[<5k Faith/Media]Holy Fireball

[Altaem]

Inspired by a Thunderstone build of using nothing but fireballs I attempted to create an ACR deck primarily using direct damage.

Sadly Papal Influence is my only card with this effect.
Not to be deterred I pared it with Clothes Make the Man, and supported it with a few choice sites because timed right they have a similar in game effect.

Core Fireballs:
5 x Papal Influence
5 x Clothes Make the Man

Imitation Fireballs:
0-5 Lair of Romulus (cheap)
0-5 San Gimignano (far more effective)
While using this deck I switched a LoR for a SG every 2 days.
5 x Judgement Day

Income:
5 x heathen Follower (vital for shrinking the deck, if you don't find the PI you've lost)
5 x Basilica di San Pietro
5 x Roman Temple Ruins
5 x City Stables

Support:
5 x Secluded Village
5 x Venezia San Polo District


It looks like a bunch of junk cards but it's surprisingly fun to play and I've generated an impressive win rate with it.

Play Hints:
Make sure you get a PI in your starting hand. This is reasonably likely as no other cards matter.
The deck is loaded with income and has no expensive cards. This leaves plenty of spare cash just waiting to be poured into judgement day.
Never play a PI unless it's part of the volley that will win.
The HF are vitally important for card draw, and equally useful sacrificing as speed bumps.

My record for PIs played in a single game was 7. It was against a dedicated counter deck, which I eventually wore down for victory.

[Rob (Roebidoebi)]

Another bit of advice: Play PI when you can follow-up immediately (at 7 income) with a CMtM (i.e. before your PI gets countered).

[Altaem]

Thanks. I would always do that, forgot to mention it.

[sidos]

I've a similar (high expensive) deck, with a fast discard to disrupt opponent strategy and protect Papal Influence (PI).

In a <5K format you should should use Bienvenuto to take Clothes Make the Man back. Unfortunately, as I know, a bug still prevents you to take back PI with Bienvenuto or Aancestral Discovery (AD).

In an expensive format you could add things like Political Patronage (PP), Divine Intervention, AD and so on. My lovely starting hand has both PP + Ritual Sacrifice.

Do you tried to use both SanMig and Lair of Romulus? You could remove Judgement Day or something else.

[Altaem]

SM? LoR? Super Man? Lord of Rings?

[Tuism]

Case in point. Less acronyms please. At least mention the name once and then annotate the abbreviation in brackets before shooting them off.

[sidos]

Sorry, post updated.

[shadire]

I tried this deck for fun and it seems it loses against any control / discard, any deck with a couple site killers, any rush (even quite slow ones). It definitely lacks drawing power. Too often you're left with large income and nothing to launch.

I know this kind of combo is about surprising enemy when you can win with one combo and I stick to rules mentioned in the description. Problem is the game ends before I am able to launch any combo or I end up completely locked / with empty hand.

[Rob (Roebidoebi)]

This deck was build before the revelations expansion. You can now benefit greatly from cards like bearer of mixed tidings and militia intimidation to make sure you never run out of cards.

[coolkendude]

When Altaem posted this back then, I think the Revelations update was not out yet that's why he doesn't have any of the new cards in this deck. Also, when he made this deck, some of the key cards included in the deck are not quite the same as they are now. For example, San Gimignano back then was 5-cost, 8-influence site vs. today's 5-cost, 6-influence site. Also, Clothes Make the Man was a 2-cost card back then instead of the 4-cost card that it is now. Another thing to consider is that Defender, Dominant, and Deceptive were not part of the AC:R universe yet.

From a conceptual standpoint, there are still a few good Direct Damage decks in the current environment - key card would be Janissary Justice so you can build one around it if you're interested. Mine is Order/Scholar and it has a good win percentage. It's also very to fun play with.