Kings and Things

by Jonathan Pickles January 29, 1997

1 Chains of Bone
4 Eunuch Underling
3 Evil Twin
5 Glimpse of the Abyss
5 Sinister Priest
4 Thing with 1000 Tongues
4 Tortured Memories
1 Arcanotechnician
3 Cellular Reinvigoration
3 DNA Mage
2 King of the Thunder Pagoda
2 Queen of the Ice Pagoda
1 Birdhouse Cafe
2 City Park
3 Discerning Fire
3 Fortress of Shadow
3 Monkey House
1 Night Market
5 Pocket Demon
4 Proving Ground
3 Pump-Action Shotgun
4 The Hungry
2 Year of the Rat
= 68 cards

Stats:

BY TYPE
24 Characters
5 Edges
22 Events
14 Feng Shui Sites
3 States
BY COST
10 0 cost
18 1 cost
12 2 cost
3 3 cost
8 6 cost
17 variable cost
1.94 average cost (excluding variable)
BY FIGHTING
9 1 fighting
4 2 fighting
4 9 fighting
2 10 fighting
2 12 fighting
4.62 average fighting (by character)
1.43 average fighting (by card)
BY FOUNDATION
9 Eaters of Lotus
3 Architects of the Flesh
4 Monarchs
PERCENTAGES
24% Base resource
21% Feng Shui
31% Magic
6% Tech
BY SET
40 Limited
14 Netherworld
14 Flashpoint
BY RARITY
9 Very Common
28 Common
20 Uncommon
11 Rares
BY FACTION
26 Eaters of Lotus
7 Architects of the Flesh
4 Monarchs
31 Neutral

Notes:

Jonathan normally plays at Just Games and this deck takes its name from Tom Wham's amusing boardgame. In its ideal form, it has 4 Kings of the Thunder Pagoda and 4 Things with 1000 Tongues. He had some help in collecting the requisite Things but still needs more Kings to match them. The substitute Queens do help protect the big hitters from Shadowy Mentors though. He would also like more Evil Twins to magnify the numbers of both.
The deck doesn't need much resource to get going - one Sinister Priest will do. The Kings act as foundation characters too, opening the way for The Hungry and the Things. Once the snowball is rolling, it is very hard to stop as one big hitter follows another. If a big stopper like Neutron Bomb clears the table then Glimpse of the Abyss can get you rolling again. It's a bit like a DE deck with Sgt Blightmen and CHARs.
It has a reasonable ability to stop other attempts to win. Apart from using its big boys to intercept, it can use big events like Tortured Memories, Discerning Fire and Year of the Rat to take down a serious threat.
The deck is tight by London standards but still has enough bulk to last out a long multi-player game. It will be strong in smaller games too - 2 or 3 player games - these tend to be the nemesis of much larger decks. Is it the start of a new trend in London deck design? Watch this space...

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
Please send comments to nickolof@scf.usc.edu.
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