Today we're going infinite... AGAIN!
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.
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| 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.
As it stands my current list looks like this:
Fated Infinity
Locations
2 [MUN] Alias Investigations
2 [MHG] Elemental Converters
2 [MHG] Worldeater Apparatus
Characters
4 [MHG] Galan - Famished
4 [MHG] Silver Surfer - Skyrider of the Spaceways
4 [MHG] Air-Walker - Gabriel Lan
2 [MHG] Frankie Raye <> Nova - Soul Searcher
2 [MTU] Johnny Blaze <> Ghost Rider, Damned
4 [MHG] Human Torch - The Invisible Man
4 [MMK] Dracula-Vlad Dracula
2 [DJL] Dr. Fate, Kent Nelson
2 [MHG] Galactus - The Maker
Plot Twists
4 [MUN] Superhuman Registration Act
1 [MHG] I Hunger
1 [MHG] Inspiring Demise
1 [MOR] Savage Beatdown
4 [DCR] Conjuration - Magic
2 [MCG] Pathetic Attempt
2 [MOR] Tech Upgrade
4 [MHG] Kindred Spirits
3 [MHG] Creation of a Herald
Equipment
1 [MHG] Reality Gem - Infinity Gem
2 [MEX] Silver Surfer's Board
1 [MTU] Ego Gem, Unique * Infinity Gem
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!
Until Next time!
