Comparing card game formats

Note that the labels CCG and LCG only really apply to games where players construct decks before the game starts.

Another format, for other kinds of card games, is Base Set + Expansions. Munchkin, for example, doesn't strike me as an LCG. Yet, like an LCG, there is no randomness in what you get. You buy one of the base set games and then can add as many of the expansions as you like. Race For the Galaxy and a hundred other games follow this model. The key point is that they are all shared-deck games.

Note that deck-building games, where the decks are built in game, also follow Base Set + Expansions. Dominion has two base sets, which can be played alone or in some combination with expansions.

A further format is just to have a base set. Plenty of games don't really need expansions!

That is correct re: Munchkin. However it's worth pointing out that, as with Dominion, there are many "Base" sets in Munchkin, any of which can be combined with or without any of the "Expansion" sets. Some combos work better than others, but in the end you're still playing Munchkin, which is just an awful game at heart, albeit with funny insider-y jokes all over the cards.

As for the "all in one box" games, there's really nothing to analyze beyond that, since you're just talking about different means of breaking up the possible cards players have access to, and the degree of control they have over what they get when they purchase.

There's one more model, which I don't think I've ever seen but which might exist out there somewhere: a completely standard base set, and randomized expansions. So everyone who purchases the base set gets the same cards (Dominion, Race for the Galaxy), and then each expansion you buy gives you some number of cards, but you don't know which ones (Magic, Pokemon, Yugi-oh).

I'm with ilta,

I think there is room in the market for a hybrid approach. Possibly consider a base set of 100ish unique cards, with a 50 card pool that is also considered part of the same set.

Players who opt to buy into the game with an LCG like model are guaranteed enough copies of the core of the set, possibly with some number of extra cards randomized (so almost a core set + built in boosters).

And then also sell standard expansions in with randomized packing to supplement that includes cards from the core and 50 card extra pool. This ensures players who are first time to the game get the core, but still has some expandability within even the base set.