Looking back at my previous blog entries, it dawned on me that all the decks to this point have been laden with Marvel characters. Time to show DC some love. This deck is one of my all time favorites. I used to love playing it in Golden Age tournaments that I expected to be heavy with curve decks, most of which tend to have a very hard time with it.
Characters - 28
[2 - 8]
4x Captain Boomerang, George Harkness
4x Zazzala <> Queen Bee, Hive Monarch
[3 - 6]
4x Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist
2x Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac
[4 - 4]
4x The Joker, Headline Stealer
[5 - 8]
4x Scarecrow, Psycho Psychologist
4x Circe, Evil Enchantress
[7 - 2]
1x The Joker, Permanent Vacation
1x Lex Luthor, Sinister Scientist
Plot Twists - 28
[1 - 8]
4x Criminal Mastermind
4x Power Siphon
[2 - 4]
4x Secret Files
[3 - 12]
4x Mobilize
4x All Too Easy
4x Evil Genius
[4 - 4]
4x Savage Beatdown
Equipment - 4
[0 - 4]
4x Laughing Gas
I normally play only seven 2 drops in a curve deck, but this one struggles against rush, making it extra important to hit your 2 drop. You also want to give yourself the best possible chance to hit your preferred 3 drop, which sometimes means a Mobilize with a 2 drop in place on turn 3. Against those rush decks, Zazzala is usually better, as she quickly becomes a 4/4. Captain Boomerang is good against pesky 2 drops like Quicksilver, and also against other curve decks. Just be careful that you don't bounce Boomerang until you have your 3 drop. If you can exhaust him for Criminal Mastermind before you bounce, even better.
By far your preferred play on 3 is the Nefarious Philanthropist, and he's generally your mulligan condition, unless you have something crazy good like a 2, a 3, a 4, and a Criminal Mastermind. He is important both for filling the opponent's hand and for limiting his ability to play plot twists. This deck doesn't work nearly as well if you miss him on 3. Still, the DCL Lex is a decent fallback. He just doesn't limit their use of plot twists, which is a huge key to this deck's success.
The only 4 drop is The Joker, and along with Lex, he is what makes this deck work. An ideal start for this deck, against curve, would be to take evens and bounce their 2 on your init. On 3, play your main Lex and exhaust him for Criminal Mastermind. Then on 4 you play Joker. Your opponent just drew 3 extra cards this turn. He can only play one plot twist, and he can't play one from his hand until Joker goes down. This seriously limits your opponent's ability to do damage, or to prevent it. If he doesn't plan ahead, he won't be able to play plot twists at all. Many times your opponent will have to use his one allowed plot twist per turn just to get his character, so no flipping Crisis, playing Reign, then Mystical Paralysis. One plot twist per customer. If you have one copy of Savage or All Too Easy this turn, you should be able to stun both of their guys and keep yours, just by going up the curve with Lex. Preserving your board is more important than doing damage this turn, though. You want the same plot twist lockdown in effect on your opponent's turn 5 init.
On 5, you want to play Circe if at all possible, especially if you're on evens. If you have a Criminal Mastermind on the field along with Lex, their hand is starting to get large. If you have two Masterminds in play and you still have Lex, they are in real trouble. Their hand is filling up, and between Lex and Joker, they generally have no way to get rid of cards except by powering up. Anyway, on turn 5, put Circe in your front row, with your others in the back, and exhaust her for a heap of burn damage. Hopefully you have a Power Siphon in hand. Chances are, your opponent will have a handful of cards and at most one attack pump. A Siphon is probably a minimum of +8 DEF, and usually more. Use it carefully, because you want to preserve as much of your field as you can. If you come out of this turn with only Circe, it is much harder to win, because you lose your plot twist negation effects. I can imagine cases where I would keep Lex and Joker, and KO Circe.
On 6, you want to play Scarecrow boosted, to give him +3/+3. Obviously you can play him on 5 in a pinch, but you should think of him as your 6 drop. If things have gone really well for you to this point, you can probably win on this turn, partly because of his burn effect, and partly because of All Too Easy (which you should save for this turn unless you really need it on 4 to build board advantage), which can easily be a +12 ATK or more. Even better if you still have a Joker equipped with Laughing Gas. Any breakthrough done by him will do a boatload of burn, probably enough to seal the deal.
If you make it to 7, you have two great choices. If your other Joker is gone, then the 7 drop Joker is your best choice. He will double the number of cards in your opponent's hand, making the burn damage from Circe and/or Scarecrow devastating, and making Power Siphon and All Too Easy unbelievable powerful. If you still have the other Joker and want to keep him for his plot twist limiting effect, then 7 drop Lex is pretty good, especially on their init. If your opponent manages to stun him, he will probably take at least twice as much damage as you do, if not much more. But really, if you make it this far without losing, you almost always win. When this deck loses, it loses because it gets overwhelmed early and never sets up the plot twist negation engine with Lex and Joker. If you got to 7, you probably had that set up, and now you are just burning your opponent to death in huge chunks.
There are three key plot twists in this deck, and the first is Criminal Mastermind. It allows both you and your opponent to draw one extra card per turn, which both hurts your opponent and helps you. If you can get one or two of these played fairly early, and get the Lex/Joker thing going, your opponent will find himself desperately trying to dump cards however he can, at least if he knows what he's up against. The other card that forces your opponent to draw is Evil Genius. It's good because it allows both of you to draw 3, but it is bad because you have to exhaust a Lex to use it. If you are on a turn 3 off init and you have to choose one or the other, take the Criminal Mastermind.
The second key plot twist is Power Siphon, which can give you a huge DEF boost. Don't use this the first time you're attacked, especially if you have only one. Use it to preserve your board and keep the Lex/Joker engine going as long as possible.
There are two tutors in the deck. In any other deck, Mobilize would be better, but in this one, it's Secret Files. Sure your opponent gets to select a character, but that's one more card in his hand. Just accept the notion that when this deck is working properly, your opponent will never miss a drop. What matters is that he not be able to use his own plot twists until it is too late. Once his hand is full of cards, he might need 3 Savage Beatdowns to counter a single Power Siphon.
The final key plot twist is All Too Easy. My son was playing this deck against me a couple of weeks ago, and on the final turn he dropped 3 copies and a Savage on his final attack. That was about 40 in damage on one attack. Time to scoop. This is the only attack pump that this deck plays besides Savage Beatdown, and you want to treat them like gold. Try to save them for your kill turn if at all possible, like my son did, for maximum damage.
There are no locations in the deck, but there are 4 copies of Laughing Gas. You can only play it on Joker, so if you want to cut this to 3 to make room for something else, that's not a bad plan. Don't do it for a pump, though. If you plan your attacks well, you can usually get some breakthrough with Joker, and even on turn 4 the extra burn could be 8 or more. A 7 drop Joker with Laughing Gas and All Too Easy could do 40+ in damage easily.
This deck is a real handful for any deck that doesn't win incredibly fast by attacking from the word go. I had an interesting match against it last week while playing my Brave and the Bold deck. I managed to win, despite a massive handful of cards, but only because on the final turn I was able to fight through his Power Siphon with a dazzling barrage of +3/+3 power ups. I think I used 7 in one attack, which both limited the power of the Siphon, and gave me a whole lot of boost. But most decks don't have any way to pull off a stunt like that, and they just helplessly succumb to all the burn damage inflicted from turn 5 on. If you have the cards to build this deck, or something close to it, by all means do so if you haven't already. It's a gas.
By far your preferred play on 3 is the Nefarious Philanthropist, and he's generally your mulligan condition, unless you have something crazy good like a 2, a 3, a 4, and a Criminal Mastermind. He is important both for filling the opponent's hand and for limiting his ability to play plot twists. This deck doesn't work nearly as well if you miss him on 3. Still, the DCL Lex is a decent fallback. He just doesn't limit their use of plot twists, which is a huge key to this deck's success.
The only 4 drop is The Joker, and along with Lex, he is what makes this deck work. An ideal start for this deck, against curve, would be to take evens and bounce their 2 on your init. On 3, play your main Lex and exhaust him for Criminal Mastermind. Then on 4 you play Joker. Your opponent just drew 3 extra cards this turn. He can only play one plot twist, and he can't play one from his hand until Joker goes down. This seriously limits your opponent's ability to do damage, or to prevent it. If he doesn't plan ahead, he won't be able to play plot twists at all. Many times your opponent will have to use his one allowed plot twist per turn just to get his character, so no flipping Crisis, playing Reign, then Mystical Paralysis. One plot twist per customer. If you have one copy of Savage or All Too Easy this turn, you should be able to stun both of their guys and keep yours, just by going up the curve with Lex. Preserving your board is more important than doing damage this turn, though. You want the same plot twist lockdown in effect on your opponent's turn 5 init.On 5, you want to play Circe if at all possible, especially if you're on evens. If you have a Criminal Mastermind on the field along with Lex, their hand is starting to get large. If you have two Masterminds in play and you still have Lex, they are in real trouble. Their hand is filling up, and between Lex and Joker, they generally have no way to get rid of cards except by powering up. Anyway, on turn 5, put Circe in your front row, with your others in the back, and exhaust her for a heap of burn damage. Hopefully you have a Power Siphon in hand. Chances are, your opponent will have a handful of cards and at most one attack pump. A Siphon is probably a minimum of +8 DEF, and usually more. Use it carefully, because you want to preserve as much of your field as you can. If you come out of this turn with only Circe, it is much harder to win, because you lose your plot twist negation effects. I can imagine cases where I would keep Lex and Joker, and KO Circe.
On 6, you want to play Scarecrow boosted, to give him +3/+3. Obviously you can play him on 5 in a pinch, but you should think of him as your 6 drop. If things have gone really well for you to this point, you can probably win on this turn, partly because of his burn effect, and partly because of All Too Easy (which you should save for this turn unless you really need it on 4 to build board advantage), which can easily be a +12 ATK or more. Even better if you still have a Joker equipped with Laughing Gas. Any breakthrough done by him will do a boatload of burn, probably enough to seal the deal.
If you make it to 7, you have two great choices. If your other Joker is gone, then the 7 drop Joker is your best choice. He will double the number of cards in your opponent's hand, making the burn damage from Circe and/or Scarecrow devastating, and making Power Siphon and All Too Easy unbelievable powerful. If you still have the other Joker and want to keep him for his plot twist limiting effect, then 7 drop Lex is pretty good, especially on their init. If your opponent manages to stun him, he will probably take at least twice as much damage as you do, if not much more. But really, if you make it this far without losing, you almost always win. When this deck loses, it loses because it gets overwhelmed early and never sets up the plot twist negation engine with Lex and Joker. If you got to 7, you probably had that set up, and now you are just burning your opponent to death in huge chunks.
There are three key plot twists in this deck, and the first is Criminal Mastermind. It allows both you and your opponent to draw one extra card per turn, which both hurts your opponent and helps you. If you can get one or two of these played fairly early, and get the Lex/Joker thing going, your opponent will find himself desperately trying to dump cards however he can, at least if he knows what he's up against. The other card that forces your opponent to draw is Evil Genius. It's good because it allows both of you to draw 3, but it is bad because you have to exhaust a Lex to use it. If you are on a turn 3 off init and you have to choose one or the other, take the Criminal Mastermind.
The second key plot twist is Power Siphon, which can give you a huge DEF boost. Don't use this the first time you're attacked, especially if you have only one. Use it to preserve your board and keep the Lex/Joker engine going as long as possible.There are two tutors in the deck. In any other deck, Mobilize would be better, but in this one, it's Secret Files. Sure your opponent gets to select a character, but that's one more card in his hand. Just accept the notion that when this deck is working properly, your opponent will never miss a drop. What matters is that he not be able to use his own plot twists until it is too late. Once his hand is full of cards, he might need 3 Savage Beatdowns to counter a single Power Siphon.
The final key plot twist is All Too Easy. My son was playing this deck against me a couple of weeks ago, and on the final turn he dropped 3 copies and a Savage on his final attack. That was about 40 in damage on one attack. Time to scoop. This is the only attack pump that this deck plays besides Savage Beatdown, and you want to treat them like gold. Try to save them for your kill turn if at all possible, like my son did, for maximum damage.There are no locations in the deck, but there are 4 copies of Laughing Gas. You can only play it on Joker, so if you want to cut this to 3 to make room for something else, that's not a bad plan. Don't do it for a pump, though. If you plan your attacks well, you can usually get some breakthrough with Joker, and even on turn 4 the extra burn could be 8 or more. A 7 drop Joker with Laughing Gas and All Too Easy could do 40+ in damage easily.
This deck is a real handful for any deck that doesn't win incredibly fast by attacking from the word go. I had an interesting match against it last week while playing my Brave and the Bold deck. I managed to win, despite a massive handful of cards, but only because on the final turn I was able to fight through his Power Siphon with a dazzling barrage of +3/+3 power ups. I think I used 7 in one attack, which both limited the power of the Siphon, and gave me a whole lot of boost. But most decks don't have any way to pull off a stunt like that, and they just helplessly succumb to all the burn damage inflicted from turn 5 on. If you have the cards to build this deck, or something close to it, by all means do so if you haven't already. It's a gas.
No comments:
Post a Comment