A Modern Hand Deck

Here is another sampler deck just to try the new cards in the Modern format.  The only theme to this deck is build up a big pool of [Chi] and use cards that benefit from it.  The Modern format really does not have many Hand characters that don't provide [Chi], so this isn't much of limitation to deck construction.

Foundation:
Shaolin Supplicants x5
Buddhist Monk x4
Temple Guards x4

Characters:
Buddhist Gardener
Shi Ho Kuai x2
Kung Fu Master
The Iron Monkey x2
Jade Fox
Chin Ken
Master Hao
Green Master
Sifu Beumer
Li Po

Events:
Healing Earth x2
Violet Meditation x3
Rigorous Discipline x3
Shaking the Mountain
Breath of the Dragon
Blade Palm x2
Robbing the Kong
Eight Pillars of Heaven Array

States:
Water Sword x3
Butterfly Swords
Dim Mak
Candle Training

Edges:
Shield of Pure Soul x2

Sites:
Venerable Apothecary x2
Garden of Peaceful Reflection

FSS:
Dockyard x3
Kowloon Gate
Phlogiston Mine x2
Po Toi Islands x2
Puzzle Garden x3
Stone Spirals
Vale of Tears

The deck has a subtheme of Superleap which worked well.  The Temple Guards were able to take 2 sites using their Superleap fueled by a Puzzle Garden.

For the people who think that Venerable Apothecary is too big of a liability to play, in my experience, my opponents often end up seizing it.  Now you can use its healing ability for your own push for victory.

Water Sword worked well for one game.  On three occasions it gave me the Fighting needed to take a site including on the winning attack.  I don't think this makes it a top tier card, but it certainly is playable.  Mix it with more copies of Candle Training and you can prevent hand clog by discarding it as needed.  The hand clog is also somewhat limited as the return to hand effect is voluntary.

Bring It!

This is a deck I made or Who's the Big Cheese Now!?! in 2009.  The only change was to upgrade the foundation and replace one Bring It with Preserving Chi

"Bring It!"

Foundation:
Brave Villagers x5
Redeemed Gunman x3
Hacker
Willow Warriors x5
Buddist Monk
Righteous Protector

Characters:
Sidekick
Chinese Doctor
Ting Ting
Steven Wu
Dr. Amanda Snow x2
Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old)
Exiled Monk
Iron Monkey
Lui Yu Min
Shung Dai

Events:
Final Brawl x3
Thunder on Thunder
The Willow Bends... x2
Secrets of Shaolin
Dirk Wiseley's Gambit
Secret Pact
Golden Comeback x2
Shaolin Surprise x2
Violet Meditation x2

States:
Four Mountain Fists
Running Out of Time
"Bring It"
Preserving Chi
Crane Stance x2
Real Bad Cat
Fortune of the Turtle
Legacy of the Master

Edge:
Shield of Pure Soul

Site:
Kar Fai's Crib

FSS:
Bountiful Fields x2
City Square
Dragon Graveyard
Fox Pass
Gambling House
Golden Mile
Kinoshita House
Mobius Garden
Sacred Hearts Hospital
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Waterfall Sanctuary
Whirlpool of Blood x2

Dr. Amanda Snow is the star of this deck.  She brings the states back (esp Crane Stance), and then if she's killed, she shares with Legacy of the Master.  If needed the Sidekick can carry on her generous legacy.  This deck is slower than a lot of my other decks.  It is better for 4-player where it can take time to load up the smoked pile with states and then get out Dr. Snow.

Gen Con 2010 Draft

Friday morning was the draft event.  Eighteen players showed up to draft from Six Guns & Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Empire of Evil.  Seven boosters were drafted with two foundation pods and one Feng Shui pod being provided after the draft.  The structure of the draft was somewhat disappointing.  We drafted in groups of three, which meant you were sure to get stuck with lots of cards out of the main factions you were drafting.  You would also see a much smaller card pool from which to draft.  I would have preferred to draft in groups of six.  The second problem was that the tournament rounds were setup as two separate groups of nine players.  So the nine players of group A never played against the nine players of group B.  It gave the feeling that even though we could not play all other players, you could not control your destiny.  At least there were enough players within each group so that you never played against the same opponent more than once.  A more personal annoyance was that the first round of games was with the same three people with whom you drafted.  You pretty much knew what you were in for the first round.  In draft I expect a greater element of surprise.

I drafted Jammer / Hand and when I was done found that I had good amount of Architect as well.

Draft Deck:

Foundation (11):
Kamikaze Cosmonauts
Suicide Squad
Edge Warrior x2
Mad Scientist x2 (I am fuzzy on this foundation,  It's listed to be in Pods but I don't remember)
Rebel without a Cause
Dump Warrior x2
Willow Warriors
Celestials

Characters (10):
Dr. Quentin Higginsbotham
Tunnel King
Turing Machine
Potemkin's Brigade
Andy Di
Monkey Pirates
Cyborg Mermaid
Johnny Amok
Jayne Insane
Shihong

Events (9):
Isothermal Zodiac x2
Out of the Barrel x3
Ape Shall Kill Ape
Auspicious Thermite
The Willow Bends... x2

States (7):
Fingertip Razors
Buzzsaw Arm
Explosive Motorcycle
Steam-Powered Tricycle
Single-Action Devolver
Shurikens
Simple Paper Fan

Sites (2):
Hot Zone
Mountain Monastery

FSS(10):
Ancient Stone Arch
University Library
Forgotten Temple
Moon Base
Mirrored Lake
Arctic Fortress
Endless Corridor
Grove of Willows
Family Home
Blessed Orchard

I only won one of the four round I played in.  The first round Josh Shadowy Mentored my Turing Machine (which I should have seen coming).  After that he was able to push ahead to win.  The second round, I got SEVEN power from an attack on my Grove of Willows.  Some how, I squandered that advantage, and failed to win.  The third round Shihong attacked as time was called an just took the last site needed for the win.  I am drawing a complete blank on the fourth and final round.

Casual Play Report

After a long hiatus due to a little family accident, I was able to get together with Willow and Tim for a few games.

Game 1:
Willow played her willing deck from Plattecon featuring Jade Willow.
Tim played his standard detonating Destroyer deck.
I played a 7 Masters / Ascended deck that I was going to take to Plattecon.  I'll post the deck later.

Willow got out the White Ninja but wasn't able to muster enough fighting to take a site.  Tim Tortured Memories the Ninja and burned Willow's front row site for power.  This let Willow drop Jade Willow for free.  I dropped the Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old) and attacked the Ninja.  We exchanged Monkey Fools the Tiger and both characters were smoked.  Jade Willow then got Fortune of the Turtle and went on a rampage.  Shortly after that Willow won the game. 

Game 2:
I played a Darkness Deck,
Willow played a Syndicate Deck
Tim played a Dragon Deck

Willow got a fairly fast start using a Bird Sanctuary to good effect to get an early Song, the Little Dragon.  I could not get a second Monarch resource to save my life.  By the time Tim was able to play a Big Bruiser, Willow had Hirake Kazuko in play, which would make the Big Bruiser a big mistake.  Again, Willow was able to win this game in short order.

Game 3:
I played a Jammer Deck,
Willow played an Architect Tank Deck,
Tim played an Ascended Tentacles of the Squid Deck.

On Tim's first turn, he played a Gangster and attacked Willow's undefended Feng Shui Site.  I played Out of the Barrel to drop a free Cocktail Waiters.  I joined the attack with the Waiters and Just Another Consumer.  I thought putting 5 damage on the site would soften it nicely for me to take it next turn.  Nope, it was a Maze of Stairs!  Tim got a burn for power on his first turn.  Fortunately, for Willow and me, he could not get a second resource right away.  I was able to get some more cheap characters and burn Tim's front row site and was lucky that Tim did not have a Bite when I burned it for power.  After that I was able to roll to a quick win.

Game 4:
Tim played Willow's championship Punchy Hand deck
Willow played her Monarch/Dragon deck
I played an Ascended Wisdom of the Owl / Discard deck

I was able to play a Wisdom of the Owl on my first turn.  Willow and Tim attacked it repeatedly, but were foiled with multiple Operation Killdeers.  I used a Coral Reef, Coil of the Snake, and the Palace of Virtual Light to cycle through my deck to get to some big characters.  Finally I got Adrianne Hart and went for the win.  I was decimated with the denial that came out.  Willow came on strong with the Queen of the Ice Pagoda (new) with an Ice Sword.  She took some of my sites over then next few turns, but stalled at victory conditions.  Tim had two damaged sites in his front row, and Willow's front row site was also damaged.  I was able to superleap "El Tigre" over the Queen to take Willow's site.  I then played a site to put me at victory.  I then dropped Liquidators and Tentacles of the Squid who were up to 10 damage at this point.  They were able to take a site from Tim for the win. 

Overall a fun night after not playing for 3 months.

Hand Empire of Evil Sampler Deck

Foundation (13):

Willow Warriors x3

Golden Candle Society x5

Shaolin Student x5

 

Characters (12):

Peasant Leader x2

Stoic Wanderer

Yuan Chonguan

Shung Dai

Wei Fong-yi

Yen Fan

Sun Chen

Shihong

Blue Master x2

Fong Sai Yuk

 

Events (9):

Blue Meditation x2

Resistance in Numbers

Rigorous Discipline

Difficulty at the End of Things x2

Superior Kung Fu x2

Natural Order

 

States (11):

Meditative Flight

Awesome Presence

Rain of Fury

Dim Mak

Hand without Shadow x2

Butterfly Swords x4

Flying Windmill Kick

 

Edge (1):

Strength of the Land

 

Sites (3):

Mountain Monastery x2

Bandit Hideout

 

FSS (14):

Temple of the Shaolin Dragon

Hydroponic Garden x2

Disco

City Park x3

Mirrored Lake

Mobius Garden

Ancient Stone Arch

Bird Sanctuary

Festival Circle

Fox Pass

Golden Mile

 

Since a lot of the characters in the set have some type of evasion, the deck just wants to get damage adders on the characters and sneak past interceptors to take sites.  A secondary theme was to get the Peasant Leaders so they could take control of opponents' characters.

Play Results

So we had six people show up at my place for some casual play and as a warm up for Plattecon and the Wisconsin state championship.  We broke down to two three-player games.

Table 1 was Collin, Jeff, and Tim.  They played three games.  Tim won the first two with his Detonating Destroyer deck.  I think Collin might have won the third.  At one point he was playing a Dragon / Jammer gun deck.  I saw Jeff playing his Ascended Bounty deck one game, and an Architect deck in another game.  Obviously I don't have many details overall.

Table 2 was John, Willow, and me.  Game one, John played a Jammer coin flip deck; Willow played an Architect tank deck; and I played my Lotus Empire of Evil sampler deck posted previously.  Willow and I had good starts.  She got a Tank Commander and Commandant Barkhorn each with a Panzer X, and I had the Demon Emperor, his Evil Twin and Xin Ji Yang.  Fortunately, I got my Waterfall Sanctuary in play, and that slowed Willow down.  She had to drop the bomb to slow me down.  The Alabaster King, however, showed up in place of the Demon Emperor.  My next turn, a Hell Hound showed up to protect the King.  His Evil Twin then showed up.  Once Willow realized that the Hound protected both from another Bomb, she convinced John that the Hound had to die.  He obliged and smoked the Hound with "Do You Feel Luck, Punk".  Willow then dropped the Bomb.  The only survivor was Commnadant Barkhorn.  It looked like Willow as going for the win, but John stopped her with Safety Third.  I played my fourth FSS and waited.  I could have spent all my power on a hitter and gone for the win, but Willow had power and most likely an Imprison in hand.  Instead, I passed thinking my two Tortured Memories would be enough to win next turn.  John played Jayne Insane and attacked Willow.  She was forced to Imprison Jayne.  Willow attacked me for the win with Barkhorn.  I took control of him to end the attack and Willow's turn.  I then took control of him on my turn and played Jueding Shelun, which was enough to take a site to win.

Game 2, I played a Hand Empire of Evil sampler deck, Willow played a Dragon Is That All You Got deck, and John played a Dragon/Purist coin flip/gun deck.  There was lots of character build up in this game.  Willow had a very defendable position with a Maze of Stairs in the front row and a Kinoshita House in the back row.  I was not able to crack this egg, but John broke it down with his Wild Spirits and Zen Ritualists to move the sites around.  Willow made a push against John with her Big Bruiser and Good Ol' Boys backed up by Lin for healing.  John was able to stop them by recycling an Origami Handguns through his chain of interceptors.  The final and crowning moment was when the final defender was smoked, the Handguns went on the Big Bruiser to reduce is fighting to zero and fail the attack.  John then played some foundation and launched a longshot attack against me, which failed to take my site.  I then played my fourth site and attacked with Shung Dai a Butterfly Swords and Flying Windmill Kick to take John's site for the win.

At this point, Collin, Willow, and Tim left.  Jeff, John, and I played one more game.  John played Syndicate/Ascended ReAscended; Jeff played a Dragon gun deck; and I played a Jammer Empire of Evil sampler deck.  John got stuck with a Proving Ground as his only site and could have been shut out of the game because I had a Whirlpool of Blood.  I, however, needed his help to shut down Jeff, who had an early burn for power.  With Andy Di pumping my weenies, I was able to pull down Jeff.  My City Square with lots of non-FSS limited his ability to attack effectively.  Once I seized Jeff's Fox Pass, I had to tools to hold off attacks and build to a win.  One of the keys was Battlechimp to play Back in Black to bring back chump targets for Fox Pass to limit effective attacks.