Vaguely Rambling About PreCon Decks

The Wandering Counselor helpfully commented on one of my posted PreCon deck lists today about their equivalent being listed at The Lasombra's site and also over at extrala's blog which are well worth a look.

Note: Since adding this post I have now realised about the existence of the Secret Library's Preconstructed Deck Lists which are great in that they already allow them to be exported in many formats, including the 'ELD' format.

This made me realise something. I should possibly explain why I have been posting these PreCon decks when they are already listed else-where and am therefore seemingly just re-hashing over pre-existing material. It also provides me with a convenient vehicle to start toeing the waters of posting something more substantial than simple lists of cards and game attributes. To start musing upon what direction I want the blog to move in. I tend to do a lot of this, vaguely contemplating about the probably inconsequential...

Okay, so to a certain extent posting PreCon decks has admittedly been a means to ease me into the habit of posting on the blog, to which I am still new. Equally true is the fact that whilst I have several uncompleted posts and ideas sitting in the wings, my current content sources are still somewhat lacking, so listing the decks also makes for handy post material...

Further to this though, the lists have another dual purpose.

On one hand these lists initially serve as a sort of record of the decks I have started to acquire and play. As I catalogue and enter each one into the FELDB and ARDB I have also added a record of these to the blog. Having discovered that I couldn't easily find any FELDB and/or ARDB format copies of these PreCon decks available on-line, I consequently thought that rather than manually having to enter them, others might also find the links to these of use. The listed decks already contain links to the FELDB *.eldb format and I will be adding the ARDB versions in the near future. (I am currently liaising about the new beta version of the ARDB so might wait until that process is completed.)

On the other hand their primary purpose is that of precursors to a review of these decks, both in and of the decks themselves and also in terms of how suitable I have found them to be as potential introductory decks for use with newbies. Thus these lists will be used as an accompaniment to these reviews, allowing me to link to the decks in question as handy reference tools when I discuss them.

As to the introductory process itself, I have now found this to be diverging along two distinct paths.

Firstly it has become geared towards introducing the game to my girlfriend, who was already familiar with it from when we first met but had never actually played it - she so far seems to have really taken to it and enjoying the game, which has been heartening to experience. :)

Secondly in the direction of introducing the game to some friends when hosting a regular gaming day that seems to be becoming established between the group of us on a rotational hosting basis.

I guess thirdly, I have subsequently found that the starter decks have also been a good way to re-introduce myself to the game, to re-familiarise myself with many of the cards I used to play with and as the basis for an introduction to many of the new cards.

Once I find sufficient time to collate and assess my steadily burgeoning new card collection I'll hopefully progress to once again creating my own decks and will then seek to list all of those on here as well. Well maybe not all of them... One or two of the decks I may well hold back from public viewing in perhaps slightly deluded hopes of a tournament win or two at some point. Plenty of time for those to be listed after that... >;-)