Papal/Noble deck doing fairly well...

[pryingtuna85649]

OK, so I've built a Templar only Papal/Noble agent deck that's doing fairly well and I wanted to post it. It's weak against good site decks (for obvious reasons - you'll see), but it has obliterated several other templar decks and can hold up well against some assassin decks. I think I've made a few people rage quit with this deck, actually (unless their app crashed, which has happened to me enough to think this is happening to others). It's also made people quit out of matches after getting paired with me a second time, hehe. Anyway, here it is:

Income:
Basilica di San Pietro (3)
Forced Inheritance (5)
Teodor Viscardi (5) (at the start for income, later for the added ability)

Influence Boost:
Papal Influence (5)

Control:
Untimely End (5)

Agents:
Militia Pikeman (5) (also somewhat for income boost)
Beautiful Heiress (5)
Carlo Grimaldi (5)
Francesco De'Pazzi (5)
Francesco Troche (5)

It is high in duplicate number, as well as proportionately high with agents, but it works considering the card pool I have. I intentionally made it high in agents, because I kept ending up with either all of my agents being neutralized or drew more action cards than agents (and I couldn't use the action cards). Also, I kept having my agents with higher influence neutralized and lost that way. With this deck, those agents just keep coming, and my opponent can't really keep up with it. Especially having Papal Influence...I get blocked, but throw Papal Influence out there and get back on top.

Like I said, it doesn't work all the time. If my opponent has cards that neutralize Papal Influence, I can be pretty screwed. And because I don't have any site neutralizing cards, I don't stand a chance against good site decks. I had Mob Justice (my only halfway decent site neutralizing card) in a deck like this, but it just didn't work for me. Kept getting countered, showed up either when I didn't need it or never when I needed it, and it costs the same as/more than some of my agents. But it has been pretty solid, and I'm not losing every MP match I play anymore, lol. Oh, and this deck has allowed me to (finally) reach the daily MP florin cap! ;D So anyway, not perfect, but I'm comfortable with it and it feels pretty solid given my card pool.

[thest4lker]

Nice work pryingtuna, really glad to see you are getting your credits. Some suggestions - if you have by order of the king, sub those in for the basilica, it's income plus tutor, and right now your basilica aren't anything but income. Youll also go through your deck faster, and hopefully get agents down before your opponent has loads of counters.

If possible (very situation dependent, but this is ideal) you score 10 in one region, and drop two papal influence simultaneously in a 2nd region with yor opponent sitting only one or two cards (so hopefully no counters).

With by order of the king getting your agents out quicker you will probably find you can drop some agents, and put in some anti-site. Dont forget a large site is also anti site, as it's going to neutralize/ slow down any other sites. I don't play the heiress, so I could be wrong, but I'm not sure she is the best bet. Remember she is not boosting your militia or grimaldi. Perhaps donato Mancini? And as soon as you have them, get court orders in here. My personal preference is for a little more control, so I might look to add in the one or two you hopefully have managed to get, without dropping court order.

[Ringel]

Hey, congratulations!

[pryingtuna85649]

Thanks, Ringel and thest4lker! Hopefully I can get into a match again with you, Ringel, without the stupid app crashing.

thest4lker, I actually only have 1 By Order of the King card. I have more duplicates of some rare cards than that. *grumbles* I also only have 1 Court Order. Otherwise I'd throw them in there. But I find if I only have one of a certain card in the deck, it kinda disrupts me, because I'm not used to seeing it.

Heiress doesn't boost Militia or Grimaldi, but she does all the others, including herself and Teodor. I've had 2 Heiress and 2 Teodor cards out at once and it's not too shabby. And the thing I like about Teodor is he's a free income boost at the start of a game, but later on (especially after Forced Inheritance), he can be increased to 4-4. And though that's been countered by surprise a handful of times, I can only recall one match where it really caused me to lose. I prefer Teodor to Donato because he gives the income boost, but also because Donato almost always gets countered (at least in the matches I've played). I had Donato in a similar deck, but it actually screwed me up because my income was always too slow and Donato was always countered (either by a card like Court Order or something like another Donato). He's so low in health that one hit and he's gone. Grimaldi tends to bring on the Untimely Ends, but that's why I put 5 in there. And to me, he's better than having another agent that the Heiress affects. The Heiress is frequently targeted because of her ability (why I have multiples of her), so Grimaldi doesn't make me totally dependent on her and Nobles, but also gives me influence boost when played.

And regarding Papal Influence, that's exactly how I play them. The deck is quasi built around pulling that move off with Papal Influence, lol. I played against someone who did that (can't remember who, unfortunately)...dunno if their deck was built with that intention (certainly seemed so), but I built this one with that in mind.

[Diomedia]

What's your ign pryingtuna, I just got beaten by a deck simaler to yours, was it you?

[thest4lker]

Well, to contradict almost all the advice already given I'm not always averse to playing a card even if I only have one or two copies. I tend to think of cards in terms of types, and swop them around. So court order and untimely end are the same type. As to your Teodor comments, totally agree, nice early card, and also helpful against discard because you can get him of before discard hits. I also didn't see teddy when I made the heiress comment. So, again, nice work.

[Tuism]

Her ign is pryingtuna, I remember matching up once

And congrats yeah, good deck with good solid Strat. I agree with teddy, he's epic for both income rush and mid game utility. 2 in 1 for zero cost is pretty sweet. I'm not always keen for heiress though. Her synergy is limited with your selection of agents. Dante and any of the fragile guys you spoke of (donato, arbaquiser) is a good combo, maybe consider swapping them in and testing that.

3/5 not official agent is dead beat. Don't even remember his name Even if you find cards like sudden exhaustion or tactical upheaval to replace them they'll work better.

That said, yes if you going to go into an agent fight, pack surprises. It'll help you greatly. Read up the bag full of tricks thread in academy by Bronto, it's got great points

Good stuff

[Brontobeuf]

Try to play Basilica di santa Maria Novella. It will optimize your San Pietro and give you both a site threat and a site defense.
I'd remove the pikemens.

[madstryfe]

I'm glad you're finally getting a feel for the game tuna, It's nice to see that there is also more focus on your sequence as well. Kudos to moving on to intermediate!

[pryingtuna85649]

Sorry for the late response!

@diomedia, it's also pryingtuna (that's what I use for all my gaming ID's...I let XBL auto generate my XBL name and have just continued to use that for all my gaming things, lol). I can't remember playing you, but I've been playing A LOT in the past few days! And the game keeps crashing on me at the end of MP matches...it's been really frustrating. I can close all other apps and that doesn't help. Rebooted my iPad today and it helped, but it'll probably be only a temporary fix.

thest4lker, the only reason I spoke against putting one or two copies of a card in the deck is just a personal thing. My memory is really bad for one thing...looking at the back of cards I'm unfamiliar with slows me down and screws me up, lol. And I noticed putting a card I only have one copy of made me depend more on that card, rather than balancing out my deck in it's entirety (kinda like the thief thing when I didn't have many thieves). I've become comfortable enough (and kinda bored with this deck, lol) to change things up now, though!

Tuism, I do see what you're saying. When Heiress is countered (which happens a lot), it does mess me up. And that 3/5 guy does kinda suck. I do like the Heiress, though, so I'm gonna switch that up and see how it goes! And I'll check that thread out...that's one I haven't already looked at!

Brontobeuf, I noticed that today with the Pikeman. DEFINITELY switching that up. And Maria Novella sounds good...I have more of those than when I initially started (as well as more churches in general), so I'll try that. Thanks for the tip!

madstryfe, thanks! Cool to see that you also play Dragonvale, btw. It's a simple, cutesy game, but I'm horribly hooked to it, lol.

[Hurdler]

Can you give us more detail on your configuration? Which iOS device do you use? We will try to reproduce the crash you have with the sequence you've sent here, and hopefully fix it.

[gamemaestro]

Prying - I played you yesterday (I think) and it was a good game. Your deck is definitely better than when you first asked for help a week ago or so. Keep playing and you'll learn the cards. Until next time.

[madstryfe]

Ack!!! LOL you weren't supposed to point out Dragonvale to the guys rofl.

[gamemaestro]

(time for me to go get rid of all the guilty pleasure apps before friending people...)

[madstryfe]

Seriously lol