Budget Cards

FiC3 - A Beginner's Budget Guide to The Shop

So, you’ve decided to play Forged in Chaos? That’s great! Now you need to figure out how to get ahead as fast as you can, because getting up to speed and competing with your friends is what makes this game really fun. The Discord seems overwhelming at first, but today I’m going to explain how you can build a competitive deck in less than 10 minutes!

The key to this strategy guide is The Shop. FiC3’s in game card shop, run by MerchBot, is your greatest resource. It’s fast, convenient, and lots of cards are very cheap--you just need to know what to target.

Cheap cards that will improve any deck:
16 | 10 - AOD-079 - Crystal Seer - 68
14 | 9 - AOD-015 - Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive - 141
9 | 6 - AOD-058 - Upstart Goblin - 113
8 | 5 - FOA-046 - Jar of Greed - 3

For about 1/100th the price of Pot of Duality, you can get a card that is pretty darn similar. This format doesn’t have a lot of generic draw power, and neither starter deck comes with any, so it will definitely help to pick up some of these cards.

Both Upstart Goblin and Jar of Greed will let you focus on the best 37 cards in your inventory to make a deck. This helps a lot when you have a beginner’s inventory, because the difference between your 37th best card and your 38th best card is probably quite large. Cutting the worst cards in your deck is a great way to gain an early edge.

Crystal Seer and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive are a bit less splashable, but they accomplish the same thing. Use Crystal Seer if your deck is more combo oriented, since it lets you pick the better card in your next 2 cards. Use Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive if you deck is not so combo oriented, since its stats are going to be more relevant to you.

Cheap cards that will generate advantage:
5 | 3 - AOD-037 - Snowman Eater - 123
2 | 1 - AOD-027 - Legendary Jujitsu Master - 148
2 | 1 - FOA-048 - Robbin' Goblin - 109
2 | 1 - AOD-066 - Liberty at Last! - 156

These cards come in 2 categories: defensive walls and unexpected traps.

Snowman Eater and Legendary Jujitsu Master will survive and kill most of the LV4 beaters in the current meta. Better yet, they will almost never be worse than a 1-for-1 trade. When you’re just starting out in Forged, having monsters like these to round out your deck will keep you competitive against meta decks.

Robbin’ Goblin and Liberty at Last! are two devastating traps that can generate a ton of card advantage--basically if you succeed with them once you practically win the game on the spot! The downside is that their activation requirements are a bit difficult, which is why they are not meta cards. However, that uncommonness can work to your advantage. If you sprinkle in 1-2 tech copies of these cards, your opponent won’t see them coming.

Cheap generic cards that hold their own:
18 | 12 - AOD-077 - Berserk Gorilla - 61
18 | 12 - FOA-049 - Alexandrite Dragon - 57
7 | 5 - POE-005 - D.D. Assailant - 30
32 | 21 - AOD-098 - Smashing Ground - 65
25 | 17 - AOD-093 - Book of Moon - 77
13 | 9 - AOD-107 - Safe Zone - 73

These cards come in 3 categories: vanilla beaters, cheap removal, and chainable protection.

Berserk Gorilla and Alexandrite Dragon represent the attack ceiling for LV4 beaters in the format, so adding these to your beginner’s deck can give you a quick edge. Most of the meta decks in the format rely on engine monsters that have less ATK or DEF, so it’s nice to get that statistical advantage.

D.D. Assailant and Smashing Ground are solid removal cards to out problematic boss monsters in the meta decks. D.D. Assailant can take care of cards like Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest and Machina Fortress permanently by banishing them. Smashing Ground is just easy, convenient, non-targeted removal. It comes in some starter decks, but if yours didn’t include it, it’s a smart idea to pick it up.

Book of Moon and Safe Zone are nice protection cards to save your best monsters. Book of Moon is basically a poor man’s version of Forbidden Dress, one of the most expensive meta cards out there. Book of Moon also comes in some starter decks, so be sure you don’t have them before you buy them. Finally, Safe Zone is one of the best chainable cards in the format. It can be chained to a destruction effect to save your best monster, or it can be chained to spell/trap removal to pop an opponent’s monster, giving you card advantage. Remember to only grab 1 copy, though, since it’s limited.

Cheap side deck options:
37 | 25 - AOD-086 - Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer - 52
16 | 11 - SS1-008 - Sasuke Samurai - 15
2 | 1 - AOD-006 - Amazoness Trainee - 161
2 | 1 - AOD-007 - Armored Bee - 169
4 | 2 - POE-025 - Magic Cylinder - 56
2 | 1 - AOD-064 - Disappear - 146

These cards come in 3 categories: Boss beaters, effect negators, and Graveyard disruptors.

Armored Bee and Magic Cylinder are two cards that can wreak havoc against big boss monsters, like Doom Dozer and Talaya, the Princess of Cherry Blossoms. Armored Bee is simply incredible in that it can defeat any boss monster in this format in battle. It’s probably only going to kill one boss, but that’s good enough to keep you in the game. Magic Cylinder, on the other hand, can really steal a game from a player who thinks they won’t be losing to a beginner. Spring this on them at the end of the duel for big, lethal damage.

Amazoness Trainee and Sasuke Samurai are two of the better Warrior toolbox monsters to throw in your side deck, regardless of whether you own Reinforcement of the Army or not (but if you do, even better!). Sasuke Samurai is obviously an excellent side deck choice against any deck playing flip-effect monsters. Amazoness Trainee is great against any deck playing recruiters and other monsters that trigger when they hit the Graveyard.

Finally, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Disappear are the two most reliable ways to disrupt strategies that revolve around the Graveyard. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer is more appropriate against a deck that needs to banish monsters from the Graveyard to use effects, decks like Dragons and Insects. Disappear on the other hand, is probably better against decks that like to activate revival cards or spend resources targeting specific monsters in the Graveyards, decks like Plants and Beasts. Both cards have overlapping applications as well, so it depends on what you think you will face. Disappear is also much cheaper than Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, but I’ve listed it because 37 Stardust isn’t a big cost for such a strong card, and it certainly has long term value as well.

Expensive cards that will give you bang for your buck:
414 | 286 - AOD-143 - Graceful Charity - Out of Stock
292 | 202 - AOD-147 - Solemn Judgment - 5
169 | 116 - AOD-131 - Mirror Force - 28

Even though this is a budget article primarily, I’ve decided to list some of the most important high-end cards as well. These cards are so strong that you should do everything in your power to acquire them as fast as possible. Each of these cards is limited to 1, and none of them appear in any starter decks. They all appear in the Starter Power-Up Packs (each player can earn up to 5 of these), but you are not guaranteed to get them. Despite the price tags in the 150-400 range, these cards are actually “worth” a lot more to you as a deck builder. The reason their prices don’t approach the 1000-mark is because most old players already have them, and because each player only needs to acquire one copy for their decks.

Budget Core #1 - Monarchs:
115 | 79 - AOD-117 - Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch - 20
99 | 68 - AOD-115 - Mobius the Frost Monarch - 29
69 | 47 - AOD-115 - Zaborg the Thunder Monarch - 43
44 | 30 - AOD-085 - Gravekeeper's Spy - 55
18 | 12 - AOD-099 - Soul Exchange - 67

Budget Core #2 - Zombies:
92 | 63 - AOD-116 - Samurai Skull - 38
69 | 47 - AOD-120 - Book of Life - 48
11 | 7 - AOD-091 - Tristan, Knight of the Underworld - 70
6 | 4 - AOD-033 - Pyramid Turtle - 137
2 | 1 - AOD-036 - Ryu Kokki - 191

Finally, I want to go over 2 budget cores. If you don’t like the Plant or Fairy starter deck cores (especially the Fairy core…) you can take the staple spells and traps from your starter deck and switch to another type of deck quite quickly. Monarchs are a very solid choice when combined with more passive cards like flip-effects, defensive walls, and battle traps. Zombies are a very solid choice when combined with lots of removal and aggressive cards, like Warriors and Plants. Both cores should serve you well in the beginning, but it depends on which cards you purchased above, and it depends on what other good cards you pulled from your first packs.

Good luck and happy bargain hunting!
- Jazz