The Ten Rings

Of all the mini-sets that UDE came out with, the one I had least of, not surprisingly, was Marvel Equipment. It was still being released as the game was ending, and several of the cards were never officially released at all. As it was, I ended up with only two copies of The Ten Rings. It seemed like a really cool card, but given the state of affairs I was not motivated enough to collect the eight more copies needed to build a deck with it. Now that I am making my own custom proxies, though, I recently decided it was time to remedy that situation and create a deck built around the card.

My Ten Rings deck is based loosely on one posted on VsSystem.org by the poster code-named RavenPro. His deck is probably better than mine, and surely had more thought put into it, but I'm happy with how mine turned out. It was never meant to be a super-competitive deck. But it's not really jank, either. It's the kind of deck I would have brought to Hobby League back in the day, on a night when I was more interested in having some serious fun than in winning every match. When it works, great; when it flops, oh well.

This deck works best on evens. The general plan is to create a very large Punisher for turns 4 and 5, who KO's whoever he stuns, and then finish on turn 6 with Dr. Fate after moving all the copies of Ten Rings from Punisher to Dr. Fate. It can win on odds, but it's optimized for evens.

Characters - 28 

[1 - 6]
4x Ted Kord <> Blue Beetle, Heir of the Scarab (JLI)
2x Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster (Secret Society)
[2 - 6]
4x San, The Alienated One (Inhumans)
2x Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards (F4)
[3 - 6]
4x Barbara Gordon, Hacker Elite (Gotham, Birds of Prey)
2x Black Panther, King of Wakanda (Marvel Knights)
[4 - 5]
4x Punisher, Guns Blazing (Marvel Knights)
1x Samantha Parrington, Chooser of the Slain (Marvel Defenders)
[5 - 3]
2x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist
1x Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mogul (Injustice Gang, Revenge Squad)
[6 - 2]
2x Dr. Fate, Hector Hall (Shadowpact) 

Plot Twists - 14 

[1 - 2]
2x Wild Ride
[2 - 2]
2x Tech Upgrade
[3 - 6]
4x Enemy of My Enemy
2x Cannibal Tech
[4 - 4]
4x Fate Has Spoken, Magic 

Locations - 4 

[1 - 2]
2x New Baxter Building
[2 - 2]
2x Dr. Fate's Tower 

Equipment - 14 

[0 - 14]
2x Helm of Nabu
1x Cloak of Nabu
1x Amulet of Nabu
10x The Ten Rings

The only real 1 drop is Ted Kord, whose job is to fetch you equipment at every opportunity. You only want to attack with him if you don't have any cards you can afford to discard for his effect. Mr. Mxyzptlk is more of a plot twist than a character. He is intended to help create card advantage by giving you a free discard each turn.

In RavenPro's build, Reed Richards is the main 2 drop. He can get you an equipment card each turn, most likely, just like Ted Kord. But I went with San as the main 2 drop, because I think it's important to hit Dr. Fate's Tower by turn 4 if possible, and I didn't want to play 4 copies of it. And if you already have the Tower, use San to fetch New Baxter Building instead, which is also great to have.

The main 3 drop is Barbara Gordon. This deck works best when it is seeing multiple extra cards per turn, thanks to cards like Barbara, New Baxter Building, and Helm of Nabu. And it doesn't need to start thinking offensively until turn 4. Until then, it's a combo deck. In the absence of Babs, Black Panther is a fine substitute, since he can get one of your equipment cards, which can later be moved to Punisher with the Tower. You can always sub in Babs on a later turn, too.

The key character card in the deck is the 4 drop Punisher, who can be equipped with two equipment at once because of his effect. Ideally what you want to do on turn 4 is something like this, which just happened in a match I played against my son. On turn 3 I had recruited Barbara Gordon with three copies of The Ten Rings on her. I already had Dr. Fate's Tower in my row, and had used it to get Helm. On turn 4 I set New Baxter Building and drew a card with Babs. I recruited Punisher and put Helm on him. Drew a card with its effect and discarded Mxy. Flipped New Baxter Building and drew another card. Then I activated Tower to move the three Rings from Babs to Punisher, making him 11/10. Because of the combined effects of Punisher, Ten Rings, and the Artifacts, once he has a single Artifact and a single Rings on him, he can have all of both. In theory you can give him +14/+14, but I've never done it.

Always remember that Tower moves equipment one at a time, and if it can't move a particular one, it stays put. Suppose that Babs had an Amulet and a Helm already, and I had had two Rings in hand. In that case, I would have recruited one copy of Rings, moved the two Artifacts with Tower, then recruited the second copy of Rings once the Artifacts were in place. This all works because Punisher can have two equipment at once, so when you move the Artifacts, the first one is allowed because of his effect, and then once it is in place, its effect allows you to equip him with the second. Ten Rings works the same way. Once you have one of them equipped, you can add more. If you don't have Tower, you'll want to stockpile equipment cards until turn 4, then equip them all manually. Hopefully you will get a Tower by turn 6.

Because the deck really wants to be on evens, turn 5 is a "mess with the opponent" turn. The ideal play is probably Mr. Sinister, who turns off all opposing character effects in the combat phase, but there's no way to search for him, since he's unaffiliated. The alternate play is Lex Luthor, who is the next best thing, and can be searched for with Enemy. Ideally, on your kill turn on 6, you will be replacing your 5 drop with Samantha Parrington, so that she can activate to allow someone else to attack twice. Or you can just recruit her on 5 if need be.

Turn 6 is Dr. Fate. In that match I was talking about earlier, we had both lost our 5 drops on turn 5, so I went into turn 6 with Babs hidden and a Punisher with Helm, Amulet, and five Rings. On turn 6 I recruited Dr. Fate and equipped him with two copies of Ten Rings. Then I activated Tower, to move equipment from Punisher to Dr. Fate. I chose to move the Rings first, and they all came over. When it tried to move the Artifacts, it couldn't, so those stayed on Punisher. Dr. Fate had seven Rings on him, so he was a 19/19. Punisher had +3/+2 from the Artifacts, and another +7 from Dr. Fate, so he was a 17/9. Babs got +7 as well, so she was a 10/3. I actually didn't win on that turn (I won on 7), mainly because I didn't have a copy of Fate Has Spoken, but that is how this deck is supposed to work on turn 6. Dr. Fate comes in, gets a bunch of equipment on him, and everyone gets huge. Normally you have more than enough gas to win on that turn.

The two locations in the deck are Dr. Fate's Tower and New Baxter Building. I've already talked about their functions in the deck, as well as that of all the equipment. Most of the plot twists are just tutors, either for characters or for equipment. With 2x Wild Ride and 4x Enemy, you have ten ways to hit Punisher by turn 4. I'm still deciding between Tech Upgrade and Cannibal Tech as my main equipment search. Tech Upgrade is nice in that you don't have to discard anything; the downside is you have to exhaust someone. That makes it a good play early, and a bad one late. Cannibal Tech makes you discard a card. It's worse early in the game, better late. For now the 2-2 split is fine, and maybe it always will be.


The only other plot twist is Fate Has Spoken, which is terrific in this deck, because it can be used to ready anyone with the identity "Dr. Fate". That includes both Dr. Fate himself and anyone wearing the Helm of Nabu. One of the best plays this deck has to offer is a turn 4 initiative in which Punisher is loaded up with Artifacts and Rings, and you have Fate Has Spoken in hand. Swing him into the opposing 4 drop to KO it, then play Fate Has Spoken to ready him and take out their 3 drop. On turn 5, they will have a 5 drop facing both your 5 drop and Punisher, who will probably be bigger than either of the 5's. Your opponent will have to attack your 5 drop, leaving Punisher free to swing to the face, because if his 5 gets stunned by Punisher he will have an empty field heading into turn 6 and the game will be over.

This is a really fun deck to play when it draws decently, and in the testing I've done so far it usually does. Not the best deck to play in a tournament, but there aren't many of those any more anyway. If you have the cards or don't mind proxying the ones you don't have, give it a try. I definitely give this deck (or RavenPro's version of it, if you prefer) two thumbs up. When it works, it's as evil as the Mandarin himself. In a good way, though.