The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence
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| Meme creator, format dominator and bad boy eliminator; his last name comes from an old NASA program, S.E.T.I, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, run in the 70s and 80s; a wide-ranging radio telescope search of the cosmos, sadly, turning up nothing. Strangely, this is nothing like Luke Seti's searching ability which is actually highly effective! |
Who knew a search every turn of the game would be a broken ability? Oh that's right - me. After twenty two years of playing games like this, I like to think I can spot a broken card. But...I didn't design this game, and the creators of Megacorp clearly have similar views, as they have put several hefty restrictions on the extremely potent ability to tutor your deck every turn and given the character weaknesses in an effort to balance him for constructed play. These are;
1) one search per turn only,
2) reducing the BQ of your business when you do so,
3) only being able to search for a mutation card, and
4) the mutation must target Luke Seti.
5) a low MQ trait score, increasing vulnerability to common removal cards such as Rampant Bribery, Character Assassination and Kickback
5) a low MQ trait score, increasing vulnerability to common removal cards such as Rampant Bribery, Character Assassination and Kickback
Despite all of these restrictions, Luke Seti remains one of the most potent founders to build a deck around in Megacorp. The restrictions aren't as bad as they may seem at first glance. First, take note that the 'once per turn' restriction isn't once per turn cycle, but rather once on your turn, and once on your opponent's turn, meaning by your second combat phase, Luke can have three mutations attached to him. Reducing your business's BQ stat is actually a very minor cost, almost to the point of being nothing - consider that a Corp deck playing any of the vassal cards with #slave reduces its MQ stat by 2 for each vassal in play. The third and fourth 'restriction' is really no restriction at all, because we want to build a deck around Mr Seti, mutating the hell out of him and using him to smash the opponent's business into oblivion. His major weakness is mostly offset by the ability to search out Rapid Tissue Regeneration and survive the removal cards everyone seems to be playing in their constructed decks.
So, he's the boss. Let's explore what goes best in a deck with Luke Seti at the helm:
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| Foolish dingo! You must find and devour the seven crystal babies or spend eternity trapped in deep didgeridoo. Ahahahaha! |
Yep, it's our old pal Dash Dingo again. With Luke in charge, we'll be searching the deck once per turn minimum, and sometimes more than that, if we're running other cards with the mutation ability. We want this good boy - and we want four-of, to ensure he's in our opening hand and picking off consumers or other weak characters as soon as possible. Ideally, we also want to be playing first; if we are second, our first search is made on the opponent's turn and we don't have the benefit of having Dash in play for it. Four of this boy go straight into the deck, and they don't leave for any reason. He's also a great insurance policy in the mirror match; the 2MQ trait vs. Luke Seti's 1MQ means he can pick the opposing founder off as soon as a search is triggered, and a great counter to Illithis, Gnost Prophet and The Glass Man decks to boot. Dash deserves a treat and a scratch behind the ears!
The next thing to consider is, of course, mutations. We'll need a range of costs, since the ability of Luke Seti allows you to search for a higher-cost one each time, and there's a few specific effects we want from the mutations, but the most important ability Luke Seti can be granted is the ability not to be placed in the open market! We are essentially running what is known to the Magic community (especially Commander players) as a voltron deck; the name is based on the old cartoon where more and more things piled up on top of the original base to make a massive robot. This means that above all else that we need the thing we are piling everything up on top of to survive, and we'll be attacking with Luke Seti far more often than anything else in the deck. The mutations we need to ensure we can find are Grow Wings (essentially unblockable) and Gallian Lineage (Initiative to avoid return damage) and then Rapid Tissue Regeneration, (surivability) Augmented Metabolism (survivability, in the form of mobility) and Hydriodic Acid (permanent damage) because our plan is to go straight after the opponent's business - not quite ignoring everything else, but close.
Obviously we'll also need a character base. Our business's BQ stat will shrink every turn, so we need some guys to defend it with while Luke is on the rampage. It's an Incarnate deck, so the first character to look at is going to be Incarnate Donor; we'll have no trouble paying the trait cost, and the extra resources, while not as essential as in a Corp or Military style deck (Luke Seti saves you $6m over his first three searches) will always be useful. The other main character we want to play is Incarnate Hierarch; despite the high upkeep cost, she's a brilliant 'finisher' card as well as useful mid-game. The Mutation 3 allows you to find either Hydriodic Acid to get permanent damage in, or Grow Wings to make use of the Disruptor ability to wipe the opposing business of their last few million.
The character we want to avoid is Incarnate Inheritor; Mutation 2 turns out to be far weaker than 3, as we can't search out Hydriodic Acid, and because the Inheritor has no native abilities, there's no advantage in granting it the Initiative of Gallian Lineage or the ability to Grow Wings. We end up paying upkeep for essentially nothing; not a good use of the business's cashflow.
These 11-12 characters aren't going to be enough, and there isn't much else that supports Luke Seti's main strategy, so we probably need to run 'filler' characters here that provide a good stats to traits ratio, in order to protect our reduced-BQ business from retaliatory attacks. Incarnate Neonate is ideal for this purpose, and can also be used to engage to provide traits, plus we'll want a few main-deck resource generation cards, which serve the same function while providing all-important cash flow. Remember that Incarnate Bond and Blue Chip Shares aren't considered "assets" by the game rules - they are permanent events - and can be deployed at the end of your opponent's turn to avoid being exposed to challenges, or deployed as a surprise block during the challenge phase. Learning to play on your opponent's turn where possible is an important part of mastering Megacorp play, and will come naturally to players who enjoy control decks.
The last thing to look at is a way to accelerate the kill; Luke Seti munches on your business's BQ every time he makes a search, so if the game drags on too long, you might end up devouring your own business in your hunger for victory! The Welcome to Aohu core set has a couple of ways to do this; Critical Hit is a great card in draft, because it works with any attacking character on any given trait, but in constructed we probably prefer Muay Thai - it's less conditional, given that we'll be attacking with BQ damage in any case. Rampage will offset the fact that Luke Seti is our only attacker by allowing him to deal damage to multiple cards in one combat phase.
A preliminary Luke Seti decklist might look like this:
1 Luke Seti, Memadapt
1 Incarnate Collective
4 Incarnate Donor
3 Incarnate Hierarch
4 Anubian Tracker
4 Incarnate Neonate
2 Blue Chip Shares
2 Incarnate Bond
3 Grow Wings
2 Gallian Lineage
3 Rapid Tissue Regeneration
2 Augmented Metabolism
3 Hydriodic Acid
2 Muay Thai
2 Rampage
Then, we want to fill the final four slots with removal cards and/or ways to protect Luke Seti. The deck is weak to cards that prevent regeneration, such as the commonly-played Kidnapping - two Augmented Metabolism is our only defense, and if the opponent waits until after we search for a $2m target, that's essentially nothing at all - so in a vacuum, or an #unethical metagame, I like Misdirection or Timely Interception. In a metagame infested with Raamaa or other Luke Seti decks, you may get more mileage out of running your own Kidnapping, while Assassination Contract is more appropriate if you'll be encountering Azrielle or Heracles decks. Numbers of mutations can vary slightly in favour of more removal cards, depending on what opposition you'll be facing, but I recommend against cutting any of the Hydriodic Acid or Grow Wings, as they are integral to the main plan.
Now strategically, the deck is pretty much an utter faceroll; it follows almost the same attacking plan in every game - get in permanent damage to the opposing business until it collapses like a house of cards - and it likely falls apart in a multi-player setting. It does, however, offer several large advantages to the discerning consumer. It's tricky, with plenty of ways to tactically outplay your opponent; the attack plan is not very cash intensive - Luke Seti begins the game in play and searches the deck every turn for $0m - leaving more funds for removal, defense, or the all-important "not going bankrupt" ability; the deck is particularly fast, hitting for 3-4 permanent and difficult-to-block damage from the second turn; and it's cheap in the real world, not containing any more rare or ultra rare cards than the founder himself, although staple cards like Anubian Tracker and Incarnate Donor can be a little hard to track down.
Luke's Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence is a potent aggressive package that can derail any deck's strategy when it has to pause to deal with an overpowered, heavily mutated founder; try it next Monday at Rabblemaster Games' constructed Megacorp nights, from 6pm.
The character we want to avoid is Incarnate Inheritor; Mutation 2 turns out to be far weaker than 3, as we can't search out Hydriodic Acid, and because the Inheritor has no native abilities, there's no advantage in granting it the Initiative of Gallian Lineage or the ability to Grow Wings. We end up paying upkeep for essentially nothing; not a good use of the business's cashflow.
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| Curiously, the game rules do not consider this card to be an "asset" but I'm pretty sure my accountant would disagree here. |
The last thing to look at is a way to accelerate the kill; Luke Seti munches on your business's BQ every time he makes a search, so if the game drags on too long, you might end up devouring your own business in your hunger for victory! The Welcome to Aohu core set has a couple of ways to do this; Critical Hit is a great card in draft, because it works with any attacking character on any given trait, but in constructed we probably prefer Muay Thai - it's less conditional, given that we'll be attacking with BQ damage in any case. Rampage will offset the fact that Luke Seti is our only attacker by allowing him to deal damage to multiple cards in one combat phase.
A preliminary Luke Seti decklist might look like this:
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| Not actually a #GMO character, but she fits into most strategies like a glove, and this one is no exception. She's the boss! |
1 Incarnate Collective
4 Incarnate Donor
3 Incarnate Hierarch
4 Anubian Tracker
4 Incarnate Neonate
2 Blue Chip Shares
2 Incarnate Bond
3 Grow Wings
2 Gallian Lineage
3 Rapid Tissue Regeneration
2 Augmented Metabolism
3 Hydriodic Acid
2 Muay Thai
2 Rampage
Then, we want to fill the final four slots with removal cards and/or ways to protect Luke Seti. The deck is weak to cards that prevent regeneration, such as the commonly-played Kidnapping - two Augmented Metabolism is our only defense, and if the opponent waits until after we search for a $2m target, that's essentially nothing at all - so in a vacuum, or an #unethical metagame, I like Misdirection or Timely Interception. In a metagame infested with Raamaa or other Luke Seti decks, you may get more mileage out of running your own Kidnapping, while Assassination Contract is more appropriate if you'll be encountering Azrielle or Heracles decks. Numbers of mutations can vary slightly in favour of more removal cards, depending on what opposition you'll be facing, but I recommend against cutting any of the Hydriodic Acid or Grow Wings, as they are integral to the main plan.
Now strategically, the deck is pretty much an utter faceroll; it follows almost the same attacking plan in every game - get in permanent damage to the opposing business until it collapses like a house of cards - and it likely falls apart in a multi-player setting. It does, however, offer several large advantages to the discerning consumer. It's tricky, with plenty of ways to tactically outplay your opponent; the attack plan is not very cash intensive - Luke Seti begins the game in play and searches the deck every turn for $0m - leaving more funds for removal, defense, or the all-important "not going bankrupt" ability; the deck is particularly fast, hitting for 3-4 permanent and difficult-to-block damage from the second turn; and it's cheap in the real world, not containing any more rare or ultra rare cards than the founder himself, although staple cards like Anubian Tracker and Incarnate Donor can be a little hard to track down.
Luke's Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence is a potent aggressive package that can derail any deck's strategy when it has to pause to deal with an overpowered, heavily mutated founder; try it next Monday at Rabblemaster Games' constructed Megacorp nights, from 6pm.
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