# The Wizards Of Speed And Pain

Designed by Monte Ashley.

The Wizards Of Speed And Pain
Feng Shui
2 | Proving Ground
1 | Mourning Tree
1 | Fox Pass
2 | Cave Network
1 | Kinoshita House
Ascended
5 | The Pledged
5 | Students of the Bear
5 | Mole Network
5 | Covert Operation
5 | Operation Killdeer
3 | Shadowy Mentor
2 | Realpolitik
2 | Faked Death
2 | Bite of the Jellyfish
2 | Family Estate
1 | Might of the Elephant
1 | The Unspoken Name
1 | Mr. X
1 | Adrienne Hart

## Notes

This deck works best in two-player games (its record is something like 15-0 at this point). In fact, in a two player site, it hasn't had a site seized or burned. It's somewhat less powerful against more opponents, but it still starts fast.

The principle is to start extremely fast, accelerate, and try to stall the opponent out at the same time. The Proving Grounds help generate weenie characters, and the Fox Pass/Mourning Tree combo really messes people up ("Okay, so you attack? Well, it's your last one..."). The Cave Networks, of course, are for the rare instances when I can't bring out a character right away.

The Caves also help for my favorite Turn 2 combo, which I'll mention below.

That's it, a fifty card deck. If I go first, I'll usually toss cards until I can play a Pledged - Mole Network combo. These are very nasty on Turn 1, since it's hard to defend against. The goal is to get two Foundation characters out as soon as possible. After that, I'll sometimes let them die, so my Cave Network can bring out Mr. X when I'm attacked (quot;Well, _this_ Average Joe will intercept _that_ average Joe, and no one will get through.quot;)

Even if I can't summon up blockers, the Killdeers make for great defenders, and it's not at all unusual to completely drain the opponent of resources in a few turns (if Mr. X is unturned, it's useless to play a Shaolin Master; I'll just take 'im).

Also, note that Adrienne is _Pledged_. This means that the two Family Estates and a Proving Ground can bring her out for free. I had to do this _twice_ in one game to kill Ting Ting (Adrienne killed her once, she Golden Comebacked and killed Adrienne, who Faked Deathed and came back out. Very exciting.)

As I say, this deck is good in two-player games, but it does have weaknesses (f'rinstance, a Discerning Fire will rip it up). In one game, the first Feng Shui site played by my opponent was Dragon Mountain, which made the hordes of one-point characters sad.