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Edge of the World is AWESOME if you can get it to go off. It's got a high opportunity price... but the kickback is basically "Giant's Blood, Freak Drive and 4 pool" in a single card. 2 seem appropriate in most Guruhi Decks.

Izaak: Archon Investigation is trash if you're not playing in a Powerbleed Environment. All playgroups go through cycles and maybe his playgroup are running Powerbleed + Combat rather than Powerbleed + Stealth.

Admittedly, these decks can be slow decks. And that is a factor. Hence why the Codex, Fame and Ancestor Spirits. That's also why in my more recent Guruhi Deck I went after the Brutal Influences because it becomes a nastier version of Govern...

I will offer these Nana/Nangila TWDs as food for thought.

40 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2011ecday2

16 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2011aoetpa

25 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2011udineeq

10 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2010kwamatiwane

12 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2010ttbalgg

25 players
www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2k9nacday2

Izaak: Archon Investigation is trash if you're not playing in a Powerbleed Environment. All playgroups go through cycles and maybe his playgroup are running Powerbleed + Combat rather than Powerbleed + Stealth.

I don't think metagame has a lot of effect on whether or not AI is good. The problem with AI is that is costs you 3 pool anyway, plus you lose your MPA. Yes, burning the minion that does the Govern/Conditioning oust lunge when you're at 6 pool is cute and all, but that's unreliable at best. Especially with 2 AI in 90.

You're by no means guaranteed to have one on hand early enough to actually make an impact and by the time you're so low that backrushing to control the pooldamage is no longer sufficient, you're basically playing AI out of spite. "If I don't win, you won't either". I can't imagine a lot of decks where AI actually makes you win more than other conventional masters (*). In this deck in particular, swapping both out for two Dreams would instantly make the deck significantly better.

(*) In fact, the only one I can think of at the moment is that Serenna the White / Anu deck.

I agree with Izaak. AI is all too often "give a VP to your grandpredator for three pool". You want a predator strong enough to stay in play, and your prey minionless.

The amount of superstar deck, if anything, make the problem worse. If my prey only have Eze as significant vampire, AI'd him is even more an instant kill.

(of course, maybe everybody is playing Andre Leroux, in which case you may have a point in playing AI )

Ohlmann wrote:

I agree with Izaak. AI is all too often "give a VP to your grandpredator for three pool". You want a predator strong enough to stay in play, and your prey minionless.

I disagree.

You want your prey going forward, so you want him afraid to block you.

Your predator OTOH, if he is of the type to bleed for 4+ that most often means that he is using Dominate. Dominate means that his defense is flicking, which is something you don't want and his offense is gigantic bleeds which is again something you don't want. So it's often a good idea to give your grand predator a VP, preferably making a deal along the way to give you a breather along the way.

Your missions isn't to keep players on the table, especially not a dominate predator. Your mission is to drop your prey while surviving and if you have no flicking ability of your own, this is in no way helped by a predator whose only viable course of action is to go forward in both offense and defense.

Now, deflection is better than AI in 98% of the cases but in decks that don't have bounce, AI is a viable choice. Also, having AIs in the metagame tends to turn the game a bit away from the boring dominate stuff.

If your metagame is such that you are extremely likely to have a predator that's playing dominate, then you shouldn't be playing a slow, fragile, low-action, big/midcap rush deck like this.

Also, if your survival method is "destroy my predator and give my grandpredator an easy oust and try to accompany that with a deal that might give me a VP maybe some time even though I gave my prey a free game" then you need to rethink your deck and maybe even playstyle.

Also, having AIs in the metagame tends to turn the game a bit away from the boring dominate stuff.

Nah, not really, it does not. People just make you blow your AI on a 3-cap bleeding for 4 and then nuke you relentlessly, knowing you're not likely to play another one soon.

Or people just play their Conditionings at inferior if they sniff out an AI. Or you just make their predators win if you blow up their Goratrix bleeding for 6.

AI is never a viable choice as bleed defense. It's costly, has an extremely high opportunity cost, takes away from the most impactful cards you can play and finally - it doesn't solve the problem.