The End Is Nigh

When I created my custom Star Wars decks, I didn't really enjoy the experience of designing groups of cards as much as I thought I would. Turns out it is a LOT of work! Picking the art for the cards is a lot of fun, and coming up with new (or newly recycled) effects can be, but the process of testing and tweaking the deck to get the power levels right can be somewhat tedious. Consequently, it took me quite a while before I was up to the task of doing it again. But after re-watching the Watchmen movie a couple of months ago, I decided it was time to give it a whirl again and do a custom Watchmen deck.

"Wait, you started working on this a couple of months ago, you say, and you're just now writing it up?" Yep. That's when I started on this custom card project. I did another one right after this one, and I am just now getting around to writing them up. Each of them took 3-4 weeks to finish. Since I've already posted rough cuts of both decks on Facebook groups, I guess I'll go ahead and tell you that the second one is a Guardians of the Gods deck. That one will have to wait for now, though. Let's talk about the Watchmen deck.

First and foremost, this is a stall deck. It has very little interest in attacking until the later turns, and it is looking to drag things out until its turn 8/9 initiative and then win with a couple of big attacks. It can easily do 50+ in damage on one of those turns, so any attacks before then are made simply to control the opponent's board. The early turn characters generally have minimal ATK for their cost combined with maximum DEF, so they normally have to swing down the curve or team attack to do any damage.

I got the main idea for this deck from my friend Aaron Mead's Ultimates Burn deck, which I've mentioned a couple of times before. That deck has a clever trick where you activate The Triskelion in chain to the draw, returning one key card in your pile to your hand, then draw for the turn. You usually play without a hand in later turns, but you also usually have exactly the card(s) you need for your current turn. In my deck, The 51st State does much the same thing, but I took the idea even farther and created a bunch of powerful effects that require you to discard your hand. So you get to use maybe 1-2 of them per turn, but in exchange you give away the opportunity to do much else.

Anyway, here's the deck list that I usually play with, for reference, and then I'll go into each of the cards.

Characters - 32

[1 - 3]
3x Rorschach, Walter Kovacs
[2 - 7]
4x Silk Spectre II, Laurie Juspeczyk
3x The Comedian, Edward Blake
[3 - 6]
4x Nite Owl II, Daniel Dreiberg
2x Ozymandias, Adrian Veidt
[4 - 5]
4x Dr. Manhattan, Non-Unique * Telekinetic Researcher
1x The Comedian, Eddie
[5 - 4]
4x Rorschach, My Face
[6 -  3]
2x Nite Owl II, Night Vision
1x Dr. Manhattan, Non-Unique * Jon Osterman
[7 - 2]
1x Silk Spectre II, Child of Sin
1x Ozymandias, Smartest Man On The Planet
[8 - 1]
1x Dr. Manhattan, Non-Unique * Master of Space and Time
[9 - 1]
1x Dr. Manhattan, Non-Unique * The Superman Exists 

Locations - 6

[2 - 0]
0x Antarctic Base
[3 - 3]
3x The 51st State
[4 - 3]
3x Intrinsic Field Chamber 

Plot Twists - 21

[2 - 3]
3x Hired Gun
[3 - 8]
4x Costumed Heroes
2x Leave Me Alone!
1x A Comedian Died Tonight
1x Never Compromise
0x We Were Partners
[4 - 8]
4x We Are Compelled
2x Romantic Entanglement
1x Hold Me Back
1x Sleight of Hand
0x My Name Is Ozymandias
0x Blood On Our Hands
0x I Can't Let You Do That
[5 - 0]
0x Send In The Clones
[7 - 1]
1x Doomsday Clock
[8 - 0]
0x Nothing Ever Ends
[9 - 1]
1x The End Is Nigh 

Equipment - 2

[0 - 2]
2x Archie

The only 1 drop is Rorschach. He's nice to have, but not essential. He's basically a Watchmen-stamped version of Lockjaw. You would normally use him to get your 2 or 3 drop.

There are two 2 drops. Like Rorschach, Silk Spectre is based on an Inhumans character, in this case San. There are two critical locations in the deck, and her job is to get you whichever one you need most. (I would go for Intrinsic Field Chamber first, then 51st State.) Since these are so important, you want to mulligan for a hand that will get you one of them by turn 3, and try to get the other by 4. The other 2 drop, The Comedian, is based on Captain Boomerang. If you already have your locations, he is actually better, because he can bounce an opposing 2 drop on 2/3.

The main 3 drop is Night Owl. If Silk Spectre fetches one of your two key locations, he can get you the other. Once you have those two cards, you are pretty well set. There is one key ongoing plot twist (We Are Compelled) that you will want by turn 4, and then it is just a matter of curving out, usually. If you can get it into your KO'd pile, you can move it to the top of your deck with the other 3 drop, Ozymandias. Ideally you will never recruit him, and will be able to treat him like a plot twist.

There are also two 4 drops, but you almost always want Dr. Manhattan. He helps compensate for all the effects that require you to discard your hand. Note that Dr. Manhattan (who sometimes creates clones of himself in the comics/movie) is non-unique, and exists in several versions that can be on the board simultaneously. The 4 drop Comedian is a bigger version of the 2 drop. He can bounce himself and an opposing 4 drop. Against most decks, Dr. Manhattan is better, but against one with a troublesome 4 drop (like a fully equipped Punisher), The Comedian is handy.

Only one 5 drop in the deck, because you would always want Rorschach. He's obviously based on Garth/Black Manta, and is critical to the deck in terms of compensating for the lack of a hand. Since you are always dumping potentially useful cards into your pile, there has to be ways of getting them back, and he is one of the main ones, along with 51st State and Hired Gun.

Against most decks, you want Nite Owl as your 6. He allows you to see your opponent's hand and to remove one key non-character card per turn from it. It's a powerful card, obviously, but if the opposing deck isn't going to have a lot of key plot twists in hand, then the 6 drop Dr. Manhattan is more useful, since he is just a better version of the 4 drop.

The usual play on 7 is Ozymandias, who can nuke one attack per turn. If you have Intrinsic Field Chamber on the field, he also essentially forces your opponent to attack him first, because if he uses his counter for one attack, then gets bounced and re-enters the game, he will get another tachyon counter. You can play Silk Spectre here if you need to, but she is normally subbed in on 8 or 9 to allow your biggest guy to attack twice. Either way, though, once you get to this point, you should always win unless you are playing another deck with a really strong late game.

If you are on evens, you should normally be able to win by attacking with the 8 drop Dr. Manhattan twice. (Note: Easiest to do if you use A Comedian Died Tonight on turn 7 to get rid of We Are Compelled once combat is over.) Recruit Dr. Manhattan and sub in Silk Spectre for Ozymandias. When he attacks, he'll become a 23/23, and will get to attack twice. Normally this is enough to seal the deal. If you are on odds, use the 8 drop to cancel all combat on turn 8, then go for the win on 9 with the biggest version of Dr. Manhattan. Ideally you would activate Silk Spectre on him, then play The End Is Nigh to blow the field except for characters named Dr. Manhattan (the only being likely to survive a nuclear explosion).

There are three locations in the set, but I only play two of them. As I explained before, The 51st State is critical for returning cards from your KO'd pile to your hand. If you have a really good hand, and you have the 5 drop Rorschach and Hired Gun, though, you may not actually want to use it until late in the game. It all depends on what your hand and KO'd pile look like. Don't use it until you need to, but don't hesitate to use it when you do. Just be sure to use it only in chain to the start of the draw phase or when your hand is already empty or contains nothing you need.

The other key location is Intrinsic Field Chamber, which is the card I spent more time on than any other in the deck. Originally it had this bomb blast effect where it gave everyone invulnerability and then stunned the field. It was way overpowered. Eventually I settled on the current iteration, which acts like a reusable Flying High. I also added some restrictions to prevent it from being used on a turn where you attack. Antarctic Base is like Ego, The Living Planet. It would be useful only against location-loving decks.

The most important plot twists in the deck are Costumed Heroes and We Are Compelled. Heroes is the main tutor for the deck. It's sort of a cross between Mobilize and Straight to the Grave. Use it to fetch a character you need to your hand, and to dump a key plot twist to the pile for retrieval with 51st State or Rorschach. In combination with Intrinsic Field Chamber, We Are Compelled allows you to slow your opponent's attack steps to a crawl. Get it going on turn 4 or 5 if at all possible. It will exhaust your opponent's new recruits when they enter play, and it will also exhaust anyone who re-enters play after being bounced by Intrinsic Field Chamber. So basically their two biggest threats get neutralized on any given turn if they can't get rid of these two cards from your row.

The next most important plot twists are probably the two with the highest costs (of the ones I normally play). Doomsday Clock allows you to skip the combat phase entirely on turn 7 or 8, but at the cost of half your endurance (e.g., if you were at 13, you'd go to 6). Against decks with no late game, this cost is irrelevant, because you are going to win on 8 or 9, If you make to 9, The End Is Nigh is a killer. Once your opponent is done recruiting and forming, play The End Is Nigh to obliterate the field except for Dr. Manhattan(s), and then swing your game. It too costs half your endurance, and they are both one-use-only cards, since they get removed from play after they've been used. If you want to play Doomsday Clock on 7 and 8, you'll need to play two copies.

The next most important plot twists are Hired Gun and Leave Me Alone! Hired Gun is a Watchmen version of Master Plan. It's handy to have, but rarely critical. Mainly it allows you to use 51st State to get a plot twist at the beginning of a turn, since you can discard one of the two cards you draw to get a character you need from your pile. Leave Me Alone! is the answer to resource row hate. If your opponent tries to Have a Blast! your We Are Compelled or Intrinsic Field Chamber, flip Leave Me Alone! in response. The game checks HAB's target on activation and resolution, and by the time it resolves, its intended target will no longer be legal. So now they have to get rid of Leave Me Alone! before they can get rid of We Are Compelled/Intrinsic Field Chamber/whatever.

None of the other plot twists are normally essential to the deck's success, but two of them are needed frequently. A Comedian Died Tonight is useful both for getting rid of things like Omnipotence that are giving you trouble, and for getting rid of We Are Compelled when you no longer need it. Normally it is needed only through turn 6 or 7, so once you know you don't need it, get rid of it so your own guys don't get exhausted by it. Romantic Entanglement prevents an attacker from readying in the current turn. Just keep in mind that you don't want to use this and then play Intrinsic Field Chamber on the same attacker, because he will be a different character when he re-enters play. (Note: I initially thought the woman in the Romantic Entanglement art was some weird version of Silk Spectre. It's not, as I learned when I read Beyond Watchmen.)

The remaining plot twists can be mixed and matched based on preference. I normally play Never Compromise to help me to preserve my field against serious aggro decks. Sleight of Hand is handy for redirecting attacks from little guys to big ones.

My Name Is Ozymandias is basically the same as My Name Is Peter Parker. Clever, huh? Blood On Our Hands is like Removed From Continuity. Since this deck doesn't stun bigger attackers very often, this card isn't as useful as it would be in another kind of deck.

We Were Partners got played in early versions of the deck, but opposing decks normally do so little breakthrough damage that I found myself rarely using it. Hold Me Back is a team-stamped Only Human. It's probably the most useful of the lesser plot twists.

I Can't Let You Do That is like Fizzle. I don't find it that useful, generally. Send In The Clones is a cool card with limited value. You'd probably only want to use the effect with the 5 drop Rorschach. It's so hard for opponents to attack by turn 5, though, that it becomes awfully situational.

Nothing Ever Ends is a card I created to give the deck a way to beat Galactus, because my Heralds deck that plays Galactus on 8 is an auto-loss for this deck. So if you care, there it is. Archie is always in the deck. A 4 drop Dr. Manhattan with an Archie on him is tough to take down, and if need be you can KO it to get back a character or location from your pile. Based on Quadromibile, it is one of several cards in the deck modeled after Secret Society cards.

So that's the deck, along with some extras. It is reasonably competitive, but has some horrible matchups. Burn is a killer, for the most part. A deck like Voltage that hits hard early can burn you to death before your deck can take charge on 7-9, even if it can't attack. IG Handfill is an outlier in that respect, since this deck can dump its hand whenever it wants. Galactus is a problem, especially on turn 8. And resource row hate can prevent you from curving out and hitting your key cards. Decks that win solely by attacking usually don't fare so well. A deck like New Brotherhood can win quickly with good draws, but with poor-average draws it will usually run out of gas before it can finish the job. This would be a deck a lot of opponents would hate to face in a tournament, but it probably wouldn't win the tournament.

If you like stall decks, you'll probably like this one quite a bit. It has some interesting effects in it, and it is intellectually challenging to play without being painfully so. If you don't like them, maybe you'll like my Guardians deck better. I'll be writing that one up very soon.

Regular cards are here, and MPC-ready ones are here.