First up I'll look at three of the Star Faction cards I like (photo above). The Corvette, Survey Ship and Imperial Frigate are great early cards to get. I like them because they are cheap, allow me to draw extra cards, and in the case of the Imperial Frigate reduce the hand of the opposing player for their next turn. Plus when I decide to scrap either the Imperial Frigate and Survey Ship not only do I reduce my deck size (allowing quicker play through of my deck) but I get to once again either force my opponent to discard a card from their hand or draw a card.

In the photo above I have two Machine Cult cards Patrol Mech and Stealth Needle, plus a Blob ship Ram. I'll start with the Blobs Ram. This for me is another early purchase that gives me a bit of fire power to reduce the other players authority (life for non players). Plus if I'm short of credits to buy a ship I can always scrap this card to get three extra coins to buy the ship I want. But I only tend to do this if I'm replacing the Ram with something more powerful. I like the Patrol Mech because it can be either coins or damage I can choose depending which is my greater need at the time of playing the card. Plus it allows me to scrap a card from my hand or discard pile. Scraping cards is an important tactic within the game, because it allows you to get rid of unwanted cards (like the starting cards) and increase the odds of drawing the cards you want, and allow you to get through you deck quicker. I love the Stealth Needle, it's a great mid game card. So I hate it when it appears early. It's power is in the ability to copy another card in your hand. That means all the other cards abilities, faction. So it will kick off any faction abilities of the copied card. Which means it can start off a nice combo with the right cards. It's fairly pointless early on when all you can copy in your hand is the starter cards.

Finally I have three cards from the Trade Federation. Two cheap buys in the form of Cutter and Embassy Yacht and the expensive Command Ship. I like these because they increase your authority when played plus either give you more coins to spend or allow more damage. For its two cost the Cutter has to be my top buy. I hate buying a card and having a Cutter appear which I can't buy. The Command Ship may be expensive but Authority and damage PLUS draw two extra cards with the faction ability to destroy an opposing base. I think it's a bargain at that cost!

Well I hope you have enjoyed this post about my favourite Star Realms cards. I'll do the second part later in the week.