Shadowfist Deck: Wu Bin of Bat Island by Robin Parmar

Home > Decks > Decks: Wu Bin of Bat Island (CCG Workshop online Proving Ground Spring 2007 league winner)
[posted 5 Sep 2007]

Posted with permission. Thanks Robin! (and Jacob for hunting it down)

Robin Parmar won the final Final Brawl of the Spring 2007 Proving Ground league on CCG Workshop with this deck.

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5 Student of the Dragon
5 Redeemed Gunman
3 Hacker

2 Chinese Doctor
5 Wu Bin of Turtle Island
1 The Seven
1 Steven Wu
2 Red Bat

3 Kunlun Clan Assault
4 Final Brawl
4 Open a Can of Whupass
3 Back for Seconds
1 Got My Mojo Working
3 "Is That All You Got?" 
2 Fighting Spirit
2 Ashes of the Fallen
2 Scroll of Incantation
2 Dirk Wisely's Gambit
1 Old Hermit's Gambit
1 Just a Scratch
1 Kiii-YAAAH!

2 The Bazaar

5 Festival Circle
2 Booby-Trapped Tomb
2 Temple of Celestial Mercy
1 The Blue Moon Club
1 Stone Dolmens
1 Petroglyphs
1 Disco

This is the version of the deck I used to win the Spring 1007 Thunder Arena PGL. It starts with 10 cheap foundations and some Hackers. Between Dangerous Experiments and Bite of the Jellyfish these guys always pay the bills. I would play 5 of them except that slows the deck too much. Redeemed Gunman works very well in a metagame full of denial sites.

The deck is all about Wu Bin of Turtle Island. Play him and the usual Can of Whupass combo, then use Back for Seconds to storm your way through to two sites on a turn. Steven Wu is a bonus against Ascended and The Seven is for those games that lock down with lots of denial events and slow power accumulation.

If Wu Bin doesn't get a quick win then Red Bat can storm the late game. In the finals in question I had to discard several hitters after a terrible start. I had nothing left for win attempts except the Bats. But a free Red Bat with all the events this deck puts in the smoked pile, plus Back for Seconds -- that is a formidable thing.

About the events. Final Brawl is an absolute must. I feel a little guilty playing only 4. But for further removal there are 3 Kunlun Clan Assault. I have found this is enough to get the one resource needed for Bat. Wu Bin can always fetch a KCA if you don't draw one. But you likely will once The Bazaar starts working.

Between Fighting Spirit and Ashes of the Fallen you effectively have 8 Whupass Cans or 7 Back for Seconds. Likewise "Is That All You Got?" ups the Red Bat count to five. I am a big fan of all the Gambit events, not just the usual Dirk Wisely's. Again, the number of denial sites in the field mandates Old Hermit's Gambit. In other decks I use Ting Ting's Gambit, but with all the Independent characters here it works less well.

The sites are a mix of defense, anti-denial, alternative power generation and hand size boost. But Festival Circle is the most important FSS as it protects the valuable hitters.

The deck sticks close to the Rule of Fives but is a bit shy on hitters. That was a small mistake.

Just a Scratch is great in this deck but I couldn't fit more than one. Still, the whole point of this deck is that there are 7 ways to fetch a given event and then up to 4 ways to recycle it. Having one copy in the deck feels like any other deck containing three!

Playing this deck requires careful consideration of the opponents' decks. For example, what about Ascended? Wu Bin is rather good against Mentor, since he is huge in combo with Whupass and fetches a card very helpfully, but cannot provide these benefits for an opponent. Effectively then he is a vanilla 4 for 3... not a great Mentor investment. Wu and The Seven are immune to most trickery, so it's only in the case of Red Bat one must be very careful. Fetch and play a Stone Dolmens before putting out Bat against Ascended, or be very sure you are going to win on the turn he enters play. Hacker deals with Bite; Festival Circle handles Killdeer. So much for Ascended!

Against heavy denial decks keep up the pressure and try to play a second face-down Circle in addition to the face-up one your enemies know about. This can often waste enough of their power on futile events so that you can get a quick advantage. Even if Wu Bin keeps getting smoked, rejoice in the fact that they are filling up their smoked piles double fast... Red Bat smiles!

This deck is equally good in three- and four-player formats. There are so many other good Dragon cards that might make the cut. A lot depends on your personal play style. Try some variations and see what you like.

[writeup by Robin Parmar]

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