[Media/Crime] Political Corruption

[crazygambit]

Following my recent obsession with Ezio gold, after the nerf to the bosses, I've been making assassin decks of every color. By far my best so far is Purple/Red, however I just made this one for fun, but it turned out scarily good.

Like all Ezio/ Media decks you need 5 copies of Ezio and Political Patronage, so it won't be cheap.

Here's my current list:

5 Ezio Auditore Da Firenze
5 Dama Rossa
5 Political Patronage
5 Magnetic Personality
3 Clothes Make The Man
2 Skilled Ministrel
2 Tactless Teatrics

3 Forced Charity
2 Easy Target
5 Corrupt Herald
5 Collateral Damage
3 Brilliant Burglary
5 Against All Odds.

It still needs some tweaking, but the basic idea is there. PP to a Corrupt Herald is a strong start. Magnetic Personality can make sure he scores. 2 or 3 are devastating. If you don't get them, you can draw a Collateral Damage. Always copy it if you can, it's just evil.

In one game I played PP+PP+Collateral Damage. Then Ezio, then another, which I proceeded to copy, before my opponent rage quit having played a single 1 cost agent in the whole game.

Ezio is the beater. Nothing your opponent can play will hurt him. Skilled Ministrel will get rid of anything that got through. Against all odds against anything that boosts income. Even decks that have managed to play Forced Inheritance find themselves severely income screwed after a while. All it took was for counters to lose their income gain, for this strategy to become viable. I only got to finish one game, where my opponent brave it till the end with his 2 militia pikemen vs my Ezio and multiple magnetic personalities. The rest all rage quit pretty quickly.

[UnCL0NED]

Nice deck!
I've been looking at a similar setup... I saw you also replied to my Corrupt Herald deck.
I "sponsored" UbiSoft a bit more after that post, since I play this game so much :-) and I got a new High Profile Ass card. I just didn't know what to replace in the Corrupt Herald deck. So I started to build a Resource Reducer deck with Media (a bit like you), to get out the Corrupt Herald faster with a PP and use Magn. Pers. to make sure he scores. And as you said, this works like a charm! I like Ezio in your deck. You need a kill card in this type of deck. I will steal that idea from you ;-)
The only deck I have Ezio Gold in atm is a red/purple deck. Copy the s@#$ out of him and at the same time having the opponent discard any threats! It's a bit boring actually...
If you have any more tweaks for this deck, I'd love to hear them...

[Tuism]

Lol I love it, I have the same deck I rely less on collateral - its great if I draw it, not a biggie if I don't.

I have another version of this with doomsday instead of collateral.

But I think somehow the performance of these decks are skewed right now cos of the overload of green/blue basic rush decks in the field. The big combo deck would suffer if it didn't come out first turn or get countered, even worse espionaged. In a mirror-ish income kill match, these deck has VERY slow income and could very easily be destroyed by counters timed right...

But yeah I love these ezio faux nico decks

[crazygambit]

Counters are not an issue at all. 1 Collateral Damage doesn't do much, but when you play 3, that's another story. If he wants to waste all his income on stopping 1 of my threats instead of playing his own, it's fine by me.

He should have a very hard time getting to 7 to play a stolen Collateral Damage and even if he does, he'll only play 1, wasting all of his resources in the process, for something that will do absolutely nothing to me. By then I'll already have Ezio on the board. He needs to deal with that instead.

The only deck that managed to get out of the resource lock was what I believe a Juno deck. Playing only income boosters and Tax Collectors Office. Of course that meant he didn't have any threats on the board. He managed to get to 16 (a far cry from 30) before losing to Ezio and Co.

I've only lost 1 game so far and it came from having an awful starting hand. I mulliganed into 3 PPs! Sounds awesome, but I didn't have anything else to go with them. Magnetic, Against All Odds and Dama Rossa. Didn't draw anything after either, so I ended up losing pretty fast. 2 PP is the ideal hand IMO. 2 PP and Collateral Damage and it's pretty much a sure win from there.

Edit: The only worthwhile counter against this deck is Untimely End against either Ezio or the Herald. It's the only good counter play IMO, since it'll slow me down more than him. All the others are to my advantage.

[Tuism]

I wasn't talking about stealing income kill, I'm talking about income kill decks I'm not worried about having it turned on me THAT much. But actually it can happen. A Faux Pas on your Dama rasa can ruin your day very quickly.

The chances of playing 3 collateral damage aren't so high. The chances of getting 2 aren't even good. The deck I have has 5, but doesn't rely on them. If I get 2, I'll rush to get them, if not, I switch to another mode of thereat. With threat. Lol. Same with Corrupt Herald - I don't fixate on getting them out, but if I do get 2 - then they'll rock the party that rocks the body

I'll post my deck once I tweak it more, but the principle is the same but different from yours - less concentrated on pure income kill but on card efficiency and getting mileage out of cards. Oh wait I think I'm talking about my order/crime one. Damn I keep mixing them up

Yes untimely end is supremely good right now, average against weener rushes but amazing against PP decks.

[crazygambit]

I'm essentially running 8 Collateral Damage, so playing more than 1 is almost a given in any match.

Faux Pas on a Dama Rossa is a complete non issue. In fact it's worse for him. He just wasted half a day (He spent 1, I spent 0). He gains no income from that move now. So we'll both be at 2 max income when we get our next draw, but he'll have 1 and I'll have 2, meaning I can play something like Forced Charity, while he can play a Pikeman.

You're worried about the mirror? Of course that would be strong against this. By definition it's 50/50, just like any other mirror match. Remember though that this deck doesn't need that much income to be scary. 5 lets you play Ezios, which are scary all on their own.

I think the core of the deck is solid already. What I need to tweak are the support cards. Right now I'm running 2 of Tactless Theatrics and Easy Target each. I can't decide which is better for this deck. Teatrics is faster and gives income boost. Easy Target is much slower and doesn't boost income, but it kills a lot more early agents (pretty much all of them actually). I need to test more, but I'm really undecided on this.

I'm also not entirely convinced by the Ministrel. Even though it's great against stuff that get through, I rarely end up killing more than 1 agent with it. After it starts eating my own Dama Rossas or chipping at Ezio or the Herald. Also it's pretty slow and costly. Maybe more Theatrics or Easy Targets would be better, but then I may not have enough agents for Magnetic Personalities.

Against all Odds is absolutely great in the current meta, but I can see it getting weaker against stronger opposition. Then again pretty much everyone runs some Templar stuff, even Ezio decks. It's working great so far though.

Countering something my poor opponent waited 3 days to play (after getting hit with Collateral Damage) almost always results in a rage quit.

[Tuism]

Have you faced many non starter decks? I'm having huge troubles testing decks like this cos all I'm facing are engineer warriors and pikemen and gruesome gallows...

[crazygambit]

Feb 21, 2012 11:08:44 GMT -5 Tuism said:

Have you faced many non starter decks? I'm having huge troubles testing decks like this cos all I'm facing are engineer warriors and pikemen and gruesome gallows...

Yes I do. Or did with my other decks. If I get a perfect start I won't even know what my opponent is playing before he quits.

Strong players I've found tend to quit a lot more. They'd rather play against one of those weak decks to get a quick win.

I played someone last night with another deck, in the only game I lost on my way to 10 wins. It was a close match that could have gone either way. When we got matched up for the next game my opponent quit immediately upon seeing my name. He'd rather get an easy win.

So you're right. It's hard to determine how strong new decks really are. But I have faced the occasional veteran with this (names I remembered) and it has done quite well.

[UnCL0NED]

I've tried to copy your deck when I got home and played some games with it. I played 6 games and won exactly 1 HAHAHA!!! 3 were because of very bad hands... But I noticed it's often a close call. It's the same with my black blue version of this deck, although that one holds up better against starter decks. I guess because of Faux Pas.
One thing I picked up from your deck is how awesome Tactless Theatrics is. I've put 5 of them in my Ezio deck, and have been slaughtering my opponents since!

[Tuism]

Gave it a couple of games and found that:
1) untimely end kills this deck (already discussed)
2) doctors kills this deck
3) not drawing pp in opening hand kills this deck
4) counters kill this deck if you miss your turn 1 big drop
5) exhaustion kills this deck (sure you can magnetic can pump it but it's only for a turn since recover will reset to 0, however you can use the bug and get a double fierce damage but that to me is frownable)
6) brilliant burglary - while possibly brilliant, is also damn tricky yo play and to me is less than great

I rather stick with the blue version of this which is more consistent, in my experience

Will tweak more and give it another shot...

[crazygambit]

First there's no such thing as a Blue version of this. That's a completely different deck and IMO probably the worst match up for Ezio. Green and Red are the main complements paired with Purple. My Red/Purple Ezio remains my main deck, but this has been doing really well for me. If you're both seeing such lose streaks it may have to do with different choices for a few cards or lack of experience playing the deck. I'm well over 90% win rate with it so far.

1) Untimely is definitely a big threat, but you have to play smart. Your first PPed Herald can't be countered by it if you're quick on the launch. If it gets countered you need more practice. Instead of dragging I prefer to click on the cards, it's faster and less prone to errors. Sometimes you'll get lucky and your opponent will try to counter it. It'll be too late and his Untimely will fizzle. It's pretty much game over from then.

You have to time your Ezio play. Wait until he casts something else and then immediately play. If he has 4 or less income he won't be able to counter (and he should if you've been playing Heralds or Collaterals). Remember Ezio is the beater, you play him to close out the game.

2) Doctors? Why would they be a problem? By the time they come out you should be way ahead in resources so they're a minor set back at most. I've faced doctor decks as well. Against all Odds kills can counter them if you don't want your agent brought back. Otherwise the Ministrel, Theatrics and Easy Target all kill them easily. Really, losing half a day at that point is a total non issue.

3) As with most PP decks, there's a big difference in performance whether you draw PP or not. Good news is you have a 74% chance of getting at least one IF you always mulligan when you don't (which you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS do). Sometimes I do mulligan a hand with 2 PP, but full of Magnetic Personalities and agent removal, though.

4) Not at all. We've already discussed Faux Pas. With the nerf it's absolutely terrible and better for you than your opponent. Untimely End is strong, sure. However Court Order is too expensive to be much good here. In the average game your opponent will be hovering around 4 income. So he has to waste an entire day to stop 1 of your cards. Cards you can play by the boatload. A countered Collateral Damage is bad for him. Especially if Ezio is already on the board.

The goal of the deck is not to leave your opponent at a 0 income lock and then slowly chip away at him. It can happen sometimes, but that's not the goal. The goal is to buy enough time so that Ezio can get 4 attacks in to win. That's the point in all the agent removal targeted mostly at weenies. Weenies is all your opponent should be able to get out. Ezio supported by your agent removal + your stall should get you the win.

5) Again, exhaustion can be annoying. But it only takes care of 1 of your agents. He shouldn't be able to throw that many at you. If he targets the Herald Magnetic can still make sure he scores. If he casts it on Ezio, he can still make a good blocker, especially with Magnetic Personality. So it's definitely not as bad as Untimely End. Btw you should avoid Ezio getting killed if your opponent has red. Him getting it back from the archive can be a lost game for you, much more dangerous than anything you've listed.

6) I agree on brilliant burglary, which is why I only run 3. Notice I also don't run High-Profile Assassination nor that site that gives -1 to the opponent. They're crap IMO. If you guys are running them it may have something to do with your win percentage.

The deck is not perfect by any means and it could probably use some tweaking, also I still think the Red version is more consistent. However it's damn fun to play, gets super fast wins and it's competitive against almost everything (I don't think it has an auto lose match, or I haven't faced it yet).

[Tuism]

Oh yeah of course ezio doesn't figure in the blue version, i even tried a blue nicodeck it's not terrible but not as good in the synergy department as the green original, and definitely the potential for game winning pp combos like this one.

Yeah it's a great concept to toy with, I've tried it and am still tweaking. I really appreciate that it is relatively strong despite everyone shouting how income kill is weak.

And I prefer legionnaires to minstrel. Legionnaire kills faster and a more reliable +1 card advantage is preferable to a maybe +2 or 3 advantage. Easy target... Is not as good as tactless or sudden exhaustion, I think. Instant AND income? Yes please.

Just had a thought, in terms of pure numbers, high-profile assassination and collateral damage results in the same income balance (hpa = you +2, opponent -2) BUT you also get to kill an agent, maybe it's worth looking at? Turn 1 opponent drops 1 cost, you drop hpa, worth it?

Meh I dunno.

[crazygambit]

Feb 21, 2012 14:42:06 GMT -5 Tuism said:

And I prefer legionnaires to minstrel. Legionnaire kills faster and a more reliable +1 card advantage is preferable to a maybe +2 or 3 advantage. Easy target... Is not as good as tactless or sudden exhaustion, I think. Instant AND income? Yes please.

Just had a thought, in terms of pure numbers, high-profile assassination and collateral damage results in the same income balance (hpa = you +2, opponent -2) BUT you also get to kill an agent, maybe it's worth looking at? Turn 1 opponent drops 1 cost, you drop hpa, worth it?

Meh I dunno.

Good point on the Legionnaire. Their problem is that you can't play them if there are no targets, which could slow you down. Though in the current meta it might be better.

Sudden Exhaustion is templar so that's out. Plus it wouldn't be that good here anyway since you don't want to be blocked that much.

Tactless speed is awesome, but it kills less stuff than Easy Target. A lot less actually. Carlo being a prime example. There's no other way to get rid of it. I haven't decided on the right mix yet though.

As for HPA. The + income part is pretty irrelevant. it doesn't matter if you have more income. What matters is that he has less. Double PP for a HPA on a Pikeman would be a terrible play IMO. That Pikeman is useless anyway. Collateral is much, much better.

By that thinking Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained shouldn't bother you since it's +4 all around. You need to counter that. It's a very dangerous card against this deck.

[Tuism]

Yeah I agree. This is an income kill deck. So I ended at Meh for HPA

If you say that if you can't launch legionnaire without a target being a negative, if there's no target for a minstrel when it scores you also lose it. Or a dama rasa, I guess. Overall though I don't like minstrel cos of above reason.

Oops sorry, yeah sudden exhaust is out.

In fact I think I prefer my variation of this with templar cards and Nico instead of Ezio. 4/4 and 5/5 is not THAT far apart, and Nico essentially turns any card into a PP, leaving your PP to play other stuff

[crazygambit]

Feb 21, 2012 15:23:12 GMT -5 Tuism said:

Yeah I agree. This is an income kill deck. So I ended at Meh for HPA

If you say that if you can't launch legionnaire without a target being a negative, if there's no target for a minstrel when it scores you also lose it. Or a dama rasa, I guess. Overall though I don't like minstrel cos of above reason.

Oops sorry, yeah sudden exhaust is out.

In fact I think I prefer my variation of this with templar cards and Nico instead of Ezio. 4/4 and 5/5 is not THAT far apart, and Nico essentially turns any card into a PP, leaving your PP to play other stuff

Actually 4/4 and 5/5 are WORLDS apart. Which is why I'm not that partial to Machiavelli. 5 means 2 attacks to score in a region. 4 to win the game. With 4 it takes 6, or 50% slower. Believe me, the difference is huge.

Remember PP also give you +1. A fact often overlooked, but extremely relevant in a PP deck, so it's not quite the same. Like I said before even if PP had no other effect than giving you +1 at surprise speed costing 0, it could be playable (not all that good, but playable).

Yeah the ministrel kills the dama rossas. Which is not that terrible I guess, but the point is that he keeps scoring. With Magnetic Personality he scores 5 (1 out of the 4 attacks you need with Ezio to win the game) and can give -2 to himself with no penalty, since he'll recover. Since the deck is all about speed I'm going with this for now. Though I might give the legionnaire a try.