What? No title like Fistful Factions of Fury? Drafty Dragons and Sinful Syndicate?
Nope.
So, I mentioned last time we did a Shadowfist draft last Saturday as part of a game day barbeque. There were like 11 people who could have played a Shadowfist tournament, far more than KublaCon. We had 8 for the draft, two people who were largely unfamiliar with Shadowfist.
We only got one game in at each of the four-player tables as it got too late by the time our untimed game finished.
Earl won our game. Here is his deck:
Name: Earl’s Deck
Faction: Architects & Hand
Size: 39
Architects Cards (15)
Characters (10)
1x Destroyer Drone
2x DNA Mage
1x PubOrd Officer
1x Security Officers
1x Simon Draskovic
3x Test Subjects
1x Thing with a 1000
Events (5)
3x Cellular Reinvigoration
1x Dangerous Experiment
1x Expendable Unit
Hand Cards (13)
Characters (11)
1x Acupressure Master
1x Exiled Monk
1x Fist of Freedom
1x Fist of Shadow
1x Instrument of the Hand
1x Kung Fu Student
1x Railroad Workers
1x Righteous Fist
1x Stoic Wanderer
1x Willow Warriors
1x Zhu Maichen
Sites (2)
1x Mountain Monastery
1x Violet Senshi Chamber
Generic Cards (11)
Events (1)
1x Orbital Laser Strike
Feng Shui Sites (8)
2x Blessed Orchard
1x Hydroponic Garden
1x Mirrored Lake
1x Monkey House
1x Stone Garden
1x Tangram Alley
1x Turtle Beach
Sites (2)
1x Drug Lab
1x Trade Center
I passed a Trade Center. I think I took something cool over it. Three Cellular Reinvigorations is nuts and how Earl won off of Destroyer Drone being immune to Miguel’s Nerve Gas.
Only 39 cards I can find (was it 40?) … in that I played more. Shows how bad I am at Shadowfist draft.
We could choose two pods to get foundation characters and we got a FSS pod to supplement drafted cards. This need to give people extra cards heavily suggests the value of cubery. The Borg has won, we must all be assimilated into drafting materials not in original wrappers.
Interesting cards in Earl’s sideboard: 2x Realpolitik; Really Big Gun (I thought it was good enough to play …); Buddhist Monk (guess Chi really wasn’t needed); Master Hao (I avoided high resource characters that, apparently, wasn’t necessary to do); Lui Man Wai (Senshi Chambers not so rare in this draft).
Miguel was the early game threat that kept requiring containment. I don’t know his precise deck as he didn’t keep it together, for instance, I know he had General Gog but I don’t see it in the card stack.
Name: Miguel’s Deck
Faction: Architects & Dragon
Size: 55
Architects Cards (16)
Characters (12)
1x Alpha Beast
2x Arcanotechnician
1x DNA Mage
1x General Gog
1x Jason X
1x Nightmare Horror
1x Prototype X
1x PubOrd Officer
2x Test Subjects
1x The Dogs of War
Events (3)
1x Desperate Measures
1x Imprisoned
1x Nerve Gas
Sites (1)
1x Abominable Lab
Dragon Cards (19)
Characters (12)
1x Cavalry Regiment
1x Dragon Fighter (Miguel mentioned it. I didn’t see it or his other.)
2x Everyday Hero
1x Friends of the Dragon
1x Gadgeteer
1x Gambler
1x Gonzo Journalist
1x Hacker
1x Maverick Cop
1x Redeemed Gunman
1x Sidekick
Events (3)
1x Booby Trap
1x Final Brawl
1x Just a Scratch
Sites (1)
1x House on the Hill
States (3)
1x Bag Full of Guns
1x Fastest Gun in the West
1x Muscle Car
Monarchs Cards (1)
Characters (1)
1x King of the Thunder Pagoda
Generic Cards (19)
Feng Shui Sites (15)
1x Ancestral Sanctuary
1x Blessed Orchard
1x Family Home
1x Family Restaurant
1x Grove of Willows
1x Hallowed Earth
1x Inner Sanctum
1x Maze of Stairs
1x Monkey House
1x Moon Base
2x Proving Ground
2x Sacred Ground
1x Stone Garden
States (4)
1x Attack Helicopter
2x Fusion Tank
1x Robot Arm
Why was Miguel the early threat? He got General Gog out quick after a burn for power I could have stopped if I understood how Grove of Willows worked. Proving Ground was helping pump out more dudes. Monkey House was used a couple of times.
Fastest Gun in the West on Gog got stopped by Confucian Stability (from Into the Light) if I recall correctly. Fusion Tank on Gog stuck, I believe. Gog only got taken out by Earl a turn before Earl won. Mobility is, after all, deserving of murder.
Interesting cards: Righteous One (see below); Tunneler Drone; 2x Thunder on Thunder. While edges may not be common, they may be really powerful.
Charles was new to Shadowfist. He seemed to have a frustrating experience. Shadowfist is a game of constant failure and ridiculously hard choices. I’ve learned to not care about either of those.
Name: Charles’s Deck
Faction: Hand
Size: 60
Hand Cards (37)
Characters (27)
1x Acupressure Master(?)
1x Black Belt Rebels
1x Blue Mandarin
2x Buddhist Monk
1x Exiled Monk
5x Golden Candle Society(!!)
1x Green Monk
2x Instrument of the Hand
1x Iron Hands Ma
1x Jia Baoyu
2x Kung Fu Student
2x Righteous Fist
1x Shaolin Agent
1x Shaolin Monk
1x Shaolin Saboteur
1x Shaolin Warrior
1x Stoic Wanderer
1x Swordsman
1x The Silent Cowboy
Edges (2)
2x Hill of the Turtle
Events (5)
1x Confucian Stability
1x Into the Light
1x Iron and Silk
1x Mysterious Return
1x The Willow Bends…
Sites (3)
1x Green Senshi Chamber
1x Shaolin Sanctuary
1x Yellow Senshi Chamber
Generic Cards (23)
Events (3)
3x Healing Earth(!!)
Feng Shui Sites (18)
1x Ancestral Sanctuary
1x Arctic Fortress
1x Blessed Orchard
1x City Square
1x Coral Reef
1x Dragon Mountain
1x Family Home
2x Grove of Willows
1x Hallowed Earth
1x Jagged Cliffs
1x Maze of Stairs
1x Mirrored Lake
1x Monkey House
1x Sacred Ground
2x Stone Garden
1x Weeping Willows
States (2)
1x Armored in Life
1x Hands Without Shadow
The lack of hitters really hurt. He drew ridiculous numbers of cards off of Jia Baoyu but ran out of offense for when we had contained Miguel. Assuming he did actually have them in his deck, I’m glad he never played Hill of the Turtle.
I found an Acupressure Master in this deck, but I only saw Earl play one and didn’t find one in his card pool.
Interesting cards: Corruption; The Alabaster King; Midnight; Under the Knife. Had enough foundations already to play these but could have podded for more.
Let’s get to my deck since I didn’t play against the other two decks I have.
Name: Ian’s Deck
Faction: Dragon & Syndicate
Size: 45
Dragon Cards (17)
Characters (10)
1x Chinese Doctor
1x Everyday Hero
2x Friends of the Dragon
1x Gadgeteer
1x Gonzo Journalist
1x Hacker
1x Lenny Wu
1x Reedemed Gunman
1x Righteous One
Events (7)
2x Back for Seconds
2x Final Brawl
1x Golden Comeback
1x Last Outpost
1x Stunt Driving
Syndicate Cards (10)
Characters (7)
1x Nihilist
2x Street Sweepers
1x Tattooed Man
3x Triad Punks
Events (2)
1x Data Mining
1x Inconvenient Debt
Sites (1)
1x Cybermod Parlor
Architects Cards (1)
Characters (1)
1x DNA Mage
Jammers Cards (2)
Characters (2)
2x $10,000 Man
Generic Cards (15)
Characters (1)
1x The Dis-Timed
Events (1)
1x Orbital Laser Strike
Feng Shui Sites (9)
1x Blessed Orchard
1x Devil’s Mountain
1x Grove of Willows
2x Hallowed Earth
1x Inner Sanctum
1x Marsh
1x Mountain Retreat
1x Sacred Ground
Sites (2)
2x Secret Laboratory
States (2)
1x MegaTank
1x Really Big Gun
What was my overall first pick? Righteous One. It was the only thing in the pack that seemed good and playable. I was fairly happy with my draft even though I didn’t know what my second faction besides Dragon was going to be until I built my deck.
Really, this is more dependent on tech than anything else. I was thinking with Righteous One that I’d get Dragon hitters at some point. Instead, saw $10,000 Man and started drafting tech stuff … and Purists and Architects and …
I was using BREAD as a guideline. Though, P for Power should be in the Shadowfist version. Any remotely plausible way to gain power I looked for just as any remotely plausible way to gain Pool in a V:TES draft is something I look for.
I should have focused more on bombs. I passed a lot of hitters because I thought it would be hard to get enough resources to play them. It wouldn’t have been. My style, when I’m trying to build good decks, is to go for efficiency over magnitude of effect. I think there’s pretty good efficiency here, maybe some unnecessary foundations, maybe some fun cards. More hitters are warranted.
What did I Golden Comeback? Righteous One, of course, to stop a bid for victory. I never Back for Seconds. I got out a Tattooed Man *and* he took two sites!! That never happens with my Tattooed Man decks in constructed play.
I could have used Final Brawl early on to prevent Miguel from burning for power, but I wanted to get some help, just ended up killing my own Righteous One, anyway.
Interesting cards: 15 Purist Cards, including two hitters, enough foundations not to need a foundation pod, and I could have drafted a third hitter; Price of Progress … requires Chi and I wanted to not get complicated by Chi where I would be tempted to play Hands Without Shadow; I wasn’t so committed to Righteous One to play Sports Car or Motorcycle, but the former would have stopped annoying damage redirection; not a single card in my favorite faction to play – Lotus, yet Architects cards, Jammer cards, 3x Natural Order, etc.
Cy won the other game in much less time.
Name: Cy’s Deck
Faction: Architects
Size: 41
Architects Cards (26)
Characters (13)
2x Alpha Beast
1x Beta Beast
1x Bonechill
1x Gamma Beast
1x Melting Flesh Squad
1x PubOrd Sniper
1x Tank Commander
5x Test Subjects(!!)
Edges (3)
1x Reinvigoration Process
1x Reinvigoration Seed
1x Rise of the NeoBuro
Events (4)
1x Imprisoned
1x Nerve Gas
1x Overzealous Assassins
1x PubOrd Raid
States (6)
1x Frenzy Engine
2x Helix Chewer
1x Helix Rethread
1x Helix Scrambler
1x Nanovirus
Lotus Cards (2)
Characters (2)
2x Shadowy Horror
Generic Cards (13)
Edges (1)
1x The Rackets
Events (1)
1x IFF Missiles
Feng Shui Sites (9)
1x Big Red Barn
1x Blessed Orchard
1x Cave Network
1x Grove of Willows
1x Hallowed Earth
1x Inner Sanctum
1x Jagged Cliffs
1x Monkey House
1x Ominous Swamp
Sites (1)
1x Secret Headquarters
States (1)
1x Replacement Parts
Swarm for the win?
Interesting cards: Underworld Coronation; Blasting Crew …; Andi Di. I could totally see splashing some Jammers to try to make my little dudes bigger.
I also have Jeff’s card pool.
Name: Jeff’s Deck
Faction: Lotus & Monarchs
Size: 53
Lotus Cards (20)
Characters (13)
1x Abysmal Horror
1x Cannibal Army
1x Claw of Fury
1x Eunuch Underling
1x Flesh Eater
1x Gnarled Horror
2x Sinister Priest
1x Snake Man
1x Thorns of the Lotus
1x Thugs
1x Wailing Apparition
1x Xin Ji Yang
Events (1)
1x Inauspicious Reburial
Sites (2)
2x Infernal Temple
States (4)
1x Abysmal Behemoth
1x Deathtrap
1x Hell Charger
1x Two-Headed Horror
Monarchs Cards (16)
Characters (12)
1x Darkness Priestess
1x Dog Soldiers
1x Fire Acolytes
1x Fire Engineers
1x Fire Warriors
1x Flambards
1x Ice Carvers
1x Ice Healer
1x Ice Sorceress
1x Skin and Darkness Hunter
1x Thunder Champion
1x Thunder Knights
Edges (1)
1x Spirit Pole
Events (1)
1x Chain Lightning
Sites (2)
1x Sacred Wigwam
1x Thunder Pagoda
Generic Cards (17)
Characters (1)
1x The Dis-Timed
Events (6)
1x Curse of Discord
2x Killing Rain
1x Lateral Reincarnation
1x Memory Reprocessing
1x Shattering Fire
Feng Shui Sites (8)
1x Ancestral Sanctuary
1x Auspicious Termites
1x Hallowed Earth
1x Hot Springs
1x Monkey House
1x Proving Ground
1x Sacred Ground
1x Stone Garden
States (2)
1x Grenade Launcher
1x Speed Boat
Not bad. Could just be generally tighter. Jeff had never built a deck before.
Interesting cards: not sure why Scroll of Incantation, Inexorable Corruption, Infernal Plague, and Stolen Thunder(!) weren’t played; I would have considered some of the ramp characters in Lotus or Monarchs; Harbinger(!). Only Flambards to play the last.
Did we learn anything?
Experience helps. With these sets, I probably could have gone mono-Monarchs. I needed to consider bombs more. I could have drafted cards with more resource conditions. While winners are likely better players, getting the balance in decks right seems to be the biggest issue with how many packs we drafted (8) and having the pods to make decks playable. Not enough hitters in Charles’s deck, probably not enough in mine, either, or I should have cut 5 cards.
I’m much more interested in building a V:TES cube than a Shadowfist cube at this time. I think I understand limited V:TES better. But, as I have these notable experiences, I will write about them and maybe related events will occur.
Of course, if I were going to do a Shadowfist cube, I would use Modern and could see 1x every card as a starting point … Then, removing some of the Lotus cards to balance things.