Lotus Hocus-Pocus

by Nithyan Thiruudaian
June 29, 1998

2 Banish
5 Eunuch Underling
5 Evil Twin
5 Glimpse of the Abyss
5 Infernal Temple
1 Jueding Shelun
4 Kun Kan
2 Necromantic Conspiracy
2 Purist Sorcerer
2 Shifting Loyalties
5 Sinister Priest
1 Sung Hi
1 Tanbi Guiawu
4 Thing with 1000 Tongues
5 Tortured Memories
3 Vassals of the Lotus
2 Queen of the Ice Pagoda
1 White Ninja (new)
4 City Park
1 Dragon Mountain
1 Fortress of Shadow
4 Inner Sanctum
1 Kinoshita House
2 Pinball Hall
1 Sacred Ground
1 Turtle Beach
3 Alchemist's Lair (Magic)
4 Amulet of the Turtle
4 Discerning Fire
4 Memory Reprocessing
5 Pocket Demon
4 Scroll of Incantation
4 Shattering Fire
2 The Hungry
= 100 cards

Analysis

By Cost

10 0
26 1
27 2
5 3
4 4
2 5
7 6
2.01 average cost (excluding variable)

By Faction

52 Eaters of Lotus
2 Monarchs
1 Neutral
15 Neutral/FS
30 Neutral/Magic

By Fighting

8 1
8 2
- 3
- 4
4 5
- 6
1 7
1 8
5 9
2 10
4.28 average fighting (by character)
1.24 average fighting (by card)

By Foundation

18 Eaters of Lotus
2 Monarchs

By Function

25 Extra Power
4 Mass Effect
4 Recycler
4 Sniper
7 Theft
9 Thug
19 Victory Denial
9 Will not Die
1 Ambush

Percentages

20% Base resource
15% Feng Shui
8% Site
23% Magic

By Rarity

18 Very Common
35 Common
25 Uncommon
22 Rare (22%)

By Set

65 Limited
16 Netherworld
18 Flashpoint
1 Promo

By Sex

8 Females
16 Males

By Type

34 Characters
2 Edges
37 Events
15 Feng Shui Sites
8 Sites
4 States

Notes

This is the deck which Nithyan used to win Flashpoint Finchley XXIII. We were playing with RetroFist rules but the deck only makes a token nod to this by playing Tanbi Guiawu in place of a fifth Thing with 1000 Tongues.
The deck does not maximise its one nasty combo - Kun Kan/Evil Twin/The Hungry/Glimpse of the Abyss. Instead it maintains the flexibility you need for a multi-player game. It contains many ways to shut down the opposition and many ways to win. The Thing with 1000 Tongues is foremost amongst these. It dominated this tournament for a sixth month streak in 97 and may now be making a Golden Comeback.
Nithyan takes chances with a low proportion of both feng shui sites and foundation characters. The Pocket Demons are frequently used tomake up for the lack of sites. The foundation characters are not so critical in a single faction deck - you just have to discard aggressively at the start of the game.
The deck is built big for the multi-player game - one game it played saw another player exhaust a 50 card deck. You might expect that it would then have trouble in a two-player game but, as the final showed, it can be quite lethal there too.

Last modified: October 1, 1998.
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