Shadowfist Deck: Stitches by Jose Garcia

Home > Decks > Decks: Stitches (1996)
[posted 29 Jul 2005]

Originally posted to rec.games.trading-cards.misc on 18 Mar 1996 by Jose Garcia. I can't find Jose to ask permission, but I don't think he minds. Read the original with a newsreader or Google if you prefer.

Jose Garcia (Shadowfist co-designer) designed this classic Shadowfist deck. It's not as effective in the Z-Man era due to the errata to Pocket Demon, but it can still kick butt with a few updates. The basic formula also works in multiplayer, but usually stocks Neutron Bombs to clear the table so a Golden Comeback-ed Independent hitter can go in for the win.

STITCHES
by Jose Garcia (48 cards)

I'm more or less retiring Stiches (if you see me at an event and want to play against it, I'll probably oblige but I won't be using it as a default). Here's the Stitches recipe along with what it does. I recommend that you give it a whirl, it's an extremely fast (brings CHAR out on turn 2 routinely) and brutal deck that can come back from almost any setback.

 5 Proving Ground
 3 Monkey House
 2 Any other site you wish (I prefer Inner Sanctum and Pinball Hall)
 5 DNA Mage
 5 Friends of the Dragon
 5 Vivisector
 3 Arcanotechnician
 3 CHAR
 2 Ting Ting (substitutes: Mad Dog or Silver Fist)
 2 Golden Gunman (substitutes: Iala Mane or Jack Donovan)
 5 Golden Comeback
 5 Pocket Demon
 2 Imprison
 1 Nerve Gas

This deck revolves around two combos: Proving Ground/Pocket Demon and Vivisector/Golden Comeback. Arcanotechnicians are used to recycle the Golden Comebacks and Pocket Demons (and sometimes the Vivisectors) to keep your power flowing.

Here's a typical opening:

Let my opponent go first

Turn 1, discard aggressively, optimally I want a DNA Mage, a Proving Ground and a Pocket Demon, but usually I have to settle for 2 out of the 3.
Play Proving Ground and DNA Mage.

End of my opponent's second turn, reveal Proving Ground.

Start of my second turn,
Play Pocket Demon (chances are my opponent has 2 feng shui sites at the moment), generate 2 power.
Turn Proving Ground and pay 2 power to play CHAR.
Kick ass.

Later on...

Attack with CHAR.

Vivisect CHAR after the attack (or if an opponent tries to Imprison him) then I have a series of options:

Golden Comeback CHAR, attack and Vivisect him again. Repeat as often as possible (you'd be suprised how often you'll be able to).

Or play Ting Ting or the Golden Gunman, attack with them, if you have a Golden Comeback in your hand or in your smoked pile (and an unturned Arcanotechnician), vivisect them and then play Golden Comeback (they come back into play unturned and ready to attack again).

Once Stitches gets rolling it's a true terror to behold, if played correctly it can routinely attack 2 or 3 times with heavy hitters (sometimes it's the same heavy hitter over and over again). And no matter how badly I'm being slammed, a comeback is only a Pocket Demon away (provided that I haven't been recently stripped by an Inauspicous Reburial).

I've often come back from devastating setbacks using this deck, including times when my opponent controlled 5 feng shui sites, a number of characters and I had nothing (no power, no sites, no characters). I've also had some incredibly stunning and brutal victories with this deck, last week I went from 1 feng shui site to 6 in a single turn (granted my opponent was floundering and ineffectual).

General play tips:

Inauspicious Reburial hurts this deck, when playing against the Lotus, Imprison their characters and recycle your Imprisons with Arcanotechnicians. Chances are that you'll be outproducing them in the power department with this deck and you have a good chance of keeping them from accumulating a lot of resources in this fashion. Avoid killing their characters, keep them on the ropes and don't park your characters in the smoked pile unless you have a Golden Comeback and the power needed to play it on hand. Also don't attack or intercept with your foundation characters when playing the Lotus, try to keep them in play as long as possible (therefore the resources they provide will be safe).

Avoid playing the Golden Gunman when playing against the Ascended (unless you have an unturned Vivisector handy), if they Shadowy Mentor him you won't be able to get rid of him.

Never play more than 2 sites, burn for victory, use Monkey House to discard the feng shui sites you draw. The exception being situations where your opponent has no sites for you to take in which case you'll have to play your own. If your opponent controls a Proving Ground make it your preferred target if possible (as you don't get any power from it using your Pocket Demons).

Don't reveal your Proving Ground at the beginning of the game unless you have a magic resource in your pool (to avoid getting stuck just in case your opponent steals your power and has a Whirlpool of Blood).

Jose Garcia
Shadowfist Co-Designer

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