[ Crime Scholar] Maria Maria

[matavious]

Keeping the momentum of fun new decks going, here's a deck I've been enjoying. Suggestions welcome.

Income / draw
5x Knowledge is power
5x Forced Charity
5x Sofia's Office
5x Scientific Method
5x Secret Door

Key Agents
5x Maria Auditore
5x Maria Thorpe

Winners
5x Ezio Mentor
4x Master Assassin
3x Antionio de Magianis
3x Military Brutality

Playbook is pretty simple. The key combo are the two Marias. If auditore is on the table and Thorpe is in hand, then 2 money kills opponent's highest priced site or agent at surprise speed and then tutors another agent. That's 5 'get out jail free' chances. Tutor the Antonios if opponent is running sites. Discard the assassins and mentors to get more Marias, then bring them back with military brutality (ideally with surprise from secret door)

Really enjoy seeing the new faces and activity. Keep the new decks coming.

[Rob (Roebidoebi)]

That's a pretty complicated way to play "Mark Target"

[coolkendude]

Nice deck! I was aware of the Maria/Maria combo but didn't really feel like building a deck around it because I thought it was lacking. But the addition of Military Brutality, in my opinion, really completes the deck. Great job!

I'm not yet sold on Sofia's Office (I do understand why you have it in there) but I can't think of a replacement card as of the moment.

[UnCL0NED]

I was also aware of the Maria Maria combo, but I just never got around to build a working deck around it! Seems like this could work... I just don't get why you would use Antonio when Maria can also kill off sites. Would't you rather replace that with Discreet Calling to get hold of Maria or Ezio faster?

[lurifaxb]

I'm with Uncloned here. Why not use Ezio Assassin instead of Antonio? Also replace secret door with Militia intimidation? Then Ezio Assassin becomes a surprise killer and the draw one makes up for the added cost. Also Ezio assassin is nicer to get back with military intimidation with 5/5. I guess one Antonio could be good early vs (lame) deceptive site rushes, but 3 may be too many.

Discrete calling I'm not sure it is works well here with Maria doing the same. Takes some play throughs to test that.

[lurifaxb]

Forgot to write that the deck looks really cool and fun. Thanks for posting

[coolkendude]

Jan 25, 2013 7:25:08 GMT -5 lurifaxb said:

I'm with Uncloned here. Why not use Ezio Assassin instead of Antonio? Also replace secret door with Militia intimidation? Then Ezio Assassin becomes a surprise killer and the draw one makes up for the added cost. Also Ezio assassin is nicer to get back with military intimidation with 5/5. I guess one Antonio could be good early vs (lame) deceptive site rushes, but 3 may be too many.

When I first read the original post, my mind interpreted 4x Master Assassin as 4x Ezio Assassin, so I never commented on it. But I agree with Luri and UnCLONED on using Ezio Assassin instead. And I also agree that Militia Intimidation is better in this deck vs Secret Door. The other change I did in my version is to replace Antonio with Lanz because of the lower cost and its ability to pump up your other thieves (and because everybody panics when they see Lanz).

[matavious]

Interesting suggestions all! I'm working through them, but so far I've been having income issues. Antonio was a cheap answer to site spam. Perhaps one would suffice.

I had master assassins over ezios because I was almost always discarding and putting them into play through military brutality, so the targeted removal of ezio did not come into play.

The card draw of militia intimidation is tempting, but at the triple the cost of secret door I feel it.

Will keep experimenting with the suggestions. Modifications to my play style will likely help.

[lurifaxb]

I replaced scientific method with the "draw two discard one" card. Gave good circulation and the ability to discard Maria T without Maria A

Income is good in this deck. Found that I could deploy Ezio assassin relatively early. Maria discard kept me in the early game (also vs. deceptive site rushes), where Ezio assassin kept me in mid/late game. Especially a well times surprise Ezio assassin with militia intimidation is nice to have.

Maria can't handle all. I found it nice to be able to target what I want to kill. It feels so dumb to kill an income site instead of a critical agent. Or keep hitting Silvio Babardigo or Altair Learned.

It comes down to play style. Either build, the deck is good.

[coolkendude]

Jan 28, 2013 1:39:56 GMT -5 matavious said:

Interesting suggestions all! I'm working through them, but so far I've been having income issues.

In my version, I replaced Sofia's Office with Rosa in Fiore. That helped me get the income necessary to launch the biggies without waiting for the Maria / Maria combo.

[coolkendude]

Jan 28, 2013 5:13:29 GMT -5 lurifaxb said:

Maria can't handle all. I found it nice to be able to target what I want to kill. It feels so dumb to kill an income site instead of a critical agent. Or keep hitting Silvio Babardigo or Altair Learned.

Yes, those freaking Altairs and Silvios can ruin this deck. I'm just glad the first time I encountered this, my opponent only had one Altair circulating - but still it's a pain knowing that Thorpe will kill Altair instead of the other deceptive Agents my opponent was using.

[matavious]

Sofia's office --> Rosa in Fiore
Scientific Method --> Laboratory Research
Secret Door --> Militia Intimidation
Master Assassin --> Ezio Assassin
Antionio --> Lanz

All thumbs up changes. It's a different deck, less combo dependent. The rosa brings in the income which makes the more expensive laboratory research (great suggestion) and militia intimidation work.

Thanks ACR deck smiths, the current deck is as follows:

Income / draw
5x Knowledge is power
5x Forced Charity
5x Rosa in Fiore
5x Laboratory Research
5x Militia Intimidation

Key Agents
5x Maria Auditore
5x Maria Thorpe

Winners
5x Ezio Mentor
4x Ezio Assassin
3x Lanz
3x Military Brutality

I'm playing with counts, and toy with including one Antonio for site heavy decks.