Brief summary of deck: Intrigue, intrigue, intrigue.  Relying on Influence rather than Power lets you mess up your opponents, who'll probably be relying on Power gains.

Section 1: The Cards

Aftermaths: Exploit Opportunities, It Will Be His Undoing, Successful Manipulation, Twisting the Knife (x3)
Total # of aftermaths: 6

Agendas: Knowledge is Power (x2)
Total # of agendas:  2

Characters: Londo Mollari, Vir Cotto, Lady Morella, Adira Tyree, Lord Rifa, Lord Kiro, Drigo, Urza Jaddo, Centauri Agent  (x2), Centauri Telepath, Minister Malachi, Emperor Turhan
Total # of characters: 13

Diplomacy Conflicts:
Total # of Diplomacy conflicts:  0

Intrigue Conflicts:  Forced Impairment (x3), Prey on the Weak (x3), Temptations (x3)
Total # of Intrigue conflicts:  9

Military Conflicts:
Total # of Military conflicts:  0

Enhancements: Commerce Raiding, Covert Allies (x2), Factional Inertia, Obstacles to Victory, PPG Rifle (x2) The Eye
Total # of enhancements: 8

Events: Destined to Be, Level the Playing Field (x3), Meditations (x3), Universe Today Feature (x3)
Total # of events: 10

Fleets: First Battle Fleet, Second Battle Fleet, Third Battle Fleet, Homeworld Fleet
Total # of fleets: 4

Groups: Imperial Telepaths, Influential Lords
Total # of groups:  2

Locations: Centauri Prime, Immolan V, Tolonius VII
Total # of locations:  3

Total # of cards in deck: 57

Section 2: Strategy

Starting Hand: Londo Mollari, Vir Cotto, Knowledge is Power, Centauri Prime

Opening Strategy:
Get everything in your hand, down on the table. Pretty straightforward. Build influence, get down whatever you can on your way to 10.  Conserve your strength at this point.  You might take out a Kha'Mak or a Luis Santiago with a Temptations if you're feeling...well, tempted.  However, try not to make too many enemies at this point.  You'll get plenty later.

If someone goes for an early war, use Universe Today Feature to keep their tensions with you down.

Midgame Strategy:
Get down Centauri Prime when you hit 10 - you'll want the extra Influence. Then begin using Knowledge is Power to gain/steal Influence, supplementing with Centauri Prime and Twisting the Knife.  That 7 influence for KoP can get expensive, so on the turns when you'd rather sponsor and promote, use Prey on the Weak instead.  It's not quite as effective, since you can't use Twisting the Knife, and PotW is somewhat random as to who will take the loss.  However, you won't be spending 7 Influence or wondering if your opponent will discard an Inner Circle member to negate, either.

Successful Manipulation and Exploit Opportunities can be used to bolster your Intrigue up further.

Card cycling is another important part of this deck.  Malachi, Imperial Telepaths, and Meditations should let you get through your deck quickly.

Enhancements are another key part of this deck.  Tolonius VII means you can slap down those pricey Covert Allies at half cost, turning your more diplomatic Centauri (like Turhan, Morella, and Malachi) into intriguers. You can also bring out The Eye without using Kiro.

Try to get down Commerce Raiders before anyone else since only one can be in play at a time.  That and The Eye should give you a handy +2 Influence.

There's a spare Knowledge is Power in case you fall victim to a Forced Impairment or an earlier Telepathic Scan.

The PPG Rifles are for defense and deterrence.

Endgame Strategy:
Slow down your opponents' wins by using Factional Inertia if they're counting on power-providing Agendas for their victories (they probably are). FI should buy you enough time to Forced Impairment the agenda that will let them win.  If you can't pull that off, use Obstacles to Victory to slow them down further.

It Will Be His Undoing will take care of those obnoxious Doom-conversion decks.  So basically you should be able to handle most other opponents winning in the short term.

Forced Impairment is a good free-safety card: if you don't need it to stop an opponent's Agenda, use it on something else.  This can range from Sheridan (he doesn't need those extra marks anyway) to Z'ha'dum Awakened.

By the time you get down Commerce Raiding, The Eye, and have won a Knowledge is Power conflict or two in the mid-game, you should be within range of a win at this point.  Hopefully by now you've bolstered up your Intrigue-types, so go for the last Knowledge is Power or Prey on the Week, bolster the influence gain by 2 (for the former, using Centauri Prime and Twisting the Knife) or 1 (for the latter, using only your Homeworld) and push yourself to 20.

Prey on the Weak, if you're at 18, is probably your best bet.  It can't be negated by an Inner Circle discard, and the other players will have to agree among themselves who will gain the Influence, and who will lose.  You won't be the one losing, so some poor guy is either going to have to volunteer for the loss, or he'll be supporting himself and refusing to loan support to the others so that they can beat you.

Weaknesses: The deck sacrifices some Intrigue for speed.  A Human or Minbari Intrigue deck could actually keep you from winning those Intrigue conflicts.

This deck has the bare minimum of fleets necessary for a defense.  Keep your tensions down, particularly with the Narn.  Still, they might be able to start a war with you.  Watch out for Border Raids, but your Fleets should give you enough defense that at least they won't be uncontested.

This deck is also vulnerable to attacking, which is why the PPGs are there. Since the Narn are best at attacking with both characters and fleets, you can see that a strong Narn deck that decides to go for you, no matter what, is probably going to give you the most problems.

Section 3:  Variations

Substitute Tolonius VII and/or Imperial Telepaths into your opening hand, replacing Vir and/or Centauri Prime.  Relying on random draw for your homeworld could cost you some Influence later on, though.  Vir can be useful, but you can hopefully draw him or one of your cheaper characters, and get them into the Inner circle, fairly quickly.

One downside of relying on Influence for a win, rather than Power, is that you tend to go last in the round.  This can sometimes prove inconvenient. Calling the Shots may prove useful to you.

If you feel you'll be the target of a quick Declaration of War from the Narn, put a Universe Today Feature in your starting hand.

As noted, the Narn are likely your worse enemy.  You can put in more Fleets (against war) or weaponry and/or defenses (against being attacked) as necessary.

Commentary by Stephen Kittel

>"Knowledge is Influence, not Power' Deck - Steve Crow

>Section 1: The Cards

>Agendas: Knowledge is Power (x2)
>Total # of agendas:  2
Why not an Infiltrate and Exploit while you're at it? Cheaper, and either variety of conflict is less likely to draw attention. Not your focus, but good in a pinch.

>Characters: Londo Mollari, Vir Cotto, Lady Morella, Adira Tyree, Lord Rifa,
>Lord Kiro, Drigo, Urza Jaddo, Centauri Agent  (x2), Centauri Telepath,
>Minister Malachi, Emperor Turhan
>Total # of characters: 13
Nice mix...lots of diplomacy--more than intrigue! (44-38)

>Intrigue Conflicts:  Forced Impairment (x3), Prey on the Weak (x3),
>Temptations (x3)
>Total # of Intrigue conflicts:  9
Unless you're worried about doom, you could sub a Temptations for Attacking Pawns--possibility of an influence and the knowledge that the character WILL go away (rather than being promoted). In case you nail Kha'Mak or somebody else useful, you could also throw in a Witness Protection.

>Events: Destined to Be, Level the Playing Field (x3), Meditations (x3),
>Universe Today Feature (x3)
>Total # of events: 10
Not Meant to Be? Will accomplish the same thing as the Universe Today  Feature and more. If you don't consider it too cheesy, a pair of Short Term Goals will
burn off the two Destiny marks in this deck for some quick influence. A Secret Strike would be good for FI in case you didn't initiate a  conflict. (Not likely with this deck, but if you think an opponent's planning something...)

>Groups: Imperial Telepaths, Influential Lords
>Total # of groups:  2
The advantage of having 3 untouchable support is IMHO greatly outweighed by the influence cost and the requirement that it must be support. I would swap Influential Lords for a cheap character--another Centauri Agent or an Ambitious Captain would have that 3 intrigue, cost less, and be able to attack if needed.
Extended Contacts might also be a good replacement, as it can bulk up one of your characters. It's always nice to have if you're worried about Refa being attacked by Marcus.

>Section 2: Strategy

>Starting Hand: Londo Mollari, Vir Cotto, Knowledge is Power, Centauri Prime
Assuming you draw no characters for a while, G'Kar could take a chunk out of Londo to stop KiP for two turns. Changing Vir to a Centauri Agent could alleviate this as you could supplement the three you just lost.

>Opening Strategy:
>If someone goes for an early war, use Universe Today Feature to keep their
>tensions with you down.
If someone goes for an early war, you won't have a UTF in time. You'll need to start with one or draw it as your very first card as a Narn war deck can go to war on the second turn.

>Midgame Strategy:
>That 7 influence for KoP can
>get expensive, so on the turns when you'd rather sponsor and promote, use
>Prey on the Weak instead. It's not quite as effective, since you can't use
>Twisting the Knife, and PotW is somewhat random as to who will take the
>loss.  However, you won't be spending 7 Influence or wondering if your
>opponent will discard an Inner Circle member to negate, either.
I&E would also work well since there's no "win by 5" clause, it can't be nullified like KiP, and it costs less. The only advantage is KiP can do what 2 I&E conflicts can do, but you can still play Twisting the Knife if you go for an influence-removing conflict. (You also get an extra Intrigue, but since you have to win by 5, I consider this losing 4.)

>Card cycling is another important part of this deck.  Malachi, Imperial
>Telepaths, and Meditations should let you get through your deck quickly.
Just watch out for New Opportunities if you start running low. That can force even the Centauri into being out of options.

>Enhancements are another key part of this deck.  Tolonius VII means you can
>slap down those pricey Covert Allies at half cost, turning your more
>diplomatic Centauri (like Turhan, Morella, and Malachi) into intriguers.
>You can also bring out The Eye without using Kiro.
I could argue that the cost of those three cards (Tolonius VII and Covert Allies) could be outweighed by a couple cheap intriguers

>The PPG Rifles are for defense and deterrence.
What about military deterrent?

>Endgame Strategy:

>By the time you get down Commerce Raiding, The Eye, and have won a
>Knowledge is Power conflict or two in the mid-game, you should be within
>range of a win at this point.  Hopefully by now you've bolstered up your
>Intrigue-types, so go for the last Knowledge is Power or Prey on the Week,
>bolster the influence gain by 2 (for the former, using Centauri Prime and
>Twisting the Knife) or 1 (for the latter, using only your Homeworld) and
>push yourself to 20.
A couple Short Term Goals on your useless Destiny marks wouldn't be bad now either.

>Prey on the Weak, if you're at 18, is probably your best bet.  It can't be
>negated by an Inner Circle discard, and the other players will have to
>agree among themselves who will gain the Influence, and who will lose.  You
>won't be the one losing, so some poor guy is either going to have to
>volunteer for the loss, or he'll be supporting himself and refusing to loan
>support to the others so that they can beat you.
But if they can beat you, they buy themselves an extra turn--a turn to target you with some nasty conflicts or make a final bidding at the win. If they could handle it, they could all just attack and you and take some losses to eliminate the threat you represent. In so doing, you could end up losing your characters as well as come in last in the conflict.
 

>Weaknesses: The deck sacrifices some Intrigue for speed.  A Human or
>Minbari Intrigue deck could actually keep you from winning those Intrigue
>conflicts.
Did you say Minbari Intrigue deck??

>This deck has the bare minimum of fleets necessary for a defense.  Keep
>your tensions down, particularly with the Narn.  Still, they might be able
>to start a war with you.  Watch out for Border Raids, but your Fleets
>should give you enough defense that at least they won't be uncontested.
With four fleets, you're a sitting duck at best. A Cut Supply Lines could remove a crucial conflict from contention. If a war is started, it won't be long before the conflicts are uncontested.

>This deck is also vulnerable to attacking, which is why the PPGs are there.
>Since the Narn are best at attacking with both characters and fleets, you
>can see that a strong Narn deck that decides to go for you, no matter what,
>is probably going to give you the most problems.
Lyndisty would also make a good deterrent against the Narn, and she has a little intrigue in a pinch. You'll obviously want to target any DiD decks since this will remove their source of power and they're not likely to have too much intrigue anyway. (Sakai could ultimately be sacrificed for nullification purposes, though.)

Section 3:  Variations

Subbing the cards I recommended would increase your odds of drawing one.

>One downside of relying on Influence for a win, rather than Power, is that
>you tend to go last in the round.  This can sometimes prove inconvenient.
>Calling the Shots may prove useful to you.
I'm not sure of that. You can see how many conflicts there are each turn, and maybe refrain or change your plans if there are too many. Going last is only a severe disadvantage if someone is going to play Confusion in Chaos. Otherwise, it's usually good for the recon.

>If you feel you'll be the target of a quick Declaration of War from the
>Narn, put a Universe Today Feature in your starting hand.
If there's a chance, this is an absolute must. That or a NMTB for the Dec of War.

Impression:
Not a bad deck, altogether. A few changes could stand to be made, but it'll hold it's own until everyone comes at you when you get to 15-16 influence or when you piss them off enough.Military should be your biggest threat. If you don't overburden yourself with conflicts, you can fend off attacks on diplomacy and intrigue, however with only 4 fleets and no LtPF's, uncontested military conflicts can get to be bad.