by Steve Hatherley
This deck is designed around the fact that using Ross Perot and the Bermuda Triangle's special ability you can completely change the political leanings of your power structure. It starts out looking like a standard Power to the People Liberal deck but can switch to Let Them Eat Cake in a flash.
The name comes from The Princess Bride, from the wonderful sword-fight scene in which Inigo Montoya says 'I know something you don't know.' 'What is that?' 'I am not left-handed.' The name also suits particularly well because of the traditional associations of 'left' = liberal, 'right' = conservative.
Some resemblance to Ralph Melton's "Soylent Green" deck may be apparent - but that's mainly because that deck inspired me to put this deck (which I have had in the back of my mind for ages) down onto paper.
By the way, Christopher Burke notes that both Bill Clinton and Ross Perot are left-handed. Scary, eh?
Yor lead group should be Bill Clinton, for his massive bonus to take over Government groups. If you bounce on this then your best bet is probably Teddy Kennedy. Good early groups include the Rosicruicans (get some disaster/assassination) protection, Teddy Kennedy (for his protection to Liberal puppets). The Center for Weird Studies is especially useful - use it to reload Bill and keep grabbing groups.
You can afford to take over the CfWS with your Illuminati action, because you can reload it straight away.
Good early groups:
You need to start destroying groups in the midgame. Ideally, you want to destroy Liberal groups. If you can do this without looking too suspicious (by destroying annoying groups, such as the Phone Phreaks or Canada) then this is good. You don't want your opponents to suspect that you are deliberately targeting Liberal groups. And you can always bank on the fact that you have Rewriting History - or use that as misdirection...
Don't get too greedy. It's easy to get carried away with Bill. You don't need *too* many groups to win with, so don't become a target. Your best defense is Good Polls - your power structure is largely Liberal.
Here's how the cards work in the midgame.
Through the midgame you should be working to destroy two or three Liberal groups (although see above about being too obvious). You also want to get the Fred Birch Society into your hand, along with Ross Perot. The only Plots you need are Alien Abduction and Let Them Eat Cake.
The endgame is really simple. You make an ATO of the Fred Birch Society, and then play Ross Perot. Do anything else you feel neccessary to secure your win. At the end of your Main Phase you reorganise so that Ross Perot controls two previously-Liberal groups. Ideally one of them will be a Personality with the Dittoheads (who then also become Conservative). That's 6 Conservative groups - which with the Liberal groups you've destroyed during the midgame means a win with Let Them Eat Cake. Hurrah!
This deck really suffers if someone else plays either Ross Perot or the Fred Birch Society. Faced with this dilemma your best option might be to go for Power to the People or the special goal.
Newt Gingrich might cause your Liberal groups some problem. If you can't negotiate with his owner, kill him. Similarly the Feminists might be problematic - so destroy them (destroyed Liberal groups are good for you, anyway).
The OMCLs could ruin your bid for victory. The deck does not have a direct way of dealing with them, so guile and deception may be neccessary. Alternatively make sure you have enough destroyed groups that you can afford to lose a Conservative group (or two).
NWO: World Hunger could cost several action tokens and a lot of power. Be prepared to use Secrets on it, or hold NWO: Fear and Loathing back just for the occasion.
Optional cards I had considered:
First posted: April 22, 1997
Last modified: April 22, 1997
Ralph Melton ralph@cs.cmu.edu