My take on the Malfatto-Stranger Discard Lock

[omgoose]

Agents (20)

3 Honest Worker
5 Mysterious Stranger
3 Claudia Auditore
5 Amerigo Vespucci
3 Malfatto
1 Leonardo DaVinci

Sites (15)

5 Basilica di San Pietro
5 Converted Chapel
5 Basilica di Santa Maria Novela

Actions (15)

3 Divine Intervention
3 Knowledge is Power
3 Field Study
2 Ancestral Discovery
2 Pontifical High Mass
2 Scientific Espionage




I have played several games with this deck and haven't lost yet. It's heavy enough on sites that it keeps the enemy rushing to get rid of them, strong enough on agents that you can defend (Vespucci) if you have to with any of the agents, plus there's the malfatto stranger discard lock (use malfatto on stranger, play stranger to force a discard of every drawn card), and Claudia for Draw power, along with the potential to use a Malfatto DaVinci bounce for lots of (albeit expensive) drawpower. The agents are purely strategic and defensive -- the only offense they could offer is if you're at the end of a draw lock and they have nothing to defend with. The actions are self explanatory in that they all support the deck's biggest strength and purpose: Card advantage. They discard theirs, you draw yours. The scientific espionage just makes for a great counter, especially on some of the cards that might otherwise change the game later on, like animus reboot or wrath of the righteous -- assuming they're not in a discard lock by then.

The deck isn't short on income ( I love trying to stack san pietros early on), but falls short against rush decks, since basically all the agents in this deck cost 3 or more.

Thoughts?

[Brontobeuf]

Is it just me or you have no solution against Agents?

[omgoose]

Not a solution, but so far they haven't been a problem. Vespucci can block the early game threats and the sites are usually high enough that late game threats aren't an issue. And again, it's also kinda contingent on the stranger bounce.

[Brontobeuf]

PP + Carlo = you are dead. ^^

[Tuism]

To be fair, Vespucci can block Grimaldi. But Ny rush deck worth it's salt will pack tactical upheaval. Like you said yourself, you can't outrun rush decks at all. In my version I pack lassitude and have tried to work in some other solutions like sudden exhaustion.

The problem with running headlong to start this combo is that you still need to deal with their threats on the table, if they have agents, even a few, or a few sites, when you finally reach combo, you'll lose. Simple.

I'll actually try Vespucci in my deck sometime, but he's simply too vulnerable as upheaval food, IMO.

[omgoose]

One of my favorite deck types to run is a green/blue deck that runs only units with recover, and the character that adds +1/+1 to characters, along with borgia towers. All of the gained stats stick on the recovered units.