Men In Black

By Tomasi Akimeta, Jr.

You will conform to the identity WE give you.
You will have NO identifying marks of any kind.
You will NOT stand out in any way.
Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory WHATSOEVER.

You're a RUMOR.
Recognizable only as Deja Vu...
And dismissed just as quickly.

You don't exist:
You were never even born.
Anonymity is your name...
Silence is your Native Tongue...

You are no longer part of the "System".
We are above the "System".

OVER IT.

BEYOND IT.

We are "THEM".
We are "THEY".
We are...

(fade to: giant MIB logo zooming out into the background with "Men In Black" theme music blazing)

Feng Shui Sites

4 City Park
2 Fortress of Shadow
2 Festival Circle
1 Ring of Gates
1 Whirlpool of Blood

Sites

2 Family Estate

Foundation Characters

5 Test Subjects ("Meet the twins... this is MuEEd'Gi-AaP, and Bob...)"
4 The Pledged ("No ma'am, we at the FBI don't have a sense of humor that we're aware of...")
2 PubOrd Officer ("There is no Division 6...")
1 Student of the Bear ("You're useless, Beatrice! The only thing that pulls its weight around here is my g**damn TRUCK!")

Hitters

4 Gruff Lieutenant (Tommy Lee Jones)
4 Midnight Whisper (Will Smith)

Events

5 Bull Market ("We hold a couple of patents on certain items... liposuction, microwave, velcro...")
2 State of Emergency ("We'll take it from here...")
2 Operation Killdeer ("We have one more test for you. The "Eye Exam")
2 Cellular Reinvigoration ("I'm goin' back for my gun...")
2 Neutron Bomb ("Okay, boys... right on time. Gimme a splay burn on the perimiter, please, with holes at 40, 60, and 80.")

States

5 Sucker Rounds ("Series 4, De-Atomizer... The 'Noisy Cricket'...")
3 Shadowy Mentor (*FLASH!* "Okay, Beatrice. There was no alien, and the flash of light you saw in the sky wasn't a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather ballon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light from Venus...")
1 Mega Tank ("All the technology in the Universe, and we have to drive a Ford... 'P.O.S'...")

Card Total: 56

*Add-Ins: 2 Lodge Politics (The Neuralizer doesn't work well with Adrienne Hart, so we have to blackmail her...)

**Possible Add-Ins: 2 Supercomputer ("This is our Resources Room, where we keep all of our 'goodies'...")

Notes

This deck is just an overall fun deck to play. When played patiently and thoruoghly, it does increadibly well I won two 4P's in four turns, twice in a row, once!).

The strategy behind this deck is to arm a Midnight Whisper or a Gruff Lieutenant with one or two Sucker Rounds, play 1 or 2 Bull Market, and go and kill! (Not necessarily in that order, mind you, but you get the idea...)

DO NOT! play your Bull Markets before you're sure you've got the upper hand, somehow. If you've played a Neutron before the beginning of your turn, good... if you've got a State of Emergency, and your confident enough, good... if you're at least two or one site away from winning, and you've got sites to help you and events/states to do the same, then go and win.

State of Emergency is such a great and underrated card when played along with a Bull Market, especially when you're making your bid for victory. You throw down what ever you've got in your hand, play a Bull Market, then a State of Emergency... Lather, rinse, repeat...

*The Lodge Politics are there for double-duty: take Ascended cards that you need (either for muscle, resources, whatever... it works great against Adrienne!), or to back up the Shadowy's.

**Supercomputer helps this deck *A LOT!* More cards in hand is definitely a good thing, because you have more potential to do cool things. Works great with State of Emergency!

Cellular Reinvigoration is also cool both offensively and defensively. If your Sucker Rounds armed guy is about to bite it from blockers, feed him a fat bowl of Wheaties, and he's good to go! Also, if you're out of zaps, and your opponent goes in for the win with one large attack, just play it on a blocking character, and it'll take up all_the_damage from a single attacking character! Great card!

I found that timing issues are important with this deck. Aside from Bull Market, play your cards *IN RESPONSE* to others... someone zaps your character? Use a Festival, or if you've got enough power, drop a MegaTank. Someone Final Brawls/ Mark Of Fire? That's when you drop your Sucker Rounds/ Festival.

Be very cautious about others making bids for the win. Make sure that opponents cannot do anything before striking; make sure they've emptied their hands of their zaps and character stoppers on each other, save your Neutrons for the last minute until you're sure that nothing else can be done.

I've made the mistake of blowing my wad too early many a time in tournaments, and therefore ending up losing. I had the potential to have a 23 Fighting, Toughness: 2 with Ambush character get killed because I wasn't patient enough.

This deck definetly has a play style to it, so you have to adjust heavily when playing it, and *BE EXTREMELY PATIENT!* You'll get what you need in due time (this is usually the case with most decks, but with this one, I try to stress it).

Thanks to Jose for making the original!

Last modified: July 30, 1997.