# Toccata & Fugue: Royal Trumps

by Andrew Davidson
August 13, 1997

1 Bite of the Jellyfish
5 Family Estate
1 Hostile Takeover
1 Monkey King
1 Operation Killdeer
1 Political Lock
1 Realpolitik
2 Soul of the Dragon
1 Soul of the Shark
1 Student of the Bear
1 Swiss Banker
4 The Pledged
5 Triumvirate Dealmaker
1 We Know Where You Live
3 Dump Warrior
1 Entropy Is Your Friend
2 Gorilla Warfare
1 In Your Face Again
2 Jamal Hopkins
1 Monkeywrenching
1 New Manifesto
5 Resistance Squad
1 Too Much Monkey Business
1 Avenging Thunder
1 Blanket of Darkness
5 Brain Fire
5 Claws of Darkness
4 Counterfeit Heart
1 Darkness Pagoda
4 Darkness Priestess
1 Fire and Darkness Pavilion
1 Fire Pagoda
1 Fire Sled
1 Fire Warriors
1 Ice Courtier
1 Ice Diadem
1 Ice Healer
1 Ice Pagoda
1 Ice Shards
1 Ice Tiger
1 Ice Warriors
2 King of the Fire Pagoda
5 King of the Thunder Pagoda
1 Mark of Fire
3 Molten Heart
1 Netherworld Return
2 Queen of the Darkness Pagoda
2 Queen of the Ice Pagoda
5 Shields of Darkness
1 Sibling Rivalry
1 Soul Diver
1 Spirit Pole
1 Thunder Knights
1 Thunder Pagoda
5 Alchemist's Lair (Magic)
3 Anomaly Spirit
3 Art of War
1 Discerning Fire
1 Dragon Mountain
1 Elevator to the Netherworld
2 Festival Circle
1 Field of Tentacles
1 Fortress of Shadow
5 Fox Pass
5 Illusory Bridge
1 Inner Sanctum
5 Killing Ground
1 Killing Rain
1 Kinoshita House
1 Locksley Station
1 Monkey House
1 Mourning Tree
1 Netherworld Passageway
1 Peacock Summit
3 Perpetual Motion Machine
1 Pinball Hall
1 Ring of Gates
1 Rust Garden
1 Sacred Heart Hospital
1 Shattering Fire
2 Soul Maze
1 Supercomputer
1 The Faceless
1 The Hungry
3 Turtle Beach
5 Turtle Island
1 Wall of a Thousand Eyes
1 Whirlpool of Blood
1 Year of the Rat
= 166 cards

## Stats:

BY TYPE
49 Characters
23 Edges
22 Events
33 Feng Shui Sites
20 Sites
5 Battleground Sites
14 States
BY COST
34 0 cost
29 1 cost
48 2 cost
7 3 cost
2 4 cost
1 5 cost
11 6 cost
34 variable cost
166 Total
1.70 average cost (excluding variable)
BY FIGHTING
15 1 fighting
21 2 fighting
1 3 fighting
1 7 fighting
2 8 fighting
4 10 fighting
5 12 fighting
3.73 average fighting (by character)
1.10 average fighting (by card)
BY FOUNDATION
10 Ascended
8 Jammers
16 Monarchs
34 Total
PERCENTAGES
20% Base resource
20% Feng Shui
12% Site
27% Magic
5% Tech
BY SET
54 Limited
82 Netherworld
30 Flashpoint
BY RARITY
6 Very Common
76 Common
39 Uncommon
45 Rares (27%)
BY FACTION
26 Ascended
17 Jammers
58 Monarchs
65 Neutral

## Notes:

This deck made the final of the Theme Deck tournament at Gencon 97. I have had a Triumvirate deck for some time and in an earlier form - Queen of Hearts - it won Flashpoint Finchley III. I also prepared a Hero deck for this tournament but decided that it would be more entertaining to play this one - an example of the London vogue for big decks. The earlier form was a lightweight 140 cards but I fattened this up to the version you see here. It had no trouble meeting the theme requirement and contains many sub-themes. Here are some of them:
44 Netherworld
27 Triumvirate
19 Darkness
15 Pagoda
15 War
14 Fire
14 Mastermind
12 King/Queen
11 Pledged
10 Ice

The main idea is to get out lots of edges and use them to both generate power and control the game. When the power is flowing, use it to bring out the Four Monarchs and then the game is yours. Of course, the way the deck develops will be rather unpredictable and so one must be alert for interesting combos like Shields of Darkness/Fox Pass and Molten Heart/Anomaly Spirit.
The deck's main defenses against Discerning Fire are Brain Fire and the Counterfeit Heart. These defenses were not really tested during the tournament - I think I played the only Discerning Fire that I saw. The card that deserves a particular mention is Hostile Takeover. This is not often seen but was in its element here - lots of competing Monarch decks. I only played it once - when someone matched my Elevator to the Netherworld - but it was worth packing it just for the shock that it gave him.

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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