So you get a new booster pack and find a Nipper card.  You glance at its stage, HP, and attack damage and toss it out.  It's only a Stage 1, you say.  Nothing good about it.  Well, there is where you're wrong.  This
little guy is strong enough to almost get an entire deck built around him.

Let's give an example.  You come prepared into a game with your beginner's Nipper deck. (Say, half Nipper-half Energy, few stall cards.) For sake of argument, let's say you get the first turn.  You toss a Nipper into a corner land and laugh maniacally, declaring yourself done.  Your opponent does the same with another Basic Minion. (Let's say 40 HP, 2 energy attack: 20 damage.) Cards in hand - 7 each.

Next turn, you toss a Nipper into the same land and invade a side-land.  If your opponent invaded a corner land adjacent to yours, you can skip to the attack.  But if your opponent did something far away, he'll probably see your 'wimpy' creatures and rush in to attack through a side-land.

Next turn, you attack.  Toss two Energy onto Nipper, move into Dark Land, and Swipe away.  With luck, you might be able to get a good card out of your opponent's hand.  Next turn, your opponent tosses down a few Energy of his own and damages your leading Nipper.  Time to retreat, right?  Wrong.  You attack and take another card out of your opponent's hand, at the same time, moving a reinforcement Nipper that you previously played into Dark Land and invading another side-land.

Next turn, your opponent kills your Nipper.  No big loss, you toss two surplus Energy cards on another and fire away with that earlier reinforcement.  Meanwhile, you take over some other lands.

At this point, your opponent sees that his 40 HP Minion is getting dangerously low.  So he retreats out of that side-land.  You may expect him to move another Minion in, but unless he's got a swarm deck, there aren't many around that can attack, as your Swiping has hopefully knocked the other Minion cards and evolution cards (or better, Energy) from his hand.  You aren't afraid of losing a Nipper, as you can just bring another in.  At about this time, he'll have four cards in hand.

Meanwhile, you're moving your tough stall cards, like Piranha Plant, into other lands, blocking him from the corner lands, leaving him with the options of expanding through Dark Land and getting all his cards taken out, or through a stall-card land, which will be timely and, meanwhile, you will be Swiping cards from his hand anyway, leaving him with no Energy, few Minions and only a few corner lands that he's desperately trying to hold onto.  In other words, you've got him in a lock.  Remember that Permission theme I was talking about earlier?  And the Weenie theme?  This one's a combination of both.

However, this deck will come to a dead stop if your opponent manages to get out the Energy to power a big evolved Minion, a blanket damage card, or a card that will deal more than 30 damage.  No big deal there, just sprinkle in a few Munchers.  Their Bite attack will quickly take out that Minion and Growth will keep them healthy enough to do it.  Then you can start chipping away again with Nippers.  Or Midnight Raid will take out the Energy cards needed to power that Minion's attacks.  Then you can chip away at it until it succumbs to your 10 damage attacks.  Or a Fortress and Parapet to reduce damage.

This theme can also run into trouble if many Nippers are destroyed early on.  This makes it very hard to get a lock and you may die off quickly.  But one card will reverse that.  Garbage Picking will allow you to recycle
all those cards into your deck again.  You also may need some Supply Lines to get those cards out.

However, all these cards are taking away your Energy and Nippers.  Therefore, you need to experiment with this deck.  Tweak the cards here and there until you get the perfect combination.  You'll be surprised.

Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me!
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