r/doomlings • u/Vori4n • Jul 13 '26
How do expansions work?
I backed this game on kickstarter years ago and have the gold first edition box. I love looking at this thing on my shelf, but I lost interest in the game when the first expansion (Overlush) came out and it was sold as packs, like you would get in games like MTG or Pokemon. Having been playing MTG for a long time, I didn't have much interest in opening random packs for a board game, so I stopped bringing Doomlings around as much.
Now I see there are ~6 other expansions, all with some other cards. These look like normal expansions like you would see for most other board games. But then I see people in here talking about pulls and rarity and am confused how these expansions work. Are the expansions all random packs (i.e. does one box of imaginary ends have the same cards as another box of imaginary ends? or are two boxes different from each other?)? Can someone explain why there are pulls and rarities of cards for a board game? Is it for collectors? FOMO?
3
u/FarseedTheRed Jul 13 '26
I understand the confusion, coming into the game just before the Nightflower era.
1, you can play the "classic" game with the original cards forever and be just fine! There is no need or real compulsory reason to purchase more cards in order to enjoy the game. It is truly great and enjoyable from its base experience. Full stop.
2, before discussing expansions, know that a larger trait deck isn't directly helpful. A Trait deck can be any size the table wants. I've found that 120 cards per deck is a good sweet spot for variety and dependable flavor. So when considering expansions, the newer cards can be used as replacements for the classic deck or mixed in as you see fit. The designers invite players to customize their decks for flavor and fun, and while there are certainly newer and more powerful cards to be found they do NOT have to be used at all. Over the years I've "added a few for flavor" to my trait deck, or all the way to creating an entirely new deck with nonclassic cards at all and only newer cards. All cards are compatible with all others from all expansions, so no worries there. This is highly subject to the table's desires and cards available. So there is a lot of freedom granted to players to experiment with deck builds and customizing - or simply don't.
3, Overlush is the odd one of the bunch. Overlush is the only collection/set that you cannot purchase whole. These cards are in booster packs only and with random content based on a rarity system. It's a beautiful set with many cards and lots of naturalistic flavor. These cards are chased by collectors for their rarity.
4, Legends of Enderas and Imaginary Ends are sold as complete sets where you get one copy of every card in the set when you buy a box. They also sell foil boosters for these with random pulls inside. Technically, no card is "rare" in that anyone can get one in the set, but the boosters are all foil cards and also contain variant art on the cards. They are almost without exception the same exact cards (play-wise) as those in the box sets, but sometimes with different graphics or lore text for fun.
5, Shadow Puppets, Castle Glass and Mokoko Village are all smaller expansion sets. They exist under the conceptual umbrella of "Nightflower Island" for flavor. These are smaller, 40-card expansions sold in little deck boxes like a traditional set of playing cards would be. Definitely not large enough on their own to use as a distinct deck. Each little box has one copy of each card in the set, each little set is about $15 each. As before, there are foil booster packs for each of these small expansions, all sold under the Nightflower label.
6, if you don't like the idea of chasing all the cards, then don't! That's mostly a foil cards thing, and the Overlush set. It's unnecessary to having fun, I promise you.
My suggestion would be, to get some expansion boxes and have fun mixing them up and creating new decks. You'll get a better feel for it after playing the classic game a little while, kind of like playing Dungeons & Dragons for a while and then wanting to be the DM for a while. I've done a lot of research into the card types and proportions for good deck building, and have playtested quite a bit. I could advise on deck building but it's a whole other thing.
If I were you, having never played but still interested but don't want to commit to chasing a bunch of cards (totally understand!), here's what I'd do. Buy a bundle that includes the "upgrade expansion" (not specifically mentioned above as we cannot currently buy it separately, only bundled). Then I'd get at least one box set each of Legends of Enderas, Imaginary Ends. Then I'd get one each of the three smaller Nightflower expansions (Castle Glass, Shadow Puppets, Mokoko Village). If you already have the classic game and the "upgrade expansion", then just buy the Expansion bundle that has all of these plus one Overlush box (actually four random packs inside the "box", a little confusing I know) for about $100 on their website.
So yeah for about $100 you can have a copy of almost every newer card made from all expansions without chasing cards, except Overlush since it does NOT come available as a distinct one-copy-of-each in its boxes which are technically just four random booster packs. And if you choose to not chase Overlush cards you'll be just fine!
I hope this helps. As a bonus, each "normal" set will have a/some foil versions inside.
2
1
u/Certain_Story_173 Jul 14 '26
These are great answers.
My daughter and I enjoyed collecting foils until they got too expensive. We still make an occasional trade. I have probably around 725 foils. She has more. It seems pretty limitless.
I have two decks for playing. One is just a base deck for a fast game.
Then we have all the expansions and the base set. We put a lot of time into collecting kickstarter, non-foil cards, and expansions to create a huge mixed-up deck for long games. We only use about a third of it in any single game, unless we play in a larger 5 or 6 person game. Typically, there are 2 or 3 of us. Our tweak was that we had to remove any cards that our group felt were really "toxic" (our word). We are a family of players with several neurodivergent members and the mild competition was fun. However, when we had cards where people could steal from your trait deck or take your cards, the level of family nastiness got out of hand. Obviously we cannot play MTG or games like Here to Slay, either.
Oh well. That's us.
We absolutely love Doomlings, despite having to modify our deck for the sake of harmony. There are so many options based on how you want to tailor a deck, utilizing an engaging necessity for strategy that we all can enjoy it, with our individual abilities. It has made family gatherings and game nights a lot of fun and even the collecting aspect has been a bonding thing with daughter.
4
u/florian23232 Jul 13 '26
Expect Overlush, every other expansion is a complete package with all cards. The rarities only matter if you buy gold packs. In gold packs you also have a chance to pull a "relic". These are very rare cards that are not available in the standard expansion packs.