<p>Playtesting is by far the best option (and how all major (and minor) trading card games) have been designed. Do not only pitch the two decks against each other, but also against other decks.</p>

<p>Other than that, if the rules are simple enough, you can do some mathematical analysis. E.g. for Magic: The Gathering, compare the mana curves of the decks, and if both are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_deck_types#Aggro" rel="noreferrer">Aggro</a> decks, you can compare the average Power/Toughness of the creatures. But given Magic's rich ruleset, that is bound to fail. Still, it might work for simpler examples, such as when comparing two non-standard chess armies by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value" rel="noreferrer">relative piece value</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-17T12:09:07.403Z
2018-10-17T12:09:07.403Z
Glorfindel
<p>I am making a homemade TCG using cartoon network card wars as a backbone. How can I determine whether the deck of any two specific characters are equally strong, including the floops and not battling between the decks?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-17T11:45:40.110Z
Other then random testing of the decks and looking at  win/loss ratio it is going to be hard to determine. If you do that you need to ensure that the people testing the game understand both decks that are being played and the game.
Joe W
<game-design><balance>
How can I determine whether two decks are equally strong?
micro buster
# How can I determine whether two decks are equally strong?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-10-17)

I am making a homemade TCG using cartoon network card wars as a backbone. How can I determine whether the deck of any two specific characters are equally strong, including the floops and not battling between the decks?

**Tags:** game-design, balance

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Other then random testing of the decks and looking at  win/loss ratio it is going to be hard to determine. If you do that you need to ensure that the people testing the game understand both decks that are being played and the game.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-10-17. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Playtesting is by far the best option (and how all major (and minor) trading card games) have been designed. Do not only pitch the two decks against each other, but also against other decks.

Other than that, if the rules are simple enough, you can do some mathematical analysis. E.g. for Magic: The Gathering, compare the mana curves of the decks, and if both are [Aggro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_deck_types#Aggro) decks, you can compare the average Power/Toughness of the creatures. But given Magic's rich ruleset, that is bound to fail. Still, it might work for simpler examples, such as when comparing two non-standard chess armies by [relative piece value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value).


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