Shadowfist Deck: Village Green Preservation Society by Gavin Edwards

Home > Decks > Decks: Village Green Preservation Society (GenCon 2003 Final Brawl World Championship winner)
[posted 1 Jan 2007]

Posted with permission. Also appears in Kii-Yaaah! issue #4, which is not available on-line at this time.

Gavin Edwards won the multiplayer World Championship at GenCon 2003 using this deck.

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FOUNDATIONS
 5x Golden Candle Society
 2x Little Grasshopper
 1x Buddhist Monk
 3x Righteous Fist
 3x Righteous Protector

CHARACTERS
 5x Peasant Leader
 1x Blue Monk
 1x Xiaoyang Yun
 2x The Iron Monkey
 1x Leung Mui
 1x Yung Chang
 1x Billy Chow
 1x Quan Lo 

EVENTS
 2x Confucian Stability
 2x Festival of Giants
 5x Iron and Silk
 1x Heat of Battle
 1x Onslaught of the Turtle
 2x Rigorous Discipline
 1x Storm of the Just
 1x Wind on the Mountain

STATES
 1x Contract of the Fox
 4x Hands Without Shadow
 1x Mad Monkey Kung Fu
 1x The Fox Outfoxed

EDGES
 1x Chinese Connection
 3x Shield of Pure Soul

NON-FENG SHUI SITES
 1x Green Senshi Chamber
 1x Yellow Senshi Chamber
 1x Violet Senshi Chamber

FENG SHUI SITES
 1x City Park
 1x Fox Pass
 1x Kinoshita House
 2x Maze of Stairs
 2x Puzzle Garden
 1x Roller Rink
 1x Sacred Heart Hospital
 1x Temple of the Angry Spirits
 1x Temple of Boundless Meditation
 1x Temple of Celestial Mercy
 3x Whirlpool of Blood

I'm an aggressive player: a shark rather than a turtle. So in five years of Shadowfist, this was only the second Guiding Hand deck I ever built. It’s got two ways to win: the first is the amazing Peasant Leader / Hands Without Shadow combination. (A tip of the hat to Joshua Kronengold, who pointed it out to me.) Hands on my interceptor reduces an opposing player’s hitter (the White Ninja, say) to just one fighting, which means the Peasant Leader can then grab her. When I turn the Ninja to heal--and this is the beautiful part--I still maintain control over her. (I mean “beautiful” in the Shadowfist sense of “makes opponents want to gouge out their eyes,” of course.)

Of course, the Leaders are only 1 fighting, so they’re somewhat fragile-- especially to Final Brawl. The Festival of Giants and Confucian Stability cards are both there to protect against that, but I can’t count on my little demagogues staying alive. So the second way to win is just to start dropping some of the Hand’s excellent hitters, maybe using Rigorous Discipline to pass Superleap around or using Quan Lo as the coup de grace for a Superleaping army.

The deck has very little in the way of alternate power generation events--just one Heat of Battle. But it does have the crucial Shield of Pure Soul, a Fox Outfoxed, the Iron Monkey, and Yung Chang, all of which improve power flow. In addition, I count on being able to keep my FSS, both with their defensive abilities and a steady supply of Iron and Silk. (Healing them with Chinese Connection or Yung Chang is a fun trick too.)

I trimmed down the deck from the high 70s to the low 70s before GenCon; one card I was especially sorry to see go was Superior Mastery, which allows you to slap Hands Without Shadow as a surprise on an interceptor during someone else’s Main Shot (or Mad Monkey Kung Fu on a Peasant Leader, letting him steal a four-fighting character). It would be interesting to build a different version of this deck more focused on the good Hand and Chi States, starting with swapping in Fortune of the Turtle for Confucian Stability.

The deck has a lot of interesting ways to combo, of course; on the turn where I made my winning attack in the world-championship game, I didn’t pull a hitter. I did, however, draw a Righteous Protector. The Temple of Boundless Meditation made him 6 Fighting, while the Violet Senshi Chamber gave him Superleap (from the dead Billy Chow in Dan Mauldin’s smoked pile), and my jury-rigged beating stick won me the game.

Part of the reason I do well with this deck is that it makes me play in a way counter to my usual tendencies – I have to marshal my strength, while I can still go hit something when I see a ripe opportunity. Any Shadowfist player could benefit from the same exercise: if you’re usually a cautious turtle, try a deck that makes you come out swinging instead. Your game will benefit.

[writeup by Gavin Edwards]

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