Games like this don't rely as much on skill as they do on wealth and luck of the draw. Do you honestly believe that a free player could compete with an Ultra bundle player? You could easily make it fair though by restricting the types of cards allowed so that players are evenly matched. For example, if an ultra bundle player was going up against a free player, the ultra bundle player's cards would be restricted to the same type of cards the free player has - Nomad cards only.
As someone who has played a lot of these games in the past I feel there is a *lot* of skill required to play well. Sure, it is true that an investment in the product can give you the upper starting hand but it is no substitute for the knowledge of game play and rules that can only come through lots of practice and a good understanding. Nevertheless, your suggestion for rules that help players be more 'evenly matched' is great, and I am sure that different rules covering this could become available so that players will know what limitations they are playing by before they enter a match (it could even be cryptographically verified that nobody was cheating!). On one hand, players could knowingly enter an 'open' game where all cards were permissible, and on the other hand players could enter games where only certain cards and quantities of them were allowed...
Totally agreed on both points here -- matching options are important, but the core feature of any quality CCG has to viable play with asymmetrical decks and collections. I'm not avoiding that players will need to buy cards to engage fully in the game, but the Nomad system allows new players a way to experiment before making a purchase. It's also a useful way of buying specific cards (you can buy specific Nomad cards directly or buy card packs).
Specifically on the match-making thing, we will be allow for custom matchmaking options, and one of those will be "play against Nomad decks only". There will also be AI opponents to specifically cater for players who have a limited collection or deck. Eventually the matchmaking and related systems will be opened up via a public API so the community can construct other systems as desired.
Also, I envision that this system whereby cards are considered unique and linked to a real Bitcoin asset can give rise to situations where cards can be 'escrowed' and won in games, providing the possibility to play for 'ante' (http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Ante). This would provide avenues for skilled players to increase the quality of their card decks without being forced to ever make a large investment - by winning repeatedly against less skilled players. Winning cards by playing against opponents who are willing to play for keeps was always something that appealed to me when I played, allowing me to develop my collection purely by skill against tougher opponents (and also not to mention the skill in trading the cards as well!).
Yea, I've thought about this a lot. Not specifically announcing anything at this stage, but intentionally giving ourselves plenty of options at the technical and commercial level. Of course because the cards are just tracking Bitcoin transactions, this could be handled outside of Deckbound. But I expect we'll get to constructing and organising a variety of tournament systems once the games and cards setups are stable.
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