|
back to Articles |
||
|
Deckbuilders Diary - Arcane Lockdown, by Gentlemaniac The plot I've been trying out various concepts for a mono-Yog deck now for some time, and I finally think I've managed a somewhat competitive build. The key card (no pun intended) is Master of the Key, which keeps all characters from refreshing in the refresh phase. Thus, the deck focuses around keeping him in play and taking advantage of his ability. Keeping such a fragile character alive isn't easy; in fact I'm not even trying. Instead, I'm using Unspeakable Resurrection to keep him bouncing back, and Shining Trapezohedron to keep it in hand. With these cards, I can keep opposing characters down, and even have my opponent repeatedly wasting a 3-point domain without achieving anything. Character parts With a continuously recurring Master in play, it's time to capitalize on it. The first priority is keeping my own characters ready. Lots of arcane is good for that, so I add Servant of the Key, Glass from Leng and Guru of the Forgotten Way. The latter forces my hand quite a bit when it comes to characters; if I want to benefit from his presence, I need more cultists. Which is just what I've been planning. I therefore add Render of Veils, Disciple of the Gate, Son of Yeb and Omar Shakti. Mr. Shakti interacts beautifully with Master of the Key; their special abilities work even while they're exhausted, and if the Master gets in the way of my own characters, he becomes ammo for Omar. Such a wealth of arcane icons simply demands the presence of Yog-Sothoth himself, so I add him (the Eldritch version of course), along with Child of the Fire Mist. Extras With the core cards in place and a good selection of characters, it's time to look at more events. For a competitive mono-deck, Born in the Spheres is a given. Screaming of the Spheres is great for its versatility; it kills potentially devastating day cards, gives me surprise icons to handle opposing characters at stories, and speeds up my story grabbing by giving me some investigation access. Yog-Sothoth is getting a nice selection of character removal events, and for this build, A Single Glimpse is easily the best – it's perfect for taking out the characters Omar can't handle, and isn't stopped by arcane icons or high skill. Final editing At this point, depending on how many copies you have added of the various cards, you may have some space to spare. Personally, I'm two cards short of fifty, and I intend to cut it close. With toughness being increasingly common, Temple of Ramasekva is tempting, and has worked well in play. Chant of Thoth is also a beautiful card for recycling lost Traps and playing a second Glimpse. However, with Forgotten Cities out, locations are becoming more and more of a problem, and so far I'm a bit short on support destruction. Political Demonstration is the obvious answer; it's free, flexible and easily recycled, and the deck should have enough combat and arcane in the deck to fulfil the response trigger easily enough. Other alternatives include Rending the Veil, which deals with locations without going out-of-faction (after all, character attachments are easy enough to deal with, and those are the most likely threats), and Dream Messenger, which provides the most flexible destruction available, but only when coupled with Screaming of the Spheres or another night card. Alternative scenes If you feel you have too few copies of the core cards, consider Pnakotic Manuscripts. In fact, it should be considered even if you feel you have the bases covered, since it's handy for getting the right card at the right time. If you're on a budget, Daughter of Nug can replace Born in the Spheres, but she becomes useless once Master of the Key hits the table, and doesn't affect your most expensive card, the Shining Trap. Guru of the Forgotten Way can be replaced by Pharaonic Mask, but only as a half measure. Sequels By dropping some of the non-essential cards and adding some discard tech, the Arcane Lockdown engine lends itself beautifully to a discard deck. Gatekeeper and Aklo Sabaoth is a lethal combo of commons, easily capable of discard twelve, fifteen or even more cards in one round, especially when combined with Glass from Leng. This concept can be further explored by mixing in Hastur cards, but I haven't tried this myself yet. Shub-Niggurath has many cards that can be added for increased fun, especially Mi-Go Brain Case (I can hardly think of a better use for it). Shub also has some excellent cultists and some really exciting skill and icon manipulation cards; we may finally have found a good use for Horns of the Black Goat. Director's Cut The way I play it, this deck is quite fast, with a surprising amount of staying power and flexibility. It has beaten a wide array of strong decks, although I suspect it'll struggle against a well-tuned insanity deck. It may not be top tier, but with some tuning, it could come very close. Now playing
This is the version I'm currently using. It may not be optimal, but it works well enough; I'll probably tune it a bit before the next tournament; hopefully I'll have another Born in the Spheres to add.  - GentlemaniacBig thank you to Gentlemaniac for this second DD. I enjoyed it a lot and it gave me several ideas. I hope it also inspired more people to write this sort of article. Now off with you to the message boards to discuss! :) - xedric
|
||
|
back to Articles |