summary: if you are interested in buying cards, be very wary buying starter decks and booster packs. instead, learn the game, buy gold for $, buy power for gold, and play domain. if you go 0-20, you still stand a good chance of earning a reward. and, if you don't earn a reward, you are still better off than the alternatives mentioned above.

as this post ages, you should check the more recent domains to see how people fared. as more new users start using this option, your chances (as a new user) of faring well will improve.

some data:

* domain lasts 28 days
* 588 power is awarded by the EC every 28 days
* let's assume 400 of that power goes to domain
* the current domain has 15 players
* total fee collected: 7100g (=8*450+7*500)
* total prizes: 2640g
* expected cost: 300g (=(7100-2640)/15))

so, for the average domain player, you are paying 100g per pack instead of 150g!

suggestion for the admins:

to make boosters relevant, make the top domain reward 450g. for the remaining places, use the formula used in brass, based on a pool of 50 * players * (1 - taxRate). if savings are found here, use them to decrease the taxRate in general, across the game. (and/or to remove the tax on cards under 5g on the market).

This looks wrong. Explain values here please.

I am assuming roughly eight people per month enter domain with 50 power. as power generally trades for 9g/power, this effectively takes 450g out of the economy, per player. the remaining players are paying the full 500g.

so, eight players at 450g/player plus seven players at 500g/player.

You could look at it this way too:

500g or 50 power for Keep Cards draft. You get three packs worth of cards (valued at ~450 gold) + four players get a shot at a total prize pool of 760g. Theoretically divided evenly, that means the following:

A 500g or 50p investment = 640g in 'value' (450g in cards + 190g in prizes).

Both KC and Domain are good deals for players. But domain is better for new players because they get to play a lot more. But so what? Do you really want them to be "less" of a good deal so that people will choose to buy packs instead of playing a format where they get cards, prizes, AND competition?

I guess I'm a little confused by the motivations of this post...

Sunyaku, I am fairly sure queeshai is just trying to tell new players to join domain instead of buying packs or starter decks. That is what I got from it.

That's what I figured too, but if that was the intent, I'd remove all the stuff about "data" and "for the admins" ... it just confuses the message.