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20 Renown Decks

Apocalypse: Clashing Boom

10/11/2024

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Summary

One of the biggest weaknesses of classic firearms decks is that the moment the shooters take damage, they can no longer use firearms. Clashing Boom-Boom fixes that directly, making firearms decks more relevant. This was my first attempt to make such a deck. 

Decks

Characters
  • 1 Dharma Bum
  • 1 Roger Daly
  • 1 Syntax
  • 1 Haunts-the-Skyline
  • 1 Quari Filth
  • 1 Firyal the Whip
Some of these characters make more sense than others. Roger Daly is because he takes care of his prey's shooters (and I really wanted to make use of one of the first big cards I opened). The rest are all Homids with duplicates in Bone Gnawers and Glass Walkers to make sure all the sept deck can be used. And mostly above Renown 2 so they can't be massacred by Breath of the Defiled.

Quari has a really useful bonus ability to remove opponents' combat cards, so he will always have a place in the deck.

Sept
  • 2 Junkyard 'Dog'
  • 2 Monster Joe's Truck-n-Tow
  • 2 Clashing Boom Boom
  • 3 Arms Dealer
  • 3 Flak Jacket
  • 2 Kinfolk Small Town Cop
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 3 Friends in High Places
  • 1 Sniper Rifle
  • 1 Dreamspeaker Mage
  • 3 Shotgun
  • 3 The Tide
  • 3 Big Game Hunter
  • 2 Dead Zone
  • 2 Checking the Classifieds
  • 1 Endron Security Team
  • 3 Recycle
At almost 40 cards, this is a large sept deck; but the huge amount of searching available means that you will burn through this deck. A third of the deck replaces itself on the same turn: you could draw a The Tide with Recycling, use it search for Arms Dealer and the latter to find a Shotgun. The Recycles are a late addition because it is possible by the beginning of turn 4 to be drawing cards you just recycled - likely Sneak Attacks and Friends in High Places.

Dead Zone means we aren't using any of my usual Ragabash fun, including Stands Like a Fool since it's not a requirement of the strategy.

I think 22 Renown of prey is excessive, since other options should present themselves, but I added the last one since 3x The Tide will soon find them all. They are, of course, all wielding firearms so Roger  + pack attacks should make their deaths simplicity itself.

Combat
  • 1 Rapid Reload
  • 2 Full Auto
  • 1 Pistol Whip
  • 1 Fancy Footwork
  • 2 Duck and Cover
  • 1 Vital Blow
  • 1 Overextended Attack
  • 2 Lucky Blow
  • 1 Hunting Party
  • 1 Rally to Battle
  • 1 Cornered Rat
  • 1 Stunning Strike
  • 2 Dismember
  • 1 Attacking the Wyrm
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Dry Gulch
Despite there being lots of good 7 Rage combat actions, this deck caps off at Vital Blow. It does what you would expect: pack combat with various card draw. With a cycle of Sneak Attacks and Friends, you should hopefully get into combat where you can swamp the target; with a Taking the Death Blow (onto an Arms Dealer or Kinfolk Cop) if you get into trouble.

Substitutions

Why Firyal? Why not some Ahroun to use Outgunned! ? I can't remember. That said, there aren't that many low-Renown Ahroun, so it would be Running Creek and/or Banana Split. Even though he's Metis, with Clashing Boom-Boom, Banana can use his ability AND shoot you in the face.

You might, alternatively, add a single SLAF which you can later Recycle.

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Apocalypse: First Team 28

10/11/2024

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Summary

The original First Team #21 had the issue that it overwhelming combat drawer was entirely dependent on T.F. MacNeil and anything like Blossom, Expulsion or even a Wyldstorm would cripple the deck. So we brought in a new team where the card draw and other benefits were a lot more spread.

The version of the deck I found looked cool but had all sorts of odd choices, so I've tweaked a few things. Notably, I removed all the prey and excesses of firearms to add more Gifts and some New Moons. I wanted to tailor this as a character-killing deck and that means prevent fox frenzies.

I went from choosing a tournament deck as that seemed like a good choice to publish to creating a completely overhauled deck I've never played. But it at least contains some fun interactions.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Elwood 'Slicer' Nedervitch (Crinos)
  • 1 Carlotta Stearns
  • 1 Leergo Cat Swallower
  • 1 Charlene Brell
  • 1 Melvin Spivey
Charlene is the best person to use for Sniper Fire, to keep her as safe as she can be. Obviously, Melvin is the main user of In the Public Eye.

Sept
  • 3 Shotgun
  • 2 In the Public Eye
  • 3 Webbing
  • 3 Psychotic Hallucinations
  • 2 Rocket Launcher
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 2 Friends in High Places
  • 3 Whispering Campaign
  • 2 Consumption of Gaia
  • 1 Unseelie Troll
  • 2 New Moon
  • 1 Caern of Rytthiku
  • 3 Stuck Sideways
You have five firearms in your deck. Yes, did you know that Rocket Launcher is a firearm? Arguably you might want more

The gifts take advantage of the three Eater-of-Souls characters, leaving you with a lot of counters. Whispering Campaign counters pack defence, Consumption of Gaia prevents a lot of gifts, New Moon prevents fox frenzies whilst it's out (although your combat deck has answers to other frenzies) and Stuck Sideways not only prevents Umbral Escape but also may give you extra targets if you pick a secondary character. Troll gives you a backup in case Charlene is removed whilst Caern of Rytthiku gives you an answer if your targets become elusive.

Combat
  • 2 Rally to Battle
  • 1 Sniper Fire
  • 1 Cornered Rat
  • 2 Stunning Strike
  • 2 Dismember
  • 2 Whirlwind Defense
  • 1 Iron Skin
  • 1 Rapid Reload
  • 2 Overextended Attack
  • 1 Entrail Rend
  • 1 Aggressive Bite
  • 1 Dry Gulch
  • 2 "'Eat Hot Lead, Dog Breath'
  • 1 Lobotomy
The combat decks has four ways to draw combat cards. Which should mean that even if your opponent manages to avoid damage first time round, you can draw it back again. Additionally, Rally to Battle allows you to flip your characters sot that they can use Aggressive Bite to prevent Umbral Escapes (as well as other escapes).

The blocking strategy is reasonably comprehensive (for a round or two). Between hot lead, double Dismember and the Whirlwind Defences, all but the most dangerous attacks will be mitigated whilst a variety of unblockable or undodgeable damage is dealt. The Stunning Strikes are the main counters to frenzies, doubled in case of double frenzies.

Substitutions

Whilst  the deck strategy manifests quickly due the intrinsic power of automatic pack attacks, I think testing would give suggestions on improving this deck. I'm not sure what that might be at the time of posting.
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Apocalypse: Wendgigo Bullies

10/11/2024

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Summary

This deck was a playtest deck, trying to take advantage of Sense Prey - how many victims can I make use of in a Gaia deck? That led me inevitably to pack-defending prey and Gang Beating. The name was a typo, but I'm sticking with it.

Sense Prey: “Reveal the top 5 cards of target sept deck. If any of the revealed cards are Victims, place them in the Hunting Grounds. The Gift user gains Victory Points from killing Victims this turn. Shuffle the sept deck after using this Gift.”

Since Sense Prey just requires Animal Breed so you can take your pick of splats, but after looking through the champions I worked out that Blood-on-the-Wind is perfect. As a Wendigo, this is a perfect deck to abuse Knife Wind and War Lodge, and he has a nifty ability.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Blood-on-the-Wind
  • 1 Old Storm-Chaser
  • 1 Whispers-in-Pines
​ I often try to double-up on main combatants but this deck is risky if you can’t get enough cards out early, so I skipped having a second strong fighter to have Old Storm Chaser. Whispers fills in the gap because he is still big enough to attack those prey and/or to use Knife Wind.

Overall, this deck ticks the box of “Get into the fights you want.” It isn’t quite so tough about cancelling fights you don’t want, but then if it doesn’t win through speed it doesn’t have a lot else going for it. It has some answers to frenzy (basically Run Like Hell, Cat Feet or Flame Spirit), character removal (it has sufficient resilience to lose one temporarily) and hosers (Instinctive Attack) and gameplan disruption (because the prey pack defend, Gang Beating just makes the win more likely). 

In many ways, this is deck is an ode to my top Tribal War deck "I swear it was this big", although not as devastating.

Sept
  • 3 Knife Wind
  • 1 Blur of the Milky Eye
  • 1 War lodge
  • 3 Sense Prey
  • 3 Catfeet
  • 1 Wendigo
  • 3 Bully's Quest
  • 3 Child Soldier
  • 3 Suburban High School Kid
  • 2 Street Bum
  • 2 Flame Spirit
  • 2 Sneak Attack
  • 3 Visit from White Father
This deck wants to give quick wins so it just has three combat enders - Catfeet. Catfeet can also work with you against prey mobs since we have seven 1-Rage combat actions. Because we are rushing through the deck as well, we only have 2 sneak attacks - and War Lodge. The Least Wanted version of Visit from the White Father is a lot more tactical than the printed version, but worth it in this deck since you want your combo pieces out. Bully’s Quest is an easy 2 VP each time. Finally, Flame Spirits can act as resilient (or disposable) alphas or fuel for War Lodge (or both).

Combat
  • 1 Run Like Hell
  • 1 Gang Beating
  • 2 Off-balanced Attack
  • 2 Stinging Wound
  • 2 Bitch Slap
  • 2 Lucky Blow
  • 2 Instinctive Attack
  • 2 Telling Blow
  • 2 Head or Gut?
  • 2 Fast Strike
  • 2 Beat Unmerciful
This deck is capped at Rage 5. It has Head or Gut? and Telling Blow to ramp up those VP. All your pack members can use most of these cards. I’ve used all the Rage 1, Damage 2 cards for Catfeet, playing for Prey and so Flame Spirit can confidently wade into combat.

Substitutions

Easy replacements are an extra Sneak Attack and some Friends in High Places. You could also swap one or more Visits for The Tide, to help you get those humans into play. It's a balance though, because you also need to draw Sense Prey.
wendgigo_bullies.dek
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Fan only: Lake Nassar

2/11/2024

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Summary

One tactic in Rage is to move quickly to the Umbra and stay there, taking out umbral-only prey whilst your opponents duke it out in the physical world. This is one of those decks, but you get to have extra fun as Lake Nassar allows you to send your gifts over the gauntlet, with a few other ways to disrupt them.

The goal is that this buys you time to take out those mid-range Umbral Enemies.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Sand's Last King
  • 1 Sweet Luna's Smile
  • 1 Lone Wolf Circles
This is definitely a more unusual pack, in fact I've never seen Sweet Luna's Smile anywhere else. The key is that they can both get to 6 Rage with Primal Anger, whilst Smile can use all those delicious Children of Gaia gifts that you are using for disruption.

Sept
  • 3 Dream Hunter
  • 3 Elethoi
  • 3 Lake Nasser Wallow
  • 2 Rite of the Opened Caern
  • 1 Mnesis Dreams
  • 1 Animal Mummy
  • 1 Oracle of Sobek
  • 2 The Badger's Heart
  • 1 Haunter
  • 3 Carpet Snake
  • 3 Chant of Morpheus
  • 2 Primal Anger
  • 2 Assegai
  • 2 Fog
  • 1 Dreamspeaker Mage
These characters don't have extra attacks available, so you are stuck to one attack per turn (and hoping that your opponents aren't around in the Umbra to disrupt you). However, Chant of Morpheus can take out your worst threat if required; or just slow down your main opposition. Badger's Heart is your best option against champion decks (but not much else). Animal Mummy can try and eliminate any single resource threat. Fog can be used defensively or as disruption. And you can get any of these back with Mnesis Dreams (eventually). 

There are some redundancies. You have a full suite of Carpet Snakes to make sure you can get Sand's safely to the Umbra as soon as possible, as well to give you extra flexibility to abuse the Dreamspeaker Mage. They are largely disposable later on. Haunter is a redundancy for Sweet Luna's Smile.

Assegai isn't for anything specific, but does stop Submission Hold. In the wider environment, it also counters Surprise Attack and the occasional Nerve cluster. Mainly it's there as an efficient armour against low level damage.

Combat
  • 2 Flicker
  • 2 Anatomy Lesson
  • 1 Instinctive Attack
  • 2 Searching for Weakness
  • 2 Head Butt
  • 2 Duck and Cover
  • 2 Savage Beatdown
  • 2 Block and Roll
  • 1 Tail Lash
  • 2 Aggressive Bite
  • 1 Submission Hold
  • 1 Desperate Struggles
There really are no good fan combat events for this deck, although you could swap Desperate Struggles for Cornered Rat or Ferocity. You really need to use your sept deck to ensure you aren't facing a high-Rage threat. Searching for Weakness seems weak, but covers you if you don't have enough Rage at a point in the combat where you can take the damage. Remember that your planned targets have a maximum of 5 Rage.

Aggressive Bite stops Run Like Hell mainly. Savage Beatdown, Anatomy Lesson and Submission Hold are all great when playing for prey; but also reasonable mid-range combat cards for just doing damage. Flicker is great, but also the only fan-set Umbra-only card. Oops.

Substitutions

This card needs more combat-draw options, maybe some combination of Reinforcements, Surprise Ally or a standard frenzy. It might also want a Run Like Hell (for prey) but I'm not sure it's necessary. I would also swap in a Vital Blow or two. But mainly, you are going to want to swap in at least one Redirected Attack.

The sept deck is even more where it wants to be. I really only want Sneak Attacks.
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Fan only: Ajaba Aggression

2/11/2024

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Summary

Not all factions are capable of running on fan sets alone, but the Ajaba are one of them. This is not going to be the best deck, but I think it's a good way to explore some cards people may not have seen or absorbed.

The deck is predominantly intended to take out Enemies, using Blur of the Milky Eye to prevent Wyrm alphas stepping in, whilst messing with your opponents to reduce their ability to take out their own targets.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Thousand Cubs
  • 1 Ironjaw
  • 1 Amber Eyes-Like-Knives
  • 1 Njoki Scarface
There is nothing particularly special about these characters in this deck, although Amber can slow down decks with lots of resources. But you do have two reasonable champions to draw on, and Ironjaw doing an extra point of damage - wait until you can pump her Rage though.

Sept
I'm going to annotate these, but you can also search for multiple card titles in the spoilers.
  • 1 Clan of Hyenas - Solid ally with an inbuilt escape clause.
  • 2 Scavenger's Quest - Quest. If it works out, that's a free attack and a VP if you succeed.
  • 3 Sense of the Prey - Gift. A weaker version of Sneak Attack.
  • 3 Laughter of the Soul - Gift. Similar to Harano Gloom, very powerful for disrupting opponents.
  • 2 Tzinzie - Personal totem that plays mind games with your opponents combat hands.
  • 3 Termite Mounds - Territory. Lets you see what cards your opponent will be drawing and you can use all three. Combo with Tzinzie.
  • 1 Gnaw - Gift. Destroys opposing equipment. Only a one-of since you mainly want to face prey.
  • 2 Blur of the Milky Eye - Great Ragabash card, stops your opponents stepping in for prey.
  • 2 Bitter Hatar - Enemy.
  • 2 Ootani Oil Bane - Enemy.
  • 3 Dust Storm - Forces an opponent to discard and redraw their carefully crafted combat hand.
  • 1 Toreador Poseur - Enemy.
  • 2 Primal Anger - Rage for health.
  • 2 Dominance - Cancels action cards of those with lower Renown.
  • 1 Animal Attraction - Steals an ally
No sneak attacks available leads to interesting deck building, although the Ajaba do have a good alternative. Messing with your opponents' hands will hopefully buy you time to take out enough Enemies, using Termite Mounds to get an idea of when you should deploy your other abilities. The Primal Angers are pretty critical though for making sure you can reliably use your combat cards.

Combat
CombatDeck:
2 Anatomy Lesson
1 Instinctive Attack
1 Overbear
1 Aggressive Bite
2 Duck and Cover
1 Savage Beatdown
1 Block and Roll
1 Searching for Weakness
2 Leaping Rake
1 Mangle
2 The Whole Nine Yards
1 Spring the Trap
1 Bar the Way
1 Chew
1 Head Butt
1 Vicious Assault
The combat deck is the weakest part of this deck without a lot of the usual tricks. It was even worse before I added a couple of disposable The Whole Nine Yards (frenzies) and Spring the Trap (pack action). The latter is particularly useful with the Clan of Hyenas.

However, there are few things to draw out. Overbear is an awkward card but, if it hits, it can be combined with a Leaping Rake to take out any of your prey; or Spring the Trap for a double undodgeable hit. Mangle is a effectively a one-shot kill against your prey targets, but can also be played by prey (especially if you started with Searching for Weakness).

I want to highlight Aggressive Bite as a great way to stop Run Like Hell, Umbral Escape and Fox Frenzy. In fact, it prevents almost any escape if it lands. I swapped in the second Aggressive Bite for Bar the Way from the Rokea set: it's more reliable, but does less. Still very effective against Run Like Hell.

On the contrary, Anatomy Lesson is a great card for your prey to make any attackers withdraw (if they aren't frenzied). Savage Beatdown is real punisher for frenzies as they randomly lose half their hand. And there are four instinctive cards in the deck.

Substitutions

The deck would obviously benefit from substituting some of the five conditional attacks for reliable Sneak Attacks. You might also want to swap in Friends in High Places for the Dominance if your table likes its 10 Renown champions. Because you are playing Ragabash, you almost certainly want to find space for Stand Like a Fool - but do consider whether the disruption already in the deck is more effective, especially with instinctive actions available.

In the combat deck, you probably want to consider swapping in a normal frenzy, certainly a Taking the Death Blow; and probably swap the Spring the Trap for a Surprise Ally. There are some Combat Actions that might be more effective, but to be honest it's not clear what they might be.

The card I did consider is Stunning Strike as an extra option against frenzy, but between Savage Beatdown and Mangle you might have enough.
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Classic: Questor Defence

20/10/2024

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Summary

This is really a Legacy of the Tribes Special. When they released Questor, he really wanted to benefit from killing lots of prey... but in classic Rage there are very few ways for that to happen. Luckily there are victims which will attack you by themselves if you look right.

This deck is about pacing yourself so you can be attacked as many times as you can cope with each round.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Blossom
  • 1 Questor
  • 1 Longtooth Soulkiller
This counts as a double champion deck... even though the champions are not the biggest. They are, however, right for this deck and double for each other. It also leaves exactly the right amount of space for Blossom, the bane of many champion decks (and no answers in classic Rage).

Sept
  • 3 Renegade Werewolf Hunter
  • 3 Vigilante
  • 3 Wild Animals
  • 1 Tambertail's heart
  • 1 Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth
  • 1 War Knife of Benning Simon
  • 1 Whip of the Wicked
  • 3 Skin of the Hellbound
  • 2 Vampire Blood
  • 2 Spiral Boomerang
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 3 Friends in High Places
  • 1 The Pit
  • 3 Gaia's Will Corrupted
The core of the deck are the 9 victims, Gaia's Will Corrupted and a bit of Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth /The Pit (the latter two never did too much for me, but are definitely flavourful). The equipment and The Pit largely serve to back up the strategy by making it harder for the victims or other attackers to deal lasting harm. The Spiral Boomerangs and Tambertail's Heart really dissuade opponents from attacking you, allowing you to end combats you aren't involved in to slow down your opponents.

Combat
  • 1 Frenzy
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Fox Frenzy
  • 2 Vital Blow
  • 2 Block and Strike
  • 1 Curb Stomp
  • 2 Dry Gulch
  • 1 Septum Crushed
  • 1 Lucky Blow
  • 2 Evasion
  • 1 Fancy Footwork
  • 1 Dodge
  • 2 Off-balanced Attack
  • 1 Overextended Attack
  • 1 Shieldmate
The Frenzy, Taking the Death Blow and Fox Frenzy are fairly obvious. I'm not sure you need the Fox Frenzy but you can normally discard it if you don't need it. You have a bunch of 4 damage combat cards to take care of the six victims with 4 Health; and some Rage 1 cards in case of Vital Blow. And a good selection of dodges so you can outguess your opponent.

I am sure my actual deck (buried in a cupboard) is better tuned than this, but that's what practice is for.

Substitution

The biggest question in this deck is which characters to play. When I built this deck, I didn't have Zhyzhak so didn't have much often; plus I just like Questor. If your opponent does have a character which the victims might attack instead, Blossom can take them out for you. So I would suggest this is, in fact, the optimal build. But do experiment.

I don't think there are any obvious substitutions, although it might be worth swapping in a single Massive Wound; and you may find that you want to swap in more 4-damage cards.
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Classic: Wailer special

20/10/2024

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Summary

Pentex isn't the power house that the garou (or vampires) are, but there are some combo cards that can shine if played right. One such is Wailer, a simple 4 cost character who can stymie any number of opponents merely by flipping. This deck combines that with all the boosters and and allies to make pack combat an evil, repeatable nasty. 

Your goal is to get allies into play and then pack attack any target you think that Wailer can successfully flip on. Then frenzy or otherwise flip Wailer; or use Roar of the Wyrm; so your targets have to just sit there and take the damage. Rage has always supported decks who control combat, and this is a good example.

Deck

Characters
  • 1 Wailer
  • 1 Barnaby Shadrack
  • 1 Blossom
  • 1 Fangs-Through-Eye
Wailer is the core of the deck, but Barnaby can actually help whack your targets with his submachine gun as well as drawing the rest of your pack and other tricks. Fangs is just a strong body, although he can give you Beast-of-War.  Blossom is there to run control.

Sept
  • 3 Mass Pollution
  • 3 Shapeshift
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 3 Enticer
  • 3 Gooshy Gooze
  • 2 Beast-of-War
  • 3 Roar of the Wyrm
  • 2 Stench of Death
  • 3 Caern of the Unwashed Child
  • 3 Infectious Touch
  • 2 Unseelie Troll
  • 3 Pentex Executive and Limousine
  • 2 Kinfolk Small Town Cop
  • 2 Greenpeace Assault Team
  • 1 A Bus Full of People
One of the two large groups are cards which can frustrate your opponent and, as it happens, support your abuse of Wailer's ability. Caern of the Unwashed Child is especially powerful in this deck so it's worth having three to get it out first; whilst Infectious Touch is rarely as useful as it seems it should be. Shapeshift is rarely useful as a card, but I thought it was fun to try here to allow your to put Wailer back into Homid form, ready to frenzy again. Roar of the Wyrm is there as a backup option, but only Wailer can use it.

The second group are your allies. Pentex Executives and Limousines are a risk since they are juicy kills to make; but their ability to wreck havoc with caerns make them hard to pass up.


Three special notes. Sneak Attacks, in this deck, might be best once you have an alpha so you can use Ass Whuppin' Lynch Mob. And careful with Beast-of-War that you don't undermine your Wailer. However the combat resilience of the extra Rage is worth including it for.  The deck is also, at 38 cards, on the large side; but that's because Barnaby gives you a chance of drawing all those cards.

Combat
  • 1 Hunting Party
  • 1 Ass Whuppin' Lynch Mob
  • 1 Shieldmate
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Head or Gut ?
  • 1 Beat Unmerciful
  • 2 Lucky Blow
  • 2 Overextended Attack
  • 2 Reckless Swing
  • 1 Surprise Attack
  • 2 Off-balanced Attack
  • 2 Stinging Wound
  • 1 Dodge
  • 2 Run Like Hell
  • 1 Fancy Footwork
The combat deck is mainly low-Rage damage cards, with a smattering of 4- and 5-Rage cards. It differs from Gaia weenie because it only has one Hunting Party; generally you should end up with one Hunting Part or Lynch Mob in your hand after every mass combat. Instead it has a shieldmate, so you can bring in Wailer whoever they attack. Finally, it's "only" 21 cards - the 21st is Head or Gut? - for the same reason.

It's worth noting that you aren't expecting a huge lot of damage back: at full deployment, your opponent is at -5 Rage and -6 Gnosis. Most decks aren't prepared for that and will have to escape or go home (which is why you have a Beat Unmerciful, since Run Like Hell and Fox Frenzy may be the only two repeatable escapes they can use).

Substitutions

I remember using Wailer in a Wyrm weenie deck. It had fewer sept cards but its theme was largely the same. I used the Barnaby version here to show how impactful he is. It makes the deck slightly less reliable; but probably more effective.

The sept deck probably requires fewer cards and if you feel you can eliminate some after testing then go for it. You could tweak the combat deck to include some Head Wounds or simply Dry Gulches and maybe some more evasion; which would make it easier to defend prey or do more damage; but I'm not it's required with the Rage denial in your sept deck.
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Classic: Bloodsucking champions

20/10/2024

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Summary

If you were lucky or wealthy enough to get a Count Vlad, this was the deck you wanted him for (or some variant on it). It takes the characters with the highest stats in the game and some consistent Gift options and combines them with frenzy and a heavy combat deck. And lots of healing.

The deck wants you to get into combat and smash things. It's a classic double-champion deck.

Deck


Characters
  • 1 Allonzo Montoya
  • 1 Count Vladimir Rustovitch
  • 1 Juicy Johnes
Not belonging to main splats, these two champions can't use a lot of non-Gift cards; but they have lots of good gifts. Whilst Black Spiral Dancers do have good stats, these have better

Sept
  • .2 Horns of the Impaler
  • 2 Wyrm Hide
  • 2 Patagia
  • 3 True Fear
  • 1 Caern of Rytthiku
  • 1 "Kirijama, 'The Hidden Foe'
  • 3 Consumption of Gaia
  • 2 Subjugation of Gaia
  • 2 Eyes of Hate
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 3 Friends in High Places
  • 1 Spiral Boomerang
  • 1 Mage's Talisman
  • 3 Skin of the Hellbound
  • 1 Whip of the Wicked
As well as the usual, this deck has extra combat enders (Spiral Boomerang/Patagia), disrupters (Consumption/Subjugation of Gaia) and the mirror-match friendly Skin of the Hellbound. Eyes of Hate and Whip of the Wicked are mean ways to control what your opponent plays and leads to some interesting timing as you try and guess when they will play the first card you would worry about. Horns of the Impaler are not critical, just give you a little resilience.

Combat
  • 1 Surprise Ally
  • 2 Frenzy
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Umbral Escape
  • 1 Run Like Hell
  • 2 Mangle
  • 2 Entrail Rend
  • 2 Vital Blow
  • 2 Dry Gulch
  • 1 Disarm
  • 2 Feint
  • 2 Dodge
  • 1 Evasion
This is a very damage-heavy combat deck. You have the expected combat events. Run Like Hell is an emergency release. Whilst timing of when you play evasion/escape/damage is critical, that's about as subtle as the combat deck.

The one thing that's different is the Surprise Ally, to give you double the firepower. Remember you can always play it just to draw a card (when attacking), without bringing in a packmate.

Substitutions

You could choose to swap in combat actions that your champions can play before they flip to crinos. Otherwise, there aren't any immediate swaps I would think about.
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Classic: Gaia Weenie

12/10/2024

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Summary

This is largely based on my favourite deck from the classic era. Most of the deck are commons, there's lots of disruption and it gives those rare frenzy decks a run for their money. Putting this deck here feels like I'm giving away my old secrets. Unfortunately, large packs tend to make Lackey unhappy so I didn't play it as much later on. 

The goal of this deck is similar to frenzy decks, but focuses much more on enemies. Against a low Rage enemy, especially against high Rage decks, you can play tactically without Stand Like a Fool. But if you have a Stand Like a Fool, there are very few decks which can survive a single round against you.

Deck

Characters:
Characters:
  • 1 Carleson Ruah
  • 1 Susan Anthony with a Kinfolk Small Town Cop
  • 1 Frenar
  • 1 Dharma Bum
  • 1 Passer
  • 1 Banana Split
  • 1 Jubati
  • 1 Cesare Sodalis
Carleson Ruah is the single most important character in your deck because it allows you to have a Renown 0 alpha who acts first. So no matter how big the other alphas, you get first dibs at whatever is in the Hunting Grounds and, if they attack you, they get nothing to show for it. The other characters are a combination of synergistic abilities and with the ability to play your sept deck. Banana Split is just nifty as an extra Stand like a Fool.

One thing to note is that this is a post-Wyrm version which means it can survive a Breath of the Defiled should somebody actually play it. 


Sept deck
  • 3 Stand like a Fool
  • 2 Sticky Paws
  • 3 Ka Spirit
  • 1 Flame Spirit
  • 1 Wyldstorm
  • 3 Friends in High Places
  • 3 Sneak Attack
  • 3 New Moon
  • 2 Kinfolk Small Town Cop
  • 1 Dreamspeaker Mage
  • 2 Sky River Caern
  • 2 Pentex Refinery
  • 2 Pentex First Team 43
  • 2 Chainsaw
In this version, I really went to town on those low Renown allies, all of whom are fantastic in a Hunting Party; but shout out to the Ka Spirits who might never die. New Moons are your answer to frenzy. Even though they are less effective against some Wyrm decks if you're playing by older versions of the rules, they are still really good in the deck. As a combat deck, it has the full suite of Sneak Attacks, Friends and stymies. Wyldstorm is in there because there are very few good decks for this silly card - it's often not that effective for you. There are a few top cards in there to give you extra protection.

Kinfolk Cops do double duty of attacker and a way of locking down opponents. More effective against some decks than others.


Combat deck
  • 2 Hunting Party
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Attacking the Wyrm
  • 2 Bitch Slap
  • 2 Off-balanced Attack
  • 2 Stinging Wound
  • 2 Run Like Hell
  • 2 Lucky Blow
  • 2 Overextended Attack
  • 1 Surprise Attack
  • 2 Reckless Swing
  • 2 Dodge
  • 1 Bite
  • 2 Entrail Rend
I found that this deck always needed to be oversized, otherwise you wouldn't be able to draw enough cards. Whilst Attacking the Wyrm allows you more attackers, and is ideal for alpha actions, it can't be used with Sneak Attacks. You have three so you should always have one in hand, ideally the one you need. The Entrail Rends can be bluffed if you get through all your opponents playable cards. A lot of decks don't have a lot of low-Rage cards so that happens. But you also have a couple of Chainsaws. They are essentially there so you can finish off a large opponent, otherwise you would struggle.

Run Like Hell are for prey, and Taking the Death Blow are to protect your key characters (Carleson mainly, but also Banana Split if you haven't used his ability). 

Substitutions

I never came across a better weenie deck than this, but there are other things you can do with the combat deck. If you add more weapons (Flamethrowers or Shotguns probably), you can add cards like Head Wound or Beat Unmerciful (to counter Run Like Hell). You can also tweak the numbers and probably remove Sky River Caern for Visit from the White Fathers. And of course you can swap characters to include your favourites. Tim Rowantree was in one version.
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Classic: Grimfang Moot

11/10/2024

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Summary

I did used to play a moot deck because I did have the cards and it gave me the answers to the heavy combat decks my friends were playing. But I actually can't remember how I built it. So this is a 10 minute deck build based on a combination of memory and whatever felt good at the time.

Your goal in this deck is to use your combat deck to end combats and your sept deck to gather enough votes to win moots.

There is no anti-wyrm strategy in this version. If you don't have any Gaia opponents, you are probably toast (which is one reason why pure moots stopped being viable strategy over time).

Deck

Characters:
  • 1 Grimfang
  • 1 Old Storm-Chaser
  • 1 Ivan Korda
  • 1 Diem
Grimfang is your voting lynchpin. Old Storm-Chaser is there purely to draw you cards, but is conveniently also a Theurge. Ivan and Diem both have abilities which might be useful, but can also be sacrificed or sent on an Umbral Quest without too much impact.

Sept deck
  • 1 Falcon
  • 3 Elder Stone
  • 1 Legendary Leadership
  • 3 Kinfolk TV Reporter
  • 1 The Silver Crown
  • 1 Aegis
  • 3 Caern of the Crescent Moon
  • 1 Yuri Tvarivich
  • 3 Skindancer
  • 1 The Stolen Wolf
  • 2 Tribal War
  • 2 Winter Wolf
  • 1 The Litany's Guidance
  • 1 Caern Building
  • 3 Silver Record
  • 1 Dreamspeaker Mage
  • 2 Flame Spirit
  • 1 Spirit Drain
  • 2 Umbral Quest
All your VP comes from your sept deck. Silver Records, Winter Wolf (on Grimfang) and Legendary Leadership are your primary sources with Caern Building and Umbral Quest acting as backups. Tribal War is a great opening moot as if the same deck has both tribes, one or the other has to go. Skindancer and the Stolen Wolf can further decimate Gaia decks. Elder Stone and Caern of the Crescent Moon are your best sources of votes. Kinfolk TV Reporters are better than gifts and can generally double up as sacrificial packmates. Flame Spirits are good alphas. Dreamspeaker Mage is the only gift canceller in this version, but should be sufficient if you're avoiding combat. Spirit Drain is there primarily to deny your opponent a kill (if played well).

Combat Deck:
  • 2 Fox Frenzy
  • 1 Taking the Death Blow
  • 1 Frenzy
  • 2 Umbral Escape
  • 2 Run Like Hell
  • 2 Evasion
  • 1 Surprise Attack
  • 1 Fancy Footwork
  • 2 Off-balanced Attack
  • 2 Stinging Wound
  • 1 Feint
  • 1 Beat Unmerciful
  • 2 Lucky Blow
​There are seven ways to try and end combat here. Note that your voting characters should not use Run Like Hell; but prey and allies can use it all you like. Your job is to ensure that you always have a suitable escape in your hand for any situation. There is also enough damage here to take out weak opponents if you want to, or just to nibble them with a Flame Spirit.

Substitutions

Another non-optimised deck. There is too much redundancy in the sept deck, and practice will show you which cards to remove; or if you need add extra gift-cancelling or Friends in High Places. I would suggest Memory Ribbon isn't a good choice for the deck, but Nightmare Coin might be.

The main alternative to this build is the Children of Gaia version which uses Pearl River (and maybe Harmon Truefriend) along with Eye of the Cobra. Eye is a powerful card, but you are substituting a one-off effect for the ongoing Caern of the Crescent Moon and the timing can make it more awkward - plus if it is cancelled you can be left wanting. (But the timing means you can take your target in Equip/Ally and then take their stuff.)
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