After the release of justice league, I used to play around with a unique turn 8 infinite loop build around Dr. Fate, Kent Nelson and his interaction with Dracula, Vlad Dracula.
As a simple 2 card infinite loop it allowed a dracula to evade while invulnerable and use his effect to self-recover. Now since he stunned himself (by his own effect), his effect would trigger, asking you to either pay 5 endurance or allow him to recover. Of course... we are ALWAYS going to say yes to this.
On its own the loop is fruitless, until we can cash in on all the stunning and recovering we are doing.
Enter ratcatcher.
We suddenly have a 3 card combo giving us an infinite number of 1 damage plinks. In the world of infinite loops, that is HELLA easy to work with.
Badda Big Boom. Badda Boom. Badda BIG badda... Ok, I'm really trying to bring home the 5th element quote here.
The problem? At the time access to the hidden area was a constant problem as the top performing builds of the time were mid game rushes like good guys annihilating poor understatted Dracula.
Even so, it got it's fair share of wins. I eventually shelved it and moved on, forgetting it to the dusts of time.
But recently some comments by Michael James reminded me of this old beastie and I realized it has some pretty serious update potential in the guise of a few cards that came after. So lets have a bit of fun and update this bad boy.
PHASE 1- Building the core:
So I'm thinking "gee wouldn't it be just swell if I could consistently double conjure Dr. Fate on 6 and just go infinite THEN?" Which is just a delicious thought of course... However, that calls for at least 30 endurance on turn 6 and that's not exactly something you can bank on without a build that is pretty dedicated to lifegain. Secondly, we need to be able to search out our win condition cards.
(Speaking of win condition, we're dropping ratcatcher for Johnny Blaze since he gives us more flexibility on the setup for the kill with substitute.)
So off hand there are certainly a few decent combo life-gain builds so lets try the first one that comes to mind.
Heralds aren't a bad starting point at all as they bring everything we're looking for into this build. good defensive tricks, a virtual plethora of lifegain options, and their primary searcher, can be co-opted to a universal search if you are willing to splash a galactus or two. Very handy for landing that second Conjuration on 6! Add in the silver surfer 2 drop and his busted board and I think the utility gets turned to 11.
Behind Heralds is some interesting willpower-esque approaches (GLEE stall) and to a lesser extent some life gain in Shadowpact itself, but I think the heralds are feeling pretty good.
Phase 2 - To team-up or not to team-up:
Dracula is Underworld. And underworld, while it DOES have a few neat tricks for lifegain and manipulating the top cards of your deck, it doesn't really do any of it better than heralds. Luckilly the Herald Ordeal is also a decent clutch piece of lifegain so even though I don't think a team-up approach when building our roster is really needed, it's there in a pinch. It's worth saying that since Dr. Fate is our endgame, we likely won't bother running any other Shadowpact here.
Phase 3 - Planning the optimal curve
So by now we should have a pretty good vision of how we want things to play out in an ideal scenario:
1- galan
2- surfer
3- air walker/frankie depending on matchup
4- Human torch
5- dracula
6- double conjured Dr. Fate, substituted, Johnny Blaze over Torch. Win.
As great as it can be to "live the dream" the best decks do the math first. Questions like
"what will just WRECK this build?"
"How much draw can I safely include without losing efficiency?"
"Can I fit the tech cards needed for the bad matchups? Does it need them at all?"
Considering what we want to do, I am opting to only run 4 copies of silver surfer at 2, but ill be throwing in, 4 copies of kindred spirits to offset the fairly glaring hole in my curve. There is no situation where I will want any other play on turn 2, so im going to stick to my guns here and see how it pans out. We've essentially just finalized our mulligan condition.
Phase 4 - The test run
Now often, players have a good idea and immediately bench it when their alpha deck design falls flat into the power matchups of their area, but it is hugely important to take things slow. First thing is first! Will the deck even work alone?You can always tweak for that matchup into Bosom buddies or Black bamboo later.
After testing i realized i was really thin on some lifegain options. traditionally my Heralds builds leaned heavilly into Worldeater Apparatus, but mid to late game, I can't consistently afford the exhausts, so cutting the amount to 2 allowed me to splash I hunger for some pretty serious gains on a key turn, and an additional pump to synergize with Human Torch's lifegain and keep that turn 6 relevant.
Phase 5 - Tweak Tweak Tweak
After a few test runs I have a feel for where the deck is weak and where it is strong. I added some fun utility with alias investigations with Silver Surfer to accentuate the Elemental Converter draw and the build shows some consistency. But as in all things, time is the great judge, while this incarnation may not be finalized, it certainly feels good enough to formally play into a more diverse local meta.
So namely, it's a standard life-gaining Heralds toolbox, Which is AWESOME since sometimes players may play a bit softer early game assuming they have until turn 8 to bring it home.
Which works just fine for us.
So a Galan on turn 1 is pretty sweet. in a standard game if you see him on 1, he'll net you around 4-6 endurance as a minimum and that doesn't suck at all.
On 2, Silver surfer is our mvp any day of the week. we want him and we want him bad. With that crazy surfboard. Between having 2 tech upgrades and 2 silver surfer's board we stand fairly likely to see a surfboard by 3. His first search is typically one of our two drawing locations.
On 3 it's up in the air, Frankie grants you cards while the surfboard keeps her cosmic active, or you can get started on manipulating their combats with Air-Walker. generally, his statline alone justifies being the primary drop.
Going into 4 your only target is Human Torch. since Johnny Blaze is never played before your kill turn. But it's typically a consistent play thanks to our surfing pimp and Alias Investigations. An offensive turn 4 wants as much breakthrough as possible for that delicious endurance we're going to need. surfer and our freshly online locations can grab a beatdown here. Use it!
On 5 its Dracula. This is the turn your opponent goes... wait WHAT? Typically paired with a comment on how Red Shift is so much better, or lamenting Drac's just... bad statline and mediocre effect. Thats fine. pretend you wiffed into a secondary drop you forgot to change or something. Hell, act fully surprised he's even in there. Good thing you have this random team-up at least! gain a few endurance while your at it.discarding one of those 3 extra Silver Surfers in your hand. (they ALWAYS clump for me!) by now if i dont already have fate in my hand with johnny, i'll take steps to set it up.
Turn 6. You did it. If you only have drawn into 1 conjuration, I typically have the ability to pop a creation of a herald to get one. blow up 30 endurance, recruit dr fate adjacent to dracula, substitute johnny, backup effect your dracula and evade forever, burning them for 5 every time he stuns.
DON'T FORGET!!!! You need SRA Face up to meet Fate's Loyalty Requirement!
But what if it doesn't work?
Well that's the best part of a good toolbox like this. it often can get you to turn 8 without conjuring any shortcuts (see what I did there?) If you can't make your play on 6, just underdrop and move on. it may be worth it to have a Terrax 6 or something just to keep your presence up, but that's up to you! We run 7 drop Galactus as well, so don't forget it's a perfectly acceptable play in case you can't afford even a single conjuration on turn 7. If you do manage to survive until 8 after that,,, well you win anyway.
Just don't panic when you can't live the dream and enjoy the games when you can! As usual, I encourage you guys to make your own changes and really make this your own! have some fun with it!
VS System has had a very storied history, and since its inception
players have clamored to know what cards are the ones to look for. Well
not today. Today I give you the 10 WORST cards ever printed for VS
System.
Now to try to make this list a bit more concrete, I used a rating
system based around scores in several categories. Each of 9 categories
could score as low as -5 or as high as +5 depending on relevance. while
certain static components were counted in single point increments.
(flight and range are each worth 1 point, for example)
Even keywords were rated, some going as low as -2 (Dual Loyalty) and others as high as +2 (Evasion). Remember, every card is playable, guys. But this list certainly will point out some of the suckiest ones to see ink.
For reference, using my chart, my hypothetical WORST POSSIBLE card ever printed (that technically has a function) would score in at a -50 and would look something like this, and of course... it's of Robin:
I left Marvel as the logo because, who cares about Dick.
See, from the difficulty to play (exactly 10 endurance on a dual loyal character? Only having cosmic if its an insanity build?) the Menial statline for its drop, use-ability in draft, the associated teams and it's ideal support options. (Escrima sticks in play?) it pretty much scores -5's across the board, has all the worst keywords available and no flight or range. I give you king hypothetical shit-piece.
Hopefully that gives you a bit of insight into my methods. Keep in mind a card with a score of "0" would be considered perfectly mediocre as well. (see: not necessarily BAD) And several "bad" cards wound up on that list. (often due to reasonably decent draft scoring). While the great cards were consistently scoring at +20 and up.
But before the main course, the Honorable Mentions:
Escrima Sticks
Easily weighing in as the worst 1 cost equipment in the game, It only missed the top ten cut due to its ACTUAL play-ability in draft.
J. Jonah Jameson
VS was originally a best-of-three format. If you were skilled enough to end the game with JJJ still face-up, your odds skyrocketed. When the best-of-3 was eliminated outside of finals, his utility went to virtually 0. However, as a 1/1 unaffiliated with essentially no text, he isn't the worst.
Now let's countdown the 10 that made the cut, My list, of the worst cards in VS.
#10
52
Scoring in at -13 points The hopeful in you will argue its utility when it comes to negating equipment recruits. well argue on. At threshold 5 it is never going to do anything meaningful for you aside from a gem recruit, or perhaps a fate helm. I truly feel this card's threshold was misprinted on release and never corrected.
#9
Happiness Home
Barely squeaking below 52, Happiness Home went to print a bit too thematic, as nobody in their right mind wanted to KO that much of their stuff for a sub-theme Darkseid's Elite has faltered in supporting from the start.
#8
Deathstroke the Terminator
A lot of you were probably looking for him and here he is at 8, controlling two unaffiliated characters as a prerequisite to play him, murders his draft viability and is what pushed him far enough down to make the list.
#7
S.T.A.R. Labs
Three resource points for a cosmic counter? Still one resource point on team superman? This card was actually printed AFTER we already saw Mother Box. Most of the time you want to replenish a cosmic isn't during the recruit phase anyway. #feelsbadman
#6
Dangerous Experiment
Technically useful, but horrifyingly overcosted both in threshold and penalty. Dangerous experiment did find an extremely niche home in a few blind justice jank builds, but it remains to be pretty bad at it's job, granting sometimes horrifying endurance spike damage.
#5
Mekanix
I personally feel this card is too low on the list. I HATE this card. However, technically it has a use, and early thresholds allow it early game playability, bad as it may be. A perfect -5 score in draft performance is rare, but Mekanix scored it like a champ.
#4
Doom Triumphant
A perfect example of a win-more card. Utterly useless if you are behind, and argueably just as pointless while ahead, Doom triumphant's payoff is seldom worth it, as often, you'll do more damage simply swinging instead of exhausting.
#3
Light Brigade
Haha! You guys forgot about the constructs didn't you? While some were technically useful, it was the fact you still took stun damage that turned most players away from these temporary-at best options. What a horrible topdeck! Who decided they had to be unaffiliated anyway? HORRIBLE.
#2
Decimation
KO everything you have, and then you can KO one thing your opponent controls! This only could be workable in any stretch if you did it before your build. NOPE. Combat phase only.
Only Cable/exiles RFP shenanigans or similar can sort-of survive its use, and even then, why aren't you playing... ANYTHING else? It drafts just as badly as in constructed. Gamma bomb was still legal in modern when this existed... so yeah... color me confused.
#1
Dr. Tzin-Tzin
At -26 points, many of you saw this coming a mile away. Even a standard 4 drop would only need +1 ATK to just swing over him using this effect. Of course, pre-readied to take out your 3 drop next. No team theme helps him take any advantage of it, and he will often stun from standard 3 drops anyway. He remains to be a shining example of bad cards. Hail to the king!
And there we have it. Think I missed one? Curious what my rating system was? Let me know!
This week it was Robert Snyder that piqued my interest with his take on an "Infinite Brick" based around the interaction of Washout, X-Men Assemble and having him teamed up to X-Men.
Even though he gave me a list to tweak, (and I'm sure it is pretty good) Instead of tweaking or troubleshooting his build. I'm going to run away with it instead, lets go for full-on combat IMMORTALITY.
How, you ask?
Literally the original king pimp.
So what we have here is a potential set-up for an infinitely recovering Washout next to an unstunnable kingpin. All we need is a face-up X-Men Assemble and a way for Washout to become an X-Man adjacent to the King. Off the top of my head, we could use Forced Conscription and enable it with a full suite of lowbie X-Men characters. Beyond that, team affiliation just doesn't matter in this build. Instead we need to make Kingpin huge. And considering our entire game-plan is to milk immortality...
...YUP.
We need to take the pressure off of hitting X-Men Assemble. Survival will fit Amazingly while bumping up to 8 counter-generating resources helping us inflate those that stick around. And in fact, will take precedence in this build, since the Kingpin will never benefit from Assemble anyway, and Washout only needs one to stick around indefinately. As a side, Washouts synergy with Iron Man, Mighty Avenger nears the realm of absurd if you assume an opponent can't make him shed all his counters, he will always double up at the end of the turn. (iron man can trigger more than once!)
At this point, I ran a search on all characters that are involved with recovery to flesh out the curve. The preliminary list looks like this:
The Immortal Pimp-Slamp
Locations
1 [MHG] Soul World
1 [MOR] Avalon Space Station
1 [DJL] Slaughter Swamp
4 [DCR] Deadshot - Dead Aim
4 [MAA] Bishop, Age of Apocalypse
4 [MEV] Washout - John Lopez
4 [MUN] Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
4 [MEX] Kingpin, Overboss
1 [EHB] Johann Kraus - Free Spirit
4 [DCR] Scandal - Savage Spawn
1 [DCL] Nyssa Raatko, Maiden of Death
Plot Twists
4 [MAA] X-Men Assemble!, Age of Apocalypse {MAA}
4 [MAA] Survival of the Fittest, Age of Apocalypse {MAA}
4 [DCL] Straight to the Grave {DCL}
4 [MXM] Enemy Of My Enemy {MXM}
4 [MSM] Forced Allegiance {MSM}
3 [MOR] Press The Attack
So the notable interactions are: SttG deadshot on 3+ to get access to deadshot through his effect. this sets up your Scandal Ongoing search to land the team-up and other ongoings the deck needs to sustain through the midgame.
At 6 our go-to is right outta the Hellboy set, Johann kraus. Not many people realize that his effect can continuously target himself, making him essentially unkillable without a KO effect applied. While, on 7, Nyssa also can remain as yet another wall of immediate recovery, at the cost of killing off those little hidden X-men characters we started with. I keep these drops as 1-ofs since the 8 pieces of search do well to ensure we'll see them
Honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut.
Kick - yeah that MEV equip nobody played since it KO'd the equipped character on a stun? Well when you are immortal a free +4 ATK with no negative downside can be pretty damn good at turning kingpin into a monster perpetually swinging up the curve. Unfortunately, press the attack tends to get more work done. But feel free to experiment and test for yourself.
Pathetic Attempt/BPRD Signal Device - With such a glaring weakness into KO abilities, you'd expect to try to cover it more. In fav3or of keeping it tabletop level, I ultimately chose to leave it. The build can easily underdrop and dig into the KO pile to replay lost characters while still ramping up the curve with those hidden characters and kingpin. Feel free to toss a few in if you really want to cover your bad matchups. The ceiling on this build is quite high if you min/max it well.
Cable, dayspring and Deadpool, interminable terminator - with access to invulnerability and yet another auto-recovering character, there is a lot of temptation to turn this build into a Bosom Buddies variant. Unfortunately the card space is really, REALLY hard to justify. This is supposed to be a washout/kingpin build at this point, but they were worth mentioning. Cable could actually be directly swapped for Iron Man if you prefer the idea of an invulnerable washout wall.
Keep in mind.
This is a preliminary list built around a very cool premise. As a weekly article not every build is going to be min-maxxed perfectly in 7 days. But feel free to make your own adjustments and toss them my way! Also, keep those deck ideas coming! I'll See you next week!
"So my Barbara Gordon attacks your Wolverine with a flying kick for a mutual stun."
Wait... WHAT!?! Did she throw her wheelchair or something?
It can be easy to forget some of the absurdity that applies when it comes to the myriad of interactions in our love-able card games, and VS is no exception, the thought of a wheelchair-striken supporter dishing out savage beatdowns, flying kicks and megablasts can leave some funny moments if you stop and think about them. And I'm not even going to get started on Man Thing.
But this week i wanted to look at a different angle, A deck can be built for synergy, combo, utility, but many, MANY casual players have begun to crave theme builds. Obviously this can be different things for different people.
For example, myself, when it comes to my casual decks, I like sticking to team options in many of my builds even if a non-team option can prove to be superior.
Whether it is sticking to teams, companies, lore, or otherwise, thematic building has affected every one of our approaches when building a deck. Even if all we are doing is trying to stay "pure" to what a build is supposed to DO.
This weekend's deck doctor certainly falls in line with this.
John Chapman asks: Between Mandarin and the 10 rings, why has nobody ever made a good Mandarin deck? Help! Make him actually USE the ten rings and not lose every game! P.S. no MEV please!
It just HAS to be hot as hell there right now.
Well, in the past I have made draw-centric builds to focus on Mandarin's stun effect, But it's pretty safe to say I've never once used ten rings in any build... ever.
Lets walk through our options to start.
First off, we are going to start with 4 mandarins and obviously, 10x ten rings, now lets try the path of least resistance and take a look at Crime Lords options. Do we see anything there that can either cater to drawing cards or supporting equipment?
Well, at a glance I see:
Notable equips: Armed Escort Death Warrant
Notable cards for Crime Lords Master Man loads of army characters and support wolverine direct kit is present here
Team up options: Hail Hydra for forced crime lords affiliation the rose into made men. (although Made Men only affects characters in play)
As attractive as turning this into a Wolvie direct build might be, it also means I have conflicting drops at 3. And our go-to 3 drop MUST remain to be Mandarin, so unfortunately that's going to be a pass. armed escort could certainly be an option if we toss in some abilities that could allow for some double equip shenanigans as well. Same goes for Death warrant, but unless Mandarin rallies into it. it can sometimes feel like a dead draw. Especially considering we will also be drawing into 10 rings fairly regularly.
let's take a look at sources we can tap to double equip instead:
Interesting, both character options are Marvel Knights. The often abused pier 4 will require fan 4, and an often overlooked Weapons Lab will need BPRD. Of the potential teams both marvel Knigts and fantastic Four have some very solid equipment support. While a team-up with BPRD may force tings a bit too much.
Now lastly, lets look at our other non Fan 4 or MK equipment options before we try to make this pile coherent.
Fate Artifacts And tower Man and Machine Hank Pym<>Giant Man, Big Brain Dr. fate, hector Hall (HOLY SHITBALLS)
I DARE you to try not to sing "I wanna Rock" while playing him.
Alright so we may have just found our win condition with Dr. Fate, granting a hypothetical +13 ATK across your board if you can set him up and manage to live the dream. This however, assumes getting him the core ability to have 2 equipment attached to him. (equip a fate artifact, THEN equip a 10 rings. The equipment's effect will allow you to go beyond 2! this also works when using fate's tower to transfer the equipment since its effect is always moving one at a time)
So now we sort-of have a bit of a problem where thematically we need mandarin and his 10 rings but crossing over Crime Lords, marvel knights and fantastic 4 AND shadowpack just isn't viable, and without a team-up, we are more likely to rally dr. fate straight to the bottom of the deck than we are to see him on 6 with any consistency. That leaves our universal team-ups. Superhuman Registration Act, and Underground Movement, with our consistent rallying, taking iron Man's side of Civil War will cater to setting up favorable mandarin rallies as we can mow through the deck faster. While Underground Movement will allow us to stack the hidden area with potential attackers on our kill turn. For this build, we're going to try SRA.
Next lets really push the equipment theme, so Dr. Fate's Tower and New Baxter building is in.
Black Panther allows our fate endgame turn to really push the upper limits of his effect so he is in for sure as well.
I really struggled trying to decide between Dr. Strange, secret avenger and the original equipment king, Mr, fantastic. While strange could hypothetically offer a bigger payday, the consistency of Mr Fan won the day, and strange became my alternate drop at 2 copies.
For turn 3 Mandarin is king. this also allows us to under-drop a missed mr fan or a doc strange if we miss him and not feel too badly about it.
at 4 it's all about punisher, this is the turn i will typically fate him up. If i managed to hold back on equipping anything up to now, he gets both the fartifacts AND the rings. This deck is all about taking the even initiatives and a flying untargetable auto-koing 4 drop that thinks it is a 6 or 7 drop is certainly useful.
for turn 5 the clincher was Steel's ability to fetch not just equipment in the deck, but the KO pile as well. Making him an auto-include.
Turn 6. our endgame we want dr fate entering play, then using the tower to load him up with all the Punisher's toys allowing for a pretty insane board-wide attack pump. In testing I was consistently seeing at least +8ATK across the board. I don't need to tell you how ridiculous that is.
For our off-initiative 6 or later, I splashed a single copy of Mr, fantastic, Dimensional Explorer. He single-handedly brings Mandarin online for an off-initiative stun on your defensive turn since he enters play and draws you the better part of 10 cards on a standard game anyway. Sometimes, he'll net me even more. Allowing us to live both halves ofthe Mandarin dream, getting that stun, AND getting huge from the rings.
I'll let the list do he rest of the speaking for itself. Without further delay, I humbly present to you,
Mandarin KO
Locations
3 [DCR] Dr. Fate’s Tower
3 [MTU] New Baxter Building
Characters
4 [MEQ] Black Panther, Vibranium Vogue
4 [MOR] Mr. Fantastic-Reed Richards
2 [MUN] Dr. Strange, Secret Avenger
4 [MUN] Mandarin, Tem Borjigen
4 [MVL] Punisher, Guns Blazing
4 [DJL] John Henry Irons <> Steel, Steel-Drivin' Man
2 [DCR] Dr. Fate - Hector Hall
1 [MVL] Mr. Fantastic, Dimensional Explorer
Equipment
10 [MEQ] The Ten Rings
3 [DCR] Helm Of Nabu - Fate Artifact
2 [DCR] Cloak Of Nabu - Fate Artifact
2 [DCR] Amulet Of Nabu - Fate Artifact
Are you wondering who didn't make it?
The runners-up
Ape X - a solid 1 drop that gets us on the right foot, she was cut in favor of repeatable card advantage cards like New Baxter.
Blue Beetle - another solid opener, however his discards became a higher and higher price as i was reluctant to drop equipment cards to his search. in testing i found i was only using his effect once or twice anyway.
The Captain - a fantastic combo piece, the deck was unable to actually make space for the pieces that would really push him to the next level. competing for the 4 drop slot against Punisher made it an always sub-optimal play.
Losing the Argument - with the SRA a staple in this build and access to dr. strange's multiple rallies, the interactions with Losing the argument feel pretty synergistic, unfortunately space just wasn't there as Mr. Fantastic is absolutely our favored 2 drop to hit. Too often we had Losing in hand and no Doc Strange available to maximize its use, or worse yet, we did have the doc, but missed the ideal time to play him.
All equipment search - getting the equipment isn't the hard part. the hard part is managing the discards fuelling the build. between teamwork, mobilize and helm of nabu, your hand can get very limited when it comes time to pick discard options. To help with this i filled the final two open spaces with Invasion Plans.
Jerry's Final Thoughts:
This list won't dominate a meta, and of course, for those of you looking to try it, you would do well covering some bases. For example, if your group is very active running Jester, meltdown and other pieces of equipment hate, you may want to consider dropping Invasion Plans for some Pathetic Attempts or tweaking the build a bit. As a rule though, I wouldn't try to remove more than the 2 invasion plans and an amulet and cloak. The build IS stacked pretty tight, after all. Try it out! Let me know what you all think!
This week's article comes a tad late, since I am a Star Trek fan spending waaay too much time on Star Trek Online on the PS4, but this week I thought I'd unshelf another abusive card interaction that just never had a real chance to shine. Hell just finding a semi-legible image for it required me to dig into Lackey's card library.
The Definition of a win-MORE condition.
Well holy shit that's one helluva return for such an already amazing effect. If you deck out your opponent, you already have a pretty substantial advantage... still, players piled into the mill bandwagon trying to get it to go off... ever.
*******However, before I can continue, a disclaimer*******
MEV's Runaways make this too damn easy. If you really want to combine them, you won't need my help. Nico should never have existed and is a dirty, dirty girl. Therefore, we will avoid MEV for this weeks article. Runaways have a perfectly fine alt win condition for ending the game anyway.
**************
So let's say we have a solid mill consistently emptying your opponent's deck by turn 5 or so. And now your entire deck is in your hand. Now what? we need something that can abuse this or else there isn't much point is there? Let me introduce you to our 5+ drop.
Wait he isn't... OOOH.
Mill them out by turn 6 and you have around 30 cards left in your deck? Well Zodiac just became a 33/32 wall for the turn. Since we rely so much on the entire deck going to the hand, we are only going to need a single copy of Blindsided as well. However, Zodiac tends to be the defensive play. What we REALLY want is a guy with A spammable discard effect to take advantage of our gigantic hand.
Pictured: NOT talking to whales.
So now it looks like we have a good plan for our endgame options. Now, how are we going to get there? Since it's a mill involving multiple teams, we'll toss 4x Funky's big rat code into the mix and 4x manhunter clones since they both mill AND let us team-up Secret Society and Manhunters. We will forgo Hypnotic charms because, well, you'll see. Let's skip ahead to a working list and I'll just explain it.
Fish-Slap
Locations
1 [DJL] UN Building, Team-Up
1 [MMK] Infernal Gateway
1 [DWF] City of Tomorrow, Team-Up
1 [DLS] 31st Century Metropolis - Team-Up
Characters
4 [DJL] Manhunter Clone, Clone of Paul Kirk
4 [MMK] Orb-Drake Shannon
4 [DJL] Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
4 [DCR] Deadshot - Dead Aim
2 [DJL] The Wizard, William Zard
1 [MMK] Zodiak-Norman Harrison
2 [DGL] Manhunter Giant, Army
1 [MMK] Mephisto-Soulstealer
1 [DJL] Ocean Master, Son of Atlan
2 [DCR] Scandal - Savage Spawn
Plot Twists
4 [DJL] Funky's Big Rat Code, Team-Up
3 [DGL] The Fall of Oa
3 [MMK] Gravesite
1 [MOR] Blind Sided
2 [DGL] Plans Within Plans
3 [MMK] Strength of the Grave
4 [MOR] Cover Fire
4 [DCL] Secret Files
So our primary teams are Underworld, Secret Society, Injustice Gang and Manhunters. Secret 6 and Squad are technically there but we just don't really care as your goals are to get those crazy kids teamed up. Now in this build we avoid the Hypnotic charms because of Strength of the Grave. Once set-up, we plan to make sure we can keep adding piles of counters every turn. so essentially the breakdown goes like this:
People sometimes see Orb and think: BAMBOO. And try to focus him dead. that's fine. Here, all he really is, is a hidden utility 1 drop that interacts well with getting Deadshot into the KO pile and that's about it. He's also an easy choice for a consistent exhaust for fall of oa.
Manhunter clone is the workhorse of the deck, early game you ant as many of them as possible in play (he is passively non-unique) evading for a fast card-by-card milling basis Until Fall of Oa goes up when each clone suddenly starts milling 2 cards a turn.
Lex gives us our control going into midgame, with access to Orb, Deadshot and 1 or two clones, a cover fire will give anywhere from +4 to a visible turn 3 lex. or +6 if you used orb to drop a deadshot and then used lex to bring him out on 3 while protecting a clone.
Turn 4 tends to be the Poison Ivy/underdrop more clones turn. Pop deadshot with her for a fast UN building and get your four teams crossed over. I can't say this enough though... NEVER have he pop a clone. Make her KO herself if you must. Seriously.
Turn 5 is the giant. and some great utility with Deadshot. activate deadshot to mill, ko him to giant to mill 2 more, exhaist lex to bring hinm back and do it again, then exhaust giant and do it a third time for a self-contained 9 card mill. afterwards, if he Ko's lex and himself, thats 17 cards and we haven't used the manhhunter clones yet! In general the rule here is, if you can mill them completely and leave either the giant OR Lex intact, you will be able to survive the turn with your ridiculous amount of defensive pumps in your now humungous hand.
On turn 6, Ocean Master discards all but essential defense cards and three random cards (this is important!) to pile up some counters and attacks, playing strength of the grave to put all crossed over underworld characters into the deck (now you see it!) then orb activates fall of oa to put your deck in your hand and counter-up again. rinse and repeat until you are out of strength of the graves for literally a potential of HUNDREDS of damage direct. If that attack didn't end the game, discard those three random cards to get a strength of the grave for next turn using Infernal Gateway and do it again next turn.
Of course, in a pinch there are other options too. You could blow up zodiac with giant and keep boosting him for aheavy hitter every turn. and Mephisto also enjoys one solid swing to the face for game-ending proportions if you are in a pinch.
So why did this deck never become a thing?
1. Turn 6 is too late. sorry. It just is.
2. This deck is absurdly weak playing into resource control, Lex luthor, Metro Mogul, and Sonic Gun or Holocaust, AOA. are easily tapped as bullet cards for this build. In general them teching into you is far easier than the other way around.
So where does a build like this shine then?
MULTIPLAYER.Oh God, multiplayer.
See, this is a penultimate "B" class build. that is to say, It doesn't react to answers well, but if left untouched will completely wreck the game for somebody. Now most people play multiplayer the same way it was done for the Coming of Galactus "raid" set. which is to say, players just use the alliance portion of the rules against another alliance.
Alliance rules TLDR: -each alliance player chooses an affiliation and they are crossed over. -each player has his/her own field/resource row -combat is simultaneous and all player characters are shared for the purposes of team attacks and targetted pumps. -Each alliance's endurance is 50 + 25 for each extra player to a maximum of 100 endurance
So what makes it so good in this sort-of format?
If enemies focus their hate cards on killing it, your allies will dominate. If they don't... well... it won't end well for them...Your single copy of only human should allow you the leeway to function against Lex. and in a pinch, Infernal Gateway can get it back later. While it still allows a fun winnable game for your opponents.
Essentially, this deck lets you FEEL like the final boss of your playgroup without the one-sided winrate! Fatal flaw and everything! (Seriously watch out for sonic gun!)
So what do you guys think? If you used MEV what would the list look like? Let me know in the comments or in the facebook group! And if you have any other builds you want me to address, let me know!
The Infinite Loop. The pinnacle achievement of all players looking to break a format, finding one almost always resulted in a ban/errata if the loop was attainable too early. Many players shrug and assume all infinite lists have been dealt with but alas, several options still exist. Let's build one!
So first off, we want one that can go off by the mid-game, so ideally turn 5 or even earlier, but first we need to decide what kind of lynchpin we want our loop to be based around. In general infinite loops focus around cards that give easy +1's. For example the banned dr. light was a +1, but when used with rama-tut (another errata'd card from this interaction), you netted even more! This allowed the recycling of cosmic radiation while players would delete Rama for Devil's due. (In my humble opinion, the card that REALLY needed a ban but I digress)
As another example, Black box represented a unique infinite loop If you purposely decked yourself before it was errata'd to be unable to cycle other black boxes, or even simpler, a Syphon energy that targetted another Syphon energy while Feral was attacking for an infinite atk Feral (Syphon energy was errata'd to not target itself as well)
So where shall we begin? That is the hard part. I actually found my key while looking for the worst card ever printed.
A friend of mine recently asked for my help to categorize the 10 WORST cards in Versus System, using a series of qualifiers to determine the absolute worst cards. So there was a lot of spitballing cards that generally were considered to suck. Dr Tzin Tzin, Reign of Terra, J, and Jonah Jameson were among many others being nominated to this list, when one card in particular was mentioned due to low stats and a difficult effect to utilize.
Jackal, Dr. Miles Warren.
Give this man a pimp hat.
My VS brains exploded.
This is essentially a Dr. Light 4 drop for Syndicate. With Rama-Tut's errata to recruit only though, we need a different target for card cycling. What's more, with a limitation to the recovery phase only, we need to be able to consistently go off under the assumption that the Jackal is stunned unless we can also hide him.
So eventually I came up with a skeleton.
4x Jackal, Miles Warren
4x Floronic man, Jason Woodrue
4x Black Rose, Roxanne Simpson
4x Cosmic Radiation
- Any fantastic 4 characters
- A pile of teamups
So with this we have a hypothetical infinite loop:
Assuming all teams are crossed-over (Syndicate + Fan 4 + Underworld + Secret Society), at the start of recovery, we could activate jackal, put floronic man into play, ko floronic man, get cosmic rad, activate black rose, get floronic man, play cosmic and do it all again. Rinse and repeat et-infinitus.
Well that's swell Aaron, but that doesn't win us the game.
Correct. Not alone it doesn't.
So let's add our win condition.
+4 Advanced Hardware
All we need is one and any other visible character. We ARE going infinite after all.
Now consistency. How can 4 teams regularly see a team-up ASAP?
Black rose forces some underworld consideration and Hypnotic charms is a BOSS for teaming up. So let's take a page out of Black Bamboo and try the Orb focus with as many hidden characters as we can fit. Secret Society will reinforce this with Straight To the Grave allowing us to send key cards to the KO pile and also, making sure we have a Cosmic radiation in the KO as well. (everyone seems to forget SttG's secondary effect)
Now things are coming together! But with a hidden-character Orb build, Advanced Hardware has no good equip target. So we're going to swap them out for Future Technology instead. Since if done right every character in play will be fan4 anyhow. This allows our disposable hidden 1 drops to get some work done. Lastly, we'll add some recovery options, and throw in some Medical Attentions since our 6/6 isn't going to be much of a threat in combat.
So lets see what we have now. I'd like to present to you:
Infinity Dog
Locations:
1 [MHG] Soul World
1 [MOR] Avalon Space Station
1 [DJL] Slaughter Swamp
Characters:
4 [MMK] Orb-Drake Shannon
3 [MEQ] Black Panther, Vibranium Vogue
3 [MUN] Green Goblin, Insanity Unleashed
1 [DCL] The Riddler, Riddle Me This
1 [MVL] Uatu the Watcher, He Who Watches
4 [MTU] Black Rose, Roxanne Simpson
2 [DCL] Dr. Sivana, Mad Scientist
Plot Twists:
4 [MOR] Cosmic Radiation
4 [MMK] Hypnotic Charms
4 [MXM] Enemy Of My Enemy
4 [DJL] Straight to the Grave
4 [MOR] Medical Attention
3 [MEV] We Can Rebuild Him
Equipment:
4 [MVL] Future Technology
The general premise is not unlike Black bamboo when it comes to setting up. fly through the deck as fast as possible using vision, we can rebuild him, Orb, Straight to the Grave, and Enemy of my Enemy to get Hypnotic Charms set up as soon as possible. Ideally by turn 3 you'll have a future tech equipped on a hidden lowbie so you can go nuts on the recovery phase of 4.
Tech options:
As usual the Oh-so-boring Pathetic Attempt is a good fit here to prevent enemies from KO-ing Jackal before he can recover, but a chained Medical Attention works just as well so I didn't bother including it, but you may want to try it. I am also a big fan of dipping into an early Uatu search to see any tricks opponents may draw into before equipping him with a Future tech.
There is something that waxes poetic about a 0/1 character dedicated to watching being the cause of infinite endurance loss.
Aside from that however, I'd wouldn't consider much else as a tight fast build is better than a slow one choking on too many answers. However, for those of you that NEED to play with tweaks, there are some other quick tricks you could make, sacrificing the builds speed in favor of more favorable matchups, As I already mentioned, this is essentially the black Bamboo engine, so if one were so inclined, it wouldn't be too hard to fit in a full suite of Black Bolt 1 drops and a Tarnax IV for some decent play into a rush by dropping a superfat 1 drop in the way.
Needless to say, Jackal did NOT make it onto our "Worst Cards List".
Let me know what you guys think and keep those deck clinic ideas coming!
Another weekend looms before us! It's time for another Deck Doctor!
This week it was Joey Tufo that caught my attention. "Make a deck abusing Sleepwalker!"
I actually had to look him up.
Yes... of course... this guy.
Sleepwalker is one of those cards where you desperately wish it read target character instead of adding a combat phase limitation whichdoesn't exactly add more options either. So we know it's going to be a combat-centric build.
Only 4 unique teams have access to the obvious ATK and DEF paying mechanics that this guy seems designed to bolster, Syndicate, Spider-friends, Wild Pack, and Avengers. Since the avengers are almost all spider-friend dual affiliates, we don't need much focus on them. My first build focused on sleepwalker abusing The potency of Dr. Octopus, master of evil, allowing him to attack, pay all his ATK for free stuns, reverse his stats and still stun his attack target. Problem is... it is a crazy amount of discarding to do that. discarding for sleepy's effect AND Doc Ock's (multiple times!) wasn't going to work well. If only there was an alternate 6 drop that could ... Ooooh.
Well then... mono-team it is.
So just with Sleepwalker and Torch, we can stun a standard 7 defense 4 drop, reverse the stats and either attack a 5 for a mutual stun with 10 ATK. (I previously derped and wrote about using Sleepy to then use torch's effect again... forgetting sleepy is during combat only, while torch can't use his effect if he sees combat.)
To optimize our Utility with Sleepy and Torch We are going to main four Punisher, Frank Castle as well as four M60s. The potential -8 DEF easily will allow Torch to stun on or even above the curve when he comes out, but earlier will also allow some pretty substantial mutual punisher stuns with the opposing 4 and 5 drops if needed. (paying 8, Sleepy reversing and swinging with 3) To ensure Punisher sticks around, we'll add a set of Underground Movements to relegate our needed components to the hidden area to keep them in play while allowing us room to splash off-team if needed.
With that aside the rest of the build sort-of builds itself. I used a spider-stall engine to cover off initiatives, and in a pinch a substituted spider-man/gift-wrapped off initiative can really dictate the pace of the game. It is an interesting mind-game when you feint a control-stall to your opponent, and then become increasingly offensive as the game progresses to great success. The best part is the engine is so small it leaves quite a bit of flexibility in your final build vs this one. I opted for Koriand'r at 7 and run two Tania's as late game substitutes to really get those attack values up there. Intestingly, I often found myself choosing to underdrop Tania and Spider-Girl on turn 5 initiatives, because Punisher seriously can do that much work.
Without further ado, here's this week's Deck!
Sleepy Stall
Locations:
4 [MTU] Empire State University {MTU}
Characters:
4 [MTU] Aunt May, Golden Oldie {MTU}
4 [MTU] Black Cat, Nine Lives {MTU}
2 [MTU] Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian, Cold Warrior {MTU}
Now feel free to adjust this list as there are some pretty interesting ways to twist it to a style you may prefer, however it is worth noting how little needs to be added to make this, say, a human torch legend build as well for some absurdly early out of combat stun potential between Human Torch, Novablast and an M60'd punisher. But I find myself pleasantly surprised with the Fiery Friend + Sleepwalker interaction, and I think you will be too!
Every once in a while, I will be running a deck clinic for proposed ideas in the vssystem facebook group or from comments on this blog. Let's get to it, shall we?
Niccolo Paqueo says: Please make Doom Patrol great. (or the best counter generating deck)
As luck would have it, Niccolo, let's try both!
And we don't need to look much farther than DCL Titans and Doom patrol, as they seem to have a sort-of bro-mance with each other already. Something like... This!
4 [DCL] Negative Man, Larry Trainor {DCL}
2 [DCL] Tim Drake <> Robin, Leader of the Pack {DCL}
4 [DCL] Robotman, Cliff Steele {DCL}
3 [DCL] Beast Boy, Freak of Nature {DCL}
2 [DCL] Koriand'r <> Starfire, X'Hal's Fury {DCL}
Plot Twists:
4 [DCL] Call of the Wild {DCL}
4 [DCL] Freak Out {DCL}
4 [DCL] Misfits {DCL}
4 [DCL] Teen Titans Go! {DCL}
4 [DCL] Total Recall, Team-Up {DCL}
We completely forgo several of the options Doom Patrol brings, if only because the price seems to high. yes manipulating counters is attractive, but far too often we see the team bring options that spend them for what I would consider a minimal return.
Case in point: Strange Days
-Just how important is it to lock down enemy plot twists? How many counters is too much investment? Because, remember, your opponent can freely chain to it's activation at no penalty, meaning you will generally never prevent a utility or search card. Of course by then you've kissed some valuable counters goodbye... so you can't even bluff with it.
It could easily be a legend deck if we maxxed out both apperances of Beast Boy, but in general you care so much less about his 3 drop version it feels forced.
In this version the idea is set up beast boy 6 with a full teen titans go combo and then hitting freak out to send them all to a small character you held back from the team attacks for a surprise faceroll (ideally going direct) The ever-so awesome Koriand'r finisher is there as well because... well... gift horses and mouths.
Where this build shines
BYOS I mean wow! does this do well in a BYOS format
For Doom Patrol, it is certainly up there for better counter-accruing options.
Assuming the PERFECT hand playing into the prefect opposing board (tons of characters), beast boy's 6 drop incarnation will accumulate 15 counters over 5 attacks! (initial team swing + 4 TTG) That leaves him at 27/27 beating out Galactus himself! (This also assumes no other counter sources being used either!
However, for the remainder of the article, as I have become prone to do, I'll be going on a tangent...
Come with me if you want to live.
I'm going to take a flying leap and assume you are curious about a different kind of maximum counter-producing build!
It is a bit ironic that the typical offenders are not present here. No Doom Patrol, Teen Titans, or Age of Apocalypse cards are present in it. Heck, not even Devil's Due! And yet it will produce in excess of 20+ counters by turn 4 for some interesting shenanigans!
I present option B, or as I prefer to call it:
Death By Chocolate
Locations:
1 [MOR] Avalon Space Station {MOR}
1 [DJL] Slaughter Swamp {DJL}
2 [MHG] Soul World {MHG}
Characters:
4 [DCX] Superman Batman Robot, Supa-Mecha-Bat {DCX}
4 [DWF] Harvey Bullock, Gotham Central {DWF}
4 [DWF] Maggie Sawyer, Gotham Central {DWF}
4 [DWF] Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend {DWF}
4 [DWF] Barbara Gordon <> Oracle, Hacker Elite {DWF}
4 [DCL] Tim Drake <> Robin, Titan in Command {DCL}
Plot Twists:
4 [DCX] Origin Story {DCX}
4 [DCX] Teen Supremes {DCX}
4 [DWF] Bat-Signal {DWF}
4 [MVL] New and Improved {MVL}
4 [EHB] B.P.R.D. Signal Device {EHB}
4 [DCR] Return Of Donna Troy {DCR}
4 [DCX] A Clash of Worlds {DCX}
4 [MUN] Messiah Complex {MUN}
Some of you see exactly where this is going. For the rest of you, here is the breakdown:
Abuse the living shento out of New and Improved. You remember that card right?
Seriously that's it. Everything else present in this build caters to the one purpose of spamming this card. HARD.
For this mission I look no further than Superman Batman Robot. A 0 cost character, it has a boost effect that also caters to the idea of being hyper-greedy with landing +1/+1 counters. Exactly what we want.
First hurdle: Dual Loyalty.
Before we can reach the point where we perform a substantial series of recruit, ko to New and Improved, recur, rinse and repeat, we need to meet the dual loyalty restriction. Typically i'd look at team-ups and a solid mix of each team to ensure a reasonable chance to do so, but no. instead we're just going to run a full set of Maggie Sawyers. This 1 drop has both teams we need and an oft-overlooked effect as well while we set up our explosion of flavor! Mostly, we'll just play her the turn we go off.
Second hurdle: Targetting effects.
with Loyalty pretty much covered the deck sort-of plays itself, but as a 0 cost it is supremely targetable by just about, well... everything.
A full suite of B.P.R.D. signal devices come to the rescue here, giving some breathing room against mikado & mosha and other weenie killers. while also protecting them once stunned as well.
Cleaning up: Card Combos
The card that makes this deck go might be New and Improved, but the card that carries your endgame is Teen Supremes. Go ahead read it. I'll wait.
wait so... OOOH. Snap!
Exhausting 0 characters to ready a 0 cost character is so deliciously dirty. Especially if that 0 cost character is hitting like an 8 drop.
A Clash of Worlds is another endgame option, sometimes sparing an extra set of 2 +1/+1 counters, it's better off throwing down a second Superman Batman Robots! Maybe even a third! The options are as open as your situation calls for it to be. Play around with it!Improve on it!
This is a fun surprise in the legend block, standard (see: old) silver age format, or, it can flat-out be streamlined to scary proportions in a BYOTT event as well!
So it isn't life or death like Thunderdome, but that's as good a mental image as any! I won't lie as I am feeling some pressure here. If I lose, I'm the guy that bragged up his skills to the wrong hombre before getting publicly stomped. If "Dave" loses, well it costs him nothing. Maybe it all adds to the fun though.
As mentioned last week, I got to pick, build and tweak any toolbox I wanted, while he promised he would run a build at best, identical to, or at worst improved upon a major event winning deck from VS System's 10K's or PC.
The catch? My toolbox was stuck practicing for them ALL. Every major winner, and notable finisher forced me to at least gave it some planning... leaving me trying to guess. Will he bring something off-beat that I consider over-all weaker to catch me unprepared? Or will he just smash a turn 3 rush in my face and see if I can stop it?
We decided on a best of 3 following the council banned list for both of us. As the man facing the unknown, I got to choose initiatives for game 1. So right off the bat i had a 50-50 shot at picking favorably or... not so much. Here's how it all went down.
*********************
After much internal debate I eventually settled on the Ultimates toolbox I posted. I debated the additions of force field projections before remembering they do nothing against wolverine direct, at least against rush I could stick a large-bottomed invisible woman in the way while still having pseudo-fast tech access to meltdowns if I faced a rush. If he came at me with control or toolbox at least it would be down to who had the most answers.
Regardless here is the list I ran:
The Heroic White Light of Ultimate-ness!
Locations:
4 [MUL] The Triskelion, Ultimates {MUL}
Plot Twists:
4 [MTU] Indebted {MTU}
4 [MUN] Messiah Complex {MUN}
4 [MSM] Bad Press {MSM}
4 [DCL] Straight to the Grave {DCL}
4 [MEV] No More Mr. Nice Guy {MEV}
3 [MUN] Death Of The Dream {MUN}
2 [MXM] Enemy Of My Enemy {MXM}
2 [MCG] Omnipotence {MCG}
Please keep in mind, as I played these matches, I didn't have the
decklist like you guys do, and while he may have suspected, he didn't
know mine either. ALSO. he didn't track his draws as we played. sorry
guys i only have my own perspective for you. Regardless, enjoy!
*********************
- "Dave"
VS
- Aaron
GAME 1
Being paranoid against rush, I opted for odd initiatives to start.
TURN 1 (Aaron Initiative)
I Mulligan. "Dave" Keeps
My opening hand: Forbidden Loyalties, PA, Invisible woman and enemy of my enemy.
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw another EomE and a Cosmic radiation.
BUILD PHASE
I set Forbidden Loyalties and pass.
"Dave" sets and shifts Spiderman <> The spider. Well. shitballs. Maybe its some rush variant?
COMBAT PHASE
Both pass.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 50 Aaron -> 50
TURN 2 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Wasp and Triskelion.
BUILD PHASE
He sets a card. and after a prolonged moment of tortuous silence, passes. Nope this is spider stall.
I set Triskelion, and recruit wasp. No need to flip triskelion yet. I dont want to bait resource hate before I'm ready. I immediately activate her (removing Only human, caliban, lib day, unmasked, and EomE) I am happy to not draw those right now.
COMBAT PHASE
Both pass.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 47 Aaron -> 50
TURN 3 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Dr. Strange and a PA.
BUILD PHASE
I set an EomE, and play the one in my hand,(discarding Invisible Woman) flipping Triskelion as I do to make sure I continue stocking my RFP zone. I then grab SHAFT, er... Nick Fury and recruit him.
"Dave" sets a resource and recruits Spider-man, ultimates entering with his 2 web counters. He flips Empire State U, and exhausts his spidey to dig a bit.
COMBAT PHASE
I activate Wasp to burn for 3 (removing Wasp, Hank, lib day, clint, and triskelion) and then declare Nick fury into his exhausted spider-man, he debates the obvious power-up for a bit and then passes. for a mutual stun.
RECOVERY PHASE I recover Nick Fury.
"Dave" recovers Spider-man.
"Dave" -> 41 Aaron -> 47
TURN 4 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)I draw a meltdown and a very convenient Hank Pym.
BUILD PHASE
Dave sets and flips Slaughter Swamp and plays Straight to the Grave sending Aunt May to his KO pile, activating slaughter swamp (discarding Black Cat, master thief to put aunt may into his hand before recruiting her. He places a Spider-man, secret avenger into his hand from her effect. Then he reveals Scarlet Spider to skirt uniqueness and recruits a second Spider-man, ultimates, (netting 4 web counters on it for a total of 6 in play) forming defensively around a support rowed aunt may. He exhausts aunt may to Empire state U netting a card and passes.
I set PA and recruit Hank Pym, protecting Nick Fury and pass.
COMBAT PHASE At the start of combat Hank triggers (removing Ultimate Nullifier) for no gain.
"Dave exhausts both ultimate spider-men to a boosted Messiah Complex replacing his own Empire State U and using the non-targetted effect to replace my triskelion. I chain to it, Flipping up my EomE discarding Dr. Strange, and chaining my Trisk,(removing meltdown, pathetic attempt and cosmic radiation) Enemy resolves and I fetch Iron Man, ultimates. Trisk then resolves, grabbing one of my removed triskelions and place it into my hand. and DotD resolves, replacing my trisk into my other Meltdown. He then spends 4 web counters to exhaust Hank I decide to sit on the PA. Hank exhausts and "Dave" passes.
I send Nick Fury into the spider-man with 2 counters on it, not concerning myself with preventing the stunback, He thinks, decides better of it and passes for a mutual stun. I then activate wasp burning for 3 more (removing Iron man, forbidden loyalties, war wagon, blade, and war machine armor)
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover Nick. He recovers Spidey.
"Dave" -> 35 Aaron -> 44
TURN 5 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)I draw Wasp and Lib Day
BUILD PHASE
I setTriskelion, and recruit Iron Man, ultimates, forming him behind Hank Pym, then flip up Trisk and play the Lib day from my hand (removing wasp) and chaining triskelion's activation (removing nothing, my hand is empty) Liberation day nets me a Thor, ultimates while Triskelion grabs me that War machine Armor. I get the feeling that PA is going to be big this turn. I equip war machine armor onto Iron man and pass build.
He goes into the tank. Fair, considering I'm pretty much telegraphing this turn.
He sets and flips Bad Press not doing much on turn 5, and reveals scarlet spider, before recruiting Spider-man, secret avenger He uses Ultimate spidey's effect to exhaust Iron man, (1 web counter left) I negate with the rowed PA. Then he activates secret avenger's effect targetting Iron man. (discarding Koriand'r <> Starfire, the good one.). It goes through. No armor shenanigans this turn.
COMBAT PHASE
Hank Pym triggers (removing Wasp) gaining a +1/+1 counter. "dave" curses and flips up an Empire State U he could have used last turn. (i wondered why he blew his other one up) he exhausts aunt may and gets his card.
I send Hank and Nick into the 5 drop spidey, I opt against nick's effect and the two 5 drops stun. Hank then swings into the ultimate spidey with the web counter, stunning it and dealing 3 break. With 23 cards RFP's and 25 in my deck I lay off wasp and pass, not wanting to cripple any potential Thor effect damage on 7.
With only a ready 3 drop he passes as well.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover Iron Man.
"Dave" recovers 5 drop spidey.and KOs the stunned 3 drop ultimate. (web counters 0)
"Dave" -> 24 Aaron -> 39
TURN 6 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
I chain Triskelion to the draw (removing Thor) to grab Dr. Strange.
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw a triskelion and a cosmic radiation.
BUILD PHASE
"Dave" sets and flips up No More Mr. Nice Guy, with the shifted spidey his spider-men almost jump up a drop. He plays straight to the grave, sending Human Torch, herald to the KO pile before activating slaughter swamp (discarding another SttG) to place Human Torch into his hand, and recruits it behind the 5 drop Secret Avenger. He then activates Empire state U exhausting aunt may (how is she still alive?!?) for his free card.
I set Triskelion, and recruit Dr. Strange, forming him behind Hank Pym, and Iron man, Behind Nick Fury before passing.
COMBAT PHASE
At the start of combat, Hank triggers, (removing another Hank) and gets his second counter, becoming a 9/9. Dr. strange triggers for no effect.
"Dave" laughs as he realizes war machine armor doesn't target, and mentions he probably should have gotten something else instead. he then sends human torch into Iron Man. I opt not to reinforce and take 4 breakthrough for 9 total endurance loss. Then the 11/12 secret avenger swings into Hank. i don't reinforce and take a total of 6. Then his 6/7 ultimate spider swings into Nick fury. another stun. I lose a total of 5. he then passes.
I just went from 39 to 19 endurance. time to pay him back.
Dr. strange into Aunt May. we both pass, he takes 12. With Human Torch up my Wasp cant hurt him so I pass.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover Hank, koing Nick and Iron man.
"Dave" opts to let Aunt May KO. Yikes. That's cold man.
"Dave" -> 12 Aaron -> 19
TURN 7 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
I decide against chaining trisk to the draw, that cosmic radiation is nice in my hand.
(Both Players draw 2 cards)I draw Mr. fantastic and Liberation day.
BUILD PHASE
I set the Cosmic Radiation (banking my 7 resources), and activate Liberation day, chaining my Triskelion (removing 0) and then flip my second triskelion, (KOing the first one to uniqueness) and activate that one as well (removing 0) Triskelion2 resolves, grabbing war machine armor, Triskelion 1 resolves, Grabbing me that Thor, and Lib day resolves netting me a Clint Barton. I recruit Thor, Flip up my Forbidden Loyalties, placing a +1/+1 counter on Dr. Strange, and teaming up SHIELD and Fan 4. I then recruit War Machine Armor on Dr/ Strange, and pass.
"Dave" Sets a resource, activates Slaughter Swamp, (discarding scarlet spider) to grab Koriand'r and recruits her, forming her behind the spiderman, ultimates, adjacent to human torch. and goes into the tank before deciding that Thor was too scary, He then boosts a messiah complex from his hand, exhausting his front line (spidey3 and spidey 5) targetting Scarlet Spider to gain 6 endurance and then discards it to Secret Avenger's effect.
COMBAT PHASE
St the start of combat hank's effect resolves first, (removing dr. strange), however I chain to Dr. Strange's effect, activating War Machine Armor. The non-targetting effect replaces 6 resources, burns for 6 and forces "Dave to stun a character with a cost of 6 or less. He chains a second rowed messiah complex, exhausting the remainder of his board to grab Scarlet Spider again and gain 6 more endurance before replacing everything except Slaughter Swamp and stunning his 3 drop. Dr. Strange's effect resolves, readying dr. strange, and he activates again. "Dave" replaces the same resources and stuns his 5 drop this time. I then play the cosmic radiation.
"So you had it no matter who I negated then."
"yeah, I think so."
Human Torch stuns dave loses another 6 and replaces more resources.
Thor swings for the mutual stun into Koriand'r dealing 1 breakthrough for 8. Hank goes direct for 9 and wasp burns for her 3, sealing game 1.
RECOVERY PHASE
Aaron Wins!
"Dave" -> -16 Aaron -> 12
THOUGHTS:
"Dave" - At first I thought I made a horrible mistake ignoring Dr. Strange, but when he played the cosmic radiation the math actually ends decidedly in Thor's favor. (Something like negative 30 to maybe negative... 4 or something like that) The difference is I would have had most of my field intact, but they would have mostly been exhausted from at least one boosted Messiah Complex. I Hope you enjoyed that, Aaron, It is never happening again.
Aaron - When he picked Thor to negate it was the right call. Barring him flipping up an omni on 7 I was confident it would go my way. Now I am a bit concerned as he knows what's coming and how it's going to come. Should be interesting!
********************
GAME 2
He opted for evens in game 2 putting me on odds again. (My deck really wants evens if it isn't rush)
We both keep.
TURN 1 (Aaron Initiative)
I start with hank pym, invisible woman, mr. fantastic and an EomE in my hand.
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw wasp and sub-mariner
BUILD PHASE
I set EomE and recruit wasp hidden.
"Dave" sets a resource and removes Spiderman <> The Spider from play shifted.
COMBAT PHASE
Wasp swings for 1.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 49 Aaron -> 50
TURN 2 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Iron Man and Liberation Day
BUILD PHASE
He sets a card and shifts another of the 1 drop spiders, rhinks for a bit and passes.
I set Lib Day and recruit Invisible Woman.
COMBAT PHASE
He is forced to pass combat with nothing.
I swing with wasp and invisible woman for 2.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 47 Aaron -> 50
TURN 3 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw triskelion and Wasp
BUILD PHASE
I set triskelion, and recruit Mr. Fantastic, protecting Invisible woman.
"Dave" Sets a resource, and recruits Ultimate Spider-man, He reveals scarlet spider avoiding uniqueness and then shifts into play one of the three shifted 1 drops into his hidden area. netting 2 more web counters (4 total)
COMBAT PHASE
I declare a team swing with invisible woman and her hubby into spider-man ultimates, hoping to draw the exhaust. He doesn't. Once legal he flips No More Mr Nice Guy becoming a 6/7. I activate Wasp (removing Lib Day, 2x triskelions, lady deathstrike and an Ultimate Nullifier). I debade cashing in both search cards to get a mutual stun, but now that 1 drop is a 4/3, my visible characters are stunning no matter what i do at this point, so I let them go. Mr. Fan stuns, and I pass.
"Dave" then swings at me with ultimate spidey into invisible woman for an easy stun before the 1 drop spider goes direct for 4. I flip up Triskelion. to start catching dead bodies and sending them to the rfp zone.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover mr. fantastic and invisible woman KOs.
BUILD PHASE
"Dave" sets and flips Empire State U, but holds off on activating it just yet. he plays straight to the grave, sending a second, spider-man, ultimates to his ko pile before playing messiah complex from his row unboosted to put it into his hand, revealing scarlet spider for uniqueness and recruiting the 3 drop protecting his twin. THEN he shifts into play ANOTHER 1 drop spiderman. (12 web counters in play!)
I set a Forbidden Loyalties, and recruit Hank, protecting Mr. fantastic, and we pass to combat.
COMBAT PHASE
Hank triggers, (Removing another hank) gaining a +1/+1 counter.
He sends the ultimate spidey with 2 web counters in a team attack on my hank with one of his now overstatted 1 drops, I activate wasp (removing Clint Barton, Cosmic Radiation, Ultimate Nullifier, Caliban, and Hank Pym) I then play Lib Day (Removing Wasp) To fetch my last remaining Hank. powering him up, flipping my rowed forbidden loyalties (discarding Iron Man) to place a +1/+1 counter on Hank (and teaming up Fan 4 and SHIELD) and then playing my second forbidden Loyalties,(discarding Sub-Mariner) to give hank another +1/+1 counter. Passing with an 11/11 hank.
"Dave" went into the tank before exhausting his other 1 drop for Empire State U, and discarding Spider-man, secret avenger to match Hank's defense. With no cards in my hand i activate trisk, grab a hank and power up. "Dave" responds by playing his second messiah complex fetching his secret avenger and powering up again. Dammit. I'm tapped out and his 3 drop stuns along with my hank.
Afterwards, he then sends his other Ultimate Spider-man into Mr. Fantastic. I debate his expensive effect before realizing my ideal play is chaining triskelion to the draw next turn, so anything i search will be pointless. Mr. fantastic stuns.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover the sizeable hank and Mr. fantastic KOs.
"Dave recovers Spider-man, ultimates.
"Dave" -> 38 Aaron -> 31
TURN 5 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
I chain Triskelion to the draw (removing 0) and getting Iron Man.
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Invisible woman and Forbidden Loyalties
BUILD PHASE
I set Forbidden Loyalties and recruit Iron Man behind Hank Pym.
He sets a resource, reveals To avoid uniqueness and recruits Spider-man, Secret Avenger (16 web counters in play) and flips up Omnipotence. I know what he's gonna call. he knows it too. Triskelion.
COMBAT PHASE
Hank triggers (removing Iron Man) Gaining a fourth +1/+1 counter
Iron Man triggers revealing his hand (Empire State U, Black cat, Scarlet Spider) removing the Empire State U from the game.
I declare Iron Man into the protected Ultimate Spider-man. he removes 5 counters (4 from ultimate and 1 off the other ultimate to exhaust him before it is legal. Then does the same for Hank removing 4 counters from his 1 drop (still 7 web counters in play) I activate Wasp just to say i did something this turn. (removing 2x Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, Only Human, and Liberation Day)
he sends both ultimate spider-men into Hank for a mutual stun. Then secret avenger swings over Iron Man for 2 breakthrough and no stunback. The rest go direct for 14. This game is over.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover Hank, Iron Man is KOd
he recovers Ultimate spider-man
"Dave" -> 32 Aaron -> 6
TURN 6 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw EomE and a Meltdown
BUILD PHASE
he sets a resource, and recruits Scarlet Spider
I set Meltdown, and play the enemy of my enemy in my hand (discarding Invisible Woman) to fetch thor. Then playing the enemy of my enemy in the row, discarding thor to get Dr. Strange, recruiting it behind Hank. welp, at least I curved out.
Before combat, "Dave discards Human Torch to Secret Avenger's effect preventing hank from scoring more counters.
COMBAT PHASE
Dr. Strange triggers, I chain wasp, then after his effect resolves ready wasp and activate again.
"Dave" sends his two goddamn 1 drops at Hank for 12 atk. the hell? Oh yeah scarlet spider buffs spider-friends attackers. well, damn.Hank goes down stunning back one. Then Spider-man swings into Dr. Strange with 13 atk for a mutual stun before sending the rest direct for... well alot.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" Wins!
"Dave" -> 20 Aaron -> -30
THOUGHTS:
Aaron - I forgot to use invisible woman on 2 to move her hidden. Then got greedy on 3 hoping to get a team attack stun, search for clint and get and force him to remove a shift counter. After that, I could never stabilize the pace.
"Dave" - This round was more like what i'm used to this deck doing. I wish I could have seen Aaron's face when I flipped that Omni.
*********************
GAME 3
Having lost, I opted for even initiatives this game.
TURN 1 ("Dave" Initiative)
Dave Mulligans.
I keep. (my hand is EomE, war machine armor, wasp, triskelion)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Blade and triskelion
BUILD PHASE
"Dave" sets a resource and recruits Aunt May fetching Ultimate spidey.
I set triskelion and recruit wasp, activating her for first blood (removing Only Human, Mr fantastic, Dr. Strange, EomE, and invisible woman)
COMBAT PHASE
We both pass.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 47 Aaron -> 50
TURN 2 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Ultimate Nullifier and Nick Fury
BUILD PHASE
I set triskelion number 2 and recruit ultimate nullifier on wasp.
He shifts out the 1 drop spider.
COMBAT PHASE
I activate wasp for 3 more (removing Wasp, Mr fan, clint, cosmic radiation and meltdown)
he passes.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 44 Aaron -> 50
TURN 3 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Forbidden loyalties and Pathetic Attempt
BUILD PHASE
He sets a resource and recruits Ultimate spider-man protecting Aunt May. I chain ultimate nullifier exhaustung Wasp to negate his web counter triggered effect.
We spend about 15 minutes here as we reconfirm Spidey's enter play effect is indeed considered a triggered effect before moving on. (It is)
I set Forbidden Loyalties, and recruit Blade in the hidden area protecting Wasp.
COMBAT PHASE
"Dave" flips No More Mr Nice Guy and goes direct for 6.
I pass.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> 44 Aaron -> 44
TURN 4 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Liberation day and Unmasked
BUILD PHASE
I set Unmasked, flip up Triskelion and play Liberation day from my hand (removing Nick Fury) to fetch Hank, recruiting him in the visible front row and deciding, f*ck it lets go for it early, equipping war machine armor on Iron man.
"Dave" sets a resource, flipping up Indebted (discarding aunt may) and after long consideration opts to grab Spider-Man Zombie, recruiting it adjacent to the support row aunt may. I decided to hold back the ultimate nullifier since his 2 web counters weren't going to do much this turn. So far he had gone 2 games with no gift-wrapped. was this build not running them?
Spider-man spent a counter to attempt to exhaust wasp, I responded activating her (removing Triskelion, war wagon, forbidden Loyalties, Hank and Invisible woman)
COMBAT PHASE
Hank triggers, (removing Sub-mariner) to gain a +1/+1 counter
I activate Hank's war machine armor. (discarding EomE and a PA) He loses 4 endurance, replaces his row (hitting a face down omni!) and stuns Aunt May. he flips up Bad Press. I then declare Blade into Ultimate Spidey, he flips up ESU exhausting the 3 drop to net a card and they both stun. Then he swings his Zombie into Hank. Hoping he was relying on powering up instead of a facedown No More Mr nice Guy, I flip up Unmasked and pass.
"The hell?"
Zombie Spider-man stuns. But the win is lessened as he plays beyonder (removing straight to the grave) to recover the 3 drop.
RECOVERY PHASE
I recover Blade.
He recovers Zombie Spider-man and Aunt may is KO'd
"Dave" -> 29 Aaron -> 41
TURN 5 ("Dave" Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
I chain triskelion to the draw (removing 0) to grab myself Sub-Mariner
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw meltdown and Mr. fantastic
BUILD PHASE
Dave sets and flips slaughter swamp, exhausts ultimate spider-man for ESU to grab his card, and plays Straight to the grave, using slaughter swamp (discarding indebted ) sending Lex returning Lex and of course, recruiting lex. Damn it. He forms lex protecting ultimate spider-man and passes to me.
I set meltdown and recruit Sub-Mariner removing his KO pile from play. he gains 6 endurance from it. I form Mariner in the front row, pay 2 and flip down Unmasked, then flip it back up.
COMBAT PHASE
Hank triggers, (removing Invisible woman) and gains another +1/+1 counter.
"If only I didnt need that esu to get the lex search."
He declares Lex into Hank. I flip Forbidden Loyalties, (teaming Atlantis and SHIELD) and discard Mr. fantastic to place a +1/+1 counter on Hank.
I assume he goes into the tank but it is also possible he is just cursing up a storm over there. Hank bricks the swing and stuns Lex. "dave" activates zombie spider-man, KOing it and I gladly exhaust wasp.
Counterswings! I activate war machine armor burning for 4 replacing 4(he replaces bad press, straight to the grave, indebted and empire state u) stunning the 3 before sending Sub-Mariner and blade direct for 15. He flips up another bad press.
RECOVERY PHASE
Dave recovers Lex, while Ultimate Spidey is KO'd. Zombie spidey returns into play.
"Dave" -> 8 Aaron -> 39
TURN 6 (Aaron Initiative)
DRAW PHASE
I chain triskelion to the draw (removing 0) grabbing Dr. Strange.
(Both Players draw 2 cards)
I draw Enemy and Nick fury
BUILD PHASE
I set enemy, pay 2 to flip down Unmasked and flip it back up. and recruit Dr. Strange.
"Dave" recruits Scarlet Spider and forms it in the front row, adjacent to Lex.
COMBAT PHASE
Hank triggers (removing another hank) scoring a 4th +1/+1 counter.
Dr. Strange triggers,for no effect
I send Hank into Lex for the stun. Sub-Mariner swings into Zombie. looking at the endurance totals he flips up No More Mr. nice Guy and soaks most of the damage ending in a mutual stun. Doc strange swings into scarlet spider for a stun, And i flip my second triskelion to grab Clint Barton, and exhaust Blade to RFP Lex, justfor spite.
RECOVERY PHASE
"Dave" -> -9 Aaron -> 32
Aaron Wins!
THOUGHTS:
Aaron - When the web-counters got going it was absurd. seeing that early Nullifier really evened things up for me. was i ever wishing I had fit some other resource control during game 2!
"Dave" - God-damned crazy nullifier is OP. I never noticed the wording on it also covering triggered effects. That's just dumb. War machine armor wasn't that bad but having a spider-man waitin for something to negate was annoying. I was on the fence about the zombie spider-man and feel like turn 4 is where I lost step. So many things I could have done differently. We'll have another challenge sometime, I'm sure of it.
*********************
That concludes today's ultra-long post!
I'm looking to do some deck clinic articles in the future! So anyone unhappy with their VS System builds please look me up! No deck is too crappy!
