[INWO-list] DotW84: Circle of "Obo"

[martin laerkes]

Circle of "Obo"
Deck of the Week #84
By Martin Lærkes
The Church of the SubGenius works for the salvation of all mankind. (Well, 
at least everyone with 30 bucks to spare). For reasons unknown, a small 
group of highly influential people is trying to bring down the church from 
within, or at the very least amass as much power as they can get their 
grubby little hands on.

The Deck

Illumintai: Bavarian Illuminati
Bill Clinton
Connie Dobbs
Genschman
Gordo Remora
Lyndon LaRouche
NHGH
Overman Philo Drummond
Rev. Ivan Stang
Secret FisTemples
Showmaster
Janor Device
Martyr Meter
Sacred Stencil
13013
Atomic Monster
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat x2
Censorship
Decency is OK
Devival
Eternal Salvation or Triple Your Money Back
Goal: The Anti-"Bob"
Grassroots Support
Hidden Influence
Jake Day
Just Say No
Media Connections
Messiah
Murphys Law x2
NWO: Interesting Times
NWO: Law and Order
Official Devine All-Inclusive Excuse x2
Overman
Pulitzer Prize
Rant!
Rewriting History
Savings and Loans Scam
Scandal
Self Esteem
SMWNMTK
Shordurpersav
Supreme Court Nomination

The Plan
This is the third deck in the series featuring the goals from the SubGenius 
expansion, and this one focuses on one of the weakest goals in the game: The 
Anti-"Bob" (A"B"). The A"B" goal resembles the control/destroy goals, but 
without that crucial option of controlling less by destroying more, or the 
equally vital ability to destroy your own groups. Also, the required 
alignments and attributes are a poor match indeed. There aren't many 
SubGenius groups, few have high power, and most of them are weird, which 
doesn't mix too well with destroying other weird groups. Finally, by the 
time that you've accumulated 6 SubGenius groups, Hail Eris and Brag of the 
SubGenius would probably both have put you at 10 groups already.

But there are also good news though. Exposing your goal gives you a free 
illuminati token, and once revealed the goal can not be lost - just like an 
illuminati goal. Furthermore, quite a few decks using no goal cards use the 
A"B" for the free token, so exposing it in a deck with just 2 SubGenius 
groups in play shouldn't alarm your rivals.

In order to have any chance of winning, this deck relies on deception. It is 
a personality heavy deck, which can use Showmaster to achieve Bavarias 
illuminated goal. However, it does pack the necessary cards to destroy the 
required rival groups, in which case you rely on Secret FisTemples (and 
Overman Philo Drummond) to turn your entire power structure SubGenius.

Opening Game
Bill, Connie, Genschman or the Reverend are your best leads, but by all 
means go with whatever fits your starting plot hand, as long as you remember 
to keep Secret FisTemples and Overman Philo Drummond in reserve. Getting the 
Sacred Stencil into play is a top priority, especially if you're facing 
Cthulhu.

Expose your goal card at the first opportune moment. This will give you an 
extra illuminati token, while at the same time allowing you to have NHGH in 
play.

Midgame
A lot depends on what your rivals bring to the table, but it is probably a 
good idea to play towards your Bavaria goal, while keeping an eye peeled for 
juicy weird groups to destroy. The good thing about the Bavarian goal is 
that even if you don't actually complete it, lots of power is always good.

In reaching 50 power a few cards are essential: The power boosting plots 
naturally, but also the Showmaster, and Janor Device and Martyr Meter to 
increase his efficiency. Note that the Martyr Meter does not need to be 
linked, so can be used on Showmaster on the turn on which he is ATO'd. 
Lyndon LaRouche can also add a little power by copying the printed power of 
Bill Clinton, and can also enjoy the benefits of the Meter and the Janor 
Device.

The Showmaster can spend his tokens for a 4+ roll (3+ with the Janor Device) 
to double the printed power of a personality, making any of your power 3+ 
personalities great targets for an appearance on his show. If you can double 
the power of Bill Clinton, then Lyndon also gets power 8, because he copies 
Bill's printed power.

If you fail the roll, then the target personality's printed power is reduced 
to 1 - so use a power-to-6 card to clean up your mess, and remember that 
Shordurpersav and Murphys Law will make a talk show appearance an almost 
instant success. Finally, note that while Supreme Court Nomination can 
provide a nasty surprise if timed correctly, it can also be used on one of 
your own personalities to make it Government and change its printed power to 
4. This, of course, can be doubled to 8, giving Lyndon a back-up puppet if 
Bill should meet with an untimely end.

End Game
If everything goes according to plan, then you should be within reach of 
your 50 power objective. However, if you take a beating, host some awful 
talkshows, or the opportunity presents itself, you can try for The 
Anti-"Bob" goal instead. You'll need to have 2 SubGenius personalities in 
play, and at least 3 other personalities. You also need to destroy 2 rival 
groups, preferably weird (or SubGenius) ones. Rewriting History can provide 
you with a weird group post mortem, and Jake Day can create a weird target, 
though this may give you away. An attack from Gordo Remora could make the 
Jake Day look less suspicious.

You have a few plots that require some media power, so use Showmaster, your 
power boosters, or a Media Connections (with a +10) to create some. Media 
Connections can also be used to create a target for a Censorship attack. 
Remember that Showmaster is media - errata has been issued. If a good target 
becomes available early on, you could use NHGH as a plot card for an extra 
+5 to destroy, just don't do it if you have revealed your goal card. Even if 
cancelled the NHGH will go to the hand of your rival (this has been netrep 
verified), and since your rival can not take control of NHGH unless he is 
also using The Anti-"Bob" goal, you'll probably get your NHGH card back 
sooner or later. But take care: A famous NHGH with a power of 10 is a big 
part of your play for Bavaria's goal.

Once you've acquired your kills, by trickery or brute force, ATO the Secret 
FisTemples, and move 3 non-SubGenius personalities to its control arrows. 
This will supply you with 4 extra SubGenius groups, hopefully enough to 
fulfil The Anti-"Bob" goal.

Potential Problems
This deck is not exactly powerful. While many things can go wrong, there are 
few things specific enough to mention here. If someone else uses the Secret 
FisTemples then you can't complete The Anti-"Bob" goal, and if you lose a 
few high power groups, or the Showmaster early on, then Bavaria's goal will 
be out of reach. That's why you have 2 unrelated goals: If one becomes 
impossible to achieve, then go for the other one and hope for the best.

Variants and Substitutions
You obviously need a SubGenius set to create a deck like this, but other 
than that, only Showmaster is vital to the deck. If you don't have him, then 
you should change the group composition, and perhaps make room for some 
power doubling resources. Alternatively, a deck with straight personalities 
and the right NWOs can also accumulate a lot of power, and work well 
together both when defending, and when attacking weird groups.

As for variants, almost any deck using The Anti-"Bob" would be better served 
with Brag of the SubGenius. One particularly silly version uses a weird 
Moonbase as a puppet of Overman Philo Drummond, with Philo linked back to 
it. Move Philo (and the Moonbase) to a rival power structure with Sudden 
European Vacation, and then blow up the Moonbase for 2 SubGenius kills in a 
rivals power structure. But again, if you had 2 groups to give away, then a 
conventional win would probably have been the better option, as would a Jake 
Day or two.

_________________________________________________________________
Få alle de nye og sjove ikoner med MSN Messenger http://www.msn.dk/messenger