Strategy and Stuff
The Finn Deck
This is the deck I play. Not surprisingly, Finn is the Guardian for this deck. He allows you to pull one extra card for each swamp you control. By drawing more cards than your opponent you will be able to attack quicker and hit harder. Victory is accomplished by occupying all disputed lands or by blowing up the enemy Guardian with a knight. Simple really ... Currently the deck contains the following:
- 10 swamps
- 7 shields (the snake ones, one of which is the push-winning standard bearer)
- 3 bribery cards
- 28 creatures, 6 of which are Knights (4 Swordsmen, 2 Axemen)
- 4 St. Ballantine's Evocation
- 3 Dispel Magic
- Finn, Swamp King
- The Carreg Amroth Stronghold
I haven't listed all the creatures, in part because I change them every now and then, in part because they're very much a matter of taste and availability. I have few large (in vitality that is) creatures, nothing over 15 base vitality, because I don't think they're useful enough. I've also avoided ranged attacks since they take up too much space for their punch. I'm also low on AOE, because my normal opponent has very few small and non-immune creatures.
Addition on 2/8 1999.
Got to think of something new, or make a brilliant rebuild, the current deck gets beaten far too often by my brother's new deck ...
The New Deck
So, Finn got his muddy behind kicked a little (all right, a lot) too often. The problem was Finn couldn't work as I wanted him to. I thought about making another deck. Then, I finally threw together a new deck, but I didn't think it would work very well. It didn't either. It swept away all opposition! Proof how good a rebuild every now and then can be to your deck ... Here it is in its current configuration:
- 5 mountains
- 2 Iron Crag Brew Mountain (helps poor Stinky a bit :-)
- 7 shields (snake shields, including one push-winning and one +2 CMP standard)
- 4 bribery cards
- 7 Knights (4 Swordsmen, 3 Axemen)
- 3 Stinking Spirit (wonderful guy this! should have two more though ...)
- 5 Demon Horde of Kabod
- 4 Undead (2 Skeletal Minions, 2 Zombies, would use more if I had them)
- 9 other creatures
- 4 St. Ballantine's Evocation (booom hahahaha!)
- 3 Dispel Magic
- 2 Power Lunch (some more channeling to pour power stones into ...)
- Grahzue, Lover of Vice (some more power stones to pour into channeling ...)
- The Carreg Amroth Stronghold (hey, it's the only one I have ...)
The Push Deck
Much has happened since the "New" deck was created. Several boxes of boosters have been bought, several new players have joined in, and the fact that I got hold of several Djinns and one Lawyer made me come up with this deck. The driving forces, of coruse, are the five Embryonic Witches and the five Djinns. Beating a 17 vitality creature with an Embryonic and a Djinn is a great feeling ...
- 6 spires (may also be subject to change as there are a few flyers in here too ...)
- 7 shields (snake shields, including two push-winning standards)
- 6 bribery cards (two of each, but I'm not sure I use them enough to motivate this)
- 5 Djinns
- 2 Lawyers (one or two more would be nice if I had any)
- 21 other creatures (including 4 undead and 5 big, bad (11+) flyers.)
- 3 Dispel Magic
- Gaar, Influencer of the Masses (the deck doesn't use too many stones, so it can be affordable to pay two for channeling some times)
- The Carreg Amroth Stronghold (still the only one I have ...)
General Strategy
One thing I don't believe in is throwing in lots of creatures with bonuses in specific terrains (unless you have some kind of overlord-based deck of course). After all, you are supposed to attack, not sit and wait for the opponent to finish you off. On the other hand, perhaps you could construct a deck based on digging in in your own terrain and winning by wiping out the enemy shields when he attacks ...
Addition on 16/8 1999.
Then again, you will get attacked on your own ground some times, no matter how much you try to avoid it. A few terrain bonuses doesn't hurt ...
Sticking to 55 cards seems to be a good idea, just as sticking to 60 is in Magic. 55 is more than enough for one game, I play with Finn and I've yet to run out of cards. The fewer cards you have, the more often will you draw your important cards. If you can affect what cards you draw, you should.
Guardians seems to have far more working deck building possibilities than for example Magic. In Magic, some decks are clearly better than other ones, and a themed deck is mostly just fun but useless. In Guardians, you can build a "slag beast 'n' fairy" deck and do well with it. I like to think that's due to the game design, winning is more down to skillful play than to building the special winning deck. No single card can win you the game half as often as some Magic cards can. Also, bribery is a great thing for Guardians. If there was some way to cancel bribery, I don't think it would work half as well.
