[Media/Order] Theatre for the Rich

[darkozl]

This is my first completed deck! I just got the game a couple days ago and would love to hear what you guys think of it. I played through 10 competitive games and won 6, so I was pretty happy. It was annihilated by a crime deck but other than that the matches were really close, like freak out because it was so epic kind of close.

This is Theatre for the Rich, where the media entertains the wealthiest of the Order! The point is to guarantee a fast and massive gold cache in order to flood the opponent with militants. It should also provide a Manuel Palaiologos ready for emergency, which it's done really well in a few games. There's a small focus on countering the opponent's big hitters, but without sacrificing too much time or gold. The biggest weak spot I've noticed is getting stuck with an empty hand against a counter-happy opponent. Not sure how to get around that.

Agents:
Dama Rosa x1 (working on more)
Suleiman x4
Belligerent Ottoman Militia x1
Persistent Panhandler x5
Militant Militia x1
Templar Delegate x1
Sylvestro Sabbatini x4
Altair, Learned x1
Caha x3
The Spaniard x1
Manuel Palaiologos x2

Actions:
Political Patronage x1 (hard to obtain)
By Order of the King x1
Power to the People x2
Uneasy Alliance x1
Untimely End x2
Magnetic Personality x2
Bearer of Mixed Tidings x3
Weapons Cache x1

Sites:
Merchant Ship x4
Masyaf x3 (need one more)
Borgia Mine x2
Art Gallery x4


Totals:
24 Agents
13 Locations
13 Actions

Note: I do want a competitive deck, but I enjoy a little spontaneity. Basically I'm willing to sacrifice a little in the way of competitiveness to have some extra fun.

[lurifaxb]

If you could organize your deck a bit it is much easier to figure out.

Something like:

Pure Income (x):

Scoring cards (x):

Toolbox (x):

Or just, sites, agents and actions.

In general your deck could use some focus. I can see how it works, but militants are best with straight militant and their booster cards. E.g. Spaniard, Altair, and Palopopidubolidipus (or something) are not militants so they take up room when you get Caha down (I love that card btw).

[darkozl]

OK, hope that edit helps. About the focus, I figured stacking 5 of all the militant stuff was normally the way to go but that seems boring. I tried to squeeze in cards that allow a lot of drawing so that Caha wouldn't be stuck without her militants. I guess Media and Order aren't big on letting people draw though.

If you guys can think of ways to optimize the idea of Militants + powerful Order, I'd gladly make changes. Or, if this idea is just not suitable for competition, let me know and I'll dub it a "for fun" deck.

[lurifaxb]

That helps a lot, thanks.

If you want to go the militant path there are some really good militants that synergizes well with your other cards. For instance City Official will get really good when you deploy your other agents. Cahin gives you 2 agents for 1 card (cost 3). Then there is Shakulu which gives all militants +1/1 when militants are deployed.

If you don't want to go that path, then I have small suggestions:
Since you have cards that go with lots of agents (Masyaf and Bearer of Mixed Tidings), I suggest you add more. These are good combos in general. Take out Under Arrest and replace with Byzantine Brute. It basically does the same thing, but now you have an agent as well who can make you draw.
Consider replacing some untimely end with Suleiman. Again, better synergy with drawing cards.
Add more drawing cards like bearer and Masyaf. Take out order of the king (unless you wanna play Suleiman), since you only have 1(?) agent you can draw. Better to add more agents.
Instead of merchant ship, add Dama Rossa. Again an agent and better income vs cost.

Ofc, it all depends on you having the cards

The really expensive cards such as Political Patronage are good if you have them. If not, dont worry about it.

If you can make it agent intensive (20-30) and get draw from masyaf and bearer the deck will be really good. Consider taking out some of the buffers that seem good, like militia training, but keep magnetic personality - it is awesome. there are agents that buff others like Egidio Troche and Knight Templar,

Good luck with the deck building, and welcome to the forum.

[darkozl]

Ooh, I like those suggestions! That trims down the randomness of the deck, less risk involved. The only thing I have to point out is that Order of the King draws out Palaiologos or Spaniard. It's time-consuming but I've been getting Palaiologos deployed in many games. Thanks again for the pointers. I'm rebuilding right now.

[lurifaxb]

I'm glad I could help

I didn't know spaniard was tutorable with by order. Good point. He is a herald after all. Still, you have a card for cost one that you can't get anything out of early game as both agents it can get a really expensive and for mid/late game.

One more card that works well mid game if you go agent rush is man of the people. Gives all agents +3/3 and fierce. Makes the ants into giant ants...

[darkozl]

Holy cow, yeah.. how did I miss Man of the People? However, the cost (9) is just high enough for me to hesitate. I just played through ten more rounds and Order of the King saved my butt a couple times, so I'm not sure if I want to totally get rid of it from my deck. It has the unintended effect of saving my Cahas when those stupid Faith decks force me to discard my highest card. Usually those big hitters I draw are wiped instead.

Adding Suleiman was a great suggestion. It was literally the game decider in more than one of my games. Good call!

I'm finding that Bearer is not performing as well as I'd hoped while Masyaf is ripping my opponents apart. Opponents typically neutralize my agents pretty quickly, so I never have enough active ones to justify spending 6 gold on Bearer. Masyaf has a reasonable cost and I can launch very weak units on it (even units with 0/0) and still get the full effect. Faith decks give Masyaf trouble though.

This deck is doing especially well against Order decks. I have these opponents that keep chopping down and chopping down my agents, but I just keep adding more. One time they chopped my Palaiologos with their 4th Untimely End. Using Order of the King, I got my second Palaiologos and successfully deployed it to reset his region scores.

I should also mention art gallery has been the decider in a couple games where, again, I can put any dumb 0/0 unit on it and get the full effect, which is 2 free region points. Plus Art Gallery gives 1 gold and has 1 influence. That's a heck of a card to me.

I'm winning more than half of the time. that makes me happy for my first deck

[Joek]

It's nice to know that new people are still coming in.

I'd include more tutors (But especially the militant tutor) for consistency.
Since you have plenty of agents with a high turnover rate, why not add some Castel De Santangelo?

Political Patronage is good, but only within the first 2-3 days. I'd sell it for Dama, which synergizes well with most of the cards you have in there. What do you do when you need to neutralize/downsize a site? Janissaries work, Rich Poet might help, and, if you can afford it, Sofia Sartor is perfect for a deck like this.

A piece of advice; try a Media/Scholar artist, militant, or site deck next. Order is good for direct scoring, but there are very interesting cards in the other Expertises.

[darkozl]

More cards I didn't know about. Castel is like an Art Gallery on roids! The 1 extra Gold cost makes me nervous but hopefully adding more Damas will give me the quick gold I need. Thanks for the tip.

Sofia Sartor, apparently the answer to my site deck woes. That'll round the deck off nicely.. having counters available for any situation. Thanks again.

[Joek]

Ah. Speaking of counters:
Outdraw them (Scholar)
Early agent rush (Cards like Templar Recruit, Templar Sanctum, 0 costs. Media/Order)
Overwhelmingly large rush (Drop 2 San Gimignano, 3 Ezio Noble, and some smaller cards. Huge rush can't be fully countered.)
Discard (Faith)
Surprise cards
Self Discard (Odai, Sacred Ruins) straight onto the board.