The Doorway

The Story:

The struggle has reached the Garden District, namely the Estate of B. Ramsdale Brown. Your opponent is trying to strike a decisive blow against one of the Lodge's havens. Caught offguard you've had little time to prepare the Rituals and defences. Resources away from the frontline are scarce, but you know that as long as you can hold out for long enough then reinforcements will soon arrive. Using B. Ramsdale Brown's well connected status, Lodge supporters from across the continent are about to start flooding through The Doorway, situated in the heart of his Garden District manor. Meanwhile the women and children are trying to evacuate through the same. Not all of them are going to make it and when Nathan Wick with his High Wizards arrive, things are going to get bloody.

The Deck (50):

Characters (35):
3 Argent Adept
3 Rich Widow
3 Guardian of Dawn
3 Recruiter for the Lodge
3 Thule Zealot
2 Master of Blades
2 Lodge Housekeeper
3 Knight of the Outer Void
3 Master of the Myths [R]
1 Silver Twilight Enforcer
1 *Professor George Angell
1 *Lord Jeffrey Farrington
3 *B. Ramsdale Brown
2 *Nathan Wick
2 High Wizard of the Order

Events (8):
2 Hanyatl's 1:9
3 Initiation
3 Steal the Soul

Supports (7):
2 *The Doorway
2 Hermetic Seal
3 *Garden District

Basic Deck overview:

A cost reduced control deck. Pure Silver Twilight Mono - 50 cards total.

Uses Garden District combined with Argent Adept / Rich Widow for free Character cards into play at no cost (up to one every player's turn). There are 32 Lodge Characters in the deck to facilitate this. Also has Initiation (0 cost) that can be recurred with B. Ramsdale Brown and again with Argent Adept / Rich Widow this can make it relatively free and allows for 3 cost Characters to be played with 1 Resource. Nathan Wick can also get Lodge Characters into play without using a Domain.

Thule Zealot for domain control and recurred through Knight of the Outer Void or The Doorway, or from the discard with B. Ramsdale Brown.

Master of Blades and Silver Twilight Enforcer for some Garden District / Nathan Wick surprises in the opponent's Story Phase, as well as being a threatening card once known.

Lodge Housekeeper and Hanyatl's 1:9 (with 11 possible into play cards to trigger) for Support control.

Hermetic Seal and Professor George Angell for recurring triggered effect Disrupts.

Lord Jeffrey Farrington and High Wizard of the Order for board control / Character removal.

Steal the Soul is a very good card for in-Story surprises, both in attack and defence, as is The Doorway for desperate measures.

All Events and Supports are 0 or 1 Cost to cater for the reduction to Domain Resources from recurring Thule Zealot. It is sometimes the case that Domains remain at 4 Resources several turns into the game. With a starting hand of Knight of the Outer Void / Thule Zealot / Initiation or Thule Zealot / The Doorway you can immediately set up a recurring Resource removal that if not dealt with will permanently stall some decks at 4 Resources (or 3 if they go second). With a 2nd Thule Zealot it is possible to wear the Domains down to only 2 resources (using Initiation).

As most of the engines require low cost cards, this allows my 3 cost Character pool to be a nice sandbox of Characters. These can be stored in the Resources and retrieved using Thule Zealot (Resourcing correctly is vitally important for and against this deck) or searched for with the Recruiter for the Lodge.

I have seen this deck on occasion put 2 x 3 cost, 1 x 2 cost and 1 x 1 cost (Rich Widow) Characters on the table as well as Garden District on the first turn (Which can easily start spitting out 2 or 3 cost Characters for free from the beginning of the game). Having two Characters of cost 3 on turn 1 is usual if starting with B. Ramsdale Brown and Initiation, thus bypassing most deck's ability to counter a rush with low cost removals. This is further compounded with Resource removal and the return of opponents cards to their hand.

Lastly, you may be concerned that 9 of the 'fleeing civilians + collateral damage' Characters have 0 icons, and I admit it does look weird in your deck. This is somewhat mitigated by the high amount of Characters (so 26 still have icons - a bit closer to regular). I view these Characters as 'pre-paid events' investing in lower cost (or free) high cost Characters, whilst also getting a card on the table that is open to insanity and wounding. Steal the Soul can be used with these icon-less cards to block opponents on their turn.

Deck Strategy:

First priority is the Thule Zealot engine. Having one of these in hand with either Knight of the Outer Void or The Doorway will put immediate pressure on the opponent to remove this. The Recruiter for the Lodge can help kick-start this engine or compound it with a 2nd Thule Zealot. After that or if this isn't possible then focus on getting high cost Characters into play for free or at reduced cost as fast as possible. Simples.

Once you have the Domains down to 2 or 3 Resources get Nathan Wick (possibly from the Resources) and use Initiation to put him into play. From here keep the soft lock on the Resources by recurring a Thule Zealot and use The Garden District and Nathan Wick to put Characters into play. At this stage start activating The Garden District at the end of your Story Phase if planning to use Nathan on your turn. This will either allow you to use any Characters put into play by him as part of the cost, or give The Doorway an action to interrupt and use it to return one of them to your hand before they go to the discard. Hopefully you'll have a High Wizard or Jeffrey Farrington to do this every turn with.

There are a couple of tricks which would become apparent after piloting the deck a few times but to make it easy here they are:

With Knight of the Outer Void / Rich Widow / Argent Adept you have a draw card engine that activates just before your Draw Phase, which is when you're likely to have less cards in hand than the opponent. Just return Rich Widow with the Knight's Forced Response, Respond by putting Rich Widow back into play and then Respond and draw a card using Argent Adept. A single Rich Widow can be used this way to cater to multiple Knight of the Outer Voids.

It is usual to activate the Garden District during the Operations Phase of your own turn, followed by the Story Phase in the opponents turn. This could lead to some nice surprises but if the Character is not immediately useful you can put it into play at the end of the phase using any Master of the Myths that you've played out that phase as part of the cost, before they would otherwise return to your hand anyway.

Deck breakdown:

0 cost - 10 cards
1 cost - 14 cards
2 cost - 8 cards
3 cost - 14 cards
4 cost - 4 cards

Icon breakdown:

Terror - 0 (11 Willpower)
Combat - 19
Investigation - 17
Arcane - 30

Additional Notes:

When you play a bouncing Character with B.Ramsdale Brown on the board, you can use his ability to pull a Rich Widow or Argent Adept from the discard and immediately play them out. This will increase your board presence by 3 with the single action if you need some more bodies on the ground.

If there is no Lodge Character to be 'played' when triggering Garden District in your own Operations Phase and it doesn't look like you'll get the chance to draw any cards, then Recruiter of the Lodge can be used to force a reshuffle and possibly present an opportunity for the Garden District in the opponent's Story Phase.

This one's more a question of timing structures and placed effects as I'm still a noob in that regard. My thinking is that when you trigger Garden District you place an effect on the Character revealed (if so). That effect remains even when a Hanyatl's 1:9 is placed on top. You then trigger the Character into play and in doing so meet the requirements to trigger the Hanyatl's 1:9 at the same time. Of course this is only in a pinch. It's much easier to use Rich Widow, Master of the Myths or Nathan Wick.

Lodge Housekeeper is a good way of clearing negative attachments placed on your Supports. Remember to bounce the Support back to you so the attachment goes to the discard.

I forgot to mention that a starting hand of B. Ramsdale Brown and Thule Zealot is also fair if you have some way of getting the Zealot into the discard to recur while you wait for other methods. Initiation is one option for doing this.

Don't be afraid to drop Nathan Wick down on turn 1 if that seems to be the best course of action. As long as you have 2 cards in the hand this Character is an extremely good bluff blocker. With the right Character into play it can even end up being worth the 2 cards required if for say, bouncing and then wounding on the opponent's turn.

I WILL BE ON LACKEY AND OCTGN FROM 8-9PM EST ALMOST EVERY DAY

Changes:

I'm currently trialling a new lower end set-up by taking out the 3 Unscrupulous Acquisitionists and replacing them with the 3rd Recruiter for the Lodge and 2 Master of the Blades. I was finding that I was resourcing the Acquisitionist quite a bit early game to make way for the Thule Zealot or Recruiter for the Lodge to find such, and by late game when Domains have 0 Resources his ability was redundant. The Recruiter was proving useful even if not locating a Zealot in that it could often pull a Master of the Myths into the hand first turn. The inclusion of 2 Master of Blades is to test it's function as a Garden District / Nathan Wick alternative to bouncers as an offensive drop in the Story Phases and in hand threat of such. In the same sense I've temporarily replaced August Lindquist with a Silver Twilight Enforcer.

In all honestly I've never really been a fan of untargeted bouncing (ie Initiate of Huang Hun). There are too many ways to exploit it with 'into play' Characters the opponent owns, and so I'm kinda glad to see the Acquisitionist go (for this deck).

Another version I'm trialling though it might be trying too hard now to capitalise on the Lodge subtype.

The Deck (50):

Characters (35):
3 Argent Adept
3 Rich Widow
3 Guardian of Dawn
3 Recruiter for the Lodge
3 Thule Zealot
2 Master of Blades
3 Lodge Housekeeper
3 Knight of the Outer Void
3 Master of the Myths [R]
1 *Professor George Angell
1 *Lord Jeffrey Farrington
3 *B. Ramsdale Brown
2 *Nathan Wick
2 High Wizard of the Order

Events (6):
3 Initiation
3 Steal the Soul

Supports (7):
2 *The Doorway
2 Hermetic Seal
3 *Garden District

Conspiracies (2):
2 Call the Custodes

Call the Custodes completes the 'into play' trifecta. Garden District can put Lodge Characters into play from the deck, Nathan Wick can put them into play from your hand, and now the Conspiracy can put Lodge Characters into play from the discard. Don't forget any cards put into play by Nathan or the Custodes can be used to pay for the Garden District before they go to the discard (or 'rescued' with The Doorway). There's no rush to put the conspiracy into play as it needs a discard pile to function. It may be a little low on Support control but hopefully having the Recruiter for the Lodge will allow for a quick bounce. It may be the case that I drop a copy each of Lodge Housekeeper and Guardian of Dawn to return the 2 x Hanyatl's 1:9. Will see how it goes!

So the Custodes was fun but I think unnecessary, and with the inclusion of Master of Blades / Silver Twilight Enforcer the High Wizards of the Order weren't always the first choice to surprise the opponent with. Due to their cost 4 I've decided to drop them for the time being and instead put 2 Sigil of Doom's as replacement Character removal cards (which can be recurred a lot easier as well). This still leaves 33 Characters (30 of which are Lodge ) so I think I'm getting closer to the end deck. Hopefully I've given you enough ideas to play around with a version of your own!

The Doorway

The Deck (50):

Characters (33):
3 Argent Adept
3 Rich Widow
3 Guardian of Dawn
3 Recruiter for the Lodge
3 Thule Zealot
2 Master of Blades
2 Lodge Housekeeper
3 Knight of the Outer Void
3 Master of the Myths [R]
1 Silver Twilight Enforcer
1 *Professor George Angell
1 *Lord Jeffrey Farrington
3 *B. Ramsdale Brown
2 *Nathan Wick

Events (8):
2 Hanyatl's 1:9
3 Initiation
3 Steal the Soul

Supports (9):
2 *The Doorway
3 *Garden District
2 Hermetic Seal
2 Sigil of Doom

If you've been playing around with the deck like I have then there's a couple more cards that you might like to experiment with, being:

Adept of the Second Order - with 3 arcane and 1 investigation it's a great Sigil of Doom trigger, along with the response of readying a Character every time one enters play from a card effect (which there is a lot of).

Carl Stanford - if you're using the Sigil of Doom then Carl becomes a lot more useful for recurring both them and Initiation. Plus the added bonus of cancelling non Silver Twilight cost reduction. Perhaps try swapping one of the Ramsdale Brown's for a copy.