How to assess card value in the upcoming expansion (Renfri and gang)

I'm seeing this come up already and I am sure it will come up more post patch so I thought I'd make a post about it.

It's about how to assess the cost of a card in the deck builder, beyond just what is printed on the card itself.

For example, Renfri's gang is a 6p bronze with 6 power, that thins itself from the deck if it's condition is met which is 25 units in your starting deck. So it puts 12 pts on the board.

Some of you might call it a conditional 12 for 6 but that is not correct.

It is a 12 for 8p.

Why? Because since each deck must have at least 25 cards, 4p cards are basically "free". Since we want as many high value golds in our decks as we can get, you have to include some number of 4p cards to make any kind of viable deck (refer to rule of 16 for more info). But Renfri gang costs 6p which is 2 more than 4. So in order to get full value you need to spend 2 more than 4 on the second card that is thinned. That 2p should be added to the cost of the combo. Only if the card that is thinned was a 4p card would it be a 12 for 6, much like old blightmaker mage assassin combo before the nurf was an 11 for 6 (actually 11 for 5p when it came out IIRC).

Still a great pair of cards mind you. 12 for 8 plus thinning is really good. Just wanted to explain it.

And this method can be used to evaluate other thinners too like Red riders, sewer raiders, etc. That's why you don't see them in play much anymore. 8 for 6 plus thinning is ok but not great. They usually are only played in decks that really need thinning and don't have better options.

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Secondly, some of you might be wondering if it's worth going over 25 cards to play Renfri and a spell or scenario. Let's evaluate that next.

In order to meet Renfri's condition of 25 units in your starting deck, and to include say, a scenario, you would need 26 cards in your starting deck. The cheapest way to do this is by adding an additional 4p unit to your deck. 25 units + 1 scenario = 26 card deck. Mind you, you still have the same provision limit, around 166 or so depending on leader ability.

In this case, that extra 4p card is definitely NOT free. It's cost should be added to the scenario, effectively making it cost 18-19p depending on which one it was. Plus it clogs you one card (or put another way, the opposite of thinning since there's an extra low value card you never want to play).

Make sense? You can't just add the scenario, you have to add scenario plus another unit which costs 4p. So if it's a 14p scenario, it really cost 14+4 which is 18p.

So is playing a 26 card Renfri scenario deck worth it? Ask yourself, is that scenario worth 18p + clogging yourself one card? Would you play it by itself in a normal deck if it were 18 or 19p?

Thanks and glhf tomorrow!