I love decks that let me play really good characters that I have rarely, if ever, had a chance to play, and this deck features two of them. The 4 drop John Walker from MUN is one I have always wanted to play in a deck, but until now he just never fit into anything I was building. And Grace, The Bouncer is another one I've never gotten to use as much as I would have liked. That was always disappointing to me, not only because she is crazy good, but also because I wrote the preview of her for tcgplayer.com back in the day.
Both these characters fit really well into the deck, whose theme is reusing effects. Sometimes that means getting to use a single plot twist multiple times, as with John Walker's effect. Sometimes it means getting to activate twice, as with Sabretooth and other characters with Energize. And sometimes it's a matter of getting to attack twice, thanks to effects like Cyclops's. The deck is constructed much like my Nasty Surprise deck, but the character effects are so different, for the most part, that it doesn't have the same feel. This is a brand new deck, with very little mileage on the odometer, but so far it seems quite fun and very promising.
Characters - 28
[2 - 7]
4x Beast, Wild and Wooly (X-Factor, X-Men)
3x Forge, The Maker (X-Factor, X-Men)
[3 - 6]
4x Sabretooth, Reformed Killer (X-Factor, Weapon X)
2x Iceman, Jack Frost (X-Factor, X-Men)
[4 - 5]
4x John Walker, U.S. Agent (Alpha Flight)
1x Samantha Parrington <> Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain (Marvel Defenders)
[5 - 4]
1x Black Manta (Secret Society)
1x Garth <> Tempest, Atlantean Sorcerer (Teen Titans)
2x Grace, The Bouncer (Outsiders)
[6 - 3]
1x Cyclops, Astonishing X-Man (X-Factor, X-Men)
1x Cable, Temporal Traveler (X-Force, X-Men)
1x Quicksilver, Terrigenesis Rebirth (Inhumans)
[7 - 2]
1x Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas (JLA)
1x Hercules, Secret Avenger (Avengers)
[8 - 1]
1x Cyclops, Mutant Messiah (X-Factor, X-Men)
Plot Twists - 32
[1 - 8]
3x Flying Kick
4x Nasty Surprise
2x Teamwork
[3 - 16]
4x Government Sponsored, Team Up
3x Mobilize
4x Enemy of my Enemy
4x First Class
[4 - 8]
4x Savage Beatdown
4x Trouble with Dinosaurs
Both 2 drops are good but not great. Beast lets you cycle one or two cards on your off-inits, to dig for a team-up or whatever else you might need. He also has solid stats. Forge sometimes lets you beef up your 3 or 4 drop, but he's often disappointing, especially when you are on evens.
Things get much more interesting on 3. In another deck, Iceman would be an automatic 4-of. Being able to prevent one or two opposing characters from readying is crazy good. But being able to prevent those characters from recovering is even better, so Sabretooth is the preferred play. I was playing against this deck the other night, and on turn 3 I thought I had safe attacks lined up against Sabretooth and Forge. My 6/6 Juggernaut was going to take out Sabretooth, and my 3/3 Quicksilver was going to take out Forge. Sabretooth targeted both my guys when attacked by Juggernaut, and two Nasty Surprises later, my board was obliterated. Oh, and First Class recovered Sabretooth, so my son had his 2-4 drops on turn 4, whereas I had only a 4. And it was his init on 4, so he could attack my 4 drop and prevent him from recovering with another Sabretooth activation. Things went downhill from there. That is why Sabretooth is a 4-of over Iceman, who is merely annoying. The scenario above also explains why you want evens if you can get them. You want Sabretooth defending on 3.
Turn 4 is when we start seeing the reuse of plot twists theme. John Walker is nuts when you have good plot twists in hand. When defending, you can play a Nasty Surprise on him, and promptly return it to your hand. Give him +10 ATK if you need to stun back an attacking 7 drop. On offense, play a Savage on him and get it back for later, or give him +10 ATK if you need it. He also has great synergy with a couple of the 5 drops. Samantha Parrington is amazing, but you normally wouldn't want to recruit her on 4. She's better used on a later turn. If you make it to 6 or 7 with Walker on the field, sub her in for him and use her to let your biggest guy attack twice.
There are a variety of choices for turn 5. If you have Government Sponsored in your row, you can recruit either Black Manta or Garth, who have loyalty requirements that it meets. They have the same effect, so they are interchangeable. I play one of each just to provide a nice option in cases where you draw both but miss your 6 drop. Both characters work really well with John Walker, too. On a turn 5/6 init, you can attack with him and play Savage from your hand, get it back with his effect, play it again, then get it back again with Manta/Garth. +15 in ATK with one copy of Savage, at the cost of 3 endurance. If you don't have your team-up, Grace is a very nice option, especially if you are on evens. On turn 6, you can swing her into the opposing 6 drop, recover and ready her after she stuns, take out the 5 drop with her, then swing to the face with your 6 drop. If you are on odds, she's not nearly as good, although she does force your opponent to attack her with their 5 drop when it gets to turn 6, to avoid having to go through her twice. If they do attack with their 5, recover her with First Class, and then recover and ready her with her effect after their 6 drop stuns her.
Turn 6 is kind of a toolbox. When on evens, Cyclops is normally the best option. Attack their 6 with Garth and a pump. Recover him with First Class. Attack their 5 with Cyclops, readying Garth. Use Garth's effect to get back the pump and swing with him again. Cyclops is not quite as good in this deck as in Concussive Force, but he's still darned good. Cable picks up on the reusing plot twists theme. When he attacks, after his effect goes on the chain, flip up a Trouble with Dinosaurs to use on him, then turn it back down with his effect. Quicksilver is another double-attacker, of sorts. Attack with him once, recovering him if necessary with First Class, then declare an attack with a much smaller character and then have Quicksilver take their place. This effect is really good if you have a 3 drop that survived to turn 6, for example.
More choices on 7. Aquaman is almost always a good choice on 7, especially if you are on odds. Use his effect to get back plot twists used on turn 5, or a tutor to help you get your 8. Hercules is better if you know you are going to 8. He lets your 8 drop attack (or activate) twice, as well as giving him a permanent +3/+3,
Most matches will end before turn 8, but if they do go that far, Cyclops is a solid finisher. The first time I played this deck, it was against a Horsemen of Apocalypse stall deck. I ended up winning easily because of missed drops, but if we had gone to 8, Apocalypse, Age of Apocalypse, was going to be a big disappointment. After wiping out both our fields, except for the 8 drops, Cyclops was just going to exhaust him and burn for 8. If I'd had Hercules, Cyclops could have exhausted Apocalypse, readied with Hercules and then swung for game as a 20/20 behemoth.
Lots of pumps in this deck. Flying Kick is good with the double-attackers, but Savage and Trouble are better with the characters that can reuse plot twists. If you're down to 2 characters, Trouble is a +6, which makes it a +12 with John Walker or Black Manta. Don't overlook Nasty Surprise, though. That card is sneaky good, especially with Sabretooth. In that match I was talking about earlier, where my son was playing this deck and obliterating my board, he had three copies of Nasty Surprise in his row. I never had a chance. And even if you don't have one, your opponent has to (or at least should) assume that you do. It's also really good with John Walker and Cable since you can reuse it for free.
The tutors are Enemy and Mobilize. Mobilize is of course worthless from 4 on if you don't have a team-up, but there's enough draw and cycling effects in the deck that that should rarely be a problem. Feel free to bump Teamwork to 4x if need be. I've mentioned First Class several times already, and it is really a great card in this deck. Besides the most basic use of preserving your field and building board advantage, it is just really good with the Energize characters when they are defending. After they get attacked once and have used their effects twice, you can recover and ready them with First Class, then use their effects again when they are attacked again.
Finally, there's the team-up, Government Sponsored. It is what allows you to play off-team characters, even ones with Loyalty requirements, and still use cards like First Class and Mobilize. It also lets you rally three times for a character card when you flip it, which helps with the deck's consistency. I've also got two copies of Teamwork in here, both to search for it and to protect it. Hitting your team-up isn't quite as important in this deck as it is in the somewhat similar Nasty Surprise deck, but it's still highly desirable. I haven't yet identified a firm mulligan condition, but I'm pretty sure I would keep any hand with a 2 drop and a team-up/Teamwork.
This is my newest deck, and I haven't played it much yet, so it's kind of early to be blogging about it. But I haven't had any new posts about decks in quite a while, so I decided to write this one up while I was excited about it and in the mood to write. I have a feeling this one's a keeper, in any case, and would recommend giving it a try if you have the cards. Or, maybe even better, use my list as a framework for your own deck built around Government Sponsored and the other X-Factor cards. Just pull out the 4-8 drops and build it with character cards of your own choosing. Lots of ways to skin this cat. I just happen to like this one.
Things get much more interesting on 3. In another deck, Iceman would be an automatic 4-of. Being able to prevent one or two opposing characters from readying is crazy good. But being able to prevent those characters from recovering is even better, so Sabretooth is the preferred play. I was playing against this deck the other night, and on turn 3 I thought I had safe attacks lined up against Sabretooth and Forge. My 6/6 Juggernaut was going to take out Sabretooth, and my 3/3 Quicksilver was going to take out Forge. Sabretooth targeted both my guys when attacked by Juggernaut, and two Nasty Surprises later, my board was obliterated. Oh, and First Class recovered Sabretooth, so my son had his 2-4 drops on turn 4, whereas I had only a 4. And it was his init on 4, so he could attack my 4 drop and prevent him from recovering with another Sabretooth activation. Things went downhill from there. That is why Sabretooth is a 4-of over Iceman, who is merely annoying. The scenario above also explains why you want evens if you can get them. You want Sabretooth defending on 3.
Turn 4 is when we start seeing the reuse of plot twists theme. John Walker is nuts when you have good plot twists in hand. When defending, you can play a Nasty Surprise on him, and promptly return it to your hand. Give him +10 ATK if you need to stun back an attacking 7 drop. On offense, play a Savage on him and get it back for later, or give him +10 ATK if you need it. He also has great synergy with a couple of the 5 drops. Samantha Parrington is amazing, but you normally wouldn't want to recruit her on 4. She's better used on a later turn. If you make it to 6 or 7 with Walker on the field, sub her in for him and use her to let your biggest guy attack twice.
There are a variety of choices for turn 5. If you have Government Sponsored in your row, you can recruit either Black Manta or Garth, who have loyalty requirements that it meets. They have the same effect, so they are interchangeable. I play one of each just to provide a nice option in cases where you draw both but miss your 6 drop. Both characters work really well with John Walker, too. On a turn 5/6 init, you can attack with him and play Savage from your hand, get it back with his effect, play it again, then get it back again with Manta/Garth. +15 in ATK with one copy of Savage, at the cost of 3 endurance. If you don't have your team-up, Grace is a very nice option, especially if you are on evens. On turn 6, you can swing her into the opposing 6 drop, recover and ready her after she stuns, take out the 5 drop with her, then swing to the face with your 6 drop. If you are on odds, she's not nearly as good, although she does force your opponent to attack her with their 5 drop when it gets to turn 6, to avoid having to go through her twice. If they do attack with their 5, recover her with First Class, and then recover and ready her with her effect after their 6 drop stuns her.Turn 6 is kind of a toolbox. When on evens, Cyclops is normally the best option. Attack their 6 with Garth and a pump. Recover him with First Class. Attack their 5 with Cyclops, readying Garth. Use Garth's effect to get back the pump and swing with him again. Cyclops is not quite as good in this deck as in Concussive Force, but he's still darned good. Cable picks up on the reusing plot twists theme. When he attacks, after his effect goes on the chain, flip up a Trouble with Dinosaurs to use on him, then turn it back down with his effect. Quicksilver is another double-attacker, of sorts. Attack with him once, recovering him if necessary with First Class, then declare an attack with a much smaller character and then have Quicksilver take their place. This effect is really good if you have a 3 drop that survived to turn 6, for example.
More choices on 7. Aquaman is almost always a good choice on 7, especially if you are on odds. Use his effect to get back plot twists used on turn 5, or a tutor to help you get your 8. Hercules is better if you know you are going to 8. He lets your 8 drop attack (or activate) twice, as well as giving him a permanent +3/+3,
Most matches will end before turn 8, but if they do go that far, Cyclops is a solid finisher. The first time I played this deck, it was against a Horsemen of Apocalypse stall deck. I ended up winning easily because of missed drops, but if we had gone to 8, Apocalypse, Age of Apocalypse, was going to be a big disappointment. After wiping out both our fields, except for the 8 drops, Cyclops was just going to exhaust him and burn for 8. If I'd had Hercules, Cyclops could have exhausted Apocalypse, readied with Hercules and then swung for game as a 20/20 behemoth.
Lots of pumps in this deck. Flying Kick is good with the double-attackers, but Savage and Trouble are better with the characters that can reuse plot twists. If you're down to 2 characters, Trouble is a +6, which makes it a +12 with John Walker or Black Manta. Don't overlook Nasty Surprise, though. That card is sneaky good, especially with Sabretooth. In that match I was talking about earlier, where my son was playing this deck and obliterating my board, he had three copies of Nasty Surprise in his row. I never had a chance. And even if you don't have one, your opponent has to (or at least should) assume that you do. It's also really good with John Walker and Cable since you can reuse it for free.The tutors are Enemy and Mobilize. Mobilize is of course worthless from 4 on if you don't have a team-up, but there's enough draw and cycling effects in the deck that that should rarely be a problem. Feel free to bump Teamwork to 4x if need be. I've mentioned First Class several times already, and it is really a great card in this deck. Besides the most basic use of preserving your field and building board advantage, it is just really good with the Energize characters when they are defending. After they get attacked once and have used their effects twice, you can recover and ready them with First Class, then use their effects again when they are attacked again.
Finally, there's the team-up, Government Sponsored. It is what allows you to play off-team characters, even ones with Loyalty requirements, and still use cards like First Class and Mobilize. It also lets you rally three times for a character card when you flip it, which helps with the deck's consistency. I've also got two copies of Teamwork in here, both to search for it and to protect it. Hitting your team-up isn't quite as important in this deck as it is in the somewhat similar Nasty Surprise deck, but it's still highly desirable. I haven't yet identified a firm mulligan condition, but I'm pretty sure I would keep any hand with a 2 drop and a team-up/Teamwork.This is my newest deck, and I haven't played it much yet, so it's kind of early to be blogging about it. But I haven't had any new posts about decks in quite a while, so I decided to write this one up while I was excited about it and in the mood to write. I have a feeling this one's a keeper, in any case, and would recommend giving it a try if you have the cards. Or, maybe even better, use my list as a framework for your own deck built around Government Sponsored and the other X-Factor cards. Just pull out the 4-8 drops and build it with character cards of your own choosing. Lots of ways to skin this cat. I just happen to like this one.
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