Shadowfist No-Rares Decks by Erik Berg

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Home > Decks > Decks: No-Rares Decks
[posted 15 Jun 2003]

Submitted by Erik Berg on 10 and 13 Jun 2003. Copyleft 2003 (see the legal page) by Erik Berg.

Erik Berg sent me this series of mono-faction rareless decks in June 2003. Some of the decks use a few of the Fixed cards from 10,000 Bullets, which you may or may not consider to be rare, but I'm willing to go for it :)

Architects of the Flesh
Ascended

Dragons
Eaters of the Lotus
Four Monarchs
Guiding Hand
Jammers
Purists


Ascended

  5 Might of the Elephant
  5 The Pledged
  5 Student of the Bear
  4 Swiss Banker
  2 Cabinet Minister

  4 Shadowy Mentor
  4 Dirty Tricks
  4 Covert Operations
  4 Operation Killdeer
  2 Faked Death
  1 Realpolitik
  1 Pulling Strings

  3 Paper Trail

  4 Family Estate

  2 Coral Reef
  2 Whirlpool of Blood
  2 Festival Circle
  1 Gambling House
  1 Disco
  1 Möbius Garden
  2 City Park

Get a Family Estate out as soon as possible and start cranking out the Pledged guys just like in 1997, but Dirty Tricks puts Paper Trail over the top as far as power generation goes. Might of the Elephant is the obvious hitter for this deck, but don’t be afraid to just Mentor everyone else’s stuff and save your power to drop two Mights in a turn to go for the win.

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Architects of the Flesh

  5 Test Subjects
  5 DNA Mage
  1 Plasma Trooper

  5 CHAR
  2 Assault Drone
  3 Blood Reaver
  1 Magog*

  2 Vivisector
  2 Arcanotechnician

  1 Megatank
  1 BuroMil Godhammer

  2 Reinvigoration Process

  1 Dangerous Experiment*
  1 Neutron Bomb*
  2 Cellular Reinvigoration
  2 Expendable Unit
  3 Imprison
  1 Discerning Fire
  3 Pocket Demon

  1 Temple of Celestial Mercy*
  3 City Park
  2 Whirlpool of Blood
  1 Gambling House
  1 Waterfall Sactuary
  1 Festival Circle
  2 Puzzle Garden

Cards marked with the * come fixed in the 10,000 Bullets Architect starter, but may be considered rare in some circles. This deck is a counter-puncher, seeking out opportunities after other players have committed to large attacks. The deck requires a lot of patience, as you’ll look at your hand and say "I could do a lot of killing," but remember that the Architects don’t have a lot of comeback cards. Be careful in committing your power and characters, but be ready to swoop in after everyone else has tuckered themselves out.

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Purists

  5 Purist Initiate
  5 Mathmagician
  2 Arcane Scientist

  2 Inoue Oram
  3 Zen Logician

  3 Void Sorceror
  3 Cognitive Spirit*

  3 Mutator
  2 Hexagram Spirit
  2 Isomophic Spirit*
  1 Father of Chaos*

  5 Amulet of the Turtle
  2 Portal Nexus

  3 Quantum Sorcery

  4 Entropy Sphere
  1 Discerning Fire
  3 Pocket Demon

  1 Paradox Garden

  1 Roller Rink
  1 Pinball Hall
  1 Primeval Forest
  1 Temple of Angry Spirits
  1 Maze of Stairs
  1 Puzzle Garden
  1 Curio Shop
  1 City Park
  2 Gambling House
  2 Proving Ground

Cards marked with the * come fixed in the 10,000 Bullets Purist starter, but may be considered rare in some circles. This deck can generate tons of power, much like the Ascended deck above. Roller Rink can be used to get back your small to medium guys with Entropy Sphere damage, and shuffled around with Portal Nexus (just like everything else). Proving Ground and Gambling House are abusable with Mutators. There are lots of little tricks with the Purists, or as a wiser man than me once said "The people who play Purists tend to be UNIX nerds."

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Jammers

  5 Punks
  5 Just Another Consumer
  2 Portal Jockey

  5 Dump Scrounger

  4 Gorilla Fighter
  3 Napalm Addict
  2 Flying Monkey Squad

  4 In Your Face Again
  2 Who’s the Monkey Now?
  1 Too Much Monkey Business
  4 Scrounging
  2 Close Call
  1 Parting Gift

  3 Homemade Tank

  3 Payback Time

  5 Turtle Island
  1 Gambling House
  1 Hot Springs
  1 Whirlpool of Blood
  1 Festival Circle
  1 Ring of Gates
  1 Jade Valley

The deck relies on Tech to get going, full-speed, so make sure you discard aggressively until you get a Dump Scrounger in play. Homemade Tanks are for the quick Burn for Power if you need it, or to make sure that you take the site you need. They are obviously good on Napalm Addict, but Flying Monkey Squad has won a couple of games around here, sometimes piloting a Tank. Turtle Island feeds your Scrounging and Gorilla Fighter, plus you get Payback Time even if an opponent smokes the site.

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Dragons

  5 Redeemed Gunman
  4 Student of the Dragon
  3 Hacker

  4 Ex-Commando
  3 Karate Cop
  2 Netherworld Vet

  5 Both Guns Blazing
  5 Shotgun
  3 Submachine Gun
  3 Brick House

  2 Slo-Mo Vengeance
  2 Golden Comeback
  2 Dirk Wiseley's Gambit
  1 Back for Seconds
  1 Ting Ting's Gambit

  1 Gambling House
  1 Whirlpool of Blood
  3 Festival Circle
  1 Petroglyphs
  1 City Hospital
  1 Hot Springs
  3 Nine Dragon Temple

Gun Decks are the tried and true Dragon no-rare build, but this goes a little further with the addition of 10KB cards like Karate Cop and Submachine Gun. Festival Circle is pretty necessary, but not too hard to take back if it was stolen, so make sure you save those extra Redeemed Gunmans you draw incase you need to take it (or another turning site) back from an opponent who seized your FSS.

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Four Monarchs

 12 Thunder Knight play-as-printed (Netherworld 2)

  4 Butterfly Knight

  5 Netherworld Return
  1 Mark of Fire
  2 Avenging Thunder
  2 Blood and Thunder
  4 Snowblind
  4 Battle Cry

  2 Avenging Fire
  3 Prisoner of the Monarchs

  4 Fanaticism

  5 Bandit Hideout

  4 Proving Ground
  2 Whirlpool of Blood
  4 Fortress of Shadow
  1 Gambling House
  1 Desolate Ridge

Hide your sites behind Bandit Hideouts after playing your first column. The deck tries to avoid Whirlpool lock with Bandit Hideouts and Avenging Thunder, but be careful with the power management, as there isn't a whole lot of comeback available for a straight Thunder deck. Battle Cry works off of all Battleground sites in play, so don't worry about losing your Bandit Hideouts too much--most players will seize them.

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Eaters of the Lotus

  5 Sinister Priest
  5 Palace Guards
  2 Earth Poisoner

  2 White Disciple
  3 Evil Twin
  5 Walking Corpses

  4 Kun Kan
  1 Destroyer (he was uncommon in Flashpoint)

  4 The Hungry
 
  3 Glimpse of the Abyss
  3 Pocket Demon
  3 Tortured Memories
  2 Corruption
  3 Die!!!
  2 Flying Sleeves
  1 Inauspicious Return

  4 Fortress of Shadow
  4 Proving Ground
  2 Whirlpool of Blood
  2 City Park

Even though this deck hasn't changed much since Limited, it has seen small but important improvements throughout the evolution of the game. Glimpse of the Abyss has been a major improvement due to the errata of Pocket Demon, and the events from Throne War help solidify the defense. Corruption is an amazing card that severely punishes decks with lots of rare hitters, and makes attacking second and third columns much, much easier. Burn early and burn often with this one.

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Guiding Hand

  5 Golden Candle Society
  2 Kung Fu Student
  1 Righteous Fist
  4 Rebel Consumer

  2 Gardener
  2 Fist of Shadow
  3 Impoverished Monk

  4 Blue Monk
  3 Virtuous Hood

  1 Flying Sword Stance
  4 Butterfly Swords
  3 Nunchucks

  3 Violet Meditation
  1 Blood of the Valiant
  1 Festival of Giants
  1 Dark's Soft Whisper
  2 Blade Palm
  1 Robust Feng Shui
  2 Confucian Stability

  3 Shield of Pure Soul

  1 Gambling House
  1 Disco
  1 Desolate Ridge
  1 Waterfall Sanctuary
  1 Whirlpool of Blood
  2 Coral Reef
  5 Eagle Mountain

A little bit of everything, but the Hand is pretty good at everything. Impoverished Monk and Virtuous Hood don't attack well together, but Eagle Mountain makes sure that your Monks and Consumers get though the weenies that will doubtless be thrown in their way. There are a lot of strategies in the deck, and the nice thing is that you can shift up half-way through the game. Of course, the converse is true as well: you can draw cards that are inappropriate for the board position throughout the game.

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