Money Management

[kirchj33]

Rule of Thumb Number One: Never sell upgraded cards unless you have more than six copies, and never sell unupgraded cards unless you have over 12 copies total (unupped and upped).
Suppose you’re accumulating wealth and you decide you’ll never play with Aether cards, so you sell them all.  If down the road you enter a PvP Event or a Tournament which requires Aether cards, you’ve paying about a 40% markup over each card you sold.  And the waste adds up quickly.

Why six and twelve?  Because the most copies you can have in a deck are six and you can’t unupgrade cards, having over six upgraded copies is superfluous.  At the same time having ten unupped Flying Weapons and two upped Animate Weapons available means you can upgrade an additional four if you need to and still hold six unupped copies.  If you win an additional upgraded copy you can sell an unupped copy and still be positioned ideally.

So if I'm following this correctly, the main reason to keep 12 of each card (6 unupped and 6 upped) is in case of PVP Events and Tournaments? If so, then since I never play in those, I don't need 12 of each in total, just 6 of each card (unupped plus upped), right?

I'm soooo confoooosed!

Thanks,
LSK Piano

That may be true, seeing as you can only create decks with 6 copies of each card, whether it be upped or unupped.  Be aware though, that there are several cards which function differently upped and unupped (pandemonium, mutation, fate egg, nova/supernova come to mind)

[kev]

So if I'm following this correctly, the main reason to keep 12 of each card (6 unupped and 6 upped) is in case of PVP Events and Tournaments? If so, then since I never play in those, I don't need 12 of each in total, just 6 of each card (unupped plus upped), right?

I think you're asking whether you need to keep unupped cards if you already have 6 upped cards.  Others have pointed out that sometimes unupped cards are preferable, and that's definitely true.  But there are plenty of other reasons to keep unupped cards lying around.  Although you don't right now, you might one day want to enter a PvP Event, Tournament, League, etc.  (Btw, I believe very strongly that I just listed the most fun parts of this game.  If you haven't checked out that forum section (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,76.0.html) you really should.)  Additionally you might want to play PvP1 at some point as a change of pace.  You might need unupped cards for the new t500 system.  You might want to play an unupped game against a friend or someone you meet in chat.  You might want a backup copy in case of a bizarre bazaar misclick.  You might need unupped cards for some crazy scheme zanzarino hasn't even thought up yet.  And the list goes on.

Overall the electrum you get from selling copies over six isn't worth the opportunities that those copies afford you... in my opinion.  But I wrote "Rule of Thumb" rather than "Rule" for good reason.  If you're confident you'll never need unupped Fire Spirits then sell them.  If it turns out you were wrong you can always play more and repurchase them.  Not the end of the world.

why do you need both
"a fully upped AI3/t50 grinder and a fully upped FG Grinder"

Can't you just get by with one or the other?

Historically grinding AI3 has been the fastest way to increase score, grinding t50 has been the fastest way to accumulate rares, and grinding FGs has been the fastest way to accumulate electrum.  You wouldn't want to grind AI3 or t50 with a deck designed for FGs nor would you want to grind FGs with a deck designed for AI3 or t50.  You could certainly get by if you just had no interest in playing the FGs or something, but most players want the ability to grind for score, rares, or electrum and so it's been an important goal.

[Chromatophore]

Additionally you might want to play PvP1 at some point as a change of pace.

Pvp1 will automatically downgrade each card in your deck for the duration of the match.

Historically grinding AI3 has been the fastest way to increase score, grinding t50 has been the fastest way to accumulate rares, and grinding FGs has been the fastest way to accumulate electrum.  You wouldn't want to grind AI3 or t50 with a deck designed for FGs nor would you want to grind FGs with a deck designed for AI3 or t50.  You could certainly get by if you just had no interest in playing the FGs or something, but most players want the ability to grind for score, rares, or electrum and so it's been an important goal.

Makes sense.  Thanks.

[Marvaddin]

I always followed these 2 rules. I have 190k electrum and Im missing still a lot of unupgraded cards. I usually buy the 1st copy of a card when its released (if I dont get it in some days), it helps to organize the collection. But then there is no need to rush. I dont have 12 Crusaders yet, for example, but the normal play vs AI3 will bring them to me in some time, like it did to Steam Machine, Pandemonium, etc. Some, however, I could think about buying. Reflective Shield and Azure Dragon I bought, for example, are still alone. Some of these cards you can get in AI2, but meh, this is lose more money than buying the cards

About upgrading, I have like 350 upped cards, and most of them were get from FGs. But its really good having money in hand. I decided to get a CCYB and just upgraded it. Now Im going to do the same to GotP Time, will spend 45k on it, but I can do it at the moment I want, so, yeah, money is good, better than cards you dont use

I would add a #3 rule: upgrading costs a lot, so, test the deck in the trainer before. When I was a noob, I got a Shrieker rush but I hated it, and I disliked having spent the electrum. Since them, I always try all the decks Im wanting to build in the trainer.

[teffy]

Interesting, I´m constantly breaking the rules:

Rule of Thumb Number One: Never sell upgraded cards unless you have more than six copies, and never sell unupgraded cards unless you have over 12 copies total (unupped and upped).

Partially agree. If a FG gives you a tower, the single tower upgrade is close to useless. There are also other upgrades, which are close to useless (e.g. Stone Skin).
Invested into another good card (e.g Supernova, RoL) or a better unupped card pool, the money is invested much better. My Rule of Thumb is: "Upgrade cards, not decks" because decks aren´t made for eternity and "The upgrade of a normal card is usually better than a tower upgrade" - maybe with the exception of Quantum Towers , they are by far the most used towers.

For practical reasons, I keep exactly 6 copies of all unupped bazaar cards (except pillars and pendulums) and sell them, if I have more.

Rule of Thumb Number Two: Never buy or upgrade cards unless it's necessary.

I see no reasons to keep too much money (although some thousands are good) on hand, because the money in the treasure chest does nothing. We have no bank, where "money can work". I think "necessary" means the upgrades you need so that the deck strategy can work.

I´d like to add a rule no 3.

Rule of Thumb No3:
Don´t sell nymphs and it´s better , not to upgrade them.
A sold nymph never comes back, nymphs make your account unique  and upped nymphs can´t be used everywhere.

[Sevs]

Lol this is my worst problem. I have this urge to sell everything i dont need. but then i need it later. and re buy it. waste of money but cant help it

[uncletex]

This really does make a lot of sense in the big picture.  I was keeping 3-4 unupped and selling the rest, including some rares for the elec.  But I think now I'm going to switch to a hoarding mentality for awhile and boost the 30k I've got to a much higher number for who-knows-what later on.


...tex

[Essence]

Fun fact: by not following these rules I have wasted over 100k electrum. Yay me.

I'm pretty sure I've got you beat by a factor of at least 5. 

[Mainiak]

Please note that it has historically been very important to get a fully upped AI3/t50 grinder and a fully upped FG Grinder.  To reach these goals you probably shouldn’t feel bad about selling currently useless upgrades to up cards and make the decks you grind with more effective.  After that point, though, you enter a wealth accumulation phase.

D'accord. So why is this thread located in the newbie area? It's a bit confusing for newbies.

At least I'd recommend to highlight this sentence and put it more prominent on the top.

[Toge111]

Rule of Thumb Number Two: Never buy or upgrade cards unless it's necessary.

- Well, here's where this falls apart fast. When you say 'never', it means something that should not ever be done. Then there's 'unless' and a vague condition that upgrading is necessary. How do I as a new player know what is necessary and worthwhile goals? For instance if I have grinding deck A and new evidence suggests that grinding deck B is actually better than A, should I then start upping B instead? It certainly makes sense, as the speed of electrum gain is what ultimately matters. What if someone discovers that Arena farming is actually better than other farms with some deck C? Should I now feel compelled to upgrade that deck or stick with original plan and farm cards until at last I have all cards upgraded?

Playing False Gods is like investing money. You get upgraded cards, which may not even be necessary in the current state of the game, but may prove useful in the future. AI3 and Arena farming is good for that solid cash in hand, which allows you to upgrade whatever is necessary. Your theory is correct from purely economical point of view: by never buying anything you're saving the most money.

[adrix89]

Rule of Thumb Number Two: Never buy or upgrade cards unless it's necessary.

- Well, here's where this falls apart fast. When you say 'never', it means something that should not ever be done. Then there's 'unless' and a vague condition that upgrading is necessary. How do I as a new player know what is necessary and worthwhile goals? For instance if I have grinding deck A and new evidence suggests that grinding deck B is actually better than A, should I then start upping B instead? It certainly makes sense, as the speed of electrum gain is what ultimately matters. What if someone discovers that Arena farming is actually better than other farms with some deck C? Should I now feel compelled to upgrade that deck or stick with original plan and farm cards until at last I have all cards upgraded?

Playing False Gods is like investing money. You get upgraded cards, which may not even be necessary in the current state of the game, but may prove useful in the future. AI3 and Arena farming is good for that solid cash in hand, which allows you to upgrade whatever is necessary. Your theory is correct from purely economical point of view: by never buying anything you're saving the most money.

I'm pretty sure the point is to not upgrade haphazardly, I would guess that FG farmers are on the necessary part.

[Jappert]

A little while ago an experienced, well known player asked chat which cards he should upgrade next.  He'd built up some excess electrum and was looking for some versatile cards to spend it on.  He told chat that he usually tried to stay below 2k electrum... which floored me.  Newer players often ask either the same question or questions about when to sell cards, so I thought it'd be worth writing a post on the subject of money management.

I didn't read this topic untill now. Even though I wouldn't call myself a very well known, experienced player, that does sound an awfull lot like me

Somehow I'm a bit autistic since I can't stand any other number then 6 in my card list. Those Nymphs really bother me (pends and towers aren't somehow). So yeah I always sold every unupped card that got above 6, probably costed me quite some elec in the end.
I think that keeping these rules in the back of your head can at least prevent some unfortunate electrum losses. Especially for the newer players who don't have any decks/upped cards/electrum as backup. Well done Kev!

ps. there was a guy in chat yesterday who really should have read this first. I think he bought and sold entire decks (Rush be gone and Grabbix?) to build new ones and so forth.