INWO Deck: Beggar Your Neighbor

Premise

Have Brazil, Hawaii, and China linked to the Liquor Companies. This setup, along with the SCA in play, means that you can stop up to 5 card draws! Use this to slow down your rivals while building up your own strong Corporate structure. With the OMCLs and the CFL-AIO, you can fall back on the Up Against The Wall goal, or just beat the hell out of the other Gnomes players.

The Deck

Illuminati

Gnomes of Zurich

Groups

Liquor Companies x 2
Brazil
Hawaii
China
Society for Creative Anarchism
IRS
Madison Avenue
CFL-AIO
Texas
Nuclear Power Companies
Bank of England
Wall Street

Resources

Center For Weird Studies
Perpetual Motion Machine
Orbital Mind Control Lasers

Plots

(NWO) Bigger Business x 2
(NWO) Chicken In Every Pot
(Goal) Up Against The Wall
18 1/2 Minute Gap
Atomic Monster
Bribery
Commitment
Early Warning
Forgery
Good Polls x 2
Hat Trick
Hoax
Let's Get Organized
Media Blitz
Monopoly
Mother's March
Murphy's Law
Power Grab
Privatization
Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know
Seize The Time
Sniper
Stock Split x 2
Tax Breaks
Voodoo Economics

Strategy

Card Specifics

Liquor Companies is a rare card, so it's understandable if you don't have two.If you only have one Liquor Companies, then I would suggest replacing the other one with another good Corporate group (Multinational Oil Companies comes to mind), and then protect the Liquor Companies with everything you can muster. If they are destroyed, throw all pretense of subtlety out the window and smash your way to a Zurich special win.

Madison Avenue is in there to power the Media Blitz (to revive the Liquor Companies if someone manages to destroy them), and to take over any juicy Media groups that might happen to wander by. It's also Corporate and can be boosted by Monopoly or by the Bigger Business NWO.

Texas was put in there for three reasons:

It's a Violent group counting towards Up Against the Wall.
It's a Powerful Government group that can power a Sniper or help the CFL-AIO smash a Corporate group (or a Government group under the influence of the OMCLs, nudge nudge wink wink... :)
You get to hide that extra plot card under Texas.

Let's Get Organized is for the Liquor Companies. Privatization is for the IRS (if Discordia is in the game) or for Texas or China for an extra Corporate group.

Play

Rather than leading with the Liquor Companies right off, start with Wall Street as your lead puppet. This will foster the illusion that you're just playing a generic Gnomes deck. Also, with Wall Street in play, having the Liquor Companies as a puppet of Wall Street gives a +19 resistance against control (with proximity, alignment matching, and Wall Street's +10). Power Grab and Seize the Time when you can, in order to get at least two of Brazil, Hawaii, and/or China as puppets of the Liquor Companies. Once the Liquor Companies are getting 3+ action tokens/turn, let the fun begin...Note that this structure will take a little time to build, so play semi-defensively until you get it put together.

Once you get the Liquor Companies put together with its puppets, you will most likely become Public Enemy #1. Try to put Monopoly and/or Commitment on the Liquor Companies to strengthen their defense, and watch out for disasters aimed at Brazil, Hawaii, and China. Early Warning, Hoax, 18 1/2 Minute Gap, and Murphy's Law can help protect you here. The Nuke Power Companies can help protect you against action-powered Plots aimed at the Liquor Companies and its puppets.

The secondary tricks of this deck involve the OMCLs, the CFL-AIO, and the Up Against The Wall goal card. Use the OMCLs to make Government groups Corporate and destroy them with the CFL-AIO. Or, target other Gnomes players with the CFL-AIO and use your strong Government groups to help.

Back to the Deck of the Week.