Main Page/Basic Deck
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A deck that can be used by all candidates of any ideology. |
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The basic deck is the recommended default choice that first appears when you create any candidate in the game. It contains 40 cards and unlike other decks, it does not contain any endorsements due to its non-political catch-all nature. In return you will have more cards that play into the game's core mechanics, such as ads and removing political capital. This is a great deck choice for any non-ideological candidates that want to avoid taking one specific side or that may not have their interests covered by any sets in the game.
This card set was introduced as part of the original playtest alongside several other essential card sets on February 21st, 2024 (see: Patch Notes).
Introduction
 Basic Deck the jack of all trades, master of none.
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Card Types
Neutral
These cards don't explicitly give anyone an advantage, and should be best used as means to cause disruption in gameplans with careful timing. While they can work against your benefit, if you don't have a great deck, or need to seal the advantage and curb counterplay around crucial election dates. On top of disruptive neutral tools, you can hit your opponent with a whistleblower to force them to discard something of value from their deck. Although you might not find out about it lest you play with a friend.
Enthusiasm
When it comes to shaping enthusiasm, you have 2 of the best ways to do so through the use of cheersquads, or 2 means of getting a quick national boost through celebrity endorsements. Furthermore you can affect your opponent's enthusiasm to softly stop them from creeping up leads over the long term with 2 intimidators.
Defense
When it comes to countering problematic cards, getting a lock. Keep note of how many fixers and maverick reformers that may have been expended, as it will be important to space them out should opponents use it as an opening to plop down endorsements, or other powerful cards that may give them a crucial opening. Keeping a bodyguard around will save you at a cheap price, while wasting some of your opponent's best well timed cards such as Call Out Hypocrisy and Crooked Prosecutor.
Operatives
The operatives from the classic Political Machine series are here! And with them are 2 powerful Spin Doctors, and 2 Smear Merchants to help tilt the lead in a swing state. These are powerful tools in primaries, and can hold as much weight as a level 4 Think Tank making them doubly powerful.
Speeches
When it comes to getting the most out of your speeches, powerful tools like the Personalizer, Speechwriter, and Stump Speech Expert will be your friends in giving you the best issue scores possible, or your opponents should you take it to the offense.
Ads
Unlike most decks, the Basic Deck gives you more to work with when it comes to advertisement cards. Allowing you to save money running expensive ad operations when you play tall in certain states, or make long term gains among the targeted demographics of your choice.
Political Capital
These are some of your best cards when it comes to giving you the direct upper hand. Not only are Lobbying Teams and Lobbyists powerful at racking up immediate PC gain, but should your opponent ignore it, you will be seeing your political capital double or even tripled throughout the course of the entire game, making them centralizing factors in determining what goes on behind the scenes in the presidential race. A well timed expert rebuke can deter synergistic strategies, or curtail a crucial endorsement should you save it for when they stack their political capital, as well as denying your opponent the element of surprise.
Cash
If you need a quick cash infusion, plop down a Big Donor to save yourself valuable stamina and turns in fundraising, or maximize your fundraisers with Party Planners to build up a campaign war chest that will last you throughout the entire game. You might not even need Consulting Offices should you land one of these cards early in the game.
Update History
- Bodyguard - (New)
2 Bodyguards were added to the deck
- Expert Rebuke
1 Expert Rebuke was removed, changing the total of Expert Rebukes from 3 to 2
- Whistleblower
- 1 Whistleblower was removed, changing the total of Whistleblowers from 2 to 1
Trivia
- No base-game candidates are equipped with this deck, however at launch Doug Burgum, Vivek Ramaswamy, Andrew Yang, and Marianne Williamson were equipped with the Basic Deck in the game until a successive patch afterwards.