[Faith/Media] Rossi Cardinal

[coolkendude]

Here's a fun deck I've been meaning to build for a long time and was just able to get around to it last night and played a few games with it. I can't tell how competitive it is since I've only played 5 games with it, winning 4 (but the decks I've played against are not very consistent; i.e. decks with 70+ cards).

[Sites]
5x Merchant Ship [Income]
5x Forgotten Asylum
5x Forum of the Ox [Key Site]

[Agents]
5x Dama Rossa [Income]
5x Heathen Follower [Income]
5x Pietro Rossi [Key Agent]
5x Borgia Cardinal [Key Agent]

[Actions]
5x Tactless Theatrics [Income / Defense vs. Rush]
5x Funeral Pyre [Income / Draw]
5x Bearer of Mixed Tidings [Draw]

This is a very straightforward deck and it is a combo deck - you basically need 2x Forum of the Ox (FotO) and 2x Borgia Cardinal (BC) to win the game so try to reserve those 4 cards for end game.

The best opening hand is to have at least 1x Heathen Follower (HF) and 1x Bearer of Mixed Tidings (BoMT). If you don't have both, at least try to get one of those cards in your opening hand. I never had any problem with income when I played the deck yesterday. Just start playing Dama and HF and Merchant Ship. If opponent rushes, try to take out opponent's key agent with Tactless Theatrics (TT). When you have at least two regions with Sites or if opponent plays a Site that boosts his winning power (Art Gallery, Borgia Tower, etc.) play Rossi. Hopefully you'll have at a few agents in your HQ when you launch BoMT to give you more options.

You can pretty much win the game when you have at least 10 gold and the 4 key cards mentioned above. Play 2x Forum of the Ox before the day ends so they can score at mid-day and immediately play 2x Borgia Cardinal. Borgia Cardinal allows your sites to score normally even if they have Defender.

Thoughts on my games yesterday... I think I was able to win my games yesterday because this is a rarely seen type of combo to win the game. I think my opponents were trying to figure out what the heck I was trying to do and it was usually too late for them when they realize what is happening. Also, most of my opponents had inconsistent decks (70+ cards) so that helped me out. I was able to win against a militant and noble rush, and I also won against a Site rush deck - he played a couple of Sites then beefed them up early on so I was able to play Rossi before those Sites scored and gain card advantage after that. I can't remember the deck that I lost to but I remember I lost card advantage to him/her.

This deck will lose to a discard deck. Period.

I think the only expensive card here is FotO. If you don't have the card, you may want to replace it with another big Site but you'll lose the income advantage from FotO.

Comments and Suggestions are welcome. Use at your own discretion.

[kackman73]

Nice deck!

I miss using Borgia Cardinals - I may have to give your deck a try.

[lurifaxb]

Nice. I like it

Man of the people would be good in here to make your agents score too, not just be for income and draw. I expect it could speed up your deck a bit.

[Rob (Roebidoebi)]

"Borgia Cardinal allows sites with Defender to score normally". Now that's unexpected...

[coolkendude]

Luri, good call on Man of the People. That may be the card that will allow this deck to win without Ox/Cardinal combo.

Jan 17, 2013 8:35:05 GMT -5 Rob (Roebidoebi) said:

"Borgia Cardinal allows sites with Defender to score normally". Now that's unexpected...

Rob, I also thought at first that it would score as Defender but after seeing it in action, I reviewed Borgia Cardinal's ability, "On each Region, players score points equal to their Site's Influence", and that pretty much explains it.

By the way, before launching Ox, make sure that Opponent has no Site in the region; or if he has a Site, make sure that it's Influence is a big fat zero. Otherwise, you might want to play Rossi first (as long as the Opponent doesn't win when Rossi resolves) before playing the Oxes and Borgia Cardinal.

[ironcladtrash]

I love this deck. Borgia Cardinal and Forum is an awesome combo. I don't think its taking advantage of a bug like there is with Great Power. I have been trying this deck a lot. I also found you can also run into problems with counters. You could put in cards like Answered Prayer or Ritual Sacrifice to help this deck. I also went another extreme route and used the base of my current Medici Deck and Swapped out Hippodrome, Medici and Auxiliary Ego, for Forum, Borgia Cardinal, and Role Reversal

[ironcladtrash]

I've been playing a lot of this deck the way you have it. The one thing I really think you should change is take out Forgotten Asylum for Sanctuary's Heart. I kept running into not wanting to play Pietro because I was able to score with Forgotten Asylum. At least that way you get another Early income booster and you can score potentially 4 with it( 1 from itself and 3 from Pietro) and I had no qualms about nuking it with Pietro.

[coolkendude]

I'll have to try Sanctuary's Heart (SH) one of these days. I understand the hesitation to launch Pietro while Forgotten Asylum (FA) still scores for you but it shouldn't really be any different than blowing up SH.

However, I agree with your assessment that FA may not be the best fit in this deck. I just don't know yet what to replace it with.

[kackman73]

Forgotten Asylum is the 3 cost, 2 influence surprise site?

I can see ICT's point about using Sanctuary's Heart, but having Forgotten Asylum may allow you to sneak in some unexpected points.

By which I mean:

You launch Pietro with maybe only one site on the board, so opponent doesn't care; you drop 1-2 Forgotten Asylums right before Pietro resolves, and suddenly you've picked up more points than he was expecting.

Of course, this really only applies to opponents with the ability to counter Pietro, but still - it's always nice getting surprise points.

[coolkendude]

Kack, that's exactly how I use Forgotten Asylum in my deck.

[coolkendude]

After playing this deck more, I've come to the conclusion that Forgotten Asylum is more valuable than Sanctuary's Heart. Although SH is lower cost and provides income, I really don't need the extra income-generation. FA on the other hand got me out of a few tough spots especially vs Site rush decks and deceptive Site decks. The 2-influence of FA goes a long way vs these kinds of decks. It also helps counter the effects of Gather the Faithful and Seeking Sanctuary.

I also included 3x Man of the People and took out 1x each of FP, Dama, and Pietro to either help deal with deceptive Agents decks or make my Agents a late-game threat (thanks for the suggestion, Luri).