Blessed are the Cheese Makers

a 60 card Lotus/Ascended Deck

Designed by David Eber.

Notes

This deck is really more like two decks merged into one. It both brings out powerful, cheap characters quickly, and it takes control of your opponent's characters as well. It's worked fairly well in two player games, but has been untested in a multiplayer setting.

This deck uses the tried and true combination of the Walking Corpses along with Cave Networks and Proving Grounds for speed. In fact all of the characters can be brought out for free with a Cave Network or nearly for free with the Proving Grounds. Ideally, you want to play your characters as cheaply as possible so that you can use the excess power on your controlling cards. This deck relies on speed and agression up front. The Perpetual Motion Machine, Guiyu Zui, and the Monkey House lets you get through your deck more quickly, while the Whirlpools counteract any Fox Passes or Kinoshita Houses that might otherwise stymie you. Since almost all of the Feng Shui sites are weak, the securities help bolster them against counter attacks. One neat trick is to attack with a Walking Corpse, then use the Monkey King to put back in your hand so that you can resummon him on the same turn.

Should speed not do the trick, the control spells should give you the edge. The Necromantic Conspiracy is there to eliminate cards like Confucian Stabilities, as this deck is vulnerable to a strong defense. Also, a weenie deck will blunt its effectiveness, so you might want to replace some of the controlling cards with Infernal Plagues or other character killing cards. You could also drop the Pocket Demons. I've put them in because I like to keep a few comeback cards in my decks, just in case... If you wanted to really change the deck around, you could drop all the controlling cards and just focus on the speed aspect. Around here, Walking Corpses have gotten something of a reputation.

The deck gets its name from my opinion of the concept behind it. I mean, come on, what else can you say about someone who would put five Shadowy Mentors and Five Tortured Memories in one deck. ;-)

Flashpoint Update

[Webmaster's note: some of the updates David made are already done; the remaining notes are recommendations rather than absolutes.]

Well, I must admit I haven't played this deck in months, mainly because I'm embarassed that I ever made it. This is the kind of deck that would piss me off if I played against it, even if I didn't lose to it, and I really don't encourage this kind of play style. However, since I did write it I've got to live with it, and that means keeping it updated. Like I said, I haven't played it in a long time, so these are more like suggestions.

You may want to dump the four Securities. Though it makes your Cave Networks more vulnerable (especially to Smart Missiles), you are going on the offense, not sitting on defense. If you can't beat 'em down early you're supposed to steal them, and once you've gotten one use out of your Networks they're expendable anyway. I'd go with 3 Grenade Launchers or Shotguns for the Corpses along with either another Mole Network or a Cyclone of Knives to get through your deck quicker. You can work out the ratio of Networks to guns to your own taste.

Finally, you may want to dump the Evil Twin for a Thing With 1,000 Tongues. Sure, the Twin is cheaper, but you don't have anything great to copy, and the Thing is a lovely compliment to your Tortured Memories.