Lunatics

## Overview

...did you hear that? Must have been nothing... no, I'm sure I heard something. It's a good thing we broke into this building for kicks and nothing bad could happen, right? I knew coming to this incredibly haunted condemned hospital was a bad idea. On Halloween Night, too? What were we thinking? We'll probably be okay though, we just... oh, no. Where's Joe? Has anyone seen Joe? Surely he wasn't grabbed by The Nutcase? The infamous serial killer?... We might be in trouble.

The Lunatic deck revolves around the serial killer, The Nutcase, coming in and out of play and destroying minions to gain tremendous amounts of power. Be careful, or you may just be the next target in a long line of victims.

### Details

#### General

* Name: Lunatics
* Author: Onassi
* Complexity: 4/5
* Version: 1.0
* Last updated: February 4th, 2023

### Breakdown

Lunatics have the standard 10 minions and 10 actions, but have 28 total power among their minions (or an average of 2.8 power per minion) which is lower than average. Among their actions, they have:

* 1 play-on-minion actions: Bait
* 2 play-on-base actions: "Home", He Came Home
* 7 standard actions, 5 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): 2x Come Out and Play, **2x** **Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, Groovy, Jumpscare**
* 2 actions directly increase a minion's power: "Home", Jumpscare

### Minions (10)

* **2x Copycat Killer (4):** You may destroy one of your other minions here to choose one: 1. Place +1 power counters equal to the destroyed minion's printed power on this minion. 2. Play an extra minion of power 2 or less on another base. 3. Draw 2 cards.
* **2x Detective (4):** Ongoing: After one of more minions are destroyed on another base, you may move this minion there to give it +1 power until the end of the turn or shuffle a card from your discard pile into your deck.
* **2x Easy Prey (2):** Ongoing: After this minion is destroyed, you may play an extra action or a minion of power 2 or less as an extra minion.
* **4x Victim (2):** Talent: If this card was here at the start of the turn, you may place or move The Nutcase here. Destroy this minion. Ongoing: After this minion is destroyed, you may shuffle it into its owner's deck.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Come Out and Play:** Search your deck and/or discard pile for two minions of power 2 or less and place them in your hand. If you destroyed a minion this turn, you may play one of them as an extra minion.
* **2x Be Afraid:** Destroy a minion of power 3 or less. If it was your minion you may ply an extra minion and/or action this turn.
* **1x Be Very Afraid:** Choose a base. Destroy up to three minions with combined total power of 5 or less there and add their power to a Titan there until the end of the turn.
* **1x Groovy:** Move one of your cards to another base. Special: You may play this after you destroy a minion.
* **1x Jumpscare:** Destroy one of your minions to place +1 power counters equal to its power, split any way you choose, on your other minions. Special: You may play this action before a base scores.
* **1x Bait:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, you may play or move The Nutcase here and destroy this minion to place a +1 power counter on The Nutcase OR transfer this action to another minion.
* **1x He Came Home:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After you destroy one or more minions here, you may either draw a card or destroy this action to gain 1 VP.
* **1x "Home":** Play on a base. Ongoing: After you destroy one or more minions, you may place a +1 power counter on this card and another one of your cards. Talent: Transfer a +1 power counter on this card to another one of your cards here.

### Titan

**The Nutcase:**

* Special: After one or more minions are destroyed, place a +1 power counter on this Titan. If this Titan has three or more +1 power counters on it, you may play it on a base on your turn. Remove all +1 power counters on this Titan when it enters play.
* Ongoing: At the start of your turn, destroy one of your minions here to draw a card. After one or more minions are destroyed here, you may give this Titan +2 power until the end of the turn.
* Talent: Play an extra minion of power 2 or less.

## Clarifications

* **Detective:** Detective must move to activate either ability.
* **Groovy:** Groovy can move *cards*, including The Nutcase or modifiers.
* **The Nutcase:** The start of turn self destruction is mandatory if applicable.

## Strategy

### General

Lunatics are a self-destruction faction, and in Smash Up self-destruction factions often suffer from lack of resources because you're using so many to destroy your own minions. But much like Hydra, Lunatics have replenishment tools built into their value proposition which makes the sacrifices they make hit a little less hard. Generally, you're aiming to bring The Nutcase into play as often as you can with Victims that can activate its abilities. You'll want to stage Victims on multiple bases so that The Nutcase can move around, and even drop Easy Prey along the way for extra plays. The Nutcase, if given the chance, can sometimes bring a base to its breakpoint on its own with all the destruction it's fueled with. While this can seem costly to the pilot player, don't worry, Victims shuffle themselves back in and Come Out and Play offers some recursion for lower-power minions you've lost along the way.

While The Nutcase serves to destroy your low power minions and activate its own abilities, the rest of your deck supports it in doing that: Detective can provide recursion or movement + power after a trigger, Copycat Killer can provide you with some value while you wait for The Nutcase to come out, your play-on-base actions provide you with flexible value after you destroy other minions, and cards like Bait can provide potentially explosive ways for The Nutcase to unleash itself and wreak havoc amongst its base. There are a couple tools for antagonistic destruction, but with Be Afraid you'll more likely be using it to destroy your own minions for the extra plays it can provide.

The Nutcase can feel unstoppable at times, but remember that it needs to fuel itself; if you can remove its targets before he himself can, you'll be more in control of the potential damage he can cause. Factions that prey on weaker minions or return minions to hand will do well against Lunatics. Curating a board state in which The Nutcase stands to gain very little by destroying its own minions will be the main way to defeat them.

### Partner Suggestions

Lunatics love factions that either empower The Nutcase with destruction, or provide fuel for them to execute their game plan without running out of steam. Additionally, The Nutcase provides a global extra minion play as long as that minion is power 2 or less, and many factions would appreciate an additional low-power minion play as well as the heavy recursion Lunatics can bring to the table.

#### Published

* **Hydra:** This should come as no surprise. The two decks seek to execute a similar game plan - destroy your own minions to gain some sort of benefit. In this case, you get to play extra minions (that recur themselves in the case of Victims) as well as power up your Titan. Seems like a natural fit, with plenty of support in all of the double features of this combo.
* **Sharks:** Who says the destruction has to be internal? The Nutcase may only be able to destroy internal targets but that doesn't mean he can't benefit from opposing minions being destroyed. Sharks, obviously, provide many benefits for destroying minions, and Lunatics have Come Out And Play which recurs Makos for them. Yes, you may be competing between playing either Helicoprion or The Nutcase, but the tools both factions provide can endorse either strategy just fine.
* **Elder Things:** Shoggoths need to be played on bases where you have 6 power, and The Nutcase can quite easily become 6 power if you have fuel for it. Not only that, but the extra minion play from The Nutcase can play multiple Byahkees, which is not only good for spamming Madness but also for providing fuel for Elder Thing - which The Nutcase can benefit from, by the way. There's a decent amount of recursion in Elder Things, lots of power, and the two factions certainly are thematic with one another.
* **Samurai:** For folks wanting consistency, Samurai seem like a safe bet. Samurai-Chan is a good target for The Nutcase, especially if on a base with Honor The Fallen. You can combine this with Final Haiku, or you could simply use this pairing for Yokai Attack which functions very similarly to Be Afraid. There's plenty of card draw and extra VP options for those willing to farm it.

## Author Notes

I playtested the absolute shit out of this deck to make sure it didn't break the game with this overpowered Titan running around. Turns out, it's actually pretty balanced; as long as you have a way to deal with it. At first the faction dealt with destroying other players' minions but that was far too oppressive. I'm definitely open to more feedback on this one.

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