In reviewing this deck, I am assuming that the reader is familiar with the basics of how Blue Moon is played. I will attempt to give an idea of what it is like to play with this deck, its strengths and weaknesses, and what makes it different than other decks.

Artwork:

The Buka are Asiatic-looking pirates, drawn in a slightly cartoonish manner. The backgrounds are generally pleasant blues, greens, and purples, with characters in exotic looking Eastern armour or costumes. The artwork is good, ranking somewhere in the middle of the nine decks.

Play:

The Buka are an interesting deck to play, with quite a range of possible ways of using the cards compared to other decks. When playing them, you may not be able to bring all of their possibilities to bear, but their potential is quite powerful. Playing against them, there can be quite a bit of tension.

The main features of this deck are bluffing and ships. To bluff you place a card with a bluff icon in the support area, during the support phase, face down, and it is worth 2 in the contested element. Your opponent may choose to accept the played card, or call your bluff. Whether it is legitimate or not depends on the icon, on the card. Almost all of the character cards have a bluff icon on them (a question mark) and most of them are white, while some are the colour of earth or fire. If the card you are bluffing with has the same colour icon as the contested element, then if your opponent calls your bluff, you immediately attract a dragon, and the fight continues with the bluff card now in the discard pile. If you are actually bluffing, then your opponent immediately attracts a dragon, and you are forced to retreat, with your opponent attracting whatever dragons due to him becuase of the retreat.

Ships are played to the left of the board during the Leadership phase. During your support phase, they can be loaded with a character, booster, or support card. The entire contents of the ship can then be landed during the beginning of your turn, delivering a heavy hit.

These two mechanics give a very different feel to the Buka, whether you are playing them or playing against them. Managing your ships, and planning your bluffs make this a very interesting deck to play.

What follows is a description of the cards found in this deck:

"Master" Character cards: As you might expect on a ship, the characters are grouped in ranks (they can also be grouped as families for deck-building purposes). Two of these cards have fairly high values by Buka standards (4/2, 3/4), and the other two have very powerful text. Quartermaster Kura Ko allows you to play any number of support cards, which can really help you load a ship to the gunwhales whithout having to load one at a time in your support phase. Powdermaster Yina Ko increases your bluff cards to 4.

Cannoneer Character Cards: These six cards have all of the fire/earth bluff icons, and all have earth values of 4, with fire values ranging from 0-2. Losing a bluff can be costly, so saving these cards for bluffs is good idea when possible. They have no special power text.

Brotherhood of Pirates Cards: These five cards all have values of 3/3, and all have special power text, which allows them to be played as if they had the free icon if the described conditions are met. Some of the conditions tend to be race specific, like having two or more active character, or booster cards, or cards with icons, while the other two are more general: six or more cards in your opponent's combat and support area, or two or more support cards. The middle scores also make them useful as battle starters, or for loading on ships if you know that there special power text will not be relevant.

Commodores and Captains Cards: The two Commodore cards have the most powerful values (5/4, 4/5) with no special power text and no bluff icon. The Captain cards are also high value (4/4, 4/3), one of which has a retrieve icon and the other a bluff icon.

Other character cards: The remaining three character cards are of low value, but have powerful special text. Lookout Dolora Paal (1/1) allows you to discard all of your opponent's active booster or support cards. This one can be very handy if the score is brought down to zero. Boatswain Mena Marn prevents your opponent from having more than one character card at the end of his turn. Coxswain Mora Marn is especially powerful if launched from a ship, as it allows you to discards all cards, except active protected cards, from your opponent's combat area. If at all possible this card should be placed on a ship.

Boosters: The Buka only have one booster card (2/2), which has a free icon, and special power text which prohibits your opponent from calling your bluff. This is an extremely powerful card, as it allows you a foolproof bluff for one turn.

Support: There are only two support cards. Armory (1/1) allows you to play an additional support card, which is useful for loading ships. Duplicator of Fire doubles the fire value of one of your character cards.

Influence: These are the three ships, which can carry 2, 3, or 4 cards, and be landed with their contents played. The Sea Falcon only has a capacity of 2, but you can also play cards from your hand when it is landed (character cards landed from a ship are considered as having the free icon, so you can play a character card on this ship from your hand). The Sea Devil, with a capacity of three, allows you to immediately load it with three cards from your hand. This is a great card to get early in the game. The Rising Sun has a capacity of four.

Leadership: The Buka only have one leadership card, which allows you to search through your draw deck and play either an influence card, or a character/booster/support card on an existing ship. A very good card to have early if all your ships seem to be near the bottom of the draw pile.

Mutant: The mutant only has values of 2/2, and can be played if you have no cards in your influence area.

Strategy/Tactics:

Loaded ships are extremely valuable for success with the Buka. You only have one leadership card in this deck, so getting the ships on the table is not difficult. Loading them, however, can be a chore, so whenever you get a chance to play extra support cards, maximize the chance. The Sea Devil is especially good to have because you can fully load it immediately and draw a whole hand full of new cards, so when you play the leadership card, that is a good ship to get.

The Sea Falcon is also very powerful as you can play cards from your hand, which allows you to add some special power text from your hand. The Rising Sun, if you can get it loaded up to capacity, can deliver a deadly punch.

In general a fully loaded ship will always prove vital, even if it is not loaded with high valued cards. It keeps you in the game and gets you up to six cards very quickly, so don't be overly picky about loading your ships, just get them on the board and loaded.

The Buka may often run out cards before other decks because of loading ships, so your end game can be greatly helped by having a ship near the end to pound your opponent, and prevent them from winning dragons through attrition.

If your ships are all buried in the bottom of the draw deck, you will definitely have a tough go of it.

Bluffing is very interesting. It boosts your score when you need it, and if you have the correct icon, you're in a good position because the worst that can happen is that you will lose your two points and gain a dragon if your bluff is called. You can take it a step further and make it look like your legitimate bluff is a real bluff to force your opponent to call your bluff. That may make them hesitant about calling your bluffs in the future.

When using an earth bluff icon, you are giving up an earth value of four for two, but gaining a support card. When using the fire bluff icon, you are getting at least as much fire value from your support card as you would if you played it as a fire value character card.

If you don't have the correct icon, you will be losing at least two dragons if your bluff is called. It is definitely worth the risk if you are in a do-or-die situation. Also, you can remove your bluff cards at the beginning of your turn if you don't want your bluff out there for longer than a turn, or if the element has changed because of a mutant.

Calling the bluff is worthwhile more often than not, you may lose a dragon, but you also lower your opponent's score, and that can keep you in a big fight where two dragons are at stake, giving you a one dragon gain if you eventually win. Moreover, it keeps your opponent on her toes about how she bluffs.

Conclusion:

This is a more technical deck in that you have to manage loading your ships, bluffing, as well as the usual play. I like this deck quite a bit for those reasons. This is an interesting deck because it has more options.

I give it an 8.