"Hail of Bullets" Agency/Syndicate

By qkershner, in Call of Cthulhu Deck Construction

So here's the play:

Agency Bodyguard w/ a Shriven and Resolute attached.

Play James Logan, find the Khopesh in the deck.

Infinite bullets?

I think this works, but here are the questions:

1) I can find Khopesh with James Logan and attach it to him, right?

2) The timing I assume on this combo is:

-Trigger Khopesh attached to James Logan

-Disrupt the wound on James with Bodyguard

-After wound on opponent's character resolves, Respond with Shirven and Resolute on Bodyguyard, to ready bodyguard.

-Rinse/repeat.

I'm good,right?

Yes, as long as the target opponent's character's wound isn't cancelled as well.

This really belongs in the rules forum. I suggest you repost it there.

I respectfully disagree: While there are rules clarifications necessary in order to build the deck, the resulting decklist shouldn't be in the rules forum any more than the rules clarification should be in the deckbuilding forum. That being said, the list is forthcoming. So far, I know this:

3x Canine Guardian

3x Agency Bodyguard

3x Educated Officer

3x James Logan

3x Shriven and Resolute

3x Khopesh

I need a way to control Invulnerable characters, so I think Handcuffs go into the list. I can also use Flanking Maneuver I think.

I could use Recovered Icebreaker and instead of main-deck Syndicate, splash the S&R and maindeck Cthulhu instead.

I could possibly use Evidence Locker to play Khopesh or S&R from the discard pile too.

So now I need to lean toward either Syndicate or Cthulhu. I feel like I can get more control of the Invulnerable characters with Syndicate because of the Skill control, but I'm new to CoC deckbuilding so we'll see.

Any thoughts? On the deckbuilding, not the "is this a rules or deckbuilding" topic.

HomerJ said:

I need a way to control Invulnerable characters, so I think Handcuffs go into the list. I can also use Flanking Maneuver I think.

I could use Recovered Icebreaker and instead of main-deck Syndicate, splash the S&R and maindeck Cthulhu instead.

I could possibly use Evidence Locker to play Khopesh or S&R from the discard pile too.

So now I need to lean toward either Syndicate or Cthulhu. I feel like I can get more control of the Invulnerable characters with Syndicate because of the Skill control, but I'm new to CoC deckbuilding so we'll see.

Any thoughts? On the deckbuilding, not the "is this a rules or deckbuilding" topic.

With more Cthulhu, you could still have resources to be able to play Khopesh if it comes into your hand, instead of relying on Logan to search and pull it. Handcuffs and Flanking Maneuver do not help you with Ancient Ones (the majority of whom have invulnerability), so Cthulhu also gives you Called by Azathoth which can blank the invulnerability on an Ancient One, as well as Bite Marks for more efficient control of characters with high toughness (if there aren't characters with toughness, you can resource Bite Marks.) Called by Azathoth on an AO and one shot from Prize Pistol. BAM!

Syndicate skill manipulation is domain intensive, since a lot of the effects cost 1. So if you go that route, you may want to consider Eldritch Nexus. (This incidentally can help with the cost for Prize Pistol for agency.) If you do skill reduction, you will also want to do the Jamburg/Ice Shaft combo.

Or you can try to do both…

It seems like no matter which way you go, Shub would probably make a good third faction for this deck: Shocking Transformation to get James Logan out more easily, support control, and Hungry Dark Young to make sure you can have an Agency Bodyguard out. Also I'm sure there's some combo that could be worked out with Ghoulish Thrill Seeker in this deck.

Also Educated Officer is steadfast Miskatonic, so you'd need to consider that if you really wanted to include him.

So far so good. Excellent info (thank you everybody). I'm bummed that I missed the Steadfast MU on Educated Officer. Rookie mistake. And following some additional card research and reading the posts, I'm seeing that Skill control is not the right way to go from Syndicate in this deck. I don't think I can go 3 affiliations here, and since I only need the Kopesh on James Logan to combo, I'm going to have to hard-cast (MtG, sorry) Shriven and Resolute on Agency Bodyguard. I may still splash a couple Cthulhu cards to single resource for Called by Azathoth, since it's really good here too. So here I am with 30 cards in:

3x Canine Guardian (Agency 1/1 C)

3x Agency Bodyguard (Agency 2/2 C)

3x Experienced Muscle (Syndicate 2/2 C) Solid and supports Logan, so it seems like a good play.

3x Peter Clover (Syndicate 3/3 CCI) Since it's so difficult to remove Ancient Ones, I figure maybe I can just avoid them?

3x Richard Upton Pickman (Syndicate 4/3 CCI) This guy is my Ancient One killer I hope.

3x James Logan (Agency 5/5 CCCA)

3x Shriven and Resolute

3x Khopesh

3x Flanking Maneuver

3x A Call For Help (to quickly get Logan or Bodyguard)

HomerJ said:

I respectfully disagree: While there are rules clarifications necessary in order to build the deck, the resulting decklist shouldn't be in the rules forum any more than the rules clarification should be in the deckbuilding forum. That being said, the list is forthcoming.

Well right, but at that point in the thread there was no list - just a rules question :) Obviously the deck stuff should stay here, but I think the rules question will get a better answer in the rules forum and be easier to find for future players who run into the same question.

HomerJ said:

3x A Call For Help (to quickly get Logan or Bodyguard)

It doesn't matter how fast you get Logan into your hand if you can't play him until turn 4 at the earliest when you're at 5-1-1. The game could be over at that point. Your best bet, as said above, is to put Shub in to get Shocking Transformation.

This is an old combo.

http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2321-sulfateuse-ad-libitum

I never managed to build a good deck around it, and it is getting worse, since wounding is not efficient enough to get rid of the new Ancient Ones!

BTW, you don't need more than two copies of Khopesh and Shriven and Resolute in your deck: if you draw the first one, source it (in order to be able to regularly play the second one if you unfortunately draw it before Logan).

I would personnaly build an Agency/Shub deck with both MG Warrior and Bodyguard in it, as well as a good Shocking transformation to get them or to get Logan when it becomes necessary. The two attachments would be mere splashes.