[INWO-list] DotW 88

[martin laerkes]

New Deck of the Week. Contest "winner" such as it is. Enjoy.

SMWNMTK
Deck of the Week #88
Whispered by Martin Lærkes
Unknown to the average person, the illuminati are at work behind the scenes 
of the ordinary world, wielding unbelievable power and arranging 
conincidences. All those unspeakable things are the secrets man was not 
meant to know, and precious few know those secrets. Those who speak don't 
know, and those who know don't speak.

The Deck
Illuminati: Adepts of Hermes
Cattle Mutilators
Count Dracula
Druids
Junk Mail
Rosicrucians
St. Janor Hypercleats
Templars
Vampires
W.I.T.C.H.
The 9 Unknown Men*
Center for Weird Studies
Necronomicon
Giant Kudzu x2
Goal: Hail Eris x2
Gremlins
Harmonica Virgins x2
Let the Sunshine In x2
Miraculous Manifestations
More Slack!
NWO: Global Warming x2
NWO: Gun Control x2
NWO: Don't Forget to Smash the State
...Or Kill Me!
Official, Divine, All-Inclusive Excuse x2
Overman x2
Power Grab
Save the Whales
Savings & Loan Scam x2
School Prayer
Secret Master
SMWNMTK
Seize the Time!
Sorry, Wrong Number
Sudden European Vacation
Waiting Period

Playing the Deck

The Plan
Well, as the contest guidelines said, the idea was to create a deck using 
the resource The Nine Unknown Men from the completely non-existent INWO 
expansion Bavarian Fire Drill. The unique resource powers or removes any 
zap, paralyze or freeze by using its token, so it makes around 40 or so 
cards more playable. I considered a deck using the zap Security Leak and 
League for Obvious Decency to shut down a rivals plots entirely, or a deck 
using almost exclusively paralyzes, and NPCs to prevent your rivals from 
removing them. However, in the end I went with an old idea of mine, 
nicknamed Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know.
The idea is simple: When you take over secret groups from hand, only secret 
groups and illuminati can interfere. So, if you can make sure that there are 
only a few illuminati tokens and secret groups out there, there is little 
your rivals can do to stop you. In fact, if you play Let the Sunshine In, no 
secret groups may act, cutting the opposition down to just illuminati tokens 
(and no pesky +10s). Let the Sunshine in would naturally also stop your own 
secret groups from attacking in the first place, but you can work your way 
around this by using the few non-secret groups that can attack secret 
groups.
The 9 Unknown Men are not instrumental to the deck - you could build one 
without it. But it does allow you to play some zaps and paralyzes that will 
have your rivals spend their illuminati tokens, and it can also power your 
Let the Sunshine In. Not bad.

The Illuminati
Adepts of Hermes were chosen for their +6 bonus to control magic groups.

Opening Game
Your lead depends on your opening hand of plots, but it should be one of 
your 5 non-secret groups, preferably St. Janor, Dracula or W.I.T.C.H.. It is 
a key objective to not get attacked, if at all possible, so play 
conservatively. Keep defense cards in your hand, hoping to repel any 
incoming attacks. For defense, Secret Master is best on Dracula, while 
Overman is best on St. Janor, since this will make him count double towards 
Hail Eris. Try to sneak in an extra group draw early if you can - you 
probably need your whole group deck before you are ready to slurp.

Midgame
Your objective is to get all 5 non-secret groups into play. You have very 
few control arrows, so be careful when you make your ATOs, since you need 
open arrows on all your slurpers for your final turn. Start with Dracula, 
St. Janor and W.I.T.C.H. Druids should be second to last, as a puppet of 
W.I.T.C.H. - your final ATO should be Junk Mail. Place it as a puppet of 
Druids. This will probably alert your rivals to the fact that something is 
up. And indeed something is.

Your second midgame objective is to have your rivals spend illuminati tokens 
on the turn prior to your victory grab. You have lots of plots to encourage 
them to do this, like the lovely Giant Kudzu, but a concerted attack against 
a rivals secret group might also be a good idea, and will knock out a secret 
group in the process. Gremlins can also bounce back a good resource like the 
OMCLs, motivating the rival to spend an illuminati token to take it over 
ASAP.
If you do not have your goal when the time comes, then your plan will have 
to change slightly. ATO Rosicrucians instead of Junk Mail, dig for your 
goal, and then wait a turn before unleashing your slurpy surprise.

End Game
With Junk Mail in place, the time has come for your all or nothing move. 
Hopefully there is only 1, or even 0, illuminati tokens out there. Secret 
groups can be kept out of this turn by using Let the Sunshine In or possibly 
even a paralyze (or Gremlins on NSA). Now all you have to do is slurp from 
hand. Due to your illuminati and Junk Mail, you have a massive +11 bonus to 
control secret magic groups, and the bonus applies to all your non-secret 
attacking groups.
So, St. Janor will be at 13 to take the Rosicrucians. Dracula will be at 19 
to take the Vampires. Junk Mail will be at 11 to take the Cattle Mutilators. 
If someone interferes, then note that Druids can interfere with any attack 
on a magic group - even a secret one - so with either Global Warming or 
Harmonica Virgins, they should be able to get the attack back on track.
Also, naturally, W.I.T.C.H. can change a failed roll by 2.

Finally, Adepts can try to control the Templars ("13 or less"), take over 
the Necronomicon, or help an attack which is failing. With Center for Weird 
Studies or More Slack! they may even do 2 of these things. If all went well, 
you have slurped a lot of groups, and should be very close to your goal. You 
may already be there. Note that it may be a good idea to spend Hermes token 
before attacking with St. Janor, so a roll of a natural 2 by Janor can not 
cost you an illuminati token.
The last element to your victory is Hail Eris. W.I.T.C.H. counts, as will 
Cattle Mutilators with Gun Control, St. Janor with Overman, and/or Vampires 
(or one of the others) with the Necronomicon. Notice that if you had to play 
Secret Master on St. Janor to save him from an attack, you can make him 
weird again by making him a puppet of something other than your illuminati. 
This will make the Secret Master permanently illegal, and force you to 
discard it.

Potential Problems
Well, it's a pretty risky leap towards victory. Hopefully your rivals won't 
see it coming. If you've set things up right, it's a big leap - possibly too 
big to anticipate. But this deck is a big gamble. It can take losing a group 
or 2, but more than that and you're going down the tube. Hey - who said 
world domination was easy?
Also note that without its goal, this deck will only go to 11 groups, 
meaning that it is probably best suited for a 4 player game.

Variants and Substitutions
The Adepts of Hermes probably isn't the only way to set up a 
SMWNMTK-slurper. Library at Alexandria and Junk mail will give a +11 bonus 
against a lot of Secret Groups, making it possible to maybe build a Network 
or UFO version of the deck. A secret group or 2 in your power structure will 
also allow you more attacks, and possibly the Black Helicopters, but it will 
make Let the Sunshine in harder to fit into the deck.
Naturally, a deck without unofficial cards can't use The 9 Unknown Men, in 
which case Library at Alexandria is probably be your best substitute. Those 
extra +5 to every attack should make it even harder for your rivals to 
prevent your attacks.
A cute alternative SMWNMTK slurper relies on Church of the SubGenius. Create 
a deck that does little but accumulate illuminati tokens. Then use these 
tokens to take over lots of secret groups in one fell swoop.

As always, have fun.

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