GTM #132 - Killer Bunnies and the Ultimate Odyssey: Basic Deck Building Part 2

Last month, we talked about putting together a basic Killer Bunnies Odyssey deck, focusing on some fundamentals such as how many card copies are allowed, what size your deck should be, how many bunnies vs. weapons vs. cities you should have, and more.

Now that you've had some practice building a killer deck, it is time to throw in a deadly dose of what I like to call "combination maximization." Take a hard look at any KB Odyssey card and you will notice some little details that, in combination with other cards, will really cause major devastation to your opponent's plans. This article will give more advanced clues and tips on deck building, so you can customize your own style to try to dominate the table and master the game.

Color Mixing:

First of all, let's take a look at our resource types and the colors associated with them.

Everyone is going to develop their own sense of which color combinations they prefer when mixing. One strategy is to balance different aspects of the resource types for an evenhanded effect. Another strategy is to increase a specific power, whether it be offense, bunny/city development, or reinforcements to defense, by combining colors that "help" each other. Try your own combinations, and see what you come up with!

Be sure, however, to balance the number of cards with a specific resource requirement for play with the number of each type of Resource Cards in your deck. For example, if you make a Technology/Land Deck with 30 cards that require Technology resources and 10 that require Land resources to play, you will want to make sure that your 20 Resource Cards in your deck have a similar 3 to 1 ratio. Of course, the number of resources necessary to play each of those specific cards will play into your calculation, but that is a basic guide if most of your cards have a similar play cost.

Keep in mind, also, that there is a way to play a card with a cost of a resource that you do not have. You may always "burn" a Resource Card of a different type in order to pay for a different resource. When you burn a Resource Card, you must put it into your discard pile, and it may not be used for the rest of the game. For example, if you want to play a card from your Technology/Land Deck that costs five Land Resource Cards, but you only have four available, you may burn any available Technology Resource Card that you have in order to play the card. This is risky, as it sacrifices a Resource Card that you may need later, but sometimes it is advantageous, especially if you have more of a particular type of resource than you will ever need.

Symbols & Continents:

You may have started to notice the symbols located on the upper right side on many of the KB Odyssey cards. The Symbols are: Triangle, Rectangle, Spiral, Ellipse, Star, and Cross. These symbols span a range of applications, including being linked to different continents in which your cities may be located.

An interesting strategy is to take the spotlight off of colors and resources altogether, throwing in a good ratio of Resource Cards to cover the different cards in your deck, and instead focus on these symbols to maximize your points.

How is this accomplished? Well, a City Bunny is worth zero Civ Points in The Bunny Circle, and when you move it into a city in The Center Circle, it is worth two Civ Points. However, if the symbol of the bunny and city match, that bunny doubles in value, making it worth 4 Civ Points to you (but still only 2 Civ Points for an opponent who may destroy it). Imagine an all-triangle deck and the possibilities in your deck creation!

Additionally, each starter deck has a specific card that allows a player to take full advantage of their symbol-linked continent, by gaining extra points when you have two cities with the symbol shown. For example, in the Elementals Starter Deck, you will find Cradle Africa, which will give you a +4 to your Civ Points for the combination.

Symbol Deck-building Tip: Make sure to keep a few "Symbol Defense" cards in your deck, which can be found in the Burn Baby Burn (B Deck) boosters. With all of your cities in one symbol, a success with this card will really give you the upper hand!

Now that we've gone over color and symbol combinations, you now have some more tools to custom-tool your deck. Stay tuned for Part 3, which will focus on special features of the expansions, including hefty weaponry, mating bunnies, and those supernatural and super-cool guest stars of the KB world - the Cool Psychic Penguins!

Elisa Jaeger is Sr. Director of Product Development for Playroom Entertainment and has run out of creative things to put in her byline.