[Media/Order] Two Good Days To Die

[felixschroeter]

Here is a Media rush deck I've put together that doesn't rely on big names like Odai or Nico but on the only two Media agents with deceptive (excluding Al Mualim cause he is to expansive (cost 9) for this deck): Street Thespian and Darim. It's quite conceptual so there might be a lot of aspects to improve. As it is now, it wins in about 6/10 games – but when it wins, it does so on day 2 or something (hence the title ). If it doesn't, you'll probably loose (so the title holds true anyway ). It's a suicide deck, alright.

Total (50)

Agents (14)
5 Street Thespian
5 Darim
4 Dante Moro

Actions (36)
Income:
1 Political Patronage (should be 5, I only got 1)
5 Den Defense
1 Tactical Upheaval

Counter:
4 Faux Pas
5 Untimely End

Agent boosting:
5 The Plan
5 Militia Training
5 Advanced Training
5 Magnetic Personality

Playbook (short version): Rush.
Playbook (long version):
- Get at least 1 deceptive agent in start hand and launch him as soon as possible. (Gets countered only on very rare occasions.)
- Make your agent safe (Dante), uncounterable (The Plan), Fierce (Magnetic) and strong (Militia/Advanced Training).
- Slow down opponent with very cheap counters (Faux Pas for cost 0/1 cards, Untimely End for Agents)

This deck relies heavily on a good start hand. Best would be: PP, Darim, The Plan, MP. Minimum requirement is: Darim and at least 1 income and 1 booster card, I guess.

Any suggestions? (I hope I didn't overlook a similar deck post. I searched the forums for the agent names and didn't find anything.)

[lurifaxb]

Cool. I like this type of deck.


What about Altair Learned? He is cheap and unblockable. You could also play unblockable agents and deceptive action. Order has great cheap unblockable agent. I think there may be too few agents I the deck...

[felixschroeter]

Your point is right - part of the risk playing this deck is that when you lose one or two agents, you'll almost certainly lose the game. But...
... if I added Altair, I'd lose the elegant consistency of the deck (only campaigning in 1 region with 1 or 2 incredibly buffed agents)
... I then would have to add Incognito for making Altair deceptive...
... but THEN I would rather build the deck you mentioned: cheap unblockable agents PLUS Incognito

However, I prefer the "deceptive agents PLUS The Plan" solution. I think it comes down to simple maths:
- The Plan is cost 1 (+1 income) and a surprise
- Incognito is cost 2 (+1 income) an NO surprise
(So deceptive has significantly more "game value" than unblockable obviously?)
Also:
- Street Thespian is cost 1 and 1/1
- the cheapest unblockable Order agent is also cost 1, 1/1 (Tarik Barletti)

Admittedly, there are those official order agents with 2/1 (cost 2) and 3/1 (cost 3), but I don't think they compensate for Incognito being more expansive AND no surprise.

However, I'm tempted to build a deck around your idea - but I'm not sure if it hasn't been already posted somewhere...

[lurifaxb]

Good points. I agree with this.

If only those agents could be tutored or there where more cheap ones with deceptive...

Dante Moro. What about changing him for the golden surprise that grants safe? This way you can stop a kill effect as it is deploying in time if Dante is in your hand. Could be a good surprise. I don't see that he has any other function but to keep your agents safe.

[felixschroeter]

Jul 26, 2012 3:44:07 GMT -5 lurifaxb said:

Good points. I agree with this.

I don't see that he has any other function but to keep your agents safe.

Nope, he hasn't. And exchanging him with Evasive Maneuvers is a great idea as it adds to the consistency of the deck! Thx! (It also removes 4 agents from the deck, but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, I guess. )

[lurifaxb]

Well, only the agents that score actually add value

So a good change I think.

[The Rancord]

Think i played against it, and didnt counter the 1 cost agent, the 8 points u scored rly surprised me, but wasnt enough. If the enemy knows whats coming its gonna be hard though

[felixschroeter]

Jul 26, 2012 6:19:38 GMT -5 The Rancord said:

Think i played against it, and didnt counter the 1 cost agent, the 8 points u scored rly surprised me, but wasnt enough. If the enemy knows whats coming its gonna be hard though

Yep, that was one of the 4/10 losses. However, this is how I deal with 'knowing' opponents:
1) Counters: I still launch my agents only if I can see that the launching will be finished before the opponent has 4 gold to spend. I can't really help if they play Untimely End or even Faux Pas to counter my agents, but this doesn't happen too often.
2) Blocking: Doesn't happen often (due to The Plan) or doesn't prevent me from scoring (due to Magnetic).
3) "Agents get -1/-0": These cards really slow me down. However, I can try to out-boost them with Militia/Advanced Training etc..
4) Agent removal: Pain in the ass. If 1 of my agents is removed, there's still hope. If 2+ are removed, I can as well forfeit the game.

[The Rancord]

So far my sucess with explosive decks is around 50-60% win. So I want to manipulate hand/deck or board, because those decks win around 80% (Piri/counter deck falls into thus, I dont play it though). For 90% , u need rly good constructed decks, with manipulation and fast win conditions (I see only a chance over crime/faith, crime/order or faith/order tbh) and then picking the right one. Crime/order bests order/faith beats crime/faith beats crime/order normally.

[felixschroeter]

That seems to be a quite accurate analysis, Rancord (although there might be some discussion about the actual deck types and their strengths/weaknesses). And that's exactly why I posted this deck under Fun&Concept. Indeed, your estimate for success (50-60%) comes close to my own experience.
Anyway, there might be an advantage in earning your daily 500 credits by playing a deck now and then that wins 50% of games in less than 2 minutes and loses in 4 min. I have some quite reliant decks (around 80%) that make games last up to 10 min or more. That's tedious!

[The Rancord]

I win quit fast as well, or loose fast. My decks win a bit slower than explosive, but I know pretty much after d1 if im going to win or loose.

And yes nothing wrong with ure post I tried some deceptive site decks with surprise sites and san gminagno, turns out the deck is so fast picked apart, that I lost the first 3 games then won 4 games.

[TemplarTyler]

I, yesterday, went up against a player that has his own take on this deck... he uses Altair (And uses Incog) instead of Darim and Suleiman instead of Dante.

First time he crushed me... in like you say... two days... second time I was a little more prepared though and managed to get him away from the 'rush' time frame and allowed my big sites to show him a thing or two.