Carnival King/Spiky Atlasphere?

[Backdraft]

Spiky Atlasphere/Character with decent health/strength (swashbuckler/Pumped Ferret?) + Carnival King.

For all characters to block then kill all your opponent's undepleted characters instantly.

Is there a reason why I see no one play this as a deck subtheme, such as in addition to a the normal standalone GS/R card line? Is it just that it is a 3 card combo? I mean 2 splashed carnival king and 2 spiky Atlasphere should be decent?

I mean if you are playing gearsmith then you are running plenty of cards that can search and with rogue a lot of fast cards that can maintain field presence.

[bic]

I think most of us have tinkered with the combo, when I made a deck based off of the combo I was not that impressed.

[strategin]

If you're going to try this combo, be prepared to be attacked every turn from when you have it set up until your opponent breaks it. Since their characters are going to die why would they not attack with them to keep them alive?

Works really well if you can clear their board first, though.

[TPshaydee]

To address the situation where the opponent would attack with all of his characters to save them may be addressed by using pettifoger. It would have to be a Banker/Rogue/Gearsmith deck, unless there are any deck-to-play cards within rogue and gearsmith that would the negate the need for putting in greed resources (not sure if there are any off the top of my head.)

I'd also suggest putting in Ham Sandwiches or any + life gear cards to protect your king from getting sniped or destroyed.

All in all, I'm not sure if the number of cards needed for this combo and to safeguard it, is worth the effect.

I would definately like to see a deck that manages to use this combo effectively.

[doc8466]

I knew Hidden Sandwich was pumpernickle, but I didn't know it was ham. Cool! ;)

[Scrab]

I just got totally destroyed by this combo, playing lighttigersoul.
I never played it first hand just read about it alot.
Its a nice combo.

And yeah i agree i think Hidd.S would be a nice fit in this deck.

[FireCat]

Add Banker to get an Armored Keep or Tax Attorney to help. It is very easy to play three colors in Spoils with starting resources and all.

[TPshaydee]

Hehe, I think I was hungry when I posted earlier. Hidden sandwich yes!

What would be a good resource distribution considering the highest threshold you had was 3 in two resources and 2 in the other?

[Kallen000]

3 colors is good in limited but in constructed its not that great. However this is comming from the guy who plays smorgesboard (5 colors). The combo is good its just hard to keep the creatures with the spiky atlasphere or carnival king alive. I dont think its hard to use atlasphere but its hard to get carnival king running unmolested. its more or less you need 6 resources. 3 to play carnival king 3 to activate his ability so there is no response and 2 to play the spiky atlasphere on a creature that you used carnival kings ability on. Then that creature swings that turn and wipes everything that is not depleted already. The other problem is this combo doesn't do anything if your opponent has no creatures out or swings at you all the time. Dangit and now I want a hamsandwhich!!!! ah maybe I will go get Tai

[FireCat]

I think triple trade is viable only if you have one trade have only two and one threshold. Just start with that and have the rest of the resources the other color. Also, have the starting resource trade cards only cost 4 or less and ones that you want to play early game. That way you can play them early game before you get your other thresholds going. Cards like Research Assistant and 1337! are good cards for this, they help set up. Of course this would be a control/combo deck with gearsmith splashed and 2 starting elitism. If it is aggro, put the two rage as starting resources and put a bunch of cheap agressive hitters. The two nonstarting trades should be for the lategame and have a cool combo. Why wouldn't you have a cool combo running three trades.

[Mr.P]

I think Carnival King is great in draft, but I agree with kallen that it has its weaknesses.
Problems:

Stopping opponent from attacking. Jacque's Trap helps.

Keeping King alive. Hidden sandwich.

If you want to splash Banker, make your cards 1 threshold. Secret handshake, limited liability, and pettifogger are all good 1 thresh cards that could help you out alot. You could start out w/ 1 greed 1 elitism and run leet and deception in deck.
Or you could just abandon gearsmith altogether for banker, which I think has better synergy. You don't have to clear the board to get a good effect. mafia lawyer is a great target for the King.

Just my thoughts.

[lighttigersoul]

Since I got mentioned, and beat Heist Pluck in said game. ((Don't mean much. We discussed why the loss was quite so. . . painful.))

While yeah, Carnival King + Spiky is a great combo, CK is really a later card. You want to drop him turn 3 or later, after the Atlassphere is out giving your opponent something to worry about. If they keep a couple blockers ((Because they KNOW you're going to have multiple attack parties.)) the king becomes essentially a tactic to get your opponent worried.

As for other ideas: Tigerkaiser works well in the deck, it's a reusable weakened dragon juice, making your opponent rethink not blocking your Atlassphered character.

I run the Majig Masters and Makers for swarm, even with Shriever Attacks coming, multiple majig tokens turns into a new card when someone Shrievers.

As for beef. The only 'beef' I use is Bipolar Sarcophyle. It's not huge, but it's enough continous damage to keep your opponent blocking.

Oh, and to prevent mirror match problems: Percise Sabotage.

Haven't considered Hidden Sandwich yet, but I haven't really cared if anything on the field dies to date.

[johnny]

I used this combo many times against a friend, although he supplied the atlasphere - I took it from his discard pile.

In absence of the atlasphere, I like to drop a poisoned blade on a character with a high speed, and at least 3 strength (hasty sarcophyle is great). Using this same combo with a Marshal Arts Master is awesome, as it's strength will vary based on the character's left in the party.


Carnival King became my favorite card last week (well maybe tied with Ferrous Ferret) when it save me big time!:

her first or second turn, she drops a Theif Doyan (with a Dragon Tank (I think) (12 cost) - so it was a 13/13/3 I think). OUCH! I had a mercinary's Creed, and a Rapine but not enough resources to use either one the way I wanted to (5 needed for either). ASAP I did was drop resources, but she hit me with it once, I blocked with whatever I had to stop it - which killed my only character on the board (Rapine is now no longer an option). On my turn I play Mercinary's Creed on her Thief Doyen and pay 2 to take control of it right away (still depleted unfortunately, but at least she wasn't going to be able to hit me with it again) And of course, she paid 3 at the end of my turn to take it back, restore it at the beginning of her turn, and hit my faction with it! When it was my turn, I pulled out my Rapine! Finally! The beautiful thing about that Rapine was the fact that I didn't have a single character on my side of the board. Using Rapine I destroyed my Mercinary's Creed on her Thief Doyan, and took control of Theif Doyan. One more hit with him and game would have been over! Mercinary's Creed simply bought me time - which was apl I needed!)

This bought me some time to re-group. She was totally confident and constantly left 5 resources in play before ending her turn. I couldn't think about which cards could kill that big one. she was just waiting for me to attack with that Thief Doyan. so I sat on it for like 4-5 turns... I didn't know what she had, but I knew she had something. She put two Heist Planners down - which I was fine with because I had three Postmortem Debentures in hand! She discarded a martial arts master and a pettifogger amongst others! I pulled them out, and a Ferrous Ferret while I was at it. I nitpicked at her with some other cards, even pettifogger and she just took it a little... I ended up using Carnival king's Conga Line ability to eliminate her characters on the board and clean up w/ BIG THIEF DOYAN to end the game.

The card in her hand was Snake Eyes. All she had to to was block the Thief card with one of her planners (speed 3 like Doyan) to inflict any amount of damage to her doyan that I controlled and she could have pulled Snake Eyes to destroy it. Luckily I waited it out a few rounds to use it and it paid off!

I will never forget what Snake Eyes will do now! Nor will I ever undervalue Carnival King or Ferrous Ferret (which could have also saved that card).

Other than just sharing my story with you, I guess there is a moral here too:
Know your cards!

She had a mono rogue deck, 5 resources, and stated earlier that she had NO items in her deck. Snake Eyes and Impeccable Timing, or poisoned blade was all I could think of that could kill off that card at the time.. but the 5 resources threw me off... Since then I have been trying to familiarize myself with other cards, even the ones I don't play normally.

Just thought I would share!
Johnny

[johnny]

I think Carnival King is great in draft, but I agree with kallen that it has its weaknesses.
Problems:

Stopping opponent from attacking. Jacque's Trap helps.


I was having trouble beating a friend who plays Gearsmith with a little Warlord. I play Rogue with a little Banker. He was dropping Subversion Matrix's, Exploding Sock Puppet's, etc.. making my life miserable. What I really figured out though, is that Jacque's Trap is truly the bain of my existence. With that card out of the way, I could deal with the subversion (yoink!, Clockman, Cute Cutpurse, Fool's Gold - or I could also Rapine the character if I had to.) So I added some ferrets to my deck, and those work nicely. I have also determined it is worth losing a clockman or cute to get rid of a Jacque's Trap.

Johnny

[Hordak]

Cute Cutpurse doesn't sac to do its thing, only Pickpocket :)

[johnny]

Cute Cutpurse gets rid of Jacque's Trap! I'd call it getting the job done. Naturally, I would rather take control of it, but if I can't I would rather my opponent not have one!

[jedibcg]

Just a note that if you use the Ferret as was mentioned in the first post. You could not you the sandwich (what ever the flavor) to save the King (and I think he likes deep-fried peanutbutter banana).

Ohh and I pulled the combo(minus the ferret) off exactly once in a limited event at NYCC.