[INWO-list] Deck of the Week 83: Attack of the Bodysnatchers

[martin laerkes]

Deck of the Week number 83 is here.
The deck uses Cast Out False Prophets to win, and includes the recipe for a 
working group denial deck.
Enjoy :)

_Attack of the Bodysnatchers_
Deck of the Week #83
By Martin Lærkes
The aliens' plan was as brilliant as it was insidious. They would seize 
power by killing key personal and replacing them with duplicates controlled 
by the aliens themselves. The manlings would not suspect that more and more 
of their brethren were in fact alien invaders until it was too late......

_The Deck_
Illumintai: UFOs
Citizens for Normalcy
Divine Mail Order x2
Fnord Motor Companies
Liquor Companies
Multinational Oil Companies
Nuclear Power Companies
Pentagon
The Thule Group
The Holy Grail
Perpetual Motion Machine
Warehouse 23
Agent in Place x2
Comet Hail-Bob x2
Goal: Cast Out False Prophets
NWO: Interesting Times x2
NWO: Solidarity
Power Grab x2
Sabotage x4
Seize the Time
Senate Inv. Committee x2
Tape Runs Out x2
Unmasked x2
Upheaval x3
Adepts of Hermes
Bermuda Triangle
Church of the Subgenius
Gnomes of Zurich
The Network
Servants of Cthulhu
Shangri-La
Society of Assassins


_The Plan_
Since DotW submissions are currently few and far between, I might as well 
use the opportunity to feature some neglected cards and strategies. 
Therefore I've decided to create a deck revolving around of each the 
SubGenius goals. The first one was deck #79 - the fun'damentalist deck, 
using Science Can Not Remove the Terror of the Gods.
This time I'm focusing on arguably the hardest of the 5 SubGenius goals: 
Cast Out False Prophets (CoFP). CoFP can serve as a decent plan b in an 
destructive deck, but using it as your main objective entails a few 
problems: Managing to eliminate a rival from the game is not an easy task, 
eliminating the right one is even harder - and that's assuming that the 
right illuminati is even out there in the first place! To do this your deck 
must be built for this one purpose - so (moderate) degeneracy and plentiful 
ruthlessness is required.

Your plan is as simple as it is mean. Choose a rival and then pick on him 
from the get go. Keep blasting him with the meanest plots and groups in the 
game, never allowing him to grow beyond 2 puppets. Hopefully your remaining 
rivals will assume that you're just being a spiteful git when you finish him 
off, never thinking what you could be up to. Put his illuminati in your 
destroyed pile, unmask as whatever he was playing, reveal Cast Out False 
Prophets and laugh evilly.

_Opening Game_
Lead with Pentagon, because you need a source of extra plot draws. If 
Pentagon bounces, then Divine Mail Order is your best back-up. On your first 
turn, bring out Divine Mail Order as a puppet of Pentagon if possible - or 
either Liquor Companies or Multinational Oil Companies if it isn't.
Other than that, you have 2 priorities: By the time that your victim is 
about to begin his second turn, you must have an ATO-stopper (Comet 
Hail-Bob, Sabotage, Senate Investigating Committee - or Upheaval in an 
emergency) on hand, as well as the means to power it. You also need to 
protect Pentagon with the Holy Grail. Power Grab if you can, because you 
need your tokens for picking on your victim, and you need a strong start to 
really dominate.
Apart from these objectives, you also need to figure out  which rival to 
pick on.

Choosing the most vulnerable player is a big part of winning with this deck, 
so consider the following:
*Picking on a player who is later in the turn order than yourself will give 
you the huge advantage of having an extra turn to set up your arsenal.
*Attacking a UFO player will mean that you won't have to unmask but might 
also alert your rivals to what you're up to.
*Leave Bavaria and Discordia alone. Bavaria can use its privilege to outgrow 
you, and Discordia is very hard to attack, so your deck can't unmask as 
these two.
*Look at your rivals leads and first ATOs. Your victim shouldn't have too 
many matching alignments or other slurp bonuses - and definitely shouldn't 
have managed an extra group takeover on the first turn.
*An adepts player focusing on resources may have a weak group composition, a 
Bermuda player may have a problem with alignments, and Cthulhu may be too 
destruction oriented to recover from your pre-emptive attack.
*If any rival's first ATO is a resource - smite him!

_Midgame_
When your victim's second turn starts, it is time to get dirty. You need to 
block his every ATO, (and attack to control) from here on out. The first 
time you do it, downplay it. Your rivals don't yet know that you're going to 
do this repeatedly, so you may well get help with it early on. Besides, 
everybody likes to see someone else lose a group.
In fact, as long as the remaining players haven't figured out what you're up 
to, they should be happy to see you ruining it for someone else, while not 
really progressing yourself. If someone decides to interfere, kindly tell 
them that your nasty plots and groups could be used against them instead. If 
your rivals start pestering you about why you're being so mean, either say 
"because I can", or bring up a past situation where your victim has wronged 
you - whether real or imagined.

Regarding your ATO-stopping plots: Remember that Sabotage can potentially be 
powered by Pentagon or the Multinational Oil Companies instead of the UFOs 
and that Senate Investigating Committee stops the turn cold. Comet Hail-Bob 
can be used to stop any attack to control, so don't use it on an ATO unless 
you have to.
After that first important turn, you need to keep knocking your victims ATOs 
down.
Take your own ATOs, do what you can to get another ATO-stopper into your 
hand, and save the rest of your tokens for screwing over your victim. If 
you're in a position where you don't have to search for plots, then that is 
probably a good time to take over the Perpetual Motion Machine and linking 
it to the UFOs.

There are some quite nasty groups in your deck, and you should pick the 
order of your ATOs according to your plot hand and the opposition you expect 
to be facing. Multinational Oil Companies is big, and will keep a rival off 
your back once you close in for the kill. Fnord Motor Companies will save 
you from having your key attack ruined by a Murphy's Law or a bad roll. 
Liquor Companies can block his plot draws. Finally - the NPCs is a monster, 
but don't bring it out early if you think that it will antagonize the 
remaining players. Remember to make your corporate groups puppets of 
Pentagon for more plot draws.
You also need to consider when you're going to start picking off your rivals 
2 remaining groups. Ideally you can start doing this by turn 3 (when 
opponents can first be knocked out), but turn 4 (or even 5) may be more 
realistic.

_End Game_
What you're doing isn't going to be easy. Hopefully you'll have the element 
of surprise on your side.
Assuming that everything goes according to plan, your rival will have just 2 
groups and his illuminati when you're ready to eliminate him. This is the 
proper time to ATO the Thule Group. Also, you'll most likely need one or 
more of your Upheavals.
Probably play the upheaval first, to deprive your opponent of a valuable 
defensive token. If the other players complain, make whatever deal you can. 
For the final attack, remember to use Multinational Oil Companies to shut 
out whichever rival can interfere with the most power, and use the Thule 
group along with all those illuminati groups to push home the attack. With a 
little luck you'll be able to take out your victim in one fell swoop.

If you fail, hopefully you can still block one more ATO, and then try again 
on your next turn. Or perhaps use your Seize the Time to get a second go 
with the Thule Group straight away - (you're not really playing any plots 
with the Thule Group, just discarding them).
If you do manage to knock out your victim, then it is time for the final 
step of your wicked plan. You probably need a turn to recuperate before 
completing your transformation and revealing your true self. On your final 
turn, the Citizens for Normalcy is your best ATO, because it can help 
strong-arming your Unmasked! through. On a technical note, remember that you 
don't have to reveal what you intend to unmask as until after your rivals 
have decided whether to cancel or not. So if they don't cancel then they can 
not take it back, and if they do cancel then you don't lose your illuminati 
agent.

Once you've shed your skin then all you need to do is reveal your goal.

_Potential Problems_
This is not a powerful deck. Lots of things can go wrong, but fortunately 
you are not without contingency plans.
If you manage to wear down your rival, and then someone else manages to 
finish him off before you do, then you're in trouble. In a 3 player game - 
see below. In a game with 4 or more players, you may be able to buy your way 
into a shared victory. The conditions are simple: You give the shrewd rival 
both your goal, the Unmasked! and the illuminati agent, in return for a huge 
chunk of his power structure, allowing you a basic goal win alongside his 
CoFP win.

If the whole thing falls apart, and you can't apply enough pressure to your 
victim, then you have to rely on Unmasked! for a conventional win. You have 
2 groups that will count double towards the Gnomes goal. Even better is the 
SubGenius goal: You'll have 2 illuminati tokens, or even 3 with the PPM, 
each counting towards the basic goal. Finally, should Shangri-La be in the 
game, you know you'll want to join him.
Remember that if your original plan fails, all those nasty plots can be used 
to bring down the leader, buying you more time to set up your own 
contingency plan.

_Variants and Substitutions_
The deck list above is just one way of creating a Bodysnatcher deck. But 
there are many more.
When I designed this deck, a number of excellent cards didn't make the final 
cut. Jesus B. is an excellent corporate group that could supply you with an 
illuminati token when you need it the most, and the Black Helicopters is an 
easy way to claim privilege on your final eliminating attack. Crystal Skull 
is extremely powerful when it comes to finding the right plots, but it is 
often hotly contested.

As for plots, NWO: The Magic Goes Away looked promising because it can 
permanently jam your victims ATOs. Unfortunately it will also annoy everyone 
else, and will render the Thule Group tokenless. Fickle Finger of Fate is 
also wicked, because whether your victim uses his illuminati token to remove 
it or to get his free +10 for an attack, you can cancel him with the NPCs, 
stripping him of all his ATOs. The problem with any Zap! based solution is 
that if any 3rd part decides to intervene, then your Zap! goes down the 
drain.
Another variant of this deck could be based on government groups. Leading 
with Germany will ensure that you can make a massive attack on your final 
turn (perhaps with a Dictatorship and a Truckbomb), while Bank of England 
and NASA can generate plenty of plot draws. IRS will deprive your victim of 
potentially important plot cards, while you can either use them against him, 
or sacrifice them to the Center for Weird Studies.
NWO: Don't Forget to Smash the State was what made the government version my 
runner-up choice, but the NWO could be countered with a Clipper Chip.
The greatest problem with either of these decks is that they require a 
handful of the rare Sabotage to work properly.

_Variant: Liquor Denial_
One version that does not require 4 Sabotages is the Brown Bag Sandbag.
For years I've tried to come up with a deck that can actually win through 
group denial, and CoFP has finally made this possible. Before CoFP, ruining 
the game for a single player was not a winning strategy, and attempting 
group denial on several players was hardly a realistic scenario.
Lead with Liquor Companies, and use it to block the group draws (not plot 
draws) of your chosen victim. Either the NPCs or a second Liquor token from 
China can block his attempts at extra draws. This means that beyond his lead 
and first ATO, he will only have a 6 card group hand - the rest of his 
groups will stay undrawn in his deck. Use Smite Them All!, and Let's you and 
Him Fight to remove further group cards from his hand, use Sabotage to block 
his ATO while you do it, and use Upheaval and Comet Hail-Bob to nail any 
successful ATO. Once you've removed his group hand, you can keep him out of 
the game by blocking his draws - and then eliminate him and unmask just like 
in the other versions.

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