (fire school) which yields me:

60 Max Spells
5 Max Copies of NON-school spells
7 Max copies of SCHOOL spells
25 Sideboard
50+ Level Requirement

I imagine there's an order to how they figure out the price AND multipliers for each item on the list.

Adherent
Mar 18, 2009
2737
Some decks offer more total cards to draw from. Some decks offer more school type cards or sideboard draws.

Example, I always use a School Only deck for my duels against enemies of the same school as myself, since those decks allow me to put maximum prisms/converts in my deck.

I also use decks that offer more total sideboard cards against cheating bosses, since I usually need item cards to augment my treasure cards in "preventing" their cheating.

Hero
Jul 30, 2012
771
RottenHeart wrote:
I ask because there are very inexpensive decks that have the same or better features than an expensive deck.


Further examination shows that availability drives the price way up. An inferior deck with low availbility can be quite expensive. Not sure why anybody would buy it.

But comparing similar available decks: pricing doesn't make sense either.

Example (Bazaar):

Aristcrats Deck, $560,
Availability: Any School, Level 20, Qty: 100
- max spells: 35
- max copies: 4
- sideboard: 9

Tempestra's Onyx Deck, $1372,
Abvailability: Death School, Level 20, Qty: 95
- max spells: 30
- max copies:3
- max death copies: 4
- sideboard: 11

Clearly the first deck is better than the second and costs much less.

Defender
Sep 10, 2011
191
RottenHeart wrote:
RottenHeart wrote:
I ask because there are very inexpensive decks that have the same or better features than an expensive deck.


Further examination shows that availability drives the price way up. An inferior deck with low availbility can be quite expensive. Not sure why anybody would buy it.

But comparing similar available decks: pricing doesn't make sense either.

Example (Bazaar):

Aristcrats Deck, $560,
Availability: Any School, Level 20, Qty: 100
- max spells: 35
- max copies: 4
- sideboard: 9

Tempestra's Onyx Deck, $1372,
Abvailability: Death School, Level 20, Qty: 95
- max spells: 30
- max copies:3
- max death copies: 4
- sideboard: 11

Clearly the first deck is better than the second and costs much less.


not really. you are paying more for the sideboard quantity. as you gain more experience in the game you'll find that the sideboard is quite useful and that bigger decks doesn't mean its better than the smaller ones. Most of my mages only has level 35 decks and even if some has level 74 ones, its almost half full.

I usually get the level 70+ and up bigger "school only" ones if i want multiple copies of my kill card e.g. Storm Lord, Forest Lord, Tempest, Frost Lord, Scarecrow or blades. I don't even bother including shieds and have very few heal spells. Bigger sideboards means more space for TC elemental/Spirit blades bought in the library in Wizard city and some reshuffle amd/or pierce.

In the end, you will not even bother about their prices because you'll have enough useful deck drops while questing.

Defender
Aug 07, 2011
116
I've been wondering this myself and wondering if there's any way to ensure getting a good mix of your cards instead of all the same at once. I'm a Life wizard and sometimes I have to toss heals (fortunately, I have plenty of them so that's not too big a thing) to bring my attacks up. Other times, it'll be the opposite, no heals only attacks. This is bad should I need healing. I'd like to see a way to have a steady mix of heals and attacks but given that it's random, I don't see how.

The one rule I live by (though I'm always scoffing at those high prices for similar decks and saying why would I buy the life one when the spiral one is so much less) is always put a reshuffle in there -- just in case. Other than that, I pretty much put the same number of copies of the spells I use (I do not use all of them) in whether they're my school or not (I don't use my secondary any more at level 75 but I do use the samoorai I got dropped) so I don't really care that the school decks let you put more of your own school's spells.

Explorer
May 30, 2011
81
You should buy school only decks and whatever level your comfortable with thats the deck you should buy.

Though everybody is a little different with decks and spells it depends on what role the want to play in a party.

For example if your like to be an attacker which what most people prefer to be then you should fill your deck with more traps,blades,converts,transmutes, some shields,a reshuffle or two.

If you like being a healer if you have life or death as primary or secondary schools then you should put mostly healing spells and shields and some attacks.

if you don't like fighting as much but rather support your party then you should add blades,traps,shields,converts, enchants,polymorphs and few attack cards.

Then there are those who are a combinations of attacker,supporter and a healer part time like i am then you would want the largest deck that can hold a maxium of cards over 35 and the price doesn't mean much if your like me. i use a deck that can hold over a hundred spells regular and sidebaord combined and i am happy with it.

Hero
Jul 30, 2012
771
RottenHeart wrote:
...I want to know if there are "unstated" benifits of some decks over others.


Well I finally answered my own question. After a long test of systematic solo battles of Nirinini Warriors in Krokotopia:

- death school wizard
- death school deck fixed with 6 death spells and 6 fire spells
- I unequiped wand and amulet, so no other spells are available
- I alternated selection of death school and fire school spells.

Conclusion: completely random. Every fight i started with 4 cards of one school, 3 of the other. Always 50/50 chance of pulling a card from either school. This may seem obvious but without trying couldn't be sure.

The price differences of similar decks in the bazaar are primarly because of:

- Level. A similar deck available at higher level is much cheaper.
- Number Available. Makes a huge difference in price. A crumby deck with less avaibility becomes surpringly expensive.

So buyer beware! Expensive decks might not be good decks! School specific decks do not have any intrinsic benifits either.