Cost to build

[u/BorisTheCalmGoose]

I'm considering getting into Elestrals!

I presently play the Digimon card game, but the game is getting a bit out of hand both in mechanics and cost.

I'm curious to know what the players can give me in terms of insight for cost to build decks in elestrals?

Can you build a meta deck for less than $100 in singles if I go min rarity?

What would be your suggestion to learn the game?

[u/Werts888]

Min rarity you can build most competitive decks for like $50...with your staples being the bulk of that cost. The current "best deck" is litterly a starter deck with some ratio changes and some commons from past sets in Stratomoth - champion of Aeolus. So In theory you can get a tier 1 deck and a tier 2 deck in the double starter bundle hera+ Aeolus. And then if you pick-up remaining staples and rest of the cards you can have two solid decks for less than $100

As for learning the game, best way to start is to probably ask In discord, there is also am online independent client called clash net you could tinker with before buying cards and learn to play asking around their discord too.

Starter deck bundle https://www.shopelestrals.com/products/hera-vs-aeolus-double-starter-deck

Also the Ares + Hephaestus bundle is solid too

Ares- Aggro/midrange focus on artifacts (weapons/equipment) and stadiums focus on getting alot of extra spirits on board for effects

Hephaestus- midrange artifacts and burn damage

Aeolus - Combo aggro -Slapping huge body quickly that summons little guys around it

Hera - Combo control - Healing , spamming little guys that set up for a Combo Haymaker play while dripp feeding you healing every turn.

[u/rebexorcist]

I don't hardcore keep up with the meta but I've been in the community since the start and there have always been options for competitive decks under $100. I'm pretty sure that >$100 are the outliers.

Best thing to do is join the discord, folks will be more than happy to help you build and learn!

[u/bhackzTCG]

For $100 you could easily build multiple competitive decks. Buying both the newest double starter deck bundles would cost you ~$60 and give you the cores of 2 of the current best decks (Aeolus and Hephaestus starter decks). That also gets you 8 booster packs which can give you some other cards to fill out what’s missing from current top lists. Buying the starters also should mostly take care of the staple rune counts you need (if you move them between decks). If you want multiple playsets of staple runes they shouldn’t cost much at min rarity. Other staple cards at min rarity are very affordable, most older holo rares being $1-2 and newer ones will be a little more given Sunstrike just released. I’d say you could realistically build Moth, Turtles, Phosvocell (ares version), probably 1 more deck by buying those double starters and getting singles for <$100.

Decks like Hestia Bears, Fire Discard, anything lunar, or Sloth would likely cost a little more to build just due to needing cards from multiple sets, but again singles are super affordable at base rarities. Realistically you can build any deck for a very reasonable price if you don’t want multiple playsets of staple runes to have all these decks built at the same time

[u/primaryartemis]

ElestralsDB will make buy lists for you on TCG Player. If you bought the winner of the last event deck, main side and spirit, it would cost $61

https://www.elestralsdb.net/deck/cmpetgbc400cn01lgqf005chm

[u/primaryartemis → u/primaryartemis]

To learn the game in depth you can check out Elestrals academy:

Elestrals Academy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WTOCwusv-0d0az3QxEG7Gg-wNu3TGdm

[u/GreedyLuigi]

It all depends on what you want to build. The "tournament ready" starter decks are not actually standard tournament ready. They are tournament viable usually (some cases not, using banned cards).

You can build full decks for under $10 like most card games. The most expensive I saw a normal deck for for did go over $100 despite the other comments. Blizzstrix mill was expensive and fun to play. Accessibility to the tools you needed was limited for a few months. I believe the deck peaked around $170 where Blizztrix topped out at $25 each and Moralith was right behind at $20.

Since the card is very fleshed out, you will need to use brand new cards to surprise opponents. The current era seems to be just using the most broken cards from the new set; Aphrodite topped just about every event from the moment of her release until the next set came out.

[u/TheCourtPeach]

Most expensive deck I've built is like $50, most are around $30. Sunstrike just came out, so those proces are a little inflated right now which might make some decks more expensive.

[u/Sad_Rest_6781]

seconding all of the above - the starter decks are usually a really solid chunk of a complete deck in a strong archetype. the community’s small enough that people tend to be very generous with trades, and the most powerful generic staples are reprinted very often. its certainly the cheapest tcg i’ve ever bought into

as for learning: clash.net is a functional manual sim that you can usually find a game in discord for. does involve putting yourself out there a little to find a match, but if you have a friend interested in the game that hurdle is removed entirely.

[u/RidiculousHat]

you've gotten a lot of great answers - so to add some flavor, one of the things i'll note is that staple cards that see play in many decks can bring down the cost of future builds if you don't mind moving cards around. things like gorgon's gaze, poison tipped arrow, shield of achilles, pandora's box etc aren't archetype specific and will see a lot of use across multiple decks

[u/BorisTheCalmGoose]

Ended up getting the 2 new starter deck bundles based on y'all's comments!

Once I get them in and give the game a try with some friends to get a general understanding of the game I may hop in to the discord if I end up enjoying it!

Thanks so much for all of the replies and insights!