X-Mental

One of my all-time favorite decks. So many interesting synergies and interactions. Like most curve decks, it struggles against really fast decks when they are on their game, but against most other curve decks it is really solid. Aggro decks struggle with its defensive prowess. Control decks struggle with its deceptively strong firepower. All fueled and enhanced by the abilities of the 5-7 drops to replace and recycle plot twists.

Characters - 29 

[2 - 8]
4x Sage, Tessa (Hellfire Club)
4x Captain Boomerang, George Harkness (Injustice Gang)
[3 - 4]
4x Dr. Doom, Richards's Rival (Doom)
[4 - 4]
4x Professor X, Headmaster (X-Men)
[5 - 4]
4x Emma Frost, Friend or Foe (X-Men)
[6 - 4]
4x Jean Grey, Red (X-Men)
[7 - 3]
2x Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas (JLA)
1x Koriand'r <> Starfire, X'Hal's Fury (Teen Titans)
[8 - 2]
2x Rachel Summers <> Phoenix, Phoenix of the Future (X-Men) 

Plot Twists - 31 

[1 - 5]
4x Acrobatic Dodge
1x Meltdown
[2 - 6]
3x Cover Fire
2x Mutant Massacre
1x Only Human
[3 - 12]
4x Enemy of My Enemy
4x Phoenix Rising
2x Bamf!
2x Have a Blast!
[4 - 6]
4x Savage Beatdown
2x Trouble with Dinosaurs
[5 - 2]
2x Omnipotence

Neither 2 drop is on team, but it doesn't matter, because this isn't really an X-Men deck. Sage is a mental character who allows you to cycle through your deck. This can be incredibly important, because the deck plays only 4 tutors, so you need to draw and cycle to compensate. Captain Boomerang is here, as in my Crisis Doom deck, partly to remove pesky opposing 2 drops, and partly to limit damage until the deck can gain board advantage in the middle game.

The deck plays only one 3 drop, and he's not a mental character, but he's absolutely vital to the deck's functioning. So much so, he's your mulligan condition. The 3 drop Doom can fetch any plot twist you need and put it on top of your deck. If Sage is out, you can go ahead and draw it with her ability. If you don't have both your 4 and 5 drops yet, or ways to get them, you should fetch a copy of Enemy. That is what makes the deck so consistent, despite playing only 4 tutors--the fact that you can get one of them with Doom. But if you do have your next couple of drops lined up, then you can use his ability to go get whatever tool you need out of your toolbox for the current match-up. When I play my Crisis Doom deck against this, my son always fetches Have a Blast!, to take out Crisis, for example. Against Good Guys, Meltdown is good for getting rid of Nth Metals. Against stall, Omnipotence is a good choice. And so on. The point is, Doom makes the deck both more consistent and more versatile.

The one 4 drop, Professor X, is important to the deck in a variety of ways. His leader ability gives Dr. Doom the X-Men affiliation, allowing you to give and get reinforcement, and even to team attack on occasion. If he is face up during recovery, he can draw you an extra card. And perhaps most importantly, he is a mental character, which allows you to fulfill Emma's recruit requirement if you missed Sage on 2. In addition, his defense-oriented 7/8 stats are ideal for this deck, which excels at brickwalling attacks.

By any measure, the 5 drop Emma Frost has to be considered one of the coolest Vs. character cards ever, both for her ability and for her unique alternate art. Like Doom, she makes the deck both more consistent and more versatile. You should always play Enemy and your most important tech cards from your resource row with this deck, because she gives you the ability to leverage any mental card in your hand into a plot twist by flipping it back down. 

The 6 drop Jean Grey is equally powerful, although her effect is wildly unpredictable. I have seen many matches where the entire resource row gets replaced with her effect. Sometimes the new cards are of no use whatsoever; sometimes you replace into plot twists that turn the game in your favor. More often, you get a mixture of the two. Win or lose, though, the unpredictability adds to the joy you get from playing the deck. You quickly forget the times that her effect bought you nothing, but you will remember fondly the time that you brickwalled a massive attack by replacing into multiple copies of Acrobatic Dodge or Cover Fire.

Adding to the deck's synergy, all those plot twists that Jean dumped into your KO'd pile can be retrieved by the main 7 drop, Aquaman. Form with as many characters adjacent to him as possible (it's usually 2 or 3), because that is what determines how many plot twists and/or mental cards you can retrieve with his effect. I prefer to be on odds with this deck, because it is usually hard to win on a turn 6 init. If you are on odds, you can form however you want, maximizing his effect, and use it to retrieve attack pumps, Bamf!, and mental characters--whatever you need to finish the job. The alternate 7, Starfire, is here primarily because she is a reservist, which is important because there is always the chance that Jean will replace all your 7 drops into your row before you can draw or search for them. But she is also really good against stall decks. I used to play Exodus here, because he's mental, but she is much better, and I have never had a problem arise because Aquaman wasn't mental. This does give you one fewer mental card to discard for effects, though.

In the event you go to 8, your opponent is going to have a hard time pushing through damage, because as long as Rachel is upright and you have another mental character on the field, they won't be able to play plot twists. Like Starfire, she is a reservist, so there's no problem if Jean replaces her into your row. Normally you would play only one copy of your 8 drop, but you sometimes have to discard her early for some mental effect, long before you know that you are going to turn 8. It's also good to have one in your KO'd pile if you are defending on 8, because that allows you to use Phoenix Rising on her, to keep the plot twist negation going.

To my mind, this deck's calling card is its ability to brickwall attacks. Four copies of Acrobatic Dodge and three copies of Cover Fire create an ample supply of defensive pumps, and of course the abilities of Emma, Jean and Aquaman combine to make it seem that you have twice as many as you do. Back when I wrote for tcgplayer.com, I did an article about playing an earlier version of this deck at a PCQ. Here I gave a concrete example of just how good this deck is at brickwalling:

Turn 6, my opponent’s initiative. He was playing old-style New Brotherhood and had Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr and Sabretooth, Feral Rage ready to attack. He also had one of the two copies of New Brotherhood he had played, the other having been axed with Have a Blast! Thanks to Phoenix Rising and Bamf!, I had preserved my entire field on earlier turns, so I had Emma Frost and Jean Grey, Red in front, with Professor X, Headmaster and Dr. Doom behind them. My opponent first exhausted the Dr Doom behind Jean with Magneto’s effect, then sent him after her. He flipped Genosha to search for pumps, and obviously found some, because he pumped him up to 23 ATK. Jean had only 12 DEF, so without the option to reinforce, I had some work to do. First I flipped a Cover Fire for +6 DEF (since everyone had range). Then I flipped an Acrobatic Dodge for another +3 DEF. Finally, I played another copy of Acrobatic Dodge from hand for another +3 DEF, to go to 24 DEF. When my opponent passed, I knew he was about out of pumps. Next he sent Sabretooth after Professor X with a Flying Kick, 16 ATK to my 8 DEF. When I discarded a Mental card with Emma’s effect to flip Cover Fire back down, my opponent simply scooped up his cards and extended his hand—and that was even before I showed him the other Acrobatic Dodge in my hand. I was going to completely brickwall both of his attacks, and no one was going to stun when I swung back, because the last card in my hand was a Bamf!

That anecdote also highlights the other thing that the deck is really good at, which is creating board advantage. Two cards mentioned there are keys. I've seen people saying in various forums that cards like Bamf! are unnecessary if you attack intelligently, and to some extent that is true. But when you can attack with all your characters without fear of stunbacks, that means that not only are you not losing any characters, but also that you are not taking any damage. Say you and your opponent both have three characters on the field (3-5). Through intelligent attacks, you can probably keep two characters to their one, and lose 7 endurance in the process. With Bamf! you keep the 7, and your 3 drop. My old buddy on Realms, cchug2001, is the one who showed me the light on this subject, and I have played Bamf! in this deck ever since.

Phoenix Rising is even more important, because it allows you to preserve your field during off inits. This is especially important where Professor X is concerned, because you really want to be able to draw extra cards with him if at all possible. This deck plays a lot of effects that require discards, and you need his help to pay for them. The requirement that there be a copy of the character you want to recover in your KO'd pile is sometimes a problem, and it is tempting to play Children of the Atom instead for that reason. But that's one more effect that requires a discard, and that can create problems of its own.

For the longest time I played four copies of Savage as my only attack pumps, but recently I replaced a couple of rarely used tech cards with Trouble with Dinosaurs, which is pretty much always a +4 to +6. Not sure if these will stick or not, but it seemed like there were a lot more times I needed more pumps than times where I needed Political Pressure or Flame Trap. If you play against rush more than curve, you would probably want to reverse the change.

Another way that this deck creates board advantage is with Mutant Massacre. This card works best when you have Sage sitting in the hidden area doing little. If you can take out their biggest guy on turn 4 or 5 with this effect, it can definitely give you a big advantage heading into the next turn.

The remaining plot twists are tech cards. Omnipotence shuts down key plot twists or payment powers. Meltdown KO's key equipment cards. And Have a Blast! eliminates critical ongoing plot twists and location cards, such as Crisis or Lost City. Only Human is a card that goes in and out of the deck, depending on what decks I've been playing against recently. This is an IN phase. In some match-ups its value is negligible; in others it can be an MVP. Ideally you would want to use Omnipotence to shut down Pathetic Attempt before using it.

I can think of very few decks that I enjoy playing as much as this one, although these days my son is under the delusion that the deck is his, so I rarely get to play it any more. If you do build this deck, think of my list as a starting point, rather than a destination. Experiment with different tech cards, and different ratios of defensive and offensive cards. My build aims for balance, but you could easily shift the balance by replacing defensive pumps with attack pumps, or vice versa, and you can certainly change the flavor of the tech by changing the tech cards. As with my Crisis Doom deck, I am always tweaking the build on this one to keep it fresh, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Insanity

I built this deck for my son shortly after World's Finest came out. It's not ultra-competitive, because it is wildly inconsistent from one game to the next. But it is far more consistent than you would expect, and it is an absolute hoot to play, at least when it is working.

Characters - 31 

[2 - 8]
1x Calendar Man, Julian Gregory Day (Arkham)
1x Crime Doctor, Bradford Thorne (Arkham/Villains)
1x KGBeast, Anatoli Knyazev (Arkham)
1x Tally Man, Tax Time (Arkham)
1x The Penguin, Crime's Early Bird (Arkham)
1x Natasha Irons <> Starlight, Everyman Project (Revenge)
1x Terra-Man, Toby Manning (Revenge)
1x Crispus Allen, Gotham Central (Gotham)
[3 - 7]
1x The Joker, Out of His Mind (Arkham)
1x Two-Face, Jekyll and Hyde (Gotham/Arkham)
1x Professor Emil Hamilton <> Ruin, Power Suit (Revenge)
1x Satanus, Colin Thornton (Revenge)
1x Barbara Gordon <> Oracle, Hacker Elite (Gotham)
1x Batman, Problem Solver (Gotham)
1x Charaxes, Drury Walker (Arkham)
[4 - 5]
1x Batzarro, World’s Worst Detective (Arkham)
1x Firefly, Burning Desire (Arkham)
1x Atomic Skull, Cursed (Revenge)
1x Livewire, Leslie Willis (Revenge)
1x Batman, Twilight Vigilante (Gotham)
[5 - 4]
1x Catwoman, Jewel Thief (Gotham/Arkham)
1x Matt Hagen <> Clayface, Mud Pack (Arkham)
1x Scarecrow, Fear and Loathing (Arkham)
1x Preus, Citizen's Patrol (Revenge)
[6 - 3]
1x Sondra Fuller <> Clayface, Mud Pack (Arkham)
1x Darkseid, The Omega (Revenge)
1x The Joker, Crazy for You (Arkham)
[7 - 2]
1x Basil Karlo <> Ultimate Clayface, Mud Pack (Arkham)
1x Killer Croc, Cannibal (Arkham)
[8 - 1]
1x Bat Mite, #1 Fan (Arkham)
[9 - 1]
1x Mr Mxyptlk, Felonious Fiend (Revenge)

Plot Twists - 27 

[0 - 1]
1x Certifiable
[1 - 7]
1x Beside Myself
1x Bizarro Brawl
1x Crackshot
1x Roshambo
1x Jack in the Box
1x Chilly Reception
1x Bat Signal
[2 - 11]
1x Dimensional Deal, Team-Up
1x Truth and Justice, Team-Up
1x World’s Worstest, Team-Up
1x Battle for Metropolis
1x Skreeeeeee!
1x Knowledge is Power
1x Money Talks
1x Pick a Card
1x Usual Suspects
1x Interrogate
1x Future Shock
[3 - 8]
1x The Hook-Up, Team-Up
1x Batter Up!
1x Batzarro Beatdown
1x Burn Baby Burn
1x Executive Privilege
1x Imprisoned in the Source
1x Obey or Die!
1x Hidden Agenda

Locations - 2

[2 - 2]
1x Graveyard of Solitude
1x Arkham Asylum, Team-Up

Obviously there are a lot of other good one-of cards you could include here, like Enemy and Savage and Ego Gem, but this was designed as a Modern Age deck back when DWF first came out, and I tried to keep it conceptually pure. All of the cards are from DWF with the exception of Roshambo, which was the only insanity card released after DWF. I also limited the characters to three teams: Arkham Inmates, Revenge Squad, and Gotham Knights. I won't go over all 60 cards here, just the better and/or more important ones.

The best 2 drops are Terra-Man and Calendar Man. Terra-Man gets bigger each time you play an ongoing plot twist in your row, and 10 of the plot twists are ongoing. If he makes it to turn 4, he can easily be a 4/4 or 5/5 with flight and range. Calendar Man lets you draw a card, although you also have to discard one at random if you make the mistake of putting him next to another character. Since this deck has little in the way of tutors, drawing extra cards is hugely important.

The best 3 drops are Barbara Gordon and Ruin. Barbara is important because she gives you a free draw every turn, with no drawbacks, and she has substitute, so you can sub her in for a lesser 3 drop later. But Ruin is the critical 3 drop. He can fetch you a team-up if you need one, but more importantly he can get Beside Myself, the most important card in the deck. Mulligan for Ruin, Beside Myself, or Pick a Card. If you have both 3 drops, fetch Beside Myself with Ruin, then sub in Barbara on the next turn unless you desperately need a team-up.

The best 4 drops are Batzarro and Batman. Batzarro is just a 9/8 beatstick who can take a lot of 5 drops without a pump. Batman gives you double stun damage each time he attacks successfully, and since he's hidden he can attack both on and off init. If he stuns a 5 drop, he's going to do 10 in damage, plus any breakthrough. 

The best 5 drop is probably Scarecrow, who can bounce the opposing 3 drop, which will often still be on the board. Matt Hagen is important because he can be recruited from the KO'd pile. With all the random discard effects in the deck, that makes him particularly valuable. There is one character like this at each of the drops where you need them most, 5-7.

Among the 6 drops, Sondra Fuller is another character you can recruit from the KO'd pile. But the one you want if at all possible is Joker. When this deck is working, you can have upwards of 10 cards in hand on turns 6 and 7, and being able to turn any or all of them into +1/+1 pumps for the turn is, well, insanely good. He's your finisher, so save his effect for your kill turn if at all possible, although you can also use him to brickwall if you are defending on 6 and can't afford to be stunned. This deck plays better on evens, but if you get odds it can certainly win on 7, and Joker can help you survive turn 6. Or even turn the tables. If you pump him up while defending on 6, and your opponent can't stun him, you'll get to swing back for major damage against an exhausted field. After Ruin, he is the most important character in the deck. One good but not obvious way to get him: use Pick Two and offer your opponent Joker or Bat-Signal.

Basil Karlo is the best 7 drop. You can recruit him from the KO'd pile, but he also lets you randomly select a character with cost 4 or less from your KO'd pile to bring into play. If you get a 2 drop, that's pretty meh, but if you get a 4 drop like Batzarro or Batman, that can be game changing.

Bat-Mite is the crazy man's Silver Surfer. You won't often make it to 8, but when you do, you will have the initiative. He's a reservist, so be sure to tuck him in your row before you start discarding.

This deck has no real need for a 9 drop, but how can you make an insanity deck and not play the 9 drop Mxyzptlk? Attack with all your other characters first, because every time one of them gets stunned, you get to bring in another character from your deck.

As I said earlier, Beside Myself is the key to this deck. Period. In order for it to work, it needs big time card advantage to compensate for all the effects that require random discards, as well as for the dearth of tutors. Beside Myself makes things hum. Every time you draw one or more cards while it is on the field, you have a 50/50 chance of getting to draw again. And if you guess right and draw, you can do it again. Let's say it's turn 4, and you have Beside Myself flipped up. After you draw for the turn you flip a coin. Guess right and you get to draw another. Rinse and repeat. You played Barbara Gordon on 3 or subbed her in on 4. Draw for her effect. Beside Myself kicks in. Calendar Man is your 2 drop. Activate him to draw. It kicks in again. The Hook-Up is your team-up. Discard for its effect and draw. More coin flipping. There will be times when you crap out 3 times in a row; there will be others when you draw 8 extra cards in a single turn and find yourself laughing uncontrollably. That is why this card is so important, and why it or a way to get it is your mulligan condition. Ruin becomes the most important character in the deck simply because he can fetch it. And Pick a Card is the second most important plot twist, because you can give your opponent a choice between letting you have Beside Myself or Ruin. Do not keep any opening hand that doesn't have one of the three.

Probably the next most important plot twists are Executive Privilege and The Hook-Up. After a discard, Executive Privilege lets you look at the top two cards of your deck and pick a character and/or an ongoing plot twist. Since 2/3 of the deck are one or the other, you will normally get at least one or the other. The Hook-Up lets you discard and draw, which is an important effect even if you don't have Beside Myself. With only 3 actual tutors in the deck, drawing and cycling cards are hugely important. For it to work well, you need to be seeing at least two extra cards per turn, preferably more.

Another sometimes useful draw effect is Certifiable. If you mulliganed your first four, and you still didn't get anything good, but you picked up Certifiable, you can play it before you draw two for the turn to see yet another four cards. That's really the optimal time to play it, unless you are later in the game and your hand consists of unusable cards.

Aside from Pick a Card, the only other real tutors are Bat-Signal and Jack-in-the-Box. Bat-Signal is clearly the best once you get everyone teamed up. Jack-in-the-Box is great for turns 4-7. Don't use it before then if you need a character, or you'll likely hit a plot twist. Use it to get a character card with a cost of 4 or greater. Usual Suspects also lets you search for two character cards with the same cost, but you run the risk of turning around and discarding them. Best used on turns 5-7, where you can pick a character that can be recruited from the KO'd pile.

Apart from The Hook-Up, the best team-up is Askham Asylum. If you hit it early, with an Arkham character on the field, you can team up with Revenge Squad and Gotham Knights, even if you don't control anyone with either affiliation.

The best attack pumps are the ones that give one or more characters +1 ATK for each ongoing plot twist in your row, so be sure not to play anything but the two locations and ongoing plot twists in your row if at all possible. After teaming up, Battle for Metropolis gives everyone in the front row +1 ATK for each. Bizarro Brawl and Graveyard of Solitude both let you give an additional +1 per to a single character, once per turn. There are a few other pumps in the deck, but some of them require discards to get the effect, making these reusable ones especially valuable.

Probably the best of the remaining effects are the following three. Money Talks lets you put a stunned character on top of its owner's deck, wrecking their board and their next draw at the same time. Knowledge is Power designates that unique characters with a particular name cannot recover, ever. It has no effect on decks like Crisis Doom, Crisis Jean, and the various Darkseid and Superman decks that break uniqueness. But it's great for taking out individual troublemakers that you manage to stun back while defending, or even from discouraging attacks by those characters. And Imprisoned in the Sequence is great for shutting down key plot twists after they've been played once--cards like Teen Titans Go! or Cosmic Radiation. Or, for maximum fun, pick Enemy or Mobilize and watch your opponent start missing his drops.

This is not a deck to take to a tournament, but there aren't many of those any more. It's a great one to play just for fun on a Sunday afternoon, though. If you have the cards to build it, or something like it, you'd be crazy not to give it a go. Use this build as is, or take things in a wildly different direction. Just keep in mind that Arkham needs to be your base, and if you play characters from too many different teams, you'll have problems using certain team-based effects.

Defenders Attack!

After the Marvel Universe set came out, I tried repeatedly to make a highly competitive aggro deck based on the Defenders team, but I could never quite do it. Basically I was trying too hard to build a Modern Age deck, when the one card I absolutely needed to make the deck work was in the Marvel Origins set. Now that we play Vs. strictly for fun, I feel comfortable in building this deck with whatever cards I want, and it's a blast to play in its new form.

Characters - 29 

[1 - 4]
4x Wong, Mystical Manservant
[2 - 7]
4x Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian
3x Beast, New Defender
[3 - 6]
4x Hellcat, Patsy Walker
2x Hawkeye, Loud Mouth
[4 - 5]
4x Samantha Parrington <> Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain
1x Richard Rider <> Nova, Xandarian Nova Corps
[5 - 4]
4x Devil-Slayer, Eric Simon Payne
[6 - 2]
2x Wendell Vaughn <> Quasar, Protector of the Universe
[7 - 1]
1x Hulk, Strongest One There Is 

Plot Twists - 31 

[1-8]
4x Flying Kick
4x Mega-Blast
[2-4]
4x Blind Sided
[3-16]
4x Mobilize
4x The B Team
4x The Order
4x Combat Reflexes
[4-3]
3x Astral Projection

The only 1 drop is Wong. He's here as tutors 9-12. It's not important to get him, but it is important to hit your curve, 2-5, and he greatly increases your chances of doing that. There is no hard mulligan condition for this deck, but I would certainly keep any hand that gave me a 2 and a 3, or a way to get them.

The main 2 drop is Tania, who gives someone else +4 ATK for the turn. Beast is OK, but you will want to sub in Tania for him on your kill turn. He's easy to keep around because he has evasion. If you have both of them on 2, I guess I would play him for that reason.

The first critical drop is 3. If at all possible, you want Hellcat here, partly because she's hidden, and partly because of her effect, which is to give another character +2/+2 for the turn. It's the DEF boost that's important, and besides Beast (who takes away ATK), she's the only DEF boost available until turn 6. I'll explain why this is important shortly. Hawkeye is good against certain decks, but in general he is simply better than nothing. A better play, thematically, would actually be Arthur Kendrick - Knight, but he's a Checkmate character, and his presence on the field would negate Mobilize. Maybe as a 1 of? You can search for him with The "B" Team. I'll have to think about that one. In any case, it's important to hit Hellcat over Hawkeye, because Hellcat does not have substitute.

The next critical drop is Samantha on 4. It's OK to play Nova on turn 4 as long as you have Samantha or a way to get her. But he's here just to avoid missing entirely on 4, and there's always the chance you can play him on 4 and then draw into Samantha or a tutor on the next turn. She's the one you want, though, because this deck is all about making two big attacks in a single turn with a single character, and she makes that possible.

The final one is Devil-Slayer on 5. This deck wants to play on odds and win with Devil-Slayer attacking twice that turn. Ideally you would have a field consisting of Tania, Hellcat, Samantha, and Devil-Slayer. Together, Tania and Hellcat can give him +6/+2 for the turn, making him 15/11, and Samantha lets him attack twice. Typically you will have 2-4 pumps in hand too, giving him another 6-14 in ATK. So at the time you start his first attack, he is generally over 20 ATK for the turn, and attacking twice. Then his effect kicks in. When he attacks, you reveal the top 5 cards from your deck. Any plot twists get removed from the game, and can be played during the current attack. Typically you will hit another pump here. When he attacks the second time, you get to do that again. He is almost always at 30 ATK or more during the second one. It's the uncertainty and randomness of those 10 revealed cards that make this deck fun to play. Sometimes you get a bunch of characters and tutors; sometimes you hit the jackpot. It's the jackpot turns that keep you coming back for more.

Now, for this double attack concept to work, two things have to happen, besides hitting sufficient pumps. First, Devil-Slayer has to stay upright after the first attack, so you can't let him get stunned. That's why Hellcat was important. You can swing into the smallest character on their board, of course, but sometimes that character is one Nasty Surprise away from a stun-back. Second, you have to take away reinforcement. That was the part that always got me when I was trying to build a Modern Age deck. Sure he was big, but the first attack always did very little damage. But with a Golden Age build, you can play Blind Sided, and that was the piece I was always missing. With just one copy of it, it now becomes possible to do 20-30 in damage or more in each of the two attacks, because you've taken away reinforcement in the first one. (Note: I was working on this deck right after MUN first came out, long before Blind Sided was reprinted in DCL. Probably should have tried again after that.)

Generally you don't want to go to turn 6 unless you are on evens. If you don't have anything except Devil-Slayer on your board, you'll need to play Samantha and Tania here, which is fine. If you have Samantha, then you'll want to play Quasar, who can give Devil-Slayer +4/+4 for the turn. As long as you have Blind Sided by now, you can pretty much always win on a turn 6 init because there is virtually no chance of a stun-back with that +4/+4 working, and since you've had one more turn to draw pumps, Devil-Slayer is generally bigger than he would be on 5.

The turn 7 Hulk is for times when you are on odds, but something went awry and you were unable to attack twice on 5. Maybe you missed a key drop, maybe you lost Samantha on 4, maybe you missed Blind Sided. Whatever. Hulk can attack twice all on his own, and he should be able to finish the deal, even without Devil-Slayer's cool effect.

The critical plot twist is of course Blind Sided, as I've already explained. Two others that really make the deck work well are Astral Projection and The Order. Astral Projection is more important to hit if you are on evens, because it allows you on turn 5 to move all your characters except one to the hidden area, so you can preserve your board going into turn 6. Leave Samantha out there and pump her up to 11/11 with Tonia and Hellcat. Three copies has always been enough for me, but if you want to drop a copy of a pump for a fourth, I could see that. The Order is for use on your kill turn. Activate all your backup characters to give Devil-Slayer his boost, then play The Order and ready them so you can do it again. You can't use Samantha twice, but now that she's ready you can sub in another copy of her, or one of Nova, and have your 4 drop attack as well for a little extra damage. Sometimes that extra attacker can solve the reinforcement problem for you, too.  If you get to use Tania and Hellcat twice, Devil-Slayer will be 21/13 before you've played your first attack pump on him.

As in the Concussive Force deck, all of the attack pumps are for-the-turn, because you want to get the effect for both attacks. +3 twice is better than a Savage once. Since this is a Golden Age deck, the main pump is Mega-Blast. Flying Kick gives flight, but since Devil-Slayer already has it, that's not important. I play Combat Reflexes instead of Crackshot because every once in a while I find myself using it on an off-init to move someone around to give reinforcement. In this deck, that happens very rarely, but then I never need the range that Crackshot gives either.

The only other plot twists are the tutors, Mobilize and The "B" Team. The latter can get you your 3 drop even if you missed on 1 and 2. The former allows you to discard any card you want, and not just Defenders characters with backup. They are both equally good here. In general, this deck is about as good as any non-Checkmate deck gets in terms of tutoring, so it is quite consistent in terms of hitting its drops.

I suggested before that what makes this deck so fun is the uncertainty of the revealed cards on Devil-Slayer's attack. I'll give you an example. The last time I played this deck, I was facing my son's Faces of Evil deck. He was way ahead, and had come within a single point of finishing me on his turn 4 init. But I had lived to see turn 5, so I had a chance. Unfortunately, my son recruited Marcus Daniels <> Blackout, and paid 1 resource point to give his entire field reinforcement. With no copies of Blind Sided in hand, I just had to declare my attack and hope for the best. I was at 30+ ATK, but I was going to do a whopping 1 point in damage on my first attack. I do the reveal, and JACKPOT! Blind sided and more pumps. I'm at 39 ATK and reinforcement is gone. Next attack, another Blind Sided. Game over.

Matches with this deck are rarely that dramatic, but there is always a bit of drama involved in the reveal, even if you already have Blind Sided. Sometimes Devil-Slayer gets big enough to win the game on the first attack alone; sometimes you eek out victory on his second attack; sometimes you throw snake eyes. I've played several decks with similar themes over the years, but I think this one is my favorite, simply because of the added excitement generated by Devil-Slayer's effect. If this kind of deck interests you, then I'm pretty sure you would like this one.

IG Handfill

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.

Concussive Force

Everyone hates the Marvel Evolution set because of the Exiles deck that abused Panoptichron and the 3 drop Blink. It's a shame, because if you can look past all the shift nonsense, you can find some really cool deck possibilities coming out of it. This Cyclops-themed deck is of my favorites, and even though all the key cards come from MEV, it has more of a Marvel Legends feel to it. That's a good thing.

Characters - 27

[2 - 7]
4x Forge, The Maker
3x Beast, Wild and Wooly
[3 - 6]
4x Cyclops, Mutant Hunter
2x Iceman, Jack Frost
[4 - 5]
3x Rictor, Julio Rictor
2x X-23, Genetic Miracle
[5 - 4]
3x Cannonball, Samuel Guthrie
1x Wolverine, Secret Avenger
[6 - 3]
2x Cyclops, Astonishing X-Man
1x Mimic, Earth-12 - Infected
[7 - 2]
2x Blink, Earth 295 - Team Leader

Plot Twists - 33

[1 - 8]
4x Crackshot
4x Flying Kick
[3 - 18]
4x Mobilize
4x Children of the Atom
4x Call in a Favor
4x Fearless Leader
2x Combat Reflexes
[4 - 4]
4x Concussive Force
[5 - 3]
3x Omnipotence

The deck starts a little slow, because the 2 drops are underwhelming. Not many great choices with the X-Men affiliation. I went with Forge as the main 2 drop, because this deck wants to be played on evens, and on a turn 3 off-init, he can make your 3 drop into a 4 drop. Beast is a decent alternative. On that same turn, he allows you to cycle two cards, which is great if you are still looking for key pieces.

Things pick up on turn 3. For a common, the 3 drop Cyclops is quite good. He's a 5/4 (and sometimes a 7/6, thanks to Forge) who doesn't stun while attacking. That is key in terms of building board advantage. If you are on your preferred initiative of evens, and you have your 3 and your 4 attacking, you are going to keep both, because only one of them can stun, whereas your opponent will likely lose his 3. He is also important because he enables the use of Fearless Leader and Concussive Force, as I'll get to later. The alternate 3 is Iceman, and he is an excellent fallback choice. On your first off-init with him, on 3 or 4, he is going to see to it that two opposing characters cannot ready in the recovery phase. That will make it easier to attack for maximum effect on the following turn. Unfortunately, his name is not Cyclops, so he's an alternate. In any case, I think I would keep any opening hand that had either 3 drop, or a way to get one.

The two 4 drops in the deck are both excellent, and I am increasingly torn as to which one should be primary. Against decks that count heavily on having certain cards in their resource row, Rictor is a one man wrecking crew. Just play any plot twist while he is in combat, either attacking or defending, and you get to replace a face-up resource. This guy is a common, while Phat is a rare? If you don't need to pump him, just play a tutor to trigger the effect. More and more, though, I am attracted to X-23. If you play a plot twist while she is in combat, she will KO whoever she stuns. Talk about board advantage. If you are attacking on turn 4, run Cyclops into their 3 (he can't stun), then have X-23 take out their 4. On turn 5, you will have your 3-5 drops, and your opponent will have a 3 and a 5. Since she's hidden, she can take out the 5 drop on 5, too, if he hasn't stunned already. In general, I prefer to play 4 copies of my main 4 drop and 1 copy of my alternate, but both are so good it's hard to choose.

When I first built this deck, I played four copies of Cannonball as the only 5 drop. Along with the move toward X-23, I have also added Wolverine as an alternate 5. Cannonball has an incredible combo with the 6 drop Cyclops, but Wolverine is excellent against all hidden decks, and if you use him strategically, you can get two attacks out of him on a single turn, all on his own. In general, if you are on evens, and you are going to play Cyclops as your 6, I would always play Cannonball on 5. In other situations, Wolverine merits consideration.

If you are on evens, this is the turn where you should win if you had even average draws. Assuming that you have a field comprised of Cannonball, 6 drop Cyclops, and maybe a 4 drop, you can really go to town. First, attack with Cannonball into the opposing 6 drop with one or more for-the-turn pumps. He won't stun, and he'll take down the 6 easily. Next, attack the 5 drop with Cyclops, readying Cannonball. If you both still have your 4 drops, take out theirs with yours. Now use Fearless Leader to ready Cyclops. He can only team attack, but if the opposing field is stunned, you can team attack to the face with Cyclops and Cannonball. That is this deck's go-to move, readying Cyclops after he has already attacked once, and then team attacking to the face with Cannonball.

But what if he stunned on his first attack? No worries. Just use Children of the Atom to recover him before playing Fearless Leader. I promise that if you team attack to the face on 6, the game will be over, because you will be doing a minimum of 29 on that one attack if you pumped Cannonball once.

The alternate 6 is Mimic, and in a vacuum, he is the better character. His effect is just incredibly powerful, although it's hard to tell just how good from the printed card. It sounds like he gets all the effects of all opposing characters that were on the field when he entered play. But he's even better. His effect is continuous, and he will gain and lose abilities as the opponent's field changes. Just an incredibly powerful card, but his name isn't Cyclops, so you play him only if you still have your 3 drop on turn 6, which can happen.

Let's say you are on evens, and you came just shy of finishing the job on the previous turn. You still have your 5 and 6, and your opponent now has a 6 and a 7. Before your recruit, play Concussive Force to make him exhaust his only two characters. Then recruit Blink and have her use her come into play effect to send Cyclops out of play until the start of your attack step. Your opponent will of course have no attacks, and when Cyclops comes back, he will be ready. Swing once with Blink into their 6, then attack the 7 with Cyclops and your 5. Ready Blink and swing to the face. More shenanigans are possible if you have another Fearless Leader and a Children of the Atom. In any case, the combination of Blink, Cyclops, and Concussive Force on turn 7 is just crazy good. Even if you can't exhaust their entire field, they will likely have only one potential attacker. So have Blink send everyone else out of play. Let her stay and soak up some damage, then the rest of your characters will come in during your attack step and finish what they started on turn 6.

One of the things that always held back mono X-Men decks was the lack of a good team-specific tutor. It's a real shame that teams like Defenders and Checkmate have terrific tutors, while X-Men has spit. Fortunately, there is Call in a Favor. It's got that horrible downside, like Secret Files, that your opponent gets to use your effect. But if you use it only when absolutely necessary, preferably on your off-inits, then it's typically a net positive. Just don't use it to get a power-up. Mobilize is of course the preferred choice, as long as your field isn't empty.

You will notice that all of the attack pumps in the deck are of the for-the-turn variety. Flying Kick, Crackshot and Combat Reflexes. This is because the deck wins by having one or more characters attack twice in the same turn, and if you are attacking twice with +3 ATK, that's generally better than once with a +5. (Mega-Blast would be even better here, but I was going for a Silver Age-type build. As if there were any Silver Age tournaments I could enter...) The only other plot twist apart from the combo pieces is Omnipotence. Use it to stop whatever you think will ruin your party. If you are planning on using Concussive Force, for example, I'd suggest calling Pathetic Attempt.

I've already explained how Fearless Leader and Concussive Force should be used in the deck. In general, I would save Fearless Leader until your kill turn. It is the more important of the two because this deck is built to win by attacking twice with one or more characters. Despite having the cooler name, Concussive Force is not quite as central to the deck's functioning, and you can easily win without ever drawing it. But if you are behind the curve, it can be a life saver. If you need it, don't wait until turn 7 to use it, because you might not get there. Go ahead and use it to neuter one of your opponent's inits. Last weekend, I was playing this deck against one that used Fastball Special. On turn 5, I was behind, and my opponent had four attackers, two of which were tiny. As I expected, he used Fastball to take out my 5 drop. Once his little guys were exhausted, I played Concussive Force to exhaust the two bigger guys. I took only 5 in damage, and I was able to turn around and wreck him on turn 6 for the win.

Children of the Atom serves a variety of purposes in the deck. The most basic one is preserving your field, but it also has great synergy with the rest of the deck, notably the 6 drop Cyclops, Fearless Leader, and also the 4 drop Wolverine. Let's say that he is attacking the last unstunned character on your opponent's field. He's going to stun him, but he's going to be stun back. Once he gets the stun, his readying effect will go on the chain. If you do nothing, he'll be stunned and the effect will fizzle. But if you chain Children, it will resolve first, and Wolverine will recover before the readying effect resolves, so he will be upright and able to attack again. This is yet another example of the terrific synergy in this deck.

This was one of the first decks I built with cards from Marvel Evolution, and it remains one of my favorites from that or any other set. I can certainly understand the feelings of people who hate MEV because of the ill-considered shift mechanic, and the set's association with the end of the game we love. But if you can set all that aside and give this deck a fair shot, I think you'll enjoy playing it.

Update, March 23, 2015:

Since writing this, I've switched to playing X-23 as the main 4 drop. I now play 4x X-23 and 1x Rictor. I only use Rictor for certain match-ups, such as Checkmate decks, where his effect creates huge problems.

Crisis Doom

The first Vs. deck I ever built was Common Enemy. I didn't win with it very much, partly because of the so-so build, and partly because of the so-so player playing it. But that deck bore much fruit down the road, because many of the cards I accumulated for that deck found their way into my favorite control deck of all time, Crisis Doom. I have futzed and fiddled with the build a lot over time, but this is the current one:

Characters - 27 

[1 - 4]
4x Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom (Doom)
[2 - 6]
4x San, The Alienated One (Inhumans)
2x Captain Boomerang, George Harkness (Injustice Gang)
[3 - 4]
4x Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival (Doom)
[4 - 4]
2x Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius (Doom)
1x Rictor, Julio Rictor (X-Force, X-Men)
1x Jester, Jonathan Powers (Crime Lords)
[5 - 4]
1x Black Manta, Underwater Marauder (Secret Society)
1x Kristoff Von Doom, Pretender to the Throne (Doom)
1x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist
1x Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mogul (Injustice Gang, Revenge Squad)
[6 - 2]
1x Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant (Doom)
1x Human Torch, Herald
[7 - 2]
1x Koriand'r <> Starfire, X'Hal's Fury (Teen Titans)
1x Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas (JLA)
[8 - 1]
1x Dr. Doom, Latverian Monarch (Doom) 

Plot Twists - 29 

[1 - 2]
1x Unmasked
1x Political Pressure
[2 - 4]
4x Crisis on Infinite Earths
[3 - 10]
4x Enemy of My Enemy
2x Faces of Doom
2x Mobilize
1x Death of the Dream
1x Time Thief
[4 - 11]
3x Reign of Terror
4x Mystical Paralysis
4x Savage Beatdown
[5 - 2]
2x Omnipotence

Locations - 5 

[1 - 3]
3x Doomstadt, Castle Doom
[2 - 1]
1x Latveria
[3 - 1]
1x Stryker's Island

The only 1 drop is Boris. I actually get his effect more often than you would think, because of Doomstadt, and the effects of the 2 drops. I use it to get Reign, Crisis, a tutor, or whatever tech card I need most for the current match-up.

When I first built this deck, it was a stall deck that ran Puppet Master as the 2 drop of choice. Over time, I have settled on the two I am playing now. San is here primarily to fetch Doomstadt, but Latveria and Stryker's Island are both good targets if you already have Doomstadt. Captain Boomerang is terrific against any deck that plays a troublesome 1 or 2 drop, like Quicksilver or Atom Smasher. 

The only 3 drop is Richard's Rival, and he is truly the key to the deck. Mulligan for him, or a way to get him. He can search for Crisis, Enemy, Faces of Doom, or whatever other plot twist you need most but don't yet have. Just be careful about searching for Reign with him, because the card goes on top of your deck, not in your hand, so if your opponent makes you replace a resource, it will get dumped into your row. Only a Doomstadt (which has terraform) can salvage it.

For the longest time, I played four copies of the Diabolic Genius as my only 4 drop, but recently I have been experimenting with a pair of toolbox characters here. Doom will be the choice most of the time, and if you get him you can flip down Crisis or some other plot twist with his effect. Turning down Crisis allows his plot twist negation effect to come into play where it otherwise wouldn't. If you are defending on 4, it's really sweet to use Mystical in your row with your 3 drop, flip it back down, and use it again with your 4. That was my go-to move on 4 back when I played this as a stall deck. Now I play it as a control deck, aiming to thwart my opponent's plans at every turn, which is why I have plugged in the other two 4 drops. Jester is good against any deck that relies heavily on equipment cards. For example, he's great for stealing Nth Metals from Good Guys decks, or Advanced Hardware from Voltage. Whether he's better than Doom here depends on whether you've got Reign or not. Rictor is great against decks that need specific cards in their rows in order to function, such as Lost City or New Brotherhood. Keep in mind that any plot twist you play while he is in combat, either defending or attacking, will trigger the effect. When he's on the field, I always try to save my tutors until he is in combat.

Turn 5 has always been a toolbox with this deck, using four different characters, with the hope of deploying the best one for the current match-up. Black Manta (or Garth, if you prefer) is probably my most frequent choice so long as Crisis is on the field, and you need it to get around the loyalty requirement. Retrieving a spent copy of Mystical Paralysis or Savage or a tutor can be game-changing. Kristoff is used mainly when I don't have Crisis and I need to play a Doom character. His effect is terrific in conjunction with Doom 4's. Mr. Sinister sees play against a lot of decks, because he negates so many key effects during combat. But against decks that have a lot of activated effects, Lex is even better, because he turns them off the entire time that he is upright. Ahmed hates Lex.

For turn 6 I have always played one Dr. Doom character, and there are two to choose from. You need Crisis on the field in order to recruit either, but it turns off the effect of the MOR Doom, so the MHG version is an easy choice. (Note: Actually, someone reminded me that there are four. The Ultimates one is worthless. There is also one in MUN that is good, although I think I still prefer the MHG guy.) His effect is great on turns where you are attacking, and you know you are going to lose a character. Might as well go ahead and KO the smallest guy, after he stuns, to flip a Mystical or a Savage or an Enemy back down. You can also sacrifice San to his effect if he's still around. I've tried a variety of other 6 drops in the second slot over time--Dreadnought Tank, Holcaust - Nemesis, Supermanhunter, Grodd. Currently I am using the Human Torch that negates a ton of targeting effects. Another great choice here would be Mimic - Earth 12, from MEV, and I imagine I will be giving him a try here soon. I have a feeling he might help more than Torch in the match-ups I tend to lose. In fact, where did I put that card?

There's a 7 drop Dr. Doom, but his effect is nil with Crisis on the field, so don't bother. My go-to play on 7 is Aquaman, who can generally get back 2 or 3 cards from your KO pile for you, depending on how many characters you have and how you form. Just a terrific effect. Garth++. I used to play the MTU Spider-man as my other 7, but I am experimenting with Starfire right now. She's great against stall decks. Just be careful, when picking your toolbox characters, not to choose all characters with loyalty at a given drop. You will regret it when your opponent has Have a Blast-ed your Crisis, and you have to underdrop because your only 7 drops have loyalty requirements you can't meet.

The game finisher is the Latverian Monarch. Don't even think about playing the MOR guy. Crisis neuters him, too. This deck works best on evens, with Doom 8 cleaning house. Choose your initial attacks carefully, then KO a guy who stunned so you can  ready everyone else and attack again. You can be way, way behind with this deck heading into turn 8 and still win if you can pull off a double-attack barrage. He is the ultimate finisher, and there is no reason to consider playing any other 8 drop here. Even if you only get to swing twice with just him, that's pretty awesome, especially if you've got Doomstadt giving him 22 ATK.

Of all the decks I've ever built, I think this one plays the biggest variety of plot twists and locations, 12 of the former, and 3 of the latter. Nevertheless, the backbone of the deck are the ones played in 3's and 4's, starting with the Doom-specific plot twists. Mystical Paralysis is generally the more useful, since you can play it on any turn from 4 on. Like most Doom decks, this one wins by buggering your opponent's initiatives, and Mystical does just that by exhausting their biggest guy. But Reign of Terror has the more broken effect, and there is no sweeter play in Vs. than a double dose of Reign against a rush deck. You can play 4 copies if you want, to increase your chances of getting it, but it is typically a dead card before and after turn 4, so I generally play only 3. In fact, a strong case could be made for playing only 1 or 2, since you usually get it with Boris or Doom 3 rather than drawing into it.

The tutors are generally self-explanatory. Enemy is easier to use in this deck than any other, since you almost never need to search for a character with the team affiliation of the card you most want to discard. You can even use it to get unaffiliated characters, so long as Crisis is on the field. Mobilize, on the other hand, is generally usable only when Crisis is on the field, which is why I play just two copies of it. Faces of Doom is normally used to get the 4, 6, or 8 drop Dooms, although you can get the 3 with it if you have Doomstadt.

Crisis is, of course, the most important plot twist in the deck, not only because it allows multiple copies of Doom to be played at the same time, but also because it allows such a wide variety of characters to be played together, including unaffiliated ones and ones with loyalty requirements. The deck will function without it, but it will be crippled badly, and your chances of winning go down considerably. The only protection you have for it is Omnipotence. Against decks that you know play Have a Blast! or something similar, like Death of the Dream, then that's the card you want to call when you flip Omnipotence.

The rest of the plot twists are one-of tech cards, some of which are good only in certain match-ups. Death of the Dream is not. It's good against a lot of decks, and I now play it over Have a Blast! because it can take out two birds with one stone, like Lost City and Avalon Space Station. It's generally only good on off-inits, but in games where San lingers around forever, you can also use it on your initiative. Unmasked is tech against decks that rely on power-ups, such as Good Guys or Brave and the Bold. Political Pressure is for decks that like to recruit lots of little guys, like Faces of Evil. And Time Thief is great against stall and other long curve decks. Oh, you were counting on winning with your one copy of Galactus? So sorry. Anyway, feel free to experiment with different tech cards.

The main location is Doomstadt. It enables Boris and Faces of Doom, and it gives all your Dr. Doom's +3 ATK. Early on, I used to play the MOR version that gives +3 DEF, but a friend of mine on Realms talked me into trying the MHG version, and I've never looked back. +3 DEF is just a speed bump for an aggro deck. The MHG version is great first of all because it has terraform, which lets you fix your row, but more importantly it gives multiple characters a continuous +3, which means you don't need to play as many attack pumps as you otherwise might. It also makes it easier to generate board advantage. With +3 ATK, your 3 drop can take down a 4, and your 4 can take down a 5, allowing you to swing up the curve more easily, so that your bigger guy can swing down and not get stunned back. It's much easier to create board advantage that way than by brickwalling attacks, because so many decks have boatloads of pumps at their disposal.

Latveria is one of the most recent additions to the deck. It allows you to Reign on 3 instead of 4, and to play Omnipotence on 4, so you can shut down Have a Blast! before you flip Crisis. This is usually San's next target now, if I already have Doomstadt. I added Stryker's Island to the deck back when I first added San, to give him an alternate target. It was a great addition. This deck will frequently have face up resources with four or five different costs by turn 5 or 6, so this is almost always a reusable +3 ATK pump, and frequently a +5. Since Doomstadt and Savage are the only other pumps, this one little card can be invaluable.

Because of the power and diversity of effects that this deck offers, it has decent to great match-ups against virtually everything that doesn't play Panoptichron. The two decks it struggles with are of course the two that my son always reaches for when he knows I'm going to play this one. IG Handfill just kills this deck, because it shuts down most plot twists in the middle turns, then burns you out before you can do enough damage of your own. Very hard to beat that deck if you can't Reign the draw-inducing Lex on 4. Be sure to play your own Lex on 5 to limit some of the burn effects. The real nemesis, though, is X-Mental. Just a horrible, horrible match-up, at least against our build. It plays a bunch of defensive pumps, and it can play the same one multiple times thanks to Emma Frost and Aquaman. (I'll post the list in a future blog entry.) With limited access to pumps, it's hard to break through that deck's defenses. When your guy stuns, he risks getting Mutant Massacre'd. Worst of all, your opponent can Have a Blast! your Crisis on every turn once Emma comes out, and he can search for it with his own 3 drop Doom. My son loves that match-up.

In general, though, this deck does very well against almost everything, because of Mystical, Reign, and all the toolbox cards. When I was writing about my S.H.I.E.L.D. deck, I said that it was like a box of chocolates, because it played differently depending on which cards you got. Well, that deck is the teeny tiny Whitman's Sampler that little kids buy on Valentine's Day for their adolescent crushes. This is the king-sized one you buy for Mom on Mother's Day to share with the entire family for the next two weeks. It never plays the same way two matches in a row, and it always seems to offer something tasty for the current one.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I've always been attracted to control decks that aimed to frustrate my opponent's plans, and when this deck is working, it is extremely frustrating to play against. Hence, I love it. Here's the list:

Characters - 27 

[0 - 1]
1x Life Model Decoy, More Human Than Human
[2 - 7]
4x Yelena Belova <> Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. - HYDRA
3x Clint Barton <> Hawkeye, Ultimates
[3 - 6]
4x Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
2x Blade, Independent Contractor
[4 - 5]
4x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
1x Lady Deathstrike, Opportunistic Killer
[5 - 4]
4x Green Goblin, Director of the Thunderbolts
[6 - 2]
2x Melissa Gold <> Songbird, Caged Angel
[7 - 2]
1x Iron Man, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
1x Carol Danvers <> Ms. Marvel, Mighty Avenger 

Plot Twists - 27 

[2 - 4]
4x Speedball Is Dead
[3 - 16]
4x Mobilize
4x Call in a Favor
4x Code White
4x Against All Odds
[4 - 7]
4x Savage Beatdown
3x Pathetic Attempt 

Locations - 3 

[3 - 3]
3x Stark Armory 

Equipment - 4 

[0 - 4]
3x Extremis Upgrade
1x Hulkbuster Armor

This curve deck is built to win on 6 when on evens, and on 7 when on odds. Given a choice, I would take odds, because I prefer to be defending on 4. It's also harder to win on 6, since you generally want to attack with Radioactive Man only on 3 and your last init. Once you have a few counters on him, it is worth more to lock your opponent out of playing plot twists than it is to attack for 8. 

Life Model Decoy rarely gets played, but he can be a game winner in certain match-ups. I wouldn't recommend playing him before turn 5, and even then only if it's an off-init and your opponent just dropped a guy with an incredibly useful effect. For example, suppose it is turn 5 and your opponent just recruited Black Manta. You bring in Life Model Decoy to copy him. Now you have the same broken effect to leverage that he does: pay 3 to get back the best card in your KO pile. Code White? A Savage? The Extremis you lost last turn? He's a very situational play, obviously, but for me he is just too good, and too fun, to leave out.

The preferred two drop is Black Widow. You want her sitting in the hidden area, just waiting for an opportunity to KO their biggest character after he stuns. Hawkeye has a similar effect, but can be used only when he's in your hand. Ideally, you would use his effect once, exhausting Black Widow for the cost, and later use Black Widow's own effect. If you recruit Hawkeye, you will be hoping to draw into another one later.

There are two key characters in this deck, starting with the main 3 drop, Radioactive Man. Your mulligan condition is him, or a way to get him. He can get really, really big, and once he has a few counters on him, it becomes extremely hard for your opponent to execute his game plan. Savage Beatdown isn't much good on turn 6 if it costs 7 resource points to play it. The alternate 3 drop, Blade, should almost never be played if you can play Radioactive Man. He's better than nothing, and against all hidden decks he is very good, but you should rarely play him given the choice. Maybe against a deck like my Muramasa Blade deck, which is going to KO Radioactive Man anyway, but other than something like that, no. The absolute optimal play on 3 is Radioactive Man, with a Speedball is Dead before he gets stunned. If you can pull that off, he will have three counters at the start of your next recruit, and you'll be off to the races.

The other key character is Iron Man. The dream play for turn 4 is to have an Iron Man in front with an Extremis Armor, Radioactive Man with three counters in the back, and a Code White in your hand or your row. Your opponent will not want to fly over Tony into Radioactive Man, because Iron Man's effect will cause him to recover and gain a counter. If he attacks Iron Man first, he has to go through him twice before he can get to Radioactive Man, and often he can't use any plot twists to do it. Code White is a dream crusher here. Suppose they take out Iron Man, then go after Radioactive Man. Once the attack is legal, play Code White to recover Iron Man. That will insure that Radioactive Man will recover and gain an extra counter, and you get to keep both characters. If you manage to stun their biggest guy and KO him with Yelana or Clint that same turn, even better. This deck generally wins once Radioactive Man has a few counters if you have board advantage. Oh, the alternate 4 drop should never be played on 4. She is in the deck because she has Substitute, and surprisingly often, your 4 drop Iron Man makes it to turn 7 intact. Before I added Lady Deathstrike to the deck, I always had to choose between playing my alternate 7 drop or KO'ing my 4 to uniqueness. Now I can have it both ways.

Turn 5 is Green Goblin. He is good, but not great, and will usually add a counter to Radioactive Man on 6. Forming for turn 5 is always a tough choice. On the one hand, you want him next to Radioactive Man, so he can add a counter to him on 6. On the other hand, it's good to have him next to Iron Man, especially if you are attacking, so that you can attack with him first and recover him automatically. In most cases, I usually form with Radioactive Man in the back with Iron Man in front of him and Goblin to his side, but I can imagine situations where it is better to move Goblin up front, especially if Radioactive Man already has plenty of counters. 

Turn 6 is Melissa Gold. She is about on par with the Goblin. If you still have your 3-5 drops, as is often the case, it's probably best to place her alongside Iron Man, and in front of Goblin. If they go after her first, Iron Man will recover her automatically. If they go after Iron Man or Goblin, she gets bigger before they can attack her. Your opponent can drive himself crazy trying to decide who to attack and when, playing against this deck, especially with the threat of a well-timed Code White lingering.

On 7 you generally want to play the other Iron Man, preferably with a Hulkbuster and an Extremis Armor, one of which he can find for himself. With the Hulkbuster on, he's got a massive 23 ATK when he goes after the opposing 7. Brickwall that. Carol Danvers isn't nearly as good, but if the alternative is to KO your perfectly good 4 drop, then playing her won't seem so bad. (I've faced fewer decisions like this since I added Deathstrike to the deck.) If you have board advantage at this point, and you are attacking, she is plenty good enough to finish the game.

The one location in the deck is crazy good if you can get it by turn 3 or 4. Flipping a Stark Armory on 3 is the bees knees, because it means that at the start of combat on 4, your Iron Man is going to be a 9/9. Keep in mind that this card has two completely separate powers. The first one, which puts counters on Iron Man, is an activated power. At the start of combat, give the Armory its counter, then activate to move it to Iron Man. The second effect is non-activated: move counters from Iron Man back to the Armory. Generally you would do that on the turn where he is not going to be recovered, or on the turn where you sub him out for Deathstrike.

The plot twists are all good, and serve a variety of purposes, but the MVP is unquestionably Code White. I can't stress enough how demoralizing it is to your opponent, when he thinks he's got you on the ropes, for you to flip a Code White that will allow you to recover your entire board. Against All Odds simply adds to their woes, especially if they are locked out of their own attack pumps by Radioactive Man. Brickwalling made easy. If you don't care about Silver vs. Golden, replace the Against All Odds with Cover Fire. All the characters except Blade and Deathstrike have range, so it's generally a +4 or +6 DEF effect, with no loss of ATK.

Speedball is Dead is almost strictly for making Radioactive Man bigger, although I suppose you could use it on Goblin or Songbird if they have got someone pumped up to 20+ ATK and you can't reinforce. Mobilize and Call in a Favor are the tutors. Be very careful with Call in a Favor. Once Radioactive Man gets big, your opponent can have a hard time hitting his drops, because his own tutors get shut down. Using Call can bail him out. Try to use it on off-inits, after your opponent has already recruited, to minimize the benefit to your opponent.

Savage Beatdown is the only attack pump, and the cost of 4 generally isn't an issue, since this deck doesn't attack much before 5. You could substitute Big Leagues if you wanted to be able to pump on 3, I guess. The only other plot twist is Pathetic Attempt. It's here mainly to prevent Radioactive Man, or possibly Iron Man, from being KO'ed or exhausted by an opponent's effect.

The last two cards in the deck are equipment cards for use on the two Iron Man characters. In general, you want to save Hulkbuster for your 7 drop, but if you lost your 3 drop early and are struggling, you can put it on your 4 drop Iron Man and try to generate some board advantage. Swing down with your Goblin into their 4 drop, then up with Tony into the opposing 5 drop with your +5 ATK. Even if Goblin stuns, he will recover because of Tony's effect. The more important card is Extremis Upgrade. The synergy between Radioactive Man, Iron Man, Extremis Upgrade, and Code White in this deck is simply terrific. If you have those four cards on turn 4, your opponent is in a world of trouble, because very few decks have the fire power to break through that wall, especially if you had a Speedball on 3 and they can't use their pumps.

If you are good at math, you may have noticed that this deck plays 61 cards. Back in the day, I used to read lots of diatribes on Realms about the evil of going over 60 cards. I never worried about that too much. In all the years I played the game, I never once felt I had lost a match I would have won if I had cut a card, and I lost just as many matches due to missed drops with my 60 card decks as with the ones that played 61. Nevertheless, if you're a stickler for 60, I guess you would want to cut the Life Model Decoy, whose use is very situational, or perhaps a copy of Against All Odds.

I currently have about 60 Vs. decks built (thanks to the miracles of ink jet printers and proxies), and this one is easily in the top 5 in terms of how often it gets played. Unlike some decks, which always seem to play the same way every time, this one is a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. The characters are usually the same, at least from 3 on, but so much changes depending on whether you get an Armory or not, or an Extremis, or a Code White. It's fun to play, and challenging, but also rewarding. Hard to ask for much more from a deck of trading cards.