Yeah so this deck came second for the first weekend I built it (losing in the finals to a Felicia I built but run by one of the better players in our group). In it's second tourney, last weekend, after some tweaks, it came first...
Anyways, Donovan isn't my cup of tea, I like him, but in no way do I love him. So he comes apart, and becuase I was just going to write it down anyways (excel or something) I might as well document it here, seeing as it is a sucessful tri-symbol, one that I encourage everyone to try to build. I also haven't seen a lot of 'post-banning' decks up, so I thought this might get the ball rolling.
Donovan (3 dots) Death (D), Order (O), Water (W)
First ability = draw cards if your attack isn't blocked, using this ability restricts the removal of cards from the card pool
Second ability = clear 'up' to 3 cards from the card pool, playable after playing a non-attack card and only once a turn
Actions:
4X Kung-Fu Training (W)
1X Malevolent Genius (D,O) - note split attack 2mid3 stun 2
4X Tag Along (O,W)
1X Your Mind is Known to Me (D,W)
= 10
Kung-Fu is for control of opponent's action cards and speed pump on any of my attacks (less the Malevolent Genius). Malevolent Genius is a 2 speed card, one of very few with any use, and that combined with hack or if the opponent just doesn't feel like using the card in hand to block, will draw me 4 cards with Donny - the action is good, there are forms out there, cancelling a form and reacting with manifest on opponents turn is yummy. Tag Along is self explanatory, but the meat of it is not needing to run more than 2 1 checks as Tag Along can replace attacks mid/late game by grabbing them. Your Mind is Known to Me is flavor, I only own one, and frankly it is the best card to use with Manifest Destiny (you heard it here first).
Assets:
2 X The Blue Dragon (O,W)
4 X Valeria's Shop (Infinity)
= 6
Well, this is a Dark Force deck, so assets are a no-no. Valeria's is needed, this is tri-symbol after all, and it combos well with Manifest Destiny.
Attacks:
2 X Dark Force: Mirage Body (W)
4 X High Plasma Beam (O,W)
2 X Moon Glow (O,W)
= 8
Build with Dark Force + draw, hit hard with High Plasma Beam earlier than you would expect. If it get's control/long game, High Plasma can kill as a solo no problem. Moon Glow is great tech, draw a lot (let's say 10 with DG and 10 speed Dark Force + 7 starting + 2 Aqua + 2 Dragon - 4 played = 17), don't draw what you want, play BRT or whatever (goes down with Dark Force) then drop Moon Glow, push it through, and go through another 17 cards of the deck almost assuredly drawing the one of four High Plasma or Tag Along to finish.
You can also draw 3 off Donny's first effect with Moon Glow and discard 9 cards to get 9 new ones, all you need is BRT out and you can probably get away with your opponent not blocking.
The Dark Force turn in detail looked like this. Ideally with DG out, attack with Dark Force, make it 9-10 speed with Kung-Fu, draw 9-10 with DG after dealing 8, play one water foundation and R: with Donny to clear. Play the rest of the 13-16 cards with no card pool, all go down. Then attack with 1-2 Plasmas for game.
Foundations:
Death Only:
3 X Revenant's Calling
3 X Inhuman Perception
3 X Manifest Destiny
= 9
I guess this is telling, what I think the 3 best death foundations are that don't share with order or water...
Order Only:
4 X Blood Runs True
3 x Experienced Combatant
3 X Psycho Style
= 10
This deck started without Psycho Style and more death cards/attacks. It quickly dawned on me how well Psycho Style works with the enhance on High Plasma, and the action is great too...
Water Only:
3 X Battle Prowess
3 X Calming the Mind
3 X Deadly Ground
= 9
Donovan is fragile, Battle Prowess is broken. Assuming I can protect Strifes and my response negation, I should be able to block with all my draw, that means a one shot needs to exceed 39 damage to kill this deck... By then, if I haven't killed I don't deserve to win. I don't have enhance negation (didn't want to clunk up my deck with 4 checks and 4 diffs), so Calming is there to stop the only enhance I fear, ok the 2 enhances I fear... Spinta and Multiple...
All 3 symbols:
4 X Strife's Patronage
= 4
Order Water:
4 X Aquakinesis
2 X Dormant for Millions of Years
4 X Program Malfunction
= 10
Nothing fancy here, just good cards.
Death Order:
2 X Budhist Devotion
3 X Charismatic
4 X Cursed Blood
= 9
Devotion and Cursed Clood are great in a multi-symbol deck... Charismatic is an insanely good card.
Foundation Total = 9+10+4+9+10+9 = 51
Card Total = 51+8+6+10 = 75
Sideboard
3 X Ichi no Tachi - against a big Multiple Heavy deck I wanted more than just Calming the mind to stall it out or draw to outblock it
2 X Soul Wave - against nasty assets that Experienced is having trouble attacking, or discard that beats out my draw
1 X Dormant for Millions of Years - against heavy commital decks the 3rd is a good card
1 X Malevolent Genius - against form heavy decks the second one comes in handy
1 X Calming the Mind - the 4th 'just in case', against a deck with spinta I would mulligan to get one of these
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There you have it, any questions about my take on Donny, ask away!
- dut