These are basic tips to start deck building. All the prebuilt decks are actually consistent winners. Some are better, true, but all are are viable. The reason why I make this guide is that I often see people complaining about how only x deck is good or how y deck isn't viable (and not surprisingly, what x and y keep being different). It still depends on how you play and a bit of luck, but hopefully, with this starting tips, you can start to understand how to build your deck to win no matter what hand is given to you.

This guide is mostly a basic starter for beginner, most are subjective from my experience, some might find the advices disgustingly basic, probably some are actually bad advice? But hopefully, this guide can be a stepping stone, and you can combine it with your actual experience to have a better time playing this game.

Here are the general tips applicable for all decks, except if you're specifically doing some challenge or limited deck.

Remove, remove, remove card from your deck. This is super important.

The basic of deck building in *any* deck-building game is this: try to make your deck as lean as possible. This is the very basic tips, but unsurprisingly, people who are not familiar with deck-building game might not understand this. It's tempting to stuff your deck with all sort of cool-looking cards, but try to ignore the temptation, and try to only pick the best cards. Most cards are good, but some cards are *better*. Of course, this depends on RNG, that's of part the game, so you take what you can get. And of course, to know what are the better cards depends on your experience, so it's fine to try all the cards at first, it's also part of the game. But after you have some good understanding of what the cards can and can't do, try to keep your deck lean. You want to consistently able to draw the good cards, and not draw any filler cards. Whenever you visit a gym, *always* try to find a card to remove if you have the money. Part of the game is deciding whether your money is better spent to remove or upgrade your cards.

How big is a good deck? That depends. For classic and suave, you can have leaner deck because you're guaranteed to draw movement card every turn. For secret agent and purist you need more movement cards. Counter deck probably is thicker than agressive deck. Generally I try to keep my deck under or about 20~ cards (but once again, this depends on your card drop and experience).

But what I can do is give you suggestion on what card I usually prioritize to upgrade and remove from each of the decks. Once again, it depends on all factors I mentioned above. Sometimes I got to the end with cards I usually remove. The timing is also important, you have to decide when to remove each cards, for example, Block might be useful early on. If you don't have good attack cards don't remove Quick Strike yet. If you don't have good movement card don't remove Step yet. A lot of cards I recommend to remove are perfectly good cards. But there are better cards, and you want to draw those better cards.

First, the general removal advice. My first priority is always to remove block/counter cards from decks OTHER than counter striker. You can turn ANY deck into counter deck if you want, but this is an important way on how counter works: you have to commit to block or don't use them at all. Counter deck can be extremely powerful, but you want to draw multiple counter cards in one hand, you always want them to be upgraded, you probably want to pick support cards like Conditioning and Tough-It-Out and that will thicken your deck. If you want to spice your offensive deck with defensive ability, add dodge instead.

After that I always try to remove the basic cards of Step/Dash/Push/Quick Kick/Quick Strike/Long Strike after I get better movement/attack/push cards in any deck. Before that I'll keep them.

You want to be able to deal with any situation. Obviously you want to avoid damage, but you also want to be able to:

1. Damage enemies
This is basic, but you want to be damage all kind of enemies, with strong enough damage to get through armors and kill enemies quickly. Try to always have damage cards that do things other than just doing damage. Damage modifier cards help a lot, but not vital. You'll want to replace your "basic" attack cards with better ones (basically, always try to not end up with quick strike in your deck at the end).

2. Maneuver around
Another basic thing. You want to slip, shift, grapple, shove, around enemies when you get cornered, and move fast enough to get to briefcase objectives early on. Early objectives are important enough that you might want to have extra movement cards early on so you can get those objectives, before removing them later.

3. Push enemies around and out of bound
No matter what your deck is, you want to be able to push enemies around for all kind of reasons. You always want to have at least two pushing cards in your deck no matter what your deck is. Remember that you can't tackle or suplex enemies over railings.

4.Deal with enemies that are immune to throw and pushes
This is more specific to grappler deck, but throw is generally very valuable card in any deck. Pushes are very good, but some enemies are immune, and you have to know how to deal with them.

5. Deal with ranged attacks, pushers, and enemies who are immune from the front
Stacked basic counter deal with a lot of things, but you might have problem if you only stack your deck with it.

6. Deal with aggressive enemies
Aggressive enemies move whenever you use MOVEMENT card. You want non-movement maneuver cards like Linking Move, or, attack cards that move you, for example, Heavy Strike, Front Kick, Jumping Punch. Ranged attack like Stun Dart also helps. You can also maneuver other enemies to deal with them, with grapple and shoves. You can move them on your term, with Pull. If all things fails, your last resort is having enough movement card to corner them. Remember that they can also be your asset, with experience you can maneuver them so they hit other enemies or get hit by other enemies instead.

7.Stuns
Generally you always want at least one stun card. This is most important for counter-attacking enemies, but this is also useful to stop auto-turning enemies and enemies with special abilities. The best stun card is Pocket Sand, but you use what you can get. Remember that Taunt and Redirect can work as pseudo-stun in a pinch, they stop enemies from doing their special abilities. Grapple don't stop enemies from counter attacking, but grappled enemies won't turn back at you, so you can use it against enemies that auto-attack or enemies that redirect to face you. Unlike the other six above, you CAN survive without stuns, but you'll find your life a lot easier if you have at least one stun card.

Some decks have weakness on different parts, and you need to add cards to cover those weakness. For example, grappler deck is weak against heavy enemies, and you need ways to defeat them. Counter deck is weak against pushers and enemies that are immune to attack from front, you need ways to deal with them, etc.

The five (subjectively) ultimate cards are Front Kick, Grapple, Shove, Shift, Slip. These cards are useful in literally any deck, and you mostly don't need to upgrade them (though upgraded version are nice). Most of the time you'd want at least one of these cards in your deck, so usually if I don't have them and I see them I'll pick them no matter what deck I'm playing, and thankfully, they're all relatively common.

You might think, "That's a lot of things to do. So many cards to prepare." That's where lean deck helps. You want a lean deck so you ALWAYS have a card that can solve most if not any of your problem, no matter what hand you draw.

Cards that can "thin" your deck is always nice. You usually want one of these in your deck (eg. Foresight, Recall, Redraw) but it's not vital.

Here are some of my tips and thoughts on all the prebuilt starter decks.

You can organically play this deck without much advice, it can deal with any situation, and what you mostly want to do is add better cards and upgrade your favourite cards.

Priority removal for me are Quick Block, Block, Counter. You don't play this deck to be counter attacker. Then I usually remove Head Smash and Combo Finisher. This is subjective, but most of the time I don't like End Combo card, especially head smash since it turn enemies toward you. But you can keep them if you want, once again, depends.

Priority upgrade for me is Hammerfist, this is the best combo attack in the game. Then maybe Slip, though this depends. Do I have good amount of momentum? If I do, I don't upgrade slip.

Once again, trust your experience/instinct. I have winning runs where I end up with upgraded long strike.

Two things: you want to focus on counters, and have ways to deal with enemies who are immune to counters. Usually counter deck will be a bit thicker than other decks. You want to stack your block and always draw multiple block/counter cards in your deck, and always have them upgraded. Don't pick too much other cards, but do get better pushes and attacks to deal with those enemies that are hard to deal with counters. Conditioning cards will increase your deck's effectiveness a lot. Dodge is also surprisingly useful when you stack it with block. I generally only want actual counter cards in my deck, instead of non-counter block cards, because this is your main way to deal damage. but this depends on your luck of the draw.

Priority removal: Snap Strike. This is useless. Then usually I remove Block and Quick Block, because I want actual counters. I often keep Head Smash until late game since this deck lack good attacks, and turning your opponent toward you often don't matter in this deck (see what I said before on it depends?). Maybe Jump Kick, if I have Heavy Strike/Front Kick but I often end up with Jump Kick to the end.

Priority upgrade: Well, all counter cards.

I sometimes don't remove Block and Quick Block until late because I lack counter card drops. Instinct/experience, etc.

You can also organically play this deck without much advice, it can deal with any situation, and what you mostly want to do is add better cards and upgrade your favourite cards.

Priority removal: Surprise Attack. This is deadweight in this deck. Then Quick Block. I often remove 540 kick, but it's perfectly good card, I just prefer not ending my combo. Then Quick Strike (you have better attack cards in this deck). I'll remove Jab, then Hook Kick, IF I have good amount of max momentum.

Priority upgrade: Steel self, then Pull (upgraded version is retained, which is amazingly useful)

This is the hardest deck to thin/upgrade and need your experience and gut instinct the most. Because a lot of the cards here can be powerful when upgraded, but your resource are limited.

Priority removal: Snap Strike. There's /potential/ of turning this into counter deck, but it's hard. If you don't want to play counter, remove Counter Slash and Quick Block. Then maybe I'll remove Scratch/Caltrops because they're too situational and there are better bleed cards in your deck, but it's up to you.

Priority upgrade: This is the hard part. Heavy Strike+ is a billion time better than Heavy Strike. Slash is weak card but Slash+ is super good and would be your bread and butter. Swap is cheap to upgrade and you need the extra momentum. Hidden Blade is your second bread and butter. Jumping Stab+ is your most powerful attack in this deck, and really one of the most powerful combo card in the game.

Which one to upgrade first?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This one is a bit different. Throw cards are good and would be priority picks in any other deck, but you start with all of them. Your priority is more to find ways to deal with enemies that are immune to throws. You want to add a few strong attacks to deal with heavy enemies, and a few extra push cards, because tackle and suplex can't throw enemies over railings. But your first priority is to fix your mobility. Get things that can move you around asap.

Priority removal: Counter throw, quick block. You don't play this game to be counter attacker. I'll remove Head Smash AFTER I get good attack cards, you need cards to deal damage to heavy enemies.

Priority Upgrade: I often upgrade Jumping Twist Kick and Headbutt early to deal damage to heavies. I'll upgrade Ponder after I have good momentum, because ponder is always good, but you need extra momentum to use it. Upgraded Swap is cheap and you need the extra momentum. You can either upgrade roll throw early to reduce its momentum, or remove it entirely because its limited use, it's up to you.

This deck might not look straightforward, but it's actually surprisingly versatile, as versatile as the balanced deck. There's a good lean trickster guide in FITS guide section, you can really just read that for more specific advice. You do want to remove most of the attack and maneuver cards and replace them with better one.

Priority Removal: Your priority in this deck is more to remove cards rather than upgrading them. Remove all block cards, as usual. Then Improvisation, because you don't need more randomness in this game, at least with other cards you know what you get. You can keep Break the Limit, Exhausting Blow and Chain Strike early on, because you need attack cards, but remove them ASAP, especially Break the Limit.

Shift, Back Slam, Grapple, Wall Kick, and Ponder, are extremely good cards though, and those are the reason why this deck can be powerful.

This is only supposed to be a basic guide, a way for people to start building their deck. Get some experience, then disregard some or all of my advices here afterward :).