This week’s arena fascinated me. It uses just the Star Realms Core Set, a deck I’ve been shuffling up for more than four years. It introduced just two rules, one of which was just a straight cost-reduction mechanic. This week should be easy, I thought.

Not so much. I started 0-2. Humble pie is served. I’ve gotten better – currently winning more than 60% of my games in this week’s Arena. Join me through this process of gameplay discovery, won’t you?

Format Rules & Technical Data

Recruiting Drive has two rules: Bases cost one less trade to acquire, and when a player acquires a ship it goes on top of their deck.

The only technical note I have this week is the cost of bases do not change on the cards. Blob Wheel only costs 2 trade, despite the printed cost of 3. This isn’t a bug, but it might catch you by surprise.

In my ten games this week, games ended on average on turn 17 or 18. There does not appear to be an overall advantage to either the first or second player this time around, though there are some shocking plays the first player can make before the second player can defend…

Trade Makes the Realm Go ‘Round

Because any ship you purchase goes to the top of your deck, early trade is amazing. Turn one Trade Pod results in 6+ trade on turn two — possibly as much as 8 trade! At that point, you can get anything you want into your deck before the first shuffle!

Trade continues to be worth purchasing throughout the game. You’ll be purchasing ships in most games all the way to the end, including on the final turn of the game. Be careful though, as some of the best trade-generating ships are not amazing in this format — sorry Freighter, you aren’t even above average this time around.

Avoid Most Bases; Create “The Clamp”

Because bases are now much, much slower to impact the game than ships, most of them are not worth purchasing at all. Even with the one-trade discount. There are several exceptions to this rule, but generally you should avoid bases entirely this week. Here are the ones I purchased, and why: