Lost Chapters Deckbuilding Guide: Colors, Curves and Combos

Updated October 2, 2026 by the Lost Chapters team

Short version: a deck is 40 cards with up to 3 copies of any card, and it can only use cards in its Leader's colors (plus that Leader's three Signature cards). Start from your Leader's starter deck, keep plenty of cheap cards, and swap in a few cards that push your Leader's plan.

The rules every deck follows

• 40 cards, no more and no less, plus your Leader.
• Up to 3 copies of any one card.
• Your Leader decides the colors. A deck may only hold cards of its Leader's colors. The six historical Leaders each have one color. A card's color is its set: Gold, Cobalt, Emerald, Garnet or Quartz.
• Signature cards are always allowed. Each Leader has three Signature cards that cost 1 less while that Leader leads your deck, even when one of them is from another color. Neil Armstrong (Cobalt) can play the Gold card Apollo 11, for example.

Saved decks are never deleted. If a deck ends up with cards its Leader can't use, the Deck Lab marks it as needing a fix and offers a one-tap repair.

Start from the starter

Every historical Leader has a starter deck, and every starter is legal and complete. The quickest way to build a good deck is to take your Leader's starter and change five to eight cards, rather than starting from an empty list.

You can paste any of these codes in the game (Decks, then + New deck, then Paste code) to load a starter list:

The preview marks any card you don't own yet in red. A deck with cards you don't own can still be used against the AI and in solo modes while you collect the rest.

The crystal curve

You gain 2 crystals a turn, up to 10. That means your first turns are small, and a deck full of 7-cost cards will spend its early turns doing nothing while the rival builds a board.

A healthy curve for most decks looks like this:

• About 10 to 14 cards that cost 1 or 2. These are your early plays, and they let you use leftover crystals later.
• About 10 cards that cost 3 or 4. This is the heart of the deck.
• About 8 to 10 cards that cost 5 or 6.
• No more than about 8 cards that cost 7 or more. These win games, but too many clog your hand.

Triumph events are the exception: they are often expensive, but you can play them for free when they are revealed from your Life after your Leader is hit. A few big Triumphs in a deck are cheaper than they look.

Card types: what to count

The starter decks hold roughly 20 to 28 characters, with the rest split between Events, Items and Locations. A good rule for your own decks:

• Characters (20 to 26): you need bodies to charge with and to block with. Below 20, you will often have nothing to play.
• Events (4 to 8): include a few Counters (Moment events). Being able to answer a charge on your rival's turn is one of the biggest edges in the game.
• Items (2 to 6): equipment makes one character much stronger. It is best in decks that can protect that character.
• Locations (1 to 4): you can only have one Location in play, and a new one replaces the old one. More than four rarely helps.

Push your Leader's plan

Each Leader rewards a style, and the strongest decks lean into it:

• Tesla wants Inventors and Items. Cards that Build Tinker Tokens get +1/+0 from his passive.
• Dr. King wants a wide field of characters with good health. His card draw switches on at four characters.
• Neil Armstrong wants cheap interaction and a little card draw, so his Leader can keep charging.
• Amelia Earhart wants Adventurers and Pilots, which all gain Explore from her passive.
• Blackbeard wants Rebels and cards that make the rival discard.
• George Washington wants Founders and sturdy blockers, plus a crystal each turn for his refresh.

The Collection's archetype filters (Inventors, Thinkers, Frontier, Rebels and Founders) show every card that belongs to each plan.

Combos worth knowing

Some cards name a partner and get better together:

• Meriwether Lewis, Captain and William Clark, Lieutenant: Clark gets +2/+2 and Explore while you control Lewis.
• Davy Crockett and Sally Ann Thunder: each gets better while you control the other.
• Orville Wright, Brother and Wilbur Wright, Brother: the Wright brothers help each other on the field.
• John Adams and Abigail Adams: Abigail Adams gets +2/+2 while you control John Adams.
• The Constitution and James Madison, Constitution Lead: The Constitution draws an extra card if you control James Madison. Madison is Cobalt, so this pair works in a deck whose Leader can use both colors.

Test, then tune

Play three or four games with a new deck before changing it. Note which cards sat in your hand too long and which cards you always wanted to draw. Swap two or three at a time, so you can tell what made the difference.

When you want a challenge that tests your deckbuilding on the fly, try Draft.

Build a deck and play