I was on the fence in ordering Hero Realms. I have Star Realms on my phone and I just can't get into it as much as I had hoped. This one looks more to my liking. It seems to be more simplified IMO. The thing that allured me to this game is the Hero packs and how each can play so differently with only a handful of different cards only used by that particular hero. The idea of a campaign and playing as a 'Boss' deck in the next line of development also sounds interesting. I also hope that they add more hero packs from other RPG archetypes.
Have the game now and played once. Enjoyed. Wondered if packs make a big difference and if so, which pack(s) you like best for play...ranger, clerical, wizard, ect
I was told that, if you tap/exhaust a champion, they cannot block the following turn. Thus adding the dynamic of "Do I exhaust and use this power which will leave me open to attack, or do I keep him to guard me". I may have been told incorrectly though; haven't played the game myself, so I'm simply relating what I've heard.
I'm already all in on star realms so I don't think this would hit the table enough to warrant a purchase. The character packs look cool though. I hope they add the equivalent to star realms.
Close ranks was a 5 damage card, plus 2 extra damage for each champion in play. So he was at 4 damage before he added that card's damage, which was 7 damage. 4+7=11
Seen this at Origins...came home immediately backed it, first kickstarter ever...print and play came out in August immediately printed it out me and my wife been playing for couple months...love it can't wait to get ours in the mail!!!
I think the main difference to Star Realms you could have mentioned were the campaign and boss decks that are expansions for January, granted they aren't out yet.
What's the point of "tapping" your hero, if he's just going to be un-tapped before the next player's turn? If that's how it works, than its just like Star Realms except SR doesn't make you turn the card sideways.
Thanks for the review, Sam. I also owned and enjoyed Star Realms (played the iPad version more, though) and had been intrigued by Hero Realms when I heard about it. After this review, chances of me getting the game is pretty high.
Hey sam thank you for awesome review I'm choosing to purchase between this and star realms. Could I ask for your opinion oh which is better ? I heard hero realms has snowball effect, cause I may prefer more balanced game where I can bring advantage back anytime. I would like to know based these which would you recommend Comeptitive 1v1 competitive group 3 or 4 expansion and solo or coop thank you in advance Sam ! (ps. comment is very welcome, i would love to hear other's view)
Howdy, I am not sure if you have gotten one or both of these sets yet, but I didn’t see any comments and thought I might help out. Credentials: I have all the expansions for both Star Realms and Hero Realms (as of 2022). I have been playing since 2019 and it is routinely one of my “go-to” games when visiting family. Star Realms: initial core set is a little slow to get started and seems pretty balanced. The factions (red, blue, green, yellow) all have solid ships(single use) and bases (remain on the field), abilities and strengths. For example, red is like the Borg from Star Trek, always assimilating ships and bases in your deck, allowing you to discard unwanted cards and allow for quicker cycling. The first expansion, Colony Wars, adds to your available cards and allows for an additional two players, for a total of four if you would like. The new cards add a new dynamic to the game and make it a bit faster without losing any balance. This is a slightly more advanced tactics and play style when combined or used for 2-v-2. Frontiers is an expansion and but can also be stand alone for up to four players. The new cards strengthen your previous factions and really lean into their traits. Green for heavy damage and multiplying units (draw) and scrapping cards in the trade row, blue for buying power (trade) and more authority (heath), yellow for solid attack and faster draw or crippling removal (force your opponent to discard), and red for scrapping unwanted cards and tough bases for protection. This expansion does make the game go a little faster, as the new card synergies are a lot stronger than the first deck. There are also bosses in the expansion allowing for single play and teams against the bosses. Bosses have set strategies and storylines. There is a boss for each faction and a few hybrid bosses which are more like cosmic threats. Each plays differently enough to make them all valid. There are heroes available in their own small expansions, which act like starship captains and offer some new ways to play. Hero Realms: generally similar play, with bigger swings. Attack values are huge right off the bat in this game. You will see much larger buying power, too. The factions have similar functions here, though there are big enough changes that you can’t come in with your same strategies. The cards are now set into actions and champions. Champions staying on the field like the bases from before. This game runs like a race for the champions, and that is the snowball effect you were talking about before. Factions tend to work like this: Green is damage and cycling by draw and discard effects where you will trade cards in your hand. Blue is damage heavy also, but with an emphasis on champion removal, having many instant stun abilities. You will also find a decent amount of trade in this faction. Red is again your removal deck, being the only faction that can permanently remove cards from your deck this time. Otherwise, this seems to be a decent mix of trade, buying, defense. And, yellow is your best at purchasing power and providing health. There seems to be a good amount of draw cards also, so a solid deck for big moves early on. The heroes you can play as from the expansions are an excellent way to add replay and variety to the game. They each have a significantly different feel and play style. This is probably the best reason to choose this version. The boss expansions make for great themed battles with strong and interesting enemies. Each boss comes with special decks and a way to play. The dragon has special treasures your hero can collect and use and the Lich King has soul chalices which provide him with strong abilities until they are destroyed. The Lich King’s life total is tied to these chalices. Overall: Star Realms feels best for newcomers. And the Frontiers expansion is a must have for all it adds to the game. A strong starting point if you don’t intend to get all the expansions. There is a lot you can do with Star Realms and many ways to play. The core sets and expansions feel like the most replay value and the game overall is friendly to start up anywhere, with new players and veterans alike. Hero Realms feels a little unbalanced and a bit more to luck when you start. The games go much faster than SR, with big buys and big damage. This game seems more champion heavy, leading to similar strategies once you’ve figured out the “best” cards. Without many expansions, there doesn’t feel like as much different play styles. Until you add in the heroes. This sets the Hero Realms game out in a really awesome way and flips how you play. If you end up choosing HR, get the Heroes and thank me later. This will easily give you the most bang for your buck and add a mountain of replay to the core set. The villainous boss decks are hard to find, but a worthwhile expansion if you are looking for a fun way to play with friends or single. You can team up and go against the boss. Or, a veteran player can play handicapped with friends fighting as a team to bring them down. I hope this helps somewhat.
Oh, I just remembered, there is also an RPG version available for the Hero Realms where a party of up to four heroes go through a series of varying challenges. Each having its own set of requirements for victory. Leveling your hero gives you access to new actions and upgrades to your hero class. Branching paths offer some differences in play and a follow up let’s you continue your story. This offers shallow replay, but replay none the less.
I want my kickstarter version so bad! Thanks Sam for the review, I am a big time Star Realms lover too. I play it every day on the ipad 3-10 times. I know they have Hero Realms at the warehouse now and are starting to ship soon. I can hardly wait!
How does it compare to Cthulhu Realms? I only played that one and from what I read here and there it was a big improvement over Star Realms (to the point I'm not interested to play Star Realms at all)
I was playing this game with my girlfriend, and one thing isn't clear to me yet. For cards that require sacrificing other cards to activate their effects, can you sacrifice any card, or only those with the trash can symbol on them?
Also, one other question. For ally activation abilities, are they only activated when you have another ally champion of the same faction, or can action cards of the same faction activate the ally abilities? For example, spark + spark, which both have the green paw symbol. Would they stack and activate each other's ally ability of the extra damage, or would it only activate if there is a green paw champion on your side of the field?
Sorry that no one answered this. Well, cards that say sacrifice allow you to sacrifice any card, while the cards with a trash can you can sacrifice at anytime to get the ability. Ally abilities are triggered by any type of card.
Sam... why does this game remind me (too much) of MTG? Think I'll review "Star Realms" and see if that theme works better for me. ***Just committed to "Vengeance" on Kickstarter. Check out "Undead Viking" and "Rahdo Run" to check out the reviews... I think this game will kick some serious ass! Supposed to be out by Summer of next year.
Sam the multiplayer modes were also included in star realms. that is nothing new. Also the cards and rules are a 1:1 copy of star realms. the only difference i noticed is that they changed the rules of the permanent cards (heroes/star bases). Before, you yould only "use" it once each turn, now you have to "exhaut" it and you only get to refresh it on the next turn. It is essentially the same thing. Star Realms is a fantastic game, I was just really hoping they would add a new layer or different ideas instead of making a copy with a different theme. The character decks should really be included in the base game to make it stand apart from star realms
Super late reply but your comment still appears near the top, so commenting in case other people see this and are also confused. Some cards have effects which also have a negative; you might, for example, have to sacrifice a card as a requirement for another effect. If you don't tap the card, no effects occur, and so you avoid the negative effect too.
without the Hero decks this game would not be worth it but the heroes really give it the flavor that I missed in SR but one thing would make it even better: If the heroes had bonuses if you buy card from certain fractions (but I guess this would break the balance if no cards from your fractions are in the trade row) I also wished that SR or HR had cards that do something on your opponents turn. also the battle system could be more like the system from Force of will.
I missed the Kickstarter for this (after backing Epic, and getting a mediocre MtG clone, with rules that could only be understood by MtG players). This is the game Epic SHOULD have been! Too bad I missed the KS, as I was feeling too bitter about Epic.
This is an alright video but really I don't think you can call it a review, for most of the video you are just playing through the game (which is fine but not what I want from a review video). I think you could have shortened the video to a third of its current length if you just played a round or 2, described the mechanics and then compared against star realms. I think a lot of the dice tower videos with you, tom or zee (or the three of you together) suffer from this, you guys have a lot of useless information and or talking in the video and I end up skipping around a lot just to get to the parts where you guys are actually talking about relevant questions. Make a second video if you want to play through the video but in this case honestly you could have just said "yes this is rethemed star realms" from the start of the video and it would have been a better video.
There's no reason to get this if you already have Star Realms other than different art (notice I said different art and not theme. There is no theme). The character packs should have been a core mechanic included in the base game to actually make it different than Star Realms. An obvious money grab, very disappointing. Shame on them.
So it's as dreadfully boring game as Star Realms. It fools you into thinking you are actually playing, when in fact the only decision in the game is what random card you are going to buy. Rest of the 'game' is played on auto pilot, by dumping your randomly drawn hand and see what cards you were holding. It actually makes me sad, and a bit angry, how a dead simple game like this or Star Realms, with little to no decision making can be such high on rankings.
Personally haven't played this or *Star Realms*, but this one doesn't seem to have less *meaningful* choices than most games. I mean, having a lot of options and having those options actually matter is something a lot of games struggle with. In his example, Sam had a few different choices from turn 1. I don't know how hard of a choice it was, but he had a decision to make. That's interesting. Maybe not a brain-melting puzzle, but interesting nonetheless.
I've bought all of the expansions of Star Realms and played online for a year now. First few months I had a win rate of 30%, now I'm averaging 65%. Futhermore, there are people who almost always lose to me and people who I almost always lose to (we're talking about a sample size of around 30 games per such player). You just don't understand the game and you think it's all random, because none of YOUR choices amount to a strategy.
C r s you need to really think and plan ahead when buying cards to create a strong deck. The game requires skill in order to get the cards that synegize well and that can do What you need. If you don't think you're gonna end up with cards that are much weaker and cards you can't use.
I will never understand how people could applaud the artwork on games like this - the most pedestrian, uninspired generic fantasy art imaginable, and yet put down Ascension for its early sets art.
I was on the fence in ordering Hero Realms. I have Star Realms on my phone and I just can't get into it as much as I had hoped. This one looks more to my liking. It seems to be more simplified IMO. The thing that allured me to this game is the Hero packs and how each can play so differently with only a handful of different cards only used by that particular hero. The idea of a campaign and playing as a 'Boss' deck in the next line of development also sounds interesting. I also hope that they add more hero packs from other RPG archetypes.
I backed this, now REALLY looking forward to when it arrives!
Have the game now and played once. Enjoyed.
Wondered if packs make a big difference and if so, which pack(s) you like best for play...ranger, clerical, wizard, ect
At 8:55 you damaged the opponent's life but there is a guard present, right?
Excellent video nonetheless! :)
That is correct
Yeah, wasted opportunity to show how guards work :) I thought he setup this intentionally, but.. :D
I was told that, if you tap/exhaust a champion, they cannot block the following turn. Thus adding the dynamic of "Do I exhaust and use this power which will leave me open to attack, or do I keep him to guard me". I may have been told incorrectly though; haven't played the game myself, so I'm simply relating what I've heard.
That is not correct. All your expended champions ready at the end of your turn.
Dimitris Chrysopoulos weird.. so what's the point of expending? Maybe just to make things less confusing during a player's turn?
What's the point of tapping the card if it "prepares" at the end of the turn?
at 8:55 you cannot attack directly because it have guard in front of it.
I'm already all in on star realms so I don't think this would hit the table enough to warrant a purchase. The character packs look cool though. I hope they add the equivalent to star realms.
At 7:00 he adds up the damage to 7, but then immediately says "11 damage for green". How does he get 11?
Close ranks was a 5 damage card, plus 2 extra damage for each champion in play. So he was at 4 damage before he added that card's damage, which was 7 damage. 4+7=11
Seen this at Origins...came home immediately backed it, first kickstarter ever...print and play came out in August immediately printed it out me and my wife been playing for couple months...love it can't wait to get ours in the mail!!!
Thanks for the walkthrough, Sam! I'm looking forward to picking this one up.
Sam. Really love how you explained this game. Best i have seen! Thank you.
I think the main difference to Star Realms you could have mentioned were the campaign and boss decks that are expansions for January, granted they aren't out yet.
What's the point of "tapping" your hero, if he's just going to be un-tapped before the next player's turn? If that's how it works, than its just like Star Realms except SR doesn't make you turn the card sideways.
Thanks for the review, Sam. I also owned and enjoyed Star Realms (played the iPad version more, though) and had been intrigued by Hero Realms when I heard about it. After this review, chances of me getting the game is pretty high.
The second game in the "series", Cthulhu Realms, is also available as an app.
I'm thinking of getting into this game. Do I need to buy 2 copies of the base and character packs?
So forth and so on. Sam loves this (backwards) saying lol
I just want to know where Sam got his shirt.
We need an additional review with detailed look at all the characters!! ;)
is there an ufficial solo variant? thanks
Hey sam thank you for awesome review
I'm choosing to purchase between this and star realms.
Could I ask for your opinion oh which is better ?
I heard hero realms has snowball effect, cause I may prefer more balanced game where I can bring advantage back anytime.
I would like to know based these which would you recommend
Comeptitive 1v1
competitive group 3 or 4
expansion
and solo or coop
thank you in advance Sam !
(ps. comment is very welcome, i would love to hear other's view)
Howdy, I am not sure if you have gotten one or both of these sets yet, but I didn’t see any comments and thought I might help out.
Credentials: I have all the expansions for both Star Realms and Hero Realms (as of 2022). I have been playing since 2019 and it is routinely one of my “go-to” games when visiting family.
Star Realms: initial core set is a little slow to get started and seems pretty balanced. The factions (red, blue, green, yellow) all have solid ships(single use) and bases (remain on the field), abilities and strengths. For example, red is like the Borg from Star Trek, always assimilating ships and bases in your deck, allowing you to discard unwanted cards and allow for quicker cycling.
The first expansion, Colony Wars, adds to your available cards and allows for an additional two players, for a total of four if you would like. The new cards add a new dynamic to the game and make it a bit faster without losing any balance. This is a slightly more advanced tactics and play style when combined or used for 2-v-2.
Frontiers is an expansion and but can also be stand alone for up to four players. The new cards strengthen your previous factions and really lean into their traits. Green for heavy damage and multiplying units (draw) and scrapping cards in the trade row, blue for buying power (trade) and more authority (heath), yellow for solid attack and faster draw or crippling removal (force your opponent to discard), and red for scrapping unwanted cards and tough bases for protection. This expansion does make the game go a little faster, as the new card synergies are a lot stronger than the first deck. There are also bosses in the expansion allowing for single play and teams against the bosses. Bosses have set strategies and storylines. There is a boss for each faction and a few hybrid bosses which are more like cosmic threats. Each plays differently enough to make them all valid.
There are heroes available in their own small expansions, which act like starship captains and offer some new ways to play.
Hero Realms: generally similar play, with bigger swings. Attack values are huge right off the bat in this game. You will see much larger buying power, too.
The factions have similar functions here, though there are big enough changes that you can’t come in with your same strategies.
The cards are now set into actions and champions. Champions staying on the field like the bases from before. This game runs like a race for the champions, and that is the snowball effect you were talking about before.
Factions tend to work like this: Green is damage and cycling by draw and discard effects where you will trade cards in your hand. Blue is damage heavy also, but with an emphasis on champion removal, having many instant stun abilities. You will also find a decent amount of trade in this faction. Red is again your removal deck, being the only faction that can permanently remove cards from your deck this time. Otherwise, this seems to be a decent mix of trade, buying, defense. And, yellow is your best at purchasing power and providing health. There seems to be a good amount of draw cards also, so a solid deck for big moves early on.
The heroes you can play as from the expansions are an excellent way to add replay and variety to the game. They each have a significantly different feel and play style. This is probably the best reason to choose this version.
The boss expansions make for great themed battles with strong and interesting enemies. Each boss comes with special decks and a way to play. The dragon has special treasures your hero can collect and use and the Lich King has soul chalices which provide him with strong abilities until they are destroyed. The Lich King’s life total is tied to these chalices.
Overall: Star Realms feels best for newcomers. And the Frontiers expansion is a must have for all it adds to the game. A strong starting point if you don’t intend to get all the expansions. There is a lot you can do with Star Realms and many ways to play. The core sets and expansions feel like the most replay value and the game overall is friendly to start up anywhere, with new players and veterans alike.
Hero Realms feels a little unbalanced and a bit more to luck when you start. The games go much faster than SR, with big buys and big damage. This game seems more champion heavy, leading to similar strategies once you’ve figured out the “best” cards. Without many expansions, there doesn’t feel like as much different play styles. Until you add in the heroes.
This sets the Hero Realms game out in a really awesome way and flips how you play. If you end up choosing HR, get the Heroes and thank me later. This will easily give you the most bang for your buck and add a mountain of replay to the core set.
The villainous boss decks are hard to find, but a worthwhile expansion if you are looking for a fun way to play with friends or single. You can team up and go against the boss. Or, a veteran player can play handicapped with friends fighting as a team to bring them down.
I hope this helps somewhat.
Oh, I just remembered, there is also an RPG version available for the Hero Realms where a party of up to four heroes go through a series of varying challenges. Each having its own set of requirements for victory.
Leveling your hero gives you access to new actions and upgrades to your hero class. Branching paths offer some differences in play and a follow up let’s you continue your story. This offers shallow replay, but replay none the less.
I backed this. Looking forward to this. With the character classes; it is more than just Star Realms with a different skin.
I want my kickstarter version so bad! Thanks Sam for the review, I am a big time Star Realms lover too. I play it every day on the ipad 3-10 times. I know they have Hero Realms at the warehouse now and are starting to ship soon. I can hardly wait!
How does it compare to Cthulhu Realms? I only played that one and from what I read here and there it was a big improvement over Star Realms (to the point I'm not interested to play Star Realms at all)
Oooh, you said "tap." Now you're gonna get it. :-) 8:45
Erskine Thompson The lawyers letters are already in the post. 😄
Don't their trademark for tap already expired? :)
I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that trademarks can be renewed indefinitely.
You are correct they can be renewed for as long as the company owning it exist.
I was playing this game with my girlfriend, and one thing isn't clear to me yet. For cards that require sacrificing other cards to activate their effects, can you sacrifice any card, or only those with the trash can symbol on them?
Also, one other question. For ally activation abilities, are they only activated when you have another ally champion of the same faction, or can action cards of the same faction activate the ally abilities? For example, spark + spark, which both have the green paw symbol. Would they stack and activate each other's ally ability of the extra damage, or would it only activate if there is a green paw champion on your side of the field?
Sorry that no one answered this. Well, cards that say sacrifice allow you to sacrifice any card, while the cards with a trash can you can sacrifice at anytime to get the ability. Ally abilities are triggered by any type of card.
My copy is on the way! I'm so ready, this game is great
Thanks Sam, great review, this is now on my wish list!
What!? How did I miss this Kickstarter! So sad for me...
It will have wide release soon enough
I don't know why, but the sound of Sam shuffling in this and the Star Realms videos is...intoxicating.
Sam... why does this game remind me (too much) of MTG? Think I'll review "Star Realms" and see if that theme works better for me. ***Just committed to "Vengeance" on Kickstarter. Check out "Undead Viking" and "Rahdo Run" to check out the reviews... I think this game will kick some serious ass! Supposed to be out by Summer of next year.
Jim Smith Undead Viking doesn't do reviews. He does paid endorsements.
Wasn't there some sort of campaign mode?
That's in a future expansion.
Sam the multiplayer modes were also included in star realms. that is nothing new. Also the cards and rules are a 1:1 copy of star realms. the only difference i noticed is that they changed the rules of the permanent cards (heroes/star bases). Before, you yould only "use" it once each turn, now you have to "exhaut" it and you only get to refresh it on the next turn. It is essentially the same thing. Star Realms is a fantastic game, I was just really hoping they would add a new layer or different ideas instead of making a copy with a different theme. The character decks should really be included in the base game to make it stand apart from star realms
Why the hell do you play (or how) cards from your discard pile?!?!
OK so it really is just Star Realms fantasy, except if you get the character packs. Fingers crossed they do something similar for Star Realms.
They did.
Quite enjoy this game. Girlfriend and I up our health to 75, though, cuz we feel like the game is over by the time you buy 5-6 new cards.
i think the tapping mechanic is not needed here. bases and outposts do not tap in star realms yet functions the same way as champions here.
They do
Can't wait the copy to ship to my home!!! :D
Looks like the artwork from Dominion, and some of the game play!
Cool but I wish it was more of army battles not a few champions
I dont see the use of "turning that card (expend)" like arnt you gonna use it anyways? theres no benefit of not using that card
Super late reply but your comment still appears near the top, so commenting in case other people see this and are also confused.
Some cards have effects which also have a negative; you might, for example, have to sacrifice a card as a requirement for another effect. If you don't tap the card, no effects occur, and so you avoid the negative effect too.
without the Hero decks this game would not be worth it but the heroes really give it the flavor that I missed in SR but one thing would make it even better: If the heroes had bonuses if you buy card from certain fractions (but I guess this would break the balance if no cards from your fractions are in the trade row) I also wished that SR or HR had cards that do something on your opponents turn. also the battle system could be more like the system from Force of will.
Mommy, why are the heroes killing each other :(? (Seems a bit too damn close to Star Realms...)
When MTG trademarked "tapping"
Cool!
I missed the Kickstarter for this (after backing Epic, and getting a mediocre MtG clone, with rules that could only be understood by MtG players).
This is the game Epic SHOULD have been! Too bad I missed the KS, as I was feeling too bitter about Epic.
I almost backed this on Kickstarter. Now I'm starting to kick myself.
You have another chance right now with the Lost Village campaign. There's a really good all-in deal now for new players.
This is an alright video but really I don't think you can call it a review, for most of the video you are just playing through the game (which is fine but not what I want from a review video). I think you could have shortened the video to a third of its current length if you just played a round or 2, described the mechanics and then compared against star realms. I think a lot of the dice tower videos with you, tom or zee (or the three of you together) suffer from this, you guys have a lot of useless information and or talking in the video and I end up skipping around a lot just to get to the parts where you guys are actually talking about relevant questions. Make a second video if you want to play through the video but in this case honestly you could have just said "yes this is rethemed star realms" from the start of the video and it would have been a better video.
Mmmm, congealing art . . .
There's no reason to get this if you already have Star Realms other than different art (notice I said different art and not theme. There is no theme).
The character packs should have been a core mechanic included in the base game to actually make it different than Star Realms. An obvious money grab, very disappointing. Shame on them.
Sean Thompson ...you forgot, "Hey, you kids...get off my lawn!!"
What I'm hoping is they release these same character packs for Star Realms
So it's as dreadfully boring game as Star Realms. It fools you into thinking you are actually playing, when in fact the only decision in the game is what random card you are going to buy. Rest of the 'game' is played on auto pilot, by dumping your randomly drawn hand and see what cards you were holding.
It actually makes me sad, and a bit angry, how a dead simple game like this or Star Realms, with little to no decision making can be such high on rankings.
Sounds like you take games way to seriously. Just have fun bro!
Personally haven't played this or *Star Realms*, but this one doesn't seem to have less *meaningful* choices than most games.
I mean, having a lot of options and having those options actually matter is something a lot of games struggle with. In his example, Sam had a few different choices from turn 1. I don't know how hard of a choice it was, but he had a decision to make.
That's interesting. Maybe not a brain-melting puzzle, but interesting nonetheless.
I've bought all of the expansions of Star Realms and played online for a year now. First few months I had a win rate of 30%, now I'm averaging 65%. Futhermore, there are people who almost always lose to me and people who I almost always lose to (we're talking about a sample size of around 30 games per such player). You just don't understand the game and you think it's all random, because none of YOUR choices amount to a strategy.
C r s you need to really think and plan ahead when buying cards to create a strong deck. The game requires skill in order to get the cards that synegize well and that can do What you need. If you don't think you're gonna end up with cards that are much weaker and cards you can't use.
I will never understand how people could applaud the artwork on games like this - the most pedestrian, uninspired generic fantasy art imaginable, and yet put down Ascension for its early sets art.