Hi

Could someone tell me of any mechanics apart from the raythen plot deck that helps me as the OL to work with search tokens or the search deck during an encounter or perhaps manipulate shop card availability/item costs or even steal gold during a campaign phase.

Put large monsters over the top of search tokens so there are no empty adjacent spaces.

Make encounters finish as quick as possible to disrupt the heroes picking up as many search tokens as you can.

Pick extremely time pressured encounters that the heroes will feel that they will need to win the encounter before picking up all the search tokens.

I'd say the same as BentoSan but have some more to add.

If it is your turn to choose go for quests that don't have extra gold rewards (fairly obvious).

Don't let them get the relics because they mean equipment the heros don't have to buy from the shop.

And my favourite goes along with BentoSans points 2 and 3. Use the saboteur cards with nasty traps (Uthuc/Monkeygod) in a OL deck stripped to 15 cards. Along with some other carddraw effects you might see the traps twice or even thrice per quest and they really convinced my heros to be reluctant in searching.

And most importantly... do not play rumor quests !

Kill those greedy, grabby guys who can run through the search deck to get the more promising cards first (if tactically feasible).

Take the treasure hunter deck.... and burn it

Take the treasure hunter deck.... and burn it

Now we're being little constructive....but well that's what overlords are supposed to be, ain't they?

Mimic in the basic II deck

Valyndra's plot deck and agent pursue treasure hunters.

Zachareth's plot deck removes 2 cards during the shopping phase.

Both Belthir and Queen Ariad have plot cards that work with trap cards. So with Ariad you could play curse of the monkey god and then savage exploitation.

Raythen's deck helps monsters run away with search tokens. But non-agent deck ideas, mimic in Basic II is priceless. I have pulled off some sick things with it, forcing my heroes to leave the treasure alone all together because it's more of a risk then a reward for searching.

Push to win fast! If they want to lose and let you get good toys to beat them good in the final, it's good. ^.~

Raythen's deck helps monsters run away with search tokens. But non-agent deck ideas, mimic in Basic II is priceless. I have pulled off some sick things with it, forcing my heroes to leave the treasure alone all together because it's more of a risk then a reward for searching.

Push to win fast! If they want to lose and let you get good toys to beat them good in the final, it's good. ^.~

I've won quests before with the mimic card. I remember one in particular was a quest from Trollfens (can't remember the name offhand, but it's the one with the sinking wagon). Bol'Goreth was the only one left alive and had no chance in hell of reaching the last villager. They searched, got mimic'd, and it was able to skirmish immediately for exactly the 3 spaces it needed and got the kill. That card saved my ass.