The “Everything You Need to Know to Beat the Current Two-Time 7th Sea : City of Five Sails Champion” Series
Hello! I am the current two-time World (Gen Con) champion of 7th Sea : City of Five Sails, and I want to share my knowledge with anyone interested. I generally tend to approach the game fairly differently from most people, in large part because I adore trying to prove established knowledge wrong, especially my own. Ussura is trash in the core set and only Pacifist is good?! Yevgeni, his hammer, (and some excellent City Deck luck) disagreed at Gen Con 2024. (Wiiiiith, a couple cards from the expansion.)
This article contains my honest opinions, decks, etc. (nothing held back or out-of-bounds to ask about). That being said, I am positive I have not achieved The UltimateUnderstanding, so I look forward to hearing where people disagree. If there is a consensus on something, you can bet I’ll actively try to disprove it, if possible (or incorporate it). For the person who told me I was wrong to hate on Shifting Tides, it is now playing a vital role in my Ekaterina Degenerate deck!
As a heads up, I use Show/Hide tags to (artificially deflate the size of my articles) keep some of the more **hmm** extraneous? information streamlined out for those desiring. (I’m almost certainly over using them here, but I went waaaaay overboard.)
* A large part of the strategy of this deck was to use Horatio to initiate challenges with his +2 thrust technique. Learned after the event that this does not work. The technique requires your adversary to be the only enemy character at that location. The character you challenge only becomes your adversary after they accept the challenge. Therefore, when issuing the challenge, they are not yet your adversary, so you do not meet the requirement to trigger the technique.
Needless to say, this person’s on a tear and needs to be taken down a few pegs (that arrogant, smarmy faction-switcher)! So, I’m going to detail Tom’S entire thought processes regarding deck construction by breaking down at least one deck per leader (an article at a time). In doing so, we’ll also address Tom’S thoughts on how to play each deck, its strengths and weaknesses, competitive archetype viability generally, and any other insights I can glean from Tom’S brain. We can then use all of this information to prove Tom’S not as clever as Tom believes, and crush those ideas beneath our heels so better ideas can flourish!
In my youth, I was very opposed to the idea of people copying decks online to play, specifically with regard to Magic: the Gathering/Hearthstone. It was incredibly frustrating seeing my inexpensive, self-built decks shredded by people running expensive copies of established decks. Clearly that was the only reason my Goblin Assault based deck kept losing (and not because it was legitimately bad). Oh yeah, and the “Legendary parade” of turn 8 coin Ysera (Ysera Awakens generated), turn 9 Alexstraza, turn 10 Grom + Ysera Awakens to kill me from 30 hasn’t left any scars.
*Wipes foam from mouth* Annnnnnnnnyways, I changed my tune after frustratingly building two of the top decks from the Epic Card Game World Championship (that I lost in the top 8 of while piloting the deck of a teammate’s creation that kept. beating. mine. [Mine being a Good-based midrange deck built around Silver Wing Angel and Gold Dragon, and it was glorious-ish.]). Running those top decks against each other, I learned so much about what made those decks powerful, especially in contrast to my own. Then I watched as they slaughtered all of my beautiful creations (me trying to prove established knowledge wrong). It was painful but incredibly enlightening. With this testing, I was able to take the concepts that I learned and apply them to my new decks with significantly more success (with plenty of the occassional duds in there as I experimented). By the end of the online tournaments, I had wracked up more wins with unique decks than even the two-time World Champion, Tatian.
All of this to say, this is a game. Engage with the content you and your playgroup want to engage with. If you want to learn the game together with no external resources, that is an incredibly fun way to do it, and I recommend. If deck building isn’t fun for you, and you just want a reasonable deck that looks fun that you can throw together, I’ve got a great bunch of options which I recommend. If you are looking to take down that smarmy, faction-switching, world champion with your own deck, but you want to play those decks to understand why they are powerful, excellent, I look forward to seeing the results at Gen Con!
Also, the fact that this is a non-collectible game means there is very little barrier to experimenting with all kinds of fun things! No need to drop hundreds of dollars to try a deck
These are the decks I plan to write about. I have not decided on an order for writing them yet, so let me know in the comments, discord, direct message here, etc if there are any decks people want to push to the top of my queue. (Stating one is trash and/or has a lot of problems/sub-optimal choices will be the most effective method):
**Disclaimer** These are not optimally fine-tuned decks, and many of them rely on very different and contradictory playstyles to extract maximum value. There are certainly some sub-optimal cards and potentially some important omissions. I will be revising all of them as I write about them. That being said, I would consider bringing any of these decks to a tournament as is (at least in this moment before I revise them), not that I recommend doing the same to someone who doesn’t have my same ridiculousness.**
Yevgeni: Yevgeni, Docks Squatter (takes the Ussura Good Stuff core and supplements it with effects to concentrate renown to Yevgeni’s bullying) [hybrid]
Yevgeni: Duelists (maximize RPT {without overdoing it with 1-cost maneuvers on otherwise below average RPT} and fighting attachments while relying on non-engaging claims/uncontrols to not lose) [violence]
Ekaterina: Degenerate Scum (Abuse the interaction between Tomoe’s end of High Drama claim and leader Ekat’s move-on-claim and renown collection denial. The goal isn’t to get to 7 renown, assassinate, or dominate. The goal is to get a renown lead and then Greedily prevent the opponent from collecting more while being incredibly reactive.) [hybrid, yes hybrid Bacon even with 5 fighting approach characters!]
Some notable decks I am not planning on discussing with separate articles:
Kaspar: Beserker (Kill all opposing characters, rely on Kaspar’s city action for Mercs that can claim or help kill) [the most violent end of the hybrid spectrum] {2 deck slots currently open after removal of earlier version of playtest card}
Daniella: Unsavory hybrid {unless I build something else I’d rather talk about} (hybrid pacifist hunting with fantastic defensive RPT thanks to Unsavory Salve turning our -/3/1’s into big parry outs)
Tomas: (potentially live build a new deck around approach Tomas, not sure which leader)
Made a melee version of the above Daniella Deck. I like it much more: Take No Fair Fights (This is Life and Death, not some game! – Eisen Bedtime Story)
Some notable decks I am not planning on discussing with separate articles:
Angeline: Angie, Mother Hen (a purely reactive Angie protects baby Odette and Anghos as they go into the city, legitimately and without malice) [hybrid]
Odette: Monet Pacifism (abuse Rep Meritee to catapult into a dominating advantage day 2) [pacifist]
Odette: Deposeketeers (Depose is terrible you say, oh really?, potentially live build) [hybrid]
Some notable decks I am not planning on discussing with separate articles:
Soline: SolÍñigo (abusing Íñigo’s technique for the ultimate bodyguard, Panacea might come out since it doesn’t support Íñigo, so good though) [hybrid]
Sanjay: (A comparison of a low-aggro Sanjay, a high-aggro Sanjay, and my medium-aggro Gen Con Sanjay)
LowAggroSanjayHighAggroSanjayMediumAggroSanjay
Some notable decks I am not planning on discussing with separate articles:
Nowadays, when I build a deck, I always start with a general plan to exploit/test. A few generic and specific plans include:
There are a bunch of playtest cards/leaders, how can I build around them to maximize their use and test for power level
Someone has claimed that certain cards/leaders/factions/strategies are bad, how can I maximize them
What happens if I lean all the way into the Leader Ekaterina/Tomoe interaction
What happens if I go maximum aggression with Kaspar
What happens if I lean all the way into Íñigo
What if instead of playing incredibly proactively with a fighting leader (like how I play with Yevgeni to bully locations) I play incredibly reactively with my fighting leader (Angeline) and refuse to move her out until an opponent engages, how do I build in such a way to force my opponent to act without giving away all momentum
The more I am able to refine the idea I am trying to test, the quicker I can get a general outline of the faction and approach cards I want to include. However, it is not unusual that I will stumble into an entirely different idea during building.
Once I have my concept, I look through all available cards and sort them into
Yes, this directly supports my deck idea (put one/two copies to right of leader)
Maybe, this is at least a reasonable card and could fit (1 copy to left of leader)
Unlikely, this actively goes against my deck idea or is too weak (leave as is)
Can’t, literally can’t run this card or Borets (flip it face down) [one of these days I probably will non-ironically run Borets, I see you designers]
As I’m sorting/when I finish, I look for emergent patterns.
For example, when building Leader Sanjay, who relies on gambling into non dash-riposte cards, I look to see how those cards interact with each other. Castille, as the ultimate “strong packages that don’t play well together so you have to jury rig them together, somehow” faction, has to deal with this a lot. Based on the cards I grabbed, does it seem feasible that
Íñigo can find a home here?
Scoundrel package?
Maya technique parry outs?
This gives me a chance to play around with which packages to include and even which individual cards in each package. Once I see exactly where I want to take the deck, I either have to cull any faction-cards in excess of 40 (hopefully) or add to get up to 40 (less ideal). In this stage, I have to pay much more attention to distributions such as target RPT (broken down here: https://pineboxentertainment.com/2025/08/27/breakdown-of-rpt-a-players-guide-to-deckbuilding-in-7th-sea-city-of-five-sails/).
For the approach deck, I generally slot in characters and schemes throughout assembling the faction deck, but my hybrid-loving … posterior (this isn’t me masking I swear! It’s integral to me as a person! I promise you, for people who know me well, they would see this and go, “Oh Tom,” [even more so for this explanation in multiple nested brackets though]) generally follows these guidelines:
Have a leader or approach character with 3+ influence to recruit mercs day 1 (or Prima Rosa)
Have your highest initiative scheme in case day 1 has only 1 merc available
Have a +1 panache scheme in case not a day 1 only 1 merc flop
After this point, I basically have my completed deck (and a mental list of my last-pass cuts/replacements that I never truly stop agonizing over). If I win with it and/or it feels oppressive, I generally move onto a new deck. If I lose with it, my stubbornness kicks in hard and I go to tweak it for a rematch because I need to prove it isn’t garbage (hence why I had to run back my 5th-8th place Kaspar good stuff list from Gen Con 2023 at Gamehole Con 2023 [not just because I was lazy]).
Packages!
These are the general packages of cards I consider when building decks, depending on what I want them to do. Based off of the card pool through Blood and Salt expansion.
(This is where I really went overboard. I ended up starting a breakdown of every card in every faction, and it has been taking me so much longer than anticipated. So, I am going to post one faction at a time, then update this article with them as we go. In addition, I want to include the direct relations after each card as well. For example, all hunter-related cards after Philip Hase, etc.
I did finish my packages by deck archetype though, so including them now.)
For the faction-specific breakdowns and neutrals, I have broken them into three pseudo-tiers:
Effective Auto-Includes for Each Faction/Leader (Sorry Carl!)
For me, all of the cards in this group are hard to justify not including (sometimes I can!).
Cards in italics are on the edge and/or non-unique one-ofs.
[As with all things, my opinion, feel free to refute and/or challenge me to a (streamed?) game to prove me wrong]
Hard to Justify Cards for Each Faction/Leader
These cards are rarely in my decks. I need very specific reasons to even consider them.
All Other Cards for Each Faction/Leader
A range of power levels but all playable cards.
Eisen
Will be added at a future date
Ussura
Will be added at a future date
Montaigne
Will be added at a future date
Castille
Taunt: Love this card (and hate it). 1-cost move effect is fair. The fact that this can move an enemy from their home is quite relevant, primarily for murder. The maneuver is basically never worth it, since at best you are trading 1 card for 1 card, terrible if played from hand, especially since the RPT is absolute trash. This is a card I frequently include in Castille, but due to its terrible RPT, it means I have less space for other terrible RPT cards.
Roll the Bones: I like this card much more than most people it seems. People compare it unfavorably to Broken Time in Montaigne, but this card can be played by any Castillian regardless of traits. Hitting cards that rely on maneuvers for RPT like Adaptable is rough, but +1 riposte is a big deal. The Scoundrel bonus is just that, a bonus, not a requirement. Good.
Robbery: I like this card less than other people. Not a huge fan of the Pirate City Action to equip your trash from your discard pile. Pirate Maneuver is interesting, especially since it can even steal uniques like Grandfather’s Hammer or Crystal Eye, but, it’s a 2/3, meh? It is dash-riposte so neither Sanjay nor Main Gauche can buff it. You could buff the defense with Sturdy Shield or Concealed Flintlock, but still meh. You even need to get into a situation where you could play a combat card to even trigger this, so pure pacifist is probably off the table, although you do have access to both Raise the Stakes and Unsanctioned Duel. Maybe this is worth it against a non-Yevgeni, non-thrust-buffed challenge? Assuming it is a 3-threat challenge coming in, then you would only take 1 wound to steal their attachment. But, if they have a combat based attachment, with a technique that can be used on challenge, they likely already used that technique, so you can’t deny them the use of the technique, and you won’t be able to use that technique that round. It is really hard for me to justify including this card. Torvo though…
Carnaval: Very solid. 3/2 RPT is great (especially for Inigo). If your opponent out-initiatives you, you can use this to deny them a merc recruit that they bee-line for. It can even remove an event from play to allow for some unexpected shenanigans. The City Action that requires an en garde performer to engage to make a city location uncontrolled has never seemed particularly worth it.
Research: Solid card, best justification for including it now is for Panacea discount. In general though, Castille has plenty of really obnoxious cards that being able to replay one of 3 of your choice will probably be quite annoying for your opponent
Nothing Personal: *Wince* Not great. 2/1 RPT, although Torvo and Sanjay can buff it to a 3/2. Spend 1 to wound adversary and potentially make them lose control or take another wound (assuming 3 com which is not Sanjay). Really hard to justify including
Night of Drinking: Run these. One of the strongest cards in the game and one of the best reasons to play Castille. I can’t reasonably think of a situation why you wouldn’t want this card. This can even counter maneuvers on combat cards like Broken Time (although you have to announce you are using it before they choose to resolve/pay for said maneuver). Super, super good.
Life in the Canals: Hmmmm. Not worth playing from hand. It is just a 2/2 that effectively replaces itself in that scenario. If you can gamble into it though, then it gives +1 card advantage (assuming your combatant can make use of one of the maneuvers). Not having any dashes is quite nice. I want to like it, and I do run it, but I don’t know.
It’s Personal: 1/2 RPT is sooooo bad. If you can get the kill with the maneuver’s wound granting you the free claim, that is really, really good especially as it means they can’t chuck another combat card at you, but it is not easy to set up, and with its terrible RPT, your character might die to do it. Tooo situational, and that is coming from someone who loves situational cards. Torvo and Sanjay can buff it, but still
Improvising: Odds are, your opponent will have some worthwhile risks to play. The flexibility this card gives can be quite nice, and it can force your opponent into choosing combat cards and or not making plays that could put strong risks into their discard pile for you. Against certain decks, Strega Vodacce for instance, you might be keyword locked out of your opponent’s strongest Risks, and you might not get what you need, so it is a … risk. I have cut this card on multiple occasions, but it also won me a Gen Con. (Stratege is a pretty good card too.)
Drinking Games: Engage effects are strong. Leaders will almost always out resolve non-leaders. Soline being able to react move in front of a character after your opponent’s move, then immediately use this, pretty nice. I frequently run this card.
Amour: This card. Harumph. Castille’s 2-parry parry-out, so, hard to justify not running in all but the absolute most aggressive decks (and even then). Add that to the fact that this is a 1-cost engage and move home effect, which is really powerful. What’s that you say, but you’re sending your own dude home engaged, and I hear that is really powerful for your opponent, so … how is this good? Well, not all characters are created equal at all times *cough* mercenary Penya. Your one wound from death character (or Soline with reaction into this … *targeted glaring* …) sending an en garde Grandfather’s Hammer equipped Yevgeni home is quite the coup for you. Further, it is a good way to get your at-risk Leader out of the city while providing you value. More directly, this can hit leaders, fighters equipped with multiple attachments and potentially extra challenges in hand, your opponent’s last en garde character who was going to go for the claim, etc.
Adaptable: This is the reason you always need to be paying attention when your Castillian-opponent has the initiative. A no-contest claim, that can be used by either leader or any other pirate on a Castillian crew (including mercs), that doesn’t need your performer to be en garde. Disgusting. This card is what makes the Castillian-Domination game so threatening. Even just swinging your opponent’s 2-influence location to your favor is devastating. Run this. The not-first player city action could also be used as a claim, but more fair. It could also be used to throw another challenge. A 1-cost 4/2 RPT combat card is also pretty solid (even if it makes Roll the Bones sad).
Unfortunate: This is only equipable when played as your combat card in a duel; which means you are only negating one threat coming in at you while sending 4 threat back. If your adversary dies to that 4-threat, this has no-effect, and if your character dies to do so, that is unfortunate. This can kick your adversary off of various breakpoints though, knocking off Leather Spaulders, downgrading Main Gauche’s technique, preventing Quick Reflexes’ maneuver, knocking an opponent’s restricted hostilities down by 1 in a Fin-duel (for the next round), etc. It can be particularly nasty when trying to assassinate a leader or in response to a defensive deck trying to gain value by gambling into 3/1s. I’m still undecided on this card. I hated it at first, for the first paragraph above, but it intrigues me for the second.
Gallegos Blade: questionable
The Cat’s Glass: only RPT
Solvente Universal: solid
Rapsodia: interesting
Panacea: fantastic
Cats in Every Corner: Panacea fodder, but also potentially a surprise recruit or event
Ciphered Tome: amazing
Wily: I don’t like it because I don’t run heavy scoundrels often, but 5/5 is good
Proper Drama: seems reasonable in a scoundrel deck
Passionate: very situational, below average rpt, but can be an on-cost en garde effect, when it hits
Curious: 0-cost movement effects are great
Torres Cloak: not sure
El Gato’s Mask: Sanjay auto-include, reasonable for any fight deck probably
You Cheated!: *Sigh* anti-me (Eisen Overwhelming Threat) card is effective
Siesta: I like it a lot
Raise the Stakes: absolute top-tier card
Gold or Steel: for when you want all-aggro
Mysta: hmmmm
Damya Kahina: seems reasonable
Torvo Espada: solid if all-fight
“Prima” Rosa: super good
Lucas Martinez: unsure
Raton: probably not
Patricia Moustakas: I still like her, although I haven’t been playing her
Lorenzo De Zepeda: intervening with You Cheated + his technique is nasty
“Madre” Dolores: excellent
Maya De La Rioja: excellent
“Padre” Anibal: muuuuuuch better than you think
Sanjay (Approach): *Shakes head* and people complain about Rosine
Makepeace Botwighte: solid, “you sure you want to engage to claim” *smug*
Inigo Rocoso: yeah, crazy strong, possibly problematic, we’ll theoretically get to his deck at some point
Soline El Gato(Approach): I like them and want to experiment more
Andare De Castillo: seems solid
Giacinto: Strong academic, good passive, good ability
Iago Carlos De Soldano: Strong academic all-arounder
The Cat’s Embargo: hard to justify not running a +1 panache scheme with pretty high init and an upside
Shifting Blame: solid
Castillian Caper: Montaigne is faster now, get rekt. Still run this in all Castille decks
Rumors of the Crimson Roger: Puts 2 renown onto a single location, then gives some Pirate actions, “there you go Patricia…oh no, LESHIYE!!!!!!!!”
Proper Study: Another reasonably fast +1 init scheme that can filter to your more important cards, as you see, I’ll run it with no academics. Also Padre
When Least Expected: People love them their Lorenzo
Explosive Ultimatum: Interesting for a combat capabable deck
Meeting of the Minds: Solid
Soline El Gato (Leader): Fantastic. That reaction move speed being able to be used before either your opponent’s action or your action is great. -1 Fin is really nasty, particularly against low-Fin fighters. You Cheated! is just mean with them.
Sanjay (Leader): Hmmmmmm. Super cool idea. Hardest leader to kill. A bit too straight-forward for my taste for longevity of wanting to play. That being said, low-aggro Sanjay enabling the use of interesting Castillian approach characters is interesting. Approach Soline, baby!
Vodacce
Will be added at a future date
When Opposing Characters Must Die
When your characters plan to turn sideways (engage) to send characters to the locker.
Pacifist decks exist, are popular, and are strong. We hunt them.
Including some (but not all) of these cards are necessary to do so.
Face up cards granting 4+ threat/wound challenges with 3+ restricted hostilities
Neutral
Saber (The ability for a 3-fist character to send 4 threat on a challenge, even though they can only inflict 3 wounds is huge. It completely negates an unmodified 1-parry parry-out. Against a 4-resolve character, you set yourself up to finish them off with a direct 1-wound card.)
Throwing Knife (one-time +1 thrust on challenge, +ranged weapon for Eisens)
Improvised Weapon (same as above except melee weapon, for the Eisens, and potentially parry out for the Eisens or Elisabetta)
Eisen
Langschwert (One of the strongest cards in the game for lockering characters. +1 thrust on challenge, +1 thrust on first combat card if any. 0-cost baby!)
Suffer Not The Wicked (The main reason I had to messy up my subsection header. Prevents a 4-resolve character from refusing your Hunter/Zealot, but doesn’t affect a parry-out. Can provide +1 thrust on challenges, but hoops.)
Terrell Brandt (+1 thrust for all challenges)
Raven (+ stacking attachments/effects that boost Finesse, once per day)
(Kaiser Schnurrbart, Polished Flintlock, Forged for Battle)
Kaspar Dietrich [approach] (Since his technique doesn’t mention Adversary until the effect, not the cost, it can be activated on challenge if equipped correctly)
not Phillip Hase (Since the technique cost references adversary)
Ussura
Yevgeni (Either leader or approach sends 4 natively with 4 restricted hostilities)
Mireli Sabre (Can be +1 thrust on challenge for 3+ fist chars or +1 thrust +1 parry for some characters against decks that fight back)
Grandfather’s Hammer (Yevgeni throwing 6 threat on challenge is dumb, do it)
Ren (She effectively has an inbuilt anti-1-parry parry-out effect, especially early)
Montaigne
Jean Urbain (+1 thrust technique)
not Horatio Lockwood (technique cost references adversary, can’t be used on challenge)
Castille
When Least Expected (Lorenzo and/or The Cat’s Glass buffed foot challenge)
Vodacce
Stiletto (Can only be used once per day, but it outright kills a 4-resolve refuser)
Servo Scarpa (+thrust technique)
not Visenta Scarpa (technique references adversary in cost)
Effects that directly inflict the final wound
Cards that wound characters directly are effectively worthless, unless the character it is used on dies, without being overkilled. Therefore, it is almost always best to save them as a way to inflict the final wound. Further, the number of situations throughout the course of a game where this situation presents itself are generally pretty low. For that reason, you don’t generally need more than 4 direct wound effects. (Cesca is a bit of an exception because she can kill characters purely through direct wounding.)
(There are also some card exceptions that care about the opponent being wounded and/or how many wounds on are characters, but those are secondary.)
Neutral
Bleed Out (Cheaper for Villains, but 2 cards to kill a non-leader is still worth it)
Matchlock Musket (3 cards for one wound is steep, so primary use is 5-thrust)
Collateral Damage (The RPT makes this more of a meme, but I run it mostly non-ironically with the Twins in Ussura. Montaigne and Vodacce with Defending Honor and Rattle the Rigging respectively could realistically consider it too.)
Relentless (Immediate wound to prevent potential action-speed heal or + resolve effects is a really big deal, but that wound on self matter against non-pacifists. Can even be used when you refuse or parry-out of duel, for Cesca for instance)
Shield Rite (Technically, requires your opponent to use an effect targeting your En Garde sorcerer)
Eisen
Divine Discipline (The self wound and zealot restrictions are serious costs. Probably won’t hit multiple characters with it too often, especially since you are likely already trying to kill characters. Even if it does, one more wound to a character that doesn’t kill them isn’t that valuable.)
Yield (Solid consideration for a deck with Melee weapons, like Fish. 2/4 RPT)
Polished Flintlock (3 cards to start wounding, but at least no more, solid RPT)
Vantage Point (A lot of hoops to jump through, but I love it. Can be used by a character equipped with a ranged attachment at home! Snipe a character during a claim and you could dramatically affect the influence totals)
Noble Sacrifice (Can finish off a character, but hard to set up. I did manage to get a double [or triple?] kill with it though. Novelty factor is real.)
Katain DeWinter (Dang you Katain! I have to include you for completeness, since you can double up a direct wound from a ranged effect, 3 of the above cards)
Ussura
Razrushitel (2 cards for a wound, but so good)
Predatory Pursuit (also 2 cards for a wound, but it could set up a kill against a fleeing enemy)
No Steel No Surrender (Having to take a wound is unfortunate, but an option especially if you don’t want to commit faction cards)
Montaigne
Angeline Dèmone (All Angie-moving cards are potential wounds. She will frequently preapply that finishing wound by moving on top of an engaged character. [Letting the character engage for value first is risky, but can be mitigated by nontraditional claiming/unclaiming effects.])
(Porté Travel, Bloody Entrance, Blood Mark, Tip The Scales, Sea Legs, Come Hither, Lodestone, Hour of Blood, Odette Dubois D’Arrent [approach] reaction [whether Angie is engaged or not], Léontine Giroux, Defending Honor + Technique, Unsanctioned Duel + Technique, Sworn Swords + Technique, Tabard of the Fallen Musketeer equipped Angie + Épée Sanglante + technique)
Castille
Raise The Stakes (Effectively a Relentless+ if your opponent attempts to parry out. WIll show up again in this section)
Improvising (Assuming your opponent has something for you)
Solvente Universal (Assuming your target has an equipped attachment)
Explosive Ultimatum (Assuming your target is at a location they control)
Vodacce
Cesca Del Rosso {leader} (All sorcery effects she can perform, to anyone + anything that can wound herself or another strega to pass that wound to opposing non-leader)
(Pull the Strand, Fate’s Burden, Unravel the Thread [either], Fate’s Silence, Subtle, Follow the Thread, Twist of the Arcana, Fate’s Kiss, Pull, Boon, not Corpse Speak, Shield Rite)
(Wrath of the Don, The Red Scepter, Arson, Not Today [technically], Relentless, Ambitious, Deal with the Devil, Until Morale Improves, Sibella Scarpa)
Legion’s Caress (Requires waiting until that character En Gardes, assuming no interaction in the mean time)
Buratino (Sac for wound, potentially after dealing 3 on challenge [Bravos, Desi, and Approach Don all possible recursion for this effect + more roundabout ways])
Stiletto (Including again because it can be used outside of challenging the target)
Sibella Scarpa (Wounds herself to wound an opposing char then Cesca can push that wound over too. Add Cesca’s Reaction wound and a Stiletto challenge and no more 4-resolve character.)
Effects that Initiate More/Better Fights, Prolong Fights, or En Garde a Fighter
(I’m including all of these effects together because there is a lot of crossover.)
Neutral
Appealing to the People (En Garde to fight)
Corpse Speak (Technically can be another instance of any of these)
Unsanctioned Duel (If running duelists that fight, run this card. Send +1 and they can’t escape by any [non-moving] parry out.)
Honorable (Assuming you’re down on characters and your leader wants to issue a potentially lopsided-in-their-favor challenge to a non-leader)
Eisen
Well-Equipped (En Garde to fight)
Overzealous (En Garde to fight, with a looooot of hoops)
Move Along (Fantastic, 2 cards for a fight or one-sided move home engaged)
No More Words (Great extra fight, assuming melee weapon or Eisenfaust)
Drachenblut (As a gambling technique, it can’t stop a round 1 parry out, but it could stop a round 2 parryout, or a parry-out after you intervene, in addition to sending an extra threat in either situation)
Wilhelm Dünst (Can throw two 2-base-threat challenges a turn, assuming against a Villain/Sorcerer/Monster and you have a Faith/Relic card in hand)
Turais Dall (Can En Garde after throwing his 3-base-threat challenge once a day)
Ussura
Justice Served Cold (Can only target mercs and thugs)
Voice of the Gods (Engage your non-fighting Sorc to En Garde your fighter)
Censure (Lets your nerds challenge, possibly with buffs like Pavel or Upman’s Jacket)
Courageous (Duelist can throw another fight if outnumbered)
Bravado (Excellent duelist card which can add a threat to you to prevent a fight from ending due to a parry out)
Mireli’s Revision (Can force opponent to gamble for a new card in case of a parry-out)
Iron and Velvet (Extra fight if unequipped)
Stand Your Ground (Extra fight and you get a threat on yourself to prevent opponent’s parry-out)
Montaigne
Battle of Wits (Requires Diplomat challenging character with at least 1 inf, but there are multiple non-stacking ways to buff inf)
(Tabard of the Fallen Musketeer, Uppman’s Jacket, Éventail)
La Voix De Sans Voix (Your Diplomat picks up your fighter and brushes them off for a fight)
Legendary Reputation (Bonus fight where only leaders can intervene, cost a bit above rate at 3 cards spent, but fantastic for finishing an assassination)
Gallant Deeds (En Garde an opponent to En Garde your fighter)
Defending Honor (One of the best fight initiations in the game, especially for Assassinations. It gets around your opponent having interveners, allows Angie or Horatio to immediately use their technique, and you have good odds on doing max restricted hostilities. The only thing to be careful of though is that your opponent can target your support characters for the fight if at the same location. Also, if you target a 0 or dash-fist character and then you gamble into only-Riposte/no-thrust cards, the challenge will fizzle, disastrously [and hilariously])
Cavalier Hat (This allows any of your 3+ fin duelists to issue a 4+ fin restricted hostilities duel, once a day. Requiring 3 cards to equip, for a once a day effect is expensive, but at least it is also a 2/4 combat card.)
(Bastien Girard for 5, Aimée Barrere, Angeline Dèmone [Approach or Leader], Lord Stranahan III, Horatio Lockwood, or Henri Michelet for 4)
Valiant Spirit (Once again, 3 cards for an En Garde which is above cost, but the fact that it can be used at home, or for 2 when gambled into, is worth it)
Sworn Swords (Requires your diplomat and duelist to be together, but give a free fight with an anti-parry-out threat to yourself if accepted. Can be refused, but only duelists can intervene)
Épée Sanglante (Excellent bonus fight for a Musketeer that can swing a Renown in your favor and help during claims. Be wary of factions with techniques/maneuvers that directly wound like Vodacce’s Murder or Eisen’s Approach Kaspar Dietrich)
Axelle Hubert (Can give your participant an anti-parry-out threat to themself after your opponent chooses a combat card, + a bonus threat to your adversary if Axelle is En Garde. Works if she has a fighter to cheer on or if she’s involved with a Battle of Wits)
Castille
Raise the Stakes (One of the best cards in the game. Can add the final threat on top of your opponent’s combat card so they die instead of survive on 1 wound. Can also prevent a parry-out by putting a threat onto you as reaction/maneuver)
Improvising (Assuming your opponent has something for you)
Passionate (Assuming your opponent intervened on your challenge or you intervene, you character has the correct trait, and they survive their initial duel)
Research (To potentially get back a card from any of these categories)
Adaptable (En Garde if not the first player)
Panacea (En Garde assuming you have an academic at your fighter’s location)
Torvo Espada (Assuming your opponent has a 2+ fist character and doesn’t let you draw a card instead)
Iago Carlos De Soldano (Technique can prevent a round 1 [or later] parry out, but if challenge is refused, only 2 damage is dealt)
Íñigo Rocoso (If your opponent doesn’t parry-out or refuse, after you play your combat card with at least 2 thrust, if you have 2 less cards in hand than your opponent, you can force them to discard and then Íñigo goes home En Garde, to come out and challenge again)
Vodacce
Veronica’s Guile (Amazing for Cesca to throw 4+ threat challenges, Uppman’s Jacket or The Red Scepter to get to 5, especially against low to no inf chars)
Buratino (Can throw his 3-fist Challenge for only 2 cards. The Don can keep him around if he survives/replace him and/or Desi can let him go again if he doesn’t.)
Dante (Same, but more expensive and only 2-fist)
Bravos (Can recur either of those thugs to go again)
Rattle the Rigging (Vodacce’s Defending Honor, so fantastic. Instead of wanting to isolate your fighter, you want to isolate your prey.)
Arrogant (Requires your fighter to have equal or better inf, so hard to use to pick on the nerdiest of nerds with your jockiest of jocks. Super annoying when an opposing Sibella gambles into it.
Wrath of the Don (A bit conditional of an En Garde since it requires your opponent to have an En Garde character and for them to choose not to engage them. Also wounds your character but only requires 1 card.)
Plans Within Plans (Can be used by your non-fighter to En Garde your fighter. For example, Buratino issues a challenge, gets parryed-out. Desi claims the location to ready Buratino to fight again without her En Garde safety net.)
Desideria Colomberia (If your thug dies in a fight. They can come back and die in a second fight.)
Lethal Effects
Sometimes you just need to kill a character, that has more resolve than you have restricted hostilities
Neutral
Liberating Goods (So I don’t have to leave this section blank: [Polished Flintlock])
Eisen
Polished Flintlock (Grants lethal as technique, Divine Discipline’s friend)
Precision (Only 4 thrust natively so relatively underwhelming)
Ussura
Grandfather’s Hammer (Technically can be unequipped to act as a 5+ thrust lethal card, but you thinking about doing that makes me sad. Sure it can be a solid way to save a card from hand after gambling. Sure a 6 threat card as the final nail in an assassination coffin after initiating the challenge sounds nice. But this was Grandfather’s Hammer, how dare you throw it!?!)
Montaigne
A Heroic End (A fantastic surprise up your merc or diplomat’s sleeve)
Lord Stranahan III (Each Musketeer or Fraternite! Can Lethal once per fight at his location, including himself)
Castille
Robbery (So I don’t have to leave this section blank: [Polished Flintlock] / [Grandfather’s Hammer])
Vodacce
Rough ‘Em Up (Have a bunch of Red Hands at a location and Sac a thug for huge damage. Servo’s favorite card.)
Aja (Lethal gambling technique if adversary is wounded)
So, you’re not planning on issuing challenges, packages
Not everyone has transcended violence like us, so we’ll need to defend ourselves.
We also need to make sure we win, before the challenges stack up to our death.
Let Them Break Upon Your Resolve and Falter (Parry-Out)
If our opponent engages to challenge our character and our character lives, thank them kindly for the uncontested claim/renown.
Packing our deck with all parry-outs was (is?) the go-to-way to build decks for this reason. These decks could frequently win with either Renown or Domination by the end of Day 3, before fighting decks gained enough value killing characters. If a 3 (or less hahahahahahaha) fist character challenged us to a duel, if we could play a 1-parry parry-out from hand or better and take only 2 wounds to our 4-resolve character, the action served no purpose until they issue another challenge to that same character (assuming we give them the opportunity and/or we don’t have a 2+ parry-out for either challenge). Now, if an opponent is taking advantage of a solid swath of the tools above, this is not the case. Specifically, attachments like Sabre can send +1 thrust on challenge, nullifying the 1-parry. Unsanctioned Duel can negate our ability to end the duel. Bleed out and other damage effects allowing finishing off, once they get our character to only 1 Resolve remaining.
Anyways, these are all of the Parry-Outs. (1-parry parry-outs need more than just that as justification to include now, in my opinion):
Neutral
Not Today (Solid Parry-Out I’ve gone back to running in pretty much all pacifist decks. The ability to escape a terrible situation, such as a Yevgeni pulling your engaged leader into himself and 1+ other fighters. This is a dangerous card to include in a gambling violence based deck, particularly at 2-of. While it is theoretically pretty unlikely to hit both copies in one gamble, I guarantee it will happen to you at the most inopportune time: ending the duel, moving your character home, and wounding them when you needed to get the kill) [hmmmm, great card]
I’m Done With You (I almost never include this card, even in my parry-out lists. 1-parry parry-out just isn’t enough by itself anymore. That being said, in a deck packed with high-defensive RPT trying to eek out more value by gambling instead of playing from hand, this does become better as a 2 or 3 parry duel ender, or a way for aggressive multi-gamble decks to end duels. I still don’t like it)
Hidden Corridors (An actually really solid 1-parry parry-out. The Maneuver can even get you out of an Unsanctioned Duel, painfully though and still not ideal. Mainly, the City Action is fantastic moving from Docks to Grand Bazaar or vice versa [more options in multiplayer])
Eisen
Regroup (Fantastic 2-parry stabled to an on-cost move)
Hexenjagd (Particularly great with Daniella to make it more likely your character can stay in the city to provide their influence to prevent counter claims. I forget it can also cancel sorcerer abilities. Similar to and amplified by having Not Today, it can be dangerous to include [for non-Daniella decks], in case of a double gamble hit forcing you to send a character home that you needed in the city)
Unsavory Salve (Turn a card with only Block and 1-Thrust into a parry out. A 2, 3, or 4 parry-out at that!)
(Kaspar’s Panzerhand {4!}, Opulence {0} [for you Harold], Appealing to the People {3}, Improvised Weapon {2}, Breastplate {3}, Leverage {3})
Ussura
Matushka’s Command (2 parry, worth including even with 0-sorcerers [whether or not you run Temnota]. Maybe you recruit one or get the Syrenth Puzzlebox for one of the most impactful single cards in the game.)
Point of Order (Also a 2-parry card and much more likely you can play its action, this must be even better! No. No it is not. Giving your opponent the choice of moving or engaging with all of the movement cards/abilities in the game, especially the 0-cost ones means you might come out behind by using this. Yes, it can work out great if your opponent has no answer, but, to me, it is strictly a 2-parry parry-out with an oh-crap-time-to-pray ripcord attached to it.) Still worth including for pacifists.
Montaigne
Porté Travel (Effectively a parry-out that can also get your character completely out of the situation, dodging duel extenders like Unsanctioned Duel or Raise the Stakes. Can also be used if your participant is your sorcerer, although it would not let you leave the location to dodge those duel extenders. Great action too, the best parry out in the game? Probably?)
Blood Mark (Like Regroup but better! 0-cost movement that requires a sorc, but could move a non-sorc with them for a wound)
Tabard of the Fallen Musketeer (A straight-up 3-parry parry-out, fantastic. Also can be +1 inf and even grant Musketeer!)
Pompon (Only a 1-parry, but it will also show up in subsections below with its +1 Resolve and +parry technique)
Dang Montaigne, you’re so good at not fighting!
Castille
Amour (2 parry that can alternatively get your character out of danger while neutralizing an opposing character at the same time, excellent)
Rapsodia (Only 1 parry, but has an interesting ability and Discovery tag for Pancea)
Íñigo Rocoso (Any combat card with at least 2 thrust will enable him to run away home, potentially En Garding as well)
Vodacce
Veronica’s Guile (Only 1-parry, but being able to send the adversary home is excellent, especially if they were relying on additional challenge cards like Move Along. Vodacce opponents, make sure to use your non-engaging challenges first! [generally]. Also a straight up murdering when played by 4-inf Cesca against 0 or dash-inf fighters.)
The Pressure is On (2-parry, so great. Also an excellent engage effect for decks that actively want to claim locations)
Angelo (Additional 2-parry that we will come back to below)
Elisabetta Bonora (Any cards with just parry and exactly 1 thrust become parry outs)
(For the Family {3}, Twist of the Arcana {2}, Subtle {3}, Opulence {0} [for you Harold], Appealing to the People {3}, Improvised Weapon {2}, Breastplate {3}, Leverage {3})
RUN AWAY!!!!! HE’S GOT A SWORD or How I Learned to Love Saying No
Best way to not let your characters die to challenges? Don’t let them get challenged. Move away, engage opposing fighters, put other characters in the way, etc.
(For all of you violence lovers who snuck in to read this section, most of the move effects below can also be used to counter your opponent’s move effects + Predatory Pursuit in Ussura to reeeeallly punish their cowardice…I mean tactical acumen. Also, His Shaggy Majesty Kaiser Schnurrbart.)
Neutral
Sea Legs (The incredibly mediocre RPT keeps this card almost entirely for pacifist decks, but reaction speed move is fantastic [call out to Soline]. You can use this if your opponent tries to Pull you to face Yevgeni. Or, if you just want to walk straight through the Forums as part of a rulebook move action [and who could blame you, full of politicians, ugh.])
Pull (Not only can your opponent use this to pull your humble character to their fighter’s location [even taking you out of your bed at Home!], but you can also Pull their fighter out of position, or Pull your exposed character back into position)
Paid Off [technically] (An on-cost engage effect, for an opposing merc, if your performer is a Villain or Scoundrel with RPT no one wants. Hard to justify at this point.)
Hidden Corridors (Run alllllll the way away)
Come Hither (Same as Pull but more expensive and less restrictive)
Heroic Intervention (More of a hybrid tool than pacifist but including for completeness, allows your other character to get in the way to protect the one you actually love)
Lodestone (Incredible. Just incredible. While your character is En Garde, this can let them go home to go back out to any location still En Garde. While your character is engaged, lets you still run away after being dragged into a death trap. One of the best cards in the game, (assuming the unfortunate RPT with dash riposte doesn’t make your gambling consistency too sad).
Hop On Board (Another more hybridy tool to shift the fight instead of prevention/ending)
Leverage (A strong engage effect, but against a violence based deck, potentially tricky to use. A Shared Interest and Astute being fun enablers.)
Until Morale Improves (Engage effect)
Midnight Shipment (Move effect)
Marooned (Merc engage or murder effect)
Eisen
Seek Each Devil (Run away to a hopefully engaged enemy)
Commanding (More of a fantastic way to remove opposing engaged Influence from a location, but can be used to prevent an expected no-engage challenge from an engaged fighter)
Cross of the Martyrs (Can redirect a fight to your pariah, mainly Leader Kaspar, but really, we lug it around because Wilhelm likes to throw it at innocent bystanders so he can attack them for desecrating a Holy Relic.)
Dark Gift (Repeatedly run away or heal [next section])
Answering the Call (Yes, this card exists, and it can push wounds off onto your hired mercs)
Last Word (0-cost [with at least a 0-cost ranged weapon attached] move enemy, yeah, good stuff)
Move Along (Okay fine, I need to do a hybrid specific section after this. The threat of your pacifist challenge probably wouldn’t scare people home engaged)
Press the Advantage (This can actually be run by pacifists, especially with Phillip in the mix)
Regroup (“Fair” movement)
Stratege (Unfair movement, but mainly because it can move from Home and 2 characters at once as a 1-cost. [This gets cut before Regroup though because it isn’t also a 2-parry parry-out…which is more unfair than unfair movement?])
Daniella Dietrich {Leader} (Take a wound to let one of your Hunters or Zealots finish the fight for you. More of a hybrid effect. Breastplate on Daniella can even negate the wound from your technique. Thank you Jackson!)
Daniella Dietrich {Approach} (Escape to an adjacent City Location after resolving your RPT and wounds for the round, once per day)
Schwester Ise (Hybrid, Reaction get a defender [or challenger] to protect her)
Philip Hase (Run away by equipping an attachment)
Rena Klingenhalter (Hybrid, bonus intervenes)
Rosine Friese (An engage that might also send home)
Through Thick and Thin (Kaspar and Daniella run away together)
Armed and Marshaled (Engage effect or move home effect)
Ussura
Ekaterina Ilyanava {leader} (All claim effects [for either player])
Point of Order (Good luck [save it for a parry-out])
Syrenth Compass (A bit wonky for movement potentially, but solid RPT)
Blood Like Winter (Requires you to have more Fist at a location where your opponent is trying to challenge you, not necessarily easy, at least for Ekat)
Matushka’s Efficiency (Run and/or be pushed from Danger [or Home])
Mireli’s Revision (Great defensive tool against particularly nasty combat cards, in case your opponent has the chance to play one, hopefully not)
Razrushitel (Better for pursuing than fleeing, but certainly can)
Stubborn (Anti-move to prevent being brought to premeditated murder)
Solomonia Saboruvya (Can’t be challenged if Forums is uncontrolled)
Elina Georginova (Run Away)
Yepikhodov Yepikvidich (Run Away)
Ekaterina Ilyanava {Approach} (Run Away)
Valeria Mikhailov (Run Away…into a fight?)
Kaj Kousei (Move an opposing char)
Montaigne
Odette Dubois D’Arrent {Leader} (Let those Musketeers do their job and bring one to me)
You’re Embarring Yourself (Cancel a Merc challenge)
Status Matters [technically] (Can engage your adversary in a duel, but with only 1 defensive RPT, seems hard to justify)
Porté Travel (Run Away)
A Heroic End (Including because it amuses me to [and is legitimately good]. Let your little lamb rip off its coat and sink their teeth into the enemy on their way out. In all honesty though, if this is likely the only damage you are going to do, it isn’t worth running. They can almost certainly get at least 2 block to deny the kill)
Blood Mark (Run Away)
Bloody Entrance (Run Away)
Depose (Seems less of a defensive move)
Tip the Scales (0-cost Run Away)
Angeline Dèmone (Movement)
Sir Jack Harding (Shoo a non-leader to a more appropriate location for them)
Léontine Giroux (Move self or friend to somewhere else, even Home)
Bastien Girard (Get a Musketeer into that fight instead)
Odette Dubois D’Arrent {Approach} (Move someone up to intervene when challenged [or move another challenger to her location when you challenge])
Diplomatic Envoy (No, you may not challenge my En Garde Diplomats at the Forums, thank you very much)
Hour of Blood (Move to or from your Sorc)
Tea and Cakes (T’is a tricky card with a lot of effects)
Réputation Méritée (Air drop in my protector please)
Castille
Soline El Gato {Either} (Run Away *cheekily*)
Taunt (Think Pull)
Night of Drinking (No)
Improvising (Probably)
Drinking Games (My leader can handle more than your [non-Joern] approach character. Or we can gang up to share drinking Yevgeni under the table.)
Amour (Good for them. Each going to their respective Homes to take cold showers and overthink their mutual attraction, as it should be, am I right?)
Siesta (Run away home and sleep it off)
You Cheated! (Soline hybrid card)
Damya Kahina (Move a friend to you)
Patricia Moustakas (Can’t be challenged while En Garde at the Docks)
Sanjay (Approach) Engage effect
Vodacce
Unyielding Loyalty (Cancel a challenge)
The Pressure is On (Engage effect)
For the Family (Engage effect)
Angelo (0-cost intervener)
Buratino (1-cost intervener)
Dante (2-cost intervener or destroy to move friend or foe to his location)
Alcee (2-cost intervener or destroy to engage friend or foe at her location)
Bravos (Another Thug intervene or Dante/Alcee)
Wrath of the Don (Hybrid, engage foe or En Garde your character you wounded)
Follow the Thread (0-cost Strega move to enemy or available merc)
Provoking the Pack (Get your thug/bodyguard into position)
Subtle (Hybrid card to change a duel into inf, tricky to use but great)
Fate’s Silence (negate some potential bonus like Turais Dall’s ability to En Garde on challenge by taking a wound)
Mourad (Bonus intervene per day)
Desideria Colomberia (potential bonus thug intervene per day)
Don Constanzo Scarpa [approach] (potential bonus thug intervene per day)
Vittoria Anselmo (free thug from hand intervene)
Parry-Out Boosters and The Anti-Direct-Wound-Healing-Switch?
With 1-parry parry-outs being more reliably countered by new cards, making it harder to keep your characters above the 1-Resolve remaining danger zone, are they even worth still bringing? Mostly no, in my opinion.
However, there are ways to get more juice out of them: +1 parry techniques. I’m undecided on how worthwhile bringing attachments to grant that is worth, but characters that inherently have them are strong.
Alternatively and/or additionally, if the meta ever shifts heavily towards violence with multiple direct wound finisher cards (like Bleed Out), healing effects could fill that hole. Instead of accepting the duel and attempting to 1-parry parry-out and potentially getting hit by a Raise the Stakes, Bravado, Mirelli’s Revision, or Axelle, you just refuse (hope they don’t have Relentless), then brick their finisher with a 1-wound heal. Force them to try to get that second challenge on your wounded character.
Neutral
Triage (One of my least favorite heals due to the RPT, but 0-cost for Heroes and Scoundrels could be worth it.)
Tending the Wounded (Solid RPT, but 2 cards to heal one wound is steep. Theoretically you can multi-heal a non-leader, but spending the extra cards to heal past 2 resolve remaining is a bit similar to spending cards to wound a character to 2+ resolve remaining, not particularly worth it.)
Breastplate (Can function as a repeatable +1 block, but it has 2 major issues. It won’t negate a wound if you refuse, while still being destroyed. If your opponent wounds you directly Cesca/Bleed Out/etc., the breastplate is immediately lost. 2 cards spent for basically no effect. 3/1 RPT on an attachment is solid though)
Concealed Flintlock (The maneuver allows you to equip this from your dueling line and even get a refund for your 1-fist characters; however, still not worth it for pure pacifist. I’m not a fan of gambling with Pacifism in part because being able to bring horrible RPT cards is one of the perks of playing pacifism. Further, if your deck can’t inflict further wounds, there is no reason your opponent shouldn’t just take the wound to deny you your block. Solid hybrid card though)
Main Guache (Technically can be +parry if you have 2 or less fin duelist, but better options for that role. More of a 3+ fin violence duelist card)
Quick Reflexes (The premier anti-wound card. The fact that you can hold this card until your opponent attempts to finish you off is huge. No preemptive healing to save your opponent the trouble of spending a card. Great for fighting decks too with 3 Fin characters)
Leather Spaulders (Not only can this negate a direct wound each turn, but it also comes with a bonus resolve, double duty. Remember though, no equipping to characters with less than 2 Fin, like Anghos, sorry Diantre! Also, Soline can make this fall off by decreasing your Fin, watch out!)
Sturdy Shield (+1 parry once per day, assuming your character has at least 2 fist. Bonus +1 parry if you gamble, but I’d rather play my parry-outs safely and securely from hand)
Shield Rite (Requires your Sorc to be the target and for them to be En Garde. The maneuver and wound reflection make them much more appealing in a hybrid/violence deck.)
Liberating Goods (Because completeness)
Eisen
Drachenblut (Beserker/Hunter heal, this is the correct order)
Second Wind (Heal)
Kaiser Schnurrbart (+1 Resolve, expensive if you are using it for that goal)
Cross of the Martyrs (+1 Resolve, assuming you never use its reaction)
Dark Gift (+1 heal per day, or take a wound to move)
Kaspar’s Panzerhand (once again, expensive for +1 resolve, but worth running for RPT)
Fight Through the Pain (Heal if equipped)
Katain DeWinter (Engage a ranged weapon for +1 parry)
Ussura
Ekaterina Ilyanava (+1 parry or even +2 parry if artifact equipped to her)
Matushka’s Song (up to 2 wound heal, potentially for 0)
Temnota (0-cost +1 Resolve, suck it Eisen!)
Mireli Sabre (+1 parry attachment for 0, if your character has at least 2 Fin)
My Fight, Alone (Heal if lonely)
Miyato and Ota (Can duplicate a +1 parry maneuver [or Matushka’s Song] once per day)
Pavel Ivanov (+1 parry technique)
Montaigne
A Fine Addition… (Steal an animal for +1 resolve or any of the other attachments)
Pompon (+1 Resolve and a once per day +1 parry)
La Voix Des Sans Voix (Heal)
Grand Merchant Anghos (+1 parry technique against non-3-inf chars)
Castille
Robbery (Robbery)
Night of Drinking (No wound.)
Improvising (Maybe)
Siesta (Heal)
Panacea (Heal)
“Madre” Dolores (1 wound heal per day, can hit 2 chars by discarding a card)
Vodacce
Cesca Del Rosso {Leader} (Shift a wound off her or one of her Strega to a non-leader opposing char)
Twist of the Arcana (Shift the wounds, possibly onto a Danilo Danini supported thug)
Elena Agnelli (No parry-out sorceries yet though)
Vissenta Scarpa (+1 parry technique)
Okay! Now I Just Want to Touch on Cards that Reward you for Hybrid
These are generally cards that provide defense/disruption through the threat of violence. When I refer to hybrid decks, I generally mean anything between all-out violence and all-out pacifism.
Concealed Flintlock (Can grab it from a gamble for only 1 spent card and the fork of +1 block or wound opponent actually matters if the opposer might die)
Hop on Board (If you can get someone with higher restricted hostilities and/or relevant dueling stats, like a duelist, into the fight you can simultaneously protect your squishy and potentially murder the challenger, or at least throw out wounds)
Shield Rite (Reflecting a wound matters much more if it finishes off a character or puts you in range to one shot them with a challenge)
Eisen
Move Along (Sending a character home engaged is great if you are trying to claim the location. So is sending a bonus challenge if you are trying to kill.)
Schwester Ise (Reaction speed move is excellent for setting up your challenge, or intervene, or Rosine without giving your opponent an Action to interfere. Not necessarily a hybrid specific bonus, just giving the Schwester some love)
Ussura
Nothing?! There are just a lot of great cards to support both ends of the spectrum specifically, and I want to run all of them.
Montaigne
La Voix Des Sans Voix (Requires a diplomat and gives a fighter an En Garde)
A Fine Addition… (Requires a merchant and can swing a weapon to your fighter)
Odette Dubois D’Arrent {Either} A high influence character that can move protectors to herself. The Faction character is particularly fantastic in this role with Angeline Dèmone, allowing for a free wound going into the intervene
Sworn Swords (Turns a diplomat engage into a duelist improved challenge)
Castille
You Cheated! (This card. Oh my god this card. And with Soline! I DON’T APPRECIATE MY FIGHTERS GOING DOWN TO 0-RESTRICTED HOSTITILITIES DAVE! I respect it, but I don’t appreciate it *pout*. *grumbling* makes me wanna run high finesse fighters. But ohhhhh the smirk on my face when I get to Mirelli’s Revision it and kill Rosa. That’s niiiice, keep ‘em coming)
Passionate (Considered by many to be a terrible card, and … it’s not great. A 1-cost En Garde effect is fair, but attaching it to surviving a duel, trait locking, and subpar RPT that Sanjay can’t buff is a lot. Although the fact that changing just the dash riposte to a 0-riposte would make this quite reasonable in a Sanjay deck is quite telling.)
Vodacce
Subtle (Having high Inf sorcs help protect each other and your fighters from opposing low inf fighters, when you have additional ways to wound is solid)
Plans Within Plans (While certainly used quite effectively in Pacifist Domination/Renown decks, En Garding your fighter on a claim seems nice)
Basically, if you don’t care about killing enemies in fights, bring all 2+ parry Parry-Outs. If you don’t care about gambling, include more strong, terrible-RPT cards like Opulence.
If you do care about gambling, have a high density of 3+ defense cards (Parry/Riposte).
If you want to make sure enemies die, especially if you don’t expect them to fight back, aside from potentially gambling into low offense cards, bring a bunch of 4+ thrust cards.
If you want to be able to kill decks that fight back, prioritize cards with at least 6 combined offense and defense. 3 Riposte cards, 2 Parry/4 Thrust Cards, etc.
(Temporary) Conclusion
My energy has been depleted for now, but if you are Curious, there will be a Glorious Second Wind at some point.
Now that I have gotten this initial post out, I have promised to write a different article. After that, we will start going through all of the cards by Faction, then the neutrals. I’d love to pair a deck breakdown with the release of each Faction’s cards breakdown, but I’m not ready to commit to that quite yet. I’ll also see about a regular release schedule.
As always, I am open to challenges over Table Top Simulator for anyone interested. Discord is the most common option: https://ptb.discord.com/invite/EDEnW8HJ? Although can be organized on here, etc. All I ask is that you give me your preferences on the following:
Amount of advice/reminders you would like during the game(s)
My default/preference is to remind my opponents of any faceup information such as schemes, character abilities, reaction triggers/windows, etc. This also includes explaining how specific face up interactions work/could play out. However, I actively try to avoid telling an opponent what I think they should do
Alternatively, I could give absolutely zero advice/reminders
Thirdternatively, I can breakdown my entire strategy as I play it out including which locations I hope to take, which characters I hope to challenge, which city cards I want to prioritize etc. and how I could be disrupted based upon what I’ve seen.
Time limit/pacing of plays
My default/preference is to allow as much time as each player needs to think (assuming we aren’t running up on either player’s endpoint)
Alternatively, we could make an active effort to not think too long (theoretical time clock app I could imagine, but I’ll look into that if someone is interested)
Take backs?
My default/preference is as long as no new information has been gained, such as drawing cards and/or seeing a card played from the opponent’s hand, I have zero problem with take backs. I will even happily rewind multiple actions if feasible
Alternatively, a card laid is a card played, no take backs
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