INTO THE TANK part 4: In an alternate timeline, far, far away

So most of you following along these past few days have likely learned some interesting factoids about me: Namely, I really REALLY love the midnight sons child-lock engine. So to keep a relatively open mind, I have also tasked myself to experiment with other builds to see if anything... you know, clicks.

For as long as it has existed, the Ultimates have intrigued me. Capable of being a mono-shield power-curve, they have a unique feel as they remove your deck from the game to enable some unique interactions. This sort of a build on its own would normally never cater to any sort of toolbox, as your options could accidentally get RFP'd which under normal circumstances, could spell death.

Enter The Triskelion.

I've got a fever, and the only cure is Ultimates.

With this, everything we remove BECOMES the deck's toolbox. The issue becomes, can we make it dependable enough to take advantage of it?

Ultimate Answers

Characters:
    4 [MUL] Wasp, Ultimates

    3 [MUL] Invisible Woman, Ultimates
    3 [MUL] Clint Barton <> Hawkeye, Ultimates
    1 [MEV] Caliban - Pestilence 

    3 [MUL] Mr. Fantastic, Ultimates 
    2 [MUL] Nick Fury, Ultimates 


    1 [MUN] Blade, Independent Contractor


    4 [MUL] Hank Pym <> Giant Man, Ultimates
    1 [MUN] Lady Deathstrike, Opportunistic Killer

    3 [MUL] Iron Man, Ultimates
    1 [MUL] Sub-Mariner, Ultimates

    2 [MVL] Dr. Strange, Ally of The Four


    1 [MUL] Thor, Ultimates

Plot Twists:
    4 [DCR] Forbidden Loyalties - Team-Up 
    4 [MXM] Enemy Of My Enemy
    4 [MUL] Liberation Day, Ultimates
    3 [MOR] Cosmic Radiation
    2 [MCG] Pathetic Attempt
    2 [MVL] Only Human
    2 [MMK] Meltdown
    1 [MSM] Unmasked 

Equipment:


    2 [MEQ] War Machine Armor, Unique
    1 [MMK] War Wagon
    2 [MEX] Ultimate Nullifier, One-Way Trip 

Locations:
    4 [MUL] The Triskelion, Ultimates

 The Breakdown.

Live hard. Artillery shell hard.

Compared to the child builds from the other day, it doesn't seem very defensively minded, in the strictest sense, that is true. No defensive pumps aside from the team-up itself. Just a power-curve with a decent slew of answers. One of it's hardest matchups is Migga City, so unmasked is an easy add. We see that familiar War Machine Armor interaction with Dr. Strange and some nuanced readying tricks. And Mr. Fantastic, Ultimates, digs deep, enabling both triskelion, and giving us whatever we happen to need from the deck. As a combat-oriented build, Only Human serves us well into the lex/wolverine matchups, and a couple meltdown's really help keep QuickVoltage an ever so slight nerf to its speed.

Black Bamboo, (the italian version) has been testing very well, so to address any similar variants we don't even have to go off the ultimates version, as Sub-Mariner, Ultimates removes both player's KO piles from the game. (This is huge, and also hurts any build relying on recursion, which is quite popular in golden!) Often players knee-jerk reaction to him is playing a PA, only to put it back into their hand as they re-read his text and realize he doesn't target. You know, just like War Machine Armor.

Caliban doesn't need a better reason to be there, other than, Techno-Organic Virus Builds exist. And my original brainchild, The Thor-Burn win condition is present here too, offering a staggering amount of potential direct damage in this particular build.

It is certainly a unique approach. Playing into stalls it feels lackluster until after turn 4 where all of a sudden it stabilizes and starts stealing the show. Playing into curves, it tends to do well early and then suddenly stops attacking completely in the late turns, favoring instead on the Thor set-up or a Dr. Strange War Machine Armor + War Wagon explosion. (war wagon is free if blade is out)

Ultimate Nullifier is just so gravy it hurts. Every time I debate reducing them or replacing them for other tech items, they win me a game by negating a Quickfate ready, a spider-man Ultimate's effect, That clutch Avalon Space Station your opponent wants to hit, or even a start-of phase trigger. It's GOLD.

Another curiosity of the deck is its Golden-age success on even initiatives, survive until 6 and you'll soon see why. Thor goes off just as hard on a defending turn 7 anyway. If you land odds, it isn't necessarily bad either, since most golden age kings are spoiled with potent odd turns anyway, so it's nice to mess with them a bit. Building first on odd initiatives before decks like Wolverine direct is certainly helpful.

So where does it falter?

Pepper, I thought you said you checked the oil?

Unsurprisingly, The decks largest short-falling is in its own design. Your toolbox is built up by using RFP effects, meaning triskelion activations are only as good as your RNG gods allow in this regard. I've had games where I activated a turn 1 wasp only to see all 4 triskelions evicted into the great beyond, or games where every piece of tech just, never showed up at all. Sure cards like Mr. Fantastic and fast access to RFP options through wasp and Invisible Woman help minimize this, but it can be an issue regardless.

Other variants:

With the Triskelion offering a tempting "press to win" approach to needed cards it was tempting to try another child lock or keeping it to a more purist control. In the end, however, it never seemed necessary as the early game has access to either hidden characters or an invisible woman with a large butt to help mitigate that early damage. Ultimately (PUN!) the superb child defense never really felt necessary compared to the listed build, and discarding it entirely really allowed the build to breathe.


A checkmate + Ultimates concept still has me intrigued due to the added utility of both, Black Thorne's backup to ready The Triskelion for multiple chained uses. (Between Ahmed replacing a Trisk for another, Black Thorn could allow 3 chained searches, which is HUGE!) and the fact that The Triskelion itself protects Ahmed from his self-imposed auto-loss detriment certainly argues a good case to continue digging deeper into it. However the skeleton for the checkmate build is rather large, and tends to not leave much space for much else. Checkmate is selfish that way.

This will conclude my "Into The Tank" series as I finalize my prep for the Golden Age Challenge selecting a deck and making my final adjustments!

What deck will it be? More to come!