Save the Earth - Kill the Humans

by Martin Laerkes.

Invisible to the eye and technology of man, the alien vessel hovers in high orbit. Inside the craft, the bridge is bustling with activity, and amidst it all sits the commander, pondering.

He does not understand why the humans ignore the stress signs of their beautiful planet. They breed faster than 'vorns', strip mine their homeworld for measly profit, and push it way beyond its limits.

They must be stopped. For if the manlings destroy the earth.... All will be lost.

Illuminati

UFOs

Group Deck (18 Cards)

Glorious communist servants of the aliens

China
Clone Arrangers
Fidel Castro
Fiendish Fluoridators
International Communist Conspiracy
Semiconscious Liberation Army
Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Expendable Pawns

F.B.I.
Federal Reserve
New York
Robot Sea Monsters
Russia
Saturday Morning Cartoons

Resources

Lenin's Body
Mercenaries (x4)

Plot Deck (26 Cards)

Are We Having Fun Yet?
Censorship
Cold Fusion (x2)
Emergency Powers
Head In a Jar
Martial Law
Nationalization
New Blood
Privatization
Rewriting History
The Second Bullet
Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know (x2)
Sorry, Wrong Number (x2)
Sucked Dry & Cast Aside
Truck Bomb (x2)
Goal: Earth First (x2)
Goal: Population Reduction
NWO: Australian Rules
NWO: Energy Crisis
NWO: Watermelons (x2)

Your Illuminati

Comrade - You play the UFOs' communist puppets. You alone can save the earth, as your alien benefactors cannot yet reveal themselves to the rest of mankind.

This deck is a very aggressive destruction deck, with just a dab of deception, as you are not trying to complete any of the obvious control/destroy goals - and you are not playing Cthulhu either. Hopefully your rivals will not see the pattern to your destruction until it is too late.

Your objective is to destroy corporate groups, and then play NWO: Watermelons, turning all your communist groups green, thus completing your Earth First goal.

Opening Game

Your opening hand probably won't affect your choice of lead group, (as it hopefully will be chock full of destruction cards) so start the game with the Clone Arrangers, or if it bounces, try the International Communist Conspiracy.

During your first few turns, use your illuminati tokens for drawing extra groups, take your free ATO's, and if possible grab an extra communist group with a normal attack to control from your hand. (the communist groups have a network of bonusses to control each other).

Bring in your resources as soon as you get them - you need as many as possible for the midgame.

Midgame

When you feel that your power structure is solid, your resources are out, and your hand is full of destructive plots, it's time to show your rivals that this is not an isolationist sissy deck - surprise them with a completely unprovoked attack.

Of all your destructive plots, Sorry, Wrong Number deserves special mention - as it can be sickeningly effective if timed correctly. Try to get off both Truck Bombs while a Sorry, Wrong Number is in effect, and then use Are We Having Fun Yet? to cancel the first attempt at removal.

If the game gets too defensive, trust a truck bomb to re-open the game. In a defensive game you can also concentrate on secret groups, as Sorry, Wrong Number along with your Mercenaries, should let you bring more power to bear than your opponent can handle.

Endgame

Your deck has no endgame as such. If you've destroyed a few corporate groups, all you need to do is to succesfully play NWO: Watermelons in order to win. Hopefully your opponents won't be prepared for this, but if they are you'll have to rely on your SMWNMTK to force the NWO: Watermelons through.

If this fails - both China and Russia will do nicely for Goal: Population Reduction.

Deck Deconstruction

The deck Contains 18 common cards, 17 uncommon, 9 rare and 0 ultra-rares. You must have at least 1 rare "watermelons", 1 rare "earth first", and preferably 6 commie groups, which forces you to have at least 1 more rare card. All the rest of the cards can be substituted for, or are not vital to the deck, just replace them with something explosive, and you should be fine.

This version of the deck was built to hide the fact that your prime targets are corporate groups. If you are more interested in wholesale corporate destruction, than in trickery - CFL-AIO, Eco-guerrillas and a number of other cards are very good at hosing corporate groups.

As you can see, except for a few cards, you can pretty much make your own version if this deck, without ruining it. If your luck runs out, at least you'll have fun blowing things up left and right, and ruining the plans of any isolationist rival hoping for an undisturbed day at the INWO table.

Enjoy.

Back to the Deck of the Week.

First posted: April 26, 1997

Last modified: April 26, 1997

Ralph Melton ralph@cs.cmu.edu