Unbeatable Agents?

[archidion]

I have won yet another Versus match with what I like to think is an almost-unbeatable agent-based deck. In this match, I had an income of 49, and 6 agents out: 2 Malfattos, 2 Byzantine Brutes (one with 38/32 and another with 6/5), and 2 Knight's Templars. In my hand, I had Peaceful Retreat, another Knight's Templar, and an Ottoman Janissary. You guys can probably guess my game: Using Janissaries and Brutes to take out enemy agents and sites while using Malfatto(s) to repeat their use. When I needed to score more or an overpowered agent, you guessed it. I would put my Knight's Templars back in my hands and bring them back out, along with a +2/+2 bonus to be used on my Brute/Janissary. I highly recommend this deck, so I'll post what's in it down below. It's mainly agent based, so sites can be a pain without a Janissary. Anyway, enjoy! (Note: This is post-patch)

3x Merchant Ship
3x Plentiful Crop
3x Den Defense
5x Scientific Method
3x Peaceful Retreat
3x Laboratory Research
3x Slave Trade
5x Militia Intimidation
5x Knight's Templar
5x Malfatto
5x Ottoman Janissary
5x Byzantine Brute
2x Tokapi Palace

[Pete]

I tried it and made a few changes,

I Removed 3 plentiful crop, add 2 den defence and 1 merc ship - more consistant early rush, less action slots tied up.
I changed 5 sci, methods for 5kip, since the deck is consistant enough to avoide choosing cards, and benefits from the +1
I don't understand peaceful retreat in this deck,
Remove 2 tokapi palace, added 1 more merc ship, unsure about the other so far I tried more card draw like daring exp.

Just how I saw it. So far.

[kyleess]

Fun deck. Very elegant. I didn't fare nearly as well as you. No pure counters so it can be beaten by stuff like Carnivale and Femme Fatale.

If it stays alive until mid game, by that point, it has so much income, I would put a Juno in there.

[Pete]

good idea, I was wondering about that one card.

[Tuism]

Great deck if it survives past early game. I had this deck before the expansion and then I deleted all my decks, time to get back to these concepts too

[nadcel]

I had this deck idea in mind but i would add some honest worked + nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This combo consumes a lot of income

[Pete]

Here is my take on the deck, works very consistently:

2 x daring experiment
5 x merc ship
5 x den def
5 x kip
1 x Juno
5 x militia intimidation
4 x slave trade
5 x knight Templar
5 x malfatto
5 x baz brute
5 x ott jan
3 x in dept analysis

Pretty much you can draw your deck, pressurise with agents, Juno, and keep anything he has continually at bay. Must be hell to play against.

[kyleess]

I dropped a couple of the knights Templar in favor of deadly message to help keep sites at bay. I find that I want to recycle the agents so I'm apprehensive about boosting them, only to lose the boost when I send them back to my hand. Except for Malfatto, who I tend to leave in the headquarters so he isn't resting when I need his ability.

This is almost a mill deck. I don't usually go on the offensive at all until their hand is empty. Nearly always, one or the other of us concedes before a win condition.

Very neat deck. It's not perfect but it is definitely better than anything I've been able to create with my own brain since the update.

[kackman73]

This seems like as good a place as any to say that I hate Malfatto.

His ability needs to be made a full action and not a surprise.

[archidion]

I'll admit, it can be a difficult start, but once you've got enough income, you're guaranteed an agent win. My only weakness is Target Practice and Lassitude. If possible, I'll save one Malfatto and one Brute/Janissary. And I'd like to play with your deck, Pete, but I'm afraid I'm not too heavy on rare assassin memories

[Joek]

I've fought this deck quite a bit recently. If you simply spam either agents or high power sites, it can't kill them all fast enough (although I could have just been playing people who didn't know how to use it). Speed is another weakness (a 0,1, and 2 cost rush flows around it). Speed agent erasure, if possible, would slaughter this deck, as would Losing Faith on Malfatto. A pure point rush (Papal Influence, On the Attack, Royal Intervention) couldn't be stopped. However, most of these are niche cases, and the deck is strong.

[kyleess]

Sept 4, 2012 13:03:32 GMT -5 Joek said:

I've fought this deck quite a bit recently.

Yes. Yes you have.

And you have it pretty well figured out.

[Joek]

Thank you. If I were you, I'd remove Plentiful Crop and Peaceful Retreat and replace them with more Merchant Ships and some Mentor's Return or Daring Experiments to use all that income. If you pick Mentor's Return, drop a couple Discovery and some more Laboratory Research in.

[archidion]

I'll need to buy some more Assassin packs. I don't have Mentor's Return or Daring Experiments, so that's a problem :/
Anyway, I use Peaceful Retreat as both an income booster (not very effective) and for its main effect

[kyleess]

I pulled peaceful retreat. With the deck designed to call the agents back into your hand anyway, I'm not that worried about resupplying them.