How big a library?

Hey all, I been out of the game for a long while (Since before Sabbat came out) and am just now coming back into it.

What is a 'Normal' size library? I have been building decks of 80, and have a hard enough time keeping them with a semblance of balance, and I'm looking at these decks online and it seems like the meta has shifted to smaller, more spammy decks? Is this how people are playing these days?

-Ray

The tournament rules states 60-90 cards.

Deck size and focused deck contra toolboxy deck are a discussion that's going on in the community. Some argue one way others another.

It's got a lot more to do with the goals of the particular deck, the style of player, and the player's card collection than anything else.

Almightyray wrote:

What is a 'Normal' size library?

Maximum size is 90. A lot of people play 90 in all their decks; not to say this is the absolute best way to go about doing things, but it is common enough, and if you sit down at a game with a 90 card deck, no one will look at you askance. That being said, many people subscribe to the "smaller is always better and more consistent" theory, and plan on decks of 60-70 cards at most, simply 'cause they want their deck to run more consistently.

Unless you play many cards per action (like a combat deck that can play 5+ cards on a single action), it is unlikely you'll get through 90 cards in a single game, so playing 70-80 is usually enough cards for a game and still have all the wonky stuff you want in there.

I have been building decks of 80, and have a hard enough time keeping them with a semblance of balance, and I'm looking at these decks online and it seems like the meta has shifted to smaller, more spammy decks?

What do you mean by "more spammy"?

Just play many games with your deck and if you end having many cards in your deck when games end you should decrease number of cards. I think best way is make almost all decks about 75 cards and then start tuning the deck with experience from previous games and metagame.

it's even possible to go below 60 in your library by abusing burn cards. this is mostly just used for certain trick decks.