Dragons go Boom

Notes

Can you tell I like working in fours? I tend to go 60-70 cards, and if I group in fours it lets me keep even distributions of specific instances of one card in a type. Right now, I'm sticking to something close to 1/5 FS sites, 1/5 States, 1/5 Events, 1/5 resource producers, and 1/5 resource requiring characters. This may change, but it's worked well in our play group so far.

Specifically, in this deck, I start out with Inner Sanctums. I love them. Big and tough and sturdy. Follow up with Stone Gardens to make them even stronger; the Stone Gardens also protect the crucial Proving Grounds. The Proving Grounds are important because this deck doesn't generate power quicker than the average, and we have some pricy characters in there. We'll need all the help we can get to get them out.

Next up: Events. I work around the key annoying Dragon events here. Final Brawl is incredibly useful to get rid of White Disciples, Vivisectors, Swiss Bankers, Gardeners, Chinese Doctors... everyone has a few of those weak characters with annoying effects. Final Brawl removes them. Or stops an attack that would otherwise just barely have taken a site. Lots of good uses. Last Outpost is a complement to Final Brawl. It also comes in handy in its own right sometimes. I don't like it as much, which is why there aren't as many of them.

Golden Comeback goes without saying; once you see a Big Bruiser in play from this deck, you know you'll see him again. And again. And finally, Thunder on Thunder gets rid of all manner of annoying Edges. The Dragons don't have many cards at all that'll do anything but fight, so I want to make use of the ones we have.

States. Is there any question? Training Sequences and Really Big Guns are cheap and effective. (I might try swapping in some Bags of Guns for the Training Sequences, later on, though.) Explosives are the other key to this deck, along with Proving Grounds. Get out a big character, get an Explosives on him, and he can afford to be whittled down a long way as long as he (or she) gets to the site. Boom.

My characters have changed a bit in this incarnation of the deck. Right now I'm a bit short on resource producing characters, and I've made it up with Houses on the Hill. If this doesn't work, I may be forced to alter my mix a bit. However, I've also added three Chinese Doctors and two Proving Grounds and two Golden Comebacks; I believe this will have the effect of de facto increasing the number of characters I get out and keep out.

Anyway, what I actually have: eleven resource producers, mixed pretty evenly between four out of the five resource producing characters in the Dragons. I left out Dragon Fighters, because frankly, if I have four power I probably have a Dragon resource, and if I have a Dragon resource I can spend three power and get out a Masked Avenger -- four Fighting *and* a power -- or a Silver Band, who's got five Fighting.

I also have two of both the aforementioned Masked Avengers and Silver Bands plus a Silver Fist for my three to four cost midrange. That makes five reasonably studly cards that can be very cheap to get out. Finish up the tough end of the spectrum with two Big Bruisers, Oscar Balbuena, and most important Kar Fai, and I've got a nice even blend of toughness. Plus Kar Fai makes people turn pale.

Oh, and finally, the Chinese Doctors are a) incredibly annoying and b) incredibly useful.

I left out my Zheng Yi Quan cause I really only need one monster, and I chose Oscar Balbuena over Iala Mane because I have two Oscar Balbuenas, and another deck planned. I'd rather have Oscar and Iala than two Oscars, for planning purposes. (Or something like that. Maybe I'm lying, since I have another deck with two Dracos.) I also have a few Dragon Adepts, but the Silver Bands were far more appealing. I suspect I don't know how to use Independent properly, but you have to make your choices somehow.

And, to wrap it all up, three Houses on the Hill. More power, and a nice effect that blends well with Dragons, and more resources. Whee!