>> Star Values
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5* Cards are generally the most powerful, working down to 2* being the weaker. 5* cards tend to have the higher base power and dmg values coupled with strong abilities. Look up 5* cards as your team captains, with 4* the main attack force and 3/2* the utility and defense.

This is a VERY generalised idea, and there are certainly exceptions in UR, but it should give you a good idea of basic deck structure.

Bear in mind, while 5* cards tend to be more powerful than 2* cards for example, in a stalemate situation where the exact amount of attack is laid out for both cards, the LOWER star count will always win. This is why even when building for Type 2 decks, it's best to stick as close to the minimum star count of 26* as possible.

Depending on which game mode you're building for, the type of star count and combination of power types will vary.

For Elo, you need 25* total. Generally this means one 5* card, a couple of 4, and the rest made up of 3/2*. As mentioned, don't look upon 2* as lesser, they fill specific roles that 5* cards cannot or just more efficiently than.

For example, Tula (C) is a 2* card that can take down Toro (U) (who's a high-priced 4* beast of a card) with great ease.

>> Before You start to Build
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Take note of how The clans are laid out for the purposes of balanced play. You'll notice this as you become more and more familiar with the certain abilities and powers present: many of the lower star cards have utility you need to back up your 5* powerhouses, damage reducers and Stop Opp. Ability/Bonus cards for example.

Building a balanced deck is usually the best way to go.

>> Building A Balanced Deck
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When building a deck you want to consider a few things:

Will you be building a mono (single clan) or half (dual clan) deck?

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I will interject here: it's best to mix no more than two clans together. If you mix more than two you dilute your chance of activating the clan bonuses which can greatly weaken your deck.

The main exception is adding a Leader to your Deck. This can be done to a mono or half. Just be aware that if you add a Leader to a half deck, you /will/ suffer every now and then from lack of active clan bonuses.

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Do you have your set of power cards that are built for causing mass damage? (-Opp. Power, Poison application, +dmg, -xx Opp. Attack, etc..)
Do you have your mid range cards to either help with that damage or defend against that of your Opp.?
Do you have your utility cards to reduce Opp. Pill count/dmg, to increase your own life, etc...?

Here's an example of a balanced half deck for Elo play: http://www.urban-rivals.com/presets/?id_preset=895349&list
Here's an example of a balanced mono deck for Elo play: http://www.urban-rivals.com/presets/?id_preset=185414

Take a look at how the deck builders have balanced out the need for power and utility and have covered as many bases as they can in terms of abilities and bonuses.

The main exception to building a balanced deck is for T2 Survivor, where you'll aim to place as many high powered cards as you can.

>> Advanced Deck Building Techniques
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There are certain advanced techniques you can apply once you've become used to deck building:

You can use un-evolved cards (a level 2* card at level 1* for example) to make room for more higher powered cards as sometimes abilities are unlocked before max level, or the card simply has inherently high base stats at it's first level. For example Wanda is a 1* filler card with excellent base stats.

You can slip in a completely random card from another clan to take advantage of an ability as in this deck that throws in Spiaghi for his damage reduction: http://www.urban-rivals.com/presets/?id_preset=866325&list

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>>> What's Next?
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Now you play!

Make sure to brush up on your basic math skills. The ability to calculate the numbers as quickly as possible is essential to mastering the game. The faster you get, the more you'll be open to manipulate the timer to help push bluffs through, or to make it seem like you're struggling when you know exactly what you're doing, for example.

For further advice on play techniques, I'll leave it to the more experienced.

For now, I hope this guide has been helpful. Thanks for reading!

SC

Tula was chosen as an extreme on purpose to show that star count doesn't always mean lesser in power than higher rated cards. The entire point was to show that you shouldn't rely on star power to get you through.

You are right about mono/half, though. Here's a new section for that purpose:

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>> Mono Vs Half-Deck pros and cons
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When deciding between whether to build a mono (1 clan) or Half (2 clan) deck, you should bear in mind the following:

Mono = always active bonus but as some bonuses are weak/useless Vs others (GHEIST SoA is nullified with Skeelz Protect Ability, for example) you limit your effectiveness against certain clans.

Half = more choice of abilities plus mixture of bonuses to help broaden your counter potential, but can draw you a 3/1 deck that leaves you with a card with no active bonus.

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Can moderators edit our previous posts? If so, perhaps they could slip the text between the two '-' symbols into the guide and update the contents? Thanks.

Also, does anyone think I should write a little on leaders?

Thanks for the feedback.

I don't want to go too in depth with this, it's supposed to be a basic guide; general and not in depth; something for new players to glance over and get a nice concise idea of the very basics of play.

Leaders and Support abilities have enough information surrounding them to warrant their own guide, imo. Although, I do think I should write a brief introduction to leaders.

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>> Leaders
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Leaders are cards that exist separately outside of any clan. They're used to buff your entire team with certain abilities. You can only use a single Leader at anyone time: if two or more Leaders are present, their bonus 'Cancel Leader' is activated, and their abilities are deactivated.

I'll leave it to you to discover which leaders work best with which clans. Do get you started I'll provide examples of mono and half-deck presets that take advantage of Leader abilities:

Mono: http://www.urban-rivals.com/presets/?id_preset=881310&list
Half: http://www.urban-rivals.com/presets/?id_preset=893850&list

(as mentioned before, remember that in a half-deck Leaders increase the chance of drawing an inactive bonus)

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As before, if a mod could insert the text between the two '-' symbols into the guide and update the contents, it would be appreciated. Otherwise I could redo this once enough feedback has been gathered.

Thanks again.