I mean this article lovingly and constructively to help players out who are getting into a card game.
For the practical needs of many people
- You want to get the essential cards. The staples. The side deck cards. The perennial cards (ones that come in and out of the meta frequently, but are good to have). Those cards are spread across several sets – not just in one booster box.
- You want to focus on building 1 good deck before branching out and building other decks. This means you want specific cards rather than hundreds of random cards.
The problem with booster sets. Even if you were to buy 2-3 whole boxes of a set you’d spend a lot of money and you still probably wouldn’t get all of the cards you’d need to build a specific deck of that archetype. You’d have to spend even more money to get the other cards, and you likely could’ve just bought a full deck of that archetype online for less money.
^ And this is boxes. Individual packs are higher cost per card due than boxes, so these points apply even more.
Buying singles or premade decks saves time. You don’t end up with a lot of cards you don’t need that you have to spend time selling/trading off.
You don’t need most cards. You can just buy the 10% of cards you need for your decks. Rather than buying cards at random and ending up with a lot of the 90% you don’t.
However, it can be efficient for vendors to buy boxes. They buy boxes in bulk at lower price. They buy materials in bulk (sleeves, cases, mailers, etc). They ship multiple packages at a time (more time-efficient). They have an established base of customers and can move inventory quickly
Card Game Fundamentals articles
Building a Collection
Game Balance
Gameplay > Card Choice
Greed
How to Know if a Card Is Good
Reviewing Replays