Empire of Madness

Another deck list for one I played at EpicQuest Games. Won in four player against a Jammer Battlematic deck, a Dragon growing character deck, and a Monarch sword deck.

Empire ofMadness

Foundation(13)

PuristInitiate (x5)
PuristAspirant (x5)
ZenRitualist (x3)

Characters(12)

Echo Spirit(x2)
36-LeggedHorror! (x2)
Morse CodePoet (x2)
Mutator (x2)
The StasisEngine
Damon Winter
UncertaintySpirit
Kisa Serkov

Events (15)

VitalityShunt (x3)
ProbabilityShift
Bending Chi
EntropySphere (x3)
Déjà vu
Pocket Demon(x4)
Entropy Tap(x2)

States (4)

OrigamiHandguns (x3)
The IvoryGoddess

Sites (18)

ParadoxArchives (x2)
BanditHideout (x2)
Hot Zone
Rebel Camp
Drug Lab
Fox Pass(x2)
EndlessCorridor
The RedLantern Tavern
GamblingHouse
FestivalCircle (x2)
ProvingGround (x2)
Monkey House
Nightclub

This decklacks some focus as it was built to try the variety of cards from Empire ofEvil for Purists. In the game I played,very few of the new cards came into play: Zen Ritualist, Kisa, ProbabilityShift, and Origami Handguns. TheHandguns were good at the beginning of the game, when all could find wasfoundation characters. They went away,however, when a Final Brawl smoked all of my characters. The combination of Kisa and the Ivory Goddessended up giving me the surprise win going from 1 site to victory in one turn. It was a worthwhile combination, but one Idon’t want to rely on. It is fragile andexpensive. I want to explore some moregoodness with the Uncertainty Spirits. Ihave more now than when I first built this deck. The only trick I tried to incorporate was RedLantern Tavern to give them Assassinate. They can get to the target without interception then change at the lastsecond to attack a site.

Empire of Darkness

Here is a deck list for the first deck I played at our get together at EpicQuest Games in Hartland.  It went up against a siteless 7 Masters / Monarch deck, another Darkness deck, and a Jammer / Dragon ROTU deck (BIG)

Empire of Darkness

Foundation (13)

Skin and Darkness Bats (x5)
Darkness Priestess (x5)
Darkness Warriors (x3)

Characters (14)

Avenging Darkness
Priestess of Itzcoliuqui
Palm of Darkness
Floating Teeth (x3)
Shadow Seductress
The Keeper of Hearts
Queen of the Darkness Pagoda
Chamberlain
Xitllali
Mistress of the Blotted Moonlight
Darkness Golem

Events (15)

Pocket Demon
Ice Blessing (x3)
Blood Lust
Avenging Thunder
Wriggling Skin Suit
Ritual of Death
Stolen Thunder
Brain Fire (x2)
Discerning Fire
Mark of Fire
Lateral Reincarnation
Transmogrification

States (6)

Consuming Darkness
Curse of Itzcoliuhqui
Obsidian Dagger
Ming I’s Chosen
The Crystal Skull
Prisoner of the Monarchs

Edge

Blanket of Darkness

Sites (14)

Darkness Pagoda
Disco
Bamboo Forest
Fox Pass
Devil’s Mountain
Hot Springs (x2)
Gambling House
Floating Restaurant
Mirrored Lake
Temple of the Angry Spirits
Waterfall Sanctuary (x2)
Family Home

This deck was built to try out the Darkness cards introduced in Empire of Evil along with the pre-existing Darkness cards.  The first iteration of this deck was unfocussed and did not have enough synergy to be effective.  Sacrificing is usually only worth it when you get multiple bonuses.  It takes a dedicated deck for that.  So the deck had to be tuned to the version above.  Some of the cards that did not make the cut were General Fung, Fanaticism, and Skin and Darkness Zealots.  Darkness decks seem to be very popular, so I’ll probably shelve this deck for a while now that I’ve gotten to be functional (not necessarily optimal).

Plattecon 2012

This was the 6^th annual Who’s the Big Cheese Now!?! at Plattecon.  This year I had not ordered draft stock and did not have enough left over for a draft.  So casual play and the tournament were the only Shadowfist planned for the convention.  I was really feeling like playing Ascended.  The next expansion on my playlist was Red Wedding.  So I came up with "Piece a the Action" the week before the con and tossed the cards in the morning before I left.

When I got to Plattecon, I found John playing Shadowfist with 3 others.  I thought he was running a demo for new players.  To my surprise, he was playing with 3 veteran players (John, Lucas, and Paul) from Milwaukee who had recently taken up the game again.  They wrapped up the game shortly and a fourth Milwaukee player (Tom) and I joined them for a crazy six-player game.  I was playing "Bring It", my Plattecon deck from three years ago.  It is slow but can generate a better punch through for the end game than lots of my decks.  As we played, John asked if I had used the Faceoff mechanic much.  I didn't want to tip my hand and say that my tournament deck used it as a core function.  I just said I had only used it a little in a RotU "Blood and Thunder" deck.  Technically true, as I had not played with "Piece a the Action" yet, but I felt a little guilty.  We didn't finish the game before we had to set up for the Big Cheese. 

There were eight players for the Big Cheese:
Tom (Transformed Animal Deck), John(Hand?), Paul (Fire Monarchs), Lucas (Asc/Arch good stuff), and Chris (Hand/Dragon good stuff) from Milwaukee
John M(?? - I never played him) from LaCrosse
Willow (Dra/Mon good stuff) and me (Piece a the Action) from Madison

The first round was John, Tom, Chris, and I at table one and John M, Willow, Paul and Lucas at table two.  Willow grabbed a quick win on her table.  Our game went to within the 10 minute warning, but I was able to put together a winning attach with Shinobu Yashida, Adrienne Hart, and a foundation.

Second round was Willow, Lucas, Chris, and me at table one.  Willow won our game.  She was able to set herself up for the win by Discerning Fire the two Shadowy Mentors on her Golden Gunman and regain control of him.  She then started the winning attacks.  Tom won at table two.

Third round was Paul, Tom, Lucas, and me at table one.  I had a very slow start in this game.  I couldn't draw a Family Estate, and Lucas Mold Networked me at least three times.  As the game evolved, Paul, Tom, and Lucas all built to 4 FSS while I was still at 2.  I had to burn up most of my smoked pile with Plains of Ash to get down to all Operation Killdeers so I could keep recycling denial with Spin Doctor.  I even had to Golden Spike another Killdeer to keep the game going.  I was able to build up to 4 sites.  One big help was no one wanted to stop my attacks because I was the only one not at victory and I was knocking down someone who was.  As time was called, Lucas was making his latest attack for the win.  I had the Killdeers again to stop him.  It was my turn next, and I would have had a good chance to win.  As it was, I had the tie breaker of most game points for 2 of my four sites being seized.  Chris won the other table. 

Willow, Chris, Tom, and I made it to the final round.  Winner takes the title of Big Cheese for the coming year and gets a seat at the invitational event at Gen Con.  Willow built up to three FSS, Chris had two sites and a Master Bowman.  Tom jumped out to 4 FSS and a Shell of the Tortoise.  I had 2 FSS and 2 non-FSS sites and Shinoba Yashida.  On my turn, I attacked Willow (my right) and damaged her Temple of Celestial Mercy which was saved from being taken by her Moon Base.  She then played a Flambard.  She didn't see any easy FSS targets, so came after my Family Estate.  I made the mistake of using my only denial to Killdeer the Flambard.  Chris couldn't do anything and turtled.  It was Tom's turn to try to muster an attack for the win.  He played Coyote Clan Scavengers, Mentored the Bowman and Feral Regressed the Shell. All three attacked Chris' undefended site for the win.  Willow and I couldn't do anything.  We were ready to call it a game.  Chris, who was playing it cool and trying to milk all of our denial, then played Shaolin Surprise to move the Mentor from the Bowman to the Shell.  The Shell intercepted the Scavengers and failed the attack.  Tom, however, got back both the Shell and Bowman at the end of the turn and would be ready to try again.  On my turn I played a Gunslinger and Corrupt Bookie and waited for target.  Willow attacked Tom's Ten Thousand Swords Mountain with the Flambards and brought it to one body.  Chris got back his Master Bowman by Blade Plaming the Mentor.  He then let me use my Endless Corridor before he declared an attack.  I changed Tom's front row TTS Mountain with his back row Whirlpool of Blood.  The Bowman attacked and pinged the Mountain to the smoked pile.  Tom tried to intercept with the Shell, but Chris played Blue Meditation to take the Whirlpool.  He burned for victory and I Bit him for his last 2 power.  Tom was not able to recover from losing two sites.  Shell turned to heal.  He played a Rat Clan Spies.  In response, my Gunslinger entered a Faceoff with him to net me three power.  Tom ended his turn.  I started my turn with all opposing characters on the board turned, 9 power, 2 FSS, Shinobu Yashida, a Gunslinger, and a Corrupt Bookie in play.  I played another Gunslinger with a Family Estate.  Shinobu and the Bookie attacked Willow's undefended Moon Base.  She pinged Shinobu, and I burned the site for victory.  I then played my fourth site and attacked Willow's Temple of Celestial Mercy with 1 body left with my two Gunslingers.  She only had a Flambard in the way.  Chris and Tom had no denial available.  Willow played Golden Comeback, but only had a Hacker available.  He intercepted one Gunslinger and the Flambards the other.  My Opium Den reduced the Hacker's damage to zero.  My Gunslinger took the site for the win. 

I AM THE BIG CHEESE NOW!

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.

Piece a the Action

Here is the deck I built for Plattecon 2012 Who's the Big Cheese Now!?!

Piece a the Action

Foundation

Student of the Bear x3
Black Helicopter Squad x5
The Pledged x4

Characters

Corrupt Bookie x 5
Gunslinger x5
Jan Zvireci
Shinobu Yashida
Adrienne Hart
The Unspoken Name
Rainmaker Floyd
“Monkey” Chang
The She-Wolf
Claws
The Eastern King

Events

Bite of the Jellyfish x2
Mole Network x4
Operation Killdeer x4
The Golden Spike
Faked Death

State

Shadowy Mentor

Edge
Spin Doctoring

Sites

Opium Den
Family Estate x4
Battle Arena x2

FSS

Plain of Ash
City Hospital x2
Sacred Heart Hospital
Jade Palace of the Dragon King
Endless Corridor
The Iron Palace
Turtle Beach
City Square
Kinoshita House of Pancakes
Festival Circle
Martyr’s Tomb

This deck came from trying to use Red Wedding Ascended cards.  For a long time none of the cards spoke to me for a good deck concept.  The ReAscended looked too unreliable for resources.  Rebecca Dupress has a decent ability, but being Unique would limit possibilities.  I would also need to multifaction to get the best states.  Lodge Machinations was tempting, but I wasn’t ready to give up Pledged cards yet.  The Broken Wheel Brigade was intriguing.  If combined with Wisdom of the Owl, can you build a deck that will recycle enough cards to get reliable punch through with the Brigades?  I was not up to that challenge yet.  The Corrupt Bookie looked like an unreliable card that I had to play marginal events to get any mileage out of it.  Then I saw the Gunslinger.  Here are two Pledged characters that can generate 3 power a turn if I have one of each in play.  From that I made this deck.

So I have two Pledged characters that are going to generate a lot of power through Faceoffs.  Obviously, I need Family Estates.  Next I wanted cards to make the Gunslingers have Faceoffs every turn.  So I added healing effects and damage reduction: City Hospital, Sacred Hearts Hospital, Jade Palace, Opium Den, and Battle Arenas.  Since my combo is character driven I wanted a couple ways to recycle it: Faked Death, Martyr’s Tomb, and Spin Doctor combined with Plain of Ash.  I threw in a bunch of non-Lodge hitters for spending the power.  Finally, looking at the large number of non-FSS, it looked like a large site structure could be maintained.  This let me include the Golden Spike.

Future changes to the deck may include adding Lotus to allow for the Death Ring.  Throwing Black Helicopter Squads into the Death Ring and betting against them sounds very profitable.

Any comments or suggested improvements would be appreciated.

None Shall Pass

Here is the deck I played while visiting the Phoenix Proving Ground.

I wents 2 for 2 winning a four-player game and a three-player game.

None Shall Pass

Foundation:
Wah-Shan Clan Warriors x5
Mountain Hermit x3
Kunlun Clan Assault x5
Black Helicopter Squad
Coyote Clan Scavangers x3

Characters:
Wudang Monk
Monsoon
Ghost Wind
Li Mao
Red Bat x2
Gold Lion
Wu Man Kai
Jade Willow
Queen of the Ice Pagoda (old)
Hunger of the Jackel

Events:
Unexpected Rescue x4
Monkey Fools the Tiger x2
Wing of the Crane x2
Violet Meditation x3
Operation Killdeer x2
Beneficient Tao x2

States:
Occult Kung Fu x2
Living Legend
Fortune of the Turtle x2

Edge:
Balanced Harmonies

Site:
Mountain Monastary

FSS:
Martyr's Tomb
Bamboo Forest
Puzzle Garden x4
Grizzly Pass
Floating Restaurant
Fox Pass
Devil's Mountain
Cave Network x2
The Steam Laundry Company
Wudang Mountain

The site structure is very defensive and is backed up with extra defensive events - U Rescue, Ben Tao, Monkey Fools the Tiger.  This allows the deck to focus on trying to get out winning attacks while the opponents beat their heads against the site structure. 

Some of the synergies included are: Unturn hitters with the Mountain Hermits.  Use Occult Kung Fu to add their unturning to a hitter. Use Occult Kung Fu to give a hitter ambush against non-foundation cards.  Reload Ghost Wind and Red Bat once their 0-cost play conditions are fulfilled.

In play, Jade Willow was the unstoppable beating stick for both games. 

Possible changes would be strip out the Ascended to make it more reliable.  Either that or add in a Bite of the Jellyfish just to keep the opposition wondering.  The site structure might be better off trading the current defensive sites for Great Walls.  The a Golden Spike might be in order.

Plattecon 2011

Back in March was the Wisconsin State Championship held at Plattecon.  We had a record turnout of eight players this year.  Our regular crew of Willow, Tim, Rebecca, John, and me were joined by Chris and Jeff from Milwaukee and Matt who drove all the way in from Chicago.  So we had two rounds of two 4-player games and then a 4-player final.

 

Round 1:

Table 1:

Chris (Hand/Dragon goodness)

Jim (Jammer Rebel)

Tim (Lotus Detonating Corpses)

Rebecca (Monarch Fire)

 

Table 2:

Willow (Dragon / Monarch goodness)

Matt (Darkitect sacrifice)

John (Architect)

Jeff (Dragon hitters)

 

Willow won at table 2, and I won at table 1 with a Violence Junkie taking Chris's Arctic Fortress with the assistance of a Disco Inferno.

 

Round 2:

Table 1:

Willow, Jim, Jeff, and Rebecca.

Table 2:

Chris, Tim, John, Matt

 

Chris won at table 2 to get into the final.  I secured my spot with a second victory.  Two Deep Cover Rebels were able to sneak past the King of the Fire Pagoda and Dr. Amanda Snow using "Trust me, I've got a plan" to take Willow's LaGrange Four.  Rebecca had enough Game Points to sneak into the fourth spot in the final.

 

Final Round saw Chris push his way to victory with a Big Bruiser against Willows damaged Temple of Celestial Mercy.  Congratulations to Chris, the "Big Cheese"!

 

My deck was a slightly modified Rebel site destruction deck.  I chose this deck for the protests (rebels) going on in Madison and across the state for the two weeks before the convention.

 

Kill the Bill:

 

Foundation (13)

Just Another Consumer x5 (state workers)

Punks x5 (students & TA's)

Rebel without a Cause x3 (nonunion protesters)

 

Characters (12)

Buffalo Soldier

Curtis Graham

Two-Face (protest drummers)

Violence Junkies x4 (troublemakers planted by GOP)

Johnny Amok

Deep-Cover Rebels x4 (police and firefighter protesters)

 

Events (16)

Monkeywrenching x3 (senators leaving the state)

Disco Inferno x4

Who's the Monkey Now? x2 (FOX news discredited reporting – there are no palm trees in Madison)

"Trust Me I've Got a Plan"

Close Call

"There's Always One More"

Scrounging (Ian's free pizza)

Potlatch

Uprising x2 (Do you know what is actually in the budget repair bill?  You would rebel too)

 

Edges (6)

Frag the G! x2

Payback Time x2

Black Market Connections

Burn, Baby, Burn

 

Sites (2)

Bomb Factory

RedGlare Chapel

 

FSS (13)

Rust Garden x5

Ancient Stone Arch

Family Home

Hydroponic Garden

Pinball Arcade x2

City Hospital (UW Hospital)

Nine Dragon Temple

City Park (The Capitol Square)

 

The deck plays through a slow build up.  Attack sites where possible.  Disco Inferno can make an underpowered attack into a site taker.  Get some Violence Junkies into the smoked pile.  Build up to Deep Cover Rebels then start throwing waves of characters at the opponents.   With the fighting that comes back from the Rebels going down can be overwhelming.  Then use Uprising to start the attacks over.  Control the board with site destruction as needed.  The big weakness in the deck is its vulnerability to having the Uprising cancelled.