In the LCG thus far, I haven't been particularly appreciative of the syndicate faction. It's an excellent support faction, in my mind, with cards like Patsy, Dutch Courage, and Low Blow being perpetually useful, but I didn't really see much winning potential playing mono, with the exception of Panic (which is, after all, only one card). So I decided to try out a mono Syndicate deck, and I found that it was carried almost entirely by Panic. I tested it out against three other decks, my Agency-Hastur character-light control, a friend's Shub-Agency Y'golonac Shotgun monstrosity, and another friend's interesting Yog-Agency-Neutral combat struggle extraordinaire deck. Against the first deck, Agency Hastur's control cards proved a great deal better than Syndicate's, and the games weren't even close. In the second, Syndicate could not bring enough of an early rush (having few useful 1 cost cards, with the exception of Patsy, who is defensive), and, while it got two stories early-ish in most games, could manage the speed to get three before Agency Shub could bring out lots of character-removal and characters, couple with Y'Golonac, a shotgun, and five domains. Dutch courage provided a bit of an obstacle, but it stopped the Syndicate deck from being able to use enough exhaustion that round, and soon bit the dust Burrowing Beneath. In the third game, early sledge dogs, some (tougher than mine) investigation, and a judicious shotgun blast sealed the game on turn four. Subsequent games offered similar results.

The conclusion I drew from this (about which I would love to be proven wrong), is that mono-Syndicate is fairly slow, and incredibly vulnerable to removal. The lack of good one cost cards, and the almost total reliance on two costs for everything (Like a Moth, Low Blow, Alhazred Lamp, Dutch Courage, plus a bunch of characters), insure that the deck can't really get going until around turn three, by which time I've found most other decks I play will have gotten a story or two (or three), and be well stocked on removal or other nasty tricks, making the game very difficult to win, excepting the fortuitous draw of at leat two Panics. The only solution I've been able to think of is Sledge Dogs, but given my own tendency to play Interrogation Center (what witht the prevalence of the Dogs and the Descendent), I'm rather hesitant to do so.

Anyway, I'd love to hear whether you agree or disagree, and whether I'm possibly missing something essential (I don't yet have the Twilight Horrors pack, and am still missing the Ancient Horrors AP as well), or maybe just not thinking of something. Keep in mind that I'm not dinting Syndicate as a second, or first, faction in a two faction deck, I'm just wondering if mono-Syndicate is viable, since it seems to me to be the only top tier faction in which mono isn't viable (with maybe the exception of Shub).

My son plays mono Syndicate and it is VERY fast. He can win games in 3 turns using investigators and control strategies (exhaust characters) and removal (tear gas, clover club torch singer). He also uses Descendent of Eibon (like almost everyone else!), and saves Panic! as the equivalent of his Ancient One. I don't think he has anything more than a 3 cost in the deck except Panic.

Syndicate definately has the speed to win quickly and really shrines against decks that don't have a really strong early game. However, since the game is a little slower, and most other factions pack some quality early game drops Syndicate can't rely on speed alone anymore to be really successful.

It needs to push people out of the way, kills as many opposing enemies as possible (low blow, tear gas, syndicate liason, etc...) while consistantly getting tokens on multiple stories every turn. If it fails to do so you become much more reliant on Panic which can just win games when timed just right

So is it fast enough? Almost. It can and will win many a game, but needs a few more quality cards to be as big as a threat as its former CCG predecessor.

C'mon, are you kiddin' ????

Just ask Marius and he'll tell you this faction lightspeed's ability to win a game. You have a lot of character with early rush + alot of I icons.... This faction has a power to fire tokens in a brething.

The effect of supports and events are controllish enough to stop the opponent when he's trying to grow up and has cards like Ancient Gold to be able to pay for a lot of cards. Definetly a fast faction !!!

Ah, I was referring to white boardered, Prodigee, my apologies.

I've made a syndicate deck, incorporating all the elements people have mentioned in this thread, and it still gets kicked around by my other decks, due to an inability to get by control cards or place a significant amount of success tokens without relying on Panic

Ok

Well, strictly speaking of the elements of the Core Set + AP, I did manage to build a Synd deck based on cost and skill reduction.

Ancient gold isthe key to fast kind of growing + the characters like the Singern, the Bouncer or the Brazen Hoodlum/Fugitive Scientist/Grifter will alloww you to stop your opponent to make token while incresing your power.

The ressources possibilities are quite good (Arckam Advertizer + Ancient Gold ) if you consider the use of transient and the use of smaller characters (triggerman + Clover Club habitants + Patsy and the extorsionist . It's not as good as it used to be in the CCG days, but the future might bring back those nice stuffs in a few days.

Is Ancient Gold white bordered?

Ancient Gold is black-bordered only, I'm afraid.

Which is a pity, since it's quite decent acceleration.

Silly me !!! I'm confused on the fact that the firsts AP were BlackBoarded ...

And that's minor my points a lot : you're right, syndicat is a little less fast than it use to be !