Card Pool Audit¶
Date: March 18, 2026 Model: GPT-5.4
This audit uses the current starter card catalog in cards.md as the baseline.
Recommendation Summary¶
The current card set is a strong starter deck foundation, but it is still a starter deck foundation.
Current authored pool:
- 15 cards per class
- 5 cards per faction
- 20-card starters built from 15 class cards plus 5 faction cards
Target pool:
- about 50 cards per class
- about 20 cards per faction
Gap to target:
- 35 more cards per class
- 15 more cards per faction
The right move is not to jump directly to a fully-authored 350-card speculative pool. The right move is to expand in waves, play the waves, and only then fill the remaining gaps.
Wave plan:
- Current pool: 15 class / 5 faction
- Wave 1 in this audit: author 10 more cards per class and 5 more per faction
- Post-Wave-1 playable pool: 25 class / 10 faction
- Wave 2 target: 40 class / 15 faction
- Wave 3 target: 50 class / 20 faction
The authored Wave 1 sheet is in card-pool-wave1-recommendations.csv.
Upgrade Rules¶
All new recommendations follow these rules:
- One upgrade per card.
- One upgraded axis per card.
- No new abilities on upgrade.
- Upgrades should usually be one of: more output, more block, more status magnitude, more scaling on an existing clause, or downside smoothing.
- Cost reduction stays rare.
Current Inventory¶
Detailed starter definitions remain in cards.md. This section is the fast audit view.
Class Pools¶
| Group | Current | Target | Gap | Existing Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor | 15 | 50 | 35 | Ballast Ram, Load-Bearing Slam, Brace the Hull, Inertial Plate, Compression Step, Counterweight Drop, Seal the Seams, Gravitic Palm, Deadweight Cycle, Anchor Spike, Bulkhead Doctrine, Tectonic Hook, Pressure Vent, Core Compression, Event-Line Breaker |
| Drifter | 15 | 50 | 35 | Ghostline Round, Edge Survey, Phase Sidestep, Tether Mark, Horizon Puncture, Quiet Vector, Blink Feint, Zero-Noise Shot, Crossfade, Distant Angle, Failsafe Phase, Collapse Window, Recon Throughline, Kill-Box Drift, Timeline Needle |
| Conduit | 15 | 50 | 35 | Arc Lash, Surge Borrow, Capacitor Skin, Flash Conduit, Dissipation Loop, Static Choir, Grid Spike, Emergency Ground, Ion Splitter, Voltaic Forecast, Reactor Jolt, Cooling Veil, Cascade Primer, Faultline Beam, Blackout Relay |
| Machinist | 15 | 50 | 35 | Rivet Gun Sweep, Sentry Stub, Barrier Pylon, Field Repair, Grease the Rails, Servo Jab, Turret Calibration, Weld-Screen, Scraploader Drone, Ram Plate, Redirect Fire, Grid Expansion, Shock Wrench, Emergency Fabricator, Kill Switch Array |
| Catalyst | 15 | 50 | 35 | Shard Scratch, Splice Nerve, Hazard Sip, Unstable Mixture, Skin of Glass, Bloom Error, Echo Bile, Contaminate, Wrongblood Reflex, Prismatic Fang, Distill the Risk, Living Solvent, Fracture Feast, Unwritten Organ, Apex Contagion |
Faction Pools¶
| Group | Current | Target | Gap | Existing Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valerii | 5 | 20 | 15 | Edict of Stillness, Shield Tax, Iron Decree, Checkpoint Siren, Aegis Anchor |
| Syntacta | 5 | 20 | 15 | Predictive Branch, Logic Cut, Recursive Filter, Error Budget, Solved Sequence |
| Aethari | 5 | 20 | 15 | Liquid Dividend, Gilt Extraction, Shard-Laced Veins, Hostile Appraisal, Lux Speculation |
| Annalis | 5 | 20 | 15 | Citation of Ash, Prime Witness, Memorial Veil, Redacted Hour, Archive Surge |
| Salvari | 5 | 20 | 15 | Cut the Wrong Wire, Back-Alley Patch, Lifted Credentials, Loose Panel Ambush, Chore List |
What Is Working Already¶
- Each class already has a readable starter engine.
- Each faction already changes how the starter deck feels.
- Most starter cards are clean enough to implement in a data-driven effect system.
- The current package is good at teaching identity early.
Main Gaps By Group¶
Classes¶
| Group | Current Strength | Missing For 50-Card Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor | Strong defensive identity and density payoffs | More density sinks, more escort/protection tools, more mid-cost control, more boss-fight finishers |
| Drifter | Strong execute timing and precision play | More non-linear Echo-Lock manipulation, more anti-multi-enemy tools, more tempo recovery after misses |
| Conduit | Strong overload tension and board damage | More safe overload shaping, more debt payoff cards, more medium-power single-target burst choices |
| Machinist | Strong setup identity and construct board play | More construct variety, more repair choices, more emergency recovery when the board gets wiped |
| Catalyst | Strong mutation chaos and self-risk tempo | More controlled mutation lines, more healing/risk conversion, more anomaly support without pure randomness |
Factions¶
| Group | Current Strength | Missing For 20-Card Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Valerii | Order, stasis, coercive defense | More authoritarian tempo, more clean-turn rewards, more enemy suppression |
| Syntacta | Scry, sequencing, efficiency | More exact-turn puzzle cards, more deck sculpting, more logic-combo payoffs |
| Aethari | Wealth, greed, self-harm tempo | More gold conversion, more luxury-risk lines, more breach-finisher support |
| Annalis | Recall, discard history, copies | More discard recursion pacing, more archive judgment payoffs, more temporal value loops |
| Salvari | Dirty survival, block break value, stolen tools | More scavenged tempo, more break-your-own-shield incentives, more improvised recovery |
Upgrade Hygiene Findings¶
Several current upgrades in cards.md improve more than one axis or add a fresh rider. That is fine for brainstorming, but it should not be the production rule.
Examples that should be normalized before implementation:
- Brace the Hull
- Seal the Seams
- Gravitic Palm
- Event-Line Breaker
- Tether Mark
- Blink Feint
- Zero-Noise Shot
- Reactor Jolt
- Blackout Relay
- Ram Plate
- Grid Expansion
- Echo Bile
- Distill the Risk
- Edict of Stillness
- Hostile Appraisal
- Archive Surge
- Cut the Wrong Wire
For Wave 1 recommendations, I normalized every upgrade to one clean axis.
Wave 1 Authoring Goals¶
Wave 1 should broaden each group without making it unreadable.
Rules for Wave 1:
- Fill missing mid-cost roles before adding edge-case build-arounds.
- Add at least two cards per class that help when the core engine is not already online.
- Add at least one card per faction that helps defensive decks and one that helps aggressive decks.
- Keep numbers conservative enough that the current starter cards do not become obviously obsolete.
Wave 1 authored additions:
- +10 cards for each class
- +5 cards for each faction
- 75 new cards total
See card-pool-wave1-recommendations.csv.
Wave 2 Themes¶
Wave 2 should push specialization and build diversity.
| Group | Wave 2 Direction |
|---|---|
| Anchor | Escort kits, density-retain shells, anti-boss punishment cards |
| Drifter | Multi-target Echo-Lock routing, discard-lite precision loops, execution recovery |
| Conduit | Debt banking, deliberate burnout archetypes, overload-finisher turns |
| Machinist | Distinct construct families, toolbox tutoring, recovery after construct loss |
| Catalyst | Stable mutation lanes, anomaly scaling, sacrifice engines |
| Valerii | Soft lockdown package, clean-turn reward package, anti-chaos punishers |
| Syntacta | High-precision sequencing package, bottom-deck control, exact-count rewards |
| Aethari | Gold conversion package, breach burst package, luxury-risk powers |
| Annalis | Copy engines, discard judiciary package, long-turn memory loops |
| Salvari | Broken-block tempo package, contraband copies, salvage recursion |
Wave 3 Themes¶
Wave 3 should finish the pool with narrower cards, rares, and high-identity finishers.
| Group | Wave 3 Direction |
|---|---|
| Anchor | Signature finishers, realm-objective protection rares, elite-control cards |
| Drifter | Sharp boss-kill tools, advanced lock math, low-defense high-reward cards |
| Conduit | Capstone overload powers, X-cost style payoffs, risk-ceiling cards |
| Machinist | Anchor constructs, turret swarms, sacrificial machine finishers |
| Catalyst | Legendary anomaly cards, mutation recursion caps, controlled collapse finishers |
| Valerii | Imperial lock pieces and heavy stasis rares |
| Syntacta | Perfect-information combo pieces and deterministic engines |
| Aethari | Greed capstones and high-risk market powers |
| Annalis | Timeline rewrite cards and archive verdict finishers |
| Salvari | Scrap miracle turns and improvised endgame tools |
Bottom Line¶
The current content is a good 20-card starter foundation.
The first expansion pass should not try to do everything. It should broaden the playable card language to 25 cards per class and 10 cards per faction, validate the upgrade discipline, and give simulation and playtest passes enough room to reveal what deserves to become Waves 2 and 3.