INWO Deck: Open 23 Hours a Day, 5 Days a Week

by Jeff Bailey

Note: This deck was built with a particular goal in mind: to use Convenience Stores as a centerpiece. For those who didn't get a copy of Pyramid #15 (currently the only source of the card), here's the major power of the card:

If you control the Covenience Stores, every agents card you play, for offense or defense, gets an additional +5. You may choose to give this bonus to other players' agents as well. This does not affect Illuminati agents.

Stream-of-Altered-Consciousness for Deck Building Strategy

OK. Convenience Stores is Corporate, so Gnomes immediately rush to mind. But I want to be more creative and unexpected than whatever rushes to mind. I'm obviously building a sandbag deck, so want to pick out lots of popular groups. New York, Japan, the Pentagon, the Vatican, Nuclear Power Companies, and the IRS are all good choices.

Adepts: Could use a steal and resources to jump to a win, but overall the Adepts' focus is not too relevant to CS.
Shangri-La: Hmm. All these agents are too attacky for Shangri-La.
UFOs: Nice, but not powerful enough for successful steals.
Gnomes: The first obvious choice. Too obvious.
Bavaria: Another obvious choice. But too easy to get teamed up against after you've stolen a big group.
Bermuda: Another obvious choice that offers a little rearranging after a big takeover. But it's hard to count on alignments when you're stealing them.
Cthulhu: Since agents cards can be used to destroy, another great choice. But this has the same pile-on tendency as Bavaria.
Network: This could work. Nice power and the Video games have a bonus to control. I don't want to us, though, as Convenience Stores does little for Network's special needs/powers (more plots, more Computer bonuses).
Discordia: I'm going with this one. It's Illuminated enough to be a surprise. CS doesn't help a lot with Discordia's goal, but it certainly has the defense needed for the inevitable revenge/response. With one of the Kill x and Control y Goal cards, this could rock. Also, Discordia is immune to the groups you're planning to sandbag. I want to play Discordia because nobody suspects that a Weird isolationist will go towards a destructor goal.

The sandbags I want to put in here are:

New York
IRS
Pentagon
Japan
Vatican City
Clone Arrangers
Nuclear Power Companies

Since most of these are Government, Don't Forget to Smash the State will work very well, as will Energy Crisis. Also, the destructor card I want is obviously Up Against the Wall. Plus I need Faction Fight, and I also am interested in Rewriting History for the surprise value.

The regular groups I will use:

Convenience Stores by design
Tabloids to break through Secret defense like NSA
Underground Newspapers for its destruction bonus
Punk Rockers for its anti-interference ability
Gay Activists for the alignment control
American Autoduel Association so Violent can kill Violent

And some resources:

OMCL to control alignments
Perpetual Motion Machine to give Discordians extra defense actions

And now plots.

Up Against the Wall: Goal
Faction Fight: Goes well with Con Stores and Agents
Rewriting History: Make something violent after it's dead
Pulitzer Prize: ONLY use to power Rewriting History
Don't Forget to Smash State (2): Weaken the targets before the kill
Energy Crisis: See Don't Forget TSTS
Nationalization (2): Immune by me & hit by Smash the State
Second Bullet (2): Make sure the attacks work
Bribery: Make those destruct rolls
Seize the Time: Use as a Reload
Hoax: Protect your stuff
Hat Trick: Always Useful
Weird Turn Pro: Best to use on Punk Rockers
New Blood: Best to use on AADA
Self Esteem: MUST go on Underground Newspapers
Albino Alligators (3): Kind of obvious
Terrorist Nuke (2): Kind of obvious
Nuclear Accident: Helps set up an attack on the NPCs
Annual Convention: Great card! 2 kills with 1 attack!
Atomic Monster: Destructo on Japan or California
Revolution: Japan, Vatican, and who knows?
Solidarity: Not fighting resistance, so who cares?
Forgery: Get out OMCL even after someone else

The Deck

Illuminati

Discordian Society

Groups

American Autoduel Association
Clone Arrangers
Convenience Stores
Gay Activists
IRS
Japan
New York
Nuclear Power Companies
Pentagon
Punk Rockers
Tabloids
*Underground Newspapers
Vatican City

Resources

OMCL
*Perpetual Motion Machine

Plots

Albino Alligators (3)
*Annual Convention
Atomic Monster
Bribery
Discordian Society
Don't Forget to Smash the State (2)
*Energy Crisis
*Faction Fight
Forgery
Hat Trick
Hoax
Nationalization (2)
New Blood
Nuclear Accident
Pulitzer Prize
Revolution
*Rewriting History
Second Bullet (2)
Seize the Time
Self Esteem
Solidarity
Terrorist Nuke (2)
The Weird Turn Pro
Up Against the Wall (Goal)

Substitutions

The * cards are rares and can be substituted as follows:

Underground Newspapers: Probably Semi Lib Army would work well.
Perpetual Motion Machine: The Necronomicon on AADA would be nice.
Annual Convention: Substitute another Disaster, like Volcano.
Energy Crisis: World Hunger would work similarly, but the anti-Liberal part hurts.
Faction Fight: Purge is a good counter card; if you have duplicates, so do they.
Rewriting History: Assertiveness Training (before the fact).

Strategy

Lead

Probably either the Gay Activists or the AADA. DO NOT lead Convenience Stores; build up some defense before you bare that much or the deck's soul.

Play

Early game: Watch for an early leader and destroy one of his groups, preferably with an Agents card. Get help and agreements from any other players; after all, you could be taking it! If no early leader shows up, play the Vatican and look isolationist.

Mid-Game: This is where you have to start showing off. Keep negotiating for alliances in your destruction attacks, but since by this time you should have Convenience Stores out and have used at least two agents, your fellow players probably won't be as ready to commit for you. Hold off on an attack until it's at a weak moment, as you don't get to try again with an agent.

End-Game: Faction Fight, an Agents card, and a +10 or two. Ideally, use a Disaster to weaken the target Place before you go in for the kill.

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