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.