MArcomage

Happy belated holidays! Ladies, and in-between and gentlemen! On semi-popular demand, the D4 team brings you our next installment of dummy decks to play with!

Once, I've imagine a word in peace. Many times, in full honesty. I found proof around me such was possible, albeit in a distant future. And I wished to share!

I wished to create a proof of concept, as to say~ And I did. Many thanks to the MArcomage staff! Only you could make something as kind and stupid at once possible!

At least the latter, 'stupid' part is what I thought. I realized from the start there are two possible versions of such a deck: One done with Holy cards, and the other with Mages. More confident in Holy, I built the Holy(Saint) version first, and started writing the article you read now, before I tested the Mage(Princess) version of the concept.

Not content to publish untested, however, I delayed publication until I tested both versions… But turns out, I have delayed for nothing, as the Princess version hardly qualified as a Gimmick Deck of the same caliber. The reason is, despite the rampant stupidity of it all, at the time of writing?

It has a 70% Winrate.

It worked. This confused me profusely.

In the end, I have ascertained that, despite many similarities, the Princess Pacifist requires their own Episode to give the effectiveness it's due. Until then, do enjoy their counter part, the Saint Pacifist.

Section no. 1.

The Pacifist, Saint version.
Game Mode Recommendation: Long Non-Hidden

Victory Types: Tower Building, and Resource Accumulation every once in a while, or vice versa

Resource Use: A higher-than-average but more than bearable amount of bricks. More than 35 recruits are only there for redundancy(thus Random resource cards give you more gems and bricks, not recruits).

The Gimmick: Be a saint. Or magical girl, whichever. Bring happiness - not for us, but everyone. You're slapped? Hold the other cheek. Never hit, nor hit back. The stole from you? Toil away in your honest labor, and share the fruits. Show them society's purpose is progress, and how much we have achieved. Do your best with all your might, show them the peace in their heart, and everyone will be happy in the end.

Yes. Everyone will, one day. You just wait and see.

Gameplay:
For disclosure. You might expect the deck to play as or similar to Sophie the Architect, but she in fact defies the gimmick. Her more pacifist side is too practical and pragmatic to be taken as social commentary - she just wishes to build a gigantic castle, plain and simple. And you can't play Rare cards against her and she has unfair advantage - not a good display to prove a point, overall.

First and foremost, you don't attack. Ever. Or reduce tower, wall, or steal resources in any shape or form. Not for an arbitrary rule, but out of necessity. You will see why in a moment.
No, not even Concript. Not Temple Guard. No cards with optional attack effects, no summons from outside your deck, no nothing. You're not Gandhi, don't tempt yourself with a roomful of women. You are, however, free to play the attack cards the opponent gives you. A perfect moment to convey the ever ironic siren call of 'stop hitting yourself'.

Does such a deck make sense? No. But you will work with what you have.

Just not to attack is not sufficient, however. You need to show your opponent in no uncertain terms you are peaceful, and yet you're winning. In MArcomage, you can achieve such a goal mainly with low-cost Resource gain and Runic cards, and semi-expensive rares for good measure. For the former, the best choice are Holy or Mage cards(not since I believe only religion or magic can save the world, they just have the best cards for the job. The game's saying it, not me.) I recommend you spring for one or the other, but I'd be interested in someone who could mix the two.

The biggest challenge in such a deck is to build a repertoire of cards you always can do something with within 8 or so turns. Part of peace is for everyone to have a purpose(aside from the happiness factor, unemployment is not much of an economic stimulus).

In game terms, you must always have options and the right card to play. Once you achieved the feat, no matter how much the opponent cripples you, you always have something to play and show you are still steady and in the game despite their best efforts. Further, to attack only to see you build more than you'd have without the attack, for a fraction of the value of their own cards? Your opponent will be exhausted. Symbolic of war's long term futility, you will just build, have the opponent exhaust themselves for nothing, or have them give up and go home(surrender).

Hence why attack cards are forbidden: Such a deck is only possible when you focus on one goal with the exclusion of all else. In our case, to outlive the opponent with love, heart and sheer stick-to-itiveness.

Section no. 2.

Fallouts:

1. You don't attack. There are examples of oppressors who have seen peace rise and gave up, but have you ever seen an actual all-out war won by mostly passive resistance? The best real-world example was the Albigensian Crusade, and, well, the Cathars died winners, in a sense, and you can, too, but they are still very much dead.

The in-game reflection of the weakness is the guarantee big play-reliant attack decks and dedicated tower build decks are better than you. Not 'unbeatable' better, but since you never bother them, preparation(the act, not the card) gives them a clear advantage.

2. No discards. Under the assumption you built the deck right and you can play every card you draw, all the time, you must resign to have no real reason to ever discard your own cards. Thus, you are either stopped short by decks which replace your hand, or you do have discards, but most of the time they would just sit there and spoil your main advantage. A lose-lose situation.


Clear counters:

Burning decks.

There are an unfortunate, unchoosen few. Born once out of a million births, maybe less. They don't feel love as you or me. Not mere sociopaths, no. The people we talk of, society doesn't give them anything they can thank you for. You gift them a cutlery knife, and they stab you in the back. They see the neighbourhood on fire, and feel relief, and joy, genuine joy as you scream and burn into a mocking corpse before their eyes. They know what they do is not right, but can't bring themselves to care.

A very few people's dearest wish is just to watch the world burn.

Whoa. Heavy. I'm sure there was a joke in there somewhere.

Anyway!x.x Burning decks combine high damage, stock reduction AND replace your hand with Searing fire, the latter of which you have nothing to counter with, oftentimes on the same card. They destroy your castle, your resources and discard your hand too fast for you to react. They burn everything to the ground and there is nothing you can do.

Now, nowo.o You don't have to cry. The real world doesn't have magic! Nothing beside love! No one will fling fireballs at you in real life en masse, gasoline is too expensive! MArcomage is a game! Everything will be fine<3

In real life. In the game, you just burned to death. Sorry._.

Section no. 3.

Winrate: Once you understood the rather simple mechanics of the deck, you will arrive at a steady 30-40% win rate. The deck's stupidity is outweighed by efficiency and functionality at what it was designed to do - Again, what it's weakness is also the strongest selling point. No attacks mean you can devote everything you have to defense and Tower Building.

I can recommend the deck to beginners who don't mind to lose - the simplicity will help you learn, thus deck may be a stepping stone of source for you.

Lynchpins:

No gimmick deck can be complete without a set of cards you must have or die!

And here they are:3 As runners up, one should mention Archangel, Blood shrine and Dwarven wall, for the simple reason they are very efficient cards in such a deck design, but again, you can manage without them. Also, you will need Quarry built, but you can build them however you choose. The true Lynchpins are below:

Benediction, Chapel, Cathedral, Priest and White Shrine.
Wow, huge list of cards right of the bat.
Okay, what benefit do they share? Many cards do the same thing as these ones. Simply put, out of the cards who do what they do, they are the Holy cards, and Miracle triggers off of Holy cards. Miracle is, in most cases, what wins you the game, thus a steady Holy card draw is necessary to play Miracle in a reasonable amount of time against other Holy decks. You may also consider Angel, Reliquary and Alastor, but you need these five.

As an adage, don't put Fairy in under any circumstance. Fairy needs a near-full hand of Holy to be worth playing, and you simply don't have enough Holy cards to pull it off.


Blind Guardian.
Many will point out Blind guardian has a bad price for what the card does. Which is true, 12 resources for just as much tower from an Uncommon is a bad deal. They only see use in decks who don't utilize at least one of their resources for much of anything.

In the above regard, the Pacifist decks trumps all other decks in terms of sheer value out of a Mixed-cost card. When you consider how much you use the resources you pay, Bling Guardian's factual net cost is ~7 resources, give or take two, making for a far better card for you than Parapet.

Divine Intervention.
Divine intervention is a good card in any Holy deck, and for you who, unlike most Holy deck users, has no intention to use any of those Gems for attacking, the benefit is ever the greater. Even when you play against a dedicated Holy deck, you aren't at a disadvantage: You can play all of your cards. Hold it all day if need be.

Honor guard, Tower guard and King's Elite.
The trio of suspiciously similarly named cards above(do they go to the same seminar or something?) are unique as the Recruits-only cards who focus on a Tower+ effect. Let's be frank, you can count how much cards you have with a Recruits cost with two hands. Tops. And three of them cost only one.
To draw any of the guards is an insurance policy. No matter how much Bricks and Gems you have been forced to spend, your mass of eager Recruits is always there, ready to be of service. And, as an added benefit, they provide an additional redundant Keyword for Magic spring.

Ivory tower.
One of my favourite cards, Ivory tower stands out from among all the potential Uncommon Tower+ cards with a perfect price tag in a Pacifist deck. 16 Bricks is ideal as you can reasonably play the card even at starter Quarries with your Common resource gain, and later, you can effortlessly gain +20 Tower each time you draw it. A compact, and good value card you shouldn't pass up.

Section no. 4. (or I-have-far-too-much-opinions-on-a-video-game)

Magic fountain and Stilshrine of Miriam.
I implore everyone, even people who don't build much facilities, to invest in these two. The combined benefit of ramp with more castle is wonderful, and there is an additional benefit: Synergy with Prairie.
This seems odd, but remember how random resource gain works under the current MArcomage rules(More on them for those who don't know in Prairie's section, below). The extra recruit production of the above cards is a minuscule amount of the price, and you draw Prairie much more than you draw each of the two; Therefore, Prairie will give you more of your other two resources in the end.

Magic spring.
One oddity you might notice in a Pacifist deck is the lack of Token synergy - this isn't much of a weakness, but a feature, as what you'd be given as a result of Holy Song, the Holy Keyword effect, dwarves in comparison to what a Magic spring does for you.
In plain terms, a given Keyword tends to be able to make a sane, functional deck out of it's collective cards, which this deck is not. When you focus on passively building your castle and resources with efficient cards and nothing else, your deck will have a lot of random tosh. Random, unrelated cards, however, mean a diverse set of keywords in your hand at any time, which makes Magic spring a good pick. The only reason Top Priority is not given here is the inconsistent income. In the end, at least 3 resources is a guarantee.

TOP PRIORITY:Miracle.
Miracle is the uncrowned monarch of resource gain. The benefit may be balanced by stock given to the opponent, but 1. Charity is appropriate for the theme, and 2. in most cases, you don't care what your opponent can or cannot play, nor can a Resource accumulation deck outrun you, no matter how much cash you give to them. Again, the same principle Divine intervention has applies here; When you play against another Holy deck, you can wait them out.
With or without the Enemy Stock considered, At a one Gem cost and a staggering 24 resource return, Miracle IS the best value Stock+ card in the entire game. A Miracle played is invaluable to you and cannot be passed up in a Pacifist deck with Common Holy cards inside.

TOP PRIORITY: Prairie.
The main reason such a deck works at all. Words cannot empathize how much such a card is worth to you here: You never attack, therefore Prairie gives a staggering amount of advantage at a steady rate. The combination makes you the bane of all Brigand Decks. Past 30 or so Recruits, it is, in essence, a free card too, since you never spend the recruits on anything else anyway.
Again, the Random Resource distribution under the current rules is not quite random - the less of a resource you have, the higher the chance you receive more of the resource you lack in. Don't be disappointed when you are given mostly recruits from a prairie: It just means you will be given more of the other two later. As you barely use Recruits for anything, over time, you are guaranteed an enormous net benefit.

Section no. 5. (Jesus Christ)

Sheath your Swords:
An obvious addition, Sheath your swords is almost decadent in how much survivability it can give you. The hand your opponent carefully built for a focused assault over the last turns is completely negated, for resource+ cards they, at that point, probably didn't need anymore. Even should they do, you benefit much more from the delay: You make better use of your hand in a Pacifist deck than any other I've seen.

The one big fallback of such a card is against Dragon decks, who have a definite advantage over you. As most Dragon cards are rare, Sheath your swords does nothing but take up valuable hand space you'd need for Tower and Wall+ to win before they draw a Hydra or a Dragon squadron.

Spring Wood.
Even non-Brigand decks have come to encompass Resource reduction due to how potent they are. The most common picks are Poltergeist, Brute, and, at the peak of downright infamy, the Desert traveler, all able to impair most decks they are played against. Not so here.
To begin with, the Pacifist deck is conceived in part to make players who put such cards into their decks question their life decisions, and Spring wood is the last nail in the proverbial coffin, with a sprinkle of a good, healthy sense of Quit-Hitting-Yourself. In essence, Spring Wood punishes your opponent for jumping on the Resource Steal wagon: In the end, you will have more resources than what you started with.

Nice :) Peace and prosperity for everyone :D

Good read.
But I strongly disagree on your point about Miracle being the best resource card in the game. Gr€€d is G$$d is the ultimate stock+ card :D Fair Trade is also heavy.

You could also consider sharing the actual deck :)

Mojko wrote:
Nice :) Peace and prosperity for everyone :D

*waves flag*Naaaa~, na naaa-na! Na, nananana na, nah na na na<3

dimitris wrote:
Good read.
But I strongly disagree on your point about Miracle being the best resource card in the game. Gr€€d is G$$d is the ultimate stock+ card :D Fair Trade is also heavy.

A comparison between the Greed is Good and Miracle shouldn't even be made, yes - Greed is Good is by far the better card. Where Miracle is an unrecognized leader, Greed is Good is a sort of deity of Pure Excess watching over the rest and laughing at their inadequacy.

But it's not Stock+, it's percentage based. The difference is important and what in fact makes Greed is Good the best resource gain - Miracle's income is a flat line, while Greed is Good's benefit increases each turn, and exponentially each time you play it.

But, as an adage for less experienced readers, I must point out while GiG is great, it is also very focused - You can only put GiG in a deck where you consistently have more resources than the opponent does. Unless you play a Pacifist deck with a Resource Accumulation focus, I cannot recommend GiG as a card choice, while Miracle's flat line is a guarrantee, good for both Building and Accumulation victory.

You could also consider sharing the actual deck :)

I usually won't. The series is intended to nudge your creativity. I figure out how do you build a gimmick in general, then let you run wild. With an example shared instead of a basis, the intention would fall flat.

OK. Here is a compilation of a Pacifist deck. This is a different version, let's call it the Rebel (or the Anarchist), as it is a keyword-less deck (with a few keyword cards). Not tested and not recommended for use :D

http://arcomage.net/?location=Decks_details&current_deck=16048

dimitris wrote:
OK. Here is a compilation of a Pacifist deck. This is a different version, let's call it the Rebel (or the Anarchist), as it is a keyword-less deck (with a few keyword cards). Not tested and not recommended for use :D

http://arcomage.net/?location=Decks_details&current_deck=16048

Thank you for your work<3

Again, I must stress, in a Pacifist deck, Ivory tower and Blind guardian are a must, or you become too reliant on your Facility+ cards for your tower gain, and you really don't want Pyramids sitting there to slow you down. You have to optimize your deck towards the goal to play anything you draw within 8 or so of your own turns. If more than a single card sits in your hand for longer than that(Typically a rare), then you're losing, and the faster you are than the baseline the better.

Thus, should you draw Forgotten castle(a card I like, and tested in such decks, thus I know based on experience the decision is only good at the face of it) before you drew your Quarry+ cards, which are of the same or higher rarity, you put yourself in a bind for little benefit. Chances are you will play other Runics instead in response to attacks, all of which are cheaper, and you never actually get around to playing your big shots. For a Pacifist, excess doesn't pay.

Please go ahead and put Ivory tower and Blind guardian in, in a high cost Uncommon's place each. It's much much better to be able to gain a reasonable amount of Tower all the time than to gain a lot of Tower in big, infrequent bursts. You'll be better for it.

Beyond that I'd have to test it myself... would you wish to fight?<3

Sure. Why not? Whenever you want just send me a challenge.