Post by baelfael on Apr 30, 2012 17:38:12 GMT -5
Merchant's Guild: AKA Guilding the Lily.
I don't think I've seen this deck concept around, but I may have missed it behind a cute name.
Alternate win conditions always get me going, and even though it isn't technically an alternate win condition (you still need 10 influence in 2 regions!), Merchant's Guild is silly enough to make me want to design around it. The hope is to basically work fast enough that you can effectively ignore what your opponent is doing - if the deck gets good enough draws (and there's some draw power to help that happen) it can go from 0 influence to 10 x 2 too quickly to effectively stop. The trick, of course, is getting there.
Victory Condition
5 Merchant's Guild
Gold Boosters
5 Plentiful Crop
5 Basilica Di San Pietro
5 Knowledge Has a Price
4 Pirate Ship
2 Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
5 City Stables
Search
4 Engineers Workroom
1 Family Heirloom
3 Benvenuto
5 Field Study
2 In-Depth Analysis
Oh god they killed all my Guilds what do I do now
3 The Spaniard
The goal should be obvious. Work to about 7-8 gold, then use Engineers Workroom and Field Study to suss out your guild. Once you're set up, use Nothing Ventured and Knowledge Has a Price to get a bunch of gold; ideally using a Benvenuto to double up on one of them. Congrats, you've won!
Like any combo deck, it's vulnerable to disruption, but engineers workroom is a pretty great workaround to that, since it can be dropped right off the bat and activated later. Then you can rely on instant + income cards to secure the win. It's not a matchup I've done a lot, though.
The presence of The Spaniard is basically a bulwark against having really miserable luck with your sites - maybe they're packing a bunch of anti site tech or maybe you're just not getting the draws you need, but The Spaniard does double duty by slowing down agents, and helping your income and your draw. He's obviously not integral to the deck, but I think a couple copies of him are proper.
Nothing Ventured is a card I struggle a lot with. (Like any combo deck), this deck is designed to basically ignore what your opponent is doing. That means there's no defense to a quick rushdown. In turn, that means that packing a lot of Nothing Ventured is a really dangerous proposition. Without answers, I don't think it's worth running more.
Some odd numbers are there only because it's a pretty bad idea to run a big deck that relies on a single card.
I'm not sure about family heirloom. There's only 1 because I'm too cheap to buy more, and really, there's a lot of search happening in the deck. I'm not sure what I'd replace it with, though. Ideas?
I don't think I've seen this deck concept around, but I may have missed it behind a cute name.
Alternate win conditions always get me going, and even though it isn't technically an alternate win condition (you still need 10 influence in 2 regions!), Merchant's Guild is silly enough to make me want to design around it. The hope is to basically work fast enough that you can effectively ignore what your opponent is doing - if the deck gets good enough draws (and there's some draw power to help that happen) it can go from 0 influence to 10 x 2 too quickly to effectively stop. The trick, of course, is getting there.
Victory Condition
5 Merchant's Guild
Gold Boosters
5 Plentiful Crop
5 Basilica Di San Pietro
5 Knowledge Has a Price
4 Pirate Ship
2 Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
5 City Stables
Search
4 Engineers Workroom
1 Family Heirloom
3 Benvenuto
5 Field Study
2 In-Depth Analysis
Oh god they killed all my Guilds what do I do now
3 The Spaniard
The goal should be obvious. Work to about 7-8 gold, then use Engineers Workroom and Field Study to suss out your guild. Once you're set up, use Nothing Ventured and Knowledge Has a Price to get a bunch of gold; ideally using a Benvenuto to double up on one of them. Congrats, you've won!
Like any combo deck, it's vulnerable to disruption, but engineers workroom is a pretty great workaround to that, since it can be dropped right off the bat and activated later. Then you can rely on instant + income cards to secure the win. It's not a matchup I've done a lot, though.
The presence of The Spaniard is basically a bulwark against having really miserable luck with your sites - maybe they're packing a bunch of anti site tech or maybe you're just not getting the draws you need, but The Spaniard does double duty by slowing down agents, and helping your income and your draw. He's obviously not integral to the deck, but I think a couple copies of him are proper.
Nothing Ventured is a card I struggle a lot with. (Like any combo deck), this deck is designed to basically ignore what your opponent is doing. That means there's no defense to a quick rushdown. In turn, that means that packing a lot of Nothing Ventured is a really dangerous proposition. Without answers, I don't think it's worth running more.
Some odd numbers are there only because it's a pretty bad idea to run a big deck that relies on a single card.
I'm not sure about family heirloom. There's only 1 because I'm too cheap to buy more, and really, there's a lot of search happening in the deck. I'm not sure what I'd replace it with, though. Ideas?
