Secret Library v.0.9.2 - Happy Families
JH
the Happy Families formula, more sorting options in deck search, and
new style sheets.
Secret Library: http://www.secretlibrary.info/
Changelog: http://www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?changelog
Chris Berger
I keep seeing people posting about tools supporting Happy Families.
Does anyone actually use this to construct a deck? I find that it
focuses on one detail so much (% of vampires with the disciplines ~=~
% of cards using that discipline), and ignores everything that's
actually relevant to deck-building. I've never once consulted HF when
building a deck - I've checked on HF *after* building the deck, just
to see if it fit, but just out of curiosity. Newbies that actually
look at it as a deck-building tool are sure to be sorely disappointed.
Not to mention, if you have 1 or 2 vamps in your deck with a
discipline, and include a few cards for that discipline (it's possible
for HF to suggest this, depending on the spread of your disciplines),
those cards are still going to almost always be dead cards, even if
the % for the deck keeps them at a relatively low concentration. And
on the other hand, you might have only 1 or 2 vamps in your deck with
a discipline, but you play with 6 Anarch Converts or Tupdogs, or a ton
of Coroner's Contact or Summon the Serpent, to the point where you
want to use that discipline anyway. I know that HF isn't meant for
crazy advanced specialized decks like that - it's for building a basic
discipline-based deck that won't totally choke on cards that it can't
play, but I can't see that the algorithm really guarantees or helps
with that anyway...
Jozxyqk
> I keep seeing people posting about tools supporting Happy Families.
> Does anyone actually use this to construct a deck? I find that it
> focuses on one detail so much (% of vampires with the disciplines ~=~
> % of cards using that discipline), and ignores everything that's
> actually relevant to deck-building. I've never once consulted HF when
> building a deck - I've checked on HF *after* building the deck, just
> to see if it fit, but just out of curiosity. Newbies that actually
> look at it as a deck-building tool are sure to be sorely disappointed.
Happy Families is a tool that you can use as a guideline for building
nicely-flowing toolboxy decks.
It's pretty useful for new players who are just getting the hang of
deckbuilding.
You should read Legbiter's original page of theory if you really don't
understand how it can be useful:
http://legbiter.tripod.com/hf/theory.htm
Chris Berger
I've read it. I always thought HF was pretty lame ever since LB
introduced it. If you want to make a toolboxy deck for a newbie,
you're better off picking a clan, get vamps with the best levels of
all 3 in-clan disciplines, then use the best cards from those 3
disciplines. I find that the ideal proportions are rarely anywhere
near the same as what HF suggests, because it's so much more important
to figure out how much stealth/intercept/combat/actions/etc. you need,
then it is to stick to, say 35%/20%/15% of each discipline.
D.J.
> I keep seeing people posting about tools supporting Happy Families.
> Does anyone actually use this to construct a deck?
I do, yeah, but more as a part of the process than as the whole
thing. Still, if I've got a crypt with a mix of a few disciplines
where not everyone has everything, it's a starting point. And they
*do* flow pretty well.
> Newbies that actually
> look at it as a deck-building tool are sure to be sorely disappointed.
As long as you don't look at it as the *only* tool - after all, can't
build a house with just a hammer - it's pretty useful for what it
does, which is encourage ratios that your minions can actually play.
> Not to mention, if you have 1 or 2 vamps in your deck with a
> discipline, and include a few cards for that discipline (it's possible
> for HF to suggest this, depending on the spread of your disciplines)
Oh - I almost never let HF pick the disciplines. "Choose" is your
friend. That said, sometimes I let it pick as a test-run, to see if
there's some synergy I'm missing. Yeah, letting it pick 3 or 4 when
you're building a 2-discipline crypt or something like that is screwy.
> And
> on the other hand, you might have only 1 or 2 vamps in your deck with
> a discipline, but you play with 6 Anarch Converts or Tupdogs, or a ton
> of Coroner's Contact or Summon the Serpent, to the point where you
> want to use that discipline anyway.
For those, I just put the minion I want to emphasize in, in place of
the Converts or Tupdogs, or I add a bunch of 'em to the Crypt to make
it bigger than 12 till the ratios look more like what I'm looking for.
> I know that HF isn't meant for
> crazy advanced specialized decks like that - it's for building a basic
> discipline-based deck that won't totally choke on cards that it can't
> play, but I can't see that the algorithm really guarantees or helps
> with that anyway...
*Shrug* it's seemed to in my experience - while, as you say, the
master/action/AM/react/combat balance is at least as important to deck
flow, if all your actions are for one discipline and all your AMs are
from another, that can lead to some issues on its own, and HF
balancing can help with that.
YMMV, UAD, VWP, etc.
- D.J.
JH
> ... ranting about the usefulness ...
Just consider it a tool among other tools.