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.