Brian's Guide to Drafting

Navigating the Netherworld by the Seat of your Pants

by Marek Laskowski

“Rise of the NeoBuro” - Online Proving Ground spring 2007 duelling event winner.

5 BuroMil Grunt
5 DNA Mage
4 Test Subjects

3 Arcanowave Researcher
4 Bouncing Benji
2 Johann Bonengel PAP
2 Elsa Winterhagen
2 Dr. Curtis Boatman PAP
2 Arcanotechnician

4 Artillery Strike
3 Dangerous Experiment
2 Imprisoned
2 Neutron Bomb
4 Pocket Demon
2 Paradox Cube
3 Probability Manipulator
5 Rise of the NeoBuro
2 The Rackets
5 Dragon Graveyard
5 Nine Dragon Temple
2 Thousand Sword Mountain
2 Stone Dolmens

Yes, it really is 70 cards. It's not a mistake. This deck burns through cards as a resource for both Artillery Strike fodder (damage and reload) as well as reloading Bouncing Benjis. In a pinch it can draw a new hand and still generate power: when you pay the reload cost for the Benji, you can pay it again in response, and thus discard as many cards as you like while reloading a single Benji. If you don't care which cards you discard, Artillery Strike will work the same. Due to the 5 namesake Rise of the NeoBuro's you can also quickly see a big chunk of the deck quite fast. It's really the only card you need to draw, which is why there are five.

by Marek Laskowski

I was asked to write a short article about the dueling deck I fielded in the online Proving Ground league “Who's the Big Man Now!?” tournament that won undefeated. I feel I should outline the, uh, philosophy that went into designing it first. If you are reading this looking for tips like "make sure to discard!" you're looking in the wrong place. There have been many articles better written than this one, discussing the basics quite well. I don't have any hard and fast rules for you either, only observations and opinions gained through experience. The first seven sections of this article are general observations and next week, I'll apply these observations to two sample decks.

by Robin Parmar

It seems that every time I play with someone who uses Faceoffs, questions arise. I suppose the reasons for this are two-fold. Faceoffs are an under-used dynamic. Plus, the rules for them do not appear in any of the rulebooks. This leads to misunderstandings and an underappreciation of what Faceoffs can do.

This article hopes to remedy this situation in three ways. First, I will provide a summary of the Faceoff rules in an easy to understand format. Second, I will elaborate on some of the subtleties and point out how Faceoffs can help you. Finally, I will look at a couple of Faceoff deck archetypes.

“The power curve” is a term often used to describe the development of power generation under “normal” circumstances in a Shadowfist game. Knowing how power generation will develop is important when you plan out your deck speed, because it answers questions such as: When can I expect my opponents to mount a successful attack? How much power can I expect my opponents to have to resist my own attacks? When am I falling behind the curve, and how much of a disadvantage am I at?

For a regular power curve, assume that a player will play a Feng Shui site (FSS) in every turn until he reaches a self-set limit of n sites, and thereafter produce n power every turn. Until the player stops playing an FSS every turn, he will have 2 power to spend on other things, and then he gains an additional n power a turn. As the table below shows, buying as many FSS as possible will be always worthwhile if you can defend them, because you will catch up to and exceed the total power generated by players who bought fewer FSS.

Let’s get something straight right away – there is no rule in Shadowfist that says you have to attack left, and anyone adamantly insisting you should attack left is either an idiot or playing you for a sucker. There is a well-meant piece of play advice that says: “Everything else being equal, attack to the left.” This article deals with finding out if everything is equal, or “reading the board”, and how to make the most of your attack.

Ideally, you should know at all times who is closest to winning or furthest ahead. If you attack the leader, other players are more likely to assist you or at least will not interfere with your attack. There are several visible indicators that are used to identify who is currently winning: number of Feng Shui sites (FSS), power generated per turn (from sites, edges or characters), power in pool, and fighting on the board. Finally, the card pool of the faction that the opponents are playing has to be considered, specifically how easy it is for the specific faction to generate power from events and how easily the faction can turn power into fighting.

by Matt Woolley

Fear is the mind killer. Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. Hate leads inevitably to Monkeys. But more important than this, fear leads to dreadful games of Shadowfist.

You can guarantee that many players will assess the board in terms of what they can lose, rather than what they have to gain. This kind of fearful mentality slows the game down and promotes the kind of waxy build up that generally makes for dull, uninspiring games. The players who pretend to have nothing useful in their hand, play with a one-column site structure, burn for power and leech power off the other players need to be shown the error of their ways! We need champions to dispense with this kind of play. We need heroes with a gun in their hand, a foot on the throat of the nearest Guiding Hand player, and maybe a slight facial tic. We need you!