I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse…

RockTheBloodstainedFBWhat are laws? What gives law power? Who should make laws? Should anyone? There is a faction in any populace who ask themselves these questions. They establish their own hierarchies, they create their own culture, and they exploit the slow march of progress in countering them. Gangster embrace the truth. Laws are only as strong as those upholding them. Freedom is being free to choose not to play by societies rules; that you can do only what you can do. This makes Gangsters ideologically both independent in their beliefs and unified in their resistance against the status quo. Gangsters value loyalty to people and mindsets, not rules and technicalities. They place their trust in individual judgement and the exclusivity of their organizations to ensure that true justice is served. Because justice doesn't belong to society. Justice belongs to those whom uphold it. Those with the strength to carry it out. Because their justice is the only real justice.

In practice gangsters are willing to help each other, but are ready to work independently. Each one aspires to be the one calling the shots, but they also admire and respect their superiors, peers and underlings. This is because not just anyone can survive in their world, just being able to deal with the scrutiny, to be hunted, to hide in plain sight; it takes a certain kind of person. There are no instructions on how it's done. But when you find your way off the grid, when you finally land your first score, that takes more than most have. A willingness to do what it takes. That’s why even the lowest gangsters are still paid their due respect.

This doesn't mean that they are all wildly successful. After all, greed is the cardinal sin of all gangsters. They want too much, and ultimately the whole world is against them. As stated before, you can only do what you can do. Cunning and ambition can't overcome all obstacles after all. In truth most gangsters are normal people, with cunning and connections making them more than they would normally be. Take those things away and suddenly what's left is just a man. Gangsters can't trust just anyone and don't work well with those outside of their organizations, sometimes even other gangster organizations.

Gangsters aren't well liked outside of their circles. They, in many ways define the laws of society through their actions. They are the reason people lock their doors; why there are police to begin with. Gangsters don't play by the rules. They don't care what you charge for your wares, especially if you don't have the strength to keep them. They're ambitious, quick witted, fast talking and above all, dangerous. But hey, if you have their protection money, you've got nothing to worry about.



Gangsters in the Universal Card Game can be one of the quickest factions to learn in the game. The strategy with this faction is to use Status Effect cards to buff their abilities and strong-arm their way through the opposition. A Gangster deck with typically be composed of key gangster cards and then a theme chosen based on the two main deck types. You will either focus on the acceleration of the playing of Status Effects from your deck or Void or you will use the board clearing capabilities of the token generating Gangster cards. Great care need to be taken when playing a Gangster deck as these decks generally start very strong, but will need to plan in the long run for strategies able to handle their often one power character on the board at the time.

The Gangster deck is a fine tuned machine that needs to be balanced and tested to ensure that proper portions of both characters, effects, and of course Status Effects are placed in the deck. A player would not want have a large hand of Status Effects and no character to play them on along with the opposite scenario. Card drawing cards are greatly recommended as Gangster decks will find their hands being played very quickly with the acceleration cards and it leaves them open to an opponent’s plays as there are no longer any cards to be used as a surprise. What you see if what you get generally with a Gangster deck and a well-paced deck can have your opponent taking several points of damage before they can recover or even recover at all.

Optional Support


The Gangster Faction like many of the factions in the Universal Card Game are designed to work together, this section outlines the cards within that work in most Gangster decks. Many of the key cards in the Gangster Faction rely on these elements to be played for the deck to perform efficiently.

Special Agent Jazz145 NEORAR145 SpecialAgentJazz0001Special Agent Jazz is a great component for the Gangster decks that run Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 and Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001. These two cards when combined in the same deck can use Status Effect cards from either your deck (Rock) or your Void (Rapture). A fine-tuned Gangster deck can pace their losses to trade Rock The Bloodstained for an opponent’s key character cards to just get the Status Effect that was on the Rock The Bloodstained on a Von Rapture the Savior on the next play. You can use Special Agent Jazz along with Agent of Trance058 NEOUNS058 AgentofTrance0001 or Ballad of She017 NEOCOV017 BalladofShe0001 to gain an additional card advantage by providing yourself with a character with a Status Effect attached to it at no cost. This card is very vulnerable to discarding and removal cards due to its high cost and low combat value. It is very much worth running two of these in a Gangster deck just for the free card advantage and thinning of the deck that Special Agent Jazz and card(s) she puts into play provide.

Agent of Trance058 NEOUNS058 AgentofTrance0001 – This card provides many Gangster deck builds to accelerate quickly and take control of the field. With its ability to attack and play either a low costing Gangster character or a Status Effect on itself, you can use this in both control and aggressive Gangster deck builds. While the Agent of Trance is delayed, it is still a strong card for its price of being a Three Combat character for only Three Terra. Its ability can easily make the Agent of Trance into a Six or Seven Combat character depending on what cards are currently in your hand. Proper usage of the Agent of Trance can have your hand empty early in the game and this is why it is recommended that cards that can draw additional cards to your hand should be used in Gangster decks. Be careful when playing this card out without any protection; it is very vulnerable and provides opponents with a great target for the removal card Final Clash001 NEOCOV001 FinalClash0001.

Techna The Virus/Romantic BanditsTechna The Virus087 NEOUNS087 TechnaTheVirus CyberYatagan0001 is one of the best cards to play early game for the Gangster decks as on turn three this card can easily inflict up to six to eight points of damage since the opponent will have several cards in their hand. Where Techna the Virus is the more aggressive version of the Gangster Flip cards, Romantic Bandits170 NEOUNS170 RomanticBandits SamsonBloodscourge0001 provides you with the ability to draw cards which is very critical for the Gangster deck. Along with the ability to replenish your card pool and you can also remove several key control cards that an opponent would play. The key issue with many of these cards is they are still vulnerable when they are flipped as they count as effect cards. Any matchup that is strong against your effect cards would render this cards ineffective. However, these cards are both very strong as they provide a protection to the subjects they are attached to and can be reused once you play another Gangster card. If the next Gangster card you play is another Gangster flip card, the old host can potentially have two of these Status Effects attached to it.

Stephen Zkard098 NEORAR098 StephenZkard0001 – While this Shadow Architect is not necessarily a direct support card for the Gangster Faction, however its Assimilate ability allows you to pick a card from the top or bottom of the deck which will allow you to control which cards are in your hand or in the Void. Both of these aspects are important to Gangsters as they help Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001 and ElectroDark Cybermancer124 NEOSTB124 ElectroDarkCybermancer0001 which both benefit from cards in the Void or being placed into the Void. Each of the Retribution abilities works perfectly for a Gangster deck. The first ability keeps your Status Effect cards from being removed from your character cards. The second ability allows you to potentially place extra counters on a Vega164 NEOSTB164 Vega0001 or attack and keep the Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 on board for defense the next turn. Lastly the final ability allows you to draw additional cards that can easily be played with all the acceleration provided by the Gangster support cards.

Samson Black195 NEORAR195 SamsonBlack0001Samson Black is best used with more control based Gangster decks as it would require that you have a method of playing several Gangster cards at a time using cards like ElectroDark Cybermancer124 NEOSTB124 ElectroDarkCybermancer0001and Executor Williams096 NEORAR096 ExecutorWilliams0001. These two cards provide excellent ways to be used with Samson Black and this card also allows your smaller Gangsters to hit harder when they are in play. This keeps cards that would remove smaller characters from the board from being used to remove some of the key Flip Cards that the Gangsters depend on for reliable buffs. When used with cards such as Executor Williams and Vega164 NEOSTB164 Vega0001, these cards can hit harder, and in the case of Vega, it gets more counters whenever it would deal damage to a player. This is very useful as it would provide you the ability to wipe the board easier by dealing more damage with each attack.

Key Cards for Gangster Deck


Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 – This card is key to many Gangster decks, it is a cheap play and can be used with Agent of Trance058 NEOUNS058 AgentofTrance0001. This card can also be searched with the Special Agent Jazz145 NEORAR145 SpecialAgentJazz0001 and Ballad of She017 NEOCOV017 BalladofShe0001. No matter where it may come into play from, it can still be used to get a Status Effect card from your deck which will generally make it be either a Three or Four Combat character. This card is extremely vulnerable to removal abilities such as Final Clash001 NEOCOV001 FinalClash0001 and Ignorance091 NEOSTB091 Ignorance0001as it is dependent on the Status Effects attached to it for any value of Combat. This card works well with most Gangster support as it already has the ability Overpower which is useful when playing the more aggressive nature of the Gangster Faction.

Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001Von Rapture The Savior is one of the cards that can be searched with the Special Agent Jazz145 NEORAR145 SpecialAgentJazz0001 card. Its ability is similar toRock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 as it allows you to play a Status Effect card from your Void rather than from the deck. Gangster decks can use the Status Effects from other fallen Gangsters by using Von Rapture The Savior. Early game this card is not the best to have as there would not be many options available in the Void and the options grow as the game progresses. Using cards that have the activations or options to make you discard cards such as several Pitfall Effects are great way to get the Status Effects into the Void to be used with Von Rapture The Savior. Similar to many of the key Gangster cards, this card is extremely vulnerable to removal and one of the best cards to play on it with its ability is The High Priestess024 NEOSTB024 TheHighPriestess0001.

Executor Williams /VegaExecutor Williams096 NEORAR096 ExecutorWilliams0001 and Vega164 NEOSTB164 Vega0001 form the basis of another form of Gangster deck that does not use Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 and Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001. These types of Gangster decks use the token generation and Unstoppable abilities of the two cards to overwhelm their opponent and have several options available for board removal. The Executor Williams card is an excellent option when used with Samson Black195 NEORAR195 SamsonBlack0001 as the tokens that come into play will inflict damage each turn to the opposing player. Vega is good in control heavy decks for when buffed properly with Status Effect cards can remove the opponent’s field with its powerful activated ability. Players that play Gangster decks will generally try to run either an Executor Williams/Vega deck or a Rock/Rapture variant as the two strategies use drastically different cards for support and each rely on Status Effects for their strategies.



Gangster decks are dependent on Status Effect cards for many of their strategies and thus are capable drawing into hands that do not suite well for the situation. Where many decks use multiple character cards to generate a strategy the Gangster deck depends on few with the combination of other cards for victory. The loss of a Gangster or a clearing of the field with cards such as Devastation066 NEORAR066 Devastation0001 or Nature’s Wrath094 NEOSTB094 NaturesWrath0001 can leave the Gangster deck slow to recover. There are also many options available among the other factions that can handle their Status Effects. Almost any card that is capable of returning cards to the hand or having the Gangster deck discard cards disrupt the pacing leaving the Gangster deck behind when compared to the opponent’s battlefield. Powerful Shadow Architects such as Ayaka Lizzy042 NEOCOV042 AyakaLizzy0001 and Gracelyn Bishop070 NEORAR070 GracelynBishop0001 are able to disrupt several Gangster strategies along with providing a shield to the players that play them.

 Anti-Gangster Support

Timewave Zero044 NEOSTB044 TimewaveZero0001 – The artwork on this card shows both Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001 and Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001 being pulled into a vortex of death. This artwork shows the true intention of this card, to be an excellent match against Gagster decks. Due to all of the major support cards in Gangsters decks generally having One or Two Combat makes them all vulnerable to this effect card with the Timing of Immediate. While not all decks run this card in their early game, it is a safe assumption to make that it can easily be sideboarded against you when you go for a second match. It does not hurt to keep a card such as Mermaid of Wishes193 NEOUNS193 MermaidofWishes0001 as a sideboard option against removal cards your opponent would play against your characters.

Noodles’ Hatred148 NEORAR148 NoodlesHatred0001Noodles’ Hatred is the most devastating card against the Gangster deck and the options it provides the opponent against a Gangster player are limitless. The main ability of the card completely removes all effect cards from the playing field so any abilities provided by the main Gangster support are completely gone. This would leave the Gangster deck with only characters with One or Two Combat and very open to attack. The ability for Noodles’ Hatred to search out another effect card in the player’s deck can provide the opponent with another Noodles' Hatred to remove the effect cards again or with a removal card to further disrupt the Gangster deck strategy. Several decks such as Mercenary decks run Noodles’ Hatred main deck and are a bad matchup for Gangster decks.

Bubs Maclain171 NEOCOV171 BubsMaclain0001 – This card is the overlord of the Insane Faction and by being so makes Insane decks extremely potent against Gangster decks. The ability of Bubs Maclain to buff ALL Insane characters by +2 Combat makes several of their cards strong enough to handle your main Gangsters even when buffed. Additionally, the card has an extremely powerful activated ability that allows the player to take control of any effect card in play. When this ability is used on Status Effect cards it allows the opposing player to choose a new target for your Status Effect cards! Bubs Maclain can turn your own weapons against you and is a great option when sideboarding against several effect based decks.

Queen Arcanist Lizzy050 NEORAR050 QueenArcanistLizzy0001 – Descendant Decks have the great option of playing Queen Arcanist Lizzy. This card provides the player with two additional cards in their hand after they play it. Also, it allows all the character cards that have in play to be used as buffs to block your characters. Lastly and most deadly is her activated ability to slay characters with the Designator of Gangster. This ability makes all of your Gangster cards vulnerable that do not have a High Priestess024 NEOSTB024 TheHighPriestess0001 attached to them for protection. Along with the ability to remove any of your Gangster cards it provides the two cards to the opponent allowing them to draw into other cards on this list.

Drakkonen Breaker/ElectroDark StormDrakkonen Breaker120 NEOSTSB120 DrakkonenBreaker0001 is an Epic Character that comes into play with a +1 Combat Counter on it that when removed can slay any effect card in play. This ability is virtually free to the player that plays the Drakkonen Breaker and based on their strategy is a great sideboard option against a Gangster deck. If the deck is more effect heavy or relies on character slots for other strategies the ElectroDark Storm119 NEOSTB119 ElectroDarkStorm0001 Pitfall Effect card has the same ability to remove an effect card free of cost.


Gangsters from Another Dimension! (Beatdown)

Special Agent Jazz

This variant of the Gangster deck focuses on playing the Gangster support cards that put other Status Effect cards into play from either the deck or Void. The three main components of this variant of the Gangster deck are Rock The Bloodstained201 NEOSTB201 RockTheBloodstained0001, Von Rapture the Savior109 NEOSTB109 VonRaptureTheSavior0001, and Special Agent Jazz145 NEORAR145 SpecialAgentJazz0001. Powerful status effects will need to be used for either a full beat down strategy such The Lovers103 NEOSTB103 TheLovers0001 or High Priestess024 NEOSTB024 TheHighPriestess0001. Gangsters From Another Dimension also benefits from the use of cheaper Status Effect cards for removal such as The Hanged Man131 NEOSTB131 TheHangedMan0001 and The Fool110 NEOSTB110 TheFool0001. This Gangster deck variant also allows the option of running some of the more powerful gangster cards such as Subject Zero002 NEORAR002 SubjectZero0001 and Mantra Agent 999099 NEORAR099 MantraAgent9990001. If you ever get a bad matchup you can always sideboard into your deck the proper "Darkness” Status Effect and be completely immune to a pesky character card's abilities along with some extra removal for your deck.


Executor’s Orders (Utility)


This deck focuses on playing and protecting the two Gangster cards that focus on clearing the playing field: Vega164 NEOSTB164 Vega0001 and Executor Williams096 NEORAR096 ExecutorWilliams0001. These cards are both Unstoppable given the proper conditions and also each have an ability that can remove your opponent’s characters all at once. With the Universal Card Game being a character based game, this deck can cause havoc to players not ready to handle it. With proper use of the Gangster Flip cards such as Techna the Virus087 NEOUNS087 TechnaTheVirus CyberYatagan0001 and Romantic Bandits170 NEOUNS170 RomanticBandits SamsonBloodscourge0001 you can protect the Vega or the Executor from your opponent’s cards in addition to dealing more damage with the flip card abilities. Where the Gangsters from Another Dimension deck focuses on searching the deck for Status Effect cards. The Executor’s Orders deck is a more “traditional” deck where characters are played that work together to form the overall strategy. Status Effect cards are used to get damage through with either Vega or Executor Williams to use their board clearing abilities rather than rush the field for high amounts of damage.

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