MArcomage

Hello:3 And welcome the first episode oooof the Dumb Deck Desk Dump^^

In what I hope will be a series of interest to you, I showcase a number of very, very stupid decks. The point of them is to pick a theme, a gimmick, commit to them with all your heart and soul, and try to make them work. Stupid idea comes first, sane plans second.

Our first contender is an accidental discovery(which makes the deck even better<3): I have tried to create a counter to the then very versatile Brigand-Destruction combo with the use of Restoration and Legend.
The idea didn't pan out well, but I realized I could make something else out of the wreckage. With Restoration discarded(pun intended) and Far Sights, you could in theory, build a deck where you gather information and power in the first turns, your own plans and movements hidden behind preparation, until you reveal big guns and deal a decisive blow, with the hopes the opponent's scheme doesn't counter you, and you become more impressive with each big blow, due to the Legend keyword. And into the concept Rares, Einzbern Castle, and Illusions in general just fit very nice warm and snug.

And all the Rare summons. All of them. You'd have so, so many Rares.

I've created such a deck. I call it - her - the Grail War deck.

Justeaze to her friends.

Section no. 1.

The Grail War
Game Mode Recommendation: Long, Hidden or Non-Hidden both

Victory Types: Tower Destruction or Resource Accumulation

Resource Use: Heavy all around, Bricks a bit less than the others. Gems are top priority.

The Gimmick: The Holy Grail War in MArcomage form. Summon heroes and artifacts of a bygone era! As many as you can, care not for the reason! Call phantasmal beasts to your aid, become stronger from each victory, raise the stakes, and assert your supremacy!

I mean it's still stupid but the HAM potential is through the roof here.

Gameplay: Or the description of how you make such a deck work.

In the deck here, you maintain yourself with the help of the Legend keyword and Rares. As each time you play a Legend with a Rare in hand, you gain a Facility - therefore, when you ALWAYS have at least ONE Rare, you gain facilities by the cartload.

The experienced among you already noticed the main weakness here: Legends cost a lot, and now your deck is full of them. Yeah, expect to not be able to play them at times. Put Zero cost cards into your free slots to help you maintain your early game momentum - when they help you stay alive or bring more Rares into play, even better.

And, of course there are better methods to gain multiple facilities. Of course there are. Effectiveness is not the point:3

The idea is to destroy the opponent's castle with big plays after a long preparation, or live until you have Facilities in the 20s, thus your production makes up for even your enormous spending and take hold of the grail.


Fallouts: What makes the deck bad. Since we discuss gimmicks, there are always reasons the deck is bad.

1. You're slower than a reptile on a cold day. A deck designed to rush you down or just be faster than average will win. Just accept your fate and try to have a good time regardless.

2. Low tower. Wall is negotiable through Dwarven wall and Ancient city, but you just don't have the space for good tower+ cards.

Clear counters:
Committed Tower snipe decks and Dragon squadron. For the simple reason you give them all the time in the world to destroy you. I won against a snipe deck once, and lost to the squadrons three times.

Note, Clear counters are the times when you just can't win out of anything but sheer luck. When you build a thematic deck, start with the comprehension some cards or combination of cards will just kill you. Above are the ones I don't think you can do anything to counter. Feel free to prove me wrong:3

Winrate: When you discuss thematic decks, one always valid question is: 'Can you even win?' We answer the question in the Winrate section.
The Grail War's win rate will be ~30% when you start. As surprised as I was to find, much similar to the original Grail War, the deck has a steep learning curve, complex nuances and potential for smart plays, which will improve the figure quite a bit as you progress. 50% is not out of the realm of possibility.

Section no. 2.

Linchpins: Quite different from usual MArcomage decks, gimmicks will need a select few cards to make a concept work. Even when you don't commit to them in full(I really have all the non-rare rare summoner cards in the deck, just since I can). Maybe you can do without all of them, but you will need some of them. When you don't draw them at the right time, though luck. Note just since a card is good, they might not be linchpins. Common sense dictates you WILL put Arthoria and Foulhorn in a Grail War deck unless you leave them out on purpose, since you'd be crazy not to, but you don't NEED to for the deck to work, and can leave them out.

Linchpins will be listed in the section as follows:

TOP PRIORITY: Conscript.
Yeah. Good card to start off the train with. And you've read right. The deck hinges on Conscript of all things. Abandon all sanity, y'all who enter here.

Why? Two reasons. Conscript is free(which is welcome in a deck where you can't pay for almost anything you have in the first 20 rounds) AND you can summon a non-common card, which could be a much sought after Rare, and will also be free. In this deck, Conscript is such a good choice, a Halfling rogue -> Conscript -> Conscript chain will be your favourite tactic. The opponent's Conscript army can and often will win you the game. The card - and the humor of it - is gold.

Doppelganger.
Needed for both the keyword and the persistent discard. The card copy can help at times too. You will, at times, through Conscript, Illusion triggers or Shifting Mass, run into cards you just don't need. In a pinch, you can trigger the Illusion keyword and remove an undesirable from your hand in a single turn. The deck is very slow, you can use the speed.

Dwarven forge.
Defense is far from the focus of the deck, and yet, you are still slow and could die in short order, which is why you should pick the cards which support the rest of the deck for the few, necessary tower and wall+ cards. Dwarven forge is such a card, as you have no resource - and thus no facility - you don't need.

Dwarven wall.
Why would you not have Dwarven wall in the deck? Do you know how much facilities you will have? And again, you're slow. You have to defend just a wee bit or you die.

Einzbern castle.
Your ladies and saviors. With the amount of rares you summon, you will break more than even each time. Have many illusions for maximum effect. Mark of the Phantasm helps a lot.

Eternal dream.
Now you summon 1-2 rares from rares you play, for a small expense of 4 gems.

Halfling rogue.
Copy Conscript, copy Justice, copy Samurai, copy rares, you cannot be wrong with the little guy.

Justice.
How else could you be a HERO OF JUSTICE, Emiya Shirou?

And, you don't build much of your tower and wall on purpose, thus, before you start your assault, nine times out of ten, you gain 20 Castle for free.

TOP PRIORITY:Lady Ellena.
Helps you see the opponent's hand, summons a card which does the same, cheap as you can be, can summon Rares, even attacks a little. She's a gem.

Shifting Mass.
Copy your own legend cards. Copy your rare cards. Copy the opponent's rare cards! Copy everything! The Far sights in the deck will help you know when to play, or you can use Shifting Mass as discount Far Sight to know who has the biggest card.

I hoped you enjoyed the first episode, everyone!^^ Then, I will have cause to publish a second! Remember why you play, and do your best with all your might!

Nice read :) Enjoyed every bit. If you want, you can share the deck with others and link it here.

I'm glad you enjoyed:3

At the same time, other people seem not interested... the pilot is also the end of the series I see. At least one person was entertained~

I like the idea of the series too :) I'm glad there are players, who explore the new strategies, have fun out of it, and don't care about the winrate. It's a bit boring to play against Brigand/Rush/Sabotage decks over and over again.

I had some similiar concept of Dumb Deck, defensive deck made to summon Adamantine Citadel.

The strategy is similiar to your "The Grail War" Deck - to summon as many rares as possible through illusion keyword. But then shuffling them with a help of Dream Shift, Veteran Militia and Cheshire and hoping to get AC eventually.

Most succesful combo is AC with Dwarven Fortress, so I need many non-common Runic cards (Ancient Ruins, Dwarven Castle, Dwarven Forge). It costs 62b, so commons such as Magical Defense (with illusion keyword) and Dwaren Warriors helps a lot.
Dwarven Fortress works as well with Redesign.

The second way to win is to destroy opponent's tower with a cards like Geomancer-Implosion, Sabotage, Dark Pegasus and Air Elemental.

I want as many Dream Shifts as possible, so Aria keyword cards, Hydromancer, Whirpool, Militia and Magic Portal are obligatory.

Hoy, didn't I lose against the one you mention once? I remember! Such a good game, too.

And, since you both enjoy, the series might be worth to continue!:3

I've never posted before. I figured I didn't have anything to add. Turns out at least I can throw in my vote of confidence. I like this thread and want it to continue. As a new player its hard to figure out the intricacies of the game, especially considering the many factors involved in designing and playing one's deck. Contrary to what I just said it isn't all that hard to figure out what's effective in a vacuum (aforementioned brigand/rush/sabotage decks) offering good results without asking much of the player (not that that is a bad thing!). Quirky decks such as these are a real challenge to make and pilot successfully, forcing you to learn about the deeper strategies this game allows for, turning one into a better designer and player in the process. I'm nowhere near that stage, I still fumble around a lot. I thought I made a quirky deck and it just turned out to be a straightforward mess. That shouldn't stop me, or anyone for that matter. Threads like these offer a lot of insight, even if at first it isn't apparent, to speed up that process and I'm grateful to have it around.

TL;DR This is awesome, please keep going!

Decided then. Three people pleased is more than worth a few hours of your time every few weeks. Anticipate episode 2<3