Hello guys.

Today I was thinking of crafting a Mono-Syndicate (fun) deck to mess around with - spurred on by assurances by one of the posters (Dam ?) who noted in their test games, using mono-faction decks, that Syndicate was 19-5 (best record) - with a very fast and furious early-game rush approach, using their many exhausting effects to get rid of defenders on the other side of the table.

Anyways...while looking through my stock of Syndicate cards, I came across the recently released "Bound and Gagged".

This handy card reads:

Attach to a character with skill 2 or less.
Attached character is considered to have a blank text box and cannot commit to stories.

Now, by itself ...it's good..but not game-changing (most of the time) since it will only affect guys who are Skill-0, 1, or 2. BUT...I instantly was reminded of that other neat trick Syndicate does....Skill Reduction !

So....correct me if I'm wrong...but wouldn't we be able to, for example, use Clover Club Torch Singer to reduce someone like Y'Golanac's skill by -2....making him a 2-skill character until end of phase....THEN hit him with Bound and Gagged (allowed to target 2-skill guys or less) - effectively shutting down a mighty ancient one...with a 1-cost card ! ? (B+G)

This has further ramifications, if legit, when combined with Like a Moth - a 2-cost event card that reduces ANY character's (no limitations) printed Skill to 0...till the end of the phase.

This means on a big baddy like 7-Skill Hastur or 8-Skill Cthulhu....you could still hit them with Like a Moth...and then toss out a 1-cost B+G to totally shut them down....correct ?

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You have that correct. Syndicate is pretty tricky.

or a feint (0 cost) + Bound and Gagged and by draining only 1 syndicat domain you block Nyarla ou Ygo .

Yeah, I really like that though ! I am starting to finally sense the "theme" // "potential" of Syndicate, which I never did at first glance....although it does seem they are limited to a handful of "really good" cards - and the more you stray from those to try "alternate things" - the tougher it will get for you....whereas you DO have more of that flexibility when you try other Factions.

Still, Syndicate has some nice tricks and I will try to come up with my own Mono deck shortly, and maybe post it up for review / commentary !

:-)

IIRC, Marius played a Mono-Syndicate deck at Stahleck this year, so, yes, it's certainly doable.

Myself I tried to combine them with the Yog faction who has several additional ways to destroy low-skilled characters and adds some handy recursion.

I've found when the Torch Singer hits the table it becomes a prime target for your opponent... so it's important to think of ways to keep it in the game.