Forced Showdown can be a hard game. I struggled with it in the beginning too, because I am not very skilled in avoiding all the projectiles and stuff the game throws at you. Despite that I managed to beat all the content after a while. A big part of success are the cards you play. This doesn't just mean choosing all the "best" cards but also creating a deck with synergies and looking for things like: Card draw, Mana Curve and Focus of the Deck.

I won't show you the one deck you have to play to be successful. I want to try and give input on how to decide which cards to pick. Forced Showdown offers 3 types of cards: Upgrades, Consumables and Spells, and they all are viable. Each character has more than one way to play it. I hope this guide helps people building decks that are fun to play and successful for them.

When building a deck you have to think about some things. First of all there are only 8 arenas per battle and you get a total of 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 = 36 mana. You will draw 4*+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 = 11 cards out of your 30 cards (*you can redraw cards in the beginning, so the number will generally be higher). This means you can't just pick all the good cards and expect to get everything. That is why focus is important.


Focus

The focus of a deck can be a plentitude of things. It can be a hero ability, critical damage, damage, minions, your companion or maybe some other gimmick. The easiest focus are the hero abilities, because they have cards making them stronger. The picture below shows a build that focusses around Settus "Piercing Shot". I built it by choosing the class cards (Laser Ammo, High Powered Laser and Locked and Loaded). After that I just picked cards around that, mostly +dmg.




Mana curve

What you see in the picture is that I mostly used low mana cards. This deck is a bit extreme because it has many 1 mana and 2 mana cards. Mana curve means, that you want to choose cards of different mana costs, so that you have a high probability of using all your mana every round. With so many 1 and 2 mana cards, I usually would sit there and have too much mana. That is theoretically a bad thing, because I could play a card with high cost that is maybe stronger. So why did I do that? Generally playing more cards is a good thing in Forced Showdown. Which brings us to the next chapter.


Card draw

Drawing cards is a really good thing. It gives you more choices and if your deck focusses around a hero ability, you want to play the cards that enhance this ability. As you see in the screenshot I really like cards that draw. 4 out of the 30 cards will draw random cards and 8 out of 30 cards will draw cards from my deck. Now you see why I use low mana cards. I want to play lots of cards and I want to get to the class cards I choose.


Synergy

Now there is just one thing to think about: What works well together? If you use consumables, maybe add a card that gives you one more charge... You use lots of spells? "Sharp Arcana" could be a good card.

Don't fear to experiment with different cards and different skills. Play each deck multiple times and question the cards you played. Did you really need that? Did the cards really make sense together? Isn't there a better card that does what I want to do? Adjust the deck if needed. And do something crazy sometimes. Try cards you have never tried before and see if you can make them work. My first successful Frontline run was with my first Consumable focussed deck. Before that I just used Upgrade and Spell cards.


Things to look for

Healing:
If you are not godlike and get hit sometimes, you will need heal. So think about how you want to heal. When I started the game I healed with "Band of Regeneration" (heals 10% of max HP after arena) and the heal spells. I also used cards to buff my max health, to use the synergy with "Band of Regeneration". Now I use consumables and the spell card that draws. There is really multiple ways, even a deck where you stay at low health is possible. Or maybe focus on block?

Modifiers:
In Frontline and The Grand Return you can choose 2 out of 4 arenas. Look for modifiers that work good with your deck. If you have lots of cards with +max health, the modifier "Soul Break" is great, because damage reduces max health, but you only take 50% damage. So you can easily "heal" yourself. Always read them and take the best one first.

Boons:
During your way to the final boss you will get boons. Think about what helps. Do you need mana? More health? Card draw? Pick accordingly.


Feedback

This is my first steam guide. Yes I don't have enough Images and stuff, but I hope the guide helps anyway. If you have questions, feel free to ask them. Feedback is appreciated (spelling corrections too, English is not my native language).

This is a bit more specific. I talk about the cards I like and why I think they are good.


Unfair Advantage draw a card and reduce its mana cost by 3 (2 mana)

This card is just amazing because it gives draw and mana. If you are lucky, you draw a 3+ mana cost card and can play it in the same turn.

Fairy Bottle Fairies deal damage around you for 10 seconds, healing you for each enemy hit. (4 mana)

It is a great heal. A bit expensive but very useful in the late arenas where you have many enemies. And it does damage, so you can break shields and make the arena easier.

Dragoste De Ar Rayyan +40 health and draw 1 card (3 mana)

Draw and health. Just compare it to "Increased blood flow" which is 5 mana for +80 health. You can play DDAR in the midgame and you draw a card. For 6 mana you can play both, so you get +80 health and 2 cards for 6 mana. Way better than +80 health for 5 mana.