Disclaimer

I am going to reserve my comments to my immediate experience and deck list because Chris, aka p00n, organized this event and I do not want to steal his fire. I believe he also took pictures and possibly plugged the toilet at End Game but that is another story…

Preamble

I was in a strange predicament before the Regional because I had been mostly playing an environment-power-centered mono Cthulhu deck in preparation of the event, but I have more of a passion for Syndicate and Yog-Sothoth based decks. I had my much played Syndicate/Silver Twilight deck with me and since this is where my passion lies I decided to go with it… as it turned out to be a good decision because it lead to me winning the Regional.

Deck Name: Private Club

Syndicate (35)

x3 Clover Club Bouncer
x3 Clover Club Torch Singer (Lil Johnson)
x3 Expendable Muscle
x3 Triggerman (original art version)
x3 Clover Club Executive

x2 Blind Fighting
x3 Intimidate
x3 Kidnapping 101
x3 Low Blow
x3 Panic

x3 Bound and Gagged
x3 Safe House

Silver Twilight (15)

x3 Lodge Barkeep
x3 Protector of Secrets
x3 Lodge Housekeeper
x3 Lord Jeffrey Farrington
x3 High Wizard of the Order

Final Conflict

In the final match I went up against an Agency+Hastur deck played by Charles. The deck is full of removal/control including some Dreamlands stuff such as Pillar and Cavern of Flames, but not Steps. At the point I faced the deck I believe it had not give up a single story. This match-up would have been an auto win for Agency+Hastur had I gone with a mono-Syndicate deck (more on that later). As it typical of my deck it always feels like it is on the precipice of losing board control against more aggressive, removal/control decks. I had a 1-0 story lead with 3 success tokens on another story. However, my opponent had 4 tokens on The Well with stronger Characters in play. On my turn I had 3 cards in hand and was resourced 3-2-1. Typically the 3 would be resourced to 4 in order to play High Wizard. However, seeing the game possibly slipping through my fingers I instead resourced the Wiz to make a 3-3-1 configuration and played Farrington to bounce his Character then Housekeeper to Bounce his Pillar. With nothing left to defend I was able to take my second story and put 3 tokens on another, all with Arcane to ready. I am sort of saving the best for last here… the won story was The Terror out of Dunwich, and yes I triggered it to reset the Domains so no more Pillar, or really anything to stop the Character Skill+Investigate advantage for the next turn win.

After Shocks

I see no advantage to playing mono syndicate over Syndicate+Twilight. I never had to overpay for Triggerman (loyal) and I honestly had Panic in hand in situations where it was more gravy than life saving. What ST brings to the table is much of the tech Syndicate lacks to get around cards that lock it down. This is not an easy deck to play and I have to constantly look for small windows of opportunity to squeeze in success tokens for a quick win. Despite the level of difficulty in playing it at an optimal level the deck is consistent in terms of providing me with the tools to do what I need it to do. Besides, I have more fun playing this deck than anything else I have tried in the current environment.

What is the future outlook for this sort of deck? With Catastrophic Explosion entering into the environment and the deck made up primarily with 2 skill Characters, I would say extremely challenged… I will most likely be pulling the x2 Blind Fighting and x1 Safe House for x3 Dutch Courage out of necessity. We shall see if FFG design develops some sort of Payback style tech or cheaper Characters with toughness for Syndicate in the future.

We had extra prize support that I purchased and I am not keeping the playmat so look for near future ebay sales under my name (tokhuah).

Special Thanks

Chris for organizing, Endgame (the greatest game store in the galaxy) for hosting the event, the other local players for putting up with my endless rants and crazy deck ideas. Lastly, a huge thank you to FFG for keeping this great game around and bringing in a new, more responsive Lead Designer who inspires confidence in this card flipper. Finally, thanks for the prize support: I love the Domains and the uncut sheet for the Spawn of Madness is at the frame shop now!

Tokhuah said:

First of all, congratulation for the winning

Second, I like your take on the deck! Ths STL characters fit really well with Syndicate rush strategy: I guess the main point why Panic it is working even in a 2-faction deck is that you anyway need a 4-resource domain (for the STL Wizard), so if you resource 3 Syndicate in one domain you can already plat Panic for 3 (and the same domain helps for the Triggerman).

My question here is: how useful was the SYndicate part of the deck? I try to explain: in the Syndicate sector you are playing 20 cards, among events+support. What they do is, basically, provide exhaustion effects (and some tricks). You are not playing the "usual suspects" in the characters departments (Hard Case, Extortionist). So, I'm wondering how the deck would work if you switch Syndicate with Agency (for example). You would play removals over exhaust (usually better to remove, in my opinion) and you could gain some more investigation icon (Triggerman -> Undercover secutiry + Government Exorcist, for example).

Anyway, again congratulations

Konx

I am not playing with the usual suspects because the ST versions are simply better. Here are my reasons for playing with Syndicate over Agency, even though I will admit they may stretch your sanity if you have a rational mind:

1. Syndicate has better cards for dealing with Invulnerability.

2. There is more redundancy (translate: consistency) in the Syndicate tricks and they all can be used during story time.

3. Lodge Barkeep is an uber card that is steadfast Syndicate.

4. I have been playing Syndicate as one of my top 2 factions since the beginning of the CCG era so I understand how to finesse their style of play more than any other faction.

5. I enjoy the roguish game template Syndicate tech tends to create. It is extremely satisfying to win when my board position is apparently losing, or at minimum precipitous.

DISCLAIMER: At this point it would probably be a better choice to go with Agency+Silver Twilight but I have Sicilian blood in my veins so there is no way I am going to cooperate with the Coppers...

Congrats on the win. I am not a very knowledgable Mob player, so I will give your deck list a spin to better aquaint myself with that faction.