Knife In The Back

By:The Betrayer
News
Decks


Errata




Opening Hand:

Rahvin
Liandrin
Saidin Angreal
Lucky Find

Characters:

High Lord Weiramon
High Lord Meilan
High Lord Geuyam
High Lord Torean
High Lord Aracome
High Lady Alteima
High Lady Estanda
Lord Edorian
Lord Barthanes
Commander x 3

Troops:

Tear Levies x 3
Tear Lancers x 2
Catapults x 3
Light Cavalry x 3
Darkfriend Band x 3

Challenges:

NONE

Advantages:

Inner Strength
The Ruby Dagger
Shayol Ghul
Training for War x 3

Events:

Lucky Find x 2
Personal Growth x 3
Expendable Troops x 3
Sabotage x 3
Connections x 3
Knowledge is Power x 3
Battle Fury x 3
The Telling Blow x 3

Strategy:

During the first round you will keep Rahvin in the home front and roll his dice. If you need to, go ahead and convert 1 or 2 of your Pattern tokens in order to recruit Liandrin. The important thing to remember is if Rahvin rolls 2 One Power you must use them to get the Saidin Angreal on him ASAP. The Angreal is what gets this deck moving, so the faster it comes out the better. Don't worry though if you don't roll the necessary One Power on the 1st turn, with Liandrin's help, you should have the Angreal out real soon.

Once you do, the rest is easy. Simply wait for the next time you roll 2 One Power symbols (with Liandrin rolling 2 dice and Rahvin now rolling 6 dice this shouldn't take too long). Once you do, play Lucky Find to pull the top Character Advantage from your deck...that will be The Ruby Dagger, since you have no other Character Advantages in your deck. Play the Ruby Dagger on Rahvin and watch your opponent wince. The majority of Hero decks rely on an early character to recruit (usually Berelain, Amys, etc.) because of Rand's early weakness and allegiance issues, so use Rahvin's effect text ability to apply damage to that character ASAP...if the Hero doesn't have a heal card in hand he's gonna lose that character at the end of the turn.

Once you pull you next Lucky Find, use it to pull the only Player Advantage in your deck, Inner Strength. This will allow you to use Rahvin's ability after rolling only 2 One Power symbols. If the Ruby Dagger damages Rahvin, don't waste time before you heal it because they mount up quickly and the more damage he has the less ability you have to roll the 2 One Power needed to heal him. Once you have taken out the Hero's recruiting character he's gonna have a lot of trouble getting out troops and other characters...that's the time for you to go after Rand with Rahvin's ability. He'll have to reduce his Pattern to keep Rand from dying while your horde of characters and troops prevents him from winning the Pattern to reclaim any lost tokens. The majority of the rest of the cards in this deck do not have One Power in their cost (remember you will need all your One Power symbols to use the Ruby Dagger and heal any damage it causes to Rahvin).

Characters:

I used almost entirely Tear allegiance characters because they are the easiest to play, requiring no one One Power symbols and almost all Intrigue and Politics dice (the easiest to roll symbols with). Once you get the first Tear character out there (you'll have to pay an allegiance penalty) the rest will come out easily. Their high Intrigue and Politic ratings will help you play events like Sabotage and Knowledge is Power to their fullest effect and also help you win or at least prevent the Hero from winning the Pattern (essential to winning the game before the last battle.)

Troops:

This deck might seem like it is lacking in troops, however you shouldn't need too many troops once you begin to take out the Hero's recruiting characters.
The mercenary troops either do damage to the opponent's troops before the Coming To Grips stage or add extra damage at the end in order to eliminate his troops. The Tear Levies are great because they're cheap and they allow you to draw a card when you recruit them (especially helpful with a horde deck). The Tear Lancers are there to give you a little extra power.

Challenges:

There are no challenges in this deck because it simply doesn't need them. The only thing you need to concern yourself with on the Battlefield is preventing your opponent from winning the pattern.

Advantages:

Inner Strength:
Use this to make the Rahvin + Ruby Dagger combo even more effective

The Ruby Dagger:
The key to this deck. Get it quick and use it wisely.

Shayol Ghul:
A little something to help you near the ending of the game. Use it to prevent damage to Rahvin from the Dagger once you've got your opponent near his death. It will allow you to continuosly use Rahvin's ability turn after turn without having to heal the Dagger damage. By this time you should probably have enough Pattern or at least be winning the Pattern nearly every turn so converting the tokens will be no big deal...don't forget your opponent will be converting his to save Rand and he probably won't be winning any Pattern by this stage of the game.

Training For War:
Use it to beef up those Troops.

Events:

Lucky Find:
Use the other 2 Lucky Finds in your deck to pull Inner Strength and Shayol Ghul.
Personal Growth: If you get the chance, use this on Rahvin to increase his One Power ability...imagine how easy it will be to roll 3 One Power (or just 2, with Inner Strength) with 7 dice!

Expendable Troops:
Surprise your opponent's troops with 1 or 2 of these when it's least expected to do some damage and help destroy the few troops he'll manage to get out there
before you kill off his characters.

Sabotage & Knowledge is Power:
Not only will you be killing the character's he's plays, but you'll also be forcing him to descard them before he even gets a chance to play them with these cards. The high Inrigue of your characters should help you really nail him once you pull one of these.

Battle Fury & The Telling Blow:
These can help you finish off any pesky troops or characters that just don't want to die.

Connections:
Of course, you need to draw cards.

--The Betrayer