Deckbuilding workshop: Femme Fatale

[felixschroeter]

Hi there,
since I won tisonpomrt's 3rd Contest on courtesans & Femme Fatale I'd like to build a "Femme Fatale 2.0" deck that is as competitive as possible in the current meta. And I want to make it an collaborative effort - see it as a challenge to your deckbuilding skills.

I know that there have been several discussions on FF decks (a few in the Renaissance age, at least one since Revelations) and it all comes down to this:

Pros:
- It's an alternate win condition! That's awesome!
- Courtesans have big boobs.

Cons:
- It all depends on 1 single card (Femme Fatale) which can be countered, erased, rendered useless (by surprise agent removal) and so forth.
- Your courtesans can easily be Tactical Upheaval'ed.
- Right from the beginning your opponent knows your strategy.
- As you need so much of them courtesans, drawing memories is crucial.

So this is my proposal: First let's decide which colors to choose. There are two apparent options:
1) Crime/Media (e.g. boosting courtesans with Brothers in Arms, drawing with Bearer of Mixed Tidings, using Media courtesans)
2) Crime/Scholar (e.g. using green Claudia, using drawing power and deck thinning)

Is there maybe a third option? Blue for counters? Red for ... whatever?

I'd love to have some discussion on this. I refuse to believe that this deck type is really not playable anymore.

[demkon]

I think Crime/Media is the best combo for this. You can use Brothers in Arms as well as Motivational speech for boosting your courtesans and make them invulnerable to TU. Bearer of the mixed tidings for insane draw power as you mentioned already.

Furthermore you should include Galata district and MI, because those cards can ensure that your FFs and BOMTs won't get countered. MI additionally works as a deck thinner.

Put some Role Reversals into the deck to be safe against sites.

Imho this could work.

[Ringel]

I almost lost to a courtesan deck. They had a perfect opening hand/draw as far as I can tell. They would have one, since they had set up a surprise Femme Fatale-- but they launched just before their 6th courtesan resolved.

Scholar is nice because you can tutor the needed cards, and now you can set up the instant Fatale, which prevents someone from messing you up with a Tactical Upheaval or other instant while Fatale is resolving.

[felixschroeter]

Okay, so there are some good arguments in favor of Crime/Media. If we put 5 copies of each card mentioned into the deck we would end up with 30 sites/actions + 5 FF. That's 15 cards left for agents. Not enough IMO. So the next step would be:

1) How many of each of these cards: Brothers in Arms, Motivational Speech, Bearer of Mixed Tidings, Galata, Militia Intimidation, Role Reversal, Femme Fatale?
2) What about Magnetic Personality? What about Forced Charity? Is there really enough drawing power?
3) Which courtesans should be included?

I might add that Diomedia has already reported a few weeks ago that he had tried a similar version of Crime/Media and it didn't work.

[Joek]

I'd put 5 Fatale, since they're untutorable without Scholar, or 4 and 2 Clothes make the man, for copying Femme/BMOT, although Galata should reduce the need.

5 Dama Rossa for sure; I don't know about the other media courtesan.

[Tuism]

My favourite courtesan deck is the Borgia tower variety that also attacks while waiting for the combo. It's fun but I wouldn't call it competitive

[felixschroeter]

Good idea, Tuism, I thought of something like that, too. Didn't test it, though. Would you add counters to a Crime/Order deck or buffs (like Militia Training) or both? Anyway, I'm not looking for a 100% competitive deck, but for "the best we can come up with".

[Diomedia]

I did try with the new cards, but not for long. It's certainly easier now but I still find it the hardest combo to pull off. Along the lines of what Tuism said, you increase your success rate by adding in other routes of attack like Borgia tower. Bronto did a deck ages ago using assassins guild and Borgia tower that was prob the best I saw. The only problem is when you do that , you realise it's easier to win using other cards other than courtesans, just my experience anyway

Edit: to not go off the idea of the thread, I think brother in arms is great , just to negate TU, but now you have Sueliman and the like to factor in too.

[Ringel]

I forgot that Media now has card drawing-- I tried a Media/Courtesan deck after the expansion, but it died too easily.

[felixschroeter]

You got a point there, Diomedia. Going into the Borgia Tower direction would probably result in winning by scoring with 3-5 boosted courtesans rather than by playing FF. And then there would certainly be better agents to do that with. Argh, these courtesans really are a deckbuilding challenge. xD
As for the Media solution: I'm playtesting right now and can't make it work. Too slow, too vulnerable against counters, too ... obvious. I'd like to play some crazy Ezio, Mentor stuff with spamming all of the courtesans in one second and a MI-ed FF in the next or something...

[Tuism]

Decks that rely on just one way of winning typically is doomed to be worse than they have potential for I've won often with Borgia courtesans AND femme fatale. The ability to switch tactics is important

[lurifaxb]

If you use ezio mentor you have to remove him and play a courtesan before FF. You need 6 courtesans before it works.

[Diomedia]

A courtesan site would be a nice addition, just 'gain unblockable' would be sufficient I think. Maybe it's to come in the future? Along with other 'class' specific cards (I hope)

[Ringel]

Put in Assassin Stronghold... every deck is better with Assassin Stronghold and it gives you an alternate win condition.

[felixschroeter]

@lurifax: I know. And when I tried it I recognized that even the sixth courtesan (which replaces Ezio) resolves as a surprise. Interesting. I then should have played Militia Intimidation before so that FF also resolves as a surprise even though Ezio is no more. Needs a little setup though, lol...