Welcome to the Secret War

People who’ve played against me online have undoubtedly run into this deck at some point. The deck is amazingly robust; it can keep up with fast duelers and hold its own in multi as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I give you Turbo Ho:

5 Little Grasshopper
4 Golden Candle Society
4 Railroad Workers

1 Derek Han
2 Lui Yu Min
2 Kwan Lung-Wei
2 Redeemed Pirate
1 Hung Hei Kwon
3 Sword Saint

2 Shield of Pure Soul

2 Heat of Battle
2 Wind on the Mountain
3 The Red Harvest
3 Violet Meditation
2 Invincible Chi
4 Confucian Stability
2 Blade Palm

By Lars Strobaek

Glasgow University Gaming Society first started playing Shadowfist sometime in the mid-early 2000’s, when members Tom and Al saw a bunch of cards on sale for cheap in the local gaming store and decided to try it out. They got hooked soon after, convinced others of the game's greatness, and the rest is history. Tom is currently our Silver Band representative, and he regularly runs tournaments and demos and helps people get started with the game. In total there's about a dozen of us who own cards and regularly play. Here’s a list of the usual suspects, including trivia about their (according to me) Favourite Faction, Signature Card and Characteristic Quote.

The use of Non-Feng Shui Sites varies between metagames from being rarely played to being ubiquitous Feng Shui shields. Some are critical to theme decks, such as vehicles, Pledged, Face Offs, Manchu, and others. With approximately 85 Non-Feng Shui Sites in print there are many options for deck design. So look beyond the Family Estate, Bandit Hideout, and Secret Headquarters and find that perfect finishing touch for your new deck!

I have sorted Sites by the three key printed variables: Cost, Body, and Power Generated. Looking at the complete list of Sites in this manner was eye-opening for me.

Roller Rink
Feng Shui Site
Body: 6
Generates: 1
Turn to return to your hand a Character in your smoked pile whose cost is less than the amount of damage on this card.

I often see this card tossed into decks that could benefit from returning small characters from the smoked pile, and it appears like the person who built the deck assumes that the damage will just magically appear on the site so that he can use it. Even though Roller Rink only requires minimal deck support to work, it is not suitable for every deck. Much of the following applies likewise to Mountain Fortress, but the Fortress benefits from being useful early in the game, whereas the Rink typically starts being useful in midgame.

By Daniel Griego

Playing in the Sand...

My introduction to Shadowfist came about began back in the Daedalus days at a local San Antonio gaming convention. Peter “Red” Trudell presented me with the game and gave me my first deck, featuring the Architects, during his demo. Later during the con, I played in my first Shadowfist tournament and I knew right away I’d found a great game. I kept it up for a while but dropped off after the Daedalus fallout. After dusting off my collection several years later, I made an active attempt to see what had come of the game and to find a new group. As luck would have it right around the first printing of Red Wedding I came upon Red and his group and they eagerly welcomed me back into the game.. I’ve avidly enjoyed the game ever since.

By Braz King

Although pod drafting is becoming more popular, it is still important to know what foundation cards and Feng Shui Sites are available in the sets that you are drafting from. It will let you know what you might have access to when making draft decisions and what cards you may be facing in the tournament.

The article would also be useful for new players to see what sets to look for to help build their collections.

This document provides a detailed breakdown of Feng Shui Sites and foundations cards for each booster set printed during the Z-Man era.

# of FSS and Foundations by Set

By Michael Stadermann

Dog Soldiers
Thunder Braves
Cost: Mon 3
Provides: Mon
Fighting: 4
When this card turns to attack, you may unturn a Power-generating Site you control. (No card can unturn another card more than once a turn.)

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the Dog Soldiers. This SSG card comes with a combo card in the same set: Mah-Jongg Parlor. But while the Parlor is a good card even without the Dog Soldiers, the Soldiers themselves seem a bit bland. In this article, I will talk about the right type of site for the Dogs, and look into ways of making them better at what they do.

Training Experimentation

By James Przytulski

(59 Cards)

5x Buromil Grunt
5x Assault Squad
2x Loyalty Officer
4x Colonel Wilhelm Reiger
4x Rapid Response Team

2x Rise of the Neoburo (Bazaar is better)

5x Dangerous Experiment (The best alt power gen in Shadowfist)
5x Imprisoned (Who's the Monkey Now? Proof)
2x Neutron Bomb
1x The Golden Spike

2x City Square
2x Fox Pass
4x Diamond Beach
2x Roller Rink
2x Mountain Fortress

5x Killing Ground
5x Bandit Hideout
2x Training Camp

This is the most complete deck I've ever built. It has everything I'd want in a deck. It has speed, alternative power generation, comeback potential, recursion, and flexibility. It can either sit and play a slow defensive game with recycling Buromil Grunts and Assault Squads, or play a speed Bandit Hideout soldier barrage. When I first built the deck I would play defensively. Recently though a more offensive approach has started to pay off.

Icebergs.

By Braz King.

Julia Saberhagen is soaked with sweat. In silent darkness she takes in a slow deep breath, sending it down her back and into her legs to relieve the strain of stillness. She has been in the narrow air duct above the main gallery room of the McMichael Art Gallery for eight hours now and has barely moved. Only twice, when the pain became excruciating, did she roll slowly onto her side to shift the weight to different muscles and let the blood circulate to the aching places. She arrived at the Gallery yesterday, blending into the small crowd of art lovers, then hid in the basement store room at closing time. At 8 p.m. she picked a precise route into the duct over the entry way.

The Modern Ex-Commando

By Michael Stadermann

Ex-Commando
Dangerous Vet
Cost: Dra Dra 3
Generates: Dra
Fighting: 3
Ex-Commando unturns when a Weapon or State is played on him.

This week, we’ll take a look at a good old friend and see how his work environment changed over the years. Instead of trying to provide a complete overview, I will provide a more in-depth view for a specific deck type and explain which cards fit into it well and which ones are less useful.

The Ex-Commando has been around for a long, long time. In fact, he’s been with Shadowfist longer than I have. I guess everybody who plays Dragons has played him at some point, found that he fit into a very state-heavy deck that rocked every once in a while, but mostly sucked, and put him back into the binder. The Ex-Commando’s job wasn’t easy when he came out. There was really only one free state that unturned him, Both Guns Blazing (BGB), and it was that same state that was necessary to pump his fighting. Unpumped, the Commando is a fragile little thing that can dish out a lot of damage, but can get eaten easily by interceptors. So you had to find those Both Guns in your deck to make it work alright, and maybe toss in a few Slo-Mo Vengeance for those rare cases where Both Guns get smoked and the Commando doesn’t to make the combo a bit more robust. Even if you did all that, you still have a very elementary problem: you have a deck full of states that all cost power, and you are very likely to stall because you’re sitting on a handful of guns.