[INWO-list] DotW 86: Adepts of Khermit

[martin laerkes]

Adepts of Khermit
Deck of the Week #86
Invoked by Martin Lærkes
"When a novice is to be initiated and is brought before the assembly of the 
wicked for the first time, a sort of frog appears to him; a toad according 
to some. Some bestow a foul kiss on his hind parts, others on his mouth, 
sucking the animals tongue and slaver. Sometimes the toad is of a normal 
size, but at others it is as large as a goose or a duck. Usually it is the 
size of an oven's mouth." - Pope Gregory IX, The Witches of Stedlingerland, 
1232 A.D.

Scholars have hypothesized that pope Gregory IX wrote this decretal letter 
under the influence of the mad inquisitor Conrad of Marburg. But the truth 
is that it describes quite accurately the rituals of the "Adepts of 
Khermit", servants of the big frog.

The Deck
Illuminati: Adepts of Hermes
Dittoheads x2
Jesus B.
Overman Philo Drummond
Reverend Ivan Stang
St. Janor Hypercleats
www.subgenius.com
Ark of the Covenant
Book of Kells
Crystal Skull
Flying Saucer
The Frog God x5
Immortality Serum
Shroud of Turin
Warehouse 23 x2
Alternate Goals
Cover of Darkness
Eternal Salvation or T. Y. M. B.
Forgery
Goal: Arise! x2
Goal: Hail Eris! x2
March on Washington x2
Miraculous Manifestation
More Slack!
NWO: A Thousand Points of Light
...Or Kill Me!
Rain of Praerie Squid
Rant! x2
Saint of Sales x2
Savings and Loans Scam x2
SMWNMTK
The Stars Are Right x2

Playing the Deck
The Plan
This is the fourth deck in the series featuring the goals from the SubGenius 
expansion, and this tries to do something clever with Goal: Arise!. Arise! 
has many uses, the obvious one being to goad your rivals into eliminating 
you from the game. But it is also an excellent card for shared victories. It 
allows you to give all your groups except one to a rival, in return for 
having him destroy that last group - instant shared victory, if you can 
trust him.

Even more illuminated is to have something you do count as an attack by a 
rival, thus making absolutely sure that you a "rival" eliminates you. 
Somebody Kill Me, Please! by Darrin Bright is an extremely powerful example 
of this.
Your final option, the one that will be demonstrated by this deck, is to 
create a win-win situation, where your rivals either allow you to win, or 
have to destroy you in which case you still win. This can be done by either 
Shangri-La (as seen in The Superman Deck), Church of the SubGenius (with 
lots of tokens), Servants of Cthulhu (seppuku) or Adepts of Hermes.

This is a Hermes deck conjuring up magic resources as fast as possible, 
while using groups that count double with Goal: Brag of the SubGenius. If 
your rivals starts attacking you, which they ought to, you can win with a 
single group on the table and your huge stockpile of resources.

Playing Adepts
Playing the Adepts, it is almost mandatory to combine your special goal with 
a doubler goal. While it is very tempting to do so, it is quite important 
not to link magic resources to groups (since this is an easy way to lose a 
resource), and not to use too many of the powerful resources, because your 
rivals will have them in their decks too.
This deck uses a few powerful resources, Crystal Skull being the most 
commonly used one, while the remainder of your magical collection consists 
of Frog Gods.

Opening Game
Lead with St. Janor Hypercleats, since he should be able to power all your 
resource generating cards. Should he bounce, Overman Philo Drummond or 
Reverend Ivan Stang make reasonable substitues.
On your opening turn, try to play as many resource generating plots as 
possible while your rivals can not interfere.

If you have Saint of Sales or the Stars are Right on your opening hand, then 
your first ATO should be a Dittoheads, or the Book of Kells as a back-up, so 
that you can power these. If using the Book of Kells, just remember to 
unlink it on turn 2, so you don't lose it to an attack on St. Janor.

Your second 1st turn objective is to take over the Flying Saucer with an 
Illuminati action. If you don't have it, hopefully you have a Warehouse 23, 
which can get it. If you have both Warehouse and Saucer on hand, use the 
Saucer to take the Warehouse, and then the Warehouse to thin out your deck.
Whichever resource you can finally grab with the Saucer, make it a powerful 
one, so you get it before your rivals. Crystal Skull is the prime choice, 
but Shroud of Turin will give you knowledge that will let you make better 
discards from your deck, and Ark of the Covenant should make St. Janor a 
less attractive target.

Midgame
Keep taking over resources at accelerated pace. Use ATOs on groups that will 
count double towards Brag of the SubGenius. If this makes your rivals attack 
you, just keep going, and prepare to fall back on Arise!. If they don't, 
you're that much closer to winning.

Don't be afraid to use Illuminati tokens to draw an extra group if you have 
to. Www.subgenius.com will also help you draw more groups if you get it. If 
you draw both your goals, then put Arise! where you can get it with the use 
of your plot control resources, or play Alternate Goals if you have it.

End Game
Just keep it up. Don't save your tokens for protection if you can benefit 
from them on your own turn. Remember, if you lose a group you've got spares 
that count double too, and you have Arise! if your rivals really decide to 
tear into you. If you really take a beating, exposing Arise! will keep it 
relatively safe, and will be a clear signal to your attackers to back off.

A good play on your last turn is to use the Immortality Serum hidden in 
Warehouse 23 to make an easy take over of a SubGenius personality. If that 
personality is Jesus B., then be sure to buy your extra Illuminati token 
straight away. This play is also your best option if you've exposed Arise! 
and you've got just 1 group in play. One ATO, one personality and a goal 
switch later, you can have "seven" groups, needing just a few resources to 
reach victory.

Potential Problems
The deck isn't very strong on interaction, so if a rival can beat you to 
victory, there is little you can do about it. Rely on your own speed, or the 
help of your other rivals to prevent such a victory. If NWO: Interesting 
Times or The Magic Goes Away comes out, then you're in trouble. Magic Goes 
Away will weaken you, and will require you to move your Dittoheads to a new 
master, while IT with the wrong option will bury you - like it will most 
decks. Hope for your canceller, your blue NWO, or the help of another rival.

If you need to buy some help, remember that you've got a spare Brag of the 
SubGenius for someone else, as well as spare groups that will count double 
towards it.

Variants and Substitutions
If you aren't allowed to use five Frog Gods, or just don't have them, 
substitute with any inferior magic resource like Spear of Longinus, Bronze 
Head or Hammer of Thor. If on the other hand you are allowed to use more 
than 2 duplicates of each plot, then multiple Saint of Sales are probably 
easier to work with than the combination of Saint of Sales, Rant! and The 
Stars Are Right which only really works with St. Janor.
Good luck... [Rib-bit].

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