Welcome to the Combo Computer

What is this?
In collectible card games it is often important to get your deck's theme started early. I wrote this Java applet to assist in deck building by computing the probability to draw the cards needed for the theme, or combo, to work in the opening of the game. It computes the probability of drawing at least the minimum requirements for the combo on the first cards drawn in the game, using some mind boggling combinatoric math :P

Where is it?
It should have launched automagically. Look under that window there. No the other window. Perhaps you closed it, click HERE to launch a new one. If that doesn't work either, make sure that your browser supports Java, and has Java turned on.

How do I use it?
You have a combo, or theme, that you want to get going early in the game. How many cards do you need of this and that type to have a good chance of having the combo running on turn 4?

For most players, deck development is an iterative process of playtesting and modification. This program is intended as an assistance or at the very least a time saver in that process.

Type in what you think will be a good number of cards for the combo. Compute the probability. Then add or subtract cards of the various types until you feel you have a good balance between combo success probability and card usage.

Terms:

Card type	Enter a description for this card type. This field has no effect on the calculations, and is only a memory aid.
In deck	Enter how many cards you have of this type in your deck. Enter the value of zero for the card types you don't use.
Needed	How many cards of this type you need for the combo to work. Enter the value of zero for the card types you don't use.
Size of deck	Some games, for example Star Wars CCG, starts with cards in play; such cards should not be counted as being in the deck.
Cards Drawn	Enter how many cards you draw to get the combo.

Error codes:

e01	Not a Number error. Some entry in the form contains something fishy.
e11-15	There are more cards needed for the combo than there are cards of that type in deck. Last number of error is the row (1-5) in which the error occurred.
e20	Sum of card types in deck exceeds deck size.
e21	Sum of cards needed for combo exceeds hand size.
e22	Cards drawn exceeds cards in deck.
e30	Cards drawn is zero or negative.

Known Bugs:
Probability graph does not reset when new computations are made. The repaint() functions are in the right places, they just all get delayed until the math is finished. Urgh. Im too tired right now. Must.. sleep..

About:
The Combo Computer and this document were created one very very late night by Erik Hedlund (md94-ehe@nada.kth.se). Current version is 4.0

Hits since June 7, 2000: