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Monkeys? Shakespeare?


Monarchs/Architects, somewhat centered around Probability Manipulator and the Fire King.
By Tony Hafner

Total cards: 60
Primary role: Multiplayer
Cards by set and rarity (R/U/C)
Main Set: 2/8/6
Netherworld: 7/6/24
Flashpoint: 0/3/4
Foundations:
4 DNA Mage4 Darkness Priestess
2 Test Subjects2 Fire Warriors
Hitters/Utility Characters:
3 CHAR3 King of the Fire Pagoda
5 Vivisector2 Queen of the Darkness Pagoda
Misc:
2 Paradox Cube1 Avenging Thunder
2 Probability Manipulator2 Blanket of Darkness
2 Discerning Fire3 Brain Fire
5 Pocket Demon3 Mark of Fire
1 Year of the Rat2 Smart Missile
Feng Shui:
2 Curio Shop2 Monkey House
3 Proving Ground3 Rust Garden
2 Whirlpool of Blood

This deck was originally centered around Probability Manipulator. The first time I played it was in a tournament the week after I moved to Seattle. This tournament included Bob Whiteman with his original straight Architects deck, the widely-known General Hospital. In the final round, I was at 2 sites while everyone else was at 4. I cranked my Fire King with the Manipulator and made a series of attacks with small characters. Nobody stopped me because they would have to turn their characters to do so and then leave more important sites unprotected. Each time I attacked, I used the King's ability to beat up on the Golden Gunman (the only way I could have possibly dealt with him). I ended up taking 2 sites with my weenies, then sending in the King and CHAR for the final winning attack. I still don't know how I managed to win the tourney, because the deck has never worked particularly well since then.

Some cards that it used to feature that are now gone are Neutron Bomb and Arcanotechnician. It has slowly evolved into its current state after many attempts to make it work better. I am still not really happy with its performance (I really hoped to make it a competitive deck), but at least it is a fun and reasonably effective multiplayer deck.

As far as how it works, that's pretty straightforward: get out big guys and kick ass. You use the Vivisectors to recycle power. The edges in the deck are not really needed for a specific use, but they are still really handy. I still have a lot of fun once I get out a Probability Manipulator, and even more when I copy it with a Paradox Cube. You may notice that a huge portion of the cards (25 of them) work well with the Manipulator. I tried to put other hitters in there that also got good use out of it, but Nirmal Yadav and Homo Omega just aren't worth their cost unless I drop the Monarch hitters. I dropped the Fire King at one point, but the deck just wasn't as fun so I put him back in. The Darkness Queen is a fairly late addition and doesn't get much out of the Manipulator, but she just plain kicks ass.

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©1997-2000, Tony Hafner