By Robin Parmar
Robin used his deck, Double Dragon, to win the online Thunder Arena Proving Ground League’s Comrades in Arms tournament.
People know me as a Dragon player, though I was also one of the first to take to the Purists and developed a deck after Dark Future that I had to retire in my old playgroup -- people thought it was just too good. So for the Online League Comrades in Arms tournament I put together a Purist and a Dragon deck, and tested both.
The Purist deck revolves around Glimpse of Brief Eternity, which I personally believe is far more broken than Discerning Fire in this format. It costs nothing, almost always smokes a card, screws up some deck manipulation engines and gives you the advantage of seeing into an opponent's deck. Furthermore it does not target, and so is proof against Festival Circle and the like. As if that isn't enough, it cannot be stopped by Got My Mojo Working and Who's the Monkey Now?, since it is only when it resolves that a card is smoked.
In fact, other than Confucian, Secrets of Shaolin and Brian Fire I don't think there's a card in the game to tackle it. Certainly it should have cost 1 power for its insane abilities.
Anyway, I built a deck, Another Brief Eternity, that exploited this card and it won a lot. Thinking it too boring I switched to my favourites, the Dragons, who did well for me, ending games in decisive fashion. And with panache, something the Purist deck lacks, IMO.
The tournament finals was tentacles versus swords, as two Purist "spirit" decks came up against Double Dragon. There were three Brawls in almost as many turns early in the game as the Dragons tried to draw something other than Feng Shui Sites. Jeff Tang's first site, a Floating Restaurant kept on healing... and lasted the entire game!
Soon Isomorphic Spirits were everywhere, from Jeff and Dan Oden. Quantum Sorceries boosted them up to full strength.
As could be expected there were several Glimpses of Brief Eternity, but none could catch out my Dragons. For much of the game I held a Mojo and Festival Circle in the front row but, surprisingly, never saw any other events to use them against.
Everyone had a solid chance at the win. Dan's final turn saw a Hexagram Spirit bearing down on my sites. The attempt to call a card from my hand got only a Dragon Graveyard in reply. This extra power was to prove decisive. The site was successfully burnt, however, thanks to an absolutely spectacular Amulet -- about 11 carats. And I
didn't think Spirits liked jewellery.
The end came on the next turn when Serena Ku Opened a Can of Whupass while Ting Ting took a Flying Kick over the heads of the one intercepting spirit to take a Diamond Beach. It was like Kill Bill 1 *and* Kill Bill 2 playing simultaneously. A City Square was the only denial, so the dynamic duo sealed the win.
It was a long gruelling game that showed the players at their best.
Here is the deck listing:
Double Dragon
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Foundation:
5 Friends of the Dragon
5 Student of the Dragon
3 Hacker
Substance:
1 Lin
2 Jenny Zheng
3 Wu Bin of Turtle Island
1 Serena Ku
1 Bei Terong
1 Captain Jake Molloy
1 Ting Ting
1 Swift Eagle
1 Dr. John Haynes
1 Steven Wu
2 The Nemesis
Events:
2 Back for Seconds
2 Dirk Wisely's Gambit
2 Fighting Spirit
4 Final Brawl
1 Flying Kick
3 Golden Comeback
2 Got My Mojo Working
2 Old Hermit's Gambit
3 Open a Can of Whupass
1 The Crucible
1 Thunder on Thunder
Other:
1 Ready For Action
3 Dragon Dojo
FSS:
5 Nine Dragon Temple
5 Dragon Graveyard
2 Festival Circle
2 Waterfall Sanctuary
I have had a deck like this ever since Dragon Dojo was released. With 13 "dragon" designator sites it only takes the obvious foundations to reach the required number. This protects against most of the possible hoser cards. Important too are the selection of hitters. The few matching designators that can be Glimpsed are:
* Student of the Dragon matches Ting Ting
* Friends of the Dragon matches Jenny Zheng
* Hacker matches Steven Wu
* Wu Bin of Turtle Island matches Steven Wu (!)
Of course cards do match themselves, which is why there are no more than 2 copies of any one hitter. I make an exception for Wu Bin, since he can fetch The Crucible, essential for shutting down silly Demon decks, or Thunder on Thunder to turf any of a number of annoying edges. Here's a trick in case you're worried: if you think it'll be easy to trade him for an opponent's dude, use him to fetch a second copy of himself. Otherwise, fetch Steven Wu. Either tactic reduces the chance of getting Glimpsed.
As for the selection of characters, your mileage may vary, but I get a lot of satisfaction from Jenny when she Opens a Can of Whupass. Serena Ku is not commonly seen, even in CIA, but I have always been partial to her. I have yet to play Swift Eagle and Captain Jake Molloy never lasts more than a turn. The Golden Gunman is notable by
his absence, as I prefer being able to target my characters. Besides, I *want* people to waste their zap against me, so I can Get My Mojo Working.
A few words about Lin, since I have never seen anyone else play her. She is a state-smoker and Chinese Doctor in one, plus she can duck the Brawls. She adds great punch-through to any of the big hitters. I prefer her to Sacred Heart Hospital in this deck, due to lack of space for the latter. Lin has great utility and nice chrome.
If you don't go too nuts with multiple Brawls, Fighting Spirit is useful for recycling important events. Since almost all events are useful, you likely won't mind getting any combination of them back. Just look out for Hackers.
Old Hermit's Gambit is an unusual choice, but it has won me games, generally immediately after someone turned a City Square or Fox Pass. The combo with any independent hitter is massive, basically a free Back for Seconds.
I am experimenting with Ready For Action, which gives you a free hitter or reusable Back for Seconds, depending on how you look at it. The opportunity cost is pretty low; all you need is a weenie to mount an attack after your star hitter has survived one.
In total that's seven cards that unturn a character. Though some are situational, it's those sorts of situations that win games.
The Feng Shui Sites revolve around the dragon designator, but these are common choices for me anyway. In fact, when I first made the deck I didn't need to change anything to make it CIA compatible. Nine Dragon Temple is perfect for getting enough power for a hitter and Dragon Graveyard almost always nets extra power. Both do their job without turning. This makes it more likely your foes might discard their Whirlpools as useless and too fragile... so a late game drop of a Festival Circle can work away unimpeded. Waterfall Sanctuary is extra protection from the myriad of gun decks making the rounds, though I've also seen tanks wash away in the flowing waters.
With all the possible combinations of cards, this deck is lots of fun to play. It's got characters I can "get into" in a storytelling fashion. There are tricks and a few surprise cards, but not too many that have a high opportunity cost. For this reason I cut Never Surrender, since I don't want to be holding that along with a Gambit
and Mojo Working, reducing my effective hand size to three.
This deck has only one real weakness, Imprisoned, but the mid-range characters can play around that. Fetch a Festival Circle and use Old Hermit's Gambit when a Whirlpool turns. It's all about careful planning and psychology. If I hadn't expected to see so many states I might have substituted Ring of Gates for the Waterfalls.
As an addendum, I should mention Peter Shah's deck Dragons Squared, which uses the same designator and even has a similar name to mine. But a quick examination reveals that we took very different approaches; his deck has 8 different hitter choices and 6 miscellaneous cards that I do not include. His three FSS selections are also different. This just goes to show there are many different paths to victory.
Though I think mine is better. :-)